sketchfest

Not to sure about Alpine or skiing during the week, but there's a few of us who try and climb at least one day a week out at Rocky Butte and PC's are pretty hit and miss in PDX.

Last night B-rock and I climbed a route at Rocky Butte, just below Silver Bullet bluff that I'm not sure is in the guide book. Based on the picture in the guide it looked like it was between Centurion and Invisible Man. The route started with a couple of burly moves off the deck following a thin finger crack before traversing right over easier ground, then up another short crack that had an old block of wood wedged in it, up to a ledge, then launching into a very thin, dirt filled crack to a set of fairly new anchors. Does anybody know what this route is called and the rating? Although I struggled and made it look exceptionally harder than it really was, I thought it might have rated in the .9 range. I think the upper pitch could have been Invisible Man, but I'm not sure about the start. (More info: The route could have even been further around the corner from Temporary Arete, there were a couple of very distinguishing features in the route, one being the block of wood in the crack, another being a large pine tree at the half-way point and another being a sharp brittle flake near the top just below the anchors)

I just got off the phone with HRRS and they told me that the first gate would be open by the end of the month, but that the second gate was undetermined due to heavy snow fall and downed trees.

Thanks Chris!

who's got the 411 on the gate opening?? ranger's phone number or first hand info...anything....

Have a great trip Bill, see ya when you get back.

I was just talking to b-rock about this yesterday. I find it extremely humorous that the news always reports an incident out there as a "hiker/climber" fell from the top...blah, blah, blah. Why don't they dig into the truth a bit and say that a crackheaded, meth freak was seriously spinning, strung out on a bad batch of ajax and decided that they could walk on thin air.....Christ almighty, why do they always put the focus on us climbers?

desk, that's when we left, I would shoot for midnight.

I don’t know how much the conditions have changed since this past Sunday, but we found a thin breakable crust from the top of Palmer all the way up. This crust varied in depth from ankle to knee deep and just got worse as the day wore on. The cattle trail from the hogsback to the summit was well worn in and the schrund is starting to open up nicely, although the climbers path was still leading directly through the middle of it. I’m sure that your plan is to leave early, but since it’s been so warm, I would leave even earlier in the hopes of find at least a little firm snow before the sun comes up. Good luck and hope you and your son have a great trip.

Thanks for sharing and welcome!

I was out there about a month ago checking out various climbs on the West side and folks where taking numbers to get on "roam" the line was so long. not to mention the 4 groups that were already on route.

So where was everybody yesterday?? Tex and I climbed all by our lonesomes over at Video Bluff and never saw another sole.

Bump! I should be there around 5 unless my afternoon meeting gets out early/late. I'll probably head down to Silverbullet....anyone??...Hello....is this thing on??

seemed more like a brownpoint to me!!

Ry, Funguy and I were the “poor souls” that headed up “L” on Sunday morning and conditions were really great considering how warm it was. We left T-line at 2:15am and skinned up to the top of Palmer were we switched to crampons due to crusty ice conditions. Ironically a short distance above the lifts we began to encounter a thin breakable crust that varied from ankle to shin deep, but we continued to the saddle sans skis. Conditions down to the Reid were indeed soft, with sections of knee deep sugar, but two groups ahead of us kindly blazed a trail for us to follow. One of the groups (2) headed up one of the Reid variations and the other (1) looked like he was going to “L”. We crossed two old avi paths, one at the base of the Reid and the other at the base of “L”, but nothing was really coming down on us as we passed beneath, probably because there was no and I mean 0 wind. We followed the solo guys tracks for about 200feet up towards “L”, but he wasn’t headed into the couloir, his tracks continued up to the Reid. The snow conditions up and through the couloir varied between Styrofoam, short sections of bullet proof ice, to soft sugar, back to Styrofoam, but nothing felt unstable and both ice ax and crampon placements were solid. Like I said there was no wind, so nothing came down on us, I got whacked once on the knuckle and that was it, if it had been windy with those warm conditions the route would probably have been very dangerous. So unless it’s gotten windy since Sunday you might be able to follow our tracks all the way to the summit. Leave as early as you can, it would have been nice if the snow was a bit firmer when we went because it really slowed us down with the snow as soft as it was, but still a great day in the mountains. Have a good trip.

...but it's sooo far to walk to compared to the butte

Can't do today, got an interview this afternoon.

Who's up for some Thursday climbing at the Butte??

I recently had the pleasure of meeting the inventor of the Hemcon bandage, Dr. Kenton Gregory at a local fundraiser. The bandage is truely the real deal and does what it says. Currently the bandage is being used exclusively on the battle field in Iraq and the number of lives it has saved has been enormous. There is no doubt in my mind that this invention and the proccess created to manufacture this product will be by far one of the greatest inventions of our time. Not only does it create instantaneous clotting, but seals out bacteria. Here's to smart people!

Ya maybe, I haven't put my tool bags on in 7 years, I don't know if my baby soft hands can handle the abuse...

Since I don't have a job anymore maybe I'll stay later than 8:00 and party till the break of dawn!

I don't know that names of any companies in Seattle, but I would check with a construction supply store that specializes in anchors. In Portland there are companies like Portland Fastener and Hilti and all they do is anchors of all shapes and sizes. They are going to have a much deeper selection and most of the guys who work at these places are going to be able to give you pretty knowledgable advice on how to use them properly. my .02

Yes, I agree, Spiderman is a great climb. Here's my boy topping out....what a view!

What about the part that says it's over 10,000k under the sea bed...hhmmmm that doesn't seem right

Ooooh, guess I should pay more attention