sketchfest

Just bringing this back up to the top, anybody been recently?

At least you made it out. The avy danger was too high to even make it out of my backyard.

Don't suppose anybody has been back to check out the North face of chair recently?

They're having an open house on Saturday for all of us who helped in the construction. I'm gonna go and flash all the routes and leave my grimy prints all over the new holds before DFA gets a chance to even look at em. here's to ya DFA!!

Familiar experience? Maybe...What's it to ya??

Funguy and I were up on the south side this Saturday during the first wave of this storm system. By the time we reached Silcox (7:30-ish) a light breeze was blowing and it was starting to snow. Most of the rock we encountered below Palmer was fairly clean, but as soon as we were above the lifts everything was covered with a fairly thin coating of rime. Anyway, by the time we reached 9,8k the wind was howling and it was snowing hard. Some of the drifts we encountered were knee deep, so we decided to turn around and navigate back to the top of Palmer. We couldn't see much more than 20 feet or so ahead of us until we got back to the top of Palmer and the clouds broke to reveal some pretty strong winds on the summit. It looked to us like most of the snow that had fallen on the summit and west side was being blown to Idaho. The Pearly Gates also looked like they had 50 to 100 feet of vertical blue ice right in the middle. Then the clouds came back and we called it a day.

get your hand outa your pants and learn to read dumbass!

Who's got the best selection of climbing boots in Portland?

With the exception of last year, I have normally headed to Rainier either on the first or second weekend of May. Over the last four years I have generally experienced good weather (clear and sunny) but have been turned around twice do to high winds, once when we had just topped out on Gib rock from Ingram headwall and the other at Muir when the winds were so strong you could barely keep your feet on the ground, and we were turned once by a storm that came in during the night and dumped an additional 8" on the upper mountain. Every time I've gone there are always a few other people around and usually some kind of boot track to up to Muir, although wind swept at times. Its hard to say how many others would be there, it would all depend on what kind of weather the mtns been having prior to your trip. Ingram is a longer route, but really straight forward and if you go in April most of the crevasses should be good and filled in around the ice fall and up to the lower portions of the headwall. If you have the time, take the full two or three days to do it and enjoy the mountain.

Just a thought, but I would be pretty apprehensive about taking an inexperienced climber up Gib ledges and I also wouldn't rope up through the ledges. There isn't any place for pro and if you or your inexperienced partner slipped, theres probably not a very high likelihood that you will have enough time or space to arrest the fall. I think the start of the ledge system has the most immediate exposure, but it is also has the widest portion of the ledges. Skis would be great all the way up to Muir and as long as it wasnt to icy you could probably go all the way to the Bee Hive and leave them there, From the Hive back down to Muir would be a nice little ski after coming back down from the summit. my .02

Anybody done Early Morning Coulior within the last year or so? It looks like a nice route, what is the best time of year for this one?

I'm only trying to divert attention away from myself because they went out and did something, while I stayed home with my "honey-do" list. Don't hate me cause I suck!

Well duh! my guess is you should have kept it out of your pants and just tried a pocket instead. I trust they weren't size D batteries that were a pain? I heard rumor that they might have been double D!...Ouch

Well duh! my guess is you should have kept it out of your pants and just tried a pocket instead.

Let's wait for a little more snow, then we can pull in more beer.

did the shrike replace the old x-15's?

It is not a problem with the slab problems you climb. That is a funny ass picture

i overheard this dude talking on his cellphone one time. he said 'if the world needed an enema portland would be where they inserted the tube.' Dang, that's pretty harsh I'm gonna be out in the town of Verbort on Saturday for the Harvest Festival. at the gun club, back at the church.

Last Saturday while leading Lions Jaw, I was in the process of placing a nut and as I slotted the nut and was sliding it off the biner another nut slid off and began to fall to the ground. When I looked down, expecting to see the nut bouncing down the rock face, I saw nothing. Wondering where in the hell the piece had gone, I finally noticed that it had somehow fallen cable end first and had fallen straight through my shoelace and if it wasn't for the fact that the nut was bigger than the loop wouldn't have stopped until it hit my belayer in the head. I reached down, grabbed it, put it back on the rack and continued climbing.

Coming back down the trail it was really easy to see all the obvious trail signs, but for what ever reason (to much beer and stuff the night before) nothing seemed to obvious on the way up. We were about half way up the N. ridge trail when I saw someone and their dog following them down the scree field. That's pretty wild that the dog was able to make it all the way to the summit.

First pitch sounds like "YW", but the second pitch steps left and traverses about 15' and up to some nice dinner plates, then into a giant pocket, from there you join the top of the second pitch of SE corner. I'm not sure about the next pitches that you and Ivan did, but it sounds like you topped out on the 4th & 5th class portion of SE Corner.

Unfortunately there isn't anything to tell. Awesome weather and piss poor trail navigation (forgot the book in the car) lead to many wrong turns until finally accessing the North Ridge trail much to late in the day to continue to the summit. There were some very, very small smatterings of snow from the cold front that had moved through earlier that week, but nothing to even think twice about. We missed an incredible weather window..oh well, it'll still be there next year.

Funny how someone stumbles upon a spray-site and thinks it is full of wankers would waste the time register, post to tell everyone that they are wankers, when they say they don't really care....hhhmm, smells like somone is trolling a new avatar.

This is a take off of the thread started in the climbers board. Who is doing what in Portland this weekend?