Off_White

30 minutes? I envy your fitness.

Having recently descended the S Arete on SEWS, we made two half rope rappels off trees with tat & rings in decent shape, and just when I looked down the last half rope length and thought I really didn't care to scramble that, I noticed the new stainless chain anchor on the wall. It was a pro installation, including stainless chain and stainless rawl 5 piece bolts, with hangers & quick links. My first thought was, "hmmm, guide service put that in." My second thought was "great." Given all the traffic, it wouldn't be a bad thing to do that on the other two tree rappels, perhaps sparing the scenic vegetation. The west face of NEWS seems less like it needs a rap line, especially since few people climb the route that the standard descent goes down. I'll wager the new anchors are stainless also, so on the plus side rust trails won't be an issue, but I'm in the "didn't seem necessary" camp but without any particular ire over it either. I would suggest that there should not be a new rap route down the west/southwest face of SEWS. Please no.

Trip: Exfoliation Dome - Westward Ho! - needs a hanger! Date: 7/13/2013 Trip Report: After 30 some odd years climbing at Darrington I finally made my first trip to Exfoliation Dome. My son and I got a late start from Olympia, and left the car at 1:00, so we decided to do Westward Ho! rather than the longer Blueberry Route. Plenty of info on this fine friction outing, but here's a few current notes and reports. As Mattp noted from his recent rappel descent, there is a missing hanger. It's the second bolt on pitch 3. The threads are intact, it just needs nut, washer, and hanger. 3/8" stainless stud. Several hangers were loose, we finger tightened them, but I'm reminded that I want to add a double ended box wrench to my rack for just this sort of thing. I've heard this route is prone to loosening bolts for some reason. A wired over the stud did the trick, but it wasn't all that secure. We only did the first four pitches, opting not to continue up the adventure pitches. I'll have to go back to the Blueberry Buttress for my first summit of the formation. There was a party on the Blueberry Route, perhaps from Minnesota if their license plate meant anything. They were still a pitch shy of the terrace as we were halfway down the Sidewalk on the descent. Looked like they had a bit of an adventure ahead of them. All in all a fine bit of friction foonting, we had a great time and were back to the car in plenty of time to splash about in the creek and clean up on the drive out. As Matt noted in his recent report, this crag is great. Washington will definitely be worse off if the road in Clear Creek is closed due to budget cuts! Read about access issues on Washington Climbers Coalition website. Gear Notes: No gear used in the thin crack on pitch 2, only gear placed was a yellow master cam and a yellow C4 on pitch 4. Approach Notes: I think I need a guided trip up the Granite Sidewalk, we didn't find a great grotto bypass in either direction. Going up, we followed Whitelaw's "Weekend Rock" description of moving left into the woods, which was a bit of a bush thrash devoid of the promised "well worn path". Thinking he meant the other left, coming down we dodged into the woods on the other side, which revealed some trail traces, as well as a pair of shoes parked on the slab. The shoes were returned to their owner via the magic of the Lost and Found on this website.

Carabiner brake rappel was the old standard, since a hip belay didn't require a device. I'm glad someone schooled you in the old ways, and you didn't have to dulfersitz the whole thing! thanks for the swell TR

That's remarkable Marc, thanks for dropping back by to share with us. The arc of your life has been really fun to vicariously view, and your Mom deserves points for her support, nothing to be embarrassed about there. Here's a link to a classic old Cheamclimber TR from the past, thoroughly enjoyable in its own right: Two White Boys

But that's exactly how it works. Only one of those women is married, the rest are single mothers with children, and those Mormon polygamist families are almost all completely subsidized by welfare of varying sources. The guy still files as "head of household" and gets the deductions on all those spawn too.

I did that route one November, we had the opposite temperature experience. Pretty much the best ledges ever. Sounds like the hooking pitches grew some rivets, that's too bad, but bathook holes aren't exactly designed for heavy traffic.

"I did a solo of the SW Butt of Cutthroat Peak. I wish I could say good things about the route, but the views were spectacular" Ain't that the truth! It looks cool from the road, and you really want to like the route, but, ehhh. We had a couple on the Boving route while we were on the SW Buttress this weekend, and I had a ringside seat for the Boving Roof pitch, belaying from the cush ledge at the start of the 5.6 friction. What a beautiful piece of stone!

Found a pair of small Boreal shoes on the granite sidewalk descending from Exfoliation Dome on 7/13/13. Looks like they're from this season. PM me here to get them back.

Awesome TR of a less visited Cascades peak, TFPU!

Thanks Darin, I've always appreciated your chronicles of that range, I really need to come up there some time.

Some of the folks from here have their own great blogs. Sol, Wayne Wallace, Steph Abegg, Jens Holsten, and Blake come readily to mind.

That's great news, their work is really splendid and significant.

Thanks for the update and congratulations!

There's a certain level of humor inherent in asking the Hulk how he moved something. Great news and good work!

Wow, that's an impressive first El Cap route, nicely done Keenan. Have a great summer up there, send us some more photos and stories too.

Now that's some classic NW Adventureering!

Funny, I'd always assumed it was you, but thanks to my special moderator vision I can see you are indeed two separate ip addresses, and I doubt you'd hassle with the spoofing just to try and defeat my awesome powers.

This is just an effort to make some money off the hunters who want to use their motorized vehicles, its not really about climbers. What enforcement mechanism do they plan to use? If I had to pay $150 I'd be sure and get my money's worth of dump tippage out of it. Nitwits.

Kev, I saw this and thought of you. Enjoy. [video:youtube]rV6SmY04WdE

Oooh, our man in Revelstoke! Welcome.

Wow, I hadn't seen pictures of this before clicking on that link. Its remarkable that no one died.

That Taylor Swift version is a cover.

While only a little lower, Shasta isn't a tenth the mountain Rainer is, that's why they aren't as interested. Shasta's glaciers are unimpressive. That's not to say it isn't fun, in a regular route on Hood, Adams, or St Helens kind of way, and its a worthy stepping stone for folks learning that sort of alpine climbing, it just doesn't have the complexity or challenges that the Big R offers. Oh, taking the train there? What a great idea, post a TR when you're back.

Ahh Tvash and Prole, you guys are such wits. The real laugh though is that thanks to ESL your double entendre misfired. Bummer Bob, best of luck getting the bikes back. My daughter's bike got boosted last summer, and despite being a fairly distinctive mid 80's Raleigh Edge trials bike, its never turned up. Not that I don't still keep an eyeball peeled though...