Off_White

quote: Originally posted by Greg W: [/qb] I think ethics only survive if the previous generation passes them onto a new generation of climbers. [/QB] I'll be doing my bit for the cause, taking a newborn gym rat out this weekend to teach him to lead cracks for his first day on real rock. Must resist the dark side....

quote: Originally posted by glen: So far, the best tool I've come across for pulling bolts is a ball joint adjuster I've got a customized slide hammer, like those used to pull tapered bearings and such. Works great on rawl split shank and the like, but the 5 piece expansion anchors are more of a hassle, gotta disassemble the bolt, fish out sleeve pieces, thread bolt back into the cone, then yank it away. And we haven't even touched on filling holes...

quote: Originally posted by Peter Puget: Egads! Here I sit doing nothing and Cavey starts yelling at me. Allison never came to my aid. I am so alone. Wasn't in caps, ergo he's not yelling, just trolling.

Swallow my sole? You mean like a deep throat foot fetish? Eeeeuuww, thats a remarkably grotesque image. NO TRASK, NO, NO IMAGE NEEDED!

quote: Originally posted by haireball: Bob Plumb made the second ascent of the Soviet Route on Bonanza with Dave Stutzman, back in '78 or '79. Plumb told me the rock was abysmal. Phew. Well thats it, I'm definitely not going to feed that monkey anything more.

Bonehead: yeah, I'd never considered it until I scoped things out last week following my Washington debacle. I confess the high roadhead had an appeal. Ben (stepson) is turning 21 in August, so he's got a few years on your boys. He's had a smattering of technical rock play over the last 18 years, but his alpine experience has been limited to N Ridge of Stuart with me and Black Peak with his friends. Some snow and scrambling skills and are important for Thorsen, its a little more serious than Ellinor. Can your boys self arrest? It could be an okay trip for them, but I'd recommend you bring a 9 mil and a few slings so you could belay them over the sections with consequences.

Well, they shouldn't fight unless maybe someone had a digital camcorder and wanted to post it here... Throw in a couple more and make it a tag team event.

This was an enjoyable outing, so I wanted to recommend it to anyone looking for a good little alpine primer. I took my stepson out to further his mountain education on the east ridge/face of Thorsen, just north of Mt. Washington. You get a little bit of everything: clearcut, steep timber, low angle ridge with snow & slabs, steep gully with moats & slopes to 45 degrees, boulder scrambling, and longish traverse requiring routefinding to the main summit. Great views too. We didn't see anyone up there, and no signs of any other passage once we left the faint traces in the timber. And all that for only a half day's outing! Much better than say, the usual on Mt Ellinor.

Black Peak perhaps? It'd be great to get him up to a point where the scope of the Cascades is revealed.

Marek: I gotta weigh in with the Caveman on this one, nothing in this thread seemed any less than genial banter until you held forth. And as for personal email, I don't wanna read it and don't even want to hear about it. Lighten up, what does anyone else's opinion (mine included) matter anyway? You can be amused or be informed, but you can only be insulted to the degree that you allow. Save your anxiety for the things that matter.

Hah, the Soviet Route was an old obsession of mine. Might still be, but I haven't fed that particular beast in awhile. Has it ever actually been repeated? Its hard to find anyone who even knows about, much less having done it. I traversed under it once, enroute to the couloir on the SW peak. FYI, that couloir is not one of those that results in late season water ice (silly boys, where did we think we were, the Sierras?). Awesome blueberry picking on the way to the Bonanza-Northstar col though.

Start at the top of the jokes, hold down the left mouse button and scroll down to the bottom, release the left button and all is highlighted. Click and release the left button, click "copy" on the menu thus revealed, go to your favorite word processor, open a new document, left click and release, click on paste and hit return. voila. on my machine anyway...

quote: Originally posted by pope: my climbing pace slowed, when career and family pushed alpinism to the back burner Been there, done that

quote: Originally posted by Greg W: Roboclimber- you could redeem yourself with some points for major appliances in the yard or on the porch. Greg Marriage to a cousin would do it too

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: How about trailers and junk cars in the yard Dude, you've been to my house? Only two trailers and three dead cars, so its not yet a collection to brag about, but life is long and I have hope...

Naw, it doesn't really matter what either of us think, which is part of the charm of this whole board. And I'm not necessarily in disagreement with you, I'll take the Cascades over the Olympics anyday, but I live near Olympia which puts the Olympics close, and the range does have a certain diminutive burly appeal, like a nasty old scarred up bulldog: you know you shouldn't pet it but you're tempted to anyway. I'm not trying to change your mind, just your terminology. My last outing wasn't rubble but rather more akin to approaching the picketts via stetattle creek or doing the tower route on big four, a different kind of horror that Lowell refers to as "subalpinism." Anyway, what all this has to do with Kangaroo Ridge I haven't a damned clue. Sheesh, I guess you got the loser part right

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: I never referred to anything but the Tooth as rubble. YOu are reading into shit. Kiss my ass loser Well, I'd kiss your ass with my boot, Corporal. Having short term memory problems? As you said in an earlier thread regarding Mt Washington: quote: I call that stuff rubble. Prime reason for me to climbe elsewhere besides these peaks.......

Yeah, I gotta agree. Seems like Caveman referred to it as "rubble" but thats not exactly accurate. Its an adventure range for sure, and while I got spanked with a slide alder switch on Washington recently, I've done several good routes on that peak, and not a lick of brush on Constance (after the approach anyway...) But whats with the Tenino sig, surely your not one of we happy few, the 1238 souls of Tenino?

Read up bub, TG's buried a child, which is a damn sight worse than a partner. I've lost several partners over the last 25 years, and I don't agree with you at all. Sure, the sport is trivial in the big picture, but so are most of the things we all do, and you can die at any of them: work, driving, playing in the ocean, or mowing the damn lawn. I'm no fan of death in the mountains, the romantic charm of that wore off with my youth long ago, but I'm more opposed to life without joy, and out there is one of the many places I find it. Do you have some personal trauma behind you blanket statements? I don't think anyone here will shit on you for sharing your story, but pontificating in generalities seems to paint a target on your ass...

quote: Originally posted by roboclimber: Fred, Hey would you be interested in doing a Olympic Climbers Guide book? Awww, that'd be easy. Every route takes the obvious gully to the brushy ramp, but the last half pitch is pure joy and distinctly alpine.

Awright! First post and its a total troll. Give us some more clues so we can figure out which one of the jokers are you.... We spend our whole lives looking for a reason to die, be patient, sooner or later it will present itself.

Hey, if we're not willing to pay for access to public lands, buy the tool a new truck, or help keep Archers Daniel Midland rolling in dough, then the terrorists will have already won!

quote: Originally posted by mvs: I was just looking at that route in the book, and thinking to go up there. When/If (big If now!) I do, I'll take your advice to heart. --Michael Soon would be my advice, the slide alder/vine maple/devil's club is just out with the first set of leaves, 3 weeks from now it'll be thick. If its just you solo, NE Face could be fun. If you've got a partner & rope, E Ridge looks good, and that buttress to the right of the Big Creek route is quite nice with good rock.

Well, on Sunday I took a whack at the Great Groove route on the north side of Washington. Late Saturday night I drove in with the usual fumbling about on unfamiliar roads with the added joy of fuel pump relays on my Vanagon that would cut out when bumped, not the best situation for washboard roads. Got up a little late on Sunday, but was hiking by 5:30. After 20 minutes of brush bashing and forest traversing I found myself looking down on the road I should have started from. Hmmm, should've turned right back there. Descended to intersect where I thought the trail would be, and found the orange flagging that declares the past presence of Mountaineers. Heading up the valley wasn't bad, stuff still just coming on with the first leaves. Came out into the big avalanche basin under the NE face, and headed over to the right side to try and follow the guide description. Steep timber and a bit of 4th class brush led up to a rock wall, found a ledge leading left. A little poking about took me up and left some more, brush becoming much thicker, until I popped out at the first major stream and waterfall. I found a decent crossing, then more brush & timber, until I came to the next deep stream/waterfall slot. This one looked much more impassible, so I tried looking about for the "great groove." I went up some really nasty high angle technical brush with a death fall runout, followed by 75 feet of rock. I didn't find the promised "clean, sound rock" but instead dealt with mossy wet slightly downsloped 5.0ish high anxiety scrambling. At this point it became apparent there was no stream crossing ahead, no sign of even an "ok groove," and that things were going to get much steeper before they got better. Contemplating the horrors of becoming a post mortem accident dissection thread on this board gave me a new reason to live, so I decided to retreat while I could still downclimb what I had been up. Ahh well, who can complain about a day out in the mountains in good weather? I basked in the sun for awhile then retraced my route. Towards the very bottom, in the initial timber section, I came upon a rap sling on tree, suggesting that I was not the first to be stumped on this route. Later on, driving around and scoping the face with binoculars suggested that there may be a gnarly cedar/slide alder ledge that traversed from somewhere near where I headed up that could get you into the waterfall slot and hopefully something else would get you out the far side and around to the next stream/waterfall. I think I also spied what could be the groove, currently snow filled, which could either make it a cruise or if hollow and rotten a real horrorshow. The upper portion looked lovely, but all that snow was baking in the sun at least until noon, and looked to be a real candidate for wet surface slides unless you were there early. So class, lessons learned: 1: Park at the right spot 2: Advance viewing of the wall from farther up the 2401 road recommended. 3: Since the upper half looks like the most enjoyable portion, consider taking the easier straight forward brush bash of the NE face to access the upper basin and chute faster and earlier. 4: Those charcoal renderings the Olympics Guidebook uses instead of photos? Not worth shit.

Anyone been on the Northside routes on Washington? I'm contemplating the Great Groove for Sunday...