Off_White

Not necessarily famous, but 5500 views in about 10 days is a fair bit of traffic. The answer to why you are stuck in the middle of all this is the key issue. It happens to you wherever you go, right? It's not posters of any given board, it's the sheer drama of the can't-help-but-look at the accident waiting to happen, the combination of your sheer determination and utter lack of foresight or experience. Pete may have been making a funny about a hoods-in-the-woods program, but it's actually a very good idea.

I used some 1/2" flat webbing, like you'd use to make a strap to hold your foam pad on your pack. It made sickening noises when weighted, looked pretty sketchy around a sharp horn, and made me feel queasy. Can't say I'd recommend it, but it was cheap.

It looks really swell and like very reasonable climbing, were it not for the approach I'm sure it would be an instant classic. Hell, it probably would have been an instant classic 25 years ago. Nice to see an FA of yours and think, "hey, I could do that."

I was wondering the same thing, I think there's a little bubble of new registrations all drawn by the desire to stick their paddle into this odoriferous kettle and give it a little stir.

Thank you for registering just to post this important opinion.

Nice trip. Everyone seems to go up that rotten rock pitch these days, and it sounds like a terrible solo way to go. It must have been earlier season or a cooler climate when my buddy and I did this route years ago, because the couloir seemed like the natural choice and we had maybe one break in the snow all the way up it. We used the rope in there, as much because we finally broke it out to make the rappel as anything and it's hard to retrieve your third classing psyche once you add the rope to the equation. Your encounter with rock steps and chockstones sounds much harder than what we found, but with a rope and a belayer its probably still more enjoyable than the steep rotten rock funk.

I give this thread a D+

Exactly! Climbing never particularly made my kids happy, it was okay in small doses, and they loved being out and about, but it wasn't their obsession. My wife and I always figured it was more important that the kids have something good they were really interested in than what exactly that thing was. You just keep tossing opportunities at them until something sticks. For my son, it turned out to be competitively rowing traditional wooden longboats which led into crewing on tall ships. My daughter was into horses and now fiercely attached to playing the fiddle. The key is that the motivation comes from them, and for their own benefit, not just to please a parent. Rudy, I'm sure you could find examples of other kids you and your wife know who don't have much of anything they love aside from TV and such. They'll provide a contrast that should help soothe your wife's anxiety. Things change over time too, my son would definitely consider him a climber these days, and he's one of my favorite climbing partners ever.

Wow, that sounds like a full day. The rap adventure sounds anxious, I'm guessing that wasn't the Bedayn. Good thing you gots skillz. As an aside, cc.com's free and unlimited photo hosting in the gallery is a pretty great feature of this site. Good policy admins:

I've posted alternate descent beta from the Whine Spire before, but here it is: From the top of the spire, a short bit of downclimbing on black cornflakes leads to the notch with the main wall. A simul block on solid rock leads to the summit ridge, traverse over to the West Summit of Silver Star (some low angle snow schooching, a little grotty 3rd class), and pick up the descent gully on the far side of the summit. Head down the (obvious) gully, watching for a giant cairn on the right hand bounding ridge. Pass that cairn and hike down the shoulder until you can peer over into the basin you started from, and head down the casual talus. 1-1/2 safe and casual hours tops, probably less for all ya'll fast and hard peeps.

As a lost and found, this is pretty funny, but as a TR its a little weak. You gonna show us any pretty pictures and tell us a story?

That's pretty much the normal opinion on the subject for those who actually perform the SAR, isn't it?

Leor, I'm glad you don't drop the pictures in favor of shaving a few more minutes off your times, your TR's consistently have some very lovely landscapes. Thanks.

This route tops out on the West Ridge well below LJT doesn't it? It'd be a simple affair to scoot down that route back to camp rather than rapping.

Damn nice, looks great. Good to know you haven't lost your NW chops, the approach sounds like a classic Cascades outing.

Sheeit Cheif, I din't know you been breeding. Congratulashuns, I guess.

Hey Ralph! You should come out an play sometime.

You mean the Garment! That's a wild tale Mike, I'm glad you get to tell it.

bonus.

Yeah, tell whats-his-name we're all waiting for the topo on that...

STFU noob

One drawback to the optical viewfinders on small digital cameras is that they're terribly inaccurate, what you see is not what you're shooting.

And who'll start off the bidding for the film rights?

I recently spent a week in the Valley, end of May/beginning of June. It was my first trip there in at least 15 years, so I'll take a stab at answering your questions, though they did seem a wee bit rhetorical: Yeah, they looked pretty grim to me too, I wasn't tempted to jug them, or use 'em to rap off Little John. The park service doesn't maintain them, or any other fixed lines like the bits on the Death Slabs approach to Half Dome. In fact, the park service was recently considering removing those particular lines as part of a general clean up mission to the base of the regular NW Face of HD. I think theory says if you're using those lines to Heart, you've already climbed the Freeblast or some other route and you'll have recently rapped and accessed them and be using them to get back to your high point after quaffing a six of Mickey's at Degnans. Not my cup of tea, I don't do walls anyway, but it was no big deal. I think using those lines is like a lot of things in climbing, one's choice is one's own responsibility. I didn't spend too much time in stores, but my few encounters were pleasant. The young woman at the checkout in the Village Store laughed along with me at the tacky crap I found for family souvenirs, the people of Eastern European extraction at the deli were polite and efficient during a lunch rush, staff at the Mountain Shop were just fine to deal with, and I had no adverse ranger encounters at all. That place has been a slum for at least 35 years. I thought the ugly portables moved into the Yosemite Lodge parking lot where I once lived in my hippie van for two months were more startling. Again, both the jail, and the attendant courtroom are venerable institutions. I recall dealing with a traffic ticket there, which cued me into the way to get into the Valley for free: just tell them you had a court appearance and you were free to enter. I suspect this might not work in the modern computer age where the docket is just a few clicks away. On this recent trip, I spoke with a ranger who was waiting her turn for Bishops Terrace, and she averred that city dwellers up from Fresno for the day were the most common jail denizens these days. So let me give you some of my impressions from this Homecoming dance. I found the tourist crowds no less, but certainly no worse than remembered, and the Valley still filled with lots of cars. I do wish they'd followed through on the master plan that was going to ban private vehicles from the Valley proper, even if it would mean leaving my beloved Vanagon behind. Aside from a couple nights with friends in the Pines, we stayed in Foresta most nights, making us commuters who added our own little bit to the problem. What most struck me was I had forgotten how flat out amazingly beautiful the place was. The various falls were all in fine form. Those nights spent at the Pines campground was like staying in a beehive, yet from 400' above the valley floor it was completely invisible. Lots of folks I saw, all ages and shape, seemed wowed by their surroundings. Somehow, the crowds and the sheer beauty were two different and seemingly disconnected facts, experienced concurrently yet distinct from each other. Getting to climb there again, on a tour of classic moderates with my son before he moved to Michigan for grad school, just made me giddy with delight. I was on Goodrich, on the Apron, holy shit was it great. Sure, the weather was unstable, it rained every day, so for the most part long routes were off the table, but still, often with 5am alpine starts, we climbed every day: from Cascade Falls to Church Bowl, Five Open Books to North Dome, base of El Cap to the Apron. We even climbed on the day of the wedding we came down to attend. The service was at Cathedral Beach, with El Cap looming behind, just 45 minutes after the rain squall moved on. We did some old favorites, like Crest Jewel. Afternoon thunderstorms inspired a very early start from Porcupine Flat rather than via Royal Arches, but it was a grand day out anyway We enjoyed the surreal pleasure of climbing short routes at the base of the big stone, much as you must have done: both sides of La Cosita, both sides of Little John, Pine Line; all enjoyable moderate outings. I climbed on Manure Pile Buttress for the first time in 33 years, since I did Nutcracker as my first route in the Valley. Now Then I got to spend a lot of time with my son, one of my favorite climbing partners ever, just a week after his wedding and three weeks before he moved away for 4 years. Hell, we even got in a couple pitches in the Meadows on the drive home. In short, I had a pretty damned good time in the old ditch, and really had no complaints. In fact, I'm looking forward to the next trip, don't think I'll wait so long between visits this time. Hopefully this has added something to your topic Raindawg.

ooh, what's a man like you doing in a place like this?