lunger

you can tell there's no interesting climbing there. Shoshone, so show me, SW butt of Nez Perce = particularly blase. thanks for the TR anyway.

lost: self-esteem please return if found. might find it next to the dregs of a rat's nest.

smart ass!

right on Mike and Ratdog, looks like fun. been wanting to check that route out. please rate approach suckiness and rock quality. edit: posted before I saw the verbiage (your 2nd post). questions answered, thx.

deeeee-luxxxe nice work, love that vagarious d-tail rock "R" designation because of scant pro, copious loose rock, or (both) crappy pro in rotten/loose rock? .11 moves w/ long fall potential (ugh)?

thanks; unfortunately, the camera angles don't capture just how cool that big narrowing chimney is. yeah, it starts out mellow-thrutchy, then gets pretty darn desperate around the roof, but really only for a couple of stiff moves, then gets hard again, but not as hard. The ow then accesses a SWEET thin-hands to hands crack. this whole climb is fun, go get 'er. btw, the previous day after Serpentine, we went on enviro-cleanup patrol: someone had left two chopped-up ropes on the Beckey route. They had rapped down the route from the top of p. 3 below the slab, where you could easily walk to the usual rap station. They didn't have the common courtesy to leave proper booty; the nice 1/2 ropes were both cut in this fiasco, and single-line raps were fixed. (???) we packed 'em out, rando-ropes-a-plenty.

DH and I enjoyed this route on Sunday (9/23) in perfect temps. I haven't been climbing v. hard this summer, so this climb provided some much-needed smelling salt. Having now climbed both the p. 3 ow and the dihedral/traverse options, i prefer the offwidth, both for quality of climbing and security(!?). You might discount this primitive climber's opinion, but even at .11- ow, I think it is easier (and provides more pro) than the ".10d" traverse, which I did not free. ow is straight up; traverse option up corner w/ rotten block on l.h.s., then right at near (visible) top of ow. ugh. The dude (guide?) that leads the 1st pitch (DH) gets the tougher draw each round (good thing i brought the sandwiches), but there's plenty to go around. To complete my humiliation/emasculation, DH ran together the two somewhat-dirtweasel .10 pitches #s 9 and 10, leaving me with the plum, the Medusa roof pitch. Super fun climbing in a striking feature, steep for the grade (juggy .8), and cool exposure as you chimney over a lot of air. looking down while chim-chimneying DH finishing chimney, can be made out (barely) in background. This route deserves more traffic. With no one around, we trundled a bit from the lower pitches. I also kicked down a fist-sized foothold during a loose and cruxy bit on p. 2, proving the wisdom of DH's sheltered p. 1 belay to the left of the corner. Gear notes: we had a rack of nuts, almost double cams to .75", then single cams to 4", supplemented w/ tri-cams. This worked well. Bring big stuff per Mike's above if you choose to ow. As you can see by Mike/Marcus's pics, the rock quality varies, so the smallest cams and rp's are (imo) negligibly useful. Shoulda had: syrah, as counterpoint to sandwiches. Great time. From summit spied this oft-photographed group:

vaguely recall placing a couple small pieces (nuts?), but you do need a number of large cams up to WC 6 (though you could get by w/ less if 'comfy' on OWs). didn't have b-bros and didn't feel necessary.

good story. that cave sounds cool, must check it out. PHS is a fantastic climb. there are features here and there that help mitigate the ow misery. do it!

Meant to post this a while back--apparently my mind went absent for daze... On 8/12/06 I left some gear on the final stretch of the Mountaineer's Creek approach to Stuart, after exiting the forest, somewhere in the basin or while ascending the moraine. Probably just sitting pretty on a boulder somewhere. If you found (find) these pieces, please consider returning and I'll stoke w/ libations (or vibrations for you new age clean-living types), else I know the rules...

yeah fun some occasionally spicy .10 on clean, solid, compact granite; bring small gear.

what matt said--more like a chimney w/ an ow crack in it, and cruisy for 5.9. we had an old style 4.5 Camalot as biggest piece, placed it approx. 2/3 way up in a relative constriction, worked fine.

yeah, as above. similar in length to snow creek descent, maybe a little bit longer. you won't need an axe either, any remnant snow should be fun to coast down. stellar route; recent report is that it's dry too (i've hit some wetness 2 for 2x).

if my feeble memory serves, the scramble to the top of Pao de Acucar (sp? aka Sugar Loaf, the signature monolith of the city) is ~4th class and pretty straightforward; one exposed move where some might like a rope or shoes. excellent views of the 2 main beaches (ipanema and copacabana), and you can ride the tram down for free. i also climbed rock routes (approx. 4-7 p.) on the Loaf, featured rock w/ drilled/glued bolts (i had nuts along and used 'em). i didn't climb the cliff Corcovado (again, sp?), but understand that's scenic as well. you drive from the top. there are access issues, though, for tourons,as you must tread some dangerous areas to get to the base (as of approx. '99). check carefully before you embark on that one. who to check w/? i hooked up w/ climbers via a club in downtown rio--a search or hotel help w/ a phone book could pop it up. escalada something or other... also some fun hikes to good views there. if you had time there's more in the interior of rio state. nothing big anywhere, but the beaches are where it's at anyway. have fun.

hearing huge concussions, diving for cover, waiting for impact--truly gripping experience. i oughtta have my head examined.

rock does look stupendous, even the part where you're lichen it nice work

yes, great pics. might head up there this weekend. don't have Kearney's book--can you give a general impression of his descent? I'm guessing staying descender's left of the snow cr glacier?

Hey Mike, From there (as i recall) you go up and left from the blocky belay, you'll see an improbably steep (for .10) wall, will feel like gear-protected sport climbing for a bit, moving left then up. Maybe see you in 11worth this weekend.

Impressive send Mike--last time I saw you, you'd just fired a .13 in Zion. Keep on tickin'. The rating sounds like full-on Zylon 7. -Eric

cbs, what kind of condition was the E face in as you descended? baked by the sun, scary (avy-wise) at all?

insert necrophilia gremlin here? nice line, pics. "high ice" trumps "bacon butty".

yeah, i didn't mind the spray either--though i do think that messrs. layton and harry should get their own Homoerotic Badinage Forum ... that said, layton doesn't deserve the the common courtesy of a reach-around, that leathery dasypygal t-rex mutant.

no just the two up higher--the 'schrund required minimal air time. i also had some loose ski hijinx that required shenanigans from rap 2, but am too shamefaced to detail. i made a fistful of 'turns' on the whole face, but want more of that once i get the appropriate skis & cajones. overall a super cool time--that shite talker is the man w/ the plan. some pics (unfortunately had camera set on low-res, dammit): Just emerging from the fog, first view of obj.: Sky on lead: Clouds flowing, Sky climbing in lower left corner: Sky skiing/photographing lower down: Onslaught! I've never posted photos before, so might need some help w/ size, etc. --gallery has a few more... ps, DirtyHarry, I will take you to the rack, then stomp you like a Narc at a bike rally.

talking heads

referring to what could've been added, a la gregm's post re: bananarama. they might be giants might actually be in there, i suppose, but a reach