lunger

nice pics. i take back what i said above, your first p. looks different.

ha ha, nice work. your description of the first pitch matches our first p., grassy groove; then better (cleaner) climbing above. we should compare notes sometime. glad you and the reticent one "enjoyed" it.

here, here! in addition to stocking the good stuff, Jim et. al. take good care post-sale as well. on numerous occasions they've quickly made things right when things break. discriminating heads and shoulders above Return Every Item, Inc.

thanks for that info., have wondered re: history. separately, having another look at that picture, I'm not convinced my previous statements are accurate. another dome in the immediate foreground of Gunn might be the one I'm thinking of. if I recall correctly, we followed Beckey's manual and it seemed about right. a v. fun day.

climbed it two years ago. as tramp said, follow the track up as best you can--i don't recall any continuous gully travel. pretty sure our route crested the ridge (and dropped into the basin) to the right of the rock dome in the far right of your pic. pretty place up there. there's a satellite peak further right of your pic that's a quick scramble, and holds some aircraft wreckage.

as of yesterday, a little snow lingered on Vesper's N-face ledges, but I'd wager you'll have relatively dry rock by the 4th. Sperry is pretty much snow-free.

nice work! the upper rock appears decent. the approach sounds taxing. looks like the brush was BW2?

do either of you leave from seattle? I have a little time off, but temporarily w/o transport. not interested in prusik though, repeated there recently. although prob. mooted by logistics or snow, my daytrip wishlist includes a.) n-s traverse of the 5 wa pass spires, and b.) backbone on d-tail. have fun on prusik if you guys go that direction.

my car's in the shop, many friends are up at squamish. i don't need a ride back. will share expenses and driving up there. with some of you headed up for roc-fest, etc., thought this worth a try. the bus take 6 hours, and while cheap (32), it's a bus. shoot me a pm. thx.

what forrest said, except maybe for first sentence. the 4th p. of centerfold is no harder than the second, though it's a crack v. face comparison. the nose at castle rock at 10d might be a benchmark contender, though the business is only like 50'.

i agree with the comments above (re: the climbing on the route), better than thin red for sure, and a good day-climb if you're up to it. suggestion: take some big gear and climb the offwidth a few pitches up, high quality thrutching, more direct and likely more aesthetic than the manky-looking corner and subsequent traverse (this is speculation--didn't climb the corner). have fun

whattup szy. rpm w/ the reticent one, we had a good time. thanks, but didn't earn your compliment--didn't have my game face together for that first pitch, butchered it. gotta make it right some day. will gladly share any info. folks might want; that route deserves more traffic. yeah those towers, that area rocks! great weekend in your erstwhile parts. those locals ran this milquetoast into the ground. toke wall late summer, perhaps?

RPM to Regression (for the last pitch) is a spicy combo, more traffic would make it more fun. RPM is the passing lane for OS; starts left, intersects at the pedestal pitch, and continues right. The best pitch is probably the second, a 10b crack turning a roof. Climbed it Saturday, not too dirty for a neglected treat. (BTW, the occasional bolts, particularly on Regression, are suspect.) Give it a try!

what climb/peak did you 'get smacked down' on? Olympus remains a 'big push' obj. for me, sounds fun. i take it july or august is a ripe time? ran up Dome Peak last fall in under 24, felt like it was a good grind, at least for my old bod. prob. something like 35 mi. round trip and a lotta talus hoppin' that time of year. not so much of a 'push' as we did bivy one night and enjoyed the camp. this would be a good non-stop training run for the alpine ninjas.

i agree, a scenic and v. enjoyable route. depending on interest and time, you can also scamper over to Gothic and prolong the fun in that spectacular basin.

Skied up there yesterday, a lot of powder in the trees to the W of Liberty Bell. However, as the day warmed, anything in more open terrain turned heav-y. Filtered sunshine and occasional flakes--beautiful day up there! Explored the lower bounds of the payoff ratio as it concerns quality turns/miles, but still had a great day. Despite the warming, the good news is there's a lot of new snow (as evidenced by some slides going off here and there near the hairpin), so when they open the road again (or before), get some!

that is a nice link-up, and 1st few p. of tooth&claw for the most part = fairly new 3/8 bolts (my hangover-tainted memory of that day seems to chime in "there was a 1/4 somewhere", but don't sweat it, well-protected enough). can't speak 'bout the later pitches and the lex chimney is secure, those bolts are lame

pretty puppy. shasta's not that original, have heard it for a dog before. though this shouldn't stop you, didn't stop the buddies' parents. how 'bout: chiwawa (ha) alta tatoosh lemah or an acronym--GUS = gross ugly shite

that was a way sketchy exposed wet slabby *dyno* moss traverse. thumpity stupid thump. awesome day there yesterday, perfect temps. finally climbed the second pitch of HotC, highly recommend it. you can get there from the big ledge one pitch up GM (as we did), or belly up to the 10b-R. great late-season cragging day.

yup yup! did you hang at lower walls? happen to see the condition of dh/lovin' arms and/or the diamond? dry rock desirable.

thx for the encouraging info.--hittin' it tomorrow.

n faces howser towers, s howser on left v nice mikey

do these disc players (like ipod) work okay for running trails? or do you gotta go flash memory? i'm leaning toward buying a flash player--anybody have recomm's on particular (value! like 256MB) models? so far iRiver and creative MuVo seem like the best options... thanks in advance

the lower gorge rocks as does TG's triple bock neither landing soft

annapurna creek drainage, yes. yep, most of 'em were rope stretchers. much fun. where were your enchantments excursions?