lunger

good work fellas. unsolicited feedback: tri-cams (my preference) or hexes for doubles work well on that route. you can also usu. find smaller gear than 3-3.5"; as i recall, we took one of each. that finishing bombay chimney is a b-slap sting in the tail, eh? you can downclimb a little (S or SE, to a notch) to walk off, but that rap is convenient, esp. after the fatigue of the day. dark totem? white birds and anacondas usu. signify good times...

never mind--damn foo'.

snowmobile suit, eh? is that a twight-style action suit/fruity pebbles shortcut?

i mighta prompted mike's Q by not bringing a shite-ton of food on our last trip. mistakes: packed hastily and didn't research to fully understand the scale of our project. more often than not (particularly solo) i bring way too much food and pack a bunch extra home. there have been exceptions but even when going too light i've never bonked hard. in this instance, his generosity prob. saved me from crashing. (undoubtedly from the goodness of his heart--mike: "i don't give a s#!+ about you, just want to ensure my partner has enough food/sleep to do the climb" ). at any rate, in the future i'll always err on the surplus side. i will usu. eat mass quantities the couple days before a big outing. i suppose this helps, but reading above sounds like some min. amt of carbs are necessary to tap those stores. wonder if any of you can share your strategies re: prior loading; timing, what kinds of food, etc. ? my pops still goes into the mountains for a week+ bringing nothing but a few packets of ramen and a bag of doritos, and planning on berry grazing. his expenditures are less than an epic day of climbing (he does cover ground every day), but this has always amazed me nonetheless. i call him Camel.

the climb: pleasantly surprised by the rock quality. a few steep run out sections added spice. reasonably sustained and a position nonpareil. remote aspect, and so beautiful you want to hurl. committing approach, involved descent. as usual, the views are difficult for pics to capture. after the intense focus of the weekend, i finally let my guard down, and drove for 10 miles in the wrong direction... the crew: hilarious fellas, mixture of personalities. to quote rolf: good times, great oldies. i was 'russian left traverse specialist' amongst alpine machines. ambitious first partnership w/ Layton worked beyond expectations, and his levity made the grating descent bearable. re: special's comments: 1) respect your elders; 2) i believe they prefer to be called "little people." that Ablakov cam is a pioneer favorite--active or passive.

nice TR's. i agree re: first pitch; when special and i climbed LC, {double-fisted chestbeat} that first pitch was my proudest lead all year. love that route, still goes down as one o' the most fun in my book. Mr. Fox: I must disrespectfully, er, respectfully disagree that DEBSEWS > LC. the latter edges the former. they both rock. anyway, nice work.

moseyed up the w ridge this morning. needed to get work done this afternoon, so tried the 'super secret shortcut' #1 first. Legend has it you can drive toward Kendall Lakes tread and cut mileage and vert. rolled up logging road opposite Hyak until encountered concrete barrier w/ sign "no motorized vehicles." so resigned to PCT trailhead. once again proving a maxim, "shortcuts are neither." so against better judgement considered legendary shortcut #2, the unmaintained Commonwealth Basin trail. at horse lot appeared 2 potential trailheads. already behind schedule (slept in, doh), i figure if i have to repeat that maxim again, i'll spontaneously self-combust. so opt for the known quantity, the dreaded PCT. uncharacteristically, decided to check out the CW basin trail on the way back--so much for conviction. hearing some folks down there encouraged me. a couple friendly guys back from Red assured me it was straightforward back to the lot, and they were right. you cross the crick twice. much shorter than PCT!! this is that 1 time outta 10, bonafide shortcut! 9 times outta 10 you get slapped, but that 10th time, it's magic, it's wonderful. Approach: see above--take CW basin trail up to PCT, it's shorter. as chucK told me, take a right at the first fork, then left onto PCT (i shoulda done this on the up). on the descent i emerged on the E'erly end of the lot, take this one. there's also an apparent trail that is more to the N. i don't know where this goes. (edited for brevity)

thanks for the great pic and info., fellas. so no news on the chimney? looks and sounds cool. cool would be the order for the weekend.

good tr, that's a fun outing. for repeats, consider the blanca lake/columbia glacier route; we ascended that way and descended your route, and i preferred the former. scenic country and peak!

Anybody checked these out or actually climbed 'em? I'm particularly interested in 1) rock quality, and 2) whether there are enough chockstones in the chim to make protection w/ smaller gear possible. "possible" defined: can protect at the chockstones (or any smaller cracks) every 20-30 feet during the (Beckey: "hard and sustained") 5.9 sections; longer runouts okay if moderate climbing. thanks in advance.

looks and sounds like the better route on Burgundy. nice work fellas! will def. have to check that out. good to meet you guys at the bacchanal festivities. fyi slurred speech is not my natural state...

years ago went up that corner--nice fingers/hands lieback, then a bit o' squeeze chimney (both clean, aesthetic), then a sporty traverse to get back on the yell.

deforested

nice weekend, chucK. both stellar routes.

"guiding", riiight. more like maneuvering to avoid that penultimate pitch, a sleeper that one is (at least in my similarly fatigued state). great weekend y'all, but sp'ed, next time let's hit cbr fresh... and beyotch, turkey sandwiches are for closers, not poseurs

thanks for the alpine pbr -- you dudes have brew karma -- hope you enjoyed the rest o' the weekend

can echo most of layton's would add hyperspace but that's only one (difficult!) move, then a bit of chimney for craggin' practice, private idaho at index has both in concentration--battered sammich (.9) for good chimney, w/ two .9's on either side that harbor ow. still NW? skaha has piled higher and steeper, a somewhat overhangin ow with features that help a bit. great sustained gruntin', bring lotsa 4-4.5 camalots or equiv. i hear midnight at 11worth has some good'uns, but never been.

after the grand if you don't have gas for the roman chimneys, head up the black dike (might be a different name) for a nicely situated finish to the uber-classic Grand. granted, not 'classic', but a nice way to top out.

thanks for the good info, Off. it's a big mtn, not surprising the route catalogs could be inaccurate. you got it, the CAG has it McGown (sic?). so dragonfly has bite, and they caught rabies--great. in keeping w/ tradition, stories forthcoming. sounds like we should be able to find a good line in there somewhere.

it'd be just outta sight on the far right; from L to R it's their route on NE Arete, NE coulouir, then NE Butt. as Dru indicated, the start is (likely) just on the N side of the buttress toe. edit: I see Off beat me to the punch. apologies for the redundancy...

I know there's a topo in Beckey, but there's not much else route info. on this one. Wonder if anyone has any additional tidbits they would kindly share on this route? Unkind OK too. Apres she ate it. Sense of adventure says let it unfold. Sense of self-preservation says get more info. Apparently we need from knifeblades up to bigger stuff for some poorly protected OW, but unclear what needs lugging, or if this route has some "profane" stretches--as in rated R and/or v. loose. The other two routes on the Buttress look like worthy fallbacks anyway... Perhaps Messrs. Layton and E had a look at 'er en route to the NE Arete? Enjoyed your TR by the way.

funny ash litany. approx. how much time can a reasonably fast party (on skis) expect to take on this route, car/car? thinking leaving early a.m. tomorrow--but damn now it looks warm

if coming back from the Tetons, there's a nice drive between two ranges in Idaho that takes you to Hamilton, MT, in the SW corner of the state. Just outside Hami is Blodgett Canyon (among others), with some nice spires, buttresses and the like. from there it's a quick jaunt up H93 to Missoula and a I90 straight shot home. have fun.

peru: on a minor scale specialed and i did what you describe--on yer favorite SEWS route. facilitated quicker approach, w/ the ski descent from the base, icing on zee cake... thanks D Parker, mattp et. al. for an outstanding ski tour Sat.! Much fun had this wknd

ditto that see y'all there