k.rose

Having worked on the Olympic trail crew for 13 years this seems kinda ambitious to me, since it is late October after all. Good luck!

Eric, The hard part is right off the deck, upper part is a back and foot chimney (back against the main wall). There are a couple of horizontal slots in the main wall that take .3 to .4 camalots also nice to have a #1 or #2 or both (depending on your comfort level) for where it narrows back to hands near the top. Chimney looks intimidating but you have a no hands rest at every move.

Do Reed's Direct one of the best crag routes anywhere, some other personal favorites are Entrance Exam, and Gripper down at Arch Rock. Outer limits and Meatgrinder at the Cookie are both quite good. In the valley proper Central Pillar of Frenzy is a good intro to valley climbing 5 pitches, variety of sizes, and I think easy for the grade. For longer stuff East Buttress Mid Cathedral is the easiest long route, take the original route above pitch 5 to give it more of that yosemite flavor. As mentioned NE buttress of higher Cathedral is excellent, then if all of these go well try the Steck-Salathe on Sentinel which is my favorite.

Out here in Pt. Angeles the climbing at the Elwha overhangs enough that many climbs stay dry as does the base of the cliff. I've been doing a session every day this last week.

Olyclimber, The easiest climbs that I did were Binou's crack at Donelly canyon and Twin cracks at Supercrack Buttress both are short easy 5.9 and take gear from fingers to small hands. Blue Gramma cliff also offers shorter pitches if you are unsure of your stamina or don't have a monster rack of cams. All of the longer 5.10 pitches at Supercrack and Donnelly are very worthwhile, but they are pretty gear intensive, i.e. Supercrack 1 #.3, 3 #2, 7 #3 camalots, Incredible Handcrack 1#1, 9 #2, 1#3 (this is also what I used on Generic Crack). In other words borrow all the hand size cams you can muster. Fern, you must have come by when we were playing on Binge and Purge, neither of us got it entirely free and it was the first time I recall getting my chest stuck in a crack, fun stuff.

There is an outstanding tent site for two on the ridge crest about 50 feet south of the summit of Mt. Carrie, with an early start it is reachable from Solduc road in a long day. Way nicer than anything in the Solduc park Hart lake area.

Climb: Indian Creek, Eldo, and City of Rocks- Date of Climb: 4/24/2005 Trip Report: I just got back from a two and a half-week road trip where I visited (for the first time) the Colorado plateau country in Utah. It was absolutely magnificent, and I can definitely see myself going back. Temperatures were cool and thunderstorms frequent, so unfortunately we didn’t get to do any climbs of great length. We did spend five days climbing impeccable cracks at Indian Creek. Since the place was totally uncrowded we focused on the more popular and well-known crags (Supercrack Buttress, Donelly Canyon, and Blue Gramma cliff). Since this is where the greatest concentration of climbs under 5.11 is found. If any one is planning a trip there and wants gear beta I kept good notes. Also if you where lace up shoes plan on going through a pair of laces per day. From there we went to Eldo where my personal high point was onsiting Grandmothers Challenge (.10c) in one 200-foot long pitch. After leaving Boulder we went to City of Rocks and spent a couple of days until chased out by a snowstorm. Some of the highlights from the City were Book of Dissent and Animal Cracker, both 5.10a and very esthetic All and all a fantastic trip.

This is probably not any help if your schedule is inflexable, but I'm heading to the Moab area starting tomorrow. I'll check here later today to see if interested.

Mr. Gorbonifar & Left Handed Monkey Wrench is what I was thinking of. I agree that the situation at King Pins is adaquate since the top out is relatively clean (by Frenchmans standards)and there are good gear belays up top. This is not the case over at Mid. East as you know if you've ever topped out there.

I did the work on G&M and SG I wanted to add some anchors on some obscure stuff on Middle East Wall but it was closed for falcon nesting. So here's the question would people object to having anchors on more climbs over there. The ones I'm thinking of are both wide cracks and currently see very little (if any) use, both are quite good aside from the final 15 feet of extreme choss.

Sorry to disappoint you Fairweather, but I haven't been to the Brothers in years. Having worked in the timber industry for 25 years I've had ample opportunity to observe first hand the alternatives to setting aside a tract of land as wilderness. I think Lance sums it up pretty well with this..."Sadly, this administration is opening the door to allow his oil, gas, and mining friends to have their way with your forests, water and air. In the end, I would rather have wilderness that I cannot "use" than have "public land" that gets leased to the highest bidder, who then plows, cuts and kills everything just so I can wipe my ass with a little square of extra soft paper. "

Hey Fairweather , perhaps you should hook up with those dirtbike and atv dudes that hang out at that old gravel pit on Reiter road. Your thinking on wilderness issues is more in line with those folks than with most climbers I know. It's too bad those folks on the Brothers didn't hit you with one of those rocks, mighta knocked some sense into ya.

You can lead Entrance Exam in one pitch with one, what an adventure.

Although these are not technical ascents I'd bet things like Mt. Christie, Athena, Hermes,anything in the Valhallas, or Mt. Tom over here in the Olympics have not seen a one day ascent.

There still is one good climbing Magazine that I know of and that is Alpinist. Good articles with extensive history, good photography, and few advertisements.

I don't regularly climb 11+ anything, but I do climb alot 5.10 offwidths. I tend to use the old school methods of arm bars and chickenwings, the key elements I think are developing a diverse set of ways of hanging on with your inner leg, concentrating on small moves, and keying in on any features on the face for the outer foot. Once it's big enough to get totally inside spanning the crack with kneebars whilst altenately pushing on the opposite wall with your hands to maintain pressure and sort of vertically crawling rules. Also I wear some thin neoprene athletic knee braces for a little extra comfort and something with long sleeves.

I'm curious about the route White Satin at Smith. Can anyone tell me 1. can you link the upper two pitches 2. what is the best way to get down?

The few time I've felt I was going to fall I simply pulled on the rope below the device which cinches it up then it's just like weighting a jumar, no rope damage. Generally I use this set up on climbs in the 5.8 to easy 5.10 range stuff you can do multiple laps on to develop a pump as opposed to using it to really push my free climing ability.

Having used the gri-gri on a fixed line now for several years for solo toproping I've come to the conclusion that it kinda sucks. What I use now is a mini-traxion on a fixed line and its far superior no more having to pull slack periodically as the device travels up the rope as you climb.

Alot depends on communication in this sort of situation, for instance had you been following me up Karate crack I quite often continue up the Pea Pod cave as a second pitch so another party showing up at the belay in the cave would not be great. My personal feeling would be that you jumped the gun a little bit. Did she have any validity in trying to pin her lack of technique on your wife starting up the climb before she was finished, absolutely not. Karate crack is pretty high profile you had best expect an audience and be indifferent about anything they might be thinking or saying about you lest you lose your concentration and take the whip. This is one of my favorite pitches in the main area at Smith usually the problem is clearing a belay space thru the newbies queing up for Cinnimon slab as opposed to crowding on the climb itself.

I relize this is kinda last minute, however I'm looking at going climbing over in the Tieton this weekend and was wondering if anyone else would be interested in going? I will be leaving Pt Angeles sometime on Sat. be returning Mon. eve. If interested post or pm.

Hey Dru, sounds like you need to take a basic geology course, since when is shale a metamorphic rock?

I will be heading down either tomorrow or the next day stopping at Smith for a day or two on the way down (depending on weather I can partner up or not). Will be staying until about the 25th of Sept.

Even though many who post here don`t seem to like the place I think that vantage is probably the most easily accessable place to get honed in on chimneys and wide cracks in general. Aside from the afore mentioned seven virgins and a mule here are some other good chimney routes , shady chimney 5.7 at the kingpins and over at middle east wall, disaster factor 5.8 ,and minaret chimney left 5.9 no waiting in line for any of these. For practice on flary things like the butt lips a trip to yosemite might be in order , try moby dick left at the base of el cap 180 ft. of flared v shaped chimney goes at 5.9, kinda like the butt lips only 10 times as long. If you are serious about chimneys invest in some knee pads ,I use some of those neoprene athletic knee brace thingies and wear long pants.

I think that older climbing areas that are considered sand bagged, like Index, yosemite,and eldo are the true representation of what a given grade should feel like. Many newer climbs esp. bolted stuff easier than 5.10 is just over graded, and since this is what most people start on these days they are suprized at how difficult 5.9 really is. I bet Canary at Castle rock has shut down many a climber who thought 5.8 was going to be a walk