Paco

Climb: Lillooet-Various routes Date of Climb: 1/15/2005 Trip Report: Thump, thump… thump, thump… Yeah, it’s chestbeating, and the TR really isn’t that interesting, but Jesse and I had an all-star three day weekend at Lillooet. In brief: Day 1: Carl’s Burg, The Tube Day 2: Three Ring Circus Day 3: Tres Burly (sans last pitch) In full: The three day weekend in Lillooet began with the usual late night drive arriving at the Mile-O around 12:30 AM in –16F temps. Damn that’s cold. Day one - The original plan was to climb the Loose Lady. In the morning we bump into a few other Seattle climbers, chat for a bit, and find out that they were also planning on climbing the Loose Lady. Breakfast at the Reynolds introduced us to a few more Seattle climbers who also were headed for the Loose Lady. WTF? Is every yahoo in Lillooet gunning for the same route? Jesse and I bag that plan and decide to drive down the Duffey and find something else to climb. We see Carl’s Burg. It’s impressive. “Hey Jesse, why don’t we just go boulder around at the base, see what it’s like up close. Yeah let’s bring the rack and rope.” As we lace up our boots we throw Skinny Puppy in the stereo. There’s nothing like some 1980’s dark electronica to fuel the day. Twight would be proud; at least in our music selection. On the approach we keep saying to each other that the climb is looking shorter and less steep. At the base Jesse asks the looming question, “So what’s the civil way to decide who gets to lead the pitch?” I respond, “Well, seeing as how you have already had a climbing trip to Banff this season and I have not climbed any ice this season it is only fitting that I should lead the pitch.” No arguments from Jesse. Fuck yeah; it’s all mine! 55 meters, a handful of screws, and two tired arms later I arrive at the belay. That pitch really wasn’t short! From the top I notice a seep coming out of the middle of a rock wall down the canyon that looks impressive. After Carl’s Burg there’s still some time to spare so we drive down the road and climb the Tube. The Tube is a fun climb with a steep pumpy start. On the drive Jesse sees the same seep that caught my attention earlier. It’s hard not to notice it. Day two - We head for Three Ring Circus, which looks fat from the road. This climb was super fun. I loose out on the “coin toss” and Jesse gets to lead the first pitch. Bastard! The first pitch involved technical moves and funky mushrooms. This was one of, if not the most, fun pitches of ice I have climbed. After the first pitch there is 65 meters of sustained WI3 for the second pitch. Fun, fun, fun! That night Jesse and I read the description (thanks JayB for the hook-up with the new guidebook) for Tres Burly, the climb we both have been eyeing all weekend. The guide book says that it doesn’t form every year and right now it looks fat! It took all of about 30 seconds for us to scrap our plans for the Loose Lady and turn our guns towards Tres Burly. Day three – We do the approach and I take the approach pitch (Not So Burly), which is a lot of fun. It had a nice steep curtain for the finish. After this approach pitch there is a lot of uphill climbing that finally leads to Tres Burly. Wow, it’s impressive, and the upper pitch does indeed look “gently overhanging” as the guidebook describes. At this point it’s raining and getting pretty warm. The climb is dripping a fair amount of water. We head up the first pitch to a hanging belay. It’s getting warmer, wetter, and later in the day. Some falling ice hits me. Our guns are pretty worked due to three solid days of climbing. We decide to rap off. Our soaking wet bodies appreciate this. We get back to the car around 4:30 drenched. The roads have already become very icy. The drive home will be slow, but we have had an awesome weekend. The drive home entails a long slow drive from Lillooet to north of Boston Bar where we have to wait all night for an accident to be cleared. We both slept surprisingly well in the truck with the seats tilted back. I’m glad we brought the sleeping bags “just in case.” Two other friends of ours stay in a hotel. Our three day weekend turns into four. It was fun hanging out with other Seattle climbers and meeting the large crew of Portland climbers many of which are cc.com regulars. ‘Til the next adventure. Gear Notes: standard ice gear Approach Notes: stay high for the initial traverse for Three ring Circus

I'll be stopping by, but not until around 9-10.

Lone dirtbag climber needs to share ride to Joshua Tree. Leave Thursday PM (Dec. 23rd) return Sunday PM (Jan 2nd).

Glad you guys made it out alright.

Ditto what Jay said. Have fun out there and expect me to crash on your couch at some point.

I agree that it's lame to say that it's too much trouble to vote, but I think it would be a great help to the general public in getting the vote out if Election Day was a national holiday. True, polling stations are in every neighborhood, but many people work an hour away from their neighborhood station, making it inconvienent to actually go to the polls. Absentee ballots are a great answer to this, but I think we can do better.

Due to the extreme importantance of the presidential elections I would like to see a proposal to designate Nov. 2nd a national holiday so the general public can get more involved in politics and make it easier for people to get to the polls to vote. If people did not have to work on election day voter turn-out would increase. Many of us commute an hour on either side of an already long work day leaving little time to go to the polls. Even though the polls are open early and late, having the entire day off would greatly facilitate people's ability to vote. The right to vote is the most fundamental right we have as United States citizens and it seams appropriate that the government should do whatever it can to make voting more accessible to the general public. Thank you for your sincere consideration. ************************************************* I have emailed this so far to Senator Maria Cantwell , Senator Patty Murray, Representative Jim McDermott and both Bush and Cheney. Feel free to do the same.

Fun times this weekend even if it rained a bit on Friday night. Great to see some people that I haven't in a while. Mike, stay away from the joke-telling, it's not your calling.

I was expecting this thread to have been started by Mike_Layton.

Keep it up Mike. It's good to see some folks trying to push themselves around here and also get away from the standard routes. The NW needs a few more personalities like yours. When are we gonna get together and climb some shiz? Keep the posts coming!

I'm looking for a solid partner to climb with in Smith or 11-worth this weekend depending on the weather. I would prefer someone who climbs 11's trad to get me up the pitches I can't. I'm climbing 10's and will lead plenty of pitches, even easy 11's if the gear is good and the falls are clean. I'm looking for someone to get me on some climbs that I can't lead myself. Clipping bolts is okay too, but trad is preferred. It's time to get out and climb hard (for me) this weekend. Who's game?

I know I'll be there with a few other cc.comers this weekend. Look for the silver tacoma at the grasslands. Who else is going to be there? And WTF is up with the climbers carnival?

...some of the cc.comers doing harder alpine routes this summer. It seems like I've been reading more TR's about the Girth Piller and CBR-west face then prior summers. Maybe people are just spraying more about their climbs, but regardless it's cool to hear that some cc.comers out there are throwing down. Let's keep the stoke going for winter ice routes!!

I have a pair of Grivel 2F crampons that I would part with for $25.

Attempt to climb in Darrington on Saturday. Get totally soaked from the brush on the approach. Come home, sleep, watch "Hero", sleep some more. Sunday wake up and realize that my bike has a broken spoke. Call Dave and bail out of planned road ride. Drink coffee and wait for bike shop to open. Replace spoke and change smaller chain ring. Climb like shit at Stone Gardens so I road around Mercer Island. No climbing for this gaper.

I recall seeing a moderate looking rock and ice route up the north face of the Triads that caught my atttention a few years back. Does anyone have a picture of the north face of the triads around october - november? Ken, As far as fall ice routes in the cascades the geography to look for is high elevation couloirs and/or rock faces with permanent snowfields or glaciers above them. It's hard to count on enough precipitation to create a meaningful amount of ice/neve before winter really settles in. Routes like the NF Couloir on Eldo form because of the melt freeze from the permanent snow above it. Precipitation can help this route some, but it will quickly change the route from a technical rock and ice route into a snow/neve/easier ice route. Most people seem to head into the NF of Eldo in early November, but I think it would be really cool to go in during October. The route would be much more technical rock and ice at this time. Routes like the East Face couloir on Cutthroat need a lot of precipitation to form to create a source for the melt freeze. Routes like this are spring routes. Another thing I have noticed is that the rain starts falling in Seattle around October, but the Cascades (at least in my two years here) seem very prone to temperature inversions in the fall. Meaning it might be lousy on raining in Seattle, but the mountains above are dry. More reason to look for climbs with melt freeze sources already above them for fall ice routes. Scope those topo maps and do a little exploring. Also, skykilo climbed the NF of Shuksan last fall and said there was a cool looking water ice between sections of glacial ice. A few guys also climbed some fall ice on the rock cliffs on the left hand side of the Nisqually. Click Here! Hope all of this helps. There's also this route!

Yesterday I went for two laps around Magnolia on my bike for the first time. The hill coming down out of Discovery Park is really fun, too bad it's not longer. I recently replaced the battery in my cyclo-computer so I now have a better idea of how fast I am going. Cranking down the hill it said I reached a max speed of 45 MPH. Pretty fast, but I want faster. Anyone know of any good hills to cut loose on and SPEED. Long, straight, steep, minimal traffic, and with mellow runouts prefered. TIA I haven't been back over the I-90 floating bridge yet since I replaced the battery, but I think I can get moving pretty fast going down that hill.

Very cool! I've eyed this route ever since it was pointed out to me a few years ago on a trip up Shuksan via the Sulphide. It looks like a 'schwack getting up to it though.

Later BEEEEYOTCH. Catch you at Smith this fall.

Yeah, I think so. The crevasses should be pretty obvious this time of year, and the route takes a pretty straightforward line up the glacier where there are only a few crevasses.

I always enjoy the Sulphide Glacier route on Shuksan. You can do it in about 12-14 hours car-to-car. You get beautiful views of Mt. Baker, some nice glacier travelling, and 500 ft of class 3/4 scrambling at the top.

I started a similar thread a while back and got a variety of answers. The biggest thing to consider when buying slab shoes is the fit. When slab climbing all your weight is on your feet so if your shoes hurt when a lot of weight is applied, then they will not make good slab shoes. The next thing to consider is what grade slab you are trying to climb. When I wrote my thread I was interested in hard slab routes. I want to climb the Squamish 11's. 5.11 slab is way different then 5.8 slab. With 5.8 slab any comfortable shoe will do fine. When the slabs get harder the edges get thinner and the smears get steeper so a higher performance shoe helps a lot. I like the 5.10 lasts because they fit my feet well. I have climbed squamish 5.10 slab in my moccasyms and they have performed well. The shoes are a few years old now so they are pretty soft which makes my feet work MUCH harder. I love their sensitivity though. One complaint is that they do not edge too well because it's soft underfoot and the edges get rounded quickly. I basically smear everything when I climb in them. I bought a pair of anasazi laceups, but haven't climbed much in them yet. I think they will be an awesome shoe. I can edge like a mofo in them because they are stiff underfoot. They also have great sticky rubber, but the shoes are not as sensitive as the moccasyms. I also might have bought them a little too tight for slab, but I'll have to use them more to find out. When I smear in the Anasazi's I cannot lift my heal up as high as when I'm wearing my moccasyms because my toes get pushed into the front of the shoe. This may change after use. This makes it harder to stand on a smear because the end result is that my ass is farther away from the wall and I'm not pushing down as directly. I hope this helps.

You can count me in on all of the tuff love debauchery!

Awesome trip report!!! Nice job guys.

I'm headed up, solo it seams since all my huniez are decidedly not playing me close at the moment. I'll be splitting out of Seattle in a few hours. Howe Sound brew pub tonight. Wirlwind, I'll see you up there.