Paco

No climbing for me this weekend; I'll be boozin' it up in Seattle.

Yeah, you should be able to do those three. I would start with Murchison's (it has the longest approach ~1 hour), do weeping wall in the middle for a shorter day with no approach and a two minute drive from Rampart Creek, and then finish with the big guy, Polar Circus. If you tick those three, that would be f'ing cool.

Cascade Falls and Professors are multi-pitch classics in the area. Not sure what condition they are in right now. If it's "in" and you're fellin' ballsy, go hit up the terminator wall.

Yep, that's the line, Dru.

F'ing awesome... Fun times with JayB on Mt. Shuksan! What made you weekend so good? Or should I ask who?

On Saturday November 8th JayB and I climbed a 5 pitch mainly ice line on Mt. Shuksan between the Upper Curtis Glacier and the Sulphide Glacier. The route is approximately 200 meters left of Hells Highway. P1: Climb corners and ramps on rock left of the overhanging ice for 60m to access the ice above. 5.?? P2: Traverse right 5m onto the ice and then climb for 60m. WI3+ P3-P4: Climb ice for two 60m pitches. WI2 P5: Climb glacial ice and neve for 60m to top out on the Sulphide. AI2 I have not found any information about this line from talking to people, or from Fred’s guide, or from Alex and Jason’s new ice guide. Does anyone have any information about the line that JayB and I climbed (i.e. name, rating, previous ascents)? If it doesn’t already have a name, I propose calling it “Satan’s Sidewalk.” Satan’s Sidewalk WI3+ 5.?? 250m Notes: - If the bottom pitch comes in it would probably be an awesome WI4 or 5 pitch. - The views from the climb are absolutely beautiful. The whole time you have Mt. Baker behind you and a very crevassed Upper Curtis Glacier below you. Go get it boys. Whack ‘em tools. You want ice; get this before the snow comes. Someone else climb it and tell me what you would rate the first pitch. I haven’t climbed much rock in crampons so I don’t have a feel for the rating. The first pitch was the crux of the route, though. Pictures are posted in the gallery. Picture 1: The Route Picture 2: Traverse Picture 3: Scary belay Picture 4: JayB climbing ice. Picture 5: Another pic of JayB climbing ice. A Trip Report might follow, as there were some good moments like climbing the last pitches in the dark by headlamp and topping out to a beautiful moon and clear sky.

Okay, I'll tell you. Look Here!

There's a sweet WI3+ ice flow in Renton. I saw some wild drips and this blue ribbon in the trees near an elementary school and that tipped me off to the multi-pitch ice cragin' area beyond the fence. The best climb is the two pitch flow on the right hand side. It's totally obvious and kinda like the money pitches on Cascade Falls near Banff. Someone had already established this and about three other similar climbs in the area. I’ve done it everyday that it’s been cold in the last two weeks, since I live nearby, and I want to be the first to solo it. I can’t believe there’s such good ice on the Westside!

Gotta disagree with you on the "if it goes free then stop nailing it" bullshit. The Huber's among others who are free climbing the hard aid lines are using pitons to protect the routes. Some or all of the gear is pre placed. Read the article by Alex Huber in the recent AAj. He placed pins on his free climb of something in the Dolomites. Also, I think the Hubers used pins while free climbing Zodiac on El Cap. Just because a route goes free doesn't mean people shouldn't nail it. what's your point donkey? punching your clown too much and going blindd on us? free climbing and protecting a free climb are 2 things. first of all i call a complete bullshit your whole statement. they left all hte gear necesary to free climb in place. second look at el ninio, where they didn't place the bolt to protect 13c climbing, hence you'll take a 60 ft whipper on a knifebalde. can you do that. tell me laddy, how many days did you spend on elcap working on a free route? do you even know what does it mean to free a route. have you ever climbed anything remotely resembling 13a, b c or anything in that range? after spending several days on salathe i can tell you this: i would be really pissed if someone went and pouded pins on that route. as of june of last year it was a public knowledge that zodiak is a free route. you must be a complete moron to be oblivious to this fact. i just hope people will stop pouding pins on this one. there is plenty of stone left for nail-ups there. btw, do your reading carefully. they hand placed pins on bella-vista, hence wicked long falls on 14a pitch protected by A4 gear. so think before dissing someone fuckstick throat callus sloafer and clown puncher. The point glasgowdonkeyfacepunchass is that just because one person has free climbed an aid route doesn't mean that from then on it's "off limits" for someone else to pound in a pin on that route, especially if the free ascentionist used pitons to protect parts of the climb.

Gotta disagree with you on the "if it goes free then stop nailing it" bullshit. The Huber's among others who are free climbing the hard aid lines are using pitons to protect the routes. Some or all of the gear is pre placed. Read the article by Alex Huber in the recent AAj. He placed pins on his free climb of something in the Dolomites. Also, I think the Hubers used pins while free climbing Zodiac on El Cap. Just because a route goes free doesn't mean people shouldn't nail it.

Nice job guys!! I'm glad to see some people went out and climbed this weekend. Looks like a sweet route. It's been on my list ever since I saw it early this summer.

So who's going out this weekend and climbing what? The weather and conditions look good for lots of stuff. Send, send, send! I, on the other hand, will be and this weekend. Gotta celebrate a b-day and Halloween. I want to read lots of trip reports come monday (or Tuesday if you epic ) of sick mixed alpine sends all over the Cascades. Climb these routes and more: North Face Couloir Eldorado, stuff as indicated by Lambone on Stuart, other stuff in the surrounding area, North Face route or other stuff on Hood, and whatever other routes catch your attention! Go get 'em! Anyone been to the Upper Curtis Glacier on Shuksan recently? How's the road into the Sulphide Glacier?

Anything more than a handful is a waste.

My weekend went something like this: Stone Gardens, , , , Von Spanker sighting, , , , gaper aid climbing for the first time at Index and finding a slabby boulder problem that spit me off repeatedly. It's something to go back to though! All in all To those with whom I shared the weekend... Thanks all! My only complaint...f'ing Dick's closing their windows while we were waiting in line. No late night for us.

Something like that, but the whole road is what, 20 miles back to the parking lot at the end, and the Eldorado trailhead is somewhere around 3-5 miles before that. Walk, or ride a bike, along the road from where it's blocked off for approx 40 minutes and you'll be there. No big deal. Maybe it's 2 miles but it's easy walking on the road.

Closed on SR 20 in both directions from Newhalem City Limit to EARLY WINTERS CAMPGROUND per wsdot site.

The Eldo road isn't shut down completely. You just have to walk about another mile along the road to reach the Eldorado trailhead. Don't let that stop you.

That's the funniest shit that I've seen in a long time!

Minx, with 8 peeps cruisin' down to smitty in the party wagon for the weeknd, I think you'll be able to hook up with at least one of us on Sunday for some climbin'. Plus,...I'll let you hold the other end of my rope.

So, are you saying, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need"? What you are advocating is a massive socialist system where you have to right to the fruit of your own labor. Where some arbitrary committee or department will decide what "basic needs" are (using your words). Who are you, or anyone for that matter, to stipulate what an individual's "basic needs" are? This may vary from one person to another. Regarding enslavement: you are dead wrong, each person IS required to work in order to support another class by the simple fact that when we DO work, that income is taxed. These taxes are required unless one goes through great pains to exempt themselves from the tax rolls. What's this "gravy" money you are talking about? Are you saying that I don't have the right to buy a $40,000 pickup if I had a good year on the stock market? THat I don't deserve to receive all that money, since it is what you call "gravy" and not "necessary". More to the point, who are you to tell me what is necessary for me? Are you prepared to leave this to some government office to decide? Who decides, Paco? Tell me. Who knows best what YOU need from day to day? Howard Your're taking it way too much to the extreme in order to distort my argument. I'm not advocating a huge social system. In fact most of the institutions that I mentioned are already in place. One example is health care through the state. Low income people can sign up to get subsidized health care and they pay a small fraction of the actual cost. Something like 15 bucks a month for health care. I'm also not saying someone doesn't have the right to buy an expensive truck, but it seems that you are arguing that you have a greater right to buy an expensive truck if you make 100,000 than someone else has to buy food if their income is 10,000. That's fucked up. What is necessary for all people is debatable by society, but I think it should include to some degree or another food, shelter, education, and health care. The true wealth of out nation should be measured, not in how much the rich can buy, but in how well off our average and poorest citizens are. Like i said before, I'm not advocating a system where the wealthy are taxed without restraint, but it's not unreasonable or unequitable to tax large incomes at a higher rate than those with minimal income.

Boy, glad you learned those great debate and communication skills in college. Is that all you can resort to? Sure, you're not going to change my mind, nor am I going to change yours, but a healthy debate on philosophies is good. It helps you cement what you do and do not believe. But, feel free to rejoinder with "whatever", if that's all you're capable of. Don't even start that bullshit. Your first reply regarding an ice pick followed the logic of a two year old and was also personally threatening. Read the other posts.

No shit, Taco. CAN is not the point. I CAN shove an icepick through your ear...SHOULD I? No. Your scenario has set up a state where the successful are made to work to support those who are not so successful (for whatever reason). Thus, you have enslaved a portion of the people by requisitioning a portion of their labor to support others. Oh God. Now the upper 10% of the wealthy are enslaved who have the equivalent of ice picks in their ears because of our unfair tax laws. Such a burden. Sniff Yeah, it's the CEO's of corporations that make million dollar salaries, and even more millions through stock options and artificially inflating earnings who are societies victims. We should cut their taxes to 0% for the next 30 years and pay them retributions for being enslaved. Whatever.

I believe the government should provide certain services to the general public to ensure a certain minimum standard of living to include food, housing, and health care while at the same time encouraging people to work. This is done by a few means such as setting a minimum wage and providing subsidized housing, food, and health care to the poor. These subsidies have to be funded somewhere and those with a high salary can afford to pay a greater percentage of income for taxes to support this. People with a higher salary can also afford to pay for a larger share of commonly used public services like roads, etc. You have not enslaved any portion of the people because they get taxed at 30% on their income and others get taxed at 10% of their income, and no one is required to work in order to support another class. The main part of my argument is that after basic needs are met then the rest of the money is just gravy, so that gravy money should be taxed at a higher rate because it is no longer used to buy necessities. It goes for paying for things like expensive cars, large houses, etc. What would you propose? A flat tax so the poor get poorer. Maybe a system where only those that need social services have to pay for them. Hmm, that'll work well. Let's make those who can't afford something pay for it.