Buckaroo

It's always that way coming back on hiway 2 on Sunday afternoon/evening. Everyone's coming back from their weekend getaway. Monday holidays are the same way.

Thanks to all for the positive comments. The gore tex is bibs and a jacket, not as nice as a one piece, the jacket tails get in the way of the harness. The hardman designation is reserved until I'm back on some 5's. This trip got me psyched to start training more often.

Canadian Rockies Ice TR short version Feb 19th to 23rd, '06 19th drive 13hrs, climb Riverview 100m WI 3-4, (headlamps) car camp on Icefields Parkway at Murchison trailhead -20 F for a low 20th Climb Murchison 180m WI-4+, wet on the left, harder but dryer on the right, same as in '94 1 hr approach on low snow boot track trail, 3ft deep in '94 21st Haffner Creek mixed crags (canyon) look for boot track approach, don't go by the book WI-4+ short pitches of ice mixed Green Room and Half and Half, both M7 22nd Evan Thomas creek, (FAT), one hour approach on boot track, 18" snow Snowline 100m WI4 2 Low 4 Zero, 90m WI-3 R (WI-4 M5 if you go the hard way) This should be in the mixed guide, the ice guide says it's usually an iced up rock route. 23rd 14 hour drive back, 200 miles on snowy roads (hiway 1) went Via by Vancouver, Hope both ways, wouldn't recommend through Idaho and up the Radium hiway. It's not as well maintained and it had really bad frost heaves. It is less expensive though Via Idaho because of more miles in the states with cheaper gas. But if you want to catch some ice on the way in then Golden/Field has more options than the Radium hiway. long version Dancing With The Ephemeral After waiting all winter for something, anything, to form up in global warming Washington the call is on for some REAL ice. It's not even cold enough for Lilloet, so the Canadian rockies become the destination of choice. The climbing world's waterfall ice paradise, thank you Ice Jesus. Emcay is the partner again and we're on the hunt for the big stuff, at least 500 feet steep is all that will do. We're sort of "off the couch" considering Drury in '01 is the last big thing we've done. Some random gear acquisitions and a few afternoons at the dry tool crag on 900 give us some prep for a hard week of "hook it up" action far up in the frozenated northlands of Canukistan. We wrangle the coinciding time off from our respective employers, pack all the gear, and overload it into the Civic. On arriving at Emcay's I see his snowshoes and realize I've left mine... dohhh. Getting a late start after discussing the viability of conditions/routes on North Index Peak. It figures the one time we've chosen to go to Canada that Index would be in shape. Leaving about midnight we get to just near the border before car camping for the night. Early next morning we get hung up at the crossing. Apparently we look like Talibans and have to sit on the group "W" bench for a while and then present all our papers. Yes we are trying to smuggle this spiked weaponry into Canada, no we don't have any produce or drugs or over $10,000 (WE WISH) , no we've never been arrested or charged for anything. Having always thought being subject to more extensive interrogation is due to giving the wrong answer at the drive through, it looks like this may not necessarily be the case. We were diverted to "immigration" immediately, just guessing they were fullfilling their "quota" early on in the day. The drive up is dry roads and uneventful. We decide to take the route by Vancouver rather than through Idaho as we want to hit some ice in Golden on the way there. Due to the recent arctic front there's ice as early as Hope, and along the way we see a couple good lines between Salmon Arm and Revelstoke that aren't in any of the books. ICE ICE BABY YEAHH!! HOOK IT UP!!. Arriving at Golden about 4:00 pm we jump on some easy WI 3 ice just past Golden at Kicking Horse Canyon. We solo up half way and then rope to near the top till it gets dark. It's nice and easy but good to knock off the couch rust which has accumulated to a scarily prodigious amount. Emcay has lined up a place to stay at his famous climber friends climbing condo, but it's in Canmore which is a ways out of the way for our first day objective which is Murchison. We drive up the Icefield Parkway in the dark and suss out the trailhead. I've talked Emcay into a 20 below carcamp right on the road but I have to give up the car to him and his 20 above bag. With a 40 below down bag with bivy bag and tarp it's the bee's knees, the only place being the slight bit chill is the exposed breathing hole but the balaclava takes care of that. The road noise has an eerie sort of echo when your sleeping right by it. The tarp rustles sort of like the sound of snaffles but with these temps good snaffle conditions are doubtful, it's probably just the wind. A clear star filled sky is like an old friend, always welcome to a fool for the city dweller. Wake at 5 am and hit the trail at 6 or so. It's amazing, there's very little snow on the approach with bare ground large parts of the way. When I last did it in '94 there was at least 3 feet of snow. The approach seems twice as long due to the sluggishness of age compared with the previous time. That was a race among young bucks led by a Native Canadian Indian who was doing winter ascents of Robson. Murchison in '94 After about an hour Murchison finally appears in the dim cold light of dawn, in thinner condition than remembered but just as beautiful. It's a 500 footer, wide and rambly at the bottom, narrowing and steeper near the top, sort of a sting in the tail style. An honest 4 by any line and possibly a 5 by the hardest line in this condition. The base is sort of a moonscape with talus of various sizes strewn about, with just a light dusting of snow which in a more normal year was just a big snow slope. Murchison now We drop the packs at the base and gear up. We're almost ready to start when we notice company. Another party of two is quickly approaching. We pick up the pace a little in order to grab the best belay spot above the easy solo ground at the bottom. It's about a half pitch WI 2-3 solo up to the base of the steeper main falls and we dispatch it without problem. Without problem that is until we go to set up the belay in a cave on the left. I had set my half of the ice screws on the ground at the packs and in the haste of racing the other party, and the working-driving-climbing-straight-through-no-rest-day stupefaction, forgot them entirely. So rap down and solo back up again. Luckily the other team seems indecisive or for whatever reason have decided to wait awhile at the base. Murchison is three full 60 meter pitches more or less, so whoever gets the first one is probably going to have to lead 2 of them. Since I've already done it and it was Emcay's choice I talk him into leading the first one. "I've already done it, this is your climb, you go man". The ice is nice and plastic, plastic because it's a little wet. The first pitch sort of rambles with some steep sections but Emcay sends it no problem with a minimum of screws and a minimum of dinner plate bombing due to the party below. But in his rusty off the couch condition he puts the belay in the bombing zone of the next pitch. We decide it's ok anyway because the ice has been plastic enough to minimize the dinner plate projectiles. The previous climb of Murchison was with 4 other climbers that I had hooked up with at Rampart Creek the night before. We climbed it as one team of 3 and one team of 2. The team of 3 took a middle line and the Native Canadian and I took the right hand side. As it turned out the center line was pretty wet and that team's ropes froze up solid as steel cables. All five of us had to share one pair of ropes on the rap. It was sort of interesting, a 5 person hanging belay at mid height, all of us strung out horizontally, each with a screw on the near vertical face. Since the left/center line looked a little easier it was our choice this time, apparently it was turning out to be pretty wet. It didn't seem too wet at first but before I knew it my first pair of gloves were completely soaked. Of course then the hands start getting cold and at the belay the second and last pair of gloves are donned. Just in the back of my mind I start to worry a little bit, wet gloves means you have to keep moving in order to stay warm. If the wind picks up or we get benighted due to unforeseen circumstances it might not be too pretty. It's probably not too much of a problem but the couch rust amplifies it to the point where I'm driven to pawn off the second lead to Emcay. The last pitch looks like the hardest so maybe knowing that and knowing I'll have to take it he takes the second without any more discussion. Again he sends it no problem with just a few screws. Following it is easy, easy but wet. Wetter than the first pitch, and the second pair of gloves joins the first, totally soaked. So this is it, sort of like fun but not, stuck somewhere between grim and grimmer. But this is a hard earned "vacation" day off and we're going to make the most of it no matter what. If the fingers are constantly moving they won't freeze and there's mits back at the pack anyway. Still I try to pawn off the last pitch but Emcay's having none of it. It's the best pitch anyway so I take it. Although it's pretty wet there's a dryer line and it's followed through a cool near vertical traverse with a nice calve resting ledge for the crampons. Every screw I pull the digits out of the glove fingers to get the circulation back. You have to hold off the grip while climbing and concentrate on keeping the fingers moving. Last pitch On the last half of the pitch the easier ramp areas are really wet and I start to worry about turning the rope into a cable, it would mean single rope raps the whole way because we are carrying our second line. At this point the driest line is also the steepest so this makes it more interesting anyway and eventually I pull up onto the last ledge before the top. On the two-way Emcay says there's 30 feet left but I can't see how far it is to the top, but if I belay here it means an extra belay for sure and the rope direction going through some really wet ice. I gun for the top taking the chance on the rope reaching. The angle gets easier but the rope is at the end, luckily stretching, stretching to reach the fixed belay. A certain peace of mind descends, the turnaround has been reached and wet gloves seem like a more easily surviveable issue. The fixed anchor is sorta mank but probably normal by rockies standards, one rusted bolt, one rusted pin and a small loose chockstone which is lucky to be holding up the webbing much less any downward pull, I tap the pin to check and settle for the belay since all we have is screws and there's no ice nearby. Emcay follows albeit a little slower, his gloves while in better condition than my worn out ski gloves have finally succumbed to the wet and he's doing the warm up routine at every screw. We're in a good mood though and the sunshine even sporadically peeks through the clouds. The lead rope is new and very stiff either from being partially frozen or just it's characteristics I'm not sure. Due to the rope the rappel is a little bouncy at first and it's sort of unsettling considering the suspect anchors but we make it to the next station without problems. First Rap "Cloud Walk" I start a V-thread as Emcay comes down. We meet the other team at this anchor and chat them up. They're locals from Canmore, a man and woman team, with the woman kicking some butt on steep ice, gotta love a woman ice climber. Their turning around before the top, either from the lateness of the hour or our stories about how wet the upper pitch is. Here's to hoping we didn't slow them down, but at least their local so all this beautiful ice is right in their own backyard. Second Rap We amble back to the car reveling in our success. It seems like afterwards, when you turn it over in your mind it expands in proportion. The frozen digits forgotten, the plastic thwonk of picks and crampons, the breath with the clipping of a screw, the beautiful icy exposure. The hanging, the pulling and going past where the arms and calves say stop, the comraderee, the accomplishment of an ephemeral thing that most people never even contemplate much less ever achieve. The drive to Canmore is pretty uneventful except for the scenery of course which is undeniably some of the most spectacular on this continent. It's been a while since Emcay has seen it so he gets to be passenger for a while. The new ice tires do a good job on the Parkway which is considerably more iced than Highway One due to no semi traffic. It's quite a ways from where the Parkway turns off Highway One to the condo in Canmore so we agree it was a good call to sleep on the parkway to forego a much earlier start. Early starts being a sure prerogative considering the increased popularity of the sport and the locale. In '94 there wasn't a single footprint on the Murchison approach, this time it was a well packed boot track, and we had company on a Monday. The condo is plush, the home away from home of the famous climber friend of Emcay's. There's a climber house sitter (where do I sign up?) who is very cordial and gives us more beta and stories on the area. Some other visiting climbers are there and we all have a nice chat on what everyone has done and is going to do. Apparently they ran up Polar Circus and Mixed Master is (sadly) not in condition, too thin, maybe next time. These other guys took a rental with no ground clearance up to the Ghost and punched a hole in the radiator the size of your fist. Needless to say they had a mini epic just getting back to civilization. A nice meal, shower and bed all in the warm condition sets us up for the next day of "mixed cragging" at Haffner creek, according to the Canmore guy on Murchison a good choice for toproping mixed stuff. The approach turns into a mini epic. We follow the book EXACTLY but its outdated bogus, the trail starts off right from the parking area, just not as the book describes. We wallow in 18 inches of snow following an old snowshoe track for almost an hour. Of course I've forgotten my snowshoes and Emcay left his at the car thinking it would be like Murchison. Luckily we spot some climbers returning on the trail and we wallow traverse through the powder over to the packed boot track. Apparently if it's not a packed boot track you are off route. Haffner Creek This place is awesome, one of those water worn canyons characteristic of the area, narrow steep and deep. Lots of ice this year, even covering some of the bolts. We pick a steeper looking ice line to put up a top rope and Emcay jumps on it for his first "leashless" lead. He quickly finds out it's harder than you would imagine compared but after more than a few deep breaths and a few marginal screws he sends it. We both flash "Shagadelic" on top rope, an interesting M6+ that starts with a ladder of holes and thin ledges in the rock then goes through a small cracked roof to some thin ice with more thin ice/rock above. I get a nice adze cam through the crux while Emcay does the same crux with an undercling Stienpuller and a tool switch. (correction) Shagadelic M6+ With dry tool mixed climbing I think you have to set aside some normal rock climbing assumptions. Some of these may even be learned reflexes. The first major one is reach, you've got the extra length of your axe. The next would be how small of an edge can you crank on? Steel will hold on a much smaller edge than fingers. Another thing which probably only applies to the soft limestone of the area is that metal points actually dig into the rock. So an edge that might seem too sloper if it was granite still works due to this digging in. We also get up a narrow steep ice runnel to the right, too thin for really hitting but a lot of nice hooking with one crampon on rock. Then we ran some laps on the ice curtain that Emcay had led. All in all a nice easy day between the bigger stuff. Back to the climbing condo and another nice night of good food good company and good conversation. We stopped on the way though at the Banff gear shop and got the local beta from the climber clerk. What's got a short approach moderately long in the 4 plus range with little avalanche hazard? Well he says there's Borgeau right hand which is hella long, but it was bombed 3 weeks ago and it didn't all come down then, so take your chances. Then his eyes light up and he says Evan-Thomas Creek, specifically Moonlight, Snowline and 2 Low 4 Zero, all in a row and all thick this year. Getting an early start we set off down the road on a scenic drive into the front range of Kananaskis or "K" country. We find the parking with little problem and this time we look for the well packed boot track. An Italian husband and wife team are heading up the trail as we pull up. Their going to the same climbs but we figure with 3 lines there will be plenty of room. Apparently "short approach" only applies to 25 year old bucks and being more toward the side of "geezer" than we care to admit the trail takes at least an hour. It's worth it though, the lines are beautiful and the Ice thick and plastic. Even 2 Low 4 Zero is continuous although thin in spots. The Italians start up Moonlight while we're getting ready. We jump on Snowline with me taking the first lead. Just like the book says the belay at the end of the first pitch is hard to position for shelter and the party next to us makes it more problematic due to them going right in search of an easier line. I go too far left at first and have to traverse back right rocking a screw on the way. Oh well the ice is plastic and well enough traveled that the dinner plates are avoidable. Moonlight (center), Snowline, top of 2 Low 4 Zero (upper right) The Italians aren't having as much luck though. The easiest line on Moonlight doesn't have as good of sticks as we're getting so the husband is having to send dinner plates down to get them. Their coming down within a few feet of his wife at the belay. She's getting some shrapnel and seems understandably concerned, meanwhile he's just feeling lucky to get some marginal looking screws which he's understandably sewing up. At some point also one side of his half rope somehow hangs in a screw hanger so he's getting max rope drag, yelling "corda, corda" meanwhile her head is in the down position only due to the bombing. It takes me a while to communicate to her to flip the rope to unhang it, she can't see it but luckily it's at the first screw so it can be flipped. In my distraction watching them struggle the rope stack loops at my belay slip off and drop to the end, whoops, gotta stop this off the couch crap. Emcay is ok with the delay though, he says the two-way is good cuz a delay is ok as long as it's explained. He sends the next pitch to the top and we are satisfied once again. There's still some time in the day so what do we do next? Well we could lead the mixed 2 Low 4 Zero but we decide what the hell, ethics be damned let's just top rope it. We're sort of burned from no rest days in over a week, why not just have some fun without the grip? So it's a twin rope top rope cuz that's all we have. Emcay does it first and he just climbs the ice. It's very smooth and very thin. Nice to work the technique. More gets learned like this than on a gripped out lead. Nice very light swings with a very shallow but solid stick, lots of hooking, a sustained and delicate 50 meters of fun. I do the mixed variation, most of the way with one tool/crampon on rock, the other tool/crampon on ice. This is what the dry tool crag training was for. It is awesome. Tiny rock edges but all positive, thin ice on the right, can't bang away, gotta treat it with some finesse. Several "watch me" moves and just way cool the whole way. Probably just M5 but the gear would be thin, only stubby screws and the rock a little on the chossy side. Twice a crampon pops but the cruxes get sent without falling. Near the end I know it's the last day so the last ice and the moment is drawn out in an attempt to savor it to the fullest. Emcay is the lucky dog, staying another 4 days climbing with his buddy, tagging Hydrophobia in the Ghost and flying back from Calgary. Hydrophobia 150m WI5 in the Ghost Hydrophobia 2nd pitch I'm on my own on the drive back and it's been snowing and continues to snow. So stuck behind slow trucks, ice and packed snow, 50ft visibility over the passes. The obligatory stuck semis, rolled pickups and cars pinballing between frozen bridge guardrails. Of course this is Canada and normal winter conditions so most people don't really slow down. The ice tires pay off, and the snow ends before Hope and there's only 2 new window dings. Only one extra hour for the whole trip, not bad considering it was about 200 miles of snowy roads. And McGruff the special forces dog dude at the border even lets me back in my own country, imagine that. On the last day of climbing, at some point during the last pitch, an old classic song starts playing through my head.... "is that all there is my friends.... then let's keep dancing..." a beautifully steep dance with some hardened sharpened steel and a little frozen rock and ice, way way up north. Life just has to tell you though.... it never lasts long enough.

I think most of the time the upward pull piece is just to hold the downward pieces from being pulled out. An easier/quicker belay might be one nut and two cams, with the cams more resistant to pull out from any direction. I weigh 135 and have never been pulled upwards more than 3 ft. even with a 200 lbs person. This has usually been on the ground but if it was at an anchor you wouldn't imagine that it would be a heavy upward load, if it ever even loaded the anchor at all. Gravity is on the anchor's side in this case, a car brakes quicker going uphill.

Just crossed Big Beaver Creek at Access creek this past week. Just above knee deep. A long stout walking stick held with both hands does two things. It makes a tripod which is more stable and in murky water you use it to check ahead for the depth of the water. Stand diagonal to the flow with the stick out in front upstream leaning toward the flow and crab walk. Had to search for a place to cross, there were some deep places and no place to get out on the other side. The rocks were round, uneven, and slippery with bare feet.

"the first belay was at a large horizontal crack" yeah, sounds like you may have been off route, the first belay is on a flat narrow ledge with a crack going diagonal up and right and the second belay is a large flat ledge at the top of a dihedral above and right of a large roof. You can look at it this way, if you did a bypass starting at the toe you probably have done a new variation!!

Yeah the sun was already too far for optimum photos, it was 5:30 on the second day in. The northern traverse seems like a go but not the southern without a partner like super dave to drag me up, now if I can just get him interested. +++++++++++++++ Thanks Seawallrunner, and welcome to CC.com!!!

""Jesus, how about "none of your (fucking) business?""" When they have the authority to make you turn back from a 150 mile plus drive, it's "yes mam, no mam, how far should I jump mam?"

"they record all the plates" Yeah you're right, there's cameras 5 ways from sunday.

Just posted them to the gallery. It's a 4 megapixel camera. There's some distortion in the corners so things don't line up exactly. I just did a quicky job in a photo editor, there's also some color difference in the blue sky. From the summit of Luna, Luna col is at bottom left, handheld Pentax S4i, the one that fits in an Altoids tin and weighs 6 oz, leather case and all. Did great, took 100 full res pics on one battery, a full 256meg card's worth. It has a feature that helps you line up panorama shots with a ghost image from the previous pic.

""sucked a bunch more in canada customs, as we sat on the Group W bench and feverishly tried to figure out some back up plans."" Man same here, last time I went to Canada, I'd gone 2 weeks before also. They asked we when I'd last been to Canada and I said "two weeks ago" WRONG ANSWER. The immediate response to this answer was "park over there and come inside" (to the group W bench). What's your itinerary while you're in Canada? Do you have any evidence of that? What are all the places that you've lived during your entire life in the US? How do you have weekday's off, are you on vacation, do you have a job, how much money do you have in the bank? They wrote down all the states I'd lived in and presumably did a criminal records check, it took about 20 minutes. Luckily I guess they didn't find the public intoxication back in '79, either that or it wasn't a felony like a DUI. Super Dave doesn't go to Canada anymore because he got turned back for a DUI. It was a nice blonde babe and I showed her all my maps and topos and we chatted about the planned cable car at Squamish which we both agreed was wrong. They finally let me go, next time I'll say, "last year". Getting a passport before the next Canada trip, maybe make the process a little smoother.

""the second pitch was beyond us both - we were either off route or some folks must dig climbing super-steep slabs w/ no hands and no gear"" Common mistake, both partners I've done this with did the same thing, you went one dihedral too far right and belayed in a bush with slings (bail slings), am I correct? Above that is 5.12 no gear. The route goes up the dihedral to the left of that, and the belay is actually another 15ft higher. The first pitch is the hardest and best of the lower buttress, the 2nd is 5.5, so you didn't miss much. ""we'd actually put the belay too high, just below the large overhang clearly shown in kearney's topo."" What a trip, one of my partners wanted to make the same mistake here also. Was there slings up and left under the roof at the spot where you belayed from? The route crosses over right about 50 ft before that, those are bail slings again. If you ever want to make this route a degree more difficult, try the crossover descent and get the full alpine effect. Congrats for a quick climb in spite of difficulties. Looks like a dry year. This is Aug 2, 2000

Thanks to kick-ass motivation from Josh and Wayne, did a Pickets recon, more when I find time. It's a shame they don't make panorama monitors.

"I must ask out of curiosity since you have a bunch of questions...are you considering a repeat of the traverse?" Didn't know it was a first ascent (traverse)? Extra kudos then. Not this year, no vacation days left, wanted to catch you while it's still fresh in your mind.

""we followed the beckey description pretty truly for th en peak - as mentioned, there was a complete gay pride parade to validate our line - that said, taking another line could only be better"" There are variations and multiple rap lines also, people come down in winter also, which may have different rap points. The way I went was lots cleaner but gear was just as sparse if not more so. That said I'm not sure I even followed the exact Becky description on the lower half although there were several rap points along the way. Think I went higher before the traverse into the N face bowl. Man that bowl was really blank for gear. "" it's totally cliffed out on the serene side of the saddle - how can this be avoided except by rapping like we did?"" You stay in the gully until 2/3 down, mandatory rap (raps?) when the snow is all gone. You don't go down the lake side of the upper saddle/ridge, after 2/3 down you get on the ridge and stay there heading east all the way to the bottom of the saddle which is the col at the south east end of the lake, from there it's a walk off trail. Becky description. East Route of Main From the saddle SE of Lake Serene. Follow just right of center of brushy and rocky ridge crest SW to where it broadens at 4,000 ft. and then bear left below rock cliffs about 1/4 mi. to obvious gully to summit ridge. Gully may be technical when snow is gone. (I don't remember it being a 1/4 mile, more like an 1/8th.)

All's well that ends well. Very similar stuff happened to me on the Index peaks, having climbed N peak and Main but never the traverse. This is either a variation I never saw or it's off route. The regular route on N Peak is well traveled with nothing this mossy. Either that or it's just a hella year for the plant growth. After climbing main peak from the west on a recon, tried the same descent you guys did. This is the "East Route" in the Becky guide. Did exactly the same wandering up and down back and forth for a few hours and finally committed to a steep gully. Luckily hit the correct gully down but didn't go over to the ridge above the col south of Lake Serene soon enough. Ended up above a long slippery cliff band which I traversed in the wrong direction then realized the ridge behind me was the way out. I didn't have the water and visibility problems but was racing darkness with no bivy gear. Basically I think the top of the correct gully is at the lowest point of the wide col/pass that's about 200 to 300 yards south of Main. You descend this to about 1/3 height and then traverse (skiers) left to the adjoining ridge. Look for a climbers trail and descend to the col south of Lake Serene. If you wanted to nail this descent no problem it might be easier to do a recon ascent as it starts with a trail that goes quite a ways up. Look at it this way though after you got thirsty and lost, it was "sort of like fun but not". Forged in the fires of the blue collar trifecta. Cheers to the working man.

""I would never, personally, take a 50m rope on that route with no secondary rope."" After reading about your previous retreat I'm guessing this is so it's easier to rap off the ridge if necessary? ""We also took tennis shoes as far as Luna camp for both directions of that section of big beaver trail. "" So Luna camp is before the turnoff to go up Access creek? How was the river crossing of Beaver Creek? . How bad was the crossing on the Challenger glacier? Would you have crossed it unroped? ""I dont have a beckey guide on me"" Thanks for your replies.

Great job, awesome effort! ""The final time came in shortly less than 6 days."" So 3 days climbing and 1-1/2 days each on approach and descent? ""For additional information please contact Uncage the Bowels productions."" Is that at the 1-800-GOT-POOP number? All I got was unintelligible farting noises. ""Summits: Luna -> E Fury -> W Fury -> Swiss -> Spectre -> Phantom -> Ghost -> Crooked Thumb -> Challenger "" So from your climb order and Becky's description and other pics I'm assuming the pic on page 121 of Becky's red guide is wrong, it's got Crooked Thumb and Ghost backwards. ""Gear Notes: "" Did you take crampons? Did you need them? Did you take a stove? Did you have to melt snow for water at the three high camps? Did you both use the Trango S (or similar) boots exclusively? ""Approach Notes: Used Access Creek for approach and Eiely-Wiley Ridge for the deproach."" Was the Eiely-Wiley ridge hard route finding and exposed/ tricky scrambling? From Nelson's description it sounds like it. Was the power boat ride available in both directions on the lake? I'm assuming you took the Big Beaver Creek trail approach and return. ""We ended up doing a double rope rappel down a nearly vertical wall."" Do you think it could have been done with a single 50M and an intermediate anchor, or was the rock blank? Was there other rappels over 25M? What was the longest section/ pitch of technical climbing and what was the hardest technical grade? ""I will write up a full TR "" eagerly anticipated

Sounds like ya had fun in spite of the fall, and that just added to the adventure. Rope soloed this a few years back on the longest day of the year. Think the place where you fell is some mandatory free climbing. One of the more psychologically difficult things about long aid pitches, steeping out of the aiders to free climb. Remember the upper bolt ladder being some total mank original bolts with homemade hangers. One of them looked like a 3/16" dia bolt. That was the crux being near the top and wondering how I would get up if one of the manky bolts broke. Talk about easing onto a placement. Topped out in twilight and walked off in the dark. Took a wrong turn on the descent trail and wandered around for a while, making it to the car by 2AM. Agree though someone could remove some pins to make the pin ladder pitch more interesting. It looked like most of them would be good nut placements with the pins removed.

For the approach to Static Point beware. There are several "abandoned culverts" near gulleys that go up to the left. You pass 4 or 5 of them until you come to one that is directly in the trail and half full of dirt with a cairn on top (just past a gulley). Follow the climbers trail up and left. Online has chain anchors on the first couple of belays, there's another route to the right of it with webbing belays, that's not Online. Bring your leading head some of the easier pitches are a little runnout.

Yeah huh, and a shorter approach than Little Si.

What is it about Exit 38? When Doug Scott was in town for his "Himalayan Climber" book tour, that's where he went also.

Apologies then, don't know what got into me, maybe the full moon. Anyway was only kidding.

Some of these are from bad experiences. Or just from personal perception. ""Index-.....and zoom"" One of my faves at Index and first 10D gear lead. This climb does have sparse placements in the upper half especially if you've already used the needed sizes. ""3.NE Buttress of Sleese: Like triumph, vegetated and chossy. the worst part being the ability to see the clean granite on the north rib the entire time(next year)'' Another all time fave. The upper half is chossy if you climb too far from the crest. Near the crest though is pretty sound.

""What were the 5 worst routes you've done in the PNW? Don't just make a list, tell us why they were bad."" For me there are no 5 worst, just maybe 5 less fun, but still enjoyable because the worst day climbing is better than the best day working. Also some of us don't climb as often as some of those more fortunate, so you have to make sure what you do get to climb is select. Hence that climb tends not to be "worst". The only really bad experiences I've had were with steep powder snow approaches with snowshoes, so that's not really the climb's fault, just the conditions. Chair and Rainier in winter come to mind. Some of the other not so enjoyable climbs were because of partner conflicts, again not the climb's fault. Drawing a blank on any bad climbs per se, maybe I've done some and just can't remember, or just easily amused.