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Buckaroo

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Posts posted by Buckaroo

  1. this video is filmed with the go-pro Spherical effect. If you play it on your smart phone, you can move the phone and move the video view around, apparently the motion sensors interact with the video. Hope you have earbuds though because you need good volume for the music.

     

     

  2. Soloing is all about being very practiced at downclimbing, at least it is at this grade. If you can't reverse your moves, don't climb up. Especially if you don't know if the route goes or not.

     

    When John Bachar soloed he was very good at this. He would climb up and down repeatedly making one more move each time.

  3. Was on the Tooth summit Sunday afternoon through Monday morning, could see about 7 fires. Was clear on Sunday then by Monday morning the wind had changed and visibility went to about 500 ft.

     

    One fire was just West of Stuart and the peak was going in and out of the smoke. Two fires to the NNE, then Stuart, Vantage, Wenatchee, Crystal

     

    Then at night you could see the orange glow from the fires.

     

    The Tooth was encouraging in that there was a Gazillion tourons going to Snow Lake but when the trail cut off towards the Tooth it went to just a handful of people. Over a day and a half on the Tooth only saw 9 other climbers which is about the same as it's been for over a decade. So the real climbing back country is not getting inundated at least from this small sample perspective.

     

    The Tooth was plan C and it was as good as ever. Plan A was the South route on Garfield main, aborted because forgot key gear and had to go back to the house and return which put the South route out of the time window. Plan B was Garfield East and that got aborted by some black bears. This is like the 3rd time I've been shut down by bears, maybe need to start carrying flares again.

     

    Going up a gully and then an intersecting gully and saw a black bear crossing and going into the woods. So sat still observing and the bear came back out of the woods across the gully and into the woods on the other side. So waited again debating whether to wait and cross paths if it stayed in the woods. Then a cub comes out of the woods into the gully.... oh sh*t. I'm outa here. They were only about 100 yards away but luckily the gully I was in had running water that was masking my noise and I was downwind, I don't think they ever knew I was there.

     

    So driving back and forth from the trailhead twice and then 1000 vert ft of gully never even getting out of the trees, batting zero so far, and it's already noon on Sunday so the holiday weekend is already 1/4 done. (had to work Sat)

     

    So on to the Tooth which I haven't done in about 5 years. With overnight gear and no rock shoes, only sticky hikers. The cruxes kind of got my attention more than I remember but it was easier downclimbing the next day. And at the summit bivy late that night I'm wondering, can bears climb the Tooth?

     

    And wonder of wonders no night snaffles on the summit. But then two stoned Portlanders came up about 4:00 am and the leader made a sound just like a mountain goat and I'm thinking when did goats start climbing the Tooth? Oh wait it's got a headlamp.

     

    Had to work extra hard at it but this year I did not get skunked on Labor Day. Yeeee Haaaa!!! And to think we work all year and we're only worth one day? How come it's not labor week? And if the BeeZose types could have their way it would only be labor hour and then back to the toothpicks out of logs factory.

     

    And I had the Android and got into a really good distopian postcyberpunk scifi ebook as the moon crossed over.

     

    A few fires and some big hurricanes and floods? The earth is like a giant Honey Badger, it just don't give a fu*k. If you look at geological history it started as a ball of molten rock and also had a 20 million year period where it was a ball of solid ice with glaciers 1500 ft thick at the equator. The ice was so heavy it crushed down the land so when it melted the land had to spring back up. And to think life started before this cooling period and survived in the deep oceans during that time. And if the earth gets pissed it's going to eat man up like a poisonous snake and if we bite it it'll just pass out for a while and then wake back up.

  4. Trip: Pickets - Northern Pickets Traverse

     

    Date: 8/7/2017

     

    Trip Report:

    Since I was not rappeling, I had to make a substantial deviation west to reach the first saddle....

     

    Gear Notes:

    Trail runners, ice axe (necessary), crampons (not used)...

     

    You took no rap rope or harness? Whoa, that makes it even more committing. Way to go.

  5. Yeah I tried this after Wayne and Josh did it the first time. Only 1 attempt though, I got as far as Fury from Luna. Screwed up the logistics and just never got back up there.

     

    I traversed the ridge from Luna to Fury and thought just that was a pretty good experience. I took rock shoes and felt like I wanted them, although I climbed NE buttress of Slesse in tech hikers.

     

    Did you take the ridge from Luna to Fury or did you drop down the side? It was mostly bare rock when I did it.

  6. Trip: Pickets - Northern Pickets Traverse

     

    Date: 8/7/2017

     

    Gear Notes:

    Trail runners, ice axe (necessary), crampons (not used), 12 Clif bars, 7 packs pop-tarts, half a bag of Chex Mix, ibuprofen (necessary)

     

    Approach Notes:

    Access Creek is a lot easier when you have a good GPX track from the year before. Eiley-Wiley... ugh.

     

    AWESOME

     

    Did you climb it in trail runners or did you have rock shoes?

     

     

  7. RIP fellow climber

     

    I think what happens with a simul rap is the first person down goes into cruise control and just automatically goes into regular rapping mode and gets off the rope as soon as they get to the anchor. I've seen this happen before but the other person only fell a few feet and was unhurt.

  8. As has already been said, forget about down.

     

    And the only breathable that keeps you dry in hours of pouring rain is an expensive Goretex branded jacket.

     

    Otherwise some of the sil or urethane lined stuff works okay. HelliHansen used to make a nice heavier set of urethane lined jacket and zip pants that I would trust on a big wall but I haven't seen it lately.

     

    I've found the best thing on a long rainy approach through say forest is an umbrella. You can even tie it to your pack.

  9. Sounds difficult. Nice job!

     

    I look forward to the onslaught of debate around the declaration of the "first free redpoint ascent".

     

    No doubt. Adding another belay in the middle of the 30M second pitch is pretty much equivalent to taking a big long hang, AKA Todd Skinner style on the Salathe headwall.

     

    Anybody below 5.13+ should just stick with the top rope, you shouldn't be adding bolts to one of the more classic trad rock climbs in the area.

     

    Good effort but Liberty crack has still not had a FFA.

     

  10. The base of the N side of Slesse is too low of resolution, but anyone that's been through there has at least seen the props and wheels.

     

    Slesse

     

    This brings up another story...

     

    When I was living in New Mexico I had heard of a crash site on the West face of the Sandia Crest. The Crest is a 10,000 ft high ridge on the East side of Albuquerque, it rises above Albuquerque for 5,000' at a 45 deg angle on it's Western face.

     

    On February 19, 1955 at 7:03 am TWA flight 260 crashed with all 16 on board lost. Originally blamed on pilot error it was later suspected to be a heading instrument defect. It was heavy cloud cover and IFR and they were supposed to be going North but headed straight West into the mountain.

     

    One of my friends from work (Pete) had been to the site and recovered some pieces. Another friend at work named Mark had been really interested in seeing the site but had been unable to find it after multiple attempts. I had pretty good route finding skills at the time and Pete sketched me a diagram/map of how to find the site.

     

    So me and Mark with his wife and son in tow drove to the top of the Crest and proceded down the steep face as described by Pete's map. We found the site right away and here's where it starts to get weird.

     

    Mark got really sick as soon as we came upon the crash site. We stayed for about an hour and found many pieces of wreckage including some bone fragments which Mark found. Mark was describing bad flu like symptoms and you could see he wasn't doing too well. We eventually headed back up to the car at the top of the crest, where Mark mysteriously and suddenly started feeling well again and after 10 minutes or so was feeling completely fine.

     

    But that apparently was nothing compared to the news Mark got the very next day. Apparently one of his close personal friends had crashed his WW2 replica airplane straight into the side of a mountain in Arizona, at almost the exact same time we were at the NM crash site the day before. The two people on board both perished in the accident.

     

    https://www.google.com/search?q=Sandia+crest+airplane+crash&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSiJHN_I_NAhVN9GMKHY3dABsQsAQIOA&biw=1600&bih=789

  11. Cool, sounds like a good adventure. At least you didn't get your rope stuff on the rap off as there is a rope swallowing flake or two in there.

     

    Yeah to climbers left of the urban bypass. I can tell a story about that one.

     

    It was our first time summiting the route and it was getting late. We were a little aprehensive on the raps so we tied knots in the end of the ropes. We threw the ropes (twins) on the urban bypass pitch rap and let them hang straight down from the anchor which puts them right in the flakes. I rapped down and the ends were stuck so I couldn't get to the next station which is a little to the side. So I rapped down to where they were stuck and looked down in the crack, my heart sank. Down inside the crack, right were our ropes went in there were no less than five cut off ropes.

     

    And there were knots in the ends so it was assumed to be pretty hopeless. I gave them a tug and they wouldn't budge at all. Tugged harder, nothing, thinking about cutting because it's getting late. Pull as hard as possible not worried about damage if they are going to be cut anyway..... and they suddenly popped out of the crack. Unbelievable

     

    Sigh of relief, it was then a fine day.

  12. You are lucky just to be on that thing this time of year, it's usually wet this early.

     

    There's a certain physcology to getting someone to keep climbing to the top when they want to go down. The best thing to mention is if you are past the major cruxes. It may also help to identify and analyze exactly what is bothering your partner. It also helps to be confident returning on a climbing trail in the dark which takes some experience.

     

    Big climbs like this are usually more fun on the 2nd go round anyway. Some of the mental pressure is off because you at least know where you are going.

  13. Poorly written survey

     

    All these items many climbers have more than one brand of each

     

    Nobody is going to try to determine the difference in 10 different brands for each item. They are just going to look at weight, price, or performance and go with the best. Once you've found the best you aren't even going to notice the others.

     

    The weight category was there for some items but not others. First thing most modern alpinists look at is weight, and that is for all items.

  14. From freedom to fascism

     

    We went up and climbed in the Tatoosh range a couple of years ago and were about an hour late back to the gate. There was no ranger, I think we went to the Hotel and got a key, or they came out and unlocked it with no drama.

     

    Winter conditions aren't always that predictable and trying to estimate your return time exactly to the minute is bogus. Just leave the out gate open what's the big deal? If you are competent enough to hike and climb in the winter you should be able to get down the road after dark.

  15. Not only are approach conditions important but the route conditions also.

     

    I think with the low/no ice on NY gully on Snoqualmie that the N face of Chair is also going to be out of condition. Typically it is just slab rock underneath, there are no real features to dry tool like NYG. If you don't have consolidated snow or ice to climb it is a real sketch fest.

     

    What we need is a nice melt freeze cycle and the thaw level has to get pretty high like 8K or something. Without that I doubt the route will be in.

     

    There is an option though and that's the NE buttress which gets sun unlike the N face, so it can get some melt freeze and form up that way. But I doubt even that route will be fat and it may not even be continuous.

     

    That valley is hella dangerous avalanche territory, I would be cautious even at the moderate level.

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