Buckaroo

I was half hyperbolic trolling and I've never chopped any bolts. ""2) when is it ok to add to an existing route? Never ""3) when is it appropriate to chop bolts on a route?"" This should read "When is it not appropriate to add bolts." It's a lot easier to stop bolts before they are placed. Any established trad area. Any time permission was not asked or granted from first ascencionists. Any time bolts are near natural protection, cracks etc. ""Crest Jewel and Safe Sex are not run out, they're frequently climbed trade routes."" comparatively speaking they are. Crested Jewel has 5.7 pitches with 1 or 2 bolts. Compare to Prime Rib on Goat Wall

Turns out they were already at home. Just forgot to call their callback.

According to KOMO news this morning. "hikers missing on Garfield peak", "on the Infinite Bliss trail system"

The Cascadian is a hike not a climb. I wouldn't even call it a scramble really. If you follow up to 5.9 you should do the West Ridge. http://www.summitpost.org/west-ridge/164032

I've been wanting to do the Coleman seracs again. But I'm old and slow on the trail so you'll have to pace with me. What days do u have off?

Dang it. If you guys keep adding stuff to my tick list I'm never gonna get it completed.

This was on the approach, not sure how I caught Nastia facing the other way. Nastia leading to the starting notch. Oleg and Tom on the glacier below. Another party of two starting on the rock. Looking down the 2nd pitch, Oleg leading the 2nd rope. Nastia leading the 2nd half of the 3rd pitch. On the start of the 3rd I put in a #1 MasterCam and a couple 5.7 moves above it my right boot slipped on some moss. My hands were on two sloper downpointing edges and they slowly slipped off as I suddenly realized I was falling. "what??...WHAT???" Nastia was facing outwards, not watching, assuming as I did there would be no falls on this easy ground. "FALLING!!!". I started to flip over backwards from the 25 lbs pack. Hoping not to hit anything amidst the belay ledge and the ramp dihedral of the last pitch. I came to rest at the end of the rope, in a definite sort of shock. My first fall on gear in the alpine, Nastia caught me fine, only a 15 footer but pretty scary with one small piece in questionable rock on a 8mm single. "ARE YOU OKAY??? ARE YOU OKAY???" "I think so" as I check myself over. "yes I didn't hit anything, I'm okay, I'm okay." I got back on and made it to the next belay, and as I pulled the rope up I noted a significant chunk several feet from my end, not a core shot but pretty close. In the alpine with a lot of soloing I always climb not to fall. This time maybe I was tired from Serpentine two days before or just got lazy/sloppy from being roped. If there was a turning point on this climb for me this was it. Although it didn't turn me around completely it maybe slowed me down enough for us not to make the TFT. Looking down the 4th Looking down the 5th Looking down the 6th, final pitch from the first notch. The gear was there on this climb, but hard to find, including at the belays. And some of the rock anchors that previous climbers left webbing on were downright scary. Looking up at Tom on the summit. I was pretty disgusted with my too slow pace and the difficulty of gear and belays. When we made it to the final notch I told everyone I didn't want the summit and I scrambled down and started enlarging the two person bivy to four. They all went up without me. After a bit of work on the bivy I glanced up and saw Tom on the summit and he said it was easy ground. I relented and scrambled up to join everyone, it turned out to be worth it. Eldorado from the Torment summit bivy. with 3500 feet of cliffs below us. Sunset Looking up at Oleg from inside the moat on the last rap. We had researched the TFT, not the descent of Torment so it took us quite a while just to get to this point. A brainstorming session at the morning bivy narrowed it down to the SE face, it took 3 or 4 convoluted raps to finally connect with the fixed stations. Including a solo class 4 scramble to retrieve a hopelessly stuck rope. You can see how blank and vertical the last 50 feet of rock was above the moat. Gaining the snow outside the moat was the trickiest part of the entire adventure. The lip was 25 feet out from the wall and 75 feet down from the rap anchor. It was too far out to gain just from a pendulum effected with pushing off the vertical wall. I rap down to just level with a small snow ledge on the inside of the moat that was about 15 feet out from the wall and 15 feet down from the lip. I let go of the locker prusik right at the 30m mark and pull the single axe off the harness. With a deep breath and an apprehensive glance at the bottomless abyss below, crampons scratching for grip, I launch off the wall with all my strength. Reaching over backwards at the peak of the pendulum, I barely axe the edge of the small ledge. Twisting around to get the crampons into the overhang underneath. A tentative grasp and still far from home. It's now that I realize I didn't bring the rack. D'OOOOH!! All the previous raps, the first person down takes the rack, to set anchors or back up existing ones. My key to this puzzle is up at the last anchor with my friends. For I had only brought one axe intending to use my Ushba titanium nut tool as a second "axe" if necessary. Dammit. But the snow is not icy hard. I dig a handhold with my fingernails, grab it and carefully remove the axe and place it higher, one more time dig a handhold with the fingers quickly going numb. Move the axe up again, I finally get my feet up on the ledge. From there it is mere logistics. Set a picket and the axe. Oleg raps down and I pull him to the small ledge and then belay him (he has two axes) while he climbs the vertical inside face of the moat up and over the top. We set both our pickets outside the moat and then Tom and Nastia rap down and we pull them over. It does take the two of us pulling to get them to the upper edge as it's further out at that point. Finally the tension eases... four climber's necks... out of the noose.

I have car camped at the trailhead numerous times both for Forbidden and the upper lot, the rangers have never said anything but it probably helps to come in near or after dark.

sounds fun got any pics?

Nice effort. Why does your gear pic show a helmet yet you are not wearing one? Why did you not wear a helmet? Is that an avocado among your food? What were the top 4 to 5 cruxes rated do you think?

Index. See unleashed dogs there all the time. Exit 32, 38? Leashed

These are the peaks Croft Traversed Stuart Sherpa Argonaut Colchuck Dragontail Prusik I prefer multi-day climbs for the alpine ambience and in my over the hill condition it's practically mandatory. I could do Serpentine in a day but it would be a death march.

No you just have to be anywhere south of the ridgeline.

Nelson Vol 1, pg 184 "Mark Kroese and Sean Courage completed the route in just 9.5 hours, car to car, in 2001."

It's a stone ledge where stoners get stoned with weed and stones

Sweet. Were the raps 30M? What kind of rope? We did Serpentine a few days ago with the exact same strategy of bivying just outside the permit zone boundary. I thought it worked really well. Taking your time and getting the full alpine effect. I told my partner if the rangers stop us asking for permits I'm going to tell them "wee don need no steenking permitz" She says she doesn't know me.

My worst experiences have been with loose blocks underneath roofs. Not supported anywhere on the bottom surface. What I would call hair trigger blocks. You don't even want to touch them at all. One was on Eisenhower tower while soloing the right hand variation. I was in the middle of a 5.6-5.7 section near the top and reached up and just barely touched a watermelon size block, it immediately came loose and fell. Luckily it was just off to the side of where I was standing. The other case I was not so lucky. Soloing the West ridge of the West summit of Garfield and again just breathed on an overhanging block, probably 100-150 lbs. You think I would have learned. This time it was right above me. Again it was 5.6-5.7 ground and I was holding onto a lower ledge with my left hand with my thumb over the edge of the ledge. I dislodged the rock with my right hand so couldn't let go with my left. It landed on my thumb and against my right hip. Luckily I was able to side step without being pushed off, but my thumb was pinched between the rock and crushed. It took a few seconds to realize what had happened. Initially feeling lucky I was not thrown off the cliff, reality hit when I looked at my thumb. It was bloodied and crushed to about 1/2 of it's normal thickness right at the first joint. Luckily I was only a couple of moves above a ledge/notch. Now keep in mind this was about 3000 ft up from the road past numerous 5.6 cliffs, 2 full pitches of 5.5-5.6 to gain the ridge, and about 700 ft along the intermittent 5.6 ridge from the spot where it was gained. I kinda sorta freaked out. Pretty sure I went into shock because adrenaline kicked in and there really wasn't ever that much pain. About .5 nano-seconds after seeing my thumb the only thought was "going down now". My ethics are self rescue if possible and I tested my finger strength on the bad hand and it felt strong. You can climb pretty much without your thumb if you think about it. I tried my cell phone to notify my contacts and authorities what was happening and to look out for me coming down. Briefly got one bar but try as I might never could connect. I was on my own. I had a 7.5 50m rope for raps but there was also a lot of mandatory downclimbing. Made it back to the car about 2:00pm and to a urgent care clinic in Issaquah some time later. They referred me to emergency in Bellevue. This is where my problems really started. Them suckers had dollar signs in their eyes, even some of the nurses. The x-rays showed 3 non-displaced fractures at the joint. I was amazed thinking the bones would be near powdered. It was Sunday and they called in a specialist who said I needed emergency surgery. So I called my climbing partner EmKay and it turns out the guy had operated on his bicep tendon a couple years previous and EmKay had a good experience with him. This is where the nurses and doctor sort of ganged up and convinced me to rush to surgery, like trying to scare saying you could get a bone infection. I've been injured plenty of times, some worse and have always assessed all the choices about care before committing. This time I sort of said yes without thinking everything through. Like the fact that Bellevue has higher overhead than just about anywhere else in the state, and I already have a trusted orthopedic office I go to in Renton. Long story short, 4 pins, one down the center to stop bending which I think made it end up with less ROM. Doctor double billed the insurance even though there was only one operation. When I called him back to find out exactly what he found when operating, like other tissue damage, got no answer at all. I think people are climbing differently now to avoid rockfall. Like the N face of Eiger gets climbed earlier and later season when temps stay below freezing. And the N Face of N Twin got climbed for the 3rd time in way earlier season than it had before. A party just before that tried it in August and predictably got hit with a broken arm resulting.

One thing about chile is you have to chew it down to very small bits. Any larger chunks are going to give you trouble. You may have digestion issues like some nutrient or bacteria deficiency. Yogurt and bananas but it has to be soon after. Milk obviously but milk has it's own digestion problems and isn't that great for you anyway.

those are some sweet shots and it looks like a fun climb when I first read the title I thought it was some virtually inaccessible place like Chamonix, LOLZ! But no this is right here in our own back yard, nice.

Just got off the South Ridge of Torment and Serpentine Arete on Dragontail all in the past 6 days. Didn't see one single fu*king bolt the entire time and it would have detracted from the experience if there had been any. ""1) who decides what the appropriate spacing should be? It seems to me that the consensus on spacing keeps changing."" More balls, more space, less balls, less space. 5 feet apart? No balls. climbing something like Crested Jewel or Safe Sex, the bolted runouts add spice to the climb. ""2) when is it ok to add to an existing route? Never ""3) when is it appropriate to chop bolts on a route?"" Any established trad area. Any time permission was not asked or granted from first ascencionists. Any time bolts are near natural protection, cracks etc. Any time a trad climber with big balls is in the mood. ""4) what favorite quotes do you have on bolting style or ethics?"" The Murder of the Impossible essay by the legendary Reinhold Messner "Today's climber doesn't want to cut himself off from the possibility of retreat: he carries his courage in his rucksack, in the form of bolts and equipment." "Ambitions are no longer built on skill, but on equipment and the length of time available." "Faith in equipment has replaced faith in oneself" "If I meet the impossible. I'm not going to be killing any dragons, but if anyone wants to come with me, we'll go to the top together on the routes we can do without branding ourselves murderers."

Just hike with a rain fly cover. Or pack the stuff that can't get wet in Sil stuff sacks. Low budget for when it's really raining just line it with a Hefty garbage bag

Someone needs to put up some "you are under video surveillance" signs at that parking lot. That's what they have at the Denny Creek trailhead. Probably doesn't work as well at night but daylight is when everyone is there anyway. I guess now when you climb GNS you carry your stuff to the top of the first pitch. OR... from up on the climb, shoot the perps in the rear with a barbed cross-bow arrow connected to an 1/8 stainless steel cable reel. Then winch them up onto the cliff and tie em off. Leave them hanging there from a barbed arrow stuck in their as* and call the cops. If the arrow starts to tear out of their as* flesh shoot them with another arrow in the other as* cheek. And then equalize the anchor so the weight is evenly distributed.

I remove the frame stays, turn the pack inside out and put it in the washer with everything else. No special soap. Those that won't turn inside out cinch up the straps real tight and tie the loose ends so they won't get caught on the agitator. Once the water proof coating wears off the inside it's time for a new pack

""Me thinks you're taking things too literally and need to lighten up."" I'm not the one posting 128 different split times. Besides I'm trying to lighten up and I don't think you're noticing. ""yet only climb 3, 4, maybe 5 peaks along the way. I don't see you doing that. In fact, I don't see you doing that in even double or triple that time."" I did it with a party of 5, 2 women, 3 men, one of whom was 70 years old. We climbed 8 peaks (the 70yo climbed 1) and did it in 11 days. We weren't in any rush, I think me and the other hard climber in the group could have climbed all the Ptarmigan peaks in about 5 to 7 days, I would have to know what peaks. ""Why are you trying to rain on these guys parade?"" I'm not. I'm just in the back of the room, clearing my throat, in a calm quiet voice saying, wait a minute, the Ptarmigan Traverse was a climbing traverse, this is merely a hike. ""What Leor and Uli did is cover a shit ton of ground in very short order... Who the shittin shit cares what peaks they climb along the way?"" I think you're on the right track. Call it the Speed Hiker Integral Traverse. Or for the PG crowd the Cascade Racers Ascent-less and Proud

Narrow minded perhaps, I'm focused on climbing. Dense I don't think so. This is the 2nd TR chest beat about hiking the Ptarmigan, I'm sorry but it just rubs my fur the wrong way. I want to see one that challenges the first ascent/traverse. I never intended to come across as putting forth any requirement for TR's, sorry if it came across that way. If you want to just hike the Ptarmigan Traverse approach route then call it something else because the original Traverse climbed every big peak, and you're not even coming close to doing that. Call it the Speed Hiker Integral Traverse. Stop at the base of each big peak and hold up the fingers counting them off and take documentary pics. Otherwise I agree with the rest of what you posted.