Toast

So's you can post 'em same day

Klenke, we gotta get you a digital camera. Nice pix, though

No, it'll be more obvious if you look at a topo map. I think it's the same approach we made, but you'll end up traversing the unnamed glacier way left (i.e. south.) Nelson and Potterfield call it the Marble Creek Glacier, but it's unnamed on my map. The col is due north about a mile from the tip of rock rib that runs east from Eldorado Peak. I think Nelson/Potterfield call it Dean Deak, but it's listed on USGS quads as Tepeh Towers. Note, it's labeled Tepeh in two places, the obvious col is between these two. That'll drop you onto the McAllister Glacier. From there, traverse down and left (due west) to a gap that will drop you onto the unnamed glacier that sits between Dorado Needle and Eldorado. You might PM PMS for verification. Hope that helps.

Climb: Dorado Needle-SW Buttress Date of Climb: 8/3/2005 Trip Report: Erin, Kevork and I climbed Dorado Needle on Wednesday. We started out Tuesday morning, made camp at the base of Eldorado, and did a quick recon from the summit of Eldorado Peak. Unfortunately, the route description managed to somehow vanish from it's hiding spot, and none of us had a duplicate. Our alpine climb suddenly turned into an adventure climb at this point. Good thing I stopped by Jim's shop the week before. He gave me a helpful pointer - the starting point of the route outlined in the photo on page 153 of Selected Climbs Vol. II is INCORRECT. Jim was good enough to point out the correct route, and I burned a mental image of it. This would prove to be super helpful later. From our vantage point, we could clearly see our start. From there we'd have to wing it. As best I can tell, this is the route we took. We woke the next morning about 4:30 to a beautiful sunrise. After a quick bite to eat and a blue bag we were on our way. The snow was crisp and firm. This was gonna be a great day. The crossing over the Inspiration Glacier was uneventful, but we did zig zag our way through a field of several crevasses. There are two cols to pass, one between the Inspiration and the McAllister glaciers, the other between the McAllister and an unnamed glacier that sits between Dorado Needle and Eldorado Peak. I didn't realize this was actually a glacier till I passed a crevase. Kevork gave me a dim glare. At that point I promptly slowed down and stopped plunge stepping to catch up to him. The start of the SW Buttress route begins in a large alcove hidden by the prominent ridge that runs southwest. Behind it, there was a long finger of snow that lead all the way up to the start gulley. I cut off a few minutes by scrambling over a quick Class 4 bulge on the ridge and ascended slabby rock till it ran out. At that point, any savings I'd made was lost in strapping my crampons back on for 100' of bulletproof, steep snow that would lead us to the start gulley (we skipped the white slabs mentioned in the route descriptions.) We simul-climbed the whole route in four leads. Kevork took the first two and suffered the worst of the routefinding puzzles. The belay station at the start gulley was absolutely horrible. Erin and I crouched the whole time ducking barrages of choss and pebbles. We lost a little time in going up a few dead ends. Howver, from what I could tell, there are plenty of other folks who've had their own route finding issues. Just remember, when you get up to the slabs, do not get sucked back in towards the gulley to the right - stay left. It was my lead next. I was pretty sure we were way too far off to the left till somebody mentioned the word gendarme - it was right in front of me. Bingo, I suddenly remembered reading about a gendarme. At this point we were pretty sure we were on route. From there I descended benches to the left and headed up one of several gullies that pointed up toward the ridge. When Erin came up, she said she recalled reading about a black dike. I had passed several dikes of dark grey rock sandwiched between the granite. At this point we knew we were on track. Erin led up to the ridge and got the glory pitch to the summit. We basked in the sun for a while then downclimbed the very exposed traverse back to the rap station. One double rope rap will get you onto the snow and into the safety of the glacier moat. This was one of the most fun and adventure filled climbs I've done. No doubt, it is absolutely chossy, and the pro on the lower half of the climb is sketch, but the climbing is fun and varied with a whole lot of awesome exposure and killer views. A quick snapshot of the full North Face of Eldorado. Here's a pic of the NW Ridge which is also the descent route. To my climbing partners, Erin and Kevork, thanks for the super fun outing! Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, set of nuts, cams (three smallest TCU's, 0.5 - 3.0 Camalots, doubles in a few sizes,)lots and lots of double slings. Approach Notes: Approach via standard route to Eldorado Peak. We did not hit snow till the Eldorado Glacier. Proceed north across the Inspiration Glacier to a col that leads to the McAllister Glacier. Descend to an obvious col that leads to SW Buttress route. Pass the long ridge of rock that hides the alcove mentioned in the guide books. Start in the dirty gulley to the LEFT of the chimney. See CAG Vol. II, Second Edition, page 284 and/or Selected Climbs in the Cascades Volume II, pages 151 - 157 (note error in route depicted on page 153 - see warning above.) Right now the snow is bullet proof hard and steep in some places. Running water is scarce but was found at the toe of the Eldorado Glacier, along the rock edge of the Eldorado East Ridge, and near the long rock ridge that hides the start of the SW Buttress route.

link link Dude, you are so fucked up in the head. Radical Islam exists BECAUSE of us.

That's the one Brian and I did a couple years ago, three bomber hangars at each station, right? What's the intended purpose of the middle hangar? I mean, there was either webbing equalized or we rigged up something to use the third hangar and back up the rap when we did it, but it just seems a little overkill.

I have the Shadow 55, and it's performed pretty well for me. BD probably wants to know your feedback if it's legit. They may have had a production run with a different buckle supplier and the factory may have swapped it out without their knowledge (factories'll do that.) My only complaint with the Shadow is the bassackwards way the top lid straps clip into the pack (as opposed to the straps clipping into the lid.) It does allow the lid to convert into a mini summit pack, though. All in all, I'm pretty happy with mine.

Pot brownies, coke, a tab of blotter, and ample quantities of a fine hoppy malt beverage. Wait a sec, that's just a flashback from the last Dead show in Eugene

Now that's fun!

Nothin'stoppin you boys. Nice job

Careful dude, keep posting pictures like this one and Klenke's gonna show up

The entire BJM catalogue of music is available for download. Unfortunately it's in OGG format. I have WINAMP installed, but for some reason I can't play any of the files I downloaded. I feel like such a gumby

Foo!

I've been a huge Dandy Warhols fan ever since I picked up their first album around 1996. Not long after that I heard about a rival band called the Brian Jonestown Massacre. There was so much hype around them I ran out and picked up one of their albums... I didn't think much of it at the time. I do now, and I wish I still had it. I just rented the two disc version of the film, DIG! It chronicles the seven year duel between the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. More precisely, it delves into the mad, medicated, self destructive genius of Anton Newcombe, the creative nut behind the Brian Jonestown Massacre, his sidekicks, and their love hate relationship with the Dandy's. The film and the bonus disc are filled with live footage of incredible music and intrigue into what ever happened to the less stable of these two incredible bands. A lot of BJM's tunes sounded familiar and ever so rockin'. I guess I just didn't realize it was the Brian Jonestown Massacre at the time, sorta like I do with Sebadoh's music now. If you're into the indie music scene and haven't seen it, if you've ever been in a band, if you've ever known a self destructive creative genius, it's a worthy rent. I found myself playing next on every single featurette in the bonus disc till 2:00 in the morning. This film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year. Oh yeah, Zia McCabe has nice tits

Sorry, it's Crispin Glover, not Krispin... click the pic if you have Quicktime

Isn't that Icegirl's pooch?

Yeah, but did you listen to that guy... Kripin Glover is just nut enough to be real.

I think it's more like Krispin Glover, Dru

How about timing this for a low tide midway down the beach between GG and Carkeek Park? That way we can bring wood to burn, beer to drink and dogs to show off without worry of the donut eating cops to chase us away? Actually, I just checked the tide table. Looks like the next good low tide at night won't be for a while

I got to get me one of those. Fuckin squirrels are eating all the bark on my japanes maple

There are some crag lines that have been put up near the Elwah, I think. You could always tour 101 churches in Port Angeles, but I like Mattp's idea of the Washington beaches. They're shweet.

Nice pix. I like this line the best "The climbing reminded me of being like the Toof. Like four of them staked up next to each other like a big staircase of Toofs."

I'll stroll down the hill to