catbirdseat

Click here for a topo of the route.

Dustin, there is only one pitch with 5.8. The rest is 5.7 or less. The West Ridge Stuart climb never happened because of weather.

The bike ride is fun. I wouldn't skip the bike ride for the the world. It's what makes it a "Trains, Planes, and Automobiles" type climb.

I get the sense that it is an unusual occurrence for the approach gully from Glacier Basin to be free of snow and ice. Two years ago it had 15 ft of neve in September. 1998 and 1999 were pretty big snow years, though. Since we had no ice screws or pickets at the time, it made for an interesting trip.

Clint must live in a really bad neighborhood.

Kudos, Jim. As an Intermediate grad myself, I share many of the same sentiments you voiced so eloquently.

Come on Dru, we all know the only reason people wear polypro under shorts is its CHEAP. Ten buck for the polypro and ten bucks for the shorts, versus $100+ for Schoeller pants. Let's all ridicule the indigent novice climbers. Tell 'em to buy the cheap ice axe and crappy crampons and put their money into fancy pants so they look good.

Dustin, I had so much fun on that route, I'd be willing to do it again. When do you want to go? BTW, got any big cams?

Fleb, if by "Mountie" you refer to certain style of raiment favored by Basic Climbing students, that's not how I dress. My style is closer to that of the late Bill Robins (MHRIP). Lawrence of Arabia hat, natty old long sleeve polyester shirt, ancient nylon Sahara pants, patched innumerable times (overlapping patches, catsup and chainring stains), modified Alpine Bod harness, and I climb in socks. One of the things that seemed attractive about climbing when I started out was that fashion seemed unimportant. Function was paramount over form. Actions won out over words. There appears to be a subset associated with this board for whom fashion and appearances are perhaps more important than anything else.

I really like this thread. I think California will certainly get what it deserves.

I think people are having a hard time taking you seriously. First you say you have a novice in your party and then you rattle off some more advanced routes. Finally you mention you are going to do them during the least favorable month of the year. Get Gauthier's book. It's pretty good.

The residual mojo comes free with the tools.

I love soft shelled crabs with butter.

Two words: gun safe

I saw that goat hair. How the f**k did a goat get up on that ledge? Could the hair have blown there from the gully? Those goats are awesome climbers . Someone had a samoyed dog unchained at the base of the South Arete while they climbed. It was a cute and friendly dog, but it chased the goat. Of course it never got near to catching it. Still, it seems like a pretty irresponsible thing to do on the part of the owners (to leave the dog unattended like that).

I used to love big, juicy rare beef burgers. I don't touch them anymore.

I think JGowans is still off climbing in Russia.

I've had the Robo and haven't had trouble with it, but haven't subjected it to icing conditions.

No, Fleblebleb, Toast wasn't referring specifically to you.

That's right, put the states in charge of protecting the environment. That way they can compete with one another for business by trying to see which can have the most lax standards. The one with the lowest standards will attract the most big employers.

Will there be a trip report? What was it, Seven-Finger Jack?

Last year I went up early to climb Concord Tower North face and found a rope stuck in the same place, apparently by people coming off the Beckey late. Instead of leaving it with a note, or climbing up to retrieve it, they cut it. What good is half a rope?

When I did the North Face I had a hard time deciding if I was on route or not on the second pitch. We got up the thing, but it seemed harder than 5.6. I went past a lot of grooves and flaring rotten cracks using the occasional flake for protection. The route went straight up and then curved to the left, did an almost level traverse and then angled up again. There is a nice way up at 5.8 from the left side of the ledge you reach on the first pitch. It is harder but (I am told) protects more easily. There is very little loose rock anywhere on the route.

Maybe it isn't a classic. It certainly isn't crowded. We saw one other party early in the day.

SW Rib of South Early Winters Spire, Washington Pass, Aug. 10, 2003 This was Dryad’s first alpine rock climb done on her birthday. She had done quite a bit of sport climbing at places such as Exit 38 and Vantage and some top rope climbing at Leavenworth, but nothing really “alpine” unless you count Givler’s Crack or Castle Rock. It was my first alpine 5.8 trad route. Champagne at 5.7 had been the hardest I had done previously. I’d been practicing 5.8’s at Icicle Canyon and I felt I was ready for it. As a warm-up we first climbed South Arete route. I lead the first 5.5 pitch to the belay at a dead tree, after which she got her chance to do her first ever trad lead on the second pitch. This pitch started out as 50 ft of fourth class gully, which she protected with a couple of pieces. She then arrived at the chockstone chimney, which has a couple of 5.5 moves. Being a face climber she naturally gravitated to the obvious holds on the left side. That’s the best way to go, but is not protectable. She was going to lead the chimney unprotected when I told her to find the cam placement under the chockstone (since the object here was to learn to place gear). She found the crack, plugged in a Camalot and off she went. No sweat! The rest of the climb was fourth class and didn’t pose too many challenges except downclimbing. Dryad had come to expect that descents would be all rappels. Not so! I told her she’d eventually get used to downclimbing. She might never like it, but at least it wouldn’t be so scary. On the way down we saw a couple of climbers downclimb the chimney. One of them had an Apollo Ono style “soul patch”. We thought was pretty impressive (the downclimbing, not the soul patch). Since it was early yet, 12:30 pm, we decided to go climb something more challenging. We considered the Beckey Route on Liberty Bell, but it required a hike and I’d already done it. Besides it was too easy. We had a photocopy of the topo for the SW Rib (CAG, Red Book), but I was not entirely confident that I could do it. For one thing, I was short on the large cams that would be needed to protect some of the pitches. Fortunately, two other climbers I had met that day, Jeff and Russ had been interested in that very climb. We talked them into going with us. Jeff, the more experienced leader, would lead the first rope team and Russ would follow. Russ would clean all the gear except for the large cams, which he’d leave in place for me to clip. I led the second team with Dryad following (who later complained about the bulkiness of #4 Camalots). In order not to delay the first team any more than necessary, I made sure I was leading right on Russ’s tail, so they could get the gear and go. We decided to go the whole hog and climb from the larch with the split top, rather than do the 4th class traverse from the gully. That first pitch is the one with the only 5.8 climbing, a few hard moves up a slightly overhanging hand crack. For some reason, Jeff went up the harder face to the left and placed a big cam, which Russ dutifully left for me. The only problem was I couldn’t make the first couple of face moves so opted for the crack. Some hand jamming and stemming with my feet got me up the crack, but the rope chose that very moment to jam in a crevice somewhere along its length. I was “fatboyed”. I couldn’t go up or down. After yarding on the rope, I was able to get six inches of slack, enough to flip it over a rock bulge, which lifted the rope just enough to free it from the crack, and finish the pitch. I caught up to Jeff and Russ at a spacious, tree-shaded belay ledge and began belaying Dryad. After a time, the rope stopped coming in, then it went tight. We knew she was at the 5.8 problem, which, with her shorter stature would be even more difficult than it was for us. After a while, I heard, “slack”, which I gave, then the rope started coming in again and soon Dryad was at the belay. Using her usual resourcefulness, she had prussiked the few feet it took to surmount the bulge rather than wasting all her energy on moves she couldn’t make. I assured her that was the only 5.8 on the climb. Once Dryad had given Jeff all the big cams, he was off again on the 5.7 crack that we called the “scalloped crack”. The first move is off the top of a tree. It blocks a needed foot placement, so it can’t be helped. The crack is a little awkward because it flares quite a bit and the edge is not really sharp enough for a good handhold, so I reached in to jam it. The only problem is that the reach bent me over so my feet weren’t getting as good a purchase as I would have liked. I’d sure love to give that crack another go to try some other approaches. The twin “bearhug” cracks were a blast. Contrary to what Beckey says, the gear goes in the left crack, not the right. The left is about 5 inches, whereas the right is about 6-7 inches. The #4 Camalot was just about tipped out in the left crack and was the only piece we had until the horn was reached at the top. Jeff jammed his left foot in the left crack and smeared his right between, whereas I chose to go with the “classic” bear hug style. Dryad’s feet are so small she couldn’t foot jam either crack, so she just smeared her way up using face moves. The rest of the pitches got a little easier after the second with quite a bit of 5.6 slab climbing, with a few unprotected moves. It was fun, fun, fun. Jeff led a couple of variations that I passed on, including a couple of 5.9 hand cracks. Jeff found an interesting crack leading out of the gully to the summit, which at 5.8 or 5.8 is a nice alternative to the 5.2 standard finish. We all thought the variety of climbing offered by the SW Rib made for a very interesting trip. It was nice knowing the descent route on the S. Arete. Dryad was a lot more confident going down the second time around. The SW Rib deserves the term classic and is a good route for new leaders who are just getting to where they can lead 5.8.