catbirdseat

Gentlemen (term used loosely), what more could you ask for?

"Stormin' Norman" for the only black guy on our HS track team. He could do the 100 yard dash in 10 seconds flat. He always used to ask me to whistle the theme of the Harlem Globtrotters.

I thought this thread was about Pub Club. You know, like "cc.com bellies up to the bar".

Attention Catholics: PullinFool has thrown down the gauntlet.

No this forum should be about alpine climbing and mountaineering. Put the bouldering, sport climbing, etc. in its own corner. Then only the people who are interested in that can go and read about it, sparing the rest of us from having to wade through it.

So for those of you climbing the NE Ridge on Keyes, were all of you planning to climb the fifth class section above the shoulder? It looks hard to protect. I'd bring knifeblades. Since we were ice climbing, we had only one or two pieces of rock pro and decided to traverse to the South Ridge then up the slabs to the scramble route. That NE ridge is really interesting to downclimb when you get to the few fourth class parts. The best time to do the ice route on the Pride is September or October. Probably same for the NE Ridge if you prefer rock to snow.

It's more fun talking about our frustrations and failures than our successes. Climbing wouldn't be nearly as rewarding if every climb was a sure thing.

My rack is found. Oh, happy day. It wasn't stolen after all. I had "hidden" it under a tarp in the trunk of my climbing partner's car and she didn't see it when she emptied it last night. She looked again after work and found it. I am embarrassed about the whole thing, but I will gladly accept all the razzing, I am so happy to have it back. Dryad gets a free beer at Pub Club. You know something? A climber's rack is like the violinist's Stradivarius. It's his or her constant companion on which so much depends, well, everything. I'll never leave it behind in the car again. If I have to lug it to the crag and stash it in the trees, I'll do that.

[quoteWas there Scotch on those rocks? No, JGowans was on Erie. Trask is not scotch; he's more like Heinz 57 Varieties.

Attention sport climbers: Make sure each of your avatars votes.

The best time to climb Whitehorse is in early June during the Bluegrass festival. You can climb and listed to some great music from the summit.

Perhaps, little by little, we might drags some details out of trask. We promise we will not ridicule you trask. Okay boys? Okay now, let's hear it trask.

Where's in the heck is DFA? I would have expected him to be the first to weigh in.

I haven't done the Park Headwall Route yet. It may be possible to use skis for the approach and deproach along Ptarmigan Ridge from Artist's Point. That would be cool.

Nope we went to the Rockfish Grill. We saw those routes and though about trying them after topping out on Zigzag, but it got windy and cold and we decided to just go drink beer. We considered finishing on Spring Board, 5.7, instead of the 4th class gully, but the "springboard" was a long dead tree limb that I figured would break and drop me onto a ledge and break my ankles, so as a compromise, I found a short route between the gully and the horizontal tree that was perhaps 5.5-5.6, and could just barely be protected with small nuts. The bad thing is that my rack was stolen out of our car. About 3/4 of my total pieces were on that rack. See Lost and Found.

My rock rack was taken from the trunk of a silver Toyota Echo parked at the base of Mt. Erie in Anacortes Sunday, April7, 2003. They got the trunk open somehow without damaging the car. Here is an inventory of the pieces on that rack. The hexes have my name, Brian Hench, written on them in Sharpie. The cams have two black bands of electrical tape on the stems, one thick, one thin. For those of you not familiar with Clog brand, they resemble Flexible Friends. The biners all have two bands of blue tape, one thick, one thin. A few may have my name engraved on them. I'd appreciate it if people watch for someone who wants to sell some used gear. PM me if you know anything. Item Description Make Rack Sling Black, single REI Hexcentric No. 5 Black Diamond Hexcentric No. 6 Black Diamond Hexcentric No. 7 Black Diamond Hexcentric No. 8 Black Diamond Hexcentric No. 9 Black Diamond Cam No. 0.5 Clog Cam No. 1 Clog Cam No. 1 Empire Rock Cam No. 1.5 Clog Cam No. 2 Clog Cam No. 2.5 Clog Cam No. 3 Clog Tricam No. 0.5 Camp Tricam No. 1 Camp Tricam No. 2 Camp

Beckey has a description of the route we used for the Upper Pride, but it is sketchy and in some cases wrong. We went in via Quartz Creek, camped on the ridge. Climbed the glacier and summitted at 2 pm. Descended west face to Columbia Glacier and camped at North end of Blanca Lake at 6 pm. Hiked the rest of the way out in the morning. A strong party could skip the second night out. The route sees a successful attempt about once every three years or so, judging from the summit register.

If you have raised kids, as I have, you'll know all about RID.

Yes, it is called RID.

Dru, that is just precious.

Today climbed the three pitch route ZigZag, 5.7 on Snag Buttress at Mt. Erie, with wirlwind and dryad. It was wirlwind's first visit to Erie. It was drizzly in the morning but cleared up just as we got on the route. Had some horsecock for lunch . There were no other climbers on Snag Buttress. Watched and listened to the Seattle Mountaineers Basic Course practicing across the way on another crag. They really can shout their rope signals loudly! Enjoyed a pitcher of Scottish Ale at a brew pub in Anacortes afterwards with a great big plate of nachos with salsa and peppers. Yum. All in all an enjoyable day.

I failed once on Kyes via the upper Pride Glacier. We basically ran out of time on it. I came back the next year and nailed it in perfect conditions, this time as a carryover. It was one of the most rewarding climbs I have done. I would do it again with a strong party. I have never failed twice on the same peak. The only other climb that I've failed on out of 30 climbs was the NE Buttress of Chair this year. Ran out of time on poor quality ice. [This is not counting Threefingers South Peak as a climb, but rather as a scramble. It took three tries there. First two were turn arounds because of poorly equipped partners] BTW, leejams, great topic! Best in a long while.

Okay, wayne, spill your guts. Tell us all about 'em. They look like short Webolettes. How do you shorten them? Same as for regular slings? Breaking strength is 5,000 lbs or 40 kN. That's pretty strong. According to the lit they are good for slinging icicles, etc, on ice climbs. Are they good for rock climbing?

I'm not sure, but it looked like the snow level was pretty low. There could well be snow at the Bobs.

Holy Moses, I wouldn't climb with that shit. It's not strong enough. 9/16" are barely strong enough to take a FF 0.5 leader fall.