Tennessee

As I just posted on the main forum, I'm driving down tomorrow morning, March 18 from Bellingham to Las Vegas and would be interested in having a passenger willing to split gas. I get 23 miles to the gallon. Call me if you are interested, 360-927-1551. (don't just post an answer as I probably won't see it) Peace, Andy

I know it's late, but I'm driving from Bellingham to Las Vegas tomorrow morning. If anyone wants a ride, splitting gas money, give me a call 360-927-1551. I won't be checking this thread, so if you want to go just give me a call. Andy

Yangshuo is a friggin awesome place. I spent two weeks there in 2005 and we had a blast. We hooked up and climbed with a bunch of the people at China Climb and they showed us around and took us caving too. We also took the trip to climb at the famous Moon Hill and it is more spectacular than it looks in pictures. That is a real natural work of art. The whole place is unbelievable.

I just returned from a trip to Cuba as well. Wonderful place, great climbing, really friendly people and authentic, one-of-a-kind culture. I'd highly recommend going. There's so much more potential for climbing, they've only started to scratch the surface. A few things I wished I'd known before going: -bring Canadian cash or Euros. There is a whopping 10% tax lopped off US dollars when changing money. -bring mosquito repellent (cigars also work of course, but we wished we'd had it) Also make sure you find Oscar Jaime Rodriguez's casa in Vinales, I'm sure you've already read about him. If you ask the jinateros when you get off the bus they ALL will say that he is full, but find him anyway. He's like 300 yards from where the bus drops you off. It's best to try to make reservations with him by calling him from Havana. His number is wrong in the 2004 Lonely Planet, but correct in anything printed after 2007. Make sure you give all your climbing gear to Jairobi. He's the president of the climbing club in Vinales. There's a bunch of kids who will tag along with you to climb and many people give their gear to these kids. Often they'll just sell it for money and move on to the next climbers. Jairobi divys the gear up fairly among the climbers. These kids aren't bad, they're really cool kids and they will show you around, they just aren't as responsible with the free gear as Jairobi is. Hope that helps. Have fun. And definitely make time to climb Mucho Pumpito! It's the wildest climb I've ever done. It overhangs 40 feet in two pitches, and it's only 10b!

You should all know that there is an easier access to the lower coleman glacier. There is a trail through the woods that brings you right onto the compression zone from Mirkwood Camp. Mirkwood camp is in the trees a couple hundred feet down from Survey Rock which is the typical overlook for hikers sitting right above the last trees on the moraine. Walk all the way through the flat camping area in the woods and find a trail that winds down 200 ft or so through the woods and spits you out onto the lower end of the compression zone of the lower coleman glacier. This is a very easy and straightforward way to access the seracs with beginners.

I've got a room open for the summer and would like to fill it with a climber until Mid August or September (very flexible). two rooms available, $300 and $375 per month including bills. It's a 4 bd house near downtown bham with other climbers living here, all working the summer season at a guide service. Lots of climbing partner options available. call if you are interested 360-927-1551. No emails or PM's por favor. Andy

I forgot my camera on the climb. It made me want to jump off the mountain.

I approached Gunsight peak from Stehekin in July 2001. There is a broad ridge that goes up the south side of Mt Agnes from the PCT. It involved about 5000 feet total, starting with 2000 feet of old growth forests, going into 1500 feet of slide alder, then another 1500 feet of heather benches with a bit of 3rdish class scrambling before reaching alpine terrain. It was somewhat brutal. I would think that finding your way down this might not be too bad, as long as you stay away from gullies. I'd heard of people using Icy creek (?) for this ascent from the PCT, but there wasn't enough snow cover at that time so we decided not to. If it has enough snow coverage, that might be the way. It's the creek that drains the glacier on the north side of Agnes. Cliff Leight has used the Icy Creek approach and said it involved lots of brush. We took two days for this approach from Stehekin to a camp below Agnes, but we had huge packs with giant rock racks up to #5 camalot, so it was slow. From Agnes, or Gunsight, a fast party be able to make it down in one day assuming no route finding mistakes. It ended up being worse than the map made it look.

I feel like I constantly hear from Pit Bull owners that it is the "training" of the dog, and not the dog itself that will determine whether or not the dog will attack. This is not the case in my opinion, or according to statistics. It was stated earlier that many of these breeds of dogs were bred specifically for fighting, as opposed to retrieval or sniffing or whatever. That is why they attack more, and when they do attack, it is called a "mauling" rather than a "bite". My brother was attacked by a pitbull when he was 7 years old, by a well behaved, mature dog that had a professional trainer/breeder as an owner, and the dog had never attacked anyone in it's life. The owner was beside himself and couldn't believe it. My brother did absolutely nothing to provoke the dog, he just tripped over a toy on the floor next to the dog. He almost lost his calf muscle. People who have Pitbulls or any other of the fighting breeds should have a very good reason to do so, otherwise they are either really brave or really stupid to put themselves, their family, and their financial well-being on the line just to have one of these dogs. No matter what, no matter how disciplined your dog may be, there will be situations that occur that are out of the ordinary, that put your dog on edge, that are out of your control. You should expect that your dog could attack anyone at anytime and that the attack will be more than just a bite or nip (like it would be with most other breeds). To say that other breeds are the same or have the same propensity to attack, even if true, does not take into account the severity of the attack.

We climbed the West Ridge of Sherpa on Friday 5/30. The approach was basically snow free until just before reaching the 5400 ft bench beneath the Sherpa glacier. We had to take the right-hand couloir above the Sherpa glacier to get to the ridge (as opposed to the left-hand couloir which would have taken us closer to Sherpa Peak, but it had a steep spot that had melted out). The rest of the route was on excellent rock with a few minor loose bits, snow free, and really enjoyable. The strangest thing though . . . the summit was covered in thousands of ladybugs. I've never seen anything like it. We also saw a couple other guys at camp, Sol being one of them, they had climbed the Stuart Glacier couloir. They said that a section had melted out, which they bypassed by rock climbing.

After you visit the Eastern Sierra, you might instead call your trip to the Valley the "side trip"! I second the vote on 3rd Pillar of Dana. By the way, it's the Sierra, not the Sierras.

As soon as it melts out, you should check out Split Rock. It's at about 3000 ft elevation in the Cultus Mountains. A really pretty place that's not very developed. what electrical program are you going through? Is it through Skagit Valley? I've been thinking of going to electrical school as well.

That looks an aweful lot like a hex in the crack and on his harness. It also looks like long underwear being worn beneath shorts.

I've dealt with many organizations in Ecuador including Safari. Most of the guide services use the same guides, so it's the management/logistics/equipment that separate the companies. I don't recommend Safari since they changed management a couple years ago. I very highly recommend Andean Face run by Javier Herrera. He runs a very tight ship, he is an amazing guide himself, and he only hires the best of the best guides in Ecuador most of whom have trained overseas or had training from UIAGM guides visiting Ecuador. Most of these guides are his amigos, and they prefer to work with him. He owns newer vehicles also, rather than hiring out any bus or 4x4 available. Use Javier, he is by far the most professional outfit in the country.

In my opinion AIARE courses seem to offer the most cutting edge instructor training and constantly updated and scrutinized curriculum and teaching methods. There's lots of AIARE providers in the PNW - American Alpine Institute (Baker area), Mountain Madness (Stevens Pass), and Pro Guiding (Snoqualmie). Take the course nearest to the area(s) you plan to be skiing so you get an understanding of the particulars of the snowpack and terrain you will be most likely be using. Look at the number of days (particularly field days), student to instructor ratio, professional training of the instructors, where the field days are held, and whether the curriculum is nationally or internationally standardized.

Gene, I'm flattered you're so curious. I'm starting a career in solar energy. www.ecotechenergy.com To clarify, there are two positions open in AAI's office: my position as expedition coordinator/guide scheduler, and Shawn's position as communications/marketing/program coordinator. Both are great opportunities either for guides wanting to have a more normal schedule (i.e. sleep in your own bed) or for a climber interested in breaking into the exciting field of guide service administration. Andy

yeah, bellingham bites the big one. Snobby people, crappy weather, no climbing and as culturally rich as, well, Tennessee except Tennessee has more climbing. Not as bad as TX, I'll at least give it that. If you really want to move somewhere with lots of climbing, try Boulder, CO. I hear it's a cool place.

I do in fact believe that it is Mount Jimmy Jimmy.

talk about crickets . . .

3 fingers maybe?

What about eldorado?

You come all the way out to WA to climb traderoutes? Lame dude.

You misread Layton's post. He said he WOULD trust the folks at AAI. It's the respect part I'm wondering about.

I was very sad to hear this news. I talked to Charlie extensively when planning my first trip to the area and he was so nice and extremely helpful. He's been to China so many times and climbed so many things, mostly solo. Peaks that took other expeditions weeks to climb with multiple camps, he would do in a day by himself. He's probably got more first ascents in Sichuan than any other single person, not to mention all the other millions of places he's been. I stayed in this area for a month last fall, it is a beautiful place. Very remote and peaceful and untouched by the outside world. The mountain, Genyen, is a holy peak. A monastery is built at the base and has a 1500 year history. Sounds like Charlie and Chris may have been attempting something on the North Face which faces the monastery. There's several big chutes one must climb to access that side. A route on that side got climbed by an Italian team earlier this year. This may sound strange, but I can't think of a more peaceful and spiritual place to pass over to the other side. May they both rest in peace.

Yep, there's some sweet skiing up there and amazing scenery, this will be my 3rd time in the area. It's probably the coolest huts with ski-access rather than heli-access, so it's way cheaper. It's filling, but there's still a couple of spots left if anyone is interested. -Andy