Tennessee

I'm going to try to post a couple of pics from July 2001 . . .

If you are going all the way in there to climb Inspiration, do the East Ridge for sure. There's a handcrack on it that is worth the whole approach. And the summit ridge traverse from the East summit to the West summit is one of the most photogenic areas in the Cascades. As for the descent, we did 2 or 3 double rope raps off the summit, down the West Ridge. Then at the point where the W ridge just flattens out a bit, we started rappelling down the South face. It is pretty vertical and we figured there would be less of a chance of getting ropes stuck. (Plus only one of us carried boots, so the other 3 would have had to downclimb that snow gully in rock shoes). There were no other rap stations anywhere on this part of the south face, but the rappels went fairly well even though we had to leave tons of stoppers and slings. I haven't done the regular descent off the W ridge so I can't compare the two decents, but now that there's rap anchors built on that part of the S face, it might be worth considering. If you want beta on the climb let me know. my 2 cents . . .

Ivan, I've been called worse, that was actually pretty funny when I heard Climbzalot up at the belay say he was climbing with "Andy" and you said"Did you say Amy? , you've got a girl up here?" That was some funny shit. Yeah, I left my summit smoke back in the car, it keeps me from being tempted on the hike in. I can barely keep up with Hikezalot as it is! But I spent sunday catching up.

Eric and Ivan, Just want to second what Climzalot said. . . nice to meet you guys and thanks (to everyone) for stomping out the trail. I don't say that sarcastically at all, while we were hiking out we mentioned several times at how lucky we were for having it stepped out. We could not have done it in the time we did without the trail kicked, that's for sure. Also, that was a really nice example of how multiple parties on an alpine climb, though not ideal, can still make for a fun day if everyone is courteous and friendly. It was refreshing to have it that way as opposed to everyone giving each other the evil eye. Bitchin' route by the way. No wonder it's considered a classic.

Yeah, what Dru said. Look in the most recent R&I mag, it's in the first few pages I think. Thanks for the clarification Dru.

Speaking of grades, I read recently that a new "WI 8" was established in the Canadian Rockies. The route climbs through a hanging glacier at the crux. It even showed pictures of it, some dude climbing through an overhanging sheet of blue glacier ice. My question is, wouldn't it be AI 8 since it is alpine ice? It certainly isn't waterfall ice like the "WI" rating would infer.

You mentioned that you were able to drive up 8 mile road for 1.5 miles. Was this on snow or was it snow free? Did you use 4wd? Thanks for the info and pics. Looks great. I'm probably going to go up there this Saturday and have a look myself.