Sabertooth

Probably a long shot, but does anyone know if Palouse Falls is frozen over in Southeastern Washington, near Lyons Ferry? The current forecast for Washtucna calls for temps around 40 coming midweek, but it's been really cold recently.

That sounds great man. Potential for lots of new lines down there. The last time I looked at Tom Lopez's book, I remembered seeing potential FAs on each of the 7 Devils. We could hit Tower of Babel or something else too.

Jam some harder cracks, pull down on some smaller crimpers, get a lot stronger at slopers, send more waterfall ice with this great weather, and of cource my favorite, more steep alpine snow and ice routes. Oh wait, one more, less faceplants while skiing.

Yoshimura Walla Walla

Short shorts and extra long gaitors while glissading give me a frozen schlong, nads, ass, and thighs, but that's ok, no snow will ever get into my boots! Thank GOD!

The worst episode was eating the Buffalo Testicles. I actually threw up from trying to watch it.

I had no idea you could climb at Skaha that early in the year. Isn't it really cold up there then? I've been meaning to get up that way. Sounds like a good alternate to winter basalt and andesite climbing, since I'm nowhere near Smith. Skaha is like 3 or 4 hours from here. Not to many trad lines up there though, looks like a lot of bolt clippin. Oh well, that's fun too.

Cool, thanks for the info. When have you climbed there? Ever in December? I wonder if it is too early right now.

Has anyone here climbed the ice around Waterton? Any climbs you would recommend? Those 2 300 meter WI2+ and WI3 routes look like fun. Almost zero approach too. How about those single pitch WI4s next to them. Are they good climbs? My book says they come in later than Banff, since it is usually a bit warmer down there. Any beta appreciated.

Looks like a high in the mid forties with lows below freezing out there this weekend. Bring your handwarmers, that rock will be cold!

0. Saw all three shows in Spokane this weekend. I thought last year's publication was quite a bit better. 1. Falling - I liked this. Some sick waterfall kayaking with pretty cool music. 7/10 2. Focused - Decent 5/10 3. Front Range Freaks / Biscuit - The first time it was entertaining. Thank god it was only 3 minutes. The second and third time got old. 6/10 4. High Life - Good stuff. The section on skiing that sick 1,500 foot couloir in the Dolomites was awesome. Good music too. The beginning part was decent. 8/10 5. Belmondo - Actually pretty good. Cross Country Skiing is usually pretty boring, but this story was presented really well. 7/10 6. Wehyakin - Sick kayaking!!! Awesome movie with good music. 9/10 7. Extreme Tramping - Funny, but why is it in the Film Festival? 3/10 8. The Other Final - Incredibly lame! Probably the worst movie ever in the film festival. 53 minutes of agony. 0/10 9. Rock Stars - Pretty bad. Tricks were only decent, bad music, zero plot, zero character interaction. 1/10 10. The Matterhorn history segment - Not bad. If I didn't love the Matterhorn, it would not have been good. I can see why people would complain. 5/10 11. Ice Up - Wow!, a climbing film! Some cool long ice routes on big faces in various locals. I enjoyed this one. 8/10 12. Nomad - Bad movie on mountain culture. Plot was hard to follow, very poorly edited. Why??? 2/10 13. Parahawking - Somewhat interesting film about hawks and paragliding. Pretty boring though. 4/10 14. Olympic Downhill Skiing Video - Decent at best - 3/10 15. Story on climber freesoloing in Eldorado Canyon - Awesome video. What a great story. What a shame he died on Sentinel Rock in Yosemite. I found it inspirational. 9/10 16. Reintroducing wolves to Idaho - Does not belong in the BMFF. Pretty bad. 1/10 17. Drilling for oil in northeast Alaska - Almost an hour of pure torture. Horrible! 0/10 18. Various other films - Some pretty good, some really bad. Hopefully, next year will be better. I am going to write the film festival to complain about the lack of climbing.

A nice warm spell then cold spell and some consolidation and those routes will be in. Not to worry.

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The top of Trapese is cleaner than most. I love Basalt Cracks, it is where I learned to jamb.

Tum Tum Trapese Wall at Vantage

Ask Steve House if they are any good. He has sent WI7 in them.

I liked Yerupaja as well. Sick!

Any route on the central section of Middle East Wall without chains. When you top out, there are huge piles of choss everywhere. If you trigger one, it will set off an avalanche of debris, probably killing your belay partner.

Nice climbing guys. Sweet pics. That is a lot of ice!

Banks Lake is within 2 hours, and is quite popular. I saw some ice in Northern Idaho last winter, when places like Banks never formed. Do some scouting of rivers at higher elevations. I've found the guys at Mountain Gear to be upfront about ice in Washington (since it's covered online and in the new book), but very hush hush about Idaho Ice. Good luck extracting info from them. As Sobo said, pm or email Pindude. He probably knows some good spots.

Did you remember your 64 essentials?

Postcard home: Look at me mom, I'm sending the sick smearfest.

I have the #2 Big Bro, but I wouldn't recommend it. It protects 4" to 6" approx., but in my opinion larger cams are better for this range. The #3 Big Bro is a lot lighter and more compact than some huge cam. If you have to protect a 6" plus offwidth or a chimney without internal cracks, it would definately be the fast and light way to go. They are definately trickier to place. It is really critical that the end that takes the load (the end you tie your 5mm Titan Cord to) is set well so that a lot of the cylinder edge is touching rock. It takes practice to efficiently set it well with 1 hand.

Have you seen these pics on the web?

G12s are fine crampons, nothing special. There are better choices out there. The G14 for one is a much better crampon all around. On steep headwalls, the BD crampons will have 6 points of contact with that dual tip piece, most others will have 4. What do you think is the most stable? Something to think about.