cluck

Another quality pagetop! Excellent.....

You can still climb in caves when it's raining outside...

Bottom line with a 2 person rope team is this: Both people need to be capable of stopping, anchoring, and rescueing a fall by themself. This means each person needs gear to build an anchor/hauling system, and the knowledge of how to do so while holding a fall. Don't bet that there will be other teams nearby to help.

It sounds like a butt rock-band.

.... of course, if you follow the directions above and search for simulclimbing, you will find the Tibloc technique already explained.... Simulclimbing Do's and Don'ts

Another trick is to place a Petzl Tibloc after difficult pitch to protect the second instead of stopping to belay. The idea is that the Tibloc will allow the rope to pass as the leader climbs but will lock off if the second falls (hopefully sparing the leader from having to catch the fall). What about simul-climbing with more than 2 people on a rope?

Photo is in Washington State section

Maybe this should be in the Newbie zone since I have no experience in North Cascades but figured I'd get a faster answer here. Took this photo on Shuksan this weekend and was wondering what mountain I'm looking at in this photo. Pointy bastard that looks like a mini-me version of the matterhorn?

Ask the party that got zapped on the Grand Teton last week if they think an alpine start might have been a good idea. On many routes, climbing conditions are significantly better/safer in the morning than in the afternoon. Especially in the Chosscades when the mountains rain boulders on you when it warms up. An alpine start allows you to get up and back down before conditions turn sour. As far as I'm concerned, the only downside of climbing before sunrise is that you don't get to enjoy the views. But, I always love watching the sun come up from 10,000 feet rather than from the inside of my tent.

Sulphide Glacier slog on Mt. Shuksan. SE ridge of the summit pyramid has some really nice easy climbing. Way better than the 3rd class gulley.

I got another camping ticket this weekend for failing to attain the proper permit to camp inside the boundary of North Cascades NP. The ranger said that the federales have a habit of turning over the names of unpaid ticket recipients to collection agencies. Having a collection agency on your tail seriously destroys your credit rating. Sounds pretty harsh to me.

Damn. 8 AM is awefully late to be starting up the Exum Ridge. The ridge is very prone to lightning strikes so it's wise to be off the ridge before the afternoon storms. Most parties descend the Owen Spaulding so I'm assuming these guys were still on the way up when the lightning hit.

Fighting off crowds of Moutaineers on Shuksan.

I was up on Little T in June and then again on Rainier a week ago so here's what I can offer: - Summerland looks completely melted out and can probably get to Meanie Crest without much snow travel. - Meanie Crest is dry and campsites are melted out - Fryingpan glacier didn't look too chopped up - lots of rockfall rounding the corner by a waterfall to the upper Whitman glacier and from the headwall above the Whitman. - The scramble above the Whitman glacier should be snow free by now Good luck!

Camp lower near Crescent Glacier is space if available. Several large wind breaks, not as far up to haul your tent, better views of Adam's famous sunsets. And.... regardless of where you camp, get blue bags from the Ranger Station and use them. No one likes camping around wild human shit on the loose.

Ah yes, arguing the semantics of "hiking" versus "climbing." Here we go again.

Uhhh???? Nope. Check out Wayne's link to a pic of an SUV going off a bridge. And, if you read the rest of the posts above, you would see that folks were missing cold times "back in the day" when it got cold enough in Winter that Gorge waterfalls brought ice climbing to our doorstep. Theory is.... doesn't get as cold as it used to in PDX, thus no ice climbing. Wayne mentioned SUVs. I'm just saying, if we don't get cold temps, don't count on autos being the cause.

While it is fun to bash SUVs, think the issues around temp changes in Portland most likely have something more to do with population growth and urban sprawl rather than emissions variations of cars versus SUV. Between 1990-2000 alone, PDX added 470,000 more people. The Oregonian (I think) had some sat photos of suburban Portland a few years back versus today and the amount of transition from forrest/farm land to concrete & buildings was visually arresting. Ditto an article in national Geographic (a couple years old) that represented population growth impact on planet via photos at night.... places that were jungle twenty years ago and showed no man made light are now lit up like a Christmas trees. Yes, I drive an SUV (the van of the 2000s for families with lots of kids) but I think blaming the worlds problems on my car is a gross over simplification of the problem. And..... in fact, even today's SUVs do a much better job with emissions than older cars still on the roads. Next time you are in a hot parking lot in the Summer, ask yourself "Am I frying because of radiant heat coming up off this blacktop or because an SUV was driving around somewhere?" food for thought.... flame away SUV haters

Is there some kind of "proof of prior flaming" you need to join the Cascadeclimbers.com club? Maybe an angry and threatening letter to a co-worker? Some kind of postal behavior witnessed and validated by a notary?

Yep...sorry about that... my 3s and 5s sometimes pull a dyslexia thing when I type. $30 bucks it is.

Yep, registration is "required" for all folks above 10K. You may not be tracked down, but when we climbed at couple weeks ago, we did run into rangers at the trailhead. In theory, part of the registration is paying the annual $50 climbing fee per climber. The ranger station at White River only takes cash and checks. Here is some unsolicited beta. Bring and wear your brain bucket after you cross over the 9000' gap. Lots of spontaneous rock fall (we almost got the chop by a tire sized rocket on the snow field at about 10,500') that could ruin you day.

Worst crag route = anything at Rocky Butte. Dust, poison oak, broken glass, urine, garbage, graffitti, and a deafening interstate freeway.

You can also rent strap on crampons to fit your leather boots. Climb Max in Portland rents them for about $10 a weekend. You'd probably appreciate having crampons when you get above the lunch counter if the snow is still frozen. It's just easier to climb when you don't need to worry about your feet slipping. You won't need them for the descent though, the glissade is great!!!!

Elmer = Dan -. Did Elmer bring his dog along????

Great example of a place where many folks fix a hand line is "the crawl" on 3 Fingered Jack in central Oregon. One short traverse with some exposure that is too time consuming to belay if you have several folks climbing, but may be too exposed to free for many since consequences of a fall are dire. 1st climber is belayed across from an anchor built at one end (sling around a rock horn). Leader builds an anchor (another sling and horn) at far end and ties off the rope onto a biner cliped into the sling. Belayer then ties off other end. Bingo. Hand line attached to two rock solid anchors. Rest of the party follows, often with a prussik knot on rope (clipped into a biner on the harness) so any fall would be stopped quickly. On this route, there is a short section of roped climbing later on, so typically everyone has harnesses anyway. Process is reversed on the way out. Works in the vert. world too for short rock scrambles that are pretty easy to climb (some 4th and low 5th), but exposure is of concern to climbers. Way slower than free climbing but safer. Faster than individual belays for a group larger than 2.