cluck

Damn, Gary - some of those images are sweet. I especially like how you combined multiple images with different areas washed out to make one image with all the right colors. I'll have to try that with some of my own pics. While I think those tricks are cool, my interpretation of "photography" in the strictest sense would be anything that was done in the field using only the camera equipment. Lenses, filters, tripods, aperture settings, shutter speed are all in bounds. I don't know much about film development, so I'll conveniently ignore that aspect. The rules seemed pretty clear to me - no photoshopping. Take the image off the memory card and upload to gallery. If you used the wrong settings when you took the picture, tough. For the contest, it doesn't seem fair to enhance your picture digitally.

Nice! I love goofing around on the NF of Lane. I hope to make it back again this year. Thanks for the update on conditions.

Sweet.... for gear this time! OK, here goes: Climbing: Slogging on Hood's Cathedral Ridge Link Scenic: Exum Ridge and Teton Range at sunrise Link Humor: Old Faithful Link

Bad weather... good beer. See you suckas there.

Quickdraws for sport climb.... slings for trad climbs For draws - 8 will give you enough for 6 bolts + 2 to use at the anchor (if you plan on setting a top rope). I prefer to carry 10 or 12 cuz 6 bolts is either a very short route, or a very runout route. As for slings - I'd say the same number or maybe a few more. I tend to use more pro when trad climbing then sport climbing and thus need more slings.

Any idea where in the Cascades Roger was supposedly climbing? On Saturday I passed a solo climber about the right age on his way in to climb Mt. Washington (Oregon) at 5:00 PM. He mentioned he was trying to bag all the Oregon volcanoes and only had Washington and 3FJ left. I thought it was a little odd to be heading up alone at dusk, but that's his prerogative. Probably unrelated, but figure it's worth mentioning. Hope he's OK.

I can appreciate this trick as a cool idea. And I bet it might even work.... some of the time. But like other's have said - it's waaaay to risky to be practical.

October is a great time of year for these 2 routes. Bad weather might spice things up a bit, but even then it shouldn't be too tough. However, I think 3FJ would be significantly more difficult if the Cliffhanger trail or the Crawl were covered with snow - but that would require a pretty big dump. Also, a cold wet spell might form ice on the summit of 3FJ.

Saw it from a plane far away, but BT looked more or less snow free

Now that's what I call climbing in "good style!" I'll have to work the happy hour start into some of my future climb plans. Every time I climb that mountain I fantasize about how cool it would be to bivy in those sites on top. Sounds like it's every bit as enjoyable as I've imagined it.

The summit is not within the limited access area, but you must travel through the limited access area to get there if starting from the Obsidian TH and therefore might need a permit. If you're camping in the special zone, then you definitely need a permit. If you're just passing through on a day trip then you might not. A couple years back I called the Mckenzie ranger station and they said I didn't need a special permit to pass through the limited access area on my way to the summit. Their reasoning was that they don't require PCT hikers to get a permit to pass through so why should they make me. I just filled out the free self-issue wilderness permit at the TH and hit the trail. Unfortunately I bumped into Larry Tha Tool near the Obsidian Cliffs and he didn't see it that way. He copied my permit info and a few days later I got a particularly nasty letter from the manager of the ranger station. Freekin forest circus. Even they can't keep all the paperwork straight

That covers just about everyone on this board. I was 24 the first time I climbed Rainier. 18 is a great age to climb - provided you're mature/experienced enough to make good decisions or are climbing with someone who is.

There's entertaining mountain biking in the foothills north of downtown. Just take 8th street north from downtown and hop on any one of the numerous trails that head up into the foothills.

U of I built a climbing wall a couple years ago that looks pretty badass. Granite Point right on the Snake river is a short drive and a pretty cool place to hang out. Jump into the river to cool off after you're done climbing. There's some short basalt cliffs right in the city of Pullman but they suck. Spokane/Couer d'Alene area has lots of decent climbing. I particularly like the Post Falls area. Lots of single-pitch sport and trad climbing. Lightning Dome is a big granite dome on the Clearwater river and there is good multi pitch trad climbing there.

I once spent a few hours aid climbing a 5.6 crack on a top rope to learn 1- aid techniques and 2- better pro placement. It worked well cuz I got to place a bunch of gear and then stand up on every piece to make sure it held. And there's no risk since you're belayed on a top rope. Just don't do it if there's a chance that someone else might want to get on the route as you'll likely be hogging the route for a couple hours.

Very cool. Strong work and thanks for the pics!

When traversing the north ridge (that is what I thought everybody called it), the ridge you take to the summit from Wyeast, Reid headwall, Leuthold, Sand, elliot, and Sunshine. You can drop down to Queens Chair to Sunshine. It was a nice look to make, long, very long loop To make this clear this is on the way out. Dude - Wy'east comes up from the Southeast side (like from Meadows ski resort). Sunshine, Sandy HW, Leuthold's, Reid HW, Castle Crags, and West Crater Rim all finish up via the North Ridge. I don't think "ballsy" is the right word to describe this climb. Glad you made it down safe and all, but what the hell were you thinking???

No prob.... Enjoy!

Climb: Prusik Peak-West Ridge Date of Climb: 7/17/2005 Trip Report: Took my first trip into the Enchantments 7/16 thru 7/19 and had an amazing time. The hike up the Snow Lake trail went smoothly until the last bit between Snow Lake and Lake Vivianne. Climbing 1,300 feet in ¾ of a mile was a beotch. And this is supposed to be the easy way?!? Once in the Enchantments proper, we were promptly met by goats… We set up our camp on Leprechaun lake where we wasted no time catching a handful of trout. Sunday morning we caught some more fish and eventually got around to packing for our climb of Prusik’s west ridge. The first pitch was a breeze (5.0) but I didn’t trend far enough left and ended up on the ridge crest a bit too early. Not much of a problem though as I just made a second, upward traversing pitch which brought me right to the base of the crux slab. There was some fantastic exposure heading up the slab and across the top of the ridgeline. From the end of the 3rd pitch, we sort of gathered up the ropes and scrambled up to the large ledge at the base of the summit block. We botched the routefinding somewhat on this last pitch because we misinterpreted the vague route description from ‘Selected Climbs.’ We found the 5.6 lieback crack to a ledge and a flake to a second smaller ledge. From there we found an obvious offwidth dihedral directly above heading straight to a short chimney and the summit so we climbed that. It ended up being a little tricky but we got up without any major difficulties. Turns out it would have been easier to climb to the right out over the south face and up a different chimney. Oh well, rope drag that way would have been a bitch anyway. Views from the summit were awesome and it was the only place we found refuge from the torment of mosquitoes all weekend. The descent seemed straightforward to me, but there must be some confusion since we saw a couple other parties struggling to get off earlier. Basically, you rap directly off the north face straight down until you can walk over to the saddle at the base of the west ridge. We did it in 2 double rope rappels and 1 single rope rap. We must have passed a half dozen rap stations festooned with brightly colored slings that made the descent feel more like a gay pride parade. Note to future climbers: don’t build any more damned rap stations. There’s already more then enough there already so just look around a little. After the climb we celebrated a bit back in camp: Monday we wandered around the upper Enchantment basin, hiked up Little Annapurna, explored lakes and waterfalls and generally enjoyed the spectacular surroundings. All-in-all a fantastic trip in one of the most amazing areas I’ve ever been. Gear Notes: 2 ropes for the descent saved a lot of time. Double-length runners also came in handy.

This thread is cracking me up! I do get sick of the "I'm faster/better than you so get the fuck out of my way" attitude though. When passing or being passed on route, both parties share the responsibility for figuring out how to do it safely. If you zip past another party without even saying hello then you're being a jerk. On the other hand, if you ask to pass and the other party refuses or gets all bent out of shape, then they're being jerks. In my experience, 99% of the time I've asked to pass a slower team, they've allowed us to slip by and there are no hard feelings.

I did the traverse back in September 2003 and it was great fun. We did it a little differently than most people. We wanted to do a round trip so we started from Longmire and did 1. Eagle 2. Chutla 3. Wapenayo [rest break and refill water at the lake] 4. Lane 5. Denman 6. Plummer [nap at the saddle] 7. Pinnacle 8. Castle [rest/water refil at muddy puddle] 9. Foss 10. Boundary 11. Unicorn We intended to bag Stevens too, but we were exhausted and Stevens is a LONG way away so we just headed back out to the snow lake trailhead where we stashed bikes for the mostly downhill ride back to Longmire. TRIP REPORT HERE

Yeah - I'd say the south side is definitely fit for climbing (by a capable party, that is). We were lucky with the good snow conditions above the hogsback. We found a veritable staircase (albeit a steep one) of ice steps from the summit down to the Hogsback. However, conditions can change dramatically from day to day and July is not typically the safest month to climb Hood. Here are a couple of pics of the Hogsback and Pearly Gates from 7/12/05: My advice is to certainly start early (midnight is good unless you're super-slow) so you can get off the summit and down below the bergschrund before summer sun turns the ice staircase turns into a slushy sketchfest. Also, study the weather forecast before you go. I mean really study it - think about what the freezing level, cloud cover, and wind will do to conditions. Good luck!

Nice work with the letters, guys! And I'm glad the PI chose to publish both sides of the story. Many mountain rescue groups are funded through private donations anyway (both money and time). If this jerk doesn't want to pay for rescues, then he doensn't have to donate money. He can give it to cancer research or the save-the-spotted-snaffle-foundation. Or maybe only cancer patients should pay for cancer research?

Thanks Chris! It sure was an amazing climb. Conditions were perfect, group was strong, and weather was awesome. I updated the TR so the pictures are now linked to the gallery. They look better blown up. -Scott PS - sorry to hear about your buddy on Mt. McGloughlin - that's a shame.