Sol

Sorry about that typo montypiton! The event will start at 6PM with a community potluck and we will roll from there. Please come down! Bring a dish to pass or nothing at all, BYOB, we will be providing free hotdogs. Lots of awesome gear will be auctioned and raffled off so bring your wallets: Gri-Gri 2 1 pair of your choice LaSportiva Climbing Shoes 1 pair of your choice LaSportiva Trail Running Shoes 1 pair of your choice 5.10 Climbing Shoes Chalkbags Chalkbuckets Nut Tool Puffy Jkt Metolius PAS Camp Sport Draws Camp Alpine Draws BD Guide ATC-XP Gift Cards for local business Baronness Cellars Wine Pkgs and lots more.. It's gonna be a good one folks, come down and mix with your local outdoor community, watch some great movies, grab some food, and score some gear. We hope to see you there! -Sol Wertkin President, Leavenworth Mountain Association

Woo-hoo, been waiting to see another report on this routes ever since Jimbo and I did the second ascent back in 2005. I've been trying to sandbag my buddies into it every year but haven't been able to convince anybody to give it a burn. NICE JOB! It sounds like you guys had a similar experience to ours: started off on track for a few pitches, got lost somewhere around the chockstone, climbed a couple of off-route scary/loose pitches, got back in track for the flakes and we're thankful they stayed put, fell off the crux d/t dirt and crumbly rock (I don't think it's been freed yet..), then got lost on the descent to the hwy in the dark, bushwacked, swore, then finally hit the hwy after a mysteriously long descent. Classic. My off-route variation pitch I led still stands out as the worst situation i've ever climbed myself into and I am still very thankful that I pulled the horrific mantel with handfuls of kitty litter pebbles 35 ft out from my last piece of pro: FWIW, Jim Nelson apologized to me a few years later for putting the route in his guide book after only one ascent and stated that it would not be included in future additions. You dudes could very well have gotten the 3rd ascent. This picture taken the morning after our climb has always pretty much summed up how I feel about that route:

Call me a hater, but i've never understood the classic status of the NW Corner..

Nice job Eric! Awesome cloudy ridge shots.

What a week! Thanks for the stoke. I'd be psyched to see Verticolorful's 2012 ticklist at the end of the season.

Sickey! Definitely have to get on that at some point in my lifetime.

Danimal!

Awesome work team! So cool to see the mystery of the Soviet Route on Bonanza revealed.

We went left and then right (the monkey traverse) where I think you guys went straight up and bailed. We did see the stamped bolts put up by the Cle Elum climbers on their ground up then top down big wall style attempt, two sets i believe.

Nice. Just when we were about to downgrade the first pitch to 10+, it sounds like it's been holding it's grade. Reports last week of a whipper on the monkey traverse.. If you thought that rock was dirty and loose, I would stay far away from the direct. She's quite virgin compared to OG gorillas (that stone is bomber..) Still unrepeated.. I think the beauty of the line on GITM is that it weaves a moderate path up such a steep intimidating wall. The exposure at the top of the first few pitches is wild.

WOWZA! Unreal. That must be so very cool to sit back with a cold one after a day like that and think about the ground you covered. Haters gonna hate, but wtf have they done lately? Klenke: your post (before you cowardly deleted it), was proabaly the lamest post i've ever seen on this board. Get a life.

Hells to the Yeah!

From our perspective on Dragons of Eden there were no climbers on Acid Baby on monday. Glad to hear you guys are ok!! Props on the self-rescue!

no reason to let a lower body injury make your upper body weak. get a fingerboard and use it often, short quality sessions. go slow on using your knee and prepare for two steps forward, one step back.

Nice trip!! No doubt that the summit of Goode is the best bivy in the North Cascades!

yep. the traverse is on p4.

Thx for making that link public Lowell and team. Very cool stuff. I climbed 3 new routes with various partners last summer that I havent publicized, I'll try and get on it and post up soon. Thx for the FA Stoke and your great work as lead editor of the NWMJ over the years! I wish I had the freetime to step up to that role but I just don't. Who's psyched?

Nice blog post fellas. Great to meet you. You dudes really reminded me of myself and Jimbo going for it on Backbone years ago. Nice work!

Nice! I have heard of some 5.11 climbers scared off by P1 and P2...

Nice work gentlemen! Blake sent me a shot of this ridge about 5 years ago and it's been sitting in my backburner folder ever since. Nice to see it get sent!

After swearing by gear slings for the first 8 years of my climbing career, I gave them up because I noticed that none of the pro trad climbers, or friends, that inspire me, wear them. Now I will use one on easy ground up to 5.9 if we really have to boogie, if not it goes on my harness. Racking on my harness keeps me more balanced and I don't have to keep adjusting the sling and throwing it around my back when all the cams slide forward everytime I lean forward. Plus, you can't drop the whole rack if one fumble... It's totally your own perogative, but it's gotta mean something that i've never seen anyone lead hard trad with a gear sling.

Right on Mark. I just figured with all the work you put into the superb TR and topo it seems only fitting to add the free-climbing info in. Thx!

Cold beers on me. You are the man Kurt! Pretty shady stuff up there eh.