chris

"No no no no nonononononononono...."

That link to Washington State Ice in the Main Index requires a user ID and a password. Is there a more user-friendly link to the site instead?

Just wondering - I vaguely recall Beckey calling it 5.9 OW. Has anyone tried to do the direct finish to the regular route on EMS? Or knows someone who knows someone whose cousin's best friend the rock climber tried to do the direct finish?

Blake- Awesome TR, bro! You're defenitely getting out and getting the goods this summer. When are you heading back to B'ham?

I don't think Snake Dike is a good example for this thread - or it might be an excellent example of how a route should be retrobolted. Here's the history according to Steve Roper from Chris McNamara's Yosemite Ultra-Classics: “Climbers who made the long trek up to the base of the massive southweest face of Half Dome before 1965 went there for one reason only: to do the classic Salathe-Nelson route. This demanding aid line wandered up unconnected crack systems, but it was the only way to the top: everyone knew that the rest of the face was crackles – obviously impossible. When Camp 4 inhabitants heard, in July 1965, that a second route had been put up nearby, the sense of disbelief was audible. When the first ascensionists – Eric Beck, Jim Bridwell and Chris Fredericks – bragged that their route was trivial, disbelief turned to disdain. When they claimed that they placed only two pitons and about six hurried bolts, disdain evolved into thoughts that the three men should be committed. A far easier route than Salathe’s? But it was true. Beck had been the instigator of the route soon named Snake Dike; he had spotted a potential route on a reconnaissance and had talked the two others into making the horrendous approach. To their great surprise they put up the new route in a day from Camp 4 back to Camp 4. “Years later, Beck reminisced about their climb. ‘We were expecting a much harder route and only had twelve bolts, so we did our best to conserve them where the climbing was easy. What I really imagined happening was that we would get up a few pitches, fix the ropes, and return with a few more bolts. Also, our original line was to follow a dike leading up and right, on pitch three. This was Bridwell’s lead and he climbed up about 20 feet, got in a bolt, but didn’t like it. This caused more uncertainty about route finding and wasting our bolts. I then gained the lead and had a look to the left. This proved to be the best way.’ “Two years later I grabbed a stranger named John Gibbons and we set off at dawn from a campsite in Little Yosemite, armed with a hefty bolt kit. Ordinarily, taking a bolt kit for an easy second ascent would have made me a laughingstock. But Beck, Bridwell, and Fredericks, feeling that they had created a potential death route for beginners, had given me permission to replace their bad bolts and stick in new ones where I deemed necessary. This was the first time in Valley history that the first ascensionists had given someone permission to add bolts to their route. “At the end of two pitches Gibbons and I realized that the Dike was truly a splendid route, and I made sure my bolts were bombproof and properly spaced. That is, I did this for a while. My fingers and arms soon began to throb from all the hand drilling. Morning turned to afternoon. I inspected my dulled drill bits. I listened as Gibbons called up anxiously, ‘You finished?’ Soon I simply ran out the pitches and relied on the sporadic and wretched first ascent bolts. We rappelled the route and staggered back down through the brush to our camp below, arriving just as the owls began to hoot. “Snake Dike hadn’t been totally retrofitted, but it had been a good day and a good start. We spread the word and within a few years many bolts were added, and Snake Dike became the most popular climbers’ route to the top of the most spectacular hunk of granite in North America. - Steve Roper” In another case, a mentor of mine advocated adding bolts when 1) the style of climbing is being changed and 2) when the potential fall is life-threatening. The example is an aid climb that we have been trying to free this summer. On one pitch, the FA aid team hooked and rurped up to twenty+ feet at a time before installing a bolt or rivet. In some places, taking that 40+ footer will leave a free climber dead, so we added a bolt in those spots to keep from killing ourselves. There are still plenty of spots where 20+ foot falls are likely, so it still keeps you on your toes. We also attempted to figure out who the FA team was (the route's not documented anywhere) with no luck - the area has a history of not documenting ascents, and there is a bit of a renassaince (sic) happening right now as old routes are being re-bolted and aid lines freed.

I was just talking to a Brit on Wednesday who asked me why Americans don't use twins more often. Her description made it sound like its more the norm in UK, and we theorized that trad lines in Britain tended to be less direct, and more zig-zagging, and therefore encouraged more twin and half rope techniques.

Whatever - but I'll still take those cames if you don't want them!

I heard Lowe Alpine discontinued the Summit Attach (20L). Dana Designs offers a similar pack made out of Sil-Nylon, but it looked even smaller. The Genie is bigger, 26-28L I think, but I can make it work for overnight trips!

If you can handle French (at least enough to understand the grades) a comprehensive book with plenty of maps and routes drawn on the photos is Altitudes No. 2 (2003), a French annual climbing journal.

Excellent Blake! Nice work!

YYYEEEEEAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Phone call The Fifth Season and Shasta Mountain Guides, both in Shasta City. Both are super-friendly to visiting climbers, and will give you the skinny on the best camping, the best eats, and the best beers to be found.

Well, Scrambled Legs, since you "really don't like it", I am willing to take these DANGEROUS and potentially LIFE-THREATENING devices off of your hands, free of charge. I will be happy to endanger and threaten myself with bodily harm by testing these SCARY-LOOKING cams and will be happy to let you know the minute one doesn't work.

It can't be denied. The electrocutions and lightning strikes of BSA adults and boys this summer can only mean one thing. The BSA has seriously pissed God off. It may be any one of a dozen reasons, or a combination of several policy decisions made by the BSA in the last decade, such as: 1) Denying gay adults membership and leadership roles 2) Denying membership to teenage boys who realize their sexual orientation. 3) Denying membership to teenage boys who cannot swear allegiance to God - for whatever reason. 4) For insisting that youth are better off being continuosly segregated based on their gender. 5) For insisting that as a private organization they can do whatever the f@#$ they want. 6) Then to get pissed when taxpayer-maintained services such as public schools deny them use of their facilities. 7) Or to be pissed again at churches for kicking out the local BSA troop because the church is exercising its right to do whatever the f@#$ it wants as a private organization (see item #5) above. Yep, it looks like God is trying to send a message to the BSA. I don't think He's trying to tell them to "carry on".

I always understood that CM existed for two reasons: 1) Make drivers more aware that cyclists exist 2) Make a physical arguement for more bike lanes and bike paths Then I rode with CM in B'ham last fall, and was embarassed to find us holding up traffic on a rode that had a bike lane wide enough for two cyclists. What's the point of that? Luckily enough drivers seemed to be having as much fun with it as we were, but the cops weren't happy. When they started commanding us to "pull over and dismount", my friend and I split and went to the Brewery. CM is a great concept, but at least in B'ham its been co-opted by asses who just like to pick trouble with the police.

Nice work!! Its cool to see people still going after possibilities.

Climb: Mt. Irvine, 13,850'-East Buttress, V 5.9 (or IV 5.10a) Date of Climb: 7/31/2005 Trip Report: So after having burgers at the Whitney Portal store (see my Whitney Portal Wall trip report from 30 July), S. and I headed back over to the truck, reracked, and packed up. We were heading in to Meysan Lake to climb the East Buttress of Mt. Irvine. This route was orginally climbed in 1971 and given a grade of V 5.9. In the week prior, we had only heard of one other local climber having done the route, and he had told Doug Thompson it was the best of its grade in the Sierra. The only information we had for it was a short description in the Secor book and a striking photo of a sharp steep prow rising from the lake straight to the sky. Looking up at the dissapating clouds, we packed light and chose not to take the tent. I was stuffing everything into my Serratus Genie again, raising S.'s eyebrows. 2:30 later got us to Grass Lake, the lowest of the Meysan Lakes. Just as we reached the lake, the "dissapating" clouds had built up and started to rain. A quick search revealed an excellent bivy shelter under a house-sized boulder leaning up against another rock rib. We quickly plushed it out and got comfortable. S. broke out his two pads, inflatable pillow, and sleeping bag while I laid out my bivy envelope, 1/4 foam pad, half bag, and pulled on my sweater and knit cap. S. was nice enough to give me the rope, which made a great pillow when stacked on top of my shoes. Tea and cobler fueled our bodies for the night. 4am is bloody early, but that's what time we woke up for coffee, tea, and a cold breakfast. 1:30 of walking lead us to the base of the route at 6:30am. S. was chomping at the bit and took off as soon as we had the rope flaked out. He was 15+ feet up by the time I had him on belay. A chimney started out for two pitches, which lead to numerous corners and traverses around gendarmes. When I mean numerous, I mean a lot of numbers. The original team climbed it in 17 pitches, and Secor's guidebook says to follow the crest and avoid the gendarmes to the right for 10 pitches. That's it, completely Beckey style. S. was convinced we were doubling the pitches with our 60 meter rope, but the route description wasn't matching what I was looking at on pitch 6. Every ledge also seemed to be covered with loose 3rd class death blocks, just waiting for the rope to pull them off onto an unsuspecting belayer. S.'s lead on pitch 7 brought us to the orginal piton anchor of pitch 10. 40' of downclimbing brought us to the base of the three crux pitches, a thin finger and face pitch leading to two finger corner pitches. We agreed that the climbing seemed a little harder than 5.9 though. After that we had several hundred feet of <5.5 climbing that we soloed through before reaching the final 4th and 3rd class ridge, and the summit at 1:30pm. The register dated back to the 1990's, and in it we could find only three other parties in the last 15 years that had climbed the route. The consensus in the register notes is that the route is more like 5.10-, and no longer a grade V. The FA team had to use pitons for protection in the thin pitches, which would have been a lot heavier and slower than a modern team with TCUs and stoppers. The descent was a straight-forward gravel and snow glissade down the the east chute to Meysan Lake, where a quick contour around the moraines lead to Grass Lake and a tea break before packing up and heading down. We made it back to the Whitney Portal for a second serving of burgers and hand-cut french fries at 6pm. Gear Notes: Trad rack with gear to #0.25 - #4, and doubles #0.75, #1, and #2. One 60 meter rope Approach Notes: Hike up the Meysan Lakes Trail to Grass Lake. Excellent bivy spots on flat rock are on the other side of the lake.

Climb: Whitney Portal Wall-New variation to the Beckey-Callis Route Date of Climb: 7/30/2005 Trip Report: My friend S. has been working on a new 4 or 5 pitch variation start to the Beckey-Callis route on the Whitney Portal Wall, originally graded at IV 5.10 A2. The route follows an orginal aid route before busting out into new territory to meet the BC. S. had already lead and rebolted the first three pitchs, and now wanted to attempt the fourth pitch and perhaps finish the route. We had an easy start at 8am from Bishop, grabbing coffee and lunch food on the way. Hiking up from the truck, I felt like an old photo of Royal and Frost, with a small pack, full rack, and two ropes slung bandolier style over each shoulder, while S. carried up food, water, and the aid gear in a pack. We finally got on the route around 11am, with S. leading the first pitch, which goes free with one balancey move of 5.10-. He promised me the second pitch, which was "solid 5.9 with a single 10a move." F#@&ing sandbagger. If this was 5.9. it was the hardest 5.9 slab I've ever had. Multiple tenous moves up a slab and water trough, stemming and crimping between bolts spaced a healthy distance apart. At the crux I got to have a cardiac arrest when the crimp I was bearing down on took that moment to divorce itself from the cliff. The bolts were an equal mix of newer 3/8 from S.'s last rebolting day to older SMC's that still looked solid. When I finally reached the 3-bolt anchor, S. called up to me. "What do you think you're doing?" "I finished the bloody pitch. I'm building an anchor." "That's not the finish. That's the old anchor from the old aid line, and I haven't gotten around to removing two of the bolts. The free pitch end's up there at the corner of the roof." I can look up and see the next anchor, another 20 meters ahead. In between me and there lies a healthy stretch of, sigh, more slab and then an off-width trough. "You gotta be kidding me." "Nope." "Sonofabitch." So I clipped one of the bolts and kept going. The real excitement came when I had to do a delicate mantel 10+ feet above my last bolt. Entering the off-width was a relief, even if it hurt. At least now I could chicken wing my left arm and cam my left foot while stemming with my right hand and foot. Three bolts and a few jams through a roof lead me to the end of pitch 2; 50 meters of the scariest climbing I've done in a while, mostly because of the asphalt factor in shorts and t-shirt. Remember kids, friends don't let friends climb slabs. Feeling a little silly for all the time I spent leading the pitch, I had a moment of dumbfounded pride when S. followed up and said "Hmmm, that was a little bit harder than I remember." At least the next pitch was his lead, and it was on new terrain. Someone had aided this line before - old 1/4 bolts were evident along a seam. S. went left followed a wide crack with plenty of face holds to the top of a pillar, which he quickly brought me up to. Then it was out onto a face. The first bolt S. found was an old 1/4 with a homemade hanger that was hanging out and bent down. So S. clipped into it and hung gingerly, and slowly dragged up the drill, hammer, and 3/8 bolt. But we had forgotten the cat's paw, so instead of pulling the old bolt and re-using the hole, we had to settle for a new bolt alongside the old one and a promise to comeback and clean up the old rust. Another 12+ feet and we repeated the process with a second bolt. Another ten feet past that and S. found out that the crack he was counting on remained a a seam, and wasn't taking pro. Slinging a wrist-thick bush, S. decided to go for it, hoping to find easier climbing from the bush to the roof we could see hanging above us. But it wasn't to be. After several attempts, S. backed off, saying the climbing was too difficult for his tastes and he wasn't ready to add a bolt to the route. So we called it a day and rapped back down. By 4pm we were having burgers and sharing stories with Doug Thompson at the Whitney Portal store. I particularly liked Saturday because I've never gottent to work on a route like this. My lead was easily one of the most exciting slabs I've ever had to climb, and it was a great experience overall. This wall is huge and has a lot of undocumented climbing on it. The only reference is Alan Bartlett's 1988 guide, no longer in print, though Mick Ryan/Rockfax is supposed to be producing a small guide to the Whitney Portal area soon. Gear Notes: Pretty standard trad rack to 3.5" Single 60 meter rope is adequate right now, but don't count on it. Bring a tag line if you're going to rap the route. Should have pants for the rough granite. Approach Notes: Approach the Whitney Portal Wall from the first switchback of the Whitney Trail. 15 minutes.

Its defenitely the best 10- pitch I've experienced in the High Sierras. I wasn't able to climb it again last week as I had hoped, but I'm looking forward to climbing it with my girlfriend when she comes down to retrieve me in September.

I thought North Cascades had a cap on total trail mileage in the park. If it starts to officially maintain the Boston Basin trail - which it never has - than it would have to stop maintaining an equivalent amount of trail somewhere else. The lower Boston Basin trail was originally a road leading to a prospect mine and cabin. The maintenance evident on the trail is clandestine.

Completely depends on how much fall time before the chute needs to be deployed.

So I've been watching "Dosage Volume 2" lately with this incredible footage of Klem Loskot, Chris Sharma, and others soloing over the ocean at Malorca (sic?). And I've seen photos of people cliff diving around Washington and Oregon into lakes and resevoirs. So now I'm wondering if anyone knows of lakes or reservoirs that may have cliffs leading to the water's edge and be appropriate for doing some water soloing for ourselves?

Using a screwdriver as a lever seems to take less work then vise-grips.

Excellent! Check your PMs...

I'd recomend the Northeast Gully of Mt. Laurel (11,812 ft), 5.2. Drive time, Bishop to Convict Lake: 45 minutes (all on pavement) Aproach time: 45 minutes Climbing: 3,500 ft (4-6 hours) Descent time: 2-4 hours Total: 8:15 - 12:15 This is a great climb that I've done twice. It is listed in Chris McNamara's "High Sierra Climbing" and rates 3 stars out of 5; and also in Peter Croft's "The Good, the Great, and the Awesome" and rates 'great' (2 out of 3 stars). The times I listed above were combined from those two sources. Personally, I've climbed it in 3:30 car to car without too much trouble, so the times above seem very conservative. With the limitations you described, this could be the perfect climb. PM me if you want more information!