chris

Hey Crew: I'm looking for photos of the north-west aspect of Eagle Peak, particularly to the north (climber's right) of the summit. This angle is usually seen from Paradise and the Muir Snowfield, so panoramic shots of the Tatoosh Range help too. Thanks!

I've been thinking that the distinction between a variation and a new route is 50% - if the new line covers at least 50% or more new ground, then its a route; if less than 50%, a variation. For example, if a 10 pitch line shares 4 or less pitches with a previously established route, it would still be considered a new route, but if it shared 5 or more pitches, it would be a variation. Thoughts?

Me too. I was there from 87-91. Back then, we belayed participants on rappel with a bowline-on-a-coil and a hip belay. Has anything changed?

Nope. Inyo National Forest isn't on the "Fee Demo" program, so there's no fee unless your spending the night.

That happened to me last year too, Fairweather. I just kept using it - it flattened out next time I cooked it in the dash - and the Park and USFS rangers recognized what had happened and didn't hassle me. Don't stress...

Climb: Premier Buttress - Whitney Portal-Premier Route Date of Climb: 6/19/2005 Trip Report: Climbed this 5+ pitch, 5.8 A1 classic with my friend M. today. This climb is located in the Whitney Portal, faces south-west, and is an obvious beautiful line up. A short 15 minute hike brought us to the base of the buttress - the route follows the left side of the buttress crest. Pitches 1 & 2 are 5.6 cracks. Pitch 2 hugs the far left side of the crest and finishes at a large tree and ledge (the tree's suffering - please use the crack behind it for an anchor!). Pitch 3 is an awesome 5.7 hand and fist crack. Use the two bolt anchor or continue on another twenty feet to a pedestal top (recommended). Pitch 4 is the meat and potatoes pitch, a bolt protected slab leading to a hollow flake to a 4-bolt ladder. This section supposedly goes free at 10c slab, but we aided through it. I brought a pair of etriers, leaving one clipped to the second bolt (the bottom rung can be reached from the top of the flake), the second etrier clipped to the third bolt, and a pair of slings clipped to the fourth bolt. Some 5.8 slab and another bolt leads to another two bolt anchor. M. got to lead the money pitch, a 5.8 mix of finger crack to bolt-protected slab (2 bolts), to a shallow corner before finishing on a big ledge and another bolted anchor. From there we followed the topo and traversed left to a third class gully, climbed on for another 50 feet to a second class ledge system that lead to a notch just below the buttress summit. A 30m rap reached the ground between Premier and El Segundo. We started the day planning a link-up with the Beckey Route or Brainstorm on El Segundo Buttress - both 4-pitch 5.9s - but a late start and easy-going pace convinced us that it was too late in the day. A gravel-glissade lead us back to the start of the route, the approach trail, and the car. French fries awaited at the Whitney Portal Grill, and a great dinner at the Still Life Cafe in Independence. We carried a heavier rack then really necessary in anticipation of El Segundo. I'd probably repeat the route with one set of nuts and one set of cams from a .4 to a #3, with double #1 & 2. The bolt ladder is reachy (and I'm 6'1", so I must reach up 8+ feet). To reach the third bolt I had to stand in the grab loop of my etrier! In the future I'll prep a "stiffy" quickdraw for this pitch. The anchors for Pitches 1 & 2 are gear. Pitch 3 is an optional bolt anchor or a gear anchor on top of a pedestal with great position to spectate the next pitch. Pitches 4 and 5 are bolted anchors. The lengths are p1: 40m, p2: 35m, p3: 35m, p4: 30m, p5: 50m. If you plan on linking up Premier with El Segundo or don't have double ropes, I'd recommend climbing a sixth pitch of easy 5th class on the crest for 50 - 75 feet to the same second class ledge system rather than traversing left into the 3rd class gully. The time spent organizing, packing and routefinding over to and up the gully was greater than just pitching it out up the crest would have taken. From there its a quick walk to the rap anchor. A rappel descent is optional - the bolted anchors at the top of pitches 5, 4, and 3 have beefy rap chains. Double ropes are necessary (this is a great option with three people). From the rap station on p3, aim left off of the crest - its obvious when you see it. You head right past the start of the route, so leave water/packs at the start if you're not linking up with El Segundo. Either descent requires a gravel-glissade, so bring your shoes with you on the climb! Snow level seems to be right around Lower Boy Scout Lake, 10,300 ft, and well above our elevation. The temp in the Portal was great today, t-shirts until the wind picked up and required windshirts. Gear Notes: 60m rope 1 double-length sling came in handy 8 shoulder slings with biners, tripled up 6 quickdraws - a few too many for this route, 2-4 would have been sufficient 1 set of nuts 2 sets of cams from purple TCU size to #3 camalot - to much for just this route, one set from a #.4 - #3 with doubles #1 & #2 would've sufficed 2 etriers - kept packed away until pitch 4 Approach Notes: Parking is across from the group camping entrance, on the old road. Its gated just after you turn off, so hike up the road to its end, then up a short trail to the toe of the buttress. 15 minutes.

BCS may have a fair bit of snow, and right now it will be COLD. And Rock Creek road isn't open all the way to the end yet. Charlotte Dome may be chilly too, but at least its south-facing. I'm getting ready to post a TR of Whitney Portal today...

Mughjie - sounds like we both might be right. The park rangers will fix rope on the pickets for a rescue, but they do not leave the ropes up for public use. The ranger patrol establish a fixed picket line on the autobahn for rescue purposes. The local guides assist the climbing rangers by resetting the pickets as needed - so you guys be careful when you pull pickets, some of them aren't supposed to be taken!

Don't listen to all those naysayers that are bitching about our record snow. Fact is, the alpine rock is getting good and is going to be great this year. Southern and western facing climbs are snow free, and the talus and scree approaches and descents are covered with a nice bed of spring snow - perfect for kick stepping. Can't get any easier than that! The snow line is around 9000 feet, give or take 500' (its high down at Whitney portal, lower at Tioga Pass). For anyone coming right now (like tomorrow), Whitney Portal and Temple Crag is where its at. Granite Dome and Clarks Canyone are also in great temperature conditions. Also the classic gullies are in right now - U Notch, V Notch, Clyde's. If you wait till late August the rock fall will suck! Come on down! Don't let the snow reports fool you - its going to be an awesome summer!

Check out my new post!

Mughjie, read Dan's post again. He never claimed that there was a fixed line to Denali Pass, and your incorrect statement started a great tangent. Dan mentioned the presence of PICKETS, which the NPS places every year (and resets every patrol) to facilitate the lowering traverse required to rescue anyone from Denali Pass and above.

I've driven a couple of times this Spring - the fastest way is: I-5 North Hwy 542 East (or any other option, as long as you get to...) Hwy 9 North to Sumas crossing HWY 1 East to Hope HWY 5 (toll highway - they accept USD, $10 CND) HWY 97C East HWY 97 South to Penticton! Total distance: Aprox 330 miles (I don't know where in Seattle you live) Total time: 5:30 hours Last stop for cheap gas: US Gas, on right hand side, immediately before crossing the border... It really is the fastest - I've also driven the Seattle/Leavenworth/Wenatchee North route and the Hwy 3 route to avoid the toll. Besides, you get to drive right past the Yak on Hwy 5...

I know enzing was essential to Hillaary's success, but couldn't the reverse be said as well? After all, Hillary climbed through the infamous step - a feat that Tenzing was not willing to do. I seems to me that they were trully a team; each contributing their strength to balance out the other's weakness.

Black Diamond did a very subjective test a few years ago that concluded pretty positively that ice axes and ice hooks failed each and every time on dynamic falls. I think I would use the one-screw-both-tools anchor only for belaying the second up, and then sink another screw in for leading the next pitch. How about saving one screw for a V-thread anchor instead? Especially if the descent is to rap the route. Even if its not, you could build a V-thread anchor in 5 minutes if you had planned in advance, no?

Thanks dude!!

1) Either - or. Which is best? 2) Where's the climbing store?

1) Where is the best place to camp... 2) And is there someplace in Penticton where I can buy a guidebook? There's not one to be found in B'ham.

You're right Blake - I used an email address I found here, but Dallas' actual email is dallas.kloke1@verizon.net. Anyways, I emailed Dallas and here was his response: "Hi Chris, "I appreciate your comments. All the new routes that have been done since the guide went to print plus the new ones in the future will be on my web site. www.mterienorthcascades.tk "I plan to up date the Erie information by the first of June and also include an Index with pages as soon as possible.. If you have any comments about ratings, too high or too low, let me know, Dallas" So, there we have it!

Since we moved up to Bellingham in the fall, this spring has been the first real oportunity my gilrfriend and I have had to check out Mt. Erie. We picked up a copy of Dallas' new guidebook and have spent a few days getting familiar with the trails and walls. His new book is much more comprehensive, and I'll certainly be giving him a beer in the parking lot next time I see him. We've noticed one key element missing from the guidebook that we have a solution for: page numbers are missing from the tick list and index. Our proposed solution - for Dallas to correct those pages of the guidebook and post here as a PDF. So I've tried e-mailing Dallas a request to correct his tick list and index in a PDF document, and to post that correction here. But the email address I found here appears to be wrong, dallaskloke1@verizon.net. Does anyone have a current aemail address for Mr. Kloke? In fact cc.com might be the perfect venue for local guidebook authors to post corrections without having to mess with print costs or distribution! If you're reading this post, Dallas, thanks again for the hard work - hope to see you up on the mountain! Chris

I have a half-bag from Wild Things that works great. I typically use it on multi-day routes for temps 30+. Depending on how cold it is expected to get, I wear either a Wild Things Belay Jacket, or a Patagucci Puffball Jacket...

Does Leavenworth Sports have a donation pail set up yet? If not, we should be calling up the owners and asking them to do so. Same thing goes for Feathered Friends, Second Ascent, Pro Mountain, Cascade Crags...

Alpinist bills itself as "The Climbing Life," and there's more to climbing as a lifestyle than just the cc.com trip reports. I mean Michael Kennedy's "Ama Dablam". That Alpinist magazine. Steve House's "The Way." That Alpinist magazine. The editor's "Climbing Notes." That Alpinist magazine. And yeah, Peter Croft's "Squamish." That Alpinist magazine. We all started from someplace, and this is the first time I've heard of where Peter came from. Are there weird pieces along the way? Sure there are. This issue's "The Climbing Life" section had awesome photos (I really liked the one of Hersey), but the short pieces made me yawn. You're bitching about 22 pages out of 96, and I was psyched by 47 pages. The Ama Dablam story alone was 20 pages. Keep it in perspective - this was a good issue...

I'm not sure about that. By taking that approach the two bolts aren't equalized, nor is any dynamic quality added to the system. Instead, what about equalizing the bolts with a sling, locking biner at the anchor point, rope tied off with a eight-on-a-bight. Now your partner, juggin up the fixed line, adds a dynamic quality should you fall, eliminating the possibility of a factor 2 fall. That dynamic quality could be increased by adding a screamer to the system. What do you think?

Makes sense to me.

I heard that he had to cancel all other shows in the PNW because of scheduling conflicts...so this might be it!