jlag

Damn dude, i've got to get out and climb with you again. Sounds like my type of climb. Have you thought of maybe doing some sort of guided "party climbing"? I think it would be a hit. JL

i've led the crack as well, gear is just fine. When can we chop that thing? Or better yet i'll let you guys pull the bolts and i'll just kick his ass. I've also noticed a good amount of bolted routes on the east end of the crag, mostly steep starts to slabs, sport bolted. Don't think any of those were bolted on lead. JL

You can drive to the Pole Creek TH as of today, but we'll see how long it lasts. It'll snow tonight and this week, but now sure if we'll get enough to hinder progress to the TH. My bet is you should be able to drive there no problem. But then your looking at a good 7-8 mile approach to the N. side of S. Sister. JL

PM me, let's talk about getting back there this winter. somewhere around here GaperTimmy has some really good photos of the Silver C. and the N. Face in from last spring. Still a long haul in there regardless.

Skinned up to Crater Rock yesterday, got a way late start. Sounds like i missed most of the wind as from the top of Palmer on it was warm and sunny. Not enough to get anything melting though. Lots of pow pow sitting on solid blue ice. Old Chute looked heavily windloaded and ready to slide. Pearly Gates looked "spicy" but doable. Ran outta time, had a killer run down to the truck. Great powder turns the whole way.

Looked at it yesterday, the Old Chute has a good foot plus of windslab on top of bullet ice. Chances are it's gonna slide. good luck.

I second the MSR, the thing is bombproof. summer, winter, whatever. JL

Ok, maybe the weather won't hold damn it. jL

If i had a partner i'd be there Fri night thru Monday afternoon. best looking weather forecast for the entire west. I bet the weather will hold, but cold. JL

This can't be real, i was there i heard nothing about it. C'mon please tell me this is not real. JL

MarkD rules Yes, that's the crack in question. Maybe "Ryan", who bolted that crack could come clean right now and tell us why he did it. The glue was added so the bolts couldn't be pulled very easily, except for that it's smeared all over the rock. AND it's a shitty route anyway. Chop that shit. JL

check your pm's

Never got a PM from you Mark. Anything would be helpful though. thanks JL

Seems to be a lot of new activity out at Cougar, was wondering if anyone has a topo including the new routes? Who the fuck bolted cracks out there? Hard to tell where the anchors are on some of the new lines. Anyways, any info would be helpful. You can PM if you want to keep it more hush hush. THANK YOU JL

Lash them the best you can, or buy skiis or a splitboard. At this moment the only safe routes up Middle would be the N. or S. Ridge. We received a significant amount of snow in the last 2 days, i would expect at least a foot of new snow.

Will Talk to me about this, i got a few hundred years of trail experience under my belt. If it's west of the cascades pressure treated will last a lot longer. Is there rock on site? I've got rock picks as well. Maybe we could sit and draw it out. The grade of the trail has a lot to do with how you construct your steps as well. JL

Pretty much exactly what i thought. 10a seems a bit of a stretch for the first pitch, although pretty adventury feeling. 2nd pitch is amazing, as long as the flake holds together. Did you put either of those pitches up Markd? JL

Got on Snibble a few weeks ago. As per FGW we went up the 5.9 bolted pitch to the left of the initial wide crack. Avoided the aid by going up some random steep bolted pitch. Starts on the slab and then rears up on a sharp flake to a bulge. Anyone been on this? It felt about 10d/11a, sport bolted. It ends up right at the belay before the 5.7 slab gulley(pitch 4 of original Snibble route). just thought i'd give it a try. We rapped off due to cold temps, we'll be back when it warms up for an all free ascent of Snibble Tower.

That's funny, we went through the same yellowjacket nest 2 weekends ago. Letsroll got stung 3 times. good TR JL

I don't think it's CO crack, i thought CO crack got thinner up top. Maybe GEM right close to CO crack? FGW, is that Effin A at Smith?

you actually led Chopper? I would not want to weight any gear behind that flake, you might get the chop!! The photo after the Indian Creek shot looks like J-Tree. Maybe Mr. Misty Cone?

I still have a Burton, it's still a good board. Not sure how many days you have on yours but after a while the side pins(yes you do have pins on your board) start to loosen up while in skin mode. Check out splitboard.com, it's a universal issue in the Burton interface. Mine still works, but it's got a ton of play in it. my pins are girth hitched via cable to my binding, impossible to lose. I don't need a paintbrush, the binding set up removes snow/ice when you slide it in automatically. The new Voile's are super quick to set up, yes it's only 5 minutes in powder. They discontinued Burton's interface due to copyright infringements on Voile's design. And the fact(documented by tons of users) that Burton interfaces break down after time. Don't get me wrong, i love my Burton 165, but it's seen better days. JL

I agree, the old Burton interfaces took a long time to switch out. i'm sure that's what your basing your opinions on, understood. With a new Voile i've can usually go from skins to riding in under 5 minutes, no exaggeration. Look up any TR with GaperTimmy, i'm usually with him. thanks for not ripping me too hard. JL

Well put Frank, I like your style. Feck, your kinda clueless about splitters, they're on the rise. I push with a pole on the flats and then jump way ahead of you on the steeps.

check your pm's JL