skyclimb

Yeah Juan, that was me! Were you driving a Subaru or something of the like?

Getting high on trees across the street from your apartment is always a plus... Keep pullin tough

Alright, so here is the question: What arete's have you climbed in the alpine(gear) and or bolts... Lets hear your stories.... This question spawned from a recent arete slapping nightmare at smith, on a little route know as The Blade...

Climb: Hood-Reid Headwall Date of Climb: 2/18/2005 Trip Report: I went and soloed it! Found ice for 2,000 feet with occasional neve to rest the calves! The shrund' is easily crossable. Get on it while its good. Gear Notes: 2 tools Approach Notes: Skiies are sooo good!

Yo E! I might be out there, gotta see, but I will keep an eye out for ya, send me a PM with your digits... Peace amigo

7 & 7's.... This has got to be the finest drink of all time... Can't go wrong with whiskey, and segrams gives a nice buzz, and then the 7-up, adds a nice flavor... Must have the cube ice for the best taste... Go with Jimmy B if you want it sweeter, or Mister JD for a mellower taste.

I need a partner for Friday through Sunday of this week. I can lead WI3, but want to work up to WI4 on this trip... Need a partner to go climb some ice.....

You can bet your ass on it

In the photo it shows the standard route cutting left, and then taking the catwalk back up and right. I never cut left...I stayed on the ridge the whole way up, doing 3rd and 4th class "mixed climbing" where necessary, which obviously includes the "catwalk", and was the funnest way to possibly go. At the steepest, it was snow to 50 degrees, as is the other left variation(shown in photo) which I did last year. This route is a slog, what makes it interesting is covering 7,400 vertical feet in a day, going from 300 ft. to 14,100 feet in a short amount of time, and dealing with winds in excess of 100 mph. As for the "run-outs" , and taking someone "less experienced" only you can decide what you are comfortable with.

Climb: Hood-Flying Buttress Date of Climb: 2/11/2005 Trip Report: I slept in the parking lot of Timberline Thursday night, hoping for good weather and conditions to do the Devils Kitchen Headwall-1c. The winds were pretty strong, and buffetted me to sleep nicely in the back of the truck. I awoke at 4a.m. to heavy winds, and a distant memory of being raped on mt. shasta the week prior. So I slept till 8a.m. when the winds began to die, and then began skinning up the mountain to do any route that would have a sleep induced slacker like me. To my amazement, the devils kitchen looked fairly solid at about 10a.m., but I wasn't willing to risk 1c, which had been exposed to the sun for those few critical hours. So I flung myself at the Flying Buttress-1E, and encountered GREAT climbing. The start was the crux, with steep water ice that was soft enough to take my picks a few inches deep. That gave way to more steep ice covered in powder snow, and then a final rime headwall to top out on wy-east. For you yocum seekers, the rime was bonded stronger than I have ever seen it, making hooking a very solid proposition. Once I topped out, the realization set in that Avy danger was High, and continuing onto the summit was out of the question. So I decended wy-east sticking to rock ribs for safety. Traversing back to the south-side I encountered quite a few crevasses thinly bridged, and very open. It was a great route, and I am glad I went all the way up there for just 500 feet of fun ice. Oh, and 2,500 feet of sweet skiing down to the truck on a blue-bird day. Gear Notes: 1 tool, poons, compass, nutter bars, not much else Approach Notes: skiing is such a sweet sweet thing.

Hey, It was nice meeting you two on the mountain

Leaving on June 20th, coming back to the states about 2 months post June 20th with mr. Thadsboner....

What's the catwalk

No pics of the couloir Tim, sorry. But I can tell you that as we drove north, it looked SWEET . It is continous from the top, and slowely widens from tight to wide!

http://www.met.utah.edu/cgi-bin/roman/meso_base.cgi?stn=MSGRB This link should help you find data on winds on mt. shasta...at 8,000 feet winds for me were 40mph gusting 50mph....

The approach will depend on how much this recent storm dropped. I did the approach once in snowshoes, and it took about 1 hour....(shrug). Winds were the strongest in the col between the false summit and misery hill, and on top of misery hill. I can't personally say how much wind it takes to knock you over, yet I have learned on shasta in winters before that 80+ mph will buffett me severely, and 100+ I need to be self-arresting during the big gusts. There was no avoiding the wind in the col, but I did traverse misery hill via the north face, which was blue boiler plate ice due to wind scouring.... my suggestion is to be a creeper in the wind....get as low as possible and aerodynamic, and then slowely move forward....or use the wind in your favor as a kind of sail. Be prepared for high winds, as the jet stream drops across the mountain in winter... All that said, the route is very asthetic, and the rock portions are most excellent.

Happy Birthday Layton! Hope this year brings you everything you wish for Cheers to a new year

Climb: Shasta-Casaval Ridge Date of Climb: 2/4/2005 Trip Report: I went to Mt. Shasta On Thursday night. Slept at bunny flats, from 11:00 to 4:00 a.m., getting a good nights sleep. I awoke, skiied to the base of the ridge, ditched the ski's, and proceeded to solo the ridge from the base to the summit in about 6 hours. It consisted of perfect hard neve, with a lot of exposed easy mixed climbing. The rock was like a spung, and formed to my crampons. I then proceeded up Misery Hill in 100+ mph winds, and summitted at around 12:00p.m. Signed in the summit register, and then made the ardous decent down avy gulch. The gulch is very hard icy neve and makes for a long decent. I made it back to the skiis, and enjoyed a beautiful exit back to the truck. It was 2:00 p.m. when I returned to bunny flats, at which time I went straight to the black bear diner for a 3/4 pound burger. The mountain really had great conditions, which made for a fun day in the hillz! Gear Notes: One tool, Poons, compass, not much else Approach Notes: Use skiis, watch for wind loading

That is a hellova story! Gotta love those O/W for full value and effect... thanks

Burlap sack, and plastic trash bag.... Plastic trash bag can be used when: *you drop your plastic outershell 2000 feet... *You want to wade river-hop scotch- *rain jacket *makeshift bivy sac/shelter *Put around your head after you run out of food, and realize its better just to get it over with How many uses does that one ounce parka have??? a trash bag weighs one ounce, and has how many uses? versatility is god Burlap sack- * It looks cool for all the chix in a new age, artistic, in vogue sort of way... "everyones gotta Ferrari, but how many have a 67'shelby?"- you would be a conisouir Bring lots of duct tape also * wrap around water bottle, fix trash bag quickly *put it over your mouth when the bitching gets soo loud because you went tooo light * finally end-up wraping whole body with duct-tape when plastic trash bag deteriorates, creating a perfectly formed custom suit, until the circulation is cut off to all extremities including your head, at which point you black-out, in the pooring rain, weaing nothing but duct tape and a burlap sac...

sounds educational. Be wary of GPS for a multitude of reasons- * weight *battery fatigue due to cold * electronic malfunction ....

to everyone there this weekend, it was awesome, great people and great crack climbing made for one of the all time best smith trips! Thanks

Well, if Pandora's takin care of the glitter, then I will bring the boa's... i will be there Thursday night through sunday.... The same spot the usual smith fest is at.... I should be in a blue vw type van....gonna be freakin' sweet cranking on some crack, get your asses dwon to smith, I hear jimmy buffet is playing in front of 5 gallon buckets you gapers

Not if you do the 10b sport variation to the second pitch. That makes it a straight line with minimal rope drag, and a cruise to the top. As many have said, rap on a single line due west off the backside of the group. SHould be done in three single roped rappels

I need help finding good guidebooks to the Cordillera Blanca region of Peru. Any suggestions on cool routes would be greatly appreciated as well. Rock, Ice, anything that was fuckin' rockin' Thanks