kurthicks

drop that heel!

I have a BCA Tour shovel system , with a probe. great setup and you can leave the probe at home if you want. Plus, with a metal blade you can put your stove on it.

yep, I took your picture. Did they turn out okay?

There is a pullout on the left just before the "parking pass required" sign. It's just after the basalt stops on the left as you're driving in. probably room for 2-3 cars. free and only a 5 minute walk to the regular parking area.

Most belay loops are redundant in the form of 2 pieces of webbing bartacked together. give it a look. Using the rope as a belay loop is a good idea for those harnesses without belay loops.

Actually, it's a tri-directional load, but the result is the same. The misnomer is just too fixed in the climbing community for anyone to change it.

Nice work Bala.

Twas a good time indeed. My boots didn't fit very well, but at least I got to wear them all day. There's a good bootpack up there now, no snowshoes necessary. Oh, the NW face looked fat with continuous ice/snow. if anyone goes up and finds an ATC at the west ridge notch, it's mine.

I love my beal single lines, but prefer Bluewater half/twin ropes for the aforementioned reasons.

maybe DPS or Juan will write one for our trip. Lots of others out in the area. Saw some people on Colchuck, CBR (i think), Stuart, etc.

Mystery Ranch backpacks are made in Bozeman from the guy who started Dana Designs.

replace them with Leepers! No one will want to take those...

I was there last weekend with my girlfriend. Nice weather on Saturday, eh? Were you the two that left saturday or did you stay all weekend? Sunday was pretty nice until around 3PM. Rally Race is another cool route to do, the moves on the flake are sweet. You can camp about 1 mile past the climbing turn off, at the Whitman overlook. there are picnic tables there and an outhouse. Camping at the end of the road looks pretty nice too. Water can be found just past that at the spring (signed) or at the last road on the right before the climbing turnoff. Go 75m down the road to a stream or follow the stream to the pond. cool little campsite too. Kurt

Sounds like quite the adventure. glad you made it out ok. I have to ask...triple couloirs?

Has anyone used the alphas with a thermo liner on Denali? seems like it could be a valid option.

You can also have a Master carabiner (a big locker) that everything gets clipped in to.

You can also use a multi-directional (self-equalizing) configuration by tying overhand knots in each arm of the cordelette to limit extension. it does not eliminate potential for shockloading, but rather minimizes it. That way you still have a multi-directional anchor allowing for true equalization, something that a pre-equalized (mono-directional) anchor usually lacks.

source? It looks like Cayuse Pass is open, but not Chinook. that means that someone could drive hwy 123 to hwy 410 going north to Enumclaw, right?

sweet. good to know.

anybody used this website? www.steepandcheap.com looks like they have good prices

WA Pass skiing was super PLAB! last weekend.

only if he wasn't selling his business.

What about me and NYC007? come on Sobo. Anyways, from what I've heard the road is still snowed in. I can't wait to get up there this summer.

I'm heading down to Spring this evening actually. The forecast looks pretty good from what I've seen. The rock is much better than Vantage, it's Andesite like Tieton, but with less cracks. there are awesome trad lines there though. Best of all, there are tons less people. Some of the hard routes are drilled/chipped though. and some excessive bolting IMO. It's a lot like Vantage in that there are tons of routes really close together, allowing for a lot of routes per day. There's free camping about 1/2 mile from the climbing area. No parking permit required. I hope to take some pictures that I can post. For weather, check Meacham, OR and Pendleton.

got any pics? I'm curious to see what it's looking like now. Glad to see you made it out of there OK, slides there would be pretty scary. You pulled the 'crux' though if you made it to the first belay.