needtoclimb

Please no spray. I am looking to put a team together, not listen to people who simply feel the need to type useless blather. The route would be the NW Buttress. I have never been on Denali, so this would be the best start. Have had a couple of replies. Still looking for more. I know there are more people out there that want to climb, cause every year I see 4-5 postings looking for partners. Most of them fizzle out 'cause everyone else wants someone else to do the planning. I am very good at logistics planning and will be doing most of that. Just need competent folks to join me, and make a fun team.

As stated above, I would like to climb Denali in 2011, so am looking for partners. Let me expand on that before I get 50 replies stating "I want to go." I am looking for experienced, prepared partners to be part of an equal group. Each person must be experienced. Each person must assist the team, and assist in the planning. THIS IS NOT A GUIDED CLIMB! We, the people in the group, are the guides. Time to start training and doing climbs together to solidify the group, and make sure everyone has necessary skills. I would like to do a ski ascent of Helens and Adams this spring, do Baker and Rainier, and a winter ascent/attempt of Hood/Rainier. If you are interested, shoot me a pm. I will reply to your pm, asking for your name, phone number and e-mail. I will make a up a list, and after about a week or so compile all that info into one e-mail and send it to everyone on the list and then we can start geting together for training hikes, etc. Want to do Denali? Give me a shout.

PM sent

PM sent

Oh, I do have my own gear, and more screws

I would be interested in going on Sunday. I have lots of glacier, rock and mountaineering experience, but very little technical ice climbing. Give me a shout if you need a partner. 425-802-3100.

I was just over there a couple of days ago. The south side approach to Rocks of Sharon is open, but there is only room for 2-3 cars at the end of the road. Take Stevens Creek road from the Palouse highway. After a few miles, Stevens Creek road will stop at a three way fork. Take the middle fork, a dusty, brown dirt road that has the faded "private driveway" sign on it. Drive that a bit and you will see a small pullout on your right, where the road is blocked by trees and a large ditch. From there, it is about a mile to Big Rock. The cracks on Big Rock are dirty, mossy and nasty. There are quite a few bolted routes, but I couldn't find any info on them. Many are easily top-ropeable by scrambling up Big Rock.

Did upper north ridge a couple of weeks ago, and crossed the glacier in tennis shoes, no crampons. (came from Ingalls lake side,)

Never been up it. With the fixed #4 that's there, what is the biggest recommended piece needed?

Those are really cool shots. Thanks for posting

I have those two days off, and am looking at doing either. Just the upper north ridge of Stuart. I saw a few people looking for alpine partners, but for some reason I couldn't find your posts. PM me, and lets climb.

Before anyone decides to climb Rainier with Josh, I highly recommend reading his last trip report here: http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7976908&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I have Saturday (well, part of it. I work until 0400 Saturday morning) and have Sunday off. What do you have in mind?

Christopher Garceau Matt Hickey Mark Struab Dan Straub Joshua Lewis Quick question. Have any of these people ever climbed Rainier, or even been on a glacier? Who would be the point of contact, i.e. the leader (in terms of experience and leading the rope team) for this climb if I am interested?

Coming straight off Josh list" "Many clipping carribeaners" as opposed to the non-clipping welded-closed type? Or are these just the types that like to sail around the Bahama's. "Rope (Although if anyone has any climbing rope, it may be lighter than ours so that would be nice to bring, especially if there are two teams." Umm, what type of rope were you planning on using? Clothesline? "Chess Harness (or Tubular Webbing Sling)" 'cause a checkers harness just isn't as cool. "Boots (Perferably Mountaineering Boots)" Because climbing Rainier in 6-inch stilettos may sound like a good idea, but really isn't. "We hope to assign people to carry gear, and perhaps bring gear" Darn, I was hoping I could hike up naked, and find a big pile of gear at Muir.

No one wants to climb Stuart? It's not to late to send me a PM. Send a PM, I call you, we meet up Monday, and climb one of the Cascade classics.

Short noitce, but my partner bailed on me, and I already have the time off. If you want to do Stuart's upper north ridge, send me a PM. The plan will be to leave Seattle Monday morning, hike in Ingalls's lake trailhead monday and bivy on the ridge Monday night. Climb the route Tues, descend Cascadian Coulor and hike out. (Not sure of the current condition of Sherpa descent, so going the route I know will be feasible.) You need to be able to swap leads on 5.9 alpine trad. I have rack, rope, car, etc. Send me a PM with your phone number. I will call you, as I hate wasting time sending PM's back and forth.

"Great climb" is one where I enjoy the entire day, have no epics, and get home in one piece. Agreed, it is not a climb I would do every year, but I would do it again. It is close to Seattle (so doesn't take 4 hours of driving for a one day route.) It is a prominent peak over I-90 in that you see it every time. It had a little bit of everything; fun and exposed 3-4th class scrambling, couple of fun pitches on solid rock, incredible views, good approach and okay decent (a little bush-whacking, but not too much.) It is just hard enough to make you think, especially with several hundred feet of air below you, but not hard enough to need 5.l1 skills or a new pair of underwear. At no point did I think "I am going to die today." (I am getting too old for those type of routes.) It has a definite alpine feel to it and technical enough that you feel like you are actually climbing a peak. Hope this helps.

Trip: Guye Peak - Improbable Traverse Date: 6/1/2009 Trip Report: Every time I drive over Snoqualmie, Guye peak looms overhead and smirks, whispering in my ear "you don't have the balls to climb me." Well, Deron and I decided to show Guye who's the man. We started at the base of the talus field around 10:00, and it was all still in the shade. The lower half of the talus is pretty solid, but the higher we got, the looser we got until most of it was just scree. Take two steps up, slide back one, but we were determined. We got to the base of the climb and it looked easy, so we started scrambling. The first pitch is 4th class straight up, taking the path of least resistance until you reach a series of small ledges, and in front of you looms a head wall. We then took the 4th class ramp to the left, with a couple of feet of very airy exposure. The rock here is lose to the point where you test every hold before trusting it, but there are tons of holds, so if one looks suspect, grab the pullup bar next to it. We reached the second dihedral, where the low 5th class climbing starts. After studying it for a minute, it appeared to be the same loose rock with the same huge holds, just a little steeper. There were very few cracks, and seemed pointless to try to rope up, since it wasn't very protectable. We solo'd up a pitch until we reached a short, overhanging crack. This part looked a little bit more committing, so we roped up here and built a little belay. Deron lead the crack, which was about 5.7. After 30 meters, he reached lunch ledge, which is obvious since it is a gigantic ledge and impossible to miss. Just make a belay anywhere here. I got the Traverse pitch, which rocked. There is decent pro about every 30 feet, and the two pins are still there, though rusty and ugly. Had to clip em though, since there wasn't much in between. Nelson's guide shows this as two pitches, but I did the entire traverse in one 58m pitch. Just use double slings on every piece of pro, and you are fine. The traverse isn't hard, it is the spaced out pro and incredible exposure that gives it a 5.8 rating. The rock across the traverse is bullet-solid, a far cry from the lose blocks up to this point. Deron followed to my belay, which was set in the obvious left-learning ramp visible from the ground. Here is was all 3rd, with very little 4th class, the rest of the way. We put away our climbing gear, donned the approach shoes, and followed the ramps as it zig-zaged the rest of the way up. Very easy. We dropped down to the Snoqualmie-Guye saddle, and never did find the climbers trail heading down. Too much snow. We just booted down till the snow ran out, then bushwacked the rest of the way, coming out right at the lower Alpental parking lot. Got back to the car at 4:00 pm. A great climb. Unfortunately, no pics. We both forgot our cameras. Gear Notes: Set of nuts. Cams from green alien size to 2" (yellow camelot.) Nothing bigger needed. Lots of slings. 10-12 slings, with half of those 48". Approach Notes: Take Oberstrasse road and drive up until you hit a huge pull out just below the talus field. Drop down 10 feet, and you are on the talus field. The return is simply walking from Alpental parking lot back up Oberstrasse road. Took maybe 20 minutes.

It seems like a folded 60M half rope will work great for many easy alpine climbs, where most of it is running belays, and most crux pitches are shorter than 30m. My question is, how does one tie into the ends of a folded rope. I am thinking that on the folded end, tie a figure eight on a bight, and using two locking biners, clip that to your harness. One the other end (the side with two loose ends), tie in with both just like you would with two half ropes. Any suggestions or hints from anyone who has used this set up?

Removed tree from first slide, and dug out enough snow to be able to drive around. I didn't get past the first slide, so not sure how much farther you can drive before coming upon any more blowdowns. Had to call it quits when I broke my shovel.

I am heading up this Sunday (May 31) for a day of road maintenance. Have truck, chainsaw, and tools. Will be leaving Lynnwood about 1030 if anyone wishes to join me. I plan on working until about 1800.

If I had the time off, I would do this road trip. Head down to Smith Rocks for a week, pulling on the tuft and getting warmed up. Then drive on down to Joshua Tree. Spend several weeks climbing. There is everything you can want in that park. Leave there around May-June. Any later and it gets way too hot. Hit tahquitz/suicide area for a week. Tahquitz has easy routes (5.2 to 5.9) that are up to 9 pitches long. Great place to do lots of fun multi-pitch. After that, head up to Yosemite Valley. Stay a monnth. You should be strong and comfortable by this point, and the valley is easy to find partners. Hike on your days off, or kyak, or just sit around and enjoy it. After the valley you can hit the eastern side of the Sierra's. More multi-pitch/alpine routes than you can ever do in your life. When you are tired of the desert mountains, drive east to the Tetons. Climb there for a while. Again, a ton of stuff. Near the end of summer/early fall head over to City of Rocks Idaho. It is like a mini Joshua Tree, then head on home.

I currently use Metoloius power cams and BD C4's. If I were to buy a new rack, I would buy the a set of C4's, C3's and Metolious master cams. The BD cams are very smoooth, well built and reliable. The C3's are small enough for those tiny crack placements. The master cams are a replacement for aliens, and fit perfect into narrow pin scars.

Have the cops investigate what? That someone is selling stuff on craigslist? The police need a reason to investigate, i.e. someone stating that it is their stolen gear being sold.