nat

This constitutes my semi-annual invitation to climb on my garage wall. Since last time, I've added a ton more holds, 4 more mattresses, and I'm working on another flat wall. My daughter is 4.5 now and climbs about halfway up. Kids welcome. Days, evenings, nights, weekdays, weekends. Northeast 12th and Ainsworth. Email mcnattyp@yahoo.com for details.

Wayne and I are hitting the Pyramid Lake trail on Saturday morning at the butt-crack of dawn (or earlier, knowing Wayne). Full TR after we return on Aug 10.

I talked to a ranger at the Marblemount station and she said it was okay to leave a bear canister somewhere near the parking lot, but I was doing so at my own risk. She said there weren't any bear boxes. Now I have to figure out a bear canister... Nonetheless, this will lighten our packs considerably. Thanks for the idea, Tom!

Perhaps. Care to drive it in for me? Seriously though, is there a good spot to cache food? I don't know the parking lot scene.

Thanks for everyone's replies. After talking it over with Wayne, we've decided to stick to the "classic" Isolation Traverse coined by the Skoogs, right along the lines of the Goodman's trip: Pyramid Lake, Colonial Glacier, Neve, Stout Lake, SW of the Backbone, Mcallister /Inspiration col, Torment col, Boston Basin (skip Torment and Forbidden and Sahale), into Cascade Pass. Wayne was up around Torment this weekend and has his head around that area. Our only question is where to cross the Backbone, which we'll figure out when we get there. We're planning 5 days of food for the northern part, 4 days of food for the Ptarmigan. No rope, lightweight and fast. Leaving July 30.

I hadn't planned on dropping that low. Getting down to brass tacks here, I had imagined going from first camp on Borealis ridge to second camp at the east end of the Austera finger to third camp at a col between Eldorado creek basin and Inspiration glacier. Do those times sound reasonable?

Thanks for the beta Lowell. I may be resigning to bring a full rope. After doing some more reading (including the link you sent, thanks) it seems like the Isolation/Inspiration traverse is a more popular northern "extension" to the Ptarmigan. However, my proposed route of Primus/Tricouni via Thunder Creek Trail to Klawatti & Eldorado seems a bit quicker. Is my assessment right? From 20, would it take more days to complete the Isolation traverse similar to how you and the Goodman's did it?

Thanks for the heads-up, John. Until you mentioned it, I wasn't familiar with the Inspiration Glacier Traverse. Indeed, some of our proposed route closely follows the southern half of that route. The biggest difference is the inclusion of Primus/Tricouti and then to Inspiration via Austere Ridge and Klawatti. It doesn't seem like Klawatti is a very popular peak. Is it really easy to get from Eldorado to Boston Basin? I couldn't find much about that in the Beckey book.

In about 10 days, myself and Wayne K (from Olympia) will attempt to add a northern extension to the classic Ptarmigan Traverse. I'm doing some research and am wondering if anyone has completed this before, with or without the Ptarmigan proper. I'm also curious to know of any traverse/link-up issues with the proposed route. The connections appear to work via Beckey's book. From 20 at Colonial Creek, take Thunder Creek trail to McAllister Creek. Begin East Route approach to Primus Peak. Do Primus Peak, to Tricouni Peak. Cross Austere Ridge to Klawatti Peak. Do Eldorado ascent and descent from the East. Boston Basin to Sahale Mountain. Possibly add Forbidden and Torment if we want to bring an alpine rack. None of the other peaks require a rack. Down Sahale Arm to Cascade Pass. Then the standard Ptarmigan from there. Comments? Beta? Flames?

I have a 16 foot tall, 12 foot wide climbing wall in my garage, located at NE 12th and NE Ainsworth. It overhangs about 20 degrees and has a bunch of clean mattresses beneath. Lots of holds up, lots of holds in boxes. All it needs is a regular bunch of climbers. I don't care how hard you crank, so long as you like to pull down hard and get passionate about indoor bouldering. These days I can usually just barely get up the V4s at The Circuit. The Circuit is too far to drive for me. I'd love to work V2s all the way up to V6s, but if you want to come over and commandeer the wall for V8s, I won't complain. I have a 4 year old daughter, so kids are welcome to tag along so long as they can follow the only rule: stay off the mats unless it's your turn. Email me (mcnattyp@yahoo.com) to hook up. I'm available days, eves, nights, weekends, any time. I don't do rope climbing any more so if you're looking for an outdoor ropes climbing partner, I'm not it.

Duh, dude! I'm trying to figure out which boulder field I was in and where the walls are in relation to the other fields. The Carver maps online are fine if you know the position of the fields to the rest of the area, but I do not. Have you actually been to Carver, Duke?

Just thought I'd bump this...

I drove out to Carver today with my daughter, we found a bunch of boulders and the two big walls, but I don't know how to correlate this with what I saw. I parked at the Church parking lot, walked through the gate along the short gravel road, cut through the woods to the gravel parking lot of the newish-looking restaurant, walked directly up to the restaurant, then about-faced and boom! there were the rocks. We hiked up a little trail to find the two main walls, and the disclaimer sign, and then climbed boulders on the downhill slope (downhill to the parking lot) from the big walls. What area was I climbing in? How do you get to the other areas in the above map? I saw that the cliff-front trail headed back in the direction of the church, but we did not go all the way along it. It was a byootiful day, not too hot in the trees, had the whole place to ourselves. Anybody wanna show me around or explain more?

I'm posting this for my friend Wayne Kamara. Some of you may know him. He lives on Puget St in Oly and is looking for a roommate. He's not into partying, but gets along with lots of people. He has been known to play the same song over and over again. So long as you like new/electronica, you'll get along fine. He just turned 50, but cranks harder than most people in Oly. He gets lots of salmon during the runs, if that matters to you. There's a wall/cave in the attic, back yard, washer/dryer, normal amenities if a bit spartan. Kind of a typical climber's house. Close to San Fran St bakery. $500/month is the estimate which will include utils. I'm vetting for him - p.m. me and I'll send his contact details. You can probably assume at this point that there is no wifi or even an operable computer in his house, an internet connection is not included.

Thanks hemp. Appreciate the link.

My daughter is 2.5. She's into sesame sticks, fruit leather and exclaiming over all the bits of nature she finds when we go hiking. Maybe she'll pick up climbing, maybe not. We're only interested in bouldering at this point. (I haven't tied in since 1999 and don't have a full-body harness for her.) I should have mentioned the "bouldering" word more obviously in my post.

Does someone want to walk me around Carver, showing some spots? I'd like to take my young daughter with me sometime but don't want to hunt around with her. Having a heads-up prior to going would be great. I can provide wheels if needed. Thanks, NAT

My daughter just turned two and no shit she climbed 12 feet up from the ground on my wall, 30degs overhanging. Stuck her little toes in the bolt holes and her whole hand in a mono. I've since put up another 200 holds. Any kids in Portland wanna play American Gladiator? We spend 90% of the time wrestling on the mattresses anyway.

You guys are rocky butt nerds. Come to my woodie instead.

I PMed you guys. Anyone else, PM me if you're interested.

It's on! The garage wall is up, mattresses are down. Regular Monday & Wednesday nights, more as time goes on. 200 more holds go on at the end of the month. Pictures here.

Thanks to Bill, Hugh, and Jaben for the panel-hanging help. They certainly earned their beers. All my holds are up, mattresses are down, and I've got three problems up. 200 more holds go up at the end of the month. Regular hours will be Monday, Wednesday evenings. PM if you need more information.

Don't need no tools, just tha fat laddahz.

Bill is dead-on. The doors open at 5pm.

"like beer"? What kind of question is that? Bill, I don't think I want that mattress. It's been in a trailer, after all. And it's a Sealy, for chrissakes. If it was a beautyrest, then *maybe*.