BillA

I definitely remember meeting at illumination saddle, I think that was spring 2016 when we did Cathedral, time flies! That's great that you're still getting use out of your NWA stuff over a decade later, I absolutely love to hear that!

Hell yeah, that's great to hear you're still using them, that fabric was so good I wish we could have gotten more of it!

Thanks so much for the support Porter, I really appreciate it! It's hard to believe fourteen years has gone by since I started NWA. Cascadeclimbers.com was where our first customers came from, and it's been a completely wild ride since then. Though I always lurked way more than I posted, this site was a big inspiration to me when I was climbing a lot. I think it's a shame that social media has largely stolen attention from forums/communities like cc.com. It's hard to build a real community when it is mediated by a mega-corporation thats sole focus is the bottom line. Unfortunately over the last decade+, just as giant social media companies have drowned out smaller independent sites like this one, the same thing has happened in the outdoor industry generally. A handful of large corporations dominate the market and essentially form an oligopoly. Most of these brands are now publicly traded, owned by large conglomerates, or both. Even the one owned by the planet sells a billion and a half dollars worth of apparel and makes hundreds of millions in profits annually. As a small independent and self-funded brand focused on technical apparel, it's REALLY difficult to have companies with unlimited resources as your competition. And then to try to make everything in the US where the apparel manufacturing supply chain has all but disappeared...crazy. But we're doing it anyway because we think it's the right thing to do for the people and the earth. I know a lot of you care about the same things we do and if you're not familiar with NWA, please check us out. To conclude this novel, I'm super grateful for the support from Cascadeclimbers.com. It is an invaluable, independent, resource for Northwest climbers that deserves our attention now more than ever!

Nice Anastasia! I did the second ascent of Morgul Vale with Tyler a couple weeks after he and Chris finished it. Love that climb! For history sake, it follows (very) roughly the same route as Gigantor, which was put up back in the 70's by Dean Fry and Wayne Arrington and had like one 1/4" bolt per pitch. I believe Tyler and Chris talked to Wayne about their plans and he said it was cool. No one is really sure where Gigantor went anyway, but hard to believe they could find a 5.8 route through some of that terrain. Anyway, psyched to see Tyler's routes get some traffic. He was proud of Morgul Vale, rightfully so, as it's one of the best (if not the best) long moderate route in Oregon. Now you should go to the Menagerie and climb some of his routes there!

Hell yeah guys, super awesome! Stoked that your dedication paid off!

Just a heads up, promotion ends on the 15th. Thanks for the support everyone!

Thanks Jon, really stoked about it! Kevin, check out http://nwalpine.com/blog/archives/208 for pant sizing. We're currently redoing our size charts to make them look pretty, but this will give you a good idea for sizing. E-mail info@nwalpine.com if you have any other questions!

Hello everyone! So we recently launched our new website at www.nwalpine.com. To celebrate we'd like to offer CascadeClimbers.com members a 20% discount and free limited edition t-shirt on orders over $100. Just use the discount code: CASCADECLIMBERS13 at check out. If you do end up ordering, make sure to include your t-shirt size in the order comments. We really appreciate all the support we've received from the NW climbing community over the past few years! If you've got the time you should also check out Daniel Harro's blog post on his trip to the Alaska Range, Jason Stuckey's report from his trip to the Revelations and beyond, and Matt Van Biene's near miss in Patagonia.

No need for a topo, just walk to the end of the big ledge, climb up some mossy 5.8 past some newly replaced bolts to another ledge and belay. Traverse climber's right for the money pitch (obvious) which is awesome, and probably slightly sandbagged at 5.10a, then follow the ridge to the top.

"Can't knock the baby blue salopette" Nice work gentleman, stoked! Doug's ever increasingly hideous color combinations are an inspiration to us all.

Psyched, come say hi at the NW Alpine table!!!

Still got 'em!

I've got some used BD Vipers I need to get rid of. Picks still have quite a bit of life left in them, $275 for the pair. Located in Portland, I'll ship if need be.

Not every route one bolts has to be sprayed to death on the internet and included in a guidebook. I recently visited a couple of the areas included in the new Northwest Oregon guidebook and was astonished that anyone would bother climbing there let alone including them in a guidebook. But hey, if you're having fun, go for it, but the rest of the world probably doesn't need to know. Eliminating the hype would eliminate a lot of potential negative issues with land managers AND a lot of the bickering associated with bolting within the community.

Congrats Bill, super stoked! So when does this mean we'll see it in stores???

Check out some more photos and a write up by Doug Shepherd over on the NW Alpine blog!

Went skiing up Newton Creek a couple weeks ago and there was no ice on the spider at all...

Awesome work gentlemen, super stoked for you guys!!!!!

Howdy guys! So The Mountain Shop in Portland is going to have a limited selection of our gear starting this Spring (as in very soon!) and will have the full Fall/Winter 2012 lineup. We're also going to be in other select retailers around the US starting in the Fall. Feel free to e-mail us at info@nwalpine.com if you've got any other questions and friend us on Facebook if you use it because we update it fairly often. We've also got a mailing list you can sign up for here: http://nwalpine.com/archives/757 that we send updates to every few months.

I've got no skin in the game, don't care one way or the other, but, correct me if I'm wrong, don't most people use the compressor route to descend Cerro Torre? A little hypocritical to use Maestri's bolts when you need a quick safe descent, but decry their use when you don't need them... From what I know (which is admittedly not much)any other descent off CT is significantly longer and more difficult. So will the haters still use the compressor route to descend? Inquiring minds want to know.

Nice Steve, good work! Sounded sketchy when Tyler was telling me about it! Let's get out soon...

Nice Tim! Good work!

Over the summer Bruce Miller, Steve Su and Doug Chabot headed to Pakistan and made the first ascent of 6,400m Hispar Sar. We've got a write up and some pictures from Bruce on our blog if you want to check it out. Pretty sweet!

So did it get climbed or what?

Yeah, not a good idea. PM me if you want beta.