Rad

Definitely, but Obama is more pragmatist than liberal, and he liked the power it provided, so he kept it, and probably expanded NSA's ability to read your dreams. Oh, and I'm one of them libtards thru n thru. Hillary all the way!!!

Foot note: "River slippers were super light for descent shoes, but they don’t protect your toes very much." That was a bit of an understatement. I lost one big toe nail two weeks ago and the other will be gone in a week. Next time I'll carry my approach shoes up the climb for the descent. Will spare you photos...

1 - Go to Gallery. 2 - Click on "Upload photos". 3 - Click "Select files" for upload. Note files may need to be re-sized to be below about 4Mb. 4 - Browse until you find the images you want, select them. 5 - Click "Upload/submit" 6 - Follow instructions. Once they are in the gallery, go to TR or Full Page response, click on the camera icon, click on photos to add. Delete the medium/ part of the instructions to make the giant, or keep them medium. Let the fun begin! Rad

Be bold and learn how to upload and post your photos so we can see what you did.

Beta and topo for Faith: Faith. 800 feet, 5.10c, Grade III. On the Bishop, which is the obvious yellow/white cliff on the right side of the Deacon in Cathedral Peak Provincial Park. P1. 45 meters, 5.9. Start in a large corner near the right side of the wall. Ascend a series of corners about 35 meters, step right and head up a featured buttress to a large ledge. Step right and belay at a good crack. P2. 35 meters, 5.9. Head straight up a short thin crack, pass a short bulge (5.9), then head straight up to a small belay stance in a corner. P3. 35 meters, 5.7R. Step right onto the buttress or head straight up the thin crack corner. There is a large block to sling on the buttress. All other protection involves heading back to the crack. Reach a large ledge after 60 feet. Head left past a tree and an exposed step to a belay at a good crack. P4. 45 meters, 5.7R. Head left and up to the left edge of a large roof. Pass the left edge of the roof and head up and slightly right on a ramp to a belay at a large ledge. Move the belay 80 feet left and 20 feet up to a ledge at the base of a giant gray corner. 3rd class. P5. 20 meters, 10c. Head straight up a series of cracks that lead to a flake on the skyline. Step right at the lip and move up another 25 feet to the belay. P6. 30 meters, 5.9+. Follow a series of excellent hand cracks directly to the summit. Descent: Walk to the high point to the North and follow an easy, solid buttress down to the saddle at the top of Wall Creek. Class 2/3. ..................

Thinking about taking the family up the Sahale Arm toward the end of the month Can anyone comment on smoke, water availability, snow conditions to the summit, etc? Thx Rad

Cool. Will add to the list. Fix your pics so we can see how awesome it is!

Rust never sleeps

The beta we had listed those pitches as "Sentinel Direct". I have no idea who climbed them first but it wasn't us. We didn't see anyone in 5 days.

I think that's correct. And if people want to call it part of the Deacon that's fine w me. The Deacon is the peak there, which is rather rounded and broad. The Deacon cliff is separate from the feature w Faith. The Deacon is on the left. The Bishop is on the right. There is a large gully between them you can't see in this image: The Deacon: The Bishop: From Grimface, you can make out the Deacon and Bishop at the right edge of this photo around the same height as my head.

Trip: Cathedral Provincial Park / Pasayten - Faith FA, Sentinel Direct, Grimface traverse Date: 7/19/2015 Trip Report: Unstable weather in the Bugaboos sent us to Pasayten via Cathedral Provincial Park, and at Blake's recommendation we focused our attention on the Deacon. It was a fantastic trip. We repeated the Sentinel Direct route, did the first ascent of Faith (5.10, 6 pitches, grade III, ground-up, onsight) on a cliff that we don't think has been climbed before, and finished with a classic ridge traverse on Matriarch, Macabre, and Grimface. Team shot at the trailhead. There is more fuel in the Wall Creek forest than I've seen anywhere. It's just a matter of time before the whole area explodes in a firestorm. Be careful. We lost the trail in a swampy area and were escorted up valley by a squadron of black flies. Yes, they're trying to bite you, but don't let them get into your head or you're going to be miserable. Zen. [video:youtube] The forest gave way to alpine meadows ringed by granite towers. The natural beauty of this area is just as inspiring as the climbing. Meditating on the hard-won view while ignoring the cloud of flies. At the trailhead, I discovered I'd left my sleeping bag in Seattle. Oops. A few layers of extra clothes and our tent made the nights bearable, but Brandon spurned my spooning overtures, so I usually woke up around 4 when it was too cold to sleep. By 5 it was getting light anyway. Dawn among the larches. The meadows come to life. We headed for the Deacon, a North-facing cliff with a few routes. We did Sentinel Direct, which starts in the right-facing dihedral on the left side of the wall. Brandon lead the first pitch, a lovely splitter crack and corner. Brandon lead the second pitch in good style. It involved an awkward move into a small corner with 5.10 fingerlocks before escaping left to a more moderate hand crack. I made the mistake of pulling out on a crack getting into the corner and pulled off a toaster-sized block. We both launched off the wall. The rope caught me and the block sailed to the talus below. The third pitch was a 5.7 blocky, rampy, chimney to the top of a tower. I started on my block by leading a fun 5.9 stem pitch. Apparently you're supposed to traverse right on a ramp before the top of the offwidth crack. I ended up doing a hand traverse and heel hook to get past a large wobbly block guarding the belay without weighting it. The next 10- pitch was fun face and flake climbing. It's important to always maintain 3 points of contact. Very serious business, this climbing is. A 5.10 face move led to a nice chimney. I lead a 70m 5.8 rope stretcher and Brandon took us quickly up another blocky pitch to the top. Thunder boomed around us as we unroped and headed for the summit. There is some fantastic, exposed block hopping to get you past a tower over to the summit. When I raised my hand at the summit it buzzed from the electric charges in the air. Time to go down. Cathedral Peak was getting soaked but it looked like we might stay dry. Or not. [video:youtube] We quickly headed down the E gully, which we learned is quite friendly even when wet. The evening cloud formations were beautiful and bizarre. And the sunset was lovely. The next morning we got an earlier start and focused our attention on an unclimbed line we'd spied on the large cliff to the right of the Deacon. We're calling this cliff the Bishop, because the central feature looks like a giant chess piece or pointy church official. It's the same height as the Deacon and has clean, steep rock. Our line went up an obvious corner on the right side of the cliff just right of where I'm pointing. I lead up a series of corners and small roofs on super clean rock. 5.9 45 meters. One of several good, short corners on the pitch. Around 35 meters I escaped right up a clean, blocky buttress leading to a large ledge. Brandon lead the second pitch, which had one 5.9 move and continued for 35 meters to a small belay. Future parties could link this with the first part of pitch 3. I then lead up the third pitch, stepping right onto a lovely but unprotected buttress next to a super thin crack. I was able to garden just enough gear placements to make this safe and arrived at a giant ledge after 60 feet. Above us, the cracks looked like dead ends or unprotectable seams. And the rock was steep. We thought if we traversed left toward the main wall we might find a passage. Bailing would not be easy as there were not a lot of cracks up here, but we had faith something would work out. At a large ledge I headed left for about 50 feet, including a couple of exposed moves, to a good belay at a ledge and crack. We'd call pitch 3 5.7R, 30 meters. Following the first part of the third pitch before the ledge traverse. Brandon continued left, not sure if anything would go. He worked his way up and left past the left end of a large roof. This was the key to the route. It opened up a magical passage on a rightward trending ramp through otherwise steep and blank terrain. Pitch 4 ran 5.7R, 45 meters to another giant ledge. We moved the belay left 80 feet and up 20 feet to the base of a corner below several cracks. I chose the one that went straight up from the belay. It turned out to be quite physical. At the crux, I had a crappy heel/toe cam, my hands on rounded holds, and had to blindly place a #3 in a flare. I find that the best climbing experiences are the ones where the outcome is in doubt but you somehow keep it together and succeed. I was unsure if I would send or whip off this pitch until I sank my hand into a great jam just below the lip in this photo. 25 meters, 10c. Brandon lead a wonderful series of hand cracks that went straight to the top of the wall. A finish with an explanation point! 35 meters, 5.10a. It's hard to explain the feeling of launching up a wall into the unknown. I've only done it a few times, but it's not like any other type of climbing I've experienced. You must solve the physical and mental puzzles of climbing and placing all your own gear as you go, as with any trad onsight, but you also have to figure out where the route should go, how to handle loose rock, what gear to save that you might need above, and how much risk you are willing to take. It's about having faith in your partner, faith in your abilities and experience, faith in the gear, faith in the rock, faith that you'll be able to piece together a clean line to the top, and faith that you can back off safely if necessary. Not blind faith, mind you, but faith borne out of experience and a deep awareness of each of these elements. As you climb, a stream of details are gathered by the conscious mind and merged with a river of intangibles that filter in through the peripheral subconsciousness of your mind's eye. They combine, as in a flow state, and turn thoughts into actions. Actions into experience. Experience into memory. The satisfaction that comes from a ground-up, onsight, multi-pitch route worthy of repeat ascents runs deeper than words can convey. It is the joint creation of the climber as artist and the natural canvas of the rock. Authorship is shared. It is vertical wilderness exploration. There is only so much you can see from the ground. You have to go for it to see what will emerge. The world is not completely known, despite what the internet might lead you to believe. Adventures can still be found by those who seek them. Partnership makes it richer still, a shared experience. I am deeply grateful for all of these. This time there was no thunderstorm. We marveled at the summit tower and dreamed of future lines on the wall. The backside of the mountain is a low angle plateau with great views of Cathedral and many other peaks. More alpine wild flowers. The descent was a super easy walk down a solid low angle ridge to the Northeast back to Deacon's basin. The next morning we tried a new route on another cliff, but what looked good from a distance turned out to be vegetated and unpleasant up close. So we down climbed and headed off to do the Matriarch, Macabre, Grimface traverse. It was a lovely and relaxed afternoon outing in our approach shoes. There are lots of interesting rock features, bolts where you need them, And great views on a perfect summer afternoon. More wildflowers. Views of the Deacon and Bishop are in the upper right, with Cathedral in the background. The perfect end to a perfect trip. A chill in the air socked in the peaks as we left for home. The climbing is stunning here, but the nature was even more inspiring. Please tread lightly if you visit this pristine wilderness. Back at the car, we were eager to dive into the river and start planning our return. Special thanks to Blake for providing great suggestions and Brandon for being the perfect partner, even if he does hog the only sleeping bag! We had an odd conversation at the US Border at Sumas: Border guard: Where do you live? US: Seattle, Mt Vernon. Border Guard: Do I know you? Have you come through here before? Me: We were here a few weeks ago, were you here? Border Guard: No. Are you wanted anywhere? Me: (Pause) Just at home by our wives. Border Guard: Well, don't hurry back. He handed our passports back and waved us through. We ignored his advice and hurried home to our loved ones. Gear Notes: Doubles to #3 Camalot plus single #4 Camalot. We had a 70 meter rope, but a single 60 meter cord will suffice. A sleeping bag would be nice! Approach Notes: Approach via Wall Creek. Stay on the trail on the East side of Wall Creek. There are good campsites in the top of the basin. Please keep this area pristine.

Awesome. That brings back some cold, wet memories. There is nothing easy about the Pickets. Nothing. But perhaps that's what we like about it. I think if you go on a normal snow year and go earlier in the season you might have a better experience.

40 miles for one awesome route. Ouch. Your capacity for masochism will serve you well in the PNW. Good luck with your next adventure!

Thanks for posting a TR. What a crooked line!

The examples you provide are cases where messy humans come to the same spot over and over and the bears know good things can be found. In the wilderness, away from frequently used campsites, bears will keep away from you unless you do something really dumb or they are starved or deranged. By all means hang your food if there are trees. The key to avoid attracting bears and other varmints is to avoid smelly items. If you have open smelly foods they're going to attract critters. If everything is closed up, perhaps sealed in airtight bags or containers, you should be fine unless they specifically come looking, which they won't do unless they're conditioned to look for it. I remember one of my early Yosemite trips we went up Snake Dike, starting at the car around 1 am. I'd eaten two muffins out of a 4 pack (the diet of a 20-something) and left 2 on our front seat for our our return. As we were walking away from the car in the parking lot near Curry Village a bear came walking toward us. We stopped. It walked right past us 10 feet away, clearly on his nightly parking lot patrol. I went back and threw the leftover muffins in the trash and put everything else in the bear box before we left for the trail.

I'll echo what Gene says. If you're going somewhere that bears are not habituated to people, like Glacier, they probably won't come near your or your camp at all. In contrast, if you camp where people have camped before odds are good that the Jays, ravens, and rodents will be waiting for you and eager to raid your stash. Solution: keep it in your tent.

Maybe give it to the starving kids in Africa? They can use it to clobber wildflife to eat for dinner.

It was quite clean other than the 5.11 corner, which is now clean enough for free ascents. Ratings felt quite stiff, but then we were pretty cooked. You should go do it!

Trip: Les Cornes - Sprung C#$k Erect Date: 6/28/2015 Trip Report: Eight years ago Craig McGee, Jason Kruk, and Brad White put up a new route on the BC backcountry spire Les Cornes they dubbed Sprung C#$k Erect. SCE features a spectacular backcountry alpine setting, 13 pitches of outstanding climbing up to 5.11, some of the best granite in the Northwest, and an approach that makes you really appreciate your couch when you get home. Veteran alpinist Wayne Wallace said this climb challenged him to the fullest and is one of the best rock routes he’s climbed. We didn’t need more reasons to go. Brandon and I negotiated time off work and family obligations to give it a shot. Les Cornes is on the upper right in this photo. The forecast for Saturday was for 99 degrees and sunny. Not good for rock climbing. It was supposed to hit 90 on Sunday, and the route is in the sun all day, but we figured if we got a super early start we might be OK. Unfortunately, we were both coming off a week of 4-5 hours of sleep per night, but family and work hall passes are non-transferable and non-refundable, so we were determined to climb something awesome in this window. Les Cornes had been on our list for some time, so off we went. I picked up Brandon on Saturday morning and we headed to MEC to take advantage of the strong US dollar. I got two new 7.8 Sterling Photon Fusion ropes and a #2 C4 camalot to replace one that bit the dust. We headed East on 1 toward Hope. After running a few errands we were off for the logging roads and trailhead. Roads and trails have changed over the years. I’ve included detailed road and x-country approach beta to keep you from getting lost. We drove in circles for a bit before finding the right road. There were a few sketchy road sections to navigate, but we made it just fine. We finally left the car at 6pm. It was still almost 90 degrees. The route followed old logging roads that were overgrown with alder. The center of the road was marked by the line where the alder sweeping in from the left met the alder sweeping in from the right. It was like walking through a dry car wash. We left one “road”, crossed the creek, and followed another “road” as indicated in our GPS track. The alder here was denser and there was a nasty mud in places. My scale for gauging bushwhacks involves answering the following questions: Can you see your feet? Is it night? Are you going uphill? Are there fallen trees, rocks, or other sizable obstacles? Are there prickers or toxic plants? Are you carrying a heavy pack? Is it wet? The Les Cornes approach was not horrible but not great. We found a much better way to go on the descent than on the way up to the route. Eventually, we left the “road” tramped through blueberries and pine shrubbery and reached talus that led to the base of the Les Cornes wall. Thankfully, there was a trickle of water from the last melting snow sections. It was greatly appreciated. I scrambled along the wall to find the base of the SCE start, which consisted of a single bolt below a crack. I made a cairn and went back down to get some rest. It didn’t get dark until almost 11pm. We went to sleep around midnight in the open under the moon and stars. The alarm went off at 3:15am. We ate, hydrated, and headed up to the start of the route at first light. I roped up and cast off on the first pitch at 5am. The route starts with a hard 5.10 face move to gain a slightly easier crack. The impeccable rock and stiff ratings set the tone for the day. Dawn in the mountains is always beautiful The second pitch looked quite clean and interesting, with face moves, a small corner, and a short slot. Brandon led pitch 2, with a ledge traverse, face moves, and a cool finish. How often do you do a knee bar while also doing a fist jam? I led pitch 3, which started with a gently overhanging crack before a lower angle wider crack. At one point I was doing a heel hook and a fist jam at the same time. Looking down at that section: The “OW” was more like fist crack for me. The airy face moves were excellent. Wayne’s photo of Lane doing a Tarzan impression on a bushy tree here stuck in my mind as I stared down the final crux. I locked off on small holds, stood up, and reached up to grab a dangling tree branch as fat as my thumb. The branch snapped off in my hand and I took a 20 foot ride, caught by the bolt. Dang tree! The second time I went up and sent the move using only the rock holds. It’s important for the leader to place a piece in the flaring crack between the last bolt and the bolted belay. Otherwise your second could take a 20 foot fall and pendulum into a corner below the belay. Here's Brandon following that section with the offending tree at the top of the frame. Steinbok looms across the way all day. We simul-climbed the next two 5.6 pitches to the base of the first obvious dihedral. We eyed the terrain below to find a better route out to our car. I took the right hand variation as it seemed more logical than the steeper left hand side. There were some interesting moves and a handy tree belay. 6 pitches down. 9:40am. Only 7 pitches to go. We thought we were doing pretty well, but we were in for some schooling. It was quite warm in the direct sun, but not unbearable. The next pitch starts down and right of the tree and involves a few tricky 5.11 moves followed by an amazing vertical crack in a shallow corner. The "10c" downward traverse was harder than expected. the “5.8 offwidth” involved an overhanging, flaring, scruffy slot where the #4s again came in handy. It got hotter. We nursed our liquids, but dehydration, heat, sleep deprivation, and the difficulty of the route started to wear on us. I fought my way cleanly through a 5.10+ crack that shifted from liebacking to jamming and back to liebacking. And that was the end of my free climbing gas tank. We were determined to get to the top. Brandon went up an immaculate but hard 5.11 corner. He had to dig out a few gear placements and A1 his way up the line. I did the same on the next 5.11 pitch. Stronger climbers can link these two together and will find the crack now ready to accept plenty of finger size protection. Looking down, you can see where we camped at the base of the slabs next to the snow patch. It was torture to listen to the water running below the snow between Les Cornes and Steinbok. The sun gave way to thin clouds, which in turn gave way to scattered showers. The few drops that fell on us felt wonderful. We fought our way up the final 5.9 and 5.8 pitches to the top. These felt hard, but we were cooked and exhausted. As we topped out a shower wet the rock and made the lichen as slippery as ice. We dreaded the au cheval descent, but thankfully someone had added a nice new sling we used to rappel the au cheval. I’ve never rappelled down an au cheval ridge. It’s best to keep your man parts all on one side of the fin, but you need to keep one leg on the other side to keep from doing the king swing. Despite scary comments and pictures, this thing is not that bad, and it’s an essential part of the SCE experience. We did three double rope rappels into the top of the gully as it started to get dark. Some scrambling led us to a drop off. We found a tattered sling on a rusty knife blade and decided not to trust it. So I left a #3 camalot in the only crack we could find. I rapped down 50 feet to an alcove where I could hide from rock fall set off by Brandon and drink deeply from meltwater. This hydration was badly needed and much appreciated. We continued rappelling down steep, smooth, wet slabs and got off the ropes on some small ledges where we could again scramble downward. But Les Cornes wasn’t ready to let us go just yet. The ropes wouldn’t budge. We tugged and flipped and tugged, but they still didn’t move. Prussiking up 60 meters of stretchy rope didn’t sound fun or fast, and Brandon was concerned if he didn’t make it to work in the morning he might be fired. I didn’t want to leave my new ropes behind, but I eventually conceded that might be an option IF we didn’t need them for a rappel down lower. So I scrambled down a few hundred feet to see what the last steep part of the descent looked like. There was a fifty foot vertical drop past smooth rock into a moat, so we did need the ropes after all. I scrambled back up to Brandon and we started up the lines, each on one strand. Fortunately, after about 80 feet we were able to get the ropes to move. I found a block and excavated a groove for a sling. We pulled the ropes and rapped off the sling. We scrambled down the final section, rappelled down the final step to the snow, and stumbled down toward the base of the route and our camping spot. Unfortunately, I went right past the start of the route and had to backtrack up a few hundred meters to retrieve my pack and tennis shoes. River slippers were super light for descent shoes, but they don’t protect your toes very much. We arrived at our camp at 4am, exactly 24 hours after we left it. We hydrated and then made our way back to the car along a path we spotted from the route. Talus hopping and old growth forest were much better than the alder roadways we’d used on way in to the route, but old growth also means devil’s club, alder, blueberries, and ferns as we came down close to the creek. It took us two hours to get from our campsite to the car, and a light rain soaked us the entire way. We were wet and tired And had a few scrapes and bruises, this one likely from my fall on p3, but we were safe. We finally had cell service close to the road and told our loved ones not to call in a rescue. Of course, Brandon wasn’t fired. He’s so responsible and dependable that they were worried something had happened to him when he didn’t show up on time. Indeed, we’d had a little alpine epic. .......................... Here are some screen shots from GAIA, my GPS app, that show where we went. We parked at the red dot by #2 at the top of the image. We took the black route to the base of the cliff, following overgrown logging roads. DON'T GO THAT WAY. Our return route our from the wall is in red and was much better. We contoured along the South edge of the longest talus field, jogged right into old growth when that became logical, and had a relatively painless shwack close to the creek. This shot from high on the wall shows our descent. We followed the right edge of the big talus field on the left side of the image, jumped skiers right into the old growth (dark green trees), and shot straight down to the creek, across it, and up the other side to the "road". We bivied at the base of the slabs next to the snow you can see. It was a perfectly flat spot with a great view. This next track shows our driving path. The driving directions here are pretty good: Les Cornes driving approach A few comments: 1 – There are many more roads out there than this description would have you believe. The topo maps have roads that have been reclaimed by shrubbery and are not visible. There are some roads not on the map at all. If you follow the directions here and take a GPS you should make it just fine. We did. 2 - the “veer right” at 1.8 miles has no bus or other remains and the road soon heads downhill. Don’t worry. Keep going. If you go left at this first junction you go up over a crest to the Anderson River valley, which sounds right but it is not. GPS helped us backtrack and get to the correct route. 3 – There is no logging camp infrastructure any more, but we saw some shiny helicopters around 3 miles up the road. Drool! 4 - There are water bars on the section before the “Big Bridge”. A short wheel base and/or high clearance are helpful. 5 – There are three somewhat sketchy sections of road past the bridge where you have to navigate some washout, rocks, and try not to pitch over the edge. We got out of the car, moved rocks as needed, and made it just fine. 4WD helped in two small spots but might not be essential. 6 – The spur road right turn off Anderson Main at 15.8 is pretty much impossible to spot wo GPS. We were only able to go a couple hundred yards before a lumpy section of road convinced us to park and start walking. This is the GPS section close to where you depart the road. The red waypoint marks the 1.8 mile jxn where you stay right. .................. It took me two days to fully rehydrate and recover normal energy levels after this trip. If you can climb trad 5.11 or are willing to aid a few 5.11 sections I’d highly recommend this route. You could make this climb a bit easier by doing the first pitches we did and then jumping over to the Springbok Arete route to finish. Just don’t skip the first three pitches of SCE as they are amazing! There is some snow at the base of the wall where we camped that will provide water for a few more weeks. There was water in the gully on the descent. Go get it! Gear Notes: We brought two 60m ropes and a standard rack with doubles to #4 Camalot. Approach Notes: See detailed beta above.

Don, we brought 2 ropes (new Fusion Photon 7.8s I picked up at MEC on the way) and they were essential for getting down the gully in one piece. The first three pitches of Sprung ... Erect were outstanding and should not be missed.

Don't miss a good sandbag opportunity!

Me: "There are two important traits for climbing partners: 1 - a willingness to suffer. 2 - A short memory". Partner: "What was the first thing again?"

Sprung c#ck Erect is an outstanding route guarded by a non-trivial approach. Roads and trail choices seem to have changed from past posts so I'll put together a trip report at some point here.

08 or 09 for the block in question.