Rad

You turned back in the face of questionable conditions. That doesn't sound like failure to me. That sounds like sound judgment. And yes, that thing looks like an ungodly pile of tottering choss. Is that the route where House had his accident?

If you've been watching this route for a few years, you'll know that there is often only a narrow window, if any at all, between the Pocket Glacier sliding off the slabs and the time when rain/snow start falling. We're in that window now and the forecast looks great. On the flip side, the North Slesse Glacier is broken and active. Go get some! I'll write a TR at some point.

If you're descending the W Ridge to avoid the E ledges descent, don't make that trade. The E ledges is fine provided you're comfortable unroped on exposed 3rd class. Angle up slightly on the last bit and you finish right at the target notch without having to climb up that loose gully. If you're asking about the W Ridge descent because you'd rather downclimb that ridge to cover more classic terrain, then ignore my comments and follow the advice of others who've been down that way late season (I haven't). Rad

We need a new book to capture the flood of sweet new routes, many of which are world-class. I hereby nominate Sol and Blake to write it. This can be your ticket to immortality! I love Croft's title "The Good, the Great, and the Awesome". Maybe for WA classics we could have "The Sweet, the Splitter, and the Stupendous".

Cool outing. Sounds like quite an adventure.

It was wet up there. Hope everyone is OK.

Close, but what is meant is that almost any dog can be trained properly and behave well. Conversely, almost any dog can be problematic in the hands of an inept owner. Owners are almost always the root cause for the bad behaviors of their dogs. Cats are a completely different story.

There are no bad dogs, only bad dog owners.

Wait 'till Simon Yates cuts the rope, drop into a crevasse, crawl out, write a book...

I enjoyed a recent mag article that brought back fond memories of two steep multi-pitch cobble routes on somewhat sketchy terrain: Shake n Bake and Lava Falls in Pinnacles Natl Monument. There were plenty of knobs to hit if you fell. Both were drilled by hand from stances on lead. And bolts are not body length apart. Or even close to it. These routes would not be what they are today if they had bolts every 5 feet. But Oregon is not California. What matters is what the ethic is at the crag in question. If bolts every 5 feet is the norm then a new route with bolts every 5 feet will be right at home. If neighboring routes are runout sketchfests with tied off knobs then a closely bolted route won't fit with the local ethic. If this is the first route on a crag then all bets are off. Y'all can figure it out. Debate and discussion are healthy and should not be stifled.

Lighten up kids, in a few years Mitt will frac the planet apart and we'll all be drifing on hunks of rock in space, so climb while you can. Meanwhile, enjoy this blast from the past:

I'll also vouch for Gene being a great partner. Gene, if you solo consider going in and out via Bedal Creek as it avoids the glacier. You'll still get into some lovely high country. You can climb a moderate West Face route or scramble the descent. ps. I'll be in Stehekin.

I agree, but I think you missed the point of the article. It's one thing to be able to lead a few 11s. Being able to confidently lead testpiece 5.11s in all different styles is a much, much higher bar.

Time is the limited resource we all have to decide how to spend. I wouldn't trade my family or career for being an 11 all-rounder. I do enjoy climbing in the mountains and on long routes and want to make the most of my times there, so I train as best I can. But I haven't found a way to train for pure friction moves. None of the friction areas I know (Darrington, Static Pt, Squamish, and farther afield) are close enough to hit with any regularity.

911 operators are trained to give some basic, and sometimes life-saving advice. Perhaps SAR could have talked them through how to get their ropes unstuck. Sadly, liability concerns may prevent this.

You get good at what you do. If you pull plastic bouldering routes you get good at plastic bouldering routes. If you climb slabs all the time you get good at that. If you climb crimpy Little Si enduro routes you get good at those. Unfortunately, skills in one area usually don't confer much benefit in the other areas. The only way to become a solid all-around climber is to climb all of the styles, with particular emphasis on your weaknesses. Most people don't have/make time to log that many hours on distant crags to get good at everything. Wet weather doesn't help the equation. I wish there was a gym where I could practice slab climbing. Ditto jamming of different sizes. Yes, there are some gyms that have fake cracks but they're pretty far from the real thing. So here's a hypothesis: it's not possible to become a 5.11 all-rounder if you live on the wet side of our mountains and have a family and job because you simply can't log enough hours practicing all the necessary skills. Maintaining a high level of proficiency is easier than gaining it in the first place, which is why I say "become" rather than "be" above. Feel free to prove me wrong. ps. Largo is too Yosemite-centric. We need a list of NW benchmark routes.

Stoke! Are those 2 mini-traxions in your solo set-up? Does the rope need to be weighted to have them feed smoothly? Will it work on dynamic line or do you need the stiffer static? I've just been using the Cinch, which requires reaching down to pull rope through the device. A hands-free setup would be better.

Limiting the number of camping permits is intended to limit human impact on a sensitive environment. We should honor those limits and play by the rules to help protect the Enchantments and to help relevant regulatory agencies believe that climbers are legitimate and responsible users of this precious resource. Sorry if that sounds preachy, but the actions of one or two climbers can have a big impact on public perception of climbers, which in turn could compromise access for many other climbers. Thanks and have fun wherever you go.

Disney couldn't write a better happy ending.

I second Kurt's recommendation and would add that with one strand between you there's a lot less rope drag on low angle, uneven terrain, you don't have to worry about which strand to clip, and you still have a full length rope for rapping if needed.

This is like Tommy Caldwell updating his blog from a portaledge on El Cap. Cue Beth Rodden voiceover: Go Tommy Plaidman!

Is this the latest Slesse descent beta? Does the lower part correspond to the trail that Colin and friends supposedly spent time improving/marking? Thanks.

Rinse with a more dilute solvent: Budweiser.

"I started doing research about the common injury and sure enough I had suffered a minor to moderate tear of the medial meniscus." Internet medical research is probably worth about what you paid for it. If problems persist consider getting a professional to check it out. IMHO a good PT can be worth their weight in gold. It could be that your injury was the result of years of a muscle imbalance that will re-appear as soon as you ramp up again. That was the case with knee and shoulder issues I had recently. Both have been fixed by PT followed by exercises to correct the imbalance. A buddy of mine tore his MCL in February. He took nearly 12 weeks to get back to 100%, but he's 40. No surgery needed. When you're ready to test the knee, ramp back up with increasing volume of lower difficulty lines. Resist the temptation to jump on that radical problem your friends are struggling on. As was noted above, avoiding re-injury is the fastest path to getting back to 100%. Staying healthy is an important part of the game that takes more and more of your attention as you get older, but it's far better than being injured on the sidelines.

Sent pm. I'll be offline most of the day.