Rad

Try the poster Colin.

bummer. amazing he was able to complete the climb and descent w/a sprained ankle

yep. He was wiring the gondola up for our next outing. Cfire, I hope you guys weren't bushwhacking in the dark. We just hit the cars as the peaks went red at sunset.

Sad news. At least you'll be getting great docs at Harborview. Get well soon. Perhaps that UW rock needs closely-spaced bolts to prevent such an accident. Or at least closely-spaced lawyers to deal with its aftermath.

Dave Page, Cobbler, 3509 Evanston Ave. N., 206-632-8686, www.davepagecobbler.com I've never had problems there, but some have made noises about poor customer service. Dave told me during the summer he has/had guys working on the rock shoes on the weekends. I dropped my shoes off Friday afternoon and had them back Monday morning. No shipping reqd. You might ask him if/when this summer thing is ending. I had called Ramuta and was told the wait would be at least 2-3 weeks (that was about 6 weeks ago). That may have changed.

Glad to hear you tested those blocks. Yep, it will be interesting to see what lines emerge as the best. Yours is a good one.

Climbed this route Sunday, with a variation finish. Gorgeous rock and fun climbing. Thanks Dan and Blake! Photos first: One of many overlaps The underback variation (part undercling, part lieback). Underback finish. Snaffle eating nuts. If you want your own adventure stop reading here and go climb. . . . . . Approach notes: turn uphill when the trail crosses a small creek. Stay left of the creek and veer slightly left up to the West edge of the cliff above. We went straight across the creek, ascended through the brush to another steep cliff past the entire basin, scrambled to the ridge, and then traversed all the way back to the route. Doh! There are some deathblocks that could use trundling. There was a party below us so we refrained. The first deathblock is on p3 in the topo below. It is about 8ft long, one foot wide, and two to three feet high, and it is only suspended by its ends. You can avoid this by veering up and right. A small loose block is in a spot where you really want to step later in that pitch. This probably would come off with a tug. Deathblock 2 is on the exit from the zebra corner. It is 6ft long, 2 feet thick, and three feet high, and it overhangs the lip of a ledge. It may be heavy enough to be stable, but climb gingerly ON it and don't do a hand traverse on the outside of it. Ouch. Variation finish: We wanted to go straight up the zebra corner but it was still wet in a key spot. I really wanted to get on something new I'd seen in the photos, so at the end of our p5 I veered left and belayed at cracks 10 feet left of the large tree that is the base of the dihedral in Blake's photo. Just above that is a short, steep fingercrack (5.10a/b?). This leads to an amazing clean corner (the underback - see photos above). I belayed at a nice tree atop that corner. From there it is 60m of mostly easy ground to the summit. If you go over the roof at the end of the zebra corner you'd find a tree to belay and a great handcrack leading up to the start of the variation mentioned above. We lead and TRd the dihedral in Blake's 2nd to last photo before lowering back to go up the variation above. This pitch has a loose block that needs to come out. Go late in the day to be in the sunshine. The rock here is superb. Enjoy! Where we went:

Pickets to the East.

oh, the scandal!

Way to push out of your comfort zone.

I have a topo of the upper half that may keep you out of trouble. Send pm with email address and I'll send you a PDF.

Looks like your son has chalk up to his elbows!

Chair is a lovely peak but the rock is total choss. Wear helmet, beware loose rock, and move fast in the firing zone.

Very nice. I hope to do that with my kids one day. Note to self: climb popular moderates to score gear!

Might be faster to do the 'walkoff' if there is any sort of trail...rapping is slow.

Thanks smarty pants. Why not suggest she not get married, or not climb? ............. You might post notes at both trailheads. Good luck finding it.

My 2 cents: 1 - Follow leaders with racks a lot before you go and build your own rack. This will give you a sense of what is most useful. 2 - Start out with stoppers and hexes and tricams. They are cheap, and you should learn to place them and not always rely on cams. 3 - Never get used soft gear (rope, harness, slings, cordelette etc). Nylon decomposes pretty fast. Same goes for booty. 4 - Most hardware is probably OK. Stoppers are easily inspected visually. I own more from booty than ones I bought. Cams should be free of major dings and demonstrate good expansion and retraction properties. If you can't test these I wouldn't buy them. So if I find a sling and biner booty I will throw out the sling and keep the biner. Nuts I keep. I've only found a few cams. One was an original friend I got in the Pickets. I have only used that once in a TR anchor where other pieces were present as backups. My main concern is it's sling, which I could replace, and outdated design and weight. Lastly, watch the Yard Sale category here. Sometimes good stuff comes up. Caveat emptor.

btw, what are the spires in the bkgd of the last photo? Looks like they are at least as tall and might attract both climbers and highline walkers.

Scary. The alpine habit of testing holds before weighting them may save you from a few future falls. Current thinking on wound healing is that moist is best. Cover under bandage and copious antibiotic ointment until closed. Then use serious moisturizer (eg Eucerine) until completely healed.

Holy turkey necks! Wayne, how hard is that free? Would the gear/hardware hold a lead fall?

Looks like what Kenny would wear before dying a horrible death.

The SeaTimes is careful not to describe these folks as climbers, even though it says they were climbing. The public probably sees them as climbers anyway. "Not experienced and not dressed for a climbing trip" probably describes all of us at one point or another. MLUS for Washington coming soon? In any case, it would've been a cold, wet night out last night and I'm glad they are safe. ...................... Two brothers who were stranded overnight near the Big Four Ice Caves by Granite Falls have been rescued, the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office said. This morning, rescue workers from Snohomish, King and Skagit counties, as well as sheriff's deputies, worked to help the men, ages 37 and 19, of Marysville, who had been stranded while climbing Monday. "It's probably not a stretch to say the men are cold and tired," said sheriff's office spokeswoman Rebecca Hover in a note to reporters. The men were not injured. Rescue workers were able to make voice contact with the men yesterday evening, after people heard the brothers yelling and called for help, according to Hover. Rescuers also used handheld thermal devices to pinpoint the location of the men. About seven rescue workers spent the night near the scene, but the team waited till daylight today to continue the rescue efforts, the sheriff's office said. The rescue was done by King County's helicopter Guardian One. Workers on the ground directed it to the right location and used the helicopter's hoist to bring the two men inside the helicopter. Deputies said the men were not experienced climbers and were not dressed for a climbing trip.

Yikes! Sounds like a near miss. Glad you got away unscathed, but those bears now associate climbers with food. Not sure what else you could have done... The mink/weasel may be a martin. Very handsome snaffle that.

A fool and his money are soon parted. Caveat emptor

Way to persevere and good call waiting for daylight. That gully is bad news!