Rad

Yes, and we should ban TRs from people who carry SLRs into the back country with the express purpose of making my iphone 6S photos look like shite.

After long deliberation, we have come up with a solution: DON'T CLICK ON THOSE TRs. We want more TRs on this site, not less. Enthusiastic noobs are welcome and I think we shouldn't make them feel unimportant or small. Colin, Marc-Andre, Blake, and many others started out as enthusiastic noobs here. It was awesome to watch them develop into amazing and inspiring climbers. Thanks for the soft ball. You can come out from under your desk now.

If by "real" you mean experiences where you are really present in the moment because things have gone sideways, I've had a few. Thankfully no major injuries or deaths. One was when a long time partner and friend set off to lead that last pitch on Moby Grape on Cannon Cliff. He got stuck below a corner running with water and set up a belay to bring me up to see the situation for myself so we could decide what to do. Unfortunately, he set up the belay in the running water and was quickly becoming wet and hypothermic. It was twilight and we had about 30 minues before dark. I had to do a series of aid and free moves up that soaking steep corner quickly to get us out of there before we got in real trouble. That was my first time doing more than one or two moves of aid, and my inexperience heightened an already tense situation. Fortunately it all worked out. I remember crawling into the shrubbery at the summit just as it got dark and quickly setting up a spider web anchor to bring up my partner. We got him into dry clothes and walked down in the dark together via the top of the Old Man of the Mountain. Tragedy narrowly averted.

Is that when you left your neutrino there?

By far the "most real" experiences for me involve exploring new terrain. There's nothing quite like it. Things rarely go as planned, senses are heightened. I put some of the stories in TRs here on cc.com in case you want to read them. Some of the greatest rewards I've found in climbing are the partnerships and friendships I've formed. On the personal level, I grow and improve when I've pushed a little beyond what I thought was possible. These are the climbs where I couldn't sleep beforehand because I kept going over them in my head. An early one was the Inverted Staircase on Fairview. Another was a mini Pickets traverse, where I learned the importance of real bivy gear, hydration, and not pushing too many envelopes at once. I've tried not to put myself in 'if you screw up you die' scenarios, but somehow I've ended up there a few times anyway. On Phobos in Tuolumne back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I was feeling the pump on the twin crack pitch. I couldn't easily get a piece of gear in and was getting flamed fiddling with gear, so I gunned it for the anchors, running it out 25 -30 feet while redlining. I probably would have landed on my partner, so fortunately I didn't fall. Some experiences lead to gear-related lessons. Bring gloves if you think you might be bushwhacking in the PNW: I've learned and re-learned to always bring a headlamp and a backup or extra batteries. Hopefully I'm done learning this lesson! Experiences range from minor inconvenience to crawling down the Upper Cathedral gully in pitch darkness to trying to rap with my family with only a cell phone for light between 4 of us: I''ve certainly made my share of mistakes. Thankfully none have involved major injury or death. I've tried to learn from my own experiences as well as from my partners. Reading ANAM is a good thing to do as well. I've observed in all of these that most accidents aren't the result of bold free soloing, they come from simple and preventable errors, often an assumption is made without verifying that it is true. Rappeling versus being lowered by your belayer. Clipped into the anchor properly versus wrong or not at all. Off route. Rope reaches the ground. And so forth. Pay attention and communicate. Your life and that of your partners depends on it. Come back in one piece, try hard, and have fun!

I'd suggest calling the Darrington Ranger District. I've called twice in the past week asking about the Mtn Loop road, which is now open. They've been super helpful and will probably share whatever they know.

Sweet! Thanks for the details and pics. A single 60 meter rope was enough?

If you listen to KIRO 710 ESPN radio in the evening you'll hear re-broadcasts of classic Mariner's games - I came across them training in my dungeon. The past few days have been the 95 ALDS playoff series against the Yankees. Big names, incredible games, great announcing. Maybe living in the past ain't so bad.

Drew is certainly a star, but he's not on the Olympic team. Nathanial Coleman and Colin Duffy qualified for the two US men's olympic slots and there's a max of two slots per country. Brooke Rabatou and Kyra Condie qualified on the women's side. Sadly, we're not likely to see any climbing comps anytime soon.

The former methinks. BC already told us Washingtonians to stay home. And Trump made noises about militarizing the Canadian border because....(insert something irrational)

I think that's why Canada is going to build a wall on the US border...

Wow. Y'all are talented!

Unfortunately, people were jamming popular trailheads and then getting in over their head in spring snow conditions. From King County SAR on March 22nd: "Tonight ESAR and RSVU responded up the Mailbox peak trail for an injured hiker that had called 911. Upon locating the subject, some of the details from the 911 calls weren't adding up and it was determined that we actually had two calls for separate subjects with the same name! The first was about one mile from the trailhead, and the other was about one mile from the summit. And we're just getting started. Almost immediately after teams located the second subject they were notified of a third possible issue; there were two overdue hikers, likely stranded without lights above the snow line. Luckily, those two were found by other hikers who lent them some extra jackets and lights, and the group was making their way down the trail. It wasnt long before they ran into the team that found our second subject, from earlier, which had been standing-by while we tried to obtain more information about where these overdue hikers might be. While all of that was happening, other teams heading up both the old and new trail encountered a total of three additional, separate parties that did not have lights and required assistance getting back to the trailhead. That's a total of three 911 calls and six separate individuals, or groups requiring assistance that the teams helped in a span of five hours, on the same trail. Two of our subjects were transported down the trail by RSVU quads and the rest were able to hike out, escorted by the field teams. Many thanks to all of the responders! You guys rock! Regional Special Vehicles Unit - RSVU.org King County 4x4 Search and Rescue King County Incident Support Team To the communities that we serve, we ask that you make good choices. With the current dangers posed by Covid-19 every mission puts volunteer rescuers at risk and consumes PPE, like N95 masks, that are much needed elsewhere in our EMS and hospital facilities. What does social distancing look like in the outdoors? Here's a good article from the Washington Trails Association: https://www.wta.org/…/social-distancing-hiking-in-the-time-… Want to know how you can get involved? Check out kcesar.org for more details on our training program and donation options. You can also head over to kingcountysar.org for more information about our partner units in King County Search and Rescue."

The ads on ESPN radio would suggest your wife wants you to do something about it.

But wait, where's the venom and vitriol? This site used to be the place where armchair quarterbacks cast judgment and aspersion from their many anonymous avatars. I guess that sort of thing moved to Twitter. So thankful I'm not over there...

We will take you at your word unless your last name is Cesen or Cesare.

Spectacular!

Lovely. I've spent a lot of time looking at that face for reasons you might guess. It looked too ledgy and brushy and low angle to be of much interest for rock climbing, plus the fact that if you trundled things off the face they could easily hit people on the trail. Your ice line concept seems like a good idea. The window would be small each year given the seasonal road closure. I look forward to seeing more of your adventures up there!

Sounds like an amazing adventure. I'm not one to tell you what to do or not to do. As Jimi Hendrix said, "I'm the one that's going to have to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my own life the way I want to" (If 6 was 9). Risk is an essential part of climbing for many of us, and we all have to find the level that suits us best. However, with maturity most of us come to realize that the pain our death or disability would inflict on our families, friends, partners, and communities is greater than we would experience ourselves. Read this thoughtful piece from Colin Haley, a local legend who did a lot of soloing in his younger years.... https://www.colinhaley.com/a-brief-visit-to-patagonia-and-reflections-on-hard-solo-climbing/

Beautiful. Thanks for posting. Heads up: messaging in the climbing community and more broadly has strongly suggested not climbing and dialling back risk taking so as not to occupy the health care system, SAR people and equipment, and the rest of the SAR chain in the event of an accident/injury. If you do get out, act as if you're on Baffin Island, with no possibility of a rescue, and understand that there will be a lot of armchair second guessing of your decisions. The mountains will still be there.

Some scary ass shit for realz.

You sure are a smart ass.

Laps in knee deep pow sounds like a pretty good consolation prize.

A few weeks ago we went to Canada to ski and sadly hit a skunk shortly before arriving at the Canadian border. The whole car reeked. We didn't say anything and Canadian border guard didn't ask about it or say anything. Then coming back into the US a few days later the car still smelled slightly of skunk, which some think smells like weed. For the first time I can remember, the US border guard opened the back of our van. He didn't go digging through bags or anything, and he didn't comment on the smell. He shut the back and sent us on or way. As a family of 5 in a minivan we probably don't fit their profile of drug smugglers.

Well, you can do this but you need notarized forms.