Rad

Madonna (and child)

Blind Melon is the watermelon with sunglasses. Seal is on the poster. Twisted Sister could be the acrobats or the kissing, entwined girls rear left. Screaming Trees back center. Men Without Hats (?) up on the roof.

Most climbers in the NW are white because most people in the NW are white.

Cute. Here's a start: B52s Rolling Stones Sex Pistols Alice in Chains Radiohead Men at Work The Eagles Queen Prince Matchbox twenty Smashing Pumpkins Madonna Guns and Roses Led Zeppelin Nine Inch Nails

Sing to the tune of Janis Joplin's Mercedes Benz: Oh Lord, won’t you find me a big fat old bolt? My friends all clip sport routes I must be a dolt. I've put pro in flared pin scars with tipped out old Friends. If I don't find some pro soon I'll soon meet my end. Oh Lord, won’t you find me a crack that don’t hurt? I’m clawing my way up this one full of dirt. My fingers are bleedin’ and I tore my new shirt. So Lord, won’t you find me a crack that don't hurt. Oh Lord won't you find me some holds for my feet? I'm sketchin' on slabs like a dog that's in heat. My calves are on fire and there's no where to stand. So please find a jug for my foot or my hand. Oh Lord, won't you show me a sign I'm on route. My belayer's got frostbite cuz he dropped his left boot. The sunset is coming and the topo is lost, So Lord, won't you help us to the top of this choss?

Caves, wetas, glow worms, oh my! Get into some caves while you're there. There are tourist trap caves, including Aranui and black water rafting, but you can ask locals to show you around some more pristine caves. 'Tis a beautiful country to explore. Have fun!

Beat my drum shoulders in taut, sunny rhythms, Sing with the butterfly wind in my hair Until the music stops, the dancers fly apart, And all the chairs have been folded.

David Byrne wrote: Everyone is trying to get to the bar. The name of the bar, the bar is called heaven. The band in heaven plays my favorite song. They play it once again, they play it all night long. Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens. Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens. There is a party, everyone is there. Everyone will leave at exactly the same time. Its hard to imagine that nothing at all Could be so exciting, and so much fun. Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens. Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens. When this kiss is over it will start again. It will not be any different, it will be exactly the same. It’s hard to imagine that nothing at all Could be so exciting, could be so much fun. Heaven is a place where nothing every happens. Heaven is a place where nothing every happens.

distance fallen = 60m = A(t)(t)/2 where a = 9.8m/sec2, t = seconds falling. solving, t = 3.5 seconds. v = a(t) where v is velocity ergo v = 34.3 m/sec or about 100 feet per second. Fast.

Cute. So if you rappel 60m then your cam could fall from 60m to 120m. Would you use trust it again if it hit something toward the end of that fall?

There are lots of interesting things in this thread. It seems many people have thought about how to manage the risks of climbing. I think people should be remembered for how they lived, not how they died. I hope all those whose lives were touched by Carl Skoog are richer for it. My view of risks and dying has changed over time. When I was a teenager, I thought it would be cool to die in a blaze of glory someday. In a way, Jimi Hendrix was a god to me, and his brief, intense, passionate life was inspiring. Then my father was diagnosed with cancer. My view of death was re-formed during the four year roller-coaster battle that culminated with my father’s death when I was 20. In that time we cried together, talked about a lot of things, and came to know each other better than we had before his illness. We talked about different kinds of deaths. Despite the pain and suffering of cancer and its treatments, my dad felt lucky to have the time he did. In any abrupt, unanticipated death, there are a lot of loose ends that cause pain: things left unsaid or unresolved that cause pain, commitments made by the deceased that encumber the living, not to mention financial and legal matters. My dad was able to tie up those loose ends before he passed away. We thought we were ready for his passing, but we were not. We all felt a terrible emptiness for some time afterward. That was a long ago, but I came away with some things that continue to define my world view. The most important pieces fall into three points: -I believe the most important thing in life is love, including that with friends and family. Cultivate it and you will be rich. Everything else is secondary. Tell people you love them while you can because you can’t do it after you’re gone. -My father and I both believe that there is no afterlife. This is it. Don’t delay in pursuing your dreams. You might not be around or able to pursue them if you wait too long. -I want to leave the world a little more beautiful, in one way or another, than when I found it. I have been fortunate in my opportunities in life and feel an obligation to pursue a career that allows me to give something back. ……………… I took up climbing after my father died, in large part because I grew up in New Jersey and didn't find climbing until I went to college in California. I have always taken risks of one sort or another in life, and climbing is no exception, but I have never been reckless. Now that have a wife and two great kids, I have a lot of reasons to stay healthy and stick around for a years to come. I find friendships and relationships keep getting better with time. I still climb and I still take risks. I feel that to some degree reward, in all forms, is a function of risk. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. That said, I try hard not to put all my chips on a single roll of the dice. I want to be around to take my kids climbing someday. ................ Life is what you make it, each day precious.

Eggcellent!

Important Message for all Nature Lovers, Campers, and Hikers. Camping, hiking or working in wild country can lead to close encounters with bears, and because each species may react in a different way, it is important to know how to tell them apart. With the increase in bear attacks in recent years, Parks Canada has come up with some strategies to keep you safe. Although you don't want to startle a bear, you do want to let a bear know you are in its vicinity. By tying a small bell to your jacket, the gentle sound will be will heard and the bear will head in the opposite direction. Just in case you still find yourself face to face with a bear, also carry a can of pepper spray. Under field conditions, bears are rarely in plain view; usually they are partially hidden by shrubs, trees or rock. The next strategy is to learn which bears are in the area you are visiting, i.e. Black Bears or Grizzly Bears. The foolproof way to tell, is to look for bear scats (droppings). You can examine these scats to identify the foods consumed by the bear. If the scats have a sweet fruity smell, and contains berries, you can be sure it from a Black Bear. If the dropping smell of pepper and contain tiny bells, you know it's a Grizzly Bear. ............................... ---- Here's another way to tell Black bears from Grizzly bears. First, as soon as you see a bear, climb up the nearest tree. If the bear climbs up the tree and attacks you - it's a Black bear. If the bear pushes over the tree and attacks you - it's a Grizzly bear. _________________________________________________

There is no spoon, but there will be a trail. Here's how it will happen: 1 - A few people go and tell others how great it is and how to get there. 2 - More and more people will go. A crude path will be carved out if the impact of their footsteps is stronger than the vegetation growth and various modes of erosion. The path will be direct, prone to erosion in places, and may have braids in confusing or difficult sections. 3 - If the area is featured in a popular guidebook this will increase its use, particularly given its proximity to populated areas. The path may be worn into a more prominent trail. If the erosion and braiding are bad, certain users may decide that it's worthwhile to build and maintain a proper trail. Perhaps no one will improve the trail and it will continue to evolve with use. 4 - At this point there will be an established climber's trail that follows the consensus route to the climbing area. This might be just like unmaintained access trails that now lead to and from many climbs (South Pickets, Eldorado basecamp, Snow Creek Wall, Baring, Kaleetan, Index town walls etc etc). Is that bad? I don't think so. 5 - Natural forces (landslides, vegetation growth) may erase the trail over time if its use falls below a certain threshold (is Dome in this category?). Wilderness is sacred. Please remember that we didn't inherit the earth from our parents, we borrowed it from our kids. See ya out there. Rad

Thanks gents. Very helpful. Looks like a fun outing. Alas it will probably have to wait until next season.

What was it that 'spanked' you on the Flagpole? I'd like to get out there. Did you do the approach described in Nelson? Is it possible to rap off Annapurna? Flagpole photo

Nice report and photos Blake. Has anyone placed fixed gear out there yet. Should we grid-bolt it or leave it unblemished? Can you guess my vote? Anyway, keep on Rad ps. I take it you're out of the Stehekin bakery for the season. My family and I were nibbling the goodies up there a few weeks ago. Yum!

FYI, the friction sections on Condorphamine are not sustained so you should look elsewhere for longer slabs.

I'm not perfect. Neither are you. Now we've gotten that out of the way let's get down to business: BLUE BAGS* are not just for Rainier, the Boston Basin, and the Enchantments. Take them into other pristine alpine wilderness areas where biodegradation is too slow to prevent water supplies from being contaminated. They're free, they're easy to use, and they won't rupture in your pack unless you drive over it with a . * the free double bag poop transport system available at ranger stations, which you need to visit anyway to get your permits. Here's some encouragement for the squeamish among you: on a recent trip into the Green Glacier are of the Twin Sisters range I had the urge to purge right before we got on the glacier/snowfield. In that rubble-filled canyon it was clear that anything I did would wash directly into the valley water system in a heartbeat (or fartbeat). So I used a blue bag, carried it in my pack up technical rock, down butt-bumping talus, through dense and nasty brush to the car. The bag was still intact when I disposed of it in Bellingham. I don't want a medal, I'm just trying to point out that it's easy. An example of what not to "do": When I went to the Gothic lakes area last May I crossed a creek below a waterfall and found someone had cut cable on the thin snow bridge DIRECTLY OVER the creek. I guess that was the flattest spot they found. Yuck! Maybe karma will find it's way into that person's water bottle someday. So please keep our lovely alpine wilderness areas pristine by carrying BLUE BAGS, using them, and returning them to civilization for disposal. If you can't pack out your steamy lump then bury it at least 200ft from any water or channel that runs into water. OK, I'm getting off my high horse now.

It's a beautiful September route with some of the best views in the Cascades. There's only a little talus below the summit pyramid and that's not bad at all. Go get it!

Apologies for the optimism. There are worse things in life than bushwhacking and logging road slogs. Thanks for an excellent adventure Darin. I think there may be other lines on the E face of Skookum that are more sustained... maybe next year. Send a CD of photos when you can. Radrigo

Nice work. Maybe you guys did the FA of that crack. Any signs of other travel in it? Glad you made it down the gully safely. Early season (in non-mutant years) that might be nice snow.

Great job on your trip. Epics make for good stories even if they usually involve suffering. Crux pitch: We thought that final steep crack you climbed looked good but we only had one #2 and one #3 camalot so it would have been way run-out. Instead, we traversed 30ft right and found another crack up the wall. It was certainly a spectacular, clean 5.9 hand and finger crack. I don't know which one is the 'real' route. Does it really matter? We too were concerned about the broken Terror glacier and decided to avoid it entirely by doing a mini-Pickets traverse. Pickets Mini-traverse The snow on the approach to West Mac/5 towers col is very mellow. The 5 towers are fun and not too hard (maybe some 5.8 or easy 5th if you bypass certain summits). We found the descent down the W ridge of Ispiration very straightforward to the Pyramid/Inspiration col. We crossed the top 100m of the West Inspiration gully and it was a bowling alley of death blocks. We went one at a time and each set off a shower of rocks from pebbles to refrigerators that exploded down the lower gully. I can't imagine rappeling down that to the glacier. Gully photo The scramble across Pyramid and Degenhart was easy and pretty, or if conditions are favorable you could climb the ridges ala Marko, Colin and Wayne. The traverse to the Barrier and the Chopping Block is pretty straightforward. The Chopping Block NE ridge is a nice, easy line. In short, you can easily avoid the Terror glacier entirely if you have 3-4 days for your trip and are willing to go light and carry over. Going light has the added advantage of a more enjoyable approach. Other photos from our trip include: Terror glacier from Inspiration E ridge Chopping block First of the 5 towers From bivy at the W Mac/5 towers col

My son is now 18 months and our daughter was born this past June. Fatherhood is wonderful, if diaper-full, so far. Has my risk profile changed? Yes and no. I have always had a desire to come back in one piece with my head intact. For that reason have never soloed routes near the limits of my abilities. I wear a skull bucket for most climbing. That said, I've willfully entered 'must not fall' situations, as we all have. These have been on lead but also on approaches and descents where a rope wouldn't help anyway. I have been out since having the kids and my risk level is only a little more conservative than my pre-kid level. Still, my perspective has changed. It used to be "If I die here I know I've already lived a full life with no regrets." Now I have lots of reasons to be around for years to come and to be healthy enough to share climbing and hiking with my kids when they're older. I look forward to adventures with my kids, and in my book adventure involves uncertainty and risk of one sort or another. How will I feel when they climb trees or cross rivers or climb? Probably nervous as hell, but I'll try hard to encourage them and not be over-protective. Life without risk, on the couch surfing cable, wouldn't really be an example I'd want to set for them anyway.

Are Dean Potter and Peter Croft and John Bachar crazy for soloing hard rock routes onsight? Was Chris Landry crazy to ski the Liberty Ridge? Are Jens and Loren crazy to have climbed their line on Jberg? Was I crazy to solo Del Campo this morning? We all find our own acceptable level of risk. If you think a route is too dangerous don't climb it. To lure others onto a route without making them aware of its dangers would be irresponsible IMHO, but it would be acceptable in the time-worn tradition of sandbagging. Jens and Loren, I find it inspiring to see people push themselves beyond their own perceived limits and succeed, regardless of what the difficulty is or whether I will ever do the same climb. Great job and thanks for the post!