curtveld

I thought the hardware and rope techniques were reasonably sophisticated for the 30s. The scary part was to imagine going up on a huge route with absolutely no weather forecast. Overall a good, but not great, movie. Most climbers will enjoy it, but I definitely wouldn't encourage any non-climbing family members.

That is typically a good time of year for that type of climbing - weather during your visit could be the limiting factor. Several classic North Faces are Buckner, Maude, Shuksan and Redoubt. Get some guidebooks (Beckey or Nelson) and/or dig into old trip reports for details.

Dang, looks like fun. Cool tree shots!

Well, I sincerely hope he was reincarnated as a dog...

About halfway through it, and what a great read! Daniel Arnold researched early Sierra pioneers (Muir, King, Clyde..) and repeated their outings with equivalent technology: No synthetic fabrics, no sleeping bag, no topo maps. Anyone else read this?

Dang, Bill, thought this was going to be about SAD! After all, it is still supposed to be winter in the Cascades.

Absolutely! If you've never driven up the Sierra eastside on 395, you'll be amazed.

Way to get off the beaten path, Sherri! Looks like a sweet Epinephrine-style chimney variation possible on Pitch 4?

Couldn't have said it better meself, cman! As far as the "something else" part, go for a dig into the ten years worth of TRs this place has accumulated. In additon to hundreds of TRs on the Tooth, Outer Space and the south side of Hood, there are countless more unique posts.... humor, amazing photos, countless obscure corners of the Cascades and other parts of the globe. There's some pretty funny old Spray threads too.

That looks like a ton of fun...and I'm sure a fair amount of hard work as well. Very nice! And check your PMs Seth

Great stuff!

An outstanding solo adventure. Way to take full advantage of this winter's wierdness!

No bites. Could still do the afternoon at Erie if that works for anyone. Curt

I agree there's a common tendency to focus on the next season's activity before it's quite time. Still, kind of hard to argue the logic of picking an activity that fits the conditions for that day rather than the calendar.

As in Friday, the 19th. Gonna be nice! PM if interested.

Westward Ho - Darrington Racer X (p2!) - Index Birds of Prey - Squamish Barad Dur - Wolf Rock, OR Can't Believe it's a Girdle - JTree

Yup it's gone. And a good move because it'd be a shame to see that crack get all polished from top-roping.

If the apaches were still around, they'd be taking stronger action than that! Most were killed off by the military and the survivors shipped to Florida.

Trip: Cochise Stronghold, AZ - Nines between storms Date: 1/23/2010 Trip Report: Nothing like a mid-winter break from the PNW gloom to explore sunny rock down south, right? A great plan, but don’t count on any help from the little bastard known as El Nino. For you skiers wondering where all your snow’s been going, here’s a hint: But work calendars and plane tix don’t like to flex and besides, washed out access roads and snowy approaches just add to the adventure, right?? Day One – Isle of Ewe Andy and I loaded up on groceries in Tucson (except beer, which can’t be sold before 10am?!?) and headed directly to the Isle, a great base-camp area with nearby sport climbing. As the sun swung around, we did a few clip-ups on “Trad” Rock (center of photo above), including Baby Junior (5.8, photo below), Stone Woman (10a), OK Corral (steep 5.7) and Isle of Ewe, a classic 5.9 (after the 5.10 ‘boulder start’). At a glance, the scattered domes of grainy brownish granite of the Stronghold resemble Joshua Tree, though the rock is much more featured, in particular with with chicken-heads and dikes. There are many more multi-pitch routes than JT and, based on this trip, a lot less people. Day 2 – Moby Dick (5.8, 5+ pitches) We coaxed the rental car through streams, over boulders and through snow to the West Stronghold trailhead. Patchy snow covered the ground and surrounding domes, but with plenty of sun. We scrambled up the actively-flowing “wash” and up to Whale Dome. After the crux first pitch, three more pitches of slabby face climbing lead to the spectacular pitch 5 headwall. Despite the sparse bolts (two in about 100 feet), I was having too much fun climbing the ladder of holds to notice. Slinging chicken-heads for belays added to the amusement. Great views on top before the gut-clenching free rappel off the back. Day 3 – Mystery of the Desert (5.9, 5 pitches) A savanna hike lead to the Sheepshead area for this gem. After the improbable 5.7 dihedral (p1) and some nice climbing up a groove and over a bulge (p2), you encounter the ‘Wedge', a short bomb-bay off-width. If you’re tiny, you can wedge yourself through – otherwise a little chimneying and stemming (not to mention the three bolts) make it reasonable. The fourth pitch is a stellar left-leaning hand-crack to a dike traverse across neon-yellow lichen. A bit more face climbing and you’re up. Highly recommended. Day 4&5 – Rain days We showered, ate restaurant food and hit the Titan Missile Museum south of Tucson for a look at Cold War technology that would vaporize the Soviet populace, should they have elected to vaporize us – or vice versa. The cement-encased underground control room was straight out of Dr. Strangelove. Although ‘military intelligence’ is a favorite oxymoron, it is impressive that such awesome weapons were kept cocked all those decades without ever being fired, intentionally or otherwise. Mendoza Canyon had some sun but an angry rancher denying climbing access, so we visited another renowned winter climbing spot - Mt Lemmon. Well, the photos pretty much sum that situation up, though we did find a little dry bouldering. Day 6 Return to the East Stronghold Stop one was Owl Rock and the classic Nightstalker (5.9), which featured more cool chicken-heads and another free rappel. From there, we checked out nearby Zappa Wall and a couple nice clip-ups Excentrifugal Forz (5.8+, photo below) and Latent Appliance Fetishist (10a), as I belted out these FZ anthems from my college days. After lunch we had time for one last Stronghold classic and headed for Bee Line (old skool 5.9). The first pitch is ‘the biz’ - splitter cracks from hands to fingers to tips up to the roof – then a flexing layback flake out the right side. And, atypically, hardly a face hold on the entire pitch. Andy cruised the runout 5.7 face pitch to the top. Plenty to go back for! Gear Notes: No up-to-date guidebook. Great beta from MountainProject.org Standard rack + extra long slings Approach Notes: Trails and/or cairned. Many of the plants can hurt you.

Looks like Eldorado. And Josh, with pics like these I doubt anyone would care if you got there by unicycle.

Great TR Marc. And fantastic photos, Scott!

Damn - thwarted on the FWA!? Way to stretch the season guys - and thanks for the advanced road work.

Good call rat. Checked Amazon to see if there was a recent edition but that's the latest and it's out of print, with used copies going for $40 to $100+! Not critical, since there's lots of good beta and topos linked to the Mtn Project site.

fgw - sencha a PM with more Stronghold trivia...

Very cool! Great tales and photos. Yeah, that was my query - I'm headed down there in two weeks. WML is definitely on the list and perhaps Endgame should be as well, if we get a warm day anyway. Lots of great-looking stuff out there that isn't in my '91 edition of the Kerry guidebook.