tanstaafl
-
Posts
660 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
23
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by tanstaafl
-
-
- Not in her immediate future, but an option for the future instead of lead, fix, rap, TR solo would be if you could enlist a friend -- I once happily led all the pitches on Das Toof while my buddy Ken and his 10-year old followed on doubles so he could climb beside her the whole time. It was a fun day out.
Also, this guy has some hilarious kiddie trip reports: https://jimherson.com/climbing/tr.html
-
In a successful attempt to find solitude at Frenchman Coulee, went out to Running Gear Death Wall this weekend and found some new moderate bolted/mixed bolted and gear routes just to the south of the routes listed in the Yoder book. A quick look at Mountain Project didn't reveal anything; anyone have any info on these?
-
Well next time be all internet stalker-y! It would have been great to actually meet you finally. If you ever put your own photo in your reports maybe we would have recognized you.
-
Rat's more typical alpine meadow exercise:
-
1
-
1
-
-
Hey! If only I'd known. V and I ran into you as we were on the way down.
We debated biking but biking that road on a road bike (my only option) with an overnight pack sounded not that fun.
We did not summit as it turns out my summer of moving my mother into memory care and getting zero exercise and V's summer of mountain biking instead of hiking uphill with a pack resulted in us wisely choosing to forego the summit in favor of chilling out and reading while sitting on a rock, camping with a stellar view, picking a whole lot of huckleberries, and swimming in Silver Lake, topped off with delicious potato tacos in Lake Stevens. I can't regret it.
-
Dang, a snowball fight AND goats AND a bear is pretty stellar. Looks like a great training outing.
Beautiful area. Last time I was up on Sahale we did it in the opposite direction and once we dropped into Boston Basin we couldn't see a thing. We did have some freaking adorable baby goats at camp though.
-
1
-
-
Found a nut tool on the Ingalls descent on Thursday, if it's yours and you want it back ping me with the brand etc. and it's yours again.
-
Found a pair of pretty new rock shoes here on Sunday; ping me with the make model color size etc. and we can figure out how to get them back to you.
-
Love that ptarmigan shot. I need to take a few leisurely trips instead of always trying to cram as much in as possible.
-
1
-
-
Fryingpan Glacier was in fabulous shape on 5/30; should still be in good shape if you wanna get after it asap. Meany Crest was a nice camp:
-
1
-
-
Ha! I'm reminded of a line from Jon Krakauer's Eiger Dreams where he's chatting with a young Frenchman in a bar in Chamonix, and mentions he climbed the Grand Capucin the day before. The conversations ends:
"You did not solo and you did not fly?" asks the Frenchman, incredulous. "Did you not find the experience a little -- how you say in English -- banal?"
-
1
-
2
-
-
at least you inspired me to go watch the Monty Python spam sketch.
-
another stellar E$ outing. aren't you getting a little old for this kind of thing? 😉
-
1
-
-
Thank you Porter for reminding me of that ancient email address I had totally forgotten about; here I am again. Lucky you.
-
Claimed
-
Is the brush less atrocious late in the fall? Or is that something you like?
-
Anyone making rope rugs or something and want a free retired neon orange 60 m Beal Joker? If so it's yours, you just have to come get it.
thanks
-
If only skill and style were the same!
-
Those are inspiring photos Jason, especially the second. I now feel somewhat pretentious for referring to myself as old.
-
Congrats Jason on finishing the Smoot list AND successfully navigating the bureaucracy of peak naming. Huzzah for you and Dallas.
-
1
-
-
Running dog! Your name came up as we were wandering around out there actually; Gordy said you were recently on what sounded like a pretty amazing bike trip. You going to put up a TR for that? I for one would love to see it.
-
Thanks; it was great fun. One thing I've noticed about climbing over 20+ years is that it's not the endless upward trajectory that I once (totally unrealistically) hoped for, but instead the same grade is hard, then easy, then hard again, then easy again, as age/injury/training time/life responsibilities vary. Hopefully 5.10 in the alpine will feel easy(ish) again before it's permanently out of reach, but if not, there still area a boatload of fun routes to do.
-
Trip: The Pasayten for the Old and Slow - Amphitheatre, Cathedral, Remmel
Trip Date: 10/01/2022
Trip Report:
In September 2002 I hiked into Cathedral Lakes with my buddy Russ to do the classic SE Buttress on Cathedral. We got rain, hail, fog, snow, and finally gorgeous sunshine; unfortunately in the wrong order. Our first day at Cathedral Lake we chose not to climb as it was really cold, the fog was thick enough we couldn’t see a thing, and as Russ said, “It would suck to have to retreat and leave gear all over the place—even if it is only your gear.” That night it snowed enough that the next morning we bailed and hiked all the way out to Thirtymile campground.
Twenty years later, with a far greater appreciation for and expertise in checking and understanding the weather forecast, I wheedled Gordy-from-the-Pickets into heading back in there last week for another try. I had friends who were doing the Cathedral loop trip with a group and planned to scramble Cathedral, so I figured if Gordy and I got an early start, we could do the Ka’aba Buttress on Amphitheatre on Day 2 before they arrived, Cathedral on Day 3 while they did the scramble, then spend the next two days leisurely hiking out and tagging Remmel with them.
We saw no one the first day expect for three yutes (by which I mean people who appeared to be in their early 30s) and their dog. I speculated they were running the loop as they had teeny tiny packs and shorts and seemed to be moving awfully fast, and we’d seen no sign of a tent along the way. We made it as far as the Tungsten Mine (but not to the buildings) before I said “Here’s camp; I can’t go a step further.”
We made it to Cathedral Lakes the next morning in plenty of time to do Pilgrimage to Mecca, tag the summit of Amphitheatre, and return to camp, but apparently I’m now too old to hike 20 miles with a full climbing pack in a 24-hour period without being too wasted to do much of anything once I get there. Very disappointing. Also, Pilgrimage to Mecca was clearly not going to come into the sun until 4 or 5 pm, if ever, and it was cold in the shade and I’m an enormous pansy. So after a nap (on my part) we just scrambled the West Ridge of Amphitheatre. Not a very exciting route, but nice views from up there.
Amphitheatre and Cathedral from Boundary Trail:
We started up the SE Buttress fairly late (8:30 am) on Saturday, so that most of the first pitch was already in the sun, but it was still darn cold belaying. Instead of swinging leads we divided them, with Gordy getting the pitches that were wide or would benefit from brute force and me getting anything that had a thin crack on it. This worked out quite well. Sadly we were both too busy climbing to take many pics, but there are already a gajillion pics of the route so it’s hard to think that’s much of a loss.
I think this is the belay before the fifth pitch, but really I have no idea. Who cares; look, it’s sunny!
We avoided the headwall pitches as neither of us are leading 5.10 at the moment, heading around the corner to the right to scamper up the ramp and chimney that the Doorish topo in Beckey shows as 5.6. Old age and treachery triumphs again.
We posed for summit shots; I did my 1930s Red Army recruiting poster pose.
Gordy behaved a little more normally.
We were back to camp in plenty of time to move down the trail a couple of miles, but we were behind our friends and didn't catch them. They ended up going a different way than they had planned, so we ended up ahead of them the next day by doing the 800-calorie cross-country shortcut to Four Point Lake. We met them on the trail as we were descending from Remmel and on the way back to where they had ditched packs we had a fun scavenger hunt for the notes they left to inform us of their track.
Analog communication:
We had a lovely evening camping and eating and telling stories, saw a moose (!!!) in the morning, and stopped by a gorgeous stand of quaking aspen for our last break before returning to the TH.
So overall a great final hurrah to a shockingly successful summer season for a middle aged lady with a “real” job. Unless this Indian summer lasts another few weeks....
Gear Notes:
I thought I took too big of a rack but we sure did use it
Approach Notes:
walk and walk and walk and then walk some more-
2
-
1
-
2
-
-
I've been waiting for this one. As usual the pics do not disappoint. Looks like a fabulous trip; what gorgeous colors in that Heart Lake photo.
-
1
-
[TR] Sperry Peak - Standard 11/25/2023
in North Cascades
Posted · Edited by tanstaafl
Nice! I did that back in 2017 with Chuck (RIP) along with True Grit on Vesper after another party just beat us to the base of Mile High Club. Quite enjoyable as I recall. More brushy and less snowy for us though.
It certainly looks like you had more snow than R and I found in the Tatoosh on Saturday. Here's to more coverage soon!