tanstaafl

I regret to say that neither Rolf nor I actually own a camera, much to the irritation of our friends. Sorry 'bout that. I had one for almost a year but it broke on the bus ride from Chile to Argentina, just before the most photogenic parts of the trip. But allow me to say thanks for all your TRs from the Leavenworth area, Sol, they're very inspiring.

Not that this is really very interesting, but it seems like the climbing content has been way down lately so here's my effort to up it a bit. Somebody post something more interesting, please. On Saturday der Rat and I climbed up at Bridge Creek Wall. When we came down and were driving into Leavenworth, the road was friggin' *lined* with cars, but there wasn't a soul at BCW besides us and a couple of golden eagles. There isn't a trail up to BCW and while it's certainly not an approach I would describe as heinous, it took a bit of time and effort to get there. Rat moves fast enough that it was all – ok, more – than I could do to keep up; he had to stop and wait for me more than once. Once at the rock I gave him the first lead, largely because my Reynaud's had kicked in while we geared up in the shade and I figured I could coax circulation back into my fingers while he got up the first pitch. Our plan had been to do the CS Variation, but in the end we think we started somewhere else. He led up a somewhat mossy chimney and then I continued up a vegetation-choked gully. Someone had bailed from the top of the gully, so I bootied two wired hexes, four (!!!) biners, and a sunbleached sling. Rolf then led a sweet pitch up some left-facing corners and traversing under some roofs, digging out placements as he went, and belayed below a perfect hand crack, which I completely failed to climb. While the crack itself looked nice enough, getting into it looked tricky (to me; not to Rat I'm sure) and getting out of it did as well. What *was* up above that flake at the top anyway? When after mucho climbing of vegetation and shenanigans and back and forth and oh fuck why am I so stupid and why do I still suck so much after all these years, I finally got above the crack, I was actually just as happy I didn't suck it up and climb it; it looked like it ended in hairy slab moves. I'm probably wrong though. I proceeded up a nice wide crack in which you could get excellent thigh jams to a belay at a very large dead tree. Rolf led a fairly forgettable pitch from there and I scored the last beautiful ramp pitch, definitely on the route we intended to climb. It was nice and clean and easy, just my style. The descent was long. I read on someone's blog not too long ago that if you can speak, you aren't really working out. On the approach, and even more, on the descent, I just could not agree with this sentiment. I could speak, but damn I sure felt like I was getting a workout. Again, it was more than I could do to keep up, desperately sliding down through the dirt and rocks and grass and salal and stickery things. I slipped and fell on my ass five times on the descent, I do believe. Still, Rat got a worse deal as he took a stob to the shin…ouch. Heidelberger and ice cream concluded a lovely day. Gear: I wished I had worn socks with my rock shoes; I think I would have noticed the dirt in my shoes a lot less.

I first started leading 5.10 consistently during a six-week stay in JTree, just so I didn't have to get on any more 5.9s.

For those of you who knew him through rec.climbing, Bruce Bindner was killed in an auto accident on Saturday. There is a memorial thread over on supertopo. A very sad day. Condolences to Em, Dingus, and all his friends and family. I never met him but learned so much through his words online and was lucky enough to hear stories about him from Dingus.

Cool! My folks live in Florence and I had no idea there was any climbing down there at all. I'll have to check that out on my next trip.

Nice Davide. Killer pictures. Enjoy your summer in tahoe.

PM sent

I'd like to see the search function turn up something other than that enormously endowed snaffle.

LOL = Lady of the Lake, boat from Chelan to Holden Village and Stehekin

Awesome. I've been up to the Necklace Valley in the summer and it was sooooo pretty; I'd love to get back into that area. Looks like you had some good turns. Excellent Bozo the Clown picture!

If you do climb it be sure to do it when you can ski it; from the top section I would guess that it may be an even bigger pile than Boston Peak. The views are stellar though.

Thanks for a fun trip, Feck. Full value Cascades: trail hiking, creek wading, hours of dense schwacking, a nice couloir, and scrambling up a big pile o' choss to the summit. Definitely stay on climbers' right of Shelokum Creek; it was much much better than the left.

Nice work Olde E and dan! Beautiful pictures. Feck and I thought we saw Dan by the side of the highway on Friday night as we sped east, but weren't certain. I was wondering if I'd come home to some badass TR.

Anybody been up to WA Pass recently? How much snow is still on the rock up there?

awesome. and big congrats to Katy for redpointing Zombie Roof!

Second the statement about getting on Levitation even if you're not climbing at that grade. I definitely don't consider myself a 5.11 climber and I managed to follow the odd pitches clean and lead the even pitches with only a couple of hangs, mosty because I didn't rest long enough after following P5 and kept flaming out on P6. Triassic Sands does look like fun, as does Woman of Mountain Dreams. Anybody here ever climbed that?

Der Sportsman TR: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=840730

I'd be interested in the BD tour on Friday and could give you a ride to the camping afterwards, though I'll most likely be heading to Leavenworth that night so can't offer a sunday ride home. shoot me a pm.

Looking for a partner for Friday. These days I'm leading up to 5.10a/b-ish. I'll be coming over from Seattle and could give a partner a ride over, but won't come back until Sunday evening. Send a pm if interested.

Climbed in the Icicle on Sunday and while there were plenty of cars about, we didn't see a soul on the routes we did. Plenty of people hanging around on the edge of the road though. Hey Pete how was Rainier?

Telling me to fuck off because I questioned your definition of style doesn't really strike me as an incredible sense of humour, but whatever you want, dude. Glad you came through your rehab and are obviously climbing strong again. Fucking off now.

Okay, so if I'm understanding you correctly you're saying that a 300-foot fall resulting in retreating with a broken ankle "wins" for style over a 150-foot fall with only minor injuries when you can continue climbing. So the longer the fall and the more fucked up you are as a result, the better the style? You're certainly welcome to hold whatever opinion you wish, but I think I'll stick with the idea that climbing your route clean, topping out, and going home uninjured is the best possible style, not the reverse.

You ever taken a winger like that and walked, crawled or hobbled away? No, I am not joking. Anyone can fall off....getting out by yourself after something like that is admirable. Few have the stones required to pull it off. Agreed self-rescue is admirable, and I'm certainly glad that anon made it out ok. But you were awarding "some serious style points for distance on the fall." Is falling a long way and getting hurt really good style in your book?

That would be fine with me, but Wehrly might get a little jealous.

Room available March 1 in large sunny 2 BR in Fremont. Lots of light and a view of Rainier (on good days) with large living room and dining nook. Amenities include a dishwasher, laundry room with washer/dryer, a garage and off-street parking, a deck, and lots of storage. Great neighbors and a nice quiet neighborhood just south of Woodland Park zoo. One block to bus lines downtown or cross town. Easy walk to MarketTime, the Buckaroo, yoga studio, Woodland Park. Share with one female skier/climber, often away. Rent is $587.50/month, utilities are approximately $40 to $45 in winter and $10 or so in summer. PM me if interested.