olyclimber

Great TR my dudes! Any formatting errors are mine, fyi. Had to paste the dang thing directly into the database and reformat it.

the earth never sleeps

The Tooth The Tooth The Tooth is on fire Burn MFer, burn #humblebrag

Damn Wayne...was this date night?

Funny the only thing you miss with this is time. Like the more time you spend there, the better. But if this is all the time you had to do it, then bravo. I probably spent more time than this trying to clean the basement on a given weekend.

Wow. Sorry for the site being such ass. It is due an upgrade to totally different software which will make everything infinitely better and easier...but due to things beyond our control its just taking WAY longer then we expected. Thank you for persevering and sharing your TR, which is a pretty fucking kick ass TR btw. What is next?

yeah raining ash over Seattle and Portland isn't the norm....or maybe it is the new norm. Even out on the Olympic Peninsula, Forks area this weekend it seemed like a tinderbox...normally a soggy place in Sept.

looks like rain is on the way, and also lightning. this 90 in Sept business is crazy.

Archer mountain...so just west of Beacon. BE SAFE BEATARDS.

Didn't the Eagle Creek fire jump the river...if so, IS BEACON ON FIRE????

Please rain soon! https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/state/49/ https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/state/38/

I want to see Marc go blast the doors off that C to C record

Ray Jardine describes spending a number of seasons camping mostly at or above treeline with neophytes in Colorado, using builders' plastic in lieu of tents.....two or three decades ago. (For the historically challenged, please do look up Jardine's record). Today, many (sadly not most) people are over-paid (or wish desperately that they were) and have an increasingly unhealthy fascination with boutique camping equipment as a means of signalling manliness and bravery. They'll tell you that camping at tree line in Cascades in Summer is act of death defying bravery that can only be accomplished by spending thousands of dollars......... They feel that those who drive a Ford rather than a Lexus are less manly or intelligent. This defines cretinism. Er.. Mountaineering tents certainly have their place, but speaking realistically, they are mainly used by the uniformed (more money than brains) for circumstances where building plastic would suffice. Of course, the Hillieberg Rajd is not a mountaineering tent.

In 1970 when I was an adolescent, a guy in his 20s enthusiastically recounted a summer back-packing trip he'd just taken in the Sierra. One of the main things I remember was a glowing description of his high-tech tent, which was coated nylon, and very small. I recall the (NY-based) Camp & Trails catalog of the era sold them (also "Reevair," a failed precursor to Goretex). Nylon tents were considered fairly advanced and somewhat novel. Soon after, I purchased a cotton REI pup tent, which featured a coated nylon floor and which tapered drastically in height and width toward the rear. It may have weighed about six pounds. After a couple of years, I replaced this tent with a 9'x 10' REI tarp which I used almost exclusively for tentage for nearly a decade. I eventually gained the (pretty fancy) knack for setting it up as a fully enclosed pyramid and learned, very much the hard way, about banking snow around its edges. Six weeks' summer camping in Europe, ending with a week in Iceland, convinced me, however, that I might like to purchase an actual tent. I paid $19 at the time at a K-Mart-type store for a coated nylon pup tent, sealed the seams and immediately set out on a two-month bicycle trip in New England and Canada. Once, during a raging nor'easter on a Nova Scotia beach, it leaked.The insect netting was extremely effective and welcome throughout the trip, which often required camping in unplanned and bug-infested locations. Several years later, in a very warm and unexpected spring snow-storm, condensation along with dragged-in, melting snow collected on its coated floor, and made for an excruciatingly cold and perhaps even dangerous night in a down sleeping bag. Eventually, due to a heavy beach-camping phase, the floor of this tent began to resemble mosquito netting. After more than ten years, I gave it to a friend, who apparently abandoned it in a Central American jungle during a tropical downpour. In the years since I've come to rely almost exclusively on "tarp shelters." Recently, I've again purchased one of these cheap-as-dirt pup tents, mainly because of the virtue of insect netting. It's extremely light and compact.

[video:youtube]snhiofL2Rh4

So for all your 50-degree calm and clear summer alpine nights in Cascades, go buy a $500 "ultralight" custom-made mini dipsh*t tent with bug-net, made by poorly paid employees of some wannabee yuppie, or Chinese peasant corporate slaves. Whadueyecare? The Wall Street boys finance and profit from the manufacturing gear, whether in Shang Dong or Tacoma. MIT boys (mostly Asian) designed it. You can get your hard-on with your equipment based on price you paid given your own, possibly overpaid, "professional" work. Sellers won't care how or where you got the cash. In most cases, the thing is, how it affects your own self esteem. In this regard, shopping at Wal-Mart will make you believe you are inferior-- a "poor person," or something even worse.

I assume climbers doing exclusively or even mostly high-altitude routes in arctic or sub-arctic conditions are tiny minority on this board. Maybe this is wrong. Typical summer Cascades/Sierra alpine camp is in benign weather at moderate altitude, with only real menance being mosquitos. Rock climbers have somewhat healthy tendency to shop for equipment by brand. I have moderate experience and tend to favor Black Diamond. Many climbers I meet have essentially unlimited funds and are mid-career doctors. engineers, and lawyers, and transfer this tendency to other areas: Clothing, cars, booze, restaurants........ Many non-climbers I meet have similar tendencies........ "Backpackers" per se, are idiots, pure and simple. There is absolutely nothing I can think of worse, more lame, than an "expert" backpacker giving advise to a "novice." Typically, they emphasize supposed complexity and dangers of sleeping, and the need for vast experience and expensive equipment to accomplish this. Gets creepy.

It's absolutely true that many climbers, at all levels, in Gunks are economically, and/or often intellectually elite. Especially those like myself (modest and poor climber) in middle age and older. Some of the very best climbers I've encountered in Washington State have been relatively poor, and weirdly humble, backwoodsmen. "Best climbers" aren't my subject. Creepy sleeping and hiking advise for boy scout-types in mild conditions is my concern. Saying that a $20 tent (basically for one person) that can be modified to weigh 2-3 pounds is laughable gives me the creeps. I've heard lots of this kind of response from "backpackers" that are highly impressed with their ability to walk and sleep, and hyper-BS concerned about "warning" people against taking a hike without "survival training" and God-knows what nonesense. The other issue is self-identification with high-price brands and consumer goods. Like, I'd NEVER buy a $4.00 bottle of wine and Budweiser is bad for morality and your resume...

oh i can join in too. make it 4.

ha that was awesome. I liked the vid as well! You survived!

OxygenUptake...if you're going to post in a community website (no matter how tired and out of date the forum software is), take the time to get to know the community. For example...there is a Classified section. Use that next time. Otherwise face the ire of the natives.

Wait a minute...now you're met 3 of them!

You're still here? Hahahahahhahahahaahaa. Who is the fool again? You said you were leaving a long time ago. Don't let the door hit you in the ass a second time. Oh thats right, the third or fourth time. For the record, I don't give a shit about what you think. At one time I tried to listen, but you're such an asshole it became quickly apparent you're not worth a turd worth polishing. Anyway, we're making Geocities hot again. That shit is coming back into style.

Smoot's Rock Climbing Washington has a Tieton section in it, and is readily available. https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Climbing-Washington-Regional/dp/0762736615 Maybe I should sell my copy of Tieton Rocks and retire with the proceeds!

I was going to recommend Ford & Yoder's Tieton Rocks guidebook, but I see it is out of print and people are asking idiotic prices for it on the Internet....