OlympicMtnBoy

Damn, sounds like a great trip! I need to get out there and bring a boat someday!

Oh, yeah, I guess I did forget the bleached bones, 6K of deadfall and wading through blackberries and slide alder while digging my ice axe into the dirt for insecure footing. Oh and when you get there the Mole is really on 30 ft high, it just looks bigger from below. Colchuck Lake is a much better hike all around. ;-)

Nice job, that's a pretty spot up there. I didn't think the approach was all that bad for the elevation gain when we went up to do the North Face of the Mole last year. It was certainly easier than when Matt and I came down from Toketie. It's a haul though!

I'm free all day, got home from work in Mississippi a week early. Anyone up for climbing anything? I'm open to trad or sport up to 5.11 or so. It will probably be a half day given that I'm posting this at 11:00 PM, but drop me a note here and I'll check when I wake up. - OMB (Stewart)

Let me know when you want to do Ship Rock, I'll bring my helmet. - OMB

What Gene said, take out the inner foam liner and cut a notch in it where your crampon lever will meet the heel welt of your boot, might take a couple of tries to get the right amount trimmed, but worked great for my OR Brooks Rangers and Nepal Extremes. Or try a longer strap. If you can't get one you can just find a piece of webbing the right size (Seattle Outdoor Fabrics if the local gear shop doesn't have a skinny enough width). You can tie it on the old strap for extension or replace the old one. Use yer noggin and it should be an easy fix. Or go buy new overboots if you'd rather go the $$ route. :-)

I have some super light short softshell gaiters from Montbell that work well as a really simple gasket to keep the snow/scree out of my shoes in the summer. I've had to replace the bungy cord underfoot several times but it's easy and the softshell fabric is easy to repair for the inevitable tears. They don't like to stay on all my low top shoes though in snow. I'd recommend something similar though, I think MH, OR, and MEC (maybe REI too) make short softshell gaiters that are similar. I opted for not having any sort of velcro/zipper and haven't really regretted it although you have to take your shoe off to put the gaiter on/off.

Dang you guys/gals are OOOOOLD. ;-) I started in the 80's as a wee lad with an old green REI aluminum framed thing where the hip belt ended up just above my knees. Shortly after that my parents got me a state of the art Jansport external frame pack that was small enough to fit. I have fond memories of hiking along the beach on the Ozette Triangle and occaisionally falling between the logs I liked to scramble on and getting stuck as my frame pack would hang up between them with little me dangling underneath. Good times!

Good question, I keep my adjustables daisy and my aiders on the same biner as many (most?) people do. If I have to high step to get to the next placement, but it is a dicey placement, I will often crouch down and step back down a step after placing the piece before fully committing to it. This way you are in a better position to absorb the shork with your body and closer to the lower piece if the upper one blows. If it doesn't blow you are now at a good level to quickly clip the rope and unclip your daisy from the lower piece and move on. You don't want to waste time and energy with this on every placement, but it's good to think about how you will absorb the shock when you are bounce testing. You don't want to just go limp and fall on the daisy, instead use your arms and legs to cushion the fall onto your daisy and aiders.

I think Aerogel needs to be encapsulated by something so you can't really buy a sheet of it to cut down. They do make foot beds with it but they'd be too small to cover the sole of an overboot. I recall the sole material of my OR overboots was a white foam very similar to closed cell sleeping pad (hardman pad style) but thinner. I would just call OR and ask them and they will probably get you some. They do have great service, even if you aren't the original owner I think they'd help out for something like that. Otherwise I think finding a thin sheet of something similar would work just fine. Order a thin hardman pad from one of the ultralight backpacking co's and trim it? Good points on the crampons with those too. I trimmed the foam on the uppers of mine right at the toe and heel bail area so step-in crampon bails didn't have to compress the foam at the welt. They held well after that but you want to make sure you get the fit dialed at home and are careful to get the toe and heel bails on correctly on the mountain.

Town Crier has a decent sloping ledge you can sleep on off to the right of the easy part of P3 if you want to do something with an overnight and not sleep on the ground. I'd probably do that for practice over fixing and firing GD although GD has better climbing slightly. I've only done the first 2.5 pitches of Dana's Arch but I wasn't excited about the hooking above an old quarter in buttonhead and a cam behind a loose flake. Maybe I just wasn't feeling it that day but after p2 it's not well travelled (P1 low anchors really but the first 2 full pitches are fun and mellow). One of these days I have to go finish the whole thing.

Cool! Bring on the sparkles! It'll add more variety to the usual shirtless beanie clad crowd (which some like more than others). ;-)

That looks like fun! How many days did you take?

Hot damn that looks like fun! Why is the sky so blue in all your pictures. Did you photoshop that or something? ;-)

Sounds like fun! We nearly had a similar experience on our return drive just north of Hines, OR, well after dark, with a big SUV just parked in the middle of the fricken highway, no flashers or anything, just headlights on and stopped. Those of us dozing off in the back had a rude awakening but fortunately Ivan didn't hit anything with my Chinook. Sometimes driving is the crux (and the most dangerous part of a trip). :-)

Bad Buds, this sums up the canyon and they weren't even cold yet:

Not a huge issue but you've have to move the whole 3 bolt belay station down a ways to be able to reach it from lower. It may make the start to that pitch rather hard for the free climbers as well and the route is gaining popularity free (we ran into Cedar Wright and Nellie rapping down it). It's a stellar pitch, free or aid (and one of those where you can actually envision the moves to free it, 5.12+). More of my pics of the trip here: https://picasaweb.google.com/matthiesen/ZionRoadTrip#

9 stuff sacks and pouches, damn, he was organized. ;-)

I never did figure that one out. I'm pretty sure it was that strange combination of extraordinary drunkeness and national pride/hospitality. A lot of folks there had never seen an American before. He may have either been too drunk to remember that he had already brought us ice cream the first few times, or just thought it was time again. It's always time for ice cream! Even in the middle of Russian winter you buy ice cream from a cart on the sidewalk and enjoy it for hours as you stroll since it's too cold to melt. It just emphasized the theme for the trip that we continually heard the phrase repeated, relax, it's all normal, just have fun and be in the moment cause you might not be going anywhere for a while (or you might suddenly find yourself in Uzbekistan). :-)

Trip: Squire Creek Road - the road Date: 3/20/2011 Trip Report: I know, not that exciting, but I thought this might help with the early spring plans of some folks. With my girlfriends dad in town we were looking for an easy low hike and I convinced them that Squire Creek would be fun for a few miles and maybe have some cool views. Sadly, at just around 1,000 ft above sea level the road was still quite snowy. This was at the low point just where the road becomes unimproved, quite a ways from the TH. A high clearance vehicle went about a quarter mile past us leaving nice ruts and then backed out. Prom queens beware when hiking here: A few trees down in the road that will take a saw to get out: And one small landslide that should be made passable with some work: Still quite snowy up there: But spring emerges (what are these guys?): Anyways, might be worth putting on our road crew list in case the FS doesn't get to right away. I turned around in boot top wet snow maybe a tenth of a mile or so before the actual (as of last year) end of the road but it looked good to there as best I could tell. Gear Notes: Bring gaiters to keep the snow outa your boots! Approach Notes: Drive to Darrington and turn right.

Nice pictures too, I sure am jealous of an annual "work" trip up in that area. Thanks for the updates.

Awesome, one of these days I'm going to have to go back and finish that. Pitch 2 was my first ever aid lead. Scary back then.

Yeah, he calls it the north ridge. Cool!

Thanks Scott, I thought I might have the name wrong. :-)

http://www.rcnw.net/ You can find both answers there.