OlympicMtnBoy

I've used both the OSB and thin plywood methods with good success. Then I got a trillium base for like $6 when Outdoor and More was going out of business. It is kind of nice if your board is big enough to rest the fuel bottle on too though, saves some of the constant snow rearranging.

BUMP - I know the season for these is about over, but you know you'll need them when the sun come back out! Get some good almost new boots and help out my Yosemite gas fund!

Cool, looks like fun. How long would you say the approach takes now to the base of the route?

Nice pics of classic climbs, looks like everyone was having fun! Way to cover some classic ground.

Hehe, that is awesome! I liked that climb as well and fortunately didn't have quite the epic descent although we missed actually summiting the mountain because the clouds came in and we weren't sure of the exact route from the ridge or the descent. I had a rat chew through my helmet strap and my ice axe leash the night before. I've bushwhacked up the N. Fork of Tunnel Creek before and it sucks. There actually is an old trial in there, but it is way up above the creek and hard to find (we didn't the first time). I don't think there was any snow in the south chute when i was up there in the summer. I would guess it's dry by now as well but there has been a lot of snow this year.

Nearly new Garmont Vetta Plus approach/hiking/climbing boots. These are a couple of years old and are the earlier yellow model Vetta Plus, but there was little changed other than the color. They are nearly the same as the current Vetta Plus version which is $250 new and have the heel for a "newmatic" type crampon (rear bail, front strap). I got a good deal on these but they are just a tad small (seem to run a little small as I normally wear a 10.5). Size is 10.5 US or 44.5 EU. They have only been worn a couple of times to try them out on cragging trips. The soles and insides show basically no wear. I did waterproof the leather with snoseal so it's not as bright yellow anymore. These are a great boot for 3 season scrambling and climbing and I even did a 5.8 climb at Tieton with them just to try them out. Let me know if you'd like to try them on. $75 for cc.com folks! Garmont Vetta Plus is a versatile boot for mixed mountaineering, big walls and day hikes with technical sections When you value mobility and speed, this boot has the mobility of an approach shoe with the protection of a mountaineering boot Features: Resist rocks and sharp ice to these shoes have a tough split-grain leather upper Blend load-bearing stability with a walkable flex and cushions your stride with a microporous rubber midsole The lace-to-toe design offers agility and comfort while climbing The polyurethane heel ledge provides crampon security Sticky Vibram Sebolet outsole Specifications: Weight per pair: 3 pounds Upper: Leather Midsole: Microporous Outsole: Vibram Having problems with the photo gallery, more pics here: http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/spo/1933134042.html.

Stylin with the summit cigars, nice!

I've had good luck with some other small WA towns with just calling the local Chamber of Commerce/tourism office and asking them for suggestions. They are generally helpful and friendly. A lot of small towns don't have the stupid 72 hour limit, but it sounds like you won't be that long anyways. Often near the police station or city hall or something as Kurt mentioned is good.

Nice job, looks like some fun times and a bit of luck with the weather!

I'm going to have to have Porter change my title to Marilyn Monroe now. I'm glad someone recognized my beautiful pearly whites.

Nice job, I've looked up at that line too. I've only done Wrist Twister and University Wall up there, but next time you need a partner let me know. I might fit the bill aside from the family and mortgage, and that I can't copperhead worth shit.

Trip: Mt. Stuart - West Ridge Date: 8/21/2010 Trip Report: Not a whole lot to add beta wise, but it was a great day out on Saturday! Brendan and I met up at 3:40 AM in Seattle and headed towards the Teanaway hitting the trail around 6:15 AM. We hiked in an took a little break to water up at Ingalls lake and then headed down the trail/ridge to the base of the route (3.5 hrs). Here despite our scoping on the hike in we traversed a little bit past the second gulley and headed up the next one. We soon realized our mistake but were able to angle up and hit the correct gulley a bit higher without any trouble. We knew we were back on route when we hit the preponderance of bivy sites. We really enjoyed the clean granite of the gulley and found the reasonable 4th class route on the right up to Long John Tower. We passed a party of four just before the "tunnel underfoot" and continued along with fun scrambling. The route to the notch was obvious except for where we got to BSing and got confused about which notch was which. We roped up just above the notch and simuled for about 70 meters around onto the north side and back to the south and to the sandy ledge. Brendan wanted to hog the lead to the summit but I made him give me the gear and I headed up what we figured was the 5.4 bit. As others have noted, there has been some fresh rockfall here and there is a fair bit of pretty unstable rock up there. It was unpleasant and I wouldn't recommend that route if you are not comfortable leading around large loose blocks. I managed to stem around it just fine and headed to the summit with Brendan in tow. (looking up from the sandy ledge as I enter the fresh scar area) Here we joined the party on top as it seemed most everyone was coming up at the same time from different directions (a couple parties on the North Ridge, coming up the Cascadian, and the party an hour or so behind us). It took us about 4 hours on the route which we were happy with for our first time on that side of the mountain. After a nice break we started down the Cascadian. I wasn't expecting much, but the Cascadian was long and unpleasant although I think we found the proper route down the right hand branch and were down at the trail 3 hours later after some sore knee resting breaks. We shared some snacks with the couple who had bivied on the North Ridge and still had to walk back to their car at the Colchuck TH, and then headed back uphill towards Long Pass. We made it back to the car around 7:30, just in time to hit the little BBQ place in Cle Elum. All in all, another great trip with on of my longest standing partners! Brendan made this awesome track on his Android with My Tracks as we went: Gear Notes: We took way too much, woulda been fine with a 30 meter rope and 5-6 pieces of gear. No axe or crampons needed anymore, didn't take em). Approach Notes: Get up early, drive, hike to the lake, follow the trail along the ridge, don't pass the correct gulley.

Fred likes that way too. I've wondered what that Crystal Creek bit is like nowadays.

Looks like fun! Which route did you take up Lexington from NEWS?

They're both a bit east of Renton (past the school).

Not bad for a single pitch TR. ;-) Nice job!

Nice, I need to get up there, have only done the ridge route!

Sweet! I kept looking up there and Matt kept telling me how it was all going to fall down on me. I knew somebody'd get on it sooner or later. :-)

We parked at the Mammoth Ski Area. The bus leaves from the "Adventure Center" or some such thing where the gondala leaves from. There was plenty of parking, except for near the adventure center which was marked off as no overnight parking. You have to get bus tickets inside, $7 gets you a round trip and the buses run every 20 minutes or so between 9 and 4 and a little less frequently other hours between 7 AM and 7:45 PM. No pass or anything needed to park your car. The bus was kind of a pain but manageable and nice to be able to do the hike out a different way (started at Agnew Meadows and came out at Red Meadows). There is overnight parking at the trail heads if you come in real early or late, but you still have to pay $7/person. Also remember to get your overnight permits, when Courtney went to get one in Lee Vining the Minaret Lake area was full but Shadow Lake was not and I thought that side was prettier anyways. Have a great time down there but don't forget the bug spray and headnet/bug shirt!

Trip: Clyde Minaret - SE Face (5.8, 12p) Date: 7/31/2010 Trip Report: Having my girlfriend living in Yosemite NP for the summer is great since I get to go visit, and not so great since she's away for several months at a time. I took a long weekend from work and went down to visit her last weekend. Last year we had a great time running up Mt. Conness so we planned for another nice alpine climb and this time settles on the SE Face of Clyde Minaret. Neither of us had been in the Minarets before and at 5.8 it seemed like a good moderate option, plus it's on of the lauded 50 classics so it must be good. We decided at the last minute to make it a three day trip to give us a whole day for the climb since we'd heard it was a long 12 pitches and read several TRs of folks getting benighted or returning in the dark. We packed up, got our mandatory bus ticket (no personal cars on the road between 7AM and 7PM) and ride to the trailhead for Shadow Lake. A late start (2:30) made for some pretty light passing all the beautiful lakes (Shadow, Ediz, Iceberg, etc). I found the area very similar to the Enchantments but with easier to get permits. (Clyde is the highest point with the last half of the SE face on the left skyline) We got in to camp at Cecile Lake just before 8:00 and passed a guided party of 5 (2+3) who were just returning from their early start on the route. They reported no ice axes were needed for the descent in the gully which was nice, we made a quick dinner and hit the sack. We got up early but still didn't hit the trail until after 7 and it was 8:00 by the time we neared the base. Just as I was thinking we had the route to ourselves (no one else bivied at the lake) we spotted a pair of climbers just a few minutes behind us coming up from Minaret Lake. Fortunately we found the original (5.6) traverse start and they headed for the direct (5.10a) start and never got withing two pitches of us. The first traversing pitch and the next few rightward trending pitches were fun and mellow until a route finding error sent me up a stiffer face past some scary balanced death flakes which I tried to keep from murderously sending down. I also lost a water bottle when it slipped from my pack as I bent to move a balanced rock (the cord lock on my pack had broken). The route follows a series of rightward trending ramps and flakes, but get too far over one way or the other and you get harder climbing. (note death flakes right of the rope on the face climbing bit) Another pitch or so brought us to the 5.8 traverse to get into the upper dihedral. I managed a long pitch and brought Courtney up. From here I continued up the dihedral past some fun old school 5.8 crack climbing (hard looking but with jugs a few moves up). I ran out of rope before the notch in the ridge we were aiming for and then had another minor route error trying to avoid a loose looking section, but we made it to the notch shortly and end of the difficult climbing. Although we had only done 7 pitches to here all but one of them was over 60 meters and it was starting to get well into the afternoon. Courtney had planned to lead some of the easier ridge pitches, but we instead chose to have me keep going do some simuling. I took some easier 4th class options on the right around the first gendarme and then we did one more pitch to the actual summit. It was after 5 by the time we hit the summit, but we took a little break anyways to rehydrate (with what remained after my dropped one) and fuel and enjoy the views. We packed the rope up for some exposed 4th class scrambling, but made it without too much difficulty to the Clyde-Ken col (follow the ridge NW, drop down as far as you can, then traverse right till you can drop into the next bowl). The gully was loose and nasty but we found the rap anchors eventually and made a short rappel to just above the large chock stone and then a long one (with my 67 m rope) that got us down past the overhang and a snow patch). A few more minutes of scrambling had us back to the base, but we still ended up putting the headlamps on for the last five minutes to camp. We didn't hear or see the party behind us, so perhaps they ended up bivying or came down the opposite side. I wouldn't want to have to do the upper part of the descent scramble in the dark. We thoroughly enjoyed dinner and some whiskey to rehydrate. The next morning we took it easy and then packed up heading out past Minaret Lake this time and catching the bus back to the Mammoth ski area parking lot. (The route starts at the upper left of the snowfield and traverse up and right hitting the large left facing dihedrals about half way up and then going to the obvious notch and up to the summit behind) It was really an awesome trip and I'm so glad we took three days to do it. The climb was definitely one of the most sustained moderates I've been on with absolutely no walking in between pitches, yet still with great belay ledges. The metamorphic rock took great gear and made for some nice positive edges in the harder bits. We did it in 9 pitches with some simuling, Croft gives it as 12 but each of those must be at least 40-50 meters. I'd highly recommend a visit to the area if you enjoy the Enchantments up here! More pictures can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/matthiesen/SEFaceOfClydeMinaretWithCourtney# Gear Notes: Standard rack to #3 camalot (we had a 3.5 which wasn't needed) and lots of slings for long slightly wandering pitches. An ice axe was nice to/from the base but not needed above at this time of year. You could probably do entirely without if you wanted to by now. A 60 meter rope is fine but a 70 was nice, two ropes are not needed for the gully descent if you do a short rap first. Approach Notes: The Devil's Postpile area requires you to take a bus to the trailheads between 7AM and 7PM (when the busses run). If you hike out after the busses have stopped, you'll have a long road walk to your car (unless you drove it in real early). The bus does give you the option though of hiking in one way and out another as we did and it worked out well.

I did stuff like that with my Dad a long time ago. I remember hiking up past some old ski lifts in Idaho once for a similarly awesome summit bivy. Thanks for the reminder!

Not even google cache can save us. First post? Maybe it never happened?

Nice, I've always wanted to do that little loop!

I found the exact same thing on Mt. Deception last summer, so I removed it as garbage. Still in one of my gear bins I think... (oh damn was that really my first post here? I guess my 6yrs of lurking are up!) I recall there being a gully down off the right (west) side of the ridge before our roped pitch on Adelaide that looked like you could drop a couple hundred feet and come back up to the saddle between Clark and Adelaide and scramble up. It would probably be faster than traversing all the way around the other way. There was also a barely readable note in the Walkinshaw summit register of someone following "goat trails" from Adelaide to Walkinshaw. Should be doable without a rope if you don't mind some extra up and down.

I slept pretty well actually, Terry might say something different though since his thermarest deflated and he had to sleep on the tiny pad from his tiny pack. Location and views more than made up for the lack of level smooth surfaces!