OlympicMtnBoy

Yeah, Hubba Hubba with WM was a lot of fun, but we drove around and didn't see a while lot else that was ready quite yet. Maybe more for a new years ice party? Maybe I'll just have to drive to Canada. Hey WM, where are the pics?

I'm free Friday, but I don't have my ice book with me. I'd love to get out. I'm coming from Seattle, so Stevens would be awesome, but I could make it farther easily enough. I've got new tools I'm dying to try out. I'll PM you.

I know what you mean, I was working there October 11th-November 12th. It was just a little crazy. A lot of great peope trying hard, and a lot of shit going on. I'd say that city won't be the same, but some things down there aren't going to change either. Thanks for helping out too.

Well, if anyone wants a belay, I'll probably be bouldering at Stone Gardens around 6 or so. Look for tan pants and a reddish shirt with animal tracks on the back. I'll be falling off the V0s. :-) - OMB

I've obviously been inside at this computer WAY too long, I meant the VW in Seattle, Stone Gardens would also work fine. Anyone?

I need to get out of this tiny room and get some form of exercise today. Anyone up for VW late afternoon or evening? Post or drop me a PM with your #.

:-( Sorry I missed it. Went to a World Aids Day thing with my GF. Everyone have fun in the snow? Next week?

Need one more? I have some new tools to try out. Can I tag along? - OMB

Thanks for the deal, I couldn't pass up the Barryvox, $175 instead of $300, no more renting for me! :-)

I'm up for some aid too, we can all have an aid fest at Index. PM me if you wanna go, my schedule is pretty wide open.

Great, looks like I ought to go with Verizon then. I'll just have to do a little research on phones and make sure I get a tri-band phone with decent power and durability. Thanks for all the great input.

Ok, so I finally have to make the leap everyone else made years ago. I need a cell phone. I know (from using other peoples phones) that of course, coverage sucks out of metro areas and rarely works in the hills. But which one works best? Which carrier is most likely to get me a tow truck when I'm stuck on a dirt road on the Olympic Peninsula, or sliding in the snow in the Cascades? What carriers have you had good experiences with outside of the cities?

PM sent re: hybrid alien. :-)

I'd show up the week after T-day too! I'll be over in Seattle then.

Does anyone else have problems with the flat light produced by LEDs mounted on your head? I love my little BD ion but I've found I can follow a rocky route better by holding it in my hand so it casts more shadows around me. I just can't get as much depth from those small single color LEDs. Are the high power LEDs any better in this respect, or just brighter?

Hehehe, yeah, no prob. I'm just glad I wasn't your partner when you lost em. At least you made the top though. They were right below the last move in that dirty crack to get to the top. Glad I could help. :-) - OMB

Yeah, you're right, but like I said, I pased the normal bolted belay at the top of p3 and went up to where the aid climbing starts. From there the big ledge is only a couple short moves up past one more step. It wasn't too bad to haul the bag up there and then once we'd unloaded the aid hardware we just hand hauled the bag to the ledge. I was working off the topo in selected climbs and it wasn't too clear about that spot (ie: where the big bivy ledge is).

Yep, found a car key at the dirty crack/gully at the top of Town Crier (green dragon comes up there too). Topped out on 7/27. PM me with a description if you think they're yours and I'll get em back to you. - OMB

Climb: Index Town Wall-Town Crier Date of Climb: 7/26/2005 Trip Report: Headed out with Nomad for Index on tuesday morning. We got a bit of a late start after I missed the Edmonds Ferry, getting to the parking lot around 11:30, fortunately we didn't have that far to climb. We loaded up the haulbag and my backpack and hiked up to the base of the upper wall. The first pitch turned into a slimefest with the sun beating down and making the rock downright hot, but Nomad made it up, hauled up the pig, and then belyed me. We sort of skipped pitch 2 (moving across the ledge) cause it didn't make much sense. I set out on the chimney pitch and grunted my way up and through the 5.9 exit. I wandered up and passed the ledge with the belay and built an anchor right below where the aid starts. The haul bag hung up briefly at the top of the chimney but was quickly freed. Nomad got the first aid pitch and had some fun with a few camhooks and the tiny pendulum. He fixed the rope and I got to remind myself how to follow a penduum as I took my time cleaning. We left the rope fixed and moved all the gear up to the really big ledge and made camp. We hung out watching the sunset until we managed to drift off to sleep. I greatly regreted two things at that moment. 1. not bringing my bug spray (what the hell are mosquitoes doing at the top of the 3rd pitch anyways). 2. not bringin my other sleeping pad, the one I had was slippery and I kept sliding down on the sloping ledge. It was still a pleasant night on a nice big ledge though. We made a leisurely morning of it, my watch was in the bag so I don't know when we started climbing again. I ascended to the top of pitch 4 and started up through the roofs on p5. I think I placed three pieces of gear on the whole pitch (mind you, this is aiding), the rest was fixed. It was still fun though with some nice exposure. I don't know what happened to the bolt ladder listed on my topo at the top of the pitchheading right, but I made the belay anyways. Nomad came up and started the next pitch. He took his time and it got pretty damn hot up there, especially with an uncomfortable hanging belay. That was when we realized we hadn't brought enough water. With only a pitch left we pressed on. I left the belay on p7, made a few moves, and then gained the brushy ledges. It was a bit of a pain getting up the next few moves through the brush with all my aid gear and russian aiders on but I made it and scrambled up the last gully bit to the top of the cliff. We hung out on top (in the shade) for a few minutes before rigging a rap off a tree and heading bag down to the ledge where we left the haulbag and extra stuff. We had a liter of water and some oranges which we quickly downed and then finished with the last two raps. Once back at the car we threw the gear in and immediatly hit the Index general store. I drank a liter of gatorade, some chocolate milk, and a liter of water to quench my raging thirst. It was a fun climb for both of our first times to Index. I can't wait to go back and do Green Dragon now. Maybe Nomad will post some pics. :-) - OMB P.S. I found some car keys right below the last dirty crack/gully at the top. PM me if you think they might be yours. Gear Notes: Aid gear to 3 inches with a couple bigger pieces we didn't use. Cam hooks and ballnutz were handy. Approach Notes: Hwy 2

Nice, always happy to see Olympics pics. From your TR looks like you found a new way to get down the mountain. Hope it heals well, or has healed well. I broke my ankle that way in Feb, but I only managed to lose about 40 ft and then crawl back to my car.

I had this hole wear out on the outside of my boots near where my little toe is, maybe too much crack climbing in backpacking boots. There is a great little shoe repair stand in the market in the city of Turkistan, Kazakhstan that fixed it for about a dollar. They even offered to add an identical looking patch to my other boot so they would match. I'd definately look them up. If you can't go to Kazakhstan though, basically he just patched it with a piece of leather and some heavy duty upholstry/shoe thread. I slobbered shoe goo on it too and it's held up pretty well for the last 10 months or so although I have a new hole forming on the other side and the tread is entirely flat now so it might be time for new boots. Good luck.

Yep, I put my pack on, and then slide the picket up from the bottom so it goes under the compression straps on the side of my pack. Then I clip the top hole of my picket (which is on the bottom cause I slid it up upside down) to a gear loop on my harness (or to my pack strap where it attaches to the pack at the bottom). This way when I need the picket, I just unclip it and slide it down and out. This can be done relatively easily with some practice. If you clip it to your harness, you have to deal with it when you take your pack off, but on one of my packs this is more convenient then the pack strap. Of course, sometime when cleaning during a running belay I still hang it over my shoulder with a runner in front of me cause it's more convenient. Just put your pack on and experiement and find out what works for you. Make sure you clip the damn thing somewhere good though, or you'll loose it on a glissade somewhere and not notice (of course I've never done that before. ;-) ).

I'll be back up in Washington in mid-July after a couple week stopover in Yosemite on my way up from Florida. I'd be up for some aid at Index or Squamish. I've got plenty of gear too. Look me up in a month. :-) - OMB

Hey, it's MY birthday too!!! I want some of the action! I even have Oly in my name. What if I ride the tiny bike 50 miles? And wear brighter colored spandenx? - OlympicMtnBoy

They're not that old or rare though, I saw some in Sierra Trading Post a few years ago. I've always wondered why tricams never had a hinged wire like the little camlocks though, that would be cool. Even the wired european tricams don't do it the same way. I've never climbed with camlocks except once when aiding Wrist Twister up at Squamish and my partner had one on his rack that he had bootied somewhere. I found a place for it that worked great, but it didn't seem like it would be as versitile as a tricam.