OlympicMtnBoy

I bought one of those Cassin $12 dealies. It's not so bad as far as I can tell although I'm pretty new to pounding on crap. It's got the same handle as the the Camp Brenta as far as I can tell. The shiny coating chips off a bit after you pound things for a while, but so what, it was $12. It seems like it'll work fine for occasional use, and it's a big step up from the woodworking hammer I had put a leash on.

Climb: Mt. Baldy - Gray Wolf Ridge - Mt. Walkinshaw- Date of Climb: 5/24/2004 Trip Report: After a very late Sunday night I didn't get started until noon on monday from the Dungeness TH. The first mile to the intersection with the Royal Lake trail and then the Lower Maynard Burn trail went by pretty quickly. The trail was mostly snow free all the way up. I was feeling lazy so I took a nap at the first summit on the way to Mt. Baldy and then made Baldy by around 4. Continuing on the easy ridge I donned my gaiters for a bit of snow on the way up to the Gray Wolf Ridge summit and after a short break I started towards the second summit. Here the going got a little nastier as the nice easy ridge walking deteriorated into a horribly friable rocky ridge, or a crusty posthole adventure. There had been footprints on the way up to the first summit but no one had recently gone to the second summit and by late afternoon the snow was soft. Mostly I stuck to the ridge line but it took a bit longer than I expected. I made the second summit and then found a relatively nice spot to camp near the Gray Wolf - Walkinshaw saddle around 7:45 PM. 6600 feet of elevation gain in a half day with a full pack seemed good enough for me and I slept pretty well after melting some snow for water and cooking dinner. Along the whole ridge I encountered a very cold wind but it died down a bit towards evening and wasn't so bad at the saddle. With proper bivy site location I was able to get both the sunset and sunrise from my bivy sack. The night was clear and cold but the sun warmed me up in the morning and made for a nice leisurely morning (ie, 10AM). After breakfast I packed my bivy sack up and headed across the saddle and up Mt. Walkinshaw. Just as I was leaving camp the sky began to darken and as I was walking on the broad saddle the wind picked up a bit and it started to snow on me (or maybe it was very tiny hail). I started up the rocky ridge but my confidence begain to wane along with the nice weather. I had intended to continue on to traverse to Mt. Clark and Mt. Johnson but I decided to drop my pack and just scramble up to the summit and then retreat from the saddle. The snow was a bit more solid now and made for pretty nice step kicking except for one little bit where I hit a harder ice layer and wished I had brought crampons. It was nice to find some more solid rock to scramble on too. I made the summit around 11 am. The snow stopped and I kind of wished I had brought my pack to continue on. Instead I had a clif bar and snapped some summit photos. The summit log up there had gotten wet at some point and is looking pretty trashed (the metal on the ring binding is rusting away, but I read a few entries (back to ~1975) and added my own. If anyone heads up there, take a new little notebook and a ziplock. The register was placed by "The Truckers", anyone know who they were/are? A few cautious steep glisades and some down scrambling got me back to my pack and I walked back to the saddle and began heading down to the royal lake trail. I mistakenly thought it would be easier to glisade down a snow field but got funneled into a nastly gully that involved lots of sketchy greenery moves down wet crumbly rock until I could escape to the forested slop and make it to the trail. I headed up the rest of the way to Royal Lake, intending to camp there and maybe do Petunia Peak or something but it begain to rain in earnest at that point and the peaks above me totally disappeared into the cloud. It was only 3:45 PM after my late lunch break so I decided to hike the 7 mi out and have a cold beer and a warm bed instead. So the full Needles Traverse still awaits me, but the first part sure was fun. The route from Walkinshaw to Clark didn't look bad, especially with that much snow still up there. A couple people in the summit log mentioned coming from there as well. Sadly I lack a digital camera, or a scanner, but someday I'll try to post some pics. :-) Gear Notes: Aluminum Ice Axe Bivy Gear Approach Notes: Start at the Dungeness TH, take a right towards Royal Lake, right on the Maynard Burn trail, left on the closed road, left up the poorly marked trail and then follow the ridge.

Almost, Ushba is the US distributor, and they don't distribute everything that Alvo makes. You can find some more of their gear at Uralsport on ebay, although I just checked and they don't have the nice cheap screws anymore, although they do have several models other than the USHBA Ultimate Uralsport Ebay Store. Just to say, not all the $12 screws are Irbis. There are (or were) 4 or 5 Russian manufacturers of ice screws (ti and steel) and now those screws show up randomly. Sorry to go off topic.

Alvo Titanium also makes cheap Ti screws that I like way better than the Irbis ones, also with normal size threads. Sometimes you can find em on ebay at the UralAlp store for $10-20. I use em on easy ice, and I'd agree with the BDs or Grivels for steep hard stuff. The Ti screws sure are nicer to throw a couple of on your rack when you're not sure if you'll hit some ice in that mostly snow route though.

The Climbers Guide to Yosemite Valley by Steve Roper, not sure which edition cause it's missing the first six pages after the pictures, from between 1970 and 1973. A bit more rare: Rock Climbs in Yosemite, ed by Dave Nicol, collected, collated, drawn, etc by Pete Livesey, Keith Nannery (who gave me both these and a bunch of pitons), Dave Nicol no date but also from the early 70s. This one begins "This guide was originally intended as a quick 'run-off' for use by the itinerant British climber, although it has now been considerable expanded. Needless to say we do hope that our North American cousins will find it both acceptable and useful." :-)

My aid partner split town to make money in Georgia and I want to get out some more. I'm still a gumby so I'm willing to watch others flail with me (no newbies though, just aid newbies), or belay for hours on your A4 project. So far I've done some single pitch stuff as well as the first couple pitchs of Bubba's in Bondage (A2+) at Smith, and the first couple pitches of Wrist Twister (A3) at Squamish, leading the second pitch of each. I'd like to get on something at Index, maybe an overnight on Town Crier? I'm generally free Sun-Weds (every other weds only), although I'm leaving the country on June 19th. PM me if interested.

I've got some old home made jobbies, a couple of square Troll guys, and some nifty SMC 1/4 inch hangers. I like hanging them on the wall and showing em to sport climbers, but whatd'ya want em for?

I ran up to Mt. Baldy the other day and was looking down the Graywolf Ridge. Anyone do the traverse across the Needles? It seems like it'd be a fun trip to start at Baldy and follow the ridge and hit six or seven peaks, then come down to Royal Lake and out that way. Should be some fun 3rd and 4th class stuff past Graywolf. Maybe a couple of days with an ultralight pack and a bivy sack would be fun?

Damn you folks with this weekend to play. I've got to work Sat and do family stuff Sunday but I'm free Mon-Weds. Anybody want to climb something? I'm open to most options: Rainier (although the weather window is closing again), Tatoosh, Snoqualmie stuff, Index rock (trad or gumby aid), something in the Olympics? PM me!

Check out the Garmin Geko 301. It's tiny and has a built in altimeter along with the normal gps functions. Make sure you can navigate without it, cause you never know when those little electronic gizmos are gonna get crunched in the pack or run out of battery in the cold, but it is pretty handy. Even if you don't end up navigating with it (which I rarely have to do), it is handy to keep track of how fast you're climbing and distances and stuff. Also it's kinda fun when you get back down to check it out on a map and figure out where exactly you were (especially if you don't summit).

I'm gonna be there late morning on Sunday, hanging out till weds. :-) Might be wanking on the student wall cracks for a bit first thing sunday, staying at Skull Hollow. If anyone's staying past Sunday, look me up, 87 Tan Stubaru with the purple bunny.

Kong makes a nice locking keylock modified D and a keylock oval. Liberty Mountain distributes em, so check your local stores to see if anyone is a dealer or look it up on the web. I'm sure you can buy em online somewhere, I really like mine although I haven't used the petzl keylock lockers.

So dare I ask. why three ropes?

Yep, I'm headed down that way for some climbing and the weather's gonna be nice. I think I've got 4 people so far, but the more the merrier! We'll probably show up sometime mid-morning from Portland. If anyone wants to hook up, just show up and look for the tan 1987 Subaru Wagon with a purple bunny stuck in the rear window, or send me a PM. We'll also be camping in the grasslands so look for the same car and the campfire if it's not too windy and stop by to chat (BYOB). We've got several different people of different abilities, hoping to do some sport, trad, maybe aid so show up and climb with us (or drink beer around the campfire! - OlympicMtnBoy (aka Stewart) P.S. Crossposting to rockclimbing.com.

Hey CBS, I think I'm going to be there again on Sunday with vw4ever. Come along if you like, might be cloudy and cold though. I'm hoping to lead Steel Grille this time. :-)

A friend of mine called em a few weeks ago when we were planning a trip we didn't end up doing. The guy he talked to said it was no problem for up to two nights. Just park in the second to the top lot and leave a note in your car on the dash. Access still doesn't seem to be a problem unless you choose to bring it up and make it one. Of course we didn't park there overnight after all, so who knows.

Ingalls Peak was my first alpine rock route. It's got a nice hike in and a fun easy climb with lots of pro and bolted anchors. You just have to deal with the crowds.

Off the main topic, but check out http://www.omegapac.com/inmate.html if you're concerned about OP's use of prison labor. I've never found fault with the quality of their gear, and no, I don't work for them. :-) The next screws I get will probably be BDs as I start leading more towards my limit, but I like my OPs and they got me out leading this season instead of sitting at home fondling my two BD screws wishing I had enough to lead a decent pitch. :-)

Climb: Alpental Ski Area-Stellar Falls (aka Chairlift Falls) Date of Climb: 2/23/2004 Trip Report: Yep, ski area was closed so we headed up there Monday. The falls is in pretty good shape considering the weather. I think the cold nights last week helped. Led up two routes and toproped some stuff off the trees. The 30 foot pillar at the top of the main line was nice and fat and fun to lead, the bottom bit is rotten but not terrible. There are big icicles hanging down on the right for anyone who wanted to try that mixed route. We were the only people there until this guy showed up in the afternoon and top rope self belayed for a little bit. It was a really nice day to play around on the ice, and you can't beat the approach. Sorry, no pics due to a dead camera. Gear Notes: ice climbing schtuff Approach Notes: Park car, enjoy the leisurely stroll up the packed and groomed ski run, enjoy the glissade all the way back to the car.

Granted, I just started leading ice this season so I haven't climbed in a lot of different conditions, but I think my OP scews are ok. They're not nearly as nice to place as BD's but no one said they would be. They're not the hardest to place by any means either. At $25 a piece on gearexpress.com they're a bargain if you're looking to build up your rack. If you're climbing at your limit and want THE fastest, easiest to place screw then you get what you pay for, and OP probably isn't it. I think they're all right screws overall. The knob does help a bit in placing them although I've heard that it can get in the way, haven't seen it as being a problem in most situations. I haven't noticed any more fracturing with them than with my BD screw (yes, I only own one right now).

Yeah, I don't know about the route behind the shelter, but I ran into the stuff on the north fork. It branches and one side probably goes to Constance. The other branch which we followed for a bit did eventually lead to the very old trail up to Charlia Lakes. You can still see evidence of the trail in a few spots but it was kinda hard to follow.

Yep, we started out on Don Quixote (5.8) in the feathers area as a warm up and it wasn't exactly warming yet. My fingers were numb after about 15 feet and I had to look at the holds to see what was going on with em. After that (11:00) it warmed up really nicely though. This weekend doesn't look too bad, thinking of heading over there again on Monday maybe. Just don't try to start too early and you should be ok.

I might be somewhere in Europe then, or a week after that. I'm looking to do some alpine stuff, I'm not sure when I have a partner and when I don't yet. Ask again a little closer to June.

Yep, we were up there on 2/2/04 and it looked about the same, running water underneath. Poking my head through the gap at the base and looking at the huger wet cave underneath was less than inspiring. My partner wasn't feeling well so I just did the bottom pitch a few times and he shivered at the belay. Climbed the right side to the crack, the central pillar stuff, and the left side to a bit above the crack untill I got scared looking down inside the top of the crack. Also the track you guys had put in was totally buried in new snow, falling all day, so the approach, especially above the tree, sucked. I did manage to find a few of your postholes anyways though. Rumor had it that someone was on Millenium Wall on Saturday too, and that wasn't too bad. But I didn't get over there myself.

How bout NEXT monday-tuesday? I'll be over in Leavenworth then with another friend, but the more the merrier (especially since I only have one poor set of tools).