jpark42

If you are still on the fence hear are some pictures to wet your appetite. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ivarfinn/Veturinn0910# http://arnarogberglind.smugmug.com/2010/canadadry/10852400_NuBVc#757020918_nQpC9

Tickets are around 500 hundo and I found a couple of packages for airfare, lodging, car rental, and bfast for 950. Of course the lodging would be split in half unless course one of use got lucky with the beautiful blond in which case one of us would be sleeping in the hallway.

Tickets are super cheap and so is lodging. I hope to go out there and ice climb/ski but do some cultural, read party like a rock star, as well. My plan is to fly out around Feb 16th and head back around the 26th. Most of the time we will be doing day trips outside of Reykcik but I also plan on checking out the Iceland ice festival Feb 21-23rd. Anyone game?

Awesome pictures Steph.

Weird I thought I posted it. Here is the overall.

Looks like things went well, Erin. Glad to see you guys had success.

Trip: Mt. Rainier Area - Skookum Falls-Center/Right Date: 12/14/2009 Trip Report: Dane and myself decided to check out Skookum Falls and see what it looked like. Boy what a treat. The falls where completely in which allowed us to actually climb WA ice for the first time of the season. Here are the pitch notes and pictures P1:Started center right climbing WI3 to a ledge about 50m up. P2:Kept in the center of the route and climbed hero ice, WI3, about 30m. P3:At this point we traversed right because their was still significant water coming down the center of the fall. This was the crux of the route. 15m of solid WI4+, with the emphasis on solid the ice was rock hard, led to a ramp and 45m of easier climbing, WI2/3. P4:A short pitch but not to be taken lightly. Pick your way through hollow and mushroom ice to the top of the falls (5m). From a here a short vertical section of ice,rock, and turf(4m) leads to easier ground and tree belay at the top. Two happy campers on top of pitch 2: Me finishing up pitch 3: Top of pitch 4: Frozen Turf/Log Crossing decent: Quick note about the decent: The WA Ice guide suggests rapping from trees. I spotted a gully climbers right. A little frozen turf down climbing, I suggest keeping your crampons on, got us back to the trail without even taking out a rope. With out snow this decent is far easier then repelling. Plus you get to check out some scary/cool ice lines on the right side of the gully. Gear Notes: 4 14inch screws 4 16inch screws Cordage and spare runners especially if you plan on rapping. Approach Notes: The first section of river we were able to throw a log over and cross. This gets you to the island. From the island head up stream, climbers left, until you see the ice damn/frozen logs. I suggest you grab a stick for balance and throw on your crampons cause falling in the river is not an option here. PS: Our first log crossing was destroyed by some rednecks while we were climbing, a pox on those bastards. On the way out we just hope/jumped through this section of the river as it is pretty shallow. I suggest some one grab a BFL, big fucking log, and rebuild this crossing if you head out there.

Come down to the OR Retail Store as we host Signatures ski movie Dec 10th and 11th. This movie by Sweetgrass Productions gets to the soul of back country and features board, ski's, noboard, and drop knee. Tickets are $10.00 and all proceeds from the event go towards Friends of the Northwest Avalanche Center. Snacks and refreshments are provided and there will be raffle both nights. Doors open at 630pm with the movie starting at 7pm. For advanced tickets sales call the OR Store at: 206-971-1496. Hurry tickets are selling fast. Sorry no RSVPs. Address: 2203 1st Ave S Seattle,WA

A bio on Steve, the slide show presenter, was done in the last edition of Climbing Mag. Here is the link if you want to check it out: http://www.climbing.com/community/perspective/steve_swenson/

Anyone have an idea on what it looks like?

Come get your climb on!!!! While helping raise funds for Index Town Wall. The comp will start at 530pm and end at 830pm. The contestant that climbs the most boulder problems takes home the SHWAG. A slide show/raffle will follow presented by a mystery guest and friendly libations (read: beer) will flow to all who meet the requisite age (21yrs). The comp fee is $30 and all the proceeds from the comp and raffle go towards the Index Fund. Questions? Call Stone Garden at 206-781-9828 or check out the website at www.stonegardens.com for more details.

Come join Outdoor Research Retail store for snacks, clinics, and awesome deals on woman's apparel. All woman's apparel and accessories will be 20% off and non Outdoor Research Items will be 10% (Cannot be combined with any other discount. Men's apparel is excluded from the discount.) The following clinics will be offered: 6pm-730pm Choose Your Course:Using Backcountry Terrain to Your Advantage 745pm-9pm How to wax your skis/board 9pm-930pm Layering clinic If you have questions please give the OR Retail Store a call at: 206-971-1496. If you haven't figured it out yet clinics, snacks, and awesome deals are only for the ladies, males need not a apply.

P3 was extremely fun as well, I agree!!!

Another note: A pair of bolts and chains has been added below the A0 section of Mojo rising. Now you can enjoy the fun 5.11 mantel without pulling up A0 to get to the top anchors

Trip: NEWS and Goat Wall - West Face and Sisyphus Date: 8/23/2009 Trip Report: After slogging up to do EMS last weekend, I decided some Alpine Cragging was in order. After a glowing trip report from a friend, I decided to check out the West Face route on SNEWS. I'll save you the specifics of the morning, other then we started driving at 5am from seattle, and let you know that the route is awesome and worth the drive itself. The first 3 pitches are adequate but nothing to write home about. But the 4 and the 5 are classic lines and deserved to be done over and over again. Pitch 4 is a 5.11- finger crack. The rating on this one is dependent on handsize and would probably be a little easier for some one with smaller hands. Me on top of the 5.11 finger crack. The next pitch is an amazing 5.10 fingers to 5.8 hand crack. Though a little soft,I felt like this was my favorite pitch and a treat for anyone that loves finger cracks Pitch 5 All and all a really sweet day. My partner on top with SEWS in the background. At this point we rapped off and checked out the first pitch on Mojo Rising. This line put up my Mark Allen in 04 is an aid climb up SEWS but the first pitch is a 5.11 sport climbing up to the last four bolts, they go at A0. This route has a wickedly fun mantel crux, I heel hooked, and is an awesome way to end the day with some hard sport climbing. You can top rope it, just barely, with a 60m rope. Heading up towards the crux of Mojo Rising At this point we headed to a friends in Mazama, ate some food, and crashed in his yard. Day 2 At my friends behest, the second day we checked out Sisyphus on Goat Wall. 11 pitches of pretty decent sport climbing, no need to bring the heavy rack, brings you to a ledge and the "fun" 13 rappel descent. Don't let the rating fool you, the climb is a soft 5.11 and anyone that can lead 5.10 should be able to climb this route with little problem. The route description in the Mazama Guide is right on, other then the bolt numbers. Here are some pictures: My partner finishing up the first 10b On the top of Sisyphus. Gear Notes: For NEWS: Nuts, nuts, and more nuts. This thing swallows them whole. It is actually easier to place nuts then cams. Other then nuts I would bring double up to #1 and bring a single #2/3. Mojo Rising: Bring your A game. Bring an aider, for the A0. Sisyphus: The guide book is way off on the # of bolts. I would bring 13 quickdraws especially if you plan on linking pitches 1/2 and 10/11. Approach Notes: NEWS: Easy Mojo Rising: Go climbers right of the big rock at the base of NEWS where everyone leaves their packs and follow the bolt line. Sisyphus: First pull off near goat wall. Follow cairns. Go left. up gully and use fixed line.

No problems. If you are interested in checking it out, I wouldn't let my trip report deter you. It really is an amazing experience. Also Nelsons descriptions aren't that bad. For the most part his route stuff is right on. The only area that he messed up a little bit is the pitch numbers, there is 4-5 pitches of 5.5 before you get to the ramp, and the descent, there is a repel. The latter I don't blame on Nelson though because I bet when he did it in the 80's you could probably walk right on to the snow. In the end, my report is my opinion and should be taken as a grain of salt. I suggest going out there and making up your own mind then come back and tell me what you think.

Just so you guys know Black Diamond, Deuter, Ibex, Outdoor Research, Osprey, Petzl, Teko, Nikwax, and Cascade Designs have generously donated gear to our raffle. You can help support these sponsors by visiting their respective websites: www.outdoorresearch.com/site/index.html www.blackdiamondequipment.com/ www.ospreypacks.com/ www.ibexwear.com/ www.tekosocks.com/ www.deuterusa.com/ www.petzl.com/ www.nikwax.com/ cascadedesigns.com/

Wow....You are making a huge assumption about me/my partner without even knowing us. This was an amazing experience and I enjoyed myself very much. That being said there isn't a whole of information out there about this climb and it is good, expectations or not, that people know what they are getting themselves into. So in closing if your goal is hit up a remote destination with amazing views and a long approach then this is your route. If you want all that plus decent rock climbing, I'd suggest looking some where else.

I wouldn't take it of your list either I just think that people need to understand what they are getting into. Our original plan was to climb out of the marble circ via the SW of the Durado Needle but since we couldn't get to the bivy sites on the first day, because of the pea soup conditions, we didn't have time. Also I disagree about the rating. I climbed the wet pitch clean and I think 5.9 was a pretty right on rating. First: it is wet and from the sounds of it stays wet all year. Second: It is a tricky layback with good gear. Despite the wetness I actually like this pitch and it would be a stellar lead minus the wetness. It was probably one of the highlights of the climb.

Yeah I am really glad I climbed it because the setting is beautiful and super remote but you can find those attributes plus decent climbing on a lot of other peaks in the area.

Trip: Early Morning Spire - Southwest Date: 8/15/2009 Trip Report: After reading Nelsons description and seeing this peak from the road a couple of years, I had decided to this peak at some point in my life time. When a friend Jon T., well call him JT Ton because I think it sounds cool, had suggested we take a jaunt up to Eldo and do this peak I was excite. Little did I know that an arduous approach followed by scary descent would be reward. We left seattle to over cast weather which followed us to the North Cascade. We pulled into the park lot and started hiking around 11am A little foreshadowing? We were thankful for the clouds because it kept the temps down until we arrived at the base of the east ridge of Eldo. 2hrs of attempting to find the bivy sites at the entrance of Marble Creek in pea soap found us right back at the east ridge for an evening siesta. The next day was beautiful and 3 1/2hrs found us at the base of Early Morning Spire. We found that route finding was a little tricking because the cracks are pretty discontinuous and we found ourselves searching around for cracks that weren't vegetated/wet. Top of Pitch 3 5.9 A room with a view from Early Morning. We also found that Nelsons three pitchs of 5.5 to the 4 class ramp in reality is more like 4/5. This caused us to cut up to early and wasted precious time. We finally summited but found out quickly that Nelson's "walking ledges" involved having to jump across a 10ft moat while on reppel and rapping down on to the pocket glacier on the backside of EMS. We barely got to our stuff at the Marble Cir when dark hit. 4hrs of ascending steep snow slopes and glaciers brought us 2200ft back to our bivy gear at the base of Eldo. We crashed at 1 and woke up the next morning to hike out and a good food burger. In closing, I am glad I did this route but I won't do it again. A long approach and descent for one pitch of decent, though wet, 5.9 climbing, a stellar 5.8 finger traverse and tons of 5.5 simu-climbing doesn't really appeal to me. Gear Notes: Med alpine rack to #2. Found a few placements for a #3 but considering that none of the hard pitches take larger gear and I wouldn't bring it. Glacier travel set-up. Approach Notes: When Nelson says to 2-3 days he means 3days. The approach is really long with tricky route finding to get to the bivy's/route. The descent involves glacier travel and ascending 2200ft just to get back to the East Ridge of Eldo. You have been warned

If you want to donate to the Index Fund directly click on the link below to be redirected to Paypal. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=ESnM-rXJ_XZVbnLzOyl96WIOVqCpsk-v85mbFYaKRvg7wsJsW4p64gaLH6u&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1fb6947b0aeae66fdbc3b117227c0115a7ed175642e71f1b28

Let me start off with saying that I am not a huge mountaineers fan. That being said I think any opportunity to teach beginners proper/safe technique in a controlled setting is alright by me. Better there then me having to bail people out because they didn't know what the hell they were doing. Also Pete_H there is something called choice. You the know the ability to choose where you want to climb!!! If you don't like the mountaineers wall then go to Vertical World/Stone Gardens otherwise stop your bitching!!!

Come out and support Index OR style. On August 27th @ 7pm we will be having a slide show with all the proceeds from the door and raffle benefiting the Index Town Wall Fund. Also the Outdoor Research Retail Store will be donating 10% of our sales from that day to the fund. Space is limited so please call 206-971-1496 to RSVP. Snacks and drinks will be provided. As an added bonus, everything in the retail store will be 10% off between the hours of 5-7pm (Must be a full priced item. Cannot be combined with any other discount). Our address is: 2203 1st Ave S 98134. Tickets will be $5 dollars. Questions contact me via private message.

Trip: Colchuck Balanced Rock - The West Face Date: 7/19/2009 Trip Report: I've been eying this line for years and when I finally found some one dumb enou....I mean crazy enough to follow my ass up this route I jumped at the opportunity. Boy were we in for a treat. In our infinite wisdom, we attempted to do the whole thing in a day from Seattle, rather then crash in the Colchuck Lake parking lot and get a early start from their. We would pay later for our lack of foresight as will be shown. We arrived at the Colchuck Lake trailhead around 730am packed up our "light and fast" packs and headed towards the climb. We made good time and made it to the basin below Balanced Rock around 12pm. We got our bearings on the route and started climbing Pitch 1 is rated 10b but it is really just a one move wonder to a huge jug. It is also about as short as a guys member after getting out of a cold pool. Pitch 2 involved a 5.7 chimney followed by a sweet (Pitch 3) 5.9 corner crack: Some root pulling and tree climbing (Pitch 4) got to the base of the money pitch. I am not sure if I can describe in words how unbelievable the 5.11 crack on pitch 5 is. The crack is a thing of beauty with unbelievably solid hand jams straight up. Hanging once, I need to get back out there to do it clean, I finish underneath the huge gaping maw that is the start of Pitch 6. If Pitch 5 is the spiritual uplifting pitch then pitch 6 is the back to earth, dude we are really fricking high, and underneath a really big f***ing roof pitch. I tried working the awkward moves on it but seeing as slab climbing while grabing sloppy holds and placing gear at the same time didn't really appeal to me(Read: I am a wuss) I did the next best thing and aided the bastard. Pitch 7 climbs a fun but a little awkward 5.9 crack to 5.12/C-1 roof. Don't underestimate the chimney on Pitch 8. I laughed my ass off watching my partner clutch and claw up up this thing until it was my turn and found myself whining like a little baby as well. Now here was the fun part for us. Seeing as we got such a late start we didn't top until dark. Which made route finding to the summit problematic. We prevailed and it was at this point that we got Nelsoned. Nelsons guide book neglects to say anything about rapping anything. Not a huge issue if you can see but not expecting a repel we were a little dumb founded until we noticed the slung chicken heads. Also Nelson's guide says descend sandy ledges south. Where south? Directly south towards Coluchuck Lake and off a cliff, south and left towards Asgards Pass, or south and right towards the base of the route, where south? (Just a note: I realize that none of this would have been a problem if we had given ourselves more time to do the route, in the light, rather take our sweet ass time and finish it in the dark but hey whats a TR without a random rant about Nelsons guide books.) Needless to say we paid for our lack of vision, literally and figuratively, and spent most of the night meandering around until we found the way down oh around 6am. From that point it was grab our shit and make b-line for the Sleepy Lady and their amazing bacon breakfast burritos. In closing, this route is probably up there with one of the best routes I've ever done. Beautiful scenery and amazing climbing will be had if you choose to do this route which you should. PS: All photo creds go to my partner Dan E. Sorry I took such crappy pictures, I'll try and do better next time Dan. And I know my grammar is bad so deal!!! Gear Notes: Double sets through #3, 1 #4 and a set of micro's if you plan on aiding the 5.12 roof. Approach Notes: Easy. My only suggestion is bring an I-Pod for the hike in because the approach trail to Colchuck Lake kind of blows (It is actually very beautiful hike but this is my third time hiking in on this trail and I needed something to take the edge off)