Blake

Nice Sol and Geoff! Astroman man of L-Town is Hyperspace, right? I think the traditionally in-situ nut is a BD #3 or equivalent. Way to crush on the wet traverse, but the real crux beta would be: how do you keep your rope from getting stuck in that little lip on the roof?

Castle Peak is on the Okanogan/Whatcom county line. If you climb the Kearney route, it's on the left side of the North Face, so maybe it will be dry even if the other North Face routes are in rain. Other ideas - Tower Mountain / Golden Horn / Silver Star

Tatoosh P1 Iron Horse Sagg (Full) Thin Fingers TR Princely Ambitions TR Japanese Gardens Heaven's GateLeave My Face Alone Kite Flying Blind Hairway to Stephen Cunning Stunt (with the short extension) Raps off DH-LA Not to mention hundreds of newer lines in places like indian creek, or most modern sport crags. One 70m also allows rappel descents from many peaks and towers than would otherwise require two ropes.

Tim, don't fear the Ruper!

Hey Wayne (or Sol?) I wonder how Solid Gold relates to the 4 various Fred Yackulic routes on the South Face of Prusik? I found a couple entries from the AAJ, routes were in 1988 and 1987 . Prusik Peak, South Face of West Ridge. On August 16(1987), Rich Romano and I ascended the leftmost crack system on the south face of Prusik. The large overhang on the second pitch was passed on the right. A short overhanging hand crack and airy face moves brought us to the west-ridge route. (The climb is left of the Boving-Christensen route.) (II, 5.10.) Prusik Peak, South Face of West Ridge. On August 3 (1988), after being stopped the previous day, Rich Romano led through the large overhangs 50 feet to the right of our 1987 route. A pitch higher in a big alcove, we crossed left of the other route, then climbed a beautiful white dihedral by a thin finger crack, gaining the west ridge (II, 5.11+). The following day, we climbed a diagonaling crack system up and to the right to a belay on the southwest arcte and ultimately to the west ridge (II, 5.11). On August 11, David Goland and I did a route that starts further left, in a striking right-angle dihedral. After two pitches, we were forced out of the dihedral by the lack of protection. We entered a curving slot up and right, which placed us at the base of the now familiar finger crack (II, 5. IO+). The climbs are named Double Bein, Keep on Belton. and Notley’s Direct. FRED YACKIJLIC

You can "tie" into the middle of a rope without any carabiners. Pull a BIG bight of rope through your belay loop, then take this loop and pull it up over your head and step through it, like a jump rope. Cinch it tight, and wa-la, you have girth-hitched yourself to the middle of the rope, no carabiners or big knot.

You can also ignore all the above changeover shenanigans, clipping with a clove/daisy stuff, etc. Simply trade belay devices at each belay. A. Second climbers gets to anchor/autolocking belay device, does not tie in or clip in, just leans back and starts grabbing the pre-sorted gear from the prior pitch's leader. B. Previous leader (now the 2nd climber) grabs the belay device off the harness of the second climber, clips it to his/her belay loop, and puts partner on belay, while they are still hanging off the other auto-locking device. C. New leader climber, now racked and ready to go, just grabs the locked-off belay device (that they had been hanging on, or secured to the belay with) and leads on to the next pitch. D. If you know you will be flipping leads, use the rope to build each belay. It's fast, dynamic, strong, and means fewer runners are required.

Rope is Sterling. I remember we cut one in half. Would be the ideal rope for something like North Ridge of Stuart!

Brandon, if you climb Heaven's Gate with a 60mm rope, you can then rap back down Golden Road (plumb line, each rap is ~28m) and tighten the bolt (if you can reach it under the roof while on rappel). Obviously not a nice thing to do if the route is occupied.

Ditto, he's still after this or other snow routes near Hope. If interested in climbing (or approaching) such routes with a veteran alpinist, give a PM or email.

Edited and changed around...

PMed you

Edited For Sale: #2 Camalot - Pre C4 Edition (single stem) - Works great - $35 Yellow Alien - Older, still works great, girth-hitched sling $20 Wild Country Tech Friends #1.5 (Green one, to match 1.5 camalot) - $20 Small Wild Country Flexy friend, blue, same size as blue TCU - $15 U-Style (old) Black Diamond Camalots #2 - $20 and #4 - $25 ($40 for both) Small lockers (BD, keynose) - $5/each Trango 3' Alpine Equalizer - New! $19 I'd also trade or pay $ if anyone has a Black Diamond C4 Camalot #3, #4, or #5.

Hitch Hiker Starts 100' Right of the Passenger. Brian, do you remember where you were when you took the photo, or how close to the ground that climber was?

Salish Peak - Flight of the Falcon Castle Peak - North Face Complete East Ridge of Silver Star Goode NW Buttress Amphitheater Mountain - North Face - Middle Finger Buttress Colfax Peak - Polish Route How about the E. Pillar of Slesse, Labor Day on NEWS, Yvon Chouinard route on Cutthroat, The Nose on The Deacon or Boving Route on Dragontail?

I'm curious which (durable) alpine backpacks sell for less than $150. In my opinion Cilogear has some of the best packs around for mountain climbing (Especially now that they're made in Portland) and they also have some of the lowest prices compared with BD, Arcteryx, etc. I know they had occasional stitching/contruction issues in the past, but seem to always stand behind their backpacks. I've put my new-fangled lightweight Cilogear bags through a lot of days of climbing, with no meaningfull damage or deterioration. Sol Wertkin and I hauled a fully over-stuffed 45L Cilogear bag for many pitches up a new alpine route last summer, and it came out looking no worse for wear, even though the rock was very coarse and backpacks defnitely aren't designed to be hauled like that.

It seems like there are various quasi "neighborhoods" in the cascades which feature several good climbs to represent the region. I am thinking along the lines of the Hwy 542 trifecta of Nooksack Tower, NW Arayete on Mt. Shuksan, and North Ridge on Baker. Another might be the Cascade Pass: Torment-Forbidden, North Face Buckner, and NE Buttress J-Burg. I'm sure there are other examples too.

And a couple new (retro) bolts from a subsequent ascent!

Eric, I think Julie's roof is harder than KFB pitch one, but maybe the overall reason for your theory is that you have a lot of upper body strength and can crank on steep cracks or finger locks, whereas the face climbing might require more precise feet, crazy high-steps, or tech savyness.

Good call... the best roped climbing in Leavenworth? Maybe Edge of Space if I were a little braver.

Maybe the new 22-pitch behemoth on Squire Ck Wall?

Index - Heaven's Gate Squamish - Freeway Gunsight Peak - East Face Colchuck Balanced Rock - West Face Forbidden - NW Face Others?.... Grand Wall, DH-LA, Springbok Arete, anything South side Prusik, Dragons of Eden, The Passenger, other Gunsight, Southern Pickets Traverse, Cosley-Houston on Colfax, Borderline->Angel's Crest->High Planes, NR Stuart, SE Buttress Cathedral, NE Buttress Goode, Direct North Face Vienesse, East Pillar Slesse, Center Stage - Roan Wall, Chianti - Rebel Yell

Northwest Mountaineering Journal contributor and CC.Commie took the cake at a 50K race the other day! Way to go Leor.

Hemp ropes were originally the only climbing ropes. I used my hemp rope on many climbs at that time. : If Mammut comes out with a Hemp Rope in 2010, sign me up!

Most of the Welsh/Brit/Scottish climbers I know like to use half ropes, even for cragging. Perhaps you are talking more the sport-climbing crowd though. I brought the topic up to a friend who works at BD and he said lots of the employees are even ashamed of the thing.