Blake

I heard that dude turned 22 and lost all his youthful ambition (or at least TR-writing motivation).

The first pitch of a new route on the North Face of Amphitheater Mountain in the Pasayten. My girlfriend and I had been eyeing the line for 3 days, noting some nice looking cracks and corners, especially higher up. However, after some initial splitter climbing, the pitch moved into a corner, past two stacked blocks/flakes that I was amazed to see stay put. The corner continued for ~40m of very sustained thin edging, laybacks, jamming, and moss and scruffyness. Forced to move out of the corner when the crack widened, I followed incipient seems and pockets, which allowed just enough gear to make the commiting moves somewhat safe. I finally reached a decent/protectable belay ledge, but with just one cam and one nut remaining, one of which we'd bootied on Cathedral the day before. Amazingly, both pieces fit perfectly at the belay, and the gear sling I had them racked on just barely reached to connect them for a belay anchor below a beautiful hand crack on P2.

"Flight of the Falcon" on Salish peak (7 pitches, 5.11a) has no slab, but Ross and Mike L thought it was overbolted.

On Horrors of Ivan at Murrin Park in Squamish, i made it to the 1/2way cave totally pumped, with more overhanging climbing to go. I couldn't find a way to take my hands off the rock until I worked out a way to stick my head into the little cave alcove and press it up against the roof. Only then could I actually let go of the rock and rest my arms. Not only did this weird-looking pose provide my climbing partners with a laugh, but it let me de-pump and eventually extricate my noggin from the jam and finish the remainder of the climb. I'd say the all-time best rest (although not too creative because this is a well-known route feature) is on the route "1080 and the Letter G" at Payne's ford New Zealand. After pulling an .11c roof, you can stick both feet into an enormous limestone pocket and hang upside down in a hands-free rest.

There's a profile of "hot climbing town" Leavenworth, WA in the current Rock & Ice. (P.74) However, they chose a fairly bad picture of a Squamish climber in Vantage?? for the accompanying photo, managed to spell Mt Stuart incorrectly, and made no mention of ice climbing. Anyone want to check out the North Ridge of Mt. Stewart???

You might need two kits. You can trim the patches to work across a long/skinny tear. Normal Seam grip has a hard time on silicone-impregnated fabrics.

Nice, great pictures! You have a good outlook on life to call those CBR chimneys 'a hoot'. We were above you on CBR that Sunday, and I walked past you guys on the Blue Lake Trail this Saturday, when you were coming back down with gear still on.

I think something fell out of my car while organizing gear in the gravel near the Blue Lake trailhead, but not in the parking lot. If anyone has any plans to head up there in the next week, PLEASE let me know and I'll describe item/location. Thanks, very appreciated!

I think something fell out of my car while organizing gear in the gravel near the Blue Lake trailhead, but not in the parking lot. If anyone has any plans to head up there in the next week, PLEASE let me know and I'll describe item/location. Thanks!

Rain Retreat Return Renew Rock CBR it is.

and

Nice working making it happen, Sol and Jens! Sol/DirtyHarry/Lunger... you guys have enough memory to trace your routes on this thing? I'd especially be curious to see the line of Dragons of Eden VS Dragonfly.

Steep Finger cracks?

Nice Rat. Now maybe my enthusiasm has been dampened. Did you do the first 5.11 bolted pitch, or bypass it? Any key route-finding notes you want to share?

Chris/ BackcountryDog: Thanks for cleaning it up! Also cool of you to post on this spray-infested den of craziness. I had tons of fun on the newly cleaned route. It's longer than it looks (I think you need a 70m to TR it). For what it's worth from one random climber, I thought the bolt was perfectly fine. There is a spot below it where you can get in a good .5 camalot/red alien for your first piece, by reaching around the fin from the left. Kinda a blind placement, but it's good. Above that, it seems totally appropriate for a bolt to be in place. I remember it as a flaring corner with no crack in it, and groundfall potential mantling onto the first big ledge if there were no bolt there. Flashclimber... if you want to talk about bolted cracks @ Index, check out Angorra Grotto, not Tatoosh.

Yes. It's now clean and quite good. Lots of finger cracks. I stepped right from Thin Fingers just a few feet up (below the lone bolt). The whole route could probably be led on 7 yellow or green aliens.

Firstly, I think Index is far from a bastion of old-school trad climbing purity. However, it is unbelievably good spot for climbing, and most of the routes seem bolted (or unbolted) appropriately. However, there are several bolted cracks at index. Angorro Grotto, for example. Blocks and flakes like those on Cunning Stunt have a tendency to be a bit dangerous with cams behind them on that wall. (Or so I've been told by folks who know more about this stuff than I do.) Routes at "The country" like Frank Presley, Kite Flying blind, Climax Control, and Tunnel Vision all seem as though they could be lead safely with fewer bolts and gear in places. Perhaps their bolting was the result of wanting to just climb with a rack of QDs and not have to taken along 3 -5 pieces of gear for an (otherwise) sport climb. Next time check out 'zoom'... another .10d near cunning stunt with bolts where you need them, and no bolts where gear can be had. I'd personally like it if some of the other routes at "The Country" were like this. However, I should probably become more familiar with the ability of flakes and cracks on those nearby routes to safely hold gear before getting too worked up. The main section of the LTW has more unbolted crack climbs, and less sport climbing.

No pins needed. 2 in place. I'd describe it as a 5.8 climb for a 5.10 climber.

Don't believe the hype, top 15' of corner, and most of the roof traverse are seeping and considerably slimey. All else was dry.

Great climb guys. I really liked reading the report Paul! As far as hardest peaks to reach by any route: East summit of SE mox peak has not been climbed by any party. It's got to be a contender. I'd consider Agnes peak to be high up there as well. I *think* NE Gunsight requires 5.10 climbing from any direction + glacier travel and 2 day approach. There could be potential for some easier route from the East or something. Also, some of the spires/needles that were done by Doorish north of WA pass. (Lynx, etc)

I've got the Select guide and I live near I-5 in B-ham. I am always happy to loan it out to anyone.

Nice job, that route is superb. I agree that p2 is the most strenuous one. From the belay atop p2, the original way goes up to the roof, and underclings rightward, then up and back left. It's easier than it looks. Info for all the rapping or walk-off options on the UTW with a 60 or 70m Rope: CLICK ME

Trip: Twin Sisters - Various Date: 6/24/2008 Trip Report: On the solstice a trio of B-hammers set out to do do a tour of the Twin Sisters peaks. Pretty nice that we didn't have to go broke on fuel costs. The summits are only ~20 miles from the ocean! We went up a bit of the W ridge of the N twin in fog and clouds, then dropped down into the basin between the peaks. From there it was up the W ridge of the South Twin, down the NE ridge, and onto the glacier. As weather cleared a bit we figured out where we were before descending down the wrong side of the range, and got back on track. From the glacier we climbed up the North Twin Sister via the SE Ridge, then down the West ridge to our bikes. It was a really fun tour, very rambly and scrambly. We brought too much stuff and didn't end up needing any gear except for one short rappel across a schrund. One anonymous member of our party took the first wrong turn on his bike and ended up 12 miles in the wrong direction before some local homesteaders in Acme took pity on him and drove him back around to the car just in time for us to reach the Beer Shrine before it closed. Gear Notes: Mtn Bike

Like Clint, this climb is pretty badass. I had the chance to check this out yesterday morning with my friend David and it's fantastic. In the Squamish select guide it is listed as .11a (text) .11b (photo) and .11c (topo) Likewise, the original McLane guide lists only one pitch. Here's the straight scoop: The route follow the crack just left of the sun/shade line, as seen from Angel's Crest P1 (.11a) is a long slightly-overhanging hand crack. P2 (.11c) follows the hand and finger cracks to a face climbing crux just before the anchors. From here it's some easy 5th class to the summit. The route now can be approached via Angel's Crest by heading right on an obvious trail/ledge after the Acrophobes Towers. (~pitch 12) One could also climb the complete Angels Crest and easily get down to the chain anchors above the .11c pitch to lower down the entire line and climb back out. I think this would be totally worthwhile, even on TR, as a reward at the summit. The .11c crux cannot be aided, although the fall would be short/clean. A double set of cams to #2 camalot, plus one #3 and #4 is good. Bring an extra hand-sized if anything else.