Blake

After a great 3 day weekend in Skaha, I returned home equally impressed with the climbing and the local Bakery we stumbled upon. It made me think that it would be nice to have a comprehensive list of the best dirtbag/cheap/good spots grouped by region or climbing area. I'm imagining a list of places with food, showers, etc and ideally not a place that everyone already knows about. The least expensive the better, with a personal bias toward Mexican Food: Skaha/Penticton: Bakery - On the east side of Main Street, just south of McDonalds is a strip mall with a big sign for "Roger's Video". The back corner hosts a bakery with awesome deals on pastries, sandwiches, etc. Stuff like a hot Cinnamon Roll and Coffee for $1.95, or day-old Ham/Cheese Croissants for 70 Cents! Around the west side of the lake from the Skaha Bluffs is the Branbury Green camping area, which is $7, has hot running water, soap, free showers, fire areas, etc. Bellingham - On James street, just north of I-5 Exit 254 is 'Deals Only', which sells power/balance/clif bars for .10-15cents and lots of other good climbing or camping food for cheap. Index/Leavenworth - Sultan Bakery, north side of hwy2. Showers at the municipal pool in Leavenworth, on hwy2. Where's the Leavenworth taco stand? Darrington - The gas station gives away all hot food (surprisingly good selection) after 10pm. Winthrop - The "log cabin" style gas station ~1mile west of town has 1/2 priced (or lower) sandwiches and hot foods after 8pm. Haggling encouraged. Seattle - Just West of I-5 at the Northgate mall exit is taco truck with awesome $1 taco heavy on the cilantro. Next to the Chevron... Vancouver, WA - Just east of Exit 5 on I-5, across from WinCo foods is the Super Taco Express... great burritos ~$3. Moab - Hot tub at the Holiday Inn, north end of town. Accessed from parking lot directly. Everywhere - Ikea stores have little restaurants inside, in which people bus their own plates and stack them on shelves when done. It's an easy way to buy cheap food and get those free chicken strips ignored by the yuppies at the next table over.

I think the best PNW rock climb that fits the original definition of "Moderate = .11c or easier" would be Freeway.

Anyone ever notice/climb/hear about info on the large granite bluffs just north of Hwy3, between Hedley and Keremeos? Looks like a little bit of the Pasayten Wilderness that wandered away from home and ended up 5 minutes from the hwy...

You may be thinking of the SW ridge of Aspiring. I think its considered a more difficult route than Liberty Ridge (for a local comparison) and wasn't a moderate day in my mind, but with a nothing harder than WI3 (in condition) it's not technically very difficult.

The Seattle Times agrees...

second Ancient Arts... (5.8 AO & unforgettable) Locally: NW Face of Forbidden Canadianesque: NW Ridge of Sir Donald

This route is now completed with the fixed lines, pitons, air compressor, etc all gone. The architects/first ascentionists tried to climb after removing equipment, but fell, hit a ledge, and caused a bit of (edited to add - their phrase)-> a "rescue operation" lowering off. Sounds like all the mass-cleaning is done, I hope they scrubbed Arrowroot et al...

How have these worked out for you on overnights? Just got a pair in the mail today, as a long overdue gap-filler between the approach shoes and the ten-year-old Makalu's - and I'm hoping they'll work well for day-pack or light-overnight sized loads. They worked great for my uses last summer. They aren't much heavier than most tennis shoes, and lighter than some trail runners. This is really nice for long routes that you wear rock shoes, and carry your boots. They will keep your feet dry for a while on snow, not all day. After a summer they were pretty trashed, but i used them frequently. I have since coated the seams/stitching/etc in Seam Grip, but should have done this when I bought them.

There seems to be a this belief that the pickets are somehow inherently different from the other parts of the range, and I think this is mistaken. The same shoes that work on steep heather, talus, snow, rock, and dirt elsewhere will work there. Ditto with other gear, except more food/fuel requirements perhaps make weight savigns elsewhere more important. Some folks feel that they need stiffer/heavier shoes to handle packs with food for 3+ days. Personally this has not been an issue. (maybe I have freakishly fat kankles?) However, once you are climbing technical rock, I think there's a huge benefit to having boots/shoes in your pack that are as light as possible. My personal preference would be similar to Mike Layton's... some kind of tennis shoe or trail runner with strap-on crampons. I've had no problem on snow and moderatley steep glacial ice (short steps.) I like these quite a bit.. they are the high op version of Montrail's "Hardrock" trail-running shoe. Montrail Namche

one 60m is fine, use you middle mark. one 60m also gets you off pincely ambitions if you swing rappeler's left and downclimb some class 3.

hey Wayne Ccheck your PMs for tomorrow, I know someone who is looking...

If you are just go rock cragging, your rope wont be getting wet anyway so why pay more fore a useless feature?

1.Daisy Chain 2. 3. Air Dry

nobody touches the british (HB, DMM) when it comes to splendid nuttery and fiddly little gear.

it turned into a wet foggy mess at about 6:30....just in time for the lovely top-out pitch... toher than that... bitchin day up there. [we were the other party] - i couldn't believe there wasn't a line of folks up there either. looked like you guys were having a good day out - nice send! Cool, thanks. I would have taken some photos of you if I had known. Were you wearing the black shirt, or the other guy? Did you do Town Crier AND Green Dragon yesterday? Either way, it was fun chatting with you and having the whole place to ourselves up there! Allison swears that the 5.9 and .10a (p1,2) are the hardest part of DH/LA.

Sunday was low 60s and partly sunny at Index, ideal climbing conditions.... couldn't believe we were one of 2 parties on the UTW and there was a total of TWO cars in the parking lot at 5pm.

yeah, it's the east side of the twin sisters. That pic popped up on my screeen-saver and i couldn't figure out where it was at first cause it just looks like such a dry desert. That little valley is rad, such a North Cascades anomaly. Plus, the bouldering scene is so hot there right now!

To Rap off the UTW with a 60: Rap Golden Road (BLUE), which is an all-bolted route just (climber's) right of Heaven's Gate, and which runs down the arete on the left side of the chasm/chimney thing. Getting to the first station requires one very short diagonal rap (rightward) from the top of Heaven's gate. From that point downward all pitches are basically 25 vertical meters, so a 60m rope is super fast and easy. Each station has beefy new stainless steel 1/2" bolts, and none is truly 'hanging'. I doubt the walkoff could be much faster, and this way you don't need shoes.

Watch out for angry germans with a marmot on a leash. I'll make you a white russian if you try the rope wash before leaving for RR. Th dude abides...

What state? Climbing Area? Canyon/mountain? ...Route?

I think what DCramer was hoping for is some kind of 'wikiguide' or way that these ongoing updates, FFAs, cleanings, etc can be added and updated by the userbase and printed out. Maybe something along the lines of www.mountainproject.com but in guidebook form? What if a guide were something as simple as 8.5"x11" paper 3-hole punched, and each page were loaded to a website that hosted them (each one individually) AND approved changes. That way after significant changes, we could just print out the changed pages and insert them into our "guidebook" (which may just be pages and 3 simple ring-clips?) We could remove pages to take with us "on route" and easily print out new ones from the website. Obviously durabilty would be a concern.

Weather looks dry and sunny for the weekend, might be considerate to stick to the routes without free climbers.

Bump

I am looking to buy a used/cheap guidebook for Index, Skaha, and Leavenworth. I will be happy to pay a fair price or trade for Mt. Erie Guide or any of the gear listed here: Stuff for sale I recently noticed that REI, Second Ascent, ProMountainSports, and Backountry Essentials all did NOT stock the Index Guide...

yes. updated to reflect availability. Everything is OBO