Blake

Drury Beta: We headed up last monday, on a sunny day. We intentionally left late (started up from the river at 10AM) to avoid the AM sun. There was still a major collapse or two on the (unclimbed?) line left of Drury, which put some debris a little too close for comfort to a couple friends who were ahead of us in the approach. Take care and be speedy on the terrain before the route, even if avy conditions are low. Drury Falls was climbed by at least 2 teams of 3 in the past week. A couple short WI4 bits (maybe just harder WI3?) but overall mostly just fat and featured WI3 with wicked exposure. We topped out in the dark, and figure with our short days that others might as well, so here is the spraydown for those willing to forgo on-sighting the descent. After a few very short mellow gully steps, there are: 2 separate ~55m approach pitches (WI3) which leave the gully 3-4 pitches (~175m) on the main falls, with the crux probably on the last pitch. Descent Beta: 1 -Walk up and left from the top out for ~30m to a LARGE slung tree. Make a 45m rappel (overhung at first) from a tree with much cordage. 2 - Walk hard skier's left on a narrow sidewalk back toward the falls to a tree with a new piece of orange/brown cord. 31m rappel to a treed ledge halfway up the route. 3 - From the small snag next to a HUGE fir, rappel 45m to a pin/choss block anchor on the left edge of the ice. 4 - 30m rappel to the base of the main falls 5 - short rappel from red webbing tree down EASY slabs skier's right from the main falls 6/7 - second ice step via 2 rapps off trees skier's right 8 - first ice step via v-thread above pitch Then a few short (one rope needed) raps exist in the gully.

Mid may can be a great time for alpine rock climbing, especially south-facing stuff. If you can get ahold of some A/T skis, I would just go ski/climb at WA pass. You'll likely be able to ski from/to the car and have the spires to yourself. Here are a few good earlier-season alpine rock objectives: Anything in the Lib Bell Group Anything on Prusik Acid Baby The Valkyrie Ellen Pea (Supercave Wall) Girth Pillar on Stuart There is also potential for north-facing snow and ice routes (Triple Couloirs on Dragontail, Stuart Glacier) to still be in shape.

For what it's worth, I had all doors unlocked, trunk unlocked, and a visibly empty car. They still smashed in my back window that day. (and took nothing, I don't think they even went inside) Apart from looking out for one another and intentionally striking up conversations with suspicious-looking meth heads (+1 for profiling) I'm not sure there is really a strategy that works here.

I drove to castle on the plowed/paved convenience road, parked In the convenience lot, hiked the convenience trail, did not slip on the new erosion-resistant "convenient steps", did "convenience pruning" of a fallen snag, opened up my "convenience guidebook" to orient myself, used these convenient new things called cams to climb pitches conveniently cleaned of grass and dirt but I object to a second anchor on jello tower, where 7 separate pitches all end, because I reject changes to the castle rock experience which add convenience not available way back when...

I didn't place it but I definitely like it! This is nothing new. Castle has had anchors atop 1-pitch lines for years. For some perspective, here are a few previously-existing anchors atop single-pitches, which facilitate TRing from the ground and don't require building a gear anchor or multi-pitching to the top: Crack of Doom Devil's Fright (same anchor as above) No Such Thing as a Free Lunge Mf Direct (same chains as above) Damnation DDD (same chains as above) Canary Hang Dog (" ") Midway Das Muzak The Fault and now the S. Face and the Nose have a shared anchor. I'm not saying there aren't potential good reasons to oppose the two bolts, but doing so under the pretense that this one anchor suddenly "crosses the line" or is out-of-tradition at Castle is just plain wrong.

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Those are good questions but i think maybe even a better term than "need" is to ask if an area can or likely would be improved by some rangers or formal land agency involvement. or would it not? the black canyon is a great example of an area with a long tradition of rangers who climb and who make things better and easier for climbers. But in this case, those questions aren't super important when the new reality is one where we DO HAVE CLIMBING RANGERS. So the new question becomes not should they be here (as seems to have dominated this discussion) but rather if you should work With them, or not. simply wishing they were not there is a waste of time. The LMA is trying to get off on the right foot with them, not waste time bemoaning their presence. Sol's posted list of discussion topics are things that will benefit climbers if fixed and these goals and concerns were well received by the USFS. ------- The proliferation of social trails to crags and bouldering zones. Improvement of the somewhat recently dead-falled SCW climbers trail to facilitate litter rescue by SAR personnel. Improvement of the climbers trail from Castle Rock to Midnight Rock. SAR litter cache at SCW. Minimizing/slowing the impact of bouldering at Leavenworth's most popular bouldering zones Mad Meadows and Forestland. Forest Service sign at Forestland Parking lot discussing low-impact bouldering practices. Bathrooms at Forestland parking lot. A more actively assessed falcon closure of Midnight Rock/Noontime Rock. Active list of unsafe fixed climbing protection and updated protection. A Leavenworth Climbing Ranger facebook page and blog site (yes this was our suggestion),

Sol never suggested anything. He wrote: I do wonder what the negative posters on this thread have done to personally give back to the climbing community (though i'm sure some of you have). I never suggested anything either. I said if I skip over the responses from people unwilling to post their own names, then the discussion is interesting and informative. Now I WILL make you a suggestion.

The LMA WEBSITE includes a list of past events, links to an Icicle Canyon cleanup, and shows the group's official mission statement on the top-right. I have been serving on the BOD helping with computer stuff and event organizing. We have been posting our events (social and community service) to this board, among others, for the past year. Fairweather, you state that the LMA "Petition[ed] for new enforcement rangers" (when meeting with the local USFS, WCC, etc) which is not only incorrect, it isn't even suggested or implied anywhere. Ever. You state this as a fact, and then attack the group with an argument based on your non-sensical and invented accusation. Seeing that in writing is pretty good reason to disregard what you are writing based on a demonstrated bias at odds with reality and/or simple illiteracy on your part. The LMA, per the group's publicly-posted mission statement, wants to: "foster safe, healthy, and environmentally conscious mountain recreation" - when the USFS announced that it had hired a couple rangers focused on local climbing and backcountry use, you can be sure it was an issue that mattered to the group, which is why Sol and others went to bat for the concerns of climbers, while recognized the incontrovertible reality that these new rangers would be in the area for at least the next 2 years. Thanks for the input Mark, Pete, Sol, Darin, Rad (basically anyone using their actual name) - if I skip over the various anonymous rantings, this discussion is interesting and informative! Maybe some good will come of it! And although the Forestlands bouldering area (for one example) sees more climbers on a May weekend than CBR gets in a year, it isn't within the wilderness area, so enforcement and jurisdictions are different. Both areas show visible user impacts and offer great climbing, but don't compare the management of these two zones just apples-to-apples.

Awesome and inspiring job guys! The prolific partnership strikes again, what last great problem is left?

The hanger in question is on the 3rd-to-last piece in this photo, and you can reach it from the biggest hold on the pitch - it would be not unreasonable to get there and put a hanger/nut back in place on lead while on the projecting flake. Sorry to ruin your onsight.

If you don't like off width cracks or just don't want to carry those big cams, the original corner option to the left protects well and the slab traverse is really just a couple moves rightwarda blank face at a fixed cam. This keeps the whole thing in the 5.10 range and you just need gear to a 2 or 3 camalot.

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Agreed! This would be like bolting 5-anchor rappel line left of The Passenger to prevent the need to use the existing 2 or 3 rappels from anchor on the S. Arete in order to get off SEWS. It'd be a steeper and cleaner rap line, avoiding a gully, and would deposit you about the same distance from your pack. It is just hard to conceive of all this NEWS hardware getting drilled if it were not to facilitate guiding the NW Corner Route. What would the response be if chain anchors were drilled every 30m coming down the E. Face of Lib Bell? In the larger picture, I'd be genuinely curious to know what anyone thinks a standard should be (Larry included of course! I don't mean to be attacking you...) regarding adding bolts for off-route rappel lines. Should there even be any standard, or is any bolted rap anchor ok when not clippable on a route?

Didn't the standard descent anchors to the south just get rebolted as well? They are certainly in excellent shape. It's only 3 rappels that way, already the easiest descent off of NEWS, SEWS, or Lib Bell. Those 5 new sets of chains are going to rust and bleed down, visible from much of the hike in. It seems like the past few years have seen an explosion in the number of chains hanging from the Lib Bell Group. The climbing "rules" around adding bolts to routes are pretty clear. The subject of adding bolted descent anchors is a grayer area. There is often tat with rings all over the S. Arete on SEWS - would those bonsai trees that people rappel off each be an acceptable spot to bolt on some chains? What about above the 5.7 slab on Liberty Bell? I'm not trying to be a jerk, just wondering: 1.To what extent you feel justified in adding rappel lines where none exist, and 2. To what extent you feel justified in replacing a slung tree with a chain anchor.

When you don't want to pull your 5mm and potentially get your knot stuck, leaving you with x meters of static 5mm cord and no rope.

If you are going to rappel a 9mm and a 5mm rope together, which belay device do you all think is best? Is it so different in terms of friction that none will handle it?

My friend found your sweater - let me know if he doesn't get ahold of you. I mentioned your post to him. Did you leave a rope there as well?

Yes, the glacier. And I wrote moat, but it's the bergschrund that I meant to describe, which is generally the first obstacle that appears as things open up. There are some slabs that run with water down toward the bottom, just take a look from below and figure out your line so you'll have it dialed on the way down.

The Sherpa is by far the easiest. If it stays this warm And you are ok on 40ish degree snow, you will be fine with just tennies. You may need a single rap over the moat. Look for rock Anchors or stomp out a quick bollard.

It's probably awesome for making something waterproof, but so is scotchguard and a bunch of other stuff already on the market. The trick is making it breathable as well, and I bet you that whatever you spray with that magical new formula will have the permeability of a hefty trash bag. If it really works wonders on metal, the best climbing application may be on crampons and tools that tend to collect snow.

If anyone climbs Acid Baby in the immediate future, there's a rope free-hanging to the right from what would be the vicinity of the end of P3 (the rightward traverse). It's dangling down a chimney to the right of the climb and it does reach the ground just right of the start of the route. It is very obvious and very trashy looking from the trail up Aasgard Pass. I don't know the history, but figure in general anything climbers can do to clean up such messes quickly will result in less scrutiny and oversight from the rangers and less hatred from the general hiking public. I'm guessing that you could lower or belay one climber a short distance from the belay after P3 to wherever the rope is tied off or stuck from, and then throw it down to the base. If you don't want to carry it out, at least pile it at the base rather than having it swinging around in the wind next to a trail. I'd happily carry it out if someone cuts it down and leaves it.

Graham Zimmerman and I established a direct start to this route, taking the cracks just left of the original bolted/aid start. This variation joins the route beneath the *** 5.9 finger crack which initially attracted the FA team. Like all routes in the area, it will benefit from more traffic to keep it clean. Climbed this way, the route is similar in character/length/difficulty to the nearby West face of NEWS.

Found a few months ago - I have no use for it. Anyone lose this, or want it?

John works here: Northwest Mountain School P.O. Box 329 • Leavenworth, WA 98826 • phone: 509-548-5823 • fax: 320-388-5775