Blake

In town there is bouldering and sport climbing - you wont ever use your rack. There's not much around there to qualify for "mountaineering" as I usually hear that term applied. Generally there are alpine rock routes anywhere from 10 pitches to nearly 2000 meters, where being able to climb steep cracks very fast (especially when wet and you're freezing cold) is pretty helpful. There are also amazing alpine ice and water ice features, especially in the Torre Valley, but these are fully two-tool real climbs, not walk ups. It helps to be fast and efficient, as the breaks in the storms are seldom long-lived. A 20deg sleeping bag and your warmest layer being something like the DAS (or feathered equivalent) is a good setup. If you're aiming for rock routes, consider bringing good tennis shoes and aluminum crampons as well. Size your rock shoes to wear over socks. Most climbers will fly to BA and then Calafate, there are several busses a day from Calafate to El Chalten. I've also flown to Bariloche and climbed there in early season, then ridden the bus for 30hrs down south (Ruta Cuarenta) to reach El Chalten. If you're in town for more than a few weeks, try to negotiation a long-term rental or camping price, as things are pretty expensive in town now. There is no longer a national park campground, and many places charge more than $10/day for the ability to camp in a windy, flooded field, and share the use of a kitchen and bathroom.

nice john! that topo was actually made by my friend Scott Bennett, though Mikey's bolting of the low-traverse to begin p5 was the key to making TRL go as a free climb.

I'll throw my 2 cents behind sol's main point -figure out what your dream routes are for the next year or two, and train for those. If you want to send Fitz Roy, climb the Nose in a Day, boulder v10, or handle 24-hours of steep snow and mixed climbing, those will each require very different skills. They may all be "climbing" but at the extremes they are essentially fully different sports. A dedicated boulderer who did crossfit or jim jones or that stuff would be like someone who exclusively competed in freethrow contests, and trained for it by playing on a basketball team. There will be some overlap, but this is my rough view of the "continuum" of climbing - with less overlap of skills and training among goals farther apart. There's a reason that the people who excel at one of these activities seldom excel at others. Boulder your first Vwhatever - Send a hard sport route - Redpoint a steep short trad route - Complete a multipitch freeclimb - climb new ice grades - bigwall freeclimbing - "alpine light" freeclimbing (Bugs, WA Pass, etc) - Alpine climbing (mostly free, mostly rock) - Alpine ice and mixed climbing at high standard of difficulty - Alpine and snow speed-slogging - slow/aid/frozen alpine sufferfest climbing - lower elevation bigwall aid climbing - sitting on couch drinking beer.

nice work Kurt, good to know that hardware replacement up there isn't "forbidden".

A buddy and I did this the other day, and had a good time. Thanks for the history info and good topo Mark! You can't get lost once you realize that this route just follows the first crack/corner system left of the buttress crest. Our abbreviated but adequate beta: 1. Climb the DEB to the belay below the first bolt ladder. 2. Walk left on the big ledge and then follow a left-trending system over a crumbly block, past two trees, and into a small cave/nook w/3 pitons (5.9 35m) 3. Climb the excellent crack (starts as a LFC) - crux is low at a fixed wire - belay 20' above a piton and roof on the left, where a nice foot ledge extends left. 45m 5.11+ 4. Up the same crack, an excellent 5.10 pitch. You might be able to stretch it out 60m or 70 to the summit ridge, or belay where it switches from 5.10 to 5.8 at the first ledge, with a tree. A really fun and sustained crack roughly 5.10b.

Trip: Colchuck Balanced Rock - Accendo Lunae Date: 9/5/2012 Soapbox Alert Climbers are basically the only user group to visit the cirque at CBR. Any garbage is ours. Any tape, piles of wood, campfires, and human waste is ours. Any rangers that visit the area go to police us. Lets keep this place pristine and set a great leave-no-trace precedent. I'd love to go up there is 20 years and have it look like it did 20 years ago. -------------- Earlier this summer I was up at Colchuck Balanced Rock for the day to try and climb a route we hoped would incorporate the best and hardest climbing on Let it Burn with some new pitches and the crux of the West Face. Scott Bennett, Graham Zimmerman and I began via the 5.7 and clean 5.10 pitches on the West Face, then followed Let it Burn for 3 pitches (which are each really amazing, thanks again Max and Jens for the work on that route!) Scott following Let it Burn's crux pitch From here we started up our new pitch #1. From the belay between Let it Burn's two 5.11+ pitches, we moved right and into a thin splitter. My friend Scott began to free climb, but neon lichen and a bit of grainy rock shut him down. We tagged him up a spare tennis shoe to use for scraping, scrubbing, and cleaning up the pitch, and he aided up to a ledge. He worked out a few sequences on TR and then pulled his gear and pulled the rope. Scott came very close to sending on his first go, but slipped out of a thin hand jam near the top. (Scott, lichen my tennis shoe) The three of us were sharing a single liter of water on the route, which gets about 3x as much sun as anything else up there, yet Scott donated his water ration to me as I strapped on shoes for a lead go. Using the gear beta he'd worked out, but putting together my short-guy sequence on the go, I flashed the pitch, but it was a fight until the end. Even though this pitch wasn't long, it felt harder than the crux of Let it Burn and much harder than anything on the West Face, so I think 5.12- is about right, but it might clean up a bit and be easier. Although I could have kept leading, I didn't have much of the gear I'd need to continue and the next stretch of stone had the leader moving right over a sharp, clean flake, not where I wanted my 8.4mm ropes running. I belayed up Scott and Graham and got the rest of the gear. New pitch #2 began with some really creative and memorable flare climbing on immaculate white stone, with a good crack for wires and thin cams. After a rest in an alcove, I got some great gear above my head in the roof, and did the double-handjam pull-up to turn the lip. I'd been hoping that the crack continued above the roof, and was really happy to find good thin hands jams for quite a ways. The roof is a rope-eating feature, but a blue alien sized cam can be slotted into a horizontal once you've pulled the crux, to direct the rope out of the pinch. I mantled up after the corner, and then face climbed slightly right to the belay which folks normally reach climbing straight left from under the roof on the West Face. From here we joined the crux pitch of the West Face, and finished up the chimneys. By the time we did the "5.8" chimneys, it was fully dark, but it actually got brighter as we simulclimbed to the summit, as the moon was nearly full and very welcome for our summit and descent. I joked about calling our variant "Let it Face West" but in honor of the moonlight and in homage to the route "Let it Burn" we decided to name it "Accendo Lunae" which is latin for burning, or ascending moon. Naming a 2-pitch variation to two existing routes is perhaps a little silly, but at least it should make route discussion and differentiation a little easier. With steep splitter climbing, excellent protection, good belay ledges, and sustained pitches at the 5.10+ to 5.12- grade, "Accendo" is probably my new favorite rock climb in the area. Gear Notes: Double set of cams to #2, with one #3 and one #4. Standard set of wires. 60m rope is fine.

According to Curt Haire, a fount of local climbing history for the central cascades, this was repeated by Bob Plumb and Dave Stutzman in the late 1970s. I've got Curt's email or you can PM him on here as "Haireball".

Trip: WA Pass - SUPERCAVE Date: 8/1/2012 Trip Report: The Supercave route must be one of the very best routes at Washington Pass and I am already eager for another go at it. Inspired by meeting the FAists on a hitch-hike several summers ago, and then reading their report after their multi-year project was completed, a friend and I started up one afternoon a few weeks ago, not sure what to expect. But despite only climbing 5 of the 8 pitches, we were both amazed by the route. We reached the cave and rapped, but the final 3 pitches look great. Here's the corner crack halfway up p2 - flawless white granite The approach is less than an hour and the rock is as good as the E. Face of Liberty Bell. There was snow and running water at the base on Aug1, but that is all likely gone now. It's still less than an hour of walking from the car. If the gully is wet, just stay skier's right. Following the flakes under roof on p3: Starting double cracks on p2: Walk to the far R. end of a lege below the wall and begin in an LFC. Grades and pitch lengths are foggy guesses. P1 - 40m 5.10- left-face corner, left of the bail 'biner. Ends at 2 rap bolts by tree. P2 - 50m? 5.10+ Leftish up double crack, then amazing fingers in corner, mantle up and face climb up easier-than-it-looks terrain, end at 2 rap bolts. P3 - 30m? 5.9ish - Walk left and go up white and tan flakes that lead up and left to small stance belay underneath roof. p4 - 40m? 5.10+ Amazing steep corners left under roof and then farther left and up through roof to semi-hanging stance in LFC. I forget if this belay is bolted, I think there's a fixed wire and/or pin. p5 - 30m? 5.11+ Up the leaning LFC, clip bolt out right, pull over on huecos, finesse your way up, clip 2nd protction bolt, and then slightly right and up to rap-bolts on left edge of cave. From here the route goes up from the left side of the cave for 3 pitches. We slung a tree at the bottom of the cave and did a 55m rap to the top of p2, then 2 bolted raps to the ground. It's hard to get a view of the whole wall, but Hwy20 just above the hairpin gives an ok perspective. Thanks a ton to the guys who established it. Gear Notes: Doubles to #2, with a 3 camalot. 2x 60m ropes to rappel Approach Notes: Park at mile post 166 and walk up the hill in or left of the creekbed.

A few friends and I climbed Der today, and it is really fun. Definitely not a route that should scare off solid 5.10 climbers as all the 5.11 climbing is well-protected and the runout knobs on p2 are stancy and never too far from a good bolt. We rapped in 3 rappels down the south face, starting with a slung pillar just west of the summit and going down the big corner just left of the route. The first rap ~55m to a nut anchor, the 2nd ~68m to bolts w/rings, then ~40m to the ground.

Yes, you can bring sneakers only.

He drew you a topo and there's 2 pitches harder than 5.8, go get your untrammeled adventure on dad!

I'm always 1 or 2 sizes smaller in Sportiva than in Scarpa (IE Mythos or Miuras in a 39 = Vapors or Boostics in a 41)

Are you talking about being roped together without any protection in (probably on snow) or just soloing vs belayed climbing?

I'd love to buy or trade for your used and cheap copy of the bugaboos guide by Piche and Atkinson. If you are willing to loan it for 6 weeks, i'd happily provide a 12pack of your choice as well. Thanks

Trip: Aasgard Pass - The Valkyrie Date: 6/26/2012 Trip Report: I was joined by a couple buddies in an attempt to climb Acid Baby the other day. But when I realized I had forgotten a lot about the route and I'd rather be lost on something new than a climb I'd done, we made the last-minute decision to try a new route just to the left, on the same tower. This tower is probably called Aasgard Sentinal or Spineless Prow (although it sure has a "spine" up top) but either way it is a rampart of Enchantment Peak, on the east side of the trail up Aasgard Pass. P1 P2 (The orange rock where we belayed is a good landmark) P2 higher up Scott Bennett lead the first 2 pitches, I took the middle block, and Graham Zimmerman got us to the summit, joining Acid Baby on the last pitch. Every pitch was 5.10 and the rock was generally stellar. Along with the stemming corners and splitters, the route featured a an amazing face of knobs and blobs, overhanging just a touch and with enough gear to make it exciting but not really dangerous. P3 starts with a hidden traverse on jugs, straight right for 25' P5 knobs before joining Acid Baby's hand traverse to the summit Best topout around: Despite trying to find a solstice-themed name, we settled on "The Valkyrie" in deference to the area's Norse naming convention. (Aasgard Pass, Lake Brunhilde, Dragontail, Lady Godiva) It should be nice to have another mid-grade climb in the area, as there are very few alpine rock routes between 5.9 and 5.11+. It felt like a similar difficulty and quality as Acid Baby, a route one friend of mine has climb SIX! times, including 4x in one summer. Gear Notes: Double set to 3" - 60m rope - no need for boots or snow gear Approach Notes: 60 Left of Acid Baby, 2/3 of the way up Aasgard Pass

Your guess is good, it's the face on the right aspect of the left of those two aretes. The schwacking isn't unusually fierce.

Alpine rock in the Stuart Range is all basically good to go, with the few usual exceptions such as the dripping NW face. No Mosquitos yet up there either! On the first warm day in a while we didn't see anything happening on the Ice Cliff, but it was hard to tell how difficult the transition over the moat to the Girth Pillar would be. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/IMG_04871.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/IMG_0485.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/IMG_04941.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/IMG_0459.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/IMG_04501.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/IMG_04621.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/IMG_04751.JPG[/img]

Last night in downtown Leavenworth, my friend's car was broken into. A backpack of climbing gear was taken, putting the word out in case folks catches sight of any of the gear. The list of what was taken... Canon s95 Camera with grey/red case 5.10 Anasazi Lace ups (white) - ~size 9.5 Bright green Cassin Laser Harness (newish) Chalk Bag Blue Gri Gri II Grey Tracer helmet w/ lightning bolts drawn on it. rack of DMM offset wires C3s 00-2 Green Alien, yellow/orange mastercams .5camalot 3x .75 camalots 2x 1 camalots 1 each 2.3.4 camalots 8 extendable draws with 8mm runners 6 Camp ultralight draws 2 double length slings 3 lockers All was in a black and white Lowe Alpine Pack (40-50L) Would be super amped to get some of this recovered. Cheers folks

That blows! Someone ripped off two wallets and black Lowe Alpine bag with a CanonS95 and a whole racks of cams/draws/harness/shoes/etc from a car parked in front of our house in Leavenworth last night as well.

I find that the smallest ones can really improve the nature of the protection of certain routes. The black (.25) goes in perfectly to supplement the old pin on 24 Hour Buccaneer (Index). I like not hoping that a single old pin will keep me off the ground, and funk pro likes these, offset aliens, ball nuts, etc can really "tie the room together" on otherwise dangerous leads.

Are they then going to belay you with a munter on the next pitch? Or is this assuming that this is the topout pitch? When they leave the belay they grab the reverso they'd been hanging from, and its 2 lockers.

Hey Ryan, I'll assume a scenario of building acnhors. If there are two bolts, just clip them both with carabiners and there's your anchor. If I'm leading in blocks I'll generally try to connect 2 or 3 piece with a sliding X using a 48" runner or normal runner if the gear is close together. Maybe I'll equalize 2 pieces and then put another piece in, clipped to one of the two legs. I'd belay off the "x" with a reverso-type device in auto-lock, and have the arriving follower clip in there with one locker, cloved to rope they are tied in to. While belaying I'd likely be just cloved to a couple pieces in the anchor, and when I am ready to lead again i remove the cloves but switch my clove into the anchor's top piece and just clip through that piece for factor-2-avoidance. If we are flipping leads, the follower never clips into anything, they just hang on the reverso and I'd steal their belay device and put them on lead belay with it.

Rowdy! nice going Dan and E$! You need to listen to Cole and label your rig the "Helmstadter Homesteader" - make it fancy with little skis for the "L"s and it will be perfect. You'll see your business go through the roof.

Hey Satori, You said you wanted to climb Shasta and Rainier. For climbs on peaks like those (for most of the routes), you wont really use anything in your photo. Get a basic light axe, some lighter crampons, and lighter boots oriented more more for walking comfort than warmth. You will basically be walking on slopes less than 40degrees with occasional crevasses that you will hope to avoid, probably by following the steps of everyone else on those routes. Snag a super light/basic harness and a 7.5-8.2mm rope. If you are a skier or snowboarder, you'll save your knees (and have more fun) by descending on skis rather than walking. Don't worry about stockpiling loads of gear before you get started, that stuff is often overkill and just weighs you down. Have fun!

Brand new, in the package, 30m ropes. I've got a 9.7, a 10mm, and a 10.2 Tendon Ropes are the same ones that have been sold in the past by Metolius and labeled as "Monster" - They are a Euro Brand. Perfect for leading at the gym and short crags or alpine routes with no rappels. $75/ea