Blake

I think you are spot-on with this observation. It seems like since such a large majority of the consuming public demands only waterproof jackets or wanders into the store and asks for goretex/waterproof/etc, designers at most companies basically started making heavier and more waterproof "softshells" which basically resulted in something they could market and sell but didn't work for much more than an around-town nice-looking rain jacket. These "soft hard-shells" are really heavy and not particularly more breathable than Goretex, nor as water and wind proof.

I'd vote for a 30L cilogear - best pack I've ever used. Rather than 1-3 days, I think it makes sense to say 2-3 days, and assume there's an overnight or two. I can easily fit a 20degree bag, jetboil, food, rack, a few extra clothes, and then the odds-and-ends (camera, spork, sunblock, ipod, etc). I use my thermarest for the frame/back pad. I tend to put the helmet in last to top it all off, with the rope strapped over the top and along the sides. This is without bringing the detachable lid which seldoms leaves the trailhead. Crampons and tools are strapped on the outside attachment points.

I sent you a text ben

Trout Creek is the best crack climbing in the region, and really the only place where you will be forced to crack climb decently well if you want to get up stuff. Index has a lot of face holds, slots, flakes, and knobs compared to many granite cliffs. Lots of folks go to the (other) 'creek' with little experience and have a great time learning the basics, and often end up quickly working through the grades. If you really want to become good at climbing cracks, I'd definitely suggest Trout.

Jens and I climbed there all day in the snowstorm on Friday. We also found things felt challenging. Its interesting to hear locals suggest lack of wayer rather than cold temps for the lack of xlimbs. One of the lefterish and one of the middle-ish lines at peewee playhouse went at ok-protected WI4 to slings we left on trees. If anyone finds a short new-style BD screw, give a shout. PSA: if you park in the pulloff toward the state park across from peewees u can expect a discovery pass ticket from the WSP even I you are parked before the sign.

I've witnessed two BD hotwires snap, as well as climbed with a friend who had just seen a Mammut moses snap. These were all in climbing applications. I think it happens much more frequently than many climbers would guess.

grousing about spray after: A) logging onto cc.com B) Clicking the thread about 2012 goals That's kinda like going to the food co-op and hanging around in the tofu aisle just to complain that you're surrounded by vegan hippies.

Locally I want to make it to the LTW more often and send at least one of the classic 5.12 routes. I'd also like to redpoint some of the Leavenworth Classics: No Such Thing Shriek of the Mutilated Ruthless Supercrack Onsight Edge of Space, Der Sportsman Convince someone to climb Let It Burn or Thin Red Line - or do either again. Learn to boulder, and onsight V3 (locally) consistently. Have my wife ropegun me on Outer Space Ropegun my wife up the North Ridge on Stuart Redpoint Moonlight Buttress Climb Rainbow Country or the Cloud Tower/Rainbow Wall Linkup Climb Velvet Tongue, the start to a long-tem Red Rock goal Make a solo ascent in the winter in the cascades Get up a mountain in Pakistan

I spoke with folks @ the BLM office today. They are still expecting a likely closure for much of the spring and beyond, though nothing is set in stone. The wall is currently open, with no immediate closures planned. It sounds like the default closure area used or suggested by the Dept of Fish and wildlife is for an area 1/4 mile from the nest (minimum) - some areas that institute Golden Eagle closures do so as early as December, and they generally extend to mid summer. If you want to send your TC project, you may want to get after it pretty soon here.

Embrace the flops. An elastric strap over the top of the foot and one around the heel/achilles are good improvements.

Anyone interested in tomorrow? Upper or Lower town wall?

Castle and Midnight are both sunny and pleasantly climbable as well.

Anyone want to climb at Index tomorrow? I'm happy to lead all day. Text or call - 206 SPY PLANE Thanks

If you are going to basically copy an existing and well-loved product in any industry, you better make something as good, if not much better. I think Mastercams aren't terrible, but I can't see ever preferring them to aliens. To me, they are alien copies with no advantages and several downsides. - annoyingly small trigger - no range -easily stuck -disingenuous marketing about "holding power" -less flexy - trigger strings that snap - spring tension that relies on the cam stops (this is in comparison to correctly-assembled aliens, not the ticking timebomb models that failed under bodyweight)

How about a fair percentage of the guys who make them... Wait... Mastercams are good because the people who make them say so? I heard that those "pet rock" things are pretty awesome too!

To me they are just worse than aliens in every way. Less flexy, less range, more apt to get stuck due to lobes that rotate past each other, more easily gummed up, and after the cam stops (which the triggers pull on) broke on a purple one (and metolius wouldn't do anything about it) I don't have much faith in their durability. I'd vote for wanting an alien or offset alien in about 80-90% of the small cam placements I make, with a pretty even distribution of times I'd want a TCU or C3 for the odd spot here and there on the other placements.

Hey Wayne! You know, there really wasn't a lot of lichen on those routes, but some grainyness and flaring cracks on that aspect of Cathedral. Amphitheatre was basically flawless, just frustatingly lacking in continuous steepness.

Trip: Pasayten Wilderness - Cathedral and Amphitheater Trip Report: Over the course of a week spent in the eastern edges of the range back in August, my friend Scott Bennett and I climbed a few new routes and were amazed by all the folks out there. I made a couple topos below. Our granite sojourn began at CAMP 4: I had been to the region once before, about 4 years ago, when my girlfriend and I didn't see anyone for 5 days. 7 years ago, Darin and Owen had an inspirational trip and apparently didn't encounter many people either. This time it was a zoo! (multiple NOLS groups, some cowboys...) But our one day of snow flurries was made better by the friendly folks who let us fly fish and play cards and even steal some yukon jack whiskey. Darin's "Pilgrimage to Mecca" route was getting done by several groups, as was the SE Buttress on Cathedral. Scott and I joined up with fellow a former-Bellinghamster named Dana, and we climbed the first pitch of Amphitheater's " Left Side of the Middle Finger Buttress which is definitely one of the best 5.10 corner pitches in the range. We left a rap station above. Scott and I also did a few new routes. The climb on Amphitheater was fun for a few pitches, then became lower angle and joined the general vicinity of the upper "Left Side" route. It began here, taking a line on the right: Flake to Corner to Splitter to Roofs The red alien/green camalot splitter is good Cascades alpine training for Moonlight Buttress. The swinging steps left were wild, but solid-feeling, and the roofs weren't as bad as we had thought they'd be. P2 On Cathedral, we hoped for clean white granite and splitters. We found some of both, but overall the face is so ledgy, with corners and options all around, that it never forced us to take a line or climb a weakness and we wandered around picking out features that seemed fun. Climbing on the headwall crux - The headwall climbing was neat, featuring a (now cleaned-out) roof-to-finger crack sequence that I failed to free on lead. The moves are all there, it's just a big span between the last opening in the crack, and an obvious jug. Scott, both a better climber and with long monkey-man arms, sent this pitch and hauled the pack, and I lunged to follow cleanly. Pretty reach dependent, but with good gear and neat moves. (pic courtesy of friendly Canadian illegal visitor) Gear Notes: Both routes would go fine with a rack to 3" and some small wires and doubles in medium-sized cams. Approach Notes: Up via the Chewack River from Winthrop

I'm another heretic who TR solos on the cinch all the time. It feeds really smoothly, has always locked up, and allows for instant lower/rapping. I do tend to tie an overhand knot or fig-8-on-a-bight after leaving the ground or big ledges as a final safety measure that I could never fall past, but it has always locked up. I like the harnesses that have the snug, dogbone-style belay loop slot, which keeps the little locking 'biner oriented properly. One thing with the cinch: it requires a real tug to lock it up, just like the seatbelt in your car. A very slow and gentle pull will not lock it up. So when you are falling, don't grab the rope and try to slow yourself, just sit back down with your weight on the rope.

Here's an update/article from the Seattle PI - I like the premise, which is for groups like the North Cascades Conservation Council to reconsider road repairs and greater access in exchange for such an expansion of park size. SEATTLE PI ARTICLE Greens want bigger national park: Let people into it! By JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF Updated 07:00 p.m., Sunday, October 2, 2011 Dubbing themselves the "American Alps Legacy Project," a bevy of conservation groups want to put about a quarter-million acres of additional federal land into our state's North Cascades National Park. Nobody doubts the land is of "park caliber." Pull off the North Cascades Highway and look up Ross Lake at Hozomeen Mountain. Watch 8,900-foot Black Peak come into view from the road, or hike to Maple Pass for broader vistas. Or walk the Baker River rainforest on a misty-moisty shoulder season day. But Congress ought to deliver an either/or ultimatum to the more rigid advocates of a larger park: Let people into it. Old-line green groups must drop resistance to reopening roads that access trailheads and campgrounds in the North Cascades and Olympic National Parks. They must stop lawsuits blocking rebuild of the Suiattle River Road in Snohomish County, the major access to wonderful trails into the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area. The coalition behind the "American Alps Legacy Project" includes practical people like former Republican Gov. Dan Evans, climber-lawyer Jim Wickwire (first American atop K-2), and Peter Jackson, writer son of the U.S. Senator who wrote the 1968 North Cascades Act. But its lead sponsor is the North Cascades Conservation Council. The N3C was plaintiff in a federal suit, earlier this year, that forced the Federal Highway Administration to abandon a plan to rebuild the Suiatte Road. It seems that some absolutist activists have lived by a motto: Keep everybody out but us. Now that it's time to add 237,702 acres to the park, however, they're singing a different tune. "The North Cascades National Park is currently one of the least visited national parks in the 'lower 48' states," the American Alps Legacy Project said last week. How come? One reason: The N3C, Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association and other groups have tenaciously fought -- and helped block -- reconstruction of one of just two roads that lead into the park. The dirt road up the Stehekin River valley washed out in the great fall storm of 2003. The washout occurred near aptly named Carwash Falls. A rebuilt road could use the path of an old wagon road just east of the washout. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., has introduced a bill to do just that. We're not talking about Interstate 5. The Stehekin Road was used mainly for a National Park Service shuttle bus that dropped hikers off at trailheads, and took non-backpackers to such wonderful lowland places as the Bridge Creek Campground. When Congress was considering North Cascades legislation in the 1960s, the Sierra Club produced a film entitled "The Wilderness Alps of Stehekin." It showed club director David Brower and his family on a horseback trip up to Park Creek Pass, a 6,100-foot-high defile flanked by three 9,000-foot peaks. Hiking buddies and I once watched, at Park Creek Pass, as a mother bear and three cubs frolicked in the meadows. It's one of the most beautiful places on earth. A stiff eight-mile hike when the Stehekin Road was open, it's now 14 miles each way: Who has time to follow in the Browers' footsteps? Park legislation has to pass through the House Resources Committee. Doc Hastings is the chairman: The Doc's last League of Conservation Voters scorecard rating -- a goosegg. A chunk of the proposed park addition -- Rainy Pass-to-Washington Pass on the North Cascades Highway -- is in Hastings' district. Hence, park advocates need to ask a question they learned as kids on Saturday morning television: What's up, Doc? The sun will rise over the Olympics before Hastings ever agrees to park status for popular hunting areas (e.g. Canyon Creek) north of the North Cascades Highway. He's going to insist that the Stehekin Road be rebuilt. Driven by outrage in Snohomish County, Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., is going to have his back up -- as he should -- over putting back the Suiattle Road. The American Alps Legacy Project proposes some visitor enhancements. But new visitor centers would be located in Marblemount and Winthrop, outside the park. A silky promise reads: "Family-friendly front country recreation along S.R. 20 will be developed in a way that is compatible with conservation in the park." Does that mean a de-emphasis -- or abandonment -- of roads and trails leading to glorious high places? Sweeping views from the Hidden Lake Lookout hold a lot more appeal than the proposed "Goodell Creek Landslide Trail." Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who hikes and climbs in her (little) spare time, is working the issue. She'll need the patience of Job and the wisdom of Solomon to pull off what would be wonderful for the state -- an enlarged North Cascades National Park that a cross-section of citizens can enjoy. Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/connelly/article/Greens-want-bigger-national-park-Fine-let-2197242.php#ixzz1chOVB3sb

I would love to climb at castle, midnight or anything sunny tomorrow. dont mind leading all day. thanks

Yo Mikey, Scott and I had a single unzipped bivy bag and 2 (~30 degree 20oz) down bags for 5 nights on our pollone trip. Although we didn't have nights as cold as you guys on fitz, it was still chilly and windy and we slept really well and even felt rested after bivy on route. If I did it again i think the ideal setup for something like this which you are describing would be LINK TO SUCH A PRODUCT a basic ( zipperless) sheet of Cuben/cubic Fiber or Silnylon that could be thrown over both climbers. Maybe 7' x 7'? It would maybe just have grommets in the 4 corners, or better yet, just small dabs of seam grip with holes poked through (poor-mans ultralight grommets). Then I'd be a fan of 2 ultralight bags like the montbell 40degreee bag, which weigh about 15oz each, though perhaps a spoonbill equivalent, or a down blanket from western mtneering, would be better. Stick your feet and lower legs in your pack and sleep on the rope, and overall i think it produces a pretty good shelter/sleep system for not much more weight than a full nalgene. I think overal its worth picking the brain of some accomplished long distance hikers for their setups, and checking sites like this one: www.zpacks.com It seems like with a VBL inside the bag, your warm air cushion of feathers is going to suffer a lot more convective heat loss due to wind than with a layer on the outside, and of course when it rains, you are hosed.

awesome climb and photos... i love the shots with you all up in the rhime and snice, and the fall colors of the cascade pass trail down below.

The Casual Route is 5.10a and has only a body-length or so of climbing even as hard as a typical Index 5.9. That's not to say it doesn't take some guts to solo it. (and then nearly crash in a BASE jump from the top)

My friend Scott and I did this a few weeks ago and concur with Mikey, Max, Sol, et al - this one gets my vote for best rock climb in Washington. You can also rap the first 6 pitches with a 70m rope for a great half-day climb with short approach. All the harder pitches are just short enough to allow the leader to untie and throw down their end of the 70m rope and haul up a pack - no need for a tag line. Scott made a freeclimbing topo - Scott's writeup Crux pitch: good 'til the end Double roofs on pitch 6