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AaronB

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Posts posted by AaronB

  1. Hey All. Selling off some delightful Aid and non aid gear. Good stuff.

     

    Hauling setup:

    Petzl Pro Traxion (used once)

    Black Diamond Rotor Swivel (never used)

    Brand new 7mm 35' lower-out bag line

    Complete set offset x4 Cams

    Off set superlight rocks

    A lot of pins, hooks, rivet hangers, etc.

    Yates wall ladders

    C3 000 and 00

     

    I put them up on Craigslist http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/spo/5441286474.html

    Craigslist add for wonderful and amazing aid gear

     

  2. Anyone headed to the valley for Rocktober? I have a Black Diamond Cliff Cabana double ledge (used once, and I mean literally one night), and a never used fly with pole to go with it.

    Both for $550. (Retail for both is $1000)

    email me at: ajbailey555@yahoo.com

  3. Trip: Dragontail - Backbone Ridge

     

    Date: 9/1/2013

     

    Trip Report:

    I've known Oleg for years but have never climbed with him. It turned out to be a treat. We met at Colchuck lake for dinner and whiskey around 5pm on Saturday. Woke up a little after 530am and were hiking by 630. We both were feeling the whiskey and no joke brought 8 liters of water! We brought our gear and planned on a bivy around the summit or back at the lake.

     

    The climbing was very straightforward for the most part and on very clean secure rock. He had already led the offwidth on a prior trip and let me have that lead. I was surprised that it wasn't that hard. It was strenuous, but very straightforward and secure. We brought two number 5 cams and a number 6 so I didn't have to move the cams up very much and could climb past them as the pitch isn't that long. I didn't feel run out.

     

    The pack was very heavy with all the water so we tried to drink as much as possible. It felt weird not to ration and actually have too much water and food. We kept eating and drinking and it almost felt like cragging over alpine. The climbing is relaxing and enjoyable with no really hard moves. We did notice several bivy spots along the way, with some awesome ones on top of backbone ridge.

     

    Getting to the fin, it looked mostly blank from below. I didn't really have any beta on the climb and Oleg left the pictures and descriptions in the car. We kind of guessed where to start climbing and it was so good. I really can't describe how enjoyable the pitches were with such great exposure and afternoon sun. The last pitch to the top of the fin felt run out as we used the #5 cams for the belay. So it was a runnout foot traverse with great exposure.

     

    We did have one very sketchy rappel off the mountain. We went down to the East on the descent since we only had tennis shoes and wanted to avoid the steep snow. The first single rappel was straightforward, but the second was sketchy. It barely covered a tiny horn (if you could call it that). I am a lot bigger so I went first with Oleg keeping an eye on it. We backed it up with two cams in case it popped. Unfortunately it went on an overhang and ended up being 12 feet too short to a big ledge. I placed a cam and did the crazy bounce testing to see if the rappel would fail for oleg. It held and I let the ends go through the rope and was able to reach a place to downclimb. We then made another rappel to the snow and descended to a good bivy site.

     

    Great climb and great partner. Here are some photos.

     

    This is me towards the top of the offwidth

    bb7.jpg

     

    Oleg on the pitch above it.

    bb5.jpg

     

    The great bivy spots on top of the BB

    bb2.jpg

     

    Me on the fin somewhere low

    bb6.jpg

     

    Oleg on the second to last pitch

    bb3.jpg

     

    Oleg at his belay

    bb4.jpg

     

    Looking down on Oleg from the top of the fin

    bb1.jpg

     

     

    Gear Notes:

    You don't need two #5's but what the hell right? And #6

    8 Liters of water :)

    double cams to .4 to #3 with some small stuff too

    10 alpine draws and 3 doubles

    2 hangovers

  4. Goatboy, I seem to remember running into you on the w ridge of forbidden the last time I did the traverse. (9 years ago?)You had just climbed the e ridge direct.

    The rope on the snow was sort of phycological protection. My partner didn't have much experience on steeper snow and wanted to be roped in. It gave her more confidence with the idea she would have a belay for the last 200 feet. Basically seemed worth the risk for her to feel more confident. That and I already had a 60m rope in my pack most of the climb after trying to manage two ropes the first day. Didn't feel like squeezing another in ;). Also, I feel these pictures make it look steeper than it really is? Good for making us look cool, but bad for beta.

    Almost all the rockfall was climber caused including the big guy that nailed me and tore my precious pants. There is a nasty loose section as you are climbing to gain the ridge after the second snow traverse.

  5. Saw a giant snaffle sitting on my helmet 4 inches from my face. I blew him a kiss goodnight and let him have his way with my stuff. I didn't notice any damage or missing food. Maybe your battle scared the future generations into submission. The stove fiasco involved what I think was screwing on the canister with the valve on and not noticing it. By the time it was noticed, the fuel was desperately low. Just enough for 3 liters of water. Rookie mistake. Climbing sans water while surrounded by snow is pretty annoying. No coffee = depressing.

  6. Trip: Torment Forbidden Traverse - TFT

     

    Date: 7/13/2013

     

    Trip Report:

    Left the car Saturday morning with perfect weather which continued the entire climb. I did this route 9 years ago and climbed torment via the SE face.. I wish I had done that this time. We chose to climb the gully and spent hours and hours fooling around on the SW face. We climbed way too high and had to rap down to the SE face anyway to access the ledges to the col for the start of the traverse. My recommendation is to just go straight up the SE face.. so much less of a hassle. And route finding is much more straight forward.

     

    The route was in great shape and the snow was perfect styrofoam. It was really secure. We bivied on a small ledge just before the 2nd and steep snow traverse as we wasted so much time on Torment (we also skipped bagging the summit).

     

    The bivy was beautiful but we had a stove malfunction and ended up not getting a hot dinner and having only 2 liters of water total melted (couldn't find a drip). That and my thermarest popped in the first 5 minutes of sleep. Ouch! The snow the next morning was icy and very secure. We didn't bring pickets but the snow would have been easily protected with them. The ridge was just as exposed and memorable as I remember with great views. We were a little tired and thirsty (no coffee or oatmeal) and only 1 liter of water each for the day. When we got to Forbidden col we counted 13 people on the west ridge and decided to bail as we have both done the W Ridge before and I was cranky thirsty. We rapped the gully in super speed time and raced to the the first water we found and OMG it tasted so good.

     

    Great fun and great partner. Did experience some nasty rock fall and took a big hit on my thigh ripping my pants and skin a little.. but mostly just a big bruise. Careful! Snow was perfect and no need to bypass. Overall we just needed to figure out a better system for simul climbing. We experienced too much rope drag. If I did it again, I think I'd just take a 60m half rope and half it so we would have only 30m between us. I'd be interested to hear thoughts on that? We were moving too slow I felt and was a little bummed not to join the clusterf*** of people on the W. Ridge of Forbidden. Oh, and don't count on drips.

     

    tft1.jpg

     

    tft2.jpg

     

    DSCN5221.JPG

     

    I don't remember the first traverse being this steep, maybe the camera angle?

    DSCN5228.JPG

     

    tft4.jpg

     

    tft3.jpg

     

    DSCN5246.JPG

     

    tft5.jpg

     

    tft6.jpg

     

    tft7.jpg

     

     

    Gear Notes:

    7 cams .4 to #2 with doubles of .75 and 1, 9 nuts (5-12 with a double of lucky 7)

    ice axe and extra tool (helpful but not essential)

    17 single slings and 5 doubles

    only need one rope..

     

    Approach Notes:

    Boston Basin

  7. We got back from climbing around 4am and slept until 730am. Somehow one of our helmets got picked up in that time span. A purple black diamond helmet that looked pretty new. The only people to leave during that time were two guys that arrived at the hut at 230am from Paradise to do the climb in a push, but were deterred by the winds. They crashed down below where we were in the shelter and left at 6am to go back down. Are you one of those guys? Did you grab a helmet? Accident or not, uncool to wake up to find it missing. We weren't done climbing.. Please return it.

  8. I'm job free and have some new rock toys that I'm anxious to put to use. Thinking City of Rocks for a few days and then to the Tetons. I could be convinced to do something else too if you have a good idea. You don't need to be a rockstar as I'm not, just try not to drink all the beer, and shit at every belay (unless you have IBS and then I am sorry). However I've heard that if you do have IBS you can get a prescription for Medical Marijuana now. Hey Hey! Not so bad after all!

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