TrogdortheBurninator

Climb: Banff - -Assorted Date of Climb: 1/16/2006 Trip Report: With conditions in Lillooet looking exceedingly grim, I searched the internet for cheaper fares to colder locales. I came across last minute tickets and three nights lodging in Canmore for $380. Seemed like a pretty good deal so I searched out partners. Via a mass email, Tomtom expressed interest in heading out. After a few phone calls we purchased the last minute tickets and flew out friday night. The car rental lady gave us a free upgrade to the ultimate climbing mobile, the PT Cruiser! On saturday we drove out the icefields parkway hoping to climb something on the Weeping Wall. About 10km from the wall, a ranger waved us down and said that avalanche hazard was through the roof and they would be doing control work in the vicinity of the wall. We were pretty surprised given that the book says avalanche hazard is virtually non-existant, but perhaps these were unusual circumstances. After turning around, we ran into a guided group talking to the same ranger. The guides said the had punched a trail up to Balfour Creek wall the day before and that it was safe from avalanches. Not wanting to spend the whole day driving around, we took them up on their recommendation. This is a pretty great cragging area with a bunch of leadable and TRable lines ranging from 2+ to 4ish. We climbed six lines in total, then called it a day. After stopping for dinner in Banff, we headed back to our hotel for an early night. Asking around town, there was an overwhelming concensus to avoid avalanche terrain. We talked about checking out Hafner or Johnston, but decided to try Louise Falls instead. I climbed a shortened first pitch a few weeks ago, so I was excited to climb a little higher. The route was great, with lots of variety and some difficult climbing. I lead the first pitch up a slightly steeper line than last time, but with slightly better ice. Tom put up a great lead on the picked out but still challenging crux pillar. While belaying, the rockies drove home the point just how bad avy cnditions were. In about two hours, eight different slides cut loose, with the biggest covering the entire lake in a cloud of snow taller than the falls. According to some other climbers they saw a party on Cascade, which is a very frightening thought. I tried to lead the top out ice, but got sketched on a nervous looking traverse. I lowered back to the belay and Tom took over, tensioning the traverse and showing some nice climbing up the final steep step. Thanks to some info from some friendly Canadians at Louise Falls, we headed into Evan-Thomas creek this morning before flying out. Avy danger was low and the climbs are very high quality. We arrived at the base of Moonlight and Snowline with one guided party in line ahead of us. According to the guide, the climbs were quite a bit fatter than usual. The other party was headed for Moonlight, so not wanting to climb the thin looking WI 3 on the right, we decided to climb Snowline. This was another beautiful climb. Tom started with a great 59.9m lead up to a prominent ledge. I climbed up but realized after a while that my left crampon was only attached by the backup strap with both the heel lever and toe bail disengaged. Rather than fuss on the climb, I decided to make due and fix things at the belay. Fixing the crampon on the steep ground was challenging, however eventually we got it back in place. I lead the 2nd pitch which had a fairly challenging step before easing off near the top. Approach Notes: Evan-Thoas creek trailhead is actually 20km from the info booth, not 16km as stated in the guide. Avy danger is crazy right now, be safe if you head up there.

So is there any ice still? In town, the duffey, or marble?

One word Chuck - Sidekicks

If you taste plastic, you are likely tasting small molecules that if reacted further would be plastic. You also may be tasting plasticizers or other additives as was the case with the PVC toy concerns in the 70s. Bisphenol A is not plastic, it is a molecule that is reacted to form plastic.

Tag says Fido. Found here http://www.rockclimbing.com/topic/104653

looks awesome!

May is a great time of year for Leavenworth. High quality granite with hundreds of climbs from single pitch to multi-pitch. It is east of the mountains so weather is fairly reliable. Viktor Kramer wrote the guidebook, Leavenworth Rock. There are other options, but most will probably agree this is the best for when youll be here. If the weather is good, you could tour Index and Leavenworth. For more options, check out Rockclimbing Washington by Jeff Smoot.

Anybody have a pair of these yet? I was thinking they might be fun as a 2nd set to goof around with and try out some more drytooling. Aside from being hideous, the price is definitely right.

Do you really think GI JOE cares about minor safety concerns? The dude has elastomer band powered quick kick action for fucks sake.

John, Is goat wall in? How come your pics from last week were all fun rock DTing and longish approach WA pass road cuts?

Probably the only thing w/ in 5 hours would be the road cut ice at WA Pass, accessed via Mazama. Lillooet sounded OK still from reports, but is probably more like 6+ hours unless you drive like a devil. Maybe there is some other higher elevation ice that is closer, but those are the only areas with recent confirmed reports.

When they invent the e-Roundhouse, maybe the real Chuck will start spraying up CC.com

I got some of those new OR Alias gloves and they are awesome. They kept my hands warm for moderate temps (to high teens) and they are super sticky. They also bave minimally padded fingers and a funky gel underside thing. They are kinda expensive ($60), but I had some REI gift cards from christmas to spend. I also have some BD Ice gloves from last Christmas, and while warm, the dexterity isnt even close. I checked out some nice work gloves at Fred Meyer and the good insulated one were close to $40. For $20 difference it is close. Vs functional $10 gloves, it is harder to justify the fancy stuff. I would probably buy those if I wasnt a gear whore. I do think the ORs are better though.

Instead of eating hot dogs at the family BBQ, Chuck Norris eats baby fur seals

I wonder if they will suffer consequences from their actions. Seems like they fucked up big time. I considered the Hoax theory initially, but it seems fairly unlikely given the cooperation of the poster.

Never do anything behind Chuck Norris' back. It just gives him more time to warm up his roundhouse kick.

Climb: The Least Ambitious Rockies Ice Trip Ever-Various Date of Climb: 1/1/2006 Trip Report: Sam had to do ten minutes of work on Tuesday afternoon, so we basically couldn't do anything until wednesday. We spent most of tuesday looking for cheap tickets to southern california and debating other trip options. I was basically deadset on Banff or J-Tree, but sam didnt want to buy plane tickets for j-tree. Sam hadnt ice climbed outside of big four, so she was pretty apprehensive about driving 12 hours just to get freaked out. We were itching to take a camping trip in our new van, so we figured if nothing else it would be a nice road trip. Temperatures were perfect for camping in the van and comfortable for climbing. We had no specific objectives except to introduce Sam to ice climbing in the most comfortable manner possible. We stopped in lake louise the first night because we were sick of driving. The next morning we go going at a very leisurely pace and headed to the canmore junkyard. The ice was fatter than anything I had ever climbed. We started on an easy WI 2 flow on the right of the main seep. We then climbed a fun 50m wi 2-3 Sam enjoyed it a lot! We went to dinner at the grizzly paw and enjoyed their fine food and good beer sampler. Afterwards we went looking for a campsite in canmore. While trying to find an open campground and supposedly appearing suspicous we were approached by a mounty. After managing to avoid a ticket for no proof of insurance, the mounty suggested we find a parking lot a keep a low profile. We found a spot and sat down to watch a movie. The next day we got off to another late start and after one wrong approach start made our way to grotto falls. The trail to grotto falls is super popular with hikers, and makes an interesting diversion in and of itself. The right side of grotto falls was super wet and it took a lot of convincing to get Sam to climb it. We decided to just go up to the first set of bolts so that Sam could TR instead of feeling pressured to follow. The starting pillar was pretty kicked out, but still fun. After Sam TRed and I took another lap, some nice canadians let me TR my first "real" mixed route. I got pumped as hell and fell once, overall thought it was an awesome route. I had no idea how fun mixed climbs could be. Friday night we drove back to Lake Louise to make some westward progress. Saturday morning we headed up to Louise falls, fully expecting to see hordes of other climbers. We arrived and were pleasently surprised to see only one other party on the route. We only intended to climb one pitch, and Sam still wasnt comfortable with falling ice, so we climbed a fun double stepped variation on the right side of the cliff. There was a rotten layer of ice making the climbing pretty challenging. This was drastically different from the awesome blue hero ice in the middle of the flow. This climb finally got sam to stop telling me how easy ice climbing was. After rapping from a v-thread i spent some time traversing the bottom of the falls which was pretty fun too. When we got back to the car we hit the road and and drove to revelstoke where we spent the new year sleeping in our van in a dark parking lot by the river. This morning we woke up and finished the drive back to seattle. And the best part of the trip was..... Sam really likes ice climbing a lot! Plus, now we both want to move to Canmore. BTW the rockies are really pretty in winter Approach Notes: Mostly easy driving except our windshield washer pump is broken so we had to use a spray bottle out the driver side window to clean the windshield

What makes you think she'll ever let you leave?

I wanted to edit in skiing and other climbing, but couldnt

It tested out some schultzys sausage today and everything seems to be in order in the really good food department.

So whats the solution? Park where the road gets shitty, then hitchhike?

Things are looking somewhat grim for Lillooet after christmas. I am considering maybe Hyalite or the Canadian Rockies instead. Going with my wife, and the most important thing is easy access to shortish easy climbs. Sounds like drive time is a push. In terms of user friendliness, which is better? Also, we have two options for getting/staying there, which do you recommend for each area? 1) Drive our Outback, stay at a motel 2) Drive our 2wd Conversion Van, sleep in van with heater. We just bought the van two weeks ago and havent used it yet. No idea if a 2wd van (we will buy chains) is suitable for the hyalite or Can Rockies roads. Is the subie even suitable for that matter? I've heard some stories about the hyalite roads. Thanks Jason

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/14day/pages/CABC0172.htm this forecast shows cooling monday, then warming tuesday & wednesday, then cooling thursday and some more slight warming New Years weekend.

fwiwiwfiwif - If squid's Bionics are 3 years old, they should have the older secondary point design.

We worship our signed golden girls photo and ackonwledge no christmas can ever be truly happy since the show went off the air.