KaskadskyjKozak

How do you organize all your 8-track cassettes?

Now I'll be in better shape for my upcoming Stuart epic.

indeed

AM - raptors were nested above the tower, but we did see them circling it from time to time.

Trip: Snow Creek Wall - Champagne Date: 5/2/2010 Trip Report: My friend CF and I had planned to climb the Ice Cliff Glacier this weekend but were scared off by a storm system coming in on Sunday evening which could have made for a long, long epic summit day (oh, the irony!). So we opted to climb Champagne as a one-day trip and consolation prize. We chose the route because 1) it's got two stars in the Leavenworth Rock book, 2) is less crowded and easier than Orbit or Outer Space, and 3) I like doing stuff off the beaten path. We hit the trail at 9:30 am and were at the base of the route at 11:30. After a quick lunch, we headed up the chock gulley pitch to the base of the route. I led this pitch. The moves around the first stone are supposedly 5.8. Don't know if that's true or not, but with some water, mud, and moss maybe it's justified. CF on the approach: Snow Creek Wall. Easter Tower is 2/3 of the way across the wall towards the right. Easter Tower and the gully leading up to it: The first pitch of the route itself starts off at the notch between SCW and Easter Tower. Our route description indicated you go up a broken up section of the rock after a leftwards traverse. There were two broken sections - the first, on the right of a bolt, seemed way too mossy and dirty, with a thin crack that seemed sketchy. So CF went left to the other option. This was a right-slanting, wider crack which was moderately hard to protect, and full of mud and a small bush right where you needed to go. It took a long time to lead this pitch, and ate up a good chunk of the afternoon. More time was eaten up during the ensuing cluster fuck. The route zigs and zags with rope drag, and, the rope caught dead in a flake. Oh, and did I mention CF dropped two of my large hexes that rolled partway down the hill? So, when CF yelled "off belay", I scrambled to get the hexes, kiwi-coiled the rope, and prusiked up half the pitch to clear the rope from the flake. Then I swore and grunted up the crack. At the annoying bush I slipped twice, enjoying the stabbing of branches into my crotch. It sucked donkey balls, and ate even more time - two hours on this pitch, at least. By now we were both offput to say the least. I led the next pitch up the crack and chickenheads. It took a little nerve to get off the deck. The pitch is very dirty, and the crack for pro needed cleaning as did the tops of some chicken heads. I was worried I would run out of rope, so I set up an awkward gear anchor short of a fine ledge 20-30 feet higher. This is when the raptor began to dive bomb me. I also found about 4 ticks crawling on my arm during the day. And some goats followed us up the approach to lick our pee. A great day with the alpine fauna! Goats preparing to lick up pee: CF followed up and led to the ledge above. He also got dive-bombed. Turns out the raptor had a nest right on that ledge. CF then led left. This turned out to be a long scramble pitch, and it's where we got of route. CF led way left (a full rope length) where he should have gone up a chimney. CF leading too far left: For the next pitch I started up and didn't like the terrain/dirtiness of the route, so I dropped down and continued the scrambling/low 5 climbing left. This involved one sketchy frictioning traverse half a rope-length out, followed by a second, even worse one a few feet farther. I started left on the second traverse but did not have a #3 cam on me (I had used it earlier) and had to backtrack and set up a hanging belay off gear. CF followed, then tried the traverse with a #3 for pro. He got fairly sketched and almost pendulumed, but cleared the friction part. Nice work! It was now 6 pm, and we were realizing we needed to summit fast or start rapping. In either case we would be hiking out in the dark. CF said the last pitch looked like a go, so I followed his pitch and took a look up. Yeah, a "go" with some more manky terrain, moss and shit culminating in a vertical chimney, and I could not see how it looked inside the chimney from below. Fuck it. I started up. I had to use my chock pick to clear cracks for pro and some footholds. The chimney itself was not bad at all. It had good protection and some awkward moves (5.7+ I would guess). This put us on the ridge - finally! View down from the ridge (note location of Easter Tower on the left): CF followed. It was now 6:45, and we could see the shitty weather coming in from the Stuart range that had scared us off of the Ice Cliff Glacier. It was cold and windy on the ridge. KK on the summit ridge: We had planned all along to rap down the opposite side of SCW and walk off using the Pearly Gates trail. We did a full rope rappel, then a 30 foot rappel off a tree onto some snow on steep hillsides. Good fun in rock shoes. We then began to stumble and slide down the steep hillsides looking for a climber's trail. It got dark. CF did not have a headlamp, so we shared mine. Pace cut in half. After an hour or so, we found the climber's trail below the Pearly Gates. It was now drizzling. We started going a bit faster but it still took a long ass time. The rain intensified. At around 11:30 the trail petered out near a small stream. We searched around for it and got stuck in some marshy terrain, so we backtracked. We still could not find a different way to follow the trail, so we opted to cross a small stream. Our plan was to go DOWN and hit the road. We saw lights nearby. But ended up going in circles, blocked by unfordable, fast-moving, rain-engorged streams. We were so close! Shwack, shwack, shwack. The slide Alder was totally wet and soaked us while moving through. Temps were in the 40's - classic hypothermia conditions. I had on my climber's pants and a hard-shell top. CF had shorts over polypro (LOL!) and a fleece jacket. We were both shivering. It felt like we were going in circles. A view burned into my mind forever: Finally I got my compass out, found due N and we headed in - THE EXACT OPPOSITE DIRECTION we thought we should go. Within 5 minutes we ran into a stream. A weird stream. Fuck, it's man-made and looks like those little aquaducts near the Snow Creek TH! Shwack, shwack downstream. Some kind of pump/valves! We crossed here and ran up a walk way over the aquaduct. Barbed-wire gate. Fuck. And you could not go around - on either side was a 30 foot drop to a waterfall. Only one fucking choice. We climbed over the fence. Don't fall. Finally, we are on the trail to the car again. Time of arrival - 1:00 am. Crank the car heater to 85, and start home. The entire drive was in pouring rain, except for 10 miles over Steven's Pass, which was snow with several inches of slush on the roadway. I had to slow to 20-25 mph. Time of arrival home: 3:50 am. When is the next trip? Gear Notes: Mid-size rack up to 3". Metal brush to clean manky shit off the route!

You've got much bigger balls than me! Great job!

So you admit you were talking out of your ass (again).

Um... seems like libtards watched it all last election season considering the coverage of the SNL Palin skits in libtard media.

From his personal TTK photo album.

Yeah, but what about Global Warming?

Turn around and it is easier (butt against the main rock, feet against Jello Tower). I protected that part with a #4 cam. I completely suck at rock climbing and I led it (twice) :-)

Makes me think Islamic she-garb isn't such a bad idea after all... TTK would fit right in...

STFU boner

Any cool 5.8 multipitch linkups - at 8 mile or elsewhere?

yeah, we should all just talk about politics instead

I thought this was gonna be about rye whisky.

Thanks Goatboy!

How consolidated is the snow on the route? Any exposed ice at the bottom to pitch out? Would snowshoeing to the base and hoofing it up early morning be reasonable? What were the snow conditions on the ridge run like to the summit?

Ditto. And what the snow/ice quality is like in them.

It's on the rock outcropping a few hundred feet above the top of the Tree route. I don't know the name of it. Just head up starting right, then left (scramble the path of least resistance).

Trip: Eight Mile Buttress - Tree and Stump Linkup Date: 4/25/2010 Trip Report: My partner JH and I headed out to warm rock as a backup to alpine climb plans gone awry due to recent snow. We opted for a 5.easy day and the link-up described in the new Leavenworth Rock guide of the Tree route (3 pitches up to 5.6) plus the Stump (same) sounded like a good one to get back into things. I have never climbed the Tree Route and was worried about all the talk about it swallowing big gear. I found it pretty mellow, only needing a C4 #4 and #3 on the first pitch, and a C4 #4 and BD hex #11 on the "infamous" off-width (pitch 3). I carried a #5 cam up to the summit for no reason. The first pitch of this route is all under-clingy up to 5.6 - not my favorite. Protection was fine. The third pitch of this route is very enjoyable 5.6. Looking up from the base of the Tree Route: The Stump route has a great first pitch involving a nice 5.6 crack - very protectable. We had route-finding issues on pitch two veering far right of the bolted 5.10- route. We ended up with an "adventurous" pitch three from an awkward gear anchor near an old, ratty rap sling. I clipped an old rusty piton, and a permanently-placed nut en route to a large tree. We didn't quite reach the top on pitch 3 due to rope drag, and had a short 50 foot belay to the top. For pitch 2, we should have stayed farther left. View of Stuart from the top of the Stump Route: We carried approach shoes to the summit which made our walk-off a lot better. To rappel the routes you really need two 60 m ropes, and we only had one (and you still have to scramble a couple of hundred feet between the routes). We only ran into one other party the whole day (at the beginning of the Tree route). Gear Notes: Large gear needed/used: C4 #3, #4, BD Hex #11 Approach shoes if not rapping (2 60m needed) Approach Notes: Short, quick.

Anyone been up SEWS, Liberty Bell or Concord Tower? I'd be interested in if the main routes are (mostly) snow free yet...