selkirk

Smith is a State Park, not a national one.

Two thumbs up for this one, just replaced my whole list of weather bookmarks!

Had a marmot try to abscond with a 60m climbing rope up on Eldorado. Looke like the rope weighed more than he did. He certainly was feeling ambitious that day!

once I bought some I never went back. A full set of alloy's and the larger brass ones are permanent pieces on my rack now with the regular DMM walnuts filling in any gaps. They are da bomb! And the DMM walnuts are the 2nd best nut on the market next to the DMM alloy offsets

What they said for for strength. That said, it's been my experience that usually when my forearm's a cooked it's because I was climbing inefficiently, not because I wasn't strong enough. IMHO until you're pushing into mid to high 11's or better (or working on Godzilla), then pumping out is a symptom of needing better footwork, body positioning, and consciously resting/conserving strength, and not a symptom of inadequate strength.

My thoughts exactly. Half way up that route I felt like I couldn't retreat because the gear was such shit. Thin, awkward, bulgy, and fiddly is a really bad combination. Moves were 10b but felt a whole lot more serious. good vibes to the guy, and good to hear he wasn't more seriously hurt.

It certainly helps fill them up when the prison industry heavily lobies to have more stringent sentencing minimums, as well as ensuring that the there is no rehabilative aspect to the prisons so their cash cow is sure to come back. Really a pretty disgusting industry.

w/ respect, i don't think you know what you're talking about - i'm an active union member, and, if anything, our union is pretty damn weak w/ the vast # of members really not involved at all (a microcosm of the larger political landscape, no?) - my own participation as a member involves working w/ administrators throughout my district, and all w/ the main idea of serving the kids, not just maintaining a status quo - an example from this year: implementing a new state-wide evaluation system for both teachers and principals that was created by the legislature in part to address the concerns of the states citizens that "bad teachers" aren't being weeded out (i volunteered to be a guinea pig for the pilot year to help work out the bugs, and the active members of the union were very involved to help form the bill in the first place, despite the unease that the general membership inevitably felt, as all humans do, in the face of change) i don't complain much about the lack of prestige or remuneration that accompanies the profession, b/c i went into it eyes wide shut n' never had strong aspirations for such anyhow - the bottom line is though, if you want to attract huge numbers of exceptional people into the profession, you're probably going to have to make it more attractive (and no matter how much you pay, it's hard to get people to survive the stress of the first few years - jesus, go try it sometime! your memory of school of course is from the students' perspective - holy shit it's different when having to perform over n' over in front of 150 or so folks a day, constantly under the gun, dealing w/ a gazillion different challenges, all on the fly, and often inexplicably involved and entangled in one another) just defining "good teacher" and "good school" is a sisyphean task, one that is highly variably by kid, community and subject the public perception is that most teachers are dipshit deadbeats - i'm approaching 2 decades in the profession now, and while i HAVE known a few folks that fit that description, they represent a tiny minority of the total, probably about the same in any other industry what do you think unions have really gotten in the way of that would have made all the difference? Good for you Ivan! It's much appreciated.

Not necessarily a silver bullet there either. A goodly portion of the teachers are those who couldn't get into the public school system. As for the kids, they have more money but that does not equal fewer problems or better kids, just more expensive problems.

Great route Lost a hex myself on that one!

First time I climbed BBQ I led it from the ground up . Still don't know what the hell I was thinking at the time. It helped that my belayer/spotter was 6' 6" and that once I was 10 feet up no way in hell was I down climbing! Every time since then it was either stick clip or climb New Testament and get the bolt on rap

Rope fuzz is annoying but only cosmetic. Next step is to feel the rope for a flat spot (where the core is damaged or seperated and all you really feel is sheath). If you find any then it should be replace of at least that portion cut off, just like exposed core.

Spoken like someone who believes the gossip. 8D If you have some climbing background Basic is a bit slow and redundant, but if you're really starting from scratch it's a good starting point. Certainly keep an open mind. Also a good way to link up with lots of folks of similar ability. Many, many, many folks start with the Mountaineers get the training they are after and then go off and do their own thing.

Well, your first mistake is assuming that Libra is 10a It's a much bigger sandbag than say Godzilla. The first couple of moves on that involve committing probably 70% or more of your weight to thin hand jams. Your hands are about the same size as mine so the first 5 or 10 ft of the upper crack is too small for a good hand jam and too big for a good finger jam. For me anyway that's definitely move fast territory, and I don't think that tape will help that one much. My own experience is that painful jams are usually eliminated by footwork and stemming, carefully choosing the jams and milking the good jams for as long as possible to bypass the intermediate bad jams. And them sometimes they just hurt like an SOB (i.e. finger locks on Orange sunshine are a great example). I don't think Libra is 10ish climb unless... you stem off the boulder behind you

Bartacked has been at this game longer than you have Wetslide

this thread is on the verge of getting a hell of a lot more interesting! Oiy... oh boy. Trust me...it was JUST coffee. Then how can he be sure? Edumucated minds want know !

Where's Sobo when you need him? Hard to top riding a collapsing basalt column

Say it aint so Muffy!!!!! At least make it a long long term loan. And you should know that climbing has next to nothing to do with CC, no reason to stop visiting.

Sunflower Seeds, plain salted ones still in the shell. I always have a bag in the car. Throw a handfull in your mouth and shell them/eat the seeds a batch at a time. It seems to take just enough attentiveness to keep me focused and awake without taking my full attention. Plus after an hour or two the salt starts to eat a whole in your cheek and that hurts like hell which also helps the attentiveness thing

DMM Nut's Rock but go straight for the Alloy Offset's and then fill in the off sizes with regular DMM Walnuts. The Alloy Offsets are like the best parts of Walnuts and the small DMM Brass Offsets. quickly earned a permanent place on my rack. Hexes: WC Curve hexes. Top 3 sizes go just about everywhere with me. Absolute must if you're climbing at Tieton.

I agree that there are probably several pieces that will work in that crack. #4 is not essential, but easy to just throw in there. For a new tenative leader the #4 effectively puts you on top rope for the move. Not necesary but nice.

Can't wait to take the girls climbing. I think H has a little while until she's ready though! H just hit a whole 5 days old today! So far G is handling it pretty well :-)

There's also a bunch guarding the climbs over at Hobo Gulch in L-town as well.

Trip: Ingalls Peak - East Ridge Date: 6/17/2012 Trip Report: Route Overview 6:15am Leave Beverly Creek Trailhead 8:00am Ingalls Pass 9:00am Gully Below East Ridge access point 10:00am Roping up at the East Ridge Notch 4:00pm Full group on Summit 5:40pm Base of the S. Ridge 7:30pm Return to Beverly Creek Trailhead A few of bivied at the trailhead overnight at the trailhead and at about 1:00 Kititas SAR rolled in. In the morning we found out that there had been two accidents on Saturday, a broken arm on Stuart, and a broken hip on Ingalls. The lady with the broken arm required assistance crossing Ingalls creek, and ascending/descending longs pass and SAR had dispatched two people to set up a roped creek crossing. The man with the broken hip was up nears Ingalls peak, and the intent was to perform a helicopter rescue that morning. There was also another group of Kitsap Mountaineers who were planning on the Basic Route on Ingalls peak getting their folks lined up. We chatted at the parking lot but after leaving the parking lot didn't see them again. Overnight we had intermittent showers, but we woke up to a moderately high cloud ceiling. After sorting a little gear, we talked about the climb a bit and left the trailhead at 6:15am. The first mile or so was on trail, and after that we followed the boot path up to the Longs Pass / Ingalls Pass juncture where we met the SAR party. They were carrying sleds and evacuation gear into Ingalls Lake just in case the helicopter rescue wasn't feasible. We chatted for a few moments, thanked them for their work and carried on. We hit Ingalls pass at about 9:00 and the cloud layer was high enough that we could see Ingalls Peak and the boot path leading to the East Ridge, as well as the lower half of Stuart. After Ingalls pass we dropped down a bit and contoured around the valley trying to cut a rising traverse to the gulley below the East Ridge Notch about 10:00. There was some evidence of old wet-slide avalanche debris, but the snow pack was firm and well consolidated. No need for either snowshoes or crampons. We dropped a little gear and then headed up the climb. Route: P1: The typical first pitch was snowed under so we ascended steep snow until we could access the 4th class ledges on the left side of the gulley. Once on the ledges we threw on our rock shoes and climbed up to a small rib just this side of the notch. Heading through the Notch would have put us back on snow so we elected to start belaying just short of the notch and headed up a 5.5ish rib to access the ridgeline and then followed just to climber’s right of the ridgeline. We continued on until rope drag became an issue just below the large gendarme, prior to dropping into the notch. P2: Second pitch descended into the notch. As the first climber I dropped to climbers left of a small fin descending low 5th terrain to the notch low point. Getting out of that involved a strenuous 5.8ish layback/high step to get back to the ridgeline. I advised all of the other teams to descend the right side of the fin. This required a more technical down climbing move but involved less overall unprotected down climbing for the 2nd, and did not require the layback move to get back on the ridge. After that the pitch crossed a small snow patch and then extended until rope drag became onerous. P3: Started up a low to mid 5th headwall trending up and slightly right of the crest following good gear, to belay from the top of a small buttress. P4: The 4th pitch started with a small down climbing move getting off the buttress, then going between two large boulders before continuing up staying just right of the ridgeline and crossing a 2nd snow patch. Primarily 4th class terrain with occasional pro, until rope drag became onerous. This pitch ended just below the crux wide crack. P5: Traversed over to the base of the small headwall, and then up broken terrain to the middle of three parallel leftward trending cracks that all reached up to the ridgeline. The lowest crack is a large slanting off width, followed by a smaller slanting fist crack and then a thin finger crack. Protected high in the middle fist crack with a old style #4 Camalot, and then square up to the rock to climbers left, making a 5.7 move to gain handholds on the ridge crest. Follow easier terrain to the summit. The first team sumitted at about 3:00, and the last team sumitted about 4:00. Weather on route was just adequate. Fog, light showers, some wind, but nothing sufficient to cause us to turn around. Once on the summit winds went from 10 to 15 mph to 30 mph with gusts to 35 or 40 mph. We also ran into a private party who had just climbed the S. Ridge. Descent was a challenge due to high winds. Best option was to use saddle bags to control the rappel lines and then tie off rappel lines to the next anchor down. Descent: Descent follows the S. Ridge climbing route. From Summit traverse west through prominent notch and then follow slightly down sloping ledges bearing left to cliff edge. Rappel anchor is a cluster of 3 bolts with chains. Descent can made most efficiently with 2x double rope rappels. There are also intermediate rap stations making 4x single rope rappels possible, though the 2nd rappel drops requires about 7 ft of down climbing so watch your rope ends. Rappels drop you at the base of the S. Ridge route. Descent gully back to base of the East ridge. As we were rapping down following the private party we were constrained by there pace so we made a series of 3 single rope rappels and 1x double. In retrospect a double rope rappel for the last stretch was unnecessary. Once on the ground we gathered up and descended the snowfield back towards our stashed gear and headed back out. The only other car in the parking lot when we arrived was the private team we had encountered on the summit. All in all a good climb. The theme seemed to be just good enough not to cancel, until of course we hit the summit! Very challenging conditions for everyone’s first Intermediate Rock climb, and everyone did great. Calm cool and collected throughout, and climbed at a reasonable pace in good style. "Pitch 1" East Ridge Notch Pitch 2 - Down into another notch and across the snow. Pitch 3 - Up the Face Just Below the Crux Cold Windy Summit Rapelling into the Abyss. Gear Notes: Gear: Single rack to 3" with 1x #4 Camalot (Old style) for the group to protect the crux. 10+ slings (mix of singles/doubles) per rope team. Rope drag is the biggest issue encountered. Approach Notes: Snow, lot of it. No flotation needed though.