eldiente

If we are talking climbing clubs... I would LOVE to see a climbing club in the States that offers huts and hostel styled accommodations at popular climbing destinations. Sort of what they do in the boating world with Yacht clubs, once you become a member at a local club you cheap/free access to other Yacht clubs. In the PNW there could be clubs near Smith, Index, L-worth etc. You'd have to pay annual fee to be a member to your local club and donate some time up keeping the local club house, but when you travel you could stay at other clubs free of charge. Fantasy for sure but I would pay for this sort of thing.

Also, I don't think there is much logging going on up in the Sisters area anymore, much of that mountain is a Wilderness. -Nate

SEAGULL!

And he made the climbing Narc. http://climbingnarc.com/2011/03/news-notes-3222011/ Way cool! My Dad made my play baseball as a child.

Stick with it dude! Yeah if you can already do a few pull-ups you're plenty strong to climb in the 5.11 range, no problem. oohhh and speaking of high strength to weigh ratio, how about Adam Ondra at 130 pounds onsighting 5x 5.14C routes in two weeks?! He's got arms like a 12 year old girl, doesn't seem to hurt him at all.

I wouldn't worry about how many pull-ups, in fact I stopped doing them all together this year. I used to do 200+ per week but it never helped my climbing. The reason is simple, you don't need big pulling muscles to climb well and developing big pulling muscles makes you heavy. The test for this is simple, go to the gym and pick a roped route one number grade below your red point level and run laps on it till failure. What muscle got pumped out? Your back, lats, or your forearms? I wold guess your forearms. If you climbed at places like Rifle or Maple then maybe doing some pull-ups would be a good idea, but for us in the PNW most of the climbing we do is vertical and doesn't tax the big muscles. On the flip side, it would be hard to climb well if you couldn't do at least one pull-up, once in blue moon there is no other option but to pull hard but those moments are rare. -Nate

All good ideas. Yeah it will be a rope gun situation, my partner would like to be free as much as possible but it is likely that there will be sections that are too hard for my partner. I've batmaned the rope many a time while working routes, but it wears me out to the point where I'd have hard time doing that for very long.

Cool thanks. Yeah I'm looking at a route with unknown grades, it is possible that the follower might end up making a few free moves on the pitch and have to jug a long way to climbable terrain. Assuming jugging on the auto block, what's the process for switching back to free? I was thinking having the follower clip some pro to take the weight off the jugs while the leader takes in the slack. Workable?

I don't do a lot of aiding, I know some of you on here do the Dark Art. Perhaps you could help me out? Any ideas for the follower to aid around a crux section of a free climb while following? Assume no cracks so no French Free, follower gets to a hard section and can't make the moves, what's the best way to get them to up to the belay? I was thinking the follower could put Jugs on finish the pitch that way. My concern with this method is that the the follower is then jugging on the auto-lock belay, is this going to be a problem? I'd be a bit worried that jugging on the belay device might kink the hell out of the rope. Anyone got any good ideas how to switch over from following free to jugging? -Nate

The Master cam is a nice in the smaller sizes but I'd rather have BD in any size above .75 (Green BD) The stems on the larger Master Cams feel too soft, plus the #1 BD feels seems to never wear-out. -Nate

http://ignorantandonline.tumblr.com/

Good Lord that's a lot of ice! You'd climb there once and I suspect you'd never want to swing tools around the PNW ever again. Nice trip.

There was water up there two weeks ago, but it looked like mostly snow melt, If you can see any snow at all from the parking lot, I'd say you should be fine. If no snow, I don't think there would be any water. Hike-in, see image below. The blue dots are for the "sketchy" version as per the guidebook. It Involves a dirty 4th class traverse and a wet/lose 5th class pitch to gain the gully. Go up like you are going to Inti Wantana but head left before going up into the Inti gully. Edit. "Start" is for Pink Tornado, not Dogma. Dogma is up the gully climbers left another 20-30 minutes.

Oddly I had 3x climber friends all get their email account hijacked this past weekend and sent the same damn email. A trend?

Pink- No this was my first time climbing anything on Wilson.The question that comes to mind is; what's the best route to the summit of Mt Wilson? Resolution looks great but I hear rumors of choss rock. Inti Wanta looks cruiser but maybe just a monotonous clip up? Women of Mt dreams takes on the main wall, perhaps this is the best route on Mt Wilson? I'd like to try at least one of these routes at some point. -Nate

powderhound. The Sherwood Forest is cool as shit! I kept wishing we'd get benighted so we could stay up there for the night, build a fire and watch the City. I didn't see any evidence of bivy shelters but saw many good spots for a bivy. Firewood, running water, what more could you want?

Check your email.

Trip: Mt Wilson Red Rocks - Pink Tornado Left- Dogma (attempt) Date: 3/3/2011 Trip Report: This past week was an urban climbing trip to Vegas and LA. Every day included at least one stop at a strip mall and a drive on the freeway. Mostly a social trip with some good friends. Day-1: Sport wank sunny and steep wall Calico Basin Red Rocks Day-2: Attempt Dogma on Mt. Wilson, Pink Tornado Left actual. Day-3: Urban bouldering. Stoney Point LA county. Day-4: Urban Sport wank: Malibu Creek State Park. Mount Wilson: Pink Tornado Left: 5.9+ 1,000 feet. Looking through my journal this is my 11th trip to Red Rocks and I have yet to step foot on the summit of Mt Wilson. I really really really wanted to climb Mt Wilson, it is most obvious wall there and HUGE. Unfortunately most of my trips to RR have been in the Spring/Fall when the days are cold and short, not really good for such a big wall that goes into the shade at noon. No matter, I was stubborn on this one and talked Caleb into trying a route on Mt.Wilson despite the obvious snow cover. [img:center]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TXAAxlhyZ7I/AAAAAAAALi4/m7OPBo9uHbQ/s640/topo.jpg[/img] Pink Tornado follows blue dots to Sherwood Forrest, Dogma (5.11C) goes for another 1,500 feet up the headwall to the summit. There are several big (20+pitches) routes up Mt Wilson, we decided on Dogma as this routes has the least amount of moderate pitches and with bolted belays you can bail at any point. The plan was to take Pink Tornado up to the Sherwood Forest and join with Dogma for the head wall pitches. Unfortunately when we got to Sherwood the slabs were coved in ice and it was cold so we punted and rapped the lower 10 pitches of Dogma back to the gully. Pink Tornado Left is a fun outing on it's own, the views are great and I bet almost nobody goes back there, very much an alpine feel. (or maybe it was the snow drifts?) Added bonus, you can leave your shoes and pack at the base if you knew you weren't going to tag the summit. Beta here is good. Sorry not many pictures, camera died. A few notes. P1.5.9+ Some OW climbing on sandy rock, crux is pulling bulge from a chimney where the flakes end. Moving left from the flake across the chimney gap is whacky, jump across 5' gap onto 200' tall block to the left and OW up this thing to pedestal belay. Long pitch, rope drag. P2. 5.9 splitter hands, back-up awful belay bolts with #2 or #3. P3. 5.8 short pitch through roof OW. Face climb on jugs or climb OW P4. 5.8 long pitch, 190 feet. Obvious crack, wide at times but typical Red Rocks style face holds all over. P5. 5.7 Bus sized cave/chimney system, go LEFT of this on run-out but easy face climbing to pedestal. P6. 5.9 RAD. 240 feet (need 70 to reach anchors with a little simul) Go up endless flared crack mixed in with the usual face holds. P7. 5th class. Go up slabs and waterfalls to Sherwood Forest. Rap down lower Dogma. First rap is from a tree right in the middle of Sherwood Forest and goes down terrain that you could probably down climb. Raps are slow at first through bushy terrain. We had a 65M rope and were very short on one of the raps, had to re-rig the ropes and rap off a single bolt to get to the anchors. Even a 70M rope might leave you short. Bring tat for the anchors, some are old/worn. Thoughts on Dogma. We never actually climbed any part of Dogma, however we rapped the lower half of Dogma and the lower pitches look like shit. If I were doing it again, I'd still climb Pink Tornado to get access to the upper half of Dogma. The Horseshoe wall (upper Dogma) looks amazing, sort of like Black Velvet wall but steeper. [img:center]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TXAAvnJ12aI/AAAAAAAALic/rkv1-pL_f5w/s640/P1020717.JPG[/img] The approach to Pink Tornado using the "sketchy" version as described by the guide book. Really awful here, 1' wide foot ledge that crumbles to the touch with 100' foot cliff under foot. Next time I'd use the "less sketchy" approach. [img:center]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TXAA10MWHzI/AAAAAAAALjg/Jxk0_3htvG4/s512/IMG_2862.jpg[/img] Sherwood Forest. Dogma goes up near the water streak behind my shoulder. How about some sunny climbing pictures? [img:center]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TXAAqgE5HqI/AAAAAAAALhU/XCsd6pKq4dk/s512/P1020695.jpg[/img] Atman, Calico Basin Red Rocks. [img:center]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TXAArgnFNKI/AAAAAAAALhk/MmfY1VLtltA/s512/P1020700.jpg[/img] Atman top-out. [img:center]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TXAAu9PEV9I/AAAAAAAALiQ/__zT9681WDM/s512/P1020713.jpg[/img] Unknown 5.12. Sunny and Steep Wall. [img:center]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TXAAyd0nu1I/AAAAAAAALjA/XChQZaV0wYE/s720/Screen%20shot%202011-03-03%20at%2012.41.19%20PM.png[/img] Zach at Stoney Point, LA county. How the hell did the stone masters get so strong climbing on such shitty rock? Very soft sandstone with many drilled and chipped holds, some of the routes had no natural holds, only drilled pockets. [img:center]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TXAAzEZP5zI/AAAAAAAALjE/tL6PR1HJC8A/s720/Screen%20shot%202011-03-03%20at%2012.43.34%20PM.png[/img] Caleb, Stoney Point [img:center]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TXAA0MXtPYI/AAAAAAAALjM/_94oH1j2AsQ/s512/Screen%20shot%202011-03-03%20at%2012.45.41%20PM.png[/img] Malibu Creek State park, unknown 5.10+ Rock feels a lot like limestone, very sharp and overhanging on pockets. Crux of this place is the approach, 5th class soloing over a flooded stream to get to the routes. One party fell in and had to be rescued by S&R via boat. Those Cali kids don't do so well with streams. [img:center]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TXAA0ZKyPXI/AAAAAAAALjQ/TOoISux9_68/s512/Screen%20shot%202011-03-03%20at%2012.47.00%20PM.png[/img] Zach climbing "Delicious" 5.10D. Unlike most of the routes at Malibu this one is long, 14 bolts and overhanging the whole way on jug pockets. Gear Notes: Pink Tornado. We took singles to #4 with doubles of fingers. Many of the pitches have wide crack (face climb around them) so taking extra #2-#4 might not be a bad idea. Tat for the raps anchors on Dogma. Approach Notes: Pink Tornado. 2 hours from Old Oak Creek. First bit is easy, last part involves much gully bushwhacking. Shoot a picture from the highway the day before going in and read the guidebook closely.

GA... Finding good partners can be a tough one, however I have met and climbed with a few people from this site and it always works out.. What I would do... The next time you want to go climbing pick a mellow objective and post-up in the partners forum something like this: "Looking to get out this weekend, thinking somewhere sunny on the East Side. Can lead 5.9 sport, 5.8 trad but will gladly belay you on harder projects. Have car and rack, can leave Friday PM." No resume needed, once you tie in you can swap war stories and plan out some bigger trips. When you do these bigger trips, post a TR for us to enjoy. -Nate

Raindawg, you are aware that your hero Messner supports young kids rap bolting alpine peaks right? If Mesnner can change his mind, perhaps you can too? http://www.redbull.com.au/cs/Satellite/en_AU/Article/Amountaintoclimb-021242790000909

Went up on Saturday ( 2/19) Lots of deep fluffy snow down low, off the trail it was kneed to thigh deep. Unfortunately up high the wind had done some damage to the snow, sort of wind slab type of thing with a breakable crust. In the bottom of there would be nice powder, but on the main bowls it was survival skiing. Snow all the way to the Marble Mt TH, dry road. -Nate

I'm going to guess that most everyone in this thread that is bashing vegan diets is a fat ass. Prove me wrong, post up your height and weight. -Nate

hahah So funny.. My gear never works right and I'm too lazy/stupid to figure it out. Roofs and ice climbing?! That's messed up man, roofs are for pebble wrestlers. Taking skills learned while climbing on plastic to the outdoors is cheating.

Soo funny! I'd be scared to belay where that guy is. I once took a short fall on this route at the crux, the gear blew and I ended up right about where that guy is belaying from. -Nate

Has anyone been to MSH recently? Before this last storm came through, was it possible to ski back to the trailhead or was it dirt? I'm debating skiing up there this weekend, I'd like to think the new snow would soften the upper slopes, but I have concerns that the approach trail might be a few inches of new snow on top of dirt. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks! -Nate