eldiente

The traffic in Squamish is very sad, I find it depressing. If there was ever a place where a train made sense, Squamish would be it. That 50 mile long parking lot filled with cars driving from Vancouver to Whistler could be replaced with a rail system going right up to Whistler with a stop at Squish. There is already freight trains that go into Squamish. That was the worst part of climbing on the Chief, endless noise from all the traffic at the base of the wall.

I'm going to argue the opposite here. I was thinking of a story a few years ago about a guy freeing a pitch on El Cap and he took a huge whipper when 8 nuts in row failed. (Anyone recall anymore details about this accident) Given a choice, I always like to make my first piece or two cams, they can rotate around and get jerked upward and not fail Sure, a well-set nut can do the same thing, but too often when I fall I see nuts that I placed at the bottom of the pitch fall out and hit my belayer. As for Smith Rock, yes nut seem to be a better choice out there (unless were talking the Gorge) I have all kinds of problems getting good cam placements to stay put in tuff. -Nate

Trip: Squamish - Millennium Falcon 5.11B 14 pitches Date: 8/13/2009 Trip Report: I haven't seen a TR for this route yet, so I'll add mine in. Two week ago Jaime and I climbed this route in route in hot and humid conditions, I think we both went through a full bag of chalk without even trying. We got the onsight without too much fuss aside from some friction problems on the slab pitches. The route is not quite as clean and splitter as the Grand Wall, but it has a lot of fun pitches and no aid climbing There is a lot of hard pitches stacked together but most of the "hard" stuff is short lived and followed by good rests. I get the impression that this route doesn't see a lot of traffic, I didn't see many tick marks and nobody was on the route when we were up there. [img:center]http://www.squamishrockguides.com/pictures/millenium.jpg[/img] Route Overview courtesy of Squamish Rock Guides. Using the pitch count from Summit Post we had very little difficulty following the route. The guidebook helps too. Here is few things that come to mind. P1. Hard to find. Solo up 100 feet of dirt with steps cut in for your feet, your looking for a very obvious chimney that marks the start of P1. We went 30 feet to the right of the chimney and climbed a dirty hand-crack to the bolted belay on top of P1 P2: Maybe the best pitch on the route. 10.c or 10.d for 180 feet. Bring lots of small gear for this pitch. The anchors are high and very far right, don't be tempted to stop at the bush and belay. Move right and up of bush. I was pouring sweat after leading this pitch and it was only 7:00AM. [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SoHbP60adDI/AAAAAAAAFS0/5RbP1Sbu740/s512/IMG_0182.JPG[/img] Start of P2 [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SoHbQ_QuKlI/AAAAAAAAFTE/sSsHkUqDYrQ/s640/IMG_0187.JPG[/img] Higher up P2 P3:10D. Getting off the belay is crux, then doing this whacky hands-free foot-match from the crack left is tricky. Use a long runner on the crack before stepping over to the bolt to the left. Move looks harder than it is and the bolt is at your waist for the hardest move. Upper Crack is a thank-god hands crack on steep terrain. P4: Sporty bolted arete thing. 5.11ish. Very technical hand slaps and tiny feet. Really fun boulder problems followed by rests stances. I was glad to have my Murias for this pitch. P5 and P6. Link these up, use long runners near the end or have drag. Mellow. [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SoHbSclow5I/AAAAAAAAFTc/-j63wq5r8iI/s640/IMG_0193.JPG[/img] P7. Hard! Jaime gets lured way left on a hand rail, (your supposed to mantel this hand rail and walk on it with your feet, not your hands.) Poor Jaime gets 30 feet left of the bolt and spends a long time contemplating a nasty fall before committing to the harsh slab moves. Yuck. Don't go that way. [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SoHbS5xFsDI/AAAAAAAAFTk/NKz6qPoh7UA/s512/IMG_0195.JPG[/img] Looking down at slab pich P8. I get there and think "no way is this .10D, looks like 5.9" Wrong! This short little crack packs a punch. After a few mellow moves it goes overhanging and 4 inches. To save the whip I desperately try to stem the tree branch out out to the right. My first attempt fails as the branch isn't strong enough and wobbles while I'm standing on it. Damn! I move a bit higher on bad fist jams and am finally able to reach a strong branch with my leg. A few more grunts and I dyno for the main tree trunk and cut my feet. Hey this is Squamish right? Trees are "on." A few sap covered campus moves and I'm at a dirty ledge and belay. [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SoHbVXmvGbI/AAAAAAAAFUI/7euAdNyU5Ec/s512/IMG_0201.JPG[/img] Before the crack got hard. [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SoHbWhf1U4I/AAAAAAAAFUc/URljQYWoGRQ/s512/IMG_0205.JPG[/img] After climbing the magic tree. p9-p10. Link. Jaime gets lured inside the OW and suffers. Go outside and layback this section, it works and there is two bolts to keep it safe. [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SoHbYPrNf8I/AAAAAAAAFU0/VLz94HrOz7Y/s640/IMG_0209.JPG[/img] Jaime checks the topo. P11-14. The nature of climb changes drastically. No more cracks or corners, mostly bolted slabs and in direct sun. Hot! Although we get cooked, the position is amazing above Bellygood. P 11 is as great as the guidebook says, one of the better bolted 5.10 sport pitches I've ever done and in a very airy setting. (Sorry no more pics, too damn hot to operate camera) [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SoHbYroKM5I/AAAAAAAAFU8/1rQqO-D4YCk/s512/IMG_0211.JPG[/img] Walking across Bellygood. [img:center]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SoHbUP2KbgI/AAAAAAAAFT4/AIvR6oyaxLM/s512/IMG_0199.JPG[/img] Gear Notes: Doubles on the small stuff, maybe even triple of yellow Alien. Singles of #3 and #4. Approach Notes: Walk straight behind boulders at base of Chief. Be prepared to solo 100 feet of 5th class dirt to start route.

I was there last week and could the Bug/Snowpatch Col scary. The big problems we had with the Col was falling rock ( we saw several car size blocks run right past us) and the blue ice. The ice was so hard that no amount of kicking would get purchase. Nice work up there, we were in the Hut too but I'm not sure if we saw you up there. -Nate

Mark, 1.) Just go out with your Dad and lead all of the pitches yourself. Leading is way more fun and you'll have a blast. Seriously, those routes are trivial and anyone that has the fitness to walk to the base will have no problem leading these routes. Do all 5 in a day and be stoked. 2.) Solo. Why not? Again those routes are piss easy and low-angle. Self Belay if you really have to. Waiting on others to tick routes like this is going to leave you bummed. The best hand to help yourself is one attached to the end of your arm. Use it. -Nate

So what's the big secret here? Speak-up? Did someone actually free all of the pitches? Were any new bolts placed? Someone on here must know a bit more, why not fill in the details. -Nate

I hope you didn't step into the hole I made when a snow-bridge collapsed on me. The hole is about a 29 waist and 20' deep.

That route is indeed soft. Although there is one move in there that might stump you on the first try. Unless of course your belayer is spraying beta for it.

We came down Sherpa early Sunday. Looks like you guys hit it better, we walked down wet slabs and were forced to do a few raps at the very end to get onto the boulders.

I prefer calling any of that stuff low 5th class.

SE Corner isn't an actual climb, it is a variation on the hiker trail to the summit.

Yeah we botched this pitch up. For some reason I had sport climbing on the brain and left the belay with only draws and no pro. *dumb* I can see now that with some cams, the traverse to the last bolt would have been mellow. As for the rating, I'm not a good judge as I don't climb technical granite slabs like that very often. I climbed Iron Horse at Index (.11+ish) a few days before and though it was easier than the bolted pitch on The Passenger IMO. Although it worth mentioning that the "hard" moves on the bolted pitch are all very short and not sustained. I wasn't getting pumped but damn those feet are tiny! -Nate

You guys had it rough in the river... [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SlJpJWOXwOI/AAAAAAAAE-8/0Vdpk2DEqNU/s640/P1000099.jpg[/img]

Trip: South Early Winter Washington pass - The Passenger Date: 7/3/2009 Trip Report: Climbed this route last week in rather warm and buggy conditions. Really an amazing bit of rock, perhaps the best route up there. I was a bit surprised, the route was a tougher than I expected and I'm going to stick with original 5.12 grade. (Eds note, granite always feels a bit tough for me) We had great beta from Sol using this TR To expand on this beta, this is what I found. There are some bolted belays, but don't plan on it. Bring anchor gear for every pitch. Also note that some of the fixed gear is no good, one of the fixed pins fell out and hit my partner in the head! P1. 5.10D (160 feet) Double Cracks right from the ground. Climb toward a massive roof and go left under roof clipping one bolt. The moves under the roof are thin fingers and a bit runout if you chose not to place any gear ( rope drag) Roof is amazing! P2. 5.11bish.(70 feet) Climb mellow cracks to a roof. Roof has bolt on it. Do NOT go left over roof, looks doable but screws you. (took my first fall here) Pull roof through the right via strange flares and campus moves. Continue to a second roof. This roof is hard, the crack above the roof is filled with grass and you can't get your fingers in. High-step right and punch for small crystal, stand-up and punch again for bomber jam. Hard move. Belay below roof with bomber gear. P3. 5.11ish (80 feet) Climb around roof (easy) to an amazing sustained finger crack to a roof (is there an echo in here?) Roof will take a 3" cam and requires some tricky moves to pull around to the left and a belay. P4. 5.12 (120 feet) Crux pitch. Bolted slab. Sounds mellow right? Wrong. Move left and down slightly past two bolts. Tiny crystals for feet and nothing for your hands. 3rd bolt is very far left and run-out, don't fall! Another easier runout above the 3rd bolt takes you into a crux roof thingy. (On-sight spoiler alert) Gaston with your left above roof and snap up to thin under-cling with right hand. Step up and crank to jug. Maybe V4-V5ish move (?) Move right across blank slab with no gear, your looking for a high bolt way up inside this roof/chimney to your right. The bolt is hard to see and falling getting to the bolt would be ugly. Clip bolt and make wild moves right on hand-crack. Step up to a small stance below roof chimney and belay. There was a fixed pin under the roof that we used for a belay. P5 and P6 5.10C (We combined) 220 feet. Fixed pin under roof falls out when my rope snags on it while leading Bomber! Climb overhanging chimney crack (Rad!) and pull into a perfect hand crack that goes on forever. Stop at stance and belay or keep on going like I did. Crux move is flared .75 jam with the crack angling to the left. Yes, it feels like your going to fly into space with the whole wall below you. Belay right above this from a bush. Although I linked these two pitches, I'm not sure I would do so again. I had a bit of rope drag and having to make the crux moves with 200+ feet of rope out was a bitch, did I just gain 10 pounds? P7/P8 5.10ish 150 feet. (we linked these two) Climb dirty crack 40-50 feet. Traverse left on face with no gear, the traverse will go left and slightly down for 40 feet before you get any gear. Scary for your second. Belay from bush or just keep moving left on 5.7 terrain angling up toward blocks and a tree belay. Descent: Go down usual descent for South Early Winter. Thoughts: A very good, clean route. The only pitch that I didn't like was the bolted slab. Maybe the long fall I took made me angry, but the pitch wondered back and forth a bit too much for my taste and it seems like the bolts could have been placed in better spots. A lot of rope drag. The route has lots of mini cruxes that are tough, but most of the pitches have good rests in them with easy moves right before and after the harder stuff. Gear: Double cams to #2, one #3. We brought triples and never used them. Lots of long slings for drag. Picture Link http://picasaweb.google.com/natetack/ClimbWashingtonPassSummer09# [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SlJZ2jnwM-I/AAAAAAAAE7g/bfTpLjz83kk/s400/P1000035.JPG[/img] Base of route [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SlJZ3wIjiWI/AAAAAAAAE7o/M6caEYD6zrI/s512/P1000039.JPG[/img] Below 2nd pitch roof. [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SlJZ6INeISI/AAAAAAAAE74/htAcFqMvVpg/s400/P1000046.JPG[/img] Bolted slab pitch. [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SlJZ76pBAUI/AAAAAAAAE8E/HLk_YNbNnDQ/s512/P1000053.JPG[/img]

I left a #1 BD on the 5th pitch (right after the bolted slab pitch) It is about 40 feet above the roof chimney thing. Please shoot me an email if you find it, or go up there and keep the the cam for yourself, someone should get some use out of it. -Nate natetack@gmail.com

Well having moved here from Iowa I'm not sure how to answer that.

Trip: Index - Davis-Holland to Lovin' Arms Date: 6/23/2009 Trip Report: I've heard a lot of things about this route, some true some untrue. Here is what we found. Micah an I drove up from PDX late Friday and stayed in Seattle Friday night. We slept in and were generally lazy, I think we started up the route at 10:30ish. The apprach beta in the guide book is fine, steep easy hike through the woods. Pitch 1: 5.9 Micah leads. First few jams felt damp and a bit greasy. The hot sun didn't help matters. Perfect crack for 50 feet takes you to some low 5th class moves and a anchor. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_002.jpg[/img] Pitch 2: 5.10Bish. (maybe combine with the first if you use long slings?) I lead. One of the better pitches on the route. Really good jams, crux for me was a section of .75s (tight hands) Sort of an awkward little flared crack the end that takes fist stacks. If your bad at .75 (green BD) sized cracks you might want to bring some extra in that size. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_007.jpg[/img] Pitch 3: 5.10C Micha leads. I heard there was a hard under-cling move right off the belay. There indeed is a roof/undercling move you have to make but it is trival. Try not to put any gear while moving left over this roof. Rope drag. The other crux is a thin little layback move to a jug in the middle of the pitch. Micha places a micro nut and slips reaching for the jug, the only fall of the day. Doh! I've got a long reach and am able to bump up to the jug without too much fuss. Maybe a 5.10C move but not sustained. Above this there is really cool flared finger locks taking you to a plush belay ledge. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_011.jpg[/img] Pitch 4/5: 10Cish ( I combine pitch 4 and 5, about 190 feet total) This is where the route gets rad. Not sure why people stop at that hanging stance below the chimmney, any thoughts on this? The start of pitch 4 right off the belay is the crux of the route for me. Sort off angle flared jams, really fun though. The hard jamming only last for 30-40 feet before it gets into bomber jams and moves into a wide flaky chimney. This pitch looks like ass from the belay (dirty) but is actually clean where it needs to be. I clip the chains for the top of pitch 4 and continue on up into the chimney on pitch 5. The chimney is steep but no wide skills are required ( I would know, I suck at OW climbing) There is flakes and cracks you can yard on, mellow. 20 feet above the chimney there is this crazy horizontal flake that takes you right into a another crack system. If your linking these pitches, try not to put any gear in before the traverse, you might have horrible drag later on. The traverse looks wild and it is, very airy and committing climbing but not difficult. The rail traverse takes a .75, use long slings if linking. The rest of the pitch is very airy face with some crack moves, feels a lot like Red Rocks. 60M of climbing with a lot of variety. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_017.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_018.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_020.jpg[/img] Pitch 5 (or 6 from the guide) 5.9 I lead. Rumored to be "R." I find the climbing to be safe, a bolt and some small gear in flakes is all you need. Climbing is very gym like, steep face climbing on good holds. Short pitch ends at the tree and a chain belay. Summit! [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_021.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/Index_024.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/IMG_0187.jpg[/img] Gear: Double Cams, Green Alien to #2 BD. One #3 (optional) Maybe tipple on the .75 size. Small nuts needed to protect thin crux on Pitch 3. All belays are bolted.

What site are people using for the Mount Stuart area for a weather forecast? I've been using NOAA but the problem is the weather stations I look at are all very low elevation. Is there any weather stations near the Alpine Lakes area that are a bit higher up that might reflect the actual mountain temperature more accurately? -Nate

I'm not a fan of radios, loud and electronic. I once shared a belay with a couple that had radios and they yapped the entire time at a loud volume. "Ok honey, grab that horn to the left, move feet up. Over." Very annoying. Maybe on a big wall (aid) where the party might be spread out further than a pitch and/or need to manage some complicated logistics. Maybe there I can see the value.

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=868495 Umh, makes my TRs look kinda lame.

I'd rather the follower not tug for the reasons mentioned above. I'd be a bit bummed if there my follower yanked me off a stance before I could finish my anchor.

I always wear my helmet while leading and insist that my belayer wear one while belaying me. [img:center]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XNueStDVX8c/SgnUihI6InI/AAAAAAAAEVI/UrnANUIxXoU/s1600/DSC_0038.jpg[/img]

Yes, I wish more people would use them. Nothing ruins a peaceful day of climbing like listening to people scream at each other trying to figure out if they are on belay. Seriously, even cragging I like to use simple hand signals to take the leader off. I use 4 hard tugs to take the leader off, and 3 hard tugs to put the follower on belay. Once the follower is on belay, there doesn't need to be any more communication, the follower can climb whenever they are ready. I've always been a bit confused when partners will call back and forth, "climbing" "climb-on." Once the belay is on, the belayer should be ready to catch a fall and assume the climber is moving or getting ready to move. No need to scream up every action your taking. "I'm drinking water" "drink on" -Nate

Jaime is strong, I'd think 10 hours car to car would be slow for him.

Jaime is strong, I'd think 10 hours car to car would be slow for him.