rbwen

The Cliff Hangar by the airport went under a couple of years ago. I didn't complain but instead I built a wall in my garage with a couple hundred holds for under $500. Anyone is welcome to climb there this winter. rbwen

There's some pretty good online info at wenatcheeoutdoors.org Here's a specific link to their rock climbing section: http://tinyurl.com/rfltb rbwen

Just got back from Arlberg's in Wenatchee and they're closing out their climbing department. They are selling all their climbing gear at a 40% markdown. They have some good stuff left: ~10 Metolius cams, sizes very small to 1", some hexes (one huge one), assorted biners, lots of shoes, a few BD helmets, rope bags, quickdraws, harnesses (some Metolius), climbing holds, etc. They also had some mountaineering stuff but I'm not sure if that was on sale. I got a 9.8m 60m dry treated Monster rope for $110, reg. $189. 1" Metolius range finder cam for $30, reg. $55, five wooden climbing holds for $25, reg $39. rbwen

Climb: Icicle Creek/Leavenworth-Veterans Club Date of Climb: 9/10/2006 Trip Report: Don't like trip reports about cragging in the Icicle?...don't read anymore. I'm always looking for fun places to climb and enjoy sharing ones I find with others. Went out Sunday with friends from Seattle and their one-year old to check out Veterans Club (above Stone's Throw, near Eight-mile Campground). The hike took less than ten minutes and we had a great day there. We led the 5.8, Face Value, which was a very fun sport route. We moved right and did the arete called Nose Job, 5.9+, which shared an anchor with Face Value. This was a great route that gets a star in Kramar's Book. It's a bit short but the crux move is very fun. After that we moved left to the other slab and climbed a well-protected 5.10a called Left Cheek. The hard move is down low and the crux is nicely bolt-protected. After that move there's a shallow crack that moves on to a deeper flake to bolts for the anchor at the top. All of these routes can be walked off/top roped. There are good trees for shade and it's a great place to spend a few hours on the rock. To the left are two other semi-bolted climbs that seemed to be a bit harder. Those can be top-roped too. This place didn't seem to get a lot of traffic but it's on the way to Upper Eight-Mile crags. You could make a full day of it by climbing at Stone's Throw and then moving up to Veterans Club. We had our eyes on Crack d'Jour, which is visible from Veterans. We didn't see a soul all day long. Here's a pic of Nose Job. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/uploads/7753/climbing.JPG Enjoy! rbwen Gear Notes: 5 quickdraws 50m rope Approach Notes: Take the trail ust below Eight-mile Campground, five minutes above Stone's Throw

The wife and I are headed over for a week to camp and surf. Anyone been there? Good places to buy used gear or rent? I've done the obvious Google searches but thought someone might have some inside beta. What is the best beach? Place to camp? Also, is a 3mm wetsuit going to cut it in the Pacific? Any info is appreciated! Thanks...rbwen

http://tinyurl.com/ecmmj

Just curious...what route was it on? rbwen

The local radio station, KOHO, just reported that the body was recovered but they didn't have any more details and they are not yet releasing the name. It sounded like she was local, Seattle, and her climbing partner was from out of state. A witness helped him down off of the rappel. After the report they had a two minute talk about climbing safety from the sherrif's department (or S&R). rbwen

This is from the Wenatchee World home page (this is all I can get without a subscription): WENATCHEE — The University of Washington announced Monday it has gained new life for the idea of a deep underground science laboratory in the Cascades, but this time it won’t be near Leavenworth. Instead it would be under Cowboy Mountain on the west side of Stevens Pass, about one mile southwest of the Stevens Pass summit. This descrption is from the site below: http://tinyurl.com/hwljo Location: Cowboy Mt. is 16 miles north and west of the Cashmere Mountain DUSEL site. (See Fig. 1.) The peak is immediately above the BNSF Cascade and Pioneer tunnels, 2.3 miles from their west portals, on USFS land. Access is horizontal at a 1.56% positive gradient. Highway 2 and the railway connect the tunnel portals directly to the proposed DUSEL Science Campus (near Leavenworth). The rail and highway (west portal) distances are 35 and 42 miles, respectively. Thus the DUSEL Science Campus could conveniently support this second site. The neutrino baseline to FermiLab (2630 km) is ideal and to BNL (3830 km) well within the acceptable range. rbwen

bump...tomorrow

Just wanted to warn anybody headed out to Playground Point in the Icicle that next Monday I'll be bringing about ten students out for instruction. We'll be on the lower four routes with four ropes from about 9am to 1pm. If we are in your way or on a climb you would like to be on just ask and we'll be happy to accommodate. rbwen

A colleague of mine is looking for a place to stay in Bozeman for July. Please PM if you have any connections. Thanks! rbwen

"Tacoma Screw" off 405 near Totem Lake "Jones and Moles Funeral" in B'ham

I teach in Wenatchee and my wife teaches in Leavenworth. They're actually losing teachers every year because their enrollment is going down. New familiies cannot afford to move to Leavenworth but retirees and second-home owners can. In Wenatchee there are not new positions opening up but I'm sure that as enrollment goes up (hottest housing market in the state) we'll be hiring more teachers in the near future. rbwen

The local radio station just said a 24-year old woman from Seattle fell/slipped while on Cocaine Crack on IB. Her partner stabalized her on a ledge and went down for help. They said she had a broken ankle. Really wet weekend. rbwen

I've found some new routes in the Icicle that aren't in Kramar's book? Are there other routes/areas/crags that have been developed since his book came out that are worthwhile? Please list the location and grade. Thanks! rbwen

I just saw the other day that "Another Roadside Attraction" is completely bolted on the first pitch. Kramar's book only shows 2 bolts. I was scouting it out and didn't see anything new (not in the book) on the lower right part. rbwen

Climb: Icicle - Stone's Throw/Roto Wall Date of Climb: 4/30/2006 Trip Report: Another beautiful day in the Icicle. Where is everybody? Are gas prices keeping people away? It didn't seem very crowded except for a large group near Mounties Dome on Saturday and then again near Mad Meadows on Sunday. It was cold in the morning, with a pretty good wind blowing. We chose Stone's Throw because none of had been there before. The approach took us all of about thrity seconds. There are four routes here, three listed in Kramar's book. We started on the far right on the 5.8, Blink. We TR-ed it but it could be led pretty easily. The book lists it as having four bolts but there were none to be found, nor any sign of them having been there. We wondered if they had gotten chopped. I later searched on cc.com and found a lively discussion about cracks and bolts with Stone's Throw being the center of the discussion. This was a pretty good route with lots of horizontal cracks for protection and a great vertical crack up top for the last ten feet. There are two anchor bolts on top but no chains and the base of the climb slopes down pretty sharply. We moved to the left part of the wall and climbed the 5.8+, Audrey 2. A nice crack at the bottom but it peters out and gets pretty dirty toward the top. It seemed easier than 5.8+, maybe even 5.6-7. Two anchor bolts on top. We moved right and climbed a route that's not in the book. It's bolted and has a rap anchor up top. Does anyone know the rating on this climb? Name? It's between Audrey 2 and the 5.9, Stone's Throw. It starts out pretty blocky down low and quickly thins out onto a face. After the crux it's fairly easy to the top but the middle ten feet is pretty good cliimbing. I would guess it would go at 5.10b or c? The last one we did here was the 5.9, Stone's Throw. It gets a star in the book and it was probably the best climb we did at this area. It moves up and slants right the whole way and crosses a huge crack slanting down in the other direction. The crux is down low, about fifteen to twenty feet up and a long reach helped to get by this. After climbing it we all agreed it sorta twists you up and causes you to do some funky foot moves. Pretty consistent for its grade all the way up. After that we had some time to kill so we cruised on down to Roto Wall and did the 5.7 Slippin' and Slidin'. The route was very slippery and made it much harder than 5.7. While there I noticed a new route that had just been bolted (you could still see the rock dust) and cleaned. It was just left of Non Vertical Smile, the 5.6 crack. It had two anchor bolts on top and I saw at least two bolts on the route. It looked like you could put in a few pieces on the way up. It looked pretty uninspiring (but I'll probably climb it someday). All in all it was a fine day to be out cragging and as I mentioned before it seemed very quiet for a sunny spring day in the Icicle. The river is running so maybe everyone's kayaking? If anyone knows the rating on the route between Audrey 2 and Stone's Throw. I'm curious to know. rbwen Gear Notes: 50m rope Standard rack, draws

We played around at Playground Point today with the one-year old and did the routes listed above. I'll list a bit about each one to give a little more information for the curious, as we were. These lines are great beginning leads. Easy slabs with many bolts and good anchors on top of the sport lines. Starting at Birthday Boy, moving right to left. We used a 60m rope. 1. The 5.3 trad line is down the hill about 40 feet and about 50 feet to the left of BB. It starts right by a tree and heads up a crack trending left and then back up right up onto the slab to a two-bolt anchor next to the Birthday Boy anchor. There are no chains on this anchor but you can walk off to the left. Next time I get up there I'll put quick links and chains on Birthday Boy and this route. The route itself is not very exciting and not very hard but it does take some decent gear and is a good training for trad leading. There is one bolt on the upper slab to protect it. 2. The next route to the left is a bolted line (6-7 bolts) that runs up a slab to an anchor with chains. You start down and left of the 5.3 on a little ledge with a nice two-bolt belay anchor. Move up the slab from the ledge, clip the first bolt, pull the first move onto the slab and then it's a quick romp up to the top. Plenty of bolts on this one and pretty fun. 5.6 seemed like a good rating with some slabby moves down below and some easy bulges up top. 3. Another 75 feet to the left and up to a large tree is the third new climb here. The tree has a piece of rope with two large rap rings to use for a belay anchor and a quick/safe way back down the 20 feet to the main ledge. This climb is very similar to its neighbor and would probably be rated 5.6 also. Start from the tree and follow the bolts up past a small roof to the anchors. Thank you whomever created these routes for the great anchors with quicklinks and chains. There are 8 bolts on this one. Again, pretty much the same as the one to the right. Easy slab moves past a ton of bolts all the way. We scouted a bit more to the left but didn't see anything else worthy of our time. As we were leaving we noticed a route being established about ten feet to the left of the 5.4 Baby Steps. It was being bolted and scrubbed and seemed to be about the same grade as BS. We questioned the need for two bolted routes of the same grade so close together but decided we were happy that new stuff was being put up. Question: There is a crack climb to the right of Baby Steps that looks like it ends at a tree belay. It looked fun but we didn't have time to check it out, about fist-wide for fifeen or twenty feet. Anybody know the name of that one and what it goes at? rbwen

Climbed it today. A moderate amount of snow in the approach gully, enough to keep the dirt and rocks at bay. We were thankful for our ice axes. Met the goat on the ledge before the hidden gully. The dihedral pitch was very wet because of the melt from a snow patch at the base of the summit pitch. We donated a handful of slings, biners, and quick links to back up the rappels. Many were completely gone. It was fun, beautiful weather, and a long hike for a short couple of pitches, but it was a good alpine experience, not necessarily a rock climbing expedition. There were many ticks and we saw a HUGE rockslide off the backside, between YJT and the slope about 100 yards away. Boulders the size of the small cars crashing and sliding down the back gully. Saw a few people on Icicle Buttress and Mounties Dome but that was it. rbwen

Don't know which day this was but it looks like they took their time with the rescue. (from kohoradio.com) Rock climber rescued in Icicle Canyon The Chelan County Mountain Rescue team and the Sheriffs Office High Angle Rescue Rope Team came to the aid of a rock climber yesterday. Ron Lavigne of Olympia had fallen from a rock face about 5 miles up Icicle Road, and was unconscious on a ledge about 100 feet above the ground. The rescue teams set up a 5-to-1 line system enabling them to safely lower Lavigne in a litter to an awaiting ambulance. He’s now in serious condition at Central Washington Hospital.

The DOT is going to do avalanche work in the morning and hopefully have Highway 20 open by noon. rbwen

Woo hoo. Thanks for the beta. rbwen

Anybody been up there yet this year? How much snow is there to deal with? Route conditions? We're headed up there this Friday. rbwen

What route is the corner in pic #4? rbwen