NoahT

Scurlock has a sweet photo...Do you know--is this the "south face" mentioned in the beckey guide as having been attempted but found to have generally poor rock?

He used 5mm tech cord--high strength, low stretch--I used 5mm accessory cord last season and found it great when dry, total bullshit when wet...way to STREEETCHY and thin to really be able to pull your lead rope without lots of monkeying around. I'm bumping it up to 6mm now, so we'll see...

Finally, some decent pics--nice! Thanks...

Hey lowlander, likewise, it was nice having some company--and thanks for the pics. What a sweet pitch... There was one section of wetness on the traverse, but not a show stopper. No free crux on the A1...the previous two p's pretty much had us redlined. Meant to mention it was t-shirt weather when we topped out in the sun, but the shady face had us in our puffy's most of the time. Dress warm. Cheers...

Trip: Colchuck Balanced Rock - West Face Date: 6/22/2008 Trip Report: We just had to echo the cry that this route is one of the best of its kind!!! Steep and clean, aesthetic line, inspiring locale, great climbing at the grade, not terribly committing, super quick descent...its got a lot going for it. We did it Sunday from the car, and had one of those days where everything just seemed to go according to plan. Sometimes kinda rare, and so pleasant when you get it. I can't titillate with any pictures, and there are already enough great trip reports from which to gather your beta... ... but a couple notables: --left the car at 4:30am, back at 7:30pm, 7+ hours on route --the base is still 1.5-2 hours from the lake, farther (more elevation gain) than we were picturing, initially --Just a couple of easy snow patches around the lake, and then once you hit the upper basin below the face--lightweight shoes are plenty --you're gonna come down slopes on the right so leave you big packs lower in the basin --like many, you may start half a pitch lower than the first .10 crack--we probably just needed to push a little higher up the gully before heading right; who cares, just blast. the first 4p's are straight forward and can be done in two. --the .10 is perfect locks and two orange tcu's puts you up and out; belay above the .7 chimney --the .9 has fun stemming and a thin but laid-back seam; run your 60m out to the last big tree below the corner/roof --the corner is dry right now, ALL the way up--a pumpy lead--but all there. Exactly like they say, solid .10 BUT for the length; we were surprised to find fingers and thin hands for most of it, with only the occasional jam here and there --Take your #4 if only for the roof traverse (though we used it 2-3 other times); it's the best piece before the crack pinches down, and you make a big reach --Enjoy the thin, opening up to perfect hands, on the next .9; don't bother with aiders for the little roof, just yard on gear and stand in a sling or two --Some freak rope drag situation meant the second had to tibloc through the chimney--with the pack, it would have been ugly anyway; haul it, dangle it, or leave it at the base, cause it will just NOT fit --make a quick 25m rappel from slung horn/boulder down and south from top; puts you in a sandy gully, one over from the one you will descend --right now, the first half of descent is sandy, then plunge step the soft snow back to the packs; descent took 20 minutes (woah!) --Surprisingly enough, there was another party camped up there to do the route--get an early start, wear your slippers, and you just might be able to sneak by them Great route! Cheers, Noah Gear Notes: double tcus through #3 BD, one #4 Approach Notes: 4 hours from car

Nice! For an infrequent l-worther, this will save like two summers of "investigation." For a day of cragging, I want some instant gratification. Nail some good ones, and go to school on some harder ones... Save the expedition/adventure stuff for the big routes.

Ya DH, we're on the same page--index is the shite--thus l-worth usually gets no love. Thanks for the topo Scott--as heinous as the pressure chamber sounds, it has somehow been surviving at the bottom of the list. Right on Sol, that's the kinda thing I was looking for.

Thanks lance, got that one marked down...what else...?

I could use some local's help on getting around leavnworth. I don't frequent the area as much because I feel like the concentration of climbs I'm looking for at any one cliff is a bit lacking. You kinda have to move the car a couple times throughout the day, and then I find myself staring at the guidebook WAY to much...or maybe I'm just retarded--I'm open to that possibility, too. If you were headed out, what would your list look like for a 6-8 pitch day of trad in the .10-.11 range. They could be 5-star classics, or totally obscure. I'm just trying to avoid reinventing the wheel here... Thanks all. N

Check it out... http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web08s/wfeature-colin-haley-profile

Timely--just read a message about WSDOT expecting 80 to 90 degree weather on HWY 20 this weekend...woah...

I wouldn't go expecting GOOD ice, but there'll prolly be ENOUGH of something to get through it. I think there was enough ice right in the corner to survive a week or so. Aerated and sun affected. As you come out from the corner, it quickly becomes a smear and was kinda falling apart as we climbed. Delicate taps! There's enough small rock gear to keep you sane, so if you didn't mind scraping a bit of rock with you tools, you could definitely get up it. The whole thing is way off vertical, with even a couple chimney-style rests, as the left side of the corner starts to lean over you at the top. Even with the high 40 deg temps, the snow on the upper face was pretty stable and we didn't experience any slide activity. As we were headed down and it had been snowing for an hour, we saw a big slide come right through that main pitch. I imagine it doesn't take much for the upper face to get going, and the couloir is the highway for it to get down. Climber beware... Enjoy!

Trip: Cutthroat Peak - East Face Couloir Date: 5/3/2008 Trip Report: Despite downright balmy weather on Saturday, we found the east face couloir in FUN conditions. For a relatively short route, it still managed to take a full day on the move. We left the car at Blue Lake TH around 4am, picked the dark lump on the horizon that most fit the direction of Cutthroat, and bombed off into the trees with a compass bearing. We inadvertently took the scenic route to the east face, and while indeed scenic, it was not the quickest. 7am finally found us roped and geared up, on-route up the lower section. A pitch and a half of soft snow put us at the base of THE money pitch. We both agreed this pitch was just plain fun. We found a combination of thin, delaming ice for your right appendages, and decent sticks in the corner for your left. Gear was mostly small nuts on the left. This crux pitch probably only garners the WI4 due to the condition of the ice when people typically climb it. I was surprised to find the difficulties shorter (maybe 80 feet) and more kicked back (75-80 deg) than your average 4. A 70m rope stretcher got us up the corner and to a sweet cave, just left of the short step that puts you onto the upper face. Some brilliant sunshine softened things up nicely for one more rope stretcher that put us on the ridge. Not a whole lot of route finding going on here--just head straight up. This penultimate pitch was low on pro, with a tree slung about 1/3 the way, and high on steep soft mush. No worries, almost there. One last full 70m pitch took us up the ridge, slowly at times as the snow was getting looser and a couple mini-cornices required mini-battles to get past. We stood on the top in the sun, around noon, for about a half-hour before beginning the descent. There is an obvious gully to rap through, with many choices for anchors. We did five double rope raps, but you could get through it with a single and down-climbing just fine. From the bottom, it took a 45 minute post-hole session to circle back around to the southeast basin and gather the snowshoes, and a little over an hour to plunge back down to the road. Weather closed in, and we ended the day descending through light snow into light rain as we made for the car. All in all, a super fun day out on a nice moderate in an awesome locale. Get it while its hot, which won't be long if the sun has anything to say about it. Gear Notes: What you need: two 13's, some small nuts, 2-3 medium cams Approach Notes: Don't just aim for Cutthroat from the car. Walk 1/2 mile west on 20 to a plowed 1 car pullout on the north side. Head straight up the valley through light trees, staying east of the south ridge until underneath the east face. I'm not so sure I understand the selected climbs description.

When we did DHLA last year, someone had a couple hundred feet of static fixed from bottom to top, chalk marks and tics all over Green Dragon. Now that was fast...

We were thinking about SGC this weekend...On one hand, now a nice trail is punched up to camp. On the other it sounds like even getting from camp to the couloir, then up and down, would be a trip in and of itself. Fun TR, thanks!

Thanks Hemp! And yes, that's the one I was referring to...

Anyone wanna hook a brother up with an I-rock topo? Or point me in the right direction? I've perused the posts I could find, but may have very well missed a link or something. I read there was one at PMS once upon a time, but not sure how old that post was, now. Anyone have one just burning a hole in their hard-drive? Cheers

Anyone want to put Big Four on the radar this week -- drive up Fri after work and climb Sat. If conditions don't seem to be shaping up, we could look elsewhere. I'd be open to a Sat/Sun combo too, but it'd be nice to leave Sun open for the unplanned bivy...know what I mean?!? It's time to take aim at one of those 1-2 GOOD climbs we'll get this season. Email me at noahtownsend@gmail.com Cheers, Noah

Hubba's lower bits have fallen off, and what's left looks like poo...

Has anybody seen it, or heard how its coming along?

Four pitches up the NF of the North Peak is hardly worth a trip report, but there might be some useful info to be gleaned here. And, either way, its always fun to read new stuff... Taking advantage of the stable weather, we left our camp on the shoulder at dark:30, with easy cramponing up the initial snow slope. In the low-level fog hanging around, we found ourselves drawn a little more left than expected and roped up at 4:30 for a short body-length-and-a-half vertical step. Clipped a KB and sling (attached to something buried) above it and kicked good steps up to the "very steep wall" mentioned in Nelson. Our thought had been to climb right of this wall on what, from down low, looked to be good AI3 eventually angling off right and into the bowl. Swinging our head lamps around this stuff in the fog of early morning (metaphorically and literally), what we saw looked steeper and snicy-er than expected. We headed left of the wall, on the path of least resistance, up a short step with loose snow to a tree belay (gobs of slings on it, though buried, requiring some excavation and a long arm). The decent way off the belay was into the gully to our left, with loosely snowed up steepness above and to our right. A delicate traverse into the "shallow gully", with a red zero to start out, sent Clive (Raoul Duke) up to the base of what turned out to be a near vertical 50-60ft rock step of unconsolidated snow with a thin crust. You'll notice traversing back right on the "hidden ledge" STAYED hidden to us. Clive boldly launched upward, only being able to see a couple feet at a time due to fog, and it rapidily deteriorated into a horror show of vertical powder. He ran the rope out 3/4 of the way up not having found a single piece, which left a lowly red zero ten feet from the belay as the only thing between him and a factor 2. 15 min of excavation led to a crappy specter and even crappier orange tcu. He somehow avoided barfing, smoked 3 cigarettes, and announced he would not be going any farther (and rightfully so). About this time, the fog bank lowered, the stars came out, and we could pick out some landmarks. One was the lower part of the north rib to our right which we could not see and obvious way over, and another being the huge pile of crap Clive was clinging to presently. 10 more min of excavation led to a bomber double cam anchor to which Clive brought me up, the clock beeped 7:00, and we happily agreed that the face was "not in"-- at least to our liking. At this point, the commitment of the climbing was becoming a little rich for our early-season blood. Things were getting cruxy and we weren't anywhere near the "crux." Continuing on would just likely mean slow progress and an extra rap or two. We happily rapped off a black metolius and better-placed specter (booty), back to the tree, off the tree to a pin anchor built in a small, NE facing wall, and off that to a group of three trees on the initial snow slope. The day dawned at exactly 8am as were rapping, it was a gorgeous one with full on sun, the surrounding peaks popping out perfectly against the blue sky, a blanket of fog sitting low in the valley. If we had pressed on somehow(?), conditions would likely have improved with elevation, but how much was the question. They really didn't have anywhere to go BUT up. With our intentions of not bivying, the prospect of crappy snice and a fight for every piece was not inviting. The moral of the story is the face seems to be in limbo right now, with too much snow to make for good mixed, but not enough ice to make for good ice. (And note: The rock is super compact, so when I say "good mixed," I mean harder than I'd want to climb, so I'll be in the group waiting for some more melt-freeze:) What an amazing oasis of full-on alpine, though, and only 4 hours from the car! Unfortunately, my buddy's headed back to school on the east coast, so if this thing is on your list, lets get together when it looks good. Cheers, Noah

Don't forget to check out Wild Things 2 eVent jackets. Most everything they make is bomber and climber specific...

sounds like coming at it from the other side is a better way to go, when trying to "go" quick. We did CNR saturday c2c from mtneer creek, opted to forgo the full-on boots/pons and instead rock the approach shoes down the sherpa. It ended up being tedious at a time when we were yearning for straight-forward, and left us with a moonlit, instead of sunset, hike out. We're still trying to figure out where we could have shaved off 3 hours on the ridge, though(?) Well done! Cheers

Ya, the green lines are right on it... We were initially gunning for something on the quote, NWF (right of serpentine), but went for the first thing we saw due to poor visibility starting out. and, yup that was us at the turn off... N

For whatever reason, I can't seem to find a good way to "draw" on any pictures (i've got a mac) but in your BIG picture, we started in the depression midway between backbone ridge and the lowest part of the face, climbed up through the obvious runnels at mid-height, and exited just left of the fin into TC. We didn't get a look at the face until Sun morning, briefly, in between cloud banks, and saw some good terrain to aim in the middle. We knew if we could hit runnels, they'd take us out the top. While we were antsy for some "good" climbing as we started out, 4-5 pitches up we were antsy for the path of least resistance. The lower half was sketchy, for sure, but conditions improved noticeably as we moved higher, till they were down right fun. Still, no time to dilly-dally--6:30a...on the move, 9p...toping out. Certainly a good one for the list, and certainly in fatter conditions it would be a fantastic alternative to kick-stepping up TC. And ya, we offered you the pump--I can't imagine that back tire lasted long...