miladugga

Thanks, Sprocket, I will check those out.

Hey All; I'm going to have 3 days in leavenworth midweek, trying to improve my gear leading and crack climbing. My skill level is beginner, best leads so far have been Ed's Jam at Tieton and Aries at Index, lowered off First Blood at Tieton crying like a baby. Any suggestions for routes to try? Favorite areas? I plan on Classic Crack (TR'ed it last year, no problem) and Givlers, I've got the guidebook but would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks, Doug

I've always stayed at the bivy because i like the hot shower in the morning, but last time (2 weeks ago) there were about a million canadian geese making a shitload of noise that woke us up at 5 am every day.

Saturday-Drive to the Gorge, join a bazillion other people for Sasquatch Sunday-Hopefully climb at vantage until midafternoon, see more music, drive home until 2 am Monday-Go to work at the Fire Department, hope nothing big happens, try to catch a nap

Hey All, I'm going to be at Sasquatch this weekend and since my teenage son is going to abandon me anyway as soon as we get there, anybody interested in grabbing a few hours climbing? I'm not sure exactly how it would work out, there are a couple of bands I want to see, but except for Arcade Fire I'd probably rather climb. Anyone else in the same boat?

"The only ONLY reasons to post a trip report in my never to be humble opinion is because you did something note worthy. leading your first 5.7 at vantage is bull shit and only means any thing to YOU. how self centered can you possibly be?" Muffy Ouch! Hey, words can hurt! Awright awready, I deleted my bolt clipping "what I did this summer" report. But for the record, I actually like hearing about non-note worthy climbs, even 5.7 at vantage, when the person is stoked and wants to convey a little enthusiam about climbing.

Post deleted by miladugga

Sherri, I don't have the experience these guys have, I've only been working on trad leads for a couple of seasons, but I thought the book Traditional Lead Climbing, Surviving The Learning Years by Heidi Pesterfield had a lot of solid advice on the questions you're asking. Also I make a point of asking more experienced partners to evaluate my placements whenever I can. The other things I've learned: 1. 5.8 at Vantage is not the same as 5.8 at Index or even Tieton. 2. There's no point in saving all your best gear until you top out. 3. When the last nut you placed slides down the rope and hits the previous piece, that's bad. Pretend you didn't see it and place another peice. Good Luck!

Interesting to hear about First Blood. I'm just getting into crack climbing, and last year I did twin crack at Vantage and thought hey, I can do 5.8, then I went to Tieton and got on First Blood. 3/4 of the way up I was pumped out and had put in all the fist size gear I had, and had to lower off. Rapped down from the top to get my gear. So in other words it was really fun. This year First Blood is going down! Thanks for the TR, I'm psyched that it's open again.

I read something by Catherine Destiville who said she quit rock climbing for mountaineering so she could eat whatever she wanted. So there you have it. If it helps to eat alot, it's mountaineering. If it helps to watch what you eat, it's rock climbing.

Not to worry, everybody that likes to talk about training rambles, at least we have each other.

I learned to climb outdoors and I like that best, but I like the gym too. It helps if there are several route setters, also I go during the day and often have the place to myself. I know what you mean about z-clipping, I hate that, but I also do it at exit 38 a couple of times each season until I remember to be careful! The gym is like going to the track if you're a 10K runner, not the same but useful for training.

Yeah! Business up front, party in the back!

Non Canadian, sorry, but still a hockey fan, especially Canucks. Thank God for the Canadian channel, our local paper gave last nights game about 1 line. If you start thinking Kelly and crew are bad, try switching to Chris Berman on ESPN for a minute.

PM sent.

Since you asked- I use a three day cycle: Every Day: Tai chi for balance, yoga for flexibility, 30 min cardio (stairs, bike, or swim) Day 1: Low back phys therapy, mostly core exercises, plus pushups, shoulder press, tricep exrcises(agonists muscles) Day 2: Pull ups using pump rocks- x5 on the minute for ten minutes or frenchies (lock offs) Day 3: Fingerboard, 4x4s on home wall or bouldering at the rock gym, followed by traversing to practice movement. Whew, you'd think I'd be a better climber! I tried doing the day 2 and 3 day things on the same day, for both days, but i started tweaking my fingers. I also started using a footstool to support my feet with the fingerboard, cause i'm old and i kept hurting myself. I screw with the routine all the time, i don't know if this will help me out this year, but i'm hoping! Also, I try to grab a rest day once or twice a week, usually a family things happens and I take a day off. OCD i guess!

I haven't been there for awhile but last year? or the year before there was a fire at Cushman that seemed to be right in that area and closed everything down. The Oly Mountaineers used to do their rock class there, maybe they would know current status? Some of the routes are descibed in rockclimbing.com under routes/washington. Last time I was there I climbed Slapshot and thought it was a pretty fun route, and the routes on the lake are easy (5.7) but in a nice area. Only do the rope swing if the lake is "up." And watch out for ticks.

Really fun, thanks!

There's this one out by Black Lake, but it's small and I hear the owner is a jerk. He plays Nirvana real loud when the gym is open.

I didn't like the scene in Saving Pvt Ryan where the guy gets slowly stabbed in the heart. I didn't mind the blowing people up scenes, though. Most of Natural Born Killers bothered me. Of course my favorite movie is Muppets From Space, so I'm not exactly a heavyweight.

Admittedly I'm just getting started on trad climbs, but I'd be happy just to get up a 10c far enough to fall off. Bummer about the weather, though.

Great Googly Moogly!! I saw Dweezil and some of the older band members playing FZ's music last year-weird, but pretty good.

Really nice day out there yesterday, lots of places were still wet but we found a few dry (dry enough) pitches at Motherland and Slabbage Patch at the Far Side. A nice 10b, 10a, and lots of 9s. In the sun all day, too!

Thanks, we'll check it out.

CBS- Cool, let me know. Off- Thanks for the bump, if nothing materializes up I'll definitely head out, I didn't think it would be dry yet but I miss the weekly thrashings...