AR_Guy

I hiked the PCT in 2006. I also section hiked the Washington part between 2001 and 2005. A good planning guide for thru hikers (or long section hikers) is Yogi's Book (pcthandbook.com) - Yogi's done the trail ~4 or 5 times. Another handy book is the PCT Data Book from Wilderness press - it's the readers digest version of the guide book, with only datapoints, elevations and the like, without the commentary in the guide books. There is also a new guide book series coming out - search PCT Atlas and you should find it easily. I think the Washington one is out. I haven't seen it, but from the chatter on the PCT-L, it's highly praised. Speaking of the PCT-L, it is a handy resource as well (linked from the PCTA web site). Washington is from Mile 2155.6 (Bridge of the Gods, West End) to 2663.5 (emerging on the road, ~8 miles into Canada, ~1/2 mile from the quite nice Manning Park Lodge). Call it 508 miles. Note that this is the 'proper' PCT route in Washington. The section up around Glacier Peak is still closed from the floods in 2003 that wiped out many bridges, including the one over the Suiattle River. For non-thru hikers, this closure is highly recommended to be respected. For thru hikers, you may get some reliable beta from SOBO's (in my case, I heard it from the above mentioned Scott Williamson) that indicate there is a log over the Suiattle. If so, then the original route is passable, but can be difficult (by hiker standards). There is an alternate in place and should be described in newer versions of the guide book (and is also in the data book). It's about 10 miles longer, roughly. Depending on your condition, I'd suggest NOT trying to do 25+ MPD right out of the gate. A much more reasonable pace for Washington is 17 to 20 MPD (for mortals, not the Flyin' Brians or Scott Williamson's of the world - judge for yourself where you fit in on the fitness scale). The first month of any long hike is about hardening the body to the rigors of the trail, especially the feet. Expect plenty of blisters. I'd plan on roughly 30 days, give or take a few. This should give you enough time to enjoy the hike, stop and check out the views, and have a few days of cushion to allow sitting out some bad weather. Permits: Get the 500+ mile permit from the PCTA as mentioned above. You won't have to bother then with the trail head self registration. You'll need to coordinate with the rangers in Stehekin if you're going to camp between Stehekin and Rainy pass when you head out of there. Campsites on that section need to be reserved. Other than that, camp where ever. The Mt. Rainier NP is only briefly touched - no special permits required for this mile or two at the most. On the Caniadian entry permit, send in the form linked from the PCTA web site to Canadian immigration. Leave about a month for this. That said, no one ever asked me for it both times I crossed the border (2004 and 2006). Of course, had they asked, I had it. Note that they'll deny you if you have a DWI or pretty much any other criminal past. As far as records: Who cares. Besides, what defines 'the record'? Supported, unsupported, original route, which alternate route, yadda, yadda, yadda? FYI on getting home: Each time I took the Greyhound from Manning (roughly 10am) to Vancouver (arrive ~3 in the afternoon), then caught either the bus or train (train is WAY better and is only a couple bucks more expensive) back to Seattle or Everett (arrives in Seattle / Everett around 9 to 10 pm). Passport to get back is probably the lowest hassle, although I hear other stuff mentioned works.

Message sent.

Ok - so's here's a variation on the OP's question: I'll have from the 26th of December to 3rd of January available to go climbing somewhere other than the PNW. I'd like to do more trad than sport. Grades I'd like to climb: Equivelant to Leavenworth 5.7-ish or below on gear, 5.8-ish or below sport. Multi-pitch preferred, but if there's lots of single pitch crack, I'd be game for that. Good guide book for the area is required. JT or Red Rocks? Or ??????

Read the article - it's deja vu all over again. As I said in conversation back in 2004 with respect to the issues in King County and the Washington Governers race, a HUGE problem is in ACCOUNTING for the ballots and maintaining a chain of custody and responsibility for the ballots. This crap of not counting all the ballots on election day, then finding more, then getting different results on each subsequent count is bullshit. There's no way a businessman would survive long with equally sloppy cash handling, but hey - it's government, they don't go out of business when they fail, the just raise taxes and increase regulation on the productive parts of society. Another issue: The optical scan or machine readable ballots. (Don't get me started on the question of electronic machines). Quite frankly, I think we'd all be better off going to a system where the voter gets a packet of color coded ballots. One per race or issue on the ballot. There's a simple box next to the name of the candidate or line for write in, or next to the yes / no. "X" marks the spot, or a line through the box, or a star, or circle the name of the person you want or what ever. It's pretty clear at that point who or what the vote was for. Ballot counters sort by color (for the different races / ballot questions), then by yes / no / candidate / non-vote / need examanation. It would be pretty easy then to correlate number of ballots issued, number spoiled, number deposited in the ballot box and the number unissued out of the total produced, by district / and polling place, then by county and finally for an entire state. Corrleate this with the number of votes cast for each race / candidate or non-votes / blanks.

So....with the snow in the forecast for the next few days but with improving weather predicted for Friday through Sunday, what do you experienced North Cascades climbers think it'll be like up on Liberty Bell and Concord Tower this coming weekend? Think the snow will melt off and the rock dry out by Saturday? What about Sunday? I'm looking at possibly taking some friends up the Becky Route and the North Face route if conditions are decent.

First, sear the edges of the cut carefully to keep it from shredding further. It doesn't take much and be careful to not light the stuff on fire - it's easy. If you can, sew on a doubler / patch. The stuff is really slick, as you discovered, so it's a little more difficult to work with than standard nylon fabrics. Use a fine needle in the sewing machine. Seal the stiching / edges with the material mentioned below. If you're not willing / able to sew on a patch, you can try the standard home made sil-nylon seam sealer as an adhesive, although I wonder on the strength / durability of this type of repair. Dilute silicone caulking (Lowes / Hope Depot) with paint thinner / mineral spirits to get a thinner consistency and glue on a patch with this stuff. I'd suggest a double sided patch for increased durability. For a second coat, painting the edges of the patch with the sealer should help keep the edges from peeling up. You could also probably use the commercial sil-nylon seam sealer - more or less the same as the home made stuff.

I'll echo the comments on more / better route descriptions and topos. This relative newbie would have been completly lost using the existing book had I not followed Saber the first time I climbed it (exactly what Sherri said). Also, I was with 2 much more experienced climbers the first time I tried R&D and we ended up on "The Ramp" after a Cocaine Connection start, which was (more than) a little hairy trying to lead on a 5.8 pitch when I thought I'd be on only a 5.6. With a good drawing/topo (or much more close up photo) of the crag, I suspect finding and following the correct route would have been a lot easier. I'll add that perhaps these comments should apply to areas that have a higher concentration of lower graded routes. The 5.12 hardmen climbers could probably scamper up pretty much anything they come to - us 5.7 on gear leaders on the other hand.... well, I like to know what I'm getting into and which way to go once I'm there. Regarding what Matt said - perhaps a supplemental web site such as what the Exit 32 / 38 guides have (http://www.northbendrock.com/). Were there topo's / drawings in the older editions? If so, perhaps they could be posted here on CC or on a dedicated web site linked with the guide.

Here's another one taken from the long distance hiker crowd: Carry a couple of drawstring type plastic garbage bags (full size preferred, kitchen tall's might work in a pinch if you're not 'drought and famine resistant' like I am) for super light, super compact emergency rain gear. Poke/cut head and arm holes for the upper body (use bits of the duct tape you're carrying to reinforce the edges of the cutouts as required to keep from tearing). Slit the bottom of the other one and wear as a rain skirt for the legs using the drawstring end around the waist. In '06 on the PCT, there was a guy whose trail name was 'Rainskirt'..... Dorky, sure, but better than being soaked. Weight: not much. Volume: tiny. Cost: Chump change.

Here's a light weight, low cost alternate to Nalgenes: Use a 1 liter wide mouth soda / aquafina / gatorade bottle. They're very popular with the long distance hiking crowd. They're cheap - only a buck fifty and come filled with a free liter of soda / water / gatorade. They're practically indestructable. Available at just about any quicky mart. The only drawback is they don't hold up to boiling water. I prefer the soda / water to gatorade due to the form factor and more secure lids. What Bill said on the cheese. It keeps at least 4 days in 100 degree heat, but will get greasy (pack in a zip lock or two). In cooler temps, it's just like out of the fridge. I like cheddar. Hard cheeses do better in warm temps. Ditto this for dry salami, either pre-sliced or in stick form - it'll keep for days in 100 degree heat. Combine the cheese and salami with bagels for a yummy, filling and pretty high calorie sandwich.

We rapped off with a single 50 when we did this about a month and a half ago. From the summitt, walk / scramble back to the upper station (2 bolts slung with webbing). Rap to the bolts in mid face as BL says. Then rap around the corner, again as BL says. There's a station set there on a horn as well (might want to bring some webbing or cord to back it up - it was OK when we were there, but who knows what you'll find). From there, we rapped down the face to one of the lower ledges with a well adorned station (webbing and cord city plus rings). From there, we rapped low enough down on the first pitch to be able to down climb some very low 5th to solid ground. With a 50, be sure to set the rope in exactly the middle for the raps - there isnt' a lot of extra on the first rap to the mid face bolted station. A 60 is a much better choice.

I only did my first trad lead over the winter of 06 to 07. I led R&D last summer. For a competent, well taught/mentored newbie trad leader, it's an entirely doable route as is - no bolts needed. "The infamous "blank and anchorless" slab at the top sould not be an issue if you have pitched out the route correctly in that the last pitch should require naught much more than a hip belay if you have a competent second. " - dmuja above I'm a little wary of the boulder up top, but as was pointed out in the quote, if you pitch it out right, the last pitch is (can be) pretty short and isn't all that bad. I'm not so sure I'll agree with the comment above about this being an ok route if you've never done crack before. I'd say you do need to know how to at least hand and fist jam. When I did this route, we got stuck behind a party whose leader didn't know how to jam the hand crack. After futzing around for about 20 minutes trying to face climb past it, he finally backed off back to the belay and let us pass. I got up to where he had been frustrated, clipped his perfectly placed #1 camalot that protected the moves very well and with a few quick and straight forward hand jams moved right up and through with no problem. We brought up their rope and belayed their leader up on TR to get him past the crack. So, I'd suggest having at least basic jamming skills.

Alpinfox In the example you picture, it is highly probable that it would be the lateral (out of plane) strength of the spine carabiner that would dominate, no matter if the gate were open or closed. This is due to the normal 'slop' in the mechanism of the gate that would prevent the gate from picking up the sideways bending loads until the spine has deformed laterally well into the plastic (permanently bent) range. Even then, the ability of the pin attaching the gate to the body to transmit lateral bending would be minimal compared to the spine. Ditto the key lock gate to 'biner body interface in the example shown - there's too much slop to effectivly transmit significant lateral loads. There would be even less (approaching zero) ability of a typical notch and pin type gate to tranmit lateral bending loads until the spine is bent significantly (possibly to failure). Bottom line: With all the slop in the load path the gate side of the 'biner, I doubt it would contribute significantly to lateral strength as the spine would have to be bent significantly before the gate side would pick up any of the load. The open gate ratings on 'biners for a 'straight pull' along the long axis, are they not? 'Biners aren't rated for the loading showin by the Alpinfox photo above, are they? I read somewhere (one of the instruction books I have perhaps) in discussing 'biner strength ratings, something to the effect of: Be wary of super light 'biners in that they may post acceptable numbers in the UIAA tests but that in 'real life' situations where some cross loading, 3 point loading or lateral (out of plane) loading is possible, they may not be as strong as fatter, heavier 'biners that post equal numbers in the formal tests. It sure would be interesting to see the results of testing of 'biners in the configuration shown by Alpinfox.

So I have one other PM as well.... I'm available Thursday or Friday this week and Monday through Thursday (14th-17th) next week. Weather is looking good for this week for certain.....

I'm looking to head up the Becky Route on Liberty Bell mid week some time in the next couple of weeks (July). I have a car (split the gas), rope and full rack and can lead the route. I've been leading on gear for about a year and a half now and know that 5.6 on gear is well within my ability. I've led Saber, R&D and the Tree Route at L-Worth last year & GNS at Index just 10 days ago. I was up Ingalls Peak (5.6) a couple of weekends back. I led Crossing the Threshold (5.8) at Vantage earlier this year. Sport 5.8's at Vantage are pretty much a cake walk for me. In the gym, I'm pretty comfortable at 5.9 and can do many 10a's. I live in the north end (Lynnwood) and am looking for a one day trip - head out pretty early, hike in, do the climb (and possibly another one on the south side of the notch) and head out. If you climb harder and want to lead, I can follow one of the 5.7+ or 5.8 routes on the south side of the notch on the same trip. PM if interested.

As far as the pack, it somewhat depends on all of the other gear you have. The pack merely allows you to carry the stuff you really need. So - are you 'traditional' in your gear (everything bombproof, white gas stove, synthetic bag, double wall tent, filter, etc, and equally heavy?) or more lightwieght or ultra-light (single wall tent or tarp, down bag, alcohol stove with Ti pot, chemical water treatment)? What's your style? That'll directly influence your pack choice. If you're toward the light end of the scale, check out Granite Gear packs. They're very popular with the long distance hiking crowd. I was very pleased with the Vapor Trail on my PCT thru hike in 2006. It's an excellent combination of durability, volume, light weight and comfortable load carrying ability. There were LOTS of GG packs on the trail. Also check out Gossamar Gear packs if you're toward the light end of the pack weight. Another quite popular pack company in the hiker community is ULA (www.ula-equipment.com) Quality stuff..... There were also quite a few Osprey packs out on the trail. The provided excellent customer service to one of my fellow hikers in Mammoth. One of her pack stays /frame rods broke and they authorized a replacement out of one of the shops there in Mammoth over the phone. For the sleeping bag, I'll second CCF's comment about not trying to get one bag to do everything. A 30 degree bag is a good all around choice for summer time Cascades. If you need additional warmth on a given trip, sleep in your down parka / vest and pull on some long johns. That allows you to adjust the warmth of the sleep system to the conditions you're in. Get a 800 or 800+ fill down bag for maximum warmth for minimum weight and pack volume. Respected brands in the long distance hiker community (I saw lots of these on the trail): Western Mountaineering, Feathered Friends, Marmot. Look for continious baffles so you can move the down around from top to bottom in the bag. On the colder nights, you shake the down around so it'll be on top, on the warmer nights, do the opposite. A quality bag will cost you, but it's worth it.

June 20th, 2006 on my PCT thru hike, from my journal (note, the crampons were insteps - I know to NOT dig the toes in with 10 or 12 points, something about flipping or breaking a leg if you do): Word for the day: “Self Arrest” High Sierra Day 7 Well, the ice axe finally paid its way today. On the way up the final switchback of Glen Pass, there was a steep snowfield to cross. I stopped and put on my crampons, put away one trekking pole and pulled out the ice axe. I started across, angling up the slope, kicking steps as I went. Well I must have been a little cavalier about kicking firm steps and planting the axe shaft for a solid self belay as I slipped and started sliding down the slope about ½ way across the snowfield. I immediately got hold of the shaft of the axe with the opposite hand and jammed the pick into the snow, leaning on it with my chest, and digging the toes in. I stopped after about 20 feet or so. Had I continued sliding, I would have hit the trail on a lower switchback in another 30 feet or so. It’s hard to say if I would have been injured as the slide wasn’t especially fast, but then again, I was on the arrest instantly. In any event, the axe paid it’s way right then and there.

Wicked allows for solo racers if you can't find anyone to race with. Be warned that Shane Gibson, the director, likes to make a tough course - he'll send you up every darn hill within reach and the courses of his I've run are navigationally challenging, with plenty of opportunities to miss subtle cues. Of course, this means if you're a good navigator and make the right route choice decisions, you can make LOTS of time on the competition. (I'd do that race, but a previous engagement has me booked for that weekend). The Beast Lotto system works well. If you know how to navigate, it's probably not necessary though. Beast lets you run solo (I do). Gear requirements are pretty minimal. Winning times are typically ~2 hours, with last finishers ~4 hours.

July 19th-20th Wicked makes it return as part of the Gorge Games - Hood River, Or is the start / finish. 24 Hour and a 6-12 hour sprint. http://www.wickedar.com/ July 26th - 6 Degrees of Navigation. Last year was a fun course. Ellensburg area. Check out via the Cascade Orienteering web site. http://www.cascadeoc.org/ July 30th - Beast #4 in Seattle http://www.beastrace.com/ August 9th-10th: Big Blue Oakridge 24 Hour, Oakridge, Oregon. http://www.bigblueadventure.com/ August 27th: Beast #5, Federal Way As far as practicing, I suggest checking out your local climbing gym / club / organization and see if you can hire an instructor who could also provide the gear. When I needed to learn to rap, I hit the local gym and ponied up for some one on one instruction. This included anchor building so I could then subsequently head out on my own to Exit 38 and work my way up to the free raps off the bridge there. This was money well spent. I would guess if you have a jumar and with the comment about being awake for a day and a half, you're looking at a multi-day race. Given the typical cost, a couple ascenders and some static rope to practice on shouldn't be all that expensive. (I'm assuming you know how to rig an anchor and have basic belaying skills for the below - if not, ignore). A quick check at the Evil Empire (REI) shows static rope for 72 cents a foot. A pair of ascenders can be had for about $130. So, for about 225 bones in gear (some webbing for the foot loops and a few extra locker 'biners), you could set up with enough stuff to practice. You probably already have the ATC's, harnesses and hardware to do the top rope with. All you would need to do is find an appropriate location to practice on. Split 4 ways, it's not a lot, especially considering what you probably spent on the race entry, mountain bike, lighting system, kayak gear, yadda, yadda, yadda.

While I enjoy adventure racing I've yet to do a race were I had to jug / jumar (but rapping off a 10 story parking garage in downtown PDX was pretty cool). One of these days, I'll do an multi-day that has it..... What I would suggest is that you spend some time practicing this skill in a safe, controlled environment prior to race day (perhaps with a TR as a back up). If you can find time, I'd suggest several seperate sessions with your whole team. I say this as during the noted PDX race (Wicked Urban, 2005), I watched someone try and do their first ever rap - they took FOREVER (15-20 minutes) since they were scared out of their mind. Once I was hooked up, I was down in under 2 minutes (the time I spent rapping off the bridge at Exit 38 paid off) - what a fun experience. If you can get through the ropes quick, while other teams take forever, you can make easy time on the competition.

Stone Gardens also had several. Grabbed one on Saturday. Edit to add the following: I was out to Vantage on Sunday June 8th. It was great to have the book along. There are so many easier to lower moderate sport routes (5.7 to 5.9) that aren't in some of the other currently in print guides like Weekend Rock. Having this guide really opens up the opportunities over there. In our trip, my climbing partners and I only scratched the surface of the routes we can do at our grade. We have many more trips worth of fresh climbs - and by the time we've done them all, we'll all probably be ready to break into the 10's.

Stewster Check out the Tieton Guidbook. At Royal Columns, start on Western Front (5.3) and work up the grades from there to get a feeling for what a Tieton rating is. My understanding is that, at least at RC, that the sub 5.9's are sandbagged a grade or two relative to other locations in Washington. WF and the other routes at 5.5 and under than I led were quite fun and friendly to this newb trad leader last summer. Be aware though, that the 'other' 5.3 at Royal Columns - The Apprentice, isn't 5.3 (using Western Front as the 'standard' by which a Tieton 5.3 is judged). It's totally sandbagged, at least to me. YMMV.

rbwen: Yeah, we went straight up from Cocaine Connection and only traversed over AFTER the steep, tougher chimney like part. We should have traversed left earlier. I guess the name "The Ramp" makes sense - with the ramp at the top that leads over to R&D. I have a picture...now if I can figure out how to post it, I will....... The "correct" start to R&D was much easier, well in line with what I expected 5.6 to be, when we did it later in the summer.

R&D is a blast, although I have to say the first try at doing it last year, unintentionally it was my first 5.8 gear pitch. I think we ended up off route to the right. After heading up the slab with the bolts to the right of R&D proper (CC alternate start?) and up to the vertical chimney, it was my turn to lead a pitch. Well, heading up that steep sucker, it was probably 5.8-ish. I kept thinking to myself "Hey, It's R&D, it's ONLY 5.6" - if I had known it was 8-ish where we ended up.....nope - I wouldn't have tried to lead that pitch. Well, in any event, I struggled through the chimney like feature clean (which was kind of lucky as I was ~10 or 12 feet up before I felt secure enough to fire in a cam) before it laid over and dropped to 5.4 to 5.5-ish before traversing left 40 or 50' on a ledge / ramp onto R&D proper and belaying. Anybody know what that chimney is called? Next time out later in the summer, we started directly on the route (hey, it sure helped from the earlier cluster to know where to go) and it was a fun romp up the route (although we did get stuck behind a much slower party before passing them on the last pitch). The left leaning hand crack on the next to last pitch was sweet - it took a red camalot perfectly and had nice jams. I didn't think the walk off was all that bad - yeah, steep and a bit loose, but not TOO bad. I'm taking some friends up it some time this year. Also - Saber on Castle is a great route (followed once, led once), if there aren't any bees on it......I'm looking forward to Midway and some of the other more beginner friendly routes on Castle as well.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet except in passing is the altitude factor. It doens't directly apply to the question of conditioning, but it will affect the climb. If you're in shape, sure, you'll be sucking wind, but you'll keep going, although at a slower pace. I saw this first hand on my PCT hike in 2006. Heading up Whitney, many of the folks coming up from the portal looked like they were going to puke up a lung - take 3 steps, stop, huff and puff for a while, repeat. Most of them were probably at sea level, or nearly so, only two days earlier. Most were probably in good shape - at sea level. Us thru hikers heading up from Crabtree had all been out on the trail for 6 weeks (excellent conditioning, but probably not much better than many of the portal folks), but we all had been fully aclimated to trail elevation (~6 to 8k) and had spent the previous few nights at near 10k. Sure, the altitude was kicking my butt, but nothing like the portal folks. We all flew by the portal folks like they were standing still. (The plastic boots, head to toe goretex, 12 point crampons, ice axes and large packs were in stark contrast to our running shoes, shorts, nearly empty packs and only the occasional ice axe or instep crampons - nothing to do with the conditioning, but it was an interesting contrast). I guess what I'm suggesting is that if you can, get out there a couple of days early and get a jump on the elevation as well instead of trying to to the 0 to 14+k in 2 days. In combination with the training, it'll make the climb a lot more enjoyable.

Hubba Hubba from MSR is highly rated by my long distance hiker friends who have one. Right about 4 lbs. Never used one myself, but the specs on the Seedhouse mentioned by Lambone are compelling. If you can handle 2 1/2 season products, check out tarptent.com I loved the Squall Classic (03 model) out on the PCT in 2006. They have 2 person models in the 2 to 2 1/2 lb range.