still_climbin

OK. Its Saturday, what DID you do?

Thanks, nice essay. I saw treated clothing at REI reciently. Maybe I'll try it.

Plenty of room at the belay (and rappel) stations. I did the route Tuesday and we were followed by a guided party of 3 and they had no trouble.

Climb: South Early Winter and Liberty Bell-South Arete / Becky Route Date of Climb: 7/17/2006 Trip Report: Drove to Washington Pass Sunday with my son who's visiting from Albuquerque. We had just climbed the Tooth a couple days earlier, my sons's first technical alpine climb. That fastinated him so we decided to give it another shot. Monday morning we headed up to SEWS and climbed the South Arete. It was quite easy but very scenic in perfect windless, sunny, cool conditions. Lots of goats at the base of the route including a couple kids that were very interested in our climb and watched us from up close until we climbed out of sight. Tuesday we repeated the approach and climbed the Beckey Route. I had climbed what is now called Overexposure, directly above the notch back in the 70's but found the Beckey Route to be more pleasing. I think the chimney pitch goes a little harder than the 5.4 shown on the Becky topo, but it was a blast. My son led the third pitch with the layback, friction, etc. and is now totally hooked on alpine I believe. Only other climbers were two guided parties also on Becky but they were slow and and fell well behind us. More goats on the decent. Conditions: The approach trail is really torn up compared to my last trip in the 70's. We did find water near SEWS but not near Lib Bell. Pics: Gear Notes: Smallish rack Snow's gone ..leave ice axes behind. Bring mosquito repellant.

Any time!

OPPS. Guess I don't know how to post images.

Its been over 30 years, but I returned to the Tooth last Thursday to give my son his first alpine rock experience. He's been working in Albuquerque and doing mostly sport and bouldering climbs there. It had rained hard the night before and it was a bit of a gamble that the rain would stop and things would dry out. The approach was in a light mist and we were drenched by rain water clinging to the brush. Just as we reached Pinapple Pass the sun broke through and the south facing face dried within minutes. The climb was pretty much as I remembered it from the 70's, fun faces and big ledges. I still couldn't find the 5.4 ramp supposedly on the left side of the last pitch, but we just plowed up the middle on easy rock like I'd done before. My son loved it and we made plans on the summit to do two more alpine climbs within his visit. Conditions: Still quite a bit of snow on the upper approach. Nearly called for crampons since it had been unseasonably cold the night before. Rapp route down the east side of Pinapple Pass was in good shape and saved time versus down climbing to the west. Some pics:

Bring the light bag and the bivy sack. Then check the forcast just before you climb. If its cool like the last few days (60's for a high in the mountains) it'll freeze like it did at 6500 ft near Washington pass two days ago. If its going to be hot like the comming weekend (high 70's in the mountains) leave the sleeping bag and just use the bivy or stick your feet in your pack and wear a warm coat.

Toketie Lake, over Prussik Pass and E of Shield Lake is secluded and beautiful. Try one of the Necklace Valley lakes in the Foss river drainage.

Those Washington Pass mountain goats are damned good climbers.

Had the same experience at Cub Lake a few years back. I still remember one of our party washing nude at the lake edge when walnut sized hail started to fall. It was like a dozen naughty boys with sling shots and a can of dried beans raising welts on his pathetic body. He set a speed record to his tent.

I can tell you since I still have several. Chouinard first started the nut craze in 1972 with his introduction of the origional stopers and hexes. Yours is in the 1972 - 1978 or so range. The very first stoppers didn't have the "C - diamond" stamped on them.

Heading there also. Look in any of the guide books. The classic first time orientation route is the "Becky Route," about 5.6 class I, but a good intro. For the better stuff choose from the catalog.

I ditto Snow Creek trail head. I was ripped off bad in 1970. I had an ice axe in my hand when I discovered it...Good thing the perpetrators weren't around! The sheriff said it was hippies living in local communes paying for druuuugs. Second. would be the bears at the Bugaboo parking lot.

Great trip! Thanks for the great photos.

Just got my Speed 30 ($66 @ Mt Gear) in the mail today. I'm impressed. Now I can retire my 1969 Millet.

I've also done the Traverse in mid-August. We met several parties retreating after two days in fairly heavy snow storm. We, on the other hand had great weather and the glaciers were in good shape. The only hard spot was crossing the LeConte Glacier which had several long cravasses that blocked the way. We had to climb a 15 foot verticle ice wall from a collapsed section of one the cravasses to get through. That just made it more fun. Have a good trip.

Although I've never met you I enjoy the wit you contribute to the board. Get well!

Chain shot seems to rain on Hood yearly. Maybe they should bolt the route.

Nice to share with us in the plain ol NW USA.

High strength aluminum alloys are precipitation hardened. This occures by heating the metal (it comes form the supplier "solution heat treated" which is soft) to a carefully specified temperature for a given period of time. During this treatment alloy constituents such as copper pricipitate as a fine array of crystals in the aluminum microstructure, hardening the metal. The metal is now not very ductile and rebending your crampon points back to verticle must be done very carefully to avoid cracks. Yes, the re-bent points will not be a strong as they were origionally. DO NOT heat or anneal the metal as this will just further the precipication process making it harder and more brittle. Is is possible to repeat the solution heat treatment for some alloys followed by repeating the precipitation hardeding process, but this would be a very precise, complex set of heat treatment steps and cannot be done without special engineering and equipment support. I would not trust reheated crampons. To have it done commercially would be prohibitively expensive.

Golly-gee. If ya get that FJ Cruiser ya don't need aproach shoes.

Congratulations. Way to keep after it.

I found a rubber boa sunning on the Snow Creek trail a couple years ago. It was fat and slow. Kind of an amazing sight.

Try Three Fingers. North summit is best, but if you prefer scrambles the middle and south are fun. It does require an axe, but so does most everything else this time of year. Another is Mt Cruiser in the Olympics. Later in the year it doesn't have much snow on the approach.