boadman

There's $240 worth of aliens there. :-) He doesn't look sketchy to me, just clueless.

What was the consensus?

We all just need to start being crafty and rapping in and TRing these big, obscure classics. If you don't like TRing, you don't like climbing. If you want to lead it, climb at the level of commitment that the rock and the route demand, if you just want to have fun climbing it, hike up there and set up the mega-TR. Unless it's a rap bolted new school sport route that's run out and dangerous, in which case you might as well fix it.

Bill - Send your set up to Seattle so that we can try them in actual stone, rather than Oregon "rock". I don't really see how you can compare the alien off-sets with the totem cams. Very few climbers climb with the offsets on a regular basis. Usually people either aid with them, or have a couple that they get out for very specific placements on routes that they've got uber-wired. I think to actually compare them, you'd have to try onsighting routes near your limit and see which go in easier, and which you trust more.

You must really love your gear. Shame would have kept me quiet.

I was up there the other day and tried to locate the line, and couldn't find it. I didn't look very hard. It doesn't seem like it's that obtrusive though.

It's actually in Italy: http://www.fishnhunt.co.nz/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1282001466/5 Pretty incredible footage though, huh?

Sounds like a pretty awesome deal to me. But, I'm not a muppet, so what do I know?

My draws wore out. Anybody have a set they want to sell? In a perfect world, someone would have about 16 relatively un-used Petzl Spirit (17cm) draws they need to get rid of. I could probably also be convinced to go with another brand if they've got some sort of key-lock, no more hooks for me.

Wow, I wish I had more ice/snow experience.

The vid was entertaining. I don't like the voice of the guy doing the narrator though, he needs to hire Morgan Freeman, or David Attenborough or something. That slot on iron horse is scary.

Out of curiosity, what might be the hardest rock climb in Washington? It seems like it would probably be a rap bolted sport route, rather than a ground up trad line?

$80, huh? Is it a coincidence that is the same amount as the totem cams cost?

Wow, you guys finally found some good stone down there. Can anyone say, "Road-trip"!

you might be able to make it, but you should definitely put a knot in your rope. It's actually only about 20' of climbing past the bust a move/propaganda anchors. I bet you could make it.

leg press

Brrr.

There are probably upwards of 200 bolted pitches in the 5.9 to 5.11 range. The country has a bunch, so do blues cliff, and the upper wall is covered in 5.11 clip ups. They might not quite be what you'd expect for the grade though.

To get to the cascadian, you traverse over the ridge to the right of your blue descent line. The ridge culminates in the false summit We didn't find it difficult to locate, but I'd talked to several people about it before we went up there.

No offense, but is that "rock" actually rock? It looks pretty dubious.

Leavenworth has great access to incredible bouldering, and alpine routes, and is only an hour or so from Index. There isn't much good sport climbing that's close, unless you're a fan of Nascent ridge. The climbing season is pretty long, and in the heat of the summer, there are great swimming holes and tubing in the Tumwater and the wenatchee. It's longer to squampton, but probably a little closer to Smith than Seattle. If you can find work there, it's probably a pretty rad place to live.

The "Complete" North ridge doesn't require crampons or an axe this time of year. The light version where you hike up the glacier to the notch probably requires an axe at least. I don't know why you'd skip a thousand feet of fun rock climbing though. Doing the CNR car to car is definitely possible, but would require some pretty serious fitness. Here's the elevation gain for the day, with about 3,000 feet of 5th class climbing in there: http://www.econscience.org/summitpost/stuart_profile_med.jpg

I just did it this weekend. All I had was a 70m, so that's what we took. We could do some long pitches, but really should have been simul-climbing most of it. I think that a 35m rope with a super skinny 35m tag line for hauling your packs through the 5.8 slot and up the gendarme would be the best for weight and rope management if you're going to simul-climb a lot. If you're going to pitch a lot of it out, I'd take a 70m.

I didn't think that you guys actually had any decent rock down there, but that actually looks like ok climbing.

Those are great photos! I'm going to go climb this route next week. A couple of friends of mine did it a couple of weeks ago and were recommending we take crampons & an axe. Did you feel they weren't necessary? Did it feel sketchy anywhere on the approach/decent?