mountainmatt

Trip: Yosemite - Various Date: 4/18/2009 Trip Report: I just returned from spending 7 days in the valley with my buddy Evan. We were treated to perfectly sunny days, mid 70 degree temperatures, and small crowds. Day 1: Link of ‘the Surprise’ (5p, 5.10a) to Selaginella (4p, 5.8). The first two pitches of the surprise were nothing special, but pitches 3 and 4 provided some fun finger cracks to the “surprise” slab exit. Salaginella was absolutely fantastic! Four really fun pitches that end about halfway up the upper falls trail. Day 2: Five open books including Munginella (3p, 5.6), Commitment (3p, 5.9), The Caverns (5p, 5.8). Munginella was a really fun and relaxed warm up for the day, definitely a classic. Commitment was also an excellent line that involved a difficult ‘committing’ move to exit the 5.9 roof section. The Caverns was the worst of the 4 routes we did on the Five open books cliff; the first pitch was wet, the third pitch was dirty and covered in biting ants (which were stirred up by a party ahead of us), followed by a wet and dirty fourth pitch, and a dirty loose “4th class” exit pitch. Day 3: Higher Cathedral Rock – Northeast Buttress of (12p, 5.9). This was a great route that worked me over. The opening pitches went without any trouble and we were at the base of pitch 6 by about noon. From here, the route is very exposed and the hard pitches are just beginning. The 5.9 finger crack was challenging but fun which led us to the base of the chimneys. Pitches 7 and 8 were full on chimneys that involved almost every trick on the book. I was exhausted by the time we hit the super exposed traverse on pitch 9. Pitch 10 was a nice long wandering series of features that led us to yet another offwidth / chimney pitch. We broke this last section into two pitches for rope drag and topped out just in time to watch the sun going down. A great route overall, but the chimneys definitely kicked my butt. Day 4: Much needed rest day. Showers, pizza, beer, and relaxing in El Cap meadows watching teams on Salathe and the Nose, as well as someone putting up a new free line near Reticent wall (Caldwell and Potter were both in town). Day 5: Lower Cathedral Spire – South by southwest (6p, 5.11a). Another awesome route! The approach is not pleasant as there really is no trail. Pitches 1-3 are relaxed 5.6 / 5.7. Pitch 4 provided a fun 5.9 section to a bouldery 5.10d with HUGE exposure. Pitch 5 provided a very hard 5.10 section of hand crack to a fun 5.11a lieback section. The remaining pitch wandered to the top and involved a nice tunnel exit (reminded me of the south face of Prussik a bit). There were fantastic views from the top in great weather. Day 6: Middle Cathedral Rock – Central Pillar of Frenzy (5p, 5.9). This is one of the best routes that I have ever done. Every pitch was excellent, the cracks took great pro, and there were fantastic views of the captain all day. There was still a lot of snow at the base which shortened the first pitch by about 40 feet. Day 7: Cragging at Church bowl. It started raining somewhere around 3 or 4 AM that morning, but we still wanted to try and get some climbing in. While the cracks were really wet, after French freeing the leads, we still got on some TR lines. The valley Leaning tower North dome, Royal arches, half dome Salliginella from the lower falls area Pitch 1 of Salliginella Pitch 3 of Salliginella Pitch 4 of Salliginella Half dome Approximate route of NEB Base of NEB Pitch 4 of NEB Pitch 5 of NEB Upper section of NEB Pitch 10 of NEB Upper and lower cathedral spires Matt on top of the lower cathedral spire El cap Central pillar of frenzy Gear Notes: Trad rack, rope, beer, and expensive valley pizza

Next time you go to Vantage, just bring one of these:

Nice work on Lev29! I was hoping to get on it this year but didn't get a chance.

I am in. I will throw in some gear to swap as well.

Awesome! Some nice photos as well!

Sounds like a nice outing We saw you bivied up there when we drove in Sunday morning, it looked nice and warm in the sun.

Trip: Red Rocks - Various Date: 3/24/2009 Trip Report: I just returned from 5 great days down in Red Rocks. The trip did not start as expected (mainly that Destination, Stewart, and Martha all caught colds 1-2 days before the trip started), but we still managed to get on a few of the moderate classics and have a great time! Day 1: Tunnel vision (6 pitches, 5.7+) Fantastic route, a little runny in a few places, but having a pitch inside a cave is definitely unique Day 2: Dark Shadows (4 pitches, 5.8) / some single pitch stuff (5.9 – 5.10+) Another great route, but there were way too many people there (see the picture). The near by cliffs had a couple of really fun cracks including a 10+ splittler that included everything from tips, fingers, hands, off-width, and a roof. Day 3: Dream of Wild Turkeys (7 pitches, 5.10a) A really fun route that runs next to Prince of Darkness. Besides the opening pitch, most of the climbing is sustained at 5.9 and has some great exposure! Day 4: Jubilant Song (8 pitches, 5.8) A nice line that has a little more of an alpine feel and a little more of an old school rating. Day 5: Craggin at the first pullout Crags (5.7 – 5.11a) We wanted a slightly easier day, so we headed over to the Panty wall. Favorites of the day included Totally Clips and Panty raid. Home sweet home: Tunnel vision: Dark shadows: Cragin' after dark shadows: Dream of wild turkeys: Jubilant song: Cragin' at the first pullout:

This definitely sucks, and I will definitely help anyway I can. What about access in the meantime? Should we avoid Index until this is resolved?

I second the above suggestions. Start with the 5.11 start to Green Drag-On/Town crier and then go for both of them. If you want to spend the night on your portaledge, the roof at the top of p3 of GD provides you some shelter if there is still a lot of water coming off the top. If you want some practice hauling, TC is more likely going to give you some more interesting situations than GD (the chimney for example). Have fun up there! Enjoy watching the trains go by at night

Mmmm.... $2 pints of beer Pubclub anyone?

This is about the only useful website for the area: http://www.southeastclimbing.com/ Time to get used to long drives

Wow, suckatude man! Nice work on getting yourself out, and good luck on a speedy recovery

How hard is it to pull the trigger on that thing?

Wow, holy core shot! Glad you guys made it down safely, you'll get it next year

Some really nice pics in there! Very little snow already.

Nice! Morrison is my old stomping ground. Did you do some of the routes in the black hole? Always nice to have a place you can boulder almost year round and in the snow since its so overhanging.

That looks really nice. What is the route like?

Great seeing you guys up there! Nice work on gettin' er dun in the winter

Here are the rest of mine as well: http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.clifton/RainierGibraltarsLedges#

Trip: Rainier - Gibraltar's Ledges Date: 1/18/2009 Trip Report: A little history: Rainier seems to be a mountain that doesn’t like me. I have planned over 7 trips, been on the mountain 4 times, been above 9000 feet 3 times, and still have never summited. Reasons for backing off vary from the flu, a partner getting sick, nearly being struck by lightening, and topping out at Point Success in white out conditions (only 200 feet away!). I figured with such a track record, going for a ‘winter’ attempt on Rainier probably offered about the same chances of success. Approach: We headed out from Paradise at about 10 on skins. We skinned all the way to Muir with the exception of one steep section before panorama point. As reported on the blog, the last 300 meters to camp Muir was filled with sastrugi which would be hard to ski down, but was fairly easy to skin up. We jumped in the Muir hut with about 20 other people, brewed up, and laid down to “sleep” (the first crews started going at about 11). Summit day: After a “restful” night inside the cabin at Muir, we got started climbing at about 4 AM. Already several parties had taken off towards the summit, and we could watch a couple of sets of headlamps bobbing up the slopes above on a variety of routes. The initial section of the route was uneventful; a long 30 degree slope with small steeper sections, a couple of rock bands, and one moat to cross. The start of the ledge itself was very fun and easy. We were basically walking a sidewalk about one meter wide with a steep slope cutting off to the left, and a large rock wall to the right. The temperatures were cold enough that no rock was falling on us; however we saw plenty of evidence that the route takes its regular rock showers. After a few hundred meters, the nice ramp disappeared and the start of the steep snow traverses began. Both Stewart and I thought these were the crux of the route. Snow bands would be around 60 degrees and about 3 meters wide, and while the snow was in good shape, a mistake would have dropped you off a large cliff and into the Gibraltar chute below. We considered roping up at the point, but due to the great snow, we just kept on climbing through. After a couple of these snow traverses, we came to three small rock bands. The rock was loose third class and not especially hard, but since the rock was the infamous high quality volcano rock, you had to pay attention. The next section of the route was fantastic! After another steep traverse, we came around to a 40-50 degree snow slope of perfect snow. We went up this slope for around 150 meters until the angle eased back and the snow formed into a series of channels. Both Stewart and I were starting to feel the altitude so these were a welcome relief: we could move up a channel for about 10 meters and there would be a small flat ledge to catch your breath. These continued all the way to the top of Gibraltar rock where the sun finally started to rise. The last section of the route to the top was very chill, mostly made up of a long 20 degree slope to the crater rim. There were a couple of crevasses, but nothing that couldn’t easily be avoided or stepped over. We summited at about 10 under sunny skies and mild winds. The weather was so warm that I never had to break out my down jacket! It felt more like summer than January. The route had been in such perfect shape that we never roped up all the way to the summit (this would change on the descent). We descended back to where the route intersected the crater rim, and started making our way over to the Ingraham direct descent. For the first 500 meters or so, there were no crevasses or steep sections. We could see that was about to change, so at a nice stopping point, Stewart and I roped up and continued on down. The descent route came down to near the top of Disappointment Cleaver, the cut over to Cathedral rock. There were a handful of crevasses that were fairly tame, and only one snow bridge that gave us pause. We slogged the rest of the way down to Muir to pack up for what was to become a long descent. The original plan was to ski/snowboard back down to Paradise. Neither Stewart nor I were particularly skilled at skiing/boarding, but since the snow conditions on Saturday were so nice, we figured we could cruise down the easy sections. We knew the first 300 meters down from Muir was going to be icy with lots of sastrugi, but after that it should be great (we of course, were very wrong). This late in the day, the conditions were no longer nice to ski, and instead we found ice all the way down to Paradise. The last 300 meters was particularly painful as each step would be firm or have you plunging down to knee deep without warning. Stewart managed to get a small section of skiing in on the descent, but I found the boarding to be very hard with my large pack on. Overall: Stewart and I had a fantastic time, enjoyed great weather, and a fun route! Rainier in winter conditions: Stewart on the way up to Muir: Slog on and on and on: Stewart taking a rest in the sastrugi: The basic route: Stewart on Gibraltar's ledge: Sunrise at the top of Gibraltar's rock: Taking a break at the top of Gibraltar's: Other peaks coming into view: Stewart on the summit: Looking around from the summit: Descending towards Gibraltar's ledge before cutting to the Ingraham direct: Coming down the Ingraham: Little Tahoma: Our very weak attempt to ski down: The joys of a late descent (but they still let us out): Gear Notes: 30m 8mm rope, 2 screws, 2 pickets, 2 tools (not required, but made the route fun!)

Wow! Nice work! Your photos looking down are sweet!

Here is a trip that happened to me a couple of years ago… I was new to the Washington area, so I decided to use the trusty CC partner link and see whom I could find (I had been pretty lucky in the past meeting competent and friendly rock climbing partners). I met up with a guy that appeared to be a strong ice climber, and was really excited to get out on some routes. So we made plans to head out really early on one Saturday morning in January. I should have known something was strange when he picked me up at about 4 in the morning smoking a cigarette. I figured it wasn’t a big deal, he was likely just getting the first couple puffs in before driving. Of course, I was wrong about this; he proceeded to smoke like a chimney, lighting a new cigarette every 10-15 minutes. Normally this would not be such a big deal in the summer, you can roll down your window and get some fresh air. But the temperature was way too cold to have the window down, making a SUV hotbox. I thought, great now all my nice shell gear can smell like smoke, hooray! The goal of the day was to head up to the Snoqualmie pass area and get on some of the ice described in the Washington guidebook. While in route, he suddenly pulled off at Exit 38. When I asked what he was doing, he mentioned that there was ice that sometimes comes in there, and we should go exploring. Even though I was new to the area, it seemed pretty silly; it was barely freezing there at night. Off we went hiking around Deception crags in the dark, aided by headlamps and his lit cigarette. After a while of hiking down the Iron Horse trail, we found little trickles of ice about 0.25” thick, filled with plants, and trees. In looking at a few of these, he suggested (several different times) that we rope up and get on one of these routes. There was no pro, no good top out, and the climbing looked bad; overall they just looked like pure crap “ice” routes. After some discussion, he eventually agreed (reluctantly) to hike down with me to continue on to Snoqualmie pass. After another thirty minutes of hot boxing, we arrived at Alpental, and walked over to the Snoqualmie Falls. While there was some water running, the falls looked in and we were set to go. Since he drove, I offered him the first lead that he accepted. He got all racked up, and lit another cigarette for the lead. At this point, it was just becoming funny. He made his way up the ramp, through a little 10 foot vertical section, to the snow ice ramp above and set and anchor. I felt the rope come taught, and yelled up the customary, “on belay?” There was no response. After another minute, I smelled more smoke coming down. He had lit yet another cigarette before belaying me up. We rapped off a small tree, and looked for the next climb. Being totally new to the area, I wasn’t really sure where to go, but he kept eyeing a snow on the left side of Guye peak. The combination of high avalanche danger and the fact that we brought no sow protection seemed to make this a bad idea. After about a 30-minute discussion/argument, we agreed it was time to head home. To my surprise, when we got near I90, he continued on to Ellensburg, not back to Seattle. He informed me that Ellensburg was 15 minutes down the road, and he knew there was ice there. Not knowing where Ellensburg was, I went along with it, coughing the whole time. An hour later when we arrived, he then mentioned that we needed to find a gear shop. He apparently had “heard” about the ice, but he had no idea where it was. After about an hour or more of asking random people where to go and driving in circles, we found a dirt road that led us down to the ice. At this point, it was nearly 3 PM, a little to late to hike out to the ice, climb something and come back (since it was getting dark at ~4:30). We hiked in anyways to take a look at what we had worked so hard to get to, and found a couple of tiny little ice falls near the river. Basically a waste of time. Whatever, now I knew, I just wanted to go home. We got back in the smoke-filled car, and drove back to Seattle. On the way back, he started pulling off to go to his apartment, a good ten miles from where I lived. He informed me that he wanted to take a shower, and then he would drop me off. I sat there waiting in his apartment for about 45 minutes, and then he finally started driving me home. I figured I would get out of the car and this horrible day would be over, but to my surprise, when we got to my apartment, he said, “now I will come in while you shower and then we can get a beer.” I was trapped. To speed this up, I skipped the shower and we walked to the local bar. On the way I called a trusty drinking/climbing buddy to come down and meet us. Thankfully he arrived and we escaped after one drink.

Not sure when it was removed, but its been gone for several weeks now (possibly longer). My buddy and I are going to try and replace it the next time we go out.

Define soon. I have heard rumors of this guide for at least 2 years now.

You can pick it up at the hardware store in Terrebonne. They have an old one you can photocopy (I think its missing a page though).