maxhasson

Didn't Croft run up Outer Space on his way out? Maybe just a myth, pretty badass warm down though...

Leavenworth slideshow was a great success, thanks so much to everyone who made it and contributed to the fun and the funds. We raised 300 bucks, a relatively modest sum but an excellent start. Hopefully, with our newly gained experience, we can deliver an even better show in Redmond. Beer to be supplied by Mac&Jacks, raffle is looking stacked, don't miss it!

Just want to give more props to Jens and Sol, I had a pretty good view of their effort and I could tell they were giving it 110 percent. Very inspiring. For me this was my most intense photographic experience, Ryan and I climbed some pretty obscure choss and I still find it hard to believe we found the top of the route. I'm thankful to have badass climbers for friends, makes getting the money shot just a little bit easier...

Awesome! I can't wait to get up there, looks like a rad line.

Jens and I are doing two slideshows in September on our recent trip to AK and a selection of climbs in the Stuart Range. The first is on the 3rd at Leavenworth Mountain Sports, beer and hot dogs start at 6:30, slideshow starts at 7. On the 20th we'll be at the Redmond Vertical World, doors open at 7:15 and the show starts at 7:30. We'll be requesting a minimum 5 buck donation, proceeds go to the Index fund and the Tyrus Bachar Trust. Hope to see y'all there!

I sent a PM too! Yay!

The bottom of Boo looked scary from below but isn't so bad, especially if you know the pro and the moves. The crux is only scary because of the old bolts. I agree they need replacement but not rearrangement. I heard Dukes was rebolted, which is awesome. But did it see a redpoint? I tried it last year and was unable to link the moves. Not impossible but possibly harder, maybe I just need more slab practice. The rock is losing the snow around here but climbing is out. Hopefully it gets colder at least and the ice comes back.

I tr'd it a few years ago with Cole, the bottom is not so bad but the slab is semi impossible. Actually, not really impossible just super hard. Cole found a series of moves that seemed to work but I don't think he linked it up, toe hooking was involved. On a slab... Drew redpointed the route by veering left at the top to another feature that's much easier. Jens played around on it one day and also found a sequence through the slab, reconfirming it's difficulty. Another case of Leavenworth micro-crystals radically changing a slabby route? I think so. It's cool that it still goes though, somebody strap on some Kaukulators next summer and get after it! I found the anchor bolts under a thick carpet of moss and pretty much unusable. You can rig an anchor but some shiny bolts would be better. Anybody want to sponsor me a drill in the name of Leavenworth area bolt replacement? Probably not but it's worth a try. Other routes that are either super sandbagged or have changed in the decades since the first ascent: Boo Arete, Careno Crag Doin' the Dishes, Classic Crack Dukes of Ballet, Warrior Wall

Punk kids around the country have pissed off climbers for years with their use of spray paint, usually combined with the effects of alcohol and/or smack. Leavenworth has done pretty well in this respect, with the offensive exception of the "hate boulder" near the Swiftwater parking lot. Yesterday I had just arrived at the beach boulders up Tumwater Canyon and found the first boulder covered in silver tags. A small rock in front of it was also defaced in similar fashion. I guess my reasons for posting this information are a) To get other people pissed off b) To ask about environmentally sensitive methods of paint removal Sorry to be the bringer of bad news. If only I knew who did it, maybe we could get a posse to go kick their punk asses...

Siiiiicccccckkkkkkk!!!!

Can't seem to PM you, any pics? Definitely need some tents, would like more info. THanks, max

Another option for Chalten is to fly from B.A. to the newer aeropuerto in El Calafate. A bus or taxi is required to get into Calafate proper, where you can hop on a bus to Chalten. There is one flight per day that leaves from the Ezeiza airport to Calafate, eliminating the transfer to the other airport, Jorge Newberry. I agree, Buenos Aires is an interesting city with great (and inexpensive) wine, women and beef. I recommend hitting it up on the way back, post suffer-fest.

bad ass

Wow, that would have been good beta to have dberdinka, we honestly spaced getting descent info. Felt adventurous, but sort of dumb too. Ditching the pack would have been nice.

No disrespect whatsoever to the venerable Mr. Nelson, his accomplishments speak for themselves. It's just fun to knock guidebook authors for slightly inaccurate info, which I think is good and helps retain a spirit of adventure that guidebooks can sometimes kill. Anyway, to wrap up our trip... After topping out on the North peak and peering over the edge to the dark, rather foreboding east side Jens and I realized how little we knew about the descent. We rapped off a collection of old slings and considered scrambling/rappeling straight down the slabs below, but then thought better of it. We had the description for Gunrunner, so decided to go with a sure thing. Taking the path of least resistance (and most loose chozzel) we somehow avoided all the good rock in this section of the traverse, but we were pleased to tag the summit of Main and South gunsight. The newer rappel slings were all there as promised and though my rope is shy of 60m by about 20 feet we managed to rappel just far enough every time. The last one landed us in the moat and after stashing the rock gear and donning the glacier apparel we moseyed over to our camp, moving quickly through the slabalanche zone. The descent proved a little brushier than the approach, but gravity was on our side and we reached the creek with smiles on our faces. I commenced to frolic in the water in my undies while the more sober Jens paused shoreside. A night spent at fivemile camp capped it off and we made the boat with time to spare for a beer in stehekin. This part of the Cascades blew me away and I'm in awe of the pioneers in this region. The accomplishments of Beckey et al really start to become clear after such an undertaking. I'm also very impressed with your drive, John, to keep going back to that approach (4 times!!) is truly inspiring. Per the ratings, that seems pretty accurate. I thought the third pitch was harder than the fourth, though I'm not sure where you belayed exactly. Maybe I was just expecting some heinous OW. My mental crux definitely came on P3, it's steep and pumpy and I really didn't want to blow it. I think I may have avoided that thin crack near the top by wandering to the right (guess we have to go back to get the real send). It looked good but I had summit fever aka path of least resistence mode. That pretty much wraps it up, thanks for the positive comments and inspiration.

Trip: Gunsight range - West face-north peak Date: 7/25/2007 Trip Report: Inspired by CC.com trip reports Jens (Holsten) and I got on a boat last week and headed towards the fabled gunsight range. Though this website can sometimes be a waste of time, even a repository for spray and slander (mine own included) I feel sort of obligated to return the favor, as without the info gleaned here our trip may have never been. Anyway, enough bullshit. The trail up Agnes creek was uneventful right up to five mile camp, where the trail crew had stopped. Immediately after this we encountered the aforementioned hundreds of blow-downs and developed a cowboy like posture after so much straddling. A light cloud cover didn't do a whole lot to abate the heat, but it was better than nothing. We had hoped (foolishly) to knock off the approach in a marathon afternoon, but after reaching the spruce creek turn off decided to bivy. This was a smart decision, as darkness would have found us stranded on a 50 degree hillside suffering in the rain. Instead we camped on the river and ducked in the tent when the light showers hit. Not a whole lot to say about the next day, just some straight suffering up a hill. Blake and company humbly understated this phase of the journey, we were just glad to find the mountain. Several hours later we hopped onto the blue glacier in the afternoon heat, hoping not to get creamed by an ice fall. We walked right by what was to be our basecamp, intent on making it over to the chikamin. After some sketchy recon we discovered our mistake and settled in to one of the most amazing bivies ever. Wednesday morning we ambled over the pass above our camp and roped up for the super loose step down onto the gigantor chikamin glacier. A mellow crampon session found us at the base of the west face, I only fell into one talus hole where I nearly lost control of my bowels. The route is gained off a rad traversing ledge which beats the hell out of some ungainly moat. As almost everyone else has said the rock quality is superb, if a bit grainy the higher you get. If this wall was a little closer to the road I don't think this would be the case. Anyway, I headed up just to the right of Blake's cairn and wound my way towards the fabled crux pitch. It seems like Nelson and Dietrich (I think that's his name) veered right on the second pitch and climbed a very thin corner before moving back left to the belay which supposedly needs bolts. Again, no bolts were found in situ, leading us to conclude that Jim Nelson had a bad memory. The second belay would be more comfortable with bolts, but they certainly aren't necessary. Jens tentatively made his way upwards, made a tenuous move left of thin flakes and was still unconvinced that the pitch would succumb to our assault. However, move by move, he found unanticipated decent holds, good gear, more positive flakes (a trademark of this wild wall) and uncanny knobs, all of which took him past the crux to a well deserved victory whoop. Here he is crushing. I also managed to scrap my way up this stellar pitch, which left us exhilarated but also a little nervous about the rest of the climb, which wasn't quite over yet. The next crack system looks sort of like a hand crack off the belay, unfortunately its a shallow flaring flake. It does accept gear however, and after a little bit of pansying around I commited to the steep lieback. Another flake follows the first, and I did a little more pansying, unsure if our relatively light alpine rack would get me to the next stance. Luckily the crack finally turns into hands, where I was able to recover enough to run it out to a little knob belay where I plugged in the last of my gear, the four camalot and a blue alien. Here's Jens following. The final bit of steepness supposedly contained some crux wideness, which Jens so graciously allowed me to lead, but it ended up being a little less difficult than the third pitch, which didn't dissapoint me in the least. Jens led one more shorty to "flat ground" and we eventually found a way up onto the crazy summit blocks. The library is about to close so I'm just going to leave it at that for now. I'll give everybody some time to slander and wrap it up when I get the chance. Suffice to say, the rock is good, almost as good as Index. Maybe even better than Mt. Stuart.

pm sent

I thought that was one of those boulder problems...

If the NW Buttress is what I think it is (and I'm still not exactly sure I know where we were) I would not reccomend it. We attempted to descend somewhere around the west horn, as beckey claimed that some parties had been doing. Kearney also seems to suggest this descent if you are hiking out stuart lake and/or mountaineer creek. If the sherpa is "in", though I've never descended it I would think it preferable to whatever that choss fest was that we descended last year. I am sure there is a cruiser way down it, but our path was anything but cruiser. Plus, after hours of mentally draining chossel down climbing we had to kick steps in tennies in almost too firm snow (read Jens had to kick steps while I waited patiently above him listening to howls of screaming barfie hell (no gloves either)). All this wasted time led to a totally dark, one headlamp (we're smart) deproach through the black hole of mountaineer's creek. Many hours of peering through the gloom, trying to find the next cairn finally put us back on the cattle trail and stumbling to the vehicle. Not quite safe, we still had to endure the drive home in a severely debilitated state, more drunk on fatigue and eye-strain than should be trusted behind a wheel. Did I mention it was my first trip of the season? Eight letters, two words: near-epic. So anyway, don't do what we did. Last week we descended the west ridge, as our stache was at stuart pass. This was straight forward only after reaching the notch, it's a bit confusing right from the summit, especially with residual spring snow. I haven't gone down the cascadian, and although it's not very aesthetically appealing (sure wouldn't want to go up it) it's probably the fastest, easiest way assuming you want to exit long's pass, that by the way is a whole other story... max

I've had the spectrum 23 for a year or two now and my feelings are mixed. It is light, easy to set up, and evidently very wind resistent. On the other hand, it is cramped for two people and as with most single wall tents the condensation does not equal comfort. So there you go, my opinion.

Sandbags are quintissential yosemite. However, i was just talking shit, I've always gone for the monkey swing, which may be less safe than the freeway, but feels somehow more secure. Chris makes incredibly detailed topos but I think the old, often quite conservative grades are better for reasons I can't even explain. Nice trip, but maybe don't spray so hard next time, I had to put on my gore-tex suit... max (no offense intended) hasson

i sent a pm to ya.

The arches are 5.9, still, that's pretty dicey slab soloing.