Argus

Ski Mart in Bellevue is the outlet store for Sturtevant's closeout skis.

I'll take the crampons.

I don't think that came out quite right!

I use the old sabertooths and they work well since the toe bar is wide enough to go over the duckbill. Not sure if the newer ones are as wide.

Lost Trail is cool. They're only open Thurs-Sun, so all the snow that piles up in those three days is untouched.

I'll take the chains.

but My Cousin Vinny is on 55.

I have a pair of the Strykers and dig them. They've held up very well compared to other brands. As for fit, when I ordered mine they asked for my street shoe size and had me measure my foot. Not sure what size they sent me, but they fit perfectly.

It looked a lot bigger on Sunday.

Last I heard the ice was getting brittle. It has been cold as shit there. It has been warming up though. I wouldn't worry about climbs getting buried by snow. It's not like the cascade snow that sticks to everything. For up to date info, I'd call barrel mountaineering at 406-582-1335. They keep a conditions log at the shop.

Apparently the top opened at 2. We spent all day touring and enjoyed numerous face shots.

Nice pics. That's a fun climb in a spectacular setting. It looks a lot thinner than when I climbed it. Did you climb any of the mixed pitches to the top?

Sorry, my bad. How dry was it?

You sure that's the real reason?

I'm going down Friday the 7th through Wednesday the 12th. I've got partners for the 8th and 9th, but not the 10th and 11th.

You going to be there the following week?

The Onion

The road was actually in good condition prior to this, aside from all the garbage, which they neglected to take out anyways. I agree that removing the culverts could have a positive impact on the road. I'm just saying if you're going to do it, you might as well do it right. I don't think most of these ditches are going to hold up once the rains hit. Many of them are very steep with nothing growing on them. I'll be interested to see what they look like next spring. I don't think anyone really cares about the extra half mile (currently) that we have to hike. It's more about the message we are getting from the powers that be.

DRep is pretty much at the pin in the first picture. It's just below a small overlap. As far as the spawning goes, according to the following article the lake was self-sustaining with the rivers in their condition back in 1990. "Analysis of year-class abundance indicated that natural production in stream spawning and rearing areas after lake enlargement remained sufficient to sustain the fishery". Link Rat- I couldn't find any relevant information about spawning in the article you posted. It seemed to only be concerned about fish heading out the reservoir the other direction. As far as Dru's sediment comment, it seems that many of these trenches are going to be doing more bad then good. Only a couple of the 21 trenches had any sort of erosion control measures put in place. In my opinion, the roadblock at the beginning definitely sends the message that they don't want anyone going back there.

Not very much. I think it took us around an hour for the approach.If I recall, you could drive maybe 1/4-1/2 mile down that road previously. It's just a pain in the ass to hike through all those troughs. Funny how they have no money to maintain the roads, but by the looks of it they spent a buttload unmaintaining it.

Trip: Static Point - Lost Charms Date: 10/26/2008 Trip Report: Sunday DRep and I decided to give Lost Charms a go. After some recent posts, we weren't sure how far we'd be able to drive. We were able to get to the turn off for Static Point when we ran into the road block. After crawling through the roadblock, we encountered the next obstacle. Twenty-one new troughs, some of which are steeper than the climbing at static. We were beginning to feel unwelcomed. We had planned on taking care of some foliage on the approach, but forgot our machetes so that will have to wait until next time. When we got to the slab the wind was howling. We waited for an hour or so, but it never died down. We decided to give it a go anyway. We scrambled up to the Lost Charms tree. The first pitch was pretty easy, but the wind was making easy slab climbing terrifying. We managed to find the fixed pin and anchor, which had new hardware. DRep following pitch one: DRep led the second pitch up the corners to the ledge at the base of the pillar. I led pitch 3 up onto the bridge flake. I didn't think the gear below the crux would hold a fall, so I traversed left to the pillar at the crux and placed gear up high, then went back and pulled the crux. Just through the crux and onto the bridge flake: Lounging at the belay on the bridge flake: DRep led pitch 4 up the finger crack. This was my favorite of the route. There's a new yellow master cam (not ours)stuck up here for all you gear hounds. I could get it to move, but gave up after a bit. Pitch 5 led up more flake to the base of the great flake. The bolt here was a 1/4" button head spinner, so I had DRep send up the kit. There's now a beefy 3" stainless bolt. I think the original bolt should have been place 4' higher as a fall on the crux here would have you landing on a ledge, but I used the old hole anyways. Pounding away at the base of the great flake. At the top of the great flake we traversed left to a set of chains. I think these are the anchors at the top of Granite Jihad. We skipped the last pitch and began rapelling down Online from there. The wind made rapelling a serious chore, but after 5 double rope rapells we made it down. Gear notes: We used gear to 3", mainly small cams and nuts. Pitches 1, 2, and 5 have new hardware at the belays, 3 & 4 are natural anchors.

Barge cement, but that looks like a candidate for resole with rand repair.

FYI, they only issue late exit permits for multi-pitch routes back in the canyons and the Angel Food Wall.

Personally I'd wait until early November to get on this. It's a long walk with your tools if it isn't in.