Jamin

I have bought all of my hard gear on e-bay. You can get great deals on climbing gear that is still in the original packaging. That being said, I would NEVERbuy soft gear on ebay. Someone may have dribbled battery acid on it sometime last year.

In the alpine, you generally take what you get. Unless of course, you want to only climb those 10% of summits with great rock. Many others have pro that is not too great to say the least. In other words, trad routes are more challenging that sport routes. Just my opinion here.

RuMr, you are hilarious. I done a few climbs where the pro was just BAD.

I doubt anyone could do Dome in a day. 27 mi round trip with 10,000 vertical feet of elevation gain on bad trail and off-trail. Of course, someone will try to prove me wrong.

I would probably be willing to do Emmons as a day and a half trip Sept 2-3.

I have this coming Tuesday off to do some climbing. I live in Pullman,WA, and I am willing to drive for about 3-4 hours. I am looking for someone to do some alpine trad somewhere or to just get out in the mountains. http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=64291 http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=78548&context_id=171143 http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=64292&context_id=171143

So is there a way that you can do a solo lead climb roped.

It is good for children to be challenged. I will never forget the time my father and I (as a 10 year old) did a 12 mile hike with less than a quart of water between us. Don't let your daughter grow up to be all show and no go.

I did three finger's north peak a couple weeks ago. I would recommend just traveling on the glacier. You might want to rope up. Crampons and ice axe may be very important. Definitely, don't go without an ice axe. I don't remember any crevasses on that portion of the glacier, but they may be there. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=706189

Just get behind a fast team and let them scout out the crevasses.

For a technical climb, Rainier is probably one of the least dangerous mountains in the state to solo. There will almost always be some overexperienced guide or other climber in the vicinity to haul you out of a crevasse if necessary. Knowing how to read crevasses is important. I let my partner lead once on a failed attempt of the emmons this May. He punched through a snow bridge within 15 minutes. I would get behind a rope team or two on a weekend when there are hordes of climbers and do it. It really is not too dangerous. There is very minimal rockfall on the DC, or at least there was on the last two times when I was there. However, maybe I am just getting a bit used to rocks whizzing by my head.

Trip: Three Fingers - Northwest Face Date: 7/14/2007 Trip Report: I am sorry for the tardy trip report, but I doubt that conditions have changed very much. After we reached the trailhead at 7:00, we made good time up the trail. We lost the trail before Columbine Lake due to snowpack, but we were able to find it again on the ridge after a short distance. Goat Flats is beginning to melt out, but it probably won’t be completely melted out for a couple weeks. Currently, the traverse to Tin Can Gap will require ice axes. Tin Can Gap was one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been. The meadows were beautiful, and we could see all the way to Puget Sound. Across the Queest-Alb Glacier, we could see our destination, the summit of Three Fingers. We met a party of would be climbers here who turned back because they did not have ice axes and crampons. Ice axes and crampons are essential to travel on the glacier. Moderate snow slopes up to 40 degrees are encountered on the descent down to the glacier After roping up at Tin Can Gap, we descended the 200 vertical feet down to the Quest-Alb via some moderately steep snow slopes. Once on the glacier, we went up a small ramp and traversed above some crevasses and blue ice to reach the gully up toward the summit block. There were a few crevasses on the route and one rather large one in the gully. At almost to the top of the gully, we saw some climbers simul-climbing on the face to our left, and I assumed that they were following the standard route. As we watched them, the climber up above caused some rockfall, which barely missed the lower climber. I needed to arrange some things for the climb so I sent Ryan up to the top of the gully to scout out a better route. He went up there and said that the ridge looked pretty tough so I decided to just follow the other climbers. At this point I was sort of beginning to yell at myself for my stupidity. I had assumed that there would be only about a 100 foot pitch of class 4 rock, which would be pretty easy for me to lead. I wasn’t prepared for a full-length pitch because I only had enough pro for 10-12 placements. It looked like there would be about 400 feet of rock climbing to do, and I knew I was in way over my head. Ryan put me on belay at a location where he would not get hit by rockfall. The rock looked steep at first, but once I began climbing it, it seemed like little more than glorified class 3. I was only able to place about 5 pieces of shoddy pro, but it really did not matter because it wasn’t really hard at all. I set up a belay station on a rock horn and brought Ryan up. The next pitch was a bit harder and involved a 40-50 foot climb of steep class 4. At the top there was a great ledge that really didn’t seem to have any good belay anchors. I met a pair of climbers on the ledge. They were turning back because of the lack of pro, because the terrain seemed a bit steeper than class 4, and because they only had a 7mm static rope. After chatting with them a bit and wondering what in the world they were thinking, I found a small crack, placed a horde of stoppers in it, and belayed Ryan up to the ledge. Once at the ledge, the two guys that were up there before me recommended a higher and less steep ledge that angled toward a small chimney one rope length away. I led the pitch up the ledge. It was mainly a couple sections of class 4 with some class 3. I reached a small rock horn below the chimney and belayed Ryan up. The pro was pretty good. Ryan spent about 15 minutes trying to remove one stopper, and none of them pulled out. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1188/865557137_9040432ae2_b.jpg I led the chimney. There is one upper class 4 move over a large chockstone and then some easy climbing up to the top. We found one nice locking biner up here in excellent shape. Booty!!! After a quick descent down some class 3 to a small patch of snow, we did one more easy pitch up to the summit. There were great views down to the Craig Lakes and to Puget Sound. Glacier, Baker, Shuksan, Rainier, Whitehorse and Sloan were also visible. Craig Lakes are still frozen over, but they might be open in a few weeks. I took many photos with Ryan’s camera. We summited at 5:00pm. After rappelling, we reached the bottom of the summit block at 6:30. Strangely, I received a call from my Dad on my cell phone just as we got back down to the glacier. There is cell service up there! After roping up, we were back at Tin Can Gap at 7:00, and we headed down in the dark. We eventually reached Ryan’s car at 11:30. http://picasaweb.google.com/deviates/3Fingers Gear Notes: Glacier gear, dozen stoppers, regular climbing rope, ice axe, crampons. Approach Notes: Snow

Hey, a friend of mine and I are going to climb up to three fingers tomorrow. If anybody wants to join, call me at 509-979-2336 for more info.

I did kill plenty of malicious mosquitoes at Aneroid Lake. Just for the record, my father hunted and ate rattlesnakes.

That was a 3 foot long rattlesnake that I nearly stepped on. My father used to hunt rattlesnakes when he was a kid. By the way, snake is supposed to taste good. It sounds like you almost hope that I am going to die. Lose the hate, man.

Trip: Petes Point (Wallowas) - North Face Date: 7/7/2007 Trip Report: At 9675 feet, Petes Point is the fifth highest mountain in the Wallowas. It is an easy scramble on all sides but the north face. In order to make it more challenging, I decided to try the north face. After driving 3 hours to the East Fork Wallowa River trailhead, I started hiking up the highway to Aneroid Lake. At the beginning of the trail, the dust was a half-inch deep in many places, and there is definitely a large amount of horse poop on this trail. At Aneroid Lake, I was attacked by large amounts of bloodthirsty mosquitoes. I hoped that they would leave once I got up to a higher elevation so I headed up the easy class 1-2 gully to the basin below the north face. This basin, which contains the spectacular Jewett Lake, appears to have been only recently freed from a glacier. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1362/756836763_0e86ebc5a6_b.jpg The skeeters were much better in the basin so I took a break. The route up the north face still looked scary, but as always, snow slopes always look more technical from far away. I could see a section in the middle of the route that almost appeared to look like ice, but I quickly dismissed the thought. It was July 7th, and there couldn’t possibly be any ice climbing that late in the year. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1405/756836999_c4fd256eba_o.jpg As I started the route I quickly found that in many places the snow was pretty thin for a good self-belay, but for the most part it was okay. About midway up the snow I started to encounter ice. The ice was probably not more than 50 degrees, but it was about as featureless as ice on a pond. I did about 10 feet of easy WI2, about 20 feet of snow, and then I ran into a section of about 20 feet of featureless WI2. I only had my straight axe with me, but it was doable. Unfortunately, I had no way to protect the ice, and a slip would have resulted in an unstoppable fall down to the bottom of the couloir. The ice was not very bad, and tool placements were pretty solid. However, I did wish that I had another tool. The rest of the route was only about 45 degree snow. Although it is definitely out of season, this was still a fun route. Although I did not encounter any rockfall, I saw rocks coming down the gully twice. Bring a helmet or die. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1185/756883585_55da1a0110_b.jpg Once I topped out on the face, it was just an easy walk to the top of Petes Point. There were great views of most of the Wallowas. The summit register is actually a geocache. The trip down the mountain was uneventful. I did some awesome glissading on the way down, and I took about 15 pictures of the beautiful Jewett Lake. I reached the trailhead at about 9:00pm. Trip time was about 10 hours. Total length was about 15 miles with a bit over 5000 feet of elevation gain. Gear Notes: Two tools or protection would have been nice.

Trip: Mount Rainier - dc Date: 6/22/2007 Trip Report: I am sorry for the tardy trip report, but better late than never. After attempting the Emmons in mid-May and failing miserably, I was determined to get on the big R again. After my boss let me have a four day weekend, I decided to give Mount Rainier a try if I could find a partner. I called up my climbing partner, Ryan, on Wednesday to see whether he had any plans for Friday and Saturday. He said that he did. He was planning on climbing Mount Rainier. I was a member of his team in 30 seconds. It is amazing how well things work out sometimes. I met Ryan at Paradise at about 11:30 am. After we filled out the permits and stuff, I sent Ryan alone up to Camp Muir so he could get acclimated, and I waited for his partner, Jim. After about a half hour, Jim, who now has climbed 44 of the 50 state highpoints, arrived. We started heading up toward Camp Muir at about 1 in the afternoon. At first, I navigated by compass, but we soon found a wanded path, which we followed up easily. However, at about 7,000 feet, we were socked in, and it began to get difficult to see the wands. We followed them up to about 9,000 feet and took a break. Jim took off a little before me, and he was soon swallowed up in mist. We couldn’t see each other in the fog, and although we must have been no more than 300 feet apart the entire time, we ended up traveling separately. At about 9700 feet, I encountered a rock formation, which I eventually recognized as the ridge above anvil rock. I heard some climbers below me discussing Camp Muir, but I couldn’t see them in the fog. After telling them that they were on track, I traveled a few hundred feet farther and saw the dim outline of the buildings at Camp Muir. When I reached the camp, both Jim and Ryan were waiting for me. Jim had arrived only a couple minutes before I did. Time to Camp Muir was three and a half hours, my personal record. After we all squeezed into the public shelter along with 20 or 30 other guys, I tried to get a little sleep because I knew that it would be a difficult climb in the morning. The wind had been blowing about 25 miles an hour the entire time we were at Muir. I totally expected low visibility, winds up to 60 mph, and possibly snow. I managed to get about 2 hours of sleep before everyone awoke at 12 midnight. I quickly donned all my warm clothes and stepped outside expecting to be hit by a cold blast of spindrift. However, it was entirely clear, and there was almost no wind. We eventually started out across the Cowlitz Glacier at 12:45. After losing the boot path and finding it again at Upper Cathedral Gap, we passed by Ingraham flats, and it soon became apparent that we had gotten a very early start. There were no rope teams ahead of us. We became slightly lost in the maze of tracks near Ingraham Flats, but I stumbled upon the bootpath fairly quickly. We were soon on the cleaver, where we clipped into some fixed lines protecting only a moderately steep snow slope. We could not see anything in the dark so we figured that the lines were actually there because it was dangerous terrain. Once we topped out on the Disappointment Cleaver (some class 3 along the ridge), we took a break and waited for dawn to come. She came and illuminated a cloud sea below us. Another rope team had nearly caught up to us when we started the rest of the hike. The route did a descending traverse toward the Emmons Glacier, and then it switchbacked around a few crevasses toward the summit. It was cold and windy, but there were few problems besides the large amounts of urine near the bootpack. Eventually, we reached the summit ahead of the hordes, but we were joined ten minutes later by a 5-6 person team. Just like last time, the summit of Mount Rainier was a fraud. It is merely the highest and windiest bunch of rubble in a wide plateau. It doesn’t really even have good views. It was below freezing and blowing 40mph on the summit so we didn’t stay long. After a rest in the natural windbreak of the crater, which has plenty of active steam vents, we headed down the mountain. The trip down was uneventful. My partners refused to let me jump in a crevasse for practice, and we all came home safely. The route is in great condition, wanded, and bootpacked most of the way. It is time to go for it. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1236/656059761_c990de655e_b.jpg http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1394/656060045_f0b4eafb45_b.jpg Gear Notes: Lots of warm clothes and two pairs of gloves in addition to standard gear. Approach Notes: Snowshoes would be useless, the fixed lines are a waste of time, and there is plenty of urine on both sides of the trail.

What time would you want to meet? I can climb until about 5pm.

Does anybody want to go do some rock climbing tomorrow in the morning or early afternoon. I can do about 5.10 on toprope and I lead about 5.6-5.7 trad. As far as gear goes, I have a rope, slings, and about 20 stoppers. You can contact me at 509-979-2336.

There wasn't a fire ring there, but there wasn't any vegetation there either. I covered the ashes with duff so you probably wouldn't be able to see it if you went up there.

Trip: He Devil, Seven Devil Mountains - west couloir Date: 6/3/2007 Trip Report: For the entire week it had been really hot so last weekend I decided to get up high to see some snow. I started out on Sunday the 3rd from Pullman at about 3pm, and the temperature registered 102 degrees when I went through Lewiston. I reached Riggins, Idaho, which is touted as the whitewater capital of the world, at about 6pm. Just past the town of Riggins, I took Seven Devils Road and FR 517 to the trailhead at 7,600 feet. I quickly found out that I had totally underestimated He Devil. I was taking the direct climbing route from Seven Devils Lake to Goat Lake that is mentioned in summitpost. It looked like the only way up to the pass above Mirror Lake was to ascend a steep 45-55 degree snow finger and do a short section of rock. I would rate the moves at high class 3-class 4, but it is probably possible to find an easier route. I found a beautiful, snow-free campsite at the pass, and I set up camp. It was really wonderful. For the past 9 months, I have always camped on snow, and camping on bare dirt was a welcome change. There were great views of The Tower of Babel and the frozen Mirror Lake. I built a fire at the highest elevation in my life, 8400 feet. I awoke at 6 pm and began the traverse along the ridge to the pass to Goat Lake. I quickly lost the trail, but I found easy traveling right below the gendarmes on the ridge. Once at the pass, it was simple class 3 scrambling to Goat Lake. At Goat Lake at 7800 feet, I decided to try the couloir between He Devil and She Devil because it seemed more interesting. According to Summitpost, this route “did not have any issues.” The couloir was ok. There was a sustained 40 degree snow slope up to the top, but I could have done an easier route to my left if I had wanted. Once at the pass between He and She Devil, I began to climb up the east ridge of He Devil. There was some easy scrambling up to a sort of chimney, which was rated class 4 in Summitpost. I started climbing up it, and I quickly found that it felt like low class 5. I began to have visions of myself downclimbing the route because it terminated in a dead end. I did not have a rope, rock gear, or shoes so I decided to not climb up the chute. At this point, I was a bit disturbed because it appeared that I would not make the summit. I decided to make a descending traverse on the south side of the summit and try to find a way to the easy class 3 route up the northwest ridge. It looked like there were 3 possible routes. An easy snow slope up toward Purgatory Lake was quickly discarded because it just seemed too far to walk. Another route directly up the south face was discarded because it looked extremely steep and scary. The only route that was left was The Couloir. The Couloir is the name that I have given to the route that ascends the westward trending gully up to the saddle about .2 miles southwest of the summit. The fact that some of the contours were cut on the topo map did not prevent me from deciding to try this spectacular route. The 50-55 degree snow on the route seemed to be in great shape, but I was worried about the rock that I could see up ahead. When I got closer. I could see that there were two gullies up to the summit. The one on the left looked like low 5th class, but the one on the right, joy of joys, looked like only 4th class. This gully was extremely narrow, which is probably why it did not show up on the topo map. In just a few minutes of climbing, I topped out on The Couloir and I saw that there was only easy class 2 scrambling left in order to reach the summit. I reached the summit a few minutes later. Most of the lakes that I could see were open, but there were a couple that were still frozen solid. Beautiful views were had toward Hells Canyon and down to most of the lakes in the Seven Devils. The descent back down to the trailhead was uneventful. I lost my camera case to a greedy moat, but nothing else happened. I decended via the class 2-3 route on the Northwest Ridge. Gear Notes: Bring a helmet Approach Notes: When traversing above Mirror Lake, stay slightly below the Gendarmes on the ridge. It looks like there is a bunch of climbable rock in the Seven Devils. Does anyone want to try some rock routes.

Looks like I am not alone. I have done a few free solos up to 5.2-3ish. I couldn't imagine doing anything that was harder, but once I become more comfortable on the rock, I will try harder stuff. I generally climb solo whenever I cannot find a partner. It is way better than not climbing at all

Well, I felt comfortable doing it, and I had a good time. The hardest pitch was 5.2ish, but the rest were just 4th class.

Nope

Trip: Twin Peaks (Wallowas) - south ridge Date: 5/26/2007 Trip Report: At class 5.2, Twin Peaks is the only technical summit in the Wallowas. Only one summit actually remains. The other collapsed down the side of the mountain in the early 1900’s. The spire of Twin Peaks is composed of basalt, which is harder than the broken underlying rock, but like much of the rock in the Wallowas, it is crumbling. A subpeak is currently slightly undercut, and it will probably fall down the mountain in the near geologic future. The rock is solid in some places and very loose in others, which makes this peak difficult to protect and at a high risk from rockfall. I decided to give Twin Peaks a try this past Saturday because it looked like an interesting summit. Because I was going solo, I only planned to attempt the summit if I felt comfortable doing the rock. I reached the Hurricane Creek Trailhead at about 9am after driving 3 hours. About a quarter mile up the Hurricane Creek Trail, I took the fork to the right up toward Falls Creek. I quickly began to sweat profusely so I ended up completing the climb in my long johns. No big deal since I didn’t see anyone on the trail the entire day. I reached the mine, a shallow drift at about 7600 feet, about 2.5 hours later. From that point the trail was completely covered in snow. I began an ascending traverse through scree and stunted trees toward a rocky 40-45 degree snowfield leading up toward the summit ridge. Along the way, I saw a small ice avalanche down an ice shute, and I was surprised to see that there was still a slowly decomposing pitch of about 100 feet of WI4. I will definitely try to spearhead an expedition to this area’s ice next winter. It was slow going once I reached the snowfield, and I had to negotiate my way around many areas of rock. At the top of the snowfield there was a level area at about 8900 feet, and I took a break on a grassy bench. After that quick break, I made a beeline to the summit ridge. After a quick look at the summit, I decided that it was doable. I took off my plastics, put on my rock shoes, and started climbing up the south ridge. The south ridge is knife-edged and very exposed. After a couple of scary moves, I was on top of the summit of Twin Peaks, which, at 9673 feet, is the 11th highest mountain in Oregon. This peak is definitely 5.2, and although I have dealt with worse rock before, the rock is still bad. Views were about 75 miles east toward the Gospel Hump Wilderness area and about 5500 vertical feet down to Joseph, Oregon. The summit register / ammo tin was a bit soaked, but it was still interesting reading. There was a history of a group called the Mountaineer Knights as well as other interesting articles. It appeared that there was only one party that summited last year. I did not sign the register because it was wet. After taking in the views, my thoughts turned to getting down. I had brought a 50 meter rope and all my rock gear with me on this climb so I could rappel from the summit block. However, I could not find a secure place to put any of the 20 odd stoppers that I had brought with me. The rock was so broken that no piece of pro seemed to be dependable. It seemed like the only way to set up a solid anchor was to wrap a piece of webbing around the summit block. I had brought a piece of webbing about 15-20 feet long, which fit around the loose boulders on the summit nicely. The rap down was uneventful. The glissade down the mountain was rather exciting. Snow conditions were very slick, and it was difficult to stop on slopes that were around than 45 degrees. There were so many boulders and small cliffs in the glissade path that it made things very interesting. Once I reached the mine, it was an easy walk down to the trailhead. Pictures on this site http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7959905 Gear Notes: Bring plenty of stoppers, etc. Even if they don't hold, they will probably slow you down. I also used a 15 foot sling. Approach Notes: Typical class 3 terrain until the summit block is reached.