Dannible

Yes, climbing Triumph with skis and boots on your back would be a bit much. Id say do the Triumph Pass route and hope for enough snow to make it a bit nicer.

A fun way to get back there is to climb Triumph by the NE ridge, sleep on the summit, and head down the NW Ridge (pretty easy with a couple of raps down low) to Triumph Pass in the morning. The best bivy spots up there are about 50 or 100 feet from the summit down the NW ridge on the north side.

Hell yeah! I bet you've had your eye on that for a while. Whenever you're around Lworth next we should go climb the N ridge of Stuart.

I'm really sorry to hear about this. Didn't see that coming. I worked with her quite a bit at the pass (she worked as a lifty on Big Chief and Daisy mostly) and she was really nice and positive all the time. Though I never climbed with her, she was as stoked as anyone I know for rock climbing season to come. I'd guess that if she was climbing with someone she worked with it would have been a ski patroller, as many of them are climbers and she got to know some of them working nights in the top shack of Big Chief (they hang out there waiting for calls on the night shift). Sorry I cant make the memorial, the weekends are the busy days of the week at my work. Condolences, Dan

Back on the horse in time for summer.

There was a bit more 10- and the pendulum that I think was avoided when it was climbed last summer as we thought it would be. Other than that you could do a lot of simul climbing between trickier sections if you are ok with doing that on mid 5th. Others have reported more loose rock than we did along the route but I really don't remember anything worth worrying about. Look for the good rock I guess. Be careful up there, I know the enchantments are covered in deep, not so stable snow in many places above 6000-7000. As for long approaches vs rock quality: there is plenty of really good rock within a couple of hours of the road in Washington. Climbing in places like this is about getting out and having an adventure in a crazy untouched world.

Blake and I found the N ridge of NE Gunsight to be pretty fun. Grade III, 5.10- but only a few moves of 10- that you could french free if you wanted to. From there you could make a rap and keep going with the traverse until you got bored or ran out of time. You can also go climb Sinister and Agnes if you felt like standing on something that doesn't get climbed much. That 5.6 Becky route looked worthwhile too.

Actually, most places worth visiting in the US have good free camping if you look for it (Leavenworth too), and I'm pretty sure the only place I've ever gotten giardia was in the Squamish campground, when I never treat my water in the US. Just saying. We all like Canada too; of course I liked it a little more when the exchange rate was so good that no one knew the difference and you could lie and talk your into some pretty good deals.

I had pretty much forgotten how much I used to use a munter, but before I got a reverso (found one a few years ago in the enchantments) I used a munter often for belaying seconds so that I could take my hands off the rope. I remember rope twist issues getting annoying sometimes, but it wasn't so bad. Using a device is faster and easier to manage especially if you are using double ropes or belaying 2 people. Also, they don't really weigh that much.

Its still winter up there. http://jensholsten.blogspot.com/ Give it at least a month.

Yep, I'd say Friday was the first hot day in the Stuart range since the big early April dumps. Pretty dramatic up there.

I'd say on a climb like that as long as you brought the guidebook, map, compass, and something to get a fire going in case you got benighted you should be able to make due. Seriously though good work Dan. I'm sure you'll make a fine climber.

baa

Yep, its been good over here for a month or two. Its snowing a bit right now, but the forecast looks nice.

I've used Dynafits for 100+ days this winter, mostly on groomers, ice, and bumpy chunder kind of stuff because I worked at a ski area and that's all we had through most of the winter. Broke one part on a heel tower at one point but I bought the bindings very used and I think that it was set too close to the boot, putting extra stress on the tower as the ski flexed. They take some getting used to as far as clicking and and keeping them ice free, but its not a huge issue. The one big advantage is obviously how light they are so if you are thinking of just doing short tours out of ski areas, you probably don't need to be as worried about the weight. Can't comment on Markers.

The book is really good. I thought the old one was good enough but was in LMS when they were delivered and after standing there going through almost the whole book I got one. Pretty pictures, way better topos, and an alpine rock section sold me on it. Lots of cc.com folk represented, including Lancegranite on a four star route that he recently helped clean. Gonna be a good, long climbing season over here.

Crushing the enchantments like it aint no thang. The bit about bringing the book along on all of your trips up there made me laugh. Training weight I guess.

Gene beat me to it.

Some might think he's joking, but Dirtyleaf's words have a lot of truth to them. If money is an issue one doesn't need to go out and buy the 8-15 screws that could be needed to climb multi pitch routes, buy half that with the assumption that the people you climb with will have some too. If your partner has no screws, maybe spend the day toproping or climbing easier routes to help them get to the point where they want to get some gear for themselves. I've come to find that this works with rock gear too. I don't have doubles of cams in all sizes, but if I'm climbing something that requires them usually I'm with someone who has at least a set to add. If I'm climbing with Dirtyleaf I don't bring shit because he has everything (except a helmet).

Cool. Mountains can be neat sometimes. Your helmet has been in my truck for months. I figured you knew that.

I tend to agree with Marc. The closest I ever came to getting myself killed was when I was a 5.8 to 5.9 climber. Didn't fully understand all of the risks (mostly in the mountains) and didn't completely know what I was doing. The worst situation I've ever been in involved climbing no harder than 5.4 but it was loose and I was alone. Now I find myself in similar situations, but I know how to deal them a better. What it comes down to is the more you climb, the more you know what you are doing. I'd guess that most 5.14 climbers know a whole lot about getting up 5.12's without killing themselves. Mistakes are a part of climbing. They will happen less often with experience, but we are human. Sometimes good climbers make mistakes and die, sometimes new climbers make mistakes and die. Sometimes things just go wrong and people die and the only mistake made was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The fact is that most of us, bold or not (we are all bold by most standards) will live long, healthy lives. But the bold will be the ones advancing the sport.

If we're talking single pitch I'd say something in Squamish, but I'm no good at remembering route names. Overall for local routes they would be the NW Face of Forbidden and the 2006 East Face of Gunsight. Out of state is Wall of the Worlds on Cal Dome in Cali. Every pitch stands out as one of the coolest I have ever climbed, and it is right next to the road, and no other climbers were anywhere to be seen.

I guess I've always pictured myself taking up racquetball when I am middle aged and golf once I retire, so I figure climbing is just a fantastic way to stay in shape in the meantime.

Good answer. As long as you downclimb the route instead of going down the north face that's pretty safe most all of the time.

I've found that even in my worst times nothing will make me appreciate my life more than the realization that a tiny mistake would end it all.