montypiton

yer still a bit early for the best ice in the Stuart / Enchantment area. tons of seasonal ice lines April - June most years, but they require more freeze/thaw to form than we usually see this early. Dragontail, Stuart, Argonaut are all great, but usually dry or snowed under this early... Argonaut has at least two couloirs on the north aspect that go about WI2-3 when they're not buried in snow...

if you don't need front-points, "micro-spikes" work pretty well, and are far cheaper than any full-on crampon. we've used 'em on water ice to nearly forty-five degrees...

Millenium Wall is done for the season - but keep going another 1.5+ miles up the trail, and you'll find "Fourmile Falls" (see previous post w/ movie - climbed it again w/ Mark Shipman and Dave Allyn day before yesterday). There's more undocumented ice/mixed in cliffs below Fourmile Falls. We'll be exploring most of March, I think. At 3000' and well-shaded, should hold into April... -Haireball

Pieter - check your PM's

Pieter - check your PM's

I like Aces -- stiff enough for comfort in aiders, perform well into 5.11 range (they climb better than I do, certainly). Find 'em cheaper than dirt on ebay, and resole 'em. I've got C4 and Onnyx if ya need rubber, or I'll throw a half-sole on 'em cheap. I have several pairs in the bin, sizes ranging from about 9.5 to 11.5 if ya wanna demo or confirm sizing. Or if I have a pair that will work for you, I'll make you a deal that will feel like you stole 'em. Talk to me, John...

Check your pm's - season just got a new lease on life!

I'd take the O-P shorties - happy to do paypal - shoot me a pm & we'll close the deal... -Haireball

Ass-Clammin Update 2/4 Ice is going fast in spite of freezing nights. Pearly Gates, fat last Thursday, was gone by Saturday. Tumwater Canyon: no new beta. climbs still looked good last Thursday, but that may mean nothing. Most likely not worth driving from the West side next weekend. Icicle Canyon: I climbed at Dog Dome on Saturday, the chimney far left ("Dog Nasty Dike" summer rock route) was still leadable. A ledgy mixed line to its right was still doable, but hangers were pretty fragile. Unless we get a hard freeze for a few days, its probably gone. On the off chance that we do get a good freeze, the bridge will stay for now -- it wasn't put up until March last year... Saw five climbers in the Funnel on Saturday. Walked up Sunday to find the flows quite active - we didn't climb the Funnel itself, but did climb a better protected line a couple hundred feet left. While descending, we watched a pony-keg sized rock trundle down a snow chute off to the right of our line. The ice is elevated enough on the left-hand wall that it is safe from what comes down the chute. Still - sobering. So, yes,there's climbable ice at Hubba-Hubba Hill, but only for those sufficiently experienced to manage the objective hazard. Lets hope for another extended freeze. Pearly gates, as I mentioned above, is gone. Everything on the road side of the river, including Rainbow Falls, is gone. Until we see another extended freeze, this is the last Ass-Clammin Update -Haireball

my school district has a winter break the entire week of presidents' day, which, including the two weekends, gives me a nine day window - and I have friends in Bozeman who keep bugging me to come that week. I would love to be able to share travel expenses if anyone can swing the time -- pm me. -Haireball

Brad- I appreciate your doing the research. In my thirty years here, I've never been told that the Smear itself is privately owned. I've spoken a number of times with one landowner there (an acquaintance of long-standing, though not a close friend) who says he speaks for his neighbors on the road, and he has never given any indication other than that they object to use of the road to approach. If the landowner who actually owns the Smear objects, I'm content to remove it from my report. At one point several years back, an absentee landowner near the flow had actually provided local climbers with a key to the gate and stated that his permission to approach his parcel via the road authorized us to use it to pass other parcels. This caused some bad feeling, and some locals, including myself, took to paddling. Anyway, thanks for the assist. Also, I'm perfectly aware that stuff was falling during the chinook. Hell, I was climbing on some of it! Nevertheless, the consensus of the forecasts I've seen indicate a cooling trend through the weekend, and I'll be out. Maybe we'll meet - I don't believe I've met you. And, while I'm sincere in saying I appreciate your assistance, in future, I'd sure appreciate a more polite tone when you help out... -Haireball

"conditions on Drury should only be reported by someone who actually got on it" I whole-heartedly agree! I make no pretense of reporting the actual conditions of these climbs -- the place for that is a trip report. I will continue to report what looks like it might be worth hiking to. Just because a climb "looks" fat or complete doesn't mean the ice is any good. That caveat would apply to every climb I've listed, and could even apply to conditions reported in a trip report, since our local conditions, in my experience, vary quite significantly even by the hour.

ice influence in the last 5o years? -- Will Gadd? don't know about alpine, but difficult to ignore regarding ice for the past 25 years or so...

Haireball's Ass Clammin News, 1/31 Contrary to popular belief, our one night chinook has NOT devastated ice climbing in the Icicle and Tumwater canyons. In fact, if what remains is any indication, it appears aspect/sun has been the bigger factor. Tumwater: Drury remains complete, probably climbable for the young & dumb crowd No sign of the Pencil We've probably seen the last of the Drip - it lasted less than two days Across from Castlerock, climbs remain reasonably fat, but have been reduced to normal historical dimensions The Smear remains fat - please avoid using the road approach - contour the hill above the ditch, walk the riverbank past the private property, or paddle across the river at the Smear. Icicle: Funnel remains fat, now reduced to normal historical dimensions Some flows remain climbable on the upstream side of Eightmile Butt-rest Icicle Butt-rest is completely stripped, we've probably seen the last of it for this winter Dog Dome is reduced, but still presents plenty to do, and the bridge appears to have remained in good shape Pearly Gates has been reduced from grossly obese to merely normal historical dimensions Rainbow Gully still has top-outs on some lines Candlestein Left has survived, but Candlestein Right lost its top-out Caliente and Black Power are gone Entrance Exam remains as a mixed problem It froze again last night, and is forecast to cool though the weekend into next week. -Haireball

three access opportunities avoid the property owners' issues: 1) paddle across the river from the developed raft launch opposite the Smear. 2) walk from the bridge upstream along the river instead of using the access road. the river bank is public access by state law (I'm a riverfront landowner in Leavenworth) 3)Fawn Gully and the Smear can be accessed by contouring low on the hillside from the bridge, on public land. Silver Tongue may be accessed from the top of Fawn Gully or the Smear.

pm sent

I'll be in the Icicle on Friday ---

While I am surprised to find myself agreeing with much of what Marks says in this essay, I have a hard time with the concept of drug use as "cheating". Cheating implies that whatever the cheat is doing provides the cheat with a competitive advantage over the cheat's competitors. But if all of the cheat's significant competitors are engaging in the same practice, where's the competitive advantage? I don't practice climbing as a competitive sport. I love the places climbing takes me, and the "big" routes I've done have taken me some memorable places. I don't give a rat's ass about performance records, or somebody else's climbing style. I climb for my own enjoyment, and prefer to climb with partners who aren't keeping score. I've never used O2 or diamox not because I think using them is cheating, but because I think using them is dangerous. Both predispose people to overextend themselves, and diamox has some hazardous side effects. I do, however use modern energy & recovery foods in the mountains.

twelve is about the right age to start... strong enough to swing a tool, and kid enough to get really excited I remember taking my youngest out at twelve - then couldn't keep up with him -- Gibraltar & Louise Falls at thirteen, leading short WI4s at sixteen... but he's too busy teachin' his girlfriend to climb these days to get out with me any more...

I'll take "em!!! check pm!

1988 - Yosemite Valley lookin' for a partner for the Nose, because mine had developed some foot issue the prevented wearing rock shoes (turned out to be real - he didn't climb for two years). Put out the word in Camp Four, and hook up with a Canadian guy -- says he's mainly a caver, got a lot of aid experience. No worries, says I, I don't expect to be quick - in fact I tend to be slower than average on aid (although I did have a handful of walls under the belt at that time, including one FA in Alaska - Broken Tooth) So we're off - packing my haulbag, I specify lining the bag with our sleeping mats, and packing soft stuff outside, hard goods towards center. At Sickle Ledge, after an afternoon start, I find a hole worn in the bag -- tuna cans he'd placed right against the bag. I bitched, he apologized, we moved on Next morning, in the stovelegs, his lead slows to glacial pace. We get passed. I have a strict rule about second-guessing partners' leads, but in this case I make an exception: "trouble?" gets the response "I've never really climbed cracks before..." Whaaat? Oh - shit!?!? But, the next ledge we come to has a long line of lidded five-gallon buckets on it -- food and drink treats left from the Star Trek movie crew that had only vacated the route a couple of days earlier. We pronounce this a great reason for a rest day... even taking a day off and gorging ourselves, we leave the ledge hauling more food and drink than when we'd arrived. I manage to make a complete clusterfuck of the King Swing - somehow completely miss the intermediate pendulum anchor, and do the whole swing as one humongous pendulum -- takes me several tries. We get passed again... Higher on the route, we stretch a day past sundown. My hookup partner finishes to the ledge in pitch dark. Funny thing is, the darker it gets, the faster he gets... he REALLY IS more of a caver!!! We enjoy a great laugh after that... He draws the Great Roof lead, and thirty - five years later, I swear I still feel the pucker from jugging that pitch. That means I get pancake flake, to which I have looked forward for years - but by this time, I just want off, so to hell with free, "french" is just fine!!! Finally top out, get down a day later than planned (but worth it! Thanks Cap'n Kirk!!!) to find my (now ex) wife camped with some guy in his van... As it turns out, though, I just heard from this climbing partner a month or two ago... after his FORTYY-EIGHTH lap on the Captain! "Pass the Pitons Pete" Zabrock has, since that first dubious wall, become something of a Valley fixture... somehow young Keenwesh got steered to Pete for beta in the Valley last year, my name came up, and I got an email from Pete. I'll be dipped in shit...

Haireball's Ass Clammin' News: Tumwater Canyon: Big News is that the Drip is in. Lookin' fierce, as usual. base cone is about half of climb, but top curtain/pillar only just connects. The Pencil's first pitch has fallen - victim of the same thermal inversion that brought in the Drip. Drury is complete, but quite lean in places. Comic Book Hero, Plastic Fantastic Lover, the Penstock, and additional undocumented ice, are fat opposite Castlerock. The Smear, Silver Tongue, and Fawn Gully all look good at the mouth of the Canyon Scrappy fragments of ice above Hobo Gulch. a wandering line far right (downstream)Dos Hobos is very forgiving classic mixed. Icicle Canyon: 1) acquire a map of the road 2) close your eyes and make a pencil mark 3) drive to the point marked 4) look uphill, and climb whatever ice you see. yup - ice everywhere... even the ice you can't see easily from the road -- park as for the Refrigerator Boulder - walk uphill upstream of the boulder & discover Entrance Exam. Or brave the crossing to Dog Dome for the most concentrated collection of steep & mixed problems in the canyon.

This is a STEAL!!! I'd buy 'em if I didn't already have a handful. closest equivalent today is ballnuts - at about $25 apiece. (got a pile of those, too) some poor dirtbag needs to jump on this YESTERDAY!!! Come to think of it, my youngest son is building a rack these days... never mind - they suck...

as of Saturday, 1/19, most lines still look pretty dry. we settled for two quickies in Pee Wee's Playhouse area, but wished we'd stayed around the Icicle Canyon.

For the record: Black Power is the name of a rock route towards the downstream (climber's right end of the Candlestein Cliff. Careno Crag is the name of the largest rock formation above the cabins on the road at Icicle Island. Candlestein Cliff is the name from the original guidebook for Icicle Canyon (by Fred Beckey) for the rock formation on which the mis-named ice-climbs "Careno Left" and "Careno Right" form. I do not know why the Beckey name has not survived into the current generation of guidebooks. These two climbs have nothing to do with Careno Crag, and it might reduce confusion if we simply correct the names. -Haireball