montypiton

I believe kurthicks has given the appropriate, perhaps definitive answer: a cordelette is a MULTIFUNCTIONAL tool. I've used mine for creating a 3:1 hauling system for supplying tension to "portly" following climbers, for prusiking, for escaping a loaded belay, cut up for rappel anchors, and yes, occasionally to build belay anchors. I generally carry 6mm, one full-length (20' - I don't think metric) and one that has lost some to rappels and is growing steadily shorter. The self-rescue protocols that the AMGA teaches in their guide certification curriculum assume two cordelettes. Regarding equalization: Arnor Larson, who founded the Rigging for Rescue school, performed exhaustive testing on various equalizing techniques, and determined that "equalizing" anchors generally do NOT equalize when loaded. Consequently, R4R distinguishes between an "equalizing" anchor and an "equalized" anchor, and recommends pre-equalizing the anchor then knotting the equalizing sling so that anchor elements are isolated from one another. This practice permits the anchor elements to share the load equally, while preventing the failure of one or more anchor elements from shock-loading the remaining elements.

Take a good look at DMM's line. I've used the DMM Rebel for several years, and it's hands down the most versatile alpine tool I've seen - a functional waterfall/mixed tool that you could actually use for a boot-axe belay if you had to. Most versatile grip I've seen on any tool...

I keep going back to the Boreal Ace - old school, yeah, but good support and reasonable comfort for long routes. They fit my feet better than any other shoe I've tried. I pick 'em up on E-bay for $10 - $20 per pair, and usually put a new C4 half sole on them (I do the resoling myself)

pm sent

I don't see any of these responses addressing the "very low angle" element of the original question, so: in my experience, aiders on very low angle ground just get in the way. I like a single ascender, or often a single prusik (yup, you heard that right...), & simply climb, scramble, or even batman the occasional steep or difficult move, using the ascender or prusik as a self-belay rather than for progress. minimize the clusterf**k. on steep stuff where I'm actually using the ascender(s) for progress, frog works for me, except if I have to pass a lip, then I prefer separate aiders. actually, passing a lip, I find it far easier to clip whatever aid piece is just past the lip so I can unload the fixed rope altogether to get my ascenders past the edge... but - I've only done a handful of walls; certainly no aid ace... just saying what has worked for me...

days might be kinda short for this long a climb as a 1-day car-to-car this late in the year... that said, there are great bivvy ledges along the traverse - spectacular setting... what's your hurry?

This afternoon, Friday, September 21, from downtown Leavenworth on Highway #2, I cannot see Tumwater Mountain, Icicle Ridge, or Wedge Mountain. Leavenworth schools are keeping students indoors at lunch and recesses. Cashmere schools have been closed all week. Local physicians are telling us that residents will continue to exhibit respiratory symptoms for six months to a year after the smoke clears. National Weather Service issued a "Red Flag Warning" today for DRY LIGHTNING STORMS through the weekend... but the climbs aren't crowded...

I can remember the days of WI4 with a 70-cm ice axe in one hand and an alpine hammer in the other. (that was state of the art in the '70s) You're likely to hardly notice a 7-cm difference in the length of otherwise matching tools.

clarification as requested: 9/16" supertape tied w/double-fisherman's, as "alpine draws". and yes, they may well be good for longer than I keep them, but they get used to reinforce rap anchors, or as anchors where none previously exist. my cordelettes suffer the same fate, and yield about the same lifespan. I figger fresh slingage is cheap insurance... I also replace the slings on my nuts and cams every couple of years. I don't send 'em back to the factory for this, just tie a new sling out of supertape or 7-mil cord. Oooold school...

if you don't mind climbing with an Old Fart, I've lived in and climbed around Leavenworth for thirty-two years. not much of a "sport" climber, but always willing to repeat the classics. I drive a school bus, so I have time on weekdays between 0830 and 1430, plus weekends and the usual academic calendar breaks... -Haireball

no votes for plain old classic hatha yoga? -- ok, but at 60, with 40+ years comprising pretty much every kind of climbing, I've tried most of the programs that have come down the pike, and a "serious" yoga practice has produced greater results for me than any other training system. what else is there to train other than balance, strength, flexibility, and breathing?

how many "years of accumulated dirt" are we talkin' 'bout here? I don't keep slings for more than a year or two... running 'em through a rinse cycle won't hurt 'em...

Stewart - put this on the climbing chatter - everybody loves this hike, and you'll probably be mobbed. I'd go myself but there's a sculptor in town Saturday that I need to make sure David hooks up with...

like I keep saying - I drive a school bus in Leavenworth, so I'm available weekdays from 0830 to 1430. in winter the Icicle and Tumwater canyons turn into entertaining mixed-climbing gyms...

another vote for satellite phones - and if you don't feel you have the $$$ to purchase, I have rented them for trips into corners of Alaska where our party has been the only human presence within hundreds of miles. after our third rental, my brother-in-law in Fairbanks finally broke down and bought one...

reflecting on this puzzle, I realize that my girlfriend and her partner dealt with a closely analogous puzzle in 1979 when they were stormed off the Leaning Tower in The Valley. Their solution was for the first rappeler to "down-aid" a move or two periodically, and clip the rope to the wall, finally tieing the ends of the rope to the next rappel anchor to create a "j-line". The second rappeler would remove the pieces on his/her rappel. Seems like their solution would work over a roof...

Rainier is a more technical endeavor this late in the year than it would be in early summer with greater snow cover. If you're glacier-savvy, and competent on moderate ice, it's good fun, but it has a record of surprising even very experienced alpinists... Leavenworth offers world-class cragging, bouldering, hillwalking, alpine mountaineering, whitewater boating, fishing -- pretty much anything you can do in the mountains - plenty of walk-up and scramble opportunities in the Stuart Range. also, a decent brewery, a decadent chocolate shop operated by an internationally acclaimed chef, and "cute" decor. Haireball's home on Hobo Gulch has always been open to adventurers - we're active hosts with Couchsurfers and Warmshowers (a bicycling network). and we're used to Euros - a brother-in-law from Traunstein, now in Heidleburg. "For a good time, call 509/433-6401". The Winthrop/Mazama area is another great "basecamp" spot from which to access more of North America's premiere alpine terrain.

on Monday, in Leavenworth, you couldn't see Tumwater Mountain from downtown. It felt like 1994 (Rat Creek Fire). air was much better Tuesday/Wednesday, and is tolerable today (Thursday). Most fires are east, closer to Wenatchee. Cragging is tolerable, (a half-day on Castle Rock yesterday) probably inadvisable for those with asthma or COPD. Neighborhoods up Blewett Pass (Camas Creek, Valley High) remain on level-2 alert.

not a half-bad exercise, Mr. Layton! I applaud the risk you took presenting it. I'm not suggesting a solution, but I gotta admit I'm impressed with some of the ones offered. and I'll offer one of my own favorite mantras when faced with "unsolvable" scenarios: there is no such thing as "thinking" inside the box! Well done!

excellent start! keep up the quality parenting!

from Elbow Lake we followed the water through moraine northwest to the col at the base of the west ridge. same approach works for the south face scramble route. looks like one could traverse below south face to east ridge - might get more technical getting past east ridge to northern features - but I have to admit I didn't really look all that closely. SWEET looking buttress lines on features between Cowan and Elbow Lake for those looking to climb 5.11...

as Dr. Shipman is constantly reminding me: "geologic time includes NOW..."

Trip: Mt. Cowan, Absarokas, Montana - west ridge Date: 9/1-2/2012 Trip Report: This was a spur-of-the-moment trip brought on by the need to drive my wife to Pocatello, Idaho, to collect a car for her to continue to a short-notice three-month work assignment in eastern Montana. CC.com's own Keenwesh, eldest son of a colleague from my guiding days, is a sophomore at Montana State in Bozeman, so I buzzed him to let him know I'd be "in the neighborhood" Labor-Day weekend. He agreed to hook up with the Old Fart, and proposed the West Ridge of Mt. Cowan, 11,300', highest point in the Absaroka, as an appropriate objective. Thunderstorms so severe that cars were pulling over to wait for the rain to ease (for visibility) graced my drive from Idaho to Bozeman. Weather and wildfire activity held the outcome in doubt right to the base of the route. But the 9-mile approach shown on the map turned out to be about 7 miles on the ground; Keenwesh insisted on humping the food, tent, rope, & cooking gear so the Old Fart could walk the approach with a sub-20lb pack (I could almost keep up with him!!!); the rain knocked back the fires, but broke and cleared even as we traversed moraines to the start of the ridge; and we were graced with a climb reminiscent of the west ridge of Forbidden, on utterly stellar granite, well-featured to facilitate short-roping, enabling us to complete the grade III - 5.6? ridge in under an hour. As we approached the summit, we heard voices, and looked down to see a party on the south face scramble which would be our descent route - so we waited on the summit (the Old Fart got his 'summit nap') until Dave and Nick from Gillette, WY joined us, to "guide" us down the unfamiliar descent. New terrain; new friends; delightful companionship; uncertain outcome until the last instant; what more could one ask of an adventure? (aside from confronting ones own mortality, of which I've had quite enough over the years, thankyou very much...) Thanks, Keenan, for a fabulous weekend! And congratulations, Scott, on a job well done daddying an outstanding kid! Gear Notes: we carried a 60m single rope, harnesses/belay devices, three cams, four stoppers, eight alpine draws, and three "cya" pegs that we didn't use. short-roping, we traded the lead when I was down to my last two stoppers, and Keenan's lead-block finished the route with gear to spare. Approach Notes: not as long as the map shows - about seven miles, with 3500' gain to glorious camping (and what looked like great fishing, had I brought a rod) at Elbow Lake at about 8500'. Trailhead is about an hour south of Livingston, at the west edge of the Absaroka.

Bill Wicheta and I climbed this route August 25/26 and found it in prime condition. We encountered a second party ascending as we were descending. In my opinion, the limiting factor would be the snow/ice access to the arete proper, and that is pretty well shaded. I would not anticipate major melt out now that cooler temps are here. I should think late September, or even October, or any time up to serious snow, would be fun. Late winter / spring, when the slide-alder-approach is under snow, might be even better. Good bivvy sites are ubiquitous along the arete proper, so shorter days need not be an issue, long as you allow time for groveling in the slide-alder on the approach...

a favorite long-time climbing partner Dr. Mark Shipman constantly reminds me that "geologic time includes NOW..." after riding a lightning triggered rock-and-ice avalanche down the NE couloir on Colchuck three years ago, (broke "pretty much everything")nothing much surprises me any more... what works for me: -wear a helmet: mine was destroyed in the Colchuck event, but I came through with relatively "minor" permanent brain damage -wear a pack--you'd be surprised at how much protection it can provide. on the south face of Aconcagua, when spontaneous rockfall showered our stance, my partner, Nick Beer, astutely whipped his pack up over our heads, and the shower of golf-ball to football sized rocks did no damage whatsoever! -use a double-rope belay system -- half-ropes (alternate clips) needn't follow the same precise line, so may be preferable to twins (strands clipped as a single rope) on dogturdite... -look UP when you hear rockfall, or the warning "Rock!!!" - you can't dodge what you don't see -shorten pitches to improve communication between partners, to reduce the prospect of rope-triggered rockfall, and to reduce the period of acceleration between the time your partner dislodges a rock, and the time it reaches you (or vice-versa) -position belay stances to take advantage of sheltering features: "islands of safety" -don't climb "dogturdite" (although I still do) -be LUCKY -- I "should" be dead; I "should" have a prosthetic instead of a right foot; two weeks ago I climbed the northwest arete on Argonaut, and last week I climbed the west ridge of Mt. Cowan in Montana's Absaroka range. -because geologic time includes now, that last point is IMPERATIVE - and perhaps the most important point listed - so I repeat: be LUCKY