rob

That's not change we can belive in

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete Date: 6/30/2008 Trip Report: Friday, Scheissami and I left to do a few days of cragging in Leavenworth before tackling Serpentine on Monday. We arived around noon, and it was fucking hot. After wandering around private property for a while looking for poison ivy crack, we decided that our brains would melt if we tried to climb this south-facing shit, so we headed up to pearly gates instead. Scheissami led Dog Ate My Topo. We were going to finish up with that second slabby pitch above it (Scene is clean?) but we decided we'd rather get punched in the dick than do more slab climbing, so we went over and I led Loaves of Fun, where I managed to find a way to totally gumby up the top of the climb, trying to avoid the 5 feet of protected slabby moves by traversing over and up some shitty grass-infested choss to a higher anchor Scheissami took the next lead on Celestial Groove, where he fell off the bouldery start onto a yellow camalot. He failed in his attempt to land on his head thanks to the vigilance of his extremely talented and attractive belayer, and after a few more tries we decided that it was too hot for anymore of this bullshit, so we went into town and had beer and german food at Adreas Keller and retired to the nearly full dirtbag lot -- thank god we had reservations! The next day we woke up early and climbed around Barney's Rubble (in the shade) until it got too hot, so we went to sleep until the evening when we ventured out again to alphabet rock where Scheissami styled dogleg crack. We TRd that 10-ish sport climb to the right of dogleg, and then TRd meatgrinder. I belayed Scheissami on a TR lap of z-crack and then we went for beer at Ducks and Drakes, where Scheissami was hit on by a crazy woman. The next morning we woke up early-ish and lapped classic crack a few times until the sun peaked over the trees, and then went into town and watched Germany lose to Spain. We figured we couldn't put it off anymore, so we packed up and headed up to Colchuck Lake in the afternoon, where we set up camp in the boulder field near the moraine. Up early the next morning, we sauntered our way up the moraine to the base of Serpentine when the coffee started doing it's magic. Take it from me, there is a new cairn near-abouts with a special little surpise inside. I wouldn't kick it apart if I were you. We found the start of the climb allright but had some route-finding trouble lower on the route, on our way to the top of the pillar. "How far off route do we have to be before it's a FA?" I asked, as I scoped out a lichen-covered slab above me. Scheissami has posited "wandering retards" as the name for our new variation. From there, things went smoother. The crux pitch fell to Scheissami, who styled it. I freaked out a little bit on the easy friction traverse over the the start of the thin 5.7 cracks (you all know how much I LOVE friction climbing), where I panicked and put in too much gear down low and had to run out the last 20 or 30 feet of facey climbing to the belay. We simul-climbed most of the rest of the route, stopping every so often to belay the occasional mid-fifth step, which gave us an opportunity to re-rack gear and drink water. Tons of fun scrambling on this route, with huge positive edges and blocks to pull up on. About 2/3rds of the way up, the thunder clouds came, which really put the pressure on us to haul ass. Luckily, they stayed a few miles out, and we never had any rain or nearby lightning. Climbing to the sound of thunder kind of sucks. I ran out of water, which is a near-disaster for my body, and started bonking. Scheissami led the last 5.7-ish variation to the summit, where we celebrated with candy and photos, and booted our way down to aasgaard pass. I stopped at a tarn to drink deep of the watery goodness. Booting down the rubble that is Aasgaard Pass sucks ass. We ended up hitting the moraine at nightfall, and wandered around for a few hours trying to find our tent, which we had cleverly positioned behind a boulder, sheltered from wind and from view. We were pretty beat when we finally found camp, so we ate some food we stashed earlier, and crashed out. We hiked out the next morning and picked up a few double helis at heidelburger and bathed in icicle creek. We drove out to WA Pass later that night for more fun and games. Gear Notes: DEET Approach Notes: Hide your tent behind a boulder.

Cashmere Mountain

Columbian hostages freed Fucking awesome story.

The NW Forest Pass is just for parking, right? Hell, when I did the bailey traverse in ONP I didn't even have a car -- I had to pay to sleep on the ground, and to travel on a unmaintained trail. At least I don't have to pay a permit fee to go climbing in wilderness areas. Oh, wait....

YEE-HA

I don't know why you would expect your climbing to slow down because you got married. Surely you didn't marry someone who's going to tell you what you can and can't do with your own time? It's not like you have kids. She's your wife, not your mama

I don't believe the stuart lake TH has picnic tables, does it?

Close, but no cigar. This was the previously oldest living thing: Unlike McCain, this tree can still sprout wood

Ain't that the truth.

Leftover salmon is nice too

nice Cashmere is a fun scramble. There was no snow when I did it though, and I ended up taking a "short cut" down a shitty gully on the way down. That hike out really does feel long

great photos, very nice

sorry, bill. If I didn't, someone else would have.

At 9? 8D From birth

I'm sorry. Did you say something? Didn't think so. Shuffle on, dirtbag. "Hey, you! Yeah You! That's right, I'm ignoring you!"

I thought this was going to be like Planet Unicorn, only cooler.

I've never had problems with freezing in my bladder (blowing the tube out works great!) but I've had a bladder burst in my sleeping bag after adding hot water (from melting snow). Apparently the hot water melted the glue on a couple of the seams. I'll never trust one again. They're useless to me if I can't put hot water in them. I've never had a nalgene leak, so the choice is obvious to me. I bought a bottle belt for my nalgene and I keep it strapped to the hip belt on my pack, to encourage me to drink often. http://www.rockclimbing.com/gear/Detailed/1200.html

I'm there for the $12 beer

Porter, you were personally responsible for pushing this story with the NY Times, weren't you? Admit it!

What's next for him after PM? Ceasar?

Porter, why are you threatening them??!

Upon completion of the mission. I thought we already did that.

don't they have pills for people with "performance" problems? I remember Palmeiro did some commercials....

Putin learned that sort of social consciousness from the KGB, I bet. Speaking of Putin, is that guy still the PM? Hasn't he been there, for like, ever? I thought he was out, or does that not happen yet?