tvashtarkatena

Trip: Devore, Tupshin, Flora - Date: 7/5/2009 Trip Report: TR: Devore, Tupshin, Flora June 30-July 4 Moonrise over larches (Devore Basin) “Hey Grandpa!” I turned, dripping from a sex changing dip in Lake Chelan. The three year old toe headed boy looked up from his machete work amongst the bracken fern, saw I wasn’t who he thought I was, and ran. Or maybe the little bastard was just pitching me some. Ah, Tupshin. Readily accessible, quality rock in a pristine alpine setting. Who doesn’t have this jewel on their tick list? Sure, the OCD listees all go for it, because the hungry little squirrel spinning in their fevered brains WILL NOT SHUT UP, but I’d never let such a merit badge fetish erode my effete climbing aesthetics. Still, I had a promised Rainier ascent to dodge, so I suggested to my buddy Jess that we book tickets on the Lady II instead, with promises of a tan and a true Cascadian experience. Plus, while Jess and I had scrambled some peaks before, he’d never worn a harness or crampons. That clearly needed to change. So we loaded up the Pua’a, my double inflatable sea kayak (with its surprise $24 luggage surcharge…who the hell ever reads the whole website?), and headed out pre-dawn for Field’s Point. The Voyage The Pua’a After landing at the campground across the Lake from Stehekin, we hobbled the boat by partial deflation and up we went, timing our ascent perfectly with the heat of the day. The Devore Creek trail quickly provides an unmatched introduction to local botany. Not photoshopped. Douglas Maple that’s apparently been sleeping around Acer glabrum douglasii (Devore Creek) Boisduval's blue butterfly Plebejus icarioides (Bird Creek) After a quiet night at Bird Creek Camp, we bashed up the right side of Bird Creek through fairly open forest to the basin at 5400’, cached rope and rack, turned left, and ascended a broad gulley/debris fan that took use directly to Devore’s flanks. It might have been a better choice a week or two earlier, before the top 50 feet of steep mud over rock had melted out, but hey, I didn’t have time for a whole lot of approach research beforehand. What the hell; it gave Jess a chance to become familiar with his ax and crampons. The hard way up to Devore from Bird Creek There’s a little 30 foot step of 4th that’s interesting near Devore’s summit, but otherwise it’s a standard rockpile scramble with a spectacular view. Jess closes in on Devore Purple Saxifrage Saxifraga Oppositifolia (Devore Summit) Jess on Devore. Tupshin in the background That evening I wandered away from our bivvy in Devore Basin to shoot pics and maybe, just maybe, stumble upon the tourist route down….or not. Columbia Lewisia with issues Lewisia Columbiana (Devore Basin) Larch twig with issues Larix occidentalis (Devore Basin) Tupshin and larch burl (Devore Basin) The following morning we tediously reversed our up route, picked up our gear, and headed up zig zagged our way up from there to the Sound of Music set and the East Face of Tupshin. Alien attack (7000’ point, SE ridge of Tupshin) Jess on Tupshin We played so much Choss Toss enroute I’m surprised there wasn’t a pile of dead goats at the base afterwards. I think the peak is actually 3 feet shorter now. Jess on the NE ridge of Tupshin There is no snow near the summit (just a deep pile of very loose party favors for anyone below you), so leave your ax at the base. I still feel a little guilty about the abruptness of Jess’s first live fire rap exercise. “This rope is a baby dangling off of a 10,000 cliff, and the mother is pressing the barrel of a .357 magnum against your temple. Drop the baby and see what happens. If you flip upside down, don’t let go. If a tiny alien spacecraft flies up your asshole, don’t let go. Any questions?” I did go down first to clear snarls, toss choss, and yard on the rope in the event of any screaming, but still. ROUTE NOTES: To start: Find the long gulley center face. Find the large conical rock outcrop just right of the gulley’s base. Find two parallel ramps trending up and to the right, about 50’ right of the rock outcrop. Scramble the lower ramp to the small trees (1st belay station). The following refers to Klenke’s description on Summitpost.org: Regarding the 3 alternatives above the ‘chockstone’ pitch. Rounding the NE ridge provides a great exposure photo op. The leftmost option is faster: easy with a move or two of low 5th on solid rock with good holds. (I climbed it, too, to unstick a rap rope). Unless you’re the last one down, it’s best to take cover rather than clip into any of the rap anchors, all of which are in the center of the bowling lane. A 60 m rope doesn’t quite make it to all the rap anchors, but no worries: the downclimbing is easy. After bivvying at our 5400’ cache in Bird Creek, we stomped back down to Bird Creek Camp to discover it occupied, in absentia, by a well appointed party of 4. While caching our climbing gear for the duration, Jess floated the idea of climbing Flora that afternoon to open up a full day of rest before going back to the grind, so up trail we went. After a beautiful hike (the upper Devore Creek trail is everything the lower portion is not), we eviction-noticed our overnight gear trailside at 4700’, crossed Devore Creek at 4950’ (where the trail begins diverging) and commenced stomping up the sweltering deadfall at a bearing of 100 MN. After 1200 feet of flatulent flagellation were apparently imploded through our own assholes and we reborn in the floral Elysian Fields of the upper basin, over which our rapt, disembodied spirits floated until a wide, 500’ high talus fan punched us back into the sorry remains of our steaming mortal coils, depositing them pissed, salted, and hungry at a 7460’ pass; the gateway to the sublime Castle Creek basin and Flora’s contrasting desolation. After scrambling down a few hundred feet of 3rd class nonsense, we dropped all the way down beelined for the objective. Our return route would have been better: descending to around 6400’, then traversing larch/snow/talus benches all the way around to Flora’s SW ridge (yes, it goes, even though it looks like it dead ends…just BELIEVE). Queso de Flora. Go Bears! Sunset over White Goat Mountain (Pass 7500’) Silver bordered fritillary Boloria selene (Devore Creek) Log Rolling (Devore Creek) The long days, tough terrain, and heat never seemed to shake Jess’s streetwise sense of humor and bottomless energy. His feet took a bit of a beating from soft boots and tight crampons, but it was nothing that a few stogies and a bucket of KFC couldn’t sooth. So if you’ve a mind to go to a seldom visited part of the Cascades (except maybe during the 4th), slap some bushes, dodge some rocks and a psychotic bumble bee or two (WTF?), consider this area…then cut yourself some slack and book a cheap flight to Hawaii instead. Gear Notes: Used No 1 camalot, smaller tech friend, even smaller TCU, crampons, axe, poles, food hang line, Floating Pig, $24 extra bucks. Approach Notes: Bring a floating pig!

Reality show, comin atcha.

Eat more home grown vegetables and maybe some of that fat back you got goin on will melt away. Now harvesting elephant garlic, zucchini, rasberries, strawberries, and lettuce. Scarlet runner beans in full flower. Real men grow their own food.

We prefer the term "Siege Descent". How was your little jaunt next door?

Trip: Liberty Bell - Thin Red Line Date: 6/26/2009 Trip Report: TR: Liberty Bell, Thin Red Line June 26-28 2009 Ivan and I spent the first days of his 5 week break from family, work, and taxes to trace a Thin Red Line on Liberty Bell. Arriving late, we managed to fix pitch 1 before repairing back to our vehicle, where we created Washington Pass's first sculpture installation, using materials we found on the descent. “Iron Bored I” 2009 steel, granite Two giants, one angry little Irish monkey The following morning we assaulted the route Ivan on the attack Just fixing the roof Roof traverse The author through Ivans sepia electronic eye The Liberty Bell Group The author cleans pitch 2 Ivan jugging pitch 3 We fixed the first 4 pitches, but illness overtook even Ivan’s unflappable spirit and our Thin Red Line became a Thin Red and Green Line of Sputum. The following day, we recovered our gear and bowed to the planet’s true owners: the microbes. “Iron Bored II” 2009 steel, granite By the time we got back to the vehicle, our sculpture park had been mysteriously swept from the landscape.

The right way to deal with any situation is a boot stamping on a human face forever.

Whoops! M'fkn WRONG ROOM.

Now here's a pair. Not enough brains to fake the marriage til the meal ticket ran out (which would have been soon enough, but still). Now they'll duke it out in court and all their not-so-hard-earned baksheesh will flow into the tailored suit pockets of their respective legal teams. Unless..."Season II: Reconciliation!" I like NOVA better...you get to actually see the queen termite or leatherback pumping them out. Or were birthing videos in the show, too?

I think it might have been the insults from the liberal side that turned the tide. You guys owe me two grand.

Of a sort, but bots are created by the fairly intelligent. One can assume from an overwhelming body of data that Kevbone was not. I'd say he's more a byproduct of an age where even a severed brain stem can use a computer.

Kevbone finds refuge in a tiny universe of repetitious, autonomic responses. It comforts him to know that, at least in one part of the galaxy, things will always stay the same. He calls it 'good spray'. Kind of like an infant who squeals with delight when an adult slaps his own face over, and over, and over. He weighs in on every thread with one of his 3 or 4 standard comments (presumably on a random basis...one wouldn't attribute any higher level of planning here), receives one of 4 or 6 standard responses, liqui-poos his diaper, and repeats.

Yer either killin or fuckin. Can't do both. Cuz if you do, you git yer own task force named after ya.

But this thread isn't about the tiny knot of under-oxygenated neurons that is Kevbone. It's about me. Me and my chili mac.

A tiny, hard marble of poo just rolled in, presumably from a blown out pair of whitey tighties.

Check that. Considering who my partner is, it'll be all chili mac, all the time.

I may keep chili mac in reserve in case my partner becomes unruly.

Just one of my upcoming photos will make you fall through your own gaping asshole.

I'm going on a really fucking cool climb and (most of) you fucksticks aren't.

Government policies should penalize people who have children anyway, not subsidize them. Hello? 6.5 billion? Fucking enough already. But family values have nothing to do with supporting 'working families', and everything to do with hating gays and those who refuse to join The Cult.

Seems to me that the more an elected official gets laid, the less likely they are to want to purchase large, expensive weapons systems with my money. Kinda works that way on an individual basis, anyway. The bigger the gun...

Apples and oranges. Fuckin everything you can outrun has absolutely nothing to do with job performance, and every job, government or not, requires some form of integrity. Like spraying while getting paid to work, for example.

You see onathem perty lil pieces a mountain trash with her skirt hiked up so that warm river water rushes through just the right spot between her hungry legs and your gonna forget all about your fat old wife, too. A man kin only take so much....

That's super double plus dot com secret (in case we fail, then we never went there). I'll PM you.

Do you have a grigri I can borrow for 2 days?

And when I have one, I will.