mountainsloth

Daks are the bomb. I had plenty of solo trips out there in every season exploring the high peaks region. Solitude, great climbing, and hiking. Thanks for sharing.

under 24 hrs? DANG!

i eat carrots while hiking. its a thing... i think the hipsters came up with it. That north face of sturgeon looks interesting.

sounds like a tough job you've got there squirrel. how about having those sponsors sponsor some of us for plane tix?

nice work up there! there seems to be so much untapped climbing in that valley be it ice, rock, or bouldering. too bad its so far away from Seattle.

great job capturing the culture of a place like joshua tree. really nice read.

wow, truly great read and climb! Makes me want to climb some ice!

1. Epinephrine, Red Rocks 2. Mt Jofre, East Ridge, B.C. 3. Mt Thompson Solo 4. Going back home and finally climbing Cathedral Ledge in NH with my wife. 5. Banks lake various

woot! another route I can take my wife up!

nice matt. that was quite literally my first taste of ice climbing. i had a pair of leather boots, strap-on, flexible crampons, and no idea what i was doing. thanks for the good memories! p.s. woodstock inn is classic post climbing destination

wicked! i have friends moving to NC next year. This is proper motivation to go visit.

tieton

... wicked!

Oh yeah p5 of Holy Grail!, I remove my initial P2 statement...oh wait, man its all good yea, easily my favorite climb in Darrington and probably in my top ten of all time.

Pitch 3, 4, & 5 of Holy Grail on the Illusion Wall. Pitch 5 might be my all time favorite. Crazy flake leads to a ridiculous knob traverse then up to a great right facing hand-crack to a perfect ledge. 180' of stunning climbing. I have climbed it twice just to be sure Pitches 5,6 & 8 of Excalibur, Illusion Wall. 2 pitches of interesting 5.9 including the "Excalibur" flake pitch. 8 is the technical crux. Finger crack, traverse, to a lower percentage steep edge/smear problem. Good topic!!!

that was the best ad for Zion climbing I have ever seen. SOLD! thanks!

I second, "do you have a job?" impressive list of what must have been a great season. I like your "onsight solo" on spontaneity. Can you red point a solo?

fall is certainly the time to take more relaxing trips and spend time wandering. Such a wonderful time of year, especially in the Enchantments!

one of my favorite places on Earth nice job enjoying it so late in the season.

i too have been eyeing this route for a couple years. Thanks for giving some insight. Sounds like one to add to the list. PS Lightning is bad for you

problem solved! thank you Water!

yea, I uploaded and attached my photos as I usually do, but they show up as a link for some reason. I am not smart enough to fix this on my own so I sent a message to you cc.com'ers but got no response. Help?

excellent read!

killer position. rock quality looks good, no?

Trip: Darrington - 2nd Comb Buttress - Psalms 61 Date: 10/8/2012 Trip Report: Finally found someone willing to explore some of the neglected routes up on the Comb in Darrington. Psalms 61 Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. The biblical quote seemed to fit the day, especially the approach. The climbing was great, but the approach, although short distance-wise, was a battle of bushwacking. Whitelaw's description of the approach said 20 minutes with 2 different paths, one to the 1st and 2nd teeth and one to the 3rd and 4th teeth. We followed what we thought was the trail up to the 1st and 2nd teeth but realized half way through a flagged, old growth forest that we were headed up the wrong trail. Either way, the trail and the flagging vanished and we ended up amidst vine maple hell under the 2nd tooth. Thrashing and wandering, we ended up on ledges underneath "Desire", the other long 5.10 up the 2nd tooth. we rappelled from this ledge back into the vine maple and scrambled up to the ledge underneath Psalms. FINALLY! What was supposed to take 20 minutes took an hour! Once on route, we found fun varied climbing typical of many routes in Darrington. Friction, edges, knobs, flakes and even straight in jamming! knobs knobs and slab The flake on pitch 2 The Autumn colors and the gorgeous valley made for stunning backdrops. Good times This was probably one of the first routes in Darrington where I experienced the rumors of runout slab. Some pitches had estimated 25 feet between bolts on 5.9 terrain. Quite puckering! It was quite obvious that no one had climbed the route to its completion in years. Although all the bolts were in really great shape, the anchor on one of the upper pitches consisted of ancient webbing on two bolts. I replaced this and added a piece of webbing off a tree at the edge of picnic ledge to start the rappels since the bolt anchors are in a strange place for rappelling. Once off the route we attempted to descend the 1st and 2nd teeth approach and found much easier travel through a dried up drainage but when it ended so did our path. The last 10 minutes were wandering through mostly open forest. We still never found the start of the trail up to the 1st and 2nd teeth. It was great to take a new friend and climbing partner who has never been to Darrington out. Looking back, I probably should have chosen a route that had more traffic as an intro to a newbie to D-town but in the end she is excited to go back. All and all, a great route, but bring your route finding skills and extra gear just in case. Gear Notes: Single cams .3-3 with doubles .5-2. Nuts were VERY useful. Could have used some larger cams but not really necessary. NOT ALL ANCHORS ARE BOLTED!! Bring necessary cord, webbing, etc. Approach Notes: Read up on Rattle and Slime or PM me. The cues to the start of the approach trails (hub cap and webbing on trees) were never found. Bring your route finding skills and notes from rattle and slime.