mountainsloth

Patrick Edlinger.... that was terrifying to watch! way to take free soloing one step further.... NO SHOES!

rainier just barely went this weekend. post-holing by a Saturday group to 13,100 gave my team a chance to summit on sunday... barely. weather moved in around noon and almost 2,00 feet of post-holing into crevasses got us to the summit. avy conditions were definitely questionable, but nothing blew on the ingraham direct route. we were chased down the mountain by windy and snowy weather.

agreed, pickets are all you will need.

there is always that small park-type place in west seattle. I cannot remember the name of it, but they have a concrete crevasse with anchors to practice... I just don't recommend practicing self-arresting there.... for obvious reasons.

Leclerc, all BC climbs, no?

sweet, 10 minutes isn't bad

thanks for the update. I cannot remember how long the road is to the 3 o'clock rock trail head is, any idea how much this adds to the hike in?

NE ridge of Triumph just beautiful, fun, and cruiser

i experienced the same deal Saturday hoping to check out the fee demo wall no one seems to know much about. so lame, i was hoping the middle fork was going to be my new day trip playground this summer....

exit 38 also has a couple spots in the farside area. the Gritscone is a good one. so is squishy-bell however this is a bit of a longer hike in and semi tricky to find. pick up the guide book.

I can honestly say I am not surprised. Its the gym, what do you expect? When there I just try to ignore the blatant Douche-baggery that plagues most climbing gyms, its just a fact of climbing indoors. I have to say that the wall hogging is by far more frustrating than bag stealing. Correct me if i am wrong, but didn't you accidentally leave your bag there in order for him to have pilfered it from the lost and found? Either way, glad to hear you got it back. You did the right thing in confronting the Douche.

YUM! YUM! GIVE ME SUM!

anyone been out there recently? The national forest website says there is still snow on the road going in, but wonder how much, how far in, and whether there has been any damage to the road this winter.

ultra lame! i hope they fix it soon!

where are you headed KaskadskyjKozak ?

i was there this past weekend and the north side definitely has snow. The upper bowls seem to have significant depth still, but the lower skirt is snow free. quarter of the way up the hill snow-free seems about right genepires

The finger/small hands crack on the left just as you enter the boulder area was reported to be 5.13 That's what I have been told from a former employee

there is some interesting bouldering up the entiat river road. I checked them out last summer and there are some fun problems. If I remember correctly, they are around mile marker 15 or 20 on the right. If you are looking you can't miss a giant 40 foot arrowhead looking rock through the woods.

my dream has always been to traverse the western ridge of mt olympus from where the south and north fork river split. Everything I am reading talks of following the entirety of the south fork to the valhallas. Am i right? If so, does anyone know about following the direct western ridge of mt olympus from its base?

We didn't see you or anyone else all day. It was nice to have that solitude. Glad you got out as it was a perfect day. Yea, we thought about a rock route, but only after getting up there and with plastics, no rock shoes and minimal rock gear we decided against it. we were better geared for snow.

Trip: Mt. Washington - 1ish and 2 (descent) Date: 2/22/2009 Trip Report: For one reason or another, snow, fog, big heads, Salz and I have been shut down on Mt. Washington on winter attempts too many times. With this year's snow conditions we decided this was our time to summit. So this past Friday we boarded a ferry from Seattle to make yet another trip into the SE Olympics hoping for a smooth ride up a mountain we have come to dread. We expected little to no snow on the logging road to the east faces of Ellinor and Washington but found quite a bit about a mile and a half up the road. The shit hit the fan early as we quickly bottomed out my impreza into the hard road snow and spent the next 3 hours trying to get it out. In the past I thought the mountain had set a curse on us, now I was certain this was the case. Our original plan was to car camp or bivy on the road underneath our route but since it took us till midnight to get my car unstuck we slept behind my car far from our objective. We awoke at 5 am and were moving by 5:30. Since walking the road sucks and takes forever, we decided to bushwhack up the forest just to the right of big creek to bring us up to the road to the right of the trail to Jefferson Pass. Our intended route was #2 in the Olympic Guide but ended up giving #1 a try seeing a mostly snow-free trail to the basin. We wallowed up the basin post holing in the sun staring at the dry SW ridge wondering why we didn't bring our rock shoes. Snow gullies and ramps lead us underneath one of the rock ridges separating Ellinor from Washington and we began to traverse right. We found steep and exposed snow climbing maybe 50-60 degrees. This lead us right to an easy ridge to a rock outcropping. We traversed right on an exposed ledge and scrambled a 3rd/4th rock to the summit. Sweet Jesus! We are not cursed! view of Ellinor and the ridge North. Food, water and a celebratory cake (poor substitute for scotch) and we were off down the sweet snow ramp that is route 2 of the Olympic Guide. This route was our last attempt a year ago and we were shut down by Avalanche danger. This time, downclimbing the ramp gave us great consolidated powder on top of a thick crust and was a pleasure to downclimb and plunge step. The basin it ascends from is a beautiful amphitheater and highly recommend the route for this spot alone. I don't recommend you down climb it unless you have climbed it before as the route finding down lower is a little tricky. Thin snow conditions down farther made rappelling from a tree in one section an easier option. Sliding and plunge stepping down the miserable and never ending gully brought us back to the road where we backtracked our path up through the woods next to the creek via headlamps. We were back at the car by 7pm. Somehow we scored free coffee from a casino on the way back and arrived in Seattle around 11. Solid climbing conditions out in the Olympics, go get 'em! Gear Notes: 60m rope, 2 pickets, a few cams, tools and crampons made it all easier and safer. Approach Notes: Bottom half of the road is mostly snow free except for North facing aspects.

sweet work Ian and Szu-ting! So much rock, so little time!

Trip: goose egg mountain - ride the lightning Date: 12/6/2008 Trip Report: I have had this minor obsession with Goose Egg Mountain for quite a while. As we reached the beginning of the climb, the sun beating down on our backs, I thought to myself, "Who knew I would be sweating, stripping down layers, and ROCK CLIMBING in December!" Its a beautiful thing dragging your summer rock climbing straight into December. As we looked up at the first pitch I wondered what my partner Salz was thinking about the rock quality. "The rock is not as bad as it looks!" I say to Salz, "Think of it as adventure climbing!" After hearing Salz bitching about "Choss-pile mountain" half way up the first pitch, I realized maybe I was wrong. "Just because you knock on the hold and it sounds hollow does not mean its loose!" I yell from below, "Just wiggle it! If it doesn't move, is solid!" That is as best as I can describe the quality of the rock. We sent nothing down bigger than a pebble the whole route up. (rappelling was a different story). The route itself is a mixed bag. Pitch one is a fairly long and exhilarating slab pitch. The second pitch is golden and the best of the route. A perfect crack. http://pics.ericlondon.com/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=10010&pos=1 Pitch three and four are kind of crappy and can be run together (recommended). Pitch 5 is the crux with a slightly overhanging entrance to a hand-to-off width crack and quite enjoyable. http://pics.ericlondon.com/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=10010&pos=0 The crack ends too soon and is replaced by some fun face climbing. Pitch six is a f@$*ing mess. Not only is it easy to get lost (which I did), but EVERYTHING was loose. 4th class to the top. The rappel was not as bad as I thought it would be. Just be careful with your rope pulls, loose rock and rope snaggage. All and all it was fun. Adventure climbing is what it is, semi-sketchy and fun! I will definitely be back for more Choss this winter! Gear Notes: Singles to #4, stoppers, & hexes Set of Double 60mm ropes make the descent easy Approach Notes: 5 minutes up a trail

Sounds manageable. Thanks for the info guys! I'll leave the mountain bikes at home.