kevino

Does the comp work the same way as the one at stone gardens a couple years back? Everyone does any easier route the top times are the finalist?

Who wants to pre-func?

The old glacial shark strikes again. For what its worth mr. dreamer, in my experience last december, I thought the fusions performed poorly on hard and less than vertical ice. But as the BD reps said, "thats expected, but they climb rock great."

But the approach I took, and the one he/she would take are different. To answer, the snow was discontinuous and only went up about halfway. Snow on the glacier was fairly firm in the shade, and its only getting colder.

So when is the tram car going to be built?

Trip: Mt Stuart - Complete North Ridge Date: 8/24/2010 Trip Report: Not much to add to this often climbed route. Just thought I'd throw out some pictures and confirm that no crampons or ice axes are needed. Enjoy. Brian coming up after the squeeze slot Brian working the 5.9 crack Smoke in the valley Classic ridge line Almost there Great pitch I'm trying to get into Jim Nelson's next guidebook Summit [img:left]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs387.snc4/45068_584625558923_39203244_33782601_4221297_n.jpg[/img] One question...the final 5.8 crack, is that the crack with the #3 camalot stuck in it? Fun climbing regardless.

I thought I knew this area pretty well, but where is Longs creek?

I can give a very bias answer...I live in ellensburg and work in yakima at one of the hospitals. Ellensburg is awesome. The access to climbing is probably among the best around. I can be to four different crags in less sixty minutes. I can be to alpental in 50 minutes, stevens, mission and white all in about 90ish minutes. I don't know what kind of nurse you are but I can give you some feedback about the hospitals in the area as well. Shoot me a pm and I can answer any questions you have.

Awesomeness. Was there snow around/near your bivy site or did you just haul water up?

And summit chaser, if you're a hard man you don't cry, you figure shit out with what you have.

Sorry that came off rude. If you're looking to save weight, don't bring the axe and pons. If the snow is too hard you can rappel, which has been discussed previously, or you can walk simple terrain around to near the witches tooth and descend in a non technical fasion.

Another option is to not bring extra gear and know how to navigate the terrain.

We figured as much. Anyway, the black webbing on the tree was place there by us. Who knows how long it will last!

Just as a heads up for people thinking of heading to this area and nearby vicinity... Saw a large smoke plume driving home to Ellensburg after climbing in tieton. Looking from Elensburgs, the smoke runs from about little annapurna all the way down the wenatchee mountains. link

Right on. Things do seem to be relatively clean and loose block free, especially since they are not written up in any guides. As for being on route, we were still climbing and still having fun! So Dan, when were you up there last? Either way I still think its weird that there was no sign of webbing and a lone rap ring was just lying on a ledge. Did you guys use biodegradable webbing?

Trip: Washington Pass - SEWS, Liberty, Concord, Cutthroat Wall Date: 8/11/2010 Trip Report: Over the last seven days I had the great luck of no work and the opportunity to climb literally all over our great state of Washington. The bulk of my time was spent at Washington Pass. I found a partner on here, by the name of David, who posts as talah. I would recommend his as a climbing partner to anyone. On to the climbing... Day 1: South Early Winter Spire - Southwest Rib Seeing as how this was our first day climbing together, we figured we could get warmed up on a classic moderate. About an hour after leaving the parking lot, we found ourselves gearing up at the base. We opted to link pitches 1&2 (David's lead), and pitches 3&4 (my leads). David on the first pitch, barely visible. David following pitch four We swung leads and David started out on the catwalk traverse - fun moves around the corner Since I led the white flake pitch, David asked if he could lead the bear hug pitch, to which I happily agreed. I led one more rope length, and after, we preceded to unrope and scramble to the summit. I want to say it took us just over six hours from the TH to summit. Day 2: Liberty Bell - Northwest Face, link up with Concord Tower - Tunnel Route We found good climbing on both of these routes, and I would recommend them both. Northwest face is continuous climbing for four pitches (5.5, 5.7, 5.8+, 5.8+) with only about 6 feet of less than great rock. The Tunnel route, while not the greatest rock quality had enjoyable climbing in a neat position. Liberty Bell - NW Face P1 - easy left trending ramp crack system David on P2, leading up the finger cracks to chimney before leaving sight of the belay David following pitch 3 - topping out on the flake system Same pitch - entering the ramp DAvid leading pitch four After the fourth pitch, we scrambled to the summit, then rapped down to the col. We literally descended about 150 ft and then started the next route. Concord Tower - Tunnel Route Pitch one - a little dirty but fun moves Pitch two had fun moves and only had one less than ideal rock section. We walked through the tunnel and David led a clean pitch on the face for about 30 m before we unroped and climbed to the summit. The tunnel Start of pitch 3 Day 3 Cutthroat Wall - The Perfect Crime After two days at the Liberty Bell, we opted to spend the next two days climbing Blake's new(ish) routes on Cutthroat wall. For this route, we found the first three pitches a little bit difficult to follow. We found the rock carin as per Blake's TR and climbed starting about that. We followed the topo as it looked. Hopefully Blake can help us and future parties out. P1: David climbing a steep start and belayed below a roof. P2: I moved right and up to a small roof and climbed around it to a nice ledge. P3: David led up a stout crack (see picture, continued easy climbing up, wasn't quite able to pick out a good route, so he climbed the slab left of the barber poll tree and belayed on a nice ledge, above the tree. The crack at the start of our pitch 3 Looking down at the tree at the belay on top of pitch 3 From this belay we could see the orange rock Blake described, so I climbed left to a finger/hand crack, pulled through a vertical bit and followed the easy ramp around the orange rock, then climbed the hand crack to the next belay ledge. Looking down at David following the hand crack David then climbing right on good face climbing, to the great splitter crack that Blake described. After that pitch, we scrambled to the summit. From here we kind of had a different experience for the descent than Blake's description. We found no webbing, only a rap ring. We set up our own rappel, and did a full 30m rappel to get to easier ground. We then continued straight down the gully and walked down easy slabs back to the base of the wall. Day 4: Cutthroat Wall - Easy Getaway Route finding was much easier on this route. David pulling the roof/overlap on pitch 1 Pitch 2 was straight forward and fun climbing. Pitch 3 started off great, I pulled over the small roof, but then it wasn't clear (to me) if I was suppose to go left or right. I went left at first and wasn't please at what I found, so I down climbed and went right. Lo and behold it put as back the belay from the previous day! After I brought DAvid up, we consulted the description, and it almost seemed as it this was right and yesterday was wrong? Who knows. Anyway, David climbed up the same stout crack and left until he knew we were back on route. I took over on pitch 5 and had a great time up easy face climbing, pulling the small overhang and then walking the plank. Looking down at David working on the over hang The crack and the plank on the right P6 - David leading the underclings to the chimney P7 - I led the awesome finger/hand crack P8 - David working the chimney. We hauled our packs, I would recommend it. In hindsight, the Perfect Crime would be a good route from the real alpine experience. The Easy Getaway holds a lot better and cleaner climbing. As far as the approach goes, good luck. The second day it only took us 40 minutes but I can't really explain it any better. Thanks again David for four days of good climbing! Gear Notes: Single set of aliens, tcus, camalots from .5-4, doubles in 1 and 2. The 4 was only needed on SEWS and the Perfect Crime.

Glad to see you had a successful trip. I talked to you guys briefly in morning prior to yours/ours departure.

Haven't been up there and have two questions... For people that stay a handful of nights up there, do you sleep at road pull outs, in campgrounds or..? Second, does verizon have service up there? Going to be meeting up with a second partner while I'm up there so just wanted to know in advance to figure out logistics... Thanks!

Awesome trip report. So how big were your packs w/o bivy gear?

It was not a nice warm rain, rather cold hail. To those that were asking, that picture is of our first pitch, which was to the west of the actual ridge but was the best place to get off the snow and onto he rock. Curt - nice job. We started wondering after we passed by, did you descend the west ridge or...?

Goatboy, We were gunning for the razorback ridge. Can't wait to go back for the whole thing, but that'll probably wait for another time as there was only one snow bridge that connected the glacier to the wall.

My friend Matt and I got a couple pitches up our route before that hail/thunder/lightening storm made us bail and run from rock fall and lightening bolts. Just curious to hear about other people's stories...We heard people on the north ridge and know that some parties were heading for the west ridge... The climbing The storm Pictures don't really do it justice...

Ben. He said you were with Justin and others.

5.0 or 5.10?

I have seven days off of work in August. I would like to get out and climb some alpine rock...With that amount of time I was thinking maybe the Bugaboos or the high Sierras, but climbing here in the cascades would be great as well. If interested please contact me so we can discuss details. -Kevin