el jefe

Dude! Why is it that climbers seem to be the last ones to figure out that helmets are cool and helmet-less climbing is for dumb-asses? Biking, kayaking, skateboarding, football... they've all figured it out. If you don't cover your bean, your chances for death are significantly higher. There are so many light-weight helmets out there. You can still lather your tanned Adonis frame in olive oil, but get over your fear of helmet hair and protect your brain! I don't want to have to rescue your sorry ass when you get knocked unconscious in the name of looking good. ... oh... and I'd stick with 10mm+. 10.2 for me... cheapest one out there. shaoleung is on a crusade re: helmets these days...

obwan sticks his neck out and gets his ass handed to him...

broughton's would probably be your best bet for some local trad climbing, at least until beacon opens up. otherwise, i'd suggest making a trip to leavenworth. good rock and a scenic place, although admittedly a tough place to get oriented as the climbing is really scattered around. seems like most of the stuff in the gorge at smith is 5.10 or harder, which i'm guessing is more difficult than the "low grade" stuff you are looking for.

no nut. nut or no not. there is no nut.

nice tick list.

route bandits...

glad to hear you've made it back from injury, dane. we old climbers don't bounce as well as the young ones do. hope the leg starts coming around in time for your valley trip, bill.

it's all good, pete h, john is just pimpin' his shit like any other true believer. with a little love and nurturing he'll turn out all right in the end.

great trip! looks like the weather gods smiled on you.

i like to place a cam in that final little stembox bit to protect the mantle onto the ledge because i agree that a fall there would be "a ruinous pendulum back into the wall". thanks again in advance for replacing the pin.

wow.....if a route has gone free than whats the deal with placing a green alien, people clean up old mank iron all the time, if it didn't happen at places like el cap than it would just be a clip up. plus free insinuates that all gear is placed on lead. pulling out fixed gear and not replacing it is different from cleaning up old mank. some people climb superstition with no pro other than quickdraws and would be unpleasantly surprised to discover that someone had removed the last piece of pro they were expecting to have. "free insinuates all gear is placed on lead"? you need a 3 digit IQ to discuss complex issues like this one, powderhound.

aid goons vs sporto boyz = competition for a scarce resource? glad to hear you plan to replace the missing pin on superstition, ivan. the truth is that i don't care what style you use on a route as long as you respect the fact that if the route has gone free, then you should leave it the way you found it -- in other words, don't nail it and don't remove any fixed gear. in your trip report you merely said that the pin was gone so watch out if you go up there expecting to find the fixed pin that protected the awkward traverse to the anchor. if memory serves, falling off at that point without having clipped the pin would mean an ugly, slab-spanking fall and likely serious injury. it certainly wouldn't be fair to whoever goes up there unawares and without any pro to protect the traverse.

why don't you aid goons try a real aid climb rather than aiding up free climbs with fixed gear in situ? maybe that way fixed pins such as the one now gone from superstition will still be there for the sporto boyz who don't frequent this website and thus will be ignorant of the fact that the pin they were expecting to find is now gone.

definitely sounds like a cascades classic!

vive la france!

looks like you guys had splendid weather. nice pics!

vaya con dios, stim. a genuine man of quality.

good luck with your guidebook, i hope you are able to recover your residual costs. i had noticed the other thread re: good bolts but don't care anymore. the point i've been trying to make is that i'm tired of people such as you who think it is your job to tell the rest of us what our relationship to climbing should be. i think people approach the sport for different reasons and to get different things from it, and that it isn't up to me or you to decide for them what that should be. some people prefer flagstone to the lack, others prefer the lack to flagstone. that's fine by me, each to his own. i like a diverse diet so the fact that there are different areas where different styles of climbing are practiced ensures that i will get what i want. i hope you have a happy time passing judgment on all the different climbing areas you encounter, putting them into your little categories of good bolts and badly bolted and overbolted and whatever. as i said, each to his own.

my world is dark? i'm not the guy with the cache of firearms to protect me from the government and/or my fellow citizens suddenly turning on me and stealing my rights, you are. talk about living in a dark world. checat started this thread about the bolt-free nirvana called "the lack" and, as markd pointed out, he seems to think he is entitled to pick and choose which of the local ethics he wants to adhere to (e.g., no bolts) and the ones he doesn't want to adhere to (e.g., no guidebook). i'm wondering about the motivation of a guy who is willing to publish a guidebook to an area where the community of climbers has long been opposed to having one: clearly he isn't speaking for the community consensus, so he is either out to make a buck or magnanimously spreading the gospel of bolt-free to the ignorant savages who are still out clipping bolts. perhaps checat is this kind, noble, magnanimous soul dedicated to raising the consciousness of benighted boltclippers throughout the great state of oregon and is planning to donate all the proceeds from his guidebook for bolt replacement -- no, i mean, tree replacement or?

good point, markd. my guess is that the whole reason for this thread in the first place was that checat wants to hype his guidebook -- you know, get people talking about the place so that sales are better. a guide to a place no one has ever heard of is unlikely to return much money to the author.

I guess you know it all then. Good luck! And for the rest of you, you knew this was coming so just let me get it out of my system. Behold, the elusive BLT's at the Exit 38 Deli....so many choices!: oops! looks like grampa raindawg is off his meds again.

sheshat is the krackers kind of elitist who started this whole thread just so he could tell everyone how kool is he for klimbing at moolack where the real he-men like him go climbing and anyone who still clips bolt lacks skill, brass cahones, etc. now he is annoyed because we aren't impressed with how awesome his crag is or how he-manly he is or whatever. therefore: i think it is just way beyond amazing that your crag has no bolts and that you guys are so far out cutting edge i plan to change my whole approach to climbing just because of your efforts to purify climbing and change the course of climbing history here in oregon. amazing geniuses who discovered that you can rap off of a tree! holy shit, what an amazing revelation. thank you for leading us all to salvation and away from the certain perdition that awaits anyone who clips another bolt after having heard word of the holy and sanctified bolt-free moolack and its patron saint, the benevolent checat and his apostle, powderhound. amen.

bravo!

it is about time we heard from you, ivan. please, grace us with your opinion which we presume is -- as always -- timely, subtle and incisive.

gotta go with corvallis on this one. the fact that there aren't any bolts at "the lack" is probably a sign of a lack of interest by the rest of the climbing community...