sparkytheflash

just moved to 11worth and many of the locals only want to get into the alpine or boulder which i think is sweet too but i'm selective about who i go into the alpine with until i've cragged with them a few times and bouldering can hold my attention for so long when there is so much good onsighting potential and quality roped up climbing. i'm mainly focused on onsighting sport and trad, currently i'm onsighting 11worth 10b/c sport and trad. my goal is to make onsight attemps on every 10 in the icicle, tumwater canyons and the alpine. i'm willing to work on projects but more interested in onsighting since when i hit the road this fall that's what will help me more than anything else. i have climbed 12a sport at one time and 11a/b trad as my max but that has been reduced since i've been trying to bring my onsight level up to meet my max climbing level. because of that my finger strength is suffering this year compared to previous seasons but it will all work out in the end for the best if i can find more partners that want to crag. i've been climbing for 12 years and i have 20 ascents in the alpine and have climbed all over the country. having established my experience and goals i would like to emphasize that it is not all about me. one of the things that keeps me from getting burned out on climbing is taking stock in the climbing development of the partners that i climb with. i still remember what it was like to be climbing at a lower level and that allows me to relate with a wide variety of partners. because of this i like to share my routes and experience while relating to the struggles of the people that i climb with to allow them to be able to climb harder. there are many walls that have an array of 11's, 10's, 9's, and 8's out here and still more with easier routes than that making it fully possible for me to get the climbs at my max as well as climbs at the max of whatever partner i am climbing with. if it sounds like this is an atmosphere and i'm a climber that you would like to climb with drop me a line. right now i'm unemployed so i have a ton of time on my hands. it has been hot as hell over here but we have managed to get by climbing in the early morning and evening while also finding appropriately facing walls to help extend the our amount of shade we get. if things go really poorly there is still the possibility of boulder, finding boulders that face the proper direction to get the most shade possible. the forecast is calling for cooler temps in a week or so. i hope to here from you soon and good luck on our common quest to become a more proficient climber. sparkytheflash@gmail.com (425)478-8393 Dave Back

"crystal lake tower" as becky calls it is everything stewart and james said it would be and more. thanks for scouting it out for us guys. jens holsten, his buddy ryan and i took their advice, went and checked it out 7/24/12. we left the ingals creek trailhead on mon evening at 6pm after jens finished work and hiked the 7.5 miles to crystal creek and made camp at a little site right by crystal creek, which is the biggest and first sizable creek crossing the ingals creek trail and flowing into ingals creek from the north. we probably would have gone up to the basin where stewart and james camped but we ran out of day light. no matter since we were going to wake up early anyway. we followed in our predecessors footsteps and also had sausages with tortolini, zucini and a garlic & herb seasoning mix. we left the next morning at 5am and hiked the 2.5 miles up the ridge slope and began the route at 7am by simulsoloing for a quarter of the route over mostly 4th class terrain with occasional mid-5th class moves. jens led the first simulroped up system for about 500' to 700' until he ran out of gear and brought us in across a really cool knife edge ridge. i then led around the white or yellow wall and up some vegetated ledges. the white wall is the most striking feature on the ridge line from afar. i've simulclimbed many times but our party was covering so much ground so fast that the individual sections all blended together after that point with a few specific exciting parts that another party may or may not find depending on which path they choose. the entire climb and its setting, however will remain with me for the rest of my life to be sure. we skirted many incredible pitches, since we were traveling the path of least resistance with two simulfollowers, that i would like to go back and do. but even still we had som good slab finger cracks and some exposed traverses that completed the experience. we celebrated on an excellent summit which we arrived at by 2:30pm with good views of McClellan, little annapurna, the flagpole, backside of dragontail, prusik and many more. we quickly descended to crystal lake and flowed crystal creek back into the basin that we had climbed out of and beat tracks back into the ingals creek valley, packed up camp and made the hike back to the trailhead, which seemed longer than it felt on the way in showing that our legs were signifcantly fatigued. every alpine climber that has done the n. ridge of stuart, the backbone on dragontail or any significant alpine route for that matter should tick this ridge off. good luck out there and stay safe. dave

A great home gym starter kit. 60 Holds from So Ill, Stone Age, Nicros, and Metolius Metolius Simulator Hangboard 40 Bolt 200 T-Nuts $150 takes the whole lot. Send me a PM or call at (425)478-8393

are those silvretta's still for sale?

hey what size are those boots? their probably sold though. good price. let me know if they are not. i get paid on fri i could buy them then. dave

well the retasket motel is $63 and they have 2 queens(for all those homophobic climbers out there) and a continental breakfast every morning. i don't remember having that at the mile-0 the last time i was there. i'm going to be up there between the 8th and the 18th. i thought i would have a friend be able to go but he's a carpenter and hard up for work right now and not sure if he wants to pay for that much lodging. the only person that responded to the post was only good for 2 days so i'm still looking for takers. what is the climber's log at the reynolds? dave

so what is the housing situation looking like in lillooet these days? the last time i went up there like 7 yrs ago we stayed at a motel in town and they gave us a climbers discount and it worked out to be about $32 per person per night for three people. is it still that cheap? or is there a hostel that might make it cheaper? think i might be able to pull this lillooet trip off after all! thanks in advance for the input, dave

i am desperate to get in multiple days of ice for the first time since i've started climbing ice. i scheduled 8 days off (january 8th thru the 16th) for vacation to go to montana and was depending on someone who i knew was on the fence. but the first step is scheduling the vacation and hoping for the best possible ice and a partner to go with. now its not looking like montana or banff are not going to happen so i am content to settle for lillooet. i would prefer to hook up with someone in seattle and head up together but i am so desperate i may go up solo and try to hook up with someone. i climb wi3 very well and led some short 4's last year and the year before. earlier this year i stepped up and led frenchman falls which my partner said he felt was very 4+ at the time. so if anyone is interested in a trip like what i have described please respond to this post, pm me or call me at (425)478-8393. hope to hear from some psyched climbers. dave

For all those who love all apologies to Walter B. At index, there is a direct start that has been cleaned. Its still a little sandy in at least one spot but as people climb it that will get taken care of. I lead it yesterday after cleaning it and I felt the gear was solid and I typically place too much gear. Its also a great direct start for quary crack but the upper portion still needs to be cleaned for quary. I'd say this direct start goes at about 10-. Enjoy! Dave

For all those who love all apologies to Walter B. At index There is a direct start that has been cleaned. Its still a little sandy in at least one spot but as people climb it that will get taken care of. I lead it yesterday after cleaning it and I felt the gear was solid and I typically place too much gear. Its also a great direct start for quart crack but the upper potion still needs to be cleaned for quart. I'd say this direct start goes at about 10-. Enjoy! Dave

How much snow is still on the flanks of the liberty bell range? Looking to do cut throat on Wed. Dave

Its amazing there is even things that can be cleaned at the lower wall. On sat the 10th while climbing tatoosh I noticed a .75 lieback crack splitting off chris' tatoosh(probably part of the original tatoosh) it leads right into the top of the original end to tatoosh with a handcrack in the back of an offwidth. Really cool. The only problem was there was a series of trees growing out of the .75 crack. My buddy Dave Elder loaned me his old iceaxe, an 8" camping saw, he gave me a mega power belay and I went to town. It was late and I worked for about 2hrs. I got all of the bushes out and trundled 3 or 4 blocks that came from behind the bushes. I still have to sweep the route and brush the feet and sweep off the ledges on tatoosh. I tried to blow most of the ledges enough to give climbers the capability to grab rock without too much dust on them and tried to blow off the feet. It was getting dark so i wasn't able to do as good of a job as I wanted to. I'm hoping to get back there later this week and finish the job. Sorry if I cause anyone a sketchy send on tatoosh sun or Mon. The amount of dirt that came out of those bushes changed the landscape at the base of tatoosh and thin fingers a bit. Oh I also have to go back and either sawsall or chip out a stump out of the crack. Someone years ago chopped the 1" in diameter trees off but left the stump. I think when all is said and done it will be a fine 9+ or 10a. I hope everyone enjoys it. Dave Back

I was Climbing Godzilla on Wed evening and I came down and was hiking out in the dark when I spotted a helmet at the base of Japanese gardens right after a party was filming on that route. At least one of the members(the climber being filmed) had a helmet the same color as the one that was found. Pm me or call me with the color of that helmet and I'll be happy to return it. You can call me at (425)478-8393. Thanks. Dave

I was Climbing Godzilla on Wed evening and I came down and was hiking out in the dark when I spotted a helmet at the base of Japanese gardens right after a party was filming on that route. At least one of the members(the climber being filmed) had a helmet the same color as the one that was found. Pm me or call me with the color of that helmet and I'll be happy to return it. You can call me at (425)478-8393. Thanks. Dave

I was Climbing Godzilla on Wed evening and I came down and was hiking out in the dark when I spotted a helmet at the base of Japanese gardens right after a party was filming on that route. At least one of the members(the climber being filmed) had a helmet the same color as the one that was found. Pm me or call me with the color of that helmet and I'll be happy to return it. You can call me at (425)478-8393. Thanks. Dave