sparkytheflash

i am extremely interested. do you have a picture of the tools? have you priced out shipping yet? let me know what you can do. dave

anybody down for some ice over the next couple of days. i'm looking for WI3 or 4. alpintal or leavenworth. any takers? dave

well it looks like the 2007 bolt chopper has struck again... turns out that the the first anchor for sagitarious has been chopped. this was the anchor just before you move into the flared chimney. i have to admit that this anchor did not make sence to me because you've already climbed scary liebacking with possible ground fall, why wouldn't you continue climbing through a little bit of challenging chimney action to get to some of the best climbing at index with rediculously clean falls. i saw more clusters with people that were new to index stopping at that anchor and belaying their partner up on a manky anchor instead of making a full pitch out of it. just not right. however, i am not keen on the fact that someone is roaming around index deciding for the rest of us which anchors should stay and which should go. anchors on routes that they did not put up themselves. i am not confident of the judgement of this person assuming they were the ones that chopped the japanese gardens 10a anchor. i believe that it is widely agreed that it was a mistakefor jg's first anchor to be chopped. before long we will be going out to index and get on thin fingers and find that 10a mid-anchor gone and that will piss me off. this week i did rogers corner and breakfast of champions in one pitch, i believe that is the way those routes should be climbed since it is a true yosemite length with quality varied climbing and it takes so much time to stop at each one of those anchors creating a traffice jamming keeping other parties off the route. does this mean i am going to chop rogers anchors, certainly not because it's not my route and i do not believe that everybody else has to climb in the same style as i do. i don't really know if there is anything the climbing community can do but it would be nice to find out who this person is and encourge them to go though better channels before treating other peoples routes as their own. if they're such a bad ass why didn't they put up the routes, maybe because they weren't born yet. so you may be too young to put up the best lines on the lower wall, leave them alone and go put up routes elsewhere at index there is plenty of rock for development. there are at least two routes going in on the upper wall that have great potential. either way, too young or too old with outdated ethics leave the existing route alone, follow their example and go amuse yourself some other way.

jens are you aware that there is a mudslide halfway up? if they removed the gate then everyone would be parking at the mudslide. that would be a major headache for the forest service.

if some are wondering why this thread was moved from the rock climbing board to the access board, it was for 2 reasons. one because it really is more about access issues rather than just a new place to climb. that became apparent pretty quickly considering the discusion that took place. second is because one of the routesetter that knows the owners of the property very well is concerned about the additional no tresspassing signs that have recently appeared along the road by the mailboxes, which were not there when the owners put the trail in a year ago last march. obviously the development of that trail has no solved the problems that the owners of the property had hoped it would solve and are appearently reconsidering their position on the matter of allowing climber traffic to pass on their property. we must take this slowly and go through the proper channels with regards to nason access or access there could be limited to an even greater and more long term extent if we are not careful. this routesetter has requested that if you know where nason is to tread lightly and definately do not walk down the owners driveway! if you can't find the trail go climb somewhere else. we should all do our very best not to over-advertise the location of nason not because we are trying to keep it for ourselves but because there are real land ownership issues that need to be worked out before any and all climbers can enjoy the great climbing at nason. Thanks for reading, dave

well we made it to squish this weekend despite not having a passport or being able to find my birth certificate. we called customs and they said that i might be able to get back in with a series of questions and that the chances of me getting held up were slim. in fact that was the quickest i've ever gotten back in the states. the canadians were non to pleased but they let me in with a stern warning. so we got up there late like 1:15am or so and were held up by construction just before squamish for 45 min and with a straight view of the chief, that was torture. we threw down on some gravel road below angels crest since that's what we were doing the next day. we woke up late 7 or 7:30 am. we wanted to get up early because we wanted to do other stuff after angels crest. we got to the base at like 8:30am and we finished at 3:30pm. we weren't super stoked with our time but my partner had only done it once and i had never done it so we didn't really have our system down for doing it fast. we got passed by a local climber and his partner somewhere around pitch 6 that were simulclimbing almost the entire thing, ya they were solid. there was only one saucy spot and it was on the third pitch where you faceclimb past two bolts and the crux hold was completely wet living up to the guide books statement of that section being slow to dry. scott did it with out falling but i slipped off and then dumped half my chalk bag on the hold to try to dry it out. acrophobe tower was awsome. i never thought a pitch so easy could be so stunning. the second to the last pitch was incredible as well. then we finished, took some pics and decended. when we got down we decided to go do Diedre. we linked the 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 5th and 6th with some simulclimbing, then the 7th which allowed us to finish in an hour and a half. the entire day the weather was awsome. on sat we were less than motivated for the grand wall since it was looking a little gray. we didn't get to the parking lot until like 8 or 9am and who knows when we got to the base. there was one team on the route and they were moving pretty quickly and we weren't so i wasn't worried. we started on apron strings and i got my ass kicked on that first pitch. then we noticed when we were up higher that there was a trail that one could use to approach merci me allowing you to save your energy for the grand. we linked merci me into one pitch and i had to simulclimb with scott leading that last traverse with some of the moves going for the anchor that were totally sauced. we got to the split and i led that with quite a bit of leapfrogging and sliding of gear as well as alot of taking to keep myself fresh for the final moves. i got up to the chimney and i thought i was suposed to go inside and that was just not working. consequently i found out when i was done that squeezing myself into that chimney broke the lcd screen on my camera. bummer. after getting nowhere with that chimney i realized that the way was to lay it back like the rest of the route grab the jug and grunt my way up on top of the pillar and then i proceded to flop myself up onto the ledge like the beached whale that i am half the time due to my paranoia of being that far above my pro. i brought my partner up and he lost motivation for doing the sword and i wasn't sure i was going to be able to do perry's lieback at the rate i was going. so we bailed. it sprinkl;ed a few drops throughout the day so we thought we would add weather to our list of excuses, but really the weather was pretty good. we both kind of knew that we weren't ready but we just wanted to go and check it out and see it for ourselves. after we bailed we played around at the base of the exasperator. i led the first pitch in relatively good form but i didn't feel like getting a beat down by the second pitch so i decided to leave that for another day. sat night it rained pretty hard and we thought we would be screwed. we decided to head to the starbucks and wait and see what might happen. finally we decided to head to the smoke bluffs and check out the scene. we got to penny lane and the rock was drying out nicely since the sun was out and it was really warm and really windy. so we decided to do penny lane and then brutalize ourselves by toproping crime of the century. mon was supposed to be really good weather up there though but after we were done with a fine day of climbing scott and i both were pretty worked and we kept talking about how we needed to get on this or that at index to build us up for squamish and finally we were thinking well why don't we just beat the holiday traffic and head back and go to index, so that's what we did. the crowds weren't bad and we were able to work with the weather. you all should have gone it was a steller weekend. dave

i don't know i watch weatherunderground.com and it has been pretty reliable for me and they are calling for no rain on fri, only 20% chance on sat, no rain on sun, and no rain on mon. you guys should head up. unless you are planning to get on angels crest and the grand wall, then ya it's going to rain and maybe you should stay down here. just kidding. it's going to be a zoo no matter what anyway. http://www.weatherunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/get Forecast?query=squamish%2C+bc dave

i think it something to do with seattle city light. i didn't realize it was all over newhalem and probably diablo as well that it was like that. the north cascade institute on diablo lake has 206 numbers but i thought that the institute worked something out with the phone company since they do business all over western washington but now i see that is not the case. it has to be the seattle city light factor. dave

thanks for the input.

my buddy and i are heading up to squish this weekend and we were thinking of getting on Angels Crest and i was curious how wet it still was and/or how long it takes to dry out? i realize it has been less than ideal up there lately as far as weather. can it dry out in a day? also we were wondering about the grand wall but i imagine that probably drys out much faster. any info. dave

i'm not sure why nobody is giving this guy specific instructions on how to get there but i guess i will do my best to help this guy out. so on your way out of new halem take the last right. there is a little parking area next to a tree just off the side of the road and right next to the skagit river. across the river you'll see a large seattle city light power building. as you leave the parking walk east along hwy 20 for about 500 feet or so and you'll see some moss covered boulders just off the north side of the road. hike up through those and you'll be at the wall in 2 min. you should be able to see the wall from the road through the trees if you look hard enough. there should be a one page topo guide at the new halem ranger station that you might be able to get a photo copy of. i actually knew some the locals up there and i was able to borrow the original. Ask for ranger andrew if he's working i've climbed with him there before. the park doesn't seem to have a problem with climbing there, but there is a moratorium on route setting. so hopefully that wasn't your plan. you'll see why when you get there, i got the impression that some, not all, but some routes were poorly planned out. and there was another route futher to the right that had bolts every 2 1/2 to 3 feet. i think it is these issues that concern the parks department. it would be nice to see some of the more legendary and respected setters of washington(ie. burdo, windham, or others) negotiate with the parks department and take the area under their wing and set it up right like the many other areas around the state. jonah is right it has awsome potential. (no offense intended to those who have put up quality well bolted routes at new halem.) if you have any other questions you can pm me. i have good sources that work and live at the north cascade institute on diablo lake that climb there all the time. i've been there twice, which is not as much as i would like. hopefully more later this season. good luck. dave

That's a good point about outing them. to be honest i do not know Greg personally but i feel connected to him through Matt. Matt on the other hand realizes that his work in tieton, nason and other places are often talked about and is pretty open about where he developes if there are no access issues. when the trail was put in he gave me the go ahead to help spread the word. so i felt comfortable mentioning his involvement. but it is good to be Cautious. he also expressed a desire in the past to help inform people of the protocal (ie. leaving anchor bineers and other equipment on the wall and at the base, not walking down the driveway with the trail present now and not parking too close to the driveway as well) that needs to be established at nason now that it was getting more attention from other climbers. thanks for the feed back erik. Dave

I am new to this forum since I've been lock out of it for 3 years or so because of an inactive account and I was reluctant to establish a new email address, but I am back and I am sure many of you know me and are not aware of it. Mr. E. named many faithful contributors to the climbing at Nason, but I believe he forgot a few names that I am sure was not intentional but that should still be noted since they put in their fair share of hard work and time into Nason ridge as much as anybody else there. Matt Kerns, Greg Collum and Jason Kohler(who's name may have been mentioned by a username) are a few men that really could care less if their names were listed in a forum on cascade climbers. I feel, however, that if this venue is going to take off it is important for the climbing community to know the roots of their favorite climbing areas and that people know who all the major players involved were so we can thank them for their hard work when we see them at various crags or around town, we owe it to them to show our gratefulness for the work they have done. I have unique knowledge of this area since I too was introduced to it by one of the route setters, that being Matt Kerns. Matt knew the property owners personally and did his best to keep a good relationship between the owners and climbers. Climbers were even allowed to park on their driveway at that time. Things were going well until someone camped on their driveway. Hence the name of the route in the center of the biggest cave that starts with the green sling, angry camper (I'm assuming he was angry because he couldn't camp on their driveway). It is not important who this climber was, since they know who they are, but instead it is important that we learn from their mistake. In March 2006 shortly after I began going to Nason ridge with Matt a note was posted on a tree just down the driveway with a no trespassing sign next to it (I believe the no trespassing sign is still on that tree but the note is gone). The note read something to the effect of "Climbers: The owners of this property have put in a trail that begins behind the mail boxes. Please use that path rather than coming down the driveway." Matt and I were very excited about this development since it meant that our access would be preserved for a longer period of time and were astonished that the owners would do all that work for us as well as themselves. The trail looked like it was no more than a week or two old. Matt and I spent about 2 hours going through there and trimming back many of the branches that were missed, moved logs and hung more ribbons than were already there to make it easier to find your way through. The important thing to note about this trail is that it is on the owner's property. Their property according to Matt extends 50 feet east(right) of the driveway. They have been gracious enough to put this trail in on their own property and we need to repay them the favor by being as invisible as possible when we cross their land. I believe that is really what they want is to just not see or hear us if at all possible. I am not aware of the no trespassing sign in question which is interesting because I stopped to get an address off one of the mail boxes just 3 or 4 weeks ago. Perhaps it is recent. I am certain that if there is a new no trespassing sign behind the mail boxes it was because too many people were walking down their driveway. If we can impress upon all the people that we tell about this area the importance of being courteous while crossing their property and give them good directions so they don't have to walk down their driveway and if we avoid parking too close to the entrance of their driveway we can preserve many good years of climbing at this awesome place allowing us time to make other arrangements for a trail that interferes less with their property. Another issue that is worth noting concerns the route setters. Nason is set up very uniquely and generously in that the anchors at least on Collm's and Kern's (I'm not sure if I've been on Erik's routes so I cannot comment on how his anchors are set up) routes are set right at the lip of the highest roof so the chains will hang down with ovals and lockers on them. They would like to ask that anyone visiting the crag please leave the fixed draws and anchor carabineers in place and do not remove them. If something needs replacing and you take the responsibility to remove it then take the responsibility to replace it, don't just take it off for someone else to get screwed by the absence of the gear. Also the equipment at the base needs to remain where it is. Don't steal the route setters gear. This will keep them happy and they will continue to set awesome routes for us. Let's work together to keep this venue open and a safe place to climb. Dave

No,crowded areas are bullshit. with routes from 5.10 to 5.12, chances of being crowded ever = 0% It is possible that G-spotter hasn't seen world wall I at its worst where there are people on every route from bust a move to reptiles and from the corner to the end of the world. there are plenty of climbers that would flock to a climbing area that had quality routes from 5.10 to 5.12 more than enough to over crowd the area. as long as we are courteous to each other willing to work together and respectful of any land owners over crowding won't have to be an insurmountable problem. sometimes it is nesesarry to keep climbing area quiet until things are work out with land owners. it is not usually because the developers are trying to keep something for themselves they are just trying to be respectful. as far as i know they had every intention of releasing the information once issues were resolved. after the trail went in more people found out about nason than had ever before and they were true to their word. Perhaps G-spotter is a 5.13 or better climber and does not climb where the rest of us mere mortals reside in the 5.10 to 5.12 range. Regardless I feel I am in one of the most populated sections of the climbing community that being the 5.10 to 5.12 range. I am constantly waiting in line for climbs but you know what I do, I ask the climber where they have climbed lately or what goals they have for the season and i share many of my recent experiences and by the time we are done talking they are usually finished with the climb. Let's take a greater interest in each others climbing instead of fighting about how crowded it is or how close the bolts are or how many anchors are on a route. Nothing will ruin this sport more than infighting amongst ourselves. Dave