cskidmore

No such thing as "overkill" in climbing. No such thing as overkill??? 13mm rope, steel gear, OSHA approved harnesses . . . . all sound like overkill for recreational climbing to me.

First real trad fall was this past week on Castlerock in Leavenworth on a .5 Camelot. Thank god that little purple cam held. Ended up being about a 10-15 footer and scared the crap out of me.

Here are a couple of pics showing the bowl and ridge for those interested in heading up to ski, climb, etc. Chimney as seen from the Roothan Saddle Looking back towards the saddle from near the base of Chimney Looking back down Horton Ridge towards the lake and trail head

Paul, yes that is me. Kevin is still involved however but has enough on his plate that he isn't as active as he was previously. I felt lucky to get him out climbing for a day on Friday.

Based on the log we (Kevin Klim, Chase Buffington, and I) got the first ascent for the season. Snow is still nice for skiing in the bowl and also back down the ridge to the trailhead.

Myself and two others were up there yesterday (Friday) and the road is open to within a mile of the trailhead on Horton Ridge. There is a log blocking the road at that point so if you have a chainsaw bring it along to help clear the road. There are patches of snow still across the road but it should be drivable to the trailhead once the tree is removed. Still a lot of snow up there, it's a snow slog from the trailhead all the way to Chimney. Climbing was great yesterday up there!