spionin

hi y'all. i think i'll ski me rainier in the next few months. i'm looking for 1) advice on a route 2) advice on the best month to do this 3) partner(s) thanks!

nicely done, valerie!

i'll work on it last night we danced in the street. though february weather doesn't permit for too much, khm, nakedness, and the costumes overall make it look more like a furries convention than a general pre-lent debauchery. i thought about walking out dressed as an "ice climber" today, but then thought better of it and decided that people might take my sharp tools seriously. maybe if i get my face painted with butterflies i could ameliorate the effect?..

nice report - looks like a great route. cheers.

thank you. it takes about 3 hours to drive across the country, and it's quite amazing that in the span of about an hour one's able to climb WI6+ up north, and then climb on the adriatic in a t-shirt (or sail. or ski at a resort situated at about 6000 feet. or just put on the blitz ). have i mentioned it's carnival week here, so people are wild in the streets at night?

Trip: slovenia - misja pec, crni kal, osp Date: 2/14/2010 Trip Report: over the past week, my old friend (from undergrad) alexei and i drove between belgrade, serbia, and istria, slovenia. we climbed a bit the coast is full of huge limestone crags with hundreds of routes (about 250 at misja pec alone), with only a few below .10, and most in mid-.12 to mid-.14. the weather began a big chilly, but we hung out, explored the adriatic coast, slept in the car for a week and dirtbagged our way around. when we arrived in osp there was only one other group of brits, who declared the 5 degree C weather warm, and raced up their .13s. alexei and i both forgot our chalk bags, and didn't have a guide, so steve the brit kindly loaned us his! we decided to meet again in a couple of days to return the gear. the first day we only climbed a few routes, each leading a handful of 15-20 m pitches full of smeary feet, sweaty cracks, and chossy holds. it was cold. COLD. i got to feeling quite bad for myself on our warm-up route, like "why am i having such a hard time pulling down a .9?" until we realized later that we jumped on a .10b. crazy french ratings. the following day the weather turned even more horrid, we tried to find better conditions in trieste, italy, but it was snowing/raining sideways there, so we went back to slovenia (this place sucks you in!). we returned to osp on thursday and had a great time, met with the brits who were set on onsighting - steve did a .14c in front of us, and dan - .13d. this girl, catherine, ran up a route that alexei decided to follow. he had a hard time on the crux, but that's alright because it turned out to be a .12c. not a bad day! oh, it was cold again. and snowing. it's a good thing that the crag is mad overhung. oh, one of the brits was a nice man named rab. here he is, belaying alexei. guess what he used to do for a living? :)ok, http://www.thebmc.co.uk/Feature.aspx?id=1685 oh shit - steve the brit? yeah - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McClure didn't even realize it until a few days after we last saw them! it's been good climb'n. in-between actual cragging, we kept ourselves in shape by sampling what historical monuments had to offer... in belgrade, serbia ...in rijeka, croatia ...and in piran, slovenia saturday and sunday were AWESOME. it certainly reflected in the amount of traffic this place got. with only an hour drive from ljubljana, it's hard to stay away. i was climbing in long-sleeved tshirt, and felt quite warm when the wall got hit by the sun. in crni kal, alexei and i both lead 4 routes, up to about .10c. not too hard, but we got our fingertips torn up pretty well on this stuff. fantastic day. hard to to show the size, but the route was almost 75 feet long, and the crack is almost 2x wider than my body sharp, pockety limestone alexei and i, happy after an awesome day this stuff just eats your hands: Gear Notes: everything you need for bolt clipp'n. the routes are bolted generously, routes are 17-25 m long. Approach Notes: 5 min up windy streets of osp, slovenia

yeah, and so small! you can drive across in 3 hours, 2 million people (and all climbers seem to know each other), lots of options for climbing. cheers!

thanks all! this is an awesome place. i should clarify that i didn't know anyone here before, and it's just from emailing with people that we have made some plans and just went along. i'm super impressed with the welcome and the openness and generousity. very happy. this is the second time this season that i totally lucked out with just meeting people online, taking a chance, and climbing (thanks dave and troy for starting off my season!) no, it was sick. i actually asked the shooters later if they were going to do anything with it. the best was hiking down the blood-stained trail later. yeah- the goat's enjoying more attention than the routes! i just want to clarify that it was shot NOT because it couldn't climb M6. baa

Trip: slovenia - logarska dolina - skušnjava Date: 2/4/2010 Trip Report: my awesome host here, in maribor - silvij, maja lobnik, and i went out to logarska again. because here you have to stand in line to get on wi5-6 routes, we chose a later start time and a longer approach, and climbed skušnjava, a wi 5+(6), 120 m, 3 pitch route. a typical morning has been starting with a drive through tiny villages, a visit to a bakery, and a stop at a coffee bar. no real plans. we arrive, it is maybe 9 or 9:30, people start calling people, we have an espresso (some people take a shot), and a few smoke breaks later climbers start rolling in and everyone assembles into teams. awesome. this was a great, super stout route for me. maja and i both followed silvij. second pitch was by far the more difficult, starting with a small rampy section, up a thin curtain that felt overhanging, and up a thin veil to a plastic finish. the pro looks really closely spaced, but it is not. hard to show the scale, BUT THIS PITCH IS 55M LONG! third pitch was a steep but short, maybe 3+. climbing is serious business. real climbers have rocking mullets! awesome day again, it burned so good. Gear Notes: lots of light beer in green bottles Approach Notes: about an hour up steep knee-deep pow

Trip: slovenia - logarska dolina - ojstrica and zahodni breg areas Date: 2/2/2010 Trip Report: on monday i flew into venice (cheaper than ljubljana), took a train east, and at 18:30 was picked up by steve's friend silvij. we got to maribor 2,5 hours later, and after a quick dinner of bread, cheese, and olives i proceeded to pass out. at 6:45 a.m. we were off to go climbing! about a week before i arrived, there was a cold snap and falls formed up nicely, but then 2 days prior there was a significant snowfall, and the avy danger flew up. so we are stuck with cragging for now. we picked up boris strmšek, peter ferk, and maja lobnik (voted this year's top female alpinist in slovenia), and went to logarska dolina (logar valley), about 2 hours driving from maribor. after a 20-min approach we climbed the first pitch of Slap pod Susičo (this pitch was maybe wi3/3-), rapped down and hiked another 15 min up to the 4-pitch Slap pod Tunelom (wi3/4, according to guidebook "zimski vzponi" by gregor kresal). the name of the route means "route under the tunnel", and indeed the walk off looked like this the conditions were great, so of course we decided to come back the following day. after climbing we stopped by everyone's friend andrej's house to pick up some free firewood for silvij's wood stove. then we went to a pub for a few beers, and enjoyed some roadside snow sculptures. starbux mermaid, anyone? day 2. we went up to logarska again and climbed the 3-pitch route Čaša. the book rates is at wi6,x, but we were the 3rd party on it that day, and it would be unfair to understimate the chopping work they did for us, although it is stout. i've never climbed anything rated 6, so it's hard for me to say, but swinging into plastic, pre-screwed, and pre-shelved pillar on top rope made for an really enjoyable climb. silvij, who is credited with the 2nd ascent of this route, also said that he liked it much more than the first time he climbed it. while climbing p2 i saw two people come up to the climb. we hung out with one of them the previous day over beers. he asked me to throw some ice at the opposite wall to "scare the goat". ok... i did. then i went on climbing. as soon as i cleared the crux of the pitch, he yelled up "ok. now vee shoot". BOOM. a mountain goat crashed down the ground from the wall opposing me. wow. FF>> we found out later that apparently this goat was trapped on a ledge and couldn't move up all day. lack of reaction while throwing ice confirmed that she was sick. so they fetched a local with a boom stick and took her down. two people approaching the goat (next to the rock, upper left) after the climb we went over to the restaurant/hostel owned by lavro's family, and had some homemade blueberry brandy (boroničke), beer, coffee, and delicious noodle soup. amazing, thanks! ok, two more weeks of this Approach Notes: huge thanks to people who've been helping me since i started planning this trip last june, and been insanely generous with advice and answering my emails, sharing places to stay, rides, food, drinks, beta; loaning equipment, guidebooks, friends, cars, climbing partners, and just being awesome and climbing with me!! (in random order) - silvij morojna, rok roškar, steve house, jasna and andrej pecjak, maja lobnik, boris strmšek, roger strong, dušan golubič, lavro govc, and others.

right on! right on! you did this tour a few days in a row, right? nice meeting you guys, thanks!

Trip: stevens pass - jove peak Date: 1/17/2010 Trip Report: ..mostly just a conditions report - a few friends (lee, kevin, nick, and rok) and i skied east of stevens pass yesterday. bergdorfer offers a few tours in the area (lichtenberg, union, jove peaks). we started from smith brook rd at 9. there was definitely a bit of rain crust, but the snow got better as we climbed up. by the time we stopped at 2 (to give ourselves enough light for a safe descent), we were in deep (albeit heavy) powder, 400ft below the summit. snow conditions were alright, another party dug a pit and reported on fair stability. we forewent repeating, and just skied down along our up-track until we reached trees. far from optimal, but still surprisingly good conditions given the weather we've had! skinning through tree bumps pow downhill: Approach Notes: bergdorfer

11/30/2008. there was another group of three up that day. http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=11377.msg47274#msg47274

it was actually a great time. i think in the pic i'm kind of shaking my head at myself for not having left my POWDER skis lower on the mountain. i guess i just remained hopeful about finding some fluff.

hi J, the access road to cold springs campground is the issue. the road doesn't get plowed, and tends to get snowed/iced in very rapidly. in early march there's still enough snow to require a whole-day approach to where you'd normally park your car and start from in summer. skiing in early december (the latest i've been able to drive up to cold springs before snow) looks like this: you can contact the gifford pinchot forest rangers, and they'll be able to give you exact info. cheers!

WI3... you're right - screws are [mental] aid anyways. i just need to man up...

phenomenal. love the adidas suit. and the lack of helmet. and not placing any pro. i'm going to SLO in a few weeks, hope to see similar conditions. thanks for posting!

awesome!! this wall was the first place i'd climbed ice, 6 years ago. also, i took a swim in that creek once. ahh, memories

nice job! we stared up for a while last weekend, deciding whether/how to approach it. this route is barely discernible from the road, it's nice to get a visual of the falls.

sure. there was a question posted expressing legitimate concern and reiterating something all of us climbers [should] ask ourselves ALL THE TIME (ideally not in retrospect,or following a tragedy), followed by an extremely thoughtful answer by an experienced, cautious person who had no problem owning up to his decisions/actions. if you ever have to defend yourself in a similar argument, you might want to cite his work. thanks craig and bob.

i think that's alpine dave (in red jacket) and his friend zach. we met them in the parking lot at the end of the day, and they said they lapped both carenos + other climbs in the area

the thrill definitely has way more ice than what we saw. what's known about the partially bolted route just to the left? here's a hack job of a picture combo i made of scott (cold iron) climbing and helicoptering off it. the pictures were taken from two different vantage points. sorry, the contrast isn't stellar. last time we looked before he fell he was half-way up the ice smear above. the yellow arrows on the photo are bolts, the orange - scott's pins p.s. i love the razzle-dazzle on "palisade falls"

wow - awesome tr and pictures. love the shot of the drop knee on fender bender! sounds like intense leads - way to pull through dude.

thanks wayne! that's pretty hilarious. i totally hear you though. we sort of just went for it. it didn't look like anyone was home on what we presumed to be tyee ranch. we also heard a really loud truck on the road as we approached the falls, and doug wondered if that was his van getting towed. [insert image of a climber running through thick brush he/she just shwacked, wearing crampons] "i swear sir, all this sharp metal i'm carrying means no harm!"

thanks a lot - that sounds about right. the ice book doesn't have info on these, and i don't have a leavenworth rock book to look up info on the air roof rock climb. i assume that the rambly flow could be accessed by walking off rainbow and possibly rapping down. the structure of pivotal proper then makes sense too (1-2 pitches). again, thanks!