Val Zephyr

I'm hoping to climb some alpine rock this weekend (and the rest of the summer). I've been wanting to do NE ridge Triumph, NR Forbidden and, perhaps, something in the Picket Range if I can get Friday or Monday off. I'm also happy to follow harder stuff (up to mid-10's). I'm in Seattle and have 13 years of experience climbing in the Cascades and Olympics. Let me know if you want to climb! Val

A year later, I'm finally able to attribute the cam size mix-up to the fact that the old style #4 was purple. My "research" here involved looking at a bunch of pics and seeing a purple cam nicely placed in that top out crack.

I thought that one #4 and one #5 was nice. I bet that you could get by with one or two #4, if you don't mind some short run-outs on the wider cracks. Save your #4 for the exit on the top of the crux pitch. I wished I had. I brought two #3, but can't think of anywhere that I had to have both of them, there are lots of options for pro. That final pitch is long though, so you'll want a few extra of something just to be able to keep plugging in gear. Hope that helps. Have a good climb!

Thanks for the conditions update. I'm headed out to do this route on Saturday. Sounds like it'll be fun!

Haha! Yep, lots of people out there working on the Bulger list now. Speaking of which, have any of you tried the Cedar creek to Shelokum Creek valley approach for North Gardner? It's in the Beckey guide. I'm 0-2 on that one and I don't think I can do the long, boring Wolf Creek approach again!

Nice trip! I was debating between the Craggys and the Gardners last weekend. I went for the Gardners to maximize my hiking time. This really just meant plodding along a trail for 21 miles. I think your short and sweet route up the Craggys for 8 hrs of awesome was the way to go!

Thanks for the info!

Does anyone have any current info on the status of Middle East Wall at Vantage? It sounds like there used to be a seasonal bird closure there (according to the old online guide and other internet sites), but there is no mention of this in the most recent guidebook a no current info via the internet that I can find. I'm headed out there this weekend if possible. Thanks!

This was a great intro to Darrington slab for me a couple years ago and will be an even better intro for others now that those old bolts have been replaced. Thanks!

My partner (new to trad) seems to keep forgetting to clean gear at anchors... Anyway, my #1 camalot was briefly left in a crack below the crux pitch on Sunday May 13th. I'm sure that it's been picked up by now. If you have it, I'll trade you a beer for its return. Thanks!

Hey Nick! Snow Creek Wall is looking good and dry, no snow, ticks are everywhere though. We were still pulling them off clothing on the ride home. Go for it!

Wow! Cool trip!

Funny you mention Chair, that's also on my tick list of night ascents to do. Next full moon perhaps.... Thanks again Nate and Philip for clearing the way. I have to say though, on some level I was a little disappointed that I didn't get the awkward fun of the powder swim. That is one of the strangest leads ever. It sure did make things go faster though!

Trip: Mt. Index - winter night ascent via Hourglass Date: 2/7/2012 Trip Report: 4 years ago, Jon, Aaron and I attempted the hourglass route on Index under a full moon. We came within 45 minutes of the summit, but were turned back because of high avy danger. Even without a summit, it was one of the coolest trips that I remember. The night was eerily calm, the moon lit up the surrounding peaks so well that you could hardly tell that it wasn’t day, and Index itself looked even more massive than usual. The most technical portion of the climb was between 1am and 2am in the morning, just strange. Jon and I summitted Index two weeks later, at sunset. Sunset was spectacular, but I’ve always thought of a repeat trip on a full moon. Now, a lot of things need to line up for a successful night ascent of index. First, you need several clear days in a row in the middle of winter west of the crest in order to stabilize the 3000’ avy slope that you are trying to ascend. Next you need the full moon (well maybe you don’t actually need it to ascend the peak, but it makes the trip so much better!). Finally you need a partner that is also interested in such ridiculousness and the time to make this whole thing happen. All these things finally lined up for me in a few hours on Monday morning. Ben and I would leave Seattle at 7:30pm after we got home from work and packed. On the drive over the wind knocked around Ben’s car quite a bit, yuck. I really love the peaceful calm of a clear, quiet night. Wind would make this a much different story. Luckily, it seemed to die down at the trailhead. We began hiking up the Lake Serene trail at 9pm. The wind returned full force at the Lake. Several times we contemplated calling off our summit attempt. I figured the route would go, but it would not be the peaceful calm night that I was hoping for. It rather had a much larger potential for misery. We kept inching forward and arrived at the col at 12:30am. Again I contemplated out loud if this was a good idea. Ben responded, “It is as good of an idea now as it ever was.” I loved this response. We weren’t here for something easy, but for something different and memorable. We readied for the steep snow pitch. I was very happy to see that Nathan’s tracks from his Index attempt over the weekend remained on the steep snow slope. Last time this pitch involved swimming upward through near vertical powder, it was much easier after Nathan and his group had cleared the way. We made good time here too; a little too good of time in fact. We were ready to ascend the hourglass at 2:30. I was hoping to summit at sunrise, but we were on schedule to summit at 5:30. Not wanting to hang around sitting still on this chilly night, we slowly ascended the hourglass. The snow was stable, no horrifying windslabs were present as they were in my last night summit attempt. The lower hourglass is not very steep, but it does steepen near the top. There are two exiting options at the top (to the left of a rock face up a steeper, narrow couloir, or up a slope to the right of the rock face). I remembered exiting to the right at the top of the hourglass through some trees ~150’ down the slope from the rock face. I aimed for these trees, the slope steepened here and the snow became deeper. The snow was better nearer to the rock face… at least at first. We went up here instead. Once around the rock, it steepened again (but at least was very solid for kicksteps). The final 50’ had both of us on edge. The snow slope to my right rolled over and seemed to drop off. I couldn’t tell how far. Everything seems infinite in the dark. Once in daylight I was more confident that the drop off would have just left us on the same route that I’d used last time (still not a good fall, but at least not infinite). Then though, I was less sure. My imagination had it possibly leading down some steep couloir that would drop us into the lake. I could see the trees on the ridge that Jon and I had eaten a snack at just before our final walk to the summit. If we got to the ridge we could wait until daylight to find a better descent than what we’d just come up. Two moves of front pointing up some hard snow allowed us to top out on the ridge. It was way too early for our sunrise summit (maybe 5am). At this point we definitely wanted daylight to descend. The wind was horrendous. We spent the next two hours wandering the ridge in search of somewhere that was safe from the spindrift that would painfully whip into our faces. The wind came from all directions though. We just wandered to warm up then would duck behind some trees and rest until we became too cold, then we’d wander again. I have to say though, I was probably still having fun at this point. It was some sort of weird mix of type 1 and 2. The wind sucked, but the scene was just what I wanted; out of this world. The moon was now low on the horizon to the NW. The ridge dropped off to the west and beyond that we could see the city lights (Monroe I think). The spin drift would whip up and swirl around backlit by the moon. Finally daylight was near. We went for another walk. I aimed for the summit, Ben found a nice spot high on the ridge to take pictures of the sunrise from. He wanted to save energy for the long descent ahead (remember we’ve been awake for 24 hours at this point and we’re only half-way), so I made the walk over to the true summit alone. I tagged the summit, and stayed still long enough, hoping that Ben would get a sweet pic of me from his stance on the ridge. The summit of Index is wild, it drops straight off down to the lake below and stands high above the surrounding peaks. The prominence of Index (2991’) makes it seem so much grander in scale than it actually is at just 5,991’ tall. Once in daylight, we located a much better descent. We descended down the couloir that had exited to the left of the rock. The top is steep, but the snow in this couloir is great for kick-stepping. I responded to a few text messages letting people know that the trip had went and that we were safely on our way back. Then we quickly plunge stepped down the rest of the couloir. We found several of pieces of tat with rap rings (Nate’s?) that aided our descent down the snow pitch (thanks!). Finally back at the lake, we just needed to walk the final 4 miles of trail back to the car. We re-fueled at the Sultan Bakery and readied ourselves to head into work… a little late. Trips like this don’t happen often for me, and for these types of things to go, I need to find people equally as impulsive and ready for adventure as I am. Thank you Ben for being one of those people! Index looking impressive in the moonlight The ridge that we had to gain by a steep snow pitch through trees Ascending to the base of the ridge Looking up at the ridge with Index beyond in the distance Lights of Monroe from the summit ridge The final traverse to the summit of the main peak is ahead Sunrise on Mt Rainier Sun hits the main summit just as I approach Views from the top! Self portrait on summit Ben from the summit Looking up at the left side couloir exit in the hourglass Looking down the rest of the hourglass Ben relaxes after the descending the last of the technical portions. What a massive peak!

Hubba Hubba in Leavenworth is in great shape! My full TR is here: http://students.washington.edu/climb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=6697

Thanks for the post! I was wondering how your trip went up at Millennium (we spoke with you guys briefly at the Snow Creek parking lot). We did climb Rainbow right (well, I guess Rainbow right usually goes on the right side of the waterfall and we climbed just to the left). It was fun, but it was thin. I picked the best spots I could for pro and still bottomed out a couple of my 10cm screws. Got enough good pieces and the climbing was easy, so it was OK. Here's a quick pic of our route: I was thinking about heading out to Leavenworth again this weekend. It sounds like the warm weather might be hitting the routes hard though. I don't have a great feel for how quickly things form or disappear yet. Those of you that frequent Leavenworth ice, Is it even worth it this weekend?

Climbed Rainbow Falls (right) in Leavenworth today. Rainbow Left and Careno were in poor shape. Hubba Hubba and Drury Falls looked Fat from the road.

J Park and I climbed Fugs Falls yesterday. It was in, but had quite a bit of running water. I imagine that it won't stick around much longer with the highs near 40 (though it still does get below freezing at night). Thanks for clearing the way to get this one flowing again. I've always been curious about ice climbing here when I look over at it from the rock at Sunshine Wall. Here's a pic of P1 And P2 I've written up a full trip report here: http://students.washington.edu/climb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&p=37967#p37967

i suspect it has more to do with not wanting their shit to walk away on them while climbing than claiming routes. nice tr. Thanks! Yes, you're right. My guide book said that people commonly hang packs to both avoid local kids from running off with there stuff (luckily I never heard of this happening to anyone while I was there) and to let people know that there are climbers above on the route. It also might warn people to wear helmets as there are obviously people above them and (though I only knocked one rock on the entire trip) there has been some rockfall here......

Trip: Christmas in El Potrero Chico: Mexico - Date: 12/25/2011 Trip Report: “You know that Road-runner cartoon, where Wiley Coyote tries to jackhammer off the end of the cliff with the road-runner standing there, but instead the end of the cliff stays and the rest of the world falls away? That is what I think of when I think of Potrero Chico; a small oasis when the surrounding world is falling apart.” (cerveza inspired quote adapted from a Potrero climber, Allen of Michigan) After Joshua Tree, I flew from San Diego to Houston and met up with Nathan for a horrendous overnight stay in the Houston airport. I’ve made this mistake many times and will probably make it a few more. We survived though and caught a morning flight out to Monterrey, Mexico. I had booked a room for one week at the Posada in Potrero Chico a couple months prior to the trip for $200 USD and a cab straight from the airport to our room for $46 USD. After these two expenses, the rest of the trip really only cost a few bucks. We had arrived on a Tuesday, so we hit up the street market in the nearby town of Hidalgo (Tuesdays and Fridays). Here you can stock up on fruit, veggies and eggs for cheap. There is a supermarket in town too, but the street market is fun and we bought most of our food for the entire week for just 200 pesos (~$14 USD). That included one avocado for each day of the trip! We began to discover that getting into and out of Hidalgo (~2 mile hike each way) is a pain, but at least ½ the time someone will offer you a ride along the boring “never-ending-sidewalk”. The Posada is set-up with small rooms, a larger cottage which would be great for a small group of friends, and tons of camping. Campers have access to a shared bathroom, shower, kitchen and laundry. Quite a few people had come to stay for a few weeks to a month here for only a few bucks a day. There is also a restaurant operated by the Posada where one can have a full dinner, or just grab a liter-sized margarita (these are delicious!), beer or wine to have while you cook your own dinner in the shared kitchen. The water in the rest of the area is not suitable for drinking (even just 2 miles away), but is safe at El Potrero Chico. This place really is an oasis. The crags are just out your doorstep! Ok, on to the climbing! All of the climbing is less than a 30 minute walk from the Posada, most is just 10 minutes away! Nathan and I single-pitch cragged on our first afternoon there at Scrutinizer Wall. I figured that I’d need time to get used to the rock there (I’ve never climbed on limestone before), but I immediately found that I was very comfortable on this rock. There’s great little positive holds, usually a jug to clip from and tons of friction. Because of this, everything felt easier than the ratings would lead you to believe and I was surprised at how willing I was to make bigger moves while a few feet above a bolt. Everything that I climbed was very well bolted, the 5.8-9 range usually had about 10-12’ spacing with perfect clipping stances, never felt like I might accidently come off. The 5.10 and up range often had bolts as close as 5’ apart. This was the safest feeling place that I have ever climbed. I also found some great 5.8-5.10b routes in the Virgin Canyon. I’d recommend this spot for a relaxed day of cragging. Cragging in the Virgin Canyon Many of the routes have name tags! I wasn’t necessarily there to relax though. I wanted to get on some of the many multipitch sport climbs that this place offers. We wandered up to a four pitch 5.10a climb our second day, “Will the Wolf Survive?” in Los lobos canyon. When we arrived at the base I discovered that Nathan might be a more reasonable person that I and was not interested in exposure and hanging belays. To each their own. Excited to get on my first multipitch of the trip, I ran into a team of two from Texas (Heath and Josh). I gave them my spiel about climbing for 12 years, multipitch trad, lead 5.10…. blah blah blah, they still seemed hesitant. Then I blurted out that I was a photographer and could photograph their climb… I take good photos (mostly ‘cause I visit beautiful places), but I’m not a photographer! I think that I meant to say something more like I could offer to be their photographer. They saw right through that but did let me climb with them. Thanks guys! I did set my new camera to RAW and hoped that photoshop (with the help of Jason K’s lecture on photo editing) could get some mileage out of whatever photos I managed to shoot on this climb. The climb was sweet. Face-climbing, crack-climbing, then a final “short, but intimidating” airy 5.10a. I may have lied about my photo skills, but was at least useful in leading this short pitch. Charles and Allen (who I’d later meet) got a few good pics of the final crux moves while descending La Estrellita. Palm Trees growing everywhere, one here is from “Will the Wolf Survive?” Crux pitch of Will the Wolf Survive? Loved it! Heath topping out on Will the Wolf Survive? (At least I got one nice photo of this guy) I had a taste of multipitch here and I was hooked. I wanted more! Heath introduced me to Sonya that night. She had just arrived from Nashville, Tennessee and was as eager as I to get on the rock. I’d usually suggest an easier day for having just met someone, but we were about to be shut out from multipitch due to weather for the next couple of days. Luckily, she introduced herself as a multipitch trad climber, and I didn’t feel like I needed to ask much more. We decided on the classic 12 pitch 5.11a, La Estrellita for the next day. We were on the rock at around 8:30am and moved fast. We strung together pitches and swung leads. Even with a minor rope snag on the rappels (that required me to test the roots of a palm tree in limestone more than I ever wanted to) we were back at our packs by 2pm. With so much time to spare, we set our sights on the nearby Super Nova, an 8 pitch 5.11a. The climbing was a little more slippery than Estrellita, but the position at the back of the canyon could not be beat. Music from the cars of locals that come to the crags to hang out in the afternoons echoed up the canyon: surreal. We linked pitches there too and were down by 6pm. 20 pitches, two big climbs and one of the best climbing days ever! Belay Station on La Estrellita High on La Estrellita Single Palm tree on the summit of La Estellita First pitch of Super Nova Rappelling Super Nova Nathan and I relaxed over the next couple of days. I cragged a little each day. We wandered around some. Honestly, there really isn’t anything to do here but climb. But as long as you are a climber, this is paradise. During our wanderings, we watched some silliness unfold on the Spires. A group was dead set that they were going to slackline between the Spires. Several of them ascended the spires on all sides, a major engineering project unfolded up there (luckily at least a couple of them were engineers). Wind and weather thwarted their efforts on the first day. They returned two days later and after an entire morning of work, they had erected a slackline. We waited for the perfect photo: a slack-liner silhouette between the spires. Unfortunately, I never got that shot. As it turned out, slacklining at such great heights must be terrifying. “In all of my 4 years of slacklining, I have never been this shaky” one said. “Just look at a point ahead of you”, another advised. “I always choose the ground to look at!” It was great entertainment for our off day at least. Thanks again guys! Hanging out by the Spires Christmas Day Silliness, the slackline is completed! But our slackliners “forgot” how to slackline and do some tyrolean traverses instead The trip was now quickly (too quickly!) coming to an end. I wanted one more good multipitch. I teamed up with Sonya again for the popular 11 pitch 5.10d, Space Boyz. Though this line had an easier crux than our other two routes, the line was steeper and more sustained. Many of the belays were of the hanging variety and the exposure was sweet! The route is reportedly a little loose at the top. This is in fact true (though loose here is still fairly solid compared to a lot of what I’ve seen in the Cascades). You can see remnants of some of the major rockfall events by the holes in the structure below. They may have built this resort a little too close to the rock… We began early while it was still cold to avoid the crowds that always swarm this route. Still, a party of three had beaten us to it and clipped a backpack to the first bolt to “claim” the route (a common occurrence at El Potrero Chico). It was a minor annoyance, but I managed to get under their pack to clip the bolt and was on belay. They were on the third pitch when we began, by the top of the fourth, we had caught up to them. It was two inexperienced folks and their guide friend dragging them up this mega classic. We spoke with the clients, one was fine with us passing, the other was absolutely freaked out by the idea of potential rock fall. We found ourselves in a rather strange situation; in the past the obviously slower party has always offered to step aside (I’ve always done this when I was the slower one too), but this didn’t seem to be the case here.. what do you do? We were sitting at a hanging belay while these people were being jugged up a 5.10a by their guide friend with the crux pitches still ahead. We finally ignored the scared climber and spoke with her guide friend ahead. “We are happy to wait until you have a good ledge to sit on, but then we’d like to pass”. He agreed to this (the frightened climber still protested otherwise). Unfortunately the ledge he picked for us to pass was between the 5.10d and 5.10c crux pitches. He offered that we could link these two and pass them. Sonya is a rock star and agreed to this in order to get us through. This meant leading a sustained 5.10c with a fuck ton of rope drag, and we began our own small shit show on this crag. Sonya led through the 5.10d traverse with ease and began up the 5.10c corner. With nearly 60 meters of rope out the weight and drag became too much and I heard a distinct “falling!” I’m pretty sure that she went a ways with the stretch of the 60m of rope and zig-zagging that was going on. She got back on and finished the pitch. I was up to follow and then we’d break free of the crowd. The first part of this now 60 meter pitch required me to unclip a draw and then traverse around a roof. “Don’t fall here or you’ll be screwed”, I knew. I fell. Damn. There’s a lot of stretch in 60 meters and a blank wall now in front of me. I clawed my way up it somehow with Sonya taking up any slack that I could generate. We were free. To ease the mind of the frightened climber now below, we agreed to wait until all of us had topped out to begin rappelling the route. A fair trade we thought. We’d much rather wait for them at the summit than behind them in hanging belays. We got back to speed again. Three more pitches flew by before the climbers had gotten up their next pitch. We were very happy to have been allowed to pass. We were out of sight before the clients were even visible at the top of that same 5.10c pitch. We reached the summit and sat there as promised. An hour and a half, maybe two went by. Geez, they were pretty damn slow, but seriously guys, WTF. I got set up with Obadiah’s holster method to rappel, avoiding surprising them by throwing the ropes. We rappelled one pitch. We still didn’t have a clear view. Sonya carefully rappelled another pitch. Some shouts rose back up to me, “they bailed!” “Their pack is even gone!” This meant that they bailed quite some time ago! They knew that we agreed to wait at the top, but didn’t even bother to shout up to us or indicate their possible intention to bail when they had a chance. Wow, what jerks! In the end this was a cool route, and we had a great time, so we aren’t going to remember this part as much as the cool exposure, sustained climbing and great teamwork we had that day. I’m mentioning all of this just because it is part of the story. It is also an interesting dilemma that I had that day that I’ve never had to deal with in the past. How nice is too nice on the crags? When do you just be assertive and pass the slow party? Should we even have agreed to wait at the summit, delaying our own descent by two hours just to be nice? I hope I don’t end up in a similar situation any time soon, but I likely will and I’m curious to know what I’d do next time. Nathan kindly waited at the bottom of the route with chocolates and beer for Sonya and I. Unfortunately for us, we were late and Nathan drank our liter of beer. Beer is a great present for this reason. He found the beer there rather hydrating. In fact, when he was too lazy to boil water at the end of the trip (I drank it, Nathan did not), he just got a few extra beers. Space Boyz is 11 pitches straight up to that point left of center in the photo: Summit of Space Boyz Rappelling Space Boyz; notice the holes from rockfall in the building below Our final night there, Nathan and I finally found a non-climbing activity in Potrero Chico: caving! There is a bouldering cave about 20 minutes away. It is not a pristine cave by any stretch, but if you look into the smaller passageways in the back of the cave or on the ceiling in places that are out of reach it was actually a well-decorated cave. We found stalactites, stalagmites, columns, bacon, cauliflower, and soda straws, and popcorn! Huh, cave talk is a lot like ski talk: all about food. We were only at Potrero Chico for 7 days. I was fortunate enough to get up some fantastic lines. Even better, I left dozens more lines undone (by me at least) and there are more being put up all the time. This place is already HUGE and they say that it is only 3% developed so far. Anyone who is a climber has to check this place out sometime. Don’t miss it!

Trip: (nearly) Christmas at Joshua Tree - Date: 12/15/2011 Trip Report: Hayley and I met up for a quick four days in Joshua Tree National Park. We met up with our aunt Judy who generously loaned us her car for the trip and our aunt Beck, who drove over to San Diego from her current residence in Arizona: sister’s trip squared, cool! Day 1: Hayley and I got driving reasonably early from San Diego toward J Tree. We knew that today would be our best weather day (in a stretch of rather unpleasant climbing weather), so we wanted to take full advantage of it. I had been wanting to climb the two pitch route, Fote Hog, since my last trip out there 3 years ago. Unfortunately, it was in the shade all day long, brrr.. but, with wind and rain on the way, today was the best day for it, it was only 5.6, how bad could it be? We decided to “warm-up” on this one. I should have known/remembered better, at J-Tree 5.6 can mean exciting traverses followed by overhangs and Fote Hog was just that. In the end, this first climb was my favorite of the trip, but we froze our asses off getting it. Cool jugs for cranking the overhang on Fote Hog: We did another short 5.7 route at Thin wall nearby before losing all feeling in our hands and calling it a day and heading into town to the JTree Saloon for some warm bar food. Day 2: Our second day at J Tree brought two more pitches of climbing in the Wonderland area. We “warmed up” on a short 5.7 near the parking area, then hiked about an hour to the base of Mental Physics, a long 5.7+ pitch (it is a rope-stretching 30+ meters of hand crack!). This was Hayley’s favorite climb of the trip, so was well worth the 1.5 hour wait to get on the route. If you are interested in this climb have a few back-up climbs in mind in that area just in case there is a wait (Our 60 favorite climbs guide book only listed this climb in the area and with a 1 hour approach it’s not like we were about to turn around just because it was busy). By the time we finished the deproach, the wind had hit and it was again too cold to climb. We hiked around a bit in the Hall of Horrors area (hiking was a great way to fill the cold hours of each evening). Afterwards we went Christmas tree picking. We found a lovely short, but bushy Joshua Tree to decorate with a flashlight, cams and 60 seconds on the clock. Day 3: We were joined by our aunt Beck and her traveling cat while they were on their way back to Arizona. Even though our first two days had not really been filled by stellar long days of climbing, we were motivated because we knew that the weather was getting even worse today! We got an early start and climbed two great 5.7 routes (Beck’s Bear and Practice Rehearsal), then hopped on a 5.5 and 5.6 nearby. It was hailing at this point, but at least the frozen form of precipitation kept the rock dry. Then the rain hit. I tried the “sun dance” but I must have gotten it wrong because it only got colder and wetter. We did a little more hiking, eventually finding ourselves on Ryan Mountain for an evening snow hike. We finished the evening with another trip to the J Tree Saloon. Good food, beer and pool tables greeted us there. Day 4: A brief clearing that morning allowed the rock to dry out. We quickly made our way to Dairy Queen Wall. There is a nice concentration of climbs there so that we could get the most out of our sucker-hole. We put up two more 5.7’s. The rain began again. A perfect 5.8 hand crack was just to our right. We squeezed in this last one, increasingly wetter holds are great motivation to climb faster, they sure aren’t getting any better! Yeah, the blue thing in the upper right is an umbrella! All in all: We put up 12 pitches in 4 days, far from impressive. But, heck, it’s December and we’ll take whatever we can get!

The alpine lakes region is hard to beat, but WA is full of great climbing. It sounds like the solid climbing on Forbidden has given you a reason to venture out west again?

Nice TR. I've been thinking about trying this route for some time now. I never thought about going for it in September though. Nicely done!

We had a single follower's pack, which we hauled. That chimney was still crazy hard even without a pack. I remember reading another TR that said "not a route for shorts" so I brought nice thick climbing pants; just bruises, no scrapes! I remember reading your TR too. Sounds like you had a great climb up there also + Backbone right? Nice!

Hey John! You'd really go down that couloir?! You were the only one of us that didn't get suckered into descending that thing in the first place. I'll let you know if I hear anything about the ropes. Thanks! It was nice to meet you last weekend!