boothhaley

so liming is a little village NW of lijiang, is that right? how long is the bus ride to get there? i did some climbing in yunnan a while back, north of deqin going up the mekong and then turning west to the tibet border. rock was horrible!! what you've found looks fantastic. lots of new stuff in china right now -- saw the reports recently of the granitic domes from xinjiang. have you been in china long? do the locals in liming speak much mandarin? -booth

n. and s. pickets? that would be awesome. plan to stay on the ridge crest, or climb each peak dropping back down in between?

this guy has a nice TR about it from last september. on page two of the discussion is even a copy of Peter Croft's account. he had fig bars, not bananas. . . http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/961530/1

what is the ridge up argonaut like? i'm thinking about trying this traverse with using stuart w. ridge instead of n. so that i can solo more of it. i think argonaut should be mostly 4th class, but little information is available. . . -booth

i think this was done by peter croft once, and then onto prussik in the same day -- and with only a banana to eat! ha! but has anyone in recent years done this? anyone have any ideas about the west ridge of argonaut? looks like the w. ridges of stuart and sherpa are both mid 5th class. . . the whole thing could be done quite lightly, maybe in just approach shoes. . . thoughts?? -booth

hi Dan -- i did some more research. you are indeed the dan of dan and blake, just went back and read your TR. the 5.10- you're talking about is the NE peak, not the N peak: "On July 9th we circled around the range along the Chickamin Glacier to the north end, well past the NE peak. We found some great hand cracks which lead to the ridge crest at its terminus and began the traverse." that looks pretty awesome. so were those pitches on the NE peak the hardest of the whole traverse? you mention: "There was one spot while climbing up the the North Peak where we were in a face crack which ended, so we pendulumed to the right to join other features. Apart from this bit of aid, the entire climb was done free, and I think we could have avoided it if we had looked ahead more carefully." sounds like that part might have been tricky -- but you don't talk about any particular tough pitches after the NE peak. were the other bits more straight fwd, except for the pendulum? thanks! Booth

are you and blake the "gunrunner" guys? that looked awesome. do you get onto the n. ridge of n. gunsight from the chikamin side or the blue glacier side? sounds like it would be a bit easier than the 5.10 west face route. but maybe the SW 5.6 is just my style. . . yeah, def. planning on sinister and dome in the same trip. this weekend, if the weather is ok. if it remains drizzly as forecast, then off to the enchantments i guess, where i'm curious about a west ridge stuart, west ridge sherpa, west ridge argonuat, tag colchuck, down the glacier -- traverse. seems simple enough, just long, right?

east face 5.9 skoog route looks awesome -- but various reports say it no longer exists -- what's the deal? beckey puts the SW face of the main peak as a sustained 5.6, but ive seen no trip reports describing that route. Seems to me like a good moderate way to go. I'm looking for a 5.8 or 5.9, ideally, to east north or main peak. seems like the south ridge of the south peak is around that grade, and looks fun. . . who can tell me more?

So did tom patey go back there with mike taylor? has point 7940 been climbed? it must have been. . .

oh, north cascades forum. right-o. so CO guys tried and failed, go for it kurthicks! i'm more interested in trying gunrunner across the valley.

gunrunner! wow, looks like a sweet route indeed. thanks.

The four summits of gunsight, NE, N, Main, and S, are famous for excellent rock climbing -- what is the traverse like? which direction is better?

Has this been done? what is the feasibility? on the ridge about half way between the two peaks is "point 7940" (p256 in beckey 3rd ed) -- is that a peak with any other routes?

Trip: guye-snoqualmie-lundin-red : commonwealth traverse - traverse Date: 10/26/2008 Trip Report: Attempted to link up all the commonwealth basin peaks. Slippery 4th class up obscure route on east side of guye. 3rd class up snoqualmie to its sharp eastern summit. lovely 4th class up lundin west ridge, 3rd class down lundin east ridge. fun but loose ridge top over to red, then fun but loose 3rd class up red. Traversing east down red was less fun and more loose. Trying to reach the un-named granitic peak just west of the PCT, encountered a steep cliff band. Without a rope for rappel, this forced us far down into the basin, preventing a true continuous traverse. We had planned for the unnamed granitic peak and then kendall to complete the traverse, but alas! Gear Notes: to complete the commonwealth traverse (clockwise) a rappel is necessary going east from red. The only gear would be a light rope for this one spot and a sling to leave on one lucky mountain hemlock.