kinnikinnick

i like pickets sometimes. but ice tools are much more useful in a bar fight

hope you packed out your shit doggie

i wonder how hard you babies can send if its painful to tilt your neck sideways to view a picture i have a severe case of technoretardation and will figre out how to fix the photos when i have time

Trip: Exfoliation Dome - West Buttress Date: 2/21/2010 Trip Report: on sunday jordi v and i climbed the west buttress of exfoliation dome. here is a pitch by pitch breakdown of the route as we climbed it: p1: climb the low angle, low-fifth slab split by a wide crack to a cedar belay. p2: climb above the tree into a left-facing dihedral. jam the 10 foot dihedral then undercling traverse left then up the 3-4 inch crack. a tricky leg-eating offwidth leads to a cedar belay. a fun pitch! p3: the technical crux. climb directly above the belay and into a right-facing corner. establish a semi-hanging belay beneath a weakness in the roof. the crux moves are slabby, bolt-protected and kinda awkward. a bit soft for the grade. imo maybe 5.8 for a couple moves. p4: the mental crux. pull through the roof right above the belay and follow offwidths, hand cracks, finger cracks and flakes with some runout to a waist-deep exfoliated flake. i ran out of cams and rope here and jammed myself in the flake and belayed jordi up. p5: a short maybe 30 foot pitch up to a ledge with trees.i think most people simulclimb the last 30 feet of p4 but i wasn't in the mood seeing as i had no more pro, was a good 20 feet above my last cam and knew that jordi would be pulling through the 5.8 roof and might fall. p6: easy climbing right above the belay with some runout until a flake system is reached. belay from the top of the flake from a ledge. p7: traverse right and into a right-facing corner with a handcrack in the back. whitelaws topo calls it a thin crack...maybe freeze-thaw cycles have widened the crack over the years? the corner is about 15 feet high. runout low 5th and 4th class slabs lead to blueberry terrace. jordi on the infamous granite sidewalk: jordi on p3: the bombproof body cam anchor at the top of p4: Gear Notes: a rack of cams from .3-3 and a purple tcu. doubles in 2, .75 and 1. set of nutz Approach Notes: a lot easier than rumor has it

holy shit! that is an impressive-looking line

sick photos. bring on the spring rock season! -will

lets climb. if you are experienced send me a pm and we can discuss. im primarily interested in climbing peaks

sick! you are a trip report artist

anyone been out to Darrington lately? curious if the road is opened

go for the first winter solo ascent

or darrington?

bump

hey man my name's will...were you the other bellinghamer up at the base of the gns at index a couple weekends ago?

Any'uh'ya'll been up to static point recently? mountain bikes necessary? Gracias cabrones

the mixed aint bad at all on chair

west ridge north twin sister

shit. time for a beer

about a month ago my doctor told me i have patellar tracking disorder. to improve the situation he suggested i do a series of static exercises to strengthen and balance the joint. this makes sense and all but wouldn't i have to continue to do the exercises almost everyday of my life to keep the weak muscles strong? use it or lose it right? how many of you have knee issues and find these static exercises to be helpful? i'm only 23. seems a bit young to have knee problems. if i lose my knees i'll put a bullet through my head

dry?

i second what dan miller and others have said about hannegan pass to ross lake. ruth mountain is a fun easy glacier climb near hannegan pass. and the views of the northern picket range from whatcom pass are epic. i did this 60 mile trip (with side trips) over labor day weekend and didn't see a soul the whole time.awesome mix of high alpine and deep dank forest. like others, i heartily recommend the north cascades over the olympics...not sure what the buzz is all about, olympics wise.

the kautz glacier route is probably AI 2, the amount of ice increasing into summer. other quality AI routes: the northeast face of redoubt, northeast face of fury, adams glacier on mt adams, northwest face of forbidden, the north face of mt buckner, the north face of shuksan, coleman headwall on baker. but most of these routes aren't AI 3. steeper alpine ice is found mostly in the winter/spring months in the cascades.

i'm looking to buy an edelweiss sharp 8.5 mm to use as a single rope for alpine ice and doubled over for simuling/pitching out easy alpine rock with short pitches like forbidden peak. obviously this isn't the safest idea but i'm curious how many of you use this strategy to save weight. thanks

awesome, mark. the big pictures make me feel like i was there!

i always figured the bend is part of the design?