keenwesh

why do you need your phone in the mountains?

1000 YEARS OF DARKNESS! how do they keep straight faces for 2 minutes and 15 seconds of that bullshit?

is it just me or does your avatar vibrate violently, olyclimber? Might be the quarter of shrooms I just ate

I have a split board and skins, but I'd rather get killed in an avalanche climbing. If anyone is going to set off a slab it'll be my phat ass. Plus I forgot to throw it in the car when I moved over here. here are some pics Curt hiking above elbow lake Weather was a little iffy below the notch Blue skies to the east though Cold and white outey at the notch Looking down the ridge extending off cowan, plenty of fantastic looking routes on these summits The Montana Centennial goes up the left hand buttress rising over the lake. 12 or so pitches that I will be back for. And finally, Curt modeling on the hike out

Curt reclining above the haze I'll post up more when I don't have class in 15 minutes.

Nevertheless, the route we did was one of the most enjoyable climbs I've done all summer. I haven't spent 3 hours on a summit for forever and plus the added benefit of hearing your stories of (not so) old were wonderfully entertaining. Can't wait for the next climb, I don't know what it'll be, but I know it will be a good one.

squamish rocks, I'm ashamed to admit I took a ground fall off the first couple moves of slot machine. I thought, "how hard can 5.8 be?" and just went for it without a semblance of technique. next thing I knew I was jumping along down the rock to land at Mark's feet with the realization that I just took a grounder. jumped back up and thought about the single move before my second try. Fantastic route. Glad you guys enjoyed the wonderful climbs squamish has to offer. next time fill yer car up with booze before crossing the border.

thanks scotty for posting me up in all my glory. Geeze, I was such a stud back then! The route I was aiming to do with you was in fact the NE arete, alas, in the info I obtained plus our lack of a map of any kind I missed out on the fact that the ridge of interest was on the complete other side of the mountain. Fourtunately I have a couple of roommates with horses (gotta love montana) who want to go horsepacking. with any luck I'll get to try and climb the NE arete before the icebox of winter descends on the rockies and leaves me to the pitiful pursuit of climbing frozen chunks of ice to pass my time (it's a rough life out here).

the (very large) rock that chris' right hand is touching came flying off about 30 seconds after I took this shot. I luckily had the foresight to belay off to the right, so I was fine. The rest of the season I was hypervigilant about where I belayed/was belayed from. A dead partner is fairly useless. Be smart out there guys

direct east buttress, I always thought it was just the east buttress, but I guess I was wrong. edit: misread the second half of that. yeah I have no idea what the DEB on liberty bell is... I'll stop chiming in and shut up now

raindawg, fuk off!!!!

mmmmm, cornflakes. I might have to make a trip back to washington for this route. does golden arch stay dry when the waterway is a waterway?

what's up with the sudden explosion of two word spam-bots?

oh jeeze, that bike is really cool!

we heard about the hand injury before we went in there. got to the base of the summit tower and that was fresh in our minds. Quite the area!

Ivan, we never got out this summer, bummer dude! Maybe if I can tear myself away from the ice one of these breaks and drive back west a couple routes could be had, think about a duo of gigantors, the rivet ladders could be epic! I think I'll try a binier like this belay binier if it somehow crossloads and catastrophically fails I'll be caught by my back up ~20 feet lower. After an episode like that I'd probably bail though. BTW, if anyone has some tomahawks or camhooks they're willing to part with PM me. I'd buy them full retail, but I'd rather save a couple bucks from the good folks on here.

have not seen that, exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

anyone? bueller.... bueller.... bueller.....

I'm looking to perfect my aid soloing this year in preparation for some goals next spring, I've self belayed a few times before but always with a clove, figured I should ask for some advice before I just go for it. And also, I know this has been discussed ad nauseam before, directing me to another topic is very welcome. So to attach the gri to yourself I know a steel binier is ideal, but would one of the lighter weight new belaying biniers work as well? Most of the danger comes from cross loading, they seem to eliminate this pretty well, and are about a third the weight of a steel behemoth. Clip the gri into the belay loop? Seems like more play in the system would be good, to avoid crossloading scenarios. tips on making a catch softer? leave some slack clipped into the haulbags? a screamer off the anchor? don't worry about it? what do ya'll use?

thanks for the heads up, methhead season can come any time of year.

descending the glacier in the dark seems to be a common theme in this climb. Good work!

curt, I'd love to do some climbing. I know a few old farts here who might be interested in joining as well.

Unless you're trying to encounter stuff like this: nomics rock! but I digress, everything mr piton said is spot on and you'd do well following his advice.

hell yeah!

Don't have internet at my house yet, hence to long time for a response. There were a couple small snowpatches on route, there wasn't any water coming out of them (well, maybe a drop every 5 seconds) and in the last few weeks I wouldn't be surprised if they had melted away entirely. Plenty of bivi sites around the area of the west ridge notch though, it could be done, but you'd have to carry all your water. After I flew the nest I guess my dad got antsy, started up his own CC account, and wrote up a TR about the waddington trip! if anyone's interested: Waddington Trip Report