keenwesh

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

scotty was painting trim and could not be persuaded. We spent the last week of July in the Waddington range, 3 days of sitting in the rain at (aptly named) rainy knob and the rest of the time making an attempt on waddington. Got to the base of the summit tower in time to watch the route get swept by rime/rockfall every 5 minutes. The traverse over to the NW summit was posthole heaven with big danger from rimefall from above, so we turned around about halfway across it. I thought about posting a TR but decided against it as I'm fairly lazy and we didn't actually summit anything. here's a teaser, skywalk and most of belligerence on Combatant.

the hole is just above long john tower, we traversed high. yeah, it was quite the trip for a youngin. I was feeling bad all afternoon, just waiting for Jack to get tired and say that he hated climbing but it never happened! he kept on trucking up the trail through the mosquito clouds! Mom was thrilled that we'd made it home safe. I didn't want to stay an extra night because I knew she'd car SAR since I was with Jack. If it's just me out in the mountains she's a little slower to jump on that one. Thanks for the kind words guys!

Pack a lip of chewing tobacco, impossible to sleep with something that disgusting in your mouth, and it also really hurts after a while. The cancer risk is worth the level of alertness. I've driven from sundown to sunup and I credit my life and the lives of my passengers to that nasty shit.

Trip: Mt. Stuart - West Ridge Date: 8/6/2012 Trip Report: With the time of my departure from home getting nearer and my younger sister leaving for 11 months to Colombia for a foreign exchange program I thought I should do something with my 12 year old brother, who, in a couple days, will be an only child! Originally I wanted to do something big before heading east, like the N ridge of stuart or backbone in a day, something with lots of suffering that I'd been eyeing for a while. With my sister leaving though I rethought and asked Jack if he'd be interested. I took the "umm... I guess..." as a yes and got my buddy Max on board as well. We drove in the Teanaway road sunday afternoon and left the car around 6 pm. Jack setting the pace The saddle between the n fk Teanaway and Ingalls creek was reached at 8 and camp was set just below that on some open slabs. The bugs were horrendous. dinner was cooked inside the tent and the alarm set for 4 am. When the alarm went off I decided it was too early and slept for another 40 minutes. We had a quick oatmeal breakfast and packed up water and some other goodies for the climb. Hiking up past Ingalls lake to Stuart pass and eventually the base of the route we were treated to a fantastic sunrise. The first section of the climb up clean granite slabs was wonderful. There were clouds building in the south that gave me some concern and once we reached the top of the first gully it started to sprinkle. I found a overhanging rock and we hunkered down for half an hour while the rainclouds passed overhead. When the weather cleared I threw a rope on Jack and followed Maxes lead up to Long John Tower. Above the tower we passed through a short tunnel. The west summit was traversed and soon we found ourselves at the notch. A few short pitches of scrambling with about 15 feet of 5.8 (I got off route) and I topped out just below the summit. Smiling just below the top on his first climb ever, not bad! I told Jack to drag the rope up to the top By this time the clouds had almost all burned off and we enjoyed some time lounging on the summit. Alas, all good things must come to a end. The Cascadian coulior sucked to descend. Max towards the top of the endless knee grinding scree. Somewhere in the middle Eventually we made it down, hiked through the clouds of bugs back to camp. At camp we spent an hour eating and hydrating before packing everything up at dusk and cruising the 4 miles of downhill back to the car. Jack had forgotten his headlamp but even with me shining my light so he could see it was all I could do to keep up with him! Way more energy than what I had at 12! Blasting! Made it to the the car a little after 10 and were back in Olympia by 1:30. Mom was thrilled. Gear Notes: Placed 2 pieces mostly because I was carrying them. At tricky spots it was easy to find a stance for a hip belay. Trekking poles are really good to have on the descent down the Cascadian. A parapent would be better. Approach Notes: Up the hill and around the lake.

doubles to gold C4, a single 3 and 4. I was never run out and had enough gear to aid the top of that chimney (holy shit it sucks). two 3's and two 4's isn't worth the extra weight. good route, have fun!

acetone/paint thinner.

loving the alpine greenery!

I've never used anything other than jumars aiding. I remember hearing bad things about the BD ascenders. has anyone actually used those? are they as bad as some people have made them out to be? as for gear, nothing beats a green alien, besides maybe a #2 angle sunk to the hilt 10 seconds before.

a guy I work for just tried to do it maybe a week and a half ago, he blamed his partner for their lack of a summit. Guess he was way out of shape and took forever. Didn't say anything about the road being out and from looking over thataway it appears that much of the snow in the olympics is gone.

lame, on the FS website it says a pass is required at ingalls creek trailhead, but says nothing about ingalls lake TH... I'm still not sure if they're one and the same. anyway I'll have to get a pass. thanks guys.