keenwesh

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.

sorry for such a noobish question but the forest service website is confusing as hell. My forest service pass just expired today and I'm leaving next week for MT, do not plan on being back in WA for at least a year. going to go in and try the w ridge of stuart with my little brother before leaving. Do I need a NW forest pass to park at the ingalls lake trailhead? thanks team!

east buttress is a little harder than 5.7...

cyborgs/mono verson of the cyborgs (sidewinder?) are pretty good and are readily available and cheaper.

the right hand start off two tree is better than that bullshit glassy lieback. I'm always sketched doing the traverse but that's because I'm a fat puss and big flexing flakes give me the willies.

you know that spam is different than spray, right?

howdy ya'll. looking for a copy of the guidebook as I guess it's out of print. I can take your tattered old book and put it to good use. alternatively, recommended routes in the 5.8-5.10 range around the tellot glacier? thanks!

no idea, we had an 80. I remember reading a description somewhere saying that it could be done with a shorter cord....

Did the route 3 weeks ago, 4th pitch was super wet, a couple damp jams on P1 as well. We rapped heavens gate. super straightforward and can be done with a 60 (so I'm told). 70 makes it plush.

I can hang on to my tools, dropping other peoples screws is what I'm awesome at.

thanks guys! such a good route, pretty much anyone can go repeat it in better style I think. I know I for sure pulled on gear for any move harder than 5.7. I have a great video of marks take of jugging that I promised him to not post. if he gives me the go ahead I'll put it up. think everyone has felt the same way that he he did at some point if they've ever fucked around with ascenders.

just being in the valley is worth the risk of being crushed by 20000 dump truck loads of rock. Instead of closing campsites maybe they should implement a plan to shut down access for the tourons who take cell phone pictures of bears from 300 yards away through a bus window... just a thought.

Trip: Yosemite - Half Dome and others Date: 6/13/2012 Trip Report: Spent a week and a half in yosemite with friends and did some great climbs. Mark Straub met us down there and we teamed up to climb some longer routes. The crew from Olympia loaded up the troop and headed out at 10 pm, I drove until weed, CA, keeping myself awake by taking pictures of the other guys drooling on themselves. the oly crew approximately 5 minutes from launch time here's luke zonked out in the back We made it into the valley in the evening and climbed some single pitch 5.7 chimney to the left of the start of the salathe, plans to bandit camp at the base of el cap were scrapped by the large number of rangers out and about and we headed back to a dirt turnout off evergreen road outside of the park for a fitful 5 hours of sleep. in gathering up our shit at 5 am to go back in for the camp 4 site luke managed to leave his little sisters sleeping pad. We christened ourselves "Team Retardo" and elected luke as the head of the varsity squad. Mark and I climbed the east buttress of el cap, super fun route, I got the P1 chimney and he crushed the P2 crux. cheesin' on the east butt The alcove swing was good fun too Mark and I had been planning on doing Half Dome all week, and we carefully laid out a plan that we'd hike up the death slabs on monday, try and make the top on tuesday or consumate our climbing partnership on big sandy, and finish the climb/descent on wednesday. Starting up the trail to mirror lake at 9 am we reached the base of the NW face by 11.30, mark looked at me and said, "I don't want to sit around here all day, lets just start climbing now". so it was decided, we slammed as much water as we could from the spring and mark took off leading the first block, up to pitch 6. Along the way he went from a honorary to a full member of team retardo when he fumbled his entire set of brand new offsets. I couldn't help but laugh and welcome him on board! We began communicating completely in either pirate or terrible german accents at this point for some reason. I took over the lead and made it to the P11 ledge maybe half an hour after dark. the last couple we got bogged down behind a korean team who were chainsmoking their way up. waiting for them to jug as the sun goes down the language barrier was quite large, but they were in good spirits and fun to huddle with 1000 feet off the deck Mark and I didn't get much sleep that night, having only brought a few extra clothes. I shoved my feet in my backpack and shivered to stay warm. A couple tins of sardines in mustard sauce made it bearable. early on tuesday morning mark led off the ledge into the chimneys. for claiming to suck at the wide he cruised his way up them. Jugging these pitches sucked, I have a weepy sore on my left elbow that is oozing through my flannel shirt right now, so awesome two pitches below big sandy alas, I was also to be immortalized in team retardo, when I managed to unclip the rope from a yellow/orange tcu offset on the pitch below big sandy without cleaning it. some people leave gear bailing off routes, we leave gear while climbing routes. just make sure you're the party after us and you could score half a rack! whatever. I really liked the quote in an article in the latest R&I talking about the priorities of the climb as #1 stay alive, #2 stay good friends, and #3 make the top. I led the last 5 pitches off big sandy, linking the first two zig zags. the lack of sleep and low food intake of the last 2 days began to take their toll on mark and he started to slow down jugging. I amused myself while I waited by taking stupid pictures of myself On the final bolt ladder pitch I had to skyhook a pinscar after the pendulum as we had dropped all the offsets and the single camhook. Standing on that creaky piece of steel was a lot more fun than it would of been with the proper gear, don't bring offsets! We cruised up the last pitch and topped out right as the sun set. We then proceeded to descend the 4th class slabs below the notch between sub dome and half dome for several hours in the dark, securing our place in the halls of fame of team retardo. if anyone wants some cell phone batteries, trekking poles, or sluggs of 4 year old gatorade at 11 pm due to desperate dehydration (that shit tastes like death) head this way (seriously the amount of dropped garbage from the notch is astounding). Otherwise keep going till you reach the base of sub dome and head left through the woods until the climbers trail is reached. A little longer then the advertised 20 minutes in the supertopo description but really easy. a great climb with a great partner, mark is a fantastic climber who isn't afraid to admit that he's tired. He tried to apologize for being slow after we made it down and I was happy to admit that while I'd been short with him on the last few pitches I still totally understood his fatigue and didn't blame him for taking a while to squirm his way up the "5.8" squeeze after thank god ledge. (it's burly and you don't want to haul a #6 up for 10 feet of climbing, here's a tip: left side in and use the small edges for your feet) on the last day in the valley I got up early to climb the Grack on the apron with my friends max and luke, ended up simuling through pitch two and three, nothing like telling someone that they absolutely can't fall 200 feet off the deck on their first multi pitch. that climb is like a 130 meter version of libra crack at index. so good and classic, a perfect route to cap off the trip. Gear Notes: doubles up to #2 BD, lots of small aliens, a single #3 and #4. A set or two of nuts. Skyhook is useful on the first zig zag, and slab pitch if you drop your camhook. Approach Notes: Death Slabs are fast and easy, fixed ropes are up. hand over handing the ropes on the way down with massive gobies adds to the experience.

haha I just went on a short hike in the boundary waters of northern minnesota with my grandfather on a trail he built, he flagged it every 15 feet and was freely giving me info about the benefits of flagging. I kept my mouth shut but I'm with you in that trails don't need fluorescent orange plastic markers as lining. Good work pulling that shit down.

sasha and elmo are always pleasant to be around, even when they are humping each other.

my first multi pitch was white slabs! we must think in the same backwards way... I remember lots of dirt in the cracks, but it was also a blast being high off the ground. go check them out for yourself.