YocumRidge

Now you like slow sex? I bet you wanna know, Oleg, but keep reality and your fantasies apart .

Fuck that. Big walls now.

Haha, awesome report, Oleg! Now that I am driving back from Yosemite I seriously doubt that the Gendarme bivy was that bad. Sleeping in the portaledge on the Prow beats it all. Wonder how Ivan is still alive

If someone finds my Ultradistance trekking pole, I would like to get it back please. It was left at the base of the lower North Ridge just above the bivy site on Sat 09/14/2013. Thanks in advance. Anastasia

Trip: Dragontail - Le Serpent Date: 8/31/2013 Trip Report: Although it is impossible to get bored of the beautiful Beacon rock, I decided to change a venue and headed to Dragontail over the Labor day weekend with my Seattle friend Gerry. The short approach is always appealing but the daylight is not as long as a couple months ago and the Stuart lake p-lot, like Heathrow airport, never disappoints: my faint attempts to get any sleep are pretty much zero. Coffee helped and we hit the trail at 3 a.m. Beacon Rock, just twice as big, at sunrise: There is still some ice connecting the lateral moraine and the base of Serpentine but no need for pons/axes as it goes well in the approach shoes. On the approach from the car, cragging style: Rolling on route at 7 a.m.: We quickly simul-climbed the first 500’ below the steeper pitches. The fixed gear is everywhere - a good sign that we are on route. In the awkward corner on p1: In the OW on p2: Gerry in the twin cracks on p3: In the dihedral on p4: We reached the Beckey pin, located the bailout slings and gear to the right and decided to climb left through the steep tower, way harder than anything below we just did, but managed to get back on route. We simul-climb again on cl. 4/easy 5 trying to follow the arête before getting to a 3 way intersection. So far we moved pretty efficiently, until we did not. With the headwall in my face, my smart ass after having remembered the beta “to follow the arête and to bypass difficulties on the right” decided to go right towards the Bovine route and then up. Do not do that – a major time sucker. It is amazing how fast things can change on this route from being good to poor. I lead an aweful dihedral placing micronuts that keep falling out and we loose more time. At the base of the dihedral (pp8-9?) that needs to be avoided: After Gerry comes up, he finds a better looking crack system going left and then right. He disappears around the corner but then announces that there are more blank headwalls above and requests to be lowered. Off a micronut. After rigging a 30 m rap, we get down on the easier terrain where we were able to traverse left. It is not a hard 5 anymore, but not easily simul-climbable either. By the time we reached the blocky tower below the summit pyramid, the naturally triggered rockfall greeted us and necessitated some elaborate dodging. OK, so we dodge and manage to stay alive in the process. Finally the terrain eases up and we go around the blocky tower on the right, then left, then right and left towards the Fin. Le Serpent. Only at 7 p.m. we arrive on the summit ridge and surprisingly enough still have some water left. On the summit ridge: Gerry on the summit: We hike down the trail to the notch for the snowfield leading to Aasgard just to realize that kicking in steps on the quickly hardening snow in the approaching darkness might not the be best thing in the world. Rainier in repose: We continued down south in the bowl by Witches tower and spent a few hours next to running water under the boulder while waiting for the sun. In not so cragging style. The goats running those icy slopes like it is not a big deal whereas I had to rely on my Neanderthal self-arrest rock: Gear Notes: A set of stoppers, singles 0.3 - 0.5, doubles 0.75 - 3 Approach Notes: Colchuck Lake

I talked your russkiy priyatel' Oleg into joining as well, for some X-fit action

Cool, thanks! See you there!

Where/when is the meetup for the Beacon clean up this Sat? I never been to those before but would like to this year. Also, does someone want to climb YW afterwards? I can lead the whole thing...

Yeah, having never been on Dragontail before, I was aimlessly looking for those cairns/rap slings at first too but failed. Then the goats came into view and begun descending the icy slope towards the Enchantments which we reproduced as well, albeit way less efficiently. I like my Neanderthal tool too - big props to Katie Dills for the introduction! I bet the outdoor industry will patent this invention very shortly .

Kevin Russell from PDX "day hiked" Yocum ridge in summer and especially enjoyed the gendarmes . Too bad he does not post on here.

Aaron. Fuck. Oleg promised me boys and whiskey at the lake and on route, but then I was supposed to lead the whole thing afterwards. He likes to rough it . I thought at the time the Serpentine arete with a friend would be a much more civilized idea. Why did you guys get sucked into those sketchy raps? We left pretty decent tracks for you to follow, next to the goat path. With a sharp self-arrest rock and in clown shoes, it worked pretty well, although I still need to train hard to do it as fast as those goats.

Bump.

Ha, did you find my filthy note in your red devil? Nope, someone else got the #1 before me. I actually thought it was you. I was taking a friend from Seattle up on YW, so we did not start until noon. What was the deal with the bunch of film making guys? A new Beacon documentary?

Yep, that was Jeoff w/ Plaid, while Crackman and I were trudging up Jill's Thrill in the rain, my favorite thing, and dropping gear no less. "What was it?" - Jeoff:"Must be a rabbit". Must be a new thing at Beacon I was not aware of - rabbits jumping out from the cracks. Thank gawd for the straight down rap bolts on JT - makes it easier to get down in the downpour. Katie and Toddipoo were not that lucky on YW . I will be there in the AM tomorrow and will look for her cam, but I bet you can extract it more masterfully than me. I don't know about that...Plaid lost 60 lbs in his prep for ElCap and is looking ripped. Chicks dig it .

Looking to do either Serpentine or Backbone on DT this coming weekend or early next week. Have all gear (including #5 and #6 for the OW), rope and a car. Please, PM or email at: mitochondria100@gmail.com Anastasia

So, we finally climbed the complete Young Warriors on Sunday. What are the rusted bolted anchors on the P4 30' down and to the left of the 10a section with a bolt? I was told I am off route?

The snow finger leading to South ridge is melting fast this year, but it surely seems the quickest option of all to get up Torment. Don't downclimb/rap from the summit to the "grassy Cl.3 ledges" on SE face - that really sucked! Instead, try to sidehill from the U-notch to the rap station for the north side.

Did Young Warriors on Sunday - a very cool route, but for some bizzare reason managed to get too far left on P3 too soon and ended in the vertical J-burg-like jungle. Anyhow, got back on route higher up. WTF I got the ticket for having a brand new annual Discover pass, so trying to fight it now which is not easy

I have done the P3 of YW before in the different link-up, so I am fairly positive where the pin anchor was on the top of that pitch. And yes, it is not in the most obvious place.

Thanks, Kevin!

OK, Young Warriors. Is it still there? If so, it is going to happen tomorrow. Does anyone have a topo for the 1st and 2nd pitch? Also, what gear is recommended for the whole route?

Another amazing trip and artsy photos, Pat.

Still trying to figure out who wins on the "phuck" scale: TFT or J-burg. The raps off the Devils club we survived with you and Pat on the NEB were quite memorable too...

Trip: Torment Forbidden Traverse - Date: 7/26/2013 Trip Report: My friend Lance (Skoolsukz) and I climbed Torment Forbidden Traverse over Fri and Sat last week and found it still in good conditions. In full force as an RMI guide, after taking clients to the summit of Rainier on Thu, Lance got off Muir and we sprinted straight to the Boston Basin TH from Seattle. So much for sprinting - we were dragging behind the unrelenting deer bouncing on the Cascade Pass road for about a mile at midnight who would not let us pass. As usual, we slept in the dirt by the rig for a few hours and hit the trail at 4 am. The approaches in the dark are all the same, uneventful, but J-burg is always hard to miss on this one: Boston Basin in the morning: After crossing the Cl.3 slabs in the basin, we got to the Taboo Gl. at 8 a.m., roped up and hiked through the moats (some of which are getting too skinny too fast) to the base of the South Ridge. Yep, South Ridge and not the SE face where we got emotionally traumatized last year in the House of Pain. Lance on Taboo: Getting to the moat at the base of South Ridge: After getting situated in the moat, we racked up and I went to the notch on the left side. The cl.4 loose gully on the right is in the new and improved state of boulders precariously moving in the dirt right above your head. After having a close call in this gully last year, I thought screw that and chose to go through the more solid but harder rock on the left: Lance in the “grey dihedral” above the notch: Mid-way on South Ridge: In the “dirty gully with an old pin”: We were making good time to the notch separating the South Ridge and SE face until we rapped down and downclimbed to the center of the “cl. 3” trench intersecting the SE face. Some people learn on their mistakes, while the others ... Last year it took us freaking forever to get our asses off Torment by taking the SE face. Don’t do it unless you are in the mood for excitement and long descent. And it is exactly what we ended up doing again – descending the SE face to where we left the packs. The summit of Torment had to be tagged as Lance never been on this peak before. The best part however is the last 100’ to this summit is pretty solid and enjoyable for a change. On the summit of Torment: After downclimbing for as long as we safely could, the nightmarish raps to our packs had begun. At one point, we could not come up with anything better but to sling a hump placed in the sand that I leaned against with my pack to “help” prevent the sling from slippage while Lance was rapping. With more sketchy downclimbing ahead, we were seriously wasting a lot of time and getting concerned about being back in Seattle on Sat so that he would get at Muir next day. I did my best to be optimistic and reassured him that once we rap down on the north side back to snow/ice, our life will improve. And sure it did. Thank gawd, we are back in the boots and steel crampons, with one tool in hand, the life is great again… By the time I rapped into the infamous moat, Lance is already up on the surface of the glacier. I found a convenient rock outcrop 15 feet down in the moat where I put crampons on (while the other team who smartly and quickly approached from the U-notch of Torment were rapping on our rope). The other team is rapping down while I am underground: Lance kindly tossed the second tool that helped climb my ass out of that grave on vertical hard snow. Sketchy - with the abyss below you. Finally, nice views greeted us on the north side of the traverse: The moats and holes are everywhere on the 50-60 deg slopes, but passable if you don’t step into those: Lance suggested we solo the snow sections with one tool, which we did - for the most part. That luckily sped things up until we hit the loose rock towers which unluckily slowed things down again. I bet we should have traversed low to stay on snow for longer rather than sticking to the crest on the shitty rock. Soloing the traverse and getting through the moats/holes: Looking down on the other team on one of the zillions of the rock bands we passed: Finally, at sunset we reached the ½ mile bivvy: High Life at the ½ mile bivy: Next day, we hit more "fun" towers before the “fun” catwalk: The 10 a.m. arrival at West Ridge saddle seemed like taking forever. After running into a bunch of friends from Portland who were heading up WR like civilized people (camped in the Boston Basin a day before), they kindly let us pass and we made it to the top at noon before hurrying back down to the car. Thank gawd for the solid rock on WR of Forbidden. BTW, marmots have a good taste and are soloing it all way to the summit block. I wish I was that fat and could do the same. Gear Notes: 1 tool, steel crampons, single rack to 2", 60 m x 8 mm rope Approach Notes: Boston Basin