RokIzGud

Selling my brand new Cassin X-Ice tools (hammer and adze). Found another pair I like and their is no point in having two sets . $175 each. I prefer to sell as a pair. Thanks for looking! I live in the the Bothell/Woodinville area...

Thanks for the information, its much appreciated. We drove up there today but turned around ‘cause it was dumping buckets. All very helpful… Thanks!

Does anyone know the current access conditions for Zekes Wall bouldering area in Gold Bar? I have never been there and I heard that it is inaccessible (just lazy boulder’ers?)… I also heard that the road is washed out but a 45-60 minute road walk can get you there. Thanks in advance for any input! …Also is there a map of the boulders published online anywhere? Thanks again!

I gotta pretty big smile ...Man I love that place...

Buy... Rab... Infinity... Jacket... Buy... Rab... Infinity... Jacket... It is the shit! An awesome jacket indeed...

Woah! This is great! On my to do list before the snow milts...

Good effort! My party and I tried climbing that mixed band towards the top last season and failed. It was a fun climb never the less.

I have Rabs Latok Alpine with eVent. It is the shit!

No I haven't. I have a brand new pair of them and im not sure if ill get to use them, if your interested in buying them let me know...

It is bright and weights virtually nothing. I think I put in my car somewhere and lost it (its just that small). For the longest time I kept it in my SAR first aid kit as an extra. Its briiiiiight!

Thanks a lot! I will definitely give him a call.

Does anyone have any information on Cassin's X Ice tools or know of any online reviews or threads? Anything would be helpful, I just can't find any info on them... Thanks!

If you were to set up a top rope on Bakers seracs would you use V-threads or ice screws? Thanks!

Thanks! The approch was surprisingly easy. It was so close i though I must have been cheating. The only lose rock I didnt like was the first 4th class scramble. The rest of the trip was preety soild.

Trip: Guye Peak - Improbable Traverse (5.8) Date: 7/29/2010 Trip Report: “Fudge this S*** is improbable” Mark, after leading the crux Pictures wont work on here... Go to link for pictures: http://www.summitpost.org/trip-report/643498/Guye-Peak-Improbable-Traverse-5-8-.html My buddy Mark and I climbed Guye Peak via the Improbable Traverse (5.8). It was my biggest taste of alpine flavor so far…. Mark said he was feeling a little sick as we climbed the short talus field which led to some class 4 scrambling but said he was feeling good enough for the climb. Mark was climbing above me and rock just happened to fall on my hand. I watched as it left some good sized indents and slowly start to bleed. Then a lot. Climbing on class 4 is never fun in my mind especially when it’s super chossy. The class 4 led us to some low angle ramps which were about class 3 and led into some trees where our first belay spot was. The first pitch is said to be about a 70 foot traverse on low class 5 rock which leads to a small belay ledge called the Lunch Counter. Mark only placed a 1 cam and 1 nut here but it was easy climbing. At the Lunch Counter we looked at what we had to contend with. The pitch after the Lunch Ledge is the Improbable Traverse. You can do the traverse in 2 pitches but we did it in one long one. Mark led this but the pendulum factor for both the follower and the leader is the same. Mark nailed the crux which was a 5.8 section protected by 2 knife blade pitons and set up a belay at the base of a class 3 and 4 ramp. I followed suit. The first little part of the traverse was the crux for me. Selected Climbs Vol. 1 rates this as 5.7 and SummitPost a 5.6. Maybe it was because I am tall/un-flexible and had to crouch real low below an overhang to do the move but it got me pumped with adrenalin. The exposure on the Traverse felt crazy. Mark thought it was maybe 800-1000 feet straight down it was awesome! After I cleaned the crux I came to a couple mid 5th class down climbing section. This was a little exciting but down climbing on a traverse was umm…. Different. It was hella fun though. When I got to the ramp Mark said he was felling pretty sick now and we decided we need to finish this hill and get out of Dodge. Mark placed 2 pieces of pro on the final ramp and we decided to just simul-climb it. We didn’t use the rope for the rest of the trip. Selected Climbs Vol. 1 says there’s about 6-7 pitches but you can do it 2-3. We climbed some more low class 4 and 5 in our trail runners. On one section were on we saw a piton. If we could free solo this in tennis shoes why would someone put a piton here? We made it to the summit. Saw another summit of Guye and tagged that one too not knowing which was higher. After some mild route finding troubles and being eaten by mosquitoes we found the hikers trail and made to the Alpental Parking lot. It took us maybe 15 minutes to walk back to the car which we parked at the base of the talus field and got out of there with each of climbing the hardest alpine rock route we had ever done. Mark said before this, the hardest alpine route he had led was a 5.4. Jumping from 5.4 to 5.8 was a pretty sick experience. Nice leading Mark! Gear Notes: You dont need boots... Tennis shoes work fine for the approach. Approach Notes: Climb the Ttalus field...

Nice work! I summited on the 22nd but we couldnt see anything more than a rope length in front of us...

So I just got the Seattle Mountaineers Routfinder or whatever there news letter is called and there having a class on car camping Hmm... How to car camp; the BBQ, bonfire, lawn chairs, alcohol. Am i forgetting anything?

I remember you guys. It looks like you just missed some good conditions. Good luck on future climbs!

Only if I can carpool with you on the kangaroo...

Trip: Mount Colchuck - Colchuck Glacier Date: 3/20/2010 Trip Report: Eastking, Jimbopo and I got to the gated road at around 9 AM on sundayand started the 4 miles of road walking. The snow was solid enough that we didn’t need snowshoes. When we started on the actual trail we were greeted with an icy trail. It was pretty icy until we got to the foot bridge. We reached the junction to Colchuck Lake and Stuart Lake and took a quick breather. Jimbopo went ahead of us to get a jumpstart on setting up the tent. I was grateful when I reached the frozen lake but I wasn’t quite sure where Mike was setting up the tent so I decided to head to the end of the lake at the base of Dragon Tail peak. I was feeling tired when I found Jimbopo but I felt a lot better after I ate and drank some water. EastKing made it to us in short time and we talked about our plan. EastKing and Jimbopo were feeling a little tired but Eastking gave me the go ahead to start up. I didn’t really want to plan a summit bid for the morning because there was supposed to be bad weather on Sunday. Mtn. Climber, his son and a friend cooked up some awesome steps that I ate right up. Without the steps they kicked it would have been a lot tougher for me on the glacier. I didn’t have to put crampons on until I reached the col after awhile of zigzagging my way up. I met Mtn. Climber at the Col. He took a quick picture of me gave a few words of advice and I headed up the crux. The crux was pretty fun. I met up with Mtn. Climber’s son and friend as they were headed down and they told me I was about 25 minutes from the summit. That last 25 minutes or so was really interesting along the summit ridge. Seeing all the snowcapped mountains around me was pretty great. As I was approaching the summit block a couple was coming down. It was a great day to be on Colchuck. On the summit I took a bunch of photos, enjoyed the view of Stuart and other srounding peaks and started my way down. When I was heading down the crux I noticed a climber on the col. At first I thought it was Mtn. Climber but another figure came into view and it was Eastking and Jimbopo! I wished them luck, gave them my camera and headed down. The glissade was quick. It probably took less than 20 minutes to get from the Col to our tent. I went and hung out at Mtn. Climbers camp. Meanwhile on the top of Colchuck; Eastking and Jimbopo made the summit and had an awesome view of the sunset. They also had a great night glissade. From the sounds of it I missed out. [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcZlyVqLs7c I met up with them at the bottom and we got into Jimbopo’s little tent. It was a tight fit and the wind kicked up pretty hard that night. I was almost worried the tent would collapse but it was staked down with ice axes and trekking poles and held tough trough out the night. When we woke up in the morning it was still pretty windy. We hung out, not wanting to tackle the weather quite yet. Finally we got our stuff packed and prepared for the 8 mile trek back to the car. The wind was pretty strong as we were crossing the lake. A couple times it made me a little off balance. The rest of the way down was pretty good. The last mile of the trail seemed to take forever and on the road we started getting some rain. All in all it was an awesome trip! I want to thank EasKing for inviting me and Jimbopo for carrying the tent. It was truly great company. You can check out EastKings trip report and read more about their night glissade at; http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=606488&type=vote_comments&discussion_id=370717#370717

Does anyon have any info on the La Sportiva Tango Alp or how it is compared to the Trango S Evo GTX? Thanks!

Hey if you guys need a partner Thursday im down!

Trip: Easton, WA - Old Mans Nose Date: 2/14/2010 Trip Report: So after making obligations to be in Kittitas County all weekend on standby for SAR. I headed over the Pass Friday night. The next morning I got up made coffee and spent the day looking at the mountains from my “weekend home”. The search and rescue mission turned into a recovery so I ended up having nothing to do the on Sunday which in my case “Single Awareness Day”. I made plans to climb a peak the locals call Old Mans Nose. I set my alarm clock to 7am, woke up to rain beating down on the roof and went back to bed. I finally came out of a coma at 11am packed my s*** and drove the 8 minutes to the base of my hill. I could not see much of the peak due to a heavy fog so I figured I couldn’t go wrong if I started going uphill. After getting drenched bushwhacking I came across many elk track but I never saw any… I saw some bands of cliffs so I headed up those. It quickly became steeper and the snow levels increased. The cliffs were fun. Some chossy 3rd class scrambling and some steep snow. I was in the fog and there was a light mist so I continued to stay frackin wet which wasn’t very fun. About 2 hours of scrambling and route finding led me to a band of trees that I knew existed below the summit. The slogging through those trees sucked hard! I didn’t bring snowshoes and at many places the snow was up to my waist and I’m 6’5’’. Due to the rain there was a frozen layer of snow on top of the pow which I would think could hold my weight but every other step I would sink through. As the weather got warmer, walking through those trees made me feel like I was in a rain cloud. It was so wet in there and as I got higher there became more snow in the trees. Bombs of wet snow was falling everywhere. I wanted to get out of there ASAP. Finally I reached the ridge. As a 15 minute walk along the ridge led me to a forest of frozen trees. They were the coolest things I’ve seen in awhile. All frozen a shaped by the wind. A little bit further I could see the summit. This is where it got steep. To my left a almost vertical section towards Lake Cle Elum and too my right a steep avalanche chute witch I know was ready to slide. I got to about 10 feet of the summit and decide to stop there because I did not want fall down this fringin thing. I still felt like I accomplished the climb though... I made quick time climbing down singing every Easy-E and Lil Wayne song I could think of. The 3rd class rock was sketch balls climbing down but I made. [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa2hF8lOuRI At the bottom I found a sweet cougar track. Two years ago I worked with a biologist to track and collar cougars in this same area so that was kinda cool. -Collin Gear Notes: Ice axe and i recomand you bring snowshoes...

Its Single Awareness Day. What did you end up doing? I went on a gnar winter scrable solo