Dave A.

I meant to say a pitch is commonly defined as the rock or ice between belays. I type slow, my mind is slower yet.

You're right, that last sentence was uncalled for. Apologies. I fully support FF, and shop there everytime I'm in the big city. However, there is nothing wrong with corporate, with the exception of their most excellent down clothing the products in the store are made by relatively large corps.

Eddie Bauer was supplying down for k2 in 1953 and the first successful Everest expedition in 1963. Feathered Friends(one of my favorite stores) was founded in 1972.Believe it or not there might be people there with more experience than you.

A pitch is commonly defined as the rock or ice between pitches, making the old farts count accurate,though a little misleading. Some of those steps were only 30 ft. or so, with a total length of maybe a rope and a half, hardly worth a drive up from Mc Minnville for KingsMM. The 7th pitch Curt was referring to was not in the same gully but a short distance to the right and up. It is indeed wide enough for a number of routes, long enough to be considered a real pitch. It's clearly visible as you walk off, I'm surprised you didn't climb it when you were up there. BTW, I've enjoyed you TR's, way to get after it.

Personally I'm glad to see Eddie Bauer back in the business of making real clothing. With guys like Whittaker and Viesturs helping with design they have a good shot at making it right, and their reputation was originally built on expedition clothing for Himalayan peaks.If you look at the catalog Mountain Gear sends out you can find shells by Marmot, Mountain Hardware, Patagonia, NF,etc. all made out of Goretex Pro Shell, all virtually identical by order of Gore, and all priced within $20. It's nice to see a company break out of the mold and develop their own materials. I wish them the best.

Check out the guidebooks on wenatcheeoutdoors.org. You will find about 50 routes between Blewett and Stevens. Excellent maps, route descriptions etc. The website also has other guides (hiking, rock climbing, ice climbing, whitewater and more).Lots of informative articles as well.There are a number of books out there that are helpful, my favorite is Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Routes by Raineer Burgdorfer.

Leave the Icicle road .3 mi. past 8 Mile road. There will be an obvious boot track heading up by the underwear boulder. This would be the summer approach to bathtub dome or condorphamine. There are several short steps on the way up but the climbing in the picture is abouy 30 minutes up the hill. Lots of ice in the Icicle, get it now before climbs like this get buried by upcoming snow.

I have found that if you wear appropriate clothing (polyester etc.) they will dry from body heat with mild activity, not enough to sweat. walking downhill or settingup the tent and so on.By the way, I did a little test this fall when it was warm (45deg.) and raining. I did a quick walk uphill,1000 feet in 20 or so minutes, enough to wet my shirt with sweat.I did it twice, once with my goretex pro shell jacket fully zipped and once with my eVent jacket. In both cases my base layer shirt was dry when I reached the car after walking down at a moderate pace. I was pleasantly surprised because I would still be soaked with the old goretex.