Captain panther

Hey mark thats a pretty sweet operation youve got going on with your custom shoes! i hope those madrocks work out for you. did you look at those evolvs? the optimus prime? Im for sure going to Lworth this weekend so at the very least I'll stop by saturday night and have a beer and say hello at 8mile. Im planning on doing orbit and outerspace one day and a bunch of stuff on the castle the other. where will you be on which day? Adam

Trip: Wet Dreamer - Darrington Date: 4/24/2010 Trip Report: Yesterday my buddy phil and I got up at 3am and drove up to darrington to have a go at dreamer. It was the first time either of us had been up so the approach was interesting. We arrived at the trailhead at alittle before 7 and after trudging uphill for a while and boot packing a small patch of snow we were at the base and climbing a little before 9. The first pitch was a little damp and so was the second but with a little fancy footwork and some "slap and pray" style climbing we got past the nasty. Pitches 3 and 4 went off without a hitch and were pretty fun. Pitch 5 was my lead and I got alittle off pitch after confusing pitches on the topo but thanks to some down climbing and a lot of work on Phil's part to clean up my mess we hit the rest of it hard and summited around 2. A few quick raps and we were at the bottom rap station and it started snowing! woooohooo early season washington! then we took the forest on the way down instead of the trail and saw the most impressive old growth cedars i've ever seen! Gear Notes: about 15 draws and standard rack, doulbes on .5 to 3 inches and maybe triples in the 2 inch range for pitch 6. half ropes would be the shit on this thing as we tailed a full rope! Approach Notes: trail then cairns then a steep sketchy drainage as far as we could tell. the early you get up the better this time of year

we drove over a few bridges, i believe the one you're talking about is replaced, however we still had to park at a gate and walk about 30 minutes along the road with a few washouts to get to the trailhead

Trip: Mt. Garfield - Infinite Bliss Date: 3/24/2010 Trip Report: Saturday Mar 20th my buddy Phil and I headed up to Infinite Bliss. I'd heard about this climb for quite some time but never really wanted to do it but Phil was stoked enough for the both of us and I love to climb so it wasnt too hard to convince me. we left puyallup at 7am and were at the base climbing by about 930am. Knowing this thing was huge we brought 32 draws four small cams( small tcu's and c3s, although i wouldve loved some link cams or bigger gear for the runout on 16/17) and two 70m ropes, to make rapping a bit easier. Being a bit early in the season there was still a bit of snow on the climb which equalled exciting wet bits . We simulclimbed the first 6 slab pitches without a hitch until the last one which was quite damp and horrifyingly runout for how wet it was. There is still alot of snow on the ledge at the top of pitch 6 but its avoidable. phil with all our draws we hit the the gully pitch(8) making great time and enjoying some fun friction moves mixed with snow Pitches 9 and 10 were quite fun and bolted well. following a short traverse on a ledge at the top of 10, Phil headed out to lead our first hard pitch, number 11, going at .10b. the crux was definitely getting past the snow while trying to keep your toes dry. Pitches 11 through 15 were fun and fast with a little difficulty routefinding but we were still making good time. this is the 16th and 17th pitch with no bolts, a little confusing on the routefinding. I went way right of where I was supposed to and ended up finding some nice trees to belay phil up. Then after walking left on a little ramp we were right back on route on the 18th pitch, the crux i believe. Pitches 18 through 23 were great! alot of fun friction moves and a nasty wet chimney lead us to the summit at about 5pm. heres the last pitch and some summit photos. Heres where the fun REALLY begins on our climb. We knew if we could get below the unbolted 16 and 17th pitches before dark we'd have a sweet chance at actually making it down and not having to become much better friends on a ledge all night. Of course we didnt make it down past that until after dark and got lost rapping off the bush halfway down pitch 16 for about an hour. As luck would have it my partner Phil's headlamp died so we only had one working lamp, oh joy! And the icing on the cake, it started raining at about pitch 14ish, where we also had some trouble finding chains to rap. A few more wet dark raps and we were outta there. All in all quite the adventure and a fun climb, I cant wait to go back in summer when there's more light! Gear Notes: about 25 draws would do fine, two ropes, halfs would be the way to go, and some smaller gear but honestly on the runout parts i wouldve been thrilled to have gear up to an inch/inch and a half. Approach Notes: theres some good drawings and photos online, plus a cairn or two

how bout something friday?

Hey I just moved back from Bham to Tacoma and am at a serious loss of partners down here or partners with schedules that match up with mine. I work at rei so my schedule is part time and constantly changing but usually i have a few days off in a row mid week. Im looking for anyone local, or even close, like Bham or Seattle or somewhere south of here i guess. I will climb anything you want to climb. I trad up to 12a but im more than willing to climb 5.6 all day. sport ill climb anything and love to do anything hard and overhanging. bouldering is just fine too v0 to double digits if you like. I'd really like to do more alpine/ice/mountaineering, and soon, winter ascents and FAs if anyone is down. i lead WI4 fine and have most of my own gear, just need a few more screws, and lots of ice experience, less in general mountaineering but still a fair amount, tons in the backcountry from years of snowboarding and skiing. Adamllawson@gmail.com is the best way to get ahold of me