caleb ng

Trip: Forbidden - West Ridge Date: 8/8/2011 Trip Report: the below is not really a trip report, but none of mine really are... i do better TR's with pictures than with words Why the best water and climbs in the world are respectively, free and freed? Boston Basin is by all means an opportune place to become thirsty. Utopia drops beauty on you incessantly, in three dee. It is so beautiful, it hurts. The granite's hues are an explosion of orange, but up high, a brilliant white! The rock is sound. THE ROCK IS SOUND! Fat marmots, unabashedly eat my food and leave their mini-dog-sized stools strewn across the same place I'm about to throw down. I could spend days here, the peaks around all have their unique appeal although none very intimidating, save the foreboding, looming J-burg down the way. Popping out of the trees, the sublime high country, is reminiscent of the Wind's, Cirque of the Towers, not in granitic formations nor the sheer expansiveness of climbing, but as places that are genuinely worthy of being called, in Eden-like fashion, Paradise. SO we were fjording streams that careened like spokes on a wheel, chasing the Alpen Glow, and taming creation. We hopped from rock to rock, and listened to the buzz-buzz of friendly bees sipping nectar from alpine lilies. Passing climbers on the way, lazing on their mats, soaking in the rays, reading a book. Not a iSomething in sight, no wireless connection would suffice. Basic necessities, the simple life, a reminder to the soul to regain its life. So, the clouds broke, but barely the next morn. Look a the views, the best ever, a proud moment for my reflex lens. They only dream of clouds that come to play, that aren't invasive, that have a friendly comportment. Chomp chomp chomp, up the couloir, thin snow bridges that will hold for no more than a week, maybe two. Up to the summit, no hassles here, a cam here, a cam there. The best climbs in the world are freed, no rambunctious aid to gum up fluid movement. Lay on the summit for quick nap, slowly savoring each bite of our confectionary. One of the girls, Lea, her first climb in the alpine, not bad wouldn't you say? Ran into two other parties on the route, one going up one going down. Not withstanding its iconic status, blessed for the most part to be a solitary experience. We're off to the races, but to Canada in that day. But not before filling up parched tongues with recent glacial melt. Lay on those granite slabs, and lapped up like dogs, perfect, pristine, clean tasting, fresh, water. No shameful shams called house hold water filters required. Seeing and experiencing sustenance from the source, while the rest of your body is warmed by healing hot rocks is why everyone needs a trip to the alpine. It is also why the best water is free. 50 Classic #12!!!!!! The easiest one of them yet! PICS here: http://muntanyaverda.wordpress.com/ Gear Notes: 1 picket

a good God

Snow snow snow in the fishers

you guys are soooo sick

Trip: Munt Shuksan - North Face Date: 7/25/2011 Trip Report: Bivouacs in surreal environments, under hanging glaciers and beside cirques of ice. Sounds of ice and rock fall throughout the night, maybe that of a calving glacier’s, reminds us that we’re at most miniature creatures. Risk is around us, we feel alive, if risk is reward, we’ve the prize. Mitigation starts early in the morning, up through the Shrunds we go, eyes toward the sky. Pulse beats strong, stronger than ever, through both ears, and into the eyes, we’re climbing. Higher and higher, axes and crampons biting into snow, every point and all axe throws are felt in perfect North Face conditions. The agreement was bilateral, she invited us, then permitted us climb her, Shuksan that is. Haste, we were upon the summit pyramid, climbers all around having climbed up from Sulphide and Fishers on the first perfect weekend in a most dismal summer. We frothed in delight, after climbing 30 feet of ice and placing a screw or two to capture the summit! It was blue to the East, West, North and.. even the South. No words suffice. He who captures the summit, captures the experience. The wind was light, more, our eyes bright. Some candies, (hot lips and cherry coke if I may) and mandatory camera poses and we were off to begin our pilgrimage to lower ground. Fisher’s chimneys was elusive, and dare I say snowy and dangerous, and precipitated the need for down climbing with pickets and rapping off snow bollards…! This slowed our rate of descent, and landed us square in our bivies for night number two at the base of the forbidden chimneys. For food that night, I had a remaining… AHHH NOT ANOTHER FREAKING CLIFF BAR!!!!. Next morning, hydrated & hiked out. The carry-over was more exhausting than I had planned for; the mountain’s savageness much more accurate in my mind now. I admit, I am no one’s hero but my own, having been an original rockstar turned snowstar. We painfully trundled down the road on route for our car, looking up towards the temporarily tamed Massif, and in unison and ‘yipeeing’ in response to our souls’ solace via the summit of Shuksan. https://muntanyaverda.wordpress.com/ THANK YOU TO THE PERSON WHO FOUND MY HELMET AT PUT IT BACK IN THE TRUCK!!!!!! Gear Notes: 3 pickets shared with other party to use 7 for downclimb in fishers

haha yup, my partner left everything on the route!

hahaha !!! *beckey ahem

Trip: Liberty Bell - Liberty Crack Date: 6/12/2011 Trip Report: Liberty Crack was always about the Line. Many years ago, my first alpine climb and any climb whatsoever over grade 1 was done on the stellar Becky Route on the Bell. (who is Becky anyways?) Those days found me unable to decipher neither directions (you have to calibrate a suunto?!) nor cam color sizes. Without the steady lineup of August traffic trundling up the gully, I surely would’ve put up an embarrassing FA somewhere nearby (having already decided that the first bell like structure in sight would be summited by yours truly, not having seen the bell from its east face yet). The next day I went over to Cutthroat peak and repeated the same series of events, finally an old mountaineer graciously conveying that my balls were bigger than my brains. I got the point - that my brains were real big. Between my first Becky love affair, and my revisit last summer, a few things happened. A: I was gifted an old copy of the 50 classics, and B: Fell in love with the mountains, subsequently they became my teacher and nemesis C: got rid of my Suunto Again, the line had always appealed to me, the most distinct of lines on an unmistakable structured mound of granite glory. (oh AND a 1 hour approach!!) Last year June 18th, I tried, but got rained off the 3rd pitch and had to go home. This year I tried 1 week earlier in the season, hoping the weather would be better and the 2-day weather window lasted for its forecast length. Notes: -Fixed first 3 pitches first day, climbed the second day. -Blew a bashie last year, and brought bashies back for this year, but didn’t need to employ them. Some aid specialist bashed for me since then because all bashies and fixed gear is currently present. -Started freeing at 8 and hit the summit by 4 pm -Route is completely dry. (The traverse over to rap bolts is 60% snow laden as of yet) -The record snowfall was evident as it took us 40 min to boot-ski our way to the car on descent off the notch. I’ll descend like that any day. -Gear giveaway on the route – My lovely partner forgot the anchors at the first belay and gave up working on a new #1 camalot about mid-route. Hows that for motivation? All in all, the route was as fine as it looked. Don’t get used to Squamish splitters so much though, it is more reminiscent of Eldo flares. I loved most the dominantly white landscape and protruding rock high above highway 20 as it reminded me of Patagonian cover shots and Bugaboo splitter days, all nestled within a resplendent, (and mostly hidden) Cascadian backyard . Pictures are here: Gear Notes: Doubles of cams up to #3 Approach Notes: Snow

Trip: Mt Garfield - Infinite Bliss Date: 5/13/2011 Trip Report: Dudes, arrived at the climb to see the bottom bolts all covered in snow... looked up at the 2600' route and thought there was no way, as waterfalls careened down the face. decided to try the lower pitches... love the lower pitches; glacial polished slab that reminded me nothing of squamish friction.. the slabs were surprisingly dry given that it had rained all week long having only cleared up the day before... we meandered past the waterfall pitch, but decided to keep on trying to see how far we could get. the ONE bolt gully was disturbingly wet as my ankles were covered in running water, and the 10b pitch whose critical holds were wet as well didn't stop us from packing on the chalk to dry up the holds... the rest of the climb was rather dry up until the 10a chimney at the top, where every hold was wet, and i aided each bolt., the summit pitches were dry, the top out fine. comments: errr... the lower pitches have a unique character and the upper pitches are phenomenal. One of my favorite 10c's given its sustained nature and exposed position. I must comment that I am not a fan of those runout 15 and 16th pitches... For the most part I think the climb is well-bolted, but given that it was rap-bolted and not a ground up ascent, why didn't the bolter stick in a few on run out choss... anyone can climb runout 5.0 choss but choss won't be friendly to all who pass by.... i think its a safety issue and not a psychological crux.. even bachar yerian is better bolted than this. pretty sure it won't ever gain mega-classic status, but nevertheless, a fun way to enjoy Big-wall Euro style. haha and sorry no pics this time... don't usually take pics of alpine-sport https://muntanyaverda.wordpress.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebng/collections/72157624420643616/ Gear Notes: 2 double ropes 25 draws Approach Notes: you can drive right up to the trail head now!

Brand new bright orange grigri 2 for $75 dollars, still in its packaging. Send an e-mail to ng_caleb at hotmail dot com !!!!

Trip: Colorado/Moab - The Diamond/Castleton Date: 10/13/2010 Trip Report: Finished up the season with six 50 classics! 11 overall:) What A joy these classics are. Crowded? i'll say not, only one climb out of 6 had another party on it! Knowing that being strong is a temporary state, we opted to try for diamond on long's, and ended up sleeping a pitch below the summit on a tiny little ledge. We were slowed having taken the 4 pitch 10c variation from mills glacier-broadway before the actual climb instead of a third class scramble that would have avoided the benighting. Also, climbing in PNW did not prepare me for full length pitches on almost every pitch. Certainly, a beautiful view looking over Boulder Co at night, but unprepared we nearly froze at 14000 feet for 10 hours without bivy gear. We finished the last pitch the next day, alive, having completed an OCTOBER/FALL ascent of the diamond. The next few days it snowed and diamond season officially ended. A veritable dream come true. Never would I have thought... we on-sighted all the pitches even the crux pitch at 14000' ft! This and half dome may be the most beautiful lines of my life. Diamond Castleton then took a few days off and finished with kor-ingals on castleton - the route that changed my view from hate to love of wide cracks. It made me though, appreciate PNW granite that much more. A rainy season of 'getting weak' ensues, we'll see what next season has in store be blessed! Caleb.

Trip: PNW/California - four 50 classics Date: 9/3/2010 Trip Report: Stuart North Ridge - Truncated start! bivy at start . bivy in the middle because of 3 hours of hail gendarme var, and descent down orig descent route. ulrich's couloir Some of the best pictures of my life are here: Charlottes Dome - best rock i have ever touched, fun fun climbing. Clyde Minaret - 10a direct start - phenomenal positions - not granite rock. metamorphic. loose rock at places, but climbing like i've never done before. bring extra slings, crappy descent slings - the enchantments of california. maybe better. TTravellers Buttress - A climb everyone should do. heinous offwidths, finger crack face climbing, perfect hands, Blessings, Caleb. Caleb.

Trip: Liberty Bell - Liberty Crack (Failure - big butt kick) Date: 6/18/2010 Trip Report: Hi cascade climbers. Myself (Caleb Ng) and my Bud, Mike Yonkers Tried for liberty crack on thurs june 18.... we did the first three aid pitches, (blew a bashie, and didn't have a hook owww yah!!!) were going to do the crack in a day but during the 4th pitch we got snowed on making life a bit difficult resulting in a hasty retreat. it was terribly hard to have been on the start of the 4th pitch, seen the crack and ready to go free, but turned around by weather. If anyone does the crack this year, would you give us a call at 206 962 1139. We'd like to jug your first three lines for some beer and your chance to meet the two friendliest climbers in the PNW! otherwise, aiding again just seems a bit tedious Later climbers! Sincerely, Caleb Ng. - http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebng/sets/

thanks you guys: )

Trip: [TR] - Joshua TREE Date: 3/11/2010 Trip Report: best trip since ever.