Avalanche_Lilly

Haters gonna hate. Really enjoyed watching you guys fly by (we were the last in line at the cluster at the gendarme), it's like you were running but climbing. When I grow up I hope I can climb that fast and efficiently! Thanks for giving me a vision to aspire to.

The finder isn't a CC member he just posted on craigslist and got spammed so I said I'd try here for him. But good idea I will suggest he do that!

describe the case if you think it's yours

Yes, add more pics! 'second day sun' and 'getting closer' are so beautiful it hurts.

Most certainly! Only because you asked so nicely.

Yes, we did make the summit! Climb was 18 hrs tent to tent. Funny, when we did come down Dieter Klaus congratulated me on being the first woman to reach the actual summit, but further internet research revealed I was merely the third. Still, I'll take it! I think Todd was the first vegan on the summit hahaha.

Hey, holmes. Todd Eddie, Brad Farra, and I are giving a presentation on our August 2013 East Ridge of the Devil's Thumb climb in the Stikine Ice Cap, Alaska. The presentation is at 7 PM on January 22 at the Mazamas Mountaineering Center ( 527 SE 43rd Av) in Portland. Here's a sneak peek: [video:vimeo]83999858 Would love to see some of you there!!

In other news, our non-internet-savvy friend just told us he finally figured out he had bootied our cam, hooray!

Are you telling me that the name 'Doug's Direct' is meant to be facetious and I just didn't get it?!?! DAMN YOU, DOOOOOUUUUUUUGGGG!!!!

No Ana said she didn't find anything either! Thanks for looking though. Luckily I am INCREDIBLY RICH.

Aw man one day I wanna be old skool cool enough to get drunk on Beacon and party all night! Have you ever hauled up a bbq grill? Thanks for looking in advance, Ivan and Ana! You guys are swell!

That was you with Plaidman, right? Ha ha fortunately I was the only loser slip-sliding away, being last in line. It's prob for the best as I endure humilation quite well and often.

Trip: Beacon Rock - Young Warriors Date: 8/25/2013 Trip Report: Hmm it's forecasted to rain everywhere this weekend, let's stay in town. Saturday morning: hey look it's raining let's stay home. Sunday morning: hey it's not raining, let's hit up Beacon! Climb Team: Preston, Hye, Toddipoo, Dills. Goal: Young Warriors, which all the cool kids keep talking about, and if you know me you know I want to be cool. Preston has climbed the route before so he and Hye go first. Hye leads P1. Then I lead P1. It's 5.8 mellow with lots of bolts. I plug in some gear cuz I can. What is it about alpine that makes you run it out like a badass but when you're cragging you sew it up like a bitch? I don't even have enough slings because I just brought my alpine rack from last weekend. Preston leads up P2. Plaidman appears above us on a different route. "How do you like the butthole pitch?" he calls out. "You call it the butthole pitch too?!" Preston asks increduously. The roof does form a somewhat tubular sphincter. Toddipoo leads up next, he's terrified of the choss below the butthole "That's one dirty butthole" but the crack above the butthole you can sew up nice. It's the only real place where you have to use finger jams on the route as well. Todd made it look easy as usual. Hye has already led up and Preston has taken off by the time I reach the top of P2. "P3, your lead, there is only one move of 5.9" says Toddipoo. Ooh I get to lead 5.9 and be cool? I want to be cool! I go to place my first piece above the anchor and a cute little frog peaks out 2" from my face to inspect what I'm doing. This pitch was cruiser with just a little tricky smeary dihedral with a pin in the middle of it. Hye was belaying Preston out when I arrived. "We should climb something together, just the two of us," I told her. "We need to earn hot crusher babe street cred." "Sure I'd love to!" Hye replies, "Except, you can be the hot babe and I'll just be the crusher. Oh wait that's not what I meant! I mean, you can be a crusher too!" Ha ha ha oh that Hye, so modest! P4. Todd's lead. It gets darker and colder. The wind picks up. He's up and it's my turn to go. I head up and cannot get a #1 cam out of a crack. It's walked too far in, is overcammed, and attempts to pull on the trigger even with my nut tool are futile. I keep at it, trying to manually push back the lobes with my nut tool, and then the cloud above me explodes with fat raindrops. This ain't no drizzle, I am getting soaked in a matter of seconds. I realize time is of the essence. I try, I try, and then I say fuck it, I need to move before the rock gets any wetter and abandon the cam in the crack. Now I realize I was already fucked and should've tried harder to get the cam. Climbing has become an exercise in futility. The rock is not only wet, but the mixture of dirt and lichen powder coating it has transformed into a slick greasy mess, I can barely hang on to jugs. I climb my hardest till I come to the slab traverse with the pin in the middle, and my shoulders slump in defeat. Wet slimey slab with no holds. There's no way I'm getting out of this one unscathed. I begin up the left side, slip, slide down it like I'm on a slip-n-slide, and pendulum oh a good 10 feet. I totally screamed like a girl. It's ok, I'm a pendulum master. My expertly trained senses flare alive, my head snaps to look where I'm headed and I catch myself with bent knees. I head up to try again but my resolve is lost. I inch back out across the slab and I think I might have started crying. Crying on top rope. I was just really indignant that I had lost that cam, and if I hadn't wasted time on that cam I would've been able to climb this part when it was dry, and now I was fucked both ways, and how could the world do this to me, and how was I going to make it across this slippery death slab. In times of extreme duress my mind likes to latch onto a mantra and repeat it over and over. This time the catch phrase was 'I GOT NOTHING!' (in reference to holds of course) . Somehow I made it past the crux slab without eating shit again and climbed the last part of P4 wailing "I GOT NOTHING!" the entire way. They tell you never climb with your knees, but that's bullshit. There is a much higher coefficient of friction when you climb a wet slab with your knee than your slick rock shoe. On the down side, I think my new khaki-colored pants are ruined. LUCKILY Hye was already leading up P5 when the downpour happened, and was able to climb to the top! She saved us all!! We're all climbing the rest of this bitch on top rope. It may be 5.easy when it's dry but the rain has turned it into 5.12. I tie in 10 feet behind Preston and drag up my rope till I can belay Todd in at the top. The rain had stopped and we were in high spirits again and frolicked back down the trail, laughing and joking and none of the hikers could tell that just 30 minutes ago I was having a complete and utter meltdown, desperately cursing "I GOT NOTHING!" at the heavens, alone on a friction slab in the rain. In summary if anyone happens to be on Young Warriors soon and is feeling so kind and gracious as to get me back my #1 cam near the start of P4, I will give an autographed photo of myself climbing Vesper in my bikini, plus my eternal gratitude!!! Gear Notes: single cams up to a #2 although you could find places to stick a #3 if you must, at least 10 draws Approach Notes: crocs

bwhahaaha! Um but I don't understand aren't fleece vests considered technical climbing wear? I may have to give a presentation on Devil's Thumb hence why no TR as of yet. But you can look at this photo of it, and dream...

Trip: Vesper Peak - North Face Date: 8/18/2013 Trip Report: After cranking hard all summer culminating in a summit of Devil's Thumb in Alaska the weekend before, I decided it was about time for a fuck-off climb weekend. I am tired of climbing by its stringent RULES. I'm going to do WHAT I WANT! This may or may not include: drinking on the approach, drinking at camp, smoking on top of every pitch, blasting obnoxious music at base camp, wearing definitely non-technical clothing, being slow, lollygagging and dawdling, etc. My friend Azure was the perfect wing woman for this, being a busy mom whose husband and son were out of town that weekend. She doesn't get to climb or party that often anymore so she wanted to make the most of the weekend too! Vesper looked like an ideal climb, we'll crank it out Saturday then fuck off on Sunday. Oh wait the weather is bad on Saturday nevermind we'll hike in Saturday, camp and fuck off then climb Sunday. Friday night! Margaritas and hot tubbin. Azure made me get up at 7 AM Saturday morning cuz she's a mom and they all get up early I think. We hit the road, tried to find the North Cascades but took a wrong turn and ended up at Scuttlebutt Brewery in Everett. OOPS! Eleven tiny beers and some clam chowder later we're going the right direction. We slog up the trail, stop at Headlee Pass for a wine and smoke break, head up to Vesper Lake. ALRIGHT, there is a large group of men camped there! Wohooo! Oh wait, they are all teenage boys. And even the group leaders are too young for me. Sigh, it is hard, being old and haggard. I'm just kidding anyhow, I ain't interested cuz I have the hottest boyfriend in the world. The guys have the best (only) camping spot so we go scrap something out of the boulderfield, moving rocks aside, too lazy to go to the campsites further up the ridge. The evening consisted of drinking wine, smoking ciggies, and dancing to hits such as 'Low' by Flo-Rida blasting obnoxiously from the basecamp speakers. We're gonna get up at 4 AM! 4 AM. I peak out the tent door. There's a cloud over Sperry, Vesper looks completely clear. "UM it's cloudy we should sleep in another hour." 5 AM. "UM it's still too dark why should we futz around in the dark for no reason?" 7:00 AM we get up. Leave camp at 8. Whatever. It's fuck-off climb! WE DO WHAT WE WANT! We scramble up to the 5500' notch and downclimb onto the glacier below. Fuck that moat is huuuge. The gully system at 5200' recommended by trip reports is completely inaccessible unless you can jump a 10' moat that's 30+ feet deep. We wander up another 150' or so and find the only spot where the moat is remotely passable, with only a 4' leap to a ledge. Azure puts me on belay from the snow and I go to jump it and hem and haw for 5 minutes and then bitch out and make her and her longer legs do it. It's so humiliating, being tiny. She makes it look easy and climbs up a short way and builds an anchor and hauls me up. Azure setting up to belay harrowing moat crossing. Looking down at me at the only possible crossing of giant gaping moat Now here comes the fun! Head up this random steep gulley that is the only one you can access and not in anyone else's trip reports. There is not one but TWO roofs I'm gonna have to pull over. I hope there are good holds. There aren't. I can't even remember the details of the first roof I am too traumatized, I just remember wishing one of my stronger climbing buddies were there so I could back off and make them do it and be relaxed and happy. But, they aren't here, and I ain't rapping off no gear, so the only way is up. At one point I really want my #2 cam but my belay device biner's nose is jammed into the wire gate of the cam biner and I can't see what's going on so I wiggle and wiggle and then watch sadly as my belay device pinballs down the ledges below, flashing gloriously one last time in the sunlight before it disappears into the moat. "Hope you like being belayed off a munter!" I yell at Azure. Hot roof on roof action: After the first roof I build the most horrifying anchor I ever have, a tiny cam and a nut in the cracks formed by the same block separating out of the rock face, and a cam in a flake at my feet that I can't equalize but set as a backup. Azure asks for a take at one point and I say "NO!" On the second roof I came up under its right side, performed an undercling no-feet traverse switching to a layback off a vertical crack on the left side, backstep smear and finally heave myself on top of the roof only to find no holds again. "How does it look up there?" Azure asks. "JUST BE QUIET RIGHT NOW!! DON'T TALK!!' I demand, balancing on one tiny foothold. Being terrified makes me unpleasant and bitchy. I end up pseudo-chimneying and smearing up a smooth corner system to finally more moderate ground. "Can I talk now?" Azure asks. "Yes." I say. "GOOD JOB!" She cheers. I'm a pretty solid 5.8 leader and I was struggling so I'd say those roofs are at least 5.9. Or maybe it was just awkward scary smeary alpine 5.8 hard. Every piece of pro in that gully is awful, it's either a cam behind a suspect flake or a nut in the crack of a disjointed block. I can see how easily what happened to Steph Abegg did happen as everything I pulled/stood upon was massive but not solidly attached. Next was two annoying rope lengths of heather benches mixed with granite and then we were to the granite slab! This is where you come in on the bypass ledges. I could see the appeal of quality rock, but did you really hike all the way in here just to do 3 pitches of high quality rock? Why don't you just go to the crag if that is what you are looking for? This is ALPINE, where we like to scrap for what we get! We stop for a smoke break, I need to calm my frazzled nerves. I dunno if I can even call the 1.5 pitches before the open book a climb cuz it's so low angle, it was more like delicate walking on a sidewalk. But I love every minute of it because it's solid and ain't that first gully. Solid slab salvation Eff you, climbing, and your stringent rules! I DO WHAT I WANT! We climbed the open book cuz uhhh I dunno it involves the least decision making and most pro? It was pretty chill, maybe 5.5?, walking your feet up while underclinging/laybacking on the crack. Perhaps staying on the slab would be more challenging. I ran out of rope the last 30' so Azure gladly led us to the top. Freeeeeedom of the Hiiiillllls!!! Open book is easy and fun! Walking down from the summit, clouds moved in and no views. What a wonderful girl-time fuck-off climb!!! In summary: If you are planning on doing the complete NF route this season soon you're going to have a hard time accessing anything due to the moat! It's a take whatever gully you can get sort of deal. Don't be banking on no 5.6 easy climb. Gear Notes: nuts, set of cams up to a #2 with doubles in .3 and .4, a coupla extra micro cams made me happy Approach Notes: aluminum crampons + approach shoes + ice axe was fine for the glacier