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lutzman

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Everything posted by lutzman

  1. I'm free 6/21-24 and would like to climb little tahoma. would like to climb in two days
  2. Are you guys still working on the TR updates? It was nice that I could look up all TRs by a user on their profile, can't really do that now unless I sift through all their non-TR posts which isn't really practical.
  3. Ive never done the full enchantments loop but I've done all the peaks enough times that it wouldn't be the first choice. would love to hear more thoughts on ptarmigan as a solo if anybody has done it. I haven't been anywhere south of cascade pass so I have no idea how broken up those glaciers are.
  4. I was looking for ideas for a trip in the cascades that might be similar to the ptarmigan traverse but wouldn't be too dangerous to do solo. I don't mind doing a bit of solo glacier travel but don't want to do anything too sketchy. ptarmigan might be just beyond by danger threshold for a solo journey (although I haven't done it) but would love to know if there is anything similar in length (or longer) and scenery that be a bit more low key.
  5. I was thinking about Goode for later this summer, what made you bail?
  6. no not many at all pretty few in fact. but everything I hear or read is good. which is high praise considering the east and west ridges are some of the best climbs i've ever done.
  7. NW face seems to be becoming more popular, I've heard many claim its the best route on the mountain! Will definitely have to check it out one of these days There was a fair amount of that stuff on the route but it didn't give us too much trouble. Thanks for your report on peakbagger, we were happy to have your beta before the trip! I think its a matter of preference, I don't mind camping in the snow and we did see a guide group camping down low in the basin to do some other stuff but on the other hand, it really wasn't too bad doing it in a day!
  8. For us, Forbidden in a day is a big day! I can hardly imagine the TFT in that time. Here's a photo of the traverse
  9. Trip: Forbidden - West Ridge Date: 6/17/2017 Trip Report: Made use of the somewhat finicky forecast Saturday by climbing the forbidden west ridge. Glad we did as the route is in good shape, we moved reasonably quick overall and we didn't see a single other party on route. Road is still gated at MP 21 so there was an additional 30 minutes of walking to the trailhead but the trail is in good condition. Creeks were easy to cross and the trail is almost entirely snow free to the last big creek which we were able to easily pass over on snow. Despite a couple small moats starting to open, the ridge gully is in good condition and should be for a while. From the notch, we were able to climb snow free rock almost entirely to the summit by staying on the crest. Lower down on the north side of the ridge there is still considerable snow, but the ridge proper was predominately dry. Although the weather was mostly great, it did get chilly, however the wind and clouds that were blowing over the ridge added to the flavor, making the climb extra atmospheric and alpine feeling. It took us about 2 hours to climb to the summit from the notch and it was about the same time on the way back. We did 3 short rappels and a couple simul blocks to the notch. After putting our crampons back on we did 3 more rappels into the gully followed by a short downclimb. After slogging back down the trail we were back at the car after about 15.5 hours car to car. Had some beers and drove back to Seattle. Great day overall. Gear Notes: 5 medium nuts 5 cams .3-1 1 picket Approach Notes: Road gated at MP 21 last creek easily passable on snow
  10. Anyone have beta on the climbers approach into the boston basin? River conditions? worth it to bring skis? Was considering climbing forbidden, i'd be curious to know if lingering snow on the ridge would pose an issue also.
  11. I'd like to get up to Washington Pass for some rock climbing and (ideally) do the approach and exit and skis. Id be down to lead anything in the 5.9ish range and could follow harder. I've done lots of climbing out there and am looking forward to getting back. If anybody has ideas i'm down to hear them. right now I can be free by 1pm friday and could stay out there till monday or tuesday. Taylor lutztaylor76@gmail.com 509-669-5809
  12. Looking for a partner for the 27-30th particularly Thursday and Friday. Would like to climb trad routes in the 9-10 range. I can potentially follow a bit harder.
  13. I was wondering if anyone could tell me about the differences between these two classes. I've always thought of Aiare 1 as being the industry standard for learning avalanche fundamentals and its what guiding companies require upon hiring new employees. Do companies look at the NSP 1 as the same thing? and would I be missing out on any important content by taking an NSP class as opposed to the Aiare 1?
  14. Looking for a partner do some some tours or ski mountaineering with this winter. It looks like a break in the weather is coming early this week starting Jan 2nd, I will try to get out on a solo trip if I can't find a partner and avy conditions don't preclude. I still haven't summited helens so wouldn't mind that. im open to almost anything though. send pms to lutztaylor76@gmail.com -Taylor
  15. Its my last week before starting work and weather looks really good. Really hoping I can scrap together a partner and plans for the next few days. Would like to get in the alpine for some longer-ish routes. would like to do NW corner or NW face of NEWS, SW rib SEWS, Stuart N ridge, Prussik-beckey route, outerspace, orbit or anything else around the 5.8-5.10 range. Please get in touch if you're interested Taylor
  16. Lookin to get a burn on outerspace or orbit or something of similar grade/length. Ive climbed both these routes but did not lead any of it at the time. I can lead up to 5.10 at the crag or 5.9 in the alpine. got rack/rope. Feel free to text or call if interested. Taylor 509-669-5809
  17. I have availability this weekend if he still needs partners, feel free to pm me
  18. a shwaky approach with treacherous river crossings?? Ive never heard of such a thing in the north cascades
  19. kinda interested but the same tent retails for $475 on gear lab right now...you might consider dropping the asking price
  20. I have fri/sat/sun free each week usually and would like to utilize the time to get some trips in. I've wanted to do the nooksack traverse, the alpine lakes traverse and the chiwaukum traverse for example but would also be down for day trips with some climbing. wouldn't be opposed to a volcano either. last weekend climbed/skied the tooth which was fun so would like combine the skiing and climbing aspect but i'm also down for one or the other. Full disclosure, not a snow stability expert, but i'm a very proficient skier and make good decisions, wfr certified as well. i'm coming off an ankle injury so as far as the climbing ability goes I can't lead anything too difficult at the risk of taking a leader fall but I can pretty comfortably follow up to 5.10 or lead easy stuff. willing to talk ideas. -Taylor
  21. If meth heads and dead beats weren't jacking gear on a regular, nomenclature would be of little concern, but unfortunately it is in this context.
  22. Figured Id share this one. If anyone recently had gear stolen, of which included such items as - a prussik, some aux cord a quick draw with only one biner, and a "long rope," its up for sale on facebook. Oh, and hes selling it all only as a package. I called him out. dude said he "got the gear from a roomate who owed him money."
  23. Trip: Moab UT - Various, Accident Report Date: 2/17/2016 Trip Report: This report is pretty delayed. A month ago I made a trip down to Moab Utah to do some climbing, while there I took a bad fall and for lack of better word, epicd. This report is gonna be long so if you just want to read about the accident skip to the bottom, but being the gimp that I am, I have nothing else to do other than spray on the internet so i’m typing up the events in full. Everything got rolling because I got a week off from work. I do contract-temp work and the benefit of doing so is when jobs come to an end I can often take time to climb while waiting for the next one to start. So the job I was working in february ended rather abruptly, 2 weeks earlier than was scheduled by my employer. But to my benefit, 2 days later I was hired to start another job that would begin about 2 weeks later. This gave me 12 days off total to go screw around. Super stoked and motivated to do something awesome with the days, I started looking at the weather. Only problem - rain. Pretty much everywhere. Many of you probably still remember the warm and wet front that came through the northwest about 3-4 weeks ago. Very high freezing levels and high precip would last as far as the long range models would project. Shit. Still very motivated to get out, with the fear of sitting on the couch the next 12 days in Seattle, I began to look beyond the NW for a more favorable forecast. Montana-rain. Oregon-rain. The Sierras- sun till wednesday, then rain. Then I looked at Utah. sunshine and moderate temps through the week. I had never been to Utah before and although I knew full well that moab was one of the greatest climbing destinations in the world, I hesitated. It would be a long drive, alone, to a place where I knew nobody with no climbing partners. Is it really worth the time and money to drive all that way with no guarantee that I’ll do any climbing? I didn’t let the doubts linger long. I wanted to be outside this week. I’m not a stranger to long journeys solo in search of adventure and also the ridiculously low gas prices of $1.75/gallon at most stations that week were a big motivator. So the next day I packed my car with enough shit to last me a week or more and started south. That first day it took me about 12 hours to reach Salt Lake City. Other than gas stops it was a non-stop run until I finally surrendered to a highway rest stop at 1 in the morning. That next morning, my fears of not finding partners did not withstand. I got a call from a climber headed to moab along with a group of friends who invited me to join. Game on. I continued on my way to moab and by that afternoon got my first pitches of the trip in. Although the climbs were mediocre especially by Moab terms, it was awesome to get on the rock immediately upon arrival. Incidentally, these were my first climbs since thanksgiving, so warming up on a lesser crag was definitely welcome. Following some beers at the brewery in Moab that evening I retired to the night. The next day, following a detestable hangover I met my friend Tasha from the previous day and new friends Daniel and Javi. We climbed at Wall Street, a highly popular crag for obvious reasons. Many exceptional routes are featured here and there is zero approach. When I say zero, that means I saw someone literally, belaying out of their car. The wall is that close to the road. I found quite a bit of humor at the sights and scenes of this “outdoor gym” but I gotta say REALLY admired the access locals have to climbing in Moab. Unreal. Amongst a couple others here we climbed Potash Bong Hit (5.10), Top 40 (5.8) and Banana Peal (10b). Wall Street Day 3 my new friends had returned to colorado and I was back on my own. In the morning, I visited one of the renowned arches and then made a trip up castleton valley to see some of the notable desert towers including castleton - a beckey favorite. Seeing the landscape was amazing, but as a climber without a partner, its kind of like a strip club. I could look, but that’s it. Blues ball guaranteed. I decided not to torture myself but I was definitely inspired to find some solid climbers and do something awesome. so I returned to wall street in hopes of networking. I connected with some locals, one of whom, Brett Sherman, I was lucky enough to climb with for the next couple days. On day 4 we climbed El Segundo (5.9), a clean, eye pleasing dihedral high above the colorado river - finally, this is what I came to moab for. Following, we climbed Pocket Rocket (10c) a quality sport route more reminiscent of smith rock than Utah sandstone. Still being a fledgling 5.9 trad leader, being able to onsight Segundo inspired a lot of confidence. We ended with some beers, brainstorming about something to do the next day, something longer. Undecided on anything, I retired to my campsite agreeing to figure it out later. That following morning I woke up and checked my messages, one from Brett - “I was thinking about the North Chimney of Castleton Tower, you down?” Fuck ya I was down. El Segundo The Accident We drove out to castleton valley and hit the trail at 10:30, about an hour later we arrived at the base. Ate some food, snapped some photos and racked up. I would take the first pitch - about 130 feet. The pitch is a pretty sustained 5.8-5.9 climbing through a short chimney opening into a dihedral with double sometimes triple hand cracks. I wasn’t being conservative with my gear but I wasn’t exactly sewing it up either. Castleton Tower The North Chimney About ½ way up the pitch, shit began to get weird. While climbing I began to hear a buzzing noise. The noise got closer and louder until it was quite disturbing. With no idea what the fuck was happening I paused momentarily at a decent rest. Then Brett yelled “Taylor! There’s a Drone! Its getting closer!!” I couldn’t see anything other than the wall, but the noise continued to close in, then I heard a SLAM. the device crashed square into the tower, then I heard it spiral out of control to the ground and shatter upon impact. “THATS WHAT YOU GET YOU MOTHERFUCKER,” Brett yells into the void. Me and Brett exchange some looks and “WTF”s. If this had happened at the crag I don’t think it would’ve been quite as startling but being out in the middle of nowhere, high on the tower, I was pretty gripped. “Guess i’m gonna keep climbing!” I yell down to Brett. I continue to move higher, nearing the top of the pitch now. At a good stance I place a medium sized wire nut. Continued a few feet higher to the crux of the pitch, a short calicite covered bulge with a wide crack above it, leading to the next belay 10 ft above that. I grabbed the largest piece I had, a 5 ½ inch cam. Too small unfortunately… I made my attempt to pull through, but I came off and started falling. The wire nut I placed pulled out. The next cam below that stopped my fall finally after a 40-50 foot whip. I would find out later i’m pretty lucky because the cam, although it held, was completely destroyed in the fall. Metolius was nice enough to replace it. It may have slipped where the crack was covered in calcite and caught further down. Maybe the placement walked into a wider part of the crack. At any rate the piece held and thats what mattered. A bit shaken, I was ok and uninjured, but I realized a few moments later that my ankle was swollen to the size of a large orange. My blown up ankle The blown up cam Brett lowered me down and it became evident immediately that I was not going to be able to walk out. The shock of it all was intense but fortunately the weather was good and it was warm so I was calm about the situation. Further, we both had previously been WFR trained so we were at least somewhat used to crisis scenarios. First thing we did, after remembering the drone crash, we knew that another person must be nearby. Brett was able to go around to the opposite side of the tower and located the drone pilot and called him up to help us. It took him about an hour to reach us but in the meantime we tractioned my ankle, rappelled off the base of the tower down to the trail and began our self evac. When the drone pilot (Charlie) finally reached us, we made a plan and continued our long descent off castleton. He got the scolding he deserved for scaring the shit out of me, but ultimately I was really thankful he was there to help. Due to the nature of the terrain, they couldn’t really carry me or hold me up in any capacity so the next several hours basically entailed crab walking/butt scooting through the dirt, mud and snow down the trail. We made ok progress and moved as quickly as was manageable but unfortunately, sundown continued to encroach on time. I could tell Brett and Charlie were losing energy and patience and around 5 pm they began to talk about calling for more help. Due to the financial costs associated (and my pride) I rejected the idea. But after some discussion and with further dwindling daylight, the decision was finally made, and a call was put through to the Sheriff for assistance. I could go on and on about justifying that decision. It’s really the only part that i’m really embarrassed by. I am still frustrated and disappointed by the call, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved when the help finally arrived. I had hoped they would show up with more personnel to carry me out but instead they came with a helicopter and I was airlifted from the hillside. The approaching helicopter As it would turn out I sustained a grade 3 sprain. 2 ligaments were torn completely and a third torn partially. My understanding is i’d be better off just breaking it. At any rate, glad it wasn’t any worse. My freshly packaged leg That pretty much concluded the trip. There was obviously no desire to linger around in Moab so the next morning I made a 16 hour straight push from moab back to washington. Needless to say, 16 hours alone in the car provides a lot of time for reflection on what happened. 3 days after arriving back in washington I started my first day on the job with my new company - on crutches haha. The reaction from the new boss was priceless. Lucky for me, its a desk job. I still can’t say I regret the trip. Just wished I pulled the crux…. Maybe after all the medical bills and time lost on injured reserve the experience will somehow make me a better climber and/or person. At any rate Moab is one hell of a place, can't wait to go back
  24. This report is pretty delayed. A month ago I made a trip down to Moab Utah to do some climbing, while there I took a bad fall and for lack of better word, epicd. This report is gonna be long so if you just want to read about the accident skip to the bottom, but being the gimp that I am, I have nothing else to do other than spray on the internet so i’m typing up the events in full. Everything got rolling because I got a week off from work. I do contract-temp work and the benefit of doing so is when jobs come to an end I can often take time to climb while waiting for the next one to start. So the job I was working in february ended rather abruptly, 2 weeks earlier than was scheduled by my employer. But to my benefit, 2 days later I was hired to start another job that would begin about 2 weeks later. This gave me 12 days off total to go screw around. Super stoked and motivated to do something awesome with the days, I started looking at the weather. Only problem - rain. Pretty much everywhere. Many of you probably still remember the warm and wet front that came through the northwest about 3-4 weeks ago. Very high freezing levels and high precip would last as far as the long range models would project. Shit. Still very motivated to get out, with the fear of sitting on the couch the next 12 days in Seattle, I began to look beyond the NW for a more favorable forecast. Montana-rain. Oregon-rain. The Sierras- sun till wednesday, then rain. Then I looked at Utah. sunshine and moderate temps through the week. I had never been to Utah before and although I knew full well that moab was one of the greatest climbing destinations in the world, I hesitated. It would be a long drive, alone, to a place where I knew nobody with no climbing partners. Is it really worth the time and money to drive all that way with no guarantee that I’ll do any climbing? I didn’t let the doubts linger long. I wanted to be outside this week. I’m not a stranger to long journeys solo in search of adventure and also the ridiculously low gas prices of $1.75/gallon at most stations that week were a big motivator. So the next day I packed my car with enough shit to last me a week or more and started south. That first day it took me about 12 hours to reach Salt Lake City. Other than gas stops it was a non-stop run until I finally surrendered to a highway rest stop at 1 in the morning. That next morning, my fears of not finding partners did not withstand. I got a call from a climber headed to moab along with a group of friends who invited me to join. Game on. I continued on my way to moab and by that afternoon got my first pitches of the trip in. Although the climbs were mediocre especially by Moab terms, it was awesome to get on the rock immediately upon arrival. Incidentally, these were my first climbs since thanksgiving, so warming up on a lesser crag was definitely welcome. Following some beers at the brewery in Moab that evening I retired to the night. The next day, following a detestable hangover I met my friend Tasha from the previous day and new friends Daniel and Javi. We climbed at Wall Street, a highly popular crag for obvious reasons. Many exceptional routes are featured here and there is zero approach. When I say zero, that means I saw someone literally, belaying out of their car. The wall is that close to the road. I found quite a bit of humor at the sights and scenes of this “outdoor gym” but I gotta say REALLY admired the access locals have to climbing in Moab. Unreal. Amongst a couple others here we climbed Potash Bong Hit (5.10), Top 40 (5.8) and Banana Peal (10b). Wall Street Day 3 my new friends had returned to colorado and I was back on my own. In the morning, I visited one of the renowned arches and then made a trip up castleton valley to see some of the notable desert towers including castleton - a beckey favorite. Seeing the landscape was amazing, but as a climber without a partner, its kind of like a strip club. I could look, but that’s it. Blues ball guaranteed. I decided not to torture myself but I was definitely inspired to find some solid climbers and do something awesome. so I returned to wall street in hopes of networking. I connected with some locals, one of whom, Brett Sherman, I was lucky enough to climb with for the next couple days. On day 4 we climbed El Segundo (5.9), a clean, eye pleasing dihedral high above the colorado river - finally, this is what I came to moab for. Following, we climbed Pocket Rocket (10c) a quality sport route more reminiscent of smith rock than Utah sandstone. Still being a fledgling 5.9 trad leader, being able to onsight Segundo inspired a lot of confidence. We ended with some beers, brainstorming about something to do the next day, something longer. Undecided on anything, I retired to my campsite agreeing to figure it out later. That following morning I woke up and checked my messages, one from Brett - “I was thinking about the North Chimney of Castleton Tower, you down?” Fuck ya I was down. El Segundo The Accident We drove out to castleton valley and hit the trail at 10:30, about an hour later we arrived at the base. Ate some food, snapped some photos and racked up. I would take the first pitch - about 130 feet. The pitch is a pretty sustained 5.8-5.9 climbing through a short chimney opening into a dihedral with double sometimes triple hand cracks. I wasn’t being conservative with my gear but I wasn’t exactly sewing it up either. Castleton Tower The North Chimney About ½ way up the pitch, shit began to get weird. While climbing I began to hear a buzzing noise. The noise got closer and louder until it was quite disturbing. With no idea what the fuck was happening I paused momentarily at a decent rest. Then Brett yelled “Taylor! There’s a Drone! Its getting closer!!” I couldn’t see anything other than the wall, but the noise continued to close in, then I heard a SLAM. the device crashed square into the tower, then I heard it spiral out of control to the ground and shatter upon impact. “THATS WHAT YOU GET YOU MOTHERFUCKER,” Brett yells into the void. Me and Brett exchange some looks and “WTF”s. If this had happened at the crag I don’t think it would’ve been quite as startling but being out in the middle of nowhere, high on the tower, I was pretty gripped. “Guess i’m gonna keep climbing!” I yell down to Brett. I continue to move higher, nearing the top of the pitch now. At a good stance I place a medium sized wire nut. Continued a few feet higher to the crux of the pitch, a short calicite covered bulge with a wide crack above it, leading to the next belay 10 ft above that. I grabbed the largest piece I had, a 5 ½ inch cam. Too small unfortunately… I made my attempt to pull through, but I came off and started falling. The wire nut I placed pulled out. The next cam below that stopped my fall finally after a 40-50 foot whip. I would find out later i’m pretty lucky because the cam, although it held, was completely destroyed in the fall. Metolius was nice enough to replace it. It may have slipped where the crack was covered in calcite and caught further down. Maybe the placement walked into a wider part of the crack. At any rate the piece held and thats what mattered. A bit shaken, I was ok and uninjured, but I realized a few moments later that my ankle was swollen to the size of a large orange. My blown up ankle The blown up cam Brett lowered me down and it became evident immediately that I was not going to be able to walk out. The shock of it all was intense but fortunately the weather was good and it was warm so I was calm about the situation. Further, we both had previously been WFR trained so we were at least somewhat used to crisis scenarios. First thing we did, after remembering the drone crash, we knew that another person must be nearby. Brett was able to go around to the opposite side of the tower and located the drone pilot and called him up to help us. It took him about an hour to reach us but in the meantime we tractioned my ankle, rappelled off the base of the tower down to the trail and began our self evac. When the drone pilot (Charlie) finally reached us, we made a plan and continued our long descent off castleton. He got the scolding he deserved for scaring the shit out of me, but ultimately I was really thankful he was there to help. Due to the nature of the terrain, they couldn’t really carry me or hold me up in any capacity so the next several hours basically entailed crab walking/butt scooting through the dirt, mud and snow down the trail. We made ok progress and moved as quickly as was manageable but unfortunately, sundown continued to encroach on time. I could tell Brett and Charlie were losing energy and patience and around 5 pm they began to talk about calling for more help. Due to the financial costs associated (and my pride) I rejected the idea. But after some discussion and with further dwindling daylight, the decision was finally made, and a call was put through to the Sheriff for assistance. I could go on and on about justifying that decision. It’s really the only part that i’m really embarrassed by. I am still frustrated and disappointed by the call, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved when the help finally arrived. I had hoped they would show up with more personnel to carry me out but instead they came with a helicopter and I was airlifted from the hillside. The approaching helicopter As it would turn out I sustained a grade 3 sprain. 2 ligaments were torn completely and a third torn partially. My understanding is i’d be better off just breaking it. At any rate, glad it wasn’t any worse. My freshly packaged leg That pretty much concluded the trip. There was obviously no desire to linger around in Moab so the next morning I made a 16 hour straight push from moab back to washington. Needless to say, 16 hours alone in the car provides a lot of time for reflection on what happened. 3 days after arriving back in washington I started my first day on the job with my new company - on crutches haha. The reaction from the new boss was priceless. Lucky for me, its a desk job. I still can’t say I regret the trip. Just wished I pulled the crux…. Maybe after all the medical bills and time lost on injured reserve the experience will somehow make me a better climber and/or person. At any rate Moab is one hell of a place, can't wait to go back
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