mvs

I made a small video of a climb of NE Buttress of Slesse Mountain, which three of us climbed earlier this month. The music is the song "Learning to Fly" by the Foo Fighters, it was a generally popular radio hit a few years ago. The movie is 11 MB in size, with darn good picture quality (new compression software), and excellent sound. If you like scenes of climbing you might enjoy it. There is no talking or beta, although the footage is chronological, going from the bypass slabs, to the bivy ledge via the 5.9 pitch, then directly to the summit on day 2. Perhaps this cheesy poster will entice you: The movie is at: http://www.mountainwerks.org/cma/2005/slesse.wmv For folks who did this climb, we hope the movie brings back some memories of good times!

What a great trip!

You are tearing that neck of the Cascades up! I'd love to see a scan of that old business card if possible.

Nice! Get any pitchers of climbing the gash?

Wow, that sounded scary but somehow enticing

I did what Highclimb did (reading Climbing Anchors), but then I went cragging with an equally inexperienced partner. We would geek out on our anchors and protection on 5.0 climbs for a few weekends in Leavenworth. We survived and gradually got better. Probably not recommended.

That is an amazing trip with the lad. I've got a cupla 8 month olds now and this is inspiring me! What is up with that rumor anyway? I'm disgusted, having taken it at face value weeks ago and decided not to go in there this year. It sounded so...sure of itself. Like that sweet Renton granite. Wow, again, great trip.

That was a great read. I hope I'm climbing such things 20 years from now like you guys! "Hail fellow Furies" Glad our TR was a good help.

Nice! I'm going to be at Cathedral Lakes Prov. Park next week (Mon-Sat morning) with my fambly. Anybody want to come meet me to do 1-2 of these climbs? I can bring rack and rope to the lodge. PM me if innerested.

Cool! That's so neat to live there...

highclimb, DerWanderer and I had a great time on the buttress Sunday and Monday. We started Sunday morning from the car and mosied up to the nice bivy ledge around 3 pm Sunday. We didn't see anyone until reaching the ledge and exchanging a "whoop" with a party topping out on the buttress. The climbing to there was fantastic, we especially liked the "crux" 5.9+ pitch which felt considerably easier, but had awesome exposure threading the roof(s). We also liked the 5.7 steep corner with the fixed cam near the ledge. It was fun lounging around for many hours, thinking about the huge drop to the bypass glacier. The night was warm enough and didn't test our ridiculously light bivy set-up. Monday we started kind of late but had a fun climb often on the crest for the final pitches. The summit was strange, as bizarre flying ants were massed there. It was cool to have such solitude after a busy weekend! The path down was well marked, the "Alpine Select" description makes it very easy. Nonetheless, from the knoll overlooking Slesse Creek we began to hate life due to heat and steep dusty trail. One of our cars was "wimpy", requiring miles of extra road walking . Finally got home to Seattle 11 pm. Great climb with friends. BTW, don't be tempted to take a big rack because of fabled stories of hard climbing or whatever. A medium cragging rack will do fine (no doubles of some cams needed, etc.). Also, we don't know why anyone would do the bypass pitches to avoid the 5.9 roof pitch, as climbing above the bivy is just about the same difficulty. It was one of the best pitches anyways. Thanks to great partners!

nice! Seems like you had a great attitude for the route. I mean it is what it is, may as well enjoy it if you are drawn to do it in the first place

happy birthday Drew, don't feel bad

I've seen cables that go from firewire on the video camera to USB. It is a slower method but should allow you to get past the problem.

I made a 7 minute "music video" of climbing video from the trip. It is good fun. The music is "techno" so if you would rather hear "The Mamas and the Poppas" or something it might be annoying. I am embarassed to say it is 20 MB, but I couldn't stand an encoding less than that. Perhaps best to download it completely and watch with headphones (high quality sound, 320x240 video). Enjoy if ye like! click here

way to go guys!

That was a great trip! And your photos rock!

What kind of post-processing did you do on the photos? They are absolutely gorgeous. Nice!!

Cool! I recognize the "5.3" chimney. We thought it dubious so went around the corner to the left, making a "5.8" move on the way up to a belay. I remember standing at the base of the chimney slinging a chockstone and wondering "do I want to go up this?"

nice!

yeah those are Velvia-like pictures from a digital camera, really nice!

"A dirty bird shits in it's own nest" --Best In Show Deleted Scenes Good point Rad.

i was gripped reading it, thanks for the long TR. That sounds like an awesome bivy up high and alone.

You guys are really inspiring! I remember looking at the terrain of your previous attempt, and imagining the rappel/ice descent <shudder>. I was sure you'd get it the next year.

I agree that Storm King Col was straightforward if you want to go back to your camp in the basin. But if I did it again I would definitely carry over. It is just a lot of work going back down those brushy/slabby sections, crossing the stream, etc. If you don't make it down until dark you _might_ not find your camp! We gave up looking and sat miserably only to find our camp 5 minutes away at first light :-).