forrest_m

Does anyone have any recent knowledge of the condition of the Bush River road (near Golden, B.C.)? I’ve heard third hand that it is driveable to the end with a standard-clearance 2WD car, can anyone confirm or deny? Any other approach beta for the north side of Columbia? Thanks in advance.

me too if the direct link doesn't work, go to bivouac.com, log in (or register if you aren't already), then go to what's new, and look down under new photo essays. it's the one called "Climbers on Taseko Mountain" i just thought it was kind of funny to see a picture of myself taken 3 years ago posted so recently!

I drew a big crack on top of my helmet with a non-UIAA approved sharpie, it wore off after a few years and the helmet survived quite a few knocks. Since I just dropped the thing down the east face of liberty bell last weekend, I guess it was kind of prophetic... but in the least bad possible way. oh, thank god, i've graduated from chief wanker to chronic gumbie. [ 08-07-2002, 05:26 PM: Message edited by: forrest_m ]

http://bivouac.com/PhotoPg.asp?PhotoId=2227 I'm the middle dot... I reckon' you have to be a bivouac.com member for this to work.

stupid double post... [ 08-07-2002, 05:18 PM: Message edited by: forrest_m ]

also look at this one: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000412 starts out as a TR about bear mt. but quickly becomes a comparison of the relative merits of that route vs. ne butt of slesse

A friend of mine was walking by one of the lower crags at exit 38 and saw two very young guys working a route. The guy on the ground was useing a gri-gri, of course. About the third bolt, he gets a worried expression on his face and yells up to his partner "Are you in a good place?" "Why?" replied the climber with sudden panic. A pause. "Dooood. You're the hand." (for anyone not familiar, the gri-gri has some of those cute petzl icons on the side to show you which direction to feed the rope through. One is a climber, the other a hand)

Thanks for the beta Matt. We did the route on Saturday, and we did indeed do a lot of aid. It was a pretty full day, even without my bonehead move (see below). In the end, we couldn’t quite decide whether to approach this as a free-with-a-little-aid climb or as a full-on aid route. We didn’t want to commit to something that would be too hard/poorly protected to french free, but also wanted to carry as little gear as possible. So of course, we weren’t really ideally equipped for either. Basic summary: my feeling is that you would have to be a very solid 5.11+ climber to do much of the business part of the route free. Regardless of the difficulty of the climbing (the rock is excellent and pretty featured), the gear is often long stretches of small brass nuts, sometimes very tricky to place. Offset aliens were nice. The route doesn’t see a lot of traffic and some crack gardening was required to get the gear in. Bottom line, we basically aided pitches 5-8. All the aid was clean and pretty reasonable; beware the fixed pins, as we were able to finger-clean two of the ones we found. One nice thing is that you can pretty easily bail off the route: all the belays to the top of pitch 7 are fixed, with at least 1 new 3/8 inch bolt per anchor. The topo in Beckey is pretty accurate, though some of the fixed pins have been replaced with bolts. After wanking with gear at my house, we drove up to the pass Friday night. Saturday morning came too soon; unseasonably cold temperatures (36 degrees when we woke up) made it hard to get a super-early start, but we were climbing by 7:30. The first four pitches are pretty straightforward. Pitch 3 & 4 could be run together with a single rope, and they use different size gear. At the top of P3 in the Beckey topo, it shows a dogleg to the right; someone has added a second bolt that allows you to continue free straight up and left to the base of the P4 chimney, but this is a pretty hard move (mid 11). The fifth pitch starts out from under a big roof up a ramp to the left. Good pro and handholds die out as you pull into a small corner, then I aided up the thin seam (climbing seemed like it might go but it would be very hard to place gear while free climbing here), past a fixed bashie thing. The crack peters out and there is about 10 feet of mandatory free climbing that made me pretty glad I was wearing rock shoes and not wall boots. Horizontal pulls get you to a pretty good stance (10+), where you can get some more gear in and in a few more moves you reach a nice new bolt. Another couple of hard moves above the bolt get you into another crack system, which gets easier as you pull into the corner above. (11a free from bolt to anchors) This is the last comfy belay for a while, at least there is a small pedestal where you can stand instead of hanging from the anchors. The topo says 140 ft, but really only about 90. P6 heads right around another small roof with some fixed gear. The topo said A3, but we found it to be easier than the aid on the 5th and 7th pitch. By now, we were fully in aid mode and had abandoned any ideas about doing much free climbing. Once you get into the aiding mindset, it’s pretty hard to break out of, and we didn’t feel too good about taking falls on the consistently small gear/flexing old fixed knifeblades. The Cascade Ceilings at the top of the pitch have lots of good cracks and features, but rope drag prevented Hal from doing many continuous free moves here either. From the hanging belay on the slab, p7 starts out with a very awkward rightward traverse down to a tree then up the crack. This would be a scary free lead without preplacing gear. The belay is another hanger, below another large roof. Pitch 8 was pretty easy aid, with a lot of fixed gear, before the angle eased off and we could free up through blocky terrain to a gravelly terrace. We moved up quickly to M&M ledge, a short 5.7 traverse up and left, then I ran the next two pitches together. Really fun climbing up a very clean ramp and dihedral – it would almost be worth doing the barber pole route just for this upper section. Hal followed with the pack and then headed up the next blocky section. At this point, I did one of the dumbest things I’ve done in the mountains, a mistake that turned an ordinary long day into a mini-epic. Dusk was falling fast as Hal led, and the overcast sky and occasional spits of rain made me really want to hurry, so put my headlamp onto my helmet as I belayed. Just as I put my helmet on, but before I had a chance to fasten the strap, Hal started pulling slack out hard, so I let go of my hat to pull rope through, then – DUH – looked up to see if he needed more. There was the sound of plastic impacting rock, and I looked over my shoulder just in time to see my helmet take one hard bounce off the block I was sitting on and then out into the abyss. Loosing my helmet was bad enough, although from here to the top was mostly ridge travel, but loosing the headlamp was a major bad. The sky was overcast and there was no moon. By the time I got to the next belay, it was fully dark. We loaded the jumars on the rope before I left the belay, then I ran up the next pitches at full speed, trying to get past the slab portion before the rain kicked in. Hal jugged in the dark, only becoming aware of gear to clean when the upper jumar was blocked by the carabiner. The last 300 feet of easy ground took a long, long time: I climbed 30 feet with the headlamp, clipped into something, then belayed Hal up with the pack, directing the beam of the lamp at his feet. Fortunately, we both had the descent pretty wired, although coming down the scree gully was a pain. It was the same drill, I would go 20 feet, then turn to light up the path for Hal to follow. We finally got down to the trail, and were very grateful that it is such a highway. We dragged our tired asses back to the car at 3:30, about 23 hours after we had gotten up.

Michael, I'm pretty sure they made it up. (Was one of them a recently-transplanted californian now working as a guide in bellingham? We chatted for a minute but I didn't get his name). We were just summitting when I saw their headlamps arriving at their truck, around 11:30.

Matt Anderson wrote “I own no offsets” That’s kind of funny, ‘cause I don’t own any Lowe balls… We actually had a double set of small aliens and offsets, which was probably overkill. One full set including the offsets sure was nice, however, with maybe doubles in the 0 and 1 sizes. We got good use out of both straight sided and offset brass nuts. Probably safe enough a fall without that piece, nonentheless, a long ride. I would agree that there is always some bomber gear on each pitch, but it’s liberally spaced, i.e. you would take a long fall, but the route is pretty steep and clean and you wouldn’t deck… Regarding pitch 5 - I'd be very curious to hear what Forrest used, I had a decent alien far below me and placed a couple of crappy loweballs. I tried to place micro nuts, but they kept yanking out. I couldn't see the placements b/c I was placing from a balancy lieback. I got a couple of good pieces in just as you turn the roof (just off the belay). Then the crack gets very small and shallow. I got a decent 0 alien and a blue-black offset, but both required a lot of fiddling to get them into the sweet spot. Same with the nuts – there are decent places, but it’s a matter of millimeters to find the sweet spot. I’m blown away that you did that free, I started out trying but quickly realized it was out of my league. P 6 & 7 had a lot more stemming and seemed like you could hang out and place better gear. Matt, I have a question for you: on the 12a pitch, how did you work the beginning? Did you move the belay from the bolts below the slab down to the tree? If I was freeing it, I think I would want to load up the crack down by the tree (where it’s really good) with solid gear, but with a belay from the fixed station, that would be a rope drag nightmare. (Aiding I was able to swallow the runout and not place anything until I got high enough to not have too much drag).

Anyone done it? I’m wondering how sustained the aid sections are, i.e. do we treat this like a ‘lil big wall or is it more of a long free route with a few aid sections? (Yeah, I know, it goes free at 12.something with cruxes protected by small brass nuts. So we won’t be doing that.) TIA.

Tex – Well, you may be right. I first heard of the tibloc thing on rec.climbing, and someone was crediting Hans Florine with showing them the technique, but who knows if that’s really true. But it was a record-setting long thread, and I couldn’t bring myself to read the whole thing. There’s a good summary here: http://www.tradgirl.com/climbing_faq/advanced_2.htm#tibloc_simul

so, lambone, is your fiancee still psyched to to "easy alpine climbs" in the rockies for your honeymoon? i'm always paranoid that if i get my wife involved in an epic i'll never get her out of the city again...

at least i'm a "chief"...

Another way of saying the same thing: we did only 2 raps, thought it looked good, and started traversing. We didn't die, but it was scary, slabby, dirty mid-5th traversing. Yuck.

Matt – only one way to avoid this in the future: leave the cel phone at home… seriously, I’m glad to hear that you’re (all) ok and apparently no worse for wear. These things happen. We all make questionable decisions from time to time, but usually the weather stays fine and we get away with it. For what it’s worth, I think miscommunications with the rescue folks are common. If they waited to have all the info, it would be too late for the people who really were in a desperate situation, so their tendency is to “mobilize first, ask questions later.”

my understanding of the tibloc thing is that it is a technique developed by the "in a day" yosemite crowd, many of whom are simulclimbing on 5.10 and harder terrain, and that it works best on very steep routes. i've always thought that for most alpine terrain, it would be a recipie for snarls and tangles because of the broken terrain, changes in direction, would keep the rope from feeding properly. i've never done it, but it's in my "maybe i'll use this technique someday" file... norman, while i agree that simulclimbing may not be right for everyone or every situation, my experience has been that it is widely applicable and usually faster (for me) than either standard belays or soloing. i'm comfortable simuling at a much higher level than i am soloing (even if i could do it w/o a rope, i'd spend a lot of time moving up and down, etc). simulclimbing is much faster than belayed climbing because you are both moving at the same time AND because for a given number of vertical feet, you have fewer "changeovers" where neither one of you is moving.

le corbusier was one of the great modern architects. he designed "le modulor" as a guide to proportions, based on the golden section. but the result was this ridiculous high-ape-index dude instead. so either: this is an illustration of what happens when you let "logic" overcome common sense or proof that climbers are the perfectly proportioned humans. you have to respect anyone who give themselves a silly name and make it stick. (le corbusier means "the crow;” his mom named him eduord jenneret) [ 07-30-2002, 05:53 PM: Message edited by: forrest_m ]

i second that! (it's the second real pitch, maybe the 3rd per the description in the nelson book) the cracks on the face are easier than they appear, as you climb towards the roof look right, you'll see a fixed sling around something (it's a chockstone and i think a fixed pin, but you can't tell from below). excellent climbing. you might want a bigger cam for the next pitch (leading to the base of the first bolt ladder), although you can get a #3 camalot in above the belay and then run it out (it gets easier the higher you go).

so it's important and all to keep the rope as tight as feasible... but be smart about it, if you're in a tough move and there's a better stance a little ways up, keep moving. my feeling is that it is better to put some extra slack in the rope (possible problem if someone falls - unlikely) than to hang out in a bad stance getting pumped (definate problem - makes you likely to fall). another vote for tying in short - about 25-30 meters is usually about right. remember that you can simulclimb through harder terrain than you might think - if there's gear, the leader has close to the security of a regular belay, then he can stop and give the second a top rope through the hard section. if you plan to do a lot of simulclimbing, bring more small gear and slings than normal - small gear doesn't weigh much and you can really stretch the pitches out without stopping to reload as often.

bobby, i dunno, have you ever done the e. buttress of NEWS? pretty shitty. lots of flaky rock, butt-cheek type cracks and wa. pass crumblies. nothing at all like the dir. e. butt. of SEWS. so i could believe that the rock is bad on the flycatcher. then again, maybe it's all a scam to keep people off of it...

i actually thought the rock was ok on mesachie, if you stay right on the ridge crest. the "icefall" gully was full o'snow when we did it, which helps. oh yeah, the rock on spickard is so bad that i'm surprised the peak doesn't fall down when the wind blows. [ 07-18-2002, 12:26 PM: Message edited by: forrest_m ]

plus the descent down the backside of edith cavell is very scenic. we saw a big big big moose. (we summited just as a thunderstorm appeared and we decided to run down the w. ridge rather than downclimb the e. ridge). the regular n. face of athabasca is also a nice alpine trip if she's into ice climbing, 5 or 6 pitches of moderate ice face with a 10 foot rock step at the top. easy to do car-to-car in a day. haven't done it, but heard good things about roche miete. it looks cool. oh yeah, and mt. louis too, supposed to be fun, reasonable solid, all that good stuff. [ 07-16-2002, 05:05 PM: Message edited by: forrest_m ]

yes, didn't you know? RURP is their love child.

Over the long weekend, Dan Aylward, Chris Fast and I climbed Gunsight Peak, tagging the summit of Dome on the way. It was a bit of a grudge match for Chris and I, since two years ago on the 4th weekend, we got 18" of snow after the approach. We didn't see a single other person in four days, though we saw tracks in the snow. Day 1 - we hiked into the small valley at the head of Bachelor Creek. We can add some confirmation to the warnings already posted about avalanche debris. We eventually determined that the avalanche had started high up on Itswoot Peak, swept down into the small cross valley at the head of Bachelor Creek, gone up the other side and launched off the lip, leaving a small strip of trees untouched where it had gone airborne before pummeling into the slope of old growth below, taking out every tree for around 3/4 mile down valley (maybe 800 vertical feet?) As the valley turned, the slide had banked up the sides, slicing off trees several feet in diameter as neatly as a hairdresser with electric shears. “A number 2 clipper cut on Bachelor Creek, a little longer on the sides, please.” We found the remnants of the trail climbing up one side; when that disappeared, we crossed carefully to a island in the middle of the flow, then followed a snow remnant as far as we could before attacking the headwall directly up the steepest slope where the avalanche had scoured the entire slope down to bare dirt. It took us about 2 hours to get from the base to the top of the slide. Day 2 - We hiked over the ridge, down to Cub Lake, then over Itswoot ridge and around the valley up to the Dome Glacier Flats, where we made camp. We headed up to scope out the Dome-Chickamin col crossing, then scrambled to the summit of dome to enjoy the sunset from the exact center of the north cascades. Day 3 - back over the col, then the long descent into the chickamin and back up to the base of Gunsight. We wanted to try the Nelson/deitrich west face route and started up what we though was the first pitch. This took a long time, since it was sparsely protected 5.9, not 5.7. The next pitch blanked out; we found an old bail sling. Were we off route or did we just need bigger balls? Guess we'll never know. We bailed, and headed up a line a few hundred feet leftwards, reaching the north ridge in 2 fun pitches and the summit 4 more pitches up the ridgeline. Very solid rock, 5.8ish but not terribly sustained. From the summit, a single rope rappel gets you down to the notch between the two peaks. From there you can down climb most of the way to the snow, angling skiers left when you can to find an obvious rap station. A single rope rappel isn't quite long enough here, though if you only had one rope I'm sure you could find an intermediate station. We glissaded down to the Chickamin Glacier and started the long slog back up dome peak in the sunset, arriving at our camp at 11 pm. Day 4 - It took us about 9 hours to hike out to the car.