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.

here's a photo from neighboring washington column ridge. a bit cloudy, but maybe helpful. [ 07-03-2002, 11:55 AM: Message edited by: forrest_m ]

to expand on what lambone said... unlike a double fishermans, which will cause the rope to break before the knot slips, the method of failure for both flavors of EDK knots is called "capsizing" or sometimes "inverting". , as lambone mentioned the knot crawls over itself, reappearing reversed further towards the ends of the ropes. the figure 8 uses a lot more rope than the overhand to tie, so every time it capsizes, it uses up a bigger piece of the tail; therefore, fewer "capsizing" events are required before the knot walks itself off the end of the rope. the force required to capsize the knot is relatively fixed for any given combination of knot and rope diameter; force builds up in the rope until it capsizes, which usually disperses some force; if the overload is constant, the capsizing events will follow each other in quick succession (not good). in addition, the initial force required to capsize the knot is less with a figure 8. i'm not certain why that is, but i think it has something to do with the fact that the knot itself is bigger, therefore is acts kind of like a lever arm to force the strands over itself? (just speculation here). there is a good discussion and - lord have mercy - test results posted here: http://www.tradgirl.com/climbing_faq/advanced.htm#rappel

so now we have heard all the stories about waiting for a flight, has anyone else ever been forced to fly out AHEAD of schedule? it's happened to me twice: one summer, we were very late season in little switzerland, paul (TAT) overflew us to tell us that the snow was getting way too soft to take off, that we had to fly out that afternoon or we would be walking out to talkeetna. kind of a bummer because the rock was in such good shape. a few years later, we were in the coast range near waddington, and white saddle air called us to say that they had been comandeered to fight forest fires, and we could either fly our the next morning or wait for three weeks. (we only had about a week of food left...) this time, after 21 straight days of perfect weather, we were so wiped out that we were just as happy to go home early...

of course, on a jobsite during the "golden age of skyscrapers", it was pretty common for 4 or 5 people to get killed every week.

some additional thoughts about keeping the rope tight. one of the things i like about simulclimbing is that for the leader, it is not much different than a solid belay - he is unlikely to pull the follower up very far unless he takes a real winger. if while simuling the leader gets to a hard bit, he can move through it with confidence, then set up a real belay for the follower. this only really works if the rope is reasonably snug. on the other hand, i would disagree that one should always go to extraordinary lengths to keep the rope tight. i tend to think of simulclimbing - particularly on more difficult terrain - as soloing with a possible backup, i.e. neither of you is likely to fall but you want some backup in case a handhold pulls off, you're hit by lightning, etc. so i like to treat it as soloing, i.e. YOU DON'T FALL. i think it's silly to hang out in strenuous positions in the middle of a hard move just to keep the rope tight. if there's a crux move, i would argue that you should move through it to a decent stance, even if it puts some slack in the rope. sure, if the other guy falls right then, you'ld be worse off, but the chances of that are relatively small, while the chance of you whipping while hanging out in a 5.8 layback for five minutes while the leader gets some gear in is much greater. obviously this is wandering kind of far from the original post, since on most easy ground you shouldn't run into any sections where you can't hang out for as long as you want...

and i don't know how much they enforce it at the blue lake trailhead, we parked there all day sunday (along with a bunch of other pass-less cars) without getting ticketed. maybe they figure that there's so much traffic through there and the overlook is still closed, so it's too much of a pain to figure out who is a motorist making a potty break and who is the scofflaw climber? ymmv!!!

TimL - we did the direct e. buttress on SEWS on saturday afternoon. there was snow from the hairpin all the way to the base of the route, however not a speck above that. the route was completely dry and a lot of fun. there was still some snow visible on the big ledges on the e. buttress of NEWS, but the steep bits looked dry. we ran into some guys who did the passenger (on SEWS) who said that the top couple of pitches of that route were seeping, so maybe the face routes with snow patches above need a few more weeks but the ridges/buttresses are good to go? hope this helps.

daylward and i tried to climb it a couple of years ago during a good weather spell in october, but we got lost in the woods. really. we were traversing around the lake and started doing a rising traverse, but never realized that we hadn't crossed over into the drainiage leading up to the col. first thing we knew, we were way up in the cliff bands facing the lake, facing several thousand feet of descending to get right again. oops. with the short days, the lost hours meant that we would miss our boat ride out, so we bailed without ever seeing the "technical" part of the route. i hate it when that happens.

I posted a trip report on this very website, way back in the very first days: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000007 Fun route, but as has been mentioned, nowhere near being a grade V.

geez, gord, how much time have you spent on a construction site? workers drop stuff all the time (ever notice that the sidewalks around construction sites have a solid cover of scaffolding over them?) that said, i can see how the climbing leashless would give you a sense of freedom (no more fighting to get out of your leash to place screws)but i reckon' i'm going to be a very late adopter of this new climbing gear trend.

wayne's route is not the only one... we found the easiest way to be to follow the edge of the impass uphill as far as possible (some 4th class) until it merged with the cliffs of whatcom peak (if i'm reading his description right, maybe 100 yards uphill from the tree wayne describes), there is a ledge system that went at low fifth class. there were several fixed pins. the weather was damp and drizzly and the rock was damp and slippery, so we roped up, although we might not have had it been dry. we ended up leaving a rope fixed for the return trip. we were able to climb up the other side by following the floor of the impasse another 15 or 20 yards uphill into a slimy slot (again, low 5th class but exposed) which ended at a well-used rap anchor, which we used on the way back down. of course, the second time we did it was in july of 99 during the huge snow year, we just sidehilled into the impasse with our 80 pound packs and had a few rock moves to get out the other side... easy!

ahoy mateys, belay that sailin' talk, this is a climbing website. i have often used a bowline on a bight to tie into some large fixed object with the rope, especially if i am out of slings at the end of a long pitch. you cannot use a clove hitch in this case, and tying the rope directly to a tree or something means you don't have to untie. i always clip the loop of the bight into something else so that it cannot pull back through the knot. the bowline is also cool because you can impress your friends by tying it one handed: step one: pass the free end around the anchor object. step two: with the end within your closed fist, reach over the standing end and back up through the loop you just created (don't let go!) step three: with the end still in your hand, pass your fist around the front side (toward you) of the standing end (out beyond your loop). step four: when your hand is on the back side of the standing end, now open your hand, reach over the standing end and grab the rope end again (thus pulling the end around the standing end, rabbit around the tree-style) step five: grasping the end, gently work your wrist back out of the two loops, drawing the end with you. voila! dress and load. with practice, you can do this in like one and a half seconds. it works equally well with a bight (everything is doubled), but is easier to practice with a single line.

i was there, too, and i just wanted to post to say "me too, what they said" as rodchester mentioned, if the overwhelming opinion of this public meeting is reflected in the final plan, the future will hold a much more equitable distribution of guiding permits between various companies. however... it was made pretty clear that the park prefers to deal with fewer vendors, rather than more. yet new laws mandate more competition. thus, while it seems pretty likely that rmi will lose some portion of their share of the pie, it is not clear that the pie will be divided evenly among the other guide services. i got the sense that there is some support on the park planning team for having a "primary" guide service on the mountain. in the post-official shmoozing, i heard an interesting idea that might make everyone happy: what if the guide services had a very significant decrease in their allowed permits on weekends... but were allowed a larger total number of client-days for the season on week days, when the mountain is largely empty. as it was pointed out, the mountain is not, on the median day, over capacity, but use is so concentrated on weekends that conflicts between guided groups and independent climbers are inevitable.

i know someone already mentioned it, but i gotta put in a plug for my favorite 10 at josh, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE on the tumbling rainbow in real hidden valley. cool face climbing up the most prominent feature in the valley, crux at the last move, onto a real summit, plus a super fun descent that is more like canyoneering than scrambling. i love this climb.

luna lake is beautiful, and if you approach via access creek (the drainage between luna creek and mcmillan creek) the approach is non-glaciated. probably shorter distance-wise, but more overall effort than the whatcom approach, but since you say solo, it keeps you off the glacier... start with the boat from ross lake resort to the trailhead (or tack on an extra 6 or 7 miles), then about 11 miles of moderate trail, then a steep bushwack up about three thousand feet to get above timberline (classic cascade devil's club & slide alder, some sections of easier old growth), then more elevation gain and some tricky navigation to get to luna pass (possibly more scenic than the lake itself) then drop down 1500 feet to the lake. with a heavy pack, i'd guess minimum of two full days, maybe three. early summer may be easier for this one because the upper reaches may be snow covered. or not. write me a pm if you want more detailed info. [ 02-21-2002: Message edited by: forrest_m ]

learned a neat trick this weekend for relocating a dislocated shoulder in the field and thought i'd pass it on. (i am not a doctor, nor any kind of medical professional, just an impressed observer.) as some of you may know from experience, a dislocated shoulder is about the most painful non-life-threatening injury out there. we were descending from the base of synchronicity, up in lillooet, and came across a guy who had taken a long tumble down the steep and icy approach gully. he had stopped himself by grabbing onto a tree, which had wrenched his shoulder out of joint. after checking him for other injuries, we tried several techniques to get it back in (raising the arm over the head, etc.) but without success. as darkness was falling and it is several miles back to the car, we immobilized his arm by in a sling and concentrated on getting him down to flat ground. just as we reached the creek, we were joined by another team coming down from the climb, and one of them, a week after finishing his WFR course, was able to relocate the shoulder in the following way: one assistant kneels behind the victim, and a sling or triangular bandage is passed around both their chests and tied fairly snugly. assistant #2 kneels about 105 degrees from the first, i.e. not straight in a line with the injured arm, but about 10-15 degrees more towards the front. he ties a sling aroung his chest and the crook of the injured arm. all the victim has to do is concentrate on relaxing while both assistants simultaneouly lean gently backwards. we could clearly see the humorus moving beneath the skin like an alien baby, until it suddenly snapped back into place. (creepy!) immediate relief followed for the victim; we replaced his arm in the sling to protect it from further damage, and he was able to walk the rest of the way out to the car with minimal assistance. it occurred to me that in a pinch (like, say, there is only one person), the first assistant could be replaced by an immovable object, like a tree. don't know if this would work.

last i heard (about a month and a half ago), don was still working on the photos and was supposed to send it to the printers this spring. but he said that last year, too. whatever, it will be damn cool when it comes out.

it seems to me that there are two separate ethical issues here: 1) is it ethical for a client to buy the services of a guide on an 8000 m peak? i would say sure, and it is up to the client to make sure that he is getting what he/she paid for. if they don't realize that part of what they are paying for is the judgement of the experienced guide (i.e. arguing if the guide wants to descend, even though it's the last summit attempt of their $100k climb), tough shit. if experienced climbers look down on them for being guided, tough shit. they should be up there for their own reasons, not to impress rock and ice magazine. i think the commercial non-guided expedition falls into the same category. maybe "expedited" expeditions is a good name for these, it seems totally reasonable to me to pay someone to deal with the hassles and paperwork. 2. i think the crux is whether is is ethical for people to sell guiding services for 8000 meter peaks. i've always thought that the obligation of a guide is to be strong enough for himself AND his clients. obviously, an accident could happen on a 3000 meter peak in the alps, too, but generally speaking, a guide can offer this as a guarantee. above 8000 meters, even great climbers cannot always even be strong enough to save themselves, much less anyone else. i don't think it gets guides off the hook to say "well, people recognize that the level of service given by an 8000 meter guide is less than that of a guide in the alps." i think it is the responsibility of an ethical guide to be able to say: "if you cannot be responsible for yourself, it would be unethical for me to take you there. it would be wrong for you to rely on my abilities because i myself cannot even rely on them." by this logic, offering expedited services is ethical, since one can offer a fair guarantee of being able to deliver supplies, permits, etc. as promised and can give a refund if not.