dbb

incredably crumbly handcrack?

Wow, sounds awesome Ade. Way to push up the thing. Tell me, do you attribute all of your drytooling prowess to the X38 drytool crag??

quarks 100%. damn light, fantastic on ice, and plunge along with the rest of them. hammer pins well too. what can you say? just put some cinch leashes on them for alpine.. now for swinging your tools into rock around snoqualmie pass, anything goes..

I dunno, seems probable...

Wow, sounds like an adventure! I think that's a fab route. nice work!

is all of angel's landing closed or is it just the lowe route?

mike- the technical part of the route, if totally pitched out would be about 6 60m pitches. the only exception is the 5th (crux) pitch which is only maybe a little more than 30 m. it was really cool though, as beyond chiwawa the terrain gently rolled back into arid desert with not a bump to be seen until Mt. Baker... Well, okay, there were come cool looking lines on the NE face of Fortress.

I have to hand it to Colin, I didn't think it would go looking at it from the base. Colin's comment, "but it would be rad if it did" was right on! His lead of the crux chimney was the most impressive lead I've ever seen in the mountains. Here's a few pics: the route first pitch getting into the narrow slot. sometimes a true squeeze chimney with ice at the back the crux the pictures just don't do the crux justice. when I got to the bottom of it, it was dead vertical, nearly featureless, the exact width of my body and glass smooth on both sides! welcome to marchtemper! Definitely a fun route! Long day though, my alarm from sunday morning went off about 10 minutes after I fell asleep Thanks again Phil for the 'bile!

wow, very interesting. I guess that makes sense. So would an ipod mini fall under the problems? I know they use a highspeed 4-6Gig compact flash card, but are those based on microdrives as well? the engrish on th MPIO site is classic by the way: "FY200 attracts young people who dive for pragmatic accessory-looking high-tech product with a great voice recorder. 'All-in-one'; multiple functions crammed into one little device. FY200 provides all functions and features you need like a Swiss Army Knife." too bad none of those other players will play AAC files

cool, looks like we'll be able to use the park just in time for spring climbing... while it rains in the icicle

wow, sounds like they've got most of the road done!

Last time I was there when royal columns was closed for raptors/falcons, the Bend was open...

dang it don, you're going crazy with the files on your ice gear! but I think you may have something there...

Luna = silas wild et co. about '91ish

Damn, that looks like a sweet line Darin! nice work!

I think that's phil's picture. From what I recall, MattP wouldn't have ever posted such a picture on this board, cuz he's been after it too!

daaaaaaan???

rad

Like Alex said, head right just as you enter the bowl. I thought the descent sucked though (steep downsloping dirt & rock, basically no snow when we were there) so I would have rather downclimbed the route as it would have doubled our milage on the ice. Depends on how crowded it is I suppose. It took us about an hour back to the car on the walk off. yemv

Yep, there were several parties below us too and you couldn't touch the pile without it going. For what it's worth, the loose rocks that I mantled onto I tossed up into the chimney

yeah no kidding! check out those blocks just perched on the edge: Fun route, small small rack, but I though moonlight was much better. the last two aid pitches on prodigal are basically bolt ladders.

Only thing you need to know for the monkey face is back clean the traverse at the top of the bolt ladder (or have the follower clip clean that part) and every thing will be just fine. If you don't, things can go very, very wrong (ahh gumby moments). You can practice jugging on many of the 'urban cliffs' around the city. Check out places around the I-90 cap, esp. on Mercer island. I definitely recomend you do this, as it sucks to figure it out all over again on the cliff. Another option is to TR gear cracks like the UW pedestrian bridges with two of the right sized cams. just like a bolt ladder but with every placement spaced juuuuust right.

nice info alex. that's pretty much the same system I use. The important thing I've learned is to have a nice pair of "climbing" gloves that are thin and dexterous, as well as a thick warm pair for belaying/rapping that I hang off my harness. Swap them out at each belay and you always stay warm. things in a pack are hard to get to and thus just not used.

did you get a chance to talk to the ranger station about the road work?

That is likely the case lyle... I think the rest's greatest benefit is that it protects your knuckles, keeps your gloves dry, and provides a little better grip for the tool when using the leashes.