Alex

Letterman. He was also on AM radio on 1/21/04 (AM 1000?). Letterman gave him an unusual amount of airtime. Joe must be sick of the publicity tour appearances, though.

Some of you have mentioned that there is some new route information put up here on Cascacdeclimbers.com, and I am not denying that. I am also not denying that alot of you guys get out and do some fun stuff, sometimes even a new route. But from my first hand experience, I would guess that 90%-95% of the new route activity in Washington/Oregon/BC does not get reported here. I think this is for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are some of those already mentioned: the sometimes hostile environment, people being very critical with little or no information. Anonymity can result in a much less civil forum than what you might find at the base of a crag or in the gym. I think new routes are not reported here mostly because the people putting up routes are not aware of this site, choose not to place such information on the internet in general, and/or share them first and foremost with friends by word of mouth. The backcountry is getting crowded, and its nice to have your own spot (like Pearly Gates was during its development). Alot of the people putting up the routes are doing it because they love climbing and developing an area, not to be recognized or lauded. Finally, this site is very unstructured and very actice, and route information is soon buried if its not tracked like Peter_Puget tries to do in the Rock Climbing forum. I think alot of people realize that very quickly and choose to put that type of information in some other form, like print, personal web sites, and so on.

it looks 5+ or 6 (hard to tell at a distance). though i know its been climbed before, I've never seen a pic of it. good on ya!

fear, if you are looking for someone local (Washington), about 2-3 weeks notice is all you will need to hook up. People will be itching in May anyway, might want to (re)post then. Just a thought, Alex

Iron Horse is C2. The crux is between the first Saggitarius anchor (close to the ground) and the two fixed pins. If you want to continue up to the ringing flake anchor or the higher Saggitarius anchor, its C1 on cams the entire way. Dont know about whats above the second Sag anchor. This is a pretty fun first pitch, as the gear is extremely solid except for the few placements near the crux. The original A2 start of Ten Percent does go clean. I have hammered it before (placing one tied off LA) but was told later by a person on the ground that that pin scar goes on a Lowe ball. The gear is pretty good, from the #1 camalot at the small roof at the start to good nuts to the pin scars, then a few tricky moves past that. It would be around C2 or C2+ Dont know about Narrow Arrow.

fenderfour, I am not sure but I believe those are public or state lands. There is alot of established boulering around Washington, but if you need to establish your own probs, I think the ettiquette is as long as it doesnt impact other users (like, the boulder is right next to a trial or something) you can clean and send. It is Washington, after all, which means all traces of your cleaning and passing will be washed away and overgrown in a matter of months. Go easy on the chalk, though. Alex

There are several active threads about Lillooet here

I dont think Umptanum is in with the temps right now (it was in the 40s on the East side Sunday), but I have not actually been there to confirm my suspicions. With the current temperatures, finding a TR for a beginner within 2 hours of Seattle would be pretty tough. PS: Jason and I are compiling a list of good beginner climbs and planned to put it in the guide, but ran out of time in the end. We will publish it online at http://wwww.wastateice.net some time this year.

On a related note, the existence of this bill is what Jason Martin and I hope will convince certain landowners to allow at least limited access to ice climbs on their private property. My recent trip to Europe, where access issues are a real concern in the Maltatal region of Carinthia, has given me some good ideas about how to approach this issue. We have posted an interim Access page that will detail our progress over the years. http://www.wastateice.net/access.aspx

Part 1, of course! Part 2, I dont rely on others, as there isnt a guarantee that there will be others where I am going shovels don't weigh *that* much!

From a friend of mine... 1/11/04 - I was up at Scottish Lakes skiing for the weekend and decided to go check out the climbs. It took us about 1-1/2 hours to approach from Scottish Lakes High Camp to the far side of the lake on snowshoes. The lake was frozen and we crossed it. It took a while to get across the creek that feeds the lake (on the west). [beta: We found a crossing after looking, but **if** the lake is frozen it would be better to walk across the lake until on the south side of the creek and then head into the woods.] The boulder field below the climbs has a lot of unconsolidated snow and you can punch through still. The central climb was in good shape - fat, blue water ice with lots of snow at the top. The lines to the left and right were probably climbable but could still use more time. I'd caution that the approach conditions, especially crossing the lake may have changed with the recent warming. There are lots of other seeps and drips in the cirque but nothing except the flow in the book would be worth the trip.

Scumby, ....huh? There is a road (and a ski area, no less) that you can see Shuksan from, errr, quite clearly... Alex

Is a crampon similar to a hardon?

I moved this to Spray.

Would you then suggest staying at the base of Curtis Ridge and going for the summit the next day even though it would be a really long summit day? Even though what you suggest is a real possibility, I wouldnt recommend it if you havent been on that side of the mountain before. You should make your best effort to get to Thumb (some have bivied on the ridge between the Carbon and Thumb before, not bad if you really have to). One strategy you should consider is that if you really do make it to Thumb "early" from wherever you camp (edge of the Carbon?) the night before, and the conditions are good, might as well just continue on up to the summit. The actual climb from the base of the Carbon to the summit plateau is on the order of around 5000+ ft, which is a bit of a chore in one push but not really an unusually long route for the Cascades (though a bit higher than most), but the real time sink might be navigating the Carbon, which (depending on snow pack) may or may not be difficult. I've navigated it twice: the first time we didnt even rope up, and walked straight to the base of Lib Ridge without a blink; the second time was very time consuming and scary, and we didnt even get to the base of the route. Getting to Thumb is important not because the final climb is so long, but the combined route finding from the edge of the Carbon to the plateau can make for a long day if you are moving even a little slow. But as you can guess, good weather will make even a slow day not particularly unpleasant... Alex

Went out Sunday, expecting it to be colder than Seattle, at least. It wasnt! South: some of the beer climbs are kinda there, but not really. Guiness looks ultra thin, Kickapoo not there. The first route we encountered that was really climbable was Champagne, in very climbable (though very wet, Sunday) shape Champagne, p1, Sunday . We drove a little further, saw 2 parties at Children of the Sun (3 climbable lines), and returned to Champagne. p1 a shower, only got halfway up before full-body soaking mandated retreat. Walked around to the p2, which was dry and a pleasant WI3 lead. Champagne, p2 Banks E Shore: Generally colder than just 10 miles South. The climbs were much drier and have a chance of staying around if the temps dont get too mild. Absent Minded Professor not in at all. Cable in, thin, and lead on Sunday by some dudes from Spokane. The very bottom does not touch. H2O2, thin and steep. Agent Orange might be leadable but I dont think the top cigar is touching. Salt and Pepper upper pitch in but a little thinner than I've seen it in the past. Generally alot of stuff forming/was formed, but we didnt go further N than that.

The publisher controls the presentation of the book completely. We initially asked for something much more like what you term "Euro alpine guidebook", or something like JoJos guide, but got what we got. <shrug>

mattyg no, not really

Yes, I got that part thanks. As you know well, editors take certain liberties. Perhaps you didnt understand the part where I mentioned that editing posts is common? I am sorry its objectionable to you. I am not that smart, actually. I had Jason write the book, and I just took half the proceeds.

Oh but it was. trask thought it was a good one, as I recall. Layton said it was a little much, after he saw my edit of his post. It was pretty harmless to the original poster. Since we all know each other or are all at least acquaintences, I do not see why this is constantly so difficult. You are arguing a principle, but I can't take you that seriously if you are telling me you are in a huff for changing "cunt" to "being annoying". I do edit very rarely and (with what I though was) great care.

yes thats Alpental Falls (Alpental 1)

I'll be honest with you, I never thought that outright deleting was a better option than making an edit..I guess as a user I would feel more pissed off if someone had just arbitrarily nixed my post, than if someone had changed one or two words. As a user, I would rather that my post stayed (especially if there was more to it than a one liner) than was deleted just because of one word. But I suppose if your rather just see "objectionable content" deleted entirely rather than edited, it makes little difference to me. You are right that my edit didnt capture the meaning of the original, but that was not my intent. And yes, moderators often edit a post rather than outright delete it. I think because there's been some content deleted over time, and people are always pissed off when it mysteriously disappears, with no paper trail. Oh sorry, the last four people promoted moderator were chucK, fern, minx and ehmmic, I think. Minx was especially singled out for her crafty way with the boys in Spray. fern was selected because she was interested especially in the BC forum, which few people (you might agree) are so qualified to oversee. For the most part, moderators mod only one forum, or have specific jobs. I moderate only the main board. Not to draw sympathy, but this is just a job after all, and it certainly feels that way most days. Anyway, jon and tim are sometimes receptive to the suggestions for new mods because to be honest very few moderators are really ever online at any one time. I would expect that as the site grows in readership and forums (which has been a LOG curve, not linear, the last 3 years), you should expect more moderators. There is a pretty open forum on what should be moderated, how to do it, what is correct, and whats good for the site. Also whats appropriate content, such as the "c" word. The mods themselves are really pretty diverse in their opinions on how to go about doing certain things or dealing with certain users. Which is only a good thing. Too many people of one grain would ruin the site, much quicker than you think its being ruined now... Alex

Since I am the person that trimmed the Fatality at RedRock thread, and I traded a few PMs with catbirdseat afterwards because he still wanted to post on the thread, I thought I would take a sec to answer some of your now oft heard complaints. cbs posted this after my initial PM reply from him, in which he asked why I trimmed the thread and I answered that the spray on how to treat depression and who was bipolar and who was a psychologist didnt need to be posted in that thread. This is, of course, my opinion. Again in my opinion, it was either prune the post or move the entire thing to Spray. I thought the original post had alot of merit, so I chose to prune. What surprised cbs wasnt the prune, but that the "remainder of the thread" wasnt available. The "remainder" is in fact a number of different, fairly out of context branches of a more complex posting tree. Anyway, not moving one of these to Spray was, like all things, is a judgement call. There was nothing then and is nothing now that is preventing you from continuing your discussion in a new thread. No there was nothing wrong with what anyone was saying. I didnt object to the content, only the devolution of the thread into the typicaly bullshit. However, the thread had gotten to about 68 posts by this morning, and simply chopping it off at an arbitrary point was not possible: there were about 5 separate branches. So I pruned the branches. I explained all this to cbs, and offered to move the largest branch, of about 21 posts that started with one from iain and ended with one from HRoark, over to Spray, so that he could continue it. However, we never went forward with that. The branches are still available, and my offer to move them stands. He ended up posting this thread, instead. I think its a totally legit question (re: pruning, editing posts, deleting stuff, moderating) which is why I am taking the time to explain why I do what I do. marylou, the passive voice you use shouldnt hide the fact that it was someone calling you a CUNT. I edited that post, which was "Take a motrin, you cunt." to "Take a motrin, you are being annoying." That was my first touch on the thread. If none of you have gotten it yet, that word is not appreciated in any forum. But if you insist, marylou, I will certainly not be so "heavy handed" in the future and turn a deaf ear to people calling you a cunt. Clearly, too many. This is not a web board run by committee, and there is no such thing as true freedom of speech here. Moderation will continue, not because any one of us particularly relishes holding your hands while you bandy about the Internet day in and day out, but because we believe that some of the posts are not in the best interest of the site or its general readership, and that goes for every forum. You have been told as much many times, and anyone who just cant deal with it is welcome to move on and find greener pastures. Moderation is always judgement call, like parenting. I am sure some of you can relate. All of us try hard to be very light and very fair. But if you act like children, why should you still be treated like adults? Moderators loyalties always lie with the site and the continued posting priveleges of the group, not to absolute freedom of speech ("uh, "expression", right) of a few avid posters. Alex

I went to VW Magnolia last night for a change of pace. I almost exclusively boulder. I found the bouldering routes themselves were challenging, and I got a good high gravity workout, but I like Redmond better for bouldering... Alex

Awesome time to go. Yes, but there wont be deep snow, as above timberline the slopes are always scoured by wind (best you'll get is some drifts). Yes. No, but really depends on you and your comfort level: The Hogsback can be steep/icy near Pearly Gates. Yes.