Alex

After two days of trashing our hands on various Leavenworth 5.3's, and trashing our minds with flat beer and Eminem too early in the morning, TimL, 2 nameless lurkers, and Alex went to Peek-a-boo tower Memorial Day for a little adventure climbing. It was hot. Hot on the approach, little breeze, blazing sun. The approach is actually pretty damn short by Leavenworth standards, but the trail is primitive enough and the grind gets to you by the time you get to the base of the route. Because Alex had basically been shirking his leading duties all weekend, he voluntarily took the sharp end and prompty flailed up the initial 5.7 pitch in poor style. Belay in hot sun by small tree that offered no shade ensued. As everyone packs into the belay, send-bot TimL tackles the next pitch: slabby 5.9 with crux move off the belay, where pitching would land you 1) first on your belayer, killing him/her, then 2) to your death, as a dead belayer wouldnt hold your tumbling fall to the ground. TimL, 5.12-whatever climber, prompty grabs draws and yards through the crux on tension! Lemmings waiting on belay ledge get nervous. This pitch really 5.9? About this time, we notice the sunburns forming on bared shoulders. Later, at base of final pitch to West Face of Peek-a-Boo Tower, TimL decides he can't hold his bladder any longer, and modestly pisses away from the others lounging on the ledge, into the wind....giving "spray" a new meaning for the cascadecommies! As punishment, TimL is elected to lead the last pitch, a long 5.9 wide crack to an airy arete to the top of Peek-a-Boo Tower. The sun is blazing, we clip the pile of large pro to TimL, and away he goes. Hmmmm, sure is taking a while. This pitch is 5.9? Alex seconds the initial lead, leaving all the pro for the second party to "pinkpoint" to the summit. The climbing is initially fun and enjoyable, easy cruising. Even the start of the wide crack section is fun and nice. The last 10 feet of the crack are pure thuggery, and everyone has the exact same scrape marks in the same places on their right arms. The last pitch traverses right after the crack, to some friable flakey edgy climbing up the arete. The crux move, a reachy sketch job past a bolt, leads to the final knife-edged summit. Nice views, the wind has kicked up, the sky has clouded over, enough room for four on the summit. Nice way to end the weekend.

Hornli is a reasonable solo in good conditions.

How can you be so sure..... ......?

I've done Bedal Creek approach in mid summer, and its really not bad at all.

This year is very very different! By May in a typical year all that stuff in the Stuart range and in Boston Basin is well on its way to melting away for the season! Not this year. Consider that in a normal year, getting on Triple Couloirs after mid-APRIL is pushing it if you want to get on alpine ice. Consider that people were water ice climbing in the Olympics in April! Everything so far says that this late Winter and cold Spring is making everything 4-6 weeks later than normal. Except Index Town Walls!!

At least one of the two routes on Dolomite has been repeated, yes. The dude even posts here. Alex

Greg, were you looking at Cannon Mountain Couloir? I am guessing you were; if so, its skied very regularly.

Check out http://www.mountainwerks.org/alexk/climb/TRicecliff.htm This would be fine time to do the route if you want the lower route in easy conditions. We found the route to be really nice rambling, not particularly hard or scary. A good one-day mountain tour of the N side of Stuart. Mattp might be shocked, but none of us though much about the hazard or the scare factor of this route. The Ice Cliff Glacier has been receeding for years and changed the character of the route. Unless you tackle the ice cliff directly, which you dont have to at all, there is no danger from it when passed on the left. The final couloir would be about as hard as your climb up NEBC on Colchuck RE: top-out if there is a cornice. However, since you seemed to tackle that sucker pretty well... The decent down Sherpa Glacier is uneventful. It looks steep from above, but once your in the decent couloir, its all good.

Givlers Crack on Givlers Dome Canary on Castle Rock The Fault/Catapult on Lower Castle Rock

nice picture but ummm....has anyone noticed that there are bolts!! on that clearly-protectable granite crack route? Hardly the definition of testpiece. Thats like bolting Saggitarius or Damnation or.. damn, they don't even pull that kind of shenanigan at Smith!!

good job!

yup- 5.9+ nah I'd have to opine that Karate Crack really is 10a. It feels about as hard as some of the shorter index hand cracks.

Actually I thought that was pretty easy for 10b. At Index it would be 9+. Here are some more that I think should qualify as "testpieces for the grade" The Trough at Tahquitz 5.0 The Green Wall at Seneca 5.7 crux pitch on Serpentine Arete 5.8 Offline at Static 5.9 The 3rd Pitch of Direct East Buttress, SEWS 5.9+ Light on the Path: Smith 5.10a Sketchatarius (first full pitch): Index 5.10a Moons of Pluto Smith 10d

Arete on the right, sorry. yes Split Image. Sick! The 5.9 corner with the huecos is fun though!

a harness, ....at the store. remember.....?

at times like these, just get a harness and shoes and walk the base of lower wall. you will undoubtedly hook up, find some rides, and send send send!

intrigue!!

I forget what its called, but erik just lead it about a month ago. The arete to its left (you can see very top of it in this pic) looks absolutely unreal! Makes Latest Rage look like a hike!

hey thats pretty fast! When you make your "official" bid for the record, my avatar will volunteer to time you!!!

Jason Martin and I are including detailed information on this in our upcoming guidebook. You can contact me offline if you want to know any more than what the links posted above provide already. Bottom line, though, is that private property owners have no obligation to support your climbing activities, and its up to you to ask for permission when using private proprty, establish a positive rapport with them, and respect their wishes if they deny you access. For really detailed info you can talk to The Access Fund.

This is what I did last weekend! glad I didnt go with you then! for the attempt! Index Saturday (hung all over Iron Horse again!!). Familiar faces and throngs of very slow(!!) aid climbers on the lower wall and country. Packed for Shuksan attempt Sat night, got the phone call at 2:15.."my car battery is dead".."its ok, I'm too tired to try Shuksan".."lets go rock climbing tomorrow"..."ok". Static Point Sunday for Online, then down to Index for a few more pitches, then into Barclay lake to look at Baring.

Went to Static Point Sunday. Its as dry as a bone. We got sunburns, good climbing! I think the top of the fourth pitch of Online could stand a bolt replacement. There's alot of trash (shotgun shells) in the parking lot, so if you go, do your part and take a trash bag and take some of that stuff out with you.

Unless your really set on camping out, dont. SGH is an easy day trip. Take 1 axe, light crampons. 1 picket/fluke for the glacier travel (easy). You wont need to rope up for the SGH, as if you fall it will be very hard to arrest and you'll just take your buds with you. Take two tools if you get nervous self-belaying with one. Take ski poles for the hike up to illumination and across the Reid, traverse high on Yocum, descending traverse to base of SGH. We had to jump 1 large 'schrund on the decending traverse. The traverse after Yocum is longer than you think, dont head up too early!! Otherwise, we de-roped at base of SGH and it was casual to top of Queens Chair from there. Honestly the climb itself was boring (never really got particularly steep, and is pretty wide) compared to the traverse across the Yocum, which provided some interesting exposure above the cliffs! Just my .02. YMMV.

Ok, despite my poking fun at dryad in the initial post, there are some real legit questions here that relate to "Newbies" (so I am moving this to the Newbie forum), but they are really good questions and can be hard to answer. Dryad: your question is legit, but your assumptions that all climbers out there are looking to get laid/getting laid by their partners is bogus. Some are, a great majority arent. How do you get a more experienced partner to take you out? You have to meet them first. Then you have to see if they are compatible: similar views, similar goals? Can they hold a conversation about something other than climbing for the long drives, car camping, and belay ledges? You can get taken by a more experienced climber by being fit, being a good climber in general on top-rope, and being a very good and attentiive belayer. No one wants to take a newbie up something they can lead, but newbie can't follow. No one wants to take a newbie on a trip where their lack of conditioning will make the day drag on at an intolerable pace. No one wants to be leading and look down to see newbie chatting away with party on next route, not paying attention. Or worse, getting dropped. The climbing, belaying, and conditioning can all be attained in the gym and outside of climbing. The gym is a GREAT place to meet people. I boulder at Vertical World (Redmond) and alreay feel comfortable enough there that I could walk up to someone, and say "hey, I just saw you send the V4. Do you climb outside? Would you like to go to 38 after work next week? I'll belay you up a few, if I can TR them". adventuregal asks some really good, age-old questions. These have all been answered before, but the answers arent easy, and often arent satisfying. You hint at something that bothers me though: you want to do ALOT of climbing, are out of school (?), and yet are unwilling to take the time to take a class? The class time might be the best time spent for you, I wouldnt dismiss it as an option. You could learn much more from a personal, 2-day guided trip than weeks of climbing with someone. "Classes" dont always have to mean "The Mountaineers Basic Course" or "NOLS" or something. Anyway... How to know a partner is safe? Safe is relative. Very relative. You will never know a partner is safe until you completly understand the systems you are using to keep you safe: rope, anchors, belay, etc. Even then, "safe climbing" is completely linked to how much risk someone is willing to accept. Is a person who clips into and belays from a single bolt anchor (p5, Outer Space) an unsafe climber? Is a person who belays a leader without clipping to an anchor on the ground unsafe? Is someone who wants to simulclimb the next pitch of 4th class rock safe? My suggestions are: learn from a guide or an extremely trusted, competant friend how to belay. Learn how to always check knots and harnesses. Everytime you clean a trad pitch, check every piece. Check every anchor. Understand the system. Then you will begin to be able to assess safety to some degree. It takes ALOT of experience! I have been climbing 15 years and even now I sometimes do things that are "unsafe". These can range from tying in wrong, to consciously deciding to forego x, y, and z. Am I an unsafe climber? What do I like for in a partner? First and foremost: I look for safety and competence at the craft. Can this person get themselves and me out of a jam? Second I look for compatibility. Will I be mentally bored hanging out with this person? Will they be mentally bored with me? Third I look for contribution - what do you bring to the partnership, besides sexual favors? Are you a good, patient, attentive belayer? Are you completely willing to split costs? Split driving? Carry your share of the load? Fourth I look for chemistry. Does our combined energy push us as a team to accomplish our goals, greater goals and greater good times, or do we have mediochre times together? There are alot of other simple qualities, like complaining (which is ok in moderation, as long as its legit), speed (are you a really slow hiker?? try to keep up). You can go on forever. What makes a good climbing partnership? Like any good personal relationship: trust, tolerance, mutual respect, humor, mutual contribution, alot of work, sacrifice. So many other factors. Dryad and adventuregal, and anyone else interested in getting out with more experienced people, the first step is to meet people. Go to the gym. Go to Pub Club!!! There are many many many excellent people at pub club. Post often in partners wanted on this board. Be solid in your basic skills. If you dont know REAL basic skills, like how to tie in, how to belay, take a class. Hire a guide. Really, there are good options out there to learn the very basics. One thing I would like to add: DO NOT trust anyone you meet at Marrymoor Climbing park. That place is really kind of scary. Lots of good climbers lurk there, but lots of really unsafe people too. Good luck, Alex Cheers, Alex

How do you get out of a mindset? You probably need to relax more, move a little bit more slowly and deliberately, and look around. I know alot of people get tunnel vision, and its just hightend when they are stressed out, especailly on lead. This results often in fixating only on cracks, because they feel "more secure", and placing pro when not in a rest stance; for example, simply because you are freaked out and dont want to go *1 INCH* higher, even though there is a great rest 3 feet above you. Godzilla is a great example of a route that is climbable in a variety of ways: stemming the corner on the outside, above the lieback, is easier and less strenuous than jamming the (overhanging, offwidth) crack straight on, but when leading people ofen feel like the crack is the way to go, rather than looking out on the arete for the nice footholds that let you stem. Relax. Feel the moves. Plan the next one. Climbing is alot like chess. Anyone can go move to move, but really good climbers plan ahead several moves. Bouldering helps this visualization a bit. Leading well within your ability helps too, if you consciously run it out... running it out helps you set some goals (like, "how far do I feel going on this 5.5 ground above my last piece? Oo, I see a rest about 15 feet up there, I'll get there and then place a piece). This translates into smoother more relaxed climbing later on harder ground. Alex