Alex

You bet Nastia, but only if you carry my old tired out of shape bones up in your backpack:-) Too old and tired to be tagging summits. When you go please make sure to measure the distance of the rap from the Third Gendarme....

If its the crag with the long traversing trad/sport 11 from right to left, and a hard 13 up the middle, I've climbed there a few times. The 11 is full value, I havent gotten through it yet.

to those on the thread that like the idea of a memorial climb, i am not sure i will be the one who can organize it personally as my time is very limited however one of my goals in 2012 is to climb something and i hope to at least participate, if not organize. all that said, earliest i'd be willing to try is around june 1. its now on my stack as a TODO and what we'll do is this: if you are interested in participating and have not yet replied as such, simply reply on this thread as some others have already done. when the time comes, we'll get those names together and throw out a couple dates, with a reasonable amount of warning... Between now and then we'll figure out how to collect and then donate funds.

I think what would be cool is if we collectively organized a Margaret Anderson memorial cllimb of Mt Rainier in 2012. Perhaps it could act as a small donation vehicle for a fund for the kids.

badass, full props

i think the appropriate place for this thread is in the n00b forum, or Cafe Sensitivo... there is usually so much penalty slack in most systems that it just wont matter. for what its worth, youd activate a screamer with every fall, even on toprope, which might yield a few giggles the first time but would get aweful expensive after a few pitches.

looks awesome!

the answer to all this is very very simple: take your skins and skis and ski up and down Palmer snowfield from Timberline, as far as base of Crater Rock, on the South Side of Hood, as often as you like. There are no crevasses, there will be no avalanches, and there are no trees either. Just wide open turns, 3000 ft of vert, and all the cardio workout you can handle. Totally solo-able, as long as you have decent visibility. When you get bored ofthat side, buy a lift ticket at Mt Hood Medows

the route itself is pretty straightforward, you can come down the ne shoulder easily or traverse across the backside of n sister (west side) and go down thevse route as well. the crux is the summit pyramid which is quite steep and has very awkward exposure right down the couloir...

@MrGecko, thats Flow Reversal. SLL is off to the right of this pic

My first summit of Hood was a Dec 1993 solo. These kinds of trips are full-value, nothing n00b about them, good job!

rap wall is pretty difficult to access from above without extensive and time consuming shenaningans

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/900925/Searchpage/3/Main/69080/Words/Buck/Search/true/Re_TR_Buck_Mt_North_Ridge_8_10#Post900925

Those are neat!

I've never climbed Yocum but from my poser armchair here it seems like you'd need 29 70m ropes, tied together with tricky knots designed to irritate you, to siege the entire ridge to the summit so rappels are not needed from the Third Gendarme. Does that answer your question?

Stout. I think this inversion is killing it more than anything.

Leavenworth Area, Careno and Rainbow areas trying/forming but not in. The inversion was very telling at Blewett Pass!

i ended up doing a full season rental through ski mart, as i missed the newport ski swap (again) this year.

i think falling on trad gear happens, but i would much rather practice falling on steep sporto climbs where a fall will not result in injury. smith rock is your friend here. if you havent been pushing it into 10a at Smith, and taken some falls, that's a really good exprience to get you to trust the safety system - ropes, belay, pro - more. In 1995 i pushed into 11a for the first time as a leader after getting used to falling on the 10s all summer there.

the approach is never not steep ....

Also, one very tried and true phase that most of the people I've climbed with have gone through, as you alluded to, is aid climbing; it tends to make one much more gear savvy. I had a couple years there where all I did was aid solo at Index during the winter. A number of folks here on the board went through that phase with me. When you are suddenly standing and bouncing on every placement, it makes your placements much better over time. It also helped my alpine skills somewhat, as it was the first time I drove pins, placed bolts (this in the boulder fields..!) and messed with bashies and copperheads. The pin driving helped my winter alpine in later years.

I think at this point you don't need more gear, you need more miles. If you are thinking about "doubles" in sizes, it means either you are prone to sewing it up on routes and are running out of your pro before the top on a 50m pitch, or you are climbing harder than mid-5.10 and really need doubles, in which case I'd guess you wouldnt be posting this in the Newbie forum. You need practice and mileage climbing a ton of moderates to 5.9 Index, to start feeling better about your gear (or lack thereof). You shouldnt need doubles until you're getting into mid-5.10 or so. I'd MOST HIGHLY recommend a long trip to Squamish, the Gunks, or some such area where there are a good number of trad moderates (5.3 - 5.7) you can do without feeling too stressed out on, to feel more comfortable. Once in a while check back and try some harder or steeper trad climbs - I find Vantage serves this well - you'll know what you need.

Nice. I also enjoyed your Fail1 TR, it articulated very well how I've sometimes felt, as am imposter in perhaps the wrong place at the wrong time. It seems like it takes time-hardened experience to become eloquent about the emotional side of mountain endevours. I couldnt speak to any of it when I was in my 20s.

Nice kurt!

I was looking furthest left.