Jason_Martin

Routes in the Sun to Consider: Solar Slab, 5.6 - 14 P Cat in the Hat, 5.6+ - 4-5 P Geronimo, 5.7 - 5 P Olive Oil, 5.7 - 6 P Hop Route, 5.7 - 2 P Tuna and Chips, 5.7 - 2 P Johnny Vegas, 5.7 or 5.9 - 5 P The Black Dager, 5.7+ - 6 P Jubilant Song, 5.8 - 5 P Rainbow Buttress, 5.8 - 6 P Beulah's Book, 5.9 - 3 P Black Orpheous, 5.10a - 6 P Chicken Lips, 5.10a - 6 P Leviatation 29, 5.11 - 8 P Resolution Arete, 5.11+ - 17 P The preceding list is a list of climbs that are in the sun for at least half or more of the day. Have a blast! Jason

Perhaps someone can help us out with another question. I'm looking for information for the guide on the group of climbers from the eighties that called themselves "White Punks on Dope" after the punk rock tune by the Tubes. I know Doug Klewin was part of this group, but I don't know who else. Any info would be helpful. Jason

j_b, The index of climbs is quite long... Too long for me to type up here. If you have a question about a specific climb or area, I will answer it to the best of my ability. Jason

Be aware that with our deadline coming so quickly, you should explore early. Anything that is contributed after mid-December will have to wait until the second edition. Jason

Alan Kearney's Guidebook, "Northwest Select" has the approach in it. Jason

We've had so many people submit to this book, it's just not possible to give every person a free copy. On my "Special Thanks" list in the back of the book over seventy people are listed. And that's people who have provided us with solid beta... We are really just starting the picture, map, and topo phase of the project. Mounties are reasonable, but not seventy plus copies reasonable. Jason

Lambone, Publishing is a very slow business, so is collecting data for a guide that has never been published before. To give you an idea of what this has taken, here is a timeline. 1999 -- Winter 1999 Start Project. Many days are spent looking for ice. We originally thought this might be a very short book. 2000 -- Research is slow and some people are unwilling to provide information. Though it appears that the book will not by any means be short. 2001 -- October, sent out drafts of the book to publishers in hopes of a bite. 2001/2002 -- December and January, I'm in the field almost every day trying to verify information that people have provided -- one of the nice things about being a grad student was that I got a little time off here and there. Often I'm doing approaches to routes that are not in, simply to get the beta correct. 2002 -- March, Mountaineers Books shows some interest. 2002 -- September, finally a contract is signed. Unfortunately Mountaineers only comes out with books in the Fall. Our guide is over 150 pages long, single spaced without pictures... 2002 -- December 31st, our final deadline for all information and field checking. 2003 -- January through May, Mountaineers does their part of the work, but we are required to look at proofs and galleys throughout the publication process. We are not allowed to add any new beta, just correct small mistakes. 2003 -- June through August, Final copy-editing and publication. I truly wanted to have the guide out for this winter, that's why we submitted the book to publishing agencies a year ago... But as I've stated above, this is a very slow process. Jason

Captain, Sorry, our contract is very tight and we don't even have that to give away. Though a photo credit in a guidebook could lead to paying gigs with the magazines... At least you'd have a published climbing photo on your resume. Jason

"Washington Ice: A Climbing Guide" by Jason D. Martin and Alex Krawarik, will be available from Mountaineers Books in September of 2003. Our final deadline for all information concerning ice climbing in Washington State is in late December... Which means that we have to have any information that will be included in the guide by late November or early December so that we have time to format it and check out the beta. If you have some secret spot that you think should be included in the book, please contact us. We are also in dire need of photos. We will accept any photos that you may have of climbing on Washington Ice though that doesn't mean that we will use them for sure. Unfortunately we can't pay for photos. We are interested in both action shots of ice climbers and overview shots of areas or routes. In particular we are currently looking for any ice climbing photos of the following areas: 1) Climbs on Table Mountain 2) Cascade Pass climbs 3) Index climbs 4) Stevens Pass routes 5) Routes in the Quincy Wildlife Area 6) The little climb in Spokane 7) Frenchman Coulee 8) Chinook Pass 9) Any climbs in Mt. Rainier National Park 10) Climbs in Bluewood In addition to this request for any photos, we have specific overview photos that we are looking for. They include: 1) Dragontail Peak in the Winter 2) The Mt. Index group in the Winter 3) The NW Face of Colefax Peak in the Winter 4) The steep buttress to the right of the North Face of Chair Peak. 5) N. Face of Abiel Peak in the Winter Please let us know what you have. I can be reached at: j_dougie@yahoo.com Alex can be reached at: wastateice@yahoo.com Alex, please chime in if I missed anything in this request... Jason [ 10-14-2002, 09:38 AM: Message edited by: Jason Martin ]

Black Velvet is awesome right now... But it's going to start getting cold back there in the next few weeks. Early November it's still okay, but after mid-November, routes in the sun are the way to go. Jason

Cat in the Hat can be done in four pitches with a 60m rope. It's a nice climb. Ginger Cracks and Chrimson Chryslis are fun routes but require a bit more approach time. It's not hard to get Olive Oil and Geronimo in the same day. They are both fun 5.7 routes. Each can be done in four to five pitches with 60m ropes. Johnny Vegas to Solar Slab is a nice full day of 14 pithces at about 5.7. Be sure to bring double ropes and rappel the route. DO NOT DO THE "SUGGESTED" WALKOFF and DO NOT RAPPEL Johnny Vegas. Rappel down Solar Slab Gully. If you do these things you'll have a great day. Any route that can be approached relatively quickly that can be done relatively fast can be done in conjunction with The Great Red Book. Though the route spooks me because it and Olive Oil are the only two routes in Red Rock that have seen fatalities. Beware of the park closing times. A ticket after the gates close will cost you fifty bucks. I just got down here and it's still a bit warm. Give it another week or so and both routes in the sun and routes in the shade will be climbable. Give it a month and you won't want to do routes in the shade too much anymore. If you have specific questions feel free to email or PM me. Have a blast! Jason [ 10-12-2002, 05:36 PM: Message edited by: Jason Martin ]

March with nice long days is still winter on Rainier... This is a great time to do Gib Ledges. More likely than not you'll be the only party in the muir hut. Jason

One idea that has been lost to the discussions which I think is a great idea is a First Ascent Forum. Many First Ascents have been posted on this site throughout the last couple years and I have really enjoyed reading these accounts. I think this might well be worth looking into. Jason

There really is very little snow on the route right now. Bare glacier ice is showing through everywhere. I understand there was some kind of skiing accident last weekend on the Squak. Someone skiied into a crevasse. Jason

The Kearney Book, "Classic Climbs in the Northwest" is by far the best of the three books. The reason it is best is exactly because it is biased. Kearney did all the routes in his book. Of the many many hundreds of routes he's done in the Northwest and the many first ascents he's been involved in, these are the routes he's come up with. He also has an excellent feel for what makes up a good route. Not only that, but he defines the terms in his introduction as to what makes a route good. Potterfield and Nelson don't do this. Recently, Kearney was complimented on his book. His response was that it's good because it has thirty years of climbing in the Northwest behind it. As far as I'm concerned the best of the three tick lists is the Kearney list. Jason [ 09-27-2002, 09:57 PM: Message edited by: Jason Martin ]

I was up there last week and the route is still very doable. Just before the Crater at around 9000 feet one has three choices to by-pass some difficult crevasses. 1) Climb along a sketchy snowfin to attain the upper mountain. This is a great and fast way to go up, but a little scary going down. 2) Traverse to climbers right before the sketchy crevasses for about one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards and climb up between a few small crevasses and seracs. Traverse back left. This is a good way to come down. 3) If you can't see where to ascend in route number two, keep traversing right until you are on the Squak directly below Sherman Peak. Ascend here and then traverse back to the crater. There is one last little interesting section immediately after the preceding area, though not as difficult. There is crevasse that presses itself right up to the rocks below the crater. One can climb through the crevasse easily with one solid swing of the ice axe (piolet anch style) and climb out the other side. Alternately, it's not too hard to climb on the rocks around the crevasse, though they are a little loose. The route is really not in bad shape at all. It's been pretty cruser the last couple times I've done it. Jason

If you have a good novel, it's not a bad idea to cut it in half to cut down on weight. Unless it's a really crappy trip I usually don't read more than an hour or so a night and don't finish a half a novel. A pot scrubber is one of the most handy items I carry for longer trips. Seems simple, but it is nice to cook in a relatively clean pot. If you bend the upper half of your spoon, then you can set it in your pot while cooking and not lose it in the boiling water. Just take a lighter to the upper part of the spoon and allow the plastic to warm a bit, then bend... A metal spoon (what I have) is easier, just bend it. When it's really wet and my inner booties are soaked, it's often difficult to dry the entire inner boot in my sleeping bag. There are two things one can do to have dry feet the next day: 1) Take the footbed liner in your sleeping bag and dry this out. It often feels like one's whole foot is dry after doing this. 2) It was mentioned earlier to put a hot water bottle in the sleeping bag. If one puts the same bottle inside the inner bootie while cooking dinner and such, it will at least marginally begin the drying process. Just a few ideas I like... Hopefully these will be helpful to someone out there. Jason

Lots of rattlesnakes... But fun besides that.

I spend about five months a year in Vegas and I'll tell you one thing... I think I usually have about two weeks without visiting climbers sleeping on the floor. Jason

The Gypsum Mine is nothing compared to an 8400 unit development.

The guide will be out in September of 2003. Mountaineers Books will be publishing it. We had hoped to get it out for this winter, but the publishing industry is incredibly slow. We are in dire need of photos. Both action photos of people on routes and photos of routes. In particular, we're looking for overview photos of the following: 1) The Northwest Face of Colfax Peak in the Winter. 2) Overview Photos of Mt. Index in the Winter. 3) The Northwest Face of Dragontail Peak in the Winter. 4) The North Face of Abiel Peak in the Winter. 5) The Northeast Buttress of Chair Peak. If you have any of these, you may contact me at: j_dougie@yahoo.com Or Alex at: wastateice@yahoo.com Thanks for all the help. Jason

Just want to keep this thing on the boards for a few days... Jason [ 08-31-2002, 08:21 AM: Message edited by: Jason Martin ]

Red Rock Canyon on the outskirts of Las Vegas is under attack. Recently an English Developer bought the Gypsum Mine that is adjacent to the canyon. He plans to develop the area adding an 8400 home subdivision. This is essentially across the street from the small town of Blue Diamond near Mt. Wilson. The visual polution and the traffic will be horrendous. Much of what makes Red Rock what it is will be lost. To protest this, visit: www.redrock.org There are many lists of different politicans and their emails. They should be attacked from every front so that they understand the impact of what is going on to our community. If you want to keep Red Rock Pristine, please take some time and write a few emails. The more all of us write, the more these guys will feel the heat. Jason

This is actually a pretty cool challenge, beer or no beer. Though I agree with Forrest. I think the finish date should be a month later. May 15th Perhaps? Jason [ 08-28-2002, 02:54 PM: Message edited by: Jason Martin ]

I was up there about three weeks ago. There was snow on the glacier at the time. However, there were definately places where one could see a little ice underneath. If the snow has melted off, you may need crampons. It's not very steep, but wouldn't be too fun without them if the conditions have deteriated to the point where there is exposed glacier ice. You probably can leave the ice tools at home. An ice axe for glacier walking may be helpful. Jason