layton

Yup. that's the Rev. Diamond. I was his roommate for about 6 months. interesting stay. He's the guy who once wanted to get lunch in Roslyn while climbing at Vantage with a guy named Cory! I was lying, he moved far away and the only thing he's been sending recently is email.

Sorry Dude, Matt the "rev" diamond already sent them all month drinking binge and puked on the cruxes. Check out the little cove on chuckanut drive in Fairhaven just past the RxR bridge tunnel. Take a right just before the gallery/espresso bar. Bring some band-aids. Oh yeah, best climb in B'ham...Sehome High Handcrack. 10a splitter with a nice undercling (for shorties) and roof mantle finish! Awesome. Don't fuck it up for folks and make them cement it in. Only go when schools out and no one is watching. The kids'll hop on and die and no more splitters in B'ham (except for Boundry Bay handcrack..ouch, the Bond Hall offwidth, Carver Gym Layback, and some auto-parts store handcrack I haven't seen yet), Worst B'ham rock...Gov'Lister Cliffs which doubles at the worst climbin' in entire world...no offense. [ 07-18-2002, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: michael_layton ]

Dear climbing community... ...I think it should be noted that this is the 1st time Climzalot has EVER swore! This alone should attest to the heinousness of our attempt.

So go up the main channel of Swift Creek (on the right side) all the way to below the glacier of the S.Face of Ashulu, and head up? It would've helped if every mountain or visible thing for that matter wasn't obsured by fog too.

Sorry to dissapoint all, but the trip was a bust! I'm sippin some Black Velvet I grabbed at the Duty Free, so this should prove interesting. There I was, hanging in dead air, feet dangling in space above a 80 degree slabby drainage, runout unknown holding onto a shruby branch, desperately trying to swing apelike to another lower branch. Misery. Pure and undiluted. My 1st real attempt, having drivin up to the avy slide months ago. Climzalot and Mike K were in the truck. Climzalot was behind the seat, head bashing into the glass from the waterbars. I counted 53 signifacant waterbars during the 4X section!!! Here's the driving beta.... HWY 99 N, left on Squamish Valley road, stay left. Follow McLane's guide book direction. Road turns to gravel, hang a left onto bridge across river. Continue up Ashulu main into canyon. Hang a right a few miles into the canyon. It goes down, past a little quarry, and across a bridge. Don't go up, gated mine, and access to Mt. Jimmy Jimmy (my fav. mtn). Past bridge stay left. Take a left off what looks like the main road onto an obscure road. This is still the main road!!! It's the 1st left. Don't go uphill. The river should be on your left! Keep it there, close to your car. Follow this for a while. This is the start of the Vehicular Bushwack!!! Seriously thick schwackin' on a road for a long ass time. The road makes a fork. Go right, uphill. The downhill road should peter out. END OF 2WD. Major waterbar country ahead. We had a black bear lope ahead of my truck for a couple kilo. Now, the road will go straight, or turn sharply uphill and switchback below a rockscar. Go straight. Not much longer now. Stop at a scary log and dirt bridge that cuts across ye old river of death. This is shortcut creek. Do not go further. Park and puke. My biggest advice from here is bring a good topo map of the area. The info from here is in serious question... There is a tiny tiny cairn above a little cliff. Go up the cliff and start some hard core bushwacking. A small ice-tool proves useful here. If you find my Nike hat, let me know. Stay on the left side of the creek and go up for a while. According to McLane and a map I saw a fork off the main river splits off left. We followed it. It turns into a nice waterfall, we climbed up the ridge into open areas and came to an ice-encrusted lake below a very steep alpine bowl. This SHOULD be rugged lake. Fuck if it is or not? Now from the lake, your're supposed to get on a "steepening hillside" onto the ridge to the right. We had to go back down stream from the lake a few yards to find a feasible way onto the ridge. Sketchy loose rocks and slippery heather turned into mid-fifth verticle bushwacking. Monkey and muscle up. Climb sketchy wet mossy steep loose rock and bushwack a lot more. Now you are fucked. Acording to the guidebook this ridge should be somewhat promenent a maybe even a bit jagged. No such luck. Verticle choss and shrub continued on into the mist, and we couldn't bring ourselves to go up it. Nothing in the topography matched any photo or map, or description. Fucked. Down and to our right many many feet down lay the main channel of the swift creek. above lay massive amounts of snow and glacial terrain. Our ridge, and our mountain were nowhere to be seen. It was one of the few times where topography totally contradicted everything, even though everythign before hand seemed to fit the pieces. We decided that the minimal approach beta would probably fit anywhere in the mountains. Follow a stream to an alpine lake. shit, we could do that anywhere. Were we playing the right cards for the wrong game? Well I'll never know. The indignity and humiliatory of the approach and descent to come will make me take an indellible marked to the Ashlu pages of the guide. The desent was unmentionably awful. Swinging from tree to tree down the other side of the ridge to the main channel was a humbling, scary, life-altering bushwack. No humans had been were we had gone. Gorrilas don't degrade themselves like we did getting off the ridge. Then the mosquitos...dear god! One mustn't slow their progess lest these satan spawn catch up. One slow step and you are fuckin' covered! There was soem flagging tape on the right side of the main channel, who knows what that's all about? Totally off from Mclane's guide, and topo's. Must be for some much more devilish purpose. I did a few face plants into the marshes, and mangaged to degrade the entire species by beating through bushes back to the car. FYI there was some flaggin tape on the approach we took, and it took 1.5 hours to get to the "lake" whatever lake it may have been in whatever mtn range we were in. God only knows where we were, it was definitely the most random spot I've wound up in. GO GET IT!

"Wetter than your Wife" -aka Green Gulley near Golden (see waterfall ice guidebook). Worst name, "Saphire Bullets of Pure Ice" in Telluride. Fuckin' Colorado hippies!

I remember that bra, slightly disturbing concidering the area! Also, if you pass a rotting corpse that resembles a dead crack whore wearing black panties...you're on the wrong trail .

Captain, lets see those James Turner photos if you've got the time. Thanks. -Mike Layton

No, I was home alone I only get hangovers with wine and sugary drinks making them more of an afternoon drink.

Ok, I'm totally beta trolling here and seriously hogging the B.C. TR section. Sorry, but... ...Anyone done it? It looks sweet. The thing is that is looks like one of those climbs that needs pretty good conditions. However, while attempting Joffre Central Coulior (bailed due to emotional trauma due to fatality) in october in relatively warm temps after a big rain, the coulior was still in an looked good. Should I assume James turner is similar, because I just read the FA was done in May! McLane doesn't really say what the season is for this baby, and I doubt many (if anyone) have repeated it. So if you've seen it, or done something n.facing at that latitude, I'd like your opinion. It looks like an Awesome slog in, but I'd sure like to climb it after all that work. Thanks again, Mike.

Thanks, duh!, I should'a checked that site. Any word on NF.Direct, or Direktissima?

oh yeah, for anyone who doesn't know, these peaks are mentioned in the new SW BC guide and are in the Chehalis range. Beta still wanted badly. Obviously I can go in and see for myself, which I will most certainly do one of these days coming up, but concidering I'm not doing an FA I'll take any useful info. Anyone climbed s.face of Ashulu also...see climzalot's post to reply to that one.

Anyone know anything about The North Face Direct, or the Derektissima Routes? Flavelle-Howe looks like a ton of scrambling (16 pitches worth of 3rd to Low 5th) to a few good pitches near the top, so unless someone says it rocks and the others blow, I don't think I'd concider that one. Any good, how's the rock? Route beta? Times? Approach? Desent? Road? Anything info would be helpful. Any beta on N.Ridge of Clarke or Tuning fork on bardeen would be nice too, but they don't look nearly as scary, committing, and they seem like common routes compared to the N.face routes on Vienesse. Thanks, Mike Layton

Trail's fine.

Must be a lot qucker from snow lakes to the peak than I thougt. That pass looked like it would take some time. Should'a gone. Damnit. Camera equipment? What are you taking pictures of? That area is so visually offensive and awful, that if it was a person, Dr. Laura Scrotumdinger would tell me to leave it and press criminal charges!!!!

The hike up is fairly steep. Going up and down w/ a big pack on would hurt. Plus there a LOT of bugs (all the way up to the summit!). If you summit by night, the descent is pretty straighforeward, and could be easily done by headlamp. I'd go with 2 hours to base for super fast and light folks, 3-5 hours for heavy packs. On the flip side, the area is so amazingly beautiful that it would be a pretty place to spend awhile (while swatting insects). You can get water from the snow, not a lot of running water however.

3rd try is the charm. It felt like I was commuting to work driving back to L-worth and hiking in (Again) the next morning. Things started off well as I stepped into one of the largest piles of human excrement in the moat. I didn't notice till shit smears and stench appeared all over the 3rd class. Necronomicon led the offwidth, way to go dude. I wouldn't bring a big bro like one party I saw carry a while back. Good luck sliding that thing up! The next pitch was mungtackular surmounting the ridge, and a nice little pitch followed. The step down and around was very easy. Lots of 4th class simul climbing followed in crappy loose choss (with one short large crack near the fin). Necro led up the ramp to the fin and the quality of rock got even crappier. Tons of air mail. I'd hate to be below another party! Confusion sunk in as Nelson's guide became useless, and translating the beta was a joke. I led up some awful rock to the right, it blanked out, downclimbed, traversed and got up on a ledge. Short pitch. Led the next pitch, there were those 5.8 twin cracks! Only good pitch on route. Long long pitch. Still somewhat confused, I led up another crack, found the undercling (easy), and headed toward this notch at the crest. I wasn't sure wether to head right through what looked like roofs and choss, or left 10 feet to the notch to summit the fin? I climbed up 15 feet above my last piece up some runout 5.10 sidepulls, realized I shoulda gone right, and was fucked. Still no pro I headed left on sidepulls and a hand traverse w/lichen for feet and flopped through the notch with horrid rope drag. This is the top of the 3rd coulior. Necro lead up on the other side of the fin for 20 feet, and back to the other side through another notch. He let loose an amazing amount of rubble. I followed up and the ground below my feet liquified as I sent tons of rockfall down. One more 3rd class ropelegnth put us on the trail just below the summit. We glissaded all the way down to asguard. On the pass I must've unleashed Pandora's box of insects. Totally swarmed I hopped on the snow and glissaded down the rest of the pass, VERY careful to avoid waterfalls, and their death moats. After hiking out we headed to town to consume massive amounts of food. We were like two coyotes loose on the town searching for animal tissue. Nothing was open! We slid past the folks in safeway as they were locking their doors, and mangaged to grab shitloads of meat and cheese. The gas station was closed, so no beer for us! The final crux was trying to finish my sandwich while staying away. It tooks us 18 hours car to car. My feet were so nasty when I peeled off my socks they were and are a crime against humanity! Both big toenails are falling off, and my left one is all puffy and bleeding. At safeway I managed a land speed of .1 miles per hour. I call this type of activily self-destructexcise. The route looks neat and there are cool views, etc..., but the rock seriously blows, and not much quality climbing. I don't think I'll repeat that line again. I look forward to locking myself indoors and doing nothing for a while.

Went to try prussik last week car to car. Got wicked sandbagged on the beta, "5 hours from trailhead to base of route". So Necro and I left the car at 8:30. We figured we were screwed by snow lakes. Nice hike if your into that sorta crap. Go up snow lake TH. Asgard pass is for going down, not up. The area is totally disgusting! How long would it take to completely level that area into a giant parking lot if the entire human race were to focus all their energy on it, using rock to chop and dig while consuming their dead? 1 month?

Someone just pointed out that my post reads like Climzalot gets 3 out of 4 stars. I mean the climb. Climzalot gets 4.

Clean break is gooder than most badder climbs. If you get the 2nd pitch, you get 80% of the hard funky pitches. The 5.10- traverses are headdy, but only one or 2 movs. The 1st pitch is the hardest. The 2nd pitch (the clean break) felt like 5.9 or 5.8. The 3rd pitch goes up and right up a left facing flake, then across and up an unprotected corner. We may have missed something, cuz it seemed weird. We did a small tension/pendulum into the next crack. After that it's pretty off and on going. The 10- thin crack after the offwidth (do a hand traverse then a layback) is pretty easy. Not much gear on the crack, but bomber finger locks. Don't fall though. We didn't "tunnel" under like Kearney says higher up, instead following Burdo, heading out right on a long traverse then climbing back up to the ridge past the prow. The 5.9 stem corner was hard for me, but easy for Coley. Don't go too high, traverse early on. There is a fixed nut in a sucker crack way to the right. Coley opted out on the "Wild hand crack". I didn't see it, but it seemed really silly and contrived. I'm sure we missed out, but I really don't care. The approach and hike are ok. Car to car was 14 hours. Lots of snow at the base of the route, w/ a sketchy moat hop. Don't leave a pack too close to the base of the route, as the descent puts you lower than your pack. Leave a pack really really low, or better yet, not at all. Don't bother w/ice ax or crampons. Not that steep, runout. Bring plenty of water, it gets really hot (even when cloudy). Aproach took 2 hours to basin, 45min on talus/snow. Desent took 3.5 hours summit to car. Easy desent, not sketchy at all. Try and stay on the trail on the way up, but there are many sections that are devoid of trail and you just need to be lucky to find it. Climzalot was an awesome partner on an awesome route. 3 out of 4 stars, and a IV 5.10a rating (or III+ if you camp up there...don't though, that's cruel). Oh, bring a topo for the wine spires if you do camp, or if you finish the route early. We could'a gotten in Chianti or Burgandy by dark.

Thanks that's great advice about the col! My question relates to the two routes "W.Face Burgandy, and Never Enough on Ares Tower" Ares tower is near clean break. Does anyone have beta for those routes. There's been a thread for clean break so I think it's covered, but thanks for the info regardless!

Anyone done the W.Face of Burgandy (aka Annie Greensprung Route) What's it like compared to the classic N.Face? Beckey makes it look longer, w/some nice long cracks and "great rock". Same goes with Never Enough near Clean Break. Any good?

Hey, can you post a photo of the ridge. Went in for a solo last year. Pain in the ass figuring which road to take (brought bike), and the the whole col thing from boot lake. There's like five cols up there. I agree with you, the boot lake col is way steep. My problem was that I couldn't figure out what friggin' mountain was what!!!! Once on the crest, I had no clue what col I was between, or what mtn was cinderella! What I thought to be the most likely "cinderella ridge" looked pretty shitty. Fred Beckey, if you're reading this. Your guide is just about the only map of the area with peak names! If you ever do an update, can you give us a better photo or description of the southern range? Great job on the climb!!!! What a confusing area, on the approach, and in the mtns. The north side of the range is a little better, but still gets the best of them lost as hell.

How do you get to colchuck col from the top?

What court would you go to? It's federal land. They can give you a ticket, but there's no court to make you pay. Don't even bother. Collect em' and trade em with your friends. Or, destroy the sign saying you need one and claim you didn't see a sign... Start a nice forest fire with one.