layton

they've been breaking and CCH has done nothing about it, if they are not out of business yet, they will be soon.

nice one Wayne. sorry about the typo, even though the climb was the same, it's kind of a bummer. the last great ridge still lays in despair

i've scratched my head numerous times trying to figure out what peak it is according to the Beckey Guide. I doubt if Beckey really knows what tower is what up there anyways.

what he said

that'd be cool

I climbed that on the fateful 9/11 - getting back across the border was the crux for sure

Here's my opinion for as long sustained cascasdes climb that you need an O/W piece for. Nuts: 1 set of black diamond stoppers #3-#10 and extra #5,6,7,8 1 set of DMM aluminum offsets up to a #4 sized BD nut 2 Sets: 0.5-2 camalot 1 set: 3 and 4 camalot (i rarely bring anything bigger than a #3 unless the topo call for it or it's an F.A.) 1 #7 wild country flexible friend 2 sets: blue and yellow Metolius Master Cam 1 each: #0 (sometimes 2 of these), and Orange Mastaer Cam Each cam on a Black Diamond Oz carabiner. Doulbe up cams for easier climbs. Specialty Pieces: Occasionally a brown, red, and pink Tri Cam #3.5 camalot. No longer made, but very useful. #6 BD camalot #00 metolius master cam A few random knifeblade/bugaboo and Angle pitons Metolius 4 cam that is the size between a #1 and #2 camalot for the rare 1.5" splitter. IMO, C3's don't hold their placements nearly as well as Master Cams and Aliens are no longer to be trusted. The #7 friend is lighter and less wobbly than the #6 BD camalot. Wild Country Zeros are too chincy except for the #1-3 but those are too small for anything but hard aid. Metolius Mastercams effectively replaced the TCU. The new DMM cams may be a good Camalot replacement, but hard to say yet. Hope that helps

Sweet! I've been waiting for someone else to do this route so I could take it off my list for a while now John, why do you ask how it compares to DNB on bear? That route is fun and quality.

post a tr, not many (if any) on Baring

schwing

Not a whole lot to see unless you're psyched on a myraid of choice for clothing, sleeping bags, jackets, and backpacks. The prizewinners in my book: Metolius - offset mastercams Cilogear - unwoven dyneema packs (~1lb for 45L which wayne and I tested with 7 days worth of stuff crammed in) Brooks Range- unwoeven dyneema tent with reflective outter, clip in hole, and sets up with ski poles and avy probe. 1lb. with weight of probe and poles taken out. 2lb with probe. probably could get easton to make a lighter pole for summer if no avy probe is along. DMM: new cams, lighter than camalots with almost the same design some other great ideas/protoypes, but nothing that's workable yet from other companies. Won't somebody PLEASE design a decent pair of durable approach shoes? jesus!

glad you all called to hang out

wayne's video was on the 4th class pitch dru. man, you're never gonna let the tilt thing so since B.O.B are ya!!!!!

can you post it here if you get it scanned. Hope you have fun on that Darin!

we pitched out every pitch up, 4.5 hours up and hour on the summit 3.5 hours down no rappels until the end of the ridge to avoid putting on crampons for the snow ramp exit. the e. ridge would make a very easy ascent to the summit, minimal rock gear. take a snow ramp on the right to bypass the truncated end of the ridge. another option to getting to the east ridge would be to cross the chickaman glacier from the col left of the s. end of the gunsights (the same col used to access their east faces). possible bivy in that area but expect a lot of excavating. from the chickamen, travel up the snow to the col between down and the sub peak to the east. this could avoid ~ 2 hours (for the east ridge only the se face is best approached the way wayne and i went) sorry dru i still haven't glued a level onto my camera.

no way it's still a grade 4 gifven the l.egnth azndc pitches, i wonder if the area suffered an earthquake? sorry,my keyboard is broken access is about as hard as fury but swiss is way further

I was wondering about last great problems. At my slideshow back in '06 i was given a list of mountains/faces detailed in steepness and length. I set it down on a card table but stupidly forgot to grab it in the hubub. Was that Harry Majors who gave it to me? The "attempt" shown in the Becky guide and in the AAJ was on another face somewhere else on the mtn. As for freeing the gunrunner, yes we did, but I wouldn't give us any sort of props for that since the climbing wasn't harder than 5.9 for over 10-20 feet, and it sounds like the FA party needed to move over a crack or something (getting dark?) so it probably wasn't aid out of difficulty. Warning on the gunrunner: it's very loose and there were a plethora of belayer slayers on the technical pitches. i wonder if an earthquake hit the range? wayne and i tried to trundle the extremly dangerous blocks if someone wanted to do this route. 2nd warning: bring tat. The raps we found were ancient horrific slings. maybe we couldn't find where the FA team rapped? Wayne and I belayed about 1/2 the traverse and simulted the rest in about 5-6 hours. We weren't hauling ass since we were whooped and ready to go home. It probably can be done a lot faster. Only a small rack is needed. It could also be done easily with a half rope folded over since the 1st crux pitch is 50 feet and the 2nd crux roof pitch is about 60 feet. The "45m" raps can be broken up or downclimbed a bit (but bring tat). Once again, be careful with all the loose blocks. Fingerless gloves would be nice since the lichen on the rock cut our hands up too.

Trip: Dome Peak SE Face of SW Peak - Gran Torino FA Mike Layton & Wayne Wallace IV 5.9 Date: 7/15/2009 Trip Report: "Gran Torino" IV 5.9+ 15p. Mike Layton and Wayne Wallace SE Face of SW Dome Peak 7/15/09 Above photo by John Roper "Grand" is supposed to read "Gran" and the date is wrong. Wayne and I established the first route on the 1800' SE face. The position, climbing, protection, and rock quality were truly spectacular. I first noticed this face on my N.Cascades recon flight with John Scurlock (thanks John!). It looked like one of the biggest unclimbed faces left in the state, but the legnthy approach and unknown rock quality kept it on the to do list for four years. With the grim reality of graduating college after 11 years, and the even harsher reality of needing to work full time and relocating to SLC, I never thought I'd get a change to give it a try. Luckily Wayne and I both got time off and I flew into Seattle late Saturday night. Wayne took a little convincing. This was our plan "B" trip, as plan "A" required a better forcast on the front end. We quickly scrambled to re-pack and figure out the fastest way in to Dome. With the Downey Creek approach a literal "wash", we think we pegged what will probably become the new approach route to this area. With prototype 45L Cilogear unwoven dynema packs that clocked in at barely over one pound, ultralight CAMP carabiners, and Feathered Friends one pound custom bags (thank you Cilogear, Feathered Friends, and Pro Mountain Sports), we managed to get 8 days worth of crap in our bags without making them look like a yard sale. Wayne and I seriously geeked out over shaving every possible gram without being dangerously under supplied for weather and emergency. We took the Lady of the Lake from Fields Point to Stehekin and the Shuttle bus to the High Bridge drop point well after 3pm. (total cost with parking, boat and shuttle = $128 cash ... so bring extra bills for the bakery). We then hiked the Agnes Creek Trail for 9 miles to Spruce Creek Camp. It thundered and rumbled constantly and we finally got fully soaked by the time we pitched our tent. Thankfully the bugs hadn't hatched yet! The next day we crossed Spruce Creek and hiked for 1/2 a mile off trail until we decided to schwack up the obligatory 3500' hillside. There is a large granite buttress you can see on on the hillside for future FA'ers. From there it is a long traverse to the Spruce-Icy col where we camped again. The gunsight range loomed just above us. This is also the best approach to this range. It could be done in a moderate/heavy day, but the timing on the boat/shuttle kinda forces it to be a two day approach. The best bivy for the gunsight is past this point, however. Continue along the ridge until it turns to kitty litter with the blue glacier bordering it. From here it's only a short ways in. Day three was the tricky route finding day. We originally planned on traversing over the peaks to up and over Sinister, but after summitting peak 7875 by its east ridge, we realized this was a very bad idea. The contour lines on the map made a low traverse look dangerous, but with careful route finding we picked a way around the S.Face of Sinister (this little cirque would provide a few days of fun 2-5 pitch routes) and into the basin below dome. The basin required one lead of sketchyness to reach our high camp just below the face. I should point out that Wayne purchased a flask of Absolute 100 and put it in a platypus. This fire water somehow reacted with the plastic, and created the most awful brew. It tasted like turpentine mixed with poison. We drank it anyway and watched movies on our Ipods. Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood (my favorite movie) was that night's entertainment. At pre-dawn we cramponed around to the left side of the glacier and hopped on the ramps at the base of the face. We roped up there and immediately began climbing. We headed for a "tilted block" and climbed a great 5.8 razor layback to offwidth. We pulled an overhang into a layback dihedral and then up a 50' blank chickenhead face. Several pitches of cracks and dihedrals later we moved the belay to the right to get into the major corner system in the center of the face we dubbed the "megadihedral". The corners to get into this megadihedral were five star splitter. Variations before our corner would be excellent as well, and make the route harder above by moving the line slightly left. The megadihedral didn't offer so much gear so we face climbed on chickenheads and found fun gear on the face. It was incredibly spectacular climbing. Fun, thoughtful, a little scary since you weren't sure if the gear would blank, and wildly exposed! Two more pitches of steep crack climbing led to a steep ramp the cut right across the face. We took this ramp one pitch until we could find more cracks, and then headed up once again. We topped out at 10:30am! We were climbing with a fire under our heels to get off the face before the heat of the day was upon us. We roped up at 6:00am. To get off, we downclimbed the so far as we know, unclimbed East Ridge. The route would be around 5.6 and well protected. After the ridge, we needed to climb the next high point east to get to a col to glissade back to camp. The descent took 3-4 hours. It looked like a storm was a-brewing, and the difficult route finding around Sinister would be gun to the head shitty, so we hiked and scrambled back to that kitty litter Gunsight camp, arriving at 9pm and knackered. The next day was spent hiding from the sun and resting. We did the Gun Runner Traverse the next morning to wind down the trip, moved camp to below the pass, and bouldered for the rest of the day. To get the boat in time, we woke up at 4am and did the 12 mile hike and descent down the slope to get to the shuttle by noon. We spent our left over $4 at the bakery in the day old section, and spent the rest of the day on buses, boats, and driving home. The vast majority of the tip was spend trying to find shade under rocks. We have a lot more footage and Wayne will post his video footage shortly. -ML Gear Notes: 1.5 cam rack up to 4" (or an entire rack of .75 camalots), nuts, and slings. ice ax, crampons. one rope. Approach Notes: Stehekin to Bridge Creek to Agness Creek Trail to Spruce Creek to Spruce-Icy col. Traverse low under the towers and peaks to the garden glacier under Sinister. From here careful route finding to a platform almost level with the start of the route.

awesome! thanks for clearing that up that topo is almost as bad as my boola boola buttress topo i wrote on a dry erase board wasted

having done the 1st 3 pitches, leading pitch 1 and 3, I would call the 1st pitch a soft 11 or a hard 10 depending on the location (washington 11, yosemite 10) and the 3rd pitch 10b/c albeit scary. In the fog and cold, it would indeed feel like 5.11!!! You can't have a real rating until the 2nd or 3rd ascent. Where did ya'll go from those stamped bolts???? Maybe you had good luck having it foggy in the long run - using the feel of the line to get you up vs. seeing what could be ahead to make you bail like we did. I bet this route gets repeated several times this year - or at least it should . It only takes two hours to start the climbing from the car! This is another example of folks walking past a stellar climb because a selected classic lies past it (like the east face of burgandy's action potential, acid baby, tempest wall - more on that face!, solid gold, dragons of eden, etc etc)

oh, sorry that came out kinda negative! I was just giving props to the hard climbs put up on stuart that were definately modern hard routes. I think that doing what y'all did in a white out is bad-ass!!!

Here's my mtn project post. no photos or video unless you're on facebook. sorry, no other reason than that I'm lazy. My partner is my GF in this thread. BOS and WH are on Notch which is in the middle of nowhere utah and is a 25 pitch 2500'+ north facing limestone wall (largest limestone face in the 48) Mtn Proj Post: I just got back from a seriously failed attempt on linking Western Hardman with book of Saturdays. We found a great "protected" spot on the ledge just below and to the right of Book of Saturday and set up camp. The next morning we went back down to climb western hardman so we could simply walk over to our camp and do BOS the next day. Great plan, eh? Well one pitch up W.H. it started to rain and it wound up raining most of the day, so we went into Delta to dry out and get some more water. We ran into a sketchy local who told us (after my partner unfortunately devuldged what we were up to ---- never do this!) he once got his tractor near the summit and would like to launch an old car off the summit. We ran back into the canyon the next morning super early to climb W.H. Again, one pitch up it started raining. Crap. We decided since the next day had a much better forcast, we would just hike back up to our camp and climb B.O.S the next day. There is a fixed line before the rope ladder (still there) that had a massive core shot (I knotted it out). I got to the top and was waiting for my partner to come up. This is when the first boulder (not rock, boulder) exploded like an artilery shell two feet behind me. I could hear another one coming as it cut through the air. It hit just below my partner who was now just topping out. I grabbed her pack and threw her up to me and we ran our asses off into the cave behind the rope ladder. Looking up, we saw the roof of the cave was created by rubble and rockfall. It looked solid, but how solid? We hear some yelling and some more rocks came down. All the rocks were landing directly above us to directly below the first fixed line. We were totally trapped in the cave. The rocks stopped and I poked my head out of the cave and yelled and yelled and yelled for them to stop. I wasn't sure if it was climbers on the face or people on the summit. After I yelled up, I heard some yelling from above. A couple seconds passed, then began the real carnage. It was like a scene from a Michal Bay movie. Rock and massive boulders began bombarding ontop of the cave, shaking the ground, and down below. The rope ladder swayed back and forth and I hoped it hadn't been chopped. It stopped again, I yelled again (louder), more yelling from above, a couple seconds passed and once again we were under attack. Here's the weird thing. Both my partner and I swore we heard an engire after the rocks stopped falling the 2nd time. Was it the guy with the tractor trying to murder us? Why would someone keep pryign boulders off the summit after we yelled and they yelled back? We at least knew two things. It wasn't rockfall from the rain, and it wasn't rockfall from a goat. I HAD to see what was happening, because if it was climber induced rockfall, we could wait until dark in the cave until they were done. If it was from the summit, was someone actually trying to kill us? After well over an hour of tormenting rockfall, it stopped. I waited another hour and then climbed up the rope ladder (after testing it of course). I can say that the rope ladder "pitch" was the scariest lead of my entire life. I ran up the canyon to the bowl and hopefully out of range. There was no one on the face. I called for my partner to come up. Since each time we had yelled to stop trying to kill us, even more boulders fell, we had to assume the worst and be as quiet as possible to not divuldge our location or that we were out of the cave. We wispered and tiptoed extremely fast around the ledge system that splits the face to the knoll where our tent was. We shoved everythign into our packs and get the f$#$#ck out of there ASAP and didn't stop until we were in the large wash near W.H. We hiked the backside to the summit to look for tire tread. I don't think any sort of tractor or ATV could get to the summit, so we must have been hearing things. There were footprints in the wash. Too bad there wasn't a summit register to look up who was responsible. What must have happended was just a buch of retards were having fun trundling rocks and boulders off the summit, and didn't hear us call up. Just really bad timing (or good?). The ***Warning*** at the top was to warn future B.O.S climbers that hiker's trundling sh*t off the summit will kill you. And it's a great summit for retarded as$h$les to do such a thing since Notch is in such a hick redneck area. Climbing has many objective dangers, and especially notch peak. But, this is an objective danger that you literally have no control over and at any moment some boy scout or drunk hick may think it's fun to toss a boulder down on you. I HIGHLY reccomend driving up to the outhouses up Miller Canyon that are the start of the drive/approach for the summit hike. Make a very big sign that everyone can see letting hikers know that there will be climbers below you and tossing rocks off is the same thing as attemped murder. I filed a police report, but got pretty much blown off. I'll be back to do this again, but not without making a sign at the trailhead and at the outhouses, unless of course I think someone would be actually trying to kill us. In that case I'll bring my ninja outfit and climb it at night.

wouldn't you concider the Girth Pillar, which not only has a more difficult free rating, but a longer approach, ice/snow/glacier travel, and is a much longer climb a "modern route" on Mt. Stuart? Or are you talking in terms of when route was put up (didn't Colin put up a very difficult mixed line on Stuart last winter)?

the funny thing is I don't think he heard the most recent story about my climbing trip ending up with me filing a police report for someone trying to kill me

Clint! Hey man, long time. What are you talking about? Wayne is totally the queen of the pickets