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Posts posted by mark

  1. Some years ago my Dad and I went on an outing to climb Sherpa’s west ridge. As we were packing up at the car we debated whether or not we should take our wallets or risk leaving them in the car where they would be vulnerable to trailhead thieves. We decided to take them with us.

     

    On the approach, we stopped and ate lunch along side the Ingalls Creek trail, then left the trail and started gaining elevation working our way through some slide alder bands and meadows. After gaining about 2,000 feet of elevation, I felt something hit me in the back of the head. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the top pocket of my pack was open and that the only missing item was my wallet.

     

    We had traveled through a bit of brush to get where we were and the odds of retracing our steps and finding it were improbable. Regardless, we dropped our packs and headed down the hill to look for it. To our amazement we luckily stumbled upon it in a stand of slide alder and jubilantly headed back up the hill to continue our trip.

     

    We got back to our packs and were preparing to continue, when my Dad turns to me and says “You’re not going to believe this, but I can’t find my wallet.” His pack had been securely zipped up so we knew the only place it could be was at our lunch stop. Back down the hill we went to find his wallet waiting for us there.

     

     

  2. I’m looking for a partner or partners that can get out mid-week on a somewhat regular basis starting now through this summer. I like doing just about everything, but prefer climbing mountains any time the weather is good enough to allow a chance at success and when it isn’t that good, then go rock climbing somewhere dry.

     

    I have 16 years of climbing experience. I live in Seattle.

     

    I’m pretty open to any objective, ranging from scrambling (I actually like bushwhacking) to intermediate routes (the classics aren’t crowded mid week!). I’m just looking to get out, enjoy some climbing and then talk about it over a beer or two or three, when we get back to the car.

     

    Send me an email or PM.

  3. IceIceBaby said:

    There is no need to bolt a crack especially when it offers such a good pro…as it seems here it is not a rap station it is a belay station and BTW on cathedral u can walk off or use the abundant rap anchors on the neighboring

    routs tongue.gif

     

    The picture you call "crack bolt 2" clearly shows 2 rap rings on the bolts that would indicate this is a rappel anchor. Wether or not that justifies it's placement or not, is hard to say.

  4. Nice job obsydian! thumbs_up.gifthumbs_up.gif

     

    I just posted some info on the Jack's north ridge here a couple of days ago and a picture of the summit block. It's a nice scrappy climb.

     

    http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=1453&papass=&sort=1&thecat=504

     

    How steep would you estimate the snow was on the steepest part of the traverse (going over the cornice remnant to the east ridge)? I got that lead and it felt like it was steeper than 60 degrees, but sometimes my judgement is clouded by the intensity of the moment (i.e. fear). I'd like to hear what you think?

     

    You guys didn't happen to find my altimeter laying in dirt in the cliffbands at 4,000 feet did you? I miss that thing and would pay handsomely to get it back.

     

    Anyways congrats.

     

     

     

  5. I climbed the north ridge of Jack via the May creek approach.

     

    The approach was not very pleasant, definitely one of my worst (oppressive heat and bugs were contributing factors). From May creek to about 4,000 feet the going isn’t too bad. But then there are some cliff bands that you have to negotiate for about a thousand feet requiring some bush belay class 3 dirt climbing. Then the traverse from the 5,000 foot level over to the moraine is pretty brushy. Between the mosquitos and the brush, we lost a lot of blood on the approach. Figure on 6 hours or more to get to a moraine bivy sight.

     

    To climb head up the left side of the Nohokeem (sp?), gentle grade, no problems here. But getting off of the glacier up to the north ridge does provide some challenge. We took a slanting ramp of steep snow 40-45 degrees, but where the snow got too thin to safely climb on one section, we took off our crampons and transferred to the rock. Scary, wet, sandy, slabby third class terrain made us wish we were back on the snow. We climbed up this section unroped, but roped up and stayed on the snow when we headed down.

     

    The north ridge is cruiser to just below the summit block. Class 3 with only a couple of exposed sections.

     

    Then the TRAVERSE, 2 pitches of 50 to 60 degree snow above the northeast glacier (maybe steeper for a short section to reach the east ridge, seemed like it was). Awesome exposure. Good belays can be found by climbing into the moat, making this more reasonable than it first appears. But it is steep and exposed. Really cool!!

     

    Finish off with one 50 meter pitch of 4th class rock and then scramble up to the seldom visited summit.

     

  6. Flee Fly Flue is a good 5.7 chimney on the middle wall at Index. Its been awhile, but I think I remember, about 20-30 feet of nice wide bombay chimney action with no pro. Then placing the big green camelot and a brushy finish to the anchors. The rock isn't worn smooth like the aries chimney.

  7. Below is an excerpt from my notes:

     

    As described in the guide book, the key to finding the route is to locate the right hand turn out of the first gully at 3,870ft. Look for the really obvious cave at the cliff bottom, the route goes right underneath it. A short scrappy dirt-rock-snow scramble past the cave cliff and we were in the final gully leading up to the bowl under the south face.

  8. Lambone said:

     

    Mark, I am going to try it with my Met Adjustables. I have had a hellava time top-stepping with those daisies, can't legthen them when I need to because they are under tension.

     

    I had the same problem with the met adj, the yates can be lengthened under tension and I like having that option.

  9. I’ll be interested in hearing what you think of your fifi after you’ve used it. I bought one last year, after reading of its virtues from ptpp. After some experimenting , it has found a home at the bottom of my blue gear tub. My 2 main gripes: 1) the hook adds to the cluster via its hook like nature. 2) the kong hook appears to have less room in the concave section of the hook then some other fifi hooks and kept surprising me by coming unhooked when I unweighted it.

     

    After some experimenting with 1) the kong hook, 2) metolius adjustable 3) yates adjustable and 4) carabiners at diff lengths on pocket daisy, I found I like the yates adjustable best as the tool for clipping in short after I’ve moved up in my aiders. I like the carabiner over the hook, because hooks equal cluster. I liked the yates adjustable because it is the easiest to lengthen (all of them can be made shorter easy enough).

     

    Seems to me most of the advantages of the kong fifi hook were made obsolete by adjustable daisys. IMHO

     

  10. Was there week before last, Guinness was not in. The Golden climbs were in, but not as fat as past years. Lady killer was in (wet and chandiliered, harder than usual) , and access is not affected by the construction. Also, I don't know if it is kosher or not, but we saw people parked climbing Essondale right and Pretty Nuts, in spite of the construction. It was a weekend and there wasn't any work going on.

     

    Rgds

  11. I also did that route this summer and had a little trouble with route finding in that same area. The Becky guide somewhat misleads you into going too far right and we did, ending up off route and having to backtrack. Instead the route goes more straight up the middle, angling slightly left once you are across the moat. It felt like 3rd class to me, but it was attention getting 3rd class. We ascended and descended without a rope. I don’t remember a lot of loose rock.

     

    I agree it was a nice summit and an enjoyable climb for a quick one day outing. Looking though the register I was surprised by how seldom it gets climbed.

  12. Ade, try “Thinking Body,Dancing Mind” by Lynch/Al Huang”. It covers basic visualization techniques. I bought it some time ago, when I heard Bobbi Bensman recommend it. I figured, hey she has big fake breasts, she must know what she is talking about. It didn’t do much for me, but its not a bad intro to the topic of improving sports performance through visualization.

     

    I’ve also read some of Krishnamurti’s stuff on fear, that Marc Twight recommends. It had some interesting philosophical ideas about fear that made me stop and think. Again, I don’t know if it helped me deal with it any better or not.

     

    I’d try getting these from the library instead of buying them. They aren’t books that you need to add to your shelf, but if your curious about this stuff they’re probably a good place to start.

     

  13. I did a trip in to climb Tower and Golden Horn in August 2001. Below is an excerpt from my notes related to climbing Tower. We really enjoyed the trip in there, and the route. I would definitely say it is worth the trip. Upper Snow lake is really nice for swimming, pretty warm for a high mountain lake (in Aug).

     

    Excerpt From Trip report:

     

    The next morning we left camp to climb the SW rib of Tower. This route featured 700 feet of technical climbing from 4th class to 5.6+ on granite that ranged from very clean to very loose. The route was first climbed in 1990 by Gordy Skoog and Joe Cantellani. And gauging by the summit register has only seen a handful of ascents.

     

    The first pitch was sustained 5.6+, pro was scarce, but reasonable, making the climbing somewhat run out with a belay that was hard to locate. Dad wasn't sure what he was getting into after following this pitch, but was game for continuning with the assurance that things would ease off. Pitch 2 did ease off, but was '5.loose' which made for heady climbing. Upon reaching the belay, we could see that the rock up ahead improved and we were much encouraged. Two easy 4th class/low fifth class pitches along the right side of the ridge followed, leading to a nice looking mid-fifth class corner that regained the crest of the ridge (fun pitch). Once a top the rib again, we could look ahead a couple of pitches and see a large 25 foot headwall, almost like a big boulder, which spanned the width of the whole rib and appeared to block it. At each belay we'd look at it and wonder aloud how we would get around it. Once there, we could see the crack on the far left hand side that offered passage, but at the price of some exposure, as you stood on the very corner of the rib that fell away for hundreds of feet below you. For me this was one of the mental cruxes of the route, at the top of the crack you had to make a balance move across a debris covered ledge, there were no handholes, just a smooth granite face covered in black lichen and the last protection was a ways below. Cool!

     

    Two or three more pitches of 4th class with the occassional low 5th class move saw us to the summit, where there is the world’s biggest summit cairn (7ft tall). We descended the extremely loose scramble route in our rock shoes, an unpleasant gully, but convenient in that it brought us to within a couple of hundred feet from the base of the rib, where we picked up our gear that we had left there and headed home happy with the days climbing.

     

     

    THE PARTICULARS:

     

    The approach – Follow the PCT north 11 miles over Cutthroat Pass through Granite Pass then on to the big campsite in the meadow. Take the trail on the right for half a mile to Snowy lakes.

     

    Note: the Becky guide says that you can see the route on Tower from Cutthroat pass. This is flat out wrong, you can’t even see Tower Mountain from Cuthroat Pass. I’m sure he must mean Granite Pass.

     

    The bivy - Bivy either in the meadow or at Snowy lakes. The lower Lake is most central to both climbs.

     

    The route –

     

    Golden Horn - From the upper lake scramble up to the ridge top, then follow the ridge to the summit area. As previously mentioned, the last move or two on the summit block from either the north or south option are hard, with some fall potential. You may want to bring a rope and a piece or 2, if you want to plant your arse on the summit proper.

     

    Tower – From the lower lake scramble across the western basin and up big granite blocks to gain the obvious southwestern ridge, follow that up past a deep notch to the base of the mountain. Traverse right, you’ll see the obvious gendarme with the capstone on it (described in the west gully route description) at the base of the scramble gully (you can’t see this gully from the lake, it is not on the west side of the mountain). About 100-200 yards further to the right is the route. Its obvious.

     

    Note: it is interesting that the Becky guide gives 2 different approaches for the scramble route and the Southwest rib even though the starts for these routes are right next to each other. Use the description for the rib route.

     

    The rack – Medium alpine rack, one of each size cam from blue TCU up to 3 inches. 8 stoppers. 2 hexes #7 and 8.

     

    The time: Cars to camp 5 hours. (I don’t know what took us so long, we really dawdled).

    Camp to Golden Horn Summit 2.5 hours.

    Golden Horn Summit to Camp 1.5 hours.

    Camp to Base of southwest Rib 1.5 hours.

    Base of Rib to the summit 4 hours 45 minutes.

    Descent to camp 2 hours.

    Camp to Cars 3hours 45 minutes.

  14. Is Peakbagging important? Obviously it depends on whats important to you.

     

    Consider that climbing covers a spectrum of activity. At one end of the spectrum, is the highly technical activity that is totally divorced from the mountains (i.e. – gym climbing or bouldering). At the other end of the spectrum is the surroundings oriented aspect of the sport related to being in the mountains (i.e. peakbagging-summiting peaks with little or no technical challenge). Where you operate on the spectrum is each person’s choice and based on their choice, that slice of the sport become “important”.

     

    Dru, as somebody who would rather “do a route, than tick a peak” I think you're on the end of the spectrum closer to the peakbagger than the gym climber. Seems to me that you and Scot’teryx might have something in common after all- the mountains. [smile]

     

    So what would you rather do, move up a letter grade in the gym or stumble to the top of Point 7372 in the Prince Creek quadrant? The cool thing is there is no wrong answer. [Cool]

  15. How about the last pitch on Davis-Holland/Lovin Arms; does anybody else out there think it's kind of hard for 5.9? Earlier this year, after climbing the first 5 pitches cleanly, I got 10 feet from the top on the last pitch and whipped. I can't remember the last time I fell or hung on 5.9. Sandbag?

  16. The U notch that leads from Glacier basin to the Pride glacier on Kyes peak is with out exception the chossiest piece of non volvanic real estate in the cascades. It's the hardest 3rd class loose rock pitch I've climbed.

     

    Paul, I thought Blackcap was the classiest route of all the the not to classy Pasayten Peak's routes. I didn't think the rock was too bad. Can't argue with your assessment of Monument though, you have to pay attention to what you're grabbing on to there.

     

    For techinical pitches, the second pitch on the SW rib of Tower mountain (one of Wotan's 1st ascents I think) was pretty loose 5.5/5.6. The rest of the route was great fun though.

     

    I have to say, I kind of like what chossy rock adds to a climb.

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