dberdinka

Bump for my own TR. Climbed Ellation on Saturday. It's almost completely dry with the exception of a move or two on the 3rd, crux pitch. My Colorado buddy thought it was worthy. Chalk on the route and a small loose hold on pitch 4 had recently given up the ghost so it's getting some traffic. Upper pitches are very clean and the final pitch now goes free with a single move of 11- (or C0). Anything harder than 10b/c is easily yarded past if need be. Climbed another three pitch line as well that ended in "Daves Grand Dihedral" a low-angle 140' 5.7 corner with a hand crack running up the entire thing. From the mid-height grassy ledge of Ellation walk right around the corner 150' and look for an intimidating layback flake that leads to a small roof, 10+ or 11- but really hard to get the gear in (maybe it needs a few B.L.Ts). Next a very cool bolted 10- arete pitch leads to base of the Dihedral, mossy at the start but cleans up quickly. Made for a good picture at least.

If you want to climb a big route on Slesse consider the North Rib over the Northeast Buttress. It is a far superior climb with a much, much safer approach particularly for a heavy snow year like this one when the pocket glacier might never fully eject.

The approach on the east side is absolutely beautiful and the shwacking is tame (all blueberries, (almost) no devils club). Still if you want pitches go to Squamish, if you want a wilderness experience close to home the Green Creek Valley can't be beat. With a multiday trip in there, either basecamping or traversing you could knock off a lot of good routes from the Mythic Wall, to the South Twin, Skookum, Cinderella.....

It's good to see a shout out for the Que-Car-BBQ. They really do have the best food in the Cascades. Their hours can seem a bit short after the long drive down from the pass but so be it. If they're open you would be out of your mind to pass them up for "Good" food.

Thats the backside of the South Twin. I downclimbed the ridgeline (NE ridge) in the middle of the frame. Leland, what did you think of the route on Skookum?

Trip: Twin Sisters Range - South Twin - North Twin Traverse Date: 6/28/2012 Trip Report: Due to a deteriorating forecast and a general weariness with driving long distances to go climbing I chose to hop on my bike and go for my first ever self-propelled climbing adventure. I managed to kill the proverbial second bird as well finally climbing the South Twin Sister after living in Bellingham for over twenty years. The original plan had been to just climb the West Ridge of the North Twin. After 30 miles of pedaling, and using some sort of flawed logic, I surmised that climbing the South Twin would only add a marginal amount of extra effort to the entire ordeal. After the interminable logging roads the approach into the basin separating the two peaks is short and sweet. A short snow slope led to the long West Ridge of the South Twin which struck me as a slightly longer, slightly more difficult and more alpine version of it neighbor. Occasional intimidating sections were always easily bypassed on firm, enjoyable rock. I was a bit surprised to find two climbers basking on the summit of the neighboring Skookum Peak having just climbed the Northeast Ridge (which looks like one of the very best routes in the range). Years ago when I climbed that peak the summit register suggested it only saw an ascent every five years or so. Rather than down climb the ridge I chose to descend the much shorter and chossier northeast ridge. Still third class but quite exposed in places. The Sisters Glacier was rapidly crossed to the col between the summits at which point I decided it would be just as easy to climb over the North Twin for a rapid boot glissade down the North Face (always perfect in mid-to-late June). The southeast ridge of the North Twin turned out to be a bit inferior to the other ridges in the area with numerous deep gaps to be bypassed and a finally bit of unaesthetic traversing below steep towers. It had it's enjoyable sections too and as part of the overall traverse it is well worth doing. Upon regaining my bike the weather had finally changed with a stiff wind and the first rain drops in the air. Fortunately my legs were not nearly as trashed as I had presumed they would be and the ride home was actually enjoyable. Ultimately a great trip and a wonderful way to reset the bar on what seems normal. That five mile approach up the logging roads will never feel long again! Approach Notes: Accessing the Basin. From near Dailey Prairie continue past the normal turn off for the N Twin - W Ridge. After a couple hundred yards take the next left. After passing an old metal culvert (BITD climbers could park here) the road brushes up. Continue to follow a path through the slide alder. Watch out for a point where the road splits in front of a small stream. A more obvious path leads up and left but you want to continue straight ahead over the stream. Eventually the road switchbacks just before reaching old growth. Plow straight ahead picking up a faint trail. It quickly leads to a talus field that is followed up into the basin. 45 minutes from the culvert.

Great trip report on a classic adventure. Agreed that there is still way more snow in the hills then many years.

Holy Crap! Congratulations old man! Welcome to the club, it's an exhausting but wonderful one!

Nice tour! I've always wanted to do that.....

Cool photo. Did it slide out last year or are we looking at two (or more) years accumulation? How thick do you estimate that serac edge to be?

I've never bought Guide Tennies because I heard they always fell apart way to quicvk, so good to know.... I have a pair of Gandas (bought for 1/2 price) and like then A LOT. They climb very, very well in fact I think they climb as well as my stretched out Mythos. While they look like a hiking shoe the front half actually feels like a rock shoe (your muscles will notice). Perfect approach/climbing shoe. I've got a couple grade V walls on them and they've held well for that too. Heavy though, definitely heavy.

Hows that Trophy Wife looking these days? A sweet line that seemed doomed to return to a quiet life under a thick layer of moss.

Doesn't Backcountry Essentials have a few hanging on the wall? DMM Buddy is the exact same mechanism, probably better executed. Maybe you can get a discount on 10.

The knot already is jammed. With those small high quality quick links I'm rappeling against the knot, no backup (though I do back it up if the pull is straightforward). Why would the tag line break unless you're literally using boot string? I'm using the Imlay 6mm pull cord. It is very durable, strong (2200 lbs they say) and very static which makes it easy to pull. Being poly it won't absorb water like nylon. It's also cheap ($75) compared to a lot of other options. Works great as an occasional haul/tag line too. I guess you could use small aluminum quicklinks but they are going to be quite a bit weaker which means you end up doubling them up which means you're carrying more weight. Ultimately buying a bunch of specific materials that you trust for rapping isn't really realistic for every climb you're going to go do but sometimes it's worth it.

..need more pictures.......

I think you should reconsider which is more likely to get tangled and/or snagged, the pull-cord or the the main line. Because a pull-cord by nature has little mass and tends to be more kink prone I would much rather pull the pull cord and let the rope flop down than vise versa (though the arguement about having something stretchy to lead up on is a worthy one). Tieing the knot and clipping the rope back across itself as a backup does create more hangup potential. I've been content to rap only on the mainline and simply rely on the knot jammed into a small high quality quicklink. Spendy but my life is worth much more. You could always make your pullcord out of 6mm Bluewater Dynamic Prusik cord (60m weight 3.5lbs) if you really wanted something dynamic, though whether it would actually reduce shockloading or just stretch and bottom out is unknown to me.

WTF? Are you HIGH Matt? There is a "sensibility" where throwing TVs and paint cans off cliffs is somehow a reasonable thing to do? What!? No, this is just the simple barbarism that half of our society seems to be falling into. A thoughtless primitiveness of people to stupid to do anything more than break stuff. So good for you Dan. You rise above as usual.

To go stomp all that, in a day, by yourself, in the middle of winter is so freaking....core... Nice work.

I'm a bit of an aid climbing heretic in that my entire small cam rack consists of Mastercams. People seem to diss them but they've worked fine for me on all the "difficult" aid climbs I've done in Squish and Zion. Never felt like there was some critical placement I couldn't get and the cams are durable. While they come in a range of sizes some are FAR MORE useful than others. If I were starting over I would buy in the following order. A set of 0/1 and 1/2 (purple/blue and blue/yellow) Another set of 0/1 and 1/2 Then a 2/3 Then a 00/0 Sometimes I wish I had 3/4 (orange/red) but apparently I haven't needed it that bad. The Totem Hybrids look like the would coorespond to 1/2 and 2/3. I would definitely buy some 0/1 Mastercams if thats the case.

A 2/3rds size and weight Reactor would be the shit for those of us who spend most of our time somewhere other than the Himalaya or AK. MSR listen up!

East of Republic in the Kettle Range the FS maintains a very cool cabin that has good backcountry skiing in huge old burns on ~7000' peaks. It was cheap a long time ago. Take 3ish? hours to ski into. Reservable and cheap.

I will gladly hold a bake sale for whatever individual on this thread truly has the skills to say with a straight face they could climb one of these lines if only....sighhhh....they had the $$$ and time.

Heh, heh. Speak the truth comrade!

Thats laughable to call Jannu a failure. Style is completely subjective, topping out is objective and the Russians are better than anyone at that, hell maybe they are the only ones capable of climbing the really massive technical routes at high altitude. Jannu, West Pillar of K2, N Face of Everest, god knows what else. (Sure it would have been nice to clean up there fixed ropes and gear but so be it. That shit will be washed off the wall long before anyone gets close to it again.) I think there are significant cultural differences such that Russians are able to pull off the large, highly organized climbs that western culture and attitudes (everyone goes it alone) simply couldn't pull off. Clearly they are able to suffer as well and do same amazing alpine style ascents (Valerie Babanov on Jannu, Shabalin on Ak-Su) At the same time what have Americans accomplished? Waiting around for perfect conditions that never materialize to run up snow and ice slopes. The recent ascent of Meru-Sharkfin is beautiful but I would gather that shared a lot more in common with the Russian Way than what you think of as alpine style (look at the portaledge and some of the fat shiny bolts in the videos) Blah, blah, blah

Your TR sort of sucks, but your trip definitely does not. Rare is the day where so many variables align so perfectly, cherish that sucker.