dberdinka

Hey,nice TR. You can always tell the hardcore alpine climbers by their dynemma helmets. So reading between the lines here is this a classic example of a still motivated climber with to much else going on who gets a free day then says....honey we're gonna drive out the night before...then says ....honey we'll be home late so don't wait up. Who's day trip then becomes a +/*- 33 hr epic! Sweet. I like it. Beautiful photos I can't believe you went all the way in there and back out in a day.

Nice work Sol. 12c in the mountains, hell anywhere, is some serious mastery. What's next?!

Thought I'd point out that Mike is apparently a 5.12+ photographer as well. Nice work on these FreeRider, thats gotta be a serious effort getting into position for some of those shots. BTW Mike (if your out there) as a freeclimb would Town Crier be much improved if a majority of the rusty fixed gear on the Triple Roofs was removed? It certainly would improve the aesthetics of the route as an aid climb.

I was checking out Forbidden from the north (Ruby Mtn) last weekend (7/10) and the northwest aspect was still quite snowy. Looked like it might be a couple more weeks before it fully melts out.

Looked real snowy from the top of Lib Bell on 6/26. While I doubt much has changed since then I bet it's about to change a lot. All in all that might be the most classic route in the North Cascades. Have fun!

The comment "as the loops can slip when loaded individually" originally had some appeal as this indicates that the knot would essentially self equalize regardless of direction of pull. I haven't considered what might happen should one anchor fail. Came across another interesting knot here.... http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=239823&msg=240945

Looking for a knot-nerd to critque a setup. Will I die if I use a "portuguese" or "french" bowline in the end of a rope to equalize two bolts? Check it out.... Portuguese-Bowline

Trip: Liberty Bell - Thin Red Line Date: 6/26/2010 Trip Report: Clear skies, dry rock, long days, no mosquitoes and plenty of snow for an easy descent. It doesn’t really get any better. Which begs the question, where in the hell was everybody? Well it had been three years since I had made it up to Washington Pass and at least six years since I had climbed Liberty Bell. WTF? There’s just not enough time anymore for all the things I might like to do. Drove up to the pass Friday afternoon lolly-gagging along with our road sodas and parked it at the Cutthroat Trail Head for the night just like the good old days. Woke up stupid early, but already the eastern sky had taken on a soft glow. It’s a nice time of year for the alpine start. The approach is still snow from the road, and while it was frozen hard its sun cupped enough that we managed in our tennis shoes. Sun finally broke over Kangaroo Ridge just as we started climbing leaving us slightly overheated most of the day. Having never done the route before I had always had the impression that the route was a stellar looking line that was actually sort of mediocre on mediocre rock. As it turns out the climb is excellent, a genuine classic, and pretty darn chill in its current state. The original first pitch looks crappy but there’s a nice pitch of bolted face climbing (5.10?) that leads almost directly to the anchor. Owen led that then I set of short-fixing through the next four pitches of aid that we figured were sort of the meat of the climb. This was all quite nice with lots of easy aid, the occasional tricky bit (C2ish) and some fun, easy free climbing. There is a lot of fixed gear currently on route particularly at what might be considered the cruxes. The beginning of pitch 2 is a C1 clip-up on many fixed lost arrows and the double roof of pitch 5 has some pins and a welded beak near the lip that kept it casual. I thought the start of Pitch 5 with the pendulum to hook moves (or mantle) off the belay on an otherwise blank face was really neat and the highlight of the climb for me. I had the impression that someone might have fixed all this gear recently to work it as a free climb, or has it always been like that? After clearing the roof we went back to pitching it out and were pleased to find continued excellent climbing. Pitch 6 offers some nice moderate crack climbing to the first good belay ledge on the route where we had a lunch break. Pitch 7 might be the most aesthetic of the route, long, vertical and clean on great rock. Plugging along we eventually made M&M then lost some time finding the route above. Make sure to start up the partially-hidden left-trending ramp directly above the right edge of the ledge. Again I had figured the upper pitches would be crappy as most topos say things like “loose blocks” but again we both though the climbing was great. Plenty of good rock with a long fun layback, some nice face climbing followed by some splitter hand cracks. The slab traverse up high was trivial and the climb finished with some nice crack climbing along the arête separating the north and east faces. This time of year the descent is a real joy as the chossy approach gully on the west side is still filled with snow. I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable this route was and would highly recommend it. We climbed it at 5.10 C2, though with a couple hook moves between bolts on the first pitch it could go at 5.8 C2. The climbing seemed to be about the same difficulty as Green Drag-On or Town Crier. None of the belay ledges looked at all comfortable and hauling above M&M ledge would be horrible. I think the best strategy would be to fix and fire or just fire. Grievously sprained my ankle while walking on flat grass the following day and am now hobbling around on crutches so my summer might be over just after it began. But it sure was good while it lasted! Gear Notes: Double rack to #2 C4s along with a #3 and #4 worked great though you could probably drop the #4 and be fine. Definitely include some offset nuts and micronuts and some small single-stem cams if you’ve got them. Climbing this route hammerless seems highly dependant on the presence of copious amounts fixed gear. I would definitely bring a small rack of pins in case some of it goes missing. Next time I’ll bring a #2 & #3 copperhead, a #2 and #3 LA and a ½” and 5/8” angle just in case.

Nice pic mountainmatt Here's some interesting writeups out of the AAJ. The first route referenced seems to be the start of Solid Gold followed by a finish up and right. The second route reference seems to take on the big roof crack just right of the Solid Gold start then finishes with the upper pitches of Solid Gold (beautiful white dihedral by a thin finger crack). So SG is really a combination of two routes done previously. Then they did two routes on the nice looking wall left of Solid Gold. 1988 AAJ pg 130 must be 1987 route Prusik Peak, South Face of West Ridge. On August 16, Rich Romano and I ascended the leftmost crack system on the south face of Prusik. The large overhang on the second pitch was passed on the right. A short overhanging hand crack and airy face moves brought us to the west-ridge route. (The climb is left of the Boving-Christensen route.) (II, 5.10.) FRED 1989 AAJ pg 142 Prusik Peak, South Face of West Ridge. On August 3, after being stopped the previous day, Rich Roman0 led through the large overhangs 50 feet to the right of our 1987 route. A pitch higher in a big alcove, we crossed left of the other route, then climbed a beautiful white dihedral by a thin finger crack, gaining the west ridge (II, 5.11+). The following day, we climbed a diagonaling crack system up and to the right to a belay on the southwest arete and ultimately to the west ridge (II, 5.11). On August 11, David Goland and I did a route that starts further left, in a striking right-angle dihedral. After two pitches, we were forced out of the dihedral by the lack of protection. We entered a curving slot up and right, which placed us at the base of the now familiar finger crack (II, 5. IO+). The climbs are named Double Bein, Keep on Belton. and Notley’s Direct. FRED YACKIJLIC

One would have to be pretty jaded not to enjoy that route or any route on Prusik for that matter. I think general agreement is that it's more of 10+ than 11-.

Up the wide, slabby buttress that sits left of the summit (topping out halfway up the skyline). I remember 7ish pitches of fun easy climbing on small incut holds. It received an embarassing-ly long route description in the new CAG. Though anywhere else I'm sure it would be quite popular.....

Handbrake worked fine for me. Stuck all my kids Diego videos on an ipod to keep them happy while camping. Once you install Handbrake though you also have to install a seperate de-encrypting application. You sorta have to read between the lines to figure this out. Reason being it's illegal to burn DVDs even if you actually purchased the DVD. Handbrake gets around this somehow by offering only part of the process. Sounds sketchy but it works fine and seem legit.

Scottsdale? Like in Phoenix? Look for the guys in pink panties. They might be able to help you But if you run across Sheriff Joe you should probably just keep your mouth shut.

Sold

Thats a lot of hand drilling for one day! Nice work.

It's called a cooler

Just turned my 4 used offset aliens into 6 brand new offset Master Cams and a Link Cam to boot. Works for me! I was never fully convinced of the superiority of Aliens so we'll see how many of these "10%" placements I run into. Guess that's what my z-tons and sawed-offs are for!

New to most everyone I bet, me included. Freakin Scary. Interesting hypothesis made elswhere was that the victim potentially clip the biner through the middle of the sling to help bunch it up a bit on the side of the harness, hence the reason they both failed.

Random bump. Anyone?

I'm sure by most measures she is a very skilled sailor with a level head but 16 yrs old is 16 yrs old. Much like the 13 yr old off to do the seven summits, there is the intractable reality of time such the the rush to be "the youngest person ever to" coorelates somewhat with "the least experienced person ever to". I hope she's ok. I can't imagine how helpless and awful her parents must feel. Certainly I can't imagine why you would ever allow someone so young to do something so committing and dangerous.

Set of 4 offsets for $420. A year from now you'll kick yourself.

But a Master Cam is substantially narrower than an Alien in the sizes that matter. My set of 4 alien offsets is your's for $420. Apparently I just never got it.

:lmao: Frequently it seems like they believe their job is to keep you from enjoying the park at all...

I've always been amused (appalled?) by how many alpine trips the local guiding outfit would book for the month of June in the Cascades. How many of those clients sold on beautiful blue sky pics of Mount Baker flew all the way out here knowing just how miserable the weather would in all likelyhood be?

I've got a set of Offset Aliens I'm thinking of selling so I just looked at completed listings on Ebay WHOAAA!!! 3 aliens for $420 (140! each) 5 aliens for 610 (122 each) 3 for $300 1 black for 98.50 So basically a 100+ each. Might just post them up.