dberdinka

yes, yes let us all wring our hands and shed a tear for this simple criminal. In all likelyhood he was probably just trying to support his addiction to meth or whatever, and hey! that's a disease right! Certainly we can't hold that against him nor the actions it led him too. Cause really if we just gave him a 2nd or 122nd chance I'm sure he'd have a lot to contribute to society. Sorry there's just a certain element of this society that gets (or should get) what they deserve. Maybe you are still young enough not to be jaded but at a certain point you get fed up with....the heroin addicts in the rental down the street who dumped a box of used needles where the neighbors kids could have gotten into them....or the methheads who put up shop across the alley from where your kid went to daycare. If this guy wanted to avoid getting hurt or killed maybe be shouldn't have been stealing peoples shit. Plenty of reasons not to live in Saudi Arabia but say what you will I bet they have a ridiculously low crime rate!

Let a few more criminals get the chop like that and maybe the lowlifes and scumbags that seem to be propogating like bunnies in this country would be less inclined to screw with the rest of us who are minding our own business and just getting through the day.

Are you serious? Fill us in on the details! 1) I can't believe that ahole got out on a $100k bail 2) what the f$&k is up with people and their "gun rights"? He claims he's going to kill himself before society takes his "gun rights" away. Get a grip, there's a bit more to life than clutching your cold steel!

Looking through your gallery you certainly seem to have an affinity for the worst of cascades choss. Must say your North Face of Spectacled Butte looks like the crappiest route ever.

How'd it look when you walked by John? It's certainly much bigger than it apears in that pic.

My apologies for getting back on topic but....a camper conversion on an 2003-2008 Honda Element would be pretty sweet not to mention reliable. www.ursaminorvehicles.com

I once made some point about Bobby J being a brown Catholic in a party of white Protestants and got my shit jumped on in a hurry by KKK. Fair enough. Anyway since this is spray and FARK always cracks me up and I'm a racist...

Notice that they all presumably died on what is 3rd class terrain (conjecture regarding Triple Couloirs but 90% of that route is moderately angled snow). Consider how little of that exists at WA Pass where one is either hiking or pitching it out.

I think Justin's referring to the rockwalled hairpin corner on Hwy 542 about halfway up Pan Dome. This is a popular 50+' drop in the winter. Couple summers ago a guy on a Harley neglected to take the corner and ended up filleted on the big boulders below. Gruesome.

The fact is there are an amazing number of dead people everywhere in the Cascades. (Well not actually bodies, but you know what I mean). I just spent the weekend near a gentle barely-alpine pass full of blueberries. Even there, there was a fatality about 2 years ago when a snowmobiler was caught in a large avalanche. On Mt Shuksan I've hard of numerous deaths. A party falls of the North Face, a guy disappears on the hike out from the Price Glacier, another falls down the Fisher Chimney's in early season, an accident on the NW arete. A little to the west it seems that half-a-dozen people have diappeared on the Ptarmigan Ridge trail over the years (notorious for poor visibility in bad weather) The point is.... 6 doesn't really seem all that significant. If you really researched it I bet you'd be surprised by how many deaths have occured on practically every major mountain in the range over the years.

What the F$%K is up with these things? Seemed like half the dirtbags in Tofino this summer were rolling in one. Is it like the ultimate badge of the Canadian Trustafarian?

Personally I really enjoy climbing at Erie, particularly as an afternoon/evening jaunt in the springtime when you're feeling rusty and any bit of climbing is good climbing. Outside of Zigzag I don't think there is a lot in the 5.6-5.9 range. The powerline Wall is definitely worth a visit with a handful of 5.10- to 5.10 thin edging routes and the climbing at the Orange Wall is probably the best at Erie for 5.10. But it ain't Index... Erie is about a 50 minute drive from B'ham with short approaches. D-Town is ~2 hours with much longer approaches. Interestingly enough Index, D-Town and Squamish are all about the exact same distance from B'ham. Something like 92-97 miles (can't remember the specifics)

Exactly. Their claim that "there might be cases where moving a wilderness boundary is approriate" is completely disingenous. Find me one example where these organizations supported any sort of change to a boundary or road/trail repair that would maintain or improve access to a wilderness area? You won't be able too! The leadership of these organizations are interested in "protecting" not "experiencing" our wild lands. Your presence out there is not appreciated by these folks. They'd much rather you stayed in the city like them. Watch out their goals are opposed to our interests as hikers and climbers.

A fine line. Something tells me Wayne's going to be jealous.

I once failed miserably on the north ridge of Chaval as well. It only got worse the higher we went. That trip was a total sufferfest.

Jesus loves you too Shapp! But everyone else thinks you're an asshole.

I once knew a guy who made his own non releasable bindings out of the front and rear bails of an old pair of crampons and some wood blocks. Looked a lot like the bindings in Lowell's first pic. They seemed to work fine. Better yet with an old pair of semi-automatic AL crampons a hacksaw a grinding wheel and a decent drill bit I bet you could whip up a very light lowprofile binding in no time.

Wow! I can only imagine the logistics and work it must have taken to get those upper pitches in. Looks like an absolutely incredible climb, I can't wait to get on it. Thanks Dave and company.

This should meet your weight requirements. Add a little duct tape and good to go.

I want some of that Slab Daddy!!! Mmmmm,mmm looks delicious....

I'm of the impression that the NWMJ has caught almost all of those. To better document climbing activity the NWMJ editors might have the best luck by reaching out to active climbers who don't report their work on the internet (i.e. P Doorish and L Windham, many others) While Blake's list is cool, considering that it is a list of hyperlinks, maybe it should be renamed "New Routes in the Northwest (that have been reported on the internet)". The point being that there are in fact climbs going up that aren't being sprayed about. I'd like to know more about those! Examples The slugtrack route on S Early Winter Spire (climbers right of Passenger) The new Burdoe Route on the same face (Hitchhiker?) The supposed hundreds of routes Doorish has put up in the Nightmare and Knitting Needles I'm sure there are many more I'm clueless too. Just sitting down with Doorish and getting him to talk (Lowell?) would probably produce enough material for a 4th volume of the Beckey Guide (White, Green, Red and Doorish) Ultimately as nice as Blakes list is a personal blog is probably not the best place to maintain new route beta (unless Blake wants to be the next Fred Beckey). Maybe we should all hold our breathe for the CC.com Wiki.

This really seems like a project where the potential $$$$$$$ of fucking up far outweighs the $ of getting it done right. Best of luck!

Jesus..... Rough morning on Prodigal Sun

Maybe if a certain crowd hadn't shown so much enthusiasm to publicly disparage his efforts he wouldn't have been so inclined to give the route a new name. Though of course thats totally speculative on my part.