dberdinka

I'm sorry you lost your gear, hopefully someone will find and return it. Sounds like a very dangerous epic, fortunately we all tend to live through a couple of those when starting out. Save Slesse for the end days of summer when the ice is all gone (might not happen this year?) and you can approach in tennis shoes without having to roll the dice.

Anyone been back in here recently? Print at 150 dpi and it fits nicely on a page.

Jacobs Ladder up through P6 or so and the first two 5.10 pitches on RainMan make for a mostly nonslab day with lots of excellent crack and face climbing. CombShot on the Third Tooth of Comb Buttress is 3 pitches of good face and crack climbing. Around the corner is an amazing steep arete with a mix of bolts and cracks that is supposedly 2 pitches of mid/hard 5.11, looks a lot more like Index than D-Town.

What ridge route on Dome?

A long time ago two dudes went in there and failed. Then they walked all the way home and sent a letter to the AAJ proclaiming it ass. Yet they were inclined to mention that it could hold several grade IV routes if you were into that sort of thing (ass). Then no one every went back. At least no one who sprays all over the intertubes. The End. Oh and one more note. John's photos are amazing and I have burnt as much time as anyone staring at them. But (based on personal expereince) when it comes to rock faces they are not an effective tool for ascertaining rock quality or potential lines. The only way to find out is to boat, bike walk and schwack all the way in there.

Beautiful Area The approach is long, hard and enjoyable. Give yourself 6-8 hrs to get in there via Frosty Peak Trail then alpine wandering. Ignore Kearneys advice for the drop down to the pass at the foot of the mountain (Is it Pass and Cow creeks?) Instead walk up to the highpoint and drop straight down the ridgeline to the pass. The pass is a special place. The climb starts out great for the first 6 pitches (as counted in Kearney's topo, many of these could be linked). The crux pitch is one of the best I've done in the mountains, hard crimpy climbing through a roof followed by a 100+ feet of steep, clean hands to fists. Above that point the rock gets really dirty and P8 is a loose, filthy POS. Easy climbing above, never found the squeeze chimney he describes below the east summit. A good but not classic route dye largely to the extra manky 8th pitch and the somewhat unasthetic easy stuff on the upper half. Still a worhtwhile way to spend 2-3 days. Bring a medium rack including doubles of blue and yellow TCUs for the sustained finger cracks of P4 & P5. Again many pitches could be combined. Probably a Grade III. Will encounter steep snow on the descent until late summer. Potential snow or ice on the approach year round. You can see the very foreshortened hand crack on the crux pitch running across the slab sandwiched between the two big roof bands. If you could figure a way to punch through those upper roofs (and hey maybe all it takes is looking) you might have a classic route.

WTF? Are they like holding onto the molding with their foot jammed next to the door? Hate = form of attachment. Sounds like you still have lots of attachments to this person that you need to let go of. Work that out and stop worrying what form they take in your head.

Those somebodys have access to a key cause they're special. The rest of us will continue to push, pull and ride our bicycles for the forseeable future.

Like Blake says you could probably get by without, a couple bugaboos or thin LAs might not hurt to have but I would consider them optional. And yes, the rating is probably a bit soft but this isn't a route for a leader maxing out at 5.8 or 5.9.

In the last year the Arayete has seen at least three repeats. There seems to be some general agreement that it is in fact an enjoyable route. Most parties have apparently taken "variations" on P3 and P6 resulting in substantially harder climbing on looser terrain than Matt and I encountered (both pitches were enjoyable 5.7 for us). So to that end here is an overly detailed topo of the route to help keep things mellow. lick on it for the full-size version. Enjoy...

Labor Day Buttress is a good day out, but more for the scenic approach and descent. It's really beautiful country. The route itself is so-so. The start is definitely harder than 5.4! More like 5.8! The rest of the route has some ok climbing and lots of mossy climbing. Consider one of the east face routes if you're up for it (Drew might have details). Also, this time of year you could be exposed to a lot of perched snow slabs ready to rain volkswagon size blocks of death down upon you, might be a better climb to try in the fall...

It's been awhile assmonkey. LONG LIVE ASSMONKEY!!!

Great TR and nice climb. That peak deserves respect. How long until that line gets skied? Nooksack Tower - harder East Mox - harder Assassin Spire - definitely harder

A real geriatric circle-jerk over there eh?

The east side of North Twin was somewhat forgettable. While the rock was good the structure of it did not lend itself to obvious lines (horizontal vs vertical weaknesses). Considering the long approach I think one would have a better time scrapping around on the NW side of either peak. That west face of block and arrowhead also has a number of nice looking, easier blocky corner systems that could be good partialy snowed/iced up. Of course that isn't exactly a casual approach either. Again, I'm very intrigued by the complete SE ridge of the North Twin. The stretch we climbed was stellar. A carefully reading of Red Fred reveals this one sentence.... "The Southeast Ridge is one alternative and offers pleasant climbing on superb rock" Hmmmm.....sounds ok to me.

On my first epic up Snow Creek Wall in ~ 1994 this red haired guy came cruising by us unroped. That blew my fucking mind!

Trip: Twin Sisters - Obscurities Date: 6/13/2008 Trip Report: Being decidely optomistic Dave and I ignored both the forecast and the drizzle and did the long approach into the basin between the Twin Sisters. After four long hours of biking and hiking in light rain we were rewarding with a sudden change in the weather as we entered the basin. Block and Arrowhead Towers are two nice looking spires just to climbers right of the col at the head of the basin. We climbed a fun route up the west facing wall highlighted by a very fine 5.7 dihedral ending on the ridge crest right in the middle between the two towers. The summit of block tower is reached by a wonderful 40' 5.8 hand crack called "Toe Jam". Good stuff, small rack to #2 Camalot with short pitches. With no time to waste we wandered across the Sisters Glacier aiming for the mysterious and steep east face of the North Twin Sister. While there are several distinct buttresses the rock is layered such that there are no obvious lines and many vertical to overhanging blank bulges. We climbed it anyway by wandering around on 4th and low-5th class rock split by many ledges and one nice 5.7 dihedral. The route ended near the high point of the southeast ridge. II 5.7 We were rewarded for our efforts with the stunning finale of the southeast ridge, a superb stretch of climbing over a series of dramatic needles. Something tells me the complete southeast ridge could be a very good climb indeed. One rappel and some scrambling got us to the summit of the North Twin. Pizza nad beer at the North Fork await! Good times. All of this only 25 miles from town. Damn are we lucky! The miserable Approach Parting clouds on the South Face of the North Twin The Glorious Basin The fine dihedral on the West Face of Block Tower Block Tower Dave can't jam his toes, Toe Jam 5.8 Wandering across the Sisters Glacier The nice dihedral on the E Buttress of the North Twin Dave doesn't like my route finding A more striking pose One last look Gear Notes: Small rack to #2 Camalot Approach Notes: Mountain Bike ~ 4 miles and 2000' Walk old logging roads ~2 miles and 600' Easy XC into Basin ~1 mile and 2000'

Get a job hippy! Actually I mean sweet, looks like a good time....

Incredibly.....pathetic?.....humiliating?.....just oh so sad... Could he have sounded and looked any more brittle than he did? How are people going to vote for that? Nasaly, whiny "thats not change we can believe in" followed by amazingly awkward, squinty grin with feeble appluase from a small audience. Weird, just fucking weird. Someone in has campaign operation lost their job over that one.

Rainy Day Traverse?

Excellent photos as usual!

Yikes I need to quit climbing. My apologies for offending thee. 30' with blown gear and rock is more of a fall than I want to take...

If I add your numbers thats a 28' fall. Not exactly huge.

With some more searching I discovered that both the Chehalis Lake approach and the Mystery Creek approach are currently closed to protect the public from falling rocks and stuff. No info on when they might open it back up.

You cheeseheads are a bunch of pains in the ass'.