dberdinka

Bellingham is sweet. Unfortunately there is no local cragging to speak off. Index, Squamish, D-Town are all about 90 miles away. Erie is better than generally thought (I think) but it's still at 45 minutes away. The Y-wall does not compare to a real gym....WWU is for groms. Lots of mtn biking, hiking and kayaking to do right on the edge of town. Ski area is an 1hr 15min out of town and the N Cascades are about 2 hrs.

GREAT MOVIE! I find it amusingly ironic that in reality Chris McCandless was essentially trying to get as far away from Sean Penn as possible and look what happened!

Harris Street Cafe in Fairhaven (corner of 11th and Harris) is a great breakfast spot. In downtown B'ham along Railroad the Old Town Cafe is popular with granola eater's. The Little Cheerful on the corner of Railroad draws a crowd as well. There's always the Bagelry when you don't feel like waiting for a table. Burgers and Beer = Boundary Bay Tequila + Burritos = Casa que Pasa both on Railroad La Fiamma has amazing pizza bit more family oriented though

Someone must have an old pair of Silvretta's gathering dust? Hook me up! PM or e-mail to dberdinka AT yahoo DOT com. Thanks!

Dude, I'm sorry but you must be ..oh forget it. All that "complex" formula says is temperatures decrease 3.5 degrees per 1000' of altitude. Rerality can vary considerably from that.

Araya turned 16 months yesterday. She's been walking strong for almost a month now, hiking trips with her have become that much more fun! It's amazing the patience you develop for your own child . Excelsior Ridge Trail on Sept 12th, 2007

Cool Trip. Can you post more photos of the climb?

So what's the carbon footprint of all the hikers driving to the Pilchuck Trailhead? Maybe they should just close the road in Granite Falls? What a lame bunch of arguements, seems like they should focus on the noise pollution aspect....

I think that would be fine unless you want to haul some 4' sections of 4x4 up there.

Just checked it out at the local magazine shop. Beautiful full page photos..couldn't bring myself to shell $13 out for Alpinist though.... Nice work John!

I've always preferred mine shorter as I can always pound them to the hilt in a much greater variety of cracks.

I so want that.. but I'm sure there is someone out there who could put it to better use....

Wow! I can't imagine the desert SW has anything on that. How tall and how wide at the base is that thing?

Whats up with all the slander about Cathedral Peak? Practically every pitch of the SE buttress is a **** classic on solid rock. Sounds like you were on a different mountain!

Nice work Sol and Tyree. Glad you found it likeable and I wasn't just smoking crack. Maybe I should have said something about the undercut snow fin, but ignorance is bliss! Glad you're alive. The full linkup to the summit of Shuksan would be a hell of a climb and a really big day. Can't wait to hear about it.

I got some more photos from Matt so I thought I'd post one more Even the 4th class pitch was great

Trip: Mount Shuksan - Northwest Arayete III 5.9 Date: 8/6/2007 Trip Report: On August 6th Matt Alford and I climbed an enjoyable rock route on the northwest side of Mount Shuksan. The route follows the crest of a fine arete on good rock for nine pitches to the summit of a prominent horn above the White Salmon Glacier. Though dirty at times, the position is incredible, the rock is solid and every pitch is sustained for it's grade. I had first seen this arete at least twelve years ago while descending the glacier and thought it both beautiful and improbable due to a lack of features. Ever since the idea of climbing it has been knocking about in my head. I'm not sure what took so long but it was great to turn that idea into a reality! As it worked out the rock here (Green Schist) is horizontally banded and the rock is just littered with positive jugs and pockets that allow moderate climbing up imposing walls. We left the car at first light and reached the base of Winnies Slide four hours later. From here a short descent led to the base of the arete. There was significant shrund that made accessing the rock a bit problematic. We end up rappelling off a bollard to reach a ramp on the left side of the arete. A good ledge system on the right side could probably have been used as well. Matt takes the first pitch. Fun, juggy face climbing was followed by a 100' of 5.8 friction right up the crest of the low angle arete. The gear grew increasingly sparse until he had to run it out maybe 40' to the belay. A second short easy pitch led to a much steeper wall. P1 Frictioning up the crest of the Arete The third pitch exemplified what makes establishing new routes such an amazing experience. We're at the base of a steep blank wall. On the left is a filthy corner system full of grass. Out right a few weaknesses lead towards a steep arete and the possibility of good climbing around it's edge. The grassy corner will go, but the climbing will suck. The traverse out right is a total mystery. Will it go? Is there any gear? Whats on the other side? What if I can't make it? P3 Working things out on the crux traverse Intending to head up the corner I find myself heading out right instead. Focusing on protection I find that the apparently blank wall has a few narrow seams obscured by lichen that allow me to place several solid pins. Soon I'm at an obvious crux move. Cleaning some loose blocks off a small ledge I watch them freefall to the glacier. Hesitating I close my eyes, focus on my breathing, feel the chill in the cool shade, listen to the ice creaking and groaning below. Eventually I just run out of reasons to stand still so I commit, stemming wide, finding a small uncling, shifting over and reaching for the crest of the arete. Grabbing solid jugs I pull over the corner and find myself on a beautiful wall of clean, orange rock. IT GOES! P3 Matt pulling around onto the beautiful orange wall So many intense experiences tend to just slide away. Things no longer "stick" like they once did. But this one is different, this one set deep. I'm going to remember exactly how wonderful it felt to pull around that corner for a long time. The fourth pitch was the best of the climb, awesome juggy 5.7 climbing on near vertical rock with great gear. Soon we're at the base of the imposing upper arete. The climbing looks improbable but once again the rock turned out to be covered in positive holds. Staying about 40 feet left of the arete Matt is able to climb more or less straight up the wall on 5.7 rock to a belay in an alcove. P4 More Arete P6 Starting up the steep upper wall Climbing through a grungy 5.8 roof I find super featured 5.6 rock on the crest of the steep arete for a full ropelength. Matt quickly leads another long pitch of fun corners to a fixed pin belay at a small roof. A final short pitch up clean slabs ending with an easy arete brings us directly to the summit. Unreal, the route unfolded far better than we could have imagined! P7 Stellar climbing on the crest of the Arete P9 It Ends like it Begins…. It's late in the day so we snap a quick summit shot and get moving. An easy scramble down the backside gets us to the Upper Curtis Glacier. After following some mountain goat tracks we picked up the boot track leading back down the mountain. In my exhausted state the entire descent seemed somehow timeless as if it took no more than half-an-hour. Yet many hours and a beautiful sunset later we reached the car with the last of the dieing light. Well there's already a Northwest Arete and a Northwest Rib on the mountain so Matt (grudgingly) agreed to name our route the Northwest Arayete after someone I know. Gear Notes: Rack to 3.5" with a double set of very small to medium nuts and small to 1” cams. A few short knifeblades and bugaboos recommended. Approach Notes: Follow Fisher Chimneys Rt to edge of White Salmon Glacier (bivi sites) then descend a few minutes on steep snow or ice to the base of the arete. Potential Shrund problems getting on the rock.

So that's why the "10b" start completely kicked our ass!

This was pretty cool....maybe I'll post a TR soon...

Jacobs Ladder is as good as it gets. All those 5.10 (& 5.11) routes up there deserve way more traffic than they see.

After climbing the west face Matt A and I did two double rap rappells down the North Ridge to a notch then two more down the west side. This brought us right back to the big ledge at the base of the route. Excellent descent with solid anchors, easy pulls and no loose stuff to mess with your ropes. Also ment we could leave our boots etc at the base of the climb.

Wow. Lots of Schwanky (as in good) beta floating around these days. Brings back great memories, what an awesome climb.

Awesome! I was happy to just dangle my way up the thing. That trailcrew is going to be up there until the snow starts flying at the rate they're working.

I have no clue why she doesn't tear them off. She seems to enjoy them! Maybe she knows that her sunglasses are fancier than her mommy's or her daddy's.

My daughter, Araya, is now 14 months old. She was 11 and 12 months in those photos. To begin with with we've carried her everywhere, everyday since she was born including a lot of dayhikes so she's use to and enjoys being in a pack. She's just starting to walk so that might all change but we've been doing well with up to 8 mile hikes. As for how we do it, which mind you we've only done it twice so far, was to essentially pack as light as possible. Mom carried the baby and diaper stuff, I carried everything else..maybe 35 lbs worth. A backpacking load is ridiculously light compared to a climbing load so you throw in the baby and you're back to "normal". Well you've got piles of diapers, wipes, baby clothe, etc to carry so that means BD Lighthouse and a sleeping bag system that unzips into a comforter. Orginally I built her, her own little sleeping pad/blanket system for the head of the tent. Unfortunately that only lasted about 30 minutes before you crawled out of it. So we all slept together and not that well (if your wife is into the cosleeping thing you might have a real advantage here). Now she's off the boob but still pounds whole milk like crazy, so I'll get to carry another liter of milk a day. I think a better approach would be a 3 person tent with a seperate sleeping space for the baby, there is a BabyPod or PeaPod thing that's like a little enclosed mesh tent for them to sleep in. If you could condition them to that pretrip it could work out great. This weekend we're leaving the baby with Grandma and going kayaking overnight. Now this might be the way to go! She can still gain an appreciation of wilderness from dayhikes. But don't mind my bitchin. Going backpacking was logistically complicated and frequently stressful, but so worth it as witness by the photo of...... Sunset Over The Great West Canyon