dberdinka

Did you confuse your FA list with your chossy-heaps list??

Sad to see that "snow" traverse melted down to old grey ice after what was supposedly a big snow year. Nice pics! I like your TRs

Global Warming Sucks.

Gene and Alex recently went and had a look-see at the ridge. They didn't like what they saw. Jens claimed he was going to go try it last summer. Never reported back though.... They all might have more beta.

And obviously you must have been stoned out of your gourd when you approached that climb!

Climb: Early Morning Spire-SW Face Date of Climb: 8/6/2006 Trip Report: On the first beautiful weekend in August I finally managed to get around to climbing Early Morning Spire. Prior to leaving I was a bit surprised as to the lack of information or trip reports for such a well known objective. So…here you go! Allen Carbert and I used the Roush Creek approach as per the East Ridge of Eldorado. We wandered across the Inspiration Glacier to the 8000’ Mcallister-Inspiration Col then quickly dropped 400’ to the col between the Mcallister Glacier and Marble Cirque. There are numerous bivi sites scratched into the dirt here only one of which is large enough for a small tent. A drip of water was very hard to come by, so we mostly melted snow. Great views to Eldorado and Tillie Towers. The next morning we easily descended onto the dieing glacial remnant in Marble Cirque. After dropping down to 5800’ we traversed across talus slopes to the snow gully leading up to the face. Crampons were very handy. You might get by without them but that sure would be a bummer if you had to bail due to firm conditions. It took all of three hours to reach the start of the route. Though that probably had a lot more to do with our aging, out-of-shape bodies than the terrain we covered. The climbing was excellent as expected. We started more directly than the topo indicated but it would be really hard to get lost! The only really outstanding pitch was the fingertip traverse up high. Every other pitch typically had an easier vegetated section mixed in with mostly high-quality climbing. There is very, very little loose rock on the main face. The upper ridge is licheny, loose and not all that great but the views are outstanding. We brought a #3 Camalot and used it only sparingly. A medium rack to a #2 would have been plenty. It took us five hours up climbing efficiently. The descent off the backside was a dirty piece of work, downclimbing rotten gullies, but went quickly. After reaching the saddle separating EMS from the Dorado Needle massif we decided to return to camp by go up rather than down. We climbed a pitch-and-a-half of shattered low-5th class rock to reach the col between Preying Mantis and Marble Needle. From here easy scrambling led to the Marble Needle summit, then two single-rope rappels got us onto the McAllister Glacier a 5 minute stroll from Dorado Needles Northwest Ridge. This was a delightful two pitch climb on solid blocky rock. Downclimbing and one rappel got us back to the base and fifteen minutes later we were back in camp. That night the full moon rose to the south while the northern lights flickered beyond the McAllister Glacier. Both routes are highly recommended. What a beautiful place!

Well ain't that the shit!

The SW Buttress of Dione is an excellent low-5th class rock climb. Combine it with the standard route on Tantalus for a good day from the Red Tit Hut. The DonSerl-north face route on Alpha was OK. Another good day trip from the hut. If you can figure out the river exit the price of a one-way flight in is worth it. Fly in Day 1, Climb Dione-Tantalus Day 2, Climb Alpha Day 3, Long Hike out Day 4. Beautiful place!

Some of those dudes in FlowMotion are rockclimbers.

Buck Creek Pass to High Pass to the Napeequa Valley is an off-trail backpack through absolutely outstanding scenery. Lots of options and potential summits to hit.

Very doable in a day. The sooner you go the better though as a snow covered approach will save you LOTS of pain, time and suffering.

That's a scary ass story! Glad everyone is OK! It seems that people (me included) are more willing to attempt Cascade ice/mixed routes in much warmer conditions than was once considered acceptably safe. Any old-timers agree? You get away with it 99% of the time...until that 1%.

Recycled = Mitch B. ???????

I was just thinkin it would have been WAY cooler if Dean had video-soloed this thing. At least then his summit-vibration feeling would have some merit!

Splitters! Check out the following link though. It would appear that this is not the first such slab to appear and then suddenly collapse! 18-month Time Lapse Photos of crater

I don't want you making my Lattes!

Thats $72.99 a barrel. Maybe Chaves will become a profit mongering capitalist whore by year end at those rates?! So whats the reason. Reserves don't meet projections! Regressive socialist nation cannot maintain infrastructure? Let me guess...Let me guess.....

That is straight-up-friggin-cool! Geology in action. Post the link if you got it G-man.

Mythos (at least for me) tend to be very comfortable even when sized tight. The inherent suppleness of the shoe means they will stretch to a near perfect fit (again at least for me). They're the only shoe I regularly climb in from 1-pitch to Grade V .

In Squamish some of the best 5.9 cracks I've climbed are located at the far end of The Papoose. Laid Back is 70' of grunty hands and Mushroom is a sustained thin hand crack. Mercury Vapor looks excellent as well. In the Smoke Bluffs these routes would be more popular than Penny Lane, at the Papoose they go begging for climbers. Check them out.

These days, pretty much every route seems to be getting harder. Maybe it's just me......

Nice work. Post more TRs in the future please. D

I want my $100. Fuckin Idiots.....

Hey, I was just at the grocery store flipping through Climbings-Photo-Edition (99% sport and bouldering shots) and they were interviewing some young hipster who said something like... "Climbers aren't pushing it enough, people in moto-cross expect to go to the hospital once a month, climbers need to develop the same mindset" Maybe core.CC.comers are simply the progessive vanguard of climbers. On the other hand thats pretty much a completely idiotic comment (the quoted one).

I've never been anywhere near there (but I always ment to go!). Regardless here is an interesting tidbit of information I picked up from a crusty old salt. Both the west faces of the northwest peak and the south peak have been climbed. These faces are very visible in the Beckey Guide photo. The NW Pk-W Face was a four pitch 5.10- supposedly good. The S Pk-W Face was also 5.10. Both done in the early 90's. A friend (actually an alcoholic-vegan-cheese thief) did do the 5.6 buttress route to viewers right of the west face and said it was phenomenal.