dberdinka

There you go again, you're a Nihilist. THE MAN BELIEVES IN NOTHING! Furthermore that's bullshit. Wilderness is not neccesarily unknown it is simply not impacted to the point where a human presence is evident (to one extent or another) in the landscape. While GoogleEarth might allow you to have some limited knowledge of every square foot of the planet, satellite photos and even airplane rides aren't going to reveal the best line for schwacking into the Green Glacier Basin. That knowledge has to be earned through effort, careful thought and maybe even some luck. To simply hike in there with your eye's glued to a trail at your feet would diminish the experience. Plenty of trails out there to follow already, lets enjoy the challenge of what wilderness is left!

THAT'S A REALLY BAD IDEA. On second thought even flagging it is a bad idea. The best aspect about that area is that it REALLY IS WILDERNESS where as every other valley between B'ham and Shuksan has a fat trail and a parking lot full of Subarus to match. The schwack is only an hour at most and pretty tame by NC standards. Let's leave it as pristine as we find it. ...though obviously that might be tough for you Layton.

Cool. Looks like some great pitches. The approach I described and the approach you took seem to differ significantly, maybe it's time for some flagging.

Every night I pray for another shitty ski season.

Climb: Twin Sisters-Green Glacier Area Date of Climb: 9/3/2005 Trip Report: I can't help it. I keep going back. Good rock, true wilderness all less than 30 miles from home, it's hard to resist. After five trips I think I might be done for this year though. Side Stream of Green Creek The Mythic Wall while impressive sits fairly low in the drainage of Green Creek. Above the glacier at the head of the valley are numerous peak and spires composed of that gritty, sold Twin Sisters olivine. Several weeks ago Tyree Johnson (Ti - cause he's hard like Titanium!) and I hauled overnight gear into the valley intent on knocking off a couple new routes. Fourty feet up a new line on the Mythic Wall I promptly dropped a block that chopped Ti's rope in half. Ooops! Sorry Ti. Lesson number 1: Don't force new routes through steep walls of loose flakes. We retreated upward then scrambled back down to the valley floor where we found a great campsite just south of the creek around 3300' in elevation. Stovepipe and Green Glacier The next morning (9/3) things had socked in sufficently to disuade more intelligent people from attempting new routes with 85' of rope. Luckily I managed to threaten Ti's ego just enough to convince him to wander across the glacier in a whiteout and climb a sweet little pinnacle I had been eyeing since my first trip to the area. The climb turned out to be great. After scrambled some solid 3rd and 4th class slabs off the glacier we climbed a short pitch of 5.4 up a chimney. Ti lead a final rope streching (85') pitch to the summit. The rock was bomber and the face got progessively steeper and narrower leading to an incredibly small summit fin. One of the cooler summit pitches I've ever climbed. Two rappels and some downclimbing got us back to the glacier. For lack of a better name we called it The Stovepipe. Ti leading the summit pitch Ti on Summit The Beer Shrine beckoned and by the time we got back to camp the forecast rainstorm had started. The East Face of Skookum Peak might be the largest wall in the range at about 1200' in height. Rad Roberts and I returned on September 7th with the optimistic plan of doing it in a moderately long day. Five hours after leaving the car we roped up at the base of a stellar looking finger crack. Two long pitches of fine climbing (5.7) led to lower angle and unfortunately rubbly rock in the center of the face. After simuclimbing through the junk we climbed two more steep pitches on good rock directly to the fine summit. Shortly after arriving a fighter jet cruised by no more than 200' out and dropped a wing for us. Based on the summit register this was only the 4th ascent since 1996! (FYI both the NE and W ridges look excellent) Green Glacier and E Face of Skookum Worried about descending back to the east we (I) decided to head down the west side and pick up the logging roads near Dailey Prairie. Five long hours of talus hopping and bushwacking later we finally reached the roads around 8 PM. All that was left was 12 miles of logging road back to the car. I wanted to cry. Rad remained annoyingly optimistic. Thanks Rad for an exhausting but excellent trip. Lesson #2: Don't ever assume that the unknown descent route is better than the known descent route. It still blows my mind that this is only 30 miles from my house. Motivated climbers could easily climb the Mythic Wall one day, camp out and then link the SE buttress of Cinderella with the Stovepipe and get back to car in time for pizza and beer (A stop at the North Fork Beer Shrine is mandatory). Have fun! Gear Notes: For Stovepipe. 1 rope and small rack to #2 Camalot. Approach Notes: Hike Elbow Lake Trail ~1.5 miles to switchback at 2650'. Traverse into woods crossing Hildebrand Creek at 2600'. Immediately ascend to 2700' and begin long traverse into valley. After crossing several dry streambeds climb to 2800' keep traversing then drop down through open forest to the Green Creek at 2770'.

Wow! Holy Balls! I'm glad it worked out and I'm glad you're both back in one piece! ????? Like Obi Wan or something? "Use the force Mike..." I was at Diamond Jims on Sunday as well maybe a little to early for the likes of Tyree and you.

Certainly pushing beyond PERCEIVED limits of difficulty is inspiring, but pushing beyond completely REAL levels of objective hazard is folly. I don't know either of you but I'm of the impressive one of you might have children? If so then both folly and very selfish. Congratulations none the less. Darin

Don't you have small children? What the f#%k's wrong with you?

Ross: I haven't climbed the East Pillar. It too looks hard, sustained and loose. Check out Dan and Forrests TR from a couple summers back. Mike: It probably would have helped matters had you not gotten off route on the FIRST pitch. Dru: F#@K OFF! If anyone cares I still think the North Rib is one of the classiest routes I've done in the Cascades. I would HIGHLY recommend that one.

Climb: Slesse-Navigator Wall Date of Climb: 8/16/2005 Trip Report: I'm not sure exactly what to say. Typically I post TRs of climbs I think people would enjoy repeating. Navigator Wall is not one of those climbs. It is a hard climb for hardmen and if you are one of those maybe you would truely enjoy the climbing. However I am definitely not a hardman and I am glad it's over. With that said it was one of the better adventures in my climbing career and I'm happy to have (past tense)done it. I was joined by Sol (aka Frosty) on Monday afternoon and we headed north to get into position for a push on Tuesday. We found that the Slesse Creek road is now waterbarred, no probably for a truck but definitely an issue for Sol's minivan. Luckily it's not a big deal as it's only about a thirty minute walk from the trailhead. I pushed my bike up the road a bit before realizing that was stupid, then chained it to a tree. We headed around to Nesakwatch Creek where we again stopped at the first waterbar. In the morning we discovered that this too is about a 35 minute walk from the old trailhead. Basically a CJ7 would not give you much of an advantage over a Toyota Prius. We left the car at 2 AM and reached the propellor cairn around 5:15 AM. This is a beautiful spot. 30 minutes of outrageous slab hiking got us to the base of the climb. What to say...what to say.... The first pitch was great! And so was the 19th! The rest well...most of it wasn't that bad, some of it was quite good! Sol leading the crux "overhanging fingercrack" pitch On the 5.8 slab pitch mid-route But the headwall, OH DEAR GOD the headwall! Hard sustained climbing on vertical to overhanging, loose, dirty diorite. Mediocre gear and a semi-hanging belay off of two hollow flakes with 1700' of air beneath your heels. I whimpered up my pitch, Sol meditated up his. We both agreed once was enough. That was definitely not what climbing is about for us. From the sandy ledges Sol took us home, gracefully scaling the "outrageous" 10b corner. This pitch was a total anomoly for the climb, 120+ feet of splitter hands on solid rock. Like a Split Pillar in the mountains. A few more pitches and we were on the summit eleven hours after starting up the rock. Cranking up the 10b corner To descend we did two long rappels down the northwest route then quickly scrambled up and over to the loose gully of the standard descent of Slesse. The off-shore flow had moved in as predicted and we had an incredible view of a sea of clouds churning about in the valley below. Twenty-one hours after leaving the car I'm biking up the Chilliwack River Road. My Tikka casts a feeble glow against the gloomy night. A few small rain drops quickly build to a thunderous downpour. I'm soaked, I have miles yet to go and I'm smiling. Gear Notes: Medium-large rack to 4". Extra #2 Camalots for pitch 19. Red Fred topo is perfect. KM clearly plagarized it. Approach Notes: Mellowest approach on Slesse.

you are going to die

I climbed the lower wall via some easier thing off to the right but the arch itself is sweet! Be prepared for some scary hooking, nailing and expo flakes off the belay on the second pitch followed by quality A1 nailing. A good way to get a taste for Squamish Style A3. Bring half-a-dozen Lost Arrows, a few bugaboos and a few sawed off angles along with the regular schwag.

Nice work boyz. That route is the shizzy nizzy! There isn't THAT much loose rock though, it deserves to be more popular. Hope you guys crush on Friday, Saturday still open Ti?

Climb: The Mythical Bellingham Big Wall Date of Climb: 7/21/2005 Trip Report: For many climbers in Bellingham the Twin Sisters Range is the place were we first cut our teeth in the mountains, climbing the west ridge of the North Twin or more often than not failing on an attempt of the South Twin Sister. The rest of the range is somewhat of an enigma. During the month of July I made several forays into the east side of the range. While the west side of these mountains is a wasteland of clearcuts and decomposing logging roads, on the east side we discovered soothing old growth forest, wild rivers, impressive glaciers, lots of solitude and some great multipitch climbing on the unique and enjoyable olivine these peaks are composed of. Last February my wife and I decided to check out the Elbow Lake Trail. After we navigated the washed-out crossing of the Nooksack River the trail immediately began a gentle climb through impressive stands of huge trees in the drainage of Green Creek. Occasional openings in the forest afforded glimpses of steep walls near the creeks headwaters. Green Creek Arete II 5.6 On July 1st Allen Carbert and I returned to see if these walls measured up to the grandure of my memories. After a half hour on the trail we plunged straight into the forest and began traversing further into the Green Creek drainage. While the underbrush was thick and wet we made good time and after an hour of thrashing we broke out along the bank of the creek. This is a wild spot with great views of the Green Glacier to the west and Mount Baker and Lincoln Peak to the east. After crossing the creek we headed up the enormous talus slopes that define the upper regions of this drainage. One east facing wall stood out, steep, clean and bordered by an impressive gendarmed arete. Four hours after leaving the car we stood near its base. Intimidated and running short on time we decided the arete would be a perfect choice for the day. Like many routes in the Sisters the climbing was much easier than it looked. We scrambled up delightful 3rd and 4th class rock before slipping into rock shoes for a clean exposed slab on the crest of the arete. The horizontal section turned out to be exciting 3rd class scrambling right along the massive drop of the east face. We roped up for a 100' pitch of 5.6 cracks on more clean, solid rock before a final bit of scrambling led to...nowhere. The arete simply ended on a minor high point of the long ridgeline seperating the drainages of the Green and Sisters Glaciers. We built a small cairn and ate lunch while enjoying the unique views of the Sisters Glacier which looked to be no more than a 45 minute walk away. We had choosen to carry over and decided to descend by heading east along the ridgeline. After cresting a highpoint marked 5179' on maps we headed down through open meadows then more thick forest. At 3600' in elevation we hung a hard right, dropping back into the drainage of Green Creek. A steep descent led to an even steeper gorge where we once again crossed the creek before climbing back up to the trail. Eight and half hours after leaving we were back at the car, satisfied with a great day in the local hills. The Mythic Wall III 5.10 On July 21st Michael Layton and I climbed the wall. The huckleberries in the forest were now in prime season and we stopped every five minutes to gorge ourselves. Somehow we still managed to reach the face in a little over three hours. As we roped up an enormous black spider crawled across the start of our route. What in the hell is this thing? The climbing was excellent. Almost every pitch was steep, solid and sustained with adequate protection. Stemming up corners, linking face cracks, pulling over roofs on jugs, we had a great time. What loose rock there was we would pitch off into space watching it freefall for hundreds of feet before exploding into shrapnel. Michael led the crux pitch, a series of discontinuous cracks up the center of a steep, clean face. On the next pitch, intimidating roofs were passed on great holds. As Mike followed he easily pulled off the only belay-slayer on the climb, a 5' tall flake that exploded over the previous belay ledge. Four and half hours after starting we topped out in the still blazing sun. We had climbed the route in 6 pitches ( 5.8, 5.9+, 5.4, 5.10-, 5.9, 5.7) and decided to call it The Mythic Wall as it felt like we had just done that mythical alpine rock climb we've always wanted to find in the mountains near Bellingham. We downclimbed the Green Creek Arete (easy 4th class from topout) reaching our packs in about an hour. On the way out we cooled off in the creek before thrashing back out to the trail, the truck and, to celebrate, the North Fork Beer Shrine. Either of these routes are well worth doing, particularly if you live in the Bellingham area. While the approach certainly takes some effort it sure is nice having multi-pitch alpine rock climbs so close to home. Mythic Wall Route Description At the top of the scree gully below the wall the route begins on the left side of the large wet chimney (year round water?). P1 (5.8, 55m) Start directly below the only tree on the lower face. Pass a horizontal fault at 40', pull through steep black rock then follow ramps and corners to the tree. P2 (5.9+, 45m) Hard moves off the belay, then climb up and right until you can traverse right into discontinuous corners. Follow these to a large ledge splitting the face. P3 (5.4, 25m) Walk left then traverse up and left on a loose-looking but solid rock. Belay near another tree below face cracks on the smooth wall. P4 (5.10-, 40m) Link face cracks up and right (crux). When they end at a L-facing corner pull out right around the corner onto an easy face. P5 (5.9, 40m) Climb a nice L-facing corner, then pull a roof. Hand traverse left below the next roof into a fun dihedral. Below more roofs move out left to a belay. P6 (5.7, 20m) Steep flakes lead to the ridgeline. Gear: rack to 3.5", including a full set of TCUs or Aliens, micronuts and a double set of cams from 2" to 3.5". The wall can be seen in shadows on page 41 of Red Fred. It's above the "ek" in "Green Creek". Approach From Mosquito Lake Road follow the Middle Fork Nooksack River Road about 11 miles to the signed Elbow Lake trailhead (elevation 2200'). Ford the river on log jams and reminants of the old bridge then pick up the trail again 100' downstream. Follow the trail about a mile to a sharp switchback at 2700'. Leave the trail here dropping down into gentle forest and a crossing Hildebrand creek. Continue traversing up valley through thick huckleberrys and occasional dense firs trees. The best travel seems to be around 2750' in elevation. Once you reach Green Creek the wall and the long talus slopes to reach it should be obvious. 3-4 hrs. Descent Down climb the arete or hike east along the ridgeline passing a high point then descending into forest. At 3600' turn right and head straight down to Green Creek. We forded the creek around 2300' then climbed back up through devils club reaching the trail around 2500'.

Looking for a competent partner for the South Face Direct on Forbidden Peak. Hike in Thursday evening to bivi, climb it Friday. I'm car-less this week but can meet in B'ham or Mt Vernon Thursday afternoon and I'll happily foot the gas bill and .

Unfortunately the former is probably every bit as accurate a description of climbers as the later. Rad, PM your address I got something for you all.

Ummm.....try reading the words and not just looking at the purty pictures...

It's real interesting how people get in this mode of replicating other folks' adventures. Seems to kinda miss the whole point.

You're looking at topos for aid climbs put together by free climbers. Of course it's screwed!!! GD is not particularly difficult or scary. All the pitches are essentially C2ish at one point or another. Grab two sets of cams, some offset nuts, a hook and a cam hook and just do it!

I'm certainly no expert but I've done a few that had me crapping in my pants so.... Use pins. They take the expansion out of the flake, try starting with a pin. Use as much clean gear as possible. If you place two pins in a row, placing the second will loosen the first until it pops. If you must place two pins in the row, set the second then clip into it tight with a daisy. Keep pounding. When the first pops the second should hold your weight. Scary! but it works. Use hooks. Sky hooks obviously avoid the flake. Cam hooks fit nice in pin scars and won't pop (at least not as easily)when placing pins above. There is lots of Expando flakes in Squish. The only expando flakes I've climbed at Index were on Golden Arch. Just a few moves but mixed in with sketchy hooking, fixed heads and such it certainly gets the blood flowing!

It will never bail on you. It will never be digging around for another Snickers while you're fiddling around at the crux.

Do you mean they've moved to St George, Utah? I've got family down there too. Snow Canyon State Park is just outside of town. There is some decent climbing there mostly concentrated on one wall, however it faces NW I believe and will probably be shady for most of the day. You might have warm enough weather but I bet it will be on the chilly side. Lots of other sport climbing areas scattered about, some might get more sun exposure. Climbing in Zion will probably be to chilly but just hiking there is well worht it if you haven't been. Darin

I use to use an Epic regularly. If close up focus was not a concern (which it generally isn't) I would set it to it's "spot" meter setting then meter off the blue sky directly opposite the sun with a half push of the button. This seemed to work pretty well.

IS ASS I haven't done a less inspiring route at the pass. The North Ridge on the other hand is sweet, particularly once you get past the start. Figure out an approoach from the west side to avoid some crappy rock on the east side getting to the notch.

Wow! That accident thread seems pretty darn lite compared to threads past.