dberdinka

Looks like another great moderate! I predict crowding next weekend...... Climbed Mousetrap yesterday. 7 pitch WI 3+. Fun, asthetic climbing, the last steep pitch is a beauty. Lots of traffic in the last week and sounds like it will be good to go for another week still. We couldn't figure out where the walk-off was so we rapped the route via v-threads. Hope is highly worth a visit right now if you haven't been.

Are there any good BC websites for road conditions? I-5 through Bellingham was slow and icy. Supposedly it's a lot worse further north in the county. Semis jack-knifed, cars in the ditch etc.

Re-edited with pics. There was NO snow on the first 2.5 miles of road to the first junction. Then very little increasing to maybe 6" at Daily Prairie. That is all changing right now as we have 4" of snow outside my window here in Bellingham.

That blows. The new owner is "a new company owned by lenders that hold some $500 million of Crown Pacific's debt." A group that just wants their money back. Wonder how they'll manage the land

The outflow for Lost Lake is supposedly a sweet WI3/4!

Here's something from a NOAA special weather statement thats in more layman terms. Next week sounds chilly. 3...EARLY NEXT WEEK A SECOND FRONT WITH AN EVEN COLDER AIR MASS WILL BE POISED ALONG THE NORTHERN WASHINGTON BORDER. EXTENDED GUIDANCE INDICATES THAT THIS FRONT WILL SWEEP SOUTHWARD ACROSS ALL OF WESTERN WASHINGTON BY TUESDAY MORNING. IF THE CURRENT GUIDANCE IS CORRECT...DAYTIME TEMPERATURES WILL LIKELY PLUMMET WELL BELOW FREEZING BY TUESDAY. THE COLD AIR MASS COULD SETTLE OVER THE AREA FOR SEVERAL DAYS BRINGING FREEZING TEMPERATURES TO THE REGION. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THIS EVENT IS STILL SEVERAL DAYS OUT...SO CONTINUE TO MONITOR FORECASTS AS THESE EVENTS UNFOLD.

Yes that sounds about right, thankfully, frequent conversations with Larry made most of it pass in a not to unpleasant haze.

Climb: North Twin Sister-South Rib Date of Climb: 1/5/2005 Trip Report: I would love to know the secret formula that is required for genuine alpine water ice to form. Evidently cold temps and clear skies in the January are not it! On Tuesday night my buddy Allen and I drove up the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River to the gated bridge that provides access to the Twin Sisters. Started hiking at 3:30 AM finally reaching the basin between the North and South Twin about 6 hours later. The snowpack is absymal, no more than 2' and quickly rotting out as it slowly turns to vapor in these cool conditions. The conditions on the South Twin appeared to be powder snow on rock so we instead climbed a route on the south face of the North Twin Sister. The south face is maybe 1500' high and fairly broad, it's only major feature being a deep snow gully on its east side. We climbed the rib bordering the west side of the snow gully. The rib was a mix of 3rd, 4th and low 5th class rock with a liberal covering of snow. The rock in the Twin Sisters is awesome for easy technical climbing. We wore crampons most of time and found the climbing to be a lot of fun. It was warm in the sun and the views of the South Twin were great. Summited around 2:30 and descended the north face. More snow on the north side but again the snowpack is essentially turning into 3' of hoar frost. We epiced in this unconsolidated mess until we reached the logging roads then suffered the 3 hour footsore walk back to the car. Great views and nice climbing but the approach to that area has become long and tiresome. Better conditions for ice might be found in late winter and early spring Gear Notes: We carried too much shite, a small rock rack, poons and one axe would suffice. Approach Notes: A long, long hike on logging roads

Where is it???

cause thats with a dude!!

You did... ...but can't accept it. so you're actually a ghost... . thats why... ....all those ladies.... always ignore you!

I don't care what party you belong to, being a real estate agent, should automatically disqualify you from running for public office. (sorry Dave ) Dino Rossi ... suck an egg

Apparently Sam Reed has been ruffling the feathers of the Republican establishment in this state for sometime now. At the same time he's gotten good reviews from people who know more about this stuff than I do. As a result he's the only Republican I actually voted for in the last election. Seem like he's a politician with a disdain for politicing. A good man in general, hope he stays active in state poliyics.

I've gloated about it here before but some of the best alpine rock I've ever climbed was on Cathedral Peak and Ampitheatre Mountain in the Pasayten. The third pitch of Pilgrimage to Mecca on Ka'aba Buttress was incredible. You follow a perfect finger crack in a dihedral for 80' then break out of the corner into vertical double handcracks for another 70', all at a moderate grade The sense of discovery we experienced certainly sweetens the memory. Middle-Finger Buttress Left-Side Route has a **** pitch of 5.10 crack climbing. Dead-vertical hand jams to stemming to fingertip liebacking on rough, grippy rock. The southeast buttress of Cathedral Peak is amazing as well. Almost every pitch is classic. The crux headwall is two pitches of perfect hand and finger jamming (5.9,5.10a). Elsewhere, the "slab" pitch (p12 or something) on Springbok Arete in the Anderson River Area is incredible climbing on incredible rock in an incredibly airy position. Plus all the crux pitches are behind you, yahoo! There is a pitch on the Becky-Chouinard maybe a 1/3 to 1/2 the way up that is a perfect 5.8 handcrack corner for a full pitch. Though my memory has grown hazy I still remember that one pitch being particulary awesome on a climb loaded with good pitches. It would be interesting to here about peoples favorite "alpine" or "mixed" pitches in the Cascades. I haven't pitched out a whole lot of ice/mixed stuff. Like DPS said, Triple Couliors was certainly good stuff. Check em out!

So is it 5.5 or 5.12 ?

Why do you have to have your wife's approval to buy a friggin magazine?

My thought is that you are STOOPID. Seems to me that Marriage is a social institution with conventions of behavior and serious expectations, some transparent and some not so transparent. It requires hard work and sacrifice. Emphirical evidence suggests that men who are UN-willing to pony up for the real thing (a multi-$1000 rock) are generally not as committed to the idea of marriage as those who do. They tend to have the failed engagements or endless engagements where a wedding date never seems to get set. So ladies if your man wants to be buy you something "unique" and you're being PC enough to buy into that crap I wish you the very best luck.

More time in the Pasayten Wilderness including stealth FA of Dru's secret project on Grimface!

Ummmm..I'm not sure if I get it but the pictures are cool... Distel, you're a sackless, teenage hippy beatnik who couldn't climb his way out of a toilet bowl. A-1 through Z-26! Just wanted to post the pic

Soounds like you're romantisizing a past relationship into something it never was? Remove yourself emotionally for a moment and think about what happened.. You spent 4? years with this person, lived with this person, and when it ended you seemed pretty content with that decision. Time goes by and for whatever reasons you begin to forget the REALITY of the realtionship and remember it how you want to, you put your ex and you relationship with that ex on a pedistal where it never really belonged. If you had deal with REALITY again would you end up feeling any different then last time? I got to find out the hard way that the answer is HELL NO! Of course results might vary...

West Ridge of North Twin Sister (Twin Sisters Range near Mt Baker) is a popular 1-day winter objective. Relatively long approach all on gated logging roads. 2wd is fine for getting to the gate.

Cool shot. Never been in that area, how far in a hike is it? Rock doesn't look bad either....

You guys should stick to climbing Rather than internet rhyming To bad you suck at both!

With a month in the northwest you could hit several of the classic areas and do climbs across the spectrum. After Rainier you could.... Drive to Leavenworth, hike into Colchuck Lake. Climb Backbone Ridge on Dragontail (IV 5.9) and south face of Prusik Peak (III 5.9). Drive to Washington Pass climb Liberty Crack (V 5.9 C2) and whatever else you have time for. Backup, on the way to Washington Pass, drive up to Cascade Pass outside of Marblemount and climb Forbidden Peak (II-III 5-low to 5.7). The west Ridge is the "50-Classic". There are 2 or 3 other routes that people will argue are just as good if not better. Then cross the border to Canada and go to the Chilliwack area. Climb the NE Face of Redoubt for the quintessential N Cascades alpine climb (IV). Just down valley climb the NE Buttress of Slesse (V 5.9). Go home with a pretty full tick list, if it's raining just drive to Tuoulomme .

I think I had it yesterday. Everyones getting something around here fortunately it seems pretty weak and doesn't last more than a day. Flu like symptoms, fortunately my is fine.