dberdinka

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.

Layton is a gangster !!! Infamous Chat Room Event

I second "The Professional" as her best work. Admit it, you old lechers, that little 12 year old made you think bad, bad thoughts.

Pan Dome Falls has been the recent scene of at least one full-length (80+') ground fall when several screws pulled out of the usually shitty ice. The climber walked away bruised and sore but otehrwise unscathed, as he landed in the bottomless snow that thankfully acumulates at the base of the falls. I'd rather suffer the drive to Banff thank you very much....

I threw together some photo topos over the weekend from some of the better climbs I did on this trip. Nice mountain porn for a rainy December day… Middle Finger Buttress Ka’aba Buttress The Deacon

The weather was ass! Thats fuckin burl!

578.1 !!!

Hey Frosty, the SP can be used as a rappel device, however it will not lock off (like a Gri-Gri) unless you jerk it tight (like a cars seatbelt) and then it still might slip loose. Better off using something else. I've carried a Gri-gri to rap and pendi with, it's extra weight and a bit of a hassle but IMHO the benefits of a Silent Partner far outweigh the cons. In a fall the rope will lock tight around the drum of the SP. You will need to use your jugs to reascend the rope. This is not a big deal as you should ALWAYS KEEP YOUR JUMARS WITH YOU when rope soloing. I feel the need to point out that the idea of rigging your SP at the belay is idiotic as the rope locks tight around the drum in a fall and a majority of the time needs to be loosened manually. You'd be left hanging there rope locked off, now do tell how you'd get out of that? To get proficent with a SP requires a lot of time, a lot of patience and a lot of practice. In the beginning it's 90% rope management and 10% climbing. With time it's still 50/50. The experience is as much about engineering as it is about climbing. Good luck. DB

Evidently Rainy Pass was pretty good on Saturday. Phtographic evidence...

Flipped through this years AAJ last night. So in between an account of super-alpinism on Nuptse and another article on bigwall freeclimbing in Greenland was a story about three local lads and their traverse of the Southern Pickets! Way to go Wayne on getting that published! It was pretty sweet to see the Cascades right there with The Himalaya and the Artic. Quite a bit of Washington-centric FAs in the regional accounts well. Made for fun reading.

SWEET JESUS!

Incredible on the snow and ice. Plenty of room for two or three people and gear Chicks dig it! ...Groceries fit nicely in the back... .... Not so good on anything but the smoothest logging roads. I had a rough time getting into 3 o'clock through some of the washouts this year. Maybe I just miss my old 4wd Toyota Truck....

Don't let the peanut gallery get you down....

The runout to the first bolt is completely out of character with the rest of the route, probably awkward 5.8? Kinda stupid but it keeps the riff-raff out...