dberdinka

I have never tried this but I have heard several people doing this to save weight. I think a vast majority of climbers would find that their life is worth more than the extra weight of a very light pull line. w00t! w00t! to folks crazy enough to put all their faith into one skyhook.

Hey Ray! Good to see you posting again, it's unfortunate the anger-management therapy isn't working. Dru, James....and Ray no offense was intended. Good job!

Sweet!

Congratulations! Some real great looking along with some really scary looking rock! What's up with flashing all the gang signs yo?

OK, a poor choice of words. How about runout, marginally protected slabs. If I came across a good crack I stopped and belayed as that was probably all I would be getting...

Climb: Slesse-North Rib Date of Climb: 8/9/2004 Trip Report: About six years ago I climbed the Northeast Buttress of Slesse. Like many other climbers, my dreams of Squamish quality crack climbing were quickly replaced by the reality of mossy, metamorphic funk. A lot of belay time was spent looking down on what appeared to be the high-quality granite of the North Rib, another moderate grade V climb established by Jeff Lowe about 30 years ago. I put it on the list of things to do, were it has patiently been waiting. My friend Monkey is a mountain guide. Unlike many mountain guides he actually climbs for himself on his days off! Unfortunately his free time rarely coincides with my own. About a month ago we put plans together to climb the North Rib on Sunday and Monday, August 8th and 9th. After a wet beginning to the weekend we were fortunate to have great weather for the climb. The Approach The approach to the north side of Slesse has gone to hell, plain and simple. We parked just before the first waterbar, only a 5 minute walk from the major washout at 2 miles. The once benign Nesakwatch Creek has ripped out an enormous new channel, crossed on a skinny alder. Beyond here the trail, while still navigatable, is full on thwackage for the first couple miles. With time this approach will only continue to get more suck. At the official Slesse Memorial Site we dropped down into the basin below the Northeast Buttress via more thwackage then crossed the avi’d remains of the pocket glacier to steep forest on the other side. A lot of aircraft debris is still in evidence in the basin, unfortunately we did not find the Chinaman’s Gold as we had hoped. The forest is STEEP! Monkey busted out his little north wall hammer, and I considered putting my crampons on. We nailed the approach and soon broken out into happy marmot-infested meadows where we got our first good look at the North Rib. AAackkk!! We reached the edge of the pocket glacier in about four hours from the car and quickly crossed this to the toe of the rib. A table-size rock went crashing down the glacier behind us, and scattered rock fall could be heard coming down either side of the rib. Not a good place to loiter! The North Rib The route started with 40’ of unprotected 5.8 slab on clean compact granite. This was followed by another 1200’ of unprotected 5.8 slab on somewhat dirty compact granite. A total of 8 pitches got us to the edge of the large snowpatch midway up the rib. We spent about an hour tiling a rough ledge with flat boulders until we had created a rather deluxe bivi site. Water was easily collected from the base of the snowpatch. As night fell we watched a party get lost and eventually bivi on the bypass variation of the northeast buttress. They seemed quite calm about the whole affair. Monkey following the granite slabs low on the route Monkey at the bivi site While the lower part of the rib was more of a broad, rounded face, above the bivi it became a very aesthetic arête. While we were occasionally forced onto its right side, for the most part we followed the rib crest all the way to the notch. In total the North Rib itself took us 20 long pitches of continuously difficult climbing. This is serious business with hard route finding, oftentimes-sparse protection and some scary loose rock. On the other hand the granite is generally solid, there is a ton of great crack and slab climbing and the position is outrageous. I can’t emphasize how sustained the climbing was, almost every pitch was 5.7-5.8 with a 5.9 crux and only a pitch or two of 5.6. Looking up the rib Looking down the rib The Summit Arete It was 1:30 PM by the time we reached the notch, both feeling pretty damn cooked. It would be real easy both mentally and physically to bail down the southside from this point. Yet somehow we managed to suck it up and continue to the summit. The camera batteries were cooked as well so I got no more shots. The arête is steep, sustained, clean and for the most part solid. The exposure down the north face is gut clenching. Three pitches of 5.8 and a pitch of solid 5.9 got us to low angle terrain a pitch below the summit. We topped out around 5:30 PM on Monday after twenty-five roped pitches. I estimate at least 3500’ of sustained rock climbing, making it what must be one of the longest rock routes around these parts. Incredible! Just Freaking Incredible! Getting back to the Car We had originally planned doing the Cross Overpass descent. After coming up the lower part of it on our approach, I’ve decided I’ll go down that way just as soon as I dip myself in pig shit. Instead we took the knee-destroying south side trail. We reached the trailhead and our bikes around 10:30 PM. A long, not as horrible as anticipated, bike ride back to the car commenced which was reached at 12:30 PM. We made it back to Bellingham by 2:30 AM, fuel tanks fully emptied. Gear Notes: A complete set of brass nuts and a nut tool will be your best friend. Medium rack to 3.5”. Pins not necessary.

Awesome! Pics?

That's a little too late and a little too early in the game to be bailing!

I hear that route rocks! Best looking line on Shuksan IMHO.

It's just amazing what great advice you can get on the Internet! So lots of peeps have used the pull cord system any reason to get 6mm instead of 5mm?

Summit boulderfield on Amphitheatre Mountain

Anyone ever done this? I've heard of people justing tieing a really big knot in the main rope so as to jam up against the rappel ring. Rapping then pulling the rope down using a much thinner cord. Sounds like a method fraught with potential disasters. I'm thinking of getting a stretch of 5mm or 6mm cord for light hauling and emergency rapping, per above. (60m by 5mm weights 2.1 lbs! 6mm weights 3 lbs!) Any experience or thoughts on the subject?

You can interpret his reaction in plenty of different ways. please, Please, PLEASE! share with us your interpretation of GW's reaction. PLEASE! "If I don't finishing reading "Little Goat eats a Tulip" the terrorists will have won"

I commend Moore for including real footage of the horrors of war in Iraq. Footage of both Iraqi civilians and American soldiers. It's a shame and disgrace that the major media networks refuse to show the reality of what is going on over there. How do you debunk the tragedy of Iraqi civilians and young American soldiers being blown to bits over there?

You're going to die............

I cam off that peak about a week ago. I don't think we took the easiest way down, however just below the summit is an unavoidable "gap" you'll need to cross. In fact it's more of a crevasse. Really a truly amazing feature. We jumped down it, there is a wedged chockstone that you could cross on then do a move or two to get up. Looked Class 4 with MAJOR exposure into the bowels of the mountain. Have fun. While there I would HIGHLY recommend hiking up to the North Summit of Amphitheatre Mountain (Class 1) from Remmel Lakes. An incredible spot with good energy. Drus option is a bad one. From the summit you move west to the first gap then a good trail leads down to Cathedral Pass.

devilish 5-yr old

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." How True! Sometimes I almost want to give that retard a hug!

That actually looked like a good route, following nice systems of WIDE! looking cracks. There aren't a whole lot of good looking lines on the south sides of those peaks considering the amount of rock. The buttresses of Matriarch are quite slabby and any route would need to wander. Hi scree to rock ratio as well, I'd put my money on Amphitheatre! And yes thats the border...make sure to receive permission first from the nearest offical crossing before wandering across the swath...

So if you can get up the road (got some mileage to the start? or is it kilometerage?) is this one of those climbs with effectively zero approach? You're just on slabs from the car? Looks sweet!

The approach is sweet, almost all on slab! Shouldn't take much longer than the hike to 3 o'clock rock. Bring some beers to stash in the pools part way up. IMHO Dark Rythmn is a good but not great route as it lacks variety, just lots of slab padding. Rain Man is excellent with jamming, laybacking, roofs and slab. Jacobs Ladder is even better. Longer with all the above and some genuine face climbing. The 11c pitch is easily french-freed making the route 10b C0 Westerward Ho is an abomination. Descent is involved the first time you do it. Have fun.

I finally put some of the photos through the splicer. This is the view of Grimface, Matriarch and Macrabe from base camp in Wall Creek. The traverse is dome from right to left. The SE Chimneys of Grimface begin in the dark cleft just right of the white face. South Pillar of Matriarch is the biggest buttress just right of center.

on your trip! However........ thats about the lamest TR ever.

After a spectacular trip to the Pasayten last week I'm putting togehter a trip tob Castle Peak just south of Manning Park. Anyone been there or more particularly done a north side route? All beta and hearsay appreciated!