dberdinka

A quick google search turned up a couple photos taken by a heli-pilot during the filming of said movie. LOOKS GRIPPING!

Matt (assuming you moved it) Crackbolter (uber wanker) Trask (at least he's got no delusions of grandure!)

Dru? Layton? I feel so left out

Im SURE the peaks are Habrich and Sky Pilot. Just SURE of it. SO GODDAM SURE!

First !

You can see it from the top of Green Giant Buttress. The snow coulior cutting across it's face actually looks like a good line in a spectacular setting. Other than that the rock looks truly horrid. Some type of metamorphosed-rotten-shist-hooky (actually I dont know what it is but it certainly looks like crap) I think there might be some walls in the Cascades that just can't, shouldn't and won't be climbed due to the exccedingly rotten nature of the rock. (Harry Majors makes reference to this idea in his E Face Mox Peak post) That is probably one of them.

Have fun boyz

Suck it Crackbolter I like talking about climbing and cool looking lines are something to talk about. Personally I'm not particularly motivated by FAs or FDs so I don't feel any need to not discuss undone lines. Having wandered around the Cascades for awhile I've seen a lot more lines than I have time (or skill!) to do. If someone reads a post then motivates to do something like ski the NE Coulior of Goode or maybe climb it's complete East Ridge or traverse W Ridge of Eldo-to-Torment-to-Forbidden-to-Sharfin-to-N Face-Buckner good for them! and good for Cascade climbing in general! It's just banter, and for the most part plainly visible to anyone who flips thru guidebooks. If you feel like your super secret projects are be revealed maybe it will motivate you to actually get out this year and do them.

Early October this year I got on a shuttle in Zion and chit-chatted with Ron Olevsky and Jeff Lowe. Both are pioneers of bigwall climbing in Zion and pretty much put up all the classics in the end of the canyon. Jeff has MS it was really quite depressing. Early November this year I was in Moab. Talked to Ron Olevsky again in a cafe. He thought we were wankers. Small little world sometimes. I also knocked Bird Lew off the trail to Applebee Dome once with my overloaded pack. She didn't look happy, we didn't actually meet. Fred Beckey refused to talk to me or my buddy one rainy day in Squamish Starbucks. Ole curmugin....

So what's the other half bee-yoch!

I've never been on the route, in fact I've never seen the route. I mean the big rock headwall that sits above the climb and is skirted on the right. Jim Nelson makes some reference to it as a challenge for future climbers..blah, blah, blah. Am I the only fool around here willing to openly discuss unclimbed lines, projects, etc.? Come on folks cough em up!

The guilt has been catching up to me. On my last extended weekend climbing trip I called in sick while driving to the airport. Now no more official time off (in fact burnt up a long time ago) until Jan 1. Must be productive employee, must increase shareholder value... I dream of being layed off....... I dream of being a part time barista......

Woke up at 5:30 AM. Clear, 24 degrees and 2 inches of new at Baker. Perfect conditions for covering LOTS of ground in the BC. Instead I went trail running (very nice) in the Chuckanuts, ate pancakes and came to work. THIS SUCKS!!!!!!

So in the interests of competition what are these unplucked gems? Sloan NW Face (they'll be linign up) Triump N Face (they'll be lining up-not) Pyramid E Face (can heli's land there?) Slesse Coulior-of-Death (or whatever it's called) New York Gully Headwall Direct (does it go?) More winter ascents in the Pickets (a local climber has evidently be trying the north side of McMillan for years, supposedly a fine line!?) Dru's North Face of Old Settler looks accessible, pretty damn sweet and BIG! Wasn't some dude claiming to attempt a winter solo of Thin Red Line, derivative but bold cough it up With the untimely death of Ben Manfredi will the extreme sking void be filled? Last couple years might one day be seen as a golden age of this genre. What big descents are left? Will someone ski Triple Couliors or the TC-N Face link up? Northeast Coulior of Goode is doable and needs to be done. What else? Anyone ever seen the Beowolf Coulior on Bonanza?

Yeah ? or Neah ? I'll be relatively close for the holidays and am thinking of making the drive over. I know nothing about the area. Is it climbable this time of year or too cooooold....?

At the end of Highway 542 (Mt Baker Ski Area) there are lots of possibilities North Face of Table often has a skin track Backside of Herman Saddle is about 600' of open trees Frontside of Herman Saddle has endless possibilities Mazama Bowl (once upon a time the Secret Bowl) is good for yo-yoing In bad weather the only place to be is the Swift Creek Trees (headwaters of SwiftCreek). Only 300' to 450' of vert but good skiing and very little avi danger.

I'll say the same about yours! I don't climb at Vantage anymore either!

Skiing down the White Salmon Glacier in February. We followed the best snow by staying close to the Northwest Rib. As we continued below the base of the rib we found ourselves below the Hanging Glacier. Dropping down a little chute I got cliffed out. I hollered up to my friends who started a long traverse torwards the ski area. I considered traversing 100 feet east into an enormous cone of avalanche debris (literally hundreds of feet high) instead I popped my skis off and decided to retrace my descent. I still clearly remember hearing the tinkle of small ice chunks followed by an enormous CRACK! Looking straight up above me (like tilt your neck and eyes back) this wave of snow is pouring off the top of the Hanging Glacier, hitting a wall of rock on the northwest rib, deflecting back in my direction, turning in to this churning cloud. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger. The last I looked it's hitting the snow slopes I'm on below the rock cliff the Hanging Glacier sits on. It enormous. I'm standing below a little projection of rock. I bury my skis in the snow, then my body and face. I close my eyes. What I really remember is the sound, so incredibly loud. And it just gets louder and louder and louder. Suddenly it gets dark and I'm being pounded into the snow by a malestroum of wind. This goes on, I don't know, for a while. I had this incredible sense of not really being alive, and not really being dead. Just waiting for whatever eventuality to occur. Hard to explain, guess you had to be there. The noise begins to diminish, soon it's gone. All thats left is a powder cloud hanging over the valley. I claw my way up the gully, adrenaline now coursing through me, fumble with the binding cables and get the hell out of there. The debris field in the white salmon drainage was up to 20' deep and at least a 1000' long. It all came down less than a 100' to my side. What I felt was the associated powder cloud that came thundering over the rock knob I was hiding behind and pounded me from above. My friends thought I was dead, ski patrol (who were watching us) though we were dead. I don't ski below hanging glaciers anymore.

HELICOPTER

Just picked up a copy of this rag for the first time last night. It good! It's really, really good! The article by Voytek Kurtyka is the most interesting piece of mountaineering journalism I have read in a really, really long time. Highly entertaining, here are some quotes. "The traditional mountaineering ethos, bent on idealistic heroism and toughness, gave way to decadent trends, such as climbing plywood boards or bolted walls" "Matzek was recognized star of grass climbing....The champions of this art searched the secret nooks of the Tatra for grass routes known for poor protection that provide a fair chance of killing oneself" "He had, however, deep uncertainty as to whether he should devote his life to politcal science or grass climbing....." "Without (climbing) the icicle, we were assholes and everything that had happened to us was an absurd mess" (Hey! that sounds like someone around here!) "My dearest son Alexander, having beaten up a number of girls at his school, got a bad mark..." ( I by no means believe beating up girls to be entertaining, it's just a really weird remark) I had to snicker at the bravado of Jim Bridwell, in reference to some terrifying piece of work on the Mooses Tooth "Conquest or death was our code" I'm a little bummed they pictured the north face of Latok in their unclimbed routes section, as thats kinda been a lil' project of mine. Guess I'll have to deal with the crowds next spring. Check it out, I'm gonna subscribe to the thing.

I can only give beta for Zion. I've spent time there once in December. It was COOOLD! but warmed up nicely in the sun. I would expect precip at somepoint in time though snow is probably as likely as rain. Days are obviously short, Oscars was a good place to loiter at night. Get some chips and a beer and read a book. If doing any of the popular trade routes that you listed don't bring a ledge, just fix and fire. Sunniest routes are Spaceshot and Touchstone Wall. They might just be perfect in December. Moonlight gets morning sun but is shady after mid-day. Prodigal will probably be shady all day long in December. I avoided Touchstone for a long time because it has a rep as the "Cattle Route". However I did it this fall and found it to be excellent. The aid is great and the last four pitches of free climbing are really good. Basically a more varied climb than the other aid-trade-routes there. PM if you want details on any of them. Please don't bring cam hooks to Zion. They are unneccesary on the easier climbs and have badly blown out pin scars on them. HB aluminum and brass offsets and Aliens rule. Have fun!

Evidently the NPS has decided to develop a management plan for sport climbing and bouldering in the Skagit River Gorge (and elsewhere) in the park. They are requesting public comment! PLEASE SEE THE ATTACHED DOCUMENT if interested in commenting. I received this as a forwarded e-mail originally sent by someone who seemed like a pretty rabid anti-climbing enviromentalist. To quote.... "The Park has finally realized that natural resources are being destroyed and as more routes and boulder problems are created, more people are trampling and reconfiguring the landscape" If you like climbing there you might want to get a word in! 277927-Climbing Mgmt Scoping NewsRelease[1].1.doc

The BEST roadtrip is always changing. It seems to be the one that happened 5 or so years prior. Gives you time to romantisize it In '98 my buddy Owen and I drove 18 hours to the Big Sandy trailhead in the Wind Rivers. Hiked in with humongous packs of climbing gear and food. Spent 10 days in there climbing seven grade IV rockclimbs. Stellar moderate granite, basecamped in meadows next to gurgling brooks, sunshine everyday, tennis shoe approaches. The last day we emptied the remaining contents of our food bag, two granola bars. grabbing one each we hoisted our packs and hiked the nine miles out. See photo... Drove to Jackson , climbed perfect ice couliors and complex ridges before getting weathered off the North Ridge of The Grand trying an enchainment. Made up for it by climbing The Elephants Perch on way home. Hanging out in The Sawtooths during the long days of summer, cliff jumping, getting lit, climbing more multipitch alpine granite was perfect. Completely exhausted, I got home to find out I had lost 15 pounds. I've had great roadtrips since but never one where the synergy with my partner was so strong and long lasting. Leaving the Cirque - July 1998

Who's got it? Here's a picture of the northeast side of Slesse taken too many summers ago. NE Buttress certainly is a nice climb, anyone ever do the North Rib?

I don't know much more than you do Will.... Except that his bros climbed/jugged fixed ropes on the British Route that had been hanging there for.....16 years! Bet those were in good shape!