dberdinka

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!

Sooo.......how do we get it?

I don't think you have much to worry about. Sawtooths are an incredibly beautiful range. I've only done a few alpine rock routes there, but they were beautiful and the potential seems endless. Supposedly there are some good snow and ice routes as well. I'm jealous....

It's sad that this website seems to DISCOURAGE some people from writing TRs rather than ENCOURAGE them. I get bored at work, I want something interesting to read! Short and to the point, purposely vague (Caveman ), poorly written, long and grandiose, full on chestbeating, whatever...I think we should be encouraging each other to talk about actual, real-life climbs we've gone out and done. I plan on writing more of my own and supporting others who do so regardless of the content or style. This place has been kinda dead lately a little more content isn't going to hurt! Yeah! I feel warm and fuzzy!!

Dick Cilley lives! I still remember my formative days in Leavenworth, running around with an equally inept buddy TRing all the 5.3s we could find. More than once you'd walk up offering to sell us nuts, cams whatever out of the back of your van. I bought my first guidebook (stapled together blue-covered Leavenworth Guide) from you. As teenagers without much clue about what climbing was all about, I think you lifestyle mistified us at the time. Way to keep sending! Darin

Noooooo!, crampons and ice axes are bad. We love the mud We want to be nice to the mud Not poke and stick it with sharp objects. Thats mean! The mud is beautiful We hold the mud softly in our hands Don't yank on it Don't squeeze it to hard! Stem gently on the mud, or the mud might fall away I have no clue why the fisher towers erode into mud. Cutler Sandstone is definitely very different from anything else in the desert.

Layton seems to have the bases covered, though I've got to add... Build a torch and go exploring in the Padden Creek Tunnel. 0.6 miles long stretching underneath the Happy Valley neighborhood. I got a couple sets of hip waders look me up.........

Thanks Peter for the efforts and Gary for the software recommendation. Here's a close up of the mud chimney. Woo Hoo!

I re-downloaded better images. Unfortunately I can no longer edit the original post. Hopefully a mod can help me out!

No way! It's sweet! Pray for a big, clear cold snap. Killer ice and styrofoam with good road access.

We fixed the first two pitches (crux) one day then climbed five more another. Jugged and started leading by headlamp, rapped the route just before dark. Erik, let me know what routes you want beta on, I'm familiar with the trade routes. climbingmoab.com is a good source of beta as well. Chuck, JB etc. Writing good TRs is hard, I might work on it if I have time.

Not to change the subject....but sounds like you might have had a good adventure to Jordan? Fill us in!

I began writing an epic TR centered on themes of conquering fear and self-doubt but I figured I'd get reamed for that, so here are some pretty pictures instead! I apologize in advance for the low image quality. Between getting the film scanned and resizing they came out pretty poor. South Face of The Titan in The Fisher Towers of Utah. I don't know of many places as beautiful and peaceful as the Fisher Towers. There is a feeling of the eternal here. In early November my buddy Marcus and I climbed the Sun Devil Chimney on the South Face of The Titan. A beautiful line that offered high advernture, awesome position and some really fine climbing to boot! The route takes a plum line up the sun lit face above Marcus cleaning pitch three Yes thats a pin. Yes the pitch has gone clean at C4. Lets just chalk it up to "situational ethics" Starting up the Mud Chimney pitch The Fisher Towers have a reputation for mud. Well largely undeserved, this pitch offered up a classic mix of Fisher climbing. C2/3 pin scars led up past bent 30-year-old star drives into a genuine Mud Chimney. A thick stucoe of congeiled mud covered everything. Protection was sparse, luckily the chimney is rated 5.7 or so. Of course it's probably one of the most intimidating 5.7's around. Fun stuff! Big exposure on pitch 5 This pitch started out easy enough up a C1 crack. Just above where I took this photo I had to aid up a mud packed crack of indetermitable width by mud threads, double length slings looped around hunks of dried mud spanning the crack. It all seemed ernjoyable once I was on a good cam above them. Looking north from the Summit 3 PM. The sun is beginning to set to the west. It is clear, still and incredibly quiet. A perfect November day on the Colorado Plateau. Life is wonderful.

Aaagghhh!!!!!!! I SUCK!!!!