sobo

This is a quest for current ice conditions in the Manashtash and Umptanum drainages: To Erik, charlie, or anyone who's been in really recently, is this ice in or forming up again? Cragg and I are planning a trip over this weekend, as it's gotten seriously cold at night recently. Charlie, you live in E-burg. Have you been in? TIA.

must be nice, havin' Pub Club with all yer climbin' buds. stuck here in yakima w/nothin but gangbangers and robots that are too into health food shit.

Howz about Walla Walla, Washington? (Water water, as I understand it, from the language of some local, early, indigenous inhabitants). It also means: Home of the State's worst (convicted) criminal offenders. This meaning, of course, presupposes the membership of this group.

Hi, no bs here. info requested. check your PMs. ...sobo

Alex,Sadly, no that was not me with the flagging. I did flag the approach a couple of winters back when the area was first opening. Up Spencer Creek road to a "blue square" XC ski trail, through a small deciduous wooded area and a marsh, balance moves across the beaver dam, and up the clearcut/slide area, thru some conifers below the cliffs, and ultimately deposited at Split Rock Camp. That's my preferred approach, about 3 hours from the South Tieton Road. Yale Preston showed me another route (before he moved to Montana) that goes up Milk Creek and follows a narrow ravine and deposits you well to the left of SRC, somewhere near the bottom of some WI4 route which I'd remember the name if I heard it. It avoids the clearcut and the beaver pond. However, this approach is bs on skis and worse on shoes, IMHO, having done it both ways. The Spencer Creek approach allows a TAM approach all the way to the blue square XC trail, and it's about 30-45 minutes to SRC from the drop-off. View's better that way, too, but you already know that. When is your next planned excursion to Strobach, and will the TAM be employed, and can me and Cragg get in on it? I can pay my toll in beer. Cheers,...sobo

Hey thanks, Charlie!Logged you into my address book for partners. Don't think anything's going to be in this weekend, tho. Besdies, the wife's got me painting... I'll be in touch as the temps drop, tho.Cheers,...sobo

Hey erik,Thanks for the reply. So for clarity, a right at the schoolhouse onto Manastash Road goes to Manastash Falls in 12.5 miles to the parking area, and straight at the schoolhouse goes to Umptanum Falls in 9.5 miles? I'm so lame... Cheers,...sobo

Could you guys give me better directions to these Umptanum Falls? I got some directions from erik last year that didn't seem to work for me. He said "go 9.5 miles from the schoolhouse down Manastash Road" and up the S. Fork of Manastash Creek. I ended up going 12.5 (by my odometer) to the end of the snowmobiler's parking area. Did I not go far enough? I never found the "fork in the road" either. Erik indicated (albeit rather confusingly) that another 1.5 miles may need to be walked/skied/hiked to get to the climbs. That still only adds up to 11 miles from the schoolhouse, and I drove 12.5 to parking area. Any helped is appreciated. And I've been warned about the private land already. TIA. Cheers,...sobo

Yeah, I am. I'll give him the message. I take it that he has your number. Cheers,...sobo

Alex:Thanks for the hard work and sparing me the recon trip in last weekend. And you have a tracked access mechanism now? hmmmm... Strobach's coming of age. Cheers,...sobo PS: I was out w/Cragg before Christmas. Was he one of the 3 you went in with? [ 01-09-2002: Message edited by: sobo ]

The "good leadable pillar down and to the left" of Devil's Punchbowl is called Trotsky's Revenge, WI-4. A very nice lead, as I recall... ...sobo

Never mind... I just saw Selected Climbs in the Cascades, Vol. II, at the new Hyperspud store here in Yakima. It shows a bunch of ice routes up around Banks Lake, and gives beta for 4 of the classics. ------------------

Hey, where is Even Cowgirls Get the Blues? THAT would help...

I believe if you can find the old (late 70s/early 80s?) Albe Sole guidebook (has a bluish cover), it covers several of the older classics at Banks, including most of the ones on the far (west) side of the lake. Those routes are tough to approach, tho, without a "boat belay" in sketchy conditions... ------------------

Went out with Cragg to climb Horsetail Falls on Thursday (12/15), on Forest Road 19, just off SR 410 west of the little burg of Cliffdell, WA. It was in so I led it, then we repeated it 3 times each on TR. Got down to some nasty hooking and drytooling by day's end, just to make it interesting. Then we drove up towards Chinook Pass to Union Creek Falls. To our astonishment, the upper falls were in (it's rare) and certainly leadable on the left (WI3) and right (WI4), but there was no ice in the center of the lower half (LOTS of water). By now it was now 4 pm, getting dark, about 10-12 inches of new snow on the road, and we had been the only vehicle up the road that far (no plows yet), so we headed out. We couldn't get Friday off to go back to UC Falls. The weather warmed up considerably on Friday and Saturday, so it's probably gone by now. With all the new snow and the warming, this year shows promise for later in the season.