sobo

Climb: Tieton River Update Date of Climb: 4/2/2005 Trip Report: Not really a trip report per se, but hey, WTF! After being shut down on locating a partner for Saturday, I decided to leave my gear and just grab my shoes and tour the canyon to see what was up. The good news: The raptor closure has been lifted at all areas throughout the Tieton. The bad news: No eaglets this year. And all the campgrounds are still closed. Saw the folks at Royal Columns, about two hours before the accident there. Saw a few more small groups at The Bend. Moon Rocks: empty. Windy Point, The Cave, and The Oasis: No evidence of climbers. Couldn’t tell about Rainbow Rocks, but no cars were at the typical parking spot. Goose Egg: Still a little snow on top, but all routes were dry except Gangsta Rap. Started to snow and hail while I was there. Quit pretty quickly, tho. Wildcat Creek Road is easily passable to all but the dopest low-riders, but mushy the higher you get. Watch out for winter’s “trundle” debris. I kicked off everything smaller than a basketball on the road up, but stuff is still actively calving off. Wildcat Wall is dry, Beehive is, too. Honeycomb Buttress is wet on the road side of the slab from snowmelt dripping through the munge up top. Headed over to The Caldera and finally broke out the shoes. It was my first time there, and I found Nakedness, Broken Glass, The Cube, and Balance of Power, and what I think was Dead Deer Boulder. The “map” in the guide is horribly out of scale, but general enough in nature to find the biggest stones. I lucked onto Balance of Power on the way back to the truck. It actually is probably the closest rock to the parking area, but it is hidden by some brush and pines. Head straight off the road end about 100 yards and you’ll fall right over it. Since I don’t boulder much (at all), I can’t confirm any of the ratings, but they seem to fall in line in a “relative difficulty” way (Nakedness Boulder easy, Broken Glass Boulder harder). Lastly, touched on Lava Point. Road’s clear, a little mushy up top. Couldn’t find the descent for Dream Wall, but scoped a few lines on Deadheads and Lava Wall. Crikey! That place looks pumpy! It was getting right dark by then, so I headed for the barn. The mess at Royal Columns had been cleaned up long before I drove back through. Ice Climbers: Believe it or not, the recent dump at White Pass looks to have brought new life to Strobach! At least three (maybe four) climbs to the right of Separation Gully are still touching down, and appear to go all the way up to the brush anchors. However, I would suspect that the ice is probably quite aerated. And I was looking at this from three miles away with a 12X spotting scope, so YMMV if you go in. Snow level was about 4k this past weekend. Lastly, your Finger on the Pulse of the Tieton will be leaving town soon. We bought a spread in the Dry-Shitties and will be out of the Palm Springs of Washington in about two months. Why I ever let myself go for this I’ll never know. I guess I still want to be married to her and see my boy. Get on over here and get some while there’s still snow in the hills and the temps are cool. It’s really neat climbing on the dry rock and looking around at all the snow-capped moun-tains! Gear Notes: Y/F guide, shoes coulda used a partner Approach Notes: Everything's open

Hi Tony, Good on you guys for practicing that stuff. Our rescue unit recently held a "field day" at the barn and specifically trained on a single-man pick-off (retrieve a fallen leader, not on your rope - you arrive, descend to unconscious leader, secure him, transfer him to your line, release him from his rope, and descend with him to ground). While that sounds easy, it is easy to get trapped as well in this scenario. It is by far easier than what you guys were working on. Good job! I believe a lot of climbers are not thinking about these situations...

December 8, 1980: Outside, playing tennis on my condo courts, in Houston TX. That was a sad day. On a lighter note, I remember exactly where I was when Reagan was shot (March 30, 1981)... Bert, a co-worker buddy of mine, and I had polished off most of Juanita's killer pot roast for Sunday dinner, and finished the evening off with desert, (more) wine, and a game of chess. We had decided to both skip work the next day to finish their new deck that Bert and I had been working on all weekend, and since I was too drunk to drive my motorcycle back to the condo, I crashed at their house. Convenient enough, right? We woke up Monday morning, a little bit hung over, and Bert called in "sick" first. I gave it a few minutes, then called the (same) supervisor. While I was on the phone to Arno, Bert's 4-year-old daughter Katie walks into the kitchen, and in a voice as loud as a foghorn, says, "Mommy and Daddy, why is "Uncle" Paul on the phone?" While I remember that moment as if it were yesterday, I can't for the life of me remember the lies I told on Tuesday morning... When we went to work on Tuesday, we both had to play dumb, like we hadn't heard the news about Reagan, because we were both supposed to have been sick on Monday. Truth was, we said, "To hell with it!" about the deck and watched the news all day.

minx asked: AlpineK replied: Minx, et al: Tim Pond Wall, Royal Columns, Tieton Wall, and The Bendwere closed until April 1. They are all now open. The bad news is that we didn't get any "takers" on the eaglets. So, climb on!

Good job! Your story is frighteningly similar to my first trip up Stuart. However, I ended up spending the night somewhere up there at the top of a cliff and froze my ass off in shorts and a space blanket.

NOT A CHESTBEAT!!! I on-sighted all three of those climbs about ten years ago or so. I probably could not/would not want to do them now, given my family situation and the shape I'm (not) in. However, were I ever to climb them again, I would want to climb them in the form that I first experienced them. => Leave them alone, except to replace old hardware.

O_W, Ab-so-fuggin'-lutely! It almost takes all the venom out of the stinger. I just hope sped does better in court than in this court of public opinion. Ohhhhh, the irony...

You're welcome. Here, try this: You dismissed minx's post as her opinion and somehow worthless by your standards (see first quoted box in my first post, and the inferred tone), then maxthegap politely stated he was just looking for an adventure (second quoted box), which you pooh-pooh'ed as somehow less than deserving (your statement in the third quote box), at which point I called you on it. You effectively are talking out of both sides of your mouth. The crux of the matter: You can't shit on someone's opinion (minx's) and then expect that everyone is going to honor yours as somehow being better than theirs (your calling maxthegap's climb an exercise in following bolt ladders). That's just plain disingenuous. Just standing on the sidelines calling them like I see them...

Try going back and rereading the referenced posts in full. It should become clear.

sped said to minx: then maxthegap replied to sped: and lastly, sped quipped: Hmmmmm, two sides of the same mouth?

Defintiely snow free as of last weekend. Go for it.

"...ORDER YOURS TODAY! Only $179.95 + S&H..." WTF??? Yeah, right! What a POS. Hell, three or four biners would be a better deal. Just go get a Reverso or an ATC-XP.

"...Step Two: Thread the 1/2 " static rope through the mechanism..." "...without the bulky and complicated equipment of the past...", yet it weighs 1.2 pounds? Why is static rope specifically stated? Is it not rated for dynamic rope applications? It appears that other rope size versions are available, but what good would this thing be to most climbers, other than wall-haulers? Seems very, very heavy and extremely limited in its application for climbers.

At last, there is now a reason for me to actually want to go see a Broadway play... Click me.

One word... "frooooooot-caaaaaaake" This woman has some serious issues that should be dealt with professionally. Delete the "FlyingDutchman.htm" string to see just how messed up this woman really is. And Bill Gates should be on the lookout for a female stalker.

You're quite welcome.

Don't rub it in, Martin. You're just braggin' cuz I already made you a copy.

Yes, the Tieton river trail is closed to all access due to Golden Eagle nesting "until further notice." I checked it out this past Tuesday night on my way back from South Bend. There are signs clearly visible on the far side of the bridge at Royal Columns and The Bend. Note that the aforementioned river trail accesses Tim Pond Wall, Royal Columns, The Bend, and Moon Rocks. To my knowledge, there has been no mention of closures at The Cave (Windy Point), The Oasis, or Goose Egg. HTH. minx, I still owe you a copy of Idaho Rock. Lemme know when you'll be needin' it.

You might find what you’re looking for at this website, or they might point you elsewhere: PMI

The North Basin route (or North Bowl route, I don't have my Beckey with me) is a nice, late winter/early spring, route up a steep gully that ends below the rotten rock of the north side of the summit. It's best done in March/April, after the snows have consolidated to firm neve, because it's a severe terrain trap during snowstorms or shortly thereafter (probably no snow there this year by now). They could possibly have been attempting this route (pure speculation on my part). You can get all the way up the couloir to the base of the last 50 feet or so of rock without a rope, but the rock is really loose and crumbly, which is why the route is best done while the snowmelt has frozen the looseness of it all together. I've attempted this route twice, and backed off the top rock both times when I started knocking it down near my belayer. We contoured around to the west (like Beckey suggests) both times to summit. Perhaps they tried the direct route and it wasn't frozen together enough. Again, I speculate on where this pair might have been and what they might have been doing, but in answer to the question posed by Rafael_H, there is a "technical" route up the very last bit of the North side.

Good job , Strider! Nice doggie! (you too, barjor)

The Vertecal will be less comfortable than the Degre for your typical application. Just don't lace it all the way up or too tightly. You may want to add a pad to the front of your shin when you descend. You can get "shinbangs" with a boot that's too stiff for trail hiking, as others on this site have noted in other threads. Shinbanging typically occurs on the descent. Now, I know I'm gonna catch shit from a bazillion people on this board when I say this, but I have had good results by taking a Kotex maxi-pad and cutting it in half (in the short direction) and placing the absorbent side toward the shin. Put the half-pad outside of your liner sock and inside your insulating sock to keep it in place at the boot cuff level. You could also use some athletic tape directly on the skin, but I'm too hirsute for that nonsense (actually, too wimpy when it comes to tearing the tape off ). PS: Get ready for the merciless taunting you'll receive from your (so-called) friends...

mebbe it's cuz the mods are out climbing...?

My first plastic boot 15 years ago was the Koflach Ultra (the early men's version of the later women's Viva Soft). Switched to an early version of the Arctis Comprex after about 5 years, and I climbed PNW volcanoes and Canadian water ice with the Arctis Comprex for about 10-12 years. They were just great for the conditions around the PNW and BC/Alberta, but were too warm for me and tended to keep my feet wet with condensed sweat, like genepires said. They were a blue and gray affair, with an inner lining of felt over foam. Switched to the Vertecals a couple of years ago, and even though they're supposed to be warmer than the Degre, I find that the liner is much better ventilated than either one of the Arctis Comprex or the Degre (I replaced the Arctis Comprex liners with Degre liners about 4 years ago, before buying the Vertecals, to see if I could get any more life out of the Arctis boots - no dice). I find that the Vertecals are just the right warmth, the liner breathes quite well for my feet, it either doesn't get wet or it dries out extremely quickly, and I stay just toasty. I've climbed in temps from +40F down to -25F with them and have had no problems with sweat/wetness when it warm outside or frozen toes when it's cold. From 15 years of experience with three different Koflach boots, I would have to say that the Vertecal is better suited to WI climbing than low-angle slope slogging/trail hiking, and is considerably less clunky than any of the predecessors that I've used when it comes to making "mixed moves" in them. It also turns well (as well as one can turn in mountaineering boots) in my Fritschi/Fischer AT set-up, too. And they are the only brand of boot that I've been able to wear that fits my feet without pain. I have a 10.5EE foot; super wide and flat, like a flipper. For all these reasons, my vote goes to Vertecals. YMMV

Yeah, WTF is that all about? That's just bullshit! What about MY closure???!!!