Kyle_Flick

A friend of mine enroute to work noticed that the first pitch of the Pencil no longer is there. Probably due to the sunny conditions yesterday.

Yeah, I noticed the problem, and telemarker can correct me, but I think I added a carabiner so that it threaded smoother (and probably safer).

Oh contrar, now that you're a newly minted attorney, you could specialize in representing dirtbag climbers on a barter basis.

I agree that representing climbers is preferred as long as they pay their bills.

Klenke, It's a generally a hike up it until the last steep part of the headwall which is 4th class. You can bypass it to the left side and summit on the short exposed ridge which is the way we descended.

When Freeman and I tried the Flagpole several years ago, we found the approach, as described in Nelson, intimidating and exposed, not to mention the need to girthhitch the Flagpole's small hangers/bolts. On a second try on the flagpole, friends and I descended off the flagpole and climbed Annapurna. We found the south face of Annapurna to be a mellow two to three pitch climb. You could rap off Annapurna and climb to the base of the Flagpole from the west side. Not sure what to rate the climbing up to the flagpole from that side as I've only rapped it.

Telemarker is a quick study and has picked up aiding quickly. Just like the first time he went ice climbing, we did Triple Couloirs, and he got bored. I've done a little aid climbing at Index years ago, but if you don't do it very often it feels like you have to relearn everything.

I'll second that Led Zeppelin was the best band. Saw them twice in Seattle in the late 70s. Once in the former Coliseum (now Key Arena) and once in the former King Dome. I'd love to be able to pull off some of Jimmie Page's blues riffs on my guitar.

Holy moly you found my crampon ripped off my pack by the vicious Access Creek foliage. I PMed you. You definitely get beer for all your effort.

Count me out for any second ascent...something about being an old and not so bold climber.

Nice work John. Isn't that area something? Especially looking south to Klawatti, Eldorado and Logan from the Snowfield Peak. Too bad you didn't have film.

Chuck, What worked for us was to only descend the gully about 50' and then begin traversing to the north around a ledge and generally followed the ridge crest or just below it until it started cliffing out. Then we downclimbed straight to Sunset Col via a series of ramps. Only took about 45 minutes.

Rolla, I think fgw's description mirrors what we did. Looking at your description, it seems that after the first rap you'd want to go down left (climber's left facing the route) instead of right as you did. This places you about 20' from the base of the 5.10 pitch. With double ropes we did two more raps to get to the base.

As I recall, the surrounding Arab countries with the support of Palestinians (who were under Jordanian jurisdiction) attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Don't the aggressors forfeit certain rights when they engage in war with a neighboring country? As such the settlers saw themselves as legitimately living on land which they either purchased, title was unclear or any prior owner had abandoned. In any event, the settlements were an attempt to act as a buffer for any further aggression. The land of Israel is tiny compared to any country in the world and cannot afford to lose any war. Neither Jordan, Eygpt nor Syria have any interest in resolving the refugee problem. Due to those countries irresponsible actions Israel has to again pay the price.

As I read some of your opinions, it is suggested that those who strap bombs to themselves to kill others are justified by Israel's hardline policies? I don't think so. There is no justification for terrorism. Israel's policies are not hardline, but rather justified protection of their citizens. Just like we'd expect our government to protect us from another 9/11. As for the pullout from Gaza, Hamas sees it as a victory for terrorism, but Sharon, appropriately so, sees it as the only pragmatic solution when there is no peace partner on the other side. Finally, the Oslo Accords were not broken by Israel, but by Arafat and his government by continuing to support terrorism.

Mike, you met Telemarker (John Plotz), Steve Tift and I at the trailhead after our respective climbs.

You might consider Middle East Wall instead as it's in the shade.

Climb: Minute Man & Lexington Tower-East Faces of Minuteman & Lexington Date of Climb: 8/7/2005 Trip Report: Due to the Teanaway Fire, NOLSe, Jason and I aborted our plans on Stuart and instead headed up the next day to WA Pass. At 7:30 a.m. we started up Minute Man and except for the oatmeal, runout gully pitch that leads to the stellar short 5.10(b) crack, the rock was clean and solid. The catwalk at the top that approaches the Concord Tower for the 1st rap was awesome. Once we rapped down to the base, we had ample time to do Lexington as it was only 1:30 p.m. Here too the rock is solid and clean. Since NOLSe had done the route the year before, we wasted little time on route finding and tried to combine pitches with his 70m ropes. I experienced hopeless rope drag trying to combine pitches 4 and the traversing pitch 5--while I could pull the 5.9 move, I had to set up a hanging belay about 25' below the regular belay that starts the offwidth/chimney pitches. NOLSe did a nice job combining the two nasty upper chimney pitches (harder than the chimney pitch on CBR IMHO). We topped out at 7:30 p.m. and had a nice walk off descent back to the car before dark. Gear Notes: Brought big gear up to #5 BD Cam (but didn't use) The 2x6 in the offwidth is solid. Approach Notes: No snow. Easy approach and descent--nice to have two cars.

Thanks Peter. Still good weather out there for hittin them thar hills. Trust you're gettin out too when you're taking breaks from the bar exam prep.

You know, I beg to differ from you purists about the difficulty of free climbing the chimney pitch--although I was surprised to have to deal with 3 chimneys, french free made it fairly straightforward. Otherwise kudos to you who can free climb most of this route.

The Stuart Lake approach is the shortest and easiest as it is mostly trail past Stuart Lake, short section following creek through brush, then up the gully to the toe of Stuart Glacier. Puts one nicely in position for the north ridge, Stuart Glacier Coulior or NW Buttress.

Tennesse, Your plan for camp and a light long day back to camp is a good one . We did precisely that several years ago. My only regret was not going early (we did it in the Fall) so that one can enjoy glissading on the descent vs. side hilling on talus around back up to Sahale Arm.

Juan, We liked the notion of carrying over so that once we topped out all we had to do was descend into Park Creek--no further worries.

Did the NW face several years ago and found the rock substandard. The slabs were flaky. The cracks were good and there were several options for topping out including a long offwidth if you were so inclined. There is some new route development on the east side of the tower that might be worth checking out.

Ben, Alec Gibbons and Brian Behle put that up as a 5.12 last year.