scott

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000126.html

The clinton roadless proposals, made a law by executive order, and over ruled by some federal judge in idaho, were intended to keep the Tongass national forest (in se alaska) from being logged. it is a huge area, a major pristine rain forest. the judge who overruled the clinton order said he had to stop it "before irreperable harm occurs." what a joke. now that they can log it, irreperable harm will occur.

dont skimp too much on food. bonking is no fun and can be dangerous.

thanks. yes, there is alot of good granite back there.

yes. clean break. what is up with never enough?

the rock on the lower part of this route is stellar. all of the harder (5.9 and up) pitches have good or great rock. unfortunatly, the rock on the upper half of the route is pretty bad in places, but this didn't get in the way of a good time. the crux pitches are so good that this route is pretty much a classic, i think. i'm not sure if it is really a grade V as it says in the red becky book. it might be only a grade IV. we got off route up high, i think we should have stayed right of the ridge. as a result we could not find the final 10a crack. [This message has been edited by scott (edited 07-08-2001).]

the stubai tyrol combi works well with the trango plus. the heel welt on the boot is really tiny, though, and makes me insecure. i can pull the rear crampon bail off of the heel welt with very little effort no matter how tight i fit the crampons to the boot. however, it has not come off on its own yet. i think when it is strapped on it is pretty secure. but i would consider totally flexible lightweight strap on crampons for this sort of thing, also because you can put them on tennis shoes or approach shoes for a lightweight option.

it is the uw's seismology lab. i walked in there once when the door was open. there is a full sized trailer home in there, there was a guy with headphones on who was looking at some wavy lines on graph paper.

the tyrols are semi flexible. i think that a totally rigid crampon will pull off of a flexible boot more easily because the boot will flex off the crampon. the semi-auto crampons would work with both riged and flexible boots with a heel welt. the totally flexible crampons with quick strap set up will work with anything.

and what a party it was...

we bivied at the 17th pitch. we were not particularly fast, but we went pretty light. the ledge at pitch 17 (nelson's topo) is really fantastic wedge shaped prow that juts out over the east face. becky's descriptions and topo are better than nelson's in this case. i suggest bringing a second car, biking around was not alot fun. fortunatly, a friendly canook drove me around the last six miles (it is a 15 mile bike ride.) the east face looks spectacular. a party wrote that they had done the east face in nine days.

is in pretty good shape for now. the pocket glacier is quite broken and the snow 'finger' that leads to the third class by-pass is becoming more unstable as it melts out. it looks like when it goes, it will all go at once. when this happens, the by-pass will be more complicated or maybe impassible, because the slabs under the pocket glacier are wet and there is alot of unstable ice. the pocket glacier is a pretty dangerous place- the slabs around the east face have large snow slabs that were falling off into the cirque all day. also, the by-pass variation itself (once on the rock) is threatened by slabs above. move very fast on this easy third class ledge system, there is snow above, not visible while climbing, that cut loose quite close to us. on the approach, don't try to force your way onto the pocket glacier from the cirque below it. this was icky and no fun at all. continue up the "road" or trail and traverse back onto the glacier. there is still snow on the route, but no water above pitch thirteen or so. the route is not technically difficult, but is pretty long. you could do it in a day, but you would have to solo or simul-climb alot of forth class- which is reasonable. there is a good amount of loose rock on this route, so watch out for people above you. the descent is long, requires a few rappels as you traverse past gully systems, and then follows an indistinct and steep trail. if you come down this at night, make sure you don't follow the creek down, it drops off several cliffs. it is a long bike ride back around to the car. the place to leave your bike or second car is not that obvious, but there is a handmade dome "tent" frame that someone has used for a native sweat ritual nearby ,as well as a huge burned stump and some kind of wooden altar or bench. this is really impressive peak. the upper pitches are solid, moderate and have fantastic exposure. [This message has been edited by scott (edited 07-03-2001).]

the book 'gary hemming- the beatnik of the alps' by mirella tenderini is an excellent psychobiography of this strange, almost schizophrenic climber who did first ascents in the alps during the sixties (with john harlin and others). the final chapters, which detail hemming's growing instability and the circumstances of his death were most interesting. bad lsd trip? suicide? or was he murdered by mike lowe? this seems like a realistic look at climbing and climbers during the sixties- layton kor, royal robbins, all hanging out and smoking 'tea' at jenny lake in the tetons in 1969. hemming's comments about the karma that he believes led to john harlin's death from a 3000 foot freefall off the eiger north face were also interesting to me. [This message has been edited by scott (edited 06-29-2001).]

kid rock's shoes?!?

i think i own these gloves. they are thin, leather palm, vapex lined? they are good, but still get wet after a while. the benefit is that there is very good sensitivity, good fit, for moves on rock, and for handling pro. i sized mine tight.

park at the ski lodge. the road is on the left as you round the hairpin turn, a mile or so before the main road ends. walk up the dirt road on the west (right) side of the valley until you come to a clearcut on the left. leave the road here, heading downhill, and cross the river in the valley. i would try to gain the arm that leads to the north shoulder, rather than thrashing through the valley.

the schrund was passed on the right. no problems, but that was a month ago. after the schrund, we moved over to the left side.

the left side of the upper coulior is in the shade in the morning- if ice has formed on the right side, it will probably start falling when the sun hits it.

hb offset brassies for the second pitch- a couple of the smaller (but not smallest) sizes- and smaller (purple and blue) tcu for the second pitch. you only need one hook, a black diamond skyhook is it. and the pitch over the rotten block- stay in the corner and go over the little roof- don't go out left toward the old bolt anchor with (last i checked) red webbing on it. this was, i thought, the freeclimbing crux for me and was about 10- or 5.9 A0. the fourth pitch is kind of steep and hard for 10b. i guess you should bring an extra head and chisel and hammer in case someone pulled the fixed gear off the third pitch as a souvenier. it isn't A3. its 5.9 C2 and goes quicker than you would think looking up at it. [This message has been edited by scott (edited 06-11-2001).]

steve house

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the answer is yes, it can be comfortably done in two days, but it helps to know the approach. the snow conditions were excellent- very good neve. the schrund just under the upper coulior is passable. the sherpa glacier descent will likely become more difficult as it seems to be icing up.

yes, i often mistake one for the other...

i grew up near the bronx, so when i came out here i had no idea what the hell mountains were. i got lost alot. my first winter outing was in the middle of a snowstorm. i took my girlfriend and dog up to big four- then wandered directly under the avalanche funnel on the north face. i was about fifty feet from the base when i heard a sound like a 747 crashing directly above me. what the hell is that i thought. it was a large avalanche and when i realized what it was i turned and started running. "run away, run away!" i yelled to my wife and dog. "it's an avalanche!" "run away!" i ran about ten feet and my leg postholed up to my hip, leaving me thrashing around like a fish, waving my hands and yelling "run away!" my dog made it the farthest away, my wife didn't sink in and took off. when the noise stopped, the slide had missed me by about thirty feet. they came back and laughed at me, even the dog was laughing at me.