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Winter tick list


Charlie

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Words of wisdom, "if conditions are right". It seems to me that opertunities for winter climbing in the Cascades, at least technical climbing, are few and far between. In the last 6 years I've managed 3 successful winter climbs of worthy routes, though I've planned far more than that. Success has always come when I've dropped everything and blasted off, sometimes in the middle of the night, when conditions were right.

The right conditions seem to be a 10,000' freezing level with rain followed by a quick, dry cold snap. It seems we're lucky to get one or two of these a year. Any thoughts? Anyone out there have a high (relatively) success ratio in the winter?

I'm headed to Washington Pass for some BC skiing on Friday. 3500' freezing level, 26" base at the pass and more snow today! Yippee!

Dru- whats the XXX/YYY coulior on Rexford? Some nasty mixed thing or the big fatty between Rexford and the Spires?

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The big fatty. would also like to try the Nesakwatch Notch route with some rope gun to dry tool the 5.9+ corner pitches.

I think the best winter conditions are a week of warm sunny days and frozen cold nights. The last time it was like this was 2 winters ago for a week in February - avvy hazard LOW LOW LOW every day and no need for skis. Dreaming!

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Dru, I've thought the same thing.

How about aid straight out of the notch? You could belay on one of the chockstones! There is very little rock in that area that isn't fractured with numerous cracks. A similar notch between peaks 6800+ was loaded with long, straight A1/A2 cracks. The upper ridge would be sweet!

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Actually he BOLTED, or attached to an existing bolt (I'm unsure which is the case) an AlfaRomero hood ornament as an A0 piece(supposedly it's a spinner too) So who's the rapist Lame-O, uhh I mean Leo?

In my dealings with him (before I tried to ram a stick into his bike spokes) he was amusing, but quite annoying actually. I found the dirt poor irish lads and OE swilling welshman in the next site to be much more personable fellows. Of course, I'm sure people are turned off by me and my attitude as well, so whatever...he just seems to be a punk-ass hypocrite in this instance.

[ 11-01-2001: Message edited by: willstrickland ]

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A twist on the Leo Holding thing about bolts:

John Dunn (brilliant and super bold climber in the UK) told a story of how he and Ron Fawcett (brilliant and bold climber in the 80's, also from UK) were having a few pints. Ron pointed out that in the mid 80's he never dreamed that John's lines would ever get climbed. John apparently replied that he thought the same of Leo Holding's routes in the mid 90's. He added that many of the lines that he personally bolted 10 years ago would be his dream routes of today, but bolts had destroyed their character. Dunn's argument is that placing a bolt today is the most arrogant thing you can do. You're assuming (when placing the bolt) that others more skillful than yourself will never step up to the plate and wish to climb that piece of rock in better style than you're capable/willing.

GB

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PS - Sean Isaac is a friend of a friend. Apparently he things the "Aid Climbing Rapist" thing is pretty funny, at least funny enough to point out to Guy, who claimed he would never have known about it otherwise...

Also Gord you forgot to include the beer swilling graemlin next to the phrase "having a few pints" [big Drink] , dock yourself some style points for that!

[insert the usual disclaimer about second hand news here]

[ 11-01-2001: Message edited by: Dru ]

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When a buddy and I ran into Leo and his crew below and on the ledges to the start of the W. Face of Leaning Tower this spring they seemed likes swell chaps to me. The best was watching them down OE and roll up a blunt before jugging their fixed lines. After watching one of Leo's parnters screaming in a fit of terror while jugging the lines, (the start of the route is around 300 feet off the ground and the anchor point in which the rope was fixed hung out away from the ledges by about 30 feet) I offered to lower Leo out. He just smiled, clipped on his jumars & gri gri and jumped. I was horrified but he didn't even flinch. Just another day at work!

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