You know you've had a good day at Vantage...

[catbirdseat]

...because your left quad cramped up (while posting to cc.com) so badly that you thought you were going to die. Either that, or you drank too much coffee and too little water.

[fleblebleb]

... when pigs fly?

[catbirdseat]

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I guess it is so popular that nobody goes there. Oops, listen to what Fleblebleb and the others say. Don't go there! It's chossy and you won't like it.

[fleblebleb]

It's the best climbing area in the state.

[Dru]

yeah its real hard to trundle pillars in the enchantments

[erik]

glad you got out catbird.

 

weekend down south was great as well!

 

[AlpineK]

I had a great day at Vantage last year. We drank a bunch of booze, climbed some sport routes at the Feathers, and then had a gigantic bonfire in the camping area where we burned all the signs saying, "No Campfires."

[Dru]

You know you've had a good day at Vantage...

 

if you are still alive

[Dave_Schuldt]

Vantage is a worthless choss pile

[erik]

vantage, like exit 38 and every other crag in the world(cept for completly manufactured places!!!) serves its purpose just fine.

 

really attempting to denouce it as a choss pile and a what not really only shows your weak side.

 

i think everyone who crags mostly is afrad of some loose rock. when in the mtns last time was every peice of rock perfect???

 

[mvs]

Vantage is shy porno inside...

[JGowans]

I was there on Saturday Brian. What routes did you climb?

[chucK]

I was there Sunday with another CC.commie. It was pretty f'n crowded. Well, crowded enough that it was difficult to get on any desireable 5.8 or under. Unfortunately the early season form was not able to accomodate climbing harder stuff all day.

 

ETA: Oh yeah, I climbed Steel Grill, the pigeonhole climb. Didn't dissappoint in terms of pigeon excrement.

 

Anybody have any positive experiences weaseling down the cost of the Vantage parking ticket?

Edited March 24, 2003 by chucK

[Dwayner]

I was once nearly killed at Vantage by an exploding can of Green Giant Niblets. Whoever occupied the bon-fire pit before us left the can of corn buried in the ashes. When we lit our own fire, and were enjoying the warmth and comraderie, the can began to heat up. Around the 15th verse of Kumbaya (or was it the16th?), the can powerfully exploded, spraying us with "Niblets". Fortunately no one was blinded or otherwise permanently disabled though we picked bits of embedded corn from our clothes and foreheads. I still have the can. One end is intact but bloated out and the top is blasted out.

Vantage....there's alot of things wrong about that place.

- Dwayner

[iain]

Dwayner, sorry about your incident but that was hilarious!

[Retrosaurus]

You know you've had a good day at Vantage...

...when you went climbing somewhere good instead.

[JoshK]

Dwayner said:

I was once nearly killed at Vantage by an exploding can of Green Giant Niblets. Whoever occupied the bon-fire pit before us left the can of corn buried in the ashes. When we lit our own fire, and were enjoying the warmth and comraderie, the can began to heat up. Around the 15th verse of Kumbaya (or was it the16th?), the can powerfully exploded, spraying us with "Niblets". Fortunately no one was blinded or otherwise permanently disabled though we picked bits of embedded corn from our clothes and foreheads. I still have the can. One end is intact but bloated out and the top is blasted out.

Vantage....there's alot of things wrong about that place.

- Dwayner

 

 

Wow, sounds like somebody thought this would be a funny joke. Considering nobody was hurt, I guess they were right.

[catbirdseat]

I think a lot of the negative comments about Vantage stem from an expectation of perfect safety in conflict with reality. There is definite rock fall hazard there, but there are ways to mitigate that hazard by wearing helmets, belaying away from the bottom of certain routes, etc. It is certainly a lot safer than in the alpine where rock fall can be much more unpredictable and more likely to occur on multipitch routes caused by other parties. I think that if one is aware of the issues, they can be dealt with or just accepted.

 

My two friends did encounter a human made problem while camping- a bunch of inconsiderate punks blasting hip hop from a portable radio for a good part of the night. Regarding AlpineK's comment about burning signs- shame on him. I don't have any objections to campfires as long as they are in safe established places and people don't gather firewood locally. If people would all lug it from home that's fine, but too many people go out and grub up all the sage brush to burn and that sucks.

 

I noticed some new signs encouraging climbers to stay on established trails. Everyone I saw was respecting this. I did see some discarded beer cans at the base of Zigzag Wall. These were left by climbers as this was not a place that visitors from the Gorge would frequent. I really find it hard to comprehend that climbers would do such a thing. I've never known any such people personally.

 

My two partners were worn out somewhat from the previous day of climbing like fiends, which worked in my favor. They seemed to enjoy the longer breaks between climbs that results from climbing as a threesome. We warmed up on ZigZag Wall with Unfinished Business, sport 5.8 and then a very enjoyable 5.7 sport route called The Jagged Edge (two stars) which I led. Then led trad on Edge of Mistakes, 5.6, which seemed ridiculously easy, but fun nonetheless. The two bolts near the top are totally unnecessary and never should have been placed. The route protects fine all the way up (small to med nuts, a hex and 1-2" cams). I guess the bolts were put there because the crack gets a little chossy and they thought the face would be aesthetically more pleasing. The anchor is a pair of welded cold shuts on the face behind the grassy ledge.

 

Moved on to Kotick Memorial where we did A Game of Inches (sport), 5.9 then Silouettes, 5.10a just to the left. Silouettes features an anchor of slings with rappel ring and galvanized eye and pin for top roping. The bolt on the right is a little manky and parts of the top of the column sound hollow, though not where the bolts are.

 

From there we sidled on down to Sunshine King Pins to do Chossmaster, 5.7 which is aptly named, which I led. It seemed really familiar for some reason. Turned out I had led it before, but I had rememered the name incorrectly. Bring 14 draws (!) or 16 if you want to top rope it. A good beginner route.

 

Finally we went to the Tilted Pillars where we did Preying Mantel, 5.10a which we did sport. Can be done trad also, but I think the crack on the left is harder than the arete to its right which most people use on sport. This was really fun. I want to come back sometime to do Chapstick, 5.6 trad. It's got two stars and some people we met said it was enjoyable. They said if you do it, climb past the anchors, which are unsound and just keep on going up 3rd and 4th class. Build your own anchor and hike down the gully to the left.

 

I found and identified the trad route that spit me out last time. It was Barbed for Your Pleasure, 5.9. After mistaking it for some other route that I thought was 5.7 or 5.8, I got spanked and took a bad leader fall thrashing at a tough spot about 30 feet off the ground. If you are like me and are not good at jamming, it will seem harder than 5.9.

 

 

[TimL]

catbirdseat said:

 

My two friends did encounter a human made problem while camping- a bunch of inconsiderate punks blasting hip hop from a portable radio for a good part of the night.

 

I thought that was called a good time.

[iain]

I believe choss in the alpine is accepted because of the glory of the mountains around you and other subjective considerations. Choss at a crag is a little less tolerable for many. That said, there's no reason to rag on someone for enjoying some climbing on the weekend. Way too many people posting on this site during the weekends (do you all work swing shifts).

[Winter]

TimL said:

catbirdseat said:

 

My two friends did encounter a human made problem while camping- a bunch of inconsiderate punks blasting hip hop from a portable radio for a good part of the night.

 

I thought that was called a good time.

 

I've camped down by the river and had young 18 year old girls fresh from rehab looking from some friendly interaction as an escape from their heffed up boy friends and their super loud hip hop.

[AlpineK]

My two friends did encounter a human made problem while camping- a bunch of inconsiderate punks blasting hip hop from a portable radio for a good part of the night. Regarding AlpineK's comment about burning signs- shame on him. I don't have any objections to campfires as long as they are in safe established places and people don't gather firewood locally. If people would all lug it from home that's fine, but too many people go out and grub up all the sage brush to burn and that sucks.

 

Dude, There were about 4 other owners of tree services with me. Bringing our own firewood was not a problem.

 

Using firepits? Of course we did. Also we were the only folks there, it being a Sunday night.

 

Dismount your high horse.

[iain]

when I go to the grasslands I just light up a juniper tree closest to my car. much easier that way and there's almost always one located conveniently nearby

[allthumbs]

catbirdseat said:

punks blasting hip hop from a portable radio for a good part of the night. Regarding AlpineK's comment about burning signs- shame on him. I don't have any objections to campfires as long as they are in safe established places and people don't gather firewood locally. If people would all lug it from home that's fine, but too many people go out and grub up all the sage brush to burn and that sucks.

 

I always bring my big Sony boombox to camp. We usually dismantle and burn the picnic tables and also burn the siding from the crappers. What's so wrong about that? Everyone else does it too.

[catbirdseat]

Kurt, that must have been SOME bonfire. That's all I got to say.