Big BIG walls in PNW?

[Peter_Puget]

The steep face on Bear is not 2,000 ft. While steep and impressive the only way to get 2,000 feet out of it is to add the slabs on the bottom. It is these slabs which make the face not very attractive. If it was truly a 2,000 overhanging face it would be world famous despite the gruesome approach. The buttress is btw a much better route than Slesse.

[Dru]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Peter Puget:

The steep face on Bear is not 2,000 ft. While steep and impressive the only way to get 2,000 feet out of it is to add the slabs on the bottom. It is these slabs which make the face not very attractive. If it was truly a 2,000 overhanging face it would be world famous despite the gruesome approach. The buttress is btw a much better route than Slesse.

---

Not 2000 feet.... rrrrrreally, you mean Beckey is lying or something

[Cpt.Caveman]

Man just stick with my idea. Make the second ascent of the N Norwegian Buttress of Mt Index after some 15 years or so since first climb. Then just toss your bags and dive off the bitch

 

One can determine possiblities by a short 3.6 mile pleasant hike up the trail too...........

[erik]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dru:

[/qb]

---

Not 2000 feet.... rrrrrreally, you mean Beckey is lying or something

 

we better sue him

[Dru]

Isnt a North Norwegian really a Lapp?

[highclimb]

Jump that bitch! true deep words cavey

 

another idea is to buy a plane ticket to the alps and walk up the back side of the eiger and take one of those bat suit things and jump that bitch. what is it like a minute and half in the air just flyin! 6000ft! that seems like the ultimate jump.

 

another idea although i dont know how good it is. would a jump off willis wall work....i mean if you had one of those bat suits that make you glide. or is it way not steep enough? just thinking of big walls.

 

Aidan

 

[ 06-03-2002, 03:06 PM: Message edited by: highclimb ]

[Big_Wave_Dave]

Well D-dog you obvously like the steeps. Although you are hard pressed to outdo Liberty Bell, here's a couple of ideas: They may not be BIG big but at least there are some overhanging features, which obvously might interest you in your downward bound journeys.

 

Squamish of course

N Face Bear Mountain. Serious backcountry trip. 2 days in.

E Face Mt. Triumph. May not be that BIG but at least it overhangs

N. Peak Mt Index. Back at the pub in 10 minutes.

[D-dog]

quote:

---

Originally posted by highclimb:

Jump that bitch! true deep words cavey

 

another idea is to buy a plane ticket to the alps and walk up the back side of the eiger and take one of those bat suit things and jump that bitch. what is it like a minute and half in the air just flyin! 6000ft! that seems like the ultimate jump.

 

another idea although i dont know how good it is. would a jump off willis wall work....i mean if you had one of those bat suits that make you glide. or is it way not steep enough? just thinking of big walls.

 

Aidan

---

The Eiger's main Nordwand proper is not really steep enough to freefall from the top (despite the reputation, it averages abou 83 degrees to the lower slabs). However, there is a jump from a feature on the face called the mushroom. I've not done it, but a friend has. It is accessed via the railcar, and one has to hop over a chasm to get on the mushroom proper. Once on, there's no way to back off. It is a spectacular feature, but I think it only gets like 1200 feet of freefall proper before the talus rears out (only 1200 feet - ha!). With a wingsuit it is a very long ride - like 40 seconds of flying time and several thousand feet I think.

 

There are heaps of 3000+ foot walls in Norway that get jumped plenty. They are far away and the weather's crap even in summer so that's a drag. Finding stuff like that on our backyard is my thing - plus it's an excuse to get my fat butt out and do some alpine climbing again. Been too long that I've succombed to the siren song of bouldering in the warm sun 300 yards from the car - gotta get out in the backcountry.

 

I am pretty sure Willis itself isn't steep enough to jump. One needs about 450 feet at a minimum to start tracking in freefall, or to get a wingsuit flying properly (most sane folks want 550-600). So that first 450 has to be vertical or damned near it. Jumping even 87 degree stuff is rather. . . interesting, if not fatal. Which reminds me of Liberty Bell. . .

 

However, there is that 300 foot serac overhanging part of the top of Willis. That's high enough to jump, and if there's a 200 foot vertical section immediately below that, that's enough to get a wingsuit going if all goes well. And that, in turn, could be a 6000+ foot wingsuit ride. That'd be a world record, I believe, and would translate into almost two MINUTES of flying time on the suit.

 

Anyone been up on Willis and can remember the details of the top 500 feet or so under the serac?

 

Peace,

 

D-d0g

[Jens]

These don't really apply to base jumping but while we are on the topic, I ran across these:

 

"WA Steepest Mt. Faces in 1 horizontal mile" -Stepehn Fry USGS

paranthesis equals what face

 

1. Davis (ne)

2.Whitehorse (nne)

3. Joannesburg (n)

4.Luna (nnw)

5.Elephant Butte (N)

6.Hozomeen (W)

7. Colonial (n)

8. McMillan Spire (n)

9. Rainier- (n)

10.Hozomeen S. peak (w)

 

The list goes on.

 

A surprise "Seahpo Peak- Mt. shuksan massif" came in at Number 18.

[Lambone]

Base jumping is rad...right on D-dog! You're the first I've seen bring it up seriously in here. Give us some trip reports next time, cause I'm too much of a pussy to go out and experience it myself. Then again, how do you put jumping off a mountain into words.... ooooooooooooohhhhhhhsssshhhhhiiiiitttttt.....

 

Dru- You got lots of cool pictures of mountains I've never heard of, too bad they (the pictures) are so damn BIG!

 

[ 06-03-2002, 10:42 PM: Message edited by: Lambone ]

[D-dog]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Big Wave Dave:

Well D-dog you obvously like the steeps. Although you are hard pressed to outdo Liberty Bell, here's a couple of ideas: They may not be BIG big but at least there are some overhanging features, which obvously might interest you in your downward bound journeys.

 

Squamish of course

N Face Bear Mountain. Serious backcountry trip. 2 days in.

E Face Mt. Triumph. May not be that BIG but at least it overhangs

N. Peak Mt Index. Back at the pub in 10 minutes.

---

Man, you guys ROCK! Ok, Bear Mtn. seems to me like the most spectacular line so far. Triumph looks good. Index. . . aaah, Index. North Peak - which face do you think is steepest? Hard to tell from the photos in Becky.

 

Norwegian Buttress. . . ok, that's a serious objective. How tall do you think it is from where the buttress ends to the glacier? It is plastered in snow in the Becky photo, which would normally mean it's less than vertical but I'm not so sure.

 

Peace,

 

D-d0g

 

[ 06-03-2002, 10:43 PM: Message edited by: D-dog ]

[D-dog]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lambone:

[QB]Base jumping is rad...right on D-dog! You're the first I've seen bring it up seriously in here. Give us some trip reports next time, cause I'm too much of a pussy to go out and experience it myself. Then again, how do you put jumping off a mountain into words....

ooooooooooooohhhhhhhsssshhhhhiiiiitttttt.....QB]

---

Thanks! You guys are being really helpful for sure. There's lots of nuggets out there in the backcountry and it is very nice to have some firsthand beta versus staring at grainy photos in Becky, driving many hours, hiking many miles, and finding a slabby nightmare. It's funny how often what is to a climber "steep" is to a BASE jumper "a slab."

 

I often write up trip reports that are posted at www.baselogic.com, which is the general stop for the ornery community of BASE jumpers in the U.S. I'll be happy to post synopses here too, if folks find them interesting.

 

Cliff jumping is a really wonderful, aesthetic process - from the hiking and climbing to the jump itself and just the process of being out in the mountains. It is a way to experience steep rock that is totally different from - and complimentary to - climbing. I've been climbing for 16 years now (damn I'm gettin' to be an old, grey-muzzled Dog), and it's great to get to know some of my favorite pieces of rock from the other direction, like meeting old friends for the first time all over again. . . sorta.

 

Anyway, thanks again.

 

Peace,

 

D-d0g

[Lambone]

Right on, ever scope out the Beartooth Mountains in Montana? Many very steep granite faces that you can esentialy walk to the top of on nice gently rolling plateaus. A bit of a drive from Washington, but well worth the effort.

 

Even if I wasn't such a pussy, my future wife would never allow/support such a "dangerous" addiction. (The cascadeclimber.com addiction she's ok with ) But I have lots of respect and admaration for people willing to huck themselves off large chunks of stone!

[Dru]

The Diamond on Bear Mountain is the overhanging 2000 foot headwall above the ice couloir and east of the North Buttress, not some silly 1000 foot wall on some Colorado rubble heap

[Dru]

There are 5000 foot walls near the head of Princess Louisa Inlet... 2000 foot, bah! Then again this little unclimbed wall is 'only' 600m....

[Stefan]

I do not know about the minimal vertical requirements of Base Jumping but High Rock just southwest of Mt. Rainier might be good. About a 2 mile walk on a trail to a hut with good views of Mt. Rainier and a pretty damned near vertical cliff to jump off of....i think it is 800 vertical feet.

 

What are the minimal vertical requirements for base jumping?

 

[ 06-04-2002, 08:21 AM: Message edited by: Stefan ]

[Dru]

DDog why go all the way to Norway when the fjords in BC are just as deep if not deeper, and have loads of 3000+ foot walls.

 

Here is a hint, the SW face of Mt Albert has 4500 feet of vertical face above 3000 feet of slabs. This is maybe the steepest face anywhere in Bc Coast, the topo map shows 4 500 foot contour lines with every single line in between hidden, in the middle of the wall.... NTS map 92 J/4 you can buy it at MEC... thats bigger than that face of Great Trango Tower that was claimed as biggest cliff in the world or whatever

 

Oh yeah Rob Richards and Colin Dionne tried to climb theface on Albert a few years back but claimed the rock was bad but that doesnt matter to a base jumper right....

 

And closer to home East Face Of Slesse, and Navigator Wall on the South peak of Slesse, are over 2000 foot and damn near vertical.

[D-dog]

Well here is a blast from the past.

 

Due to injuries on my part as well as several fatalities involving friends of mine in BASE, I didn't get much backcountry stuff done in 2002.

 

However, this summer I have moved to Maple Ridge BC and I am readying a few trips in the next month or so. First up is Bear Mtn., with Slesse next on the list.

 

Dru, I finally got ahold of those maps of Mt. Albert. Are you sure it is vertical? The topo lines I see are sure steep, but from the map alone it could be 80 degrees or 100 degrees, no way to tell!

 

Peace,

 

D-d0g

[Fence_Sitter]

if you want an experienced videographer to film something and need help ferrying shit lemme know... i am moving up to fort langley in Sept... peace!

[jordop]

Ahhh! An invasion!

[Dru]

It is MORE than vertical from what I heard. I'm still trying to promote a free (work) flight into that part of the coast.