RopeUp Climbing Epic

[Blake]

Last weekend was my first ropeup. Its story will be told in chronological order. The story you are about to see is true; the names have been kept the same to incriminate the guilty.

 

 

3PM Friday: I call MisterE, we decide to leave soon

 

4PM: "I'll be there in a second Blake"

 

5PM: I begin a game of Monopoly, and crack open "War and Peace"

 

6pm: My acqisitions of Boardwalk and Parkplace have secured me the win.

 

7PM MisterE - "I'll pick you up in a few minutes Blake"

 

8:30PM - We leave Bellingham, I'm awakened periodically by a crippled kitten mistaking my inner thigh for a scratching post as it wanders the car. (In a bizarre twist of irony, this cat, once nearly roadkill, seems now to LOVE the car.)

 

11PM - We arrive at the campground to find a small but hearty group of belligerant cc.comers, already in varying states of chemically-altered conciousness, standing in the rain wondering what will happen with no camp site.

 

12pm - We scatter throughout the area and set up tents, then reconvene at the beer. Keg is Tapped. Number of Minx fans is falling precipitously, number of Terminal Gravity fans is rising astronomically.

 

 

Saturday

 

9AM - It's decided that we'll camp at Chatter Creek Sat Night. Calls for Minx's head drop off sharply once this spot has been secured. Rumors circulate that actual rock exists in this valley, it's just hiding behind a thick layer of clouds, rain, mud, and pine needles.

 

10AM: I meet Doxey Kemp. Based upon my qualifications of A: Having a metabolism, and B: being within 50' of him, he immediately offers me some kind of delicious food. This trend will continue. Doxey and I decide to try and climb through the liquid sunshine, but decline the option of packing a water bottle, considering that full hydration can be achieving by yawning and looking upward.

 

11AM: Weather improves, I can almost make out Doxey's smiling figure at upwards of 20' through fog and rain. Verbal communication, however, is out of the question due to Katrina-esque winds.

 

11:05AM: The eye of the hurricane has pasted. We top out to a storm of steady hail, and 5 of the 7 plagues of Egypt. Doxey quickly leads me down the "trail," biggest fall of the weekend ensues. Upon return to the car, I am given food.

 

Noon: we start driving towards the new campground. I dive back into "War and Peace"

 

1PM: Book finished. Still Driving. Convenient that Doxey's car contains the complete works of Shakespeare, this should occupy me for at least 1/2 of the remaining drive.

 

2PM: Tires Rotated, oil changed, still driving to the Campground. Doxey gives me some kind of delicious lunch.

 

3pm: Initially we can't find the camp spot. Turning off the engine and following the primitive calls of bored drunken climbers brings us to the spot. Keg is flowing freely.

 

4PM: A carload of coeds from CWU shows up, they appear to have found their own keg elsewhere already. I convince them to drive back down the road for a few hours until we reach Classic Crack. Matt Cook belays me from the bumper while eating Doritos and watching Jens solo every bit of rock in site. He is assuming and unacceptable level of objective risk. I hope he doesn't have children.

 

6PM: We start driving back to Chatter Creek

 

9PM: Almost there

 

10PM:-3AM: Kegs are tapped and drained. Doxey makes tacos for half the climbers in the northwest. Slide show is pre-empted by Girls Gone Wild - Leavenworth Style. OlyClimber, AlpineDave, and others disappear temporarily. Area campers report strange howls and unsual smells in the woods. Art Bell and the bigfoot squad is alerted. Drunken climbers eventually return.

 

Sunday

 

Noon: I am the first one out of bed, except for Doxey, who has been up since before MisterE went to bed, in order to prepare pancakes for all the NW climbers who didn't get burritos the night before.

 

12:30PM: A gear swap occurs. Three people each trade $20 and a few trinkets back-and-forth for 20 minutes.

 

2PM: MisterE and I rack up for some climbs at Castle Rock in a steady drizzle. Temps have reached their daily high of 39 degrees. We pass NOLSe coming down the trail, forced to retreat due to frostbite and windchill exposure.

 

3PM: Full on deluge erupts. We contemplate waiting a few more minutes until the trickle of water running down the trail because raftable, but decided to wade back to the car right away.

 

4PM: I'm dropped off in Leavenworth. Ride should be here soon to go back to Bellingham.

 

5PM: I meet Paul Sobo, Olyclimber, and AlpineDave at Gustav's. Rain dripping off our soaked clothes creates a swampy area beneath our table.

 

6PM: I go to Safeway and wait for my ride. If there is anywhere better to spend Sunday night alone, than in the Leavenworth Safeway, I haven't found it.

 

8PM: I wake up from a short nap in the Safeway Deli to find that someone has left me a $20 gift card, apparently mistaking me for a homeless youth. After glancing at a mirror, I can't blame them.

 

11PM: Safeway closes. My endless supply of free shitty magazines to read comes to an end. I move outside and sleep amidst the pumpkins on some hay bales.

 

11:30PM: My ride arrives. I am given some cold Taco Bell. Where is Doxey when I'm hungry? I enter a world of temporary sanity as nothing bizarre happens for nearly1.5 hours.

 

MONDAY

 

1AM: After driving by a pair of hitchhiking teens, i convince the driver to go back and pick them up. (Note to self, living in Stehekin instills an unhealty trust of humanity). Our two hitchhikers, Chris and Ashley, introduce themselves as 16yr olds from Lake Stevens, and immediately offer us Cocaine and stolen credit cards in payment for a ride back home.

 

1-1:30AM: Chris explains to me how to break into cars, and hotwire them (Jiggler keys, connect the greena and red wires.) I learn how to disable alarm systems (smash in the front left headlight.) Evidentally there is a lot more hard-drug usage in the Sky valley than one might imagine.

 

1:30AM we drop Chris off at his dealer's house/Chop-Shop in Lake Stevens. He goes inside to get us drugs and credit cards as payment for the ride. We call the cops, who are uninterested due to it not being an "emergency situation".

 

2:30AM I collapse in bed, making sure NOT to have the alarm go off before noon.

 

Maybe we can have a ropeup in the Spring too!

[sobo]

12pm - ... then reconvene at the beer. Keg is Tapped. Number of Minx fans is falling precipitously, number of Terminal Gravity fans is rising astronomically.

 

Oh, so true!

[EWolfe]

Great trip report, Blake!

[lunger]

hilarious. i had one of dox's tacos, damn good chef, you were lucky...

[sobo]

Saturday afternoon, while the rest of you wanks were out freezing your 'nads off in the rain, AlpineK and I helped ourselves to several of MisterE's quesadillas that he made according to a time-honored recipe handed down from his momma. Now these were not your "plain-Jane" cheese quesas - oh no... These bad boys had stuffed green chiles, Spanish rice, refried beans, and other stuff in them, all on grilled corn tortillas. Phuk'n scrumptious, they were!

[olyclimber]

On Sunday AlpineDave, Alpinfox, Andrew (hey, triple A!), and myself went to a destination climbing area near Cashmere. Will do a full TR sometime later.

 

[dkemp]

Great TR!

 

JFC Oly! Your brake hand isn't on the rope! GOOD GOD MAN!

 

[Bronco]

Yeah, penalty slack for hanging on the rope while shooting.

 

Blake, don't worry yourself too much about Jens, everybody has their own comfort level of risk.

[sobo]

...Blake, don't worry yourself too much about Jens, everybody has their own comfort level of risk.

 

Blake is making a joke about JoshK's comments on Jens's and Loren's recent J-berg ascent. It was good fodder during their slide show, and everybody had a good over it.

[Winter]

Har! Funny .. almost made me wish I was there .. not quite.

 

[EWolfe]

Too bad you can't hear the hip-hop blasting

[minx]

i'll take this opportunity to defend my honor!!! all of you fair weather minx fans can kiss my ass. i was unaware of the confusion of the campsite since i couldn't make the drunkfest. ...unless you all wanted to be terrorized by my 10 year old....

 

a) i was charged for the campsite b) called to confirm the reservation on thursday. c) everything was fine w/that reservation at 3pm on thursday

 

i do apologize for the mix up though

[olyclimber]

minx, Blake is only teasing you. I'll admit there was some initial concern, but once the campground hosts assured of getting another groupsite and the keg was tapped Friday night, I don't think anyone cared. it wasn't a big deal at all. in fact, I think it worked out better, because we surely could have had a few arrests if we stayed in the hosted 8 Mile groupsite.

[minx]

well i'm glad no one was arrested. i just felt awful after i found out

[knotzen]

Yeah, I think Chatter Creek worked out well--a perfect venue, actually.

 

I'm just bummed I missed the keg on Friday night.

[sobo]

Yah, agreed that Chatter Creek was a nice spot. We had a covered area to cook and protect the projector, lots and lots of space to camp, it had a working fireplace, and we had another firepit outside of the shelter that lots of folks could group up around. If you didn't like the conversation at one fire, you could always move over to the other one.

 

And we were the only ones in the entire campground, and that included the non-group portion, so we could be as loud and obnoxious as we wanted, and we most certainly availed ourselves of that amenity.

 

The drive out and back really wasn't all that long anyway; Blake is just a real fast reader.

 

I'd be up for voting Chatter Creek as next year's venue.

[dkemp]

I'd be up for voting Chatter Creek as next year's venue.

 

It really worked out for the best. I think we would've had a run-in with the hosts at Eightmile. BTW, those 8mile hosts were not the same as the nazi's I've encountered in the past - they were pretty nice. But the party would have drawn their ire for sure.

 

Ch-ch-chatter Cr-cr-creek gets my v-v-vote.

[John Frieh]

2PM: MisterE and I rack up for some climbs at Castle Rock in a steady drizzle. Temps have reached their daily high of 39 degrees. We pass NOLSe coming down the trail, forced to retreat due to frostbite and windchill exposure.

 

Actually I found Castle Rock was a bad location for harvesting neutrinos so I was headed to other possible locals...

 

Great TR homeless youth!

[minx]

2PM: MisterE and I rack up for some climbs at Castle Rock in a steady drizzle. Temps have reached their daily high of 39 degrees. We pass NOLSe coming down the trail, forced to retreat due to frostbite and windchill exposure.

 

 

Actually I found Castle Rock was a bad location for harvesting neutrinos so I was headed to other possible locals...

 

Great TR homeless youth!

if you'd been wearing a good windshirt the windchill would not have been a factor

 

[sobo]

Man, you guys are brutal. Will this heckling over nutrinos and windshirts never cease?

[Alpinfox]

... Will this heckling over nutrinos and windshirts never cease?

 

Only after the proper amount of retail experience and several NOLSe courses.

[Bronco]

...Blake, don't worry yourself too much about Jens, everybody has their own comfort level of risk.

 

Blake is making a joke about JoshK's comments on Jens's and Loren's recent J-berg ascent. It was good fodder during their slide show, and everybody had a good over it.

 

eh, yeah, I guess I missed that. I'll try to keep up on the TR's now that I have a semi-desk job again. I'm gonna have to put in overtime to catch up though.

[John Frieh]

... Will this heckling over nutrinos and windshirts never cease?

 

Only after the proper amount of retail experience and several NOLSe courses.

 

I'm fairly certain this is exactly why you kids are my case... or it could be my charming good looks

[sobo]

... Will this heckling over nutrinos and windshirts never cease?

 

Only after the proper amount of retail experience and several NOLSe courses.

 

I'm fairly certain this is exactly why you kids are my case... or it could be my charming good looks

 

I wouldn't know about your looks; you went "stealth" at RopeUp. Something about potential violence being wrought upon you...?

[John Frieh]

I wouldn't know about your looks

 

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