year in review

[backclipped]

Well shit,Baby New year is crowning once again. In a few more weeks he'll clear the canal and screech his way into 0'10...which means it's the season of reflection. How did '09 treat y'all? What were your highlights?

 

'09 will not go down as a productive climbing year for me; but there were, however, a few highlights:

 

Belayed Jlag on his onsight of Thin Seam (10a) at The City.

 

Linked Round River into Santiam Highway Ledges--not a bold undertaking by any means, but a great outing that squeezed an ample amount of adventure out of a Sunday afternooon in the Marsupials....dicking around up on the Wombat is...interesting.

 

Launched a #1 Cam out of the West Cave of The Monkey. A good samaritan placed it on my pack...and I still use it.

 

Red pointed Reason to Be.

 

Climbed Heresy, like, a dozen times......never got fit enought to send. I blame this on the complacency of being comfortable in a relationship.

 

Unrelated to climbing--I got engaged.

 

...................that's all I got.........................

[climbzemountains]

I discovered the sport. Good year for me.

[ivan]

hmmm...

 

mideast crisis

da nose (even though we bailed not halfway up)

leaning tower

solo linkup green dragon and town crier

chopping my rope on the winter solo campout i had the monkey's w face

soloing go back to the gym at broughtons

 

that chick w/ huge knockers and uber-short shorts preparing to climb leaning tower after 2 sex-starved weeks in da valley

[Lodestone]

Flashing the first two pitches of Rights of Passage would one of my highlights. Nothing groundbreaking but a fun climbing year for me.

 

 

Chad

[cbcbd]

Climbed more in '09 than in '08. Good enough!

[BirdDog]

Well, I didn't send any 5.13's this year; of course I have never sent a 5.13. However, my 14 yo son learned to belay well enough to partner with me on several moderate routes in Washington, Calf., & Utah. So from that aspect it was a really great year.

 

[denalidave]

Red Rocks, Prussik, Tieton & Serpentine.

Partners lost, lessons learned.

Not enough Bacon in-between.

 

 

[kurthicks]

took a 20 footer into a glacier on Shuksan...tore two ligaments.

 

got engaged.

 

itching to finish PT and get back out there.

[ivan]

took a 20 footer into a glacier on Shuksan...tore two ligaments.

i don't remember this story - what happened?

[kurthicks]

I didn't tell many people...

 

I was up on the Fisher Chimneys for an AMGA course, on the Upper Curtis, when I rode a huge serac (school bus sized) about 20'. I landed almost entirely on my left leg just before the rope caught me. Simply terrifying. My friends hauled me out and I hobbled out to the car. Not exactly a fun day in my book!

[marc_leclerc]

Good year... onsighted my first 11+ gear routes. Sent multiple 5.12's and almost sent 12c on gear, wich was cool for me. Also did my first alpine FA's and my first 5.11 in the alpine.... good year!

[mattp]

Coming back from a year of disability, I enjoyed some great days in my home turf at Darrington, climbed a couple of classics elsewhere with some old friends, and spent a couple of days out climbing with partners I met on cc.com.

 

More than that, though, I TALKED about climbing. I'm the Washington Climbers Coalition secretary, and I've done a lot of organizational work in support of a fund-raising effort that is going to preserve the Index Town Wall as a climbing destination.

 

I aided some 5.11. Does that count?

[ivan]

I landed almost entirely on my left leg just before the rope caught me. Simply terrifying. My friends hauled me out and I hobbled out to the car. Not exactly a fun day in my book!

what's that the pilots say? any landing you can walk away from is a good one?

[111]

onsight solo

first aid climb lead

got comfortable ice climbing

10.c trad redpoint

first Grade IV

Casaval Ridge on Shasta

 

Didn't catch swine flu

[lancegranite]

Many new routes.

Several old routes cleaned up.

First fall factor 2 .

Not enough time off.

 

[letsroll]

Had fun climbing with new people had fun climbing with old partners. Enjoyed teaching new climbers.

 

Just did not do enough of it.

[billcoe]

21 first ascents.

 

5 of those routes at a new area which represents all but a few of the bolts I installed this year. (130 or so) The Lil Raindawg got worked as all of those bolts were 1/2 x 7" and 1/2 x 6-1/4" long wedge anchors like this one in the middle:

 

Lil Dawg at the new area:

 

 

Only injured once (both knees trashed doing some trail work) so I got to be the chef at Yos and also missed over 2 + prime months of climbing. However, I got out more than about anytime since before I had children 24 years ago, of course my grades seemed to suffer, but it was up to low 10's by the time Adam and I did the FA of "Lone Wolf and the Last Hurrah" at Beacon as that's what that start went at.

 

My youngest (son), who inexplicably grew up and moved out, finally started climbing this year. He showed up for a couple of visits and I did the 3rd ascent of Conga Line and the FA of Child Abuse with him.

 

Conga Line is a a dirty, filthy, boulder strewn trashpit of an amazingly awesome, incredible and fun 2 pitch 5.7/5.8 ridge climb. One of the bolts in that bolt count above was put in for the 3rd ascent and the only bolt in this 2 pitch route, put right by the crux...it will be a life saver if anyone ever falls there: for the only pro available there is behind a large flake that would unquestionably land right on top of you if you fell on the crux with a gear piece in. It was his very first route outside of a gym and he was way psyched and Jazzed over it! There's jamming, pseudo-chimneying in a shallow grove, monkey hangs off trees and slabs, it has it all. He loved it. Can't wait to do the corner with him and Jim, hopefully next summer. Good times.

 

Belaying Shaun on Child Abuse, photo Jim Opdycke

 

 

[Spore]

Put in Many new Routes, Lost count.

Climbed over 100 routes

Had a Good Catch or two

Cleaned some old routes

Met New friends, Lost Old friends.

Still Married, dispite all the time gone.

Ruined one rope, and a pair of shoes used up a lot of nuts.

 

A Good Year !

 

 

 

[kevbone]

Became more and more a family man.

[spotly]

Spent most of the year at the Dr. office trying to figure out why I was having breathing problems. Let's just say alien probing sounds funner. Found out in Nov that I have developed allergies to sage, which I spent lots of time in this year. Comical in retrospect.

 

Anyhoo, even with the problems, got in lots of fun stuff. A few of my favorites:

--Prusik Peak car-to-car

--Took a newb friend from work up The Tooth for his first alpine trad climb.

--Mt. Assiniboine - charged by a grizzly; very memorable

 

[JosephH]

Short season, hurt surfing, will probably do it all again next year.

[G-spotter]

Killed a bunch of moss, lichen and two small trees. trying to up my game to deal with the blank spot that was revealed.

[jlag]

It's actually Thin Slice, and it goes at 10b.

 

Week at the City during freak Aug. cool down. Hot as hell everywhere else but perfect weather at City of Rocks. Place was empty.

 

Tieton, Cougar, The Guillotine at Pete's(awesome route), and vendetta at Red Rocks with Walla Walla Pete. Great guy and blind date climbing partner. 5th pitch of Requim for a Tadpole is my favorite bolted pitch to date in my 38 years of life.

 

Not climbing as hard, but having a lot more fun and adventure.

 

JL

[selkirk]

It's been a good year

 

Climbed more than I did last year

Climbed more at Index than I did last year

100+ pitches (pretty good for me!)

First Aid Lead (City Park )

First Aid Fall (First roof on Iron Horse )

 

Longest multipitch to date (Diedre+Boomstick Crack+Ultimate Everything = 17+ pitches in reasonable time )

 

Hardest Alpine climb to date (South Early Winter Spire, Direct East buttress and I led all the crux pitches)

 

Hardest free alpine pitch to date and first alpine falls (North Early Winter Spire, West Face)

 

Hardest Sport Redpoint to date and the first climb I ever projected (Climax Control, 5.11C Led it on my 2nd attempt with falls and Redpointed on my 3rd lead attempt (with to TR laps thrown in))

 

Finished the Mountaineers Intermediate course

Confirmed as a Mountaineers Climb Leader

 

and most important of all

Had a little baby girl 1 month ago today

She's still too small to use a gri-gri though. Maybe next year!

[Pete_H]

Climax Control is hard. Nice job!