Over the past 2 months I've done about 12 slideshow events around the PNW related to the release of my new guidebook to the multipitch and alpine climbing in the Cascades. It has been great to see friends and meet new climbers everywhere from Bellingham to Beaverton and Spokane to Vancouver, BC. If you're interested in buying this book, you can get it here. At these events I've given a slideshow and then shown a film about climbing in the Stuart Range.
The subject of the film was a 24 hour alpine rock climbing marathon conceived by myself and Jens Holsten several years ago, when we realized that our 3 favorite area routes were all amazing new freeclimbs, all with roughly the same grade, and all on different mountains near our home. It would become our motivator to try and complete ascents of each of these peaks and routes in a single day from the car. The 20 miles of hiking and the necessary transitions and rappels meant that we'd have to do each route in under 4 hours. This wasn't something we were very confident in being able to do. A couple days before we set out to try it, we sat down for a beer at the brewery with local ski/bike/paddle photo and video guru Shane Wilder. Shane was moderately interested in the idea of a climbing film, but knew we'd need a lot of help. And as much as Jens and I though it would be rad to make a video, we weren't going shift the focus away from our climbing challenge by taking time or added weight required to film and pose down on our attempt, or go back and re-create stuff later. Fortunately, good friends Max Hasson and Shaun Johnson agreed to go film. Those guys did all the technical shots, achieved by climbing easier routes up the first and third mountains and fixing ropes from the summits toward where Jens and I climbed. The footage of the middle peak (Dragontail) came from distant shots that Shane managed from the trail, and our small point-and-shoot. (Dragons of Eden has spacious belay ledges). Without Shaun, Max, and Shane, this movie wouldn't have happened. It's the only film I know of that shows climbing in the Cascades. As these areas grow in popularity, let's all strive to keep them as clean and pristine as ever.
