Spring in Leavenworth

March in Leavenworth has been a great month!

My wife Allison crushing at the Tieton River

We've had some huge powder days and great backcountry skiing, yet the bouldering and cragging close to town has been idyllic. A few updates - 

• Unless you want to ski or hike your way 3000+ feet up into the mountains for a pitch or two, all water-ice cragging is done. We had a pathetic ice season this year. I never heard of Drury Falls getting climbed, but there were a few days that it would have been in, and not very avy-threatened.
• The higher-up bouldering zones (Pretty Girl, Airfield) on the south-facing hillside of Icicle Canyon dry fast and are basically snow-free. Lower areas like The Fridge, and Barney's Rubble need a bit more time after a storm, but are still getting climbed.
• Castle Rock, Midnight Rock, and Rattlesnake Rock receive sun most of the day. There's a stellar pitch on the right side of upper castle called Hangdog. It's an old-school 5.11- with decent-enough gear and really excellent climbing. The full-value version starts at the lowest point on the wall, and begins through a V1 boulder cave to some techy 5.11+ stemming and crimping - We didn't lead this version, just TRed to maximize the time climbing. I also ticked off a short-term goal by sending No Such Thing as a Free Lunge on my first lead go. This 5.11+ all-gear route on the overhanging north face of Jello Tower is seldom climbed and one of the area's best pitches.
• Vantage is almost getting TOO hot to climb at, but is still a reliable place to bask in the sun. It's unfortunate that there isn't a little more steep rock on the south-facing walls, but ticking a ton of routes at the Powerhouse, M&M, and Jigsaw walls is a fun way to get pumped silly. Thanks to the Washington Climbers Coalition for the new outhouse, and thanks to the State of WA for seemingly never enforcing the posted signs calling for a mandatory parking pass.
• I made my first visit to Tieton, specifically the Royal Columns crag. We only saw one rattle snake, so I guess it is still early season there. The bolted arete "Morning After" was definitely my favorite route there, the cracks were all covered in horizontal face holds, and I like my crack pure. 
• Comment on the BLM's Trout Creek Policy before March 30!! This is the NW's premiere crack-climbing area.
• Access Fund Comment Link
• Background
• Online Guide

I just replaced my marmot-gnoshed CanonS90 with the newest iteration in their line of world's-lightest-RAW-Compatible models - the S100. This one takes much better video, has fancy trick modes to make me think I'm improving, and features a new lens and sensor. Look for more sandwich-related videos coming soon, now in HD for your drooling pleasure.

Now I'm off to Alaska for work, then on to Red Rock and Zion to do some climbing!

How Not to Climb - Part 1

Steven Colbert has on ongoing segment in his show called "Better Know a District", in which he interviews someone elected to one of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. He always refers to a segment as "part X in our 435 part series". This may be part 1 in an 435-part series on ways not to climb.

I was bored while sipping my coffee this morning, and rather than do something more enlightening, such as memorizing the phonebook or banging my forehead against the wall, I made the intractable mistake of reading discussions on www.mountainproject.com. In one of these threads, the question was asked:

How would you use the rope to equalize 3 bomber pieces in a crack, with a 4 piece place for an upward pull?

To which I'd answer:

Sliding X or cloves with the rope or something, but more importantly stop placing gear after the first two bomber pieces, and you'll have more gear for the next lead and more daylight for the descent.

Don't make belay anchors like this. If you see one in real life, and its creator will not let your party pass up their party, bail while it's still light out.

People spend about 90% of their nervous energy worrying about stuff like redundantly-equalized 12-piece web-o-lette anchor installations, meanwhile we have folks decking from 6 bolts up a sport climb when their (homemade and glued!) quickdraw falls apart and their belayer doesn't catch them. Anchor failure is a scary prospect but how often does it happen? (and anchors are weighted almost atop every pitch) Meanwhile, things like miscommunication, rappel/lower off ends of rope, etc are hurting or killing folks seemingly every week.

Alpine GriGri

Check out the first in a series of gear and technique related articles I wrote for the site www.cascadeclimbers.com

TAKE YOUR GRIGRI TO THE MOUNTAINS!

Camera Skills

Here's a little write-up I recently had published in Climbing Magazine.

Cerro Torre

For a beautiful and iconic peak, Cerro Torre certainly has one bizarre history.

A few days ago, Jason Kruk and Hayden Kennedy climbed the SE Ridge of Cerro Torre. They finished off a project that had been tried numerous years by many different climbers, which was to follow the obvious ridge line taken by the Maestri Compressor attempt (eventually successfully climbed by Bridwell and Brewer).  Jason and Hayden then smashed out over 100 of the bolts on the compressor route's headwall (of a parallel height to where their line took a new path). Amid all the controversy, the climbing world went nuts after someone facebooked about having watched this through a camera lens. What a crazy 21-st century internet alpinism phenomenon to have sparked such outrage and anger. I never considered climbing Cerro Torre on my two season in Patagonia, but I have climbed on a much easier satellite peak and know some of the folks involved. It seems like many of the rants and arguments are based on false premises, so here are some facts and dates:

• 1959 - Cesare Maestri claimed to have climbed the Northern aspect of Cerro Torre (CT) for the mountain's first ascent. Maestri lost his camera and his partner died on the mountain. His claim to have climbed CT is now mostly dismissed as a lie.
• 1970 - Maestri returned to CT, which had not seen a "2nd" ascent. His team climbed up the SE Ridge of the peak, placing hundreds of bolts next to 5.7-5.10 cracks, and eventually abandoning the more featured and protectable ridge to drill long bolt ladders rightward across a blank wall near the summit. His team stopped atop the rock and didn't summit the peak's ice and snow pitches. He also removed ~2 dozen of his own bolts on the decent. This route was soon repeated (with rivets and aid climbing used to overcome the broken-bolts sections) and the climbers (Bridwell/Brewer) did summit the peak for the first ascent of the "Compressor Route".
• 2010 - David Lama made a big fuss of his pre-climb and pre-trip proclamations that he was going to climb the compressor route and then create a bolt-protected freeclimb up the CT headwall, equipping pitches with more bolts placed on rappel. Faced with massive controversy, he agreed not to rappel-bolt, and eventually didn't do much of anything apart from run around town with a scary-looking posse and cause a lot of noise and concern that there'd been an accident when his Red Bull Helicopter spent weather windows in early 2011 swooping in and out from the peaks near his party as they aided the Compressor Route.

Last season when I was in Patagonia, at least two teams (one USA one CAN) were attempting to complete what they and others had begun calling a "fair means" ascent of CT's SE Ridge. I asked Colin Haley about the term, and he described it as not using any of Maestri's bolts for upward progress. The Canadian Team was Jason Kruk and Chris Geisler who (last season) reached a new high point on this multi-year project. They added somewhere between 1-4 bolts and esatblished new pitches on more naturally-featured rock which they described as the line's logical continuation, well to the left of the Compressor bolt ladders. This season, Jason Kruk succeeded, joined on this route by Hayden Kennedy. Congrats on an awesome ascent!

On the way down, Jason and Hayden removed over 100 bolts from the compressor-placed bolt ladders. This makes their SE Ridge finishing pitches now the only established option in this part of the mountain, and will likely be the end of the line for the wild and weird Compressor saga.

Here are a bunch of mistakes I've seen folks make when arguing about the route:

• They didn't free climb their route. They used aid to ascend the rock. Mostly clean aid, some bolted aid (bolts added by them or by Kruk/Geisler last year).
• There were no guided ascents of this route. Local guides aren't suddenly out of work over this. This wont hurt the local economy. 90%+ of the visitors to El Chalten are not even climbers.
• These "bolts" were more like pitons than modern expansion bolts. Jason and Hayden were able to easily remove the whole unit from the wall, nothing left in place. Since the remaining tiny holes aren't adjacent to their variation, they'll only be seen by folks descending the mountain. Any negative visual impact would be minuscule compared to the previous situation.
• There weren't teams of climbers lining up to get on this thing, or who would now have spent/wasted thousands of dollars just to try the compressor. Sure there might be 2-6 people every year who made this route a primary goal, but I'd be surprised if it were even that many.
• They didn't climb along the terrain of the bolt ladders without using the bolt ladders. They continued pushing new pitches up terrain well to the left of the blank, right-trending compressor bolts.
• They did place bolts (somewhere from 1-5) or used the ones Jason's team had placed on a previous recent attempt.
• They are Canadian, American, and removed bolts placed by an Italian. If you're bothered by Americans removing bolts in Argentina, are you equally bothered by Italians placing them? Is it ok for visitors (however defined) to place bolts, but only for locals (however defined) to remove them?
• With an ascent of CT now requiring more skill, longer weather windows, and much more rare conditions, folks will be looking to other overlooked peaks for adventures.

It seems agreed upon in climbing that the superlative style is onsight, ground-up, free, and without any bolts. To me, any ascent closer to this style is a "better" ascent than one further from this style that reaches the same point. By this measure Hayden and Jason's ascent is a big accomplishment. I am left with a few questions about the ascent and descent, but I've met and hung out a bit with Hayden and Jason and certainly give them the benefit of the doubt. 

A few things I am still wondering about:

• If the "Fair Means" ascent was merely defined as not using even one of Maestri's bolts for upward progress, wouldn't hand-drilling a bolt or rivet ladder off to the side of Maestri's qualify as a successful fair-means ascent? This didn't happen, but to me, the definition needs to be more precise. 
• If Hayden and Jason used any bolts at all for "upward progress" then the implication is that some number of bolts is acceptable but Maestri used too many. If so, how many is ok and how or by whom should that decision be made? Is it always a judgement call made in the moment?
• If one considers it acceptable to remove the compressor bolt ladders, would it be logically consistent to EVER argue against the removal of a bolt ladder when variations were established that reached the same point with fewer bolts?

Without a bunch of self-imposed rules, we'd all just summit peaks of our dreams via helicopter, so as as stilly as much of this can seem, I think it's interesting and important to the sport.

Desert Pictures

My pal Forest Woodward just got around to finishing up some photos of the time we all spent at Indian Creek and Zion back in October. Here are a few of his best shots.

First Winter Ascent in the Stuart Range

Colchuck Balanced Rock (8,200') - The West Face route follows the sun/shade line.

Walking across the frozen lake

The West Face of Colchuck Balanced Rock was first climbed in 1980, and saw an FSFA (that's a first "second first" ascent) when Mark Twight and Mark Johnston reported their "New" route in the 1984 American Alpine Journal. They reported 12 pitches up to 5.10 and A2. This route is now considered among the region's premier climbs, free at 5.11+. It lies amid other fabled granite mountains such as Dragontail, Mt. Stuart, and Prusik Peak in the Central Cascades.

Trout Creek

Central Oregon's Trout Creek may soon be temporarily closed due to raptor nesting, so when I saw a forecast calling for sun and 40 degree highs last weekend, I headed down. I was joined by my lovely wife Allison on our three-day sports extravaganza.  On Friday we skied a tour of Skyline Ridge and Nason Creek, on Saturday we clipped bolts at Smith Rock State Park, and on Sunday we jammed and stemmed amazing splitters.

Getting Horizontal

How do you learn to hand-jam out a 20' roof?

Build one.

AAJ Routes

The folks who run the American Alpine Journal put this story of one of our new routes up on their site today:

I think this makes 6 consecutive American Alpine Journals that I've contributed stories and pictures to.