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Darryl Cramer
Social climber
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Jan 26, 2010 - 12:23pm PT
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Zoom named after the cereal....loaded with knobs
Cunning Stunt...just a few feet away from Zoom but sans knobs.
The infrequently climbed (thus the moss) Heaven's Rear Entry Vehicle...Upper Wall
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mastadon
Trad climber
quaking has-been
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Jan 26, 2010 - 01:18pm PT
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Index. A picture is worth a thousand words....
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Jan 26, 2010 - 03:10pm PT
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Ah - the feral van.
I forgot about the stuff over at the Country. Zoom is a fabulous route. GM to Heart of the Country was my first 5.11 lead (the last pitch of Heart of the Country has about five feet of 5.11 on it).
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MH2
climber
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Jan 26, 2010 - 03:43pm PT
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Maybe the upper part of Zoom?
ATV casualty below
Bill Meyers on Davis-Holland early 1980s
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Crillz
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 26, 2010 - 03:46pm PT
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Index is money.
Wonder how much money has been raised so far?
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Jan 26, 2010 - 03:51pm PT
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yup - that shows it. I guess gorillas could lieback all the way up, more commonly you get hands in there and that edge works away at your wrists.
Must have rained before the shot was taken and all the blood was cleaned away.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jan 26, 2010 - 03:57pm PT
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And, lest we all forget, the scenery in the area isn't too shabby.
And while the Index Town Walls and their immediate outliers are not huge, all around lie
acres of unexplored stone. This particular stone has seen some exploration, but there's plenty left.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jan 27, 2010 - 01:04pm PT
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I dug around in the files and came up with a few more Index shots. For whatever reason, I don't have anything good from the Upper Town Wall, but here are pictures of a couple of the Lower Wall moderates.
Roger's Corner (pitch 2)
Nearing the top of Godzilla
And looking east, across the lower wall toward some bigger challenges.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Jan 27, 2010 - 01:11pm PT
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Lift your eyes to the heavens!
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Darryl Cramer
Social climber
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Jan 27, 2010 - 01:18pm PT
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I've taken liberties with Reilly's photo. The route up the red line is ~ 24 pitches on the FA. ~6 were half length.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jan 27, 2010 - 01:20pm PT
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The route up the red line is ~ 24 pitches on the FA. ~6 were half length.
Good rock?
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Darryl Cramer
Social climber
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Jan 27, 2010 - 04:25pm PT
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Ghost - The rock isn't granite and is brittle in places but some pictures I've seen make the middle section look pretty good. The buttress to the left is runoured to have worse rock.
We gotta get out climbing soon..Banks sometime?
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MH2
climber
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Jan 28, 2010 - 03:34am PT
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Norwegian Buttress
I remember a time when I think Todd Skinner or another referred to City Park free as, "the hardest climb in Washington State." A local climber begged to differ: "Actually, the hardest climb in Washington is across the road."
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Jan 28, 2010 - 10:10am PT
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North or South?
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mastadon
Trad climber
quaking has-been
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Jan 28, 2010 - 10:16am PT
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Darryl,
Are you referring to Doorish's route? You wouldn't happen to have a little more detail about it, would you?? I was up at Lake Serene in the last few years and saw fixed ropes in several places....
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Darryl Cramer
Social climber
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Jan 29, 2010 - 09:28am PT
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Don - It turns out my memory isn't so good. Doorish's routes to the top of the Butt is a bit shorter than 24 pitches - although it does continue past there. Here's a topo. It's my recasting of a topo he gave me many years ago. I would have scanned that but it's on a very large sheet of paper. Blair Williams put up a significantly harder variation to the top of the Butt around 5 years ago. It starts to the right. Hopefully he'll send me a topo for the new guide. (I lost his email address so if anyone has it please send me an email.) I heard some guys were trying to free Pete's line but I have no first hand knowledge. I remember seeing some photos right after Doorish's ascent and the pitches (I think) around 11 & 12 look like they'd be great free climbing.
Meanwhile just a few miles to the East....
The perspective is weird in this photo but Mt. Baring is quite close to Index and has several long routes (aid routes to 5.12 ~12 pitches) up the obvious steep face. Now that it's in a offical wilderness area and roto hammers have been banned, I am sure devlopment will slow down. The only topo I have is one that Dorrish sent me of an aid route.
http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fpickett&CISOPTR=607&DMSCALE=100&DMWIDTH=802&DMHEIGHT=638.04947916667&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=1&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=%2520baring&DMTHUMB=0&REC=1&DMROTATE=0&x=231&y=309
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Jan 29, 2010 - 11:04am PT
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A history of all the attempts on the buttresses would be
entertaining. I sewed a copy of a Forrest hammock for Rick
Ridgeway who went up there with I-forget-who (Clark Gerhart?).
Then Whitelaw and I got a ways up and then sat in the rain for two days.
Then there must be at least a dozen others.
I thought Carson and Anderson got about 1/3 up it.
Whoever it was told me the whole thing sounded hollow
like a big gong.
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Darryl Cramer
Social climber
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Jan 29, 2010 - 11:59am PT
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I know there have been several false starts of ~ 5 pitches. My story is pretty boring - I hiked up and then hiked back down.
From what I've been the S Buttress has worse rock. I am pretty sure Dan Lapeska told me he was trying it and after a climbing a couple pitches he was back at the base contemplating the bad rock when a rock came flying down and slammed into his shoulder. That ended his attempt on the South Butt. (I might be wrong about it being Dan the story is 20 years old) Ever since then I've decided my personal goal should be finding the 90' Wall of Washington.
Some of the routes on Baring on the other hand have recieved rave reviews.
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mastadon
Trad climber
quaking has-been
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Jan 29, 2010 - 12:15pm PT
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Thanks Darryl... (the real 90' wall is not that far from my house)
What year were you up there, Mr Reilly??
Dave Anderson, Don Brooks, Dave Davis, and I made a semi-serious attempt in 1974. There was old rotten gear a few pitches up. We spent a miserable night in hammocks four or five hundred feet up after which nobody was willing to lead the pitch through the overhanging loose blocks (beyond the 75 or so feet we carefully tread). Go figure.
I always wondererd if Pete's route took the line that we were planning on.
As for Bearing: That’s one big hunk of stone up there….. Pete asked me if I wanted to go up there with him on the first ascent. I quickly agreed. He said that he had all the gear we’d need already at the base. I told him that I’d just bring my personal stuff and my portaledge. He said that he already had hammocks and I wouldn’t need my portaledge. I’d spent too many crappy nights in hammocks and said I’d rather take my portaledge. We went back and forth like that for a minute. I realized that he wasn’t going to give on the issue and quietly declined on the trip. I heard that he ended up soloing the route spending nine days or so on it. He ripped out his hammock on the first night. Rather then descend, he continued and spent the rest of the climb sleeping in slings. Both his legs went numb after he got down from a pinched nerve or something.
I’ve known very few people with as much quiet drive and determination.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Jan 29, 2010 - 12:25pm PT
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Don,
OK, I got one out of four. Wow, yous guys were
a strong team. Just not suicidal enough, I guess.
So who got higher than y'all?
I was a couple or three years after you.
I'm pretty sure Ridgeway went up there in 74 but
it might have been 75. I don't think he used the hammock.
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