June 24, 2004

Hi Folks,

I headed over to the Echo Roof area with a friend last Friday. The plan was to climb something like Lady's and Gentlemen or Bulletproof, then to Echo and on to the big ledge just left of the Echo Roof. When we got there we noticed a large and very obvious light-brown swath of mud and small rocks on the face just right of Bulletproof. It looked like someone had taken a humongous brush and painted a stripe down the cliff. What in the world could it be, we wondered?

We decided to do Bulletproof so my partner headed up. When he got up to the place where the old tree used to be, he called down that I would simply be amazed by what he was seeing. I kept asking what he was talking about, but he kept mum. When I got up there I was just as surprised as he was. Here's what I saw. Amazingly there was a 6'-8' deep hole in the rock with a little bit of water in the bottom. A candy bar wrapper floated in the water and there were a couple of used pipe-cleaners laying on the ledge. I personally don't think that there is any way this was a natural occurrence. The best theory we could come up with was that a pipe-smoking miner who is also a climber was up there digging for crystals or the like and just shoveled the dirt from the old tree hole over the side. There are some quartz crystals embedded in the rock and perhaps they thought there were more under the dirt. So where is Sherlock Holmes when you need him?

On another note, while we've had some occasional rain over the past 5-7 days, overall it's been pretty damn nice. When there's a little breeze, like on Wednesday, the bugs are actually tolerable. Days like these and the ones in the fall are why I live here. <grin> I was out on the Whitehorse slabs with a group from IMCS working on stuff like knot-passes, belayed rappels and the like all day. This is what it was like out there at about 2PM Wednesday - a picture-perfect day... Pretty nice-a, nice-a.

Children's Crusade Update:
The two old bolts on the second pitch of Children's Crusade have now been replaced. Both were spinner button heads. One came out fairly easily, but the other was much tougher in spite of its age and the hanger spinning around. And, yes I know, the holes from the old bolts are still there - unpatched. Sorry 'bout that! I didn't have any epoxy to fill them in so I'll have to get back up there later this summer to take care of it. In the meantime enjoy the new level of safe-climbing.

A Different View:
Instead of climbing last weekend on Father's Day I opted for doing the family thing. (Smart move, aye?) We decided to paddle from Glen down to First Bridge in our new canoe. While taking a short break on a rocky beach at about halfway I noticed a view of Cathedral and Whitehorse that I've never seen before. From where I stood it looked like the two cliffs were actually one.

Slideshow, Saturday June 26 - 7 PM:
You may know Anne Skidmore as one of the folks behind the counter at IME, but she is quite a bit more. Actually she is a very good climber and excellent photographer, who won several awards in this year's Photography special-edition of Climbing Magazine. This is a great slideshow celebrating women climbers, splitter cracks, hard granite, and soft sandstone. What more could one ask for? How about seeing women from the east to the west climbing, motivating and inspiring one another? Sit back and witness five strong women from New Hampshire road tripping to Indian Creek and Yosemite. See clips of women playing on the beautiful boulders of the Sierra’s, to the mysterious boulder filled forest of Fontainbleau in France.

For more information contact IME at 603-356-7064. Hope to see you there.

Here's A Cool Tip:
When I was out climbing with IMCS guide Brad White recently, I set up an anchor with a cordelette around a tree. I'd been mostly using the old girth-hitch for this kind of thing it for years, but Brad showed me an AMGA-approved way to do it that's definitely a lot better. Here are the steps:

1 - Put the cordelette around the tree with the knot at the back.
2 - Tie an overhand in the the cordelette and cinch it against the tree, making sure to even the two ends of the cordelette.
3 - In the middle of the remaining 2 loops, tie a overhand figure eight knot.
4 - Clip into both loops.

That's it... Nice, easy, quick and totally bomber. A picture tells a thousand words , enjoy.

Selected Ice Conditions effective April 24, 2024
It's all over for 2023/2024.
	Huntington Ravine	OUT
	Repentance	OUT
	Standard Route	OUT
	Dracula	OUT
For the full current conditions report, CLICK HERE

Remember - climb hard, ride the steep stuff, stay safe and above all BE NICE,