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OlympicMtnBoy
climber
Seattle
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Nov 24, 2009 - 06:12pm PT
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From my favorite mountain range!
It's only 5.0 after all. Our's was maybe the 7th ascent since the FA in 1970.
This one was only 5.6. The rap off the slung horn was fun.
- OlympicMtnBoy
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Ezra
Social climber
WA, NC, Idaho Falls
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Nov 24, 2009 - 07:03pm PT
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Fritz,
I agree we gots some gud choss in Ideeeeho,
but we also gots the city of rocks, elephants perch and the Finns, so it ain't so bad
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Nov 24, 2009 - 08:22pm PT
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FGW---re your drill-bit. I made it to the base of the flawless, slightly overhanging, 110 Ft. high summit block of Big Baron Spire on three occasions BITD. Twice by new routes, and once by the first free ascent of one of those.
I would get to the summit block and look up the line of hangerless 1/4" bolts that were then 25 years old. I could see where some were bent by falls, or ice. Some were missing. My peers and I could not summon the cojones to climb that sucker. We also didn't have a bolt kit for backup.
Did You climb that nightmare?
Speaking of choss! Highest peak in Idaho Sawtooths, in May 1971. I am amazed it is still standing.
Now back to choss!
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Unforgiven
Mountain climber
Dirt
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Nov 24, 2009 - 10:07pm PT
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So this topic isn't about your photos
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MisterE
Social climber
SoperCalifragalistic!
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Nov 24, 2009 - 10:39pm PT
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Sedona choss! Bow-chicka-bow-bow!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Nov 25, 2009 - 01:38am PT
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You're joking, right?
This is choss...
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MisterE
Social climber
SoperCalifragalistic!
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Nov 25, 2009 - 02:16am PT
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I am not kidding - every one of those ratings may be currently invalid.
Hoping the 1" X 12" bolts are still there by the time the guide comes out...
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Sebastopol, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 25, 2009 - 02:38am PT
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1x12? Shiza! You're giving Roughster iron envy.
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fgw
Trad climber
portland, or
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Nov 25, 2009 - 12:04pm PT
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Hi Fritz,
we climbed Baron via SE Face route this past Labor Day. The bolt ladder was not that bad but I wonder if it had some upgrade work done on it since your visit? I don't recall any particularly new stuff on it though my brain was mostly frozen by the chilly wind...mostly buttonheads. The summit register was replaced the year prior & had only 1 entry in it.
R., that is some stiff choss scale if the columbia basalt stuff does not even register -- can't imagine what them Rockies choss must be like :)
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Fritz
Trad climber
Hagerman, ID
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Nov 26, 2009 - 02:44pm PT
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FGW: Sounds like some bolts must have got replaced. I don't think Fred & the boys placed any buttonheads. The only article I've ever seen about repeating the ladder was by Dick Dorworth. It appeared as part of a story by Dorworth about Fred Becky. The article was in Mountain Gazette around 2003. and is now out of print.
Summitpost has some of the article saved on it's Big Baron Spire link.
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/155259/baron-spire.html
It appears Dorworth did not enjoy the vintage 1949 bolt ladder in 2002.
"Though the bolts were primitive and the hangers loose, soon I was past the overhang and onto the mere vertical. Then appeared a bolt with an oval hanger flattened against the wall, as if beaten with a hammer in frustration or fallen on with enough force to straighten out its old aluminum molecules like those of a flattened beer can. The hanger would not take a carabiner. I was able to thread a runner through the eye and tie it off and move up."
"A wired stopper hooked over a hangerless quarter inch bolt sufficed to get me up to the next dilapidated piece of 1940s climbing technology. This one, too, was firmed to the wall by forces I did not wish to imagine. My reach was such that I was completely stretched out and lacked the reach to thread a runner through the hanger. What to do? A 6mm perlon cord that I use for a prusik on rappels had just enough stiffness that, after several attempts, I was able to poke one end through the battered eye of the hanger and tie it off. I clipped in to the perlon cord, moved my aid slings up one-by-one and climbed to the top stirrup."
-----------a little more is on the Summitpost link.
Chossy bolts!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Nov 26, 2009 - 06:38pm PT
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A nice dusting of snow and shazzam, sugar frosted choss...
An Ansel Adams shot of the ever chossy Maroon Bells.
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Oplopanax
Mountain climber
The Deep Woods
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Nov 27, 2009 - 01:41pm PT
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You know loose rock comes in three types.
1) there is the stuff that is covered with a veneer of rubble but is solid underneath. Like some alpine granite. Trundle enough and you can find solidity.
2) there is the stuff that lacks rubble, but where seemingly trustworthy holds can pop without warning - like Smith Rawks
3) Then there is the stuff that is too big to clean but still loose. Like the whole pitch falls off, sometimes the week after it gets climbed. This is the true choss, the stuff that absolutely cannot be trusted at any time or any spatial scale.
The advantages of soloing are mostly in types 1 and 3 where your rope might get cut or you might kill your belayer with an inadvertently trundled block/hold/flake. for Type 2 choss the rope and pro are often an advantage.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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hrm, a Zoologoy of choss, I like it.
Then there is the entire mountain is shale type of choss. cf. Canada
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golsen
Social climber
kennewick, wa
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Reilly, that looks like some Cascade choss???
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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did someone mention Canada?
Mt. Castleguard
where's the rock ptarmigan?
a little french free on Mt. Saskatchawan, ho man... choss!
coming down from somewhere...
you learn to either stick close together so that the rocks aren't moving too fast when you get hit, or space it way out...
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dogtown
Trad climber
JackAssVille, Wyoming
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Man, Grossman
You have never been more right!God thought Choss, and then made the Bells!
Dawg.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Good eye Golsen, yes, Willis Wall OG Choss.
Not the best but darn near: good 'solid' 8.5 - 9.0.
Not much point in taking any rock gear. Why waste time?
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golsen
Social climber
kennewick, wa
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Good job Reilly, climbing the Willis Wall probably should earn you a King of Choss award. Personally, choss scares the bejeesus out of me...
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