Trip Reports, Tips, Blog, and more from the climbers at WeekendClimber.Com. Come in and take the edge ON!! http://www.weekendclimber.com Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:50:22 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.weekendclimber.com/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png http://www.weekendclimber.com Trip Reports, Tips, Blog, and more from the climbers at WeekendClimber.Com. Come in and take the edge ON!! http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=180&Itemid=9 It's been nearly a year since my last post here, and to allay some concerns of a few, I am still around and hoping to get back to climbing soon. So why have I been so elusive for the last year, you might wonder? Well, I had the unfortunate experience of having to have surgery on a knee problem that has persisted for many years and finally came apart last winter. I was hoping that some physical therapy would solve the problem, but as it turned out, the problem was much more severe than both my doctor and I had assumed. Originally the diagnoses was Patellofemoral Chondromalacia, which is basically a biomechanical problem that can easily be fixed with Physical Therapy. Finally, after going through PT for three months and having little to no success, I had an MRI done which found the root of the problem. Little did I know how long it would take to heal. Blog - Blog Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:12:50 +0100 http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=174&Itemid=94 Author on Icy BC So, after several weeks of knee recovery and a quick snowshoe trip to test out the stability and equate the distance to pain ratio it was time to start winter. After a bout of increasingly common sea-level snowfall and then record rains and floods hear in Western Washington, it was about time to get out to cold climates where precipitation came in the form of light and dry powder snow. Maybe all this global climate change with it's extreme weather events isn't so bad after all, especially if this climber friendly cycle of warming, raining, and then extreme cold never lets up. Trip Reports - Climbing Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:19:39 +0100 http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=172&Itemid=107 With the growing number of climbers around the state of Washington along with all the other user groups, such as off-road vehicle users, mountain bikers, etc it's important that climbers have a unified voice. After attending a great informational meeting put on by the local Washington Climbers Coalition heads, Andy Fitz and Matt Perkins, it was excellent to see such a great turn out. With representatives from several different user groups that have already done what the WCC envisioned present at the meeting, it provided a rich environment for discussing what individuals can do to help out. Access - Climbing Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:37:22 +0100 http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=166&Itemid=94 Wine Spires All week long, as I watched the weather forecast go from good to bad and back to good, then bad again our plans kept fluctuating. Once Eric and Mike showed up at my house a little after 7pm on Friday we finally decided to head up to Washington Pass and bivy in the basin below Burgundy Col. So, after a few packing adjustments and picking another Mike downtown, we were on our way to Mazama to crash at one of the Mike's friend's cabin. I was surely in store for a adventure with these new acquaintances, far more than I would realize yet. Trip Reports - Climbing Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:57:48 +0100 http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=153&Itemid=94 Liberty Bell Group After an long evening hanging out at the camp fire on Sunday night, we woke up later than we had planned on the night before. I arose from my sleeping quarters in the back of my 4runner when Michael opened the back hatch to get some of his food for breakfast. I immediately sat up and shook off the sense of lethargy that was beckoning me to go back to sleep and started to pack my gear for the day. I grabbed the box of oatmeal I had brought for breakfast and walked over to the picnic tables in front of the cabin. My water bottles were devoid of liquid, so I took several minutes to walk down to the river to pump water. By the time I came back to start boiling water, the sun's rays had finally washed away any doubts about our objective for the day. I greeted that though with a smile. Trip Reports - Climbing Wed, 30 May 2007 10:21:26 +0100 http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=110 Colin wrote a report about this great impressive new route (http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat Number=688204 page=0) and I cannot wait to see some of the photos. News - Climbing Tue, 29 May 2007 12:22:22 +0100 http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=148&Itemid=110 Brian Massey I got a call today from a friend who informed me that a great friend and his partner died while climbing on Denali. Right now the details are still being sorted out, but from what is known Brian and his partner Mizuki were descending the West Rib towards the West Buttress. At about 19,000 feet, for reasons yet to be known, they fell. By the time they were reached by another party at around 17,000 feet, Mizuki had unfortunately already succumbed to her injuries. Brian was taken down to a lower camp on the mountain where he too, died of his injuries sustained in the fall. I am truly heartbroken to lose such a fine person. For those who didn't know Brian, he was a true American Hero. As a firefighter, he saved countless lives and will be missed by many friends. Mizuki was an enthusiastic and motivated person, and though I did not know her personally, friends who had climbed with her always talked of her infectious personality. Our condolences go out to the friends and family of both these fine people, and may they both rest in peace. News - Climbing Fri, 18 May 2007 14:17:29 +0100 http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=141&Itemid=93 With the upgrade to Joomla 1.0.12 (http://www.joomla.org), we have added some functionality that we haven't had in the past. We now will be featuring some of our own YouTube videos (http://www.youtube.com) that we have online, directly on the site. Also, now that everything is up and running, I should be able to complete some of the trip reports (http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content task=blogsection id=4 Itemid=80) that I've been lagging behind on. I hope you enjoy the first sampling of video we have and we will be adding more soon to the video section (http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content task=view id=26 Itemid=39) of our site. I hope you are having a great early climbing season. News - Latest Sun, 13 May 2007 16:13:11 +0100 http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=119&Itemid=94 Home in the Bugs Near the border with Alberta, in the eastern most part of British Columbia, lies a well known wonderland of granite whose spires scratch the sky. When the first explorer to reach the summit of one of the grandest spires, Conrad Kain, was stymied by a large gendarme high on the south ridge of spire No. 2, the feeling he had is what stuck as this spire's name: Bugaboo. It was from this first ascent in 1916, that the area and eventually the Provincial Park received it's namesake. Known by climbers as, The Bugs , it is one of the world's most premier alpine rock climbing venues, and I'm lucky enough to live only a 12 hours drive away from it. Trip Reports - Climbing Thu, 31 Aug 2006 17:04:34 +0100 http://www.weekendclimber.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=121&Itemid=94 Mt Stuart from the NorthWhen Rad first asked me if I wanted to do the North Ridge of Mount Stuart with him, I could hardly refuse. It had been one of the climbs that was always on the list, but seemed a bit out of my league, until I took a confidence building trip to the Bugaboos. The plan would be to go light, with only emergency bivy bags, and go up and over in one day. We would shuttle one car to the Esmeralda Basin trail head, and start from the Stuart Lake trail head and approach via Mountaineers Creek. Seemed easy enough when we discussed it over beers after climbing around in the gym on a Tuesday, but little did we know what we had in store. Trip Reports - Climbing Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:57:51 +0100