Myself and Deverton climbed Serpentine Arete 2,000 ft 5.8 Grade IV, 23 hrs car to car last sunday. I haven't done a ton of long alpine routes and I definitely learned some lessons on this one. I felt the route had 5 great pitches, but the looseness (comparable to cascade volcanoes in the summer) of the upper pitches really detracted from the total quality of the climb. The quality pitches included a gorgeous finger crack, and a perfect hand crack for a full rope length. Shortly after the fun crux pitches things became a slog just to get off the peak. I am hard pressed to recommend this route to others unless you really want a low 5th class adventure. The descent down Aasgard pass also detracted from the overall adventure. We were expecting a little more of a real trail to descend (at night with one headlamp, Aasgard is sketchy to descend). The positive thing to come out of this was that we brought enough food and water for the whole adventure. I think this is the first time that has hapened for me personally. (probably means we brought too much, huh...)
Notes for next time:
dont let the stoner be in charge of the alarm (he went back to sleep and got us up way late,
always bring 2 headlamps,
bring less shit,
anticipate more time for approach,
simul climb on shorter rope lengths (60m = way to much drag on low 5th class),
dont do it car to car; it hurts,
Oh, and make sure your ride waiting back in icicle doesn't have to be somewhere on monday early; they left without me and took all my stuff. I had to take the train back to OR. Fuckers.
Over all, a helluva adventure, but no pictures unfortunately. And I think I had a slightly better time than Dev did. :)
August 20, 2009
August 03, 2009
Garden update
Our garden officially rocks! anyone want cucumber? Just say the word! We have already gotten a ton of squash and zooks, tomatoes are just starting to go crazy, carrots are perfectly straight and big, the pumpkins are doubling in size every week, and we've gotten a modest first blueberry crop.
Lessons for next year:
more basil
less cucumber
more eggplant
more winter squashes
earlier start on the onions & garlic
more leeks (spaced wider)
more green beans (planted 2 wks apart)
Oh yea, and Colleen is officially an excellent cook! I "graded" the "final exam" on a blueberry pie/cobbler she made, as well as some curry/squash quinoa. She scored very high marks for both on taste as well as presentation. There was also some scrumptious zuchinni bread made recently.
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