Forum Index > Trip Reports > ~*The Bonanza, Martin, & Copper Experience*~ 7/4-7/7
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~*CutebutChossy69*~
bluebagprincess



Joined: 08 Jul 2019
Posts: 58 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle
~*CutebutChossy69*~
bluebagprincess
PostTue Jul 09, 2019 2:07 pm 
Team "Solo Pole" set out for a memorable peakbagging trip over the holiday weekend. I had just submitted my master's capstone paper a few days prior to the trip start and had been eyeing Bonanza for years- what a week! Ryan, Sean, and I took the Lady Boat from Field's Point with plans to rendezvous with Philip in Holden Village. Philip had been lured into the Holden Village lifestyle and had been volunteering off and on for the past year-ish. I had climbed with Ryan before, never met Philip officially, and Ryan and Philip had both never met Sean (who I invited) on the trip. They were skeptical of me inviting a current basic climbing course student for these peaks but I assured them Sean was anything but "basic." Not to mention Ryan's skepticism of, "Is she really inviting some ‘rando boytoy’ on this trip? o.O" The weather forecast didn't look stellar, rain and thunderstorms were forecasted for much of the next few days, and thankfully Philip had spotty internet in Holden so he was totally unaware of the weather sitch, because he’s not a fan of t-storms. The weather beta is: 1. Use the airgram function on windy.com to get the forecast for varying elevations. and 2. Wait until you’re at Holden Pass camp to tell Philip that we have to start early on Friday for Bonanza to beat the thunderstorms. :P Day 1: Thurs 7/4 Seattle>Holden>Holden Pass Camp>Martin Ryan says the Lady Boat beta is to nap, I say the Lady Boat beta is to snag handfuls of salsa and mayonnaise packets from the condiment bar to use with alpine meals. We got dropped off in Lucerne and took the bumpy bus ride up to Holden Village. A guy sat next to Ryan on the bus (we would later find out in a few days that he is the board prez of Holden Village). Ryan decided it would be a good opportunity to spread the gospel of the Bulger List to unassuming victims who are stuck sitting down for the next 45 minutes... he even managed to sprinkle in some Rikki roasts re: climbing Goode via Stehekin, and said something about, "being greeted in Holden by women with hairy armpits singing songs." I'm surprised the poor fella didn't switch seats during the ride... We found Philip amidst the crowd of smiling and waving Holden Villagers, grabbed our packs and headed up the trail for Holden Pass at 1:25p. The sun was shining, and it was humid AF. Sean later informed me that he watched my pants get wetter throughout the approach as sweat ran down my back. It was hot. I laughed to myself as Philip gave Sean a lil interrogation about what his previous climbing experience was during the approach. :P Took a quick snack break at Holden Lake and found the climbers trail... until we lost it in thick slide alder. We managed to break free eventually and were spit out into a talus patch where we followed a cairn or two to regain a climber's trail up to Holden Pass. In hindsight, you don't want to go too low in the swampy area (which is what we did) or too high (waaaay up in the trees) but find a nice middle path to stay on the climber's trail. Life's all about that middle path right?
Made it to Holden Pass around 4:45p threw down our packs, pitched tents, ate a lil, and set out for Martin Peak around 5:15. Sean's tent stake beta is that found sticks work just fine and you don't have to carry the weight of tent stakes. Can confirm. BTW- There is no running water convenient to Holden Pass camp. You should fill up on your ascent to the pass as you pass by streams. Or be forced to drink puddle water (that will dry up at night) or melt snow from a very scrappy snow patch. (Sean and I opted for the snowmelt a la pine needle and sediment when we got back to camp after Martin). Camp was a lil crowded (three other tents), Bonanza was a popular objective this weekend.
Martin lived up to the chosspile hype, and I loved it. After all what's that famous saying?.. "Choss is a girl's best friend." We followed a faint climbers trail leading up from camp, ascending and crossing loose gully after gully.
We came upon a weird white slabbish-flakey gully that I dubbed the, “scab gully” that broke apart under your fingernails as you tried to cling to it for dear life- thanks for testing that one out Ryan! We found a better way up that avoided this gully, just to the left of it was easier and more secure-ish scrambling. There were some cairns marking the way on the upper mountain that also made for easier route finding. Pretty much just follow the path of least resistance. The final class 4 moves to the summit were fun. Topped out around 7:35p and had an 18 minute break. We flipped through the summit register and read all the entries that had nothing but bad things to say about Martin. The Martin beta is definitely to climb it on day 1 after dropping camp, I think it would have been a lot less fun had we just summited Bonanza and come for Martin immediately afterwards. One of the summit entries referenced a, "MAN'S TRIP!" which provided a lot of comedic content for the remainder of our trip. "Rikki you're crashing the man's trip! Man's trip on Martin, quick take our photo for our man's trip!"
Obligatory "MAN'S TRIP" photo
Obligatory "MAN'S TRIP" photo
Just as we were about to depart the summit, I looked east and saw the shadow of Martin and myself cast over clouds on nearby peaks, with a rainbow halo around me! RAINBOW RIKKI MARTIN?! After some post climb research, I learned that this sighting is two phenomena that commonly co-occur. My large shadow cast at the top of Martin’s shadow is referred to as a Brocken Spectre and happens when the sun and a large object and the viewer’s head are at just the right angle, making the viewer’s shadow appear bigger than usual. The rainbow halo that encased my shadow is called a Glory (glory hole jokes anyone?...jk plz don’t), and it is due to the water droplets in the misty clouds refracting and backscattering the sunlight.
We descended roughly the same way we ascended, finding a slightly better way down in one section than we did going up. We down climbed the route, and I even got to do a lil scree skiing and plunge stepping through some of the gullies. My favorite!
We made it back to camp around 10:15p without the need for headlamps. Chatted with some other fellow peakbaggers, and even Bulger-chaser-fangirled for a moment meeting Trace Gough, “Omg I follow u on insta love ur art!” Melted some scrappy snow for water, ate burritos with Lady Boat salsa and PTFO for a couple hours. Day 2: Fri 7/5 Camp>Bonanza>Camp>Holden Village After a couple hours of sleep we set out at 4:40a for Bonanza. We knew there were 3 other parties who were headed up there the same day, and also knew we didn’t want to be climbing on top of each other on the route. One of the parties left earlier, we saw their headlights up on the waterfall slabs as we made our way up the humps to gain the slabs. The third party left shortly after us but we didn’t run into them again until we were descending. The beta for the waterfall slabs is to go right of the heavy flow. The scrambling was wet, and slick, so careful steps are a must through here. Follow the path of least resistance and make your way up towards the glacier.
We roped up and Ryan chose the Mary Green Direct aka Sneak Route through the glacier instead of opting for the obvious boot pack to the right. I don’t recommend the sneak route that goes directly up the most broken up part of the glacier unless you are into sketch snow bridges and bad run out (we took the boot pack on descent). It was definitely the scenic route though! We chatted about where the name Mary Green came from and Philip told us it was the wife of a prominent miner back in the day, then someone asked, “Well who the hell is Isella then?” My guess is she was probs the sidepiece.
Ryan placed pickets at my request for the final steep traverse over to gain the rock for the scrambling portion of the route. Would really hate to slide the team into a gaping maw of a crevasse, esp since I liked all of our team members- they all had a good sense of humor. Made it to the rocky band around 7:45a. Unroped, stashed crampons and ice axes and headed up for the fun scramble bit. We went straight up for a short while, then traversed out far right, following a path of least resistance. Then made a leftward traverse on a “ledge” and went up some gullies to gain the final summit knife ridge.
The rock was more solid than Martin, but still had some loose stuff here and there. The scrambling was pretty sustained C3 all the way to the summit with a lil C4 towards the end. The knife ridge was beautiful and exposed! Such fun! We were all pretty stoked to be on the summit of Bonanza. Topped out around 9:10a and enjoyed a longer than 18 minutes summit break (about 40 mins).
Blowout by Bonanza.. if only I could do my hair like this at home!
Blowout by Bonanza.. if only I could do my hair like this at home!
Rikki & the dudes
Rikki & the dudes
Obligatory "MAN'S TRIP" photo! Looking very rainbow boyz!
Obligatory "MAN'S TRIP" photo! Looking very rainbow boyz!
We down climbed the scramble portion with the exception of a short 15m rap just below the knife ridge section. I got to test out the munter rap irl which was fun. Then Sean found a crystal below the summit of Bonanza! Fancy.
We rapped below this section. Made it back down to our stashed gear around 12p and took another break. Roped up and headed down the boot pack this time. Once we were back at the heavy flow slabs we contemplated rapping down a short section because we read some beta that said, “A single rope rappel will get you to easier terrain,” But we eyed it and it didn’t look like that would be the case. The rap station we found consisted of two rusty pitons, and some blue and purple tat that was a little crusty. The section it would rap down looked like easy enough climbing so we opted to down climb. Philip mentioned that it was Pizza Night in Holden and that we should run down to the village make it in time (Pizza Night is from 4:15-6:15 if I remember correctly).
Made it back to Holden Pass camp around 2:15p and had a team meeting about packing up and leaving at 2:45p to make it in time for pizza. Ryan and Philip began packing up swiftly while Sean and I… didn’t. Around 2:30p when we still hadn’t taken our tent down we told Ryan and Philip to head down without us and that we would come down awhile later. Our meet up strategy was for them to go to the loading area on the hour every hour until we eventually arrived. They headed down at 2:45p and Sean and I hung around camp for a bit, thought about packing up, made some efforts towards packing and had a nice yard sale at camp. Then the rain came and we threw our yardsale items under the tent vestibule quickly and waited for the rain to pass. We eventually left Holden Pass camp around 4:15p. We found a slightly better way to the lake that avoided a lot of the slide alder, but still ended up in a little patch of it. Made it to Holden Lake and we decided to go for a, “swim” as it started raining again. That lake has so many slippery logs coming from the shore that “swimming” was really more like tripping over logs and ending up in the water. We made it down to Holden Village around 7:45p and met up with Ryan and Philip who were wearing white terry cloth towels at 8p at the loading area. Started laughing so hard I was crying when they exclaimed that Pizza Night is actually Saturday night not Friday night, so there was no pizza that evening! But they did sit in the sauna and hot tub and eat stir fry so all was well. I wanted in on some of that hot tub business- how many people climb Bonanza and end up in a hot tub later the same day??? Thankful for our Holden Homie Hookup. Sean and I sat by the creek and made dinner, then we raced to the snack bar once Philip told us that they have ICE CREAM FOR A DOLLAR until 9p. Left the creek at 8:50p and made it just in time. Philip said the ice cream beta is to get a single scoop, because a single scoop is actually like three regular scoops. I said fug that when I saw that the triple scoop was called a BONANZA. Uhm excuse me I just climbed Bonanza and now I am definitely going to order the Bonanza triple scoop. Philip seemed concerned, “No I don’t think you understand, nobody orders that, that’s just gluttonous.” I insisted, and when I ordered it the volunteer scooper got so excited, “I’ve always wanted to scoop one of those but no one has ever ordered it!” I really thought Philip was just kidding… First ascent of Bonanza triple scoop? Possibly. Also possibly FKT of completion of Bonanza triple scoop. I’ll have to go back and get the unsupported FKT next time tho because the boyz did help a little. I wondered why they didn’t name an ice cream dish after Martin Peak and then realized if a Martin was on the menu it would just be a bowl of sprinkles because it’s such a chosspile.
Looking at the stars while soaking in a hot tub after two days of epic climbing was surreal. I didn’t even care that I had a belly full of three softball size scoops of ice cream and was getting a belly ache sitting in hot water. We camped outside of the village that night and made plans for a Casual Copper Experience the next day… Day 3: Sat 7/6 Holden Village>Copper>Holden Village We woke up around 7a to MIA’s Bad Girls on my phone, the boyz asked me to be the alarm in the am. “Live fast die young bad girls do it well…” We had originally planned on leaving camp at 8a for a Holden to Holden “active recovery rest day” ascent of Copper peak, but the appeal of breakfast in Holden was strong. Besides, the weather was bluebird, no way was it going to rain after 11a like was originally forecasted! We went to Holden and ate breakfast, didn’t end up departing for Copper until 9:10a. We were expecting a super casual day, “It’s like practically a walk up right??” I had screenshots of Fletcher & Robinson’s super helpful TR on my phone that we used for beta (thanks boyz!). The only casual part of Copper was our start time… ok and maybe Ryan’s foot wear strategy on the approach of chacos+gaiters.
The first bit of the trail to get up to Copper Basin was steep and I felt like vomming my breakfast up the whole time. I def got too excited about real food and ate too much. The bugs in the basin were wretched. Took the climbers trail off to the right before hitting the basin and followed it through some boulders and eventually headed up and rightward across a burned knoll. The bugs followed me through this section and I felt like an alpine version of Pig Pen from Charlie brown- covered in soot from the burn section and encased in a cloud of mosquitoes. The boyz looked back at me, “Omg Rikki you’re in a swarm of mosquitoes” YA THANKS LIKE I WASN’T AWARE! I re-applied some bug spray but the swarm persisted (only around me of course) until we got above the burn section and through the thicc larches.
We started up some talus to get over the moraine and then headed up some snow to reach the upper snow fields. We exited the snow early and scrambled up some waterfall slabs (not the move) I recommend continuing up the snow a bit higher before traversing rightward to go up to the weakness in Copper’s east ridge. Did some heather high daggering for a short bit through some sections getting up to this notch which was fun. We went up this ridge for a little while until we could traverse out right to the benches below the lower of the two snowfields. There was a final steep snow climb up to the C3 scramble to gain the bench above. We continued rightward up and down some scree and talus until we made it out to the northeast ridge.
Scrambling was fun, mostly C3, with a short exposed C4 section along the way. This C4 section has black lichen and some big loose boulders so take care. Towards the end of the ridge as you near the summit you are forced left, this is where stuff got a bit looser.
Ryan and Sean about to get loose. Summitted around 3:15p and were happy to have our third peak in the bag for the trip. Took a break on the summit, listened to some tunes that came in on a random station on Sean’s radio, and then headed back down.
Sean found his bagel that he left at a break on ascent and happily ate it while we filtered water. As we got to the lower bench someone mentioned something about running down to make it back in time for ice cream at the snack bar. I balked a little (ok a lot) because I was tired and couldn’t be motivated by ice cream after consuming the triple scoop just a day prior. We made our descent fairly uneventful, until I managed to pull down a pile of boulders on my shins coming down the moraine… oh the bruises! Once we got back down to Copper basin the bugs seemed to have subsided and I was quite relieved. But that relief was soon replaced with dismay when the boyz insisted on “trail running” the final miles back to Holden to make it to ice cream in time… I made a “I f*ing hate you face,” and half-hearted-dragged-ass-jogged my way down in mountaineering boots… trailing pretty far behind them from this point on.
Will we make it back in time?!?
Will we make it back in time?!?
We took the “Snack Bar Direct” route and snagged a spot in line around 8:30p. I *only* got a double scoop this time, strawberry cheesecake and hot fudge- Sean’s ice cream beta from the night prior. We went downstairs and played ping pong before making our way towards the hot tub again. Philip is a ping pong champion, no surprise there. We saw the, “guy from the bus that Ryan Bulger list proselytized,” in the hot tub. He asked us where we were from, “Oh were kinda just feral,” Sean honestly replied. We ate some dinner afterwards and headed back towards our camp to have an actual casual day the following day.
Ping ponging
Ping ponging
Day 4: Sun 7/7 Holden Village>Seattle Woke up earlier than expected and went to the dining hall for breakfast. It was BREAKFAST BURRITO DAY! Which meant I got to do my usual post climb routine of breakfast burrito+ice bath. Although at home I usually eat said breakfast burrito while I sit in my ice bath, I ate it in the dining hall like a normal human being and then sat in the creek for a few minutes afterwards. We had to say goodbye to our dear friend Philip as he boarded the first bus in the morning to go on a backpacking trip. This gave us the chance to be official Holden wavers as the bus drove off. I don’t think we embarrassed him at all. Lil’ Buckskin was on the table for our casual Sunday, Philip said it goes in 5 hours RT, but we orphaned it. Gotta go back for that one. :P We went back to the campsite to pack up, very slowly. Sean turned on his radio and got some station that played CCR’s I Put a Spell on You, and he proceeded to sing along to it at the top of his lungs and dance around me while he finished packing. I’m not sure if I laughed harder at any other point on this trip, but it was a close tie with about the other 27401 times. *Swooon* We moseyed around town until the second bus came in the afternoon. I was bummed the gift shop was closed because it was Sunday, I was really hoping for some Holden swag after having such a memorable trip… The bus got to the dock in Lucerne and informed us the Lady Boat was running behind schedule… Sean and Ryan opted to do a running jump into Chelan off the dock with our spare time… twice! Sean brought his swimsuit on the trip, I thought he was joking when he had asked me while I was packing days earlier- “You brought your swimsuit right?!”
The Lady Boat finally arrived about 45 mins late, as we shuffled our bodies onto the boat Sean pointed out that there was a guy wearing a sick Holden Village sweatshirt that had a mountain range of some of the peaks we just climbed. “Whoa I love your sweater! We just climbed three of those peaks! Oh wow I wish it wasn’t Sunday I would’ve totes bought that sweater!” Then I recognized him as the same guy that Ryan chatted up on the bus to Holden days prior, and the guy from the hot tub… This guy saw how much I loved his sweater, AND GAVE ME THE SWEATER OFF HIS BACK! I insisted on giving him the crumpled final dollars I had left in my Ziploc but he turned them down. “I’m on the board so I can get another pretty easily…” I gave him a hug and thanked him profusely, I think I may have even called him an angel. In disbelief and on cloud nine we sat outside on the deck for the ferry ride back to Fields Point. In the car ride back to Seattle I looked this guy up, turns out he’s the board prez of Holden Village (we also saw him driving on the freeway and waved frantically at him from our car). Yo Josh if you find yourself in Seattle hmu I’ll buy you a drink!
Happiest girl alive with her new sweater!
Happiest girl alive with her new sweater!
What a magical trip. I should probs retire from climbing now because I don’t think any trip will ever measure up to what that trip was. Thankful for the weather, route conditions, our amazing team, the fantasy land that is Holden, and the generosity of strangers. I've been wearing my new sweatshirt for two days straight.
Signs of a good weekend.
Signs of a good weekend.

Choss is a girl's best friend

zimmertr
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Jake Robinson
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PostTue Jul 09, 2019 4:02 pm 
That's quite a first TR, thanks for sharing! Sounds like you all had a great time up.gif Holden is definitely a unique and wonderful place, and Bonanza and Copper are really fun. Martin though...

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Mosquito Food
This is how we do it



Joined: 11 Jan 2008
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Mosquito Food
This is how we do it
PostTue Jul 09, 2019 4:21 pm 
Dang you guys pick some hard stuff. I'm too old for that crap. LOL on that last pic, precious. up.gif

Fueled by cornbread
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Alden Ryno
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PostTue Jul 09, 2019 4:55 pm 
A great write up! I get worried about writing lengthy TRs and including the "mundane" things, however, I LOVE reading it from other people, so "thank you" for that! Seeing so many people go up Bonanza in the past week or so plus a positive first uplake experience for me this past weekend to Stehekin (for Goode, Storm King winksmile.gif ) makes me want to add a Holden trip to my list this year... It's great to see that y'all had such a blast!

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Michael Lewis
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Michael Lewis
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PostTue Jul 09, 2019 5:32 pm 
Killer TR! Nice story and pics. I get nostalgia from my Enchantments scars. Probs climbin Bonzo next week pending weather. I have a score to settle with that one.

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rstoddard24
BBQWingz



Joined: 30 Dec 2016
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rstoddard24
BBQWingz
PostTue Jul 09, 2019 5:59 pm 
Excellent write-up! This was a fun group, thanks all for safe climbs and good times. Sharing wild experiences with good people is what its all about
Dreamy sunset on Martin's West Ridge
Dreamy sunset on Martin's West Ridge

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RichP
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PostTue Jul 09, 2019 6:44 pm 
Emil Farnswort. lol.gif

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Brushbuffalo
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PostTue Jul 09, 2019 8:04 pm 
~*CutebutChossy69*~ wrote:
I wondered why they didn’t name an ice cream dish after Martin Peak and then realized if a Martin was on the menu it would just be a bowl of sprinkles because it’s such a chosspile.
Funniest trip report I've read since the queen of charm, Granola Girl, more or less retired from this forum. Keep at it, pleez!

Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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Nancyann
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PostTue Jul 09, 2019 8:38 pm 
Superb first trip report, complete with a Brocken Spectre photo! Thanks for taking the time to write this one up. up.gif

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Gimpilator
infinity/21M



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Gimpilator
infinity/21M
PostWed Jul 10, 2019 4:00 pm 
Thanks. I enjoyed your report. We were too mentally exhausted for Martin, the day after Bonanza. Bonanza remains one of the toughest peaks I've ever done.

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puzzlr
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puzzlr
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PostWed Jul 10, 2019 6:31 pm 
Very entertaining report -- please post more. I have yet to climb Bonanza and need all the encouragement I can get (Gimpilator -- you're not helping smile.gif )

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fourteen410
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PostWed Jul 10, 2019 9:03 pm 
That username though lol.gif lol.gif

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nachesrider
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PostSat Jul 13, 2019 8:59 am 
I love your post, great pictures and descriptions, thank you for sharing

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Downhill
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PostMon Jul 15, 2019 12:48 pm 
Fantastic! Thanks for taking the time to write such an entertaining TR, er, short story is actually more like it. Very fun to read - I hope you will post more! With the experience of the boat ride, time in Holden Village and the climb, Bonanza remains as one of my most memorable trips. Bonanza is also probably the loosest climbs I've ever done (tied with Klawatti). Looking forward to your next story!

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Michael Lewis
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Michael Lewis
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PostMon Jul 15, 2019 6:33 pm 
Now that I went back up there I can definitely say you guys were FAST (not to overshadow how insanely fast RynoA was)

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