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  1. Yesterday
  2. Thinking about heading up Diamond Peak this week, anyone know the status of Forest Road 6010 leading up to Rockville Rd? What's the closest access point for a DP summit?
  3. Last week
  4. Putting myself into the mix here. Not quite sure, but I expect I'll be around Rainier for about a month in June/July. Would be stoked on skiing, but I could be convinced to hike it too.
  5. I think those were by far my favorite trip reports to read. They also fall in line of my thoughts on wouldn't it be cool to climb.. like Sir Alexandra in Canada they are far in and very committing. You are fortunate to have found a partner to attempt these climbs with you. Keep em up and Cheers to you both!
  6. Matt was a good forecaster and I am sure a very talented individual. Its a sad deal in many aspects. Never knew about crap like that on the internet, I appreciate you guys sharing. I hope the NWAC Family is getting time to process this tragic event.
  7. Sorry guys....removed the link.
  8. https://www.wired.com/story/morbid-war-online-obituaries/
  9. I’m really sorry to hear of this, I did not know the deceased but I can tell you that obituary reposting (even if inaccurate) is a full on cottage industry. I read an article a while back about it. Definitely a dark corner of the internet IMO. I’ll probably remove Jason’s link soon because it has a scammy fake virus pop up. Don’t click on it or believe it!
  10. Immediately following NWAC's announcement of the news, several obituaries (one linked above) appeared. As those seemed to conflate the NWAC announcement and some other unrelated sources, it seems like they may have been automatically generated. Now that it has been confirmed by multiple news sources that the cause was a climbing accident and not a crash, I'm reasonably certain that this is the case. Why someone would use an LLM to generate an obituary is unclear to me, but it is definitely the case that a lot of people (myself included) will click through on everything when there's a news-vacuum. Updated news from authoritative sources: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/avalanche-forecaster-dies-in-climbing-fall-near-leavenworth/ https://www.ncwlife.com/news/nwac-forecaster-killed-in-rock-climbing-accident/article_8c814908-e093-11ee-b496-e3abfdd9d0f8.html Finally, here's the link to the family's GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/supporting-stella-and-milo Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and everyone at NWAC.
  11. I saw the biggest collection of "hippy stacks" last year in the Austria Alps. It was crazy. At the pass between the Dresdner and Sulzenau Huts, overlooking the lake and glacier. But Europe is in its own universe as far as man's interaction with nature.
  12. Thanks! My favorites so far are definitely the ones in the chilliwacks I've gotten this winter (Hard Mox, Spickard, Custer, Rahm). I guess that's four. It feels kind of like an Alaska expedition to get in there by boat up Ross Lake then bushwhack in and find glaciated peaks. It's amazing WA has places like that!
  13. Happy you guys made it down in one piece. That was quite the epic. Good to see the old guys giving you some solid advice here and I hope you take it and maybe throttle down the objectives to more moderate terrain until you have a good base of knowledge and experience in the mountains. As an old guy, I remember Marc Andre on here many years ago doing moderate objectives around Vancouver, posting TR's and being completely stoked to get advice. You should try it. The harder stuff will come with time, or you'll run out of time with horrible results. I've been on here long enough to see too many people get in over their heads and never come back. Don't let that be you. Climbing those kind of routes in winter adds another level of complexity. Try some longer summer alpine routes to get "The Dance" worked out. And a space blanket lives in every one of my packs without leaving. Even better, a lightweight bivy bag or tarp. Canadian Rockies guides don't climb without one. Found that out the hard way after our own epic up there, and I was seasoned even back then! Cheers and good luck!
  14. comparatively for you...this almost seems like it was one of the easiest....and then comparatively for me...it would stand out as one my greater achievements....
  15. Awesome report!! What are your favorite 3 that you have done on this winter bulgers tick list?
  16. Got the speed hooks fixed, so the boots are good to go.
  17. Looking to join a team/partner up for this upcoming summer as well. Partner got injured and had to bail, we were looking at late June/early July but schedule is flexible. Feel free to reach out to discuss experience levels/logistics/etc. Portland based. pafischry@gmail.com
  18. Trip: Argonaut Peak - East Ridge/NE Couloir Trip Date: 03/09/2024 Trip Report: Argonaut Peak (8,455 ft) March 9, 2024 East Ridge/NE Couloir 18 miles skiing/climbing, 10 miles snowmobiling, 8300ft gain 73/100 Winter Bulgers Eric and Nick On the summit The weekend looked to be stormy but the Enchantments zone seemed to be getting hit the latest. I’d previously bagged all the Bulgers peaks in the Enchantments in winter except Argonaut, so we decided to go for it. The route I’ve previously climbed Argonaut twice via the south face route (May, August), which ascends a steep gully to the summit ridge followed by a class 3/4 scramble to the summit. This is not necessarily the best winter route, though. In February 2022 Nick and I had been camped near the base after climbing Sherpa and planned to climb the south face route, but my updated NWAC forecast on my inreach made us too nervous about snow stability. So we bailed that time. Our East Ridge/NE Couloir route (drawn on picture taken by John Scurlock from the north) This weekend the snow stability conditions didn’t look great for that route either. But Argonaut has many different route options, generally all technical. I noticed we could ascend gentle slopes up the Porcupine Creek drainage on the south side to gain the Argonaut-Colchuck col at 7700ft keeping the slope angle low. From there we could climb one of the technical routes up to the summit. The routes might require crossing short snow slopes, but we would be roped up clipped in to gear in the rock so would be protected. We would bring a 60m half rope, hexes, nuts, cams, and technical tools. I would bring one technical tool with a hammer (for the hexes) and one ultra-light corsa straight shafted axe with a custom 3D-printed adjustable pinky rest Nick had just printed. This would allow me to plunge in snow and save some weight. We’d also each bring our custom carbon fiber ascent plates Nick had CNC milled. Unloading the sled The main route options from that col appeared to be the East Gully, the East Ridge, and the NE Couloir. Neither of us had done any of these routes but we figured we could see what looked the most reasonable based on conditions and climb that. The first record I could find of a winter ascent of Argonaut was via the NE Couloir (Lurie, Feb 2006, NWMJ). But climbing the full couloir seemed too risky with the snow conditions since it’s a ~3,000ft long snow gully and I wouldn’t want to be in the bottom if it slid. Worst case we would just cross the top of it, roped up, which would be much safer. At the Beverly Creek trailhead The shortest approach would be from the Beverly Creek trailhead, which is accesible by snowmobile. In order to beat the incoming storm we wanted to summit by noon, so that meant leaving very early. We decided to do a car-to-car push to avoid carrying overnight gear over the fourth creek pass. Friday evening we got to the Twentynine Pines staging area on Teanaway River road, unloaded the sled, and went to bed. Saturday we were up and moving by 12:30am. The road had just been groomed and we made excellent time, hitting 40mph in places. The Beverly Creek turnoff was a bit rougher, but we reached the trailhead 20 minutes after leaving the truck. Interestingly, there was a nice skin track already going up from the trailhead. This is very unusual for winter Bulgers trips. Crossing Bean Creek We followed the tracks across Bean Creek, but then they diverged west after a few miles. It looked like they might have been heading for Iron Peak. We then broke trail up to the Fourth Creek saddle, and transitioned to ski mode. We had fun turns going down fourth creek, then transitioned to skins as it flattened out. We skinned down to Ingalls Creek, trying to set a good track for our return trip. Ingalls Creek The creek was too high to rock hop across, but we found a nice fallen log across near the trail crossing. It was 8″ wide with a foot of snow on top and lots of branches sticking out. I strapped my skis on my back and started over au chaval. I karate chopped the icy snow off the top, then used an ice tool to bang off the branches. Progress was slow but this worked and made for a nice smooth crossing on the return journey. On the other side we skinned up to the Ingalls Creek trail, followed it east for a half mile, then left the trail heading up the Porcupine Creek drainage. The slopes were nice and mellow angle and the forest was mostly open for easy travel. As we got higher to more open areas the snow had a firm sun crust. We started on the west side, then crossed over to the east side and ascended into the large bowl flanked by Argonaut, Colchuck, and Dragontail. Conditions were pleasant with no wind and great views of the summits. We knew that would change by afternoon, though. Approaching Argonaut in the upper Porcupine Creek drainage We noticed the East Gully route looked like it might go, though was kind of steep. We decided to head to the Argonaut-Colchuck col to scope out the East Ridge and NE Couloir to see which one we preferreed. As we crested the ridge the wind picked up from the south, and we noticed the north side would be much more sheltered. It looked doable to ascend the East Ridge then cross over the top of the NE Couloir to gain the upper north face of Argonaut. That sounded appealing given the wind direction, so we went for that route. At the col We ditched skis at the col, then roped up. Nick started first and we shortened the rope to 30m and simul climbed. The East Ridge started getting steep soon so we dropped onto a snow ramp which we traversed across to enter the NE Couloir. We got good gear in the rock to protect a fall in case the snow slid. On the opposite side of the Couloir Nick built an anchor and we swapped leads. I kicked steps up the right side of the couloir for 30m then when the couloir dead ended at a rock face I exited up and right. Crossing into the NE Couloir This section was the crux of the route. The snow got thin and steep on a rock slab except for a thick wind deposit about 3ft deep. I had to tunnel through it Cerro-Torre-style, digging down to the thin icy layer on top of the slab to get good purchase with my front points. I kind of wished I had the custom wings on my ice tools. Eventually I excavated out an old rap anchor, clipped it, and tunneled the last bit up to the low-angle north face snowfield. In the upper NE Couloir I belayed Nick up there with a solid hex anchor and we swapped again. Nick led up the left side of the snowfield, getting a few gear placements in the rocks on the side. We eventually simul climbed up to the summit ridge, and swapped leads again. I traversed the ridge, weaving the rope around horns and getting a few intermediate pieces in. I had to make a few mixed climbing moves getting over one rock step. At last, I saw the famous tunnel under the summit boulder, and luckily it had a big enough gap to squeeze through. Nick on the summit By 1pm I made the final short mixed scramble to the summit. I belayed Nick up off the summit horn, and we were soon both on the summit. It was windy, but luckily not snowing yet. It appeared the storm was coming in a bit later than forecast, which was great news. There was no view in the whiteout, so we soon regrouped and headed down. I led the way back as we simul downclimbed the ridge and retraced our exact track back down the snowfield. We regrouped above the crux, and we decided to simul downclimb that as well. Now that the snow was excavated and good steps were kicked it wouldn’t be too hard. I put the exact same gear placements in as on the way up, and we simuled back down to our previous anchor point. There Nick took over and led back across the ramp to the Argonaut-Colchuck col by 2:30pm. Descending the summit ridge Now the storm had hit with full force, and it was extremely windy and snowy. I was jostled off balance a few times. Back at the skis we put goggles on, and decided to crampon down in the whiteout until it got more sheltered. I followed the track on my watch since our up tracks were drifted over. After 10 minutes we got back into intermittent trees and the wind died down. Unexpectedly, it then cleared out and was partly sunny! It appeared to be a brief break in the storm, and came at the perfect time. We switched to skis and had fun turns down the big open slope. Though, lower down we hit sun crust which made skiing challenging. Hiking down in the storm We switched back to crampons and descended down into denser trees. Back in the trees the sun crust disappeared and we again skied back down. The icy lower sections had changed to a small layer or corn and made for excellent skiing. We eventually reached the Ingalls Creek trail as the sun gave way to heavy graupel and snow. There we skinned back to Ingalls Creek and scooted back across the log. Last view of the south face of Argonaut We then followed our tracks back up fourth creek as darkness set in. At the pass we switched back to ski mode and made a high traverse back down the Beverly Creek drainage. Interestingly, we encountered a set of snowshoe tracks that had followed our tracks up to 5000ft. This appears to be a relatively popular area in winter! I guess the road approach is only five miles, so a snowmobile isn’t really necessary. Though I certainly appreciated being able to sled in and out instead of walk. Sledding out It was fun cruising down the drainage, and we made it back to the sled by 8:45pm. We then strapped our gear on and got back to the truck around 9:15pm for a 21-hour push. Gear Notes: Snowmobile, 60m rope, skis, technical tools, hexes, nuts, cams, ascent plates (unused but we probably should have used them) Approach Notes: Sled to Beverly Creek TH, ski to Argonaut-Colchuck col
  19. Earlier
  20. Nice! Isn’t that the nature of rime? That it barely supports itself? Haha!
  21. Giving away for a friend who quit climbing a while ago. Shoes need a resole and harness is old software but I’d use it. Pick up in Lake City Seattle.
  22. Oh man. I am sad to hear this.
  23. Is that what those are? I will keep a eye out for you on others that might work
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