It's getting to be that time of year again...

As we all already know, ice is sometimes hard to find in this neck of the woods. Please post often what you climb and what you find so that we can all have a better season.

I'll start:

Nada Lake Falls is in:

Right... and weren't you planning to climb it today with two partners? what happened?

Hiked around Strobach on Sunday to stretch the legs and see if anything was starting to form. Nothing is even remotely close.

Snow was shin to knee deep on approach; flotation recommended.

Also talked to some elk hunters on the road in; apparently elk season starts Wednesday so wear your orange

It might be a good year at Strobach later with all this wet weather. Eariest I've climbed there ever is the first week of December and it was pretty thin then. Thanks.

Most of the lakes on the approach werent even frozen so we are going to need an extended cold snap to start things forming. Could be good but we need some cold first

I have never been to frozen Nada Falls. Will anybody please tell me what's it's rated and how long it is? Avy danger "grade"?

Looks like 2-3...

Thank you in advance!

Hey all, I am going to try and keep up this year as always. http://www.wastateice.net/Conditions.aspx I'll take things from here but feel free to send me updates direct.

Earliest I've climbed at Strobach was the first week of Dec, during a cold year. We were still able to drive to the beginning of 609 road then witha minivan, and climbed Sad Ce'be in thin but protectable conditions. I don't think it's been really cold enough yet, but the moisture we have is critical component of fat climbs there.

alex,

this is nitpicky but on wastateice.net the new season is listed as 2008!

thx cut n paste, will fix in a moment

edit: I am running into a wierd FTP bind error that is probably a result of me being behind a differnt proxy right now. I will fix from home later tonight.

Alex: many thanks for keeping WA ice current!

And thanks in advance to all that report on conditions!

I hiked around Strobach with Rafael on Sunday, scouting out some potential and just getting a good workout.

The good news is that the temps at ~4500 were cold enough to maintain the snow pack, the surface hoar, and all that. Ice was forming where routes will be later in the season. The bad news is nothing is climbable yet, and there isnt enough snow on Strobach's NW face to feed the climbs even if the cold stays. We need more snow!

It *IS* Elk season, but the two hunters we saw were bow hunters.

sweet, so instead of getting hit with a bullet you'll get nailed by an arrow!

Some conditions update for the weekend...

As of wednesday hwy 20 ice is thinnnnnnn and old avalanches have screwed things up!

As of today, Alpental has lots and lots of ice forming up fast..nothing ready to go yet but given this continuous cold things should be looking good by early next week. Chair peak looks nice and white.

Vague I know but its better than nothing! Plus all the snow is bullet hard, no need for flotation.

Somebody's gonna get on some ice in WA this weekend...its getting cold!!!

14' F. at my place this morning... with a ten-day forecast for more of the same. Roll on winter!!!

Went on a lazy scouting mission today. Hubba Hubba is thin... we decided to leave it for another weekend.

Nice picture, I wouldn't have recognized it as Hubba Hubba if you hadn't said it. Thanks.

Went for a solo hike because as ususal no one gets out these days. Found a nice line, WI 3 or 4, I'm guessing 5 pitches. Was planning on trying to solo it, but it was steeper and much bigger then I'd remembered in the summer, so didn't even bother trying. Took me about 2 hours of easy walking to get there today.

Keep 'em comin' Craig. Mark should be back tomorrow... We gotta hook you up with some more of the Old Farts!
-Curt

Where is that?

I charge if your over a certain age for that carry all the gear / rope gun factor...



I'm not a competitive climber for the most part, but I did put some work into finding that route. I would be really irritated if someone went up there without me and climbed it, as I couldn’t find a partner to climb it on Sunday. Just wanted to show all the ice that’s out there right now. I’m going to go climb it on Saturday if it doesn’t dump snow and then I’ll post more.

Frenchman Falls will most likely be "in" by the weekend. Though the book says its a 4, its not that easy so use caution. I've climbed it twice and both times found myself dancing on egg shells with roaring water underneath 25 meters above my last good piece. Kurt Hicks had a similar expierence a few years back. All the other climbs at Vantage are dry, no ice.

Will post pics tonight

After my second time I promised myself I would never do it again. But here it is for those of you who want might want it. Maybe you wont find it in all that bad conditions. Should be good to go just in time for the weekend, a nice treat. This is a prime example of a climb that will be in for a day or two and gone the next. The picture is from this morning.

I wonder when the last time was somebody climbed frenchman's and had it feel reasonably safe (ie, something other than a shell of aerated ice over fast running water). I thought in an older thread somebody said it used to form up nice and solid. Nevertheless, a striking character building climb, but not one I'd repeat without better conditions.

edit:
nevermind, was thinking of this thread and this quote, which I had totally backwards.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/764127/2

"When I lived back in Ellensburg as a young college student, I remember climbing Frenchmen's once a bit after Ellensburg, WA made the news as being the coldest town in the lower 48 states of America for five days straight. I think it got down to -26F one of the nights. Frenchmen's was still hollow at the top and running underneath.
With that kind of cold and lots of irrigation runoff, Eastern Washington was so huge, that you'd never even contemplate going to Banff or Norway."