Well because the severe weather yesterday I had the day off. Knowing that there was that possibility, I used my dome and had called Alpinfox the day before and told him of the possibility. So when I got word that there was no work in the morning we made a plan to get a true alpine start at 10:00am to seek out some ice up in Snoqualime Pass.
We planned on hitting up the Black Ice dry tooling area so we wouldn't have to drive to far up the Pass and cause I had never been there. I first wanted to check out the Amazonia wall to see if it had been cold enough to freeze up that drip next to Iguanarama. Well on our way up to the Mount Washington parking lot we noticed the gate was open so we quickly snagged the locking pin so we wouldn't get locked in and drove up to the Iron Horse Trail. On the way to the IHT I noticed a new opening in the woods with ice so we decided to check that out first since it was right off the IHT. After a 50 yard hike East along the IHT and a 200 hundred yard bushwhack up hill to the ice we were at the base.
The first pitch was a thin grade 3- pitch that was about 75 feet of ice. It was fun, the finish to it being the crux, where you had to climb up and over a blow-down that was lying across the flow. The tree climbing was interesting with wood sticks and turf plants. After that there was a 40 foot 3+ that was quite enjoyable with no brush climbing this time and the ice was thick enough to take a 17cm ice screw. Since this wasn't in the new guide book and it looks like the area had just opened up from the wind storms that we had, sort of curious if anyone has climbed it before. Anyone know?
Well after we were done there we decided to head up to Amazonia wall. On our way to the trail head we passed the car and noticed that someone left a note on it. It was a card left by a line worker telling us to give him a call when were done so that he could lock the gate. That was nice of him to not lock us in and leave the note, we figured he probably didn't have a spare pin to do so anyway.
We made it up to Amazonia and there was a considerable amount of ice there. The drip next to Iguanarama still had a way to go, but looked really cool. To the left there was a thin ramp and short column I decided to try. Made it up to the base of the thin cloumn then chickened out on pulling through the short over hang that the column came down through. Instead I cut around to the left up a easy ramp. I was bummed that I wimped out, but oh well next time. Hiked up and checked out the cave to see if there was ice on the wall not enough for screws though. It looked like it would be fun to climb them as mixed routes, but we were running short on day light (even with our alpine start) and they looked sort of hard since I don't have much experience in dry tooling.
Well here is to an excellent day
Mr. Alpinfox got photos?

awesome

Driving up to the pass yesterday afternoon, the long waterfall in those bluffs on the north side of the highway, just past exit 38, looked phat. It was running water on Sunday. Warning: phatness may have been exaggerated by the whiteout conditions, limiting visibility.

<nevermind>

Post deleted by Alpinfox

Ken near top of first pitch:



Ken at the base of the second pitch:



Ken leading 2nd pitch:


The left side of Amazonia wall; our second climb went up the left skyline to the base of the pillar near the top and then cut left (because Ken wimped out, HA!):


Ice formation on the center of Amazonia wall comes from the "Luxurious Drippage" mentioned in the guidebook. The bending of the icicles due to wind was quite impressive:



If Ken would get a digital camera so I could have some nice pictures of ME for a change, then I wouldn't post embarassing pictures of him like this:

eric8 and I climbed the first pitch of this route yesterday after spending most of the day at Alpental. It was getting dark, so we skipped the second pitch and exited left into dirt instead of going up the obvious central curtain. The rootball of the fallen tree gave excellent tool placements. Fun little route with a minimal approach!



Here's how it looked. Too bad you can't see the running water...


And here's Eric leading:

WOW! Hey way to go!

I figured it would have all fallen down by now. Glad to see it's still there and somebody got on it. Too bad you didn't get on the second pitch; it was the better of the two. That rootball sure was fun though!

YEEEHAW!

I was coming back through on Friday and noticed it was still there. Cool, glad some other folks were able to get on it too.

This climb is probably "IN" right now and I think someone might enjoy doing it in the next few days.

See my photo gallery for some pics of "HTGT"

It's not now. Unless you enjoy dripping icicles, partially frozen turf, and pulling over crux snags without any ice at all.
Still better than the bare rock of Comic Book Hero or the well loaded avalanche slope above Hubba Hubba.

link didn't work for me. could just be me? ??

Yeah. The trip report and gallery got kinda messed up in the move from the old cascadeclimbers.com.

Just go to the gallery and search for "htgt"

cool thanks. nice pics!

Just got a message from AlpineDave that "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" is in right now. He and CascadeClimber climbed it today.

His pix:

p1:

p2:

HTGT was still in fine shape yesterday.

does that mean it needs to be renamed?

http://www.ademiller.com/climbing/gallery/cascades/washington_ice/x38_2008/index.htm

Pictures of CYA at the Black Ice crag. Worth the trip but it's not going to last!