gravitywurks

Thanks to all for the beta. Looks like the cartridge stove goes in the pack and a little less water on the back. Hey bcollins, congrats! That is some pretty fast moving! I wish I could do this climb in 23 hours but I'm guessing I would be only halfway up the ridge when the lights went out!

Is there likely to be snow available along the ridge itself for water? Haven't done the route before and wondering whether at this time of year you just need to carry a lot or if you can tank up between the glacier and the summit? Thanks!!

Best bivi sites for a two day trip are about two pitches up the NE Ridge. You can make it in 6-9 hours depending on how fast and light you go. The rock up to these sites is totally scrambleable (actually the first 2/3 of the entire ridge are, even for me). About 1 hour further up is another great location. Get water at the slabs as you cross the glacier because the route is obviously dry. Oh yeah, bring crampons because there is one steep section of hard snow with bad runout. B.T.W. don't follow the snow finger up to the left at the base of the route. Go past that and cross over the red rocks, then turn left to follow the gully up. You'll know when you are on route because gully is well traveled.

Thanks to all for the info. We did the route yesterday and had the same conditions: loose snow and only the first 30 feet had good ice. We actually went off route and headed straight up to follow firmer snow but that probably turned out to be a mistake...steeper and still loose snow.Don't expect much protection; we ran the first three pitches because there wasn't a belay worth a damn. And Radon, sorry but no beer. We didn't find any track (other than the skiers trail to source lake) until the base of the NE Butt. We actually assumed no one had come in for the last few days but the wind is blowing a fair amount of loose snow around and covering things up.

Has anyone been up here in the last couple days? Any info on conditions and how well the route has consolidated? Thanks!

Has anybody done this climb recently? What's the route like? How much ice vs. snow on route and how good is the ice? Would you recommend this for someone that has limited experience on real ice and only a little more experience on steep snow? Thanks for any input!

Anyone done the North Face of Buckner recently? Any beta on the route? What's the ice like? Also, it sounds like the Sahale arm approach is better than Boston Basin (for a 2 day). Any thoughts on that? Thanks for any info!