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Trip: Lundin - Southeast Ridge Trip Date: 11/17/2018 Trip Report: Ahhhhhhh......... Smooting. Is there ever a better fall activity? Wait, don't answer that. Just look at the photos below and don't feel so sad that the ski season hasn't really started yet (have you bought your Smoot copy yet?). And get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that @cfire, @genepires, @Kit, and myself all had a very nice friendship hike to the top of a snowy ridge. "Congratulations! it wasn't terrible."- @cfire #moderatealpinism Gear Notes: half rope, ice axe, crampons, helmet, light rack (this time of year). When the rock is dry you can probably scramble it all at a grade of exposed Cl. 4. Snow and ice made it a bit more exciting. Approach Notes: Commonwealth Basin trail to the end and then follow the ridge up.

Trip: Buckhorn Mountain - High Traverse Trip Date: 11/18/2018 Trip Report: Sunday was summer-like t-shirt weather in the Olympics! I took advantage and did a high traverse over Buckhorn, NE Buckhorn, Iron, and Worthington from the Big Quilcene valley. The views were incredible and the terrain was engaging albeit a bit chossy. Surprisingly, despite the traverse being well above 6000' elevation, there was zero snow on the entire thing. The difference between the Olympics and Cascades right now is significant. Approximate route: Foreshortened view of Buckhorn(s) and Iron from the Big Q trail: Marmot Pass: Buckhorn from Marmot Pass. The main peak is an easy walkup on trail: Constance, Warrior, and Inner Constance from Buckhorn trail: Mystery, Fricaba, and Deception from Buckhorn trail: View of the traverse from the top of Buckhorn. NE peak in the middle, Worthington on the left. Iron is hidden behind the NE peak. The descent off NE Peak (pictured here) was easily the crux. In general, stay on the east side and pick your way down various chimney/groove/ledge systems. It's never more than 4th class, but a rope could be useful here. Choss lovers delight: Easy slopes up to Worthington: Looking back on the traverse from Worthington. Iron Mountain is middle left, NE Buckhorn middle right, and Buckhorn proper on the right. Big Q Valley from Worthington: After tagging Worthington I dropped down on the east side and traversed below cliffs back to ~4800' on the Big Q trail to avoid any bushwhacking. A staged bike and a continuation over Hawk, Welch and all the way to Townsend (pictured here) would be a great alternative exit: That'll do summer 2018, that'll do... Gear Notes: Helmet! Approach Notes: Nice trail

Version 13 now! KMZ, KML, and PDF. New Ice Climbs In SW BC Version 13.pdf West Coast Ice Climbs.kml West Coast Ice Climbs.kmz

Trip: Vancouver Island- Elkhorn Mountain - Threading The Needle: WI-4, M-3, D+, 310 Meters Trip Date: 03/10/2018 Trip Report: With clears skies forecast Chris Jensen, Ryan Van Horne and I packed our bags and set our sites on Elkhorn Mountain. Initially our climb was to be on it's Northeast Face, but slightly warmer temperatures had the face shedding snow at an uncomfortable rate. Fortunately for us the North Face of the mountain, which we traversed on our way to scope the North-East Face, was solid and worthy of climbing. Here's the North-East Face looking as though it's in the Cordillera Blanca: We set up shop at the bottom of a deep chimney that had a promising start and appeared to continue upwards to the large snow pack above us. With a nice looking grade 4 pitch above us I racked up and set off. As per usual it was steeper than we thought, fortunately for our arms the lower section was close to a rock face and we were able to stem back and rest up for the upper half of the pitch. Here's Ryan enjoying a rest before he ran our of rock to rest on: With this fun pitch below us our stoke was high. Ryan racked up and lead the second pitch which had constant grade 2/3 steps for 50 meters. Here's Ryan dealing with the first step of the second pitch: Once anchored off above the second pitch we found ourselves at the base of the upper snow field. Chris took this pitch all the way to the start of the grade 4 pitch of an existing route: The Winter Needle. Here's Chris punching steps up the upper snow field en route to the upper mountain: With this long pitch below we set our sites on the existing route: The Winter Needle. Unfortunately the warm temperatures now exercising their influence on conditions we once again opted to back off and re-route our path due to spin drift coming down. A long pitch that had 20 meters of simultaneously-climbing lead us to a solid anchor just below a short mixed section that hopefully would allow us access to the Northwest aspect of the mountain. Here's Ryan making his way up the mixed section atop pitch 4: With our belay now in the sun, for the first time, we realized time was going to be an issue. Fortunately the top pitch of the Winter Needle has an easy chimney that leads to the summit. Here's Ryan and Chris enjoying the sun atop pitch 5: With day light at a premium Chris quickly set off and cruised up a snow slope to a comfy belay not too far from the summit. Here's a view looking down from the top of pitch 6: With the sun setting over the west coast of the island Chris, Ryan and I found ourselves standing atop the island's second highest mountain under blue bird conditions- definitely a summit experience to remember as the sky lit up and and smiles were wide. After a few quick photos on the summit we descended the upper section of the Northwest Ridge in the dark- 5 rappels and some down climbing later we found ourselves back on the Northwest ridge and at our camp some 15 hours after we set off. Threading The Needle: 6 pitch, 310 Meter, D+, WI4, M3 P1- WI4, 50 MeterP2- WI3, 50 MeterP3- WI2, 120 Meter, mostly snow slope (simul climbed after 60 Meters)P4- WI3, 80 Meter (20 Meter Simul Climb after WI3 step)P5- WI3/M3, 50 MeterP6- WI2, 60 Meter Gear Notes: Full rack of screws, handful of cams and nuts, 4 pins Approach Notes: Approach the the North-West Ridge trail, as described in Island Alpine Select by Phillip Stone.

Trip: Mt Ellinor - Rose to NW gully Trip Date: 05/27/2018 Trip Report: The first time I attempted this was almost 20 years ago, we made it up onto Mt Ellinor from the Mt Rose trail but were turned away by chest deep postholing. The route we took up and across the south face was awful, loose steep and no fun at all. However with no desire to retrace our steps we were forced to find another way down, which appeared to be a 14 mile hike down to the 24 and back to the Mt Rose trailhead. As the trail gained the ridge overlooking the lake the GPS said we were 1/2 mile from the car and the dirt slide of death descent was dicscovered! The second half of the puzzle was solved but it took a chance encounter with a Mt Rose trail crew member to figure out a better first half... We started up the Mt Rose trail about 8:30, not sure of our beta to search out a new trail and hopefully make it up the unillusive Mt Ellinor, the whore of the Olympics, ready for any and all comers. Sure enough we found the sign proclaiming Bear Camp was a mere .7 miles away. Kind of a neat destination in itself. After poking around a bit we headed westward on a trail as we knew we needed to gain the ridge or we'd end up where I did so many years ago. The trail got us quickly over to the ridge where we promptly lost it and did some serious Olympic bushwacking and log crawling with some slide alder/Devils club action to spice it up. But really not too bad as there was still snow covering a lot of it and the DC was just starting to sprout. After traversing under the ridge for an hour or so we stopped and looked at the map and wisely decided to cross the ridge before we followed it down to Mt Pershing, accomplishing this feat at the highest point on the ridge! We were rewarded with a new view of the summit we were after. Braver men might have stayed high and followed the SW Ridge? (right skyline) up but my fear of the south face and desire to ascend the steep snow of the NW gully won out, forcing us to descend about 500 feet and work our way around the left shoulder in the pic above and up 1000 feet of easily kicked in steps. Approaching the summit we could see the ess shaped route of our descent off the ridge and be content knowing we took 7 hours to climb what most people climb in an hour or two. Tagged the summit, slid down most of the the rapidly disintergrating winter chute and scampered down the trail to the head of the dirt slide of death. The dirt slide went pretty well but became overgrown about halfway down, necessitating, you guessed it, more schwacking! Moving slowly with tired legs on a never ending descent we finally hit the road just a couple hundred yards from the car. It was a great day and a challenging way to climb an old friend. Gear Notes: Axe, lightweight traction Approach Notes: A little schwacky here and there