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Trip: Illumination Rock - Skylight (though now it's skylight-less) Trip Date: 11/20/2023 Trip Report: Artem and I took advantage of some high pressure to climb Skylight on the N face of I-rock Monday 11/20. We found the route to be longer than anticipated (perhaps due to glacial recession or lower snow pack in November?) and climbed to the ridge in 4 pitches. The first pitch was lower angle but involved thin verglass at the start and facet snow with a thin rime crust perched on the rock slabs above, the unstable snow layer on any low angle rock continued for the rest of the route (50m M3). Second pitch was fun and had a fair bit of rock exposed as the angle increased (50m M4). Third pitch climbed lower angle terrain to a physical corner and finished with insecure snow on rock meandering to below the final crux where I stopped as I was already low on gear (30-40m M5, doubles from .5-3 would be nice here). The fourth pitch was a short but strenuous up a corner and then stemming through steep stacked blocks to the top (10m M5). We declined the traverse to the summit as it was south facing sun baked rime mushrooms on slab that were collapsing. We rappelled from a horn on the ridge that had a lot of tat. One double rope rappel and a little down climbing got us off via the South Chamber. Overall, this is a fun route that I would recommend, a little shorter than NY Gully but higher quality and more sustained climbing. Also of note... the rock arch that formed the "skylight" that is the routes namesake is gone, the East Skylight which has a slightly harder route to it is still there. Based on observations we think this fell down in the past year. Here are some pictures... Nice shots of the S face from the approach: Reid Glacier: The route from the start of the roped climbing: Perspective from the first two belays: Looking up at our P3: View of Castle Crags and Reid HW: Reid Glacier / Yocum Ridge / St. Helens / Adams: Belay below the last bit of climbing: Artem approaching the penultimate belay: Summit of I-rock on the right and Reid HW behind: Artem on the final moves: Rap horn on the ridge: Pulling ropes in the South Chamber (luckily the rime was slush at this point and we weren't too worried): Walking away, one last view of the S side of I-rock: Gear Notes: Double from fingers to fists (hexes could be nice for the second set in the often Scottish conditions), lots of nuts, slings and a few pins. Approach Notes: Hike to the saddle and drop down to the North. Look for the obvious weakness in the face.

My evil plan for engagement worked Puppy. Well the thing is with drones is depending on the environment you may not even notice them. Easiest way to detect them may be to search YouTube for your favorite wilderness area. Then , I guess, “who cares”, right. I get what you’re saying. It’s like if you get your car stolen, and you call the police and expect them to round up a posse and ride out three counties to find it. Instead they may not even send out an officer to talk to you, instead directing you to fill out an online form and that’s it. No man, this is the last straw. The only thing that separates as from the other animals. OVER THE LINE!!!!

We descended Goode after climbing the NEB on Wed, 7/27. From the summit, we made three raps back down the summit prominence to the skier's right of the route, passing by a pillar and then trending even harder skier's right to end at a webbing ladder below a slab -- the ladder brings you down to a short foot path to the Black Tooth Notch and you can stay on rappel to reach secure footing on the path, using the ladder to assist. From the end of this path, there's a short step down 5', where a large boulder has an obvious rap station on the left. A direct rap (slightly skier's left) led to a sandy sloping ledge with another station. The second rap from the notch was directly down a full 30m to a small alcove. A third rap brings you down into the (currently snow-filled) gully. From there, we scrambled down rock rather than using the short-lived snow ribbon.

Did you rap right at the end of the "dirt ledge"? If so, yes, you rapped too high in the gully, along with whoever put the tat in. We removed one from there a few years ago so it's not an unusual mistake. From what I can remember, you cross the dirt ledge to the "Black Notch" and then descend 100' of third and fourth class terrain (skiers left) to the next rap station located well into the gully.