goatboy

I love the low-budget psychology test section. Great touch! I drove by Ross Lake the other day and slowed just a bit to gaze up at the Col by Colonial and Snowfield. Love to go up there sometime. Thanks for the inspiration!

Climb: South Early Winter Spire-SW Couloir and South Arete Date of Climb: 4/29/2004 Trip Report: Got up bright and early last Thursday and drove up to WA Pass drinking coffee, pre dawn. The early start really paid off in lovely sunrise light and crunchy, firm snow to walk on. Parked at hairpin and booted up Spire Gully, pausing for this photo at the top: Next, we traversed over to the base of the SW Couloir and it was still very firm, requiring several kicks to make a small platform for each step. Could have used crampons at this point, but chose not to. Started climbing the Couloir and easily moved past the big chockstone at the bottom, which poses more of an obstacle later when the couloir melts out a bit more. Conditions in the couloir were excellent: Soon, we were in the upper couloir and passing through several sections of rock -- fortunately, the loose scree was all frozen in place, and it was very easy to simply scramble over it all. The climbing at this point is more "interesting," but pretty easy and fun. Here, too, the snow changed into short sections of alpine ice, snow, intermittent frozen scree, ice, snow again . . . and so forth. All too soon, the couloir terminates just below the summit, where a magnificent cornice overhangs the east face: Above this point, it is an easy 5.0 rock move or two to gain the summit: Views from the summit were awesome. I may be able to post more photos later. We descended the S Arete, which was surprisingly snow-free for this early in the year. There were short, patchy sections of snow on some ledges, but nothing steep or sustained at all. Used rope to rappel the very bottom two pitches (the chimney and the first pitch off the ground). Standing/sitting glissaded all the way down spire gully. Summary: What a nice little route. It's too short, but still excellent and fun. Descending the S Arete makes for a fun alpine outing. Beautiful day with good people in a fantastic part of the range. Gear Notes: 1 Ice ax, 2 maybe useful but not necessary 1 skinny rope for rappels Crampons not needed, but could have been useful ski poles for approach Skis (optional) for descent Approach Notes: Snow and big steps kicked all the way from Hairpin to top of Spire Gully

Unexpected delight: 2nd pitch of Crack of Infinity -- glorious locking handjams on steep terrain (5.8-ish)

Hard to say -- looks like some patchy snow here and there . . . . may have more info soon!

Hey, thanks much. We went up there this morning and HOPED that our 7:30 start would give us some good snow to work with. Alas, the sun rapidly baked it to mush, and we SLOGGED up the right hand couloir. Near the top, the two couloirs merge somewhat -- we finished on the left-hand, steeper couloir which topped out at a knife-edge col dropping down to the NorthEast. The ridge above looked to be low-angle slabby, bad rock (as you mentioned) with a thin layer of snow on top. Looked yucky. We had a rope, had some pitons and pickets and tri-cams, and elected to eat sandwiches and enjoy the GLORIOUS day instead of vibrating out onto the ridge. Downclimbed couloir and boot skied whenever possible, only punching through to crotch level once. Back to a cold PBR in the car before we knew it. Beautiful day. Too bad we didn't summit -- but surprisingly, I don't really care! Thanks for the info.

Anyone out there ever climb the East Couloir on Whistler Peak? There are actually 2 parallel couloirs there, I'm referring to the climber's right, east-most couloir that goes to the lower col. Curious how steep it gets and what the ridge is like from the top of the couloir to the summit. Trying to decide whether to bring rope for any rock sections, or if I can expect mainly snow or easy ridge scrambling. Thanks!

Sorry to hear about your stuff. Probably in a dumpster by now. Bad Karma for the bastard thieves! On a positive note, the term "asshat" is fabulous. Congratulations on making something wonderful out of a bad experience.

Yeah, the beta mid is awesome. I actually now have a Beta-Light, the same design as betamid but made out of silicone fabric which is very strong and light. The whole thing weighs approximately nothing and could probably be stuffed into a Nalgene bottle if you drank a PBR while stuffing. I highly recommend it. It has weathered winds very well (as DanielPatrick said) and snow of a moderate amount. Check it out!

Any pictures yet?

Thanks for the reassurance -- you're now all officially "enabling" my beer consumption after climbing instead of steel wool and lubricant application! For that, I will be forever grateful. WC Fields said, "It was a woman who drove me to drink -- and I never even had the decency to thank her." I would like to demonstrate more grace and manners than he did. So Thanks!

Hey y'all, I was packing some things up for a long trip and noticed that my BD Cobras have spots of rust on the pick and adze and hammer area -- not major, but definitely obvious rust spots. Not enough use I guess!!! Anyway, I know it's not a GOOD thing to have rust, but is it a BAD thing? Do I need to be worried about that -- i.e. get rust remover or something -- is it that pretty par for the course? Thanks for any info.

Yeah, I see your point . . . Jim Nelson has a WHOLE LOT in common with REI. So WHAT if he wants to sell Camalots? It's probably because one million people came in asking for them, and he's providing an option. I would argue that the expansion range of a single camalot may make it close to worth it in weight versus carrying several other cams that cover that same range . . . another consideration is that many people know and use Camalots as a standard unit of measurement (i.e. "oh, that's a grim size, .75 " Or "Did you need a #4 for that roof?") and many people like to climb with pieces that they're familiar with, so perhaps he's just choosing to provide his customers with what they WANT and not just the most extreme cutting edge weight-conscious gear. I think he's always been very interested in getting people's opinions and feedback on gear and I imagine his choice to carry BD Cams comes from that feedback -- also, he can do that because he owns the place and can do whatever he wants to. Yeah, so I guess he really is just like REI, after all . . . . riiiiight.

Going to a website to state that you don't have time to post about your trip is like taking out an ad stating that you don't have time for ads and prefer to keep to yourself. I find that to be pretty funny. As for the NE Couloir route, I have looked at it and wondered about it in the past. Sounds like you encountered quite different challenges than Beckey mentions -- was it more than 50 degrees? What did the rock sections look like above -- 5th class, or easier? Thanks for the info! I love using this website to supplement what the guidebooks say. Thanks a lot.

What a positive attitude you have about something that many people would whine about. I went to New Zealand last year and severely sprained my ankle the 2nd day on the island. It was a major bummer, but I learned from it as you did. Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery! Thanks for sharing your accident and the lessons that can come from it. Steve

Finding yourself in this situation can be bleak, especially on steep ROCK. I have been in this situation -- a less-than-ideal anchor -- on steep snow/ice and chosen to kick a good platform, get a good stance, clip into the "anchor" as backup, and belay right off of my harness. My theory was that I could essentially hold my partner with my legs in the case of a slip (it was on varying 50-80 degree snow/ice) and he could reestablish himself and get the weight off of me pretty quickly, all without ever loading the anchor. As it turned out, he didn't fall and we climbed on. I think it's situational, obviously, but a good thing to consider and to have in your bag of tricks.

A cheap option in Mazama is the Lost River Resort Cabins. See www.lostriverresort.com -- nice little cabins with kitchen facilities inside . . . about $75 night for weekends A good Winthrop option, great deal for the price, is the Chewuch Inn, $65 a night including breakfast, very nice rooms and great place, also on the MVSTA ski trail system. I was just up there this past weekend investigating options for a fall wedding in the Methow . . .

Anyone else????? NF versus NF Couloir?

Great TR, thanks -- sounds good! I have never heard much about this climb before, so thanks! Steve

Yeah, I agree. It wasn't that hard, and rather short . . . but still kinda loose and unpleasant compared to the relatively pleasant climbing from Sahale over to that point . . .

WORD! Thankfully, that section was rather short, as I recall . . . Anyone else want to weigh in on this comparison between the NF and NF Couloir?

Hyperspud sports in Yakima (and in Moscow, ID) probably has the most current dirtbag guidebook with photocopied pages. Give em a call or go to hyperspud.com

Hi David, Thanks for the response -- was the rock conducive to rock pro at all? We soloed the NF but I may be climbing the NFC with a partner and belaying it . . . Also, did you encounter any alpine ice or was it neve? The NF was 90% neve when I did it, with maybe 60 meters of alpine ice at the very top . . . Thanks!

Seems like many folks talk about climbing Buckner's classic NF route, but I rarely hear much about the NF Couloir route. For those of you who have climbed the Couloir, or who have climbed BOTH routes, please give some info about the quality of the route and how it might compare in difficulty, objective hazard, or bergschrund complications to the North Face route. I have climbed the North Face, so I am familiar with that route (we did it in September, so the schrund was huge but was easily bypassed via the snowfield to the left). Thanks very much! goatboy

In response to your question about Sharkfin, it's a magnificent (though short) climb on solid rock with great views of the Boston Glacier and Mt Buckner. The approach up the steep snow couloir, depending on how melted out that is and the condition of the moat at the bottom, may well prove more challenging than the Ridge climb itself. Time on route: Once we reached the notch on sharkfin ridge (the base of the route) -- which took us about 1.5 hours from the low camp at Boston Basin -- we simulclimbed the ridge itself in about 30 minutes. Descending via rappels took about another 45 or an hour, I believe. I hear that the North Face route (opposite the South Ridge) on Sharfin is a solid, pleasant few pitches of 5.7 -- my friend did it the same day we were up on the South Ridge. The rock on Sharkfin tower is so unbelievably good, especially considering how close it is to Boston Peak, which sports "improbably bad" rock similar to oatmeal. I think you're smart to plan on doing these routes out of a high camp in Boston Basin before trying to blast any of them in a day with a novice partner. The # of times I've seen (or been) a party epic-ing on or near Forbidden Peak is mythical. Have fun, what a spectacular place -- one suggestion: camp at the high camp (right below the south face of Forbidden) rather than lower down in the basin. It's less crowded and closer to Forbidden Peak objectives, and higher up in case you decide to climb over to Sharkfin or Sahale.

CLICK ME AND LEARN MORE Funny line: "They dug a snow pit and found the snow to be cold."