goatboy

Hey y'all, thanks for all the info and thanks for asking, Craig, if I went. The answer . . . . NO. I didn't. I'd like to, though. Ended up taking advantage of the beautiful weather that weekend afforded and going up to attempt Forbidden E Ridge . . . though got there too late to get a permit. Sadness. Had a glorious consolation prize: A hike up the Sahale Arm with my lovely climbing partner and girlfriend, and a nice climb of Sahale, Thai noodles at our high camp, and a great sunset. I love that place. Still hope to swing it on Adams . . . I heard a rumor that it's not going anywhere too soon. Thanks to all for the info, I'm sure I'll ask for more soon. Steve

ANOTHER vote for the Reverso. I frequently climb in a party of 3 with it and lead on double ropes (8.5 mm), then belay both seconds at once with the Reverso. Petzl advises being aware of the orientation of the carabiner when using it in this application -- see instructions that come with the Reverso -- and it's great. Almost as fast as climbing in party of 2. Have used this strategy in party of three on Snow Creek Wall, Zebra/Zion at Smith, and in other places. I love it. No complaints about the Reverso here. Steve

Thanks for the TR, it's always good to hear route reports and conditions. One question: Freeman writes, "Nice exposed climbing, fair to great rock, class 3 to 5 easy (call it all class 4)" Hmm, having been on that peak, and been very underwhelmed by the rock quality (though impressed by the quantity), I must ask, fair to great rock compared to WHAT? Steve

I did this route last september in marginal conditions, cloudy and quite windy, over labor day weekend. I am glad to have done it, due to the fact that you get wonderful views of Goode, and that now I will never have to do it again. The rock quality is poor at first, and gets a bit better as you get higher. The climbing is not very challenging, though the exposure and views are great. I agree that the south route just sucks in the fall, though I imagine Nelson included it as an early season route, when it may be much better. In all, it is a very scenic place and fun to be up there, though the climb itself I am unlikely to ever return to. Steve

Hello folks, I'm looking to go up on Hood and practice crevasse rescue, and ideally, do some ice climbing on the seracs. Does anyone have any recommendations as to a good area to go check out? I'm hoping for something relatively approachable so we can maximize our time practicing instead of approaching. Any suggestions are welcome, especially if you have recent condition reports. Thanks very much! Steve

Thanks, y'all! It was a great trip, and the photos don't start to do it justice. Juan gives himself a hard time saying that he did "the easy route" -- seems like there's no such thing as an easy route in the Pickets! Good work Juan! We descended the SE Glacier in a whiteout and I would not call it an "easy route" by any means. Alan Kearney's new book says that more people have expressed a desire to climb Fury than any other wall in the range. All I can say is, I'm glad I've done it because I'm not inclined to rush back for round two too soon! Hope some of you cascadeclimber folks get a chance to have a go at it next year, cuz it's good!

A duel between goats? Okay . . . Seems like there ARE too many goat boys out there . . . But as has been mentioned, I was the first and original one on cc choosing that ridiculous and ultimately meaningless member name. Soooooo, to all the other goat boys out there, go think up your own dumb names and I'll just keep my original dumb name to myself. OR, maybe we could have our own feeding trough at the fall rope-up where all the goat-oriented members can jostle for scraps of sausage and lukewarm beer from Gustavs? Are we done dueling yet? Goatboy, member 294 "I've been stupid a lot longer than you have!"

I'm curious if anyone can speak to the conditions on the Mazama Glacier this time of year, and if it is a reasonable and enjoyable -- ahem -- objective this late in the summer. Hey! It's not officially autumn for a few more days, eh? Anyway, thanks in advance for any info -- or especially any recent digital images showing conditions. Also, is it feasibly to camp at Sunrise Camp and climb the Mazama Glacier to where it intersects the regular route, then drop packs and summit, returning to get packs and descend the standard route? I'm hoping to expedite the descent rather than returning to Sunrise Camp. I know this sounds like a lot of work . . . Thanks -- I've never been on this particular mountain so I appreciate any wisdom from those who are more familiar with it than I am. Steve

Cell phone calls have been made successfully from the top of Blue Lake Peak (just southwest of Liberty Bell in the Blue Lake Basin). Makes me think it might work from Liberty Bell, since the closest cell phone tower is in Twisp, I believe. Just guessing, I think it depends on your cell phone service network. I hate cell phones. Steve

Okay, here's my attempt at posting some images of the NE Face of Fury: Fury photos Please note, I'm using this shutterfly link in order to share my images with other climbers, not to encourage anyone to buy any prints or anything else from shutterfly. The route was among the best I've ever done -- it was the entire package deal: Bushwhacking, cramponing across steep wet heather, icefall, steep snow and ice, bad weather, good weather, incredible views of the Pickets North and South, glacier travel, whiteout, lightning, high bivies and heavy loads, and a glorious summit day. We took a week to do it. I was worked when we were done, and was glad to have had a week to do it all in. Day 1 -- take boat from Ross Lake Dam to Big Beaver and camp at 39 mile camp Day 2 -- Schwack up Access Creek and camp Day 3 -- Over two passes and drop down to Luna Lake (via Luna/Fury Col) Day 4 -- Climb Fury Glacier icefall, traverse onto NE Face and finish via North Buttress snow arete and short rock section; descend to 8000 feet and make camp on SE Glacier Day 5 -- Descend SE Glacier in whiteout, camp on ridge above Access Creek Day 6 -- Drop into Access creek and schwack down to 39 mile Day 7 -- Boat picks us up at noon, steak and a beer This did involve a carry over from Luna Lake to the SE Glacier, so we tried to go as light as possible -- took a 30 meter rope, 6 screws (used em in the icefall), 2 pickets each, about 6 stoppers and a larger tri cam, 6 slings -- it was a perfect rack for the conditions we found. I can't recommend the route highly enough. Sorry it took me awhile to get these pictures up. Steve [ 09-18-2002, 06:19 PM: Message edited by: goatboy ]

Thank you. Steve

Specifically, WHERE is it? Thanks, Goatboy

I have images of the NE Face of Fury from our climb last week. We climbed from Luna Lake to a camp high on the SE Glacier route in 13 hours camp to camp, through the Fury Icefall and rock bands onto the ice shield, joining the snow arete of the upper N Buttress near the summit ridge. Outstanding route, great snow/ice conditions and a very narrow window of weather in otherwise crappy weather. Encountered whiteout on the glacier the next morning, made for an "interesting " descent. PM me for more info if anyone is interested. I would post images here but don't know how to do so without having a URL for them -- I just have them on my hard drive. Steve

Yeah, the #4 cam was there as of October of 2001 last time I was there -- but there's no sling or clippable point on it unless you do something odd like girth hitch the entire piece -- you CAN shamelessly grab it and stand on it as a foothold as I did, however! Whatever makes you go faster, eh? Steve

There have been appreciable avalanches over the last three days or so, with very warm days and not-freezing nights around Washington Pass. I have observed many many cornices collapsing and starting small to huge surface slides fanning out at the bases of couloirs and bowls. Things may or may not be quite different around the East side of the Silverstar Massif, though I would be wary of conditions for the next few days at least. My two cents . . . As has been stated here previously, no report is a substitute for personal judgment and observation. But it is safe to say that conditions are "medium" right now.

Climbed Orbit as a party of three on Sunday, had the route to ourselves. Fun encounters with goats! Ahem... It was warm but very windy all day on Sunday, made the route feel alpine and exciting. Also, we scoped some routes on April Fool's Tower -- anyone of you ever climb that thing? The summit looks TINY and sharp.... [ 05-13-2002, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: goatboy ]

The camp at Burgundy Col is pretty dry after mid-summer, though you can tromp down towards the Silverstar Glacier and get snow to melt for water. It's pretty windy and exposed at the Burgundy Col high camp, though it puts you within spitting distance of some good routes (i.e. Paisano Pinnacle and Burgundy Spire). Another, possibly better option depending on what routes you're doing, is to cross over Burgundy Col and descend to one of the rock islands below the silverstar glacier and camp there, closer to water, more protected from the wind, and still close to the climbing routes (such as Chianti and Chablis, Silverstar regular route, etc). Whatever happens, please show more respect for the Burgundy Col camp than whatever genius pooped all over the col and left strands and wads of toilet paper all over the place up there last August!!!!!!!!

A few organizations I would recommend: 1) Pacific Crest Outward Bound School -- see PCOBS website 2) Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy -- see Freer Website 3) NOLS -- see NOLS There's a lot more than this, but these are probably the three best organizations that I'm familiar with. Send me an email or PM if you want more info or have more specific questions. Steve

I don't follow the strategy of hanging crampons in a dangling prussik. Can someone explain that to me? Thanks, S

Yeah. Terminology-weenies like me actually enjoy the natural history of glaciers, snowpack, etc. Functionally, glide cracks, moats, crevasses and 'schrunds all present similar challenges and one often employs similar (or identical) strategies when crossing them (i.e. snowbridges, climbing down in and out the other side, a flying leap, etc). But it's true: A glide crack or a moat is different from a crevasse or a 'schrund --the former is found in a permanent snowfield, the latter is found on moving (i.e. "live") glaciers. You can fall in all of them equally, however! Check out this website about glide cracks

Whatever. Howzabout checking out: snow creek cam I bet it's getting close to do-able, though I haven't heard of anyone climbing outer space yet this year. Viktor???

Please share the story, if you don't mind. Who was heller and how did he die on aasgard? I had a close call myself on aasgard once, glissading foolishly into a moat . . . just curious about the history of other incidents. Thanks, Steve

I've only climbed this route once, but it was only a few weeks ago. I would not take skis up that route! The descent is very pleasant without skis, and in fact we encountered some water ice on Asgard Pass which we front-pointed down (for fun -- we could have avoided it). In other words, it didn't seem like the skiing would be worth the added weight/slowness of hauling skis up triple couloirs. Rock band beta: The rock band connecting the 2nd and 3rd couloir is about 40 feet tall -- sugary snow over slabby rock when we were there, about 60 degrees steep I suppose -- we had two ropes, so I just went a full 60 meters to a snow-shoulder on the right and belayed off of cams in rock. If you wanted to tie someone into the middle of a single rope, you'd have to try to stop just above the rock band where the couloir narrows down... and would probably need pitons to belay off of. You'll want a few pins anyway . . . If I were trying to move a party of three up this long route, I would take two 60 meter ropes and try to stretch them out as much as possible rather than being constrained to 25 meter pitches. Good luck! Post a report.

I have the N Cascades poster from Sahale. I bought it in Winthrop, WA at the Methow Valley Ranger Station on Hwy 20. I also believe they sell them in Newhalem and in Marblemount at the Ranger/Wilderness Office. Maybe on sale at Mt Rainier Paradise? Good luck, it's a nice photo despite some of the factual errors, which I never knew about until just now. Thanks for that info. Steve