goatboy

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!!!!!!!!

please check your PM's.

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

I've used my doubles on lots of routes a J Tree to minimize drag -- routes such as "Sidewinder" in Steve Canyon, which traverses and traverses some more . . . or even some of the multi-pitch routes on Lost Horse wall which go up, then diagonally down again, then up again . Never a bad thing to practice double-rope technique so you're more proficient at it in the mountains!!!!

I'd take a single 60 meter rope and be careful to asess descents before climbing. There are SOME routes which you cannot rap off of. But a single 60 would get you down many of the ones that you DO rap off of. Intersection rock, for example, is a popular formation with a mandatory rappel and no walk off. A single 50 or 60 rope works fine for it, however. Steve

Thanksv ery much for the info, folks. A point of clarification regarding my question, as several folks have referred to alternative (though nearby) formations: I am mainly interested in routes on the formation called Big Kangaroo, visible from Hwy 20 at the hairpin turn East of Washington Pass. Kangaroo Temple is a separate formation, back behind the Big Kangaroo, not visible from hwy 20. Unlike Kangaroo Temple, I don't hear of many people (or large parties!) on the Big Kangaroo very often. Thanks again for everyone's willingness to share route information.

Or, you might search for Gauthier's email which he has made public knowledge on this website: See Profile My sense is that he is a contributor to this website and wouldn't mind the question.

Sounds like you talked to Cascade -- did you ever talk to the retailer again? If nothing else, you could make them aware of how you don't appreciate their tactics. At best, perhaps you'll get some free shit from them? Unlikely.

Nice picture, by the way, Ray. Yeah, I was thoughtful about avy hazard as well, though it turns out that things were pretty stable all day. We DID get a fair amount of spindrift all day long, even very early before the sun was up. Did you guys encounter lots of spindrift? It was pretty cool, climbing through all the spindrift, actually . . .

My thoughts on this discussion. I climbed the Triple Couloirs route with a partner on April 2, a few days after a few of the other parties mentioned here. I did not do the NF variation. We soloed the hidden, belayed and simulclimbed on the first couloir, simul-climbed the 2nd, belayed the rock step, and soloed the third couloir. Most of the route was good, quality snow. The two cruxes were the ice runnels linking the Hidden with the 2nd couloir, and the rock slab transitioning from the 2nd to the 3rd couloir. The whole route may have been better protected and easier to climb, in my opinion, with more ice. Instead, it was ice buried under lots of variable quality snow. The rock band up high had enough powdery snow to obscure gear placements or holds, and it was too soft to use for adequate purchase. The conditions were, in this regard, challenging. The protection was scarce throughout, though I was able to place occasional cams and pitons and clip several fixed pitons on the first ice pitch. I have not climbed many routes of this nature, but would disagree with Ray's observation that the route is not technical right now. I guess it depends on how you define "technical." The first couloir and the rock slab were rather technical in my opinion. There were long runouts on the first couloir and drytooling on rock covered in sugary snow on the slab. I do believe that it makes as much sense to solo this route, in these conditions, as it does to belay it. In fact, it may be safer to solo it due to the scarcity of pro. In any case, it was a very fine route and I enjoyed it a lot. Stellar views up top, from Baker to Adams! And Stuart, and the South Face of Prussik, and Rainier . . . great climb, great conditions, great views.

Does anyone else here find it funny that some of the members of this board, of all people, would collectively accuse OTHERS of being rude? Reading back through the responses to the initial post by the Mountaineer Representative, do all these responses strike you as respectful? Do many? My point is not that the Mountaineers -- and other large groups -- can't be overwhelming, disrespectful, or clueless -- many of the group's personal experiences have revealed that this is the case -- my point is that this board has responded in a very predictably rude fashion. It's like the Mountaineer guy walked into the cascadeclimber clubhouse and has been pummeled. How useful is that towards actually accomplishing any communication or change, or even towards having any credibility when making these claims or requests?

Thanks, anyone else? Any specific routes you'd care to recommend?

Anyone out there ever climb any good routes on Big Kangaroo? Any recommendations for a good route? Thanks, Steve

I wanted to see if anyone out there has any routes to recommend on Chablis Spire. I saw a slide show recently which got me interested, but I don't remember which route was featured in the show. The rock looked great, however. I have Beckey's bible, but wanted to get some input outside of his descriptions, as well as some evaluation of the quality of the routes (something Beckey's book is often lacking). Any beta on route choice, recommended gear, etc is welcome. Thanks in advance. Steve

As of Tuesday, it's patchy and melting out pretty fast for the lower half or so. Still snowy up high, however. Questionable for snowmobiles pretty soon due to downed trees across road and diminishing snowpack. - steve