ckouba

As Iain and the medics were attending to Debra during the whiteout, I sat with Doug and chatted with him to make sure he stayed with us. I kept asking him how he was doing but that got old quick so I made small talk with him. We talked about a whole bunch of things. To keep him focused on something, I eventually asked him about the accident and what happened. I wasn't taking notes as an investigation- simply making conversation to keep an injured person interactive- but he indicated that they did use pro. They had started the Castle Crags route, run it up to the top of West Crater Rim and then tried to connect to the Reid HW route. They were on the top of the ridge somewhere between the notch gaining the ridge and route 14A in the Thomas guide when Debra fell. He said that they had a single picket in between the two of them, as well as two tools in the snow and good feet, but that when Debra fell and everything ripped. I didn't ask if she was on belay or if it was a running belay or simul climbing. Again, the info above was from a climber who had just fallen a long distance and was lying cold and in pain on a backboard while waiting for the whiteout to lift. It is contributed here for learning and clarification not as judgement. Chris

A little more accurate (than the news posts): http://www.pmru.org/pressroom/headlines/reidglacier040304.html Chris

I second Shredder's advice, and would personally recommend lugging to the top. Bring some snacks, hang out and wait for it to warm up, then hit the old chute. If you ski it down til it opens up and then hook skier's left, you can clear the saddle at Hogsback and then ski down skier's left of Crater Rock and through the Devil's Kitchen area. If the schrund is open, you should have enough vert to make the conscious decision to cross above or below it when you make your traverse back to Hogsback from the chute. You avoid the crowd and stairsteps of Pearly Gates, you get the full vert, and you're down in the lot before people you summitted with have cleared Crater Rock. It's awesome! Good luck, be safe and have fun. Chris

Chair? You tell me. When are you free or in the area? I've wanted to try Chair and other Snowqualie treasures for some time now and no one wants to make the drive from here (pathetic I know). Like I said, when you free?

sweet, hope they had fun. CK

Got beta if you're heading for Condoriri, Potosi or Illimani. Did 3 weeks in June 02 down there. Fun stuff. CK

Gratuitous cross-post in a desperate quest to find out if it's worth the drive this week (2/18-2/21) for a Weds-Sat trip to Wing Ridge?Aneroid Peak area for BC skiing: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/309984/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1 Any beta out there? Hard pack, corn, crud...? Chris

I too have a weird work schedule and typically struggle to find partners for Thurs/Fri trips. What are your days off? I am up for most anything- BC ski, ice, snow, rock. I'm in Portland, where are you? Chris

Anybody know how the Wallowas are these days? Is it the same hardpack off-piste stuff we have here (PDX area) or is it worth the drive and effort to head into Aneroid Peak? Any recent beta would be awesome. Thanks in advance, Chris

You've been PM'd

How long are they? I think they should be either 188 or 194. Also, how wide are the skins? Are they trimmed to fit or straight, and what type? How many American dollars would you want and what year are they? Can you post a picture as well and link it in a reply? Thanks, Chris

So, no shoes on your feet? Was it truly a FNA, or do shoes count as aid too? CK

Craig- My opinion for what it's worth: Whitewater = enormous slog You're not missing anything. The way OrHi describes takes you on a tour around the south, east and north flanks. I have friends who have done that descent and regretted it with much knee misery for the following weeks. It also makes a long day and is uninteresting to me. Knowing how long it was going to take to get down that way actually cost one friend's party going to the summit. They traversed right past it and came down via Whitewater. They went all that way and missed it! The traverse is unappealing (or it was when I was there with Wazzumtn'r) and I wanted to get back in a more interesting manner anyway. Our line was certainly more interesting enough: I wasn't sure how much to trust the horns we slung. They looked good enough, but I still unclipped my personal from the sling when Kurt rapped first. We rapped off the gendarme closest to the summit pinnacle, where there was a horn already exposed and slung. This was a fine place to go over the edge but there were some cliffs down a bit below us. We angled north as the slope allowed and it was easily done but steep, again with cliffs below us for part of it. This all assumes you're going to the summit. The glacier headwall is descendable in all sorts of conditions. Sometimes the knife edged ridge is not traverseable. I have had to turn around from the saddle 2x, downclimbing from really steep ice to moderate snow. In your timeframe the ridge may be covered with rime and unstable. Right now it looks dry as a bone. Your experience may vary. My best advice is to think about how other routes would work to go down and take a guess as to how the snow will be at the time of day you will be descending. Make your best estimate and choose your descent. Whenever you try to give it a shot, it's a great route. I stuck at it 10 times, getting a little further each time, until I finally topped it. Each time seemed to justify my obsession with finishing that route. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope you do too. Chris

Took a shot at Sunshine on Saturday with KnowFear. The Eliot is dry and seems to be noticeably shrinking. We crossed on the lower portion which leads to a short, chossy, sucky scramble. Simple going to the base of Snowdome, which is showing some crevasses or glide cracks. Simple to navigate though. Once to the top of Snowdome, we looked to the right (top of Coe) and left (top of Eliot) for a line on the glaciers around the first chunk of "rock," and neither way seemed to hold a path which connected. We opted to actually try the chossy-looking rib in front of us. It was sucky and chossy but we pushed up it anyway to the snow slope above it and pulled up underneath the higher rock at the top of the Eliot and Coe. Again both sides looked extremely broken up and above us was another chossy pile which was occasionally shedding some of its rocky burden. After dealing with the first choss-heap rock section and evaluating the glacial possibilities, we decided to turn around and call it a day. We had contemplated an enormous horizontal traverse to gain Cathedral Ridge but opted against it as the snow was starting to soften and ball up, and both gaining and climbing the ridge looked like another choss-fest. We also had taken only screws and had no pickets to keep us out of the yawners below on the Coe. So it turned out to be a nice day for a "hike" with great views through all the smoke. Bottom line: the route could probably be forced, but you have to really, really want it. Chris

ncascademtns- check your PM's, por favor. CK

Glad to catch your last comment. While it sucks big time to have your stuff broken into and to pick up the pieces and put them back together again, you're in one piece and that's what matters. In June, I topped Jefferson on my 10th try almost a year to the day a colleague of mine lost her son there. There's no replacement for that. Four days later my house was broken into and I lost 5 of my guitars (Les Paul, ES-175, ES-135, Strat, Guild M80) plus two amps and some other music gear. In all honesty, I almost didn't care. It was the wierdest feeling- it was all stuff, and while I love my gear, it can be replaced with money. Yeah they were special and all, but reality is no one was hurt (no one home when they broke in) and I can climb and play again. They can steal my gear, but they'll never get my passion. Plus, believe it or not, my insurance guy was really good and I was covered for full replacement value.

Caveman- I couldn't agree more. I have tagged a few cool lines recently and I would go back to Wedge at the drop of a hat. This route was really fun and the whole mountain looks like it has numerous sweet lines on it too. Someone else also wrote me asking for more beta so I thought I'd cc the thread with my response. I also put up a few more pics as well (check the link above): The mountain was AWESOME! I did it with my dad (he's 58, little cllimbing experience) and he thoroughly enjoyed it. I have done a few cool routes to date, and this was definately top 3. Here's what I did and what I would do differently: Did and I'm ok with: 3 pickets (2') 2 screws 8mm X 30m rope aluminum crampons single alpine axe Do differently: bring some rock pro (exactly what though depends, I was comfortable but I would have liked a little more security for my dad on the upper part- ended up improvising a chock block for a marginal anchor at one point. I am guessing you'll probably be fine without it though.) Stuck with: Study up on the descent options- we came down the West ridge. IT SUCKS. Huge scree slog over major sucky rocks. You also end up about 400' below the pass back to the Wedgemont glacier and need to climb back up and over to get there. If you're fast enough to get up and down the NE Arete before it gets unreasonably soft, go for it. I didn't want to with my dad and probably wouldn't have done it anyway. As bad as the west ridge was, I would actually do it again given the option of descending the NE Arete. Timeline: 0400 - Alarm 0505 - moving 0650 - geared up and moving (slowly) up the Wedgemont 0900 - gained top of ridge, start traversing to snow arete 1100 - arrive at snow, remount crampons, get out pickets 1300 - top out ridge 1337 - Summit pictures We took a really long time coming down, but once we got back over the pass (Wedge/Parkhurst col) we were off the glacier in under two hours. The route: We did the whole ridge from Wedge/Weart Col. The icefall is too broken up to make a line go without being too technical. Something looks like it might go if you wanted to try the shortcut, but I didn't study it too hard as I knew my dad wouldn't be up for that. Our long route is very straightforward and enjoyable though. After tagging the summit, we headed for the west ridge to descend as the guides read. The west ridge is the most crumbly, scree-choked piece of crap. It would be way better with snow on it for glissades, but it's completely dry now. The remaining ridges off the west end of the summit ridge all cliff out to some difficulty but would probably be possible to descend if you had gone up that way and studied it for your return. There are also a number of gullies that it may be possible to downclimb (ski in winter/spring) but I passed on these with my dad as the snow was rather soft already and I didn't know much about them for the descent. One or two of them looked like they would have worked when we passed by them from the bottom but we didn't know this from the top. Specifics: We set the alarm for 0400 and actually got up on time and started eating and packing. We were fairly well organized from the night before but still took a while to get out of camp. The trails around the lake are horrible. Not cairned or well marked in any way. I say this only to point out how guilty I felt walking all over the heather and other fragile plants. The trail from the lake to the toe of the glacier was pretty sucky too, and rather difficult to follow was we came off the glacier after sunset (took a long time coming down the west ridge). From the toe of the glacier, we headed fairly directly straight up the middle of the Wedgemont. It was broken up on the edges and we stuck in the middle to the first plateau. The glacier is fairly dry right now and most of the snow was extremely hard and stable, although a few times when crossing marginal looking snow I probed it with the ice axe and it was rather soft so we ended up detouring a little more. Long story short is that it is passable rather directly up the middle. From the plateau below Wedge/Weart Col, we swung a sharp left up the ramp to the col. The glacial ice was exposed directly under the notch to gain the ridge so we ramped back with a rising traverse to the left to gain the top of the pitch, then traversed into the notch to gain the ridge. We ditched the crampons and scrambled over the dry rock toward the arete, putting the crampons on only once along the way to work across one large snow patch. This probably could have been overcome with a little exposed rock climbing (mid-5th) but my dad is rock-averse and the snow ramp was definately the path of least resistance. After finishing the traverse to the arete, we cramponed up and got the pickets out. After traversing out a few rope lengths, it started its ramp to the summit ridge. The snow was a little soft, but it was ~11am at this point. The snow never got to the point of slushiness but it did start to ball up my crampons from time to time. Once through the initial layer of softness, our pickets would sink in quite firmly and securely. Didn't feel like falling and testing them though... The last little bit gets marginally steeper just before topping out the ridge and I saved a picket to place just before transitioning onto the rock. The snow wasn't deep enough to be worth holding even a psychological picket placement, so I just kept climbing. I went to traverse across the boot track and noticed where the snow thinned enough there was ice beneath it. I swung at it a few times and it held my alpine pick, so I got out a screw and turned it into the ice and clipped in the rope. I had brought them for the glacier and didn't even think I'd use them once this high on the route... So I got onto the rock and improvised an anchor using a sling and a rock as a chockstone in a crack. It wasn't pretty, but it got the job done after my dad pulled the screw (I wanted something for pro, and as I said- I brought none.). I sent him up and away and we topped out the ridge within 3 or so ropelengths, ~1300. The summit ridge is like a big rocky beach with great views and the hike to the summit is no more than just that- a hike. We ditched gear, scrambled our way up there and took pictures and ate a bite. After a while, we packed our junk and headed for the west ridge. There is a cairn at the west end of the summit ridge, but that has nothing to do with finding the west ridge. If you make like you're going to descend the back side and continue to do a descending traverse to the right, that's the most accurate description of how it feels, you'll eventually get down. Simply keep traversing right as you make your descent. If you're on the west ridge, you won't see the Parkhurst summit or the col. You'll see Green Lake and Whistler and you'll feel like you've been descending forever. And you do. You'll find a pocket glacier as Parkhurst becomes more and more visible. Drop down onto this glacier and traverse it to the right as well. At this point you will start to see Parkhurst summit and the Wedge/Parkhurst Col. It's about 400' of climbing to get back up and over the col, starting from the right and working to the left as you come across, and you end up on a snow patch on the far west/north side of the col. This will let you drop straight back down to the Wedgemont and back to the lake. It's really straightforward and quite enjoyable- save for the de/ascent to the Wedge/Parkhurst Col. One or two stoppers and Tri-cams and a few long slings and I think I would have been completely happy for pro. Obviously we made due without it though. The trail up to the lake is well maintained and easy to follow, steep in spots (Boston Basin-esque). The hut at the lake is The Ritz-Carlton! We got to move in and sleep there both nights and it rocks! Views are great and the route is truly breath-taking. There was talk on our way down that the BC gov't was going to "close" the backcountry due to fire danger. Give a call somewhere to make sure that you can still get in and bring your passport if you have a border crossing to deal with (are you in BC already?). Also the road you turn onto is pretty decent, but it quickly deteriorates into an unmaintained road. My Suburban did fine, but you may end up walking a bit if you're in some kind of a low ground clearance vehicle. In the end, the glacier should be dry and easily passable. Bring pickets for the arete as it's still in fine shape. I'd still bring one screw for each rope team and a minimal amount of rock pro. The west ridge will suck, but it's probably your safest way down. Go, do the arete, take lots of pictures, post a TR and enjoy yourself. You won't regret this trip. Chris If anyone else has ?'s, drop me a PM.

8/19/03 - Summitted Wedge via NE Arete route with my dad on my birthday. Definately one of my best ever. We did the full ridge from Wedge/Weart Col. The glacier is nearly dry, lots of end runs or quick hops to clear crevasses. Good, stable snow to notch gaining ridge. The ridge itself was clear except a few large patches of stable snow. And then the arete!!! Wow! What a GREAT line! We ran it out 'til it got steep, then simul climbed with 3 pickets. Snow was stable, not too corniced (except one avoidable spot) and took pickets well until the very end where I managed to place a screw in the ice just below the rock at the top. What a great, aesthetic snow line in a gorgeous area! Having my dad enjoy it as much as I did was a real treat (I told him it was "just like Eldorado"- we climbed it last year- but a little longer and steeper). I posted some pics in the gallery: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showgallery.php?thumb=1&stype=2&si=ckouba&cat=500&sort=1&ppuser=339 AWESOME trip, beautiful area! CK

Checked in with L'worth RS for permits to Colchuck for later this summer- no dice. Official word is that the bridge at 8 Mile is done this week- they said it's coming out the 31st. I assumed that meant July 31st but didn't think to ask 'til after I hung up. Enjoy it while you can. They WANT to have it replaced before the snows come but I got nothing firm as to when it will re-open. Chris

Any recent beta for Stuart Glacier conditions? Crampons needed? Footwear recommendations? Snow up high for water? Any real beta would be great. Thanks in advance, Chris

A little more info: http://www.jhzone.com/viewinfo.cfm?ObjectID=3F27994E-CD7E-4A1F-9462E6C327BF2209 I was there this week and waited out two rounds of violent thunderstorms each afternoon. We went as high as the Moraine but couldn't trust the weather and knew we'd be slow so we bailed. It's weird to think about it... We were driving back to PDX when this happened. CK

Looking for a partner, Weds-Fri, something interesting in NCNP or thereabouts. Thinking of Forbidden, open to ideas. Reply here and/or PM me. Thanks, Chris PDX

I posted a few pics, more to come later: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showgallery.php?thumb=1&stype=2&si=ckouba&cat=500&sort=1&ppuser=339 The first 6 are from Jeff, the rest are 3C's on Dragontail. It's been a GREAT year so far... Chris

The TENTH Time's the Charm: Jeff Park TR The summary: The route is in REALLY FUN shape right now. The glacier is in good shape and not very melted out. There is a large crevasse below the schrund that extends from the base of Smith Rock well over to below Mohler's Tooth, so stay off to the left when climbing. The schrund has a passable discontinuity of ~5', all snow (no ice), which we crossed climber's left. Knife-Edged Ridge has the potential to be a nightmare, but when we got there, it was still very well consolidated. The ridge itself is probably 80% covered in a rime ice/snow mixture that was stable (or stable enough). Carefully swinging two tools and deliberate work with hands/feet made good progress possible. We only had to make one rock move on the ridge. We finished the KER staying below the high point on the North Ridge with a traverse toward the two small gendarmes, crossing mid-height on the first and directly over the second, pulling up below the summit. The pinnacle's east side was completely dry and the west totally rimed-up. Again, these gullies made for excellent tool-swinging as they were stable enough when we arrived to still hold picks. We cleared one gully and then ran into tracks (from jlag?) about halfway to the summit and followed them to the east side rock. One awkward move up a step, and then a brief snow ridge to another rock face ~10' high got us to the summit. For the trip down we down-climbed a series of ramps around that vertical step back down to the snow, rapped ~20m off a slung rock, down-climbed another gully, and traversed off the pinnacle proper and back over to the North Ridge gendarmes. From here we rapped off a horn down the east face. On this aspect, snow conditions were HORRIBLE (soupy, mashed potatoes- it was after 4pm), but we weren't going back from where we came... We strung together 3 raps total off of slung horns (uh, a little marginal though) and a whole lot of step kicking to get us to the Whitewater Glacier. Easy traverse back to Jeff Park from there. Timetable: 0715 - left Jeff Park 0830 - arrive at moraine, gear up 1030 - cross schrund 1100 - top out JPG 1215 - hit North Ridge 1300 - base of summit pinnacle 1358 - SUMMIT 1600 - start rap down E Face 1730 - flat ground of Whitewater G 1830 - back on JPG 1900 - back at camp 2000 - camp packed up 2135 - TRUCK!! Gear: 4 2' pickets 4 med length screws set of Tri-cams 3 Metolius cams (1-3) Placed the pickets all over, screws never, and the rock pro occasionally. Would leave the screws home for a while still and take less rock gear. The LONG version: I have wanted this one for a long time. All my normal partners were flaking out or couldn't take the time so I took advantage of the CC.com website, posted for a partner and wazzumountaineer (Kurt) wrote back. We decided on a Friday approach with an alpine start Sat am and said we'd play weather by ear. As the week rolled around the weather looked like crap. The only glimmer of hope was the weatherman said things would clear up Friday night and Saturday should be clear. We decided we'd hike in just in case and made plans to meet for breakfast at the Cedars at 9:30.After a meal we were off to the trailhead and hiking in by 11. In the rain. UGH! I'm not sure if we were suffering from over-motivation (being rained on with the thought of a tent and food), but we made excellent time in getting to Jeff Park, arriving in exactly two hours. The trail in was fairly clear, with consistent snow pack starting at the crossing just prior to the PCT junction. We set up camp fairly lickety-split and sat around waiting for the weather to clear up that evening. It didn't. We chatted up previous climbing trips, joked about not having anything to pass the time and occasionally stared out the door. No dice. Around 5p, we started dinner, filtered water from the lake and got ready to sack out, still with little change in the weather. We set alarms for midnight and 0100 and called it a night. Kurt woke at midnight to crap weather. I slept through my alarm but woke randomly at 0115, again, to crap weather. I announced this and accepted the fact that we'd probably have to try again next weekend. At least this way I was getting some sleep though. At 0630, we both woke up as it was bright outside: the weather had cleared! Or more correctly, had cleared enough. Now we're in the predicament of what to do. It's way later than I wanted to start the route, but we're here already- why not see how high you can make it? The fact it only took us 2 hours to get in to Jeff Park made me think that Kurt had the wheels and could keep any pace that I could set. A quick discussion got us going, leaving camp at 0715. We slogged up the snow bowls to the moraine, arriving at the glacier's edge at 0830. We geared up with the clouds below us occasionally washing through Jeff Park. Moving out onto the glacier, we hit the first portion just left of center and angled left-ish as it steepened. We could see a large crevasse extending across the glacier all the way from Smith Rock (on the right side) to well under Mohler's Tooth. We aimed at the notch in the North Ridge to clear the crevasse, then swung hard right to traverse over to the bergschrund. There was a small step to get to the upper slopes and the saddle, and Kurt lead up and over it. We topped out the glacier at 1100 to great views to the south. We shuffled gear, ditching the screws and grabbing the rock gear, and scarfed down a snack. I was last on the ridge in December and we had a fairly warm stretch, so I expected there'd be some rock placements available. I was wrong. We made our way over to the catwalk and it was covered in rime. It seemed stable enough to hold crampons as I kicked into it to start the Knife Edge Ridge traverse. With our late arrival, I had not anticipated this, but was certainly very excited to discover it. I edged my way out onto the faces and found them plastered with rime, from feathery to consolidated and stable. With careful selection it was possible to get the tools and front points to stick in nicely. And this was how we made our way across the ridge for the next hour and change, one careful step and swing at a time. There was a single awkward rock move to clear a small face, but a little hooking and camming got through it. All told it was awesome and way more fun than my try in December. I loved climbing on the snow, and Kurt was following with vigor. We eventually made it to the slopes leading to the North Ridge and I welcomed the fact of being on relatively flat and easy ground. We skirted the first gendarme without going too high or too low on it, but ended up going directly over the second one, both without difficulty. From here we could see boot track on the summit pinnacle, and Kurt lead out a traverse to find a way up it for us. At a point where we'd have to descend a bit, he found a gully to get us up and stuck a lead up it. I followed him to the base of a small rock splitting the ridge- to our right snow and the low clouds over the west slopes, to our left the dry rock and sunny skies of central Oregon. Kurt was clipped into a slung horn and we swapped the lead for the last pitch. I ran around a corner, threw in some imaginary pro and stepped up on some rock. This lead to a small snow ridge to the base of another small (~10') face. I placed another piece here and climbed. From here I slung a horn, belayed Kurt up to the summit and then finished it myself. It was 13:58. Finally, a summit 9 tries and 6 years in the making, I made it. Rock on! Just had to get down now... We downclimbed a ledge system that bypassed the rock step (which we didn't see from the way up!), worked our way back to the slung rock and rapped down onto the snow. We pulled the rope, roped back up and downclimbed a gully to traverse to the North Ridge. We headed back to the closest gendarme and found a horn to sling for a rap. My brilliant plan was to downclimb the east face. We had a snack, packed gear and set the rope. Kurt went first, and boy-howdy was the snow soft. I had expected it, but not to that extent. We'd sink in to our knees without even trying, but we could kick in some mad steps. If we cliffed out, I dreaded the thought of having to go back up it. We pulled the rope, traversed over to another set of rocks and found another horn, reset the rope and rapped again. This one ended out in the middle of nowhere, so we resigned ourselves to kicking steps in again. A little further on the descent, we found another horn, slung it and rapped again, leaving us on stuff that we almost felt comfortable enough to face outward and plunge step. From here, the runout was not quite as immediately life-threatening as well, which was a welcome lowering of stress level. I pulled the rope and packed it while Kurt kicked off down the slope and in about another 15 minutes we pulled up onto verifiably flat ground on the Whitewater, and I finally felt somewhat safe. As soft as it was, the snow held when we kicked in our steps and plunged our way down it, but if it had been sunnier, there was certainly potential to have it slide. We broke the rope out one last time and geared up for the walk across the Whitewater. On getting closer to the North ridge, we came across a party who were planning to do the East Face in the morning. We told them to just follow our tracks right to the face, and START EARLY!! After a little more hiking and some glissading, we managed to pull back into camp around 1900. We (make that I) was a little slow to get gear packed up but we managed to leave camp right at 2000, catching a few quick glimpses of the mountain as we hiked out under a beautiful sunset. Then it became socked in with clouds and we hauled out. Back at the car in an hour and a half(!), we tried to get to Detroit before the Cedars closed, but we missed by about 10 minutes. That was the ONLY thing that came close to going wrong the entire weekend! What a trip. Many thanks to Kurt for making the trip, and for having the wheels and skills to make it up with me. It was a pleasure sharing leads. Some pics are still to come, but I have a few compressed ones I'll try and post in the gallery. Buzz me for beta if you want more boring detail... Chris

Check your PM's.