jrwclimbs

Sorry you didn't get Prusik. We were up there this weekend, too. Awesome climb, and that approach from Snow creek TH is a big bad ass bitch. And for what it's worth, everyone's feet hurt! Next time over assgard for sure!

In '97, I hiked it northbound in 2.5 days. I was slowed down by 2 people joining me for the first full day (and subsequent next morning). My pack was probably around 13 pounds at the TH. I didn't run any of it, just as long as you get up early enough and keep moving until just past dark, you'll be fine. Skip the filter, too. There's water/springs galore, even late season. Hitch hiking from either pass isn't too difficult, either! Good luck. If you pull it off, then you should try the next section to Stehekin in a weekend, now that's a bitch!

How was the E Ridge? was it really loose 3rd/4th as I've heard, near the top? Did the descent require any raps? What were your times car to summit to car? Axe needed? Mucho Thanks!

Has anyone out there done either the North Ridge (complete) or the Mesachie Icefall Couloir routes? Ever? Is the latter doable in a day from HWY 20? Thanks! Jeremy

A few years ago we navigated around the West Side road closure by hiking on the Wonderland Trail from Longmire, then bushwhacked up Hornpipe creek (easy, but steep). It's a longer approach, but not too bad to the first camp (8k-ish). We planned on a carryover, too, descending to Paradise, but extreme winds turned us around at 9,800'. Definitely save the route for early season. Read Molenaar's description in Challenge of Rainier and let someone else suffer! Jeremy

Anyone been up there lately? Thanks!

It's totally worth doing! We bivied at the base (first ones ever?!?!) amongst the heinous loose talus pile (evidence of how solid the peaks are...). First pitch is more of a traverse/downclimb, protectable for both if paying attention. Second pitch wasn't too obvious and only 1 of the original 8 Beckey pins are left and it's conveniently at the first belay. Climbing was loose and rockfall dinged the rope more than once. 2nd pitch was steep and above 5.4 and had funky pro but still doable. Very awesome summit, almost flat 8 by 12 summit worth biving on in the future. Note, descend the snow gully you came up, don't descend via the count of monte cristo. you'll be doomed... have fun!

Nice beta! So did you first traverse around the lower ridge, saw all the rockfall and then went BACK to the ice on the EAST side? Was there any rockfall from the upper ridge or Willis Wall/Thermo routes getting up to the Thumb? And lastly was the Emmons as bad as reports are saying? Sounds like more screws may be more necessary than usual!Thanks! Anyone try Lib this weekend or did the Avi spook everyone?

It's a good idea to have 2 pieces of snow pro handy, i.e. 2 pickets, one on each side of your pack, with the runner/biner draped over your shoulder and clipped to your shoulder straps so you can grab them easily in the self(team) arrest position. You never know which hand you'll be arresting with on the axe head, so it's nice to be able to grab either picket with the opposite hand. Unfortunately most climbers tend to carry only one picket per person. Another nice piece of gear is the orange Petzl Pulley wheel that fits over some oval biners. It's ultralight since it has no housing so you can't scoff at the weight. Check to see if it fits your ovals first, I know it doesn't fit BDs. It has to go with an oval biner or the rope will slip off the wheel so the ultralight biners won't cut it here. I also carry one of the small REI pulleys, too, for the initial anchor point pulley since it's easier to set up and it doesn't suck in the prussik like the regular Petzl Pulley (with metal housing). The Petzl Tibloc can also be clipped on quickly in lieu of one of the prussik knots and it's obviously self tending (though I'd trust a prussik more, especially on a thin rope). If you're in really soft snow its gonna suck making the anchor since you'll have to dig a deadman trench (while still in the arrest position!) and the rope for your partner will be so embedded that they may not be able to get out at all on that line (hence the longer tails!) One last trick, if you have a rope that will very often be used for 2 person glacier travel, make marks ahead of time for the proper lengths for the tie in, this should save a fair amount of time at the high camp and minimize the guess work of your arm lengths vs. the rope length so you can be very sure you'll have enough rope to extract your cold pal. good luck and go practice somewhere safe!

Haven't been there this summer to see it yet, but they usually keep it gated at Paul Peak until the ENTIRE road is snow free. They sandbagged us last year and said it was open (while at Paradise), after the long drive around-it wasn't! GRR. I think they opened the gate July 15th or so last year. On our hike in (July 9) the road was snow free until the last half mile or less of road. And there was the tire tracks of the ranger truck who dropped the rangers who did Ptar ridge in a day... So I'd bring your bike if going out soon, just have decent knobbies!

Has anyone used the new MSR hanging stove set up? Are you happy with it? I know it works with the msr pocket rocket stove and one of the Primus', does it work with the Giga stove, too? It's a nice weight, especially compared to Bibler's setup. In general, has anyone used a ti pot with a hanging setup? seems the arms would either get in the way or get cooked off. any ideas? thanks!

Has anyone been on any side of Baker in the last 2 weeks? Up to any decent elevation or the summit? Any beta would be grand. I heard the road for the Coleman/Helitrope is open to under a mile from the TH!

Due to the amount of debris coming down the Leuthold, and the number of climbers attempting it, we did a variation of the main Reid Headwall route. As the previous post mentioned, you can escape some of the falling ice and rock chunks on the mini ridges but a few gullies required full frontal pelting! Our variation actually ran into some solid 5.8 rock over 10,000' but we only had slings for pro so we backed off after 12 feet. With a little ugly traversing on manky snow (the whole mountain had crap snow) we scampered lightly up a loose, down sloping gully reaching another dead end around 10,950'. From there a 30 m rap got us down to the upper Reid normal route finish. Overall there was lots of dry tooling, a little bit of water ice, a helluva lot of ice and rock fall. The summit was very windy and the south side standard route had much less snow at the Pearly Gates than normal for May and the schrund is opening up pretty decently. If its not a bowling alley, Leuthold looks like a nice cruise compared to our Reid variation!

For alpine climbing the Petzl Micro, loaded with 2 Lithium AA batteries and one standard and one halogen bulb is the way to go. Its light, small and you can use the spot or beam, or either bulb as necessary. The only downside is the lack of availability and cost of the AA lithiums...(REI and Bartells)

Has anyone attempted Dragontail this winter/spring? I only know of one team-who turned around early due to food poisoning and never saw the route. Any info would be great. Thanks!