Billy

Its probably a bit too warm. The inversion is strong, and its warm up high. Something might be there, but climbing at Smith would be a great choice. Its perfect right now.

As of last Wed, there was some stiffness happening. Its been pretty cold since then. If I go up there I will report. Gotta love this weather!

Just have kids. Then you always climb with no sleep, and you have to climb when you really don't want to. Now that, is alpinism.

Climb: Broken Top- South Sister SE Aspect- Date of Climb: 11/23/2005 Trip Report: Yesterday Richard Pumpington and I decided to go deep in the Three Sisters and ski the SE aspect of South Sister down to Green Lakes. Its a great line, and I have been wanting to get on it for a long time. Unfortunately, its a long way from anywhere when the conditions are good. We thought we might find some good condtions and we were right. It was a perfect spring day, with some good corn and some variable stuff but it was all skiable. We approached from Broken Top Bowl and skied around the west side of Broken Top at about 7900'. It was a great ski down into Green Lakes and and an even better ski on the SE aspect of South, with a 2200' foot run from where we stopped. Richard gettin jiggy with early season conditions on the West side of Broken Top The arrow marks the top of our run. Richard enjoying the great run down with BT in the background Gear Notes: ski crampons would have been great Approach Notes: Long, 10.5 hours car to car. Sled would be really helpful. Almost 24 miles of skiiing round trip, with 6400 of elevation gain and loss.

Oops here is a link to the picture of the area: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/505/459East_Face_of_Rock_Creek_Butte-med.jpg

Climb: Elkhorn Ice- East Face of Rock Creek Butte-Rarely Formed and Talk+Action= A Good Route Date of Climb: 11/17/2005 Trip Report: Last friday Vert and I had a blast going into the Elkhorns and climbed some good and some thin ice. We climbed the route on the right of the main face which had some cool exit moves on rock protected by pins. ]http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/505/459East_Face_of_Rock_Creek_Butte-med.jpg[/img] We also did the big pillar in the center, which according to Vert rarely forms that good. When the back of fell out, we bailed and left a screw and and a v-thread. The climbing is really good out there, and there is huge potential for routes that go all the way up. On the way over, I checked out Strawberry, and most of After Image is formed, but not yet touching down. I was able to drive to the gate in my low rider Saturn Wagon. I would suspect that there is a bunch of stuff to do. Gear Notes: screw, pins shoulda had nuts and a few small cams Approach Notes: Long, we should have brought the sled, but that was Vert's deparment

Climb: Tumalo Mt- Date of Climb: 11/8/2005 Trip Report: Skied Tumalo today. It was fantastic with good coverage. Oh yea, and the snow was unreal. Cold clear weather and no wind. Approach Notes: pretty easy

Better bring the bulletproof body armor.

Did it last year in early October. We used the SE Face of Torment for access. The glacier was no problem at all. The climbing on the SE face was great. Clean, easy to mid 5th, with fixed anchors (slung horns). Getting on the face from the glacier was super easy. Go do it!

Hope you don't get passed on the uphill side on one of those routes!!!!

Because its not beat out and its the real deal. Beaks, expando, and mandatory free climbing. I doubt you'll find any neutrinos up there either.

Dude- How is that fresh #2 camalot treating you?

Go for Soft Shoe Ballet.

(image)http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=11095 (image)http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=11094&sort=1&size=medium&cat=504

Climb: North Sister-Routa Normale Date of Climb: 6/12/2005 Trip Report: Climbed the South Ridge of North Sister from Pole Creek on sunday morning. Snow conditions in the Sisters are excellent right now. The West Face traverses are steep and fairly firm. There is a lot of good route options for getting to the Bowling Alley. The Bowling Alley is firm with a nice steep step with some rime stemming. The Summit Pinnacle had some light duty rime and fun climbing. The route is in fantastic shape right now and fairly challenging. The NE face of Middle is still hanging in there, the WI pitch looks doable, and the routes on the rest of the East Face look awesome right now. The North Face of South Sister looks just as fantastic. The skiing looks great on the west side of both peaks, but you'd have to hit all the east side stuff in the morning to make it feel good. Remember, North Sister is just one of those Central Oregon "dung heaps", so you better stick to Hood and play it safe. Gear Notes: Pickets, Ice Screws, a couple of wired stoppers and a couple of small tri-cams. Approach Notes: No snow on the trail.

If it (the Reid Headwall) actually was onsighted by this supposed Euro hardman,does his choice of leashles tools slash the grade of the route? Furthermore, can the consistent use of leashless tools slash the difficulty of the route to the point where it could not even remotely be considered an "onsight", because of the apparent advantages of such a modern tool? Does the possibility of using evening training classes at Rocky Butte to learn leashless technique blow anyone's who has participated in these classes chance for an onsight of the Reid? These things and many other factors are tough questions that we must answer as a group, before we can validate an actual onsight of the Reid Headwall.

Can the Reid Headwall be onsighted? Or, let's say I don't look at the guidebook, but go and climb the route, and don't fall. Is that a redpoint or an onsight?

I would recomend camping at the Morraine, and not the Lower Saddle. Its only a short distance below the saddle and much less windy. Valhalla traverse can be spicy that early in the season, you may want steel crampons. The N Ridge is the better than the N Face, and will probably be drier than the N Face that early in the season. The Black Ice may be gone, as I have heard that it no longer exists. But there are other great routes on the Middle Teton like the Glacier Route and the NW Couloir that you can easily access from the Morraine. Alot will depend on how warm the spring is, cause the Tetons have below normal snow this winter, so you may be in there. Call the rangers at Jenny Lake Ranger Station, they are really cool and all of them climb pretty hard, so they have great info on conditions.

Climb: Strawberry Ice-Various Date of Climb: 1/4/2005 Trip Report: Myself and Vert had hoped to scale After Image at Strawberry, but potentially hazardous snow conditions on the approach scared us before getting on the route. About 2 feet of new on top of depth hoar, ominous wumphing sounds and evidence of recent avy activity in the basin had us gripped. We stuck to some safer routes, and there is plenty of ice in the basin in several locations, so there is stuff to do, just shorter. The Honey Pot The Mossy, a classic thin/mixed route at the Falls. After Image- the route to get on at Strawberry. It was ccccc-cold up there! Gear Notes: ice screws/pins Approach Notes: 4WD Truck, snowmobile and skis

Wayne- If I revealed that I'd have to kill you.....

Climb: Middle Sister Recon-Skied Hayden Glacier Date of Climb: 12/23/2004 Trip Report: On December 23, I went up with Mr Pumpington to view the East aspect of Middle Sister. You could drive all the way to Pole Creek as of then. It has snowed a bunch since then, so it may be impassable. The NE Face looked spicy and we had hoped to climb it, but for a variety of factors didn't get on it. Some days are like that. This looks to be a good route for hearty winter travelers in the Cascades. Approach Notes: Driveable to Pole Creek as of Dec 23. May be rugged now.

Anyone have any Pole Creek access info as of 12/19? Thanks

Any ice on the NE face?

Just bringing this to the top. Anyone been out there to check it out?