Billy

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.....

Mr Machiato? Is that 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?

I'm pretty sure that all those routes were done many moons ago by the resident hardmen of the day.

These boots need toe straps.

Hey NOLSe- Would like to hear anything about routes on the N side in winter. It looks like an attractive option for everything to be frozen up. Good access too!

I have these boots for sale. They are in excellent shape and have been walked in only one day, they are just too small for me. Basically they are brand new. I'll sell for $120 plus whatever mailing costs are incurred. You can PM me if interested or reply to this post.

Climb: SEWS and NEWS-East Butt/ NW Corner Date of Climb: 8/20/2004 Trip Report: Myself and Dick Pumpington headed up to WA pass last week to do some fine granite climbing. Not being able to convince any of our esteemed collegues Hal Burton and Mr Machiatto to join us, we went alone. After an auto epic with a failed alternater my mighty Saturn delivered us to pass and to salvation. On the first day we woke up when it got light, had some quick breakfast and hiked up the loose gully to the base of SEWS. The approach to a little over an hour. The first couple pitches of the route were easy to mid-fifth, and were very enjoyable. Dick took us up the fine 5.9 cracks to base of the bolt ladders. What great pitches those were, solid cracks, good pro and increasing exposure on the way. I took over at the bolt ladders and barely managed to free the moves. Kudos to whoever placed the new bolts! The alleged short pitch between the bolt ladders was no pushover. The second bolt ladder was intially tough to locate, as the bolts really blend in the distance. Also, the way the topo is written, it looks like the ladder starts right off the belay, but really you have to climb up quite a ways with minimal pro until you hit it. This pitch was fantastic with small crimpers and steep rock. The mantels were casual, maybe 5.8, not 5.10, especially if you compare them to the mantle on the Nutcracker in Yosemite. We then followed 2 wandering pitches to the summit. A classic climb that we both felt was way better than Liberty Crack. Some folks may want to consider this route as a good alternative. The next day we climbed the NW corner of NEWS. The flakes and liebacks on this route are outrageous. The 20 ft of offwidth crack kicked my ever-loving ass, but it was fun in a weird sort of way. It drizzled a bit on the climb, but the rock didn't really get wet. When we got to the top the sky opened up for a brief spell, and we were glad to be heading down. Another great climb. The West Face is on my future hit list. Gear Notes: Rack to 3 inches for East Butt of SEWS and Rack to 4inches for NW Corner, but we had a 4.5 camalot, and were happy to have it (I'm an off width weenie) Approach Notes: pretty short

Where are the closures actually? Where is milepost 171 and 126?

What was Ricardo wearing while he was sitting at the pool?

Climb: Eldorado-West Arete Date of Climb: 7/24/2004 Trip Report: Yea buoy! Jeremy, Misterbeer, Dick Pumpington, myself and our esteemed associate Mr. Machiatto went up to give the West Arete on Eldo a run. We left the parking lot at 6:30pm fri nite and hit a nice bivy at 5700 or so by 9pm. We all slept through our alarms comfortably, even though one of our party neglected to bring a sleeping pad to go light. We managed to roll out of camp at 5:30am, up and over the ridge, and across the slabs to Triad Col. A couple of members of the expedition elected to drop a Rumsfeld here, glad they had brought a few napkins from Mc Donalds. Climbing over Triad was a little tricky in one spot, but not too bad. The descent down the other side was in soft snow, pretty easy cruising. We then hopped talus and snow alternately over to a waterfall and then up to the base of the gully to access the arete itself. By 9:50am, we were up in the loose gulley on our way to the arete. When we hit the crest, we broke out the rope, stuffed some smokeless in our lips, and tied in. Mr Machiatto led the first block on the right of the crest mostly, to the base of the Gendarmes. We kept thinking that we were at the Gendarmes earlier, but found that we actually weren't. The climbing here was mid-fifth for the most part, with the odd 5.7 move. It went on for a long ways and we simuled most of it, with a few belays. Jeremy and Misterbeer followed behind us, but soon we lost touch with our friends, and cast off on our own. Next Dick took over and led us up through the Gendarmes, and around them. Now the climbing was getting good, and the rock quality was improving as we got higher. Still, you had to thump on everything you touched, so it took a while to be safe about things. This section as described in the guidebook looked to be short, but it was fairly long and quite "robust". I took over next and led up on the final steep step, which was slightly tricky routefinding, but the way just unfolded bit by bit. We finally hooked up with the 3rd and 4th class at the top, took of the rope, and boogied to the summit arriving at about 8:30pm. The light was fantastic and we could see all the fires adding the trippy feel after climbing all day and being low on water. Climbing down the snow arete on the East Ridge was ass tearing as all the peaks were lit up in red. When we got down to the glacier, we had a safety meeting, ate the last of the grub and cruised back to camp 2 hours after leaving the summit. We were elated, but still we had not seen or heard from our friends all day long, and worries crept in. Should we wait for them, or just take off, hoping that they would be alright? We spent the night and decided to see what morning would bring. In the morning, still no sign of them struggling into camp. We decided to pack up, head down, and give them one more day before we called them in. Turns out that they made it just pass the Gendarmes and had to endure a night out, and they came out a little later than us. Whew, what a relief! I have to hand it to Jeremy and Misterbeer for hanging it out there and sending it. It was Misterbeer's first route in the North Cascades and Jeremy's second. Kudos! Overall, the route was only mediocre rock, but the setting and the length of it make it a classic in the genre. Gear Notes: nuts cams to hand size ice axe/crampons Approach Notes: butt tearing

So Forrest, would you recomend descending through Triad col to approach the West Arete, if going for the one day? Or going the other way that Sean is suggesting?