jstreet

John A and I went up to Strobach on Monday and climbed Primus Sucks and Ice Dreams. I agree with Farrgo... unholy baptism, bleeder, and tower of power need a week or two to touch down solidly. Dropline needs time to fill in, right now it looks like really technical vertical icicles. Ponderosa looks doable but dang thin at the top.

What did Drury falls look like?

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A google earth view of our route Gerry and I headed to Shuksan over the labor day weekend. The idea was to climb the north face followed by, the apparently rarely climbed, north west face of the summit pyramid. We figured this would make a fun and interesting all around alpine climb with glacier, ice, snow, and rock. The Becky guide provides relatively vague descriptions of two routes on the northwest face; the "labor day route" and "the diritissimo" . A search of CC.com came up with nothing expect one unanswered request for beta on the "labor day route". The lack of any definitive information made our idea all the more interesting! Beautiful meadows and grand stand views of our climbing route as we travel along a gorgeous sub-alpine ridge On saturday we headed to a camp near the base of the north face. We would follow the long ridge the extends from the base of the north face and that forms the left flank of the Whiter Salmon River valley. The day started off with a two mile battle along a hellishly overgrown logging road that runs down the right flank of the valley. Near the road's end we dropped down the hillside via a band of mature forest to the valley floor. After crossing the river we headed straight up the side of the ridge until we got to near tree line and then followed the ridge top toward the mountain. Incredible views and beautiful meadows delighted us as traveled along this gorgeaus sub-alpine ridge and we got grand stand views of our climbing route. We found a cozy meadow campsite not far from the base of the north face and started relaxing and preping for sundays climb. The hanging glacier and northwest face of the summit pyramid as seen from near camp With fourteen hours of light max on sunday it would be a close call to make it from camp all the way back to camp the same day. Especially considering that the last 2-3 hours might be tricky coming down the White Salmon Glacier followed by a high scrambling traverse at the head of the White Salmon River valley under the hanging glacier. Up the north face, across the upper hanging glacier, up the somewhat obscure northwest face than down the south face, down the upper Sulfide Glacier, thru Hell's Highway, across the upper Curtis Glacier, thru Winnie's Slide, down the White Salmon Glacier, under the hanging glacier, and back up to the north face saddle camp...whhoooo... I figured 15 hours +/- 2 hours ... better start early. Sunset over Baker as seen from camp Started climbing at 6am but in hind sight we should have started earlier. Gerry lead up the north face and took the sporty direct line up the lower north face glacier. Three and a half hours later we were relaxing on flat ground on the northwest shoulder at the top of the north face. Still pretty early we thought, we might be able to do this. The northwest face of the summit pyramid beckoned us from the other side of the upper Hanging Glacier. Off we went across and up to the base of the face. Gerry leading thru some crevasse steps on the lower north face glacier Gerry leads across the upper hanging glacier towards the northwest face We didn't really worry about latching onto one of the two northwest face routes described in the Becky guides. Those descriptions where very old and quite vague and the face had numerous options. We settled on a line that went straight up just left of the depression in the center of the face, following a faint rib to the north shoulder of the main summit ridge. The first pitch looked like it might be the hardest and it was. It was probably only 5.7 but felt more like 5.9 with numb hands and feet, and somewhat loose rock and sparse protection. All I can say is "thank god" for the solid belay anchor that appeared at the end of this pitch. Looking up the northwest face from near it's base Gerry at a belay on the face Starting up the 4th pitch Climbing the 6th pitch After the 1st pitch the climbing eased substantially, averaging maybe low 5th over the entire 8 pitches of climbing with two or three mid 5th class sections. The rock quality varied, quite good in some places, and crappy in others but generally somewhat loose and friable with sparse protection, enough so that we choose not to simu-climb. This would come back to haunt us later. We arrived at the summit later than we hoped and it seemed like it would be a real challenge to clear all the semi-technical terrain on the way back to camp in the time we had left before dark. Gerry on the summit ridge Down we went, scrambling down the south face, running down the upper sulfide glacier, cruising down hells highway and across the upper curtis glacier, down winnie slide, past the top out point of fisher chimneys. We started down the white salmon glacier and soon hit some tricky crevasse crossings just as the sun was setting. We decided trying to do the remainder of the glacier and possibly tricky travel below the glacier a night would probably be a very bad idea and marched back up the hill for an unplanned night at one of the Winnie Slide bivi sites. Crossing the upper Curtis Glacier after coming down Hell's Highway Getting off the Curtis Glacier Once back at the bivi sites we enjoyed the company of three other groups, two of which "planned" to be there, and another party of six, that like us, where having an "unplanned" stay. Gerry promptly nick named our stay there as "camp misery". One very generous party took pity on us a let us use their stove to make water and then gave us a sleeping pad, emergency blanket, and down jacket making our stay much less miserable than it could have been. Thank you Samson and company from Portland and Olympia for your generosity. It's Monday morning and Gerry is ready to leave "camp misery" Monday dawned and we where still alive and I had managed to get a whole two hours of sleep. It was a glorious morning as we worked our way down and then off the White Salmon Glacier found a scramble route under the hanging glacier and made it back to camp. We where very happy to see that the bears had not taken up residence in our camp. We had a very nice long lunch with the dinners that we didn't get to eat. Then after a longish off-trail hike out we finally made it back to the car and treated ourselves too a long relaxing dinner a Milano's in Glacier. Hoowaah! Just go down the White Salmon Glacier, scramble slabs and ledges, traverse under the drop zone of the hanging glacier, and swoop up the hill back to camp Back at camp - two happy campers! Want to see more pictures? They're all right here >>> http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151131247039722.460498.714269721&type=3&l=ac2583dfc8

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Gerry and I met Chris and Jess while climbing Backbone Ridge on Dragontail last Saturday. We took alot of photos of them. Here are a few and see all of them here. We didn't get there contact info. Don't know if they frequent CC.com and will find these photos. I do know that they currently live in Seattle. If you know them please tell them their pictures are here.

Some photos of Matt...

Road was clear until the last mile or so then it had about 1-2 feet of snow on it. Doubt it will be open this weekend but probably next. Trail to lake all snow, should be a good packed trail now.

Our foursome followed you up the route... here are some photos I took of you guys... Coming up the first couloir Climbing the first pitch of the runnels Climbing the last pitch of the runnels Way up there at the top of the second couloir Climbing the step between the second and third couloirs

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Nice work guys! That really looks fun.

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That looks fun!

Sweet Wayne! Love Strobach!

Where's box canyon?

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