jstreet

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The ice in the chair peak north slope couloir above the far end of Snow Lake is looking good. Went there with yesterday with Matt...see our TR here

This past Sunday Matt and I returned to the area above the far end of Snow lake. The couloir that comes down from Chair Peak's north slope to the far end of the lake has numerous ice routes. We approached by skiing up to the base of Chair Peak's NE Buttress and then down Chair's north slope into the couloir. About half way down the couloir, just above the narrow part, is a collection of short (20-30m) routes all in the WI-4/5 range. On our previous visit to this area, back in December, we climbed two of the routes (as reported in This TR ). All the routes are now dramatically fatter then back in December. This time we climbed three more routes that we nick named "Dracula", "Son of Dracula", and "Vertigo". These routes are short but sweet! After finishing the climbing we skied down the lower half of the couloir to Snow Lake and headed out. Great day! See more photos here Leading "Dracula" Leading "Son of Dracula" Matt leading "Vertigo"

Great day! You're really getting after it! >>>>>>>>>> spionin ...climbed in source lake basin today...

Way cool!

these are still available

Cornfed's photo from two winters ago (he shared it with me a while back) shows a rope team climbing the lower tier... don't know who they are and was kind of hoping they'd chime in and let us know if they completed the upper tier.

I heard that Geoff and Jessica gave it a try last winter so maybe that was them.

Nice job guys. I've been noticing that falls over there for years and wanting to go play on it but haven't made it yet. I've heard rumors of a number of people climbing it over the years. I love your name "Nisqually Belle".

Love the photos! PS/ there's a snow gulley you can scramble to get to the top of table... red circle on map indicates it's approximate location

Thanks Spionin. Sent you a PM.

Thanks Bigeo, thanks for sharing the condition photos and photo of Matt and I climbing. It looks like you came thru the Chair Peak North Couloir ice play ground area... do some climbing or just skiing? >>>>>>>>>>>>> Saw you guys up there while skinning across the lake. Very impressive. I noticed that flow before and wondered if anyone ever gets on it. A picture of you and some conditions photos from the area

This past Saturday Matt and I went to Snow Lake in the Snoqualmie Pass backcountry again to climb another ice route. About 2/3 of the way down the lake there's a slot colouir that dead ends at a vertical to overhanging headwall. A couple of hundred feet up the headwall water seeps out of a crack and forms a striking two tier 50m ice climb. A 25 meter WI-3 tier leads to a 25 meter WI-5 upper tier. As viewed from the lake, we were not sure that the upper tiers crux column/curtain was well formed enough to lead safely but we knew we had to get up there to find out. After the mandatory 300+ foot 50 degree snow couloir wallow we arrived at the base of the route and still weren't sure if the crux would go safely so we forged up the lower half to get a better look. On arriving at the base of the upper tier it looked like the crux curtain was just thick enough to lead safely. The upper tier started with an interesting short chimney between the delicate right edge of the column/curtain and a rock corner facing left... complicated by a curtain of long delicate icicles beginning to enclose the top half of the chimney. At the top of the chimney we did an exhilarating exit left out onto the main vertical curtain. The route continues up steeply till the ice dead ends at a 100+ foot overhanging rock wall. For practical reasons we stopped about 15 feet short of the very end of the ice and used the last good ledge and ice for belay and rappel anchor. We're calling the climb "Slot Machine" See more photos

Thanks for the report. How did you get across the river?

Ya, good thing we got this done on Saturday instead of Sunday.

Matt and I went to Snow Lake on Saturday... on the way here's what we saw Chockstone Falls - IN Flow Reversal - IN SUPER FAT - looks like WI 3+ or 4- Source Lake Line - IN FAT all the other stuff scattered all over the valley looked fat At Snow Lake we climbed this thing... 50m WI-5 ... see [url:http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1055602#Post1055602]trip report here[/url]

Nice work guys, Death Picnic is such a cool route!

Nope, we headed out from the upper alpental parking lot.

Sweet backcountry ice! Nice work guys.

Headed to Snoquamie Pass today intending to go to the end of snow lake again and climb some more ice lines down there but when we passed under "Flow Reversal" it looked uber fat and when we got around the corner and saw that "Source Lake Line" was finally looking pretty good for the first time this season we decided to head up there and climb it. The crux section was a fairly sporty hollow icicle matrix... some delicate climbing... for a short section... here are some photos... maybe a few of actually leading the thing later...there on another camera Flow Reversal The Source Lake Line

Went back to the far end of Snow Lake last Thursday (dec 22) with Matt and found some more ice to play on... see full report here

Went back to the far end of Snow Lake last Thursday (dec 22) with Matt, exploring for more ice to play on. Went up the gully 500-600 feet, a little higher than "coldiron" and company did recently (as reported in the WA ice conditions thread... See their report) Our goal was to do a line that finished on the obvious fat flow over the cliff top. Here's a view of our chosen line taken on a prior recon... a very fore-shortened view of both pitches of the route, makes it look shorter and steeper than it really is the route rambles up then left, up then left thru lots of snow ledges Near the base of route the morning of the climb We started the route in a gully just out of view to the right Starting up the 1st pitch Matt at the belay for pitch #2 The view down at the lake from the belay for pitch #2 Heading up the 2nd pitch A long snow ramp leads to a short but sweet ice flow Matt topping out We nick named the route "Steppenwolfe" and it seemed like WI-3 to us. After topping out we traversed up and left and rappeled into an area a few hundred feet further up the gully. The following photos are taken from left to right all from nearly same location... showing this area all the routes in this area are 20-30m high with tree anchors within 50m from comfortable belays By chance we rappeled down this interesting line Closeup of the line under our rappel... I'm calling it "Dracula" We climbed the route in the center of the photo below... nicked name it "Squeeze Play" ... it had a few rock moves ... felt like WI-4 M3 to us it was more more exciting than it looks... some tricky akward moves The 2nd pitch of "Steppenwolfe" ... which starts a couple of hundred feet below

Here's what the source lake line looked like yesterday

Saw an ice climb above the end of Snow Lake on my various foray's out there to ski and ice climb over the past few weeks. Headed out there on Sunday and climbed it with John. It's a very nice 2 pitch WI-3... and the ice was darn good... definitely worth the walk....looks like "tvashtarkatena" and company climbed this route in 2009 and dubbed it "Oompa Loompa"... see their TR on CC.com at http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/865079#Post865079 Here are some photos... The route Near the base of the route Looking directly up the route... John leads up the 1st pitch John on the hanging belay for pitch #2 John leading up the 2nd pitch Looking down at the lake from the top of the climb

Went out today with Matt and climbed "Flow Reversal". Temps where just above freezing and with 3-4 inches of new snow the day before we saw quite a few small to medium size sluffs come off the cliffs, a few of which washed over me on the route. The bottom and top of the route where thin, hollow, and mushy. The middle portion of the route, including the crux corner had darn good ice.