plexus

As of last Monday, there's no snow. And considering the lack of snow on Burgundy Spire, it's safe to assume on the Beckey route, there still is no snow.

Did Silver Star Mtn on Tuesday with a couple of friends. Camped on road to Cutthroat Pass Trailhead, left Hwy 20 at 5:15 a.m., decend down to Willow Creek, had to jump to an island to cross on the log over the creek, which is raging pretty good. The trail is visible and in earshot of Burgundy Creek. Hit punchy snow at 5800 ft, full coverage by 6200 ft. Ate 1st lunch at the campsite described by Beckey and Nelson at 6,700 ft. The way up to Burgundy Col seemed to take forever. Crappy snow, refrozen crust with slop underneath, much wallowing was endured. Also the forshortening of the way makes you think you're always close to the col but never are. The views from the col are great. Somebody left some booty up there, which my friends were happy to inhale Short glissade down and traverse around the spires, all soft snow on the east side. One friend bailed and decided to check out some heliskier stakes on a knoll, so just two of us headed up the snowslope, at around 8300 ft, cached some excess gear which we didn't want to carry up any longer, including our crampons. So of course Murphy's law occured. On way up the two of us leaped out of the way of a snow patch that slid off of the West peak, broke into several pieces and came barrelling down at us. Reached Silver Star col and up to the peak, where we discovered we wish we had our crampons. Stuck to some class 3 when was possible. Got summit, drank mescal, great glissade down, traverse, bloody hell we have to climb up to the col Great glissade down from Burgundy col, zombie walk back to truck. Enjoyed some apricot ale. I'm still dead today. roundtrip was just under 10 hrs. The backside of Silver Star is gorgeous and will be back there later on to get up Burgundy Spire. The rock is pretty clean.

Go with the Ascents. The lifter really is a god send on prolonged steep slopes (think over 1K of 45+ degrees). I got my pair at Second Ascent, as a demo pair they were $90, two small scratches on them when I bought them.

Spring=snow sluffs..learned about that last spring when a slide knocked me on my face before I rolled out of it.

Snow was harder than hell up in that area today. Soloed up Blue Lake Peak for some excercise. I brought snowshoes and wished I had brought crampons. I wound up cutting steps on stuff that was only 40 degrees.

Dude, I'm jealous. Sounds like you've been getting out.

There's a difference between a good climber and a good well-rounded climber. After reading Jay's reintroduction of CPB's post, there is some logic to it. But in the mountains, common sense, dealing with choss and route finding are just as handy. Each their own. When I spend more time in the mountains, my peak climbing ability goes down. When I spend more time cragging, my endurance goes down. And I don't have the balls to push myself to the high end of my climbing ability (grade-wise) in the mountains because of risk assessment. Maybe that is what will keep me from ever becoming a good climber. But you know what, I can live that.

BOOTY Alert !! Seriously, sounds like a fun day. Nothing like a little snow and ice to make a moderate alittle spicy !!

shit, I took a leaderfall on cat crack first time I tried it. no joke! blew the onsight!!! My friend took a whipper on that once! Pulled two pieces on the fall and stopped with his ass head level. Cleaning that chock out was hell . I'd say linking up the Smoke Bluff Connection stands out...first time led that many pitches in a row. The pitch above Mosquito scared me at first, I kept looking down at the ground !!

Erik, I've gotten two sprained ankles from bad landings. Unless I get one of my padded friends out, I go padless, and if the landing is really sketchy and there is a very good chance I'm gonna blow the dyno, I tuck tail. I Don't mind people using pads, my beef is seeing about six pads padding a whole area, looks like a room they put you in with that funny jacket with the really long sleeves. ...not that I'm talkin from experience or sumthin...

Well you picked up all of the beer cans and tape, so what else are we gonna throw at ya? Climb what you wanna climb, just don't pile five bouldering pads on the ground to protect that one problem. Good that's lame when they put 80 pads down.

USe ledge or dangle it, just make sure the belayer cleans it up and makes sure it won't get snagged on something while paying the rope out. This takes a couple of minutes and can be done while the leader is getting ready for the pitch. Never had any problems with rope snags, a couple of dead branches have had to been removed from coils but that's it.

I'd follow the advice from the post above. Snoeshows are cheap to rent and is also a good way of determining which pair you like. I rented them for three years, trying on about six different models, before I bought a pair. If it's like how it was when I went out 9 days ago, you'll be fine without them until about 4,500 feet. Then you'll wallow. This past week at the 5-6 k range and higher its still been picking up a little bit of snow.

Kudos to you obsydian on having a great weekend with good weather and by yourselves. Don't think many ppl climb the Gardners..while not technical, it has a different flavor and it sure is a long SOB, no? Many spring sluffs of snow coming down? Trying to figure out what snow coverage will be next week at the Liberty Bell group.

Just some FYI, the Skagit Alpine Club is holding its self-arresting class and will climb Whistler on Saturday. About 20 students and about 10 instructors...just a heads up.

Great story Bug. I feel for your pain, two sizes too small !! So my question is, is that block still there?

Saw that come by my desk yesterday at work. A co-worker and I were talking about it and it can only mean good. When she was writing for the SLC paper she said that she only ever heard of one such frivolous lawsuit and it got dismissed. There was one case where a guy claimed to be an "expert" climber, took a woman out and she fell and broke her arm to go with other injuries. Seems the "expert" ran the toprope through a sling without any biners. Needless to say he ended up liable.

Must be single then

Hey Chuck, Not to nitpick too much, but I wouldn't say Darrington is sport climbing, not the way the bolts are runout. Exit38, hell yes to sports climbing.

sshhhhhh........

TG, Where were the conditions so bad for you this weekend? Went out yesterday on stuff ranging from 20-55 degrees and the snowpack was a helluva lot better than I thought it was going to be. The crack and sound of falling snow makes me jump, after getting hit by a slide last spring

Mattp, you're right, at least up north it wasn't too bad, once you got above the freezing line. The slog up sucked in the rain (just one of those days that no matter what you weared, you were going to get wet, either by your sweat or the rain). Probably about two inches of new on the way down, made for nice ski back to truck. Avy conditions were a lot better than we thought they'd be, considering there was a bit of new debris from the past warm spell. Couldn't see crap from summit though and got to a point that I couldn't tell the angle of the slope.

Why don't you just go out and by one and see how you like it? Then make your own decision I have both, which combined makes 1 1/2 sets of hexes. I prefer the old-skool variety, seem to be easier to place, sometimes the wire just messes up a placement. BTW, I replaced the webbing on my #9,10,11 couple weeks ago. It has been so long that the old webbing was NEON

So now that you kicked the six-week inactivity bug and are in shape, what crazy-ass stuff you gonna climb now? Good job, it's amazing what you can pick your way up when soloing and past the return-point.

Why clean the crack? You've got plenty of unoffensive flora there. I've climbed a hanging garden before and I just girth-hitched a sapling about 12 inches high and an inch diameter, bomer baby, bomber!! It was easy fifth-class and I figured by the time I actually extracted a placement, I'd already be at the top.