rat

regarding philfort's comment about skiing the ridge to the summit: we tried one winter and made it to pt. 7616'. we bailed off to the northeast due to rocky sections along the ridge and unusually cold conditions...good skiing though. the ne facing bowls above big jim mt. lakes would be great with the right conditions (only been there in the summer). enough...

the short answer is "yes". windloaded slopes above lake augusta. the shot down to carter lake is nice.

use aqua-seal.

neoprene fishing gloves. about $10 a pair.

lower than feck's and as we all know, feck's are pretty low. shouldn't you be complaining somewhere? give a call when you want to fail on something again.

untrue. you set yourself up again so...no real harm meant. you do own a boatload of shit though. slave to the modem, carry on....

you may be on your way back to wonderful codorato so this info may not be all that helpful.... skied union on sunday. we found good steep tree and glade skiing with very nice snow. my standards are perhaps lower than feck's. you'll have to decide for youself whether the road approach is worth it. the uptrack should be fine for a few more days.

geek.

up fourth of july and out chatter creek in the spring. good terrain. some friends have done it up fourth of july and down to the icicle ridge parking lot in a better snow year. they had fun. you would be carrying your skis down the lower part of the trail right now.

fucked up. http://thetyee.ca/News/2005/12/29/SquamishClosure/

another perspective (from someone who hasn't been there)... so the area is known for its sport climbing and there are some long traditional routes with few ascents.....and everyone says you're gonna die on the trad routes. do you enjoy alpine rock climbing in the canadian rockies? if so, i bet you would groove on the long trad routes. if i was going to someplace like that for 5 weeks, i would include a real rack (and a gun).

poor skiing on the southwest ridge of jove compared to its south face. you may find some tree skiing from jove down to lake janus. i can't recall if you can easily connect the ridge from union to jove so you may need to traverse the avy terrain below union/jove to get to the ridge. feck skied union a couple winters ago (check tr's) and didn't think it was that special.

sounds easy. why bother?

north side of mt. snoqualmie was bare bones on saturday...shoulda known better.

lifetime quitters can always find where the turf's up.

for your future and present amusement: cappellini and i climbed a line up very thin ice where the two water streaks are shown in the center of the white slabs photo. after climbing the ice around the roof, we finished up country club since the slab above wasn't as nicely covered as your photo shows (a bit late in the day, too). go figure. that was maybe 4 years ago. it hasn't come close to forming since then. look for it cause it's a highly recommended line.

what i know and mostly what i don't know: i have looked at them but don't know if they have been climbed. the approach, as you know, is problematic and includes about 1500' of elevation gain after getting to the south side of the river. some of the lines show up early in the winter then get covered with snow because they are not steep enough. the low snow year last winter made them stand out a bit more. the approach and objective hazard of the terrain trap gully you mention might not be worth the couple short sections of easy appearing ice in it. in my opinion, there are two lines, probably less than 2 honest pitches long, that might be worth exploring. they are not well formed right now.

if it's the most obvious flow above the chain-up area west of the nason creek rest area, it has historically been known as "chandelier". it was named after the nearby defunct "chandelier cafe" that now only serves ghetto housing to fun hogs. mr.e's super secret neighborhood.

yeah, all hail washington's world famous ice climbing.... two full pitches of good itchy scratchy turf and wi3 exist on the far left side of duty dome starting a couple hundred feet up from the start of briody's rock climb (gold rush?). we also climbed a fun pitch to the right of peak-a-boo tower. as with most icicle valley rock climbing, these are generally slabby affairs. don't bother sharpening your tools or bringing screws.

glassgowkiss, pm sent. the gist was that as of mid-week there wasn't anything formed on snow creek wall that i would hike to. might be different now but i doubt it. bolting the wall behind the drip maybe isn't the best idea. i heard of two aspiring ice climbers who top roped the thing when it barely touched down a few years ago....it collapsed the next day. they no longer aspire. this isn't a continental climate, despite the current anomalous temps.

same as it ever was.... http://www.rockclimbing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1054527#1054527

lack of style and self-control....sorry to hear that trend has continued since the last time i was there.

sorry, i don't know where chicken gully is....don't have a guidebook. in the past and with more ice than is there now, we've done two 3-4 pitch routes on the buttress starting in that alcove right of r&d....very nice 5.8ish rock and wi3-4 climbing. no doubt others have knicked around up there over the years. looks to be some potential for easy to moderate mixed climbing on either side of warrior wall in the right conditions. an easier thin ice route forms in the gully near lazy boy but it can get covered with snice...cool thin vein of ice at the start when i was there....maybe wi3 or so. hope that helps in some way.

worth leavin': hubba hubba and environs---leadable routes but thin. dog dome dike---more mixed up than usual. rat creek climbs---not quite, need some more love. icicle buttress---still real thin but its usually more itchy scratchy then kick 'n stab there. careno crags/rainbow falls area---very thin and wet still. drury---coming along nicely but still has holes and looks real wet. chandelier---looked decent on saturday afternoon. hidden lake---the far right route and the far left route (can't remember what i called them for that book) looked leadable based on scoping with binocs from north shore road. probably still kinda wet and funky. the others are building.

not likely....but try calling north cascades mountain guides at 509-996-3194 if you haven't already.