haireball

Zebra-Zion, pitch #2 (the dihedral)and pitch #4 (the last, as above mentioned; Karate Crack; Moonshine dihedral - Smith Rock Catapult; Canary; Damnation; Mr. Clean; Mrs. Clean - Castle Rock Liberty Crack, pitches 4 thru 7, Liberty Bell direct E. Buttress, S. Early Winter Spire, pitch #4 Yellow Bird; ROTC - Midnight Rock the Crawl, S. Ridge, Three-Fingered Jack, Oregon Leuthold Couloir; North Face gullies - Mt. Hood the Great Gendarme, Mt. Stuart, North Ridge Classic Crack, Z-Crack, Bo Derek, Icicle Canyon Outer Space & Hyperspace, Snow Creek Wall the rock bands from 15000' to 17000' on the Cassin Ridge of Denali - best quality rock I've seen anywhere at such altitude... [This message has been edited by haireball (edited 08-15-2001).]

a magnificent route which I finally got around to doing this week. I found Nelson's beta from Selected Climbs misleading on a couple of counts: 1) Both Nelson and Beckey suggest racking pro to 3" for this route. Pitch #4 has a 5" crack that goes for 70' and is protected only by a hangerless bolt stud unless you take a couple of larger-than-4" pieces. 2) Selected Climbs info says descend either east or west (Blue Lake Trail) from the base of the S. arete. Since we'd parked at, and approached from, the hairpin on the east side, we descended east. Following a well-beaten path from the ridge crest, we found ourselves drawn into what we came to christen "foo-king gully". (foo-king is indigenous dialect for 'corridor of death'". We counted ourselves lucky to escape five hours later. Since we never found any human remains along the way, I can only conclude that the tracks and rappel slings we past had been left by a party of winged alpine assassins whose little death-trap failed this time...

kudos to Omega Pacific and designer George Lowe. I had a chance to try out the new O-P belay device this weekend at Washington Pass, and it's the first belay plate I've found that I actually prefer to the Munter. Significantly lighter than its competition, you can rig it in three configurations for a wide range of braking power. And with a very large ratio of suface area to mass, it dissipates heat rapidly enough that I found it only mildly warm after a free-hanging forty meter rappel. I bought it.

No clue as to how or why we all copy this entire thing from the beginning... I believe the last phrase was " just then..." as we hauled our scratched and sunburned butts over yet another brush-shrouded boulder, a tentative male-sounding voice erupted from beside the boulder "excuse me..." Looking to her left, Kristi recognized a pasty white hand protruding from beneath the boulder's brush blanket. Reaching down, she grabbed the hand and hoisted a bald, bespectacled, modestly overweight carp of a man onto the rock beside us. "Excuse me," he began again while carefully wiping his glasses, "you wouldn't by chance have seen my client? - a ms Babkirk?" Noting Kristi's icy glare at the sound of the name, he continued "yes, I feared not... damn this miserable undergrowth! Well, could you perhaps..."

yes. belay's on m'friend...

the classic service project for the Icicle Canyon is hand-pulling knapweed. This pest plant grows all along the icicle road, and various clubs and groups sign up to "maintain" various sections of the road. its good pr with the locals, the county, and the usfs... a good eye-opener is to construct a belay-tower (just use a big tree) and do some drop-tests with a haul-bag full of sand... might get some laughs with a "white-elephant" gear swap...

if you're serious about shaving ounces, consider substituting "wart-hogs" for some of your tubular ice-screws. the wart-hog can double as a rock-peg in a pinch...

You used Liberty Ridge and the Triple Couloir as routes representative of your objective... for routes of this caliber, I use an antique 60cm ice-axe, and an even more ancient Chouinard alpine hammer. I don't bother with specialized hooking tools unless I expect to see hard ice consistently steeper than 60-degrees.

I favor multi-use items, so my "universal" setup is a 60-cm ice-axe, a classic-style alpine hammer (pick functions as a nut-tool); a dozen or so standard length runners, which can be doubled or tripled short for quick-draws, a cordelette or two, which function as extra-long runners, prussiks, or even aiders if the need arises; twenty or so carabiners, plus three or four locking crabs; cams from about 3/4 inch to 3"; rope-slung hexcentrics from about 1" to 3" (the rope slings can be used as extra runners, or prussiks), stoppers from about 3/4" down to 1/8 inch, half-dozen or so pitons (blades & small anges) "wart-hog" style ice-pegs (can be used as either ice or rock pegs in a pinch); crampons. I avoid carrying extra items like a mechanical belay device (learn the munter-hitch - it doesn't weigh anything), sewn runners, or dedicated etriers. In fact, I'll often leave the cams, and just go with 4 or 5 hexes, a half-dozen or so stoppers, and lotsa runners & cordelettes. I favor twin-roping, but I'll often take only one twin-rope, doubling it to half-length and belaying short pitches (rope-length is irrelevant when simul-climbing, and shorter is often better for this practice).

hakioawa, for what its worth, you can climb the upper crack on Outer Space without using the crack if you choose - there are jugs and knobs galore up there. if you can get past the 5.9 traverse pitch, you'll have no trouble with the upper crack. the greater issue is mastering the use of traditional protection systems if you're trained to clip bolts - a quick way to develop this mastery is to (don't shoot me) go aid up some easy cracks. This practice will force you to place LOTS of gear, and will also help you develop confidence in your placements since you'll be hanging on every piece. Once you get used to the idea that the stuff WILL hold you, the free climbing will come more readily. Hell, I'd even provide a belay if you want to try leading Classic Crack on aid - let me know a few days before you'd be coming to 11-worth. Have fun! [This message has been edited by haireball (edited 08-07-2001).] [This message has been edited by haireball (edited 08-07-2001).]

I do sometimes, repeat "big" routes. If the route was one I enjoyed immensely, I do not hesitate to repeat it, especially with a different partner. At this writing, I am preparing to repeat Liberty Crack for the third time - with a long-time friend who has wanted for most of his adult life to do it, and has made earlier unsuccessful attempts with other partners. After all, its all about good times with good friends, isn't it? If you know a climb is GREAT, why not repeat it with someone you care for?

I got started in the boy scouts. One of my most treasured memories is of an article in a now-defunct climbing magazine "Off Belay". It would have been about 1972 in their spring issue, they ran a blurb something to the effect that "Paul Petzoldt and his National Outdoor Leadership School team were forced off their New Years' climb of the Grand Teton by high winds, meanwhile, eight scouts from Idaho Falls explorer post #380 summited on the Middle Teton..." hee-hee! Still like winter, cold, bivouacs, etc...

the Haireball is in! I've sent Beck and Hikerwa my phone# 'cuz I live in Der Village, and I can do some local legwork to prep fer you fereigners...

sure, why not? any of you jokers ever hear of a certain Zimmermann Boordbroecher?

maybe consider contacting some of the climbers who own land in the Icicle? I would be willing to make some contacts... Rat Creek Boulder and Eightmile Rock, for instance, are both privately owned...how many "guests" might we be talking about?

that quote about judgment and experience is older than Twight is..., most likely older than Ferguson, too - it was already old when I first heard it some thirty-plus years ago...maybe Petzoldt or someone from that generation... but, in the spirit of this thread: "I thought YOU brought the (insert name of missing item)" or: "there are auld mountaineers, and bald mountaineers, but there are no auld bald mountaineers" or, "rope? we don' need no steenking rope!" (Paul Preuss) or "old climbers never die, they just smell that way" or "climbers make better lovers - they have titanium nuts" or "if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes" or "death to the weak, senility to the timid!" or my all time favorite - never ever tempt fate with this one : "could be worse..." (whenever this is said, things usually get that way fast!) [This message has been edited by haireball (edited 07-31-2001).]

just did this route this weekend - late season conditions = firm neve, easy cramponing and tooling up to a maximum slope of about 45'. contrary to popular practice, I like late-season glacier climbing -- I can see the crevasses! On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 5 or 6. If your navigational skills are sound, the climbing is not difficult. we flat-footed all but the steepest bits, with only an ice-axe each for hand tool. Advise carrying screws and pickets for short-roping / simulclimbing, unless you and your partners are absolutely certain you can (and have practiced to verify that certainty) catch a falling partner on just your points. It's a great route - have fun!

Spent the three days from 7/28 to 7/30 doing the Adams Glacier with an inexperienced partner who wanted to try "something more than the walk-up". Found the route to be in superb condition, with an inch or two of crusty re-frozen snow over firm neve - made for very forgiving cramponing and tooling. I'm a bit mystified by earlier posts about this route, because I found the crevasses no problem. But we didn't start climbing until 5am, so I could see where I was going... The "North Cleaver" is a long, tedious, but straightforward descent, with cairns and wands in place for the "navigationally challenged" (like me, when I'm that tired..." With our daylight start, we did end up bivvying about halfway down the cleaver - no big deal - lotsa nice places to sit and shiver and wait for the sun to come up... the hardest part of this trip was jumping through the regulatory hoops - parking permit, "volcano permit" $etc, $etc, yada-yada. Anyway, bottom line is, it's definitely not too late for this route - we couldn't have custom-ordered better conditions!

I see nobody has mentioned Moonshine Dihedral - 5.8, trad, would be a classic anywhwere and add another voice for Zebra/Zion 5.9-10a depending on which way you do the crux, and for Karate Crack - the name says it all - it's short, but wound tight enough that few lead it cleanly the first time... and Calamity Jam - 10c although if your fingers are as big as mine, it seems considerably harder... these are all older, trad lines. There is certainly an abundance of bolt clip-ups, and I've done enough of them to offer the opinion that "ya done one, ya done 'em all"

there are no-fee sites on usfs land up Eagle Creek, about a mile past the end of the pavement. The black-powder set has a Rendezvous up there every spring. Puts you about twenty minutes from the Icicle Canyon, but there is some lesser known cragging right on Eagle Creek. Plenty of privacy for doing whatever your party thing is, as long as you do it before hunting season opens...gets kinda busy when the deer-chasers are here. Superb mountain-biking, too.

if you're starting in Portland, and want ice in September, then Hood is a no-brainer. Even the "walk-up" from crater rock via the hogsback can yield a three-pitch ice-climb in late fall. Leuthold Couloir is slightly longer / more demanding, and several north side routes, including Sunshine, The North Face (really two routes, both ice-gullies)and the Sandy Glacier Headwall should be good. Don't go near the Elliot Headwall at that time of year - mineral showers... have fun!

if you're coming in September, the bugs will be past their peak - a couple of freezes works wonders on the black-flie population. If you're hoping for ice that late in the season, any glacier will have melted back to ice by then - but be prepared to deal with the "dogturdite" uncovered by that meltout. If you're inexperienced on big alpine terrain, I expect you'd be happier on rock routes at that time of year. Fred Beckey's Cascade Climbing Guides (if you're not familiar with them, they are required reading) are your best resource for selecting objectives. Good luck, and congratulations on your decision to not let that cancelled course keep you from coming!!! Good luck!

responding to the original question: the approach I've always preferred for the lower north ridge is up mountaineer creek from the Stuart Lake Trail. Dayhiker permits for this trail are not limited to a quota - only overnight permits are so restricted. So, in and out in a day solves any permit issues related to approaching from the Icicle Canyon side. By using the Mountaineer Creek variation, you avoid the Stuart Glacier, and the necessity for crampons on the approach. I descended the Sherpa glacier couloir in dry conditions many years ago, using no ice gear other than a 60cm mountaineering axe. If you feel you need a belay, the couloir is narrow enough that rock anchors are easily available. The larger problem is the schrund below the couloir - we jumped it, but conditions change, as well as confidence levels. Another descent option shorter than the south side couloirs is the west ridge. I have not done this myself, but I'm told that once below the summit step, it's straightforward scrambling down to goat pass. If you e-mail me I can put you in touch with a friend who has used the west ridge descent... Good luck

what a thread!!! this argument is not new - Ricardo Cassin, in his autobiography "Fifty Years of Alpinism", describes being vilified back in the 1930s, for using pitons for progress on some of his new routes. I like what John Salathe said the fifties: "Vy can't vee chust climb?" Personally, I was saddened by both the bolting and the chopping. Both activities impressed me as a waste. If climbers would "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints" neither act would have occurred. However, what's done is done. After the bolts were in, I entertained the thought of pulling them, but then thought "No, leave them as a monument to idiocy" (wow, have to remember that phrase for a route name!!! Now that they're gone, let's pray they don't reappear. I hope this is over. disclaimer: opinions are like assholes -- every one of us has one, and every one of them STINKS...

if you're camping in a van, try exploring outside the valley proper for deserted roads that are rarely patrolled. some of my fondest camping memories of Yosemite are those of car-camping undisturbed in the wide-open privacy of the NW area of the park, baking bread in a cast-iron dutch oven over a tiny manzanita fire...