Pencil_Pusher

If you wanna go light, this is the place to go. Plus they sell Rock Empire cams for 30 bucks, nearly half the price of Camalots. Light ropes, glacier ropes, all sorts of stuff. And if sales increase exponentially as a result of this post, send me one of those Western Mountaineering light-ass sleeping bags for free.

I'm in the group that has a bunch of partially used cannisters. The Snow Peak doesn't mind when I use Primus so I use whatever is cheap. I like that lid technique described here. The pietzo igniter keeps on working. I think that hanging cartridge stove referenced on this thread was the same one these guys I met were using at 14k camp to cook, make water with, and warm up the tent (and evaporate off all that frost). They brought a regular white gas stove for higher up. I liked the idea of getting up in a relatively warm tent in the morning. They didn't speak of any asphyxia problems.

This season they moved the landing strip up the glacier about a half mile from the standard sometime in late June I think. We flew out on July 4th but two groups flew in that day as well. One was an RMI group and the other was a private group thinking (and looking like) they were going to visit Disneyland. Disneyland pulled out the digital cameras and clicked away while rummaging through the sled pile to find comfortable sleds to sit on. RMI group arrived and immediately started caching and setting up tents. Back to the point. The ground control dude left for good that day with us. Apparently the radio to call someone to fly in and pick you up is left in a little shack, perhaps like the radio in the Muir hut during the winter. As I recall too, there was one other guided group at 11,000 that was ascending and three or four private groups at the 14k camp (June 30th) that were still ascending. At some point, the rumor I heard was that the rangers pull the fixed lines on the headwall and perhaps Washburn's Thumb which was to occur in early July or so. Not sure there. When we left 14k on June 30th, some of the rangers were still there. Granted I was half-delirious and eating snow for water on the way down, but I thought the miles of flat land from Ski Hill to the landing strip were a crevasse-land-mine-hell. Nevertheless, check with RMI. The lead guide I think was named Dave or David. Maybe he could give you some route conditions for that late in the season. Oh yeah, the day before we flew out winds were reported at 149mph on the summit. Maybe you'll see some lanky dude with a beard, wearing tights and a Kelty Cloud pack with "Tejas" marked on it. Oh, and your exit. I heard if the planes can't land at the landing strip, it's unusual for the NPS to give them permission to land in the park. This means a slog out to some road. Flying out, it looked like any further southerly travel on the glacier would require a life vest or inner tube as pools were forming on the glacier. Heh, heh, I'm so glad it's you and not me. Definitely fly in with the air service that advertises two chicks and a bird, McKinley Air Service I think. Julie, the pilot, daringly came low through the fog layer and found a way for the other pilots to come pick us up. This was after three days at the landing strip when the weather wasn't supposed to clear for another week. A different air service flew overhead earlier that day and said conditions weren't good enough to land. Thanks to Julie and her efforts, the other services came in and 20 or so of us got out that day. I heard from another group I met in Anchorage on the way out that Julie did a similar stunt a few days later which is why his group got out. You see, when the bigger air services aren't flying us in or out, they're flying sightseeing tourists. Those flights sometimes take precedence over your poh-dunk ass sitting on the landing strip waiting for a ride out. And nothing sucks more than waiting after you've been pissing in a bottle for three weeks, melting snow for water and tasting that burnt taste, and eating all the food you didn't want to eat because all the good food is gone. Not to mention everything being wet because things don't dry as quickly down low.

Screw paying the $21.50 price at REI for the 1.5 pound can. Go on the web and get it for $13.95!! All I did was type Cytomax in the search box and a whole slew of companies came up with insane prices (versus rip-off REI). I forgot how much fun this office work really is.

[ 09-26-2002, 01:55 PM: Message edited by: Pencil Pusher ]

It's been a while, but their website looks great! A big change from the first time I checked it out. Wish I had the dinero...

Well we did the moat crossing high, rather awkward vertical moat exposure. We then traversed all the way to the left. The blue rap slings were at the left (south?) side of the summit ridge. Should we have gone up the knife ridge instead? So let me go back a bit. We went from Snow Dome to the #1 route in the Olympic Climbing Guide which brings you around to the backside of the five fingers. The snow ends at a crumbly rock ridge which we crossed then traversed to the right towards the notch below the summit peak. The notch brought us onto some steep snow where the boot track brought us to a high moat crossing. We followed what appeared to be a path along the left as described above. The crack we ascended beneath the rap slings were but a few moves of 5.4ish. Then up to the ridge and the traverse to the summit marker.

Well we did the moat crossing high, rather awkward vertical moat exposure. We then traversed all the way to the left. The blue rap slings were at the left (south?) side of the summit ridge. Should we have gone up the knife ridge instead? So let me go back a bit. We went from Snow Dome to the #1 route in the Olympic Climbing Guide which brings you around to the backside of the five fingers. The snow ends at a crumbly rock ridge which we crossed then traversed to the right towards the notch below the summit peak. The notch brought us onto some steep snow where the boot track brought us to a high moat crossing. We followed what appeared to be a path along the left as described above. The crack we ascended beneath the rap slings were but a few moves of 5.4ish. Then up to the ridge and the traverse to the summit marker.

Has anyone been up there recently to know how much things have opened/iced up? Thanks for any info.

Ditto the sentiments of Norman Clyde and sketchfest. They're both cool guys to hike and climb with. Now Sketchfest is being modest, he carried the rope the whole way up and wore boots for the whole trip. Clyde carried his boots and had a three liter camelback. My punk ass wore trail running shoes the whole trip and carried a one liter platypus. Of going light, my diaper harness was a spectra double with a neutrino biner and a locking biner to clip in with. We took the left side of snow dome going up and me wearing the insteps on trail shoes and the hard snow made for some desperate ordeals. Not to mention the aluminum ice axe. Extremely light but not able to pound a picket in. We all had Tikka headlamps. Cytomax is expensive (cheaper if you buy it from the muscleman/nutrition shops) but does wonders... it's a drink mix. It helped me recover quite a bit prior to our three hour shiver fest. Also, bring enough food (fuel) for the trip. I brought seven candy bars, three Gu's, two bagels, lemon drops, and a pound of potato salad plus I made sure to tank up prior to our departure. For pro on the choss pile, we brought two tri-cams and a stopper. No pro is necessary, you could just sling horns and flakes the whole way up. One thing that confused us was the route up was supposed to be class 3, yet 15 feet beneath the rap slings we could find no easier way than straight up that crack. Were we on track... was there an easier way? Oh yeah, none of us brought helmets, they weren't really needed. I tore out the two pages from the Olympic range climbing book for Olympus, this helped us out once we got on the glacier. For anyone else that does go and hasn't been there, we took the higher path from glacier meadows (there's a Y a little ways up from the meadows which didn't seem like meadows to me) and dropped down onto the glacier, per the instructions. What you want to aim for is the toe of the rock that is at the left side of snow dome, any further left and you'll be going up some icefall and crevasse hell. That's around 5600 feet and is a good visual reference as you descend onto the glacier. From there you can either scramble over rock on a rising rightward traverse (or on snow near rock) to the rock's highest point (it ends on a gentle snow shoulder). Go up about 200 meters and then begin a rising leftward traverse till you top out on snow dome. I'm writing this because we had no boot track to follow from the trail to snow dome and we took the left hand side of snow dome to ascend which really sucked at that time of year (with our wonderful four point crampons). If you stay on the standard track, insteps should suffice fine. Of the 14+hours roundtrip that Blight quoted, it took us 6.5 hours to get to Glacier Meadows with a couple of detours and a long stop at the ranger station. Coming back, it took a little over 4 hours to get to the car from the meadows. I bet a really fit person could hit the meadows in 5-5.25 hours and do the exit in 3-3.5 hours which leaves 5-6.5 hours for the round trip ascent from the meadows which is very feasible. That person (gals, feel free to show the boys a lesson or two) would have to be lean and mean and that's not me. Many thanks to Olivier and Mike for showing us this could be done in that 24 hour time frame. I really didn't know if I was going to make it until I got to mile marker 2.3. The views of the mountains that day were great, both in sunlight and moonlight.

Right on, Erik.

Zero enthusiasm as I type this, but the impossible was done yesterday. Mt Olympus, car to car in 23 hours, 43 minutes. Why? We're still asking ourselves that.

Yo, Swissman and Mr Bell, we're off to do the impossible. Redrum. Redrum.

I don't know nor remember for the times. Maybe 2-3hours till you reach the notch, I guess. There's plenty of running water along the way. We used a 60m but we pretty much running belayed it the whole way. I brought a picket thinking a different picture than what we encountered. The glacier wasn't going to take it anyway, things were pretty hardened up, so bring your crampons. Anyhow, there's a nice crevasse waiting for you if you slip... you'll see. We went to the end of the finger above that crevasse and there we were able to hop onto the rock. I suppose we could have ducked under the glacier and gotten onto the route proper, but I was happy just to be rid of that damn crevasse exposure. For pro, we used pretty much all cams. Down low on the first pitches you could get away with passive gear, but from the 4th class ledge access to the route and above, it's pretty much all horizontal cracks for pro. #2, 1, .75, .5, and one smaller were the camalot sizes I used. You could bring the stoppers and hexes and clove hitch the two pieces together on the horizontal crack as a poor-man's way of placing pro. Or you could stick to the corner where you could probably plop in some stoppers or hexes and such, it seemed there was a nice 1-2 inch crack in the corner all the way to the top. Paul said there was quite a bit of moss on the north face route. You should try and get there early so you can go up the top half a few times... it really was some fun climbing on a nice slab. Just watch out for the rocks on the trail between the car and Headlee. Maybe someone coated them with Slick 50, they were unusually slick. When you lose the route due to some old avy crap and snow, follow the boot path for maybe 100 meters then the trail is off to the right. From the junction with the big stream, above Headlee Pass, the hikers cross it to hike, the climbers go right and up a shoulder, with the lake off to your right. From the notch you'll get your first glimpse of the route. I think someone tossed the summit register because I found it with scattered shards of the pvc pipe it was in at the base of the upper slab. I put the register back at the top so maybe you could bring in a container for it? Have fun. Times, it took us a little over two hours on the rock and maybe two hours to get on down to the car. [ 09-20-2002, 04:32 PM: Message edited by: Pencil Pusher ]

Hey Erden, that is an informative post as to the Mountaineers. I didn't mean to downplay your organization in my post. Rather, to point out the differences between the Boealps ICC and the Mountaineers ICC. Of the two groups I have met that were out on Mountaineers ICC trips, one group indicated they did not have leading experience prior to the ICC (this was on Beckey Route of Liberty Bell). The Boealps ICC is held every other weekend, for clarification. The 2-5 year Mtnr ICC estimate was taken from the Mtnr website. To me it seems that the Boealps ICC is a bit more broad in techniques taught and applied during its six month duration. Out of curiousity, why is summiting so important to the Mountaineers and their ICC? I seem to recall that they don't get credit for their climb unless they summitted. -David Hamilton Psst, wanna buy some pencils? They're HOT!

The Boeing Alpine Society www.boealps.org has an ICC that teaches similar self-rescue stuff. Unlike the 2-5yr class length of the mounties, this one's about six months long. Also unlike the mounties ICC, most students come into the class with prior leading experience. Ice, rock, snow, aid, self-rescue, and a whole slew of other things taught by some cool and experienced people. The next class should be in March. I think the class limit is around 15 or so.

Was this my last trip of the summer? What with the dropping temps... maybe. The hike was pleasant and we left the beer in the creek where the climber's path splits. The glacier made me glad to have crampons. It was close to glacier ice with a nice, fat crevasse waiting for us as we traversed to the route. Well, bring either Nelson or Beckey, not both. We were pretty confused for a while before we quit trying to decide and just started climbing. Turns out we were about 40 feet to the right of the Nelson route from the glacier. Up the buttress we went via running belays. While belaying Paul from our start, I got to chat with some unfortunate guys who didn't bring crampons and were debating as to their alternatives. At least they found the humor in my comment about having plenty of time to self-arrest before the crevasse swallowed them. They opted to go for the ledges instead of the glacier crossing. Running belays brought us to the flat spot where Paul swapped leads with me. That lower climbing was fun and the stuff ahead was so darned fun, I wanted to lower back down and do it again via another way. Sure, it's run out, but you don't care. 30 feet till another pro opportunity but who really cares? Off to another crack and now 60 foot runout... who cares... it seems the rope runouts were on the average about 60-70 feet but you can lessen this if you want. Maybe if I drank the beer BEFORE climbing, I would've protected it more. But the climbing is so darned fun, you don't want to stop to place a piece. Too bad it had to end so quickly. I placed about ten pieces total on our running belay to the top. We met the cramponless dudes on the ledge down below as we were climbing up. They must've brought a 20 foot rope or something. I mean, we dinked around on top, met a few guys bivying up there and belayed one of them down a rope length so he could climb up... and still those two cramponless dudes were down yonder. As we left, I yelled down like a smart-ass inquiring whether they had headlamps or not. They definitely would need them. All in all, a kick ass trip to end the summer. The beer was nice and cold. Warning though, the rocks on that trail are slicker than snot. I give this route a two thumbs and two big toes up... alot of fun.

We headed up that coulior with the big chockstones on the south side, per Beckey's "climbers shun going up this" paragraph. Pretty quick route with a cool free rappel coming off the giant chockstone. Our 60m rope seemed to be just the right length for the rappels. We also went up S Early Winter Spire and went out to the southernmost part of the ridgeline. Cool views and exposure there.

Whatever turned out to be the consensus on the issue of placing rappel bolts on the Tooth to save the shrubs? Was that how that dead tree on the top of the second pitch was killed? No trolling here, just curiousity.

Well, the date is August 18th. Terminal, shoot me an e-mail and we'll talk. So I guess I'm getting in touch with my inner being now? Why? Because I think I can. I like Voight in Runaway Train, some quote about you not knowing what you can and what you can't do. Right before he flies like a little tweety bird... And what the hell is a chronic gumby? Yeah, it'll be lots of pain, I'm no marathon runner. But I figure if we do 2-3mph, in seven or eight hours we'll hit the glacier. The blue pill is Aleve, magical stuff. I too heard about some dude doing it in 16 hours... wow. I'll save my jogging for the exit. Now my partners, why they could probably jog the whole thing... No bikes, not too ethical. And since it's my only mode of transpo nowadays, short the Nike express, I don't need anyone taking the monkey wrench to it.

They're out climbing all over the US together on some five month exodus. Maybe even sharing a bivy sack for all I know. Anyone know their status?

Anyone interested? Take the blue pill and turn on the Tikka. pencil_pusher@hotmail.com

That was funny, Mr. Radon and partner had "Boeing Sucks" written on all their gear. But I will say you two were hardcore ascending in crappy weather when everyone else was hunkered down in their tents. We met quite a few of those folks as they came down, after successfully spending many-a-night in crappy weather, but no summit. What a cool trip it must have been going down rescue gully. We saw a couple of people on that line on our 13,5 cache day. Our trip to 14 brought us to one russkie putting in fixed line at windy corner. Just shy of the 14 camp, we saw a couple of the climbers on their ski-chairs descending and we all grunted to each other in pig-latin, each trying to understand the other's language. A thumb's up and a smile seemed to work best for the both of us. That's also where I met a team of three descending, female at the lead. She whips out her funnel, starts fiddling with her crotch zippers and fabric...all the while engaging me in conversation at 15 feet or so...and begins her pee fest. Holy moly, that woman's been on the mountain a little tooooo long. I left your book at our Ski Hill cache, it's somewhere in Talkeetna now. The three others on my team weren't related, we're all just part of the Boealps. They summitted on the 24th while I was down at 11 killing time. They had about the same summit weather as you did, from what they tell me. Whiteout, following wands. Quite different on our day. The rangers, pj's, and quite a few guided teams all headed out en-mass to the summit. Pig Hill sucked the big one too. Only because it was such a nice day did I decide to go for the true summit. Drank some colt 45 or whatever the west rib calls that beer they have.

Park with a klootch???? Hey after Hape at 14, I parked with a klootch at 11 for two days. Took the diamox, peed like hell, then up to 14, the next day to 16 with a new partner, the next day to 17, and the next on the summit (about 30 summitted that day; nice, clear and low wind). June 28th around 7 or 8pm. Kicked my ass and we still had to descend. The only crevasse problems were below Ski Hill where, at times, the place was like a minefield. THANK YOU to Mike from Alpine Ascents who had the foresight to use a damn GPS going down. We were pretty depressed at 9400 after getting there via guessing and someone else's wands in total frickin' whiteout from 11. Quite a few miles to go over terrain none of us had seen in three weeks and the forecast called for 6-12" new snow overnight. Then Mike and crew came along and we followed shortly thereafter. Heartbreak Hill sucked the big one. Kudos to Tony Bagudonuts for keeping the humor via the forecast. Sorry for Mike who was a nice guy.

Hah! Eight hours... try three days for a few of us sorry saps. Or better yet those poor suckers who got stuck in the crappy weather prior to June 11 (or after July 30th for that matter). Basecamp closed (they leave the radio so you can get a plane) on July 4th. Or the three dudes who got dumped at Kahiltna because of bad weather trying to get to Huntington. They eventually made it there... after two days of tourists being flown around sightseeing in the planes they were waiting for. Spoke with one guy who got plucked on the 5th of July and McKinley Air Service (two chicks and one plane) is the way to go. Both on the 4th (when the forecast wasn't for a clearing till the 9th) and on the 5th, Julie from that air service was the first plane in, opening the door for the other planes to follow. Kudos to her.