genepires

alright, how the heck does one add pictures? My pictures were in gallery.

Climb: Mt Rainier-Emmons glacier Date of Climb: 6/15/2005 Trip Report: Went up to rainier last week. Conditions on the mountain are cold and excellant. Conditions: The trail is snow free to past the glacier basin campground and till about the sma elevation as the start of the inter glacier if you stay in the trail. The snow near the creek is melting out fast and getting thin enough to hear the roar of the creek underneath. The ranger climbing report mentions needing snowshoes for the inter glacier and it would be helpfull but not worth the weight. We had shin and knee deep postholing the whole way to camp sherman. Getting down to the emmons is 90% snow covered. When we got to Sherman, it was deserted except for David the ranger and he was busting out soon. There was lots of snow walled camping spots which is an indication of what life has been like up there. We proceeded to move up the emmons flats for some unknown reason. Got another uncivilized wakeup call of 11:30pm for a alpine start of 1:20am. (this is a guided trip BTW) Great crampon neve to the summit. Lots of snow cover and a fairly straight line up the glacier. Up to the corridor then when at the top of that, trend right to another straight shot up to the schrund. Pass it on the right and up to the crater. There was many wands already left behind from the corridor to near the top. About four cracks are poking through and might involve bypassing by next weekend. But my guess is that for the next month, it should still be in excellant shape. One could also go straight up from the corridor to the summit as well but there is a boot pack the way I mentioned. One bit of beta for anyone going up there soon. Expect some extreme (for cascades) cold temps and wind. Everyone had semi frozen water bottles on the summit. I have only done rainier in the summertime, but this was very winter like. ]http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/925IMG_2919-med.jpg' alt='925IMG_2919-med.jpg'>]http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/925IMG_2930-med.jpg' alt='925IMG_2930-med.jpg'>]http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/925IMG_2932-med.jpg' alt='925IMG_2932-med.jpg'>]http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/925IMG_2936-med.jpg' alt='925IMG_2936-med.jpg'>]http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/925IMG_2935-med.jpg' alt='925IMG_2935-med.jpg'> Gear Notes: regular glacier gear. Approach Notes: snow free till inter glacier area, then knee deep stuff till sherman, then firm snow to the top.

Heading out to the adams glacier next week and I was wondering if anyone has been out that way recently and has any info on the route and approach conditions. thanks gene

I had that happen in AK one time. I took the battery out and left the back uncovered. Set it on the dash on the truck for a couple sunny days and the moisture was gone. My trick may not work till august though.

1st question> Don't mean to be a party pooper but you will die if you try the coleman headwall right now or soon. It has been snowing alot up there. Freezing levels have been around 6000 feet all week. If the wallowing doesn't kill you, then the first of hundred of avalanches will. 2nd question> When the conditions are right, you will need 2 tools. Beckey and chouinard could do it with one 75 cm axe but we are mortal. 2 tools offers much more security on steep terrain. Plus there is a good chance you will need to cross a couple bergshrunds. If they open, expect steep ice. 3rd question> I got away with your approach once but i doubt that it is always feasable. We got lucky. Use the same glacier approach for the n ridge. Start traversing from the black butte area instead of colfax area. Make sense? There is a TR with some guys camping near the base of the headwall that used your approach though. Ask them. They had a good idea to cross the glacier in the daytime so see the fatty crevasses.

While rated 5.8 (I think), the improbable traverse route on guye is pretty cool and well protected on the cruxes. The first couple pitches are a bit loose though. Maybe as a beggining trad climber, you might be better off hitting the crags alot more. Once you get a better grip on things (no pun intended) then you take take it down a notch and hit the alpine. The alpine is no place to push limits. L'worth and squamish has tons of good multipitch lines to do. (like outer space!, just kidding) Vesper can be bit challenging with finding anchors and is not a place for beginers, BTW. But a few more 5.7's to think about Prussik west ridge (yeah it is not on your areas but do it!) Ingals south face (same as above) sharkfin tower (sweet alpine 5.0 granite) be safe gene

The early winters campground (near mazama) is sweet. Cool creek (the early winter creek of course) near your spot. (re: cold beers) Water from spigot. $5/night. Not sure about the enforcement of the driving limit at night. But only a insane crackfiend from seattle would drive fast on that road. The place is littered with deer carcasses. (slight exageration) Winthrop has a pub/restaurant just north of the only interestion with good chili. I forget the name but it tasty and outside seating and good beer. Worth the drive and danger.

Hey Mikey, Rad = radcliffe roberts not rolf larson. The flowers worked wonders when I stumbled home at 9pm. Been eyeing that climb for so long, especially when driving out of the colchuck trailhead. Real glad to finally have been up there. Thanks for being the positive energy Rad.

tikka, tikka plus, and myo 5. call me a petzl fan. But I like these headlamps. The one time I didn't bring a spare battery for my tikka, it withered away and I was stuck descending steep woods with the equivelant of a match. a couple AAA don't weight that much.

Boots that beckey used would be thrown away by homeless people. One can only imagine what it was like to climb with the gear they had. Maybe one day I should try going "retro" with gear. Nahhh. I have used the la sport glacier boot for all of our volcanoes and it works great. It is essentially a beefed up hiking boot with 3/4 or 1/2 shank. Always used flexi crampons on it. I would guess the minimum difference between a hiking boot and a climbing boot is it's waterproofness. My glacier boots are very waterproof which is why I feel OK taking it on a glacier. Most backpacking boots have too many seams and fabric for leaking in water. And like mentioned earlier, wet feet in cold environs causes frostbite and worse.

cascade crags had one years ago. Don't know if they still do or not but you could give them a call

The FF employee might have been on to something with their advice. It is not such a good idea to advise beginners to go with non standard climbing gear. (such as ultra light equipment) Suggesting that a beginner go with lightweight (or in this case backpackign boots) is asking for her having a miserable time or worse, an accident. Experience will show what works and what doesn't and a beginner class has lots of other things to be thinking about. Look at any guide service basic mountaineering class and they have plastics on. Also I find it interesting that people have had negative experiences at FF. I have always had very helpful and friendly service there. I would like to have seen their discusion. I suspect that this woman didn't want to hear the advice and took offense to it. I doubt that any employee at FF would say "she would break her ankle and die and that they would never climb with her". Get real.

Sorry to hear about the accident and the pain Bob. It is a bit interesting though that you give more than partial blame of the accident on the fact that someone driving slower than you (maybe above the speed limit and passing others) and was in the left lane. While it was the person speeding that entirely hit you. Also many posts back, you mention that driving in the left lane should be illegal to allow a illegal act to occur in the left lane. That would be interesting to see argued in the state government. Now go ahead and rip me a new one.

Great idea! Does your strap system rub the achilies (sp?) tendon? Seems like if it does, one could pass the webbing through that loop on the back of shoe to keep if off the leg and rub the shoe instead. (for low cut shoes) What is a two ring tightener? Is it a two wraps before one ties a shoe sting knot?

any and every day at index. especially the 5.9's. especially in the spring when I am out of head-space. up and especially down slesse last year. the first time I got up pan dome falls was a big pump and hard for the day

there is very little snow on the road but enough coverage from the official trailhead for skiis. Getting to the pass requires some boot packing as it is steep. Big avis coming off cascade and j-berg but the way to the pass is fairly safe. Really cool looking out there right now. The arm is in good shape too with lots of snow. Some steep snow right before the summit. But it is melting fast. Who knows what it will look like this next weekend. gene

Vernon Tejas takes a lighter tent (same design though) to the high camp on denali and stayed in it during many storms. But he is crazy and stays up all night holding the pole up. I used it in a minor storm on a exposed position (on dirt) and the thing flaps around so much I doubt that it would stick around for long. I think the key is to using it in storms is to: -stay in the trees get get out of the wind -or dig down in the snow so that the bottom the mid is on the ground, anchor out ALL the tabs, lay piles of snow on the ground edge to prevent the breeze from coming underneath and making a snow wall around all sides. This method works really well for our cook tent on denali. (But we have larger and lighter version so I am unsure if the snowpile around the bottom edge will work for a megamid) Even with all this, I have done the pole dance to keep the thing from crashing over.

I have an old rei harness (heaven forbid I admitted to buying in rei) that they no longer make of course. But I think it is a great alpine harness and have used it for many good climbs. features (that I think are important) include: belay loop - this is so nice for technical climbing. 4 gear loops - You gotta put stuff somewhere no padding - just webbing, why have the extra stuff if you are never falling? packable - some harness while light, don't fold up in a small volume. Ideally, the harness could roll up into a small ball. the webbing won't roll over into a uncomfortable thing that curts into my side. Single wide webbing like the BD alpine bod, had a tendancy after much use, to roll over to a smaller section and cut into my waist. I think two passes of webbing sewn together won't do this. I am also looking for a new alpine harness and I think I might get the trango one. Rainy pass said they can add gear loops. (trango only has two gear loops)

you must be a really short hobbit or something to need a 10.5 pair of boots but a 70 mm axe! That axe is 2.75 inches tall! I got some leather mountainering boots and plastic boots your size. Drop me a line on which you prefer. I also have some 30m glacier ropes if you need. (freebie)

To pick nicks. But the ablation zone can have covered crevasses in them. Right now there are lots of covered crevasses on ablation zones. Maybe I am confused, but with the definition given above, (which is the definition given in most instruction books) the ablation zone and dry portion of the glacier are not the same thing. I suppose they are the same in october but not in june. It seems like some people confuse ablation/accumilation zone with wet/dry glaciers. Dry ablation zones (reduntant I suppose) are good for unroped walking around. I think that the post mentioned by dummy should replace "ablation zone" with "dry glacier".

get after it. just don't hang out too much below the seracs. we missed a big calving off of ice by 5 minutes. you will see what I am talking about.

I have used seam grip on a couple of small holes in my msr bag. Works great! No noticable brain malfunctions......yet.....yet......yet.......

Hey Clivus, my union suit has lasted a long time and not grind my crotch at all. But I suspect that I am a bit shorter than you. (5'10") Cloudviel seems to tailor their stuff to your specifications as none of their stuff fits me. (legs too long) I like my mec union suit and think it would be just fine in AK but you do gotta check your nads n such when zipping up, much like any crotch zip. Ovr40, I assume you will be on the west buttress. The vast majority of people on that route use a Msr or similar white gas stove. There are good reasons for this which I am too lazy to get into right now, (plus there will be a storm of butane believer remarks which might be better off ina seperate thread) Can your jet boil melt snow efficiently? (a function of how big your pot is) It always seemed like a camping on dirt, near a stream, kind of cooking system but i have never used it. On your feet, there is a huge difference denali and cascades and experience here is of limited value in some regards. Experience with extreme weather is one unless you summited rainier in january in a monster storm at minus 40F. It gets COLD especially with the affects of altitude reducing metabolism and such. So with that, how snug is your alpha? Your feet may swell with the amount of sloggin so a initially snug boot will become constricting and then viola, frostbite. (even with overboots on) I also assume your mtn hardware overboot is really good something similar to forty below overboots. (40 below is a company name) I don't mean to be all doom and gloom, I just don't want any of our homeboys to get messed up over there. Enjoy!

I would reccomend that you keep the belay jacket. You will need it on summit day. Lots of people climb up with the biggest parka on while moving. Marmot had a one piece thermal suit. Mec had a sleeveless one piece suit too. feathered friends had a 100 weight fleece suit which worked well for a guy I knew. mtn hardware maybe? All these are not lw thermal material but a bit thicker which is a good thing for AK. You might want to reconsider your hydration practice of drinking lots at meals. It is best to stay hydrated all day. This will help with performance and acclimitization. If you want some honest advice on how dehydration affects the body and how it increases the chance of accidents, ask the rangers in talkeetna and you will find that most accidents are preceded by dehydration. Dehydration makes us weak, fogs the mind and ruins balance, a recipe for a fall. On summit day, you need everything going for you. Without insulators, they will freeze real fast on summit day. That is just my opinion but I strongly recommend you ask the rangers in talkeetna what they do with there bottles and how much they drink. (I am pretty sure they would agree) getting excited? Coming up soon!

Nice job! Pretty improbable in the winter especially.