genepires

If you absolutely must carry the axe in the "self arrest" grip then get the raven. It is made to be comfortable in that grip which most others aren't. If you want to do more technical mountains in the future, get the air tech. The heavier head will make better sticks. What is the "short head" you speak of? As far as using the axe for boot-axe belays, the teeth can be of a concern but most people I know, including lots of mountian guides, never use the boot axe. In fact, I can't name a single person who has used it recently. I am sure there are some out there who are believers in the boot axe, but a simple seated hip belay is much stronger and quicker to create. adding the axe as a backup to the seated stance improves it significantly and the teeth don't matter then. Failure in the boot axe belay leaves you in a very desperate position with lots of slack in the rope. (watching people belay others across sketchy snow bridges with boot-axes makes me cringe and in my opinion is a good way to kill your partner) You shouldn't be expected to hold large weights with the boot axe, so I doubt that the teeth should be a big concern for cutting the ropes. But if you expect to do boot-axe belays, get a longer shaft for strength. Boot axes were common when everyone carried 70cm or bigger monster axes. With all that said, I am a big fan of grivel, so they get my vote if that matters. Which it doesn't. have fun! gene

Not sure if it is in kearny's, but I think Fisher chimneys is a great route on shuksan. Long days and variety. anybody ever do annie greenspring route on burgundy spire? topo looks good but......

Hey Matt, the raps down the west slabs are off of bushes and similar stuff till the bolt stations on westward ho right?

tried to take pictures but the camera didn't work. Dead battery. From what I understand, there is no correlation between time of day and serac fall. Just bad luck and serac fall. But yeah, I need to reevaluate my alpine starts.

Climb: mt Stuart-ice cliff glacier Date of Climb: 5/6/2004 Trip Report: My first TR! So Stuart (aka Minus) and I hiked in this wednesday on a late start (1:30 pm). We had very little snow till the colchuck/ stuart lake intersection. Then mostly snow covered trail after. There is a fairly descent bootpack off the main trail going toward mtneer creek. The creek crossing is on a old flexing log which we shimmied over. There are lots of little crampon nicks in it which is probably the better idea. The boot pack winds around a lot but will get you the camping area below sherpa peak. Time = 4 hours which is pretty good for me. There was this other team of two from ouray who did the ice cliff that day and was enjoying the afternoon sun by napping and drying out their boots. They left later to go to colchuck to climb more routes there. They seemed not too interested in doing stuart glacier couliour. Their loss. The alarms were set and went off promptly at 4:30 AM. Some things never change though and we crawled out of the sacks by 5:30 and off to the route by 6. So much for the alpine start. But the night was clear and the snow was rock solid and would be for a while. We made it to the base of the north ridge and talked about how to get around the serac band. Earlier we discussed the idea of passing it on the right. After looking up close at the seracs, we choose the left option. I remember thinking that seracs probably come down once a month or so. The danger of such crossing has been dulled by previous similar crossings with no ill effects. So we get on the other side of the ice cliff and up a couple hundred feet, when I hear this noise in the cliff area. A HUGE serac calves off. Must have been the size of a double wide trailer home. It falls and breaks into thousands of chunks, some the size of a VW bug, sweeping right across were we had walked only 5 minutes ealier. A big wet avalanche-like river of ice chunks flowed soon after. The right side option to bypass the cliff would have been certain death to us. Note to self: stay away from under seracs! The next bit of glacier walking is very mellow but the 'schrund to the upper gulley is very interesting. Growing wider with every day, we were able to pass it on a bridge on the left side. The bridge is a 45 degree slope and only 5 feet thick. Might be there this weekend, but probably not the weekend after. The right side schrund crossing should be there for a while if the left won't go. The upper gulley is longer than appears but offers no real difficulty other than endurance. The upper cornice is passable on the right side in a bucket step ladder. I distinctly remember wishing I had pulled out the rock gear from the bottom of the pack and gotten a proper belay as a fall would have killed both of us. Topping out over the cornice is kinda steep and involved a little akward leg hook over the top with no good step for the left foot. Good axe placements though. Descent is easy but tedious down a boot pack to the sherpa gulley/glacier descent. Sherpa glacier schrund is covered. From camp to the car = 3.5 hours. If it took us 4 to get up there, why did it take us so long to get back? Alien abduction? The route should be good for the next month. Usefull beta: Don't go underneath the seracs get a good rock anchor for the cornice area have two straight shafted tools for self belays Would like to say thanks to the ouray guys for kicking in some good steps the day previous. enjoy! Gear Notes: 1 screw, 2 tools, crampons, Could of used rock gear and pickets. Approach Notes: trail till colchuck/stuart lake intersection. snow the rest of the way.

Hey Toast, cat bird seat or anyone who knows, is this rap route you mentioned the dark rythm route or a different line? I remember seeing a rap line off of blueberry terrace, first off a tree, then some bolt anchors with slings. I thought this might be a climbing route (palsm 29?) but maybe it is a fast & clean rap route. (dark rythm has one rope eater section) thanks

could have peeled off a year ago since I haven't been there for a couple of years. But there is lots of fresh scars from smaller rocks around as well as lots of little pebbles hanging out mid pitch. I don't think the 3rd pitch of w ridge is altered as was just like as I remember. The rap station right above the scar is just left of the 3rd pitch (midway up) of the west ridge. It is the one that draws you off route on that pitch that leads no where. We went there mistakenly a couple of years ago and I seem to remember a ledge there. Matt Perkin's topo shows this station pretty well. It is not the rap station on dark rhythm.

Was up on the west ridge of exfoliation dome last week and noticed a BIG scar between the west ridge and dark rhythm. The scar must be 20 feet by 10 feet big and is just below the "off route" bolt anchor when climbing the west ridge climb. (only 5.8 pitch, the 3rd pitch?) The flake must have ripped off and fell down onto dark rhytm. Lots of torn out trees at the base. We rapped down dark rhythm, to check out any possible damage to bolts and anchors and found one slightly flattened bolt on either the first or second 10a pitch. (can't remember ) If you go up there, give those bolts a good look to see if they are any good. Little bit of descent beta. There is a good bolt rap anchor off of Blueberry Terrace. It is between two big trees which I know it doesn't help much, but keep looking till you find it. (rappin off those trees seems sketch) Keep following the bolts to the next anchors and bear climbers right as you go. There is one rope eater on top of the pitch that got nailed by rock fall. But it goes all the way to the base. Sorry no pictures

I usually board in my leather mtneering boots but you may get some pain in your calf. For my board and boots, the highback is a little shorter than the leather boot. On heal side turns, the top of the high back bites into the calf. I had to shove foam into the back of the boot (while riding) to pad the highback. Koflach used to make a very cool leather mtn/snowboard boot. was basically a very tall leather mtneering boot. Sadly they haven't made them in 10 years.

Yeah they are big but the suunto are realiable and accurate watches. I have used mine for over 5 years now with no problems. Get your nice small watch but don't be surprised when it busts on you while you are navigating in a white out. Avocet were nice n small but notoriously unrealiable. And Nike? They make shoes. How reliable could their watch be? Consider how long the watches have been around.

Done Francis (crevasses along ridges and a little bit on low angle ice, good times!), kahiltna dome (great wind scoured broad ridge climb) and point ferene. All great little climbs. There are some good climbs up the se fork of kahiltna as well. PM if you have any questions

if you are refering to the gullies that you can see from the highway, (no guidebook here) then the climbing is pretty moderate. The snow max angle is about 45 degrees for a small bit and is all flat footing for the rest. The rock is pretty rank above though. There is a crappy traverse across the other gulley entrance. It doesn't get much better farther on but is managable. It is probably standard rock quality but with good granite nearby, it seemed sketchy. We didn't use the rope. Enjoy though! It is a good route especially if you have done all the other classics in the pass.

All the above plus a very good and small fist aid book (I like "wilderness and travel medicine" by Weiss) because when bad things happen, memory can come up blank. It also has a very good recomendation for med kit also. For anything oversees or 3 days from a car, I would bring some drugs like Immodium. Diahrea can wreck you up if it goes on too long. safety pins vicodin (fun fun) compazine

man that sucks. Chances are they will dump all your climbing gear as it is too hard to sell. There is a chance you might get the climbing gear back if they dump it all together. I got some stolen stuff back once when the thieves dumped the stuff they didn't like in some bushes. They were probably hoping to get things like your ring and maybe cameras and other fancy electrical stuff. Come to think of it, I gotta congratulate the thieves up in squamish. Maybe being typically canadian, they have broken into my car a couple of times and taken only those nice electrical/sellable items, and left the rest of my climbing gear alone. Never any broken glass and they even locked the door! Very professional!

man. those ticks are insane! we were out there wednesday and had a tick fest also. I don't remember there being that many ticks around in may. Anybody have a guess as to how long the tick season lasts?

the NF is probably not in good shape is it has been very warm for the last week or so. wouldn't waste the time to hike up there. TC (triple c) should be good though, as it is higher in altitude and should freeze solid every night. march n april are good times for TC.

was up there all this week. One could drive to within about 1/4 mile of the trail head. The trail is mostly all snow covered to the clear cut. You will have ot remove the skiis about a dozen times for bare spots though. Obviously above the clear cut is all deep snow waiting for your skiis. We got about 4 feet of good light snow there last week. There is a nice snowshoe/sled track that should be good for skiers. We didn't make it up to the saddle though (lots of wind loading during the week) so you are looking at lots of trail breaking to get to the glacier. We were up to our knees with snowshoes on. yum-yum.

I seem to remember a tr by jayb this last fall going up to those ice flows off to the right of the summit pryamid of shuksan. (they must be at about 7000 feet though) You asking about those?

yes it is there. Is it ice or super steep neve with bits of ice? Probably. Good times!

why are you selling and for how much $$?

Still going out to l-worth this week? I would like to head out that way so send me a PM and we can arrange the ride.

EDK is the euro death knot which is a overhand knot used to tie two ropes of similar diameter together.

If you ever find yourself in the same jam as simon, lowering using multiple ropes and having to pass euro overhand knots, I have a nice simple solution to the problem. Use a MUNTER hitch. Major note is that this only works on the EDK. No struggle with the EDK as it simply worms their way around the hitch. There is a little "pop" that must be done (try it and you will see what I mean) but it passes on its own. For those of you who think this is a unsafe practice, I learned it on a AMGA rock guide course. This is something that I think everyone would benefit from knowing. Try it at home.

It is a short 10 hour drive to banff, so pack up the bags, drive all night and beat up the junkyards n grotto. A wise man that I greatly respect once said, "If you want to climb ice, go to where the ice is". I think he was implying that I get the heck out of washington.

Couldn't get the website up but I have a POS computer. Anybody else have problems with this link?