genepires

I was there about 4 weeks ago and I was glad to have a axe. We used running shoes though. The glacier was icy and I can't imagine it would be any better now. A slip on that stuff would slide you into oblivion. Plus there are areas broken up so that you must climb up and over ice blocks. The snow patch at the bivy site was small an very likely to be gone by now. Don't try the crossover peak descent. Maybe in a couple of years when there is a small trail started. Easier to park a car in slesse creak Enjoy.

FYI for anybody heading out that way. It rained hard on sunday and monday. We did it 2 days after the rain and there is still run off on the first 2 and the fourth pitches. Those pitches are natural water courses. Probably wouldn't be such a good route right after a rain storm as there are forests that will drain water for quite a while. (Unless you enjoy wet 5.6 moves, you alpine hardmen)

The weather should be fine in early sept so don't let that hold you back. Some of my faves have already been noted but I will cast my vote for them again cause they're good and you and your gal should like it. edith cavel e ridge athabasca silverhorn (stay off of a skyladder due to rockfall on route and a canadian complex descent) sw ridge of pinnacle peak (tough up the scree field but fun to ski down) grand sentinel (this year there was a resident griz up in the valley so you have to go up in groups so may be hard to get a early start. But you can it rocks) mt fay north face ice (is she into it? good time with a hut) yamnuska - south facing good warm climbing. Nice approach too. Leave plenty of time for descent. Be wary of routes in selected alpine guide. (sandbags) Bow valley rock is accurate but still canadian so expect long days for all trips. Take rest days. Have fun. gene p

go smaller. wild things rock sack. (add homemade axe holders)

Just did the route a couple of days ago and could add a few bits to help anyone going out that way. If you do the pocket glacier to get to the bypass of the lowest pitches, either cross to the right side either mid way up the glacier (that is what we did and involves touchy scrambling up debris on the right side) or stay on the left side and go to the top of the glacier then cross to the right in a big crevase (collapsed bridge with the possibility of falling in deeper?). Either way there was some fixed lines that you can batman up to get to the ramp. It is helpfull because the glacier doesn't make it easy to get to the 4th class ramp. Once on the route, follow your nose and do what seems right. As long as you are on route, there are some good pitches and some rock that doesn't look solid but stays put. Some pitches are short so we linked much together by accident. There was still a couple of snow patches in the bivy area which looks like a killer place to crash. Didn't get to witness the granly little rodents though. Snow patch on the summit too, but you don't have to climb through it. Water is not much of a problem for the next week or so. Descent: We tried the crossover peak descent but it is pretty confusing. The guide says you need time and energy. 3 hours of daylight is not enough time. It is a big confusing summit and it takes a while to get off of it. (sorta like stuart) IMHO, take two vehicles and go down to slesse creek trailhead. Be ready for a trail that goes straight down the hill. Steep, never a switchback and very dry. Amazing that anyone goes up the trail. It is built by climbers dreaming of beer in town and want it a soon as possible. Classic canadian adventure.

There is a register on top of whistler peak in the washington pass area. (next to cuthroat peak) There were entries from the 80's in it. With about 4 entries per year. Not bad for being so close to a well tromped alpine playground. Oh that's right, the rock sucks.

Four aider system? I think the idea is to use only two aiders and a adj. daisy. According to their instructions, you keep your feet in the aiders all the time. Sequence as follows: clip 2 biners into new piece, clip daisy into biner, clip one aider into other biner then clip other aider as well. This system was meant for wankers like me who only climb A1.

How could the rock NOT be better. Done both and like them both contrary to others opinions. I think the rock is pretty good on backbone. The crux pitch needs large cams and can be slid as you go up. Cheating? Probably. Started out sliding a #4 camalot up, then some kind of nut half way up, then slidding up the big daddy #5 camalot to the top of the pitch. Expect a long day as when you think you are near the top, there is another 3-4 pitches left. Enjoy. BTW - the route finding on the fin is hard. I climbed some crack with periodic grass clumps to stand on. Send mike layton a message as he has done it a couple of weeks ago.

Oh the dogs who shit everywere, pee everywere, roll rocks, are loud, step on my rope, distract belayers and are a plain pain in the ass. Sounds like alot of the climbers out there. For all the "problems" dogs may have caused me over the years, climbers have been twice so. Don't even ask me how many times I have found a turd and tp underneath a rock. Just last week I saw some dumbass shit on the glacier in the bugaboos and then cover it with a rock. People shit everywhere. People drop rocks on other people. Some people are loud, rude and annoying. (of course none are cc.comers) All of the characteristics of dogs that this thread has been busting on exists in the general climbing population and we all just suck up and accept bad people behavior. There are "bad dogs" and there are "bad climbers". I wish I could scold the bad climbers like I can my dog. Maybe if all you people critical of bad dogs would be critical of "bad climbers", vantage would be a place worth going to. Might even bring my dog since there wouldn't be any bad habits to pick up. [ 08-03-2002, 07:45 AM: Message edited by: genepires ]

If the lower climber keeps slack from forming (like glacier travel) then there shouldn't be much of a shock at all on the tibloc and the rope should not be damaged. Think about the people going up the fixed lines on denali. If they trip and fall then the ascender gripping the rope catches them. Is the rope damaged? Yeah a 4 foot fall on a ascender may cause rope damage but what fool would simu with that much rope at their feet. Better yet, who cares about rope damage when looking at the consequences of the lower climber pulling the upper climber off and then careening into the last peice of pro, possibly creating a static shock onto it which would surely rip it out.

Don't you guys (and gals) see sarcasm when presented. Of course you are not going to buy a dozen tiblocs for a route. But if you have a few, they can be used.

You can use tiblocs to mitigate the hazard of having the second climber fall and pull off the leader. Put the rope in the tibloc and then clip both into the protection biner. This is shown in the peztl catalog in the crevasse rescue section. If the second falls then the weight goes on the tibloc and the pro instead of the leader. If the leader falls, the weight is held by the piece as if the tibloc is not there, so there is no worry about the tibloc cutting the rope. Of course you will need lots of tiblocs but you could use them at strategic areas where a fall is more likely for the second. Or if you didn't need to buy the newest ice tool this winter you could afford to get 30 of them and be able to go 15 rope lengths before needing to reload the leader. What else are you going to do with your paycheck, buy lattes and fancy work shoes?

There is a forest service camping area called early winters campground. Right by the river that chills beers nicely. $6/night for a bargain. There is lots of private land along the road to goat's wall so camping on the side of the road might be trespassing.

All this talk of the ropes folding over and from my experience, only once did I have one EDK that looked even partially inverted. (and I have had plenty of rappels with my 200 lb ass) Has any else ever had a euro death knot invert on rappel? (not some lab test)

why do you think a figure 8 knot is more dangerous than a overhand knot? I assume that figure 8 knot discussed is like a euro death knot but made with a fig. 8 instead of a overhand.

Just use them again. The first time you screw them in ice, you will get a brown ice core. (shit ice??) No big deal.

A question I have is how you would be using a 30m rope? Glacier travel? The rope setup should allow for the ability to throw down a line to the victim for various reasons. If it is for either a team of four or two, then the people will have to be a little less than 40 feet apart. The team of four is fine but for the team of two is to close together. Try holding a fall alone and then imagine it being unexpected and you might slide 25 feet or more before able to hold the fall. Fact is, it is very easy for the sole surface climber to fall in the crevasse as well, when only 40 feet separate the two. The teams of three will have 60 feet apart and this is pretty good. Use it for alpine scrambling? probably fine use it for alpine rock? Probably too short for the pitches and rappels.

If you want to make your own draws but are concerned about the water knot coming untied, try using a double fishermans knot instead. After a good pull, that knot will never come undone. This is not a good knot if you think you will have to untie the knot to leave at rappels though so I don't bother with this knot on shoulder slings. But for short draws, this is the best knot to use.

Agreed. If you want to use the ascender for fixed line self belay, the ushba has no teeth damage the sheath. It uses a pinching affect or something to lock down. It rides up very smooth. But if you want to use it for aid climbing, I would suggest against having two of these. It is too hard to remove off the rope when you need to skip a piece, like on diagonal pitches. Maybe one petzl ascender and a handles ushba would be nice.

dUDE ?!

I agree with mattp on this but I would like to add that in august, the slopes get very icy. I've done it every month between may and august and they are all doable. The later in the season you wait, the more technical the climb. And by that I mean the slopes below the ice seracs get scarier a far as cruising up without a proper belay. I would expect there to be more belaying on the slopes directly below the ice cliffs as well as the slopes right above the bergshrund. Also, just a little comment. In the last two summers, baker has had two incidences where roped teams plummeted down the mountain. One on north ridge and the other on colemen/deming. If you are tied to someone and you can't self arrest if you or your bud falls, then put in a running belay or untie if the crevasse situation allows. I had a buddy die from being pulled down rainier in icy un-self arrestable conditions.

You could spend good money and get a swanky room in a hotel but think before deciding to get a hotel room. Where will you be climbing? Find the place that is nearest to your climbing. I know people who swore they would stay in a particular place and then ended up driving 3-4 hours a day to get to and from the ice. Fuck that. The best bet is to move between hostels and hotels depending on what you want to climb. Keep flexible. If you want to climb anywhere north of banff, stay in any one of 5 hostels that are all along the road. If you want to climb near canmore or banff, hotels or the club house. Golden? Then stay in the hotels in golden. Don't stay in golden then drive to banff everyday. Minimize the driving and save money on gas. [ 03-29-2002: Message edited by: genepires ]

for rainier, Just thought of what you said about adding friction to the system. I haven't tried it yet or read about it in a publication so everyone don't bust my chops too much if it doesn't work. I know you can add friction to a rappel situation by adding extra biners to the rappel device. (on the bight of the rope) It works by making the bends in the rope more exagerated and therefore more friction. Could you add more friction to the auto lock by adding more biners to the rope too? The reverso and gi-gi lock off by the the load strand pinching off the brake strand, therefore being a "brake hand". That is how you can let go of the device. By the way, both of these are hands free device, which means the manufacturer says that you don't need to hold onto the brake line. Anyway, by adding biners to the rope, it looks like the rope has a larger bend and therefore more friction without affecting it's ability to pinch and brake. If any of you are in a technical situation which have access to pull testing machines, I would like to see if there is a increase in holding power.

I had lots of crap stolen at index too. Man it sucks. It's not like most climbers have cash to spare. These guys are definately not robin hood types. The fact that those bags of yours are so blatently labeled it the "north face" logo didn't help much. Most gangsta punks types know about TNF. I advice that the replacement bags be something else cheap and unknown.

There is a certain value of the package that duties become applicable. I ordered some stuff worth about $230 and paid no duty. I suspect that value that they charge duty on is about $400 but not certain. It also depends on what you are ordering. Certain things don't get duty at all, like search and rescue gear. Anyway, if you are not one of these gear freaks who get entire new outfits every year, you should be fine.