genepires

putting the pulley with rope onto the biner holding the prussik is not that hard. at least when using a standard prussik. may be harder when using a mechanical device for a prussik. standard waist and foot prussik (texas kick system) are already on the rope and ready to go also without the need for more gear. while being nice, the Basic and traxion weight more than cord. Less is more,especially for something as infrequent as a crevasse fall. why is the unit rated to 4kn while the pulley rated to 15kn? Is that the force that the teeth part breaks away from the unit? what force does the teeth of the traxion cut into the rope? (that in itself could be the major downfall of your system) If petzl doesn't explicitly describe the use for this, there must be a good reason.

damn. very very proud. At first thought, I was guessing that angels crest and squamish buttress would be on that list. F that thought, grand wall and 2 burly (for moist people) aid lines.

+1 to going to canadian rockies. much better & reliable ice to climb on. But if you must stay around here, there are tons of winter lines to do. Winter adds a layer of difficulty to everything so just about every valley has a good beginner winter line in it. For example, find any ole peak that is reasonable accessible, and pick the easiest line on it. Voila, you have a good winter route to try. Since you are in seattle, I would suggest you tromp all over the snoq pass area. Try bryant peak, the tooth, hemlock and even the descent route on chair. ( I once saw some of the thickest WA ice ever in that gulley) Guye has tough routes on the south side too. Snoqualmie pk. McClellan butte. Abiel. Silver. Ect. There must be enough routes to do from the alpental parking lot to keep a beginner alpinist busy for a couple years. Just have to get beyond the select guides and look into the beckey guides. Dallas Kloke once published a winter climbing guide to western wa and the premise was that smaller neglected peaks made fine winter objectives. If you can find someone who would print you a copy of that, you would be set up for decades of winter suffering.

nice!

if you are having fun, do it. how about ride the bike to the rock gym and get built all around?

if you finish the total soul or silent running and you got more energy to burn, do a quickish run up the old time classic "the kone" or meander around on the big tree routes. see a recent matt p tr for some photo stoke on this area.

one concern is having enough friction with the small diameter rope. other is resistance to cutting on edges. thin ropes have less resistance. you could use very very skinny ropes but have to be prepared for both of these concerns.

I swear I see lots of old ski tracks in the camp sherman photo. do the climbing rangers still ski on patrol? I thought they stopped doing that due to command decision from upper management.

most glacier routes on rainier should be fine. I would imagine that liberty ridge is way out, unless you are real badass and enjoy rocks hurtling at ya. DC and emmons all summer. descend fisher chimneys for shuksan if you have done that route before. If not, maybe a run up the fisher chimneys is a good idea. it is a fine route and prolly much much better than the price glacier. If you are wanting to do the price because if its inclusion in the 50 classics, well then you may want to rethink that choice. west ridge of forbidden will be snow free unless there is a freak snowstorm while you are on route. even then it will melt off as soon as the sun comes out. as for other routes you may enjoy, tell us what you like. alpine rock, alpine ice, road side, long long approaches, ect, ect

awesome job Clint! going where most all fear to tread. no AK expert but is the phantom wall really just prep for moonflower? phantom wall is badass and certainly done less frequently! is the phantom wall technically easier but more exposed to hazards?

is much of the west ridge like this photo? looks real nice. Is this part past where the stuart glacier coulour connects in?

I can't wear less than my soft shell pants and a tshirt, but I think a headband is in order to stop sweat from getting to my face. there are different types of softshells. I have a real thin pair of arct$$$$$ryx pants that I use in fairly warm conditions. Also, maybe a thin nylon pant which the leg zip off might be a good option. Tank tops too. cheap cotton bandanas are critical for me too in the summer. good luck. maybe you should look into glasses which the side shields come off for when you don't really need them which is most of the time.

the unpleasant answer is that you will have to try the bag and see if it works for you. Some people sleep "hot". Luckily, I can get by with one of those liner bags (50 degree) for most of the non winter times. No way to know till you try and succeed or shiver. the 40 degree bag sounds like a good option though. I have a FF lightweight something bag (non vero) and I like it alot too.

if you can compress the compression sack more than it allows, try a smaller compression sack. if the compartment section won't come out, use a knife and get it out. those things just make packing a pack hard. And to be honest, I am suprised that osprey put one in theirs. a compartment for a sleeping bag is a bad sign. Dans designs used ot have one but it was easy to remove and replace. another question. why have such a warm bag? there are very few places where that bag is needed.

hot damn!

was thinking about the "mowing". is there a hand held tool that can be bought or rent that can do the job? I was jokingly imaging a chainsaw attached to either side of a big truck and laying waste to the small alders and bushes. But maybe walking along the road and holding a chainsaw or better tool to cut it all down. It is only about 5 miles than need the pruning. wait....that would be both sides...10 miles of cutting.

Trip: wine spires - piasano w ridge / burgundy n face Date: 6/28/2013 Trip Report: A little bit late, but better than never for someone who hasn't posted a TR in years. forgive my slothness and lack of skill. What does a middle aged guy do when he can't crag enough to send 5.10 realiably but wants to have a big day on rock? Linkup routes at WA pass of course! Curt Veldhuisen and I went to the wine spires to linkup the west ridge of piasano pinnacle and the north face of burgundy spire. Curt had done both routes on seperate trips and my last time on burgundy was some 12 years previous. Time to step it up. We drove up to the pass after work on thursday with the idea to hike up to the bench to camp. But low clouds, mist and general slothness made easy convincing for a truck bivy at the cutthroat trailhead. But that make the friday a bit longer day and I would pay for that slothness in the future. We made a nice early 5 am start from the hwy and made it to the bench around 7am. There was a couple of folks camped out who apparently wandered in the clouds the day before. After a short rest, the uphill trudge continued to a long traverse across an area of compact dirt to the west ridge proper. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/504/thumbs/DSCN2232.JPG/ [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/504/thumbs/DSCN22352.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/504/thumbs/DSCN2236.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/504/thumbs/DSCN22401.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/504/medium/DSCN2242.JPG[/img] On the 4th pitch, there is a sharp ridgeline with options for either side. Right side had the feet walking on this huge seemingly detached flake which I took. I was a bit too short for the left side but Curt managed to do that side. Take your pick. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/504/thumbs/DSCN2245.JPG[/img] Pitch 8 has some runout slab climbing but the rock is clean and grippy. This put us on top paisano around 1pm. A short walking traverse and down climb puts you a little ways up the north face, into that small loose bowl area. We went up the normal way using the 5.8 "awesome" labeled line and yeah, it was awesome. Curt managed the last OW pitch (spooky) to finish off our 5 pitches of Burgundy for a 13 pitch day at around 4pm. Val Zepher and friend was hot on our heals running up the N face. We brought a 70 m single line and this is not the best choice for thte route. No pitch was longer than 40m and there was not enough rope for one of the rappels so we ended up leaving a block slung. (there was another anchor that we could have taken but didn't see it till too late) Double 50m would be ideal. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/504/thumbs/DSCN2246.JPG[/img] Back to the col sometime past 6pm. Hustle down. rehydrate and whine about my toes that were in rock shoes too long. hustle down..down...down... Back to the truck and a shot of scotch at 9pm 16 hr day. prolly slow for some people but not bad for some "old guys" sat- to tired to do anything but drive home sun-tired but enough to play with my kid mon-tired at work tues-ditto wed- that was "phun" th- that was really "FUN"! 4 days to recover. damn aging. classic roadside photo of the liberty spires. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/504/thumbs/DSCN2247.JPG[/img] Approach Notes: down the hill, cross the creek with a log, up the hill.

it is a alpine route. can't compare apples with oranges. Would you say that clean break is not superb compared to other 13 pitch alpine routes in washington? Oh yeah, we don't have that many.

actually that was a couple years ago. About half way, we eventually got a ride in the back of an open bed, fully packed with stuff, pickup truck from some questionably sober individuals. grateful but maybe not the best judgement to accept for 2 men with families.

awesome. thanks for the stoke! will need to set shoes on that one. Chris and I tried to hitchhike from blue lake TH to the hairpin with less success. Why would anyone pick up a couple middle aged smelly men? But two chika's? never been to the base, but do you think there are other new easier route possibilities to the right or left of clean break? Looks like beckey route terrain form the photos. (blocky and trees)

what do you need? if it is just things like fuel canisters, you may be able to find that in a non climbing store. FF is closer to the hwy than marmot. choose FF and marmot over rei anytime, if possible.

how could the average person remember how to spell Blagovchenskay, no wait Blajovshenkayo, no wait blavochenskookum, no wait blagoveshchenskaya.......? Damn Anastasia is a rainier queen. good job!

change is hard for some people, especially for people who think that marriage is a strictly religous practice. What they fail to realize is that marriage is a contract written for members in society, a stabilizing factor. The whole arguement of the slippery slope leading to marriage with children, animals and inanimate objects is crap since none of those 3 can sign a contract. The slippery slope of marriage with multiple partners and relatives is a possibility though but it is very unlikely that a reasonable arguement can made for those.

very hestitant to suggest any glacier soloing, but the sahale arm way to sahale is a doable solo glacier ascent. Ruth is a little more crevassed but not by much. maybe best to solo this when all the winter snow is gone and hopefully all crevasses are open.

I'm curious, what was your #1 worse Cascades approach? Icicle Canyon: Hook/Rat Creek - Blockhouse West Face in mid july.