genepires

in addition to the above rec's, try improbable traverse on guye peak. the traverse is easier than it looks. while not alpine, spend weekends up in squamish. Tons of routes to master your multipitch experience. same for icicle canyon in leavenworth. when it is raining in squish. there are more moderates in wa pass to try. burgundy n face, serendipity artete, poster peak, west face south early, n face concord tower, and a couple variations around the beckey route on lib bell. those are a bit step up (5.8-ish) from das toof, but a season craggin at squish and icicle will get you up to speed . fun times ahead!

i may catch grief for this but old ropes are fine for glacier travel. even if they are a bit static-y. the nature of glacier falls is such that the rope cutting into snow takes a bunch of the forces and makes the rope seem dynamic. I am not suggesting to use a static rope like back in the DAY, but an old rope that has lost some stretchiness is not a big deal.

yup to DPS. 50m x 8-ish (whatever on sale) mm rope is great for glacier travel. 60m is kinda long and if there are 5 people in group, bring two ropes.

in an alpine rock environment, 50 meters is a good length. chances are you will experience too much rope drag when making pitches beyond 40 to 50 meters anyway. then you have to deal with that extra length at every pitch change over. I found that teams can go faster with 50 meter ropes, especially if there are short rope sections like on serpentine arete or even on ne butt slesse. Plus alpine rarely do long rappels where a longer rope would be good. shorter rappels make dealing with rope eaters easier. I did almost all of my alpne climbing in a pair of 50m doubles. whether I brought one or two depended on the route. If the rope is too short in the alpine, simu climbing takes care of that. You should be very solid rock climbing and not pushing limits in alpine. Short bits of simu should not be a problem.

why did you go around via sharkfin instead of heading up to the base of the west ridge of forbidden and then drop down? Been a long time since i was there but that was the way back then. maybe things have changed since? It was one or two long raps from west ridge saddle to snow field. maybe that snow is gone.

wow! that top out is really broken up. times are a changin over the eyars.

from 8/15 so not that long ago but things do change quickly. One thing to note that may not be in the below report as it is expected that most guides know this already as it a situation that has been around for a month or so now. There is a large crevasse running end to end (may be the 8800 crack in report below) on the coleman glacier which would be your decent route. Wont see it on the way up. End running it to the east or west will put you into potential ice fall danger from baker or colfax. either run quickly through there or some have been rappeling off of some fixed pickets. No idea if that is still accurate. Should be exciting! Hey Crew, Just wrapped up a 1:1 summit day on a 3 day North Ridge with Mountain Madness. We are camped at the hogsback and figured I'd spend some tent time sharing conditions. The slope immediately above the hogsback is now a combination of recently glaciated terrain and dry glacier, making travel in the dark slow. We took the standard ascent to the football field that you would for the CD, thinking that this would help us avoid some shenanigans on the low traverse but in retrospect, I don't believe we gained any time by doing so. On the descent we went hard skiers left and managed to stay on a combination of snow and dry glacier with only a few short sections of loose 3rd to link everything together. The 6600 traverse is holding strong but Jeff's words from late July are certainly still true. There are several spots that require exposed movement on dry glacial fins that are a little sporty. I personaly wouldn't want to be in there with a guest that's not solid on their feet right now. Running water is available in one spot early on, moving across the Coleman but I did not encounter any after that. Once on the route, a friendly boot pack allowed for short roping almost all the way to the ice step, requiring just one short pitch to the the right side of the nose. The exit straight up is still holding strong, above which there was a track heading to a bridge that is about to collapse. We managed to gain the summit plateau a few hundred feet climbers left of this bridge but you will likely need to end run the whole crack within the next week or two. The 8800 crack has a super solid rap anchor above it and a 60 left us ample rope to spare. There is also enough room to comfortably stage pre rigged guest between the anchor and the lip. Thanks to whoever put that in! Colfax has been shedding nicely, I'm attaching a photo. We opted to move through the debris and it took about 5 minutes total with a strong guest. The firn line is creeping up fast and starting to expose some of the slope above the football field. Ignore the straight line at the beginning of my track, my phone was still in battery saver mode. Let me know if you have questions.

it has been getting climbed pretty often by the guide services. reports from them have been making it sound good. I will try to find the recent one and give it to you here.

cutting a couple strands and leaving it sounds more like attempted murder than sabotage. very un canadian.

Surprising that the first scenario (miscommunication) doesn’t Happen more often.

are there any specifics you know about? helmets worn? bad knots?

blue lake TH has that pond that harbors breeding of bugs but after a couple minutes walking, you are beyond those little bastards reach. We did not see any bugs up at the rocks but I have been assaulted badly before up high. It is rare but there is some kind of special combination that lets them live up high but not right now. no snow on approach o any of the bells or spires. there is a couple snow patches that some desperate TAY gals were making turns on this last weekend. (like they make 5 turns in one patch) that is dedication.

wait till it freezes up. may take a while.

that glacier has many flatish places to camp as you go up. just use common sense about camp location. (covered crevasses and ice fall from above) Haven't been up there this year but I don't remember any large hanging death blocks on route. prolly a good idea to camp some yards away from bootpack track and probe out your camp spot looking for covered bridges. I wouldn't trust the fact that it is level to negate the crevasse potential.

such a cool photo!

https://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2019/6/26/ballard-s-ascent-outdoors-is-back-from-the-dead?fbclid=IwAR3VWSnTSkJPA3mC5mq1uwPC6T_DdkAmRuNjqf4lMn_fB_r-SYBJing5fe4

slabbage photos are enticing. I think I can spot squire creek wall, roan wall. others in foreground?

that sounds like one great month!

Die mother fucker die mutha fucker!

I think carrying nitro is illegal in public lands. makes great stove fuel though.

maybe someone can make it spicy by throwing a ladder over that big crack. then we can get all everest style points.

From what I heard, there is a walk around that monster crack but it puts you under some hanging ice fall in the moustache area. Like 10 minutes in the possible firing line. Let the buyer beware if they choose that way.

Minus the cancer, it would be nice. but couldn’t one find a parking garage in downtown Seattle for like $20/day and van life it there?

that is so f'in nuts. $140/night. for 3 months rent, you could buy a nice van and live down by the river.

maybe you can knit a big net to catch all those falling slabs.