Ben

Guye peak has some fun ones: Did the south rib in "winter" conditions. In summer, it's a 2-3 hour class 3 scramble. When we tried it in winter, it was soft snow on top of running water on top of lots of downsloping slabbiness. Pick placements in mud and moss assisted progress. The best and only piece of pro on one memorable pitch (where we had to detour to do loose class 5th climbing to avoid climbing a running waterfall) was a one-inch thick bush/tree. It was intermittent snow/rain the whole way, with minimal visibility. I think it took 8 hours to reach the top. The clouds lifted while traversing the subsummits and we got to see a cool sunset. The moon came up just in time to guide us back down the East gully. It was amazing how something so "easy" and so close to the road could be so challenging...

I'd also put a plug in for Seattle Boot Works in Ballard. The guy who owns/runs the shop (Sean) does nice work on climbing shoes (and all sorts of other outdoor shoe resoles). Sean is friendly and conscientious -- something I can't necessarily say for Dave Page. The store is on 59th and 24th Ave, in Ballard.

5mm nylon cord is about half as strong as the 7mm. I wouldn't be comfortable using it for this purpose. I use about 18-20 ft of 6mm nylon cord. A decent compromise -- not too bulky and reasonably strong. Another nice thing about using nylon cord is that you can easily cut it into 2 or 3 rap slings if you're bailing. This may or may not be important to you, especially if you climb with mainly sewn slings...

Think of them as two separate routes. The complete N ridge: For some reason people moan about bad rock on the lower N ridge. In my memory, it's not that bad, and the climbing is really easy at that part. It's a beautiful line and a great climb. The NW face of the N ridge: If you are setting out to do this, it's better to use the lower crossing to the Forbidden glacier (as described in CAG). This is a walk-over (rather than a rotten rappel at the higher crossing). When we were over there (a month ago), the NW face of N ridge looked beautiful, but snow/ice conditions will surely be different now.

Yea, there is a double bolt anchor on the false summit, but my guess is that they are there to facilitate a rappel of the direct east buttress or one of the other steep routes on that side. They seemt totally reasonable to me, and I don't think they are there to spoil the "excitement" of the step-across move. Anyone who has just climbed the direct east buttress wouldn't even think of using those to rap around the "dreaded" step-across move. And I don't think that people coming up the south gully even reach these bolts, but I'm not sure... There is also a bolt on the fin near the conclusion of the S arete route that people complain about all the time. Sure, it seems silly, but why waste our energy complaining about it? In fact, if it assists getting the hordes up/down that route more efficiently, then I'm all for it.

As people say, it's a great system. Plus, you can elect to take just a single one of them, and use it in doubled fashion as a really lightweight rope system for easier climbs Obviously this limits your reach a bit, but if you're planning on doing lots of simulclimbing, it works really well. Personally, I find the trend towards longer and longer ropes weird. I feel like the more I climb, the less rope I've been getting by with. I guess it's a matter of wandering, blocky alpine routes versus long, clean yosemite style climbs. At the end of the day, they're like shoes or backpacks: you need a different one for every occassion.

quote: Originally posted by Norman Clyde: I think the situations in which simulclimbing is more favorable than either careful unroped climbing, or the usual belay are fairly limited. To me it seems like you'd benefit from simuling on portions of just about every Cascades moderate. Unless you have perfect route beta, unroping (coiling), reroping, unroping (coiling), etc seems like a huge waste of time. The fact is that most of those climbs have long steps of 3rd/4th class which you could probably solo, but the time spent unroping (and then retying a few hundred feet later) would be silly. Yes, simuling introduces a new element of risk (if your partner falls you might fall too -- but are they death falls?), but you need to weigh that against the benefits. As people have pointed out: communicate with your partner. If one of you is tired or sketched or whatever, then by all means belay. But if you're feeling good (and you want or need to get to the top before the sun sets) then move together.

During the first couple of raps, look east and try to identify the solitary gendarme the marks the start of the east ridge route. You want to end up just on the west side of that. (This advice is probably only meaningful if you have done that route.) In my experience, single rope raps are better here because aside from the first rap, it's low angle enough that "deploying" the ropes becomes a hassle in and of itself. (And then your knot gets hung up...) Finally, a good way to keep track of your progress is to count the ribs that you've crossed. I've always counted 5 of them and then headed up the fifth one (rather than drop into the gully on the other side) for an easy scramble back into the finishing notch. People give this descent a bad rap. It is stressful, but I find it easier than going down the West ridge (no couloir to descend). Your biggest worry might be people on the direct route knocking rocks on you... Forbidden wouldn't have quite the same charm if it had a trivial walk off descent, right??

A doubled (halved?) 8-9mm rope works really well for many moderate routes in the Cascades. It's light, it gives you the desired 25m between climbers, and you can still climb decent sized steps of harder stuff with fixed belays (with a high margin of safety afforded by the double ropes). Of course, if you get into longer stretches of harder climbing, it gets annoying and slow to belay so many short pitches.... quote: Originally posted by Rodchester: "Having the ropes doubled does not reduce stress, it actually icreases the impact force as the ropes have less ability to stretch if a fall happens." This has always been my understanding also. If you're clipping both lines through each piece (twin rope style) then it will increase impact force. This is especially pronounced with fatter ropes. If you're already using a rope designed for twin rope climbing, then it's not so bad. Check your rope. If you're alternating strands (double rope style) then you don't have to worry about this effect. Obviously, the two styles of rope management shouldn't be mixed. Another nice feature about two strands (that I hope I'll never have to rely on): on sections of sharp, horizontal ridgeline where you may have to employ the "jump off the opposite side of the ridge technique" (if you see the leader fall), two strands should be less likely to cut than one...

Climbed it 10 days ago. No snow to speak of on the approach (from the hairpin). Descend the standard (S Arete) route. I find it easiest/quickest to just to keep walking south along the ridge until you reach on obvious notch and then head NE (snow at the top, talus at the bottom) back to the car. Light hikers or tennies are fine for the approach/descent. There seems to be an established rap route down the East buttress which might work with double ropes, although I'm not sure how straight the line is. Crossing from the north side of the buttress to the south side in the area of the first bolt ladder seems like it might be tricky. Anyone else tried it?

The latest ed. of CAC v.1 mentions the NW Buttress of Stuart as a possible descent for the north side routes on that mountain. From the pictures, it looks ideal for returning to a bivy site at goat pass. Anyone got any beta on it? Is there an obvious rap route, or is it mostly confusing downclimbing? Also, getting to the top of the buttress from the summit seems nontrivial to me -- it's a ways down the west ridge... --Ben

The gully Juan mentions worked perfectly 10 days ago. His directions are right on. Look for greyish rock about 2/3 of the way up. When we were there, it was steepish snow up to the rock and then easy scrambling the the (small) notch. The rappel point is a slightly wobbly chockstone in the notch, but good by Cascades standards. From there, its only a single rope rap to the glacier. Because there was still a good snowbridge to the glacier when we were there, we actually just downclimbed. We made up about a half hour's time on a party that was ahead of us (and who elected to go the over the standard way). I've been over both ways, and the alternate is definitely better/faster. It saves you the hassle of taking two ropes too...

Climbed it on 7/17. From a camp in Boston basin, we went in via Sharkfin col. We used the alternate gully to the right, which provided quick, single rope (actually we just downclimbed) access to the Boston glacier. After a long and beautiful tour of the Boston and forbidden glacier, we accessed the rib, perhaps a couple hundred feet higher than normal due to melt out (nice bivy ledges here). From here we simul climbed to the cruxy section of the climb, which is where the knife-edge section terminates. The chimney described in Beckey wasn't that bad: we exited left at its top. Exiting right looks harder. We worked up and right to get back onto the rib proper and then enjoyed hundreds of feet of beautiful, sustained 4th and 5th class climbing to the summit. We used a single 8.5 mm rope, doubled. This worked well for simul climbing, but was occassionaly a curse for the few times we actually belayed. The rack was maybe a little heavy: nothing bigger than a #2 camalot required. It took 11 hours from the basin. 6 hours to reach the rock (coming up through the forbidden glacier from that direction was tricky -- its pretty broken up at that point), and 5 hours on route. All in all a fantastic route in great condition right now. It feels like the N ridge in terms of commitment, but has a lot more sustained/exposed climbing. Accessing the climb via the west ridge seems quicker but more technical. I'd definitely want a little snow/ice pro, but maybe that's just my comfort level.

Sorry, I don't think I was being very clear. I didn't mean the NW face of the North Ridge (as in the Nelson book), but rather the NW face proper. This is a rock route that starts on the prominent rib that trends NW to the Forbidden Glacier. One gets a good view of it from the West Ridge. I'm wondering mainly about the shape of the upper face -- the lower rib is pretty sharp so is probably pretty clear. --Ben

Has anyone who's been up there recently had a look at it? If so, did it look reasonably dry/snow free? thx, Ben

I like the single overhand knot for tying two ropes together for a rap. Mainly because it doesn't seem to get hung up as often, but also for the looks people give you when they see you using it. Not a fancy knot, but useful once you get over the psychological issues...

It's also worth heeding the warning inthe Beckey book: "beware of perched snowpatches"or something to that effect. We got in therelater than we should have on a warmish dayand by about mid-day (right when we weregetting ready to climb over the chockstone at2/3 height) we heard an awful crack and then gotpummelled by an avalanche. We were in an alcove below and left of the chockstone, so itcould have been worse. We fled but got hit byanother while we were setting up a rap abovethe steep stuff at the gully entrance. Our rap pin & sling is surely still there. It's a pretty spectacular climb, but be sure youhave good conditions. You can probably simulclimb from after the gully entrance (which issteep) to the chockstone.

I did it a few years ago, after an early-season snow storm, in late Sept. The descent is funky -- we rapped onto the unnamed glacier behind the spire, and traversed it NE to the col and dropped into a gully which lead to the glacier which drops you back into Marble ck. cirque. For more info, see: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/dugan/trips/early-morning.html It's a great climb -- have fun.