Rafael_H

Very nice, fun route! Thanks, guys!!! Climbed in 4 70m rope lengths, linking every 2 pitches, there was a tiny bit simuling on the second pair, can't say how much but my partner was ok with it. Very cozy, comfortable summit, pleasure to relax a bit on. The register was easy enough to open, just punch in the answer to a common dynamic programming puzzle, but the box needs to be waterproof. I apparently forgot the details on rapping, so we scrambled down to the belay station on the big ledge with the messed up bolt. I'd say relocate those bolts a foot down, or just one." Lots of supercute pikas lagging greenery for nests.

Neither link works

bump. Was this you own canoe? Thank you!

I independently came to same conclusions for the upcoming year: single static and an approved secondary Traxion purchase Did not try securing the device with a stretchable, but will this time, thanks Blake! Before have been using two ropes. Have test-fallen before every attempt to feel secure - never a painful or unpleasant sensation, just an unusual one when "falling" on static, "fall" is never long. In fact it is scarier to hear the two ropes snap against each other! The pro/con of no clutter at the harness vs. redundancy definitely needs to be considered personally, whatever is most comfortable psychologically. The redundancy does cause more attention to be paid to the system because of more parts.

Same here, staying at Hostel Bear. All, stay in touch, perhaps we can arrange for Ghost visit(s), and what not.

Lillooet: https://westcoastice.wordpress.com/ Banks Lake: don't forget the rock shoes

PArk on the west side of the road. Walk a bit up and down, the ice is, or should be visible from the road. The large looking flows way up high are Rambles Right. Cross the road where the east side is flat and boulders start just to the left. Walk winding your way up keeping slightly left (north) but primarily up. If there are no prints you will find yourself bushwacking, do not get discouraged. once cannot hike up anymore you are bound to see ice. HTH...

Happy New Year to all home or on the way to some great ice cragging... outside WA. Banks is empty. Drove the entire line from Ephrata to Zenith, and turned around right there. There is some plastering of ice here and there. Here is Zenith: This is the fattest thing there is. Another climb is along 17 that has a similar amount of ice, don't know the name, in a corner, after Soap Lake. Everything else is a smear/verglass. Cable is tiny icicles here and there. Salt and Pepper completely dry. Nice and sunny though Drytooling mostly on rock? Not me.

Iron, what did you climb this time? Were Zenith and Cable the same as on 5th? Were they a shower? Last time on Zenith I turned back because of a shower covering me in a shield of ice, no joke, so it is a matter of 4 hours one way Thank you.

What Drew said, spread the wealth around I used it quite a few times. Works, but the things is that if your rope is soaking water it is already worn enough to be spongy and absorb, so treating the fibers is not effective anymore because the rope is not just lightly showered upon, it is dragged over wet ice, through the belay device, etc, forcing the water in... The benefit is there though if you just can't get a new one.

Wow, the place is in! Thank you! Looks like you celebrated after (or before) the trip for too long ;O)

beards: Standard Route:

Was there today - Standard still fat and healthy. I just walked up to it, no gear this weekend, but looked more like a single 70m pitch, 3, but very nice. Forgot the USB cable so no pics, Monday. Goat's Beard is in... old goat beard shape, no Sourcerer beard yet, and will not be this season.

Based on the past weekend 15" wheels are just fine unless it dumps a ton, which is not forecast. All roads will be fine, except for trucks throwing gravel against hoods and windshields. There is no plowing for the Crown Lake (Marble Canyon) parking lot though, so I'd take a shovel just in case (I always do anyway). And, bring running shoes in case someone does away with it in their van...

OK, will get it the next year, by then there might be more dry/mixed climbing there Happy New Year to all. Might go gawk at the Goats Beard next weekend.

After several sessions I just didn't feel good about the Ushbas, so got a Petzl Microsender. The carabiner is always cross-loaded so while most test falls position it correctly, I thought something better ought to be out there, like a round 'biner. No round one yet, but this one has been working great for solo TR and as an attachment for ice tool tethers: http://www.petzl.com/us/outdoor/verticality/carabiners/special-locking-carabiners/omni

May I join you if nobody goes to Lillooet with me, and I decide against a solo trip? Or perhaps you join me, eh? Temps are good for ice areas, town of L-et proper is much warmer so not a good one to judge by.

I would love to go back to Lillooet to get some of the beautiful hard lines left undone from last w-end: Everything center-right The left hard line looked fantastic, the rightmost is very nice, but has nice holds after us And, Carl's Berg is by far a more aesthetic climb than the Carlsberg Column in Field, based on my own personal experience! Have all the gear and a car. Have Friday off too. Let's go!!!

Note that Brent's book also mentions several climbs in the vicinity of the "selected" one chosen. I got a pre-print copy while in Canmore and can say it has several years' worth of trips to Rockies. He climbed each one, so we found the info terse but spot on. There is way more to it though: there are GPS coordinates, there is the whole online counterpart to it, made to be easily scanned. Has the same high usability quality as a Supertopo guide.

Mazama is the closest town with actual climbers living there. Visit the climbing shop there to get started, around an hour drive from Omak. Next - Skaha in Canada straight north. In spring and on I suspect that's where you'll be all the time, similar setup to Gunks but different climbing. Winter cragging - depends what you want to train for. For Patagonia/Karakoram, get a snowmobile and http://www.supertopo.com/packs/washington-pass.html for starters Leavenworth too has a great(and advanced) all-around crowd, and plenty of climbing: rock, alpine, bouldering, ice. Under 2.5 hours drive from Omak. Regular rock climbers in winter go to Vantage - basalt columns, cracks and bolted face, Index - granite, cracks and face climbs, Trout Creek - basalt columns, Smith Rock when it is dry and sunny. Over 3 hours and up from Omak in that order. Twisp (under 1hr) has a great coffee shop - Blue Star Coffee, I will be there Jan 1-5, and might drive out to Mazama to look at the Goat Wall: in warm season has very nice climbs, including multi-pitch, now - waterfall ice. Welcome to Washington.

How fitting! In the past I climbed the left side, but the right side has more and the fattest ice now.

Drove by X38 today to take a look. I recall that within last few years we had a similar cold snap, and there was relatively fat ice. This time clearly all running water and wet spots are frozen, but all of that amounts to very little ice. X38 regular ice area has some climbable ice. No screws but I know it can be mix-ed, there are existing pitons, and spots for them, I placed some in the past myself. I am too lazy to go on Sat, but will likely go on Sun, that and Rap Wall. Lemme know if there is interest. Icicles and a frozen looking gully on the north side of I-90. Forgot camera - no pics. I suspect the Rap Wall will have some icing to make it more interesting. Same thing goes for the Baker Ski Area dry tool routes, Annihilator will likely have some ice on it, just as it was when it was set up. The interesting thing is how little moisture there is. Somehow I suspect Banks might not be in any good shape this season. I'd drive but have some matters to settle. Please go by and post pics!!!

Trip: Banff NP Nov 23- 30 - Date: 11/23/2013 Trip Report: Jacob, Ryan and I spent the Thanksgiving week in Banff NP. The choice was between Red Rocks and Banff, ice this time. The entire trip was conceived as a warm-up for the upcoming season, so there wasn't much pressure. Despite the fears the ice season is in full swing over there and there are more quality routes in than any non-pro can do in a week. We drove in on Saturday, babbled through crucial turns and ended up in Jasper, which allowed us to get some free Red Bull and take a look at the Slipstream, Curtain Call, Weeping Wall and Polar Circus. Curtain Call has top and bottom thick but they were not yet connected. Weeping Wall looked good, just thin on top of the lower wall, unclear about the top wall from the road at around 4PM. Polar Circus was not huge and fat and because one cannot see all of the pitches, we did not know if there was a continuous line. We somehow missed Murchison Falls. Arrived to the Night of Lies - http://nightoflies.com/ - at 7PM. Fun event to attend and make connections with locals. Steve Swenson was a presenter and gave us some ideas as to what’s in. Brent Peters helped out too. The new guidebook - http://www.peakstratagem.com/ - is super-awesome!!!!! Posting pics is a shear nightmare, why is it so hard in 21st century? So just very few... CAVEAT: any description is based on having 70m ropes, and we used them to the fullest, length that is, whenever possible. On Moonlight a party had to take a shower in a cave because they had 60-s and ran out of screws. Started at the Haffner Creek. Great warm-up for the days ahead. Next day went for K-country - Evan-Thomas Creek. We thought to have the entire place to ourselves, but ended up with up to 15 others, so could only do the Moonlight. Ghost. Ghost River valley is indeed enchanted. Has this remote feel, it was windy but not miserable, warm, beautiful, tall, healthy looking rock walls. There is a thick rock routes book just for the Ghost! We climbed Sunshine and Aquarius to enter the Recital Hall. That place is magic, just like from some movie. That stoked me for the rest of the season! How could I have thought of quitting?! Unfortunately both flows were completely unclimbable, too wet. Pics don't show. Rainbow Serpent Fearful Symmetry Recital Hall panoramic collage There were doubts about the weather, so we skipped Whiteman Falls and went to... Bourgeau Left, which was in no shape to climb due to exposure and the sunny day. So managed just the first 70m pitch. The pitch was great, the climb in general - a big let down: crappy views, ski resort noises and sights. Shrug. Bourgeau Right below, Bourgeau Left.Ryan on First pitch Jacon on second pitch. Third pitch was not safe, hanging snow. Field was next, both Pilsner Pillar and Carlsberg Column were is good shape, little pro but plastic, non-scary ice. I mean, chandelliered beyond protection, but not as bad as could be (see further). I did not want to climb Pilsner as the first route, so we did Carlsberg. Unfortunately, that's all we could do with 3 people. Pilsner and Carlsberg lines. Pilsner is a way better day - several long pitches. Pilsner Pillar Me on Carlsberg Column. This is pretty much a singe pitch affair, approach is a short 4 but a nice warmup, above is just a few WI3 steps. Last day was the best. Best climb, in a Ghost-like setting, Kitty Hawk was the only full on WI5 we climbed. A beautiful climb, in a beautiful setting, with a really trad feel to it, felt completely vertical if not more. Ice was one with that liquid metal look, but rather brittle, and unprotectably thin on the first pitch. Ryan led full 70m to the bolt, and only the last two screws would hold a fall, the rest were in detachable lenses, just pro for the head. The narrow canyon did not allow to show the steepness of the second pitch, and foreshortening was atrocious, so no good pics. The ice was so brittle, that when I started following Ryan and in order to give Jacob some space went slightly left, both my feet and tools ripped through. It kept happening on the second pitch as well every time I was not careful. It was somewhat chandelliered too, but there was good pro. Huge dinner plates if careless, something you just don't encounter often on our wetter west side. No mushrooms to step on. I had to talk myself through on the relentless, pumpy sections. Superb. Full value! Unicorn is fully formed this year with ice connecting all the way!!! hopefully it will be there in February. So that's it. If you want ice, Banff is the place. We stayed at the Rocky Mountain Ski Lodge, excellent value. Hostel Bear was another choice, but the whirlpool and sauna won Canmore is a visibly yuppie town, with good cafes, actually good Thai (and Indian) restaurant(s), gear shops, 3 large grocery stores. Anybody in for a week in February? Dreamlist: Recital Hall, Stanley Headwall, Terminator area, Weeping Wall. Gear Notes: Just before leaving I bought Seirus gloves for $70 - better than all brand names I have, or have tried. That's including Arcteryx. The "dry" pick for Nomic works on ice far better than the "ice" one for everything: stick, remove, overall feel. I was surprised, but will try side by side more. Use 70m ropes! Approach Notes: There was not much snow yet and we were totally fine in a 4Runner going to the Ghost. A Subaru Outback was there as well, don't know how it will change later in the season. Everything else would have been just fine with a regular front-wheel.

I am. Weekdays after 6:30PM. Have Fridays off. Weekends too in the inter-rain-um before ice. 425-208-2649.

good work KW! trivia: Miles Smart soloed Outer Space in either 23 or 18 minutes. When Guy Edwards & co. were soloing CNR Stuart my friend got lost and took 24 hours. He was particularly upset at "...these guys in running shoes passing us...". I... have been thinking of doing it for 12 years now