telemarker

Wow! Nicely done! Stuart to Sherpa is easy. Sherpa to Argonaut isn't. But someone with your drive I bet you could suffer through.

It's been cold on the east side all spring. Very little freeze/thaw happening. Not surprising there's no ice yet.

I climbed this once and was entirely uninspired compared to all the other offerings nearby. I wouldn't climb it again. But oh well. It's there, and an alternate way to access the second/third pitch of Midway etc. if Midway and/or South Crack are bottlenecked. But then again if that's the case, you can always climb Rainshadow. Again, I don't want to be critical of those people out there expanding our Leavenworth climbing options on their own time and money. I'm just not sure it was necessary to forge a line up in that exact spot. Lord knows I've spent a lot of time at Castle, and to me this route just seems sandwiched and out of place. Just my stupid opinion.

I love discussions like this. Maybe I'm missing it but It seems that everyone is assuming death as a result of high risk acceptance. Of course that isn't always the case, and in fact in the majority of accidents, injury due to high risk is the more likely result. The more important question is whether you can live with the results of your decisions if you don't die but instead have lifelong debilitating injury? Quinn Brett I don't know Quinn, but she seems like an amazing athlete and even more amazing person. But she took big risks and it went wrong. In my own personal risk assessment when climbing and skiing I worry more about not dieing than dieing.

Dull Pickles? Maybe I should take a day off and give it go.

How does this route compare to N. Face of Summit Chief?

"Agreed that climbing is far from the most important thing in the world....." really?! I didn't get that memo.

The DNR land near Klamath Falls is great for a Midway bivi. But that's assuming you go down Hiway 97, which I like so much more than I-5. That's good info about Shasta.

Can you just downclimb the ridge?

I was up there last week and it was bad. Parties were using wands for the approach to the Beckey route. Bring a PLB and an O2 canister. You may be able to get by with an N95 facemask.

Ivan nailed it. I do this approach about once a year, and each year the trail gets easier and easier to follow. This year I found it as easy as ever to follow. More Cairns are popping up, and the trail is more trodden. My rule is if at any point you lose the trail, head towards the creek.

It's interesting how some of the routes on upper Castle get upgraded bolts and others don't. Like P2 of Canary, or the bolt on Old Grey Mare, or the bolt just over the roof on Satanic Verses. But on the south face of jello tower still has an ancient bolt. I'm also curious about the two different bolts on the start of Rainbow Connection. The right one is only about 3 years old. The right bolt start is fun climbing if somewhat easier than the left start.

The new route is verye reminiscent of the lower castle mixed gear/bolted routes like PG Advised and Smut. In fact, it's about as hard as Smut and about the same length.

I wrote this on the Sherpa thread: friend and I climbed Full N. Ridge yesterday approaching from the North and descending the Sherpa. The glacier is in excellent condition still. A super easy end run around the bergschrund-skier's right- is still possible. No rappel shenanigans needed! Gorgeous day in perfect weather with no one around! Also, almost all the snow on the ridge is melted, though there are patches lingering g that can be easily avoided. The same patches are very convenient for refilling your water, however. There was one patch on the upper ridge just past the notch that you have to post hole through, but it's minimal and should be gone in a couple days.

A friend and I climbed Full N. Ridge yesterday approaching from the North and descending the Sherpa. The glacier is in excellent condition still. A super easy end run around the bergschrund-skier's right- is still possible. No rappel shenanigans needed! Gorgeous day in perfect weather with no one around!