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Kyle and I went back to Stuart this past weekend, climbing the CNR and Sherpa with a bivi. Here's our conclusions on approaching Mt. Stuart from the north (stuart lake TH): **the Mountaineers creek trail is in great shape, with windfall affecting only a small portion of it; **the north side approach to the base of the north ridge was an hour faster for us than the Ingalls approach, with much less elevation gain/loss; **we climbed Sherpa's W. Ridge, then stayed pretty much on the ridge crest all the way to Sherpa/Argonaut Col. There was one section on the ridge east of Sherpa where we climbed around on the north side briefly, but it was pretty obvious where to go; **the most we dropped south of the crest was 200' or so, near the very end close to S/A col. **the former faint trail at the bottom of Sherpa/Argonaut col is obliterated with downfall. We found it was best to stay skier's left of the creek and slide alder. But still rough going with all the downfall. **The Mtnrs creek trail is very easy to find once you reach the junction of the two creeks. Reverse your approach from here back to the main trail. The trail is well cairned the close you get to the Stuart Lake super hiway. Is the north side approach better than the Ingalls? That's up for debate. If the deproach weren't so involved, it definitely would be (assuming late season and the sherpa glacier is out). If you want to include a summit of Sherpa and tons of 4th and mid 5th climbing along a scenic but dry ridge crest, then it beats the Crapcadian hands down. Unless your last name is Hirst or Martin plan on a bivi somewhere along the crest. There are some fine spots!

Thanks. We came upon that crevasse one at a time and had the same reaction: "Wow. That's kinda deep for the east side." I'm not entirely sure what the story is with those crampons. Ryan, I haven't known you to be grumpy and stubborn, so right there that disqualifies you from "old guy" status.

Trip: Mt. Stuart - Girth Pillar via the Lower N. Ridge Date: 7/29/2012 Trip Report: All too often I find myself appraising the worthiness of a climb based on its individual pitches. The headwall crack on Outer space, the off width crack on Backbone, the amazing granite top-out splitter on the Burgner/Stanley Route on Prusik, to name just a select few. I get so focused on the specific details of climbs, the approach and descent go by without my even noticing sometimes. Every now and then, a climb comes along and shakes me out of that inertia. Such was the Girth Pillar route on Stuart. From the approach to the descent, it demands every bit of your attention. Sure, you look at the guidebook and see "best route in the Cascades" status due to the fine rock and cracks of the pillar itself. But those jewels have a significant price for admission, one that you keep paying long after you've made the final jam on that amazing pillar. Kyle Flick, Chris Martin and I decided to launch an old guy assault on the Girth Sunday. Kyle headed up early on Saturday, while Chris and I took a few laps on Castle Rock with my friend Tom. The approach was characterized by unusually clear blue skies with no signs of thunderstorms. Here's my favorite view. You know the one, not too far after the junction, that puts a smile on your face. Chris and I connected with Kyle at Mountaineers Basin, and prepared to do battle with the mosquitos, I mean, the Girth. For this assault, we decided to use the less suicidal approach by taking the 3rd class ramp Kevin Newell and Eric Wehrly used in 2007 to access the upper Ice Cliff Glacier, located about 6 pitches up the lower north ridge. I had a really good idea of where that ramp was, and my suspicion proved to be correct. No pesky downclimbing, and the terminus of the ramp allows you to merely step on the snow with no moat hopping trickery. Chris led the way up the glacier. Kyle headed out with the approach ramp behind him. I had never been on the Ice Cliff other than winter, and was more than a little surprised at the depth of some of the crevasses. In addition to the pillar being guarded by a constant calving icefall, but too it is surrounded by a mountain of loose blocks. Climbing up to the start is slow and careful for us, until voila! you find yourself below the first pitch. Again, we're surprised at just how vertical and sustained the climbing is. This stuff is hard on old people. Chris leading out on the fun but tricky first pitch, made harder by seepage in crucial spots. With brute force he gets to the tiny ledge. I'm relieved to be able to climb pitch one on top rope. And in case you're wondering, yes, the crampons are still hanging there. I draw the second pitch, supposedly the crux. Maybe it was partially due to the involved approach and mentally taxing loose blocks, but all three pitches felt cruxy to us. More than once I find myself looking wistfully over to the upper North Ridge, bathed in sunshine, wishing I was over there climbing easily towards the top. The finger crux is thankfully short, allowing me to ungracefully french free a couple moves. The rest is fun but sustained finger locks and hand jams. Kyle finishing the last few locks. I get voted to lead the third pitch. This one is THE pitch to draw, though you can't go wrong with all three! This is steep hands forever. Perfect hands. Outer Space on steroids. I had two #2 camalots, but wished I had four of them. The top-out on this pitch is terrifying, but I'll let you find out why when you climb it. We top out the pillar with edgy relief, knowing that we're way behind schedule, with an indeterminate amount of mid-5th class climbing to do to get off this north side. And oh yeah, there's that minor detail of descending the Sherpa Glacier, most likely in the dark since it's already 7pm. The stress and shell-shock was written on our faces. We finally breach the ridge to the south side and get that expansive view we've been deprived of all day. The light and surroundings lets us relax, but only for a little bit. Mt. Stuart's shadow pointing the way back home to Cashmere. And the final shot before we descend to our descent path down Sherpa. Checkout the billy goat snowpatch. We can't shake these things, even up on Stuart! Downclimbing in aluminum crampons and guide tennies is not something I would recommend as a killer fun outing. Even less so over a gaping crevasse at the bottom should you make a simple mistake, like slip or something. We're able to finagle a way across the schrund around the extreme climber's right side, using a double rope rappel. I'm sure that will get complicated real soon once the collapsed debris falls in completely. Chris forges the way through this, and the rest of the descent is a snow slog with the occasional scree plunge back down to the bivi boulders. It's 12:30am by the time we reach camp, brew up dinner, and collapse in the sacks. Would I do this climb again? Absolutely! If it were right off the side of the road. But then, it wouldn't be even remotely similar, and realistically, we did not climb it in the style of the original party. Our take-away, however is that Girth Pillar is THE total alpine package that taxed our resolve, and has been sweetly savored in retrospect.

Very cool. The alpine O/W fix. I love the brand new LS Miura porn shot!

Thanks Rad.

I really, truly wanted these guys to be good, but unfortunately, I had the same experience, re: rounded toes on my normally pointed Miura's. Unusable. Money could have gone towards a new pair.

Thanks Dina!

I kind of like the Cascadian descent because I can turn the mind off and the ipod up for a quick deproach. Another option is hike/climb over Sherpa to the Sherpa/Argonaut Col, then out Mountaineers creek. Yet another option is the nw buttress to Goat Pass. Yet another is downclimb the West Ridge. I think they're all pretty involved compared to the Cascadian.

Well I can tell you that even after two years they were delicious. And if it's not too much trouble, maybe you could include some fresh shrimp with that lime too?

Thanks. Actually, the log crossing at the snow creek wall turn off is at my upper tolerance for sketch.

We saw this on the way back down, unfortunately. Nice find Rolf and fun route, at least the pitches we managed to do before the rain.

Trip: Icicle Canyon: Hook/Rat Creek - Blockhouse West Face Date: 7/14/2012 Trip Report: It's been three years since I've ventured into Hook Creek. And curiously I hold little nostalgia for the drainage. At least the lower part which now has a bed of blown-down, white snags whose bleached branches collapse with a crisp snap that sends you to the ground, the sharp tip gouging your shin on the way by. Chris Martin is able to bull his way through the buckbrush and snags with the momentum of a charging grizzly. It's easy now because we have fresh legs. Blockhouse has been an objective of mine for a few years. The Blockhouse is the crag on the right. From upper Icicle Rd., the West Face stands out as a steep white shield amongst the other craggy faces of black lichen. On 6/28/2009 Dan Cappellini, Kevin Newell and Rolf Larson climbed a route on the W. Face that looked interesting, so Chris and I decided to investigate a little further. There was little information about the approach, so we chose a gully and decided to go for it. We headed up a chossy and dangerously loose gully between the Shrew and Blockhouse. It started out mellow enough, but then quickly transitioned into steeper and even looser nastiness that required a rope and a delicate and tedious lead to the top out at a snag. We lost some time here, but the disappointment was tempered by the feeling of not having been injured or maimed. We descended a west facing gully with a combination of tedious downclimbing and an odd rap or two. Once out in the open, we followed a goat trail around the bottom of Monkey's Head over to the gully that divides Blockhouse and MH. After the beat-down approach, being below the west face was refreshing. The intended route is easy to find, as there is an "obvious corner" and huge off-width chimney not too far up the route. We racked up and Chris set off on the first pitch, which proved to be steep with good pro. However, don't be fooled into a false sense of security, as holds are still loose and must pass the "knock-knock" test before grabbing it. Chris set up his belay just below a small roof. The next pitch saw me pulling through on gritty rock and flared crack. There are jugs to bail you out, but with our previous theme of loose rock, I never fully trusted anything, and hanging on to place pro was exhausting, when I slipped and hung for a bit. The rock improved a bit up higher where I belayed at the base of the incredible chimney. Chris set off up this outstanding feature. The chimney generously offers the climber a perfect hand flake to aid in upward movement, and the pro is excellent to the left. 2/3 of the way up, move to right side in for a few grunt moves more to a comfy ledge at the top. Outstanding lead for Chris! Chris climbing towards the light. At this point, the alpine ambiance was being interrupted by low bass rumblings of thunder. A quick look over to Cannon Mtn. confirmed the bad news. A quick meeting of the feeble minds created the decision that we would gun for the top. I took off on a fun lead on ever-improving rock, and of course a steeper offwidth crack where the camalot #5 came in handy. I pulled up at a solid tree and belayed Chris up, the thunder getting closer and the situation deteriorating. Chris racked up quickly and started off. 10 feet off the belay, gentle drips of rain transitioned to a downpour. He down climbed back to the tree and we readied the rappel where a double rope rap took us back to the overhung and dry chimney. We hung out there until it mellowed but remained saturated. We set up an anchor of a few stoppers at the chimney and lowered back to the starting point and a lone goat to dry out. Not wanting to schwack down Rat Creek from this point, we decided to ascend the gully that divides the north face of Monkey's head and Blockhouse. Most likely trivial in dry conditions, the now saturated lichen covering the rock kept us on edge, forcing us to rope up near the top to surmount a couple chockstones. At the col between the formations, we double rope rapped to the mid-point of the gully we had originally ascended. By now it was 8pm, and we wanted to make it back to the Yellowjacket Tower trail by dark to avoid the stupid bushwack through the worst of it in lower Hook. But we weren't in such a hurry that we didn't stop to enjoy the three Tecate's that we found on the way up! They had been there a while, as the labels had been bleached white. But oh did they taste good! Next time, please include a lime whoever you are. We shotgunned the beer, declared them "Sabrosisimas" and beat it down, reaching YJT by dark as intended.

Is this poison ivy or poison oak or just harmless? Found on the castle rock trail, tumwater canyon:

Fantastic, Dan! And congrats to AJ for the the first descent. So, are you climbing yet? Give me a call!

Nice one! That big yellow gash up high on the crag has always looked impressive!

Bummer! Consider that your official Yakima welcome. Our car was broken into last year while climbing at the Bend, right under our noses.

You should have come over! Easy to say in hindsight. AFT would clean up nicely with just a bit of scrubbing for the next party to climb it in a year or so.

Trip: Leavenworth - Outer Space, April Fools Tower, Pearly Gates Date: 6/19/2012 Trip Report: I work for WA State, and as such get regular salary freezes and cuts. As consolation, we are given "mandatory" vacation days. Yesterday was one of those days, so what the hell, may as well go climbing. My friend Dean Olin joined me for this fun outing, shooting photos with his fancy camera. We warmed up on Outer Space, taking the more direct RPM roof start. At 5.10b, and mostly 5.9 fun crack climbing, it's a high-quality alternative to the Remorse or standard OS start. The roof has fun moves and is nicely exposed. We caught a couple parties higher up, but everyone was chill and having a great time, and the waiting was not too bad. Outer Space never gets old no matter how many times I do it. The day threatened rain a few times, but never materialized until late in the day. The temps were perfect for climbing. We scampered back down, and over to April Fools Tower to climb Tarkus. AFT sits at the far north end of Snow Creek Wall. From Outer Space, AFT stands out as a sharp pinnacle calling out to be climbed. I've climbed this before, and done it in three pitches. The first is a gardening fest with good cracks for pro. It goes at about 5.dirt (5.8). Belay at the huge pine after about 40m. From there, climb up to a roof and go left up and around to a layback, smearing on abundant lichen. At least it protects well. To reduce rope drag, belay at a nice ledge just past the roof at an old, rusted out smc bolt. This pitch, with the lichen, felt 5.9ish. The third pitch is a steep hand crack with chicken heads and a flaring crack. Abundant lichen on this headwall to the top of AFT. There are a couple ancient bolts on top of this tiny summit, but there was no way in hell we were going to trust them. Instead, rap off the nearly detached horn that is seemingly being held up by ancient webbing, installed around the 1920's. We slung the horn with a couple slings and leaver biners, held our breath, and weighted the horn. Good look at the flake: With Dean's 70m rope, we made it all the way to the ground on the backside (west) of AFT. We schwacked down to Pearly Gates, and fired off Leap of Faith before being drenched by a squall. Great day out, and Tarkus would be a great climb with a little cleaning and a new anchor on top of the summit.

Well, since you onsight 5.8, I guess it would feel 5.10 I think mentally it is hard to commit to that step-out, making the rest of the traverse feel harder than it actually is.

Anyone around to get a lap or 2 on snow creek wall? I have a rack and rope so that's not a problem. John

You know it's late Spring when the discussion starts on CC.Com about the merits of climbing the O/W on Backbone with or without the green monster. Ok, continue...

It's useless tryng to explain what he's doing, since the essence of it can never be explained. The most justice one can serve him is that he's merely puting on his rock boots and chalk bag for a long day of climbing.

From that ubiquitous current conditions photo archive, NW Hikers: Stuart and Such

They sure the hell aren't employed, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

"Kyle stepping over the roof," is the way we've always done it. From that crap anchor, clip the bolt and friction left to a nice, shallow dihedral you can't see from the belay. Climb this flake/corner to near its end to the roof where the dihedral ends and merges with the rest of the shield. The crux of that pitch is the friction climbing left. Please rebolt that belay!