telemarker

Awesome touring recap! I even recognize a few of the areas. You've been busy this winter!

I was up there last saturday. The gate is still closed, and the road is melted out to the 1.75 mile mark approximately. There is continuous snow after that.

Corner Pockets has a generous section of finger locks in a corner to excellent thin hands to wide hands crack; Commeterme has a good 40' of thin hands to perfect hands; Stems 'n Seeds has 30' of off fingers, to perfect hands to wide hands; Bob's Your Uncle has 15 feet of finger locks to thin hands; Steel Grill has sections of perfect hands to long reaches to wide hands; George 'n Martha has excellent sections of thin hands to perfect hands to wide hands; Bob Dylan has excellent thin hands through most of it, to perfect hands to a few moves of wide hands; many more are available. It's funny how people rag on Vantage, yet have no qualms beseiging it from March to the end of April. Last Spring was a zoo there. Sorry for the drift...

Still pretty saturated around Leavenworth. Check back around mid-June, or even early July!

Serious? I actually see quite a few people out there using ATC's or some version therein, myself included. I get freaked when belayers are lured into a false sense of infallibility, reading their kindles, texting, finishing the last bit of their PBR's while belaying with a cinch or gri gri. It's the pilot, not the device, that determines safety.

The Shuksan legacy grows...Nice one Dan!

Freaky incident HOR. What brand webbing, if you care to divulge?

Are you sure this didn't happen to you online, but over time you've just convinced yourself it really happened? Nope, it really happened... Yeah, but did you finish the lead? And, ummm..., wow. Incredible story.

Are you sure this didn't happen to you online, but over time you've just convinced yourself it really happened? seriously, it's good to hear HOR is okay, especially no head/neck trauma.

Wow! What a great effort! I did that sketchy traverse from Spider Gap to Phelps Ridge in early Spring and remember having to double time it under giant sagging cornices.

Bone spurs and pre-arthritic symptoms?

I climbed at Upper Castle last Sunday and it was fine. The trail is a snow hike though. Careno usually dries out quickly, so I would suspect it's climbable as well.

So very true! Lockers on draws is overkill and extremely annoying to the second!

I've met the victim and he's a helluva nice guy, and passionate about what he does, both in climbing and professionally. If you're reading this, I wish you a speedy recovery.

Well put about Rat Creek. And that right hand pillar looks so cool on the approach, but standing underneath it looking up, that's a different matter. That would be a ballsy lead.

I hit the car by 3:20pm. Did you end up skinning back out?

Thanks Jake! Nice work out there. Thanks for the lively discussions on the way up.

Man, today would have been THE day to do that. The snow felt very stable, abundant, allowing for fun turns where you could find them.

Trip: Even More Rat Creek Ice Date: 3/17/2012 Trip Report: Why not another trip up Rat Creek? Why ski some wide open, 40 degree bowl on this wonderful new powder when you can descend non-continuous slopes of interspersed slide alder and dense trees whose twigs threaten to take out your eyes? You would if you knew you could get a fun pitch of climbing in along the way. But after today, I'm still not convinced I would forgoe the 40 degree open powder bowl. Kyle Flick, Jake EVans and I trekked up Rat Creek, today to tackle a pitch of ice. This would be Kyle's third consecutive trip up there, my second in three weeks, and Jake's first. Yes. That's right. 3,000 vf to access one (1) pitch of ice. I'm not good enough to even guess at ice grades, so I'll let the photos tell the story. This time differed from our previous trip up Rat Creek two weeks ago. On that trip, Kyle and I spotted a cool looking patch of ice on an overhanging rock, 1 1/2 mile skin up the drainage. It had snowed more than we would have guessed. All told, there was about a foot and a half of fine powder goodness down Rat Creek. Here's a shot looking back at Icicle Ridge. First look at the ice. We climbed the center pillar, traversing in from the left since the ice below didn't connect with the ground. The ice on the right is a huge, free hanging pillar due the rock's overhanging face. Unfortunately, this pillar did not touch down fully to the ground, and was dripping water the whole day. Here is a three photo autostitch. We chose to start on the ice on the left, and traverse to the steeper ice on the right. I found a two inch layer of brittle ice covering the good, solid ice. Jake got a few photos of my lead, which is always a pleasant surprise. Nearing the top. The rap down was free-hanging and quite the fun experience. One last look back at the ice, with the Blockhouse way above. And this time, the skiing was actually very fun for quite a ways down. I only had to take my skis off once to boot by the Rat Creek Dome. Okay, I'm done with Rat Creek. I can't speak for Jake and Kyle though. But I think I can be convinced in a couple weeks to get some skiing in around Coney Lake!

You, my friend, have obviously never been to Mansfield!

Nice James! Good to see you're finding time to get out to swing the tools! John

Thanks Dan! Not the most aesthetic skin track ever...It was a, "do whatever it takes to finish this endless ascent" kind of track.

I thought you were in Canada! Well, maybe we can plan a schwack up Hook Creek soon?

Man, it will have to be a pretty significant dumping of snow for it to be enjoyable, especially on the lower past. From about the 4,500' level and higher, the snow coverage is much better, though very sun crusted. Are you going to Coney Lake or Cannon?

Thanks Jens!