telemarker

Is it considered aid climbing with 5 points of contact with the rock?

Anyone out there who hasn't put away his/her skis yet? How 'bout a ski up Adams. I have my descent route picked out. You don't have to follow me, but it would be cool if someone could tag along, get a good run in in the sunshine. I'll be approaching through 97, through Toppenish. If you have a machine, all the better!!! And, does anyone know how far the hike in would be to Coldsprings around this time of year? I can be PM'd or reached at: 509-699-9810 Thanks! John

Anyone out there who hasn't put away his/her skis yet? How 'bout a ski up Adams. I have my descent route picked out. You don't have to follow me, but it would be cool if someone could tag along, get a good run in in the sunshine. I'll be approaching through 97, through Toppenish. If you have a machine, all the better!!! And, does anyone know how far the hike in would be to Coldsprings around this time of year? I can be PM'd or reached at: 509-699-9810 Thanks! John

Anyone wanna get in some pitches on Castle Rock or somewhere right after work tomorrow, Wednesday, 4/8? PM or call: 509-699-9810. Stays light until around 8pm, so should be able to get in around 3 hours, and then there's the post climb Enchantment Ale. That's good stuff!

In talking to Gordon a couple years ago about this route, he likened it to kitty litter...hmmm...

Damn. That is too bad. Condolances to his family. He's leaving quite the legacy and I loved the fact he never took himself too seriously despite his huge success in the industry.

With the exception of about 200 yards 1/2 mile from the gate, 8 Mile Rd. is completely snow covered still.

Thanks for the feedback!

Anyone have any experience with this liteweight tent? I used it for a weekend this winter, and found the ventilation lacking, even with the tent door most of the way open. My sleeping bag was pretty much damp each morning, and the inside walls pretty damp as well. Aside from lack of air, I love the fact it's only 2+ lbs and super easy to set up. Anyone else have an opinion about this one? Thanks!

Rat Creek?

Mmmmm! You mean Homefires Cherry pie, right?

Well, Mtguide was right: The boiling water treatment on the wax was very effective. And, it didn't take too much of the glue with it. I only needed to apply adhesive to a few spots. Other than that, thanks for the suggestion. It worked great. BTW, ironically I used one of those ear-wax removal, plastic bulbous deals that has a long, narrow snout. Made for more precise distribution of the boiling water.

Wax is stuck on the adhesive...

Wax is stuck on the skin. Best way to get that crap off so my skins work again?? Any ideas you care to pass along?

Pack it in, pack it out....

So how'd it go for you guys?

Wow. Nice photos.

Personally, I love skinning over urine in the middle of a skin track.

Yes, gorgeous day is an understatement. Hard to choose which was better: Warm sunshine, or calm night with the full moon. Kyle's didn't kveth too much about his back, probably due to his lingering head cold.

Thanks Craig. And nice job on the PE!

Trip: Enchantments, The Flagpole FWA 2-7-2009 - The Flagpole Date: 2/8/2009 Trip Report: Saturday Kyle Flick and I climbed the Flagpole in amazing weather: Warm sun in the day, full moon at night that was our headlamp all the way back to Icicle Road. We started around 4:30am on skis at Bridge Creek Campground. The dirt patch near the start of the road is slowly getting bigger, but the road is still skiable from the trailhead down to that point. We skinned up to the Colchuck Lake turnoff and stashed the skis, since we knew the trail up to the lake is icy and totally not worth the skin nor the ski down. As it turned out, no where in the Enchantements is worth skiing at this point. Maybe in March? We had perfect cramponing up Asgaard, and across the upper plateau. No postholing whatsoever. We climbed Flagpole last Sprng, so we had the approach dialed in. We approached via the dry gully just West of Little Annapurna. By the time we reached the base of the climbing, 10 hours had elapsed. We knew when we started climbing at 2pm we would be deproaching in the dark, but with these perfect conditions we weren't in any hurry. Kyle led the first mixed pitch, easy terrain with a snow/ice ramp to a bush belay. On the second pitch, I threw on my rockshoes, and Ade's lucky legwarmers. The climbing was on warm rock free of any snow or ice, which brought us to the base of the Flagpole's bolt ladder. I clipped through the ladder, using my rivet hangers on the old bolts which don't accept carabiners of any size. The finishing 5.8 offwidth move takes a #5 (new size) camalot, followed by some easy but very exposed moves on the arete. Kyle lowered me off and clip cleaned the ladder. By the time he touched down, it was dusk. Having two ropes for the two raps is very useful. We slogged back out the gully and popped out onto the upper Enchantments in bright moonlight. We would not use the headlamps again until we got into the trees. I've skied the trail from the trail cutoff three times so far this season, and not once have I done it without the skins still on. It's total survival "skiing". We chatted with a couple poor souls walking the road, who had climbed the Colchuck's NBC, which looked okay by the way. There does appear to be a couple rock steps with no ice in it. However, they had no problems surmounting those. By 1:30am 21 hours after starting out, we staggered back to the car, vowing to never slog that road again until the f$@%er is melted out! Contrived mixed hike up Asgaard Pass. This can be easily avoided. The upper Enchantments. Looking South towards Mt. Rainier, Ingalls Creek. Descent down gully. The Flagpole and Pennant Peak On the approach. Kyle on the first mixed pitch. Me starting the second pitch, replete with Ade's lucky legwarmers. Starting the bold ladder. On top. Looking down from the top of the Flagpole. Kyle Flick photo. Looking East from the top of the Flagpole. Kyle Flick photo. Stuart in the sunset. Kyle Flick photo. Thanks to Ade Miller who let us use some critical gear, not least of which were the '80s era legwarmers, which have quite a bit of magic left in them.

We climbed it three years ago. We found the river crossing easy since we went in late September, right at a handy pullout on the river side of the road. The gully leading up to the base is easy boulder hopping and was free of brush. True, the hardest pitch is the last on vertical looseness. The rest of the route was fairly unremarkable. We just lead 55 to 60 meters each pitch, and therefore was only around 6 pitches for us. We didn't find any belay bolts anywhere on route. We just created anchors when the rope ran out. The shitty part of this climb was the rap back down the face, which seemed to take twice as long as the actual climbing, with one 60m rope. Lots for the rope to get caught up on. Not sure I would recommend double ropes for that reason! In my opinion, it's one of those routes you only need to do once because it's there....

That is the Recurve Dihedral. About five pitches, 5.8. Mostly mid 5th.

Legwarmers are Ade.

Kyle Flick and I did that variation a few years ago too. You're right, the corner was very much choked with snow and ice this time around!