sayjay

Thinking of taking a relative newbie up Baker in ~2 weeks from now. Wondering what the conditions are like, especially on the Roman headwall. Also, how is the surface on the summit? Icy? Total slush after the sun's been out a bit? With this year's odd weather I'm not sure what to expect... Thanks!

Hey guys! Thanks for the welcome It's been awhile, I know. I've been distracted by other things... But hoping to get out climbing a bit more this summer than last... Glad to see the old cc.com is still alive and kicking and up to the usual

Looking for the folks (two parties of two) that were on the W. Ridge of Forbidden with us yesterday. I took a pic of the woman in the 2nd party as she was heading towards the summit. Will send it to you if you pop me an email~ Great climb! For folks that are interested, the couloir is still in good shape but won't be for long. There's one 'shrund that is in the process of collapsing. Maybe another 1-2 weeks left before it opens up enough to be difficult to climb past. Also for folks looking to go there but who haven't been to Boston Basin before, the trailhead is at 22.2 mi if you use the mile markers they have on the road. Guidebooks say 21.7mi. And Beckey refers to the trailhead as an old "road spur". At this point it's so overgrown it's hardly recognizable as a trailhead, but the pullout is obvious. Finally, I noticed a lot of old posts about doing this route in a day car-to-car. We did this, but it took us from 6am to 11pm. It would have been longer had we not been willing to free-solo perhaps half the route and all of the snow field/couloir. Also it's definitely a long descent if you don't know exactly where you are going. However, I didn't find it to be problematic -- just slow. Two ropes is a huge benefit for the descent! We were able to stick to the ridge crest and get a good part of the way down in two long rappels (55m double ropes). Scrambled the rest. Also got from just below the ridge to just above the base of the couloir in 2 rappels. The downclimbing in the snow-covered part of the couloir was actually very solid. Great route! Talk about scenic~ ~S

Hey Doc, If you're going to climb Darrington much, you might want to get the guidebook! Actually it's not quite a book -- it's all on CD. Very complete and great topos. Email dwhite5522@aol.com to purchase. Or, I think you can buy it at Pro Mtn Sports. Great area!

Indian Creek ROCKS! Didn't do a lot there, but what we did do was stellar as well as having gorgeous views. And there are multiple walls with different exposures so you can move with the shade if it is too hot. Recommend Chocolate Corner (5.9+), Binou's Crack (rated 5.8, but feels harder!) and THE INCREDIBLE HAND CRACK (10c). I left a lotta blood on this one despite taping, but a a certain member of this board who usually frequents Darrington cranked up it... The feet on this climb are SLICK from so much traffic... HAVE FUN!

Thanks for the pic Josh! Should be helpful~ Now all I need is good weather on a weekend... Sarah

Anyone have an update on the conditions on Whitehorse? Thinking about climbing it this coming weekend via Snow Gulch/glacier route, if weather and snow conditions are right. Josh: Would love the pic you mentioned of the trail up Snow Gulch! It sure would be nice to avoid the 'shwack on the lower reaches...

This pic was taken from right next to the kimono museum... Not by me! Lots more snow in this pic than when I was there~

I climbed Fuji in March 2001, though not all the way from the Sengen shrine. Did visit the shrine after the climb though -- cool place, and I thought at the time it'd be really great to do the full mountain from there. It'd be long, though, and I have no idea how well-travelled the trail is on the lowest parts of the mountain. I went with a friend, and we had a car so I can't help you with transport questions... But a few other bits that might help: First, the locals will think you are nuts for climbing it in the off-season (winter). They'll warn you of certain death and try to dissuade you, but of course you can disregard all that. We were also told you had to get a permit from the local police to climb it in the off season, and with the very efficient and friendly help of the guy who ran the B&B where we stayed we got that easily. Basically just answer a lot of questions to see if you are prepared. However, there isn't anyone up there to see if you have a permit, so I'd say blow this part off... When we did it we only saw one other person and they were low down on the mountain. There was no snow at the Sengen shrine, and little once you got much below the 5th station (I think it was the 5th anyhow... the one where the road ends!). The snow pack on the mountain was very stiff, and crampons and ice axe were absolutely necessary, as kick-stepping was not an option and an unarrested fall would take you literally thousands of feet. Actually a guy had dies the week before via a fall on the upper slope that took him 3,000' to his death. Presumably no axe~ The conditions when we were there weren't at all conducive to skiing, and I'd imagine that's often the case as the upper slopes get pretty wind-scoured. You'll be amazed a the amount of stuff on top of the mountain, and glad you are not climbing it in the summer! Don't miss visiting the really cool museum on the north side of the lake to the north of the mountain. Can't remember the name of it, but it's full of these amazing kimonos this guy made, and they are decorated with scenes of Fuji in different seasons. I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but really it'll blow you away! The guy is super famous locally so I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding it. Be sure to post a TR when you get back!

If the above is of interest, you might also want to know about the following (also free, but they ask that you "register" for it...mostly so they have a head count I think): "Why do forecasts go wrong?: An inside look at Northwest weather forecasting" Professor Cliff Mass, Dept. of Atmospheric Science, Univ. of Washington Wednesday, Nov. 19, 7:30pm Kane Hall, Room 120 Univ. of Washington Seattle campus Please register at: http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~jjc/pop_lect1/

hell, I'm impressed!

been too busy learning how to go down to do much going up lately...

just back from a trip to the valley, and have time to go to squish for three days. how damn depressed can you be, girl??? post a tr! the masses wanna know...

did an unplanned bivy recently and so only had my climbing shoes with me. too cold for bare feet so i was stuck in my shoes, semi-hanging, with my feet pointing downhill all night. would've paid good $$ for a pair of really thick socks. don't weigh much, and are a relief for your feet. even if i had more comfortable shoes w/ me I'd have opted for the thick socks. keep you warm but breathe so your feet can dry out. may seem like a luxury but i'd bring em! (...and the gloves, too) did have a space blanket with me and it worked quite well, but it IS a one-hit wonder. if it's windy it'll get shredded. mine did. have fun! s.

I'm off next week for two weeks of paragliding lessons out of Cashmere and need a place to set up my tent. Anyone have advice on a good spot? On the school's web site they mention the following: Wenatchee Confluence State Park Lincoln Rock State Park Wenatchee River County Park ...but I'm worried these'll all be RV/yahoo heaven... (of course there's always the camping in the icicle in Lworth, but if I can be closer to Cashmere it'd be good cause we start early in the a.m.) thanks!

Twisp

to clarify, my reasoning for going both to the memorial service and to the mountains is not to satisfy what others think you should do, but because i think you would find both of value. and even if the memorial service wasn't helpful, you'd only be delaying going into the mountains for a day...

Ryland, Really sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. I lost a few people in a relatively short time period a few years ago and in retrospect I wish I had taken more time after each loss. So my answer to you is this: go to the memorial service on the weekend, and take off a couple of days from work and hit the mountains then. The loss of a good friend is certainly reason enough to take time off work, if that's at all an option. for your buddy:

right, right of course. actually i looked at this one so i should have known... "if you bring pins...you will bang pins"

Being one of the four guess I'll fess up... Yes, I started w/ an old boyfriend -- but it wasn't his idea to climb together, it was mine! We met whitewater kayaking. I'd had an interest in trying climbing but was spending all my time on the river so I didn't persue it. When I found out he climbed I twisted his arm about a half a centimeter and got him to take me. Hooked from the start! We spent the rest of the summer in a fantasyland of paddling, climbing, and mountain biking... Then I broke it off. Kept climbing, though. Quicly started building my own rack and got myself leading. A couple of boyfriends later... I fell for a guy who didn't climb, so I got him into it. (This redeems me from having my earlier boyfriend get me into it, right? )

Homage route = ?

Sorry, should have mentioned that: Gmoser route. To the left of the Kain route... I'd definitely do the Gmoser rather than Kain. The dihedral pitch is a blast!

...subtitle: "next time I'll have a powerbar for breakfast and get my ass on the climb early!" Was lucky enough to be sent up to Banff for a week-long meeting end of June. A couple of collegues at the meeting are also climbers so we decided to take advantage of the situation and hit a peak. These guys are way old-school -- one of 'em started climbing in the mid 1950's. Super uber-cool. The plan was originally to do Athabasca, but it was cold and precipitating (lots 'o new snow) the whole week of the meeting, so instead we decided on Mt. Louis, a scant 6km outside of Banff. Read Sean Dougherty's description, as well as a writeup in a really old guide book. Sounded like a nice day trip --- 1.5 hr approach, then mostly mid-5th plus a few sections of 5.6-5.8. Hard to tell from the book how long the climb was, so I went to a climbing store in town for more beta...but all I found was a sporto climber who made it clear within about 30 seconds that he had "no problem with bolts in the wilderness, no siree, bolts are aokay with me, there're there I'll clip em, yup, no problem here with bolts!" doh. Made a point of letting me know he'd spent time with Royal Robbins, but hadn't ever been up Louis, which is supposed to be one of the classic alpine climbs in the area, and only a stone's throw from his front door. ? Anyhow, let's just say there wasn't much useful information to be found there... I'll start off by saying that we made the mistake of taking the casualness of the guidebook's language a bit too to heart... The vote was to grab breakfast at the hotel, then head out, which meant a 7:30 departure, which became about an 8:30 takeoff from the trailhead after sorting gear and various other farting about... Discovered on the hike in that one of my partners has a fake knee from an accident in the 1960s when he speared himself with an iceaxe, so the approach was a bit slower than anticipated. But way cool anyhow, hearing lots of stories about climbing way back when men were men and they just tied hemp around their waists and climbed, and stuff. Got to the base of the climb and found a party of two ahead of us. Somehow they kept *looking* like they were about to head up, but took awhile getting around to it, so we didn't even get on the bloody thing until 11:00. Which had me a bit worried, but not terribly. After all, we could see that it was about 3-4 pitches up the 5.7-5.8 dihedral described in the book, and from the approach that looked to be about half way up the mtn. And we knew there was nothing over 5.6 after that. No problem! Had about 5 great pitches of climbing, including the way-cool dihedral... ...then realized we'd gone too far up a gulley and had to get left. Turns out the description and the picture in the guide book don't quite jive with one another. The other party was confused too...Heard the woman banging in pins (!) and yelling down to her partner "Where am I supposed to GO???". His very helpful response: "Hey, just find your own adventure, man!" (nice! just what you wanna hear when you're all sketched out on lead!). Still not sure where we were supposed to go, but I think the description is more accurate than the line on Dougherty's picture. After traversing left.... ...we realized it was getting to be evening and we had one fuck of a long way to go. (I'd forgotten how *slow* climbing can be with three people -- oops!). Had the option at this point of bailing down an ugly descent route, or heading up and having to reach the summit before descending. Decided on the latter, as we had 2 space blankets, we knew the forecast was good and we were just having too much flipping fun to go down. So up a bunch more pitches, thinking we might at least make the summit before dark, but no. Ended up wrapping into a gulley at about 10:30, setting gear in the dark, and hunkering down for 7 hrs til the sky was light enough to climb at 5:30. It was definitely shivery, and we made the grim discovery that my buddies had left their liter of water at the base of the climb, so all we had was what was left in my Camelback (<1/2 liter at that point), but the sky was gorgeous and it wasn't all bad to watch the stars spin across the sky. Reached the summit plateau in one more long pitch and saw the "5.6" summit block pitch (which we renamed "5.6 MY ASS", perhaps due to lack of sleep, food and water...). Funky pitch, as you spend most of it to the right of the prominent crack to the right of the chimney. Lemme just say at this point that limestone is wierd freakin shit. I fully expected to be jamming my way up this thing, but instead was doing funky face moves with okay-but-not-great pro. All in all, a fantastic trip, just about 6 more pitches than we'd expected! We figure it took at least 15 full+ rope length pitches (we simul'd after the leader ran outta rope and still didn't have a good anchor probably for 5 of those pitches). Our view of the mountain from the west side after descending made it obvious that the top of the 5.8 pitch was only about 1/4 of the way up, not 1/2 way up as it looks like from the approach. Descent is not so difficult if you read the guidebook carefully. 6 full rope length rappels, followed by ~45min of descent down talus. Final bit of beta: If you can, bring 60m ropes! Double 50m ropes are a-okay for the rappel, but we kept finding good anchor points to be ~10m out of reach on the ascent. Great views from this peak! Here's to my two partners, Will and John, for a great trip. Hope I'm climbing as well as them in 20 years!

Wing lake is just starting to get some open leads, but definitely not melted out yet. Larch Lake also still has a significant amount of ice. Yeah, I noticed all the larch trees and thought it would be cool to see in Fall. I'll definitely be heading back into the area at some point!

The hubba and I did this same climb this past weekend. Great trip! Not nearly as much loose rock as Nelson and Potterfield Select II lead me to expect. Otherwise their description was right on. Highly recommend it as a good first alpine ridge climb, though if its your first you might not want to solo the whole thing. Nothing over ~5.4 and mostly very low 5th, stunning views, great exposure, and easy route-finding. Descent was even pleasant, and because its the ascent route for the S Ridge its heavily travelled and easy to find. Amazed only to find two other parties up there on a sunny long weekend... Still almost all snow from Heather Pass to Wing Lake and up to the NE Ridge. Definitely doable in a day, especially if you'll be comfortable unroped on most or all of the climb (we were passed by a guy who was practically running up it in mtneering boots ) but the basin around Wing Lake is so gorgeous I'd recommend spending the night there... Go do it!