Farrgo

The approach does suck, but I don't feel like the NF should be considered a hard 2-day climb as the Nelson guide calls it. When I did it we bivied below the face for a few hours and still did it under 24 hours. Word to the wise, no matter how appealing it is just to straight-line-it to the ski area, follow the way you came in.

We left the car at 6 am, but didn't move very quick on the approach. NOLSe and his partner had left the parking lot a few minutes before us and we figured that we would rather have them a couple pitches ahead of us then a few feet, just because of icefall. If your gonna do it, I would suggest getting on the route no later then 7am. I was amazed at how many point releases were coming down. I think once you get out of the couloir and up above that snowfield, you should be quite a bit safer, but down lower, you are in the shooting gallery. The route is in fabulous condition though. It so fat that I think the difficulty is far less then the guide suggests. Nothing harder then WI3, albeit with some crummy ice. Have fun, stay safe.

I wear a 10us street shoe and I wear 44 in scarpa boots

I know that if you are soloing an aid pitch you need to set a bomber anchor for upward pull, due to the nature of system. However, if you are short fixing an aid pitch with a partner do you need to construct a bomb-proof, multi-point anchor for both upward and downward pull? It seems that if you construct a bomber anchor for downward pull with one oppositional pice, then by your partner by jugging up on the line below you, they would provide a "dynamic" belay. So, if you were to rip while short fixing, your partner would take a lot of the impact off of the anchor. I'm sure it is safer to have an anchor (or two) set up to take any imaginable force, but is it good enough to have one mainly set up for downward pull and rely on your partner's body weight to make it dynamic?

I know that if you are soloing an aid pitch you need to set a bomber anchor for upward pull, due to the nature of system. However, if you are short fixing an aid pitch with a partner do you need to construct a bomb-proof, multi-point anchor for both upward and downward pull? It seems that if you construct a bomber anchor for downward pull with one oppositional pice, then by your partner by jugging up on the line below you, would provide a "dynamic" belay. So, if you were to rip while short fixing, your partner would take a lot of the impact off of the anchor. I'm sure it is safer to have an anchor (or two) set up to take any imaginable force, but is it good enough to have one mainly set up for downward pull and rely on your partner's body weight to make it dynamic?

If y'all are lucky, you just might find the man himself hitting up some fine bellingham establishments (read: the royal) after the show.

Timmy O'Neill is doing a slideshow at WWU Fraser Hall 4 on March 2 at 7:30. Tickets are $5.

Five Wild Country Tech Friends. Used two seasons, never fallen on. In good condition. .5 (red) 1.5 (silver) 2 (red), 2.5 (gold) 3 (purlple) Asking $150 for the lot. Also, 2 Omega Pacific Ice Screws (17cm). Used two seasons, never fallen on (of course). One has speed knob, other has fallen off. Both are still sharp and are in good condition. $20 each

Mike Libecki is doing a free slideshow and movie presentation, this Thursday, Feb. 17 at 7:30 in Fraser Hall 2 at Western Washington University . It's on Franz Josef Land, Russia and Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. There's a big gear raffle after the show, gear hounds!

I think we have been having a good freeze/thaw cycle, but how will the lack of snow affect things? anyone have an opinion or information?

ya, went up saturday with a group.... long story short, after five hours of hiking, we eventually SAW the glacier, no ice to be had that day... but there was a bunch of new freshies.

I just went up there this morning. The road WAS snow free in the early morning and I drove all the way to the trail, then it started to dump. The trail has a dusting of snow in the trees and four+ inches in the open, closer to the glacier. The seracs are open, just a little filled in. When I headed back to B'ham at 9h30, there was about four inches of new snow at the trail head, and it kept snowing all the way until you meet up with the stream (glacier creek?).

frosty, having done the route, I don't think I would even finish the last two pitches, if I did it again. It seems that all the fun was in the first two aid pitches, and the rest was just there. something to think about.

We'll I haven't got much choice about going or not, at least i'm getting paid. I think I might run up there friday morning just to make sure. I will post a tr and probably pics as well.

I have to take some people out on Saturday to do some ice climbing and I was thinking that possibly the only ice within an easy day trip of Bellingham would be the seracs on the coleman glacier. Does anyone know if these things are opened up? I'd assume they are because of the lack of snow, but does anyone know for sure?

when i did it last spring, i linked the last two pitches easily. i would think that if you linked the first two, you might run into a lot of rope drag?

town crier is really pretty easy. especially if you bail before the crux after the hanging belay. theres a tensions traverse/pendulum that is pretty fun. you really only need a couple sets of nuts and some cams for that climb.

me and a buddy of mine are talking about possibibly doing either of these trips this summer. does anyone have any suggestions as to which is a better area? i've been researching the cirque a bit and seems that its actually pretty crowded and dirty which are two things we definately want to avoid, or else we'd plan an expedition to rocky butte. does anyone know how crowded these areas are?

Long's books are the authority on anchor building. i also like the self-rescue book by Fasula?? and middendorf and long's big walls book. both are falcon press.

fern, we ended same place as you. i took a look at the last curtain short curtain visible from the top of the wi4 pitch, the ice was super brittle and we had run out of daylight. so we called it a day. i didn't realize that the ice went further than that, you guys saw some above that?

Ya, me and my buddy Tim went up to do JLT rightous the day after you guys. too bad we hadn't gone a couple days earlier or we probably would have gotten the FA. the ice on the leftist was definately more appealing than to the right. just out of curiosity, did anyone ever go check out JLT rightous? As it appeared from below, i don't think it touched down??

Brad Johnson's book is definately the one to have. That is all I used when I was there last summer and actually, I ended up giving the photocopy of the route description from Johnson's book, to some guys who got lost using the one by that english guy, sherman or something.

atomicboy, if you don't find anybody... it is really easy to hook up with partners in Huarez. My partner got hurt in quebrada ishinca and two days after i got back i found a partner and had a couple other potentials lined up. just put notes around town.

thanks for input, i had heard there was a high pressure system moving in and i wanted to take advantage. the stuff around hope has been good for a while and more cold means its only gonna get fatter! thanks.

Wondering if anyone has seen the north side of Big Four? Wondering if any of the routes are in condition?