rock-ice

You mentioned you were fighting through quite a few drifts, was it bad enough you would have brought snowshoes for just that portion?

The mrnp site says that other than the 410 closure all the other roads are fine. I have a hard time believing that the Carbon river road is still in one peice. Any info? Also shouldn't mowich be closing soon? Thanks, this is good stuff.

Nah, i just love reading his trip reports. I do live in fw tho.

Eric's basecamp rocks!

Bolts. Typically you'd climb easier routes on trad, right? Maybe your subconcsiously over compensationg for the fact that your not just clipping, and climbing down too many grades.

Good times. How much longer is the weather normally good?

I use the big 4 liter dromolite bag. If i don't want or need that much i just leave part empty. As far as leakage just make sure you've got everything screwed on tight(duh) and that the bag is in a position in your pack so that it doesn't shift alot. The tape can't hurt tho. over all big

I don't know alot, but from a description a friend gave me the couloir leading up to the ridge sounds pretty melted out and a pain to get up. They had a hard time with following the trail as well.

I second the recomendations for ives and others on that same ridgeline. If you wanted to you could just jump on and off the pct from snowgrass and Ives or Gilbert and bag as many as five peaks (Curtis Gilbert, Ives, Old Snowy, Hawkeye point, johnson). I think its a safe bet that there won't be much snow left. Have fun, its a great area.

Wow, Nice job. That is one henious trip. Insane, but fun...

helicopter. haha. Oh man I take back what I said after closer inspetion with a real map I realise that that is definitely not shorter. And the climb up to spade lake from wapatus is definitely not fun. Sorry about that, hope I didn't mislead anyone. I was looking at a cheap internet topo.

Spade lake, unless somethings changed. How were the bug when you went? Two days is definitely the way to go. Last year we tried it in one and nearly collapsed.

I heard it was 27 as well. 24... maybe next year. But for now I'll work on 48.

I do a lot of scrambling and steep snow and ice (not much class 5 rock). This last weekend I was on colonial and snowfield peaks. I do alot of stuff like that. That happened to be where my pack strap broke too. Luckily I was only two miles from the trailhead on the way out.

I've had the same pack since I started climbing about five years ago. It was an "pine forest" that my uncle grabed for me when he was in korea for about $20. It has done allright, I guess. But in the last year its been ripping and generally falling apart. Over time i've repaired it but now that one of the shoulder straps has ripped off, its just dead. So, with no previous experience shopping for a climbing pack I was hoping for some good advice on what to look for and any brands I should avoid or pay extra for. Note: I need something to accomidate a couple days gear.

Amen. I agree one-hundred percent. Its a waste of time to drag all of your gear all that way when there are bomber sites, with great views, and now probably running water, a bit lower.

Beckey makes it sound pretty straight forward and the approach appears shorter than the east side routes. Much more fun than the 5 or so mile approach to Peggy's pond. Let me know when you get back if it wasn't too bad. Enjoy and bring deet.

Seems to me that vantage has quite a few good ones. Stems and seeds stand out (kinda tough for learning) and Martha something or other. Check it out. Good luck.

I know its not climbing, but for the past six or seven months I've been working up to and planning a speed hike around the wonderland. At first I thought about 24 hrs but realized that might be too ambitious for my first time around all at one time. And besides this way its easier to drag someone else along. Anyways I was looking for any lightweight water (filtration) and food tidbits. Has anyone else done this trip or others like it. Any advice would be great. thanks.

I also heard about this. Quite a few S&R suv's were plowing up the road saturday morning. They said something about it being an injured skier who had called on his cell phone and was going to try and make his way down by himself. My guess is he wasn't on the south spur because with all the people around going down "alone" is impossible and all they need do for help is yell. Hope they were alright.

There was only small patches of snow at cold springs this week and i suspect there even gone now. I don't think you even hit snow on the trail until 1 or 1 1/2 miles out. As mentioned above the snow gets real soft real fast because of the hot days and fairly warm nights. Try and get up the slope early in the day. When I was up there this last weekend there were a ton of skiers there for the southwest chute none of them said anything bad about the descent.

Let me know if they are still up for grabs. -------------------------------------------

I actually heard rumored that the record was faster than that. Does anyone know for sure???

I think your story has already been stolen and put under copyright. If I could only remeber by who... Lets see... all I can remember is horrible graphics and explosions. Must be vertical limit 2.

I was scrambling in above the White River basin last Saturday so I had a good veiw of the upper mountain and was surprised to see fresh snow from 10k up. But I guess its that time of year already. And with the rain we've had since then I wouldn't be surprised to see a bit more. The route, as you might know from your D.C. climb, joins the cleaver route at 13,700.