Gary_Yngve

The original poster and gang found the ice cliff route to be in good shape, though with the requisite rockfall that everyone seems to encounter.

The same applies for a topo. If the site hasn't been surveyed, then it's +/- 20 feet. Or more, if the terrain is irregular.

http://erg.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/factsheets/fs04000.html#accuracy

I'd bring an axe.

Climb: Mount Stuart-Stuart Glacier Couloir Date of Climb: 5/13/2006 Trip Report: Aaron Zabriskie and I hiked in early Saturday past Stuart Lake to check out the Stuart Glacier Couloir. It was quite the slog to the base of the couloir. We scooted around the bergschrund on the right. The couloir was in great shape, and the bottleneck even had a little ice. After the bottleneck, the couloir opened up again. I don't have any pictures from the west ridge due to lack of inspiration, crappy composition (belays often out of view of the action), and wanting to move fast. So here's the description: After topping out onto the west ridge, Aaron went a little down and around a small tower to the West Ridge Notch. This was just scrambling, but a little tricky due to thin snow and ice. Then I went up nice rock and turned to the north side, where I encountered soft snow mostly covering rock, making for tricky climbing. When the pitch steepened, I turned right back to the crest to belay. We topped out from the Stuart Glacier Couloir behind the triangular tower in the foreground. And it looks like there's a smudge on my lens. Eff. Aaron then led up pair of cracks (hand and fist) on a slab that took him to another belay on the crest. I then dropped a little down and crossed the south side until I found something I felt like climbing -- a short but steep step that I recognized when I was up there two years ago with Ania. But this time I had boots instead of rockshoes, and the top four feet of the crack were iced. After a lot of cursing and groveling and pulling off a tool, I cleared the bulge. Aaron took the final pitch to the summit, a finger crack on a slab with a fixed pin. Token summit shot toward the Enchantments: We were on top, but it was still a long way down. We frontpointed down sections of steep hard snow going from the summit to the false summit, as well as the top of the Sherpa Glacier Couloir. The hike out was especially grueling, due to a combination of my residual cough from the flu two weeks ago, the accursed break-a-leg hidden holes on the bootpath, and the general exhaustion / lack of food and water. We didn't have the energy to drive home that night, so we crashed at the Plains Rest Stop until first light. Thanks for a good trip, Aaron!

This article has more info: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002994739_climber15m.html

Nice! We must have walked right by and didn't see yall. Where were you on the face around 8 AM Saturday morning?

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=12&Z=10&X=748&Y=6766&W=3 Walk down the road to just before the first clearcut. Walk downhill on the past of least resistance (shouldn't be bad). Cross the creek where convenient. Go up the other side (there might be a little brush for the first 100 feet, but then it's just steep timber). Keep on going up by the past of least resistance and soon you'll break through into the alpine. Basically go down and up. I think it's better than traversing or heading too close to the head of the valley.

I have dinner plans tomorrow night, but in general, I'd be game for Index on Mon evenings or Thurs evenings. I can lead mid-5.10 at Index but am happy doing easier routes. Don't have a car.

That has always been that way. Only recently has it also become illegal to carry-on lighters and matches.

Good job, Erden!

So there simply aren't many trad climbers? Or the trad climbers are likely to be out skiing or alpine as well? It just seems that when you're at Index on a weekend (or even a sunny weekday late afternoon), it seems it's almost expected that there will be at least two parties on GNS and a party on Godzilla.

North Buttress Couloir or Northeast Buttress Couloir? Your description and photos tend to indicate the North Buttress Couloir. (I know several parties who thought they were on the North Buttress Coulior but really were on some shrter NW Couloir that spit them onto the West Face lower down.

I was at Smith last weekend under beautiful sunny skies. We never had to wait in line! Five-Gallon Buckets, no big deal, just show up at 7:30 AM. Walked by Cinnamon Slab mid-morning; no one on it. Didn't have to wait for Lion's Jaw, Karate Crack, Moonshine Dihedral, Phoenix, Spiderman, Screaming Yellow Zonkers... I thought it would have been super-crowded. What gives? We didn't check out the Marsupials or Gorge. It seemed the majority of clusters of people were beneath 5.8 bolted routes.

KK, maybe Everett does it differently. In Seattle, the anchors are taught as primary and backup. There might be some mention of girthhitching chockstones or slinging boulders, but there is most certainly very little mention of physics, angles, etc., in the Basic Course. And absolutely no mention of gear anchors or cordalettes. They'll know how to build rudimentary snow anchors but won't be too knowledgable on the modes of failure and types of snow. It sounds like this guy has solid glacier skills and probably wants to learn some about rock gear. If this is true, the basic course is a waste of his time and he should try to test out of it.

I feel old and weak and feeble. For the past three days I've had some sort of vicious flu thingie with temps spiking over 102 by late afternoon.

As I said before, no rock anchors. It doesn't take a genius to girth-hitch a tree. A basic student isn't going to have a clue what SRENE means.

Wow, that's a cool article!

The Mounties Basic Course doesn't teach anything about rock anchors.

They're spending their time rotting their brains when they could be discussing world news with their parents, doing their HW, etc. And attention spans have gone to hell in the past ten years.

They went from 6.7% to 2.4%. What the heck? That makes them worthless, as short-term CDs are higher than that. I thought they were a good way for the middle class to invest ($30k limit per year) and a good way to pass money to your inheritors without tax. And a good way to keep debt out of China's hands. Sounds like someone screwed up big-time.

For those watching their fat intake, I've been able to cut the butter/lard/shortening/oil in the dough down to 1/4 cup per cup of flour and still get decent results.

I find it interesting that the epicurious recipe uses ice water for the dough. To me, it seems like yet another old wives' tale (along with a touch of vinegar). I've tried all combos for crusts and haven't gotten any substantially different results. I do get better performance when I use a rolling pin.

If any of you see me cautious on 5.4 in boots because I'm so used to rockshoes, or using two tools and front-pointing up terrain you're casually cruising with one axe and French technique, you're welcome to give me a gentle ribbing.

Folks have been aware of the geographic illiteracy for at least fifteen years and have worked hard to fight it (especially the NGS), but it doesn't seem to have gotten any better (and may actually be worse). Any ideas why, aside from the ubiquity of cell phones, MTV, and pop culture?