ivan

did this yesterday in conditions utterly unworthy of the name...solid cloud from horseshoe rock up...required copious amounts of head-scratching...the elliot icefall looked so small after hanging out on the kahiltna...the north face looks much more bare now compared to last fall...continous rockfall...all in all, not a bad way to waste a wendsday words fail...wake at 3 a.m. , begin drinking heavily at 6 p.m, post at 10 = reduced to mental state of the average fece...time to eat pizza

dust is the most annoying shit up there right now...came home looking like i could make my rap come-back

so i'm a fucking moron (obviously)...how the hell do i a) post images directly into the message or b) link to the images (i put them in the cc.com photo gallery)? or c) put more than 1 attachment in?

so i'm sure everyone's seen a gazillion denali pix, so i've cut the bunch i have down to 3, as they capture the upper part of the mountain pretty well. 1. west butt ridge...taken around 16,5k. most aesthetic part of the trip probably, looking down the long ridge, above the clouds. wanted to climb thunder ridge, which would have brought us up at the beginning of the ridge for a long traverse over to the fixed ropes. 2. north summit. taken on our south summit day, it looks back at the black spire north of denali pass, as well as the north summit. 3 days later we tried to go up to the north summit. we reached the top of the rock bands on the black spire before my partner began thinking he was coming down w/ hape. before that bullshit happened, this was my favorite day of the trip, as climbing through the steep ice and rock bands finally felt like real climbing after all that slogging. the thumbprint ont he photo gives you that "real" feeling... 3. south summit. taken from our high point on the north summit day, you can see the huge bowl that is the upper mountain, w/ the large, flat harper glacier at the bottom. across the way is the south summit, with the archdeacon's tower just out of view on the right. the route goes up to the right, out of view too.

after taking a day to cache technical gear at the base of the ridge, plot out a good route (don't think the actual thunder ridge route was in, but it's hard to tell w/ a huge fucking face like the west butt direct, going off a cartoon drawing...we saw a sweet way up regardless) and generally get psyched for doing the route, we decided it would be most enjoyable to do the technical climb after having been up to the north and south summits and getting monster acclimated. regretably, my partner was so beat after a week at 17 that his enthusiasm for the climb was non-existent, especially w/ a 3 day storm predicted. my feeble attempts to persuade him failed, and i hoped to get him to do mt. frances back at the airstrip, so i shut up about it. i ended up getting the shaft on both routes. the climb looks fantastic though, as you can basically pick any line you want up the face and probably claim the first ascent. careful caching your stuff down low though...we heard afterwards avys frequently bury the entire trail below the face, which might piss you off if you're wands end up under 5 feet of snow.

now i'm back in portland, i'm feeling bad spoiled...these mountains have no snow (rainier=50 square miles of snow, denali= 5000) guess i'm gonna have to find some way to readjust post-babylon reintro stress at maximum excellent trip...17k wasn't so bad at all, once i got used to the idea that EVERY time i stood up i'd feel like toppling over...the second trip up to denali pass was much easier than the first...i'd have loved to stay another few more days up there and explore all those couliors on the black spire north of the pass (anybody climbed any of them?) but my partner was beyond weary ("dude, what can i say to you to convince you to go down?") and bad weather was definetly on the move (the 3 days of intense rain&snow at a ghost-town base camp we experienced was enough to cause bad flooding in talkeetna, they said the winds were back over 100 mph again (and once was enough for that)...luckily i meet strangers and stayed stoned the entire time...made the 9000 ft avalanches roaring off mt. hunter, just a few hundred yards away it seems, all the more yummy) there's 2 guys all alone on the mountain now...didn't appear to have much of a clue what they were getting into...bizarre team dynamic...nps and tat washed their hands of him, telling him to call the army if they lose hope, and dumped them off as they were picking us up...they plan on walking out...the flight out, all i saw was 2 mile wide crevasse after 3 mile wide one, guming up the lower glacier...the upper glacier had so many mammoth cracks that required crossing i became massivilly religious for several hours. i'm sure they'll have fun. 6 days slumming it after returning to talkeetna....random spontaneos smoke-outs in the downtown park...planes landing 10 feet over the roof of the bar...bizarre hairy hippies masquerading as famous climbers (saw a bunch, and passed out next to one in an opiatic stupor in the aforementioned park) you could spend just about forever in that state...commandeered a u-haul van and toured the chugachs...climbed ice on the matanuska glacier, about 100 yards from the parking lot, shoulder to shoulder w/ fat tourists...tourist nightmare but the local "guides" are children of the corn and goddamn hilarious (smoked out refuge for 19.95$ a day in the midst of a driving rain)...walked up into the hills north of girdwood and got insanely drunk before passing out in a pile of dogs in the parking lot of the bar) can't recommend the experience enough...go yourself...don't go w/ the guides, but smoke w/ them as often as possible (scored 25 lbs of snickers bars at 17K as a result)...take a partner who doesn't break easily (or one you can beat too easily in chess...think it's good fate lead me away from bowe, think i'd squeezed that sponge just about dry) take tons of herb...i sat in a tent for endless hours, doing nothing but staring at squares, eating like a horse, drinking like a fish, and constantly laughing my ass off at it all...think i saw more than a few folks who went home greatly diminished though...the 2 guide groups running away w/ faces like pancakes after the night of the Big Wind was fantastic saw several igloos at 14k...the one w/ the all decked out inside blocks was sweetest (each block had artwork etched in, w/ an "exit" sign by the door) saw a snowboarder living in it early on i think now time to do some real climbing, eh?

jesus, what a place! might just have to move again...just back from spending 26 days on denali, 7 days at 17k with trips up to the north and south summits...incredible storms and massive avalanches...endless supply of interesting international human folk...now off for ice climbs off the road!

did this one car to car w/ highlander last summer...we suffered several time drags due to a) getting totally clusterfucked in the avy wrecked section of the trail, resorting to climbing trees trunks strait up hill, then having to traverse a long way once we hit timberline b) me using 1950s tech strap on crampons, requiring 10 minutes everytime to take on/off and c) only 1 tikka headlamp once night fell think we spent something like 16 hours doing the roundtrip, but woulda been much less if we'd avoided the 3 items above given the options, i think i recommend the c to c...no big pack to piss you off in the avy section, plus it gives you the delightful exhaustion feeling at the end of the day agree w/ the folks above, the rock section on the ridge is beyond easy...downclimbing the rock ramp (coulior was shut down by the schrund) was the only dicey feeling part excellent climb

5000 more vertical feet of continous rmi wands? shit, they might have to deforest the bamboo forests of thailand to do the trick...

downclimb the kautz....as has been said here a number of times, if you're really unsure of being able to downclimb it, you probably shouldn't go up it...at any rate, it'll have immense bootsteps already kicked in and the exposure to objective bullshit from the cliff is so short, especially if you take the sneaky way, that if you do get killed doing it, it's a sign god hates you anyway and you probably better die 'fore he thinks some truly fucked up shit for you if not, why then be a tool of god yerself and trundle some rmi folks on your way down the cleaver

fuck'n pagans...submit to the everloving mercy of christ or roast in eternal hellfire! would love to be there but i'll be on denali instead pub club on the kahiltna?

i bet 5$ you look at jo-burg from the cascade pass parking area and: a) shit yerself and/or b) blow off everything to climb it

so whaz up skiing foolz? how was yer traverse?

ditto on the shape of the finger...4 days ago it was looking in excellent condition...sadly, you'll have to be a real mountaineer and break your own trail over to & up it...no big bootholes for you! looked pretty sweet, the wilson headwall even better

to all camasites & fat climbs (that's at least 2 good ones for you lately, no?)

on the way down from the chute, homeward bound, descend to the level of the bottom tongue of the icefall, then cut strait across the debris path to the far wall (to the east, towards muir) the far wall is safe from ice/rock fall from the ice cliff, but itself could have rock fall from above (there's a real nice cave area though, big enough for two people, and a source of shade in the hot afternoon with a wild view of nature gone mad just a few feet away) this area you cut strait across is at the same level where you'd turn the corner if you were climbing the route, had run down the debris path, and were then turning back up hill once you've crossed to the eastern wall and are largely out of danger, stick tight to the wall and go downhill about 50-100 feet...i assume this area might form a moat in later season, as the rappel line that's fixed was locked into the snow and was protecting what was a pretty easy climb...the rock portion is a little awkward in crampons, but still simple...it takes you out onto a snowfield that connects over to camp hazard we didn't see anything come crashing down from the cliff, but there's no shortage of evidence to the contrary in the blast zone...this way is definitely the fastest to cross danger area (i still think our variation on the way up was more enjoyable though)

ya, bowe was in that dangerous fart zone too...think he's gonna have to throw them undies away

if you think all people living in america should have to speak the language that was spoken by the people who were here first, then why don't you learn fucking sioux?

shit happens don't think i ever met a real mountaineer...i've resigned meself instead to be a jackass mountaineer...gonna print up my own t-shirt and everything if you read the t.r. you'd notice the summit didn't count anyway, as we never made it (another symptom of the jackass avenger)

spent 3 days on rainier, getting back last night 2 days fending off serious mountie hordes while my friend bowe and i practiced crevase shite w/ a big heavy sled in prep for alaska...moral of story: don't fall in a fucking crevasse w/ a sled...camped on the nisqually both nights, quite tranquil...highlight of this time was the mountie teacher screaming at student: "this is important...you need to be a lot more serious." whatdaya think you're doing this for, fun or something? we took so much time practicing in the slots and not being serious we didn't move our camp up to hazard as we'd planned on sunday...instead we decided to do an alpine style climb and just do the whole fucking thing from 6000 feet...left at 1:30 a.m. shortly thereafter bowe came down w/ a chronic case of what we, in the south, refer to as "the trots" there aren't enough blue bags in this world to clean up all the mess bowe continued to deposit from there to 13k. enjoyed the approach to hazard at night as it's a welcome change from the muir snowfield...a marine layer of clouds formed at 6k and lasted the entire day reached the ice cliff and rather than run down the disaster zone to go around the corner, we cut strait across and climbed up an ice block, about 60 degrees, which cut a lot of time and sketchiness...motored up the chute on the left side of the cliff, with much help from huge incut footsteps...by the time we hit 12k the sun was out in full force...every step become more annoying and aggravating...by the time we hit the rocks at 13k we were pretty played out...altitude effects sucked...my head felt like it was about to spin off my shoulders...we were walking as fast as old people fuck...when we realized it had taken us 15 minutes to climb 100 feet above the rocks, and that the slush level of the snow had rendered crampons useless, we had to admit it was time to go down...bowe left one more present for the mountain god, and we descended...rather than reverse the ice block portion of the kautz icecliff we went down to the bottom, then i noticed a real short rock step that looked promising (we weren't exactly gonna be able to fly up the crash zone, and it was hot, hot)...turned out there was rappel rope already in place at said rock step, and we crawled up the break to rest in the sun (bowe crawled into the tiniest shadow on the mountain and contemplated vomiting) rest of the descent back to the nisqually sucked...very deep soft snow....lots of glisading, but my pants are so hammered they fill with snow after each slide...took a 2 hour nap at a stream at 9500, bowe with his head under the waterfall...made it back to camp 15 hours after leaving, packed the sled up then hauled it up the moraines...the final insult came at home when we discovered the liter bottle of olive oil we'd brought along had exploded in the sled pack, totally saturating the tent. nice mountain...just a tad bigger to hood...running up it one night is a little more challenging

i did a good bit of trundling this morning...also had a near panic attack after a boulder shifted, trapping my foot for a minute before i could find a way to lever it out (and i didn't even have a sharp knife to hack it off, utah-style)...did you ever go back and finish off yoakoms, or are you waiting to prove it can be done in fall?

did look at those, but climb max didnt have the extender...this was the one that came 2nd closest to working...since i'm leaving in a few days anyway, i've pretty much given up on it

thanks for the input...i've found another pair of overboots that don't have this problem, not nearly as burly though as i'm doing an ice route on denali, i needed pretty strong points, so the wimpy 'pons weren't an option (the only kind that vaguely fit)

didn't feel so badass whimpering in fear while retreating down those crumbly ass cracks...in retrospect it was good times, but probably not what my mama needs to know about...i think that, when i finally get a chance to sleep, i'm gonna have bad dreams about the quality of the rock...i had this epiphany while descending; realized if i kicked hard enough my crampons actually bit into the grey rock...the only dependable feeling techinque was stemming....yarding on even huge blocks brought sphincter-quaking shifts can't wait to finish the damn thing...takers? we can do it during the daytime....