Stephen_Ramsey

Excellent TR. Next time I get sketched out on a climb, I'm going to ask myself, "What would Lars do?"

Greg, FWIW, you were smart to stay out of the couloir. On Sunday, a climber traversing the steep snow slopes above the couloir dislodged some snow that grew in size and sent a fair bit of debris down the couloir. It missed us, as we were just exiting the couloir. I'm sure glad we weren't further down the couloir at that moment. After that kind of experience, it is true that the memory remains. -Steve

If there is a cold snap while you are in town, and depending on what kind of terrain you like to solo, Pinnacle Peak could be a nice spring climb. It is class 3 by the south face, and class 4-5 by the north ridge. It think there is also a route from the Castle-Pinnacle col (class 4 maybe?). There are tons of summits in Mount Rainier National Park. Check out Beckey's Cascade Alpine Guide. Some of the more notable Tatoosh peaks are: Unicorn Peak, The Castle, Lane Peak, Pinnacle Peak. Also Mount Wow and Mount Tumtum are in the area, and are reputed to have lots of mountain goats.

Hi Catbird, I'm pretty much of a newbie, so I'm not sure what folks consider a standard rock rack. But here is what we carried: 5 pins (1 KB, 2 bugaboos, 1 LA-sized, 1 baby angle) 2 SLCDs (#3, #3.5 friend) 5 tri-cams (#0.5 - #2.5) 3 hexes (#4, #6, #8) 6 nuts (small sizes) We also carried some ice screws, which were totally useless, and some pickets which were marginally useful.

Hi Rock-Ice, We ended up using: pins: 2 bugaboos, #3 knifeblade, Ushba wedge piton tri-cams: #0.5, #2, #2.5 passive: #8 hex, #3 nut cams: #3 friend If we had had some small cams (1.0-1.5 cm range) that would have been great, also.

Awesome trip report.

Mattp, Yes, it was fun. Our TR is posted on the web page linked from my CC.com user profile. Cheers, Steve

Catbird, Yes, we topped out at 3:30 PM. Cheers, Steve

Hi Catbird, JGowans and Matthew, Was that you guys, who we talked to at the trailhead? We were the pair heading up to climb Pinnacle Peak's north ridge. Cheers, Steve

Another question... In the movie, were Yates and Simpson climbing on double ropes, or twins? In the first few climbing scenes, it looked like they were on twin ropes. But later on, it looked like they were on doubles (they were alternating clipping the two ropes). Maybe my vision is just poor...

This is a good idea. From experience, I'm pretty sure you could get Feathered Friends to do this, too.

FWIW, here is what I use, for the PNW-- alpine: BD shrikes, straight shaft, BD lockdown leashes waterfall: BD rages, BD android leashes But you could probably just as easily use a high-end tool (e.g., Cobra, Aztar, etc) for both alpine and waterfall ice climbing.

Sky, That picture (and the climb) are just awesome.

Holy crap, that's a lot of buried scouts.

My nomination for worst newbie ice climb: I was taken to Ames Falls (Colorado, WI4-5) on my first day of ice climbing. You lower into a deep canyon, from which the only way out is to climb up the falls. The falls are 100' high and rather steep. There was rushing water off to the left, which is exactly where you would pendulum (and be stuck in a gap between the canyon wall and the ice) if you fell. Communication with the belayer top-side was impossible. After flailing for an hour, I ended up with a broken front tooth and hypothermia, and was eventually hauled up on a Z-pulley. It was a while before I went ice climbing again.

I dunno, but I believe an engine did fall off of a DC-10 taking off from O'Hare Airport a few decades ago. http://www.super70s.com/Super70s/Tech/Aviation/Disasters/79-05-25(Chicago).asp

But wire gates DO have flutter issues...just greatly reduced compared to normal biners. I'm waiting for the invention of the massless gate biners. But from particle physics, we know that neutrinos *are* massless! (OK, this is a lame joke).

This is totally expected and not surprising, and doesn't (to my eyes) mean that Screamers are not useful. The screamer will dissipate a calculable, well-defined amount of energy out of the system (basically the activation force times the length of the screamer). It is the kinetic energy of the falling climber that is (indirectly) being dissipated as the screamer rips. From mechanics, we know that kinetic energy is related to the square of the velocity of the falling climber (KE = (1/2) m v^2). So after the screamer fully rips, you are not falling as fast as you would otherwise. This means that the subsequent impact on the protection is going to be less severe than it would in the absence of the screamer. Simply put, it is as if you free-fell for less distance than you really did. How much less? Well, it is a distance roughly equal to the energy dissipated by the screamer, divided by your weight in newtons. The relevant quantity to study is the MAXIMUM tension in the rope achieved during the fall subsequent to the screamer ripping, not the tension in the rope at the moment the last stitch rips on the screamer. These are two totally different things, because in the worst case, the climber has nonzero kinetic energy and continues to fall after the screamer has fully ripped. So the rope plus harness continue to stretch, and the forces in the system continue to increase until the climber has almost decelerated to zero velocity, at which point the forces will rapidly decrease. It is this maximum force that matters. And from Yates' literature, it appears to be the case that this maximum force is indeed smaller if you used a screamer to dissipate energy from the falling climber. Not trying to convince you that screamers are great or anything, just trying to clarify what might be a potential flaw in the interpretation of this study's results. Cheers, Steve Ramsey

Sweet pics.

Hi SmilingWhiteKnuckles, It was OK, had some mixed moves and such. I don't have much of a basis for comparsion, but we found it to be challenging. Cheers, Steve

Thanks Dru. I'll give it a try.

I accidentally punched a 1cm hole in the shell of my Scarpa Alpha boot. Does anyone know of a good way to repair it? I asked Black Diamond, and they said that because the shell is made of "Pebax", nothing sticks to it for very long or very well. Anyone out there know of a good sealant or epoxy for patching a hole in Pebax? Many thanks, Steve

Hello Smiling! Here was the approximate route that we took:

To whoever kicked those nice steps all the way up Chair's NE buttress-- thanks.

Regarding Maude's NF: In good conditions in early summer, NF Maude (if it is approached via the 7FJ/Maude Col) is a 1200' 50+ degree climb on neve. When we climbed it in mid June 2003, we protected it with pickets and some rock pro. If you approach it from further down and climb the entire NF from the Entiat glacier, you might have to deal with a schrund crossing. Beware of icefall from parties higher up on the route. Entiat Icefall is more interesting, and also longer.