iain
-
Posts
11395 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by iain
-
-
Trip: North Sister - Early Morning Couloir and others
Date: 6/26/2010
Trip Report:
With spring finally here I hiked in to North Sister to do some skiing. I hadn't been climbing on the east side of North Sister for years so it was time again. It brought back a lot of old memories of me getting acquainted with climbing.
The impressive size 4 avalanche from awhile ago is still very much there.
The first objective was Early Morning Couloir, the central gully.
Looking down on the destruction from the avalanche from the start of Early Morning Couloir. The amount of material moved in this one is remarkable. Some of the best camp spots are buried under a mini Khumbu icefall.
Conditions in the couloir are decent, though there is significant runnels at this point. There is always rockfall in here no matter what. As is often the case on some of the Oregon Cascades, you just kind of roll the dice that you won't get hit by any of it and stay out of the way of obvious paths.
The view down from Glisan Pinnacle:
The snowpack is basically an isothermal snowcone right now, so getting on steeper stuff like this was a little interesting. A few turns would yield a significant sluff that would start pushing you around if you didn't keep it under control. Overall, the skiing was surprisingly good though.
The condition of the runnels at the exit of the couloir. You can see my boot and ski tracks to the left of the runnels, which was good snow:
More of the khumbu icefall:
I ran into Billy and friend over on the Villard Glacier so we went up and skied down some great snow near the Linn Glacier:
Shades of the SW Chutes on Adams...
It was great to be back on one of the mountains that has taught me a lot of the hard lessons of mountaineering over the years! Here's to Oregon in the springtime.
-
pole creek is open.
mckenzie hwy is plowed 1-lane but still gated as of last week.
nice tr. I've been off-route but never off-mountain before.
-
I recovered my ice axe. It was just sitting in the snow after weeks up there. Guess not many people pass through there.
-
Good powder conditions on the north side. 30-40 cm with the wind in some lee areas.
-
Pole Creek is open.
242 remains gated above Sisters, but is well above Pole Creek. One lane has been plowed and bikes are allowed.
-
As said above, always get the zone discussion. That's actually a human meteorologist interpreting the data and making adjustments to the model forecast, rather than just the computer model forecast alone, which is the point forecast as far as I know.
In Oregon, for instance, the southern Cascades zone forecast is almost always better than the model's point forecasts.
-
ls that layton the legend?
-
Not climbing, but be sure to take a trip up steens mountain if you end up out there. It is worth the trip. There are some awesome campsites in the fall as the aspens turn colors.
-
The older sport routes tend to be harder for the grade and more sparsely bolted in general, something you'll find at a lot of older crags.
The ratings in general are fair, but at the 5.9-10 area there is a wider range. If you are a solid 5.8 gear climber there is a lot of stuff to do out there. There are plenty of cracks at that level and under. If you can get someone out there with you who leads 5.10 gear/5.11 sport there is a ton more to do.
-
There is a copy of that book in the Ranger Station that has a ton of corrections hand-written in it, plus additional routes not listed in the book. Worth a stop to check it out.
City is great but just keep an eye on when the route was put up when you start pushing your grade limits. Also there are some epic slab climbs.
4th of July weekend you will be melting by 10am. Climb early then take a nap until 5pm
-
JL you've probably seen this photo by now (not mine). This slide was there as early as 6am today:
-
I have not been up at South Sister specifically, but I can tell you today is the first sunny, warmer day in Bend after weeks of rain. Broken Top was mushy "powder" a week ago, and people have been getting "powder" skiing on the cone at Bachelor. This morning it looks like some couloirs are starting to spit a little. Early Morning Couloir, Thayer, etc all have slide paths on them. South Sister is probably not corned up at all, but it should be skiable to the car at Devils Lake. Hopefully we will get some more of this sun for at least a few days of corn this year.
-
There should be more of these ski reports.
-
This is why I won't get in a car with antilock brakes. Only inattentive drivers use that safety crap as a crutch.
As for seat belts, I focus on being in the best position possible to absorb the impact with my body, rather than using those "safety" tools.
-
I accidentally left an ice axe at the top of 11 o'clock Couloir on Broken Top. Just skied away from it like an idiot. If you find it and are passing through Bend, I'm buying the beers at a Bend bar of your choosing. At least the skiing was good.
-
Trip: Broken Top - Various - circumnav, 9 o'clock Couloir
Date: 3/19/2010
Trip Report:
Billy and I had a smashing time covering some terrain on Broken Top. While the snowpack is lower than normal, there's still plenty out there high up.
Can you tell where the wilderness boundary is?
We first headed up the east ridge to ski a cool ramp on the east side.
Looking down on Sparks Lake
The east crater wall
We skied north to the ridge between Broken Hand and BT, and skied a great chute down and over to the north side.
Broken Hand, the backside of Tam McArthur Rim, and the Smith Rock parking lot
Great skiing to be had here on the north side.
Der nordwand
Heading over to the north face and northwest ridge
On the northwest ridge
Heading for 9 o'clock Couloir
Looking down into 9 o'clock. The snow conditions were pretty miserable in here, a little refrozen and chunky.
The view across. The snow is much better in the sun!
Exiting into the crater bowl below 9 o'clock couloir.
Fun times!
-
Thank the 1042 medivac for being available as well (most are in Afghanistan), otherwise he'd still be out there being hauled out. He didn't seem too keen on climbing again, but I'm sure that changes after a few weeks. He wasn't in a good spot to be sitting for so long on the sandy headwall.
-
Who else is able to do mountain rescues besides Ft Lewis? Would they fly all the way down to say, the sisters or Jefferson?
Chinooks from both Ft Lewis and Pendleton have been used in the Sisters area in the past.
-
and wondered about growth rates of moss, and when this route had last seen activitythat looks like about 24 hours worth of south santiam moss growth
-
-
Does that anchor cover the entire cliff or what - there's like 5 ropes in that photo
-
I skied up hood a week ago. There is good snow coverage from the top of the magic mile up, and you can piece together snow all the way to the paved road below silcox.
Conditions are "firm". The main chute is quite steep and runneled right now. The old chute is more favorable, but there was a great deal of ice coming down from above. The schrund is wide open and gaping.
Be aware of two large crevasses climber's right of Crater Rock. They are somewhat covered. At least one climber has had to be rescued out of there, and there were ski tracks over them.
Enjoy.
-
There's certainly a reason it's called access creek.
-
He has other videos:
ZwpSceSF9k0
Skiing Cascade Volcanoes
in the *freshiezone*
Posted
The road to cloud cap is not open.