lunger

looks like a fine adventure! congrats.

fantastisch! both the trip and the photography. that n despair summit is a special place. i recognize that rusty film tin; what's with the little plastic container, a new register, or something else? and the axes deployed in the heather--classic. that's either a throwing disc on Tim's pack, or a portable toilet. in that vein, my guess for the origins of "Shrundy" are not public-forum-appropriate. glad i stopped in here at cc.com to see your trip, and seano's impressive feat. thanks for posting this

nice report mr mutz, looks v, fun. up close, those upper pitches look as good as we imagined them. and the bombay maw approx as 'entertaining', as bellows puts it. don't know whether to feel honored or insulted re: the name. "UW's improbable coif" might be better, but i digress. appreciate you thinking of me, wish i could've joined you guys.

great TR, sweet trip! dig those rugged peaks of crescent cr basin. also, some nice photos across the way of despair and triumph. "I think i may be done with the Pickets. But it was a trip i will always cherish." that's easy to say now. just when you think you're out, they pull you back in.

well that looks like fun. "on the way to whiskey", the essence of a fine moment strong work fellas, way to snag a prime line

nice trip and report! great route, and looks like you found it in v good condition. do you have pics off to the right of your route, for example of the Mowich face area? thanks in advance if you do

Appreciate the send, route, and tribute

Cool-looking climb and adventure, and some nice shots of it! That shallow, two-lobe cam placement looks like a classic application for a tri-cam. #tricamfanboy #ImWithTricams Was also intrigued by the ribs and other rock off to the left...compact rock could make that steep stuff spicy though. Thanks for the report; re: access to adventure around here, agree, we are very fortunate.

Sounds (well, perhaps with the exception of the Poison track--nice find) and looks like a great trip! About how long did it take to get to the bivy under Little Devil from the TH? (Would like to advise folks re: approach to Fallen A.) And yes, fantastic photography as always. What are we looking at in the 5th pic, 1st B&W--is that Triumph?

hey Rad, we deproached a different and slightly better way (further up-valley), but i think the best way is probably to head uphill at the first old-ish growth opportunity (far east opp'y)--but getting to that point might be more problematic down low. on the way up, after crossing the W fork, we had followed a dry wash expediently through the brush, and it took us on a probably-suboptimal path. and definitely not a desirable descent route! did i mention the devil's club, nettles, and sundry sticker bushes, among other Cascade delicacies woven into the alder, scrub pine, and berry bushes? a fine and complete meal. Jason, I remember remarking on that parked car: "where the hell are they going?" Look forward to your report (and pics). Yes, that's a wild area; and agree that the trip would be a reasonable 3 days from the south, or 2 for a reasonably fast party. yeah Tom, after that approach with a full pack, I think I'm ready for J-berg. Jeremy, I'd like to hear more about these pipes...and see any pics you might have. forgot to mention that we'd like to call the crux pitch "the scythe", a reference of course to the resemblance of the sharp-edged arete to the Reaper's harvester, and to the now-eradicated loose slayer. been buried with the school year cranking up, meant to respond earlier. thanks for the comments all, hope that you can climb this someday. happy to provide beta for folks, and hoping to hear tales.

On Sept. 14, Chris Mutzel and I climbed a ~1,000' new route on the NNE-facing arete of Fallen Angel: Act like you're having fun III 5.10+. (John Roper, who climbed the peak from the S side decades ago, has an area-appropriate name for this striking feature: the "Grim Reaper Arete".) After a 100' or so of soloing, we climbed a total of 8 roped pitches to the summit. The pitches went 5.6, 4th, mid-5th, 5.8+, 5.10+, 5.10, mid-5th, and 5.9 (although there might be a mid-5th alternative for the last traversing pitch). Big-picture photos from John Scurlock and John Roper, respectively, below. In Scurlock's, the line drops towards the viewer (along the clean arete), and then winds a bit through the ledges to the left; in Roper's, the line initially drops down the right skyline, and ultimately foots to the left of the tree in the foreground. Approach notes: I took a gamble and lost on this one. Looking at satellite imagery, I had hoped we'd be able to approach from the north by tying into some suspected old-ish growth timber (there was some) on the climb up from the W fork of Newhalem Cr to the basin below our objective. If it worked, it would cut off a lot of distance and 1000s of v.f. vs the S-side approach from the Monogram Lk / Lookout Mtn trailhead. While we did quite well from the car at Newhalem Cr to the final climb from its W fork to the basin, above that we encountered just about every terrain obstacle the subalpine Cascades have to offer--somewhere high up on the BW scale, perhaps even establishing "New Wave" Bushwhack Ratings. A physical, but not mental, respite was offered by a sustained stretch of moss-coated 4th class frog-chimney that got us through the lower cliff bands: (I'm advancing my "little buddy" walking/bashing stick ahead of me.) Bottom line: approach from the south and enjoy a longer but scenic alpine tramp, unless you want to embrace the aforementioned travel and route-finding challenges. (I’ll buy good six-packs for anyone that repeats our approach and reports back with an optimal way up to that basin.) The climb itself was great. The rock, even the junky-looking first pitch, was quite solid and clean, requiring only sporadic, expected alpine gardening. The harder technical climbing, all ~3 pitches of it, was high quality, fun climbing on bright gneiss. Some was downright Index-like. We swapped leads, with Chris drawing the crux 5.10+ pitch 5--spectacular--which traveled near and then on the edge of the arete. On this pitch he expertly avoided a belayer-slayer that I inadvertently trundled while following, which marred our otherwise pure ascent as I weighted the rope to avoid a crushed foot. A reminder that you can't afford to lose focus for a second out here. Chris climbing the crux: Me following the crux: My 5.10 pitch 6 was more like a 15' boulder problem followed by scrambling on the arete's crest. Then we had two more pitches of rambling peppered with boulder moves over a sub-summit and the summit. We didn't find a reported register, but probably just overlooked it. Summit views from this western outpost of the N-Central Cascades were unique. Descent: from just W of the summit, we used a single 70m rope to make 4 rappels (all slung horns) down the South face; first directly down a rib, then angling skier's left to alight on an exposed ramp that you can down-climb E, which is where you need to go anyway to gain a notch that gets you back to the basin. (Unless you approach from / camp on the S of the peak, which I recommended above.) We were back at the bivy by 4pm, drinking big cans of beer. Given the complexity of the return route to the car, we decided to spend another night at comfortable bivy rather than risking the descent in fading light or night. Despite the extra workload imposed by my approach mistake, we had a blast (particularly on the rock) and recommend this route. Origin of the route name: C is relentlessly ebullient, so high on the climb it felt appropriate to yell the eventual route name before snapping a photo--this provided both a good belly laugh, and a mantra for the long 'shwhack back to the car. There are a few more photos in the gallery. And over here are even more photos, and a phone video Chris took of me trundling and muttering "explosion". Gear notes: Medium rack; tri-cams were money, brought pins but didn't use them. Compact ice tool useful for the occasional gardening. We didn't bring crampons, but you would want them earlier in the season, or when sensibly approaching from the south.

Nice, looks fun. Still need to climb this one.

wow that does looks fun, thanks for the detailed report.

Fond memories of that climb, mountain, and gorgeous area. Thanks for the report and pics!

On August 13 and 14, Rolf Larson and I -- henceforth little and big jackass respectively -- pioneered a line on the North Face of South Hozomeen (properly: Hozomeen Mountain, South Peak). If you've seen it, you know this thing is intimidating and steep. (By some objective measures, this peak is one of the steepest in the lower 48, and "... the South Peak ... has the steepest North Face of any peak in the Northwest.") We'd gawked at it from N Hozomeen three years ago, speculating that a massive, slanting dihedral feature might be the only feasible route for mortal climbers. Turns out it was feasible, just. Our line begins directly beneath the overhanging summit, travels more or less straight up to gain what we've dubbed (in respectful honor of Fred) the feature, and then primarily grinds up the right-hand facet of the giant corner to reach the summit ridge a couple/few pitches from the summit. ( BTW, big props to Beckey bros and crew, who summitted this beast in 1947 via the SW route. Inspiring. A movie honoring Fred worth sponsoring, if you somehow missed it: ) North Face, IV+, 5.9. 13 pitches to the W ridge, plus a short pitch to join the top of the SW route and then take in its crux pitch. We shiver-bivvied on a sloping ledge 11 pitches up, perched on the exposed right margin of the dihedral, a couple thousand feet above the basin--pretty cool. As far as we know, no other route has been established on this face. The pitches went 5.8, 5.8, 5.8, 4th, 4th, 4th (80+m, some simul-climbing), 5.7, 5.7, 5.8, 5.8, 5.8, 5.9, and 5.7. The last half+ (7 pitches) followed the Pissburger Dihedral. Then an easy pitch on the crest, and the "5.6" final pitch of the standard SW route. [Apologies for so many words and so few photos--album link below. Google recently shut down Picasa, with which it was easy to re-size and embed photos--the new product lacks functionality, and I lack time for extensive photo shenanigans.] This photo courtesy of Jason Griffith; belays marked w/ circles: For context, here's a shot of both Hozos taken from SE Mox Peak a few weeks ago. S Hozomeen is on the right, its north face is in shadow: https://goo.gl/photos/LpzJ1EdPNKHfLpDr5 And a shot of little jackass climbing high on the route (p. 11): https://goo.gl/photos/3ooZbpTG3An1Faah6 Should note that the moderate technical difficulty ratings belie the comprehensive difficulty of the route; this is not straightforward climbing, and careful route-finding and hold selection is mandatory. Some of our 60m 'moderate' leads took well over 1.5 hours! As mentioned above, the first three pitches go straight up to an easy ledge system that then yields the long dihedral. These first three pitches were quite solid and a lot of fun; a recommended crag with easy access . But the corner ... In an effort to give you a flavor for climbing the Pissburger Dihedral, here's a too-common scenario: launch from the belay, hope to protect it soon, find a crack behind a meager flake maybe 15-20' up. Maybe you put in an appropriate-looking nut, but a yank pulls right through as the flake expands. You slot in a crappy cam with a 1 in 50 chance of catching a leader fall, though if you whip it might slow you down, so you leave that mostly ornamental gear hanging there and hope for more soon. You wend, hem and haw to and fro and yonder, tapping and kicking holds to test. Up and right, back down; up and left, decide right is better; then up and right again. A number of deliberate, committing moves and 30-40 more perspiring feet above the ornament, you spy a small patch of vegetation in a faint corner. Out comes the compact ice tool. Scrape, scrape, scrape at this scratch card hoping to reveal a prize, only to find a shallow, flaring "crack"; try a nut, a sideways nut even - nope - maybe the tricam trick that 'worked' earlier will go here - nuh-uh. Poop your pants a little. Search the horizon for anything. Resolve to continue, ensuring you can reverse the moves. Higher still another ornamental piece gives you the false confidence to continue ... ok, so it's pretty much soloing. The 5.9 crux pitch (p. 12) above where we spent the night was stimulating in this manner too, and magnified thanks to the way it traverses above some large overlaps/roofs (and well above a tiny tri-cam). Overall, we can't really recommend the route. Had hoped the giant dihedral would hold a nice crack system. It had a crack, but for the most part it was comprised of very rotten and decomposing rock, or filled with copious humus. Not appealing; on one of my leads I ventured to the corner only to be rebuffed in horrific fashion by the rock peeling away at the slightest touch. So we were forced to find our way up the right-hand facet of the corner via sparsely-protected face climbing. Only near the top did some splitter briefly reveal itself. Squamish. The album for our trip, in not-so-great Google Photos (click on "i" to see captions): https://goo.gl/photos/SmEcZZ2r9BhFy3ZTA And the photo linked below courtesy of - who else - John Scurlock; shows an oblique view from the east, and our line rises to the first bench/notch to the right of the summit. https://goo.gl/photos/Z25Bs4QdRM7z2Tnq9 Thanks to little jackass, we onsighted the descent of the standard SW route, which felt long, exposed, and tedious, especially after a sleepless night and many hours of hyper-vigilance. My impish spouse tried (with some success) to implant this earworm as we departed in the evening: ... so every once in a while the cheeky, existential lyrics would humorously rebound in the Pissburger. A rewarding trip, with many fun/funny moments, and a fair bit of suffering; the whole package arouses that fight or flight instinct. Feel fortunate to have solved (and survived) this problem. Gear notes: We brought a large rack to 4", doubles to 2", large set of nuts, and definitely bring tri-cams through hand-size; used the small black tri-cam more this trip than I have in all previous combined. We had pins and used two to augment our shiver-bivy anchor. Did not bring a bolt kit but wished we had. Double ropes. Compact tool, but no crampons required.

agreed on both counts--your photography is outstanding. as you know, I was in the area approx the same time, and 'enjoyed' the challenging visibility/rain on the approach and Mt Redoubt climb. v. impressed you guys were able to navigate SE Mox in poor viz the day before we climbed it in (finally!) bluebird. that area is so beautiful.

Yes indeed, the N side of Hardy has both the NE couloir and the Open Fly couloir. Don't forget to plug the east face of Graybeard too! To this discussion I'd also add the NW face of Black. For something that's steep but not godawful steep, the S facing couloirs on Whistler make for fine skiing.

Nice one, thanks for the conditions report K. Counter-clockwise is my favorite direction for that one. Do you by chance have any good pics of the NE Butt and/or more straight-on ones of the North Face?

logged in to be part of this important thread. in the spirit of Bizarro Analogue: "what is above does not know what is below"?

Thanks for the first-person perspective, Skeezix. It was a relatively short section of rope, frayed/splayed at the end with nothing attached. I only glanced in the direction of its mooring, our course took us right rather than climb up to it, which was fine by me as didn't really want to disturb that area--kinda spooky. Hahaha Jason, I'd love to put up a 5.9 A2 route--someday maybe. But fortunately/unfortunately no, all free on this one. An interested party asked me to provide a photo with the belays more clearly marked (smartphone screen?); here you go, FWIW: And kletterhund Tim, thanks yes it was v much fun on an undoubtedly cool mountain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!x1000000 Go get it.

looks cool!

thanks you guys! 'staafl, the answers are yes and too many respectively. pretty sure i'd still have shivered like a champ, my old puffy is pretty threadbare. re: pro, there's actually quite a bit there when you need it--perhaps a couple minor runouts, but not for most folks who'd consider the route, and the hardest climbing is well-protected. re: pins, the only pins we used were on the belay top of p4 -- an angle and one other, i believe. you could build a belay without pins by climbing past our point a ways, or perhaps by stopping short of our belay. however, i'll wait for Rolf to chime in or correct me here. re: the accident, the only write-up i could find is the link provided above [ Mr Thomas's frayed rope ]. on a climb of the NE ridge, Rolf recalled seeing Tom's gear hanging there shortly after the incident in the late '80s. yes, he's old; or rather, he's been climbing since he was a just a pinky (a rat pup). again, want to emphasize how much fun i found this route--i think many of you would enjoy it.

Trip: Mt Triumph, new route on east face - Memento Mori, aka the Tom Thomas Memorial Route Date: 9/12/2015 Trip Report: Rolf and I finally got our stuff together this summer and enjoyed discovering a new line on Mt Triumph. It travels directly up the east face: Memento Mori (aka, “the Tom Thomas Memorial Route”), 8 pitches, 5.9+. Approx. 10 hours on the route. The NE ridge is of course off to the right, and quite a ways left/south is a 1985 route put up by Doorish and Cudkowicz; theirs tops out on the south ridge at perhaps mid-height (?). Our belays are thinly marked in blue: A powerful moment en route occurred while climbing by Mr Thomas’s frayed rope hovering above our belay at the top of pitch 4. It’s been nearly 30 years since this kindred spirit passed, yet a stark reminder lingers in this spot. Affecting and sobering, even for crusty, salty types. The route is characterized by a ton of juggy and often steep 5.8ish climbing, with many passages of 5.9, perhaps harder through the pitch 7 roof. The route primarily travels on surprisingly solid Skagit gneiss, excellent climbing rock by our standards. As with all mountain routes, there’s some loose rock, but many suspicious-looking blocks didn’t react to striking/kicking tests and were quite solid. The route deserves more traffic than my photos indicate—an off day in that department. The tufts of vegetation are sparse and easily gardened when (infrequently) necessary. Get on this thing! It offers solid adventure and aesthetic pushing and pulling. Below is an uncharacteristic amount of beta to encourage traffic—suggest you ignore it for maximum enjoyment. p1 - From the glacier, 4th/low 5th slab leads to the large ledge left of a huge chimney. Possibly 3rd/4th if you want to climb directly under the chimney. p2 – Begin just left of the crack system leading to the white roof. Climb parallel cracks then commit to leftmost crack up left ramp. 5.8+, 60m p3 – Climb the left-facing corner, with light rock on right and darker gray rock on left. When it clamps down, move left to a thin crack on the exposed left facet of the corner. Face climb to a semi-hanging belay. 5.9, 55m Rolf follows p3: p4 – Continue up and slightly right to a pin belay below the end of the frayed rope hanging from the 1988 accident. The belay was exposed to some minor rockfall but options were limited. 5.8, 40m Rolf launches p4: p5 – The changing corners (and changing again) pitch. A piece of work, this long fun pitch moves out over the roof below, immediately exposed, and requires some route-finding attention; I was grateful for our two ropes here. Begin by traversing right and up approx. 15m, making moves over an exposed rib and crack/chimney, then wend your way straight up adjacent corners and ribs, switching and picking the easiest possible way—which will still be steep, airy, and engaging. Belay at the base of the obvious lower-angled chimney/corner system. 5.9, 60m+ p6 – Up the corner and chimney system, skirt to the left of the big roof, find a key belay that affords shelter from potential looseness on the next steep pitch. 5.8, 40m p7 – Surmount the roofs above, including a little bit of palming/stemming in a corner, to a good ledge. A short pitch but one of my favorite leads in recent memory. 5.9+, 30m A couple poorly lit pics of Rolf moving up p7: p8 – Step left to a strenuous boulder move gaining another ledge, then ramble rightward up to a good finish in a brightly scarred but solid corner near the ridge crest. Hit the NE ridge where it backs off to scrambling a couple hundred feet below the summit. 5.9, 45m While these all had their moments, pitches 5 and 7 exemplify one kind of incredibly engaging climbing that draws me to the mountains. Should’ve taken a pic of Rolf following on pitch 5, but was flat tripping on the quality and quantity of climbing. And of course, the views of the Pickets were typically inspiring. More pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/ewehrly/2015_09_12MtTriumphNewRoute?authuser=0&feat=directlink We descended the South ridge for the complete alpine experience. Night befell us while still above the glacier, so we endured—I mean enjoyed—a shiver bivy on an exposed ridge. (Speaking of meditating on death: avoid an overnight cuddle with a skeleton.) While apparently neglected recently, this descent is actually kind of fun, and now is shored up with fresher tat. Nice moody light show on the next morning’s descent: Gear Notes: Medium-large rack up to 4", pins, glacier gear. Opinion: double ropes desirable. Approach Notes: As with NE Ridge approach, Thornton Lakes trail etc.; gain glacier where reasonable. (We approached Friday late afternoon and barely caught enough light to suss lines and make a try Saturday morning.)

Yes, nice (commemorative) trip fellas! Hope I still have the stuff for the Crescent Cr spires approach when I'm as young as you...

nice TR, and strong effort! talking to you at the parking lot, gotta say i didn't envy your feet--but sounds like you crushed the trail jogging. those final two shields of ice look like some cool climbin'