lunger

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'

right on guys, looks like you found some good climbing rock up there. did you descend via the Wild Hair Crack line, or some other way? what a fine place to hang out for a few days. and yes spinal tap is timeless entertainment, about time someone tapped its rich cultural content. waiting for a route named "this one goes to eleven".

thanks for the report, and good to see your photos of the place! i really enjoyed that climb too--good granite, and felt remote. yeah that approach/deproach packs a punch. way to crush it fellas.

right on, nice work pioneering a line up that face. having climbed the NE Arete, I'm familiar with the good and bad (loose blocks, kitty litter, oatmeal) rock of that peak--pretty intrepid pulling .10 moves on that rotten stuff! but if the NE Arete is any indication, you also enjoyed some sweet climbing on good rock. guessing there's a bit more traversing than the distant white line suggests? your tr compels another visit to that place/face.

very entertaining. "(I can’t turn left)" -- Derek Zoolander?

yeah great pics, esp appreciated the sunset burst after the storm. agree that the whole set makes me want to get back to Zion again soon--spectacular place. thanks for the reminder.

Yeah sweet pics. That area is stunning this time of year. And congrats Tim! Looks like you're enduring some sort of choss-quickening there on the summit...

go get it wayne! "climbed" it Sunday--truly stellar, and now a bit cleaner too. To be clear: no loose rock at all, just a bit of grit that my flailing largely removed.

good stuff, fellas. that rock looks neato.

Cool trip Tom; plus, a new route way the ____ out there! Wait, what, 75 pounds?!

Sounds pretty alarming. Will be interested to see the origin/scar. Incredible effort Blake and Jens! Adding some flavor to familiar terrain (for you); extra salty.

Trip: Mt Despair, N summit - NE ("Bipolar") Buttress, 3700+', 5.9 Date: 7/28/2014 Trip Report: Low. (Our first glimpse of the double buttress from banks of Goodell Cr.) High. (Rolf climbs the final snow arête of the N Ridge to the N summit of Mt Despair. The highpoint of the NE Buttress is barely in view on right. Pickets background.) Route summary: the NE Buttress (“Bipolar Buttress”) of Mt Despair, ~3700’ net vertical relief of climbing and scrambling; a few hundred more are climbed thanks to multiple rappels into notches along the way. Difficulties up to 5.9. (Rolf nailed the name.) I think we belayed a total of 9 pitches, 8 on the buttress and 1 to attain the N ridge? This shot taken from the southeast shows the NE Buttress toeing down into Goodell Cr. Photo courtesy of John Roper, taken from the Roost. We began climbing at the base of the big open book in the area of lighter rock on the lower buttress. The feature can also be seen in the background of this shot taken from Mt Terror last summer: And here: Trip summary: a delightful tour of Picket-ness proportions; we approached via Goodell Creek, climbed Mt Despair via the soaring NE Buttress/N Ridge continuation, descended Despair’s west flank, and ultimately exited via Triumph Pass and Thornton Lakes trail to a bike, where the lucky loser of roshambo commenced the 8ish mile ride to retrieve the car. Lots of ups and downs. (On a map, this looks like a reasonable horseshoe route. Plan for three demanding days.) More-enterprising types might more fully express this route by traversing from the N to the S summit, thence to Triumph Pass and home; we left this for future work due to budget constraints of calories and time. A good thing too, as I botched the de-proach; in a monomaniacal fit of hubris, neglected to thoroughly research the route from Triumph Pass to the Thornton Cr trailhead, instead relying on simply a map and odd recollections. As a result, deep into the third day, we achieved new psychological limits by rat-schwacking up a 600+ vf stretch of steep, dense brush. My bad, brah. A soi-disant Cascades dignitary pronounced this a Last, Last Great Problem of the Cascades, while the other side of same mouth pronounced it “table scraps”. The Bipolar Buttress is more akin to eating a spilled gourmet meal off the floor, tasty if a little dirty--the floor in this case is the Goodell Creek valley. The NWMJ notes Roger Jung used Goodell to score FWAs on Mt Fury, but my contacts with real Cascades dignitaries yielded little info re: optimal access in the brushy summer. Sundry, pleasant surprises await those who in future travel this way. Route description/photo blast: Scrambling the lower buttress. Around 1300’ of mostly solid and well-featured scrambling up to low fifth class. Chimney moves to finish the lower buttress difficulties. From top of lower buttress, we rappelled into a notch; a party could bail from here at relatively low cost. Beyond this point, costs increase. Rolf leading out of a notch after a rappel. A very deep cleft in the upper buttress weighed on our psyches during the whole climb; the most technical pitches had occurred climbing out of smaller notches after rappelling into them. This deeper cleft can be seen in Tom Sjolseth’s picture from the N. Only the upper buttress is visible here, extending left—the cleft is near the summit of the buttress. With apologies to Jimi Hendrix, this is the Manic Depression. New lows were hit upon closer viewing of the chasm. The wall we needed to climb appeared very steep, overhanging in places, and meager viable lines looked difficult to access. We rapped in and scoped around, finally settling on a route beginning maybe 50’ to the south of the notch: a right-trending stair-step ramp kept the climbing at a reasonable grade. Watch for loose rock here. Rolf led the first pitch, and I got the leftovers; a bunch more rambling (an exposed stretch felt like the TFT) and we found a dee-luuuuxe bivy site on heather near the high col, where the two E-side glaciers meet. Views into the Pickets were available all day, and made even more enjoyable by respite. Smoke filtering in from eastern Washington provided color. Mr Bo Jangles S Pickets N Pickets The next morning we crossed the high col, climbed a 70m pitch of rock to attain the N Ridge, and then continued on its final snow arête. This pic shows the upper buttress (blocks view of lower buttress) on the right, with Goodell Cr far below. Descent was made by downclimbing to the notch S of the N summit, then down the W side of the peak; one rappel required. Demanding tour, but rewards with sweeping views and ambiance. Bunch more photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/ewehrly/2014_07_28MtDespairNEBipolarButtress?authuser=0&feat=directlink [Might add or swap out some photos upon receipt of Rolf’s.] Gear Notes: Medium rack with several pins, but never used them. Axe/crampons. Lithium. Single 70m rope. Approach Notes: See above.

Yes thanks for the informative TR and good pics. On the list!

Nice report, Blake. Great route. After the 5 pitches, to top out, we traversed left and climbed parallel to Serpentine--your exit appears better. Many years ago I led pitch 1. Was tempted to continue straight up, but was fixated on the description, so made that traverse move left--it felt hard for 5.10, slippery feet and an insecure knob or two? (Maybe Pete has a sharper memory.) At any rate, I recall feeling like we stayed on route. Maybe Jens went too high before contemplating the left turn? I've heard of other parties whipping due to a common tendency to go too high... Anyway, thanks for the report and pics.

FWIW, here's a photo from the other (N) side taken 2 days ago: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/q8Dvsncd1FZMRjJg29gMINMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink Road is gated 1.2ish miles past Eldo trailhead.

Yep that's the E Face of Graybeard; shot probably taken from Swamp Creek (I drove there to recon the night before--looks in similar shape as when we skied it, maybe even a little fatter down low). Good to see tracks on it, hope the party enjoyed it as much as we did! (Edit: oh, appears those are climbing tracks, not ski tracks? At any rate, the face begs to be skied.) Re: the original North Face TR, nice work managing the route in those conditions. I think we spoke briefly the previous evening at the Easy Pass trailhead, we were the party going skiing towards Ragged Ridge. Was relieved to see your car gone when we returned.

it's spitting distance from work, i plan to stop by. t-shirt = medium, probably.