lunger

lotsa gorgeous-looking skiing in that part of the range--thanks for the photos!

death to death! but w/ balls not bolts. well ok, maybe one or two placed on lead, but only if absolutely necessary. uh oh, boltstorm brewing sorry dan, back to your badass skiing already in progress.

i do believe the wall of death in this case is the east face that drops from the true summit of 3 fingies, not the aspect a bit further north that dave and john climbed. not to take anything away from your fine effort, but the AFAIK unclimbed wall o'death is a deeper problem to be solved. a bottle the soul to take that thing directly. as always, way to slay himmelstrafer.

Took some mojo to finish the more heinous part of the deproach w/ a busted arm. Heal well and quickly, hard core. holy frijoles that was a great trip. hard to beat skiing powder in a steep couloir in a spectacular area. Found a moment to upload some pics here. A sample: one from the approach, looking west from near the 7000+' col on Colonial W shoulder, w/ Mt Baker, Bunyan's stump, Pinnacle, Pyramid, Luna all laid out. and from high in the couloir (across the valley you can see the col on Colonial's west flank that we came over, right above that long mellow "approach couloir" that drops down to Neve creek--recommended for future interested parties):

neat video. spectacular place. if i recall correctly, the ramp has been skied! nutjob.

your photos do that area justice, thanks. so much skiing back there! but as noted, catching viz is critical.

2012 rocked—difficult to recall all the fun (“fun”?). this is a good way to cement the failing memory. In no particular order; well ok in reverse chronological order: + Family visit to hometown Hamilton MT wherein also got to climb in Blodgett canyon w/ my works-too-much brother + From Sky’s list above: Squamish sampling the Calling and Tantalus Wall (that, or our NM ramblings, hard to choose) + Canadian Rockies trip with Pete and Ryan, chasing weather windows + Northwest Face of Black Peak climb and ski w/ Dan H. -- one of the steepest commitmentest sickliest + “Area closed” with Rolf -- first experience with steep mixed -- think I’d be irreversibly hooked if not for the excellent skiing we have around here. Or maybe our route on W. Black Peak later in the year… Also lotsa good runs w/ my lady, a solo ski descent in the Olympics, and climbs/skis/times with Casey, Pete, Ryan, other Erics and sundry others--thanks all for enduring my company--looking forward to the next year w/ youse.

i'd take the nps report w/ a grain of salt, can be pretty dated info. this time of year, and downfall and/or snow could impede well before MP 21. don't mean to dissuade, just fyi. please report back if you go for it.

Cool. So is it Wed (14 Nov) or Tues (13 Nov)? The poster has a misprint. thanks for clarifying.

there are still plums to be picked, but they are relatively high-hanging. as alluded to by others, training time is limited and therefore the ability to pursue the ideal of putting up hard alpine routes is governed by a trade-off. if you get tech-honed by spending available training time cragging, you'll not likely have the fitness and mental fortitude for required approaches and loose-rock/munge perseverance, respectively. and vice-versa, if you are out most weekends trying to pick so-called Cascade plums (aka "taking your gear for a walk" much the time), your technical rock-climbing standards will suffer. only the pros have time for both.

yeah, what's up with the ski-hate? these pikers must understand it's THE way to get around in the winter...much more fun than trudging

great report. makes me want to climb it again. perhaps tack on some the neighboring routes...such an incredible chunk of alpine rock.

posted a TR on our climb yesterday. very cool route fellas! jpark42, please PM me to retrieve your gear.

Trip: Exfoliation Dome - Snake Charmer Date: 9/23/2012 Trip Report: The rat and I had a great time on this route yesterday--the middle pitches were particularly fun climbing, and cleaner than the lowest and highest bits. The route is thoughtfully bolted (for travelling up and down) and yet preserves the difficulty and adventure we all seek. With more traffic this will be a fantastic climb. Rolf encountered and trundled some big unstable blocks on the first pitch (fun to watch from a safe perch); minimal loose rock remains. With a first mellower pitch, peaking difficulties in the middle, and the bubbly face-climbing finish, this 6-pitch route is reminiscent of a more stout and adventurous version of the popular Davis-Holland/Lovin’ Arms linkup at Index. We approached in cold and misty conditions but the rock was dry. This guide (posted in developers’ original TR) is a great reference for the approach and the route. rat on pitch 1: And following pitch 2, about to pull the undercling to squeeze/lieback crux: Pitch 3, again about to pull the crux: rat finishing up on the steep and bubbly rock of pitch 6, looking down from the top: A few more pics here (even caught a rat-smile in one). Thanks again Dave and crew!

west ridge Stuart, provided you can boogie west ridge Forbidden, same as above west ridge Thomson at Snoq Pass (reportedly 5.7, seemd easier) none require ropes for descent provided you can downclimb low 5th on forbidden--however snow might complicate matters on that one already?

with that kind of powder, why not ski lib ridge?

yeah dudes, nice line! thx for all the documentation (hope it drives traffic!) and the addition to my to-do list.

Thanks fellas. Mike, some story...pics? Didn't see any TR's here for the NW face, so will be glad if the little beta tidbits help.

Trip: NEWS + SEWS - west face + northwest face (Boving route) Date: 9/7/2012 Trip Report: Casey and I linked these two last Friday, resulting in a whole lotta quality pitches. We'd intended to climb the harder (Boving) route first, but it was damn cold in the morning, so we opted to begin with NEWS to avoid numb fingers on more difficult pitches. The WF of NEWS is well-covered here, but i note fewer reports on the NW face of SEWS. Below is a bit more info. on the climb. Thankfully Casey was a keen-crusher and led the nominally hardest (.11a) pitches on both climbs. A couple pics from WF of SEWS: Here's Casey on pitches 2 (short corner) and 4 (crux thin crack). I drew the superfine 5th pitch (w/ a 70m rope went to the top) that starts w/ a 5.10 move from the small tree and then steadily relents, from fingers to hands. Casey’s photo: Chilled on the summit, then rapped and rolled over to the... NW Face of SEWS: One observation: the new Supertopo online hints correctly "Some people think the first 5.10c/d pitch is more difficult than the second 5.11 pitch." To me, the first pitch does seem a bit tricky and insecure, definitely more heady than any other pitch we climbed that day. It’s also sustained with several cruxes. Completely do-able, but bring your game face. (CAsey also thought the 1st pitch was harder than the 2nd.) A piece of general route-finding beta: after the .11a bit (v. high quality--if a little flaring--crack in a bright white right-facing corner) of p.2,, we climbed up a cave/chimney then stayed right-ish up somewhat vegetated corners/arêtes to a big bench under the Boving roofs. I believe there are some appealing looking systems off to the left that could lead a person astray. As i recall, the topos are somewhat sketchy re: details, but follow your nose to the roofs and you'll be set. We didn't get a whole lot of good pics, but here's a couple. I'm starting pitch 1 here (Casey's photo) Me following pitch 2; crux section is near the top, physical! And on the Boving roofs (Casey photo): Super fun day at WApass, thanks bud. a few more pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/ewehrly/2012_09_07WFNEWSAndNWFSEWS?authuser=0&feat=directlink

what a great chunk of stone. i need to get up there and check out some of these new routes! thanks for the exploration, documentation, and stewardship.

nice tour! both great routes. apparently the "take two they're small" trend is in full force. on Friday, Casey and I did a parallel trip on those spires. we also started with NEWS, then jumped on SEWS. also would've liked to do the opposite order, but the rock was cold and we decided to start with the more moderate pitches on NEWS. hope to post a few pics later.

hadn't really thought hard re: the grade, but III or III+ is fine by me. suppose threw up the IV 'cause have climbed grade IV's (and even a grade V) quicker. as you say probably depends on whether you solo the whole thing or pitch out some...

no wayne: laconic. we actually invoked your name, thinking it was your kinda thing--you should repeat it but proper-like by hitting all the high points. to other interested parties: there appear to be steeper approach options coming straight up from (appropriately sheltered places) below the seracs; would add quite a few pitches of challenging climbing. to add to the enticement, there are really cool bivy sites at various places along the ridge. haha tanstaafl! routefinding difficulties were the theme of the day, but none so tough as navigating Ballard.

Trip: Black Peak's West Peak - NW ridge (and N Buttress) IV 5.7ish - FLA Date: 7/21/2012 Trip Report: Rolf Larson and I climbed this route on Saturday. We are not aware of previous ascents—and speculate this could be a first and last ascent, aka FLA. This 3,000' ridge/buttress climb impressed me when Dan Helmstadter and I were en route to a ski of Black Peak's (East and main summit) NW Face. Pic from my May ski trip with Dan: Pic from a climb/ski of Arriva a week before, early May. W Peak is on right, and the long buttress/ridge extending toward the viewer is what we climbed: It looked so classic, the long ridge with steep walls falling off to a glacier, ending in a high and scenic N Cascades summit. And it was. Classic. Uber-mega-meta-classic. Much better than any Internet meme. Sorta like the N. Ridge of Stuart (only longer) combined with the Torment-Forbidden Traverse (only steeper), and a High-Priest-like blockheaded finish. Purity of line, quality of rock, a graceful climbing partner: these are things devoutly to be wished. The pictures don’t do it justice, one must experience the climb for one’s self; a tonic for the soul, as Rolf might say. But probably not. Looking at the limited pics, we thought there could be some steep, more-difficult climbing. We were loaded for bear and a bivy—rope, a medium rack, light bivy gear, a stove, climbing shoes, and too much food. All but the rope ended up training weight—we made 2 raps, but otherwise the stuff stayed in the packs while we rambled up the scenic ridge, with lots of 3rd and 4th class scrambling, and difficulties up to 5.7 or so. As is often the case, the most difficult climbing usually occurred on the best rock. The approach was made over the northern col between Black and its 8395’ point to the north. Spicy downclimbing ensued to snow, then finally to the base c. 5800’ after running under looming seracs. The pics tell the rest of the story; this thing was long. Our first look during the approach, from the col: Near the start (from these humble beginnings), poor pic: Looking down initial stretch; photo doesn’t show considerable exposure here: Still much to do: We passed this gendarme on its right, but in retrospect would’ve enjoyed going over it On the torment-forbidden-esqe section (Rolf’s photo): Still more to go: Gramps hikes up his britches Rappin’ The rock quality suffers no comparison. And gets even better: final summit block Hard to believe this was a ski slope a couple months ago Some more scenics and action shots are here. We enjoyed this route, but as subtly hinted, were hoping for more difficult lines along the way. Still, motoring up a long climb is always a splendid way to spend a day.

yeah dan!