lunger

Trip: enchantments hike - south face prusik climb - beckey-davis Date: 10/10/2009 Trip Report: Sky persuaded me to take a day off work to climb something S-facing, hoping for sun. We left a cold Stuart lake trailhead at around 430a, & arrived at the base of Prusik under still-cloudy skies and snowflakes. So, waited/shivered for over 3 hours until the slowly teasing sun warmed the rock. We actually had intended to climb Solid Gold, which appears stellar, but the waning day and cold temps persuaded us to motor up something more modest. The route features good rock and climbing, and we finished up a Libra-esque splitter thin-hands crack that directly hits the summit. A few pics of a ripper day. few more pics Gear Notes: too much, turns out. Approach Notes: approached via everybody's favorite Asgard Pass, toured out via Snow Lakes. some snow and ice on the ever-treacherous pass...

good one 'staafl. pms, you called me out--i've not climbed any other alpine rock in the Cascades this year. did enjoy an opposite experience (clean rock, chill approach, civil company) on Whitney and Russell in July, but mostly just worked this summer. even though the climbing could've been better, it's a beautiful area, and an enjoyable weekend jaunt. more pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ewehrly/2009_09_12RoostNEFace?feat=directlink

given rolf's woefully inadequate TR, I will try to up the hype quotient. yeah, his backberry wasn't working, so we couldn't tweet the minutiae of our epic ascent, including helmet-cam footage of our bm's. first, this is my favorite alpine rock climb in the Cascades all year. The route we did on the NE Face of The Roost, "Fowl Play", is likely an FA because there's no one else stupid enough to try it. However, we were enticed by pics (e.g., Scurlock) that make it an attractive nuisance: And here's a shot I took after our ascent, route follows approx. left-hand skyline: Looking up at the climb in the wee hours, after a scenic and supercool bivy above the col between the ROost and Glee: pitch 2: pitch 4, brushy galore: nice views anyway: pitch 8 (crux) required terror control; impressive lead by ratweasel. looking down at our "climbing" route from top p. 9, haha: the route features overhanging tree pulling, the occasional dirt-mantling and less occasional gear, and even some steep fun face-climbing protected by excavated cracks. pure glee. as noted, should clean up nicely with more traffic--go get it!

will be curious to hear what you find. as i recall, Beckey used "evil" in his description of the face...

of course, poor word choice, i wasn't there, so "the rockfall was likely..." was just trying to clarify that if there were rockfall or trundling, it would need to be that peak, and NOT Dragontail. and home-whinger did say he saw two guys on a face...

the trundling was likely off a route on Enchantment Peak, which does abut the Aasgard trail...

all due respect kyle, but reading ivan's gonzo mtnrng lit, i doubt anybody has an "identical experience" to his unique prism ride...

good work--entertaining write-up. failing on a rock-star pose, ha.

nice tr, complete w/ non-sequitur pics. That 3rd pitch does look cool. love the kitty litter 'round there, odious & odiferous. Ross and I climbed a route between El Gato and Stellar Eclipse that was so good, we gave it 2 names: Sphincter-the-Shits (sounds like the latter route we sought and missed) and Menage a Choss--the latter more acceptable for public consumption. thanks for the alt descent info., Off, sounds nicer than that gully.

b. midweek, several times, i've had 100% luck getting permits via the lottery at the Leavenworth ranger station when it opens. c. you will want crampons and axe for Sherpa descent that time of year. as indicated above, might have to rap a considerable 'schrund.

good work and pics of that excellent rock--that route forces you into some sorta zone, eh?

cool climb! and i like the descriptive language in the write-up. the picture of Jens is hilarious, I've seen that wild-eyed look in pardners before. Pete and I talked about going after that years ago, but time and gumption never quite intersected...way to get after it. strong work fellas.

cool vid perspective dan, looks like a fun ski. quickens my rot at the computer screen.

Great TR! Classic NW climbing.

good eyes--the first 1/3 took us about 1/2 the time, methodical and mildly ponderous mixed climbing. we took about 4.5 hours total, including crampon field repair. so i'd estimate that passing that last noticeable constriction (that i think you reference) took us nearly to the 2 hour mark. would've taken longer if we'd roped up, which we were on the verge of doing. (cbcbd -- thanks for the info.)

Ripper!

Nice work you guys, sounds like "fun." Too bad you've not built that tram yet. Looks like you had some pretty good ski conditions up high. I've wanted to climb Gardner for years, looks like a cool place and a high peak w/ unique views into the Cascades.

right on fellas, cool line! and great shots.

Hey Pax! Yeah, that peak is pleasing to the eye. We had some gear, and encountered some spicy sections where we talked about it, but never did bust out the rope on the ascent. The cruxes were mercifully short. We belayed the ski off the summit to stomp on what appeared a big nasty slab. Fortunately, we were able to downclimb the dicy sections so didn't have to rap.

Casey had other obligations, unfortunately, & had to bail. haha. Posted over there to hopefully get some news re: whether this had been climbed or skied before. Also the east face is a fun and accessible climb w/ or w/o skis. Seems the North Face gets all the attention, but with this so close to the road, who knows...

Trip: Greybeard Peak - East Face Date: 5/16/2009 Trip Report: Dan Helmstadter and I climbed and skied the East Face of Greybeard (on maps appears as eastern terminus of Ragged ridge just E of Easy Pass, elevation 7965’) on Saturday. I haven't seen any record of this being climbed or skied; would be curious to hear if any of you have heard tales. The climb alone as a moderate alpine objective is worthy and recommended; its proximity to the road makes it that much more appealing. A few weeks ago, somebody had posted a shot of this face, unnamed, on a report from Cutthroat (I think)—looked intriguingly possible. Then last week a couple buddies and I were on Mt Hardy and noticed the east face looking pretty fat—perhaps probable. Greybeard East and North Faces: The obligatory Scurlock photo: http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/53643445 On Friday evening I drove up towards Swamp Creek and saw that the face had melted out some from a week ago, but still appeared relatively do-able. What the heck, give it a try and if it’s not good, bail or descend some other aspect (the southwest is more mellow)… evening east face We started climbing from 6100’ at around 3:30am after a solid freeze, and availed ourselves of a NE-facing couloir to gain a rib and ultimately the east face proper. Runnels in the couloir initially made for ready sticks with axes and crampons, but abruptly morphed into chunder-wonder variability. The climbing on the ribs and faces above was often steep and entertaining; I recall at one point left hand to rock hold, right hand to axe in snice, left foot post-holed, and right foot kicked into ice—what was next was a guess. Route-finding slowed us down a bit, as did two crampon failures for Dan, which he handily repaired. Luckily, clouds kept the sun at bay, urging us upward. above the couloir difficulties on the face last stretch to summit The views from the summit didn’t disappoint. Goode et al Dan and Black Peak sunlit Mt Logan, Arriva foreground Jack Mtn S Face w/ lenticular and Crater Peak The skiing was classic “spring variable”. We had gained the summit at a bit before 8, and as it had been cloudy all morning, waited for the sun to come out and work some magic on the icy patina found on most of the snow we had climbed. When the sun finally came out full-force at 11 a.m., it was forceful, and our worry turned from too crusty to too soft. For the most part we enjoyed soft-snow turns on the face. up at summit turns We had to down-climb a couple sections due to either grave avy conditions or too-rocky chocolate-chip sections. We finally jumped a little step to finish the c. 1700'face, and skied a ridge feature to my bivy site at 6100’, making for a c. 1900’ run. link1 link2 Perhaps this face will come into better shape (i.e., ski-able in full) in future years after a more robust snowfall for this area. Taken later that afternoon with Rainier in hand: route up in red, down in green edit: guess I used the wrong "shortcut" for showing images. will try to fix later...if any of you mods have helpful suggestions...

DB, here's some beta. Bring lots of small gear. Might want pins too. The climbing is on really good, somewhat compact granite (as you can gather). The first pitch (or somewhere down low) has the psych crux, you climb above your last little piece enough to warrant concern, as you must traverse left (not too high like Gratz) around a bulge/arete, making use of secure-to-some knobs. but usually the .10 cruxes are short, with lots of .9 climbing. this from my creaky memory, so caveat emptor--and you paid nothing. 5 pitches of awesome followed by rambly shite, I imagine like the upper reaches of serpentine (have not climbed), no fin finisher like backbone. still, a fun outing. get on the wall early (of course)--we heard some little bullets whizzing by as the temps rose, but the big overhang above seems to spit them well clear of you. have fun, and report back! by the way hello Ivan, that was a hell of party--didn't know you got sick later.

Nice work! I remember finishing up that thing after the Grand years ago, and thinking 'twas kinda spicy for a bolt-clipping finish--thanks for removing some of the abundant loose rock. Particularly memorable was during that harder stretch of relatively steep face climbing well above a bolt on p. 2, happened upon 2 falcons perched, just blinking at me. (There were no falcons expected at the time, no closure, etc.) The only way to go was between them, but they peeled off when i drew within 5 feet of 'em. Pretty cool but a bit concerning--if they had wanted to mess with me, would've been a long ride...

Nice pics! yesterday morning Casey and I skied the Slot and then the Phantom, and it was ALL GOOD. the Slot had the deepest and lightest pow i've ever seen in it. and the Phantom, as you depict above, was also deeee-luxe. pretty sure it was your tracks we saw. back to work by 11a; damn i love Seattle.

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