nattybumppo

I'm not writing from the light and fast hardman perspective. I did use the DAS on the West Butt and it was enough. Just. On the coldest days I wore two layers of merino, a windshirt, hardshell bibs, a WM down vest, the DAS, and hardshell on top. Basically everything I had. I can imagine if having to hang out on belay that the combo would not be adequate. That's not usually a problem on the West Butt or Rib, though. I do use the DAS all the time down here. It's a great coat. That said, it's impossible to exaggerate the potential for cold up there. My cold day was 20-30 mph wind and -40 deg. That was at 14k. Tent, sleeping bag, warm Gatorade, and hearts to 1000 points. It was ridiculous. Imagine that over on the Cassin. Double ridiculous. You can't really hang out for a week, either.

CC.Com doesn't sort out the threads identically every time. I'm looking at 13 pages right now. But hey, thanks for pointing it out in such a friendly way. WTF yourself.

My Dad for taking me to Leavenworth even after he had broken his neck and had cervical fusions and couldn't raise his right arm above his shoulder. Still had Kung Fu grip though, not to mention that mysterious Old Man Strength. BTW, 12 pages and no Voytek Kurtyka? Shining Wall? And still alive. Plus, he writes about as well as any alpinist I can think of.

I was on the West Buttress last year, mid-May to mid-June. I used a DAS Parka and found it adequate. I also took a WM down vest, which I wore continuously for the four weeks and made a great layer under the parka. I also wore a light merino T the entire time, and over that a heavier merino zip-T which I never took off either. I used Intuitions in my plastic boots, Superfeet in the sole, and 40-Below overboots on top. It was a good system, though I wound up coveting the Olympus Mons a couple of other guys had. No, I don't think you'll find them useful for general mountaineering. I also had the big OR Viesturs down mitts. Very warm. The bottom line is that there is going to be gear you buy for Denali that you just won't use down here. Literally, 50% of your gear is for the last 20% of the climb. Just believe that the risk of frostbite is real and it jumps on you quickly. And once you're debilitated, your team has to take care of you, and you can't return the favor. You can't run a stove, you can't bag snow, your ass will be a mess, you're a burden, and it's a crappy feeling and it ruins the entire trip. Not to mention the nauseating pain of rewarming. The Intuition liners come out to roughly $15 per toe. Big down mitts, $10 per finger. Both are worth it, in my opinion. As for skis and snowshoes together. Well, on the way up (assuming the West Butt, of course), the only hassle will be right out of KIA going down Heartbreak Hill. After that, it shouldn't be a big deal. Down from 11K, however, you'll probably wind up wanting to throw the snowshoers in a crevasse. Or, if possible, rope up separately. Skis are definitely, definitely better.

I'm not the climber some of these other guys are, but with only five days in hand, that time of year, I wouldn't try for the Pickets. The obvious, and high quality, May/June destination in this state is the Stuart Range. In ascending order of excellence on Stuart itself (with the first being pretty damn excellent): West Ridge, Ice Cliff Glacier, Stuart Glacier Col., Northwest Face, North Ridge. Conditions may eliminate some, but something on that list will go, and access should be manageable from the north. Also accessible depending on your time and energy: Dragontail-- NF-Stanley/Wickwire, Triple Col's (this year...who knows?), Colchuck--Glacier Route, Sherpa--North Ridge, Prussik Peak--West Ridge, South Face. All quality, all within striking distance of the same trailhead. The Stuarts are just about the furthest east you can go, which gives you your best shot at a weather window, and even if the weather is generally crap, you'll probably have a shot at something. And if you really, really have to punt, there's always Vantage and pulling jugs in the desert. Have a great visit!

Never having climbed either in true Sep/Oct late season conditions, I'll concede without argument. Though I thought the "sort of" covered the spread. I imagine the Ice Cliff is considerably more thought-provoking than Maude late season, as it is in May/June, in my actual experience. As I was.

I climbed the NF in June this year. With lots of snow, the traverse from the Maude-Jack col is a moderate obstacle. Without snow I'm sure it's doable, it just wouldn't be that much fun. The route itself is all season, it just depends on whether you prefer more or less rock. Based on what I saw, the late season route would be a lot skinnier, but it would certainly have some nice alpine ice and firm sticks. Sort of like the Ice Cliff on Stuart, actually. As for the approach, late season I would come over the ridge east of summit from Ice Lakes, like the original ascenders (see CAG.)

I hope you had a good time on your climb. Was the cornice still in place? I wish I had a picture to share because it's been giving me the shivers ever since. For all I know it ripped the second we turned our backs on the top. While I'm more of an unbeliever myself, my climbing partner is a pastor's son and a solid Christian. He would punch ten steps then send up a prayer. Ten steps-prayer-ten steps-prayer. It's not something I've felt inclined to laugh at, to be honest.

Trip: Mt. Maude - North Face Date: 6/30/2007 Trip Report: My best friend and I had a fantastic time on the north face of Maude yesterday. We bivied at the Maude-Seven Finger Jack col on Friday night. A few showers on the way up, and even a snow flurry at the col, but nothing terrible. We woke with the sun but--embarassingly--didn't get our creaky bones going on the traverse until about 8:30 am. The traverse was tedious, but never really sketchy. It was about half and half snow and rock scrambling. The face was in great shape. We could have stayed on snow the whole way, but we took a break on some rocks about a third of the way up. About half of the cornice was in place looming over climber's left. A real death-hanger. So we did our best to just punch it and minimize our exposure time. We didn't rope up, though we had the gear. Just single ice axes and crampons the whole way. We topped out at 12:30. We descended the south side and then through the Leroy Creek basin. We didn't see a soul all of Friday and Saturday until we hit the trail. There'll be a bit of a queue on the route today if the number of ice tools we counted is any indication. The Ixtapa mexican restaurant in Sultan gets two thumbs up! Gear Notes: Used: ice axe, crampons, helmet. Didn't use (but would take again all the same): 30m rope, even # stoppers, pink tricam, #2 Friend, biners, and slings. Approach Notes: The Leroy Creek approach may be shorter than the Ice Lake side, but man, it's a hump. Way harder than up and over Longs Pass to Stuart in my opinion. Pretty though.

The North Ridge is a nice climb, particularly in June when there is a little more snow. Camp at the lake, there are usually good rock walls in place. There's really no reason to camp higher, as from there it is comfortably an up-down-and out situation. It's not a technical route. The two times I've done it I did not bring a rope, just an ice axe and crampons. And you may not even use the crampons. The views on to the Adams and the Lava glaciers are great, as is the daylong gaze toward Goat Rocks, Rainier and beyond. Have a great, safe trip!

I was happy to have my big OR's on Denali this season, the red Viesturs model. I only used them at 17K and above, but they were nice. Having helped treat a guy with frostbite on his hands while on the trip, please be encouraged to err on the side of too much.

I've got an insurance license and have sold policies in the past. The trick is to minimize the hazardous nature of your climbing by referring to it as snow camping, scrambling, and toproping at the gym. Plausible deniability is the secret when talking to the selling agent. DON'T volunteer definitions of hazardous activity. When the agent asks whether you engage in any hazardous sports, only reply with "Such as...?" Half the time they won't think to ask about mountain climbing (Remove any framed hero shots that are visible from the kitchen table, however.) NONE of this means that if you die climbing within two years after the policy is written that you'll be covered. YOU WILL NOT BE COVERED. But it does mean that you can get the policy at an affordable premium. Remember, the car ride to the climb is more hazardous than the climb itself. After two years, the "suicide exclusion" (shorthand for voluntary life threatening activities) expires and you may climb at will with the assumption of coverage.

Looking for a pair of bindings to use on approach skis for upcoming trip to Denali. Silveretta 500 or similar. PM me.

Lowa Civetta's. Can't beat them for $250. Skip the Extremes and just get Thermofit liners if/when you do a big cold trip.

Climb: Mt. Shuksan Sufferfest-Sulphide Glacier Date of Climb: 6/5/2004 Trip Report: On Friday noon, four of us headed up to Mt. Shuksan to climb the Sulphide Glacier on Saturday morning. We knew that the weather was due to change at some point, but hoped that with an early start we might make the climb before it got too nasty. The approach was lovely: sunny, no particular hurry, and a great view from the ridge to Mt. Baker. An AAI group was coming down while we were heading up. We met them at the snowline at roughly 4000'. Fatefully, we didn't think to wand the trail from where the snow started. We had a nice camp at the notch, Baker to the left, the Pickets to the right, a well-dug kitchen, all was good. Two older guys were camped there also. They had climbed to the pyramid that day but turned back. They were beat, so they decided to stay the extra night before heading down. I woke at 3:30 a.m. to rain squalls, fog, and wind. After an hour and a half of debating whether to be Scottish hard men or to turn tail, we chose the latter. We dozed a little, figuring that shite weather at 6 was no better shite weather at 8. So at 8, we broke camp and headed down. The two old guys were still in their tent. Then we discovered the errors of our ways. The warm weather on Friday and the rain overnight had wiped out any trace of our tracks from the day before. No problem, we thought, the ridge is fairly narrow at the top, SURELY we can find the trail below the snowline. Just stay in the timber, keep to the ridge crest, and down we go. Well, two hours later, after criss-crossing the slope we decided to climb back UP to the basin below the notch, get our bearings, and start over. Given the number of higher degrees between us, a map, a compass, and an altimeter, one might imagine that we could FIND THE F*!#KING TRAIL. The ridge isn't even that wide! But no, like good scouts, we wound up in the same spot as before. So, for those familiar with the area, we then decided to closely parallel the creek on our left to intersect the trail where the Green Trails map indicates it veers over. That didn't work. And since it cost us roughly 1000' of elevation, we decided our only recourse was to the time-honored North Cascades method, the Brutal Bushwhack. For the next six hours, we hacked, shoved, stumbled, cursed, and fell through the alder, devil's club, huckleberry bushes, and across stream gullies until I literally tumbled out of a shrub and on to the trail. At one point, Amy (Officially the Toughest Mountain Woman I Know) said, "This is the worst." Of course it promptly began to rain, and those exquisite downhill alder branches are SO much better when REALLY wet. After a group hug, we followed the most beautiful trail we had ever seen back to our car. Despite the rain, the mood was exhausted euphoria. Driving out, a ranger stopped us to ask whether we had seen the two older guys. We gave him our report and contact information. We were all uneasy, as they had spoken of the difficulty they had finding the way up through the trees. If they followed our tracks down... Well, this morning I've been on the phone with Whatcom County S&R, and this late afternoon with another ranger communicating directly with a helicopter in the air about our route and when we saw them and what they were wearing, did they seem experienced, etc. I've searched the news sites but find no mention, so hopefully they're out by now. Though, at 6 this evening, they weren't. The bushwhack was just awful. I really thought someone would twist an ankle, break a leg, blow a knee, something. We just got lucky. I can't imagine if we had, what would be happening right now. If those two are still up there, with the weather like it is, they're probably soaked through, exhausted, and not sure where they are. I really hope they're okay. So, while it may seem a little Wednesday Night Youth Group, a little prayer might be in order for those guys. God, get them home safe. That's it. Gear Notes: Should have used wands