JoshK

You don't have to check the CMCR. A cursory glance at the NWAC page and you would have found 1.) a "special avalanche forecast" which included 2.) a link to this exact photo on their site, credited to Scurlock. In fact, I would imagine the CMCR got their info from the NWAC, but who knows.

LOL....Not sure where you decided it was *us* from what he wrote, but as tvash said, you'd have to put your armchair time machine 24 hours in the past to blame us. Not to mention we were skiing several miles away from the site in question. On Friday there were no obvious "DONT GO HERE" signs, so either they had already removed them or they weren't obvious. Now if some climbers (more likely skiers it seems?) did just blatently ignore signs that said they were going to shoot a howitzer up there, then they are idiots, but unless somebody fesses up or offers an explanation, it may well have been a mistake. With all this said, if a big slide *does* come down, here is hoping it takes out some giant motorhomes towing SUVs.

Correct. It snowed quite heavily Wednesday night and a bit more Thursday. Driving under the chutes, they still look rather imposing. Apparently neither the snow nor a howitzer sounded imposing to these guys.

Just got back from the Washington Pass myself. Wednesday night it was snowing hard. Thursday warmed up, but still with some snow showers off and on. Lots of evidence of sliding from rocks and some larger slabs as well. I intentionally triggered a small (30-40m wide) slide on a SW aspect that sent the top 8" downhill 200m or so. As evening came a crust was forming. Today was more on and off filtered sunshine with occasional snow showers. The past two days of warming may have cooked a bit of instability out of all the recent new snow, but there is plenty more stuff ready to cause trouble when we get some more warming or more prolonged sunshine in the next few days. If you are out this weekend, be careful and wary of warming.

Not really near by, but speaking of avy conditions...very cool Scurlock picture from a few days ago:

^ Oh shit, that was an epic for sure, by any definition I use. Edit: Damnit Rob lol, my post refers to Eric's picture, not Rob's comment.

Indeed. He is far cooler than me or you, and not afraid to say so. He is cooler than Jesus.

Where is there a 75 foot deep crevasse just below Camp Muir? Did they wander off on to one of the glaciers on their way down? I've seen cracks on the Muir Snowfield occasionally in late summer, but have never seen anything of that size remotely near the standard route.

And that's what counts. Right on! Looks like the weather cooperated *just* enough for you guys.

WFT? Isn’t that what they used for crucifixions back in the day? That's what I was thinking. Or a railroad tie.

OK, that beats our mini-epic on this route years ago since we didn't have to spend the night out. But isn't a nice fire the ultimate anti-epic tool? I love it!

Haha, oh man, this is *exactly* how the SGC went for me when we climbed it years ago. The section from the W ridge notch to the summit definitely has some "character" when all rimed up and frozen like that. I remember the downward sloping sketchy ledge as well, it was scurry. We also experienced a mini-epic on the descent - I recall slumping down somewhere on the trail to close my eyes for just one...precious...minute. Nice job!

This is fucking awesome man.

I wish I could make this. With the new snow this week, hopefully y'all will find some good conditions up there. Looking forward to the TRs.

Any chance the Mt. Watson up near Baker is named for him? I couldn't find a name history for it in Beckey or SlummitPost.

I almost wish I didn't have so I could buy it...the red color is badass, much nicer than my boring yellow.

R.I.P. Duke

Too bad they are located in AZ...

A fitted polypro short sleeve womans T?

Much better objectives than the SCG for a badass like Dan to ski, imo. It's been years since I climbed that but I remember it being fairly short - the crux of that route was all the rime and snow shroom covered west ridge rock not the fairly average SCG.

True, I guess I just find the distasteful "national pride" event and such a total load of B.S. It's a logistical and financial accomplishment...of other people none the less. But to each her own I supposse. And hey, when it comes down to it, if somebody offered me all of the money and time necessary to accomplish this feat (first blonde haired Jew to summit all 8000ers maybe? ) you'd find me with my new Sherpa friends sloggin' my ass up them too!

Congragulations on tons of money being spent to haul this publicity whoring "climber" up some snow slogs? Seems to me covering some "race" between these women to obtain an arbitrary goal and paint it with the typical B.S. of national pride is exactly opposiute of what climbing is about. South Korea has a lot to be proud of, not sure why this lady needs to be made a hero.

I imagine sawing from below would actually be quite effective, just with the nasty side effect of the cornice then crushing you. That backcountrybomb product is probably effective. I was trying (unsucessfully) to chop off a cornice a few months ago and thought it would be nice to have a thin metal cord like the one inside my avy probe. Looks like that is basically what his product is. Also, you may want to cross-post to the freshizone or another BC skiing forum. Though it seems like your question is specific to the problem of approaching cornices from below - which just always sucks no matter what.

Hey, 5.12 is pretty hard for most of us in mid 2010

Well, if you can bring both climbing stuff and skis with you, I guarantee you'll find plenty to do.