JoshK

That's exactly what we did - I think we did 4 days as well, and went over to Klawatti Lake, etc. Our one mistake, however, was after circling over aroundd forbidden we tried to make it interesting by crossing ripsaw ridge and exiting via horseshoe basin. This was stupid and time consuming and highly not recommended.

Add the tour of the Klawatti and North Klawatti glacier area as well, including tricouni and primus peak. This was the best part of the tour, IMHO.

Is it steep or not? One picture from inside the coulior makes it look so, but the shot of the mountain makes it look low angle. That gully on the left looks cool...

Whatcha talking about willis? Nutsack tower?? Also, it isn't even just climbes - there are some approaches that people avoid, probably due to them being hyped as so god awful.

I'm sure when most of think of the dangers of climbing we think of objective hazards, weather or a fall on difficult exposed terrain. Yesterday I got a subtle reminder of the less thought about dangers in climbing. I had summited Snowfield Mountain earlier in the day and was on my way down. I had gotten through the few parts of the trip that I thought would cause the most troulbe - the summit scramble, the exposed crossing beneath Pyramid Peak and crossing the glaciers. Thankfully none of these things presented a problem. At around 4500 feet (if I remember correctly) i began the steep forested decent back down to Pyramid Lake. I had just taken off my skis because the forest was quite thick and sported icy dirty snow. Several spots in this forest featured *very* steep snow steps (steeper than I have ever seen in a forest) where (I believe) the very heavy snow pack covered short rock steps and large boulders. On one section i actually front pointed down about 15 feet. About 15 feet below where i front pointed i came to another very steep section. I was tired and sweating and wanted to get down to beat traffic home (yes, terrible reason...) so I suppose I got lazy. I should have turned around and front pointed. Instead I went for a plunge step and my foot didn't penetrate the snow enough. I lost my footing and immediately began to slide feet first. There was a horizontally oriented felled 8" thick pine in my path. I shoved out my boots in an effort to stop myself on it. I had too much speed at this point and my feet hit it and bounced over - as did I. The next few seconds happened very quickly. I tagged another pine and scraped through a bunch of it's branches before going full airborne. At this point it was obvious i was falling off the top of a large step so I attempte as best I could to protect my head and extremities. A second later I slammed into a DEEP moat between a near vertical rock and snow. I felt that sickening smack of my head hitting something. I immediately yelled "holy fuck!!!" to myself, almost too shocked to be scared but more immediately concerned that I had given myself a concusion and would immediately be in big trouble. Thankfully this turned out to not be the case. I was now sitting vertical in the moat, wedged between rock and snow. I couldn't actually see the bottom due to the darkness below but I estimated it to be approx a 10 foot moat. Thankfully because I had my skis on they wedged me higher than I normally would have stopped. I was high enough that i would get a pole up and across the snow and chimney my way out. In the fall I had lost one pole (the one with my whippet, of course) into the moat. I didn't even consider retreiving it for one second. Stunned I gathered myself and stumbled over to a spot flat enough to rest and recollect myself. My head was woozy. I felt my forehead and a large bump had already formed. I remembered hearing that a bump is a good sign as it means the swelling is going out rather into your head. I inspected the terrain where I fell. It was fairly surreal because right beyond the moat the slope was just as steep and led directly into a large grove of trees. I believe if I hadn't landed in the moat I would have gained enough speed to hit those trees and cause myself serious damage. It wouldn't have been pretty. The rest of the ascent was rather uneventful, save for a few mandatory slips on wet branches or moss. I don't normally post things of this nature (thankfully they are few and far between ) but I figured it might serve as a good reminder. I know plenty well that climbing carries serious risks but i still never thought that my scariest moment in the montains would occur under the cover of forest on the approach. A day later the only thing majorly wounded is my pride. My head sports a large black and blue knot, my right forearm is scratched and solidly bruised, my right knee is swolen and tender and my left knee is also quite tender. All and all I got very lucky. Be safe out there all, -josh

Somebody has to find out how the hell you put a crampon through your HAND. That has to be an interesting story.

The suburbs are the beginning of the end of humanity. Loss of culture increases exponentially as you leave seattle and approach the east side. You'll soon be assigned your mandatory 2.2 children, 2 dogs, 1 cat, and an unfilling career. Your appreciation for all things artistic will dissapear. Finally, you'll be forced to turn in any existing vehicle you have and you'll be assigned your mandatory EAV (Eastside Assault Vehicle) - The Chevy Suburban. The good news is you are closer to Snoqualmie pass. Oh, and you can make weekly pilgramiges into the city for a temporary moral boost. Just leave your fucking Suburbans and Hummers out of the city! The Eastside:

General Info: The approach trail is dry past the lake and up to roughly 3400ft where I began to lose it in snow. I was able to keep the general track until reaching a bench like area at around 4k where the snowpack became solid and quickly very deep. The "approach" forest is a climb in it's own right currently. That thing is STEEP. It is the steepest forest in the North Cascades i've climbed through. Running water over moss, wet logs and snow made for some really pain in the ass sections. Despite this, travel was reasonably fast and I made the crest of the ridge before the crossing beneath Pyramid Peak in good time. The snow was veyr soft but reasonable on skis and the skiing wasn't bad at all. I ended up making camp at ONE PM my approach day cause the snow had gotten so soft that I didn't want to trek across the flat Neve glacier in the heat and slush. Instead I slept and read all day and climbed Colonial in the evening. Great choice!!! The next day I had perfect skiing and skiing conditions across to Snowfield and back then all the way back down to the hellish forest. If you like ski tours of this sort (moderate skiing only , but good fitness useful) i would HIGHLY recommend it right now. It's a work out but not nearly as terrible as the book makes it seem. The views are stunning. I'll post some pics when I get them downloaded and converted. I highly recommend the bonus scramble over to Colonial Peak. You get a new set of views and a pretty cool summit for fairly little extra work. If I had to do the trip again, i would do it exactly the same way: approach + evening colonial day 1, snowfield and out day 2. It can definitely be done in a very reasonable day as well, just look out for crossing the steeper slopes going down late in the afternoon. Even tho it looks like most major stuff has released i wouldn't discount the threat of something unseen releasing from high above given all the nasty cornicing I saw everywhere. -josh P.S. Paul, did you climb Pyramid Peak when you were up there? Is it truly a very easy snow slog from that side as it appeared from a distance?

HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! What a cluster fuck!!! That is ridiculous. So what is up with the ghetto oldskool laptop on the ski trip??

John, thanks for the reply. FWIW, I ended up scrambling up Snowfield peak yesterday. The 3rd class summer scramble was definitely made interesting by plenty of steep ice/snow in places, esp. a couple of exposed bits. Handicapped by ski boots it was a slow, careful scramble but I made it to the top. What a view!!!! Overall, however, it is only the last 2 hundred feet of vert that are tricky and it's rock for the most part. A few weeks and it should be in summer scrambling conditions. If you go up soon, just use care. ANother recommendation would be to ascend straight up the norht face. After inspection from the summit, i wish I had done this.

I thought of all y'all who had greybeard adventures when I was on the top of Colonial Peak the evening before last and experienced a sizable cornice collapse. I had climbed the peak from the Colonial-Neve glacier Col and was on the summit at roughly 6:30pm. I was peering over inspecting the massively impressive north face when fifty feet down the ridge a massive cornice broke. Being on the summit I was well out of any danger but i got to watch this slide tumble down a couple of thousand feet grabbing more and more snow from every slope it crossed. Watching the entire thing white wash a line down the entire face from above was pretty remarkable. As it rolled over the steepest part of the face I lost track only to see debris dust become visible in the valley below the face a minute later - and something like 3 thousand feet below. What was paritcularly scary is from earlier on in the approach the face looked surprisingly good for this time of year, esp. compared to what I expected. Everybody be careful out there - the cornices on the higher peaks this year are out of control huge in many places.

OMFG.

Anybody know what the sumit scramble on Snowfield Peak looks like in winter conditions? I was surprised to find the summit of Snowking mountain being a bit too exposed and tricky then I was up for soloing the other day without any tool, etc. due to the heavy corniced snow pack. That scramble is a simple walkup in the summer. Any beta to assist bringing the proper gear would help. thanks, -josh

As somebody who has wanted to see this corrupt and misguided administration fall apart for years, I have to admit that even I am amazed at the speed at which things seem to be tumbling at this point. Maybe I am just hopeful, but it seems as if things in the BushCo administration are imploding at a stagering rate... All I know is I haven't seen anything quite like it in my life.

We can only hope this is the start of a trend.

Or solo it...

HAHAHAHAHH ok, you gotta tell that story...

You do realize that the picket traverses are a completely different ball game than the ptarmigan or inspiration/pyramid correct? We aren't even talking about the remotely same level of commitment or style of climbing. This is assuming you mean traversing the summits, rather than just chaining some together.

Too Late? The route is always doable - just harder as more things melt out. It's probably a slog, for the most part, right now. If you want more of a climb, then go later in the year when there is ice.

It is a very straightforward coulior - you should have no problem if you've done Hood. Just evaluate the snow conditions and climb early since this week is the first really major warm up so far this year. As somebody else said, it should be very well filled in this year and be solid snow.

1920x1200 desktop. 1280x800 notebook. Couldn't live with any less res, nor 4:3 aspect any more.

Have you seen it totally dry tho? I would assume you've been on skis most times. It definitely gets seriously melted out. We went up there in Nov once, before any snow, and it would make a cool ice challenge, which is why we were up there. I'd have to agree, however, that it is still way worth doing. The area is so nice. I think it may have lost popularity and gotten a "bad rep" due to it no longer being a simple slog, which is I think is what most people want it to be.

Very much so...obviously neither example increases technical difficulties, but having way easy access makes the whole trip easier.

Glacier Peak is more difficult now due to the destruction of the White River road and trail. :-)

This was definitely my favorite part of the read: "I'm just gonna climb above the bergschrund. I'm leaving the rope and screws here for you in case I don't return. I'll be right back." "in case i don't return"