jimmyleg66

You can try 250-814-5202, Rogers Pass Duty Warden. As to current conditions: Subject: [MCR] Selkirks- Sir Donald, August 1st Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:23:19 -0600 On the weekend, Sarah Hueniken and I guided Sir Donald as a party of four. Saturday on the hike to the bivi site the sky was completely obscured by smoke which by Sunday afternoon had mostly dissipated. The route itself has a couple of patches of snow which can be bypassed or easily climbed without ice axe or crampons. We took the West Face Bypass route on the descent and crossed 100m of snow where we used ice axes but did not need crampons. The final rappel station along the ridge (before you start descending the West Face) has been moved slightly north, which now eliminates the potential for rapping into space above the West Face. The bivi site is free of snow and Wardens are checking for Wilderness Permits. Apparently a grizzly has been spotted around the bivi site. Lilla Molnar Mountain Guide

1.5m of snow at Applebee as of June 19th.

Generally, AT boots are significantly lighter and more flexible than alpine. Most have a walk function that allows for more flex at the ankle. They also come with rubber boot soles, usually Vibram. Also the liners are warmers and many lace up. However they are always evolving and now there is a wider range to choose from then ever. You can climb in them but there is much less flexibility and they are heavier than a pair of plastic climbing boots. They have a big duckbill on the front but most will take a crampon. However all this flexibility and light weight comes at the obvious price of downhill performance. The lighter and easier the boot is to tour in the less forgiving it will be on the down hill. If you find yourself leaning back alot in your alpine boots, then you better work on your stance before you switch. The Garmont Adrenaline would be a good choice if you want a do it all boot. It is a 4 buckle boot (most AT boots are 3) and very stiff. Still not as stiff as an alpine racing boot, but way stiffer than most AT. Once again though, you have a heavier and stiffer boot, so not ideal if you take it on a 5 day ski tour. Whatever you do, get out and rent a couple different pairs. Boots like the Scarpa Denali's and the Garmont Adrenaline's ski more like alpine boots, but still are not as stiff. The Scarpa Lasers (I think they're called Matrxi now) are a nice compromise between weight and performance. I have an old pair of Nordica TR12's. They are great for touring and most skiing, but when I get on anything steeper than 40 degress, or in some crud, I really with I had a stiffer boot.

Thanks Dave and Buck. Now maybe I'll bring that change of underwear and extra chocolate!

I got a second hand report that the Kain route still has some snow and ice on it. They also mentioned they used a #3.5 and two #4' Friends, they didn't say where exactly on the route. Is that much gear over 2" needed? Or could it possibly be the smaller cracks were iced up? I was hoping to leave the boat anchors at home.

I was up at Rogers two weeks ago, pretty wet down low and new snow up high. There were lots of griz warnings and I've heard that the approach to Sir Donny is closed now due to a sow and cubs frequently near/on the trail. Google "Live the Vision" and go to the BB, there's a pic of Sir Donald posted recently with lots of snow. A friend of mine was on Athabasca on the weekend and saw a team of three trigger a 2.5 size avalanche. Apparently the slide stoped just short of a crevasse field. Guides and rangers nearby helped expedite a helicopter rescue. They also heard reports of slides as big as 3.5. Whoever is at the dials in the old weather control booth has been boozin it.

So, when I'm bringing up someone on a pitch, if there isn't much space I like to flake the rope over whatever I've used to tie in to the anchor with. This is usually made easier by running the rope through a directional, most often above me, depending on my stance. However, its not always possible or convenient to have the directional go through an equalized point on the anchor, so I'll just attatch it to a single piece. For bringing up the second, is this a grevious error or common practice?

Hey Dru, You don't just have to look out for those sunny days on Yak just in the Winter. Last June we were rappping off Yak-Check and just as I finished the second to last rappel, a Greyhound bus sized chunk of snow/ice at the base ripped out and slid down into the forrest. If we were five minutes faster, one of us would have gone for a ride. Saw the same thing on a smaller scale happen on Vicuna the year before.

Tracy by Mogwai

I put together a slideshow from the Wapta Traverse. We did it over Easter Weekend 2004. If you'd like to check it out its at http://www.telemarktips.com/Moviepage.html If anyone has done the Bow-Yoho, I'd be interested in talking with you. PM me or email me at timmckee@shaw.ca

Hey Shawn, didn't I see you in a movie once? Your blather sounds familiar. Hmmmmmm. Wait a minute! "The Princess Bride"! INCONCEIVABLE!

The Edmonton Fringe Festival is on until Aug 22. Whyte Ave. will have more freeks, geeks, clowns and performers per square meter than just about any event other than maybe Burning Man. Shows are either free (street performers) or like $10 or less. Edmonton is known as the Festival city and this is the topper for the summer.

Never mind, went up the first 6 pitches of Yak Crack yesterday. Few wet patches but nothing bad. There was a 2m+ thick snow slab the size of school bus that avalanched about 10 minutes before we rapped down to it.

Has anyone been driven by or been on Yak recently? Is it dry? How was the descent? Timmay!

Hey Fern, Wow, my first cc.com'er chance meeting... almost. So was that you my partner stopped beside to take some pictures? Yeah I was suprised at the snow depth and definitely appreciated the easy descent it provided. I knew the area was popular but was pretty suprised to see all those people! Do you know if they were all together?

Hiked in Friday afternoon carrying a tent, but passing hikers on their way out said the hut was empty. So instead of camping and fighting off mosquitoes somewhere on the East Ridge, we stayed at the hut. However we weren't totally alone as evidenced buy something small, furry and four legged, that ran across Kevin's back sometime in the night. We were out the door the next morning at 4:50am. Despite the good approach photos from Alpine Select we still managed to traverse off the East Ridge too high and end up downclimbing the buttress before the glacial cirque. Then again climbed too high on the left of the glacier and into the midst of several of the only open crevasses. The guidebook says that the bergschrund can be troublesome but we didn't find one, only a huge pile of ice debris and a 20' vertical wall of snow/ice blocking access to the route. I guess maybe the lower wall of the 'schrund calved off? Either way it was beyond our abilities and single mountaineering axes. So being the Mark Twight wannabees that we are, we climbed the rock to the right in our crampons until high enough to access the snowslope from a nice wide ledge. It took two short pitches(due to rope drag)up from the glacier. Probably could have climbed a more direct route up the rock, without crampons, in a single pitch, but we were having fun and wanted to give it a try as neither of us had done it before. Once in the couloir the climbing was fun and straightforward. The snow varied from a little too soft to just perfect. We had 3 pickets and simulclimbed until there was two remaining, setting up 4 belays in total. I only measured the slope angle near the top, which was 58 degrees. It might have been a bit steeper in spots but it averaged around there. At the top there was an easy exit up the rock on the right of the couloir, probably 4th class, but we were beat and protected it up to a flat spot. From there its up a snowslope and an easy ridgewalk to the east summit. Followed the normal route down to the hut with some fun bootskiing along the way. Total time hut to hut was 11 hours. Amazingly had the hut to ourselves again that night. There had to be 10-12 people who pitched tents around the hut and another 12-14 camped up on the ridge.

Has anyone been up Joffre recently? How is the Aussie Couloir, is there still enough snow for an easy descent?

Just got the axe today, last working day July 31st. No hurry to get a job, so I'll have lots of time to climb. Anyone interested gimmie a shout. Limited experience, but always happy to be in the mountains and I have a HC 4x4. High on the tick list are Joffre and Matier.

... and oh yeah, lift access to the Alpine

Yeah, it doesn't look like it but the top roll in the first picture is about 35 degrees. The first turn down it a slab (only 3cm thick) ran as far as you can see in the picture. There was several melt/freeze crusts that varied with aspect. Overall the avy hazard was low in the mornings and high in the afternoons as things heated up. We took the gondola up with a Whistler patroller and he said they had some 50cm windslabs ripping out on North and NorthEast aspects (with explosives). Except for the 20cm slab we triggered on Overlord, the only other thing we saw was sluffing.

April 26th to the 28th, attempted the Spearhead Traverse with my friend Trevor. Didn't complete it but had a fun weekend. Day 1 - Took the lifts to the top of Whistler and skied out of the area boundary. Partly cloudy skies but beautiful. Skied over the summits of the "musical bumps", Flute, Piccalo and Oboe. Made it to the Fissle/Whirlwind col in about 5 hours and dropped our packs and skied ot the top of Whirlwind. Made mandatory cell phone call to Lisa from summit to gloat. Skied down to the Overlord Glacier to set up camp. 5 minutes later it started snowing and by 7pm we were in a whiteout. Day 2 - Got up at 5:30am to a whiteout, back to sleep until 7:30am. 8:30am a "sucker hole" of blue sky temps us and we decide to give it a try. 10:30am we are back in a whiteout, in the middle of some crevasses on the Overlord Glacier. Cut loose a 20cm slab at the top of a steep roll so we decided to sit put until the fog cleared. 4hours of waiting for the weather to clear with no luck. We make it back to our previous nights campsite and decide instead to ski down to Russet Lake and stay in the hut. The clouds lift long enough so we can ski back down around Fissle but close back in again before we reach the hut. Trevors new GPS saves us an untold amount of time and frustration finding the hut. Day 3 -BLUEBIRD! Trying to salvage the weekend, we take daypacks back up to the Fissle/Whirlwind col intending to bag Mt. Overlord. 80-100km windgusts at the col change our minds(and make us happy we moved camp) and we elect to make a 600m ski run down Overlord Glacier and back to the hut, making a circumnavigation of Fissle. Back at the hut we eat lunch, pack up and beat it back to Whistler. Even though we didn't make it still a fun trip. Suprisingly didn't see anyone else all three days. Definitely going back for another try. Photos at http://community.webshots.com/album/73214537QRYoqA?841

Whatever Dru! I wish I WAS in Golden right now. #1 90cm of snow in 5 days #2 High speed gondola #3 4000' vertical #4 AND EVERYROAD IN AND OUT OF TOWN IS CLOSED SO YOU HAVE THE FREEKIN HILL TO YOURSELF! Where's a genie in a bottle when you need one?

Over 100cm of snow in 48hrs! I'm driving through there on Saturday to Golden, I think I'll bring my Transciever just in case!

If you are thinking of coming up to SunPeaks, this is the weekend to do it. It just snowed 35cm's and another 15-20 is expected this weekend. Temperatures are expected to climb starting Monday. Right now its a little chilly (-18deg C) Careful on the drive, here's the webcam on the Coquihalla summit. Nasty Skip the backcountry snowcat. Its a good deal for a reason. I can make a 10minute hike out and poach the same runs the cat takes you on. Not worth it. Nightlife - yeah it is a family hill and the nightlife is nothing like Whistler but you can still have a pretty good time. There's a new club called "Macdaddy's" but I haven't heard any feedback about it.

I already took this past Monday off to ski up off Duffy Lake Road, this may just turn into a two day work week! PowPow