skykilo

Climb: Mt Formidable-Northwest Face Date of Climb: 3/12/2006 Trip Report: So. I have work to do and I wasn't going to write a trip report. But all I can do right now is stare at the wall and daydream about a never-ending mountain face of blower pow. So write I will. Nice slideshow Friday night, Mike. I enjoyed it. I was going to stop drinking after the Patron was gone, but j'ai eu soif. Drank way too much. Plans for the one-day Sunday were perfected and ready. The only problem was if I moved my head it hurt real bad. Chorizo, eggs and medicinal herbs from the downstairs roomies finally cured me around two. So I grabbed Ross and we were cruising toward the North Cascades shorty after four. Credit is due, so I must acknowledge that Ross was talking about this route over two years ago when I first met him and we skied Buckner. My interest was finally whetted when I got a glimpse of the Northwest Face while heading up the Middle Fork to Spider last month. Couple that with this dynamite photo from John Scurlock and we were ready to go. Finally high-centered to no avail at mile 16 on Cascade River Road, we dug. Half an hour of digging, reverse, forward, digging and reverse and forward and we had the car on the side of the road pointing toward civilization. We skinned the remaining mile to the Middle Fork circa 8pm. Deadfall worse than normal bushwhacking was the boon of the night. We were relieved when Klenke's words rang true; Cleve Creek drainage is open and pleasant. From about 2,700' we were able to cut into open slopes and traverse into Cleve Creek. The moon was nearly full, the night was young and I was elated that every vertical foot we climbed from this point would be repaid with turns in powder. Somewhere partway up the drainage we had a snack and slept until we were too cold. As my old friend Don Quixote likes to tell it, snatches a nap, as they say, resting on his lance and with his feet on the stirrups as knights-errant did of old. Formidable and froid restricted our repose. Soon the full moon that obviated headlamps also cast aspersions on our access. How to get onto the face? The gully on the right looked like a one-way ticket to nowhere. The slopes we'd hoped to use on its left were snow-dusted rockslabs. Cliff bands barred the way on the left, but there was a chink in the armor on their right. With encouragement from Ross I skinned to the friendliest-looking spot. There I found thin snow over rock, giving way shortly above to thin ice over rock. I wasn't thinking clearly and wanted to sneak through the spot without any gear shenanigans. So I removed my skis, put them slightly above me into some snow and tried to get up the difficulty with naked ski boots. Halfway into the affair I lost my footing, fell into the snow below and knocked my skis down the slope. Ross caught one. The other? Stop. Stop. STOP! It stopped at the bottom of the slope and I proceeded to fetch it. While I was retracing my skin track, Ross put his skis on his pack, donned his crampons and made the moves. What followed the moves was a very spicy traverse on loose snow over rock above an ever larger cliff band. Through a scary windlip and now to the business. Up, up, up... approximately an hour before dawn our efforts put us in a bowl below an ice bulge. I was kicking steps and had avoided the accumulated snow in the bowl's middle, but at its top was faced with a dilemma. Cross the top of the bowl below the cliffs or retreat to a different route? My sphincter was clenched so tight it could have cracked a carbon nanotube, thinking about cutting a slab out of the bowl and riding it to Cleve Creek, so we found a way to retreat around a rib to some trees. From there we were able to skin. Above the bowl and cliffs, things were looking good. Ross skins at dawn. We were at the base of the upper face by 8:30. The snow here had ripples, evidence of wind-scouring. We were encouraged. Booting up the face varied from boot-top powder to knee deep swimming. Prolific self-congratulations ensued. Picture yourself perched above cliffs, between rockbands, on a gorgeous steep face filled with powder. Yeah. Things got tricky at the top. Sugar snow over steeper rocks. We did some really cool booting along the North Ridge with stimulating exposure. There was a good spot for making the change about 15 vertical feet below the summit, so we left the skis there. Sidestepping the 60-degreeish knife-edge ridge at the top seemed passé. I've side-stepped so much in the Cascades already. Twenty-five hours after waking up with a hangover, Sky climbs the final bit of ridge to the summit. Washington winter wonderland As far as the descent, suffice it to say that it was the best non-stop, fall-line powder run I've had. 5,600 feet to the Middle Fork with a couple pauses to rest the legs and utter platitudes like "Fuck yeah!" A nice boof into powder at the bottom of the face over the bulge at the edge of the cliff band, where I lost my ski so early in the morning. We hauled ass through the Middle Fork's death-shwhack. Sausage sounded good. That's a lot of powder! Gear Notes: Thermos full of sex-shot Americano CRITICAL

Anything left? (Really I just wanted to get Dru off the main forum page. The reign of terror is over!)

How many 14ers in Colorado start at 6k, one? (Pike's Peak.) Seems like most of 'em start at 10k. Here's a summit photo from yesterday for Grissle.

My old Roots CDs got stolen after a house fire six years ago. All I have now are DYWM and Illadelph T_{1/2}.

definately.

I just bought a bottle of Patron. Would a shot suffice in lieu of a brew?

You're pretty smart for a spraymonkey. Back to dataland.

It's really not fair what ignant fucks can do with Google these days. But I'll still buy you a beer.

Hell yeah. So poised, she rises -- Phoenix from the flame Finally bored with their feeble fuck games She smooth reaches behind her and takes straight aim at eight shriveled up cocks with a fully loaded Glock Parts lips, not expressly made for milding dicks and then, she speaks: Your shreiks of horror bring me bliss, I must admit The thought that I could shred your tips with eight quick flips excites me, see y'all fuck with the pussy but I fuck with your minds Lack of soul and respect is the crime This.. was a set up.. now tell me what..... what's my name? * gun cocks *

Dumb old whore? Nope. This is poetry baby.

I bet NOLSe knows it.

Yeah bitches, I'm ready. Who can cap the quote? I'll buy you a brew if you do.

Your hotlink got bitch-slapped, Tuffita.

WOW thank you Sam for that gripping account! Good job Dave, Pax, and all the other people involved with the rescue! Here's to your recovery

Here's the one I always get: "Just be wise."

this place was amazing. is it still around? now that i work in the city again, i might have to trek over there. Maybe I'll check tonight while I'm getting blotto downtown.

So I managed to thrutch my way up some overhanging, off-width 5.9 there at the Overlook. On the ground again, I go talk to this couple who were both just firing up 5.12 face climbs. I couldn't have gotten one bolt on these crimpy climbs. I'm talking to them and at some point in the conversation they both say in agreement, "Yeah, trad climbing freaks us out."

Oh yeah I wasn't supposed to reveal the time-travel-for-national-defense research program. oly please delete this thread before the men in black suits come get me!

I don't recall ever meeting a Jeff Beelzebub. You gotta watch out dropping LANL names on the web man, they'll totally come erase us.

Yeah but in the Spring the avy cycle is mostly like clockwork. What exactly would the spring ski mountaineer/climber want, besides a little education?

Climb: Los Alamos area rock- Date of Climb: 11/10/2006 Trip Report: I spent most of last November in Los Alamos. There wasn't (and still isn't) any snow in New Mexico, but I was lucky enough to go rock climbing a few times while I was there. There's a ton of really fun rock climbing everywhere in New Mexico. No alpine or wilderness like Washington, but it sure is nice to be able to climb in the warm sun on a nice day any time of year. I drove around the Jemez Mountains with Michelle. We were looking for Cochiti Mesa but couldn't find it. I hiked through some scratchy brush and found a random appealing dihedral. It was a fun lead, but scary placing gear in volcanic tuff. I belayed Michelle to the top of the canyon just as a thunderstorm hit. Sky leads a random corner. Really cool formations off a mesa in the Jemez Mountains We climbed at another spot in the Jemez Mountains too. Roadside sport climbing high in the Jemez Mountains We went to the Sandias but it was just way too cold. The really cool thing about the Sandias is that you drive to the top, over 10k, then hike down the mountain to the base of your climb. Looks like lots of adventurous climbing there. Finally we went to the Overlook at White Rock, just 10 miles down the road from Los Alamos. The Overlook is a park that overlooks the Rio Grande and the Sangre De Cristo mountains. Lots of fun, steep trad and sport climbing on basalt columns. The climbing pictures all looked crappy, but here are a couple to show the scenery and rock. Thanks for the heads-up about the Overlook JayB, sorry I don't have better pictures! Views of the Rio Grande and the Sangre de Cristos on the hike to the cragging at the Overlook Standard column at the Overlook. All the sport climbs kicked my ass, but the cracks were fun to lead. Oh yeah, I had a good time doing easy hikes up some 12k peaks there too.

UBB36-ML-549837-ML-

Yeah we'd have 'em all skied out this year if we could get a piton sponsorship. Rapping with skis: the future. PS: Cool TR avitripp, way to get after it.

You better all postpone climbing it until the TR then, 'cuz Ross seems hell-bent on slogging that road every time he has a day off work. FTard. On another note, what the hell does that 'do your homework' comment mean? Was that meant for the Chair Peak beta thread? Sure wasn't any useful current info in your link. Not that Jim's anthology TR wasn't excellent.

I hadn't noticed this. That does sound like a nice tour, with an easy and convenient exit-vehicle placement. Sweet.