skykilo

I don't think he's reading spray these days, but Justin's TR here is definitely spray-worthy, IMHO.

I don't think I can pass on the opportunity to say Pro Mountain Sports is my favorite place to covet gear and mismanage my money. 'Carefully selected': it's amazing how much cool stuff is in such a small place.

He's climbed a handful of peaks in the Cascades, no?

This is a great example of the success and valor of the Oregon gas station setup. How else would that kid ever get a job Scott? See, just quit thinking about yourself for a minute. Bravo Oregonians! Defenders of incompetent stoners, I salute you...

Starts with a 'b'...

I'd guess 50 degrees at the top, and mostly 40-45 below the top 100 feet or so. Those are just my estimates though. Forget all this nonsense about whether it's an interesting climb or not. It's gorgeous back there, and I'd go climb it if I wasn't into skiing stuff of that nature.

Atomic drops, supermans, and backflips? Are you talking about skiing?

Look out, Klenke's gonna make you eat shit for misspelling coprophagic.

Conditions were good.

Nice photoessay Mike!

It sure is a gorgeous mountain, Mike. I don't know about lines that haven't been climbed (you might learn more by trying to contact characters like JR, JN or SW), but if you went up there in the right fall or spring conditions I'm sure you could do some CRAZY 3k-ish mixed lines; that would be SICK. But this was probably the year for that with all the unusual conditions and alpine ice we seemed to have. I'll definitely return to hit the summit, sans skis. About halfway down the face, the cliffs on the right getting sun in the picture started dropping BOMBS. I knew it would happen. This type of ski mountaineering is all about conditions. We were fortunate to get the right melange of luck, skill and magic on this trip. Like Ross said, the focus was the descent. GET DOWN!

Here is a route photo, courtesy of John Roper. Those are much different conditions than ours, but I haven't seen a photo that shows the route as well that has anything resembling our conditions. We went to the blue high point, but the slopes above the notch had a bit too much wind-deposited snow; I really didn't feel like taking a magic carpet ride out there.

Two days, what scandalous inflationary tactics?! Navigation through the brush isn't all that bad, dark or not. Drop into the valley, head directly up to the ridge the easiest way possible, and follow the ridge to the base of the face. It's not too bad. Right now I'd worry a lot more about postholing hell than the approach, but that's just me. I'd recommend doing it in a day. And take your skis.

I heard secondhand just yesterday that you can drive right to the end of the road, and the snow starts there. This could be changing rapidly, but it's not much of a hike to the Squak anyway. Oh yeah, go up the Squak! Less crevasse issues, more direct...

Mike, I'll have some good photos of Colonial and just about everything else, but not until I get my slides done. Maybe I could show you something early next week. I seem to remember you once posting something about 'Skin up the NE Face of Fury, now THAT would be impressive.' Ross should post one of those photos of me skinning the icefall. When I looked down to 4000 feet of exposure I started shaking in my boots and decided to get my crampons. Here's a route photo from John Roper. Who you gonna call when you need a photo of a route you can't see from ANYWHERE but the middle of NOWHERE? Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm such a dirty, name-dropping chestbeater...

And Scott, as far as that stupid skiing stuff, I thought this looked like a way cool line you did on Kangaroo:

Mike, you better watch your subject and object. Read what you wrote. Who is coming onto whom???

Here it is in action carrying a buncha crap:

Like new, only used a couple times. Medium frame? 5000 cubic inches... Just like this, but forest green. Make an offer.

Cheer up Wayne, I think you're swell.

Josh, It's never been more obvious you don't know WTF you're saying. And that's saying something. Seriously. I can manipulate data and programs WAY more efficiently... Eat my shell script biatche.

FEDORA baby!!! But sorry I can't help you. There are many internet forums about LINUX though, maybe someone on one of those could help you.

How many calories are in the average protein shake???

I'll crack a brew for Johnnie, who used his superstar status in the aftermath to do good for all the No-J's...

What's are you trying to imply, hirsute3.14? Given the weather of the last week and the current forecast, we're headed for the most wintry conditions we've had this year in the mountains. By the end of the week we may even have a low elevation snowpack.