eternalX

Climb: Mt. Shuksan-Chimneys Date of Climb: 7/17/2005 Trip Report: Attempt #2 We approached with the ladies on Saturday afternoon, setting up camp at Lake Ann and taking a quick, frigid swim in Lake Ann. Woke up at 4:20 am and on the route by 5. We made the top of the chimneys, and the base of Winnie's Slide by 8 am. In the meantime, the ladies packed up a tent and hiked out (notice how we tied in a climbing trip with time with the gfs - this works well). Winnie's Slide was much easuer then I remember last year. I think we went later in the year when it was a big slab of ice. As of Sunday it was easy, soft snow. Kinda felt like an idiot lugging up two ice screws. At the top of the slide we crossed over the little moraine and went up very hard ice, about 100ft. At that point we roped up and traversed the Upper Curtis to Hell's Highway. It was easy route finding, with little crevase danger. We ran out of gas on Hell's Highway, not making it to the summit pyramid until 11:20, where a group of 15 or so were about to come down the Sulphide Glacier. We were pretty spent and looking at the time, we knew we had to blow off the summit attempt (I had a 10:15 redeye flight to New York that night to make). It sucked, but turned around and started back. THe hike back was brutal. It takes almost as much time to go down as up and we didn't make it back to the lake until 4:15. After quickly packing up another tent, etc we started back on the trail and made it back to the car at 6. We hightailed it home and with a little luck, made my flight. It sucks that I spent the next 5 hours sleeping on a plane, another 45 minutes sleeping in a cab, and then another 2 hours in a hotel and we still didn't summit, but felt pretty good about the trip. Next year, we're doing Sulphide. Gear Notes: Used normal glacier gear Approach Notes: Everything is in great shape.

Follow-up - You don't need a screw. It's softer snow and the runout isn't bad at this point. We glissaded down.

We're going attempt shuksan via the chimneys this sunday and was wondering if it's worth trying to get a screw into winnie's slide. I crossed the slide last year without one, but it was a bit sketch? It's not crazy steep or anything, I just felt that if i did slip on the slide it would've been bad news. Thoughts?

I was up there three weeks ago and got to 12,500 before turning around due to weather. There was no 90 degree section. Nothing even remotely close to that.

We aol need more friends like you. Is it the quality of the cam or the friend that determines when you give it back?

heading up to leavenworth tonight. are there guide books in town or should i stop by rei on the way? What's the best bar to hit in lworth? and the best food?

Can't seem to find a shop to rent me a splitboard for skinning baker this weekend. I've called both glacier shops which don't open until 10am on saturday (was hoping to get an early morning start) and the alpine hut here in seattle, who isn't interested in walking across the street to get them out of summer storage... any ideas?

We've been thinking about something like this but haven't pulled out the maps yet to figure it out...a board down on a closed mountain sounds like a lot of fun

Nobody summitted on sunday. Many groups sumitted on saturday. ID is wanded but the spacing is pretty far apart. My guess would be that most of the boot track past Cathedral Gap is gone from the wind. With good visibility you might be able to see the wands from pretty far away, but for us on Sunday, it was like 10-20 minutes between wands.

Climb: Mt Rainier-Ingraham Glacier Direct Date of Climb: 5/7/2005 Trip Report: Two friends came up from Phoenix on Friday night and we left Seattle at 6 am on Saturday morning. After chatting with the ranger for a bit we were off to Muir by 9:30. Arrived at 2:30, took a nap, made water and food and went to sleep. We got moving at 4:00 am, a late start because our alarm didn't go off. The wind was about medium strength. At about 11k, we passed a team on their way down. They had turned around because one of their members was feeling ill. The visibility was going in and out and as we climbed higher, the wind got much stronger and it started to snow, At about 12,500, we decided to turn around as well. SUCK. Another group turned around as well, about 500 ft below us. We were back in the parking lot by 12:00 noon. The route was completely wanded but the weather was bad. Watching the dark clouds move in on the way back and never getting a good look at Ranier today, I think we did the right thing. Gear Notes: 3 pickets, 60m rope Approach Notes: Route completely wanded. Snow all the way from Paradise. Saturday would've been a great ski outing.

Great. 2:30 is about 4 - 6 hours after i want to summit.

How important is that second tool?

You just sign up in person when you climb.

You can self-register right now. There are no crowds on Rainier at this time. I spoke to the ranger yesterday and he said nobody had even climbed emmons this year yet. more info

We've been planning a trip up Gib ledges for this weekend and the forecast says Mostly Cloudy with a chance of rain. To me that signals a low chance of wanting to venture beyond Muir. As a back-up we're thinking about Colchuck. Anybody have any experience with "mostly cloudy" conditions at rainier? My concern is getting up on the ledges nd getting into a whiteout and then only "hearing" rockfall. Also, is it steep enough to glissade at all form muir to paradise? one guy doesn't have a board.

oh yea. I met Bug too.

I'm guessing you saw the latest REI sale. I "rented" this tent last year for a quick trip (i forgot my other tent at the cabin) and I liked it as well. The two doors are nice. The one i rented was really heavy, but it was old and now it seems they've gotten the weight down quite a bit.

I went last year and met MisterE. It's a great event to bring people new to the sport. I brought my gf and her friend and won some new shoes. Good mixture of people (experienced and not so much). Also met the guys from mgear, who were super nice. Last year it was pretty cold and rainy and the slideshow was a bit long for one speaker (like 2 hours? in the rain - good times). I'll prbably go this year.

sucky, at least i didn't miss too much.

Is there an outlet sale this year?

A year ago I went into REI to use my dividend and 20% discount and walked out with these shoes. I've been wearing them on and off since and I had to write in and say that I've been more than happy with them. The Shoes Pros : There are four scenarios that come to mind where these guys came in handy. They were my main shoe on a 2 week trip to Japan. One night my friend and I sat in the puring rain for an hour or more to cath a bus to Kyoto. The parking lot was drenched and we ran through numerous puddles. By the time we got on the bus. We were both pretty soaked. The only difference was that my feet were completely dry while hers were soaked. Socks and all. I felt for her on that 8 hour bus ride. Two times I've worn these shoes snowshoeing. Both times my feet remained dry without sweating to death. This last weekend we did a 5 mile hike up by Goldmyer through low snow levels. My feet stayed 90% dry. My girlfriend's hiking boots were soaked through (granted her boots sucked). They are also very comfortable and after a year, showing little signs of wear. I've also run in them and taken them to the gym. Cons: The biggest con is the look. While the one piece navy fabric tries to give the shoe a clean look, the multiple florescent yellow Merrell logos (5 total per shoe!) and the weird gray piece towards the back oh the shoe (for support) gurantee that this shoe cannot double date as an urban shoe. So I highly recommend this shoe. I think they make some that look better now too. Cheers

She died this morning. Maybe by next week we won't see any more of this in the news.

Thanks dweeb (so retro!). I wasn't one of the climbers, so i guess i don't get a trophy. One day when I'm man enough to go up while it's snowing in June I'll make sure to get a trophy. Can I get the details of your trophy so mine can look just like it?

How did you make it down Winnie's Slide?

Christ, you guys are worse than ISA 9000. I was up at Baker this weekend and it was dumping snow. Does that mean it was winter or spring? or should we call it 'winting'? is it only the date that matters? I think every time that you misuse a word we should point it out along with a thread on w-m.com of it being used correctly. Great climb guys. Thinking about doing this same route first weekend of may. Oh wait. the 1st of May is on a sunday. Does that mean it's the first weekend of May or the last weekend of April? Pandora - Maybe you can point me to a thread of how to determine how i should correctly notate the weekend for the TR. How embarrasing it would be if i called my May ascent an April one!