AlpinistAndrew
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Posts posted by AlpinistAndrew
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Climb: Attempt on Cutthroat-East Couloir
Date of Climb: 4/20/2005
Trip Report:
Masternate and I attempted the East Couloir of Cutthroat on 4/20, but did not summit. As NOLSe reported, attempt it at first light, cause as soon as the sun hits that mountain shit starts melting fast. We made it up the first pitch with spindrift slides coming down constantly and the ice was melting, but there and climable. A big snow slide hit as Nate led up the first pitch, thought he was coming off. Made it to the crux pitch but opted to rappel and get off the thing since everything was coming apart. Just as we were pulling the ropes at the base of the gully another big avalanche spilled down the couloir and we were happy to be outa there. Slides were occuring all over, small wet slides, but slides nonethe less. But the ice is still there, get it while it lasts. Fun time though, nothing like an avalanche washing over you.
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Climb: Cutthroat Peak-West Ridge
Date of Climb: 3/15/2005
Trip Report:
Climbed the West Ridge of Cutthroat on Tuesday. It was a spectacular climb. The approach was great and the climb was for the most part excellent. The second pitch was awful though (fortunately I didn't lead it). 80ft of unprotected climbing, on ultra shitty rock; scary. We simulclimbed most of the ridge except for the last 2 pitches or so. We downclimbed and rapped the ridge. Most of the rappel slings were old and ratty so we added some of our own stuff. All and all a great climb. I look forward to climbing the South Buttress now that I know where the descent route is. The snow is melting fast up there.
Gear Notes:
Small rack, rock shoes, 60m rope, but shorter would be good.
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I was the other guide on the trip. We were able to drive within a mile of the trailhead. Then slogging through fresh pow. The group was a bit slow, coupled with the amount of snow it just wasn't fast enough. On top of that driving up the road took longer than expected, so it just didn't work out. Beautiful day though.
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Climb: South & North Twin Sister-West Ridges
Date of Climb: 11/11/2004
Trip Report:
11/10/04-11/12/04
My buddy and I rode our bikes in on Wed. night and set up camp at Dailey Prairie. The next morning we got up early and went up towards the W. Ridge of N. Twin, then dropped into the basin between the N and S Twin (we had attempted aiming directly for the basin from the logging roads and going through the forest before and had bad luck, so we just opted to do a bit of ascending up N. Twin's W ridge to get to the basin). The west ridge of South Twin was a great rock scramble, but long though. The last section including some slushy snow. But snow on the north sides of the ridge was ice hard. (we boulder hopped on the icy snow stuff, for we ditched our snow gear low on the route). We summited at 2pm and got in the basin between the two peaks at 5pm, and it was pitch black. We didn't really want to hike all the way back up to the W. Ridge of N. Twin and back to our camp, plus it involved some routefinding and climbing. So we bivouaced there in the basin. It was a long night sleeping on the packs and sharing a space blanket. We saw lots of shooting stars and the northern lights. We got up at dawn the next morning, hungry and tired, but we went and climbed the West ridge of N. Twin since we had to get up onto the ridge crest anyway to get back down. We then down climbed back to our camp and rode our bikes out which took a half hour of riding (it was fun flyin' down those logging roads). Overall an awesome trip. Though the Twin sisters aren't technically that difficult, I always seem to underestimate them, they are a bit committing, lots of terrain to cover climbing them.
Gear Notes:
Helmets
Approach Notes:
Snow free road/trail
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I have a pair of Grivel ice tools I am selling for 150, but I coudl lower the price. One is a straight shaft grivel geronimo and the other is a bent shaft rambo. I have only used them two seasons, the first season I only went once. They both have leashes as well. Let me know if you are interested.
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I agree, Tieton is a really great place to climb. It is where I learned how to trad climb. The routes are a bit more difficult than the ratings suggest but the cracks are awesome not to mention the weather that is almost always agreeable. I've gone back many times and always enjoy myself. One of my favorite climbs that I personally haven't led, but have climbed on top rope is Orange Sunshine, it is amazing.
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Climb: Liberty Bell Mountain-Beckey Route
Date of Climb: 9/10/2004
Trip Report:
This was my first "real" alpine climb of the summer (I was working in the midwest all summer (no mountains there) and I wasn't able to climb rock there either. So this was my first trad climb in a few months as well. We drove up with clear blue skies, not what I was expecting looking at the forecasts. I led the 1st and 3rd pitches. It was a great time. I had climbed the route before, but it is just an all around fun climb. By the time we rapped to the gully clouds covered the entire sky and some peaks were being obscured. By the time we reached the car it was raining. Good times
Gear Notes:
Standard stuff
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Climb: South Sister & Middle Sister-South Sides
Date of Climb: 9/2/2004
Trip Report:
One of my buddies and I decided to head down to OR to climb Jefferson, seeing as the weather forecast looked good for that area. We hiked into Jefferson Park and set up camp, beuatiful area, but we couldn't see the mountain because we were socked in. It rained the whole time, we finally decided to bail and go to Smith, but we opted to wait it out a bit until the next morning. So we woke up at 4am to more rain and hiked out. As we drove into the town of Sisters early that morning, we eyed the Three Sisters Mountains. We inquired locally at the ranger station and we were soon on our way to the TH of South Sister. We hiked to the top of it that day. Great views. That night we drove to the TH for Pole Creek and the next morning hiked to the top of Middle Sister (tons of loose rock). Overall fun hikes with great views. I wanna climb N. Sister, but I think I'll do that when it is covered with lots of snow.
Gear Notes:
used: Trekking poles
Approach Notes:
S. Sister: Trail all the way to the summit, though strenuous.
Middle Sister: Trail part way, then offtrail travel with minor scrambling.
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I am working at a camp at Lake Nebagamon, WI about 30 minutes east of Duluth. I did go to Betties pies and had a taste, quite delicious. I also had one of the best malts ever in Duluth. I will be mostly in the Boundary Waters guiding canoeing and backpacking trips, but I will have some free time, especially in the next 2 weeks. I would love to meet up and do some rock sometime. Thanks for the info everyone and I will be enjoying this new environment of the Northwoods.
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So I took a job in Wisconsin/Minnesota working at a camp. It is a nice area, never been to this part of the US before. I will be canoeing and backpacking in the Boundary Waters Wilderness most of the time. Hopefully I will get some form of climbing in. I brought my rock shoes so I may be able to find a rock somewhere. Quite a change from my normal topographical surroundings. I'm used to seeing Mt. Rainier at least once a month and climbing somthing higher that 2 ft. in elevation. But I'll get in some alpine when I get back I guess. hope this summer is a good one in the cascades and that conditions will be nice when I return in August, cause I want to climb some mountains. Anyone know of any places to climb out here.
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Went rock climbing at Peshastin Pinnacles. Climbed some fun routes. I was planning on climbing the NBC of Colchuck, but the weather looked so crappy in that direction, so my climbing partner and I drove over to vantage and did some more sport climbing. Great weather on the East side. Fun weekend.
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anyone want to go climbing up in squamish this weekend? i need a partner. thanks.
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One of the groups was probably the Bellingham Mountaineers Basic Climbing Class. They had their Rock I field trip at Erie around this time last year. Of course they were wearing gators, it was warm outside and they were rock climbing too, why wouldn't one wear gators
. From all the times I have been there and seen climbing classes, they have been using the summit wall, but thats usually where they are at. -
Yes I did see the Mt. Hood shadow, that was really cool. And, actually we did cross a small crevasse come to think of it, so Yes, I guess there was a crevasse we had to cross, which may have been the bergshrund, I don't know, I have never seen the upper part of the mountain when the bergschrund andother crevasses are open. The point was that the bergshrund/crevasses weren't a problem.
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Climb: Mt. Hood-South Side
Date of Climb: 3/22/2004
Trip Report:
I climbed Mt. Hood for the first time on Monday. My friend and I climbed the Hogsback route, and it was his first time up there as well. We started around 2am and started slogging up. We brought a rope and glacier stuff, but it was useless. There were no crevasses and I couldn't even tell where the bergshrund would be. From reading the description in Selected Climbs, I was expecting something a bit more challenging, but it was cake. We summited right around sunrise. It was beuatiful on top. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Awesome views. We were the first ones on the summit and we saw some stragglers as we started our glissade down the snow slopes. All and all, a good, easy climb. A short climb as well.
Gear Notes:
Used Ice Axes and Crampons.
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Looking for someone to climb with on Tue-Thurs of this week, one or all of those days. Interested climbing wherever it's dry. I'll be down doing Hood on Monday, so if someone wants to meet at Smith that would awesome. PM me if you can climb. Cheers.
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you saw five eagles, dang, I only got to see one, but it was still cool.
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Climbed at Mt. Erie today. It was awesome, it felt like spring or fall, the weather and the views were amazing. We climbed Zig Zag route on Snag Buttress. We then went over to the Shady Hollow area and climbed the Allen Henshaw Pre-Memorial Route and the sport climb Finger Licken Good just to the right. We then drove up to the summit and went to the summit wall and climbed some random crack. Good times, it was nice to practice my trad skills.
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Looking for a climbing partner to do some sport/trad at Frenchman Coulee on Saturday. Any takers? PM me.
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No pics sadly. We were able to place several screws in some good ice. we used a picket on one pitch, other that, we just ran it out and used trees higher up. there was sections of quality ice, but interspersed with not such good ice. still an awesome climb.
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climbed the North Face of Chair Peak on Saturday with Masternate32 and one other. stable snow conditions on the approach (though very icy slopes). the climb was awesome, fair amount of rotten ice, but still quality climbing. we hiked out in the dark and fog. there was a party of four ahead of us on the climb and other than that we didn't see anyone else that day.
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I go to Western and I love it. It has a good location so you are reasonably close to all sorts of climbing. As far as rock climbing goes in town, there is some, but its choss. There is some toproping, a bit of bouldering and a lead route or two, but its Chuckanut Sandstone (not a good thing), as people have mentioned there is Baker Crags and Mt. Erie nearby, they offer some sport climbing and some trad. Squamish isn't too far away, about 2 hours and has some of the best rock climbing to offer. There is rock climbing available close by, but its just not super quality and there isn't a lot. Personally, I don't mind, theres enough to make me happy, plus the rock gyms and then of course there is the cascades for alpine climbing and canada for ice climbing.
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I was there on Saturday with Masternate32 and two others. The ice was hollow and very brittle, plus there was a large amount of snow on the ice as well. Up higher the ice looked thicker, but it needs some more time until it is worth doing.
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Went up to the Mt. Baker Ski Area and skiied up towards Table Mtn. We did some runs around the Table Mtn. area. Great poweder, several inches. Lots of untracked snow. It was awesome conditions. When we skiied back to the car, we skiied inbounds for a short section and boy is it icy and overskiied. Nice day.
NF Shuksan
in North Cascades
Posted
I agree with nate. the approach really does suck. and definitly go back the way you came, the clear cuts look appealing, but as nate will attest, they are hell.