Z-Man

Alpine: Climbing the North Ridge of Vallunaraju in Peru Cragging: Doug climbing Infinite Bliss on Mount Garfield Scenic: Gary Y admiring the sunrise from the NE Ridge of Snowking Skiing: Seattle Mountain Rescue member Ryan L searches the trees during a SAR mission near Ingalls Pass Bouldering: Climbing the best chimney in Spokane Ice: Panos solos the North Face of Shuksan Humor: I had some things shipped to me right before I left for Peru, here Doug gives me an optimistic send-off

is there a way to edit photo details or delete photos?

Partner found.

If the weather develops. Send me a pm. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=883856

I'd say snow was rotten and isothermal until about 9400. There were point releases spontaneously coming off from within 100' of the summit when we were on top in the afternoon. Sherpa was pretty well filled in, but both it and the Stuart had some big, scary holes opening up, and was nearly impossible to probe when you're up to your thigh already. We watched the Laura Kellog NE Face route go from continuous snow and ice to multiple open rock bands in one day, things are changing fast.

This was a lot different than early May five years ago. Still a classic, and as long as you're willing to dig, not too sketchy. Lost a biner somewhere in the couloir and a pair of sunglasses in the Lake Stuart outlet stream. NW Face is continuous snow and ice right now, barely, but we passed on it as it was getting cooked. Triple Couloirs and the Gerber-Sink also looked completely filled, just need a cool, clear night, which seem to be in short supply. Every aspect was coming apart while we were up there, the only firm stuff was in the avy-scoured chutes. Speaking of which, Doug saved my tail up there when he looked up at the right moment and saw a big, silent ice block-laden point release come down the lower Sherpa on our way down. I love you man. Thanks for the early present, wouldn't have planned on another round with this one with anyone else.

My pics are getting resized to a much smaller resolution than they have in the past, is this to be expected from now on?

The route can involve steep ice, or possibly not, depends on conditions. Typically in June there will be more snow and not much ice. Last year was very dry so climbing it in May involved some steep ice and mixed. Brad Johnson lists it as one of the easiest technical routes to do down there.

I have a pretty good idea of where Doorish's route is now, and although its hard for me to imagine the multiple pitches of 5.8 cracks he describes, it sounds great.

I believe the most oft-done descent is to the East to the gap between Sherpa and Argonaut, which Beckey calls Sherpa Pass. It isn't fun. On a positive note you don't need crampons, boots, or ice axe if you head that way late season.

Started at the last trees on the ridge, maybe 7000', and seemed to be the obvious place to begin climbing. The steepest pitches were after the notch, but I thought the most fun stuff was simuling clean cracks down lower. You could also easily climb on 4th and low-fifth class ledges on the East side of the ridge almost the whole way to the notch if you really wanted to bypass the lower stuff, but I don't think I would want to do that. Forgot to mention: descending to Sherpa Pass via the South slopes is long and painful, but I don't know of a better alternative.

I don't think its ever been climbed before we were there... with good reason. I think the route to do would be to find Doorish's NE Buttress and finish it to the the summit via the North Ridge.

The feature is the North Ridge, its in Brad Johnson's guide, but I don't remember what he labels it as.

Trip: Early Morning Spire - Southwest Face Date: 9/14/2009 Trip Report: I read another TR on here that didn't care much for this route. I thought it was great. Doing it in September may have helped avoid the wetness which seemed to detract from others' experiences. A long two days worked just fine for us. I tried to save weight by not bringing crampons, but ended up chopping so many steps below the route that it would have been faster to just bring them. Lots of grass visible, but this was actually some of the best climbing. The tufts were easily avoided by stemming. I thought this short step was the hardest climbing, but was well-protected, and again the grass was easily bypassed with some footwork. The traverse around the corner was easily spotted and pretty damn cool. Getting off involved some moat shenanigans, but that's why we carry all these fancy tools, right?

Trip: Dragontail Peak - NE Buttress 1984 variation Date: 9/4/2010 Trip Report: There's a great TR of this trip here, http://www.skisickness.com/post/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=140 I'll offer some pics anyway though. This was a long, entertaining route. Much like climbing in the Cascades in general, it tends to alternate between scary and awesome. NE Buttress is more or less the right skyline. It would appear someone peed on that rock.

Trip: West Craggy - East Face Date: 7/27/2010 Trip Report: Went looking for Doorish's NE Buttress route while I was living in Omak last Summer. No dice, but climbed the generally unprotectable East Face through light snow and had a good time. Can't recommend this one, but there are some other impressive crags nearby that may yield better climbing. There are definitely some steep, good-looking couloirs above Copper Glance Creek for people who are into that kind of thing. Despite how it looks, he had the rope under control. This chimney was the redeeming feature, several hundred feet of solid mid-fifth, didn't have to touch the grass in the back.

Trip: Prusik Peak - South Face - Beckey-Davis Date: 8/21/2010 Trip Report: I thought this was just as fun as the Burgner-Stanley, though not as clean or direct. Some equipment issues made this climb a bit more challenging. My belay biner was locked shut so tight I couldn't open it, and still had my belay device on it. I also broke a trigger wire on my OP link-cam. The belay biner was fixed with some soap, water, and pliers, and the folks at OP replaced the trigger wires on my link-cam so was just a temporary set-back.

Trip: Slesse - NE Buttress Winter conditions descent Date: 9/19/2007 Trip Report: Tried to see if we could sneak it in with 30-40% POP, turns out no. While we bivied that night the weather continued to decline. The next morning it was apparent that no more upward progress was reasonable.

Trip: Mount Kent - North Face Date: 1/2/2011 Trip Report: Climbed the Kloke route back in January. I left this there several years ago after bailing off in some scary heavy spindrift. Nice to be able to clean up after myself.

Trip: Peru - Cordillera Blanca Date: 6/1/2010 Trip Report: Spent six weeks in Huaraz and we mostly got a GI tract/altitude butt-kicking, but it was beautiful good times regardless. Spent an embarrassing amount of time sport climbing, but it was really good sport climbing. Hatun Machay Urus Este Ishinca Maparaju Andavite Vallunaraju Pisco Haumasharaju(sp?)

Trip: Sherpa Peak - North Ridge Date: 7/15/2007 Trip Report: In the words of Jim Nelson, "good but not great."

Trip: Mount Blum - North Ridge Date: 8/10/2007 Trip Report: Fun route. Was hoping to combine this with the Mystery Ridge traverse but didn't have the gall to continue with poor weather.

Looking to climb in the Stuart Range this weekend. NW Face Stuart, Gerber Sink D-tail... Climbed TC's a couple weeks ago, conditions have been as good as they get. send me a pm.

http://www.mountaineers.org/nwmj/07/071_Shorts5.html

I happened to to be climbing Kent the day they put up the route back then. When talking to them about it in the parking lot afterward my understanding was that they avoided the main body of ice and went up mixed ground to the right of it. Trogdor and Eric8 were up there that day too, maybe they remember exactly where they went.