Ursa_Eagle

perhaps they'll rename Ball Butte, then my four-day ascent this past spring will be even more heroic!

what about okanogan? I didn't get a fine, but they want me to pay the $5 for parking...

I was there last weekend. We parked at the snowgrass flats trailhead, hiked to the PCT, then followed it North until we were below the west "face" of Old Snowy. We ascended easy snow slopes and loose talus slopes to the north ridge, where we wound up about 50 feet from the PCT again (I'd go back and do it my way again in a heartbeat, it was more fun than just going up a trail.) Following the north ridge, we scrambled up a very short 3rd class section and reached the summit. We then went south along the ridge, over/around some gendarmes and made it to right below Ives. A direct ascent isn't very viable, but if you drop down to the SW a little, there's a ramp that leaves the scree slope and goes out onto the SW (?) face of Ives. Some loose, exposed 3rd class gets you to the top. Just go straight up once you can, avoid traversing across the face. We descended down the other edge of that face towards meadows leading up to Cispus Pass, made it back to some herd paths that led to the PCT, then followed the PCT north to Snowgrass Flats were we had joined it earlier in the day. We hiked back to the Lily Basin cutoff, then followed that by Goat Lake and down Goat Ridge to the cars. We carried none of the following: rope, helmet, ice axe, crampons, rack, etc. I carried water, a shell, a small first aid kit, and my cameras. It's a beautiful area, only 3 hours from Portland, and well worth the trip. It took us about 3 hours to get up Old Snowy, 2 hours for the traverse, 2 hours down to Snowgrass Flats (you can do it much faster if you retrace your ascent of Ives then drop down to Snowgrass Flats from the traverse), then 2.5 hours out to the car via Goat Lake. Add in an hour total on the summits, and we got back to the cars 10.5 hours after leaving. On the traverse, you pass underneath some pretty loose gendarmes, and although nothing was dropping off while were going underneath, my partner was kinda wanting a helmet. I felt fine with just moving fast through those areas.

Kraft Deluxe Mac and Cheese for the first night, toss in some tuna from pouch (small, not large pouch) if you're feeling adventurous. Freeze-dried for the second night (after the climb) when you don't want to deal with any of that.

Sounds like the exact same spot we camped. Right above an old terminal moraine, looking up at the snout of the Depot glacier. Dru, when you did it in 21 hours RT, how many people was that with, how many pitches did you do the face in, what time of year, and what descent route did you take?

Yeah, I had to bivy on that route a few weeks ago. We were a team of 6, and simuled the whole way up the apron with a decent amount of pro so it took quite a while. We made it to the snow arete in early evening, and wound up bivying on the rock outcropping about a pitch and a half below the notch. Next day didn't start off great (lost an hour to a stuck rope in a moat after rapping down to the snow), but we got up and made it down the south side, then around a buttress and up to the Mad Eagle Col to descend the West Depot Glacier. 42 hours after leaving camp, we stumbled back into it. Where did you camp, and did you go for the West Depot Glacier or Redoubt Glacier descent?

so did you manage Thunder Ridge? (I think that's what it's called), or did you do the Butt? Congrats on both summits!

congrats! I'll have to try the North Ridge next time. We trundled around through the soft snow and choss on the South Face on Saturday before turning around at 7500'. Nice TR!

I read it fast and thought it said: "Center for Sex and Children"

so how much elevation is involved with this infamous "Mt. Si" anyway?

6'2" and 170 or so. but if you want twig-like, when entering high school, I was 5'8" and weighed under 100 lbs. I couldn't even bench press the bar.

$1 for a large slice of good pizza and a soda ain't bad. Plus, there's actually some nice places up the hill. I don't think it's in Troy, but Peeble's Island was definately a nice place to go for a short hike or poach a bike ride.

Thinker: was it the new Gemini? I use an old one (single LED) for caving, and I supplement the LED with an Aurora. I'd like to get the double LED to use as my primary light (rather than supplementing it with an Aurora) Also, for caving, I don't think I'd like the different angles of the LED and incandescent of the Myo series.

don't forget northern Jersey (especially Newark), definately gives Texas a run for its money Troy, NY can hold it's own on the list, but I don't think it's quite of the same caliber (it at least has a few redeeming qualities) Texas blows chode!

yeah, we saw some of those slings you were wondering about, but nothing really looked good (unless you like wet, downsloping choss with some overhangs.) We reached the large rock outcropping the middle of the face, and didn't feel like continuing to traverse on the 50 degree snow slope without the right gear. We figured the route followed that snowfield to the top, then ledges and snow fingers up from there.

so then what's Jack Mtn doing up by Ross Lake? Is that his schlong?

Nice recovery! Keep it up!

pears? although I've always associated guys who have so much fat that it droops down with that term...

not just the Andes are affected by the changing climate... http://swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=4039782

I don't understand why the same rights that you chose to violate (by committing a crime) are now supposed to protect you... just cut off his schlong and balls. problem solved.

The standard approach to climbing Hood is to walk from Timberline. If you deviate from this standard (by taking the cat or the chairlift), I think you'll have a harder time convincing some people that you actually climbed the mountain, mainly because by the standard defination, you didn't. You rode half-way up the mountain, then climbed the upper part. but the bottom line is, he was up there while we were at work, so props to him! Good job! (and at least you admitted that you used aid)

I just found a in my backyard

We saw a large (1.5' - 2' in diameter) snapper trying to get to a cave in VT once. We gave it wide berth. (The caves were insurgances, but we went in anyway. The other two guys were wearing wetsuits, but I only had polypro. Wet caving without a wet suit!) When we went by the same area a little while later (you don't go wet caving without a wetsuit for very long), the turtle had moved on.

OK, 0 for 2 at this point. This year at least we made it to within 1500 feet of the summit (better than turning around 3500 feet short last year). Who has actually made it to the summit, what routes did you take, and when did you do it? The guidebook seems like it would be better used as toilet paper. Two other parties up there this past weekend agreed with us. So far I've tried the Little Jack route (last year) and the Jerry Lakes route (this past weekend.) The gulleys on the south face that we traversed under this past weekend were nothing but extremely steep and loose choss, including some overhanging stuff. We tried to get out onto the snow, but were expecting a rock scramble and weren't prepared for a 45-50 degree traverse on soft snow with a cliff for a runout. It looked like if we could have gotten across the snow, we could have made it up from there (the west side of the tall part of the south face.) I can provide photos of where we went and where we think the route went (they're on another computer right now.) Also, what about the glacier on the north side? How's the approach, how's the exit? Oh yeah, Jerry Lakes