Wheezle

Thomas Hornbein will be giving a talk entitled "Adventures in Himalayan Mountaineering", January 23rd in Bellingham. Info at: http://www.bellinghammountaineers.org

Newbies at ice climbing, some friends and I decided to get some practice in and see what ice festival hoopla is all about. Naturally, we didn't seek out anything too difficult, mostly hanging out at the Rambles. Here's a few observations. Hope they help. I don't have my guide handy so route names are a bit fuzzy. The rambles was in. We climbed the 1st two pitches of the Left Rambles. The 3rd pitch looked a bit thin and beyond what we were ready to climb. We moved to the next flow to the right (Right Rambles?). We did one pitch which had three tiers. 2nd tier was difficult to protect. We drove out Bridge Creek all the way to the dam. Only one route looked like it might be in condition: near the Dam, about 1000 or so feet above and across the creek. Falls across a lake on Hwy from Cache Creek looked good. Noticed climbers on it. A flow at or near Carls Berg looked like it had potential. A flow just up from the Ramles (kilometer post 18) looked interesting. We did a few pitches on Belmore Gully. Only WI2 but lots of it. DO NOT park at the bridge and hike back. It's more than .5K and a nasty bushwhack (using Mark Dale's bushwack rating we estimated a BW3+: http://www.alpenglow.org/themes/subalpine/brush-ratings.html) Our party suffered a nasty gash, loss of blood, and a cracked rib on the 2.5hr approach. Cross the creek instead. It was only knee deep but be wary of slippery rocks. Hip waiders useful. Has anyone checked out Hubba Hubba or the Snow Creek trail area in Leavenworth recently?