kurthicks

depending on snow conditions, you can drive all the way to the Pole Creek TH all year. if i remember correctly, it's at about 5400'. other than that, you could possibly access the mountain from the Scott Pass TH which is a little lower. Going in that way takes you to the NE spur of the N ridge which is good for doing the traverse.... i miss that area.

Ok, so i know everyone says that Fritschis don't work with mountaineering boots, but has anyone actually tried to use the Fritschi Titanal 2 with the Salomon Mtn. 9 boots (or similar)? I tried it today in the shop and it seems to work (and hold) just fine, but does anyone have actual experience with it? it looks like they'd be a little better if i shaped the front of the boot some, but they seem like they'd work fine for moderate stuff. anybody? it basically comes down to the fact that i can't really afford new boots right now...

went to Hyalite this weekend to escape the horrible forecast. it worked out awesome...sun all day Saturday and light flurries on Sunday afternoon. Climbed G1, G2, and Hangover on Saturday and Mummy 2 and some of the "small" climbs by the Mummies trail yesterday. plenty of people out and tons of ice. lots of stuff is really really fat. the road is pretty easy now, about 2" of packed snow/ice for the last 8 miles or so. go get it...

Hyalite...

climbing WI in Banff or something alpine in the Selkirks...

Taken on Sunday:

drove back from the Canadian Rockies to the Washington Palouse... beat that for a sad story.

thanks, i didn't have the guidebook handy...

A four day weekend means one thing to me this time of year…Canada! So, after deciding to skip class on Monday, I headed to Banff for some early season ice with my girlfriend. She’s been begging me to take her ice climbing for a few months now and it seemed like the perfect time to get her on some ice. She’ll never question why the ice is thin if she doesn’t know better, right? Maybe it was luck, but the border crossing was the easiest I’ve ever had when going through the US95 crossing. The crossing guard looked at us funny and said “don’t go falling off any ice walls” with a little snicker on his face. Awesome roads got us to Banff in 7.5 hours from Pullman. We pulled up at the hostel around 10pm and did the ever popular, and super secret, Subaru bivy right there in the lot. With no real plan of action, we headed to Grotto Falls on Saturday. Will Gadd’s site said that it’s in and climbable, which means in English that it’s about 1” thick with tons of holes and lots of running water. Any the pro was just for looks (and mental comfort of the girlfriend). After that, I TRed Mental Jewelry (M6+) with some nice locals and called it a day. Sunday started with no real plan either since I was reeling from the night at the pub. So we headed to the Parkway and looked for something to kill the day with. Bridalveil Falls looked like a good objective after heading to look at Slipstream . The bushwack downhill to the creek bottom absolutely sucks. Contrary to what the guide says, go left out of the parking lot, cross the creek and walk down that way. One rap will bring you to the creek bottom (below a nice WI3 pitch) just below Panther Falls. After being a pansy and declaring Bridal Veil Falls too hard for my ability, we found a nice little flow downstream and played on it for a while. It was after noon and we wanted to get on Lady Wilson’s Cleavage before the end of the day, so we headed back upstream past Panther Falls (unformed) and Musashi and climbed the WI3 pitch to the right of it and scrambled back to the car. We then hit up the first couple of pitches of Lady Wilson’s, which was in similar conditions to Grotto, but with mushrooms and chandelier ice, and rapped off in the dark. On Sunday, I took some friends out to the Canmore Junkyards for some climbing. Lots of running water there, especially the left side, but plenty of ice. The Scottish Gully was really thin and wet, but fun and runout. Some guide from Calgary placed a pin (on WI2 terrain) somewhere off to the right, wtf? The afternoon brought some freshies to the Junkyard and it was time to head back to Banff. On the way home today, we checked out Gibraltar Wall and the flow just south of Sandpoint. Both are climbable, but thin and wet like everything else. I wouldn’t expect the route by Sandpoint to be around much longer with these temps. All in all, it was an decent trip for this early in the season. I think I convinced the girlfriend not to worry during my future trips, but she’s not going to be coming along any time soon. It seems that ice makes her a little nervous…maybe it was the fact that it was only an inch thick? Check out the pics in the gallery

nice work guys. what kind of rating would you give it? AI3? 4? Grade III?IV?

This isn't for the States, but it's the only place i've found Canadian topos... Map Town they've also got Mexico stuff and for the US you can also check out Topowest.com for free downloads that you can print yourself.

i saw that same flow in february and it was fat and blue then. i've got a picture somewhere that i'll post later. there is also quite a bit of stuff at the lake...

i like the trango light wiregates, they're the same wieght as neutrinos (36g) but are full size. easier to clip with gloves on. Trango just came out with a full strength, full size biner at 30g. the Superfly for racking stoppers i like petzl spirits as there's no notch to fight with.

Challenge of Rainier by Molenaar. nice bit of history. kind of boring at times though.

the FS would know , or at least they did a few weeks ago when i called them. http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mthood/

Sobo...i had to look up "sentient." stop using such big words. I thought that's what he was referring to, but the guide is a good place to start as well. i saw some ice here in Pullman today. think any of the outdoor programs at the colleges(esp NIC) have any beta?

just came out. go get it at your local gear store. I'm also looking for more Inland NW climbs. going out searching tomorrow over in idaho...i know of at least 1 FA to be had, but there's got to be more. I'll keep you posted if you want.

thanks, that's what i suspected. time for alternate plans.

Has anyone been up the NE buttress couloir route since this weather came in? Thinking of doing it this weekend... any beta is good beta.

photos, all the gear i can grab, and a to have while i watch it burn.

Looks like Layton's dream might not happen anyways. Live the vision beta

I found myself out drytooling on sunday, i wanted to do it, and i knew why...i'm tired of rock climbing after 6 months straight. It's not that the season is over or that i want to get my winter sufferfest on, but that i need a change sometimes and you always want what you can't have...

friday night - , Saturday - took a beginner on her first multipitch. Sunday - went dry tooling at the local choss pile.

good luck with that.

it's not, but sometimes you have to check your priorities. School is definately not at the top of my priority list. hey, there's always summer school