mike_m

We took a look at Sunshine yesterday, the route is in great shape except for the 'schrund below Horseshoe, near wall-to-wall. The only viable way around was all the way left under the Elliot Headwall, which was a bowling alley in the sun. Turned around below the schrund. My pics are still in the camera, I'll post some for you tonight.

Slightly different but related, we left a car at the South Bellevue P&R Saturday while we were on Lundin, came back and some a**hole had stolen the catalytic converter from her Toyota pickup. It's not just the trailheads.

The North Ridge of the Toof might be good for that purpose

Anybody been in to Killen Creek (or tried to)lately?

Both strands run through the device; as the leader moves up, both strands move along together. The belayer generally does nothing different than when belaying with a single-rope, tending both strands together. Rope-management at the belay can be a bear if you're doing multi-pitch on doubles or twins.

Last time I did the NR, it was one belayed pitch then about 300' of running belays back up and over to the crest of the ridge. Another good one, late season, is the Entiat Icefall on Maude.

I have a pair of Taakoons. They're OK, seem heavier than my Cobras, or maybe just not balanced as well; more vibration with the aluminum shaft. Head's too small for pounding pins, so I never bothered trying them for winter alpine. Used them for water ice a bunch, in Ouray and Canada, and like them for that. Am planning on trading up for new Cobras

Old-style Cobras with lockdown leashes

I've broken two of the BD Laser picks, both at the same place about an inch from the tip; 4th tooth maybe. Both times soft ice, relatively warm temps. Fortunately TR'd both times, once at Ouray and once following Bow Falls. It looks like the breaks happen where the tooth depth changes. I remember seeing a collection of busted BD picks at one of the shops in Canada (Mountain MAgic, probably, they all snapped at the same place.

How is the Fang attachment? I got to demo a pre-production set at Ouray last season and found the fang to be a very tight squeeze, even with my thinnest gloves. The BD reps said the production models were intending a larger fang, but I haven't gotten my hands on a real set yet.

I heven't been up there since mid-Sept, but the lower Nisqually formed up really lame for fun ice this year, at least up to 7100' or so. Up higher there might be something. The Coleman would be the extra drive/approach time, there's been lots of steep-to-overhung to work on. Be careful of the creek crossings though, really icy.

For Foraker, my FF Widgeon. For Denali, reasonably early (mid May) a FF Peregrine upgraded to -30-35.

The rule of thumb I recall for 00 buck is about 1" spread per yard of travel, so anything farther than about 50' away and your shot pattern will be wider than the typical man-sized target.

Got to try out a set of the new ones at Ouray in January. More curve to the shaft in the new ones. The set I used had one with the small Viper hammer head and one with an original Cobra head. The heavier head made the balance feel just like the old ones; the small (what will be stock) head made that tool seem a little light and out balance, for my swing anyway.

There was a fatal accident on Denali yesterday. Two lost, at least one was from Seattle though the names haven't been released yet. "They have slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God." Be safe up there.

UO's Outdoor Program

Having seen those reports before, they generally do include the costs of the military helicopters; ericb is right, though, the fuel, crew hours etc all come out of the unit's training allowances so it's not an "out-of-pocket" expense. If the unit wasn't using those dollars for the rescue mission, they'd be using them for other training purposes. The military crews I've worked with all love doing SAR work, providing very realistic training for their 'real" mission.

Cooper Spur is the broad snowy ridge ascending up and right from the bottom left of the photos up through the rock band top the summit ridge. The "gullies" could be a couple of different places. If the Sheriff is referring to the North Face Gullies (the party's ascent route)they are the two prominent parallel snow gullies in the very center of the photo. There are also some gullies mentioned which cut through the Spider on the East Face--they are out of view to the left.

There is a gravel road leading up to Cloud Cap, but it's buried in snow not usually melting out until June. The usual winter approach is directly up (pretty much)from Tilly Jane to Cloud Cap. Far more direct line than following the road on foot.

It's being "run" by the Sheriff because in Oregon (and Washington for that matter) SAR is the legal responsibility of the county Sheriff.

According to the Seattle Times today, foot traffic up 706 as far as the Westside Road will be allowed. Don't look for the road to be open until at least March.

Either to the right up the glacier to the skyline then up the ridge to the top (Sunshine), up the broad ridge and snowfield just left of center to the summit (Cooper Spur) or straight up either of the twin gullies in the center of the picture. There's a several other routes in the picture, or partially hidden around corners. The picture was probably taken from about 6500' above Cloud Cap. Awesome pic

Been there in mid February the last two seasons, the road was bare all the way to the end, the trails were bare except for some packed snow or ice in the shade and the only snow really to speak of was in the drainages. No avi hazard at all and the locals were saying it was pretty normal. Bison Willy's has a house in town where we stayed this year, it sleeps up to two parties totalling 6 people. I recall at came out to about $150 per person for the week for the 4 of us.

The write up in ANAM is pretty much the same as our report, minus the engineering analysis of the mechanics of the anchor failure. Pretty much the boulder rolled off the ledge rather than slid, assisted by the fact that the ledge had a 10-15 degree downslope. That fact was probably masked at the time of the accident by the fact that the ledge was covered in snow at the time. A week later the ledge had melted out and the slope of the ledge was plain.

NE Face of Eldorado, Entiat Icefall on Maude, Mesatchie Icefall Couloir are all really nice late season routes in the difficulty range and area you're interested in. They should be shaping up very nicely about now, though they may still have more snow than ice.