Timcb

Great choice for a lightweight 4 days! Even now? won't it be all melted out, with icy glaciers and long scree traverses?

So I was up on baker's ptarmigan ridge last week and noticed the above link-up as a variation to the fisher chimneys and the standard hell's highway completion. anybody know if it would work out this late in the season? how are crevasses crossing the top of the hanging glacier? I read and re-read the shuksan section of the CAG, but although beckey seems to make several mentions of climbing the n shoulder, I don't see any descriptions of what the climbing is actually like (looseness, rating..). it doesn't look to hard- anyone done it direct, like from the top of the n face or the price? another option would be to try the completion via the yellow rock mentioned at the top of the hanging glacier. thoughts? thanks

I see people have been asking more about camps.. We stayed at a high camp on the west side of the top of the turtle, just a short ways below camp hazard. There were a couple other parties there and the sites are good- no need to camp on snow. There was running water about 80' from our tent.

Climb: Mt Rainier-Kautz Glacier Date of Climb: 7/25/2004 Trip Report: Climbed the Kautz Glacier route last weekend. It was great fun- here's some beta: The fan is completely melted out. We crossed the nisqually further up, on some nice benches and ramps. However, this will soon become substantially more difficult as some key snow bridges melt out in the coming weeks. Last weekend we found this option a fun alternative to the scree slog We were able to use a fixed rope to descend from camp hazard toward the ice pitches. from there, descend a bit more, then traverse over loose rock, then a bit of dirty water ice, until you're on flat snow. traverse more and you're at the base of the first ice pitch. All the ice was fun and straightforward- lots of little steps, no prolonged exposure- if you've got a little experience climbing ice. if you don't, you'll find it very exciting indeed. The first pitch was probably about a full rope length, maybe a bit more. Then there's a mellow snow slope, then a second, more difficult ice pitch that's only like 100 or 120 feet. From the top, it's a nice slog to the top of the mtn. we carried over and descended the DC, which was nice and utterly stress free Enjoy! it's a sweet route with some real adventure to it Gear Notes: Carried 4 screws and 6 pickets. I'd definitely recommend screws- we used all ours and were glad to have them. Pickets were less useful- I'd recommend the standard glacier climbing picket/person. Leader and one of the followers had an ice tool along with their axe. The route can be done by an experienced party without carrying a second axe/tool, but the tool made it more fun and secure. I was glad I didn't bring my aluminum crampons Approach Notes: see notes about crossing nisqually

No snow at all on the ridge as of last weekend

Yeah, we were very, very close to bailing as you did. and the waterfall? you mean this one? Yeah, best waterfall I've ever seen was hard to miss.

I got my CCW Chernobyl this spring and think it's absolutely perfect. I was able to fit everything I needed for a 9 day trip through the Chilliwacks and Pickets a couple weeks ago and so didn't need to take my older Dana. We carried double ropes, a good sized rack, snow and ice gear, and food for All those days. I can't imagine a non-winter trip where I'd need to carry more. The pack was a total rock star. We had to haul packs twice on the trip and it was easily able to hold up to the abuse. The load was stable on my back through the worst bushwhacks. The pack warmed my legs to mid thigh (I'm 6'2") on bivys planned and unplanned. I looked at a lot of different packs (Granite Gear, Wild things, etc..) and am totally glad I got the Chernobyl. it's perfect

Ahh, yes. It's all coming together now.. On second thought, the route's really a must-do for those with 7/21 birthdays

Yeah- I think it must have been right from the get-go, where we parked my truck at the Major washout/road impasse. We knew we needed to keep going up and left one or two more times, but when we crossed the dry creek/washout, we found the road continued straight ahead and so took that till it completely petered out without seeing another fork. My hunch is that the washout coincides with a road fork and that we had lost the correct way as soon as we shouldered our packs. Don't do as I did. The bushwhacking we suffered through was horrifying. We zigzagged up and down as we tried to make progress up-valley, falling into crotch deep mud near the river, wading up-creek, and brush-thrashing until we were mentally and physically exhausted. It left our arms shredded and our pants torn, dirt stained, blood stained AND grass stained. When we finally ungritted our teeth and spoke, we immediately agreed to give up. Those were the worst hours of the whole trip. However, once we dropped packs, I wanted to go look uphill just a bit further. Light on my feet, I headed uphill, under the cover of a small stand of cedars. After maybe a hundred more meters, I'd found the trail- plain as day. Once on the trail, it was 15 minutes of cruising to the border. And across the border, oh what a difference in the veg! Walking through the mature, native forest of the Park, as compared to the thick brush of logged-to-oblivion BC was like heaven and hell.

Absolutely. without question. unless there's a beautiful path leading up indian creek, going up depot creek is definitely the way to go. On my recent trip up that way, we bushwhacked down Bear Ck on the way to challenger and that schwack nearly crushed us. It took us over 7 hrs to go what we figured couldn't have been more than 3.5 miles. The upper part of the valley wasn't bad- a good bit of mature forest we could cruise through. But lower down- oh the misery! it's not even that we had to deal with miles of slide alder. Yes, there were patches, but the way bear ck got us was with its tall pile ups of blow down and thickets of devils club. but mostly just the blow down in a tight, steep walled little canyon (as it is near the bottom). I think it would take at Least a full days travel to get from the chilliwack river up to bear lake. and it would not be fun. Depot Ck, in comparison, is a highway. Just make sure you get and stay on the proper trail. My buddy and I (each wearing 75lb plus packs) spent 2.5 hrs schwacking through stinging nettles, slide alder, thick brush, swamp, vine maple, devils club and associated other sharp and painful plants. We almost bailed on a phenomenal 9 day adventure before even getting started. Anyone else have similar/different experiences?

post in Olympics? Did s. brother 3? weeks ago. I'm guessing you won't find much snow until you're above lunch rock... you shouldn't need anything but your axe

Wow- well whadya know.. someone else is thinking about that route. A buddy and I climbed the E face of the NE spur of Challenger two weeks ago or so during a 9-day trip from BC to the dock at the end of little beaver. Also climbed the NE face of Redoubt enroute. but anyway, when we were there, the Challenger glacier was in fine shape, really excellent, and we were able to cruise easily from perfect pass across to challenger arm. on the east face, I can't really say if we climbed the 1968 route. We were intending to, and certainly climbed parts of it, but also got in a good bit of route finding trying to get through a more challenging pitch near the top. watch out for loose rock- it's abundant (I actually got hit by a softball sized rock just beneath my eye- had a good shiner for a week). We actually ended up bivying on the route, about 80' from the top of the face, after wasting a Lot of time trying to figure out which way to go near the top. Got swept over by a pretty intense thunderstorm up there- that was exciting to say the least. Anyway, the 1968 route is a good way to make Challenger a more difficult climb if you don't have time to get around to other objectives, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it. the finish on the 5.5 quarter pitch is fun though. kudos to those that continued on to crooked thumb! Now the NE face of Redoubt? There is a truly excellent route. good times.

Steve- as klenke reports, phelps creek is totally clear. I did the n face of maude weekend before last and we didn't even find snow until we were well up in the phelps ck subalpine basin, past the steepest part of the approach hike.

Awesome- Thanks for all your suggestions. I think I'll be curling up with my beckey guide this week. My 9 day trip begins this friday night, so now the counting down the days and weather watching begins in earnest. It's not going to be too early (snow-on-the-route-wise) for NE buttress of Goode, is it? Thanks again

So- weekend after this one I start a week off of work/cc.com and a buddy of mine and I are off to the N Cascades for 9 days. I'm looking for steep snow and ice climbs and rock to 5.7. Currently NE Butt of Goode and NE face of Redoubt are high on our list, but I was wondering where you would all spend your week if you were me. I'm thinking the long approach into the picketts would make good use of our time, but what routes in particular are your faves? I'm also starting to drool a little over shuksan's price glacier and the ne butt of J'berg. Anyone do these routes lately/under similar conditions and have any words of wisdom? Any thoughts or routes to look into would be greatly appreciated. I'm psyched

frustrating... I can't quite seem to figure out how to post my pics so they show up in the post. and the links don't work for me. hmm.. oh well. hope you enjoy

At long last, some pics

tons, but on film. I hope you're patient..

Climb: Colchuck Peak-North Buttress Couloir Date of Climb: 4/18/2004 Trip Report: Climbed sunday with excellent conditions. We found the entire route completely untracked. Snow in the bottom third of the couloir was exceptional. Pickets were immediately bomber, some step kicking was possible, and picks were effective daggers. This was quite a relief, as we had been warned saturday evening while coming up that up to 10 inches of fresh had fallen on the mountain (and that someone was buried- but ok?- in an avy on the TC). As we climbed, we found deeper and deeper areas of unconsolidated snow, but we assessed the avy danger as fairly low. Snow would have come off in sloughs, as it was not very heavy and the hard crust below didn't feel like that great of a slide plane. Wind slabs had not developed. My partner and I were conservative about safety, using both second tools and running belays the entire way. Although we probably would have been fine with just one or the other, having both added a reassuring margin of security on a climb that was certainly amoung both of our most challenging. Anyway, snow was a lot lighter and slowed travel as we neared the end of our second running belay "pitch" at the top of the couloir. We hung out at the notch for a good bit, enjoying the space to sit and rest and eat, while loving the views of Stuart and Sherpa and Colchuck's fun NW face. Once the weather (which had been bluebird) began to deteriorate, we moved on, starting with the slightly climbing traverse out onto the face. The second pitch on the NW face was probably the most interesting, as we were in the middle of the face, on the steepest snow (50+ deg). For a couple hundred feet or so, we alternatingly found rocks under only 1.5' of loose snow or holes between rocks where our steps would punch through into voids. This was also the point where the weather was most unsettled and the snow came pretty consistently- visibility was reduced to 200'. Wind would bring waves of spindrift down onto our stances. After three pitches on the face, we passed through the short, broad gully at the top of the face. There, where we expected a short walk around and up to the top, we found a pitch of snowcovered exposed 3rd and 4th class rock which gave the climb a bit of a thrill at the very top. We wound our way through this step and were shortly able to cross the summit ridge onto the plateau of the east side. While we were packing our technical gear away, the clouds suddenly cleared and we were treated to spectacular winter views. Very rewarding after an exciting climb. The descent was relaxing and straightforward, with excellent plunge stepping (but skiing that powder would have been best). The route was just as described in N+P. Excellent quality, super fun, a great way for us to push our skills. The drive back to seattle that night was, as is typical, the most dangerous part of the trip. Gear Notes: an axe and a tool each 60 m rope 6 pickets 4 singles and 4 doubles (would have been nice to have a couple more doubles) the even nuts, 4-12 green alien and BD cams .75 and 1 (super useful- used often) pink tricam 2 mid sized hexes (could have left home). Rock gear was very helpful in adding length and security to our running belays. skis would have been great for the colchuck glacier descent. excellent powder up there. Approach Notes: road still a bit snow covered just before, though the 4x4s we saw parked there probably could have pushed through. this would have saved 1/2 to 3/4 mile of road walking. no flotation needed for trail on this cooler weekend.

But I think this is just the natural progression of climbing, a sport with a very, very broad scope. Originally, climbing really only meant one thing- it was a way for people to continue making progress on tall peaks when they started getting too difficult for normal hiking. A variety of techniques were developed to aid in the goal of making upward progress, and as more and more people were exposed to these developing techniques, some folks found that they enjoyed some techniques more than others, or in other instances, more than the original goal of alpinism itself. Therefore we now have rock climbing, ice climbing, bouldering, and ski mountaineering each as distinct activities, but still falling under the umbrella term of climbing. With increased extreme sport media coverage, more and more people now have been exposed in some way to climbing. Without question the most accesible way to just start climbing is at the gym and through sport climbing. In response to somebody's earlier question, I'd bet no more than half of the people in Seattle that would identify themselves as climbers have even climbed outside once- forget placing gear (on an aside, I have one friend who can climb 10s and dabbles in multi-pitch, but won't even consider trad. He feels that sport climbing is safer than his liftserved snowboarding, but that once you start placing gear, climbing becomes terribly risky).. Many gym climbers have no concept of the other facets of climbing and are interested only in the vertical gymnastics that occur beneath the roof. I think it's largely the vast numbers of people who develop fantastic technical skills in the gyms that can be attributed with sending the 5.13s at Smith and really pushing the envelop in terms of higher graded rock climbing. Obviously, coming from the gym is not the only way to become an elite rock climber, but I do believe that the gyms have had a huge effect on the number of people who are now climbing at "elite" levels. Now I'm not placing any kind of judgement on the different types and styles of climbing, I just think the different facets become almost like different sports.. each to be pursued in its own way. Folks just have different goals and different disciplines that they're good at and favor. So long as people in every discipline are pushing themselves and making progress towards their goals, I think they're all great. but personally, I'd choose straight up alpinism

Haven't been around long enough to talk about back in the day, but

Bookmarked. Thanks

is done for the season?! I knew that the avy forecast was soon over, but the mountain weather forecast too? How sad Who will I turn to now?

I don't know about using the via ferrata lanyard (I believe it could be bulky, heavy, and present the possibility for getting whacked in the face), but the idea of tieing in through a screamer is initially interesting. But then, remembering what I could of physics and pulley diagrams, I believe that the force received at the harnesses of both belayer and leader are only half of the force on the top piece that catches the fall. Therefore, the screamer is much more effective (likely to activate and absorb energy) if placed at the pro, rather than at the harness. For that matter, it would be just as effective between your belayer's harness and belay device as it would be on the climbers harness (though the effect of the screamer tearing while your belayer catches a whipper could be kind of startling and in-your-face). But other than these considerations, I don't really see why not..

So, Stefan- just to be clear, your strategy now varies with the steepness of the slope and ascent or descent of the team? your complete summary would then include: Team ascending moderate glacier or snow = leader carries some slack, followers keep rope taut? I think I would agree with this combo of keeping the rope taut or with a little slack. On glaciers though, I definitely agree with the majority of posters about the importance of a taut rope. Especially on early to mid season glaciers, when punching through hidden crevasses is possible, the sudden shock of a free falling climber with slack rope is a bit scary.