needtoclimb

Bump, and of course the obligatory spray.

I just picked up a pair of La Sportiva Nupste at Feathered Friends. La Sportiva isn't making this model anymore (the spatnik is taking its place) so the $500 boot is going for $350. Not sure how many they have left. This boot is a double boot, but not plastic. I tried several plastics and found that they still suck. The Nuptse is very comfortable (for a thick boot) and I just hiked up to Lake Serene in it and was fine. It might be overkill, depending on what you want your boots to do. I bought them for winter ascents, and steeper, technical ascents of the volcanoes, so it will do that fine. For a hiking boot, I wouldn't recommend it. Too heavy and not much flex. There are better hikers out there, but I think it is a great double boot.

Since this late dump of snow, anyone been up Rd 39 to the Coleman-Demming? How is the road?

You ski?

Looking for a partner for a ski ascent of either peak. Good weather is moving in and I want to take advantage of it.

Nice trip report. Teresa and I saw you guys coming down the road Sunday afternoon. We were headed up in the rain and met you on the road just past the gate. She was hiking a little ahead of me. Good work getting up there. As for current conditions, we spend Sunday night at the south end of the lake. It snowed most the night with very strong winds. We woke up and found almost all the tracks obliterated. We crossed the lake, punching through a lot. I would recommend snowshoes or skis. Our plan was to do the Coulour on Colchuck, and headed straight up the glacier moraine. All the kicked steps were gone. Without being able to find any pre-kicked steps, we had to make our own. It was some of the toughest hiking I have done in a while. 2 inches of powder covered a crust layer, and below the crust was about 1.5 feet of powder. The crust was just hard enough to kick onto, set 3/4 of my weight before it broke, post holing up to my knee. Without snowshoes, this quickly became quite irksome. It took about 1.5 hours to get from the lake to the moraine. On the moraine, the snow was deeper still, breaking through the crust and plunging past the knee. I know there are steps out there somewhere, but everything was filled in. We got to a little below the start of the coulour, and realized it would take many more hours at that rate to get up, and we still needed to hike out today. Not wanting to do the long hike out exhausted and in the dark, we headed down. Crossing the lake again to our tent, I punched through about every 3rd step. Teresa, being a bit lighter, managed to stay on the crust most the way across the lake, but I couldn't. The trail from the road to the lake is all hard-packed and quick, its the upper portions that were very powdery

You bring snowshoes, or is the trail packed down enough to boot in?

Your buddies story confirms it even more. Thanks Pilchuck. I do find it strange that he got charged for just walking down the road with his mutt though....is there more to that story? Had he driven down the road first so they had his license plate? Surely facial id isn't that far along. Maybe they had multiple cameras along the road. Do you know if it was it a Forest Service violation, county or state thing? Was he charged with "improperly walking a schnauzer"? This is funny. We are takign 3rd hand information like it is gospel. A buddy tells Pilchuck who tells us. Hmm, may a few things be missing in the translation? All stories have two sides. We are hearing one. The other side could be that a FS ranger stopped this buddy, talked to him, ID'd him (or got his license plate) and taken a picture of him. The FS truck could have a video camera in it, which the ranger can get a still-shot picture from. For me to take this buddy story at face value, I would have to talk to him and use my own judgement, not hearing it through someone else over the anonymity of the internet. Remember last winter when Sno Co sheriff towed a few cars from the Mountian Loop near Pilchuck? The OP stated how the cars were off the road, safely parked, etc. and then there are 5 pages of "oh my god, police are evil, government is bad! Poor poor innocent hikers who did nothing wrong are targeted." Then more to the story comes out, and we learn that these "legally parked cars" are actually blocking one lane of traffic, restricting snow plow access. Whether they needed to be towed or not I don't know, but the point is that there are two sides to every story, and the truth is somewhere in the middle. So far, like Tvash said, all this is from one article from one small-town newspaper, where one person finds one camera. It could have been there due to reports of poaching, illegal dumping or illicet drug grows, all forest service crimes which I am sure everyone on this site would agree should be stopped, caught and prosecuted. Oh, wait, having to think along these lines requires a little logic and isn't as fun as huge conspiracy theories. Guess I should just don my foil hat and join the paranoid schizophrenics that seem to run rampant any time one of these stores come out. "They are coming to take me a away, oh my, they are coming to take me away!"

Correction: Politicians love video cameras. That way they can say, "hey look, we are doing something about crime" without really doing anything about crime.

Is the road passable for a Honda Civic, or is a truck needed?

A few people have dropped, a few have joined. Looking for more who may be interested in Denali next year. A couple of us are planning on doing Adams Glacier route on Mt Adams on May 21-23. Also, the north ridge of Baker June 12th. Send me a pm if interested in getting in on these climbs for a future ascent of Denali.

Love your pictures, and how you did that avy one. Jealous, my computer and photography skills are lacknig.

Do you want to get into climbing, or do you just want to have climbed Rainier? If it is the former, get into Josh Lewis' teenage climber group. They are climbing a ton, and quickly gaining experience based on their TR's. If your whole goal is just to climb Rainier, go with a professional guide. Yes, it is expensive, but this is your life you are talking about. And very few people are going to drag two newbies up Rainier just to get them up.

Sorry, don't live in Spokane, but love your honesty. If I lived there, I would take you climbing. Hope you find a partner.

Hood does see a ton of traffic...in the summer. Remember, most winters here you can't even get to the base of most of the mountains as all roads are snowed in. Go to Hood on a nice July weekend, and watch the ant line. And by then, the avy danger is almost zero.

Thanks pdk. I was hoping for just that, and my truck can make it pretty far. I don't mind a few extra miles of hiking if need be, I just hate walking on perfectly clear roads simply because the FS gated it.

This is the road that leads to the road 2369 (or something like that) that leads to Adams Glacier, also known as the Killen Creek trailhead. Website for forest service shows it closed due to snow. Does anyone know whether the road gets gated, or is it an unofficial "close." Looking to to a late May climb of Adams Glacier, and wondering how close we can get to the trailhead.

I went up yesterday and rather enjoyed the skiing. A little icy on top, but still very doable. It's not something I would hike right now just to ski down, but you can't beat getting from summit to car in under an hour. I left the summit about 1230, that gave the lower half a little time to warm up. Stay in the small ravine skiers left of the climbing ridge, and the snow was better. The ridge was wind-blown ice, while the small ravine was better.

I bought the guide "Wind River Mountains" by Joe Kelsey when I went. This guide has the entire Wind River range covered, and if you plan on doing more than just the Cirque, get this one. But, for a better Cirque-only guide, get the one I linked to. Better route descriptions, very nice color photos, and small enough to take with you. No need to photo copy pages, just put the book in your pocket. Hope this helps a little more.

It took me three seconds on google to find this: http://www.tetonat.com/2008/05/new-guidebook-for-wind-river-rock-climbers/

A few of us are skiing/slogging MT St Helens this Saturday (feb 20th.) Anyone else interested in either skiing Helens, or interested in Denali next year? Drop me a PM.

Whatcha doing next monday? i have that off.

look at his registered date and number of posts. This is a troll trying to advertise his stuff. Don't click on the links, and maybe a moderator will see this and remove his account.

Have Wed off, weather looks nice and that gives yesterday's snow two days to consolidate. Thinking about a ski ascent of Whitehorse, or a ski up to Muir. send me a pm.

Ok guys, I'll bite, once. Genespires and I chatted over PM, and we are cool with each other, and I will state why I stated this to Genespires: "Please no spray. I am looking to put a team together, not listen to people who simply feel the need to type useless blather," and why I apparently sound like a dickbag in my first post. First, I made my first post to get people who were seriously interested in going. Too many times I see "wanted, Denali/Rainier/Baker, etc partners" and what this really means is "wanted, a pre-formed group I can join." I am sure all of you have seen this, where a poster is simply looking to jump on a team that is already formed and everything is planned out, so the person only needs to show up. I wanted to make it absolutely clear that the team needs to be formed. It is not "Me and three buddies looking for a fourth." It is "Me, looking for like-minded individuals for above stated adventure." (That came of sounding like a Craiglist personal ad, but you get the idea.) On the same train of thought, I wanted PM's from people who have a fair shot of being able to go. Able to afford the trip, the gear and take the time off from work. That is partially why I am looking for people so early, and not next January, so people will have over a year to save up money and vacation time. I am already signing up for overtime at work so I can afford it. I have learned from experience that less than half the people who initially say they want to go make it on the actual trip. Life happens. People lose jobs, get sick, have babies, etc. That is why I am looking for many climbers, because by next year 20 climbers will be down to 5. That is just the facts. Also, I am sure everyone has seen the "I have just taken a two day class and hiked SI, so I am ready to jump on a Rainier team." Again, I wanted to avoid a spam of PM's or replies of people who do not have the experience. I am surprised though that no one said, "hey, I don't have much experience, but would love to get on those training trips up Baker, etc." I would include anyone who said that to join the chain e-mail, and let the group work itself out. I am by no means trying to be the dictator, but just the facilitator to actually get stuff moving. I didn't want this post to become pages of spray. It happens a lot on this site where a person asks a question, and within days there are 5 pages of spam with only one or two relevant posts. Anyone who sees "Denali 2011" with five pages opens it up, only to see 5 pages of spam and concludes that trip was either a joke, or not going, etc and doesn't bother getting involved. One more point. Denali at anytime is not a walk-up, unless you are Vestiers or a Lowe's brother. For us mere mortals who this is a once or twice in a lifetime trip, it takes training and planning. It is serious. What would you have said if my original post said: "Yo dudes! I want to climb Denali sometime. LIke, give me a shout and let's go do it. Just a couple of weeks on a walk up route, no big. I got some boots and an axe, so let's go." If you have any question whatsoever what would have happened if I stated that, search "Josh Lewis" and look at the 15 pages of responses for his questions. To show that I was serious, I have to write serious. (sorry Josh, but your posts are a perfect example how questions turn into pages and pages of spray.) I do appreciate the last three responses so I was able to clarify myself. My first post was short and brief for exactly that reason, to be short and brief. To grab interest, which apparently it did. And please let me clarify "fun." Anyone who thought when I said "fun" I was replying to a barrel of laughs being carreid by a clown and a rodio monkey misunderstood me. It will be freakin hard and cold, where half the time you wished you were at home, and the other half you wouldn't want to be anywhere else but on the mountain. Cold, heat, sweat, screaming muscles, endless training, is "fun" to mountaineers. Its what we like, and why we do what we do. Now, for the last bit. Major, Bug and Trainwreck, any of you intersted? If so, drop me a PM. I will get the e-mail list out to everyone who PM'd me tomorrow (depending on how busy work is.)