TeleRoss

Get up get, get down, 911's a joke in yo town!!

We passed on the summit for the sake of skiing the route before it went to shit. The blue dot was our high point. We started skiing at about 9:15 and that was not a moment too soon. Kind of like our trip to Jack, to me anyway, the summit is not all that important, skiing the line is the objective and summiting would be merely icing on the cake...

There is no snow at all

No snow at all on the hike until you cross N Fork Bridge Creek. It was debris up to the lower slabby buttress, but above that there was very little snow again until almost 5,000'. Yeah the NE Butt had a lot of snow, but with all this sun maybe it'll melt off soon? Sky should have his pics up when he gets back from New Mexico next week.

Climb: Goode's Goodness- Date of Climb: 5/24/2005 Trip Report: Sky and I climbed and skied the E Face of Mt. Goode, from just above the saddle between Goode's summit and the SE summit. I finally succeeded in convincing Sky to come with me to Goode. There had been much waffling from him as recently he had become fairly obsessed with Logan . Eventually I won out and off to Goode we went. Arriving at the Bridge Creek TH at a leisurely 10:00, we set off for the 14 mile hump down Bride Creek and then up the N Fork of Bridge Creek. The trail gradually loses elevation with the creek while passing several creeks to the south with views up to some pretty impressive peaks. The bears of Bridge Creek, recently active out of hibernation, evidenced by the large (both in size and quantity) of scat left all over the trail. The hike in went quick enough and soon we were gazing up over a vertical mile to the lofty summit of Goode. Crossing N Fork Bridge Creek on a nice debris bridge, we then hiked up the debris pile up to the slabby buttresses that block the way. I made a few tree-aid moved up the rock, while Sky (true to form) opted for the bush-whack up steep woods and shrubbery on the other side of the creek. Eventually we met up below a large patch of conifers and began looking for a suitable bivy. We found a farily flatish area at the top of the patch of fir trees a bit below the glacier. 2:00am, the alarm beeps us awake. Moonlight from the full moon illuminates the upper slopes of Goode and at about 3 we start hiking towards the glacier. Sky was a bit anxious about the slabs directly below the glacier but they were easily negotiated. The glacier had a few inches of fresh that had solidified nicely during the night making travel fairly fast. We weren't sure how much new snow there would be this far east, but from the looks of the upper slopes of Goode it looked like there was a fair amount. The route was filled in through the lower cliff band making us both very pleased and soon we were making our way up the steep face. There were some small runnels which provided firm snow and ice for climbing, but as the route turned towards the left the snow got fairly deep. With a large cornice at the saddle and some sketchy looking wind loaded slopes above and to our left we decided to head to a spot just above the saddle, near a smallish rock pinnacle. We took shelter from the wind for a bit before hiking up to the highest knob between Goode's summit and the SE summit. The view straight down nearly 6,000 feet to the N Fork was pretty intense, and in the other direction the peaks of the Ptarmigan Traverse were spread out before us. Wow, pretty sweet was all I was thinking. The convex slope off the knob was looking really sketchy so we decided to ski from our spot about 100' below along the ridge. The top several hundred feet were sweet wintery powder about 1' deep. Then through the narrow section the snow was a bit firmer, but we could get out to the left into the sun softened. Below the narrows we cut out right onto a nice, steep powder fluted face and had several hundred feet of epic powder turns. We quickly realized that we started skiing at just the right moment because as we were skiing the lower sections, the upper face of Goode began to spill its load. The sun warmed face let loose some large slides that crashed right down the bottom of our route. Fortunately they all ended up in a central runnel and it was easy to stay clear. Down on the glacier we skied nice corn through the crevasses and the small icefall at the bottom edge of the glacier. We nearly skied all the way back to our bivy, with one small rock step just below the glacier. Back at camp we quickly packed, gazed back up at Goode and the continuing avalanches, very pleased to have gotten the early start, and got set for the long hike back out. We skied a bit below camp before lack snow and all the alder forced us to forgo skiing any farther and start hiking. Back down at the slabby cliffs we found some rap slings and with the 30m rope that we had been carrying and yet to use finally put it to good use. Below the cliffs it was only another 14 miles back out to the car. Not quite as enjoyable as the day prior, but that hike was still spectacular, and even more covered in bear scat. Many long miles and hours more and we were back at the car well satisfied with another awesome trip. While loading the truck a lady comes over to us from her camper trailer and asks "you guys weren't skiing were you?" ~Ross Gear Notes: brought pickets, rope used rope for rap down through cliffs above the N Fork Approach Notes: Bridge Creek Trail, N Fork Bridge Creek. ~14 miles, bring your bear poo stompin boots

There's some photos in the climbing gallery

Climb: Jack Mountain-NE Glacier Date of Climb: 4/27/2005 Trip Report: Sky and I climbed and skied the NE Glacier on Jack Mountain in a long ass 23 hour day car to car.....We arrived at the Canyon Creek TH at some ridiculous hour and soon found out that Canyon Creek was running much too high to ford, so we ended up starting from the East Bank TH...adding an additional 3.5mi each way to an already ridiculous day. Hiked up to McMillan Park where we skinned and scrambled some cliffyness to a saddle near Crater Mountain @ 7k. Skied down and around the Jerry Glacier and skinned up a steep slope to the long ridge above Jerry Lakes....variously skied, and skinned up down and all around until we were at another saddle on the E ridge of Jack Mountain. Skied a quite steep slope down onto the NE Glacier and skied N to below the icefall.... The icefall was well intact with snow ramps abounding, and the large headwall looming above. Sky says "I think we can skin up this" and proceeds doing as said. Soon realizing that it is a bit steep and exposed for skinning we switch to more suitable gear for the situation. Above the icefall the glacier rises fairly steeply to a large bergschrund and then the steep headwall above. The route is only a bit more than 2k vert. but wow it is big and felt like much more. We topped out on the N ridge just below the summit rocks. Wow, what an awesome location...the enormous Nohokomeen Glacier and it's impressive headwall and the summit ridge and below us the NE glacier falling away quickly nearly 6,000' to Devils Creek...truely impressive. The ski down was more survival skiing than anything given the conditions. (see Sky's post on Turns-all-year for an eloquent description of the conditions) but suffice it to say that the upper sections of the headwall were pretty much miserable for skiing. Below the bergschrund conditions improved mildly and we enjoyed some less nerve-wracking turns. Much more up down and all around, plus some pretty sweet corn skiing brought us back to Crater Lake. We located the summer trail which was only partially snow covered and hiked back to our shoes...barely making it by dark. 7.5 more pounding miles on the trail and we stumbled into the parking lot and a niced comfy truck cab to crash in....wow...I'm worked. Gear Notes: Brought rope, pickets and other various accoutrements, but didn't use them Approach Notes: Long, long, long. in high water Canyon Creek is a dangerous ford at best, adding 3.5 miles each way from the East Bank TH.

Whats all this "love of my life" bullshit? You're still alive aren't you? It's not like if you blow it with one woman that's all you're gonna get. (well for some maybe) but man get over it already. This time last year? Everyone loses people they love whether its through our own dumb mistakes/misunderstandings or something else, girlfriends/wives/family/pets whatever, that's just the way it goes. The nice thing about women though is that there's lots of them out there, and the vast majority of them are extremely horny.

Dood. It's a 8,800' mountain. There are glaciers everywhere. There's gonna be f*&@^g snow. Figure it out.

X marks the spot according to this map. Depth of 1mi. below the surface, which would be at about 7,000'. Interesting. web page

Anyone interested in a climb on Rainier this week?

Guantanamo Bay, where the US Government imprisions "enemy combatants" without charging them with a crime, without allowing access to a lawyer, without even acknolwedging that that person is being held there. Pretty much withholding every protection that the US Constitution affords anyone under legal prosecution.

Here's a little WA lovin... October Love Pics by SkyKilo

St Losers are looking like a bunch of little leaguers out there. Pretty fun watching them try to run around the bases...

Yankees finally gonna bite it tonight I'll be watching their demise

Yummy....

I think the Edgewater on the waterfront has a Sunday brunch. Otherwise, Salty's on Alki...killer views across the bay to downtown. their brunch food is better than their normal menu is...IMHO.

Are you going to be tele-ing in the backcountry, and doing long tours, or are you going to be mostly skiing in bounds and only occasionally touring? You might think about demoing some different set ups to get a feel for what you like before plunking down the $$. Ross

Whoa! What kind of crazy fu**ers went and skied that?

Climb: Prusik Peak-South Face Date of Climb: 10/3/2004 Trip Report: After Jason and I made our way down from Dragontail on Saturday we camped by a lake a little ways below Prusik Pass. We must have slept right on top of a snaffle lair because we were harrassed relentlessly throughout the night. They seemed particularly attracted to Jason's pack, but curiously did not touch the chocolate bars that I left piled by my head. Maybe chocolate is snaffleproof?? Sunday morning we wake up fairly late and take our time making our way over to Prusik. We chose to do the original route up the face, with the exception of the first pitch. I led the first pitch which was the 5.8 crack to the left of the chimney. Sweet pitch. A short rightward move brought me to the top of the chimney and to a belay above a shrubby pine. Two more pitches and we were on Snafflehound ledges. Jason traversed right on the ledges and up some to below the 5.9 crack. That crack is awesome. Steep, in your face right from the belay with hands, fists, then down to fingers and a little lay back thingy, super fun. Jason led the last pitch up to the notch E. of the summit, where we dropped a little to the north then climbed a thin finger crack and a chimney to the summit. What a sweet route, awesome cracks. We descended quickly and made our way north then west then south and back to our packs, which contained, much to our enjoyment, comfortable shoes, food and water. Many miles and switchbacks later and we were at our stashed car at Snow Creek TH. What a killer weekend. Ross Gear Notes: more ropes, more cams and more nutz.

Climb: Dragontail-Backbone Ridge Date of Climb: 10/2/2004 Trip Report: Jason and I went in for a weekend extravaganza of Enchantment climbing oct. 1-3. Approach to Colchuck Lake on Friday night, Backbone Ridge on Saturday and south face of Prusik on Sunday. We hiked to Colchuck Lake on Friday night and made camp among boulders on the south side of the lake. Harrassed by snaffles and an incredibly bright moon, we did not get the best night of rest. Saturday morning we trudged up the moraine to the base of Backbone Ridge. The first several hundred feet were scrambling and then the 5.6 corner that leads to the ridge crest directly below the infamour offwidth. Jason led the offwidth by basically sinking himself up to his nutz in the thing and kind of doing a hand stemming, squirming, humping type thing. It was more strenuous than difficult, probably made more so because we were carrying over our overnight gear, and after I followed we were glad to have that thing behind us. We basically followed near the crest of the ridge from there, and I think we linked up some of the pitches and maybe cut some others short, but we eventually came to the section of the ridge below the fin where there is a few hundred feet of simul-scrambling. One pitch after that section led up and right on a ramp, and then it was three pitches directly up the fin. The guide book says 5.8 and 5.9, but it seemed a little easier. From the crest of the fin, behind the "blocky gendarme" we became a little confused as to the direction we should take. We ended up dropping down into the very top of the third couloir of the Triple Couloirs, where after some nervous moments on some extremely loose crap led do easy scrambling to the notch at the top of the couloir and more easy scrambling to the summit. We wanted to get fairly close to the base of Prusik Peak that evening so we quickly rapped down to the boulder fields to the N. of the snow creek glaciers. After much talus hopping we located the trail leading through the Enchantments. Gear Notes: ropes, cams, nutz, shoulda had a jock strap to protect my boys in the offwidth.

Colin, WTF???

There is a "trail" that leads up almost to the top of the ridge. The key is finding the log crossing of Terror Creek near 2100'. If you can find that log crossing you'll find the "trail".

Ok here's a link to Sky's much more eloquent version....Plus some really cool pics. Ross Sky's Page

Climb: Degenhardt -Degenhardt Glacier Date of Climb: 6/28/2004 Trip Report: Sky and myself climbed and skied the Degenhardt Glacier along with a couple other lines in the southern Pickets on Monday 6/28. After suicidal avalanche conditions forced a turn around last week, plans were quickly made for a return trip to the southern Pickets. Sky and I left Seattle Sunday morning and were at the Goodell Creek group camp mid morning. We left the car shortly after 11. Good trail leads to ~ 1/2 mile short of Terror Creek. There we followed climbers path(s) to a log crossing at Terror Creek at 2,100'. On the north side of the creek we were able to follow a faint climbers path nearly to the top of the ridge. The previous week we spent many hours schwacking around on the lower areas of the ridge and dealing with many cliffy areas. This time though we found the path that trends up a gully near the log crossing. This way was waaaay easier. We topped out on the ridge near 3700' and made our way up to ~5400' where we made camp. Total time to camp: 7+ hours. Sunday we climbed to the pass near the Chopping Block and skied down into Crescent Creek basin. We traveresed the basin to near the bottom of the couloir that leads up to West Terror Col (Terror-Rake Col). Climbed nearly 800' to the col. We had been advised that this may not be the best way to get down into MacMillan Cirque as the slope on the North side of the col may be super steep. Upon reaching the col and peering over the north side we did find a steep slope, but one that was skiable. The first several hundred feet were real steep and then the angle eased back some and it was super cruiser. We skied down for nearly 2000' until we could traverse below the North Buttress of Mt Terror. At ~5400' we put skis back on the packs and roped up as we accessed the Degenhardt Glacier. We daddled around for a little trying to find a way up through the icefalls in the lower sections of the glacier, and eventually ended up climbing pretty much directly through after Sky found a little hidden line up through some ice blocks. The angle eases some in the middle sections of the glacier before coming to a steep 1500' headwall. there were some large crevasses but none that blocked the route completely. We climbed the steep headwall on the eastern portion. We topped out on the col between Degenhardt and the Pyramid. The ski down was spectacular. Conditions were ideal and the setting amazing. We skied our climbing line on the eastern side of the glacier and down to the icefall. At the icefall the ski line was blocked and we rapped ~100' down the icefall. From there we traversed back below the North Buttress of Terror and climbed the 2000' back up to the Terror Rake Col. We skied the couloir back down the south side of the col into Crescent Creek basin and bivvied just beyond the mouth of the couloir. Tuesday we had a leisurely morning and hiked back out the way we came. I've got some pics, but my camera went tits up on me during the trip, Sky should have some pics up on his site soon. Gear Notes: 30m rope 30m cord pickets used em for the rap Approach Notes: Goodell Creek Follow the climbers paths and it's not too bad...miss the paths and it can be heinous