JoeMack

I am definitely respectful of the skills that the jibbers (99% snowboarders) have in the park, but when they sideslip through the trees scraping away all the good snow in a 4 foot wide swath, then I get pissed. Is that reason enough to be hatin' fer ya?

Have you tried Les Schwab's? I just got the brakes done (including turning rotors) on my truck for a little over $200. Please note that I am definitely biased: I think Schwab's is the best for anything regarding brakes/shocks/tires/alignment. I only wish they did tune-ups and engine work.

"Dead Horse India Pale Ale" "You can't beat a Dead Horse"...

I'm jealous. We stayed in Interlaken during the summer a year ago. I took a day trip to hike to see the Eiger/Monch/Jungfrau. There were ski lifts all over the place. To get to the hills, you need to take a train to Lauterbrunnen and then Wengen. Grindewald was nearby. I can recommend a hotel in Interlaken (http://www.lotschberg.ch/), but if I were going there during the winter, I'd stay further up in the mountains. Have fun!

I skied from just below the summit plug. I would consider the level of difficulty on that side to be similar to a tougher blue/easier black slope at a ski resort. The tricky part is the conditions. You could get ice, or mashed potato mush, or sweet corn or all of the above. If you've never backcountry skied before, it might be a good idea to try some day trips to other hills this winter and spring before you decide.

I went up the Clear Creek route during Memorial Day this year. We did have to park about a mile from the trailhead due to snow. We camped at about the 9500 ft level. We found a dry spot that was level. As Markharf suggests, skiing makes the slog worthwhile.

Ummm... in 1972 Richard Nixon won 49 states. There are some unsettling similarities: Challenger was a Senator from a liberal state; significant opposition to an unpopular war; asshole in the White House. Sure hope we have different results this time!

A nice diversion on a Friday afternoon. Thanks

Dynafit TLT700 w/Thermofit liner. Most comfortable ski boot I've ever worn. Keeps my feet warm, sufficient stiffness, light, and durable.

I also have the Shuksan with the Dynafits and really like the light weight. I use the set-up for inbounds, as well. I am a volunteer patroller in Oregon and have used the setup for my regular gear. It has held up very well and although I don't do any big drops, I do ski lots of moguls/steeps/trees and have been pleased with the robustness of the Dynafits. The Shuksans are responsive without being squirrely and have done well in pow, mank, and on the hardpack. I also have Dynafit boots (TLT700 w/thermofit) and they ski well, are comforatble, and have been good climbing on the volcano slogs. My only issue with the Dynafits is the ease of getting into them could be better, but I am still faster than my tele friends.

Check out the HP R707. Good size, excellent pictures, nice video, small size and some nice auto features (red eye deduction, adaptive lighting)

I wore sneakers until I hit steeper snow. I use randonee boots and like to keep my feet dry and have a firmer step on the steeper areas. I suppose that you could use sneakers all the way up. The sneakers were very beneficial for the hike out on the RTM trail. I also used ski poles and I have a whippet (an ice axe like pick that can be added to one of the poles). I would say that I didn't really need it, but it helped me feel safer, especially for the higher elevations where the snow never did soften up.

I had good luck this weekend avoiding cramps during a climb (Mt. Adams). I did a bit of research on this and other forums and found a product at my local GNC store called Ultima. It is a powder that has a better electrolyte concentration than Gatorade and most other products I investigated. It also did not include sugars or simple carbohydrates. Sodium content was a little low, so I added more salt to my breakfast (oatmeal) and and to the PB&J Sandwiches I use for fuel during the climb. I added two packs ($1.25 ea) of the Ultima to the water in my 50 oz bladder. I refilled it once more with water and 2 packs of Ultima, and one time refilled with just water. The flavor I chose was Orange and it tasted similar to Tang- not too sweet. The recommendation on the product was 1 pack for 20 oz of water, but the concentraion I used was fine. I suffered no cramps and I felt strong the entire day. I was even able to jog for the last mile and a half back down to the trailhead. My conditioning, hydration, and fueling patterns were the same for this virtualy identical climb that I had done a year earlier. Back then (and on other climbs since then) I experienced some pretty strong leg cramps. Although the weather was cooler for this year's climb, I am attributing most of the cramp reduction to the Ultima. I will be doing further tests during the warmer summer weather to see if my results continue to be positive. YMMV

Climb: Mt Adams-SW Chutes Date of Climb: 7/10/2004 Trip Report: Skied from the summit. That was very rough: the snow did not soften up due to the cold wind and intermittent clouds. I even had waited until 2:00 to shove off. Survival skiing at its worst. The chutes made up for it. They were quite soft. There were many runnels/ridges that added a bit of spice and kept me focused. I had the chutes to myself and exited via the RTM trail. Lots of wildflowers were out and it was a pleasant hike. Gear Notes: Skis, whippet, running shoes

I'm glad to hear that she made it down safely. It sounds like it required quite a crew to get her off the hill. I had been climbing above Lunch Counter at about 11:00 and looked over to see a guy and a gal that were just sitting there on the side of the glissade chute. I asked them "howsit goin"? "Not so good" was the reply. I crossed over to them. She had twisted her ankle and I think was a little embarrassesd because she had known that glissading with crampons was a no-no, but she probably was a little afraid of going too fast in the chute. I don't think she had broken the ankle (she likely would have been in more severe pain), but she couldn't straighten it, either. Her boyfriend had splinted her ankle with their two ice axes, but I saw that the spike ends were facing up, with the inside one in her crotch. That didn't look too safe, so I recommended turning the axes with the spikes in the other direction. Some other folks calme along with ropes and straps and were able to put together a shoulder and butt harness with the straps and some caribiners. The plan was to lower her down the glissade track (seated on her pack, facing uphill) with her boyfriend below her and a climber or two on the rope above belaying. I was starting to get pretty chilly and seeing that she was in relatively competent hands, I decided to continue climbing. Skiing from the summit was crappy, but the SW chutes were pretty nice. I was alone in there for the entire descent. Quite a change from the crowds on the climb up.

We left the truck at about 12:30pm and made it into camp at 6:00pm. Have fun!

Climb: Shasta-Clear Creek Date of Climb: 5/29/2004 Trip Report: We started climbing on Saturday at 12:30 pm from about 500' and maybe 1.5 miles below the Clear Creek trailhead. We had pushed farther up through some snow piles in the road than anyone previously thanks to a friend's 4wd Toyota and relatively soft snow. We were able to skin up most of the road with the exception of a few short carries and "dirt skinning". We stopped at the trailhead on the way up- there were no fee envelopes, but there were plenty of the crap bags. The trail up follows a ridge above the Mud Creek Canyon. Got to a nice spot at around 9000' at timberline to camp. I'm used to doing 1 day climbs, so skinning up with a full pack was a new experience for me. I was way over packed. We set up camp at timberline and there was only one couple there. We didn’t take tents and used tarps/space blankets as ground cloths instead. The weather was perfect all weekend, so the choice to not use tents was right on. We melted a bunch of snow to fill water bottles and fixed dinner. The view south to Lassen was beautiful and it was serene watching Shasta’s shadow progress across the forests below. Started up at 6:00am the next morning (a little behind schedule) on firm snow. We used crampons for the first 2000’ ft up or so, but removed them after the snow softened. Boot packed it the rest of the way up. I was able to follow a continuous avenue of snow to the ~13,000 ft level before the snow ran out on the Clear Creek side. Crossed over on some rocky patches to the top of the Wintun. It was very windy and when I reached the top of the ridge below the summit I was almost blown over backwards. I left my pack (with a bunch of rocks on it to keep it from being blown off the ridge) and skis at about the 13,800’ level and put the crampons back on. Without the skis and pack I made good time circling around the summit plug and climbing the last pitch to the top. A ranger was coming down as I was going up and asked for my permit. He was OK that I didn’t have one since we had come up the Clear Creek route, but asked if I had the money. I did, and handed it to him. I didn’t get a receipt, so I don’t know if I made a contribution the government or to the dude’s beer fund. I saw only about 5 other people climbing on the side of the mountain we were on until I reached the summit area. Lots more folks there, mostly coming up from Avalanche Gulch. Summitted at 1:30, signed the summit log, and took the obligatory photo. Got back to my pack (relieved that it was still there), put the skis on, and started down. The fun begins. We did a few turns on the top of the Wintun in some windblown, soft snow before crossing back across the rocks (with skis on the pack) to the Clear Creek pitch. Snows from last week had accumulated on one side and provided a smooth cream cheese lane about 30 ft wide most of the way down. Carvalicious. Where there were sun cups, it was soft and fun to get little hits. I made it back to camp with an ear-to-ear grin. Got back at around 3:15 or so. We had Happy Hour in the warm sunshine as the rest of the crew made it back in to camp. Some of the more adventurous took a hike to get some evening turns above camp. The contrast of the turns on the gray grit covered snow looked nice. We spent Sunday night in camp and got a leisurely start with breakfast the next morning. The sun was warm and the bowl above camp was inviting. Several of us climbed to the top of the bowl and carved up the remaining untracked lines. After packing, we started back down to the truck. It didn’t take too long getting used to skiing with a heavy pack, but it was tough on the legs. We had a fun ride down through the roller coaster wind formations on the ridge; took our time and were playing on some cornices since one of the people in our group was hiking down. There were a few more carries and dirt skiing sections in the forest and the road below the trailhead, but we were able to ski to about 20 yards of the car. We took about two hours to get down from camp. The drive home to Oregon was not too bad considering the Memorial Day traffic. A truly Shastariffic weekend. [i put some pictures in the gallery, I couldn't figure out how to integrate them in to the TR]

We're headed down for the weekend. Has anyone climbed/skied the Clear Creek route recently or the Hotlum-Wintun? Thanks, Joe

I was glad to not have to do the route finding, but I was trying to take mental notes as I went: From where we left, it was "follow the sun". Then it was "stay on the ridge". Once the summit became visible it was "straight for the summit". The alternative would be to stay on the ridge and follow it to the summit. There was a clear cut across the valley with a unique shape (mushroom) that I used as a marker for the return trip. Toughest part was the return through the trees when the clearcut was no longer visible. A gps would have been indispensible if I didn't have some knowledgable friends.

Yes, the snow is melted out at the Pioneer Gulch Trailhead. You won't find continuous snow until a bit past the wilderness boundary. Timmy- likely won't be getting back up there until June, but I'll let you know...

I thought I was gonna melt as I was postholing up out of the East Bowl. The breeze on top felt heaven sent. Sorry I didn't bring a camera, so no pics. The digital camera my wife has is too big (and expensive) for me to risk bringing it. What camera do you use? The BT pics look great. The folks I went with have a lot of experience climbing Diamond and they were all amazed how few bugs there were. It made sitting around with a cold beverage after the climb quite pleasant. We had thought with some cooler nights during the past week that the snow would have set up better, but it was just too warm. Definitely will have to get back up there this year for some corngasm.

Climb: Diamond Peak-Pioneer Gulch Date of Climb: 5/1/2004 Trip Report: We started from a spot south of Corrigan Lake. Bushwacked up past the Wilderness boundary (~1 mile from cars) before reaching snow. We skinned through the trees climbers left of the main ridge. Some in the group bootpacked along the ridge and the postholing was pretty bad due to the soft snow. Got to the bottom of the SW bowl and aimed directly for the summit. Added my ski crampons after I began slipping. The crampons on Dynafits aren't great for steeper angle climbing, so I wound up kicking steps in the firm snow for the last 500 ft to the summit. We reached the summit in a little over 3.5 hours and decided to drop in on the East side. First few turns off the top were fun, but got very heavy/soft/deep after the first 700 ft or so. Climbed back out which was tough in those conditions. We had lunch on the summit and it was breezy and a bit hazy. It was my first time on Diamond and I was impressed with the variety of lines available. After lunch, we hit the SW Bowl and it was very nice: corned up well and a good pitch. The cruise back through the trees in the heavy mank wasn't bad. Got back to the cars by 2:30 or so. An excellent day. Gear Notes: Skis. skins, ski crampons

Climb: St. Helens-Worm Flows Date of Climb: 4/3/2004 Trip Report: On the drive up, the gate to Climber's Bivouac was open, but the road had snow on it, so I car camped at Marble Mountain snow park- climbers side was fairly crowded while the sno-mo side was relatively empty. Left at 6:15am, temp was 40 degrees already. Skinned up from the lot to the Monitor station and booted up the rest of the way. The breeze kept things from getting too hot on the way up. Boot pack/stairway to heaven was in good shape. About half the climbers were skiers/boarders, other half were snowshoers. Saw two guys with sleds on their backs. Reached the summit at 11:45am. I hung around the rim for a bit to see the sledders ride them, but they wound up downclimbing with the sleds on their backs. The ski down was enjoyable even though the snow was heavy- the corn was overripe. Stayed pretty close to the climbers trail on the way down and was able to ski with only a little poling to within 30 steps of the car. Took an hour to ski down and was home in time to watch the Duke-UConn game.

I'm thinking of taking a trip to Diamond Peak to climb & ski in the next week or so. Anyone been there recently who can confirm if there's enough snow to make it worthwhile?

Will crampons/ice axe be needed on Adams this weekend? I'm thinking of doing the 1 day climb/ski.