ClimbAndSki

Hi Nate; If you have not taken a general mountaineering/glacier climbing/crevasse rescue, and your goals are more to climb the standard routes on the volcanos and peaks like Shuksan/Sahale/Eldorado/Olympus; then I think you would be better off with a general mountaineering course than an alpine ice course. I think the American Alpine Institute "Glacier skills and crevasse rescue" or "Alpinism 1". If you call them and talk about what your goals and experience is, they could probably help point you at the right direction. The courses offered by the Mountaineers, Washington alpine club are very good also and will give you the skills to do this level of climbs safely, and well and how to follow rock climbing. I'm not sure what their age requirements are, call and ask, but most people will be older then you. The mountaineers also has a teen program which is very good and they do real stuff, definitely worth a look. http://www.mountaineers.org/teens/default.cfm Good luck!

Thanks! We are heading there in a couple weeks so I have a couple questions. Did you stay at any of the state park campgrounds and how were they? We are thinking of camping at them for a couple nights. Did you need to reserve in advance or is there a way to just show up and get a spot? Also, where was your picture of the glowing lava taken. Was it from the road or a hike in. from the park service map, it looks like the Kilauea calders area is closed to hiking.

Trip: Mt. Thompson - West Ridge Date: 7/22/2012 Trip Report: Route is in great shape, Snow free. I think we were the first party up this year. Taken from the pass, up left side and down right. 1st pitch from rope up point, we stopped the first pitch at the trees(30 meters), then did longer pitch (crux)(~50 meters), then a short climb up to the slab and across it. 4th pitch, 1st above the slab, we took this to the top of this step and simlclimbed the scramble across the false summit to the base of the final rock step to the main summit. One rope team in our party kept simlclimbing around the final rock step for the right for a 4th class finish. I made a photosynth from the summit, but there were a lot of clouds. Thompson pan Descent: we ended up doing 3 rappels on the descent, once you in the descent gully, you need to cut skiers right eventually otherwise you get funneled into a sketchy narrow steep gully Gear Notes: Ice axe for approach, rock gear, we brought crampons but didn't use them. Approach Notes: Kendall catwalk is melted out, there are a few snow patches before the catwalk, continuous snow after that catwalk to ridge lake, then mostly snow free to the pass except for some sketchy snow patches. The pass has a steep snow finger on the south side you need to climb or at least cross. The Thompson basin is still mostly snow, but there is water available.

Does anyone have updated condition on Kendal catwalk of if there is snow in the basin below thompson(or on the scramble decent)? Thanks!

We climbed the brothers last weekend, and there was 4-5 ft of snow at base camp. A couple spots were melted out enough for a tent though. The climb was in good conditions if you heading up the brothers.

Black Peak, hidden lakes peak, and Silver Star are some good peaks that have no (or minimal in the case of silver star) glaciers. Or cascade pass and up the Sahale Arm. Off the Mt Baker road, Ruth mountain is a popular ski, but It is a glacier so be careful(Probably an easier glacier then shuksan). I'm not sure which roads are fully open yet (I know the north cascades highway is open)

Here is a pic on dragontail. Several people were heading up triple couloirs and said it was in good condition, but I didn't get details. I think going up the ridge would be fun also. Right now I think you would be alternating back and forth between snow and rock, but most of the rock is probably pretty snow free, here is a pic on the first bump looking up from the top of the couloir.

We didn't end up doing Meru because we caught the flu and were down for a couple days, but I did find the answers to some of my questions, if anyone else searches for this thread. The huts look like the do have foam mats, the road is passible by a taxi, we were quoted around $70 one way. I did climb Kili by the Machame route and had a good experience. We used http://www.ahsantetours.com/ and I thought they were good, and are a kpac partner http://www.kiliporters.org/

I lost a crampon on colchuck between the summit and the Colchuck-Dragontail pass. It must be at the bottom of a post hole because we retraced our steps to the summit and couldn't find it. PM me if you find it or hear about it, thanks! More details here http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1069252

Trip: Colchuck - North Buttress Couloir Date: 5/20/2012 Trip Report: First of all, I lost a crampon between the summit and the pass on the decent, if anyone finds it, please send me a private message. It must be at the bottom of a posthole because we retraced our steps to the summit and couldn’t find it so it might be a while before it melts out Conditions last weekend were great for a climb of the North Buttress Couloir on Colchuck. Lots of fun high dagger climbing on 50-60' snow. The route was all snow(no real ice), and was pretty sustained angle all the way to the summit. The route protected well with a running belay using pickets or rock pro (we used mostly pickets but the other rope team used mostly rock pro). From the notch of top of the couloir, you can do a climbing traverse right onto the NW face and stay on snow to within 20ft of the summit. Couloir from the bottom Part way up Almost at the summit Gear Notes: 2 tools, pickets. No snowshoes needed Approach Notes: Road is open and snow free, the first couple miles are snow free, pretty continuous snow from Stuart Lake junction. Lake is melting out although we saw a few people ski across it.

Trip: Tooth - South Face Date: 4/28/2012 Trip Report: We climbed the tooth on Saturday. There was lots of wet slushy snow from the storm a couple days before, but it was melting fast and there was only old snow on the major ledges and the 3rd (scramble) pitch. There is a fairly good size moat opening on the approach gully, it is currently passible on climbers left but this will probably get harder as this snow bridge melts out. Approach Final Pitch Looking down on 3rd pitch Gear Notes: Ice Axe for Approach, good gloves you can climb in Approach Notes: See above

Anyone up there last weekend and have a conditions update?

We are hoping to climb Mt. Meru independantly in January, but have a couple logistical questions. 1) Is there a place to get a fuel bottle for a wisperlite style stove(or a canister for a canister stove) in Arusha or Moshi? I assume it is pretty easy to get kerosine to fill it. 2) Do the huts on Meru have sleeping pads, or should we bring those as well? 3) Is the road to Momella gate passable by any taxi, or do you need a 4 wheel drive? 4) Are you expected to provide food for your ranger, or do they eat their own food at the huts? 5) Do the huts fill up in january? We are planning on carrying our own gear, so will not need porter/guide/cook, other than the mandated ranger. Thanks!

Trip: Grand Teton - Upper Exum Ridge Date: 7/16/2011 Trip Report: Fun climb with the mounties... Last week, we were going to climb Buckner, Torment and Forbidden, but the weather looked crappy in the cascades, so changed plans mid drive and headed towards the Tetons... We climbed the Upper Exum on the Grand Teton with gorgeous weather and good conditions. We simlclimbed most of the easier stuff, and pitched out 5 pitches: the golden staircase, the double cracks and friction slab(combined into 1 pitch), the open book, the left leaning cracks above the open book, and the crack in the boulder above this. We set a hand line across the step on wall street View from the lower saddle showing the shadow of the range Finding wall street is the first challenge. The eye of the needle was snowed in, so we went a couple hundred feet past the chock stone chimney then headed right, following the path of least resistance to a notch were we could see wall street. We had to cross a 75ft snow couloir to get from the notch to wall street. From the ridge head up the golden stair case(or you can skirt it to the right) and run out the pitch as there is another ~5.2 part a bit further. Then simlclimb on 200 ft up an easy broad gully until you hit a big wall. Go up to the wall(until you can touch it), turn right and go up a 5 ft wide chimney/gully. After 75ft you break out of the chimney, and are at the base of a broad gully (to your left now). Make your way up that through the path of least resistance. The gully comes to a head in ~150 ft, continue simlclimbing to the right of a steeper section, then back left heading for the crest of the ridge. You’ll end up at the base of a right facing corner with double cracks. You can do a long pitch from there up the double cracks and the friction pitch above it. Lower part of route Upper part of route Somewhere on route Start simlclimbing again right around a steeper part and up a gully (some snow, so we climbed mostly on the rock left of the snow). If you keep going up the gully you could probably skip the open book pitch without too much difficulty, but to get to it, keep an eye out for a minor notch on your left (on the skyline), also look up when you are on the ridge below so you know about how far you have to go. The open book is super fun somewhat exposed easy climbing. From the top on the open book, easy scramble 50 ft to the base of the next bump, and go left around it under an overhanging cave to a left angled crack(it’s a small ramp when you get up close). On this scramble you might see people descending, it looks like you could scramble around to the summit and skip the top of the climb if you wanted. To stay on route climb this crack/ramp trying not get your pack stuck and head back to the ridge and follow it as far as you can. We did one more pitch, staying on the ridge, it was 3-4th class except for 1 boulder problem up a splitter crack in a boulder on the ridge. We unroped just before an au cheval ridge and continued on rock and snow to the summit(class3, exposed) Summit shot Descend towards the upper saddle following the path of least resistance (class3+, exposed in places, ramps back and forth). We rapped down a chimney and the final double rap off bolts to the upper saddle(according to the ranger, if you just have 1 60 meter rope, so can rap off the slings on the boulder to skiers left on the bolts, and if you are careful to stay as far to skiers left as you can when rappelling, you can get down that way (with rope stretch). Below the upper saddle there was quite a bit of snow in the enclosure(I think that is what it is called, the gully to skiers right). We tried to avoid it by saying on the ridge in the middle of the gullies, then going skiers left for a couple hundred feet before crossing right. This worked ok, but we had to do 2 raps or a class4+ downclimb. There must be a better way to the descent but we couldn’t find it. There were also tracks going down the snow but it was soft and over significant running water, so we avoided that. PhotoSynth from the top Grand Teton PhotoSynth Gear Notes: Ice Axe, No crampons when we went Approach Notes: There was some fairly steep snow on the approach to the lower saddle. A moat with stream under it was just melting out in the middle of a glissade path, don’t go that way.

I added a trip report for our trip last weekend. Conditions were great (fyi:We did climb from the basin below sherpa, but the upper half of the route is the same)

Trip: TR: Mt Stuart - Cascadian Coulior from Sherpa Basin Date: 6/25/2011 Trip Report: Very good conditions on the Cascadian Couloir last weekend… From Esmeralda basin we headed over Longs pass and dropped to Ingalls creek; keeping left of the stream coming down from Longs pass. We crossed the Ingalls creek at an decent location 100 yards up from where the stream from Longs pass intersected. We picked up the trail about 100 yards from the creek. Heading east of the trail we passed the Cascadian couloir, and headed up a thin boot path at the Beverly Turnpike Trail junction. The boot path petered out fairly quickly and we headed east to cross a stream just below a waterfall, and climbed onto a broad ridge. We climbed the ridge until about 5900 ft then traversed east into Sherpa basin, camping at 6300 ft. From camp we climbed easy snow slopes into the upper Sherpa basin to table rock at about 7000-7100 ft(possible camp site in early season or for a small party to bivy on the rock), where we climbed the ~45’ left hand broad couloir to a pass. If icy, Some might want to place pickets or having experienced person set a hand line on the steeper part(this is steeper than anything on the regular Cascadian Couloir route). From the pass it is an easy traverse to the main Cascadian Couloir route, which leads up to the false summit. In early season, going to the top of the false summit is much easier then traversing a couple hundred feet below it, on the way there we traversed below the false summit following a cairn on the ridge, and needed to belay a short section. On the return we traversed directly to the false summit and that was much easier. We traversed to the final 200ft steep section below the summit and climbed the final bit which wasn’t as steep as it looks from the false summit. On the return we down climbed the steep top section and traversed to the false summit where the snow was soft enough to plunge step. We returned our path on the way out, but crossed at a better log crossing ¼ mile further up the valley, that met up with a trail. Gear Notes: Rope, pickets, a couple peices of pro(not needed if you don't traverse below the false summit) Approach Notes: See above

Trip: Silver Peak attempt - Southwest ridge Date: 1/29/2011 Trip Report: We started at the annette lake in the rain and hiked to just past the switchbacks where we left the trail and snowshoed staight up the fall line to the ridge, about 2/3 of the way up we hit a 300ft open patch of snowfield which made for fun glissading on the way down. By the time we hit the ridge the rain had turned to snow and after scrambling about 1/3 the way up the ridge we ran out of time so heading back down. By the time we hit the ridge the rain had turned to snow and after scrambling about 1/3 the way up the ridge we ran out of time so heading back down. Gear Notes: snowshoes, ice axe Approach Notes: Annette lake trailhead

I was up in Squamish the weekend of July 4th, and something similar happened to us. It did not involve us directly, but another group camped at the campground. It happened on Sat, July 5th, about midnight or 1am at the campground next to the rec center. There was a large group of campers across from us(maybe 10-15 adults in several winebego type things, some kids(who were in bed by the time this happened)). The group was canadian(had bc plates on there cars) We were in our tent trying to sleep, so did not see what happen, just heard everything. The gang of kids (probably 20 of them, but I'm not sure) was partying over by the skate park at the rec center. One of the kids walked through the camper campsite, and apparently tryed to steal their cooler(or look in it). The campers told the kid to not walk through there campground and to leave. I would say they were pretty rude to the kid. The kid went back to his gang and they started yelling stuff at the campers. I remember they called them some homophobic words as well as some racist words. The campers kind of brushed it off for a while, then went and chased after them a little. The gang ran away rather then fight(the campers were big guys, not people you would want to get in a fight with). The campers kept yelling, Include yelling the words "we got guns and sh*t". The campers called the police, and an officer came pretty quickly (less then 5 minutes). The officer talked to the campers, and put in a pretty good effort looking for the kids (who had all run off). He probably spent a 1/2 hour looking around. I don't think he arrested anyone, but he might have given a ticket to some people. The kids did not come back that night(I think, I fell asleep some time after that). Just wanted to let people know that the other incident was certainly not isolated, and I would stay away from the camp next to the rec center. Also, this had nothing to do with us vs canada. These campers were canadian. I suspect in the other incedant that they were just looking for trouble, and jumped on the us license plates as an excuse. By the way, they were filming a movie in the city center (Walking Man or something like that) while we were up there. I guess it is starring the Rock. It looks pretty stupid, but it was kind of interestign to watch them film