OlympicMtnBoy

Another great TR, I love reading these! How the heck do you event find the route at places like Duiwelskloof? The lines don't look obvious at all for my NW sense of trad climbing!

Nice! Now I feel like I've been missing out! Way to get at it in these odd conditions!

Sweet, thanks JSG! That is great beta, we'll have to check some of those spots out! Do you normally just rent a car there then? And any thoughts on renting BC gear? We will probably only be skiing for a portion of the trip so not sure about dragging our skis around if we might be able to reasonably find some powder boards over there better than ours anyways? Probably take our own boots.

Good to hear! We are heading to Hokkaido, but really don't have anything set in our itinerary other than tickets to/from Tokyo. I've done a fair amount of touring and ski mountaineering but my wife is not quite as good of a skier so we are probably aiming more from scenic and moderate. My powder skis are K2 Sidestashs, 108mm underfoot, she doesn't have good powder boards and may just try to rent, we haven't decided that yet. Any suggestions?

Hey CC.comies! My wife and I are planning a two week trip to Japan the second half of Feb. Anyone skied over there and have tips/suggestions? We'd like to do some resort and some BC skiing. Neither of us has been there so we were considering joining a ski tour group or getting a guide for a couple days. Also trying to decide about gear as neither of us has a great powder skis right now. I'm also open to non-skiing suggestions! Cheers, OMB

Nah, good beer is far better than cams, I have lots of those by now. Unless the cams are newer and shinier than mine, then I guess I just found some old beat up cams in that spot you left yours . . . Also PBR doesn't count.

Sweet, I missed this the first time around. I liked Crystal Lake Tower, I need to get back in to Crystal Basin again this spring. I'm not sure I agree that Aasgard is the best way to get there though, Crystal Creek really isn't bad if you find the right drainage! It's the 7 miles on the Ingalls trail that kinda drags on.

Nice TR Bump! Now we need some ice for this season!

Woohoo! I like the new look, thanks guys for the work! I've only been poking around a few minutes so these thoughts may change, but my initial comments: The front page looks good and snazzy. It highlights the blog posts and articles, but TRs are not mentioned at all except in a tiny box at the bottom (which leads to error code: 1S160/2 BTW). IMHO the best part of this site as a regular user are TRs and the Forum, I would love to see recent TRs and Forum posts highlighted up front. Or maybe TRs should be considered like articles/blog posts? That and I really hope my and everyone elses old TRs are accessible again eventually. I'm still figuring out this whole "recent activity" thing, not quite as easy to browse as the old "past 24 hrs" list, but I'll probably learn. The font and layout makes for a lot of scrolling there, maybe that can be optimized to not show "in the last hour" as it's own category (until we have a crazy busy site)? I am guessing this was a ton of work, so props to everyone!

Nice, thanks for some rainy weather stoke for D-town!

Thanks! It's probably not fairing well with this warmer spell, but hopefully back soon!

Thanks for sharing, nice article.

Along similar lines as others, I was reminded of this quote from Malcolm Bates on Beckey's Bible from the NWMJ: Yea, though I contour gently on talus slopes and beneath the obvious arete and across the firn into the hanging valley of Despair, I shall fear no exfoliation (although I should be on the lookout for hidden crevasses and friable rock). Thy route and approaches, they comfort me . . . I was lucky enough to share a few trips with Fred over the last decade or so. Even in his late eighties though we amazingly even saw to top of a few routes together. On of my fondest memories though is of high camp on a ridge on Mt. Monarch. We roped up for the glacier and Fred insisted on carrying his own pack (which we discreetly lightened for him). He had to use an ascender to get up the last steep snow bit but he made it on his own. It was clear that he wouldn't be able to make it to the top but he hung out while Bill P. and I summitted the next day. Sitting on that high ridge with a beautiful sunset and only a few climbers around for miles and miles, Fred was clearly in his right place. I'm glad I got to share a few of those moments. You will be missed Fred, your mountains and routes will endure.

Hah, I was on Mt. Holyoke this summer. Maybe that means I should try this next year? Hah, unlikely I could manage. Nice work and thanks for the TR!

Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) recently redid their climbing packs and a crag pack. If you are passing through Vancouver or something it could be worth a look. I wasn't in the market at the time but I fondled a couple packs in the store in Victoria and the crag pack looked burley (for not being a haul bag material pack).

Nice TR and way to get back at it after the first time!

Last minute but worth a try, anyone wanna get out tomorrow (Sunday)? I'm up for most anything but probably clipping bolts is easiest. 20+ years experience, plenty of gear, probably only leading 10ish trad or 10+ sport right now but happy to follow harder or ropegun for you! Hit me up via pm with your number if you are interested. I'd just like to get out, even if it's only a half day. Cheers, Stewart

DPS for the thread win!

That looks great! I wanna go there!

Sweet! I've seen that cloudy view a few times, have yet to see from the summit! One of these years I need to go back on a good day!

Thanks for the updates!

Nice work Josh! Always exciting to see how the lake can change over a day huh!

Thanks for the update, I was hoping to head in to ski Glacier Peak that way later this spring so hopefully it gets fixed!

Pretty much what everyone else said. I've also had good luck with Gu/energy gels, in limited quantity, at altitude as well. Sometimes when you don't feel like eating but know you need to they easy to choke down. Think about how things will be cold/frozen as well though, for example the plain vanilla powerbar gel worked well for me in Peru, but the chocolate/coffee Clif Shot type ones were too stiff and harder to eat. I like gummy candy/shot bloks too but I did lost a crown off my tooth on a frozen one ice climbing. That sucked. Sometimes high fat things like cocktail pepperoni (Oberto Outlet for big bags cheap) get more appealing on trips than at home, although altitude may make fat harder to digest so maybe best for basecamp.

Nice work! I love the cornice tunnel exit, looks like you had to dig quite a bit!