OlympicMtnBoy

So the lovely wife and I are taking the 4th of July week off and heading to Banff to visit some friends that moved there recently. We'll be cruising up in my camper. We'll probably jet up there and visit our friends for a few days and then take the next 6 or 7 days to work our way back. Neither of us has been to Banff before so I'm looking for suggestions on good day climbs up there or on the way back to Seattle. Overnight is a possibility too although it's nicer not to have to pack too much extra gear. Since my wife is along, probably keeping things at 5.7 ish or under is good, long alpine rock, moderate snow/ice, even good scrambles. Or cragging/multipitch along the way? Our camper is a 1984 Nissan Sunrader so it's fine on moderate dirt roads, but not 4wd and not a huge amount of clearance which I know is limiting for some spots. It sure is a nice place to get back to after a long day though. Thanks all!

Me of course! I haven't even been out there to climb this year! That being said, I might be booked pretty much through July except maybe the weekend of the 16th. I might be able to swing a weekday if I'm not traveling for work. There are still a ton of peaks I haven't done!

It really wasn't too bad, but it was a bit scary to have to get out of my aiders. The 5.8 mantle at the beginning of the pitch is chill, then it's just some easier but true slab (no obvious holds or well trodden path). Do it! It was a fun route.

And where are the pictures of HandyCorn??? Hehe, thanks for putting up the TR and belaying me dude!

C'mon old people, it's only 5.1. You can climb that with a cane and depends. Hehe, close enough though, nice TR.

Yep, kleenex!

Cool, it worked!

Sad, I want to hear it!

Because all you climber folks are real estate magnates and slum lords in your spare time, help my wife and I find a new place to live! We've had a great 3 and a half years in Georgetown but our landlord is selling our house. We made an offer but it's such a crazy market we weren't willing to overpay when we know exactly how much work it needs. So who's got a place to rent for us, our lovable well trained, hypoallergenic poodle, and all our climbing/skiing/biking/homebrewing crap? Unfortunately I work in Bothell and she works in Tukwila so our neighborhoods are sort of limited to Georgetown/Beacon Hill/Seward Park/Rainier, parts of West Seattle/Delridge, or maybe even the north end of Renton/Newcastle/Bellevue. Great credit, rental references, very easy tenants who fix minor things ourselves, etc but not unlimited budget since we have been paying $1500 a month in our current spot. I know that will not be an option anymore though for a place with room for all our gear and a spot to park the camper van and our 2 cars. Ideas? Well, serious ideas anyways? We've got until the end of July to get out.

Wow, sure seems like this route is getting climbed more and more each year! Looks good!

Looks like your average spring day out with two more trips up the wall! Wish I was there this time.

Cool trip, thanks for the report!

Sounds fun, that second pic looks scary though!

Cool, sounds like a good adventure. At least you didn't get your rope stuff on the rap off as there is a rope swallowing flake or two in there. I've turned around a couple pitches from the top on longer D-town routes too either due to partners or time. It's always good if you get back down safe so that's never the wrong answer for me. Sometimes though a 10 minute break with some food and water if you have it, and THEN a thoughtful discussion about your descent, daylight remaining, conditions, etc can do wonders to get someone to push that one or two more pitches. Especially something you are going to rap. Sometimes it's best just to head down to the beer though and go back again next time with a new or newly psyched partner!

Cool, way to get after it! Thanks for posting up and dealing with the site difficulties!

Nice pics, looks like a good time. At least a couple of you got to enjoy good beers at the end. ;-)

Nice job with the extra road skiing, looks like a great day out!

Cool, I need to get out and ski more this spring!

Cool, looks like fun!

I'm not sure how these are really an improvement over the Rossignol Free Trek Venture approach skis I bought in the early 2000's. Actually the binding is identical, but the Freetreks were just a normal 99cm fat snowblade with a standard skin with glue. They really work quite well although are difficult to ski in anything but corn with a pack on (with my leather ice boots anyways). I haven't really used them since I made the switch to real skis with dynafits. I'd probably sell em if someone is interested.

I'd love to hear if you get a response as I agree about communications. My only experience was 6 or 7 years ago coming down after a January climb. We had crappy ski conditions and made it down 45 mins late or so. We walked to the hotel and they recorded our names and gave us the code to get out, no problems. It sucks that it has changed so much. Olympic National Park for example (at least several years ago) used to just close half the gate to Hurricane Ridge. You couldn't drive up but you could drive down (although they did ticket me once up top for overnight parking in the wrong place, my fault).

This thread was so much fun I had to bump it. I am offended that I only have an ad for sunglasses and home insurance, damn this site is boring (or I am). Hehe.

I find in those sorts of situations I'm using the piolet 90% of the time and the tool+piolet much less, so I use a wrist leash for each. If I expect to have any benefit from a leashless ice tool setup, I'm probably carrying both tools and using tethers anyways. I guess you could also use tethers on both like you would with your leashless tools, but that seems more awkward with a piolet to me.

I find in those sorts of situations I'm using the piolet 90% of the time and the tool+piolet much less, so I use a wrist leash for each. If I expect to have any benefit from a leashless ice tool setup, I'm probably carrying both tools and using tethers anyways. I guess you could also use tethers on both like you would with your leashless tools, but that seems more awkward with a piolet to me.

Yep, that makes me wanna travel, although sounds a bit nerve wracking through there. Kind of like when we were the first Americans in the Kara Su in Kyrgyzstan after Tommy and Beth were kidnapped. At least I knew some of the language and stuff there. Did you know to move on before the word spread at the village market, or was it just a prudent hunch?