OlympicMtnBoy

Yeah, anyone who wasn't there sadly missed my story about playing the air harp (as demonstrated in the picture there). Thanks for dragging us all our Porter!

Pretty much what they said, heavy stuff and stuff you won't need during the day (like dinner and sleeping gear) goes on the bottom. Water bladder close to your back, the rest of it stuffed in around that stuff. The only thing I use a compression sack for is my sleeping bag as I find keeping my puffy and clothes in them makes odd little hard to pack balls with lots of wasted space. I can normally stuff those things in nooks and crannies around my sleeping bag, stove and pot (if brought), etc. If I have a big approach before technical climbing I will pack the rack near the bottom (on top of my sleeping bag) to keep the weight loaded lower down too.

I ought to be able to make this one! I may be able to drag another lurker or two as well.

Wait, was that today? I thought we were aiming for every two weeks? And which Chucks? There are 2 now.

I think I can make it next weds, maybe I can drag one more lurker there too. Next one in West Seattle or Georgetown!

I might be able to convince my girlfriend she wants to come to Pub Club with me after we visit the Burke Museum tonight (want to see the Elwha exhibit), but I'm not sure how that will go. Maybe? :-) Size medium if I make it, my other two cc.com shirts are getting a little threadbare, especially the Elite Sprayforce Team one.

Fred B. is looking for someone who can drive him and his car to the Canadian Rockies (from Seattle) to meet up with some local climbers and do an easy snow/ice route. He is pretty set on the last week of March. He's been having some driver licensing issues (he's 92 now). It'd be a crazy trip, you'll have all sorts of odd adventures, you might get Fred to pay for gas, and there is a possibility you could climb. You'll also be keeping our highways safer and Canadians will love you for it. Or if you have other plans up there, he'd probably just settle for a ride. Let me know if you are interested and I can put you in touch.

Cool, that looks like great fun with the bivy! Thanks for posting!

Sweet! Although at a 4 liter per day flow rate you may be sitting there for a while waiting. Good for after the apocalypse though, nice find!

Scarpa Techno has worked well for me, flat lasted and a little stiffer than the Mythos (which I think are way softer than your Boreals). I wouldn't say my feet are especially narrow but I have noticed several shoes seem to wide on me so maybe I'm on the narrow side of the spectrum. I haven't tried the new Techno X which they just put out though.

Also check out wildsnow.com for lots of reviews of backcountry skis and some quiver suggestions. Are you new to skiing entirely? Planning to approach climbs in compact snow or seeking deep powder stashes? Ski mountaineering on volcanoes? As suggested, there is lots of info buried here and elsewhere too.

No love for the south side! Schooner Exact? Georgetown Liquor Company? The Yard has a better beer selection though. I don't know who thinks anything in Capital Hill has easy parking unless Pub Club is on a Tuesday at three in the afternoon. Last time I went to Von Trapps there was a 90 minute wait for food so we left. Regardless though, PUB CLUB!!!!

Signed!

Sweet, that looks super fun!

Yeah, we're gonna do it this time! Yay Sportsball! WooHoo! WooHoo! Twelfth man! Go Blue Go! I just wanted to post here to join the stalwarts. And I hope we win, cost me a nice steak dinner last time. . .

Looks like a great climb! Nice work!

Nice! I love these little classic Olympics winter gems!

Yeah, I was in there in January last year and those three falls were pretty thin and very wet. It was fat this time, no problem finding v-threads when there wasn't a convenient tree. Hanman, how high up did you climb? It looked like at least one more rambly pitch above us but it disappeared into the bushes/cloud.

Shoulda gone to Silverton! Tons of ice, ~23 mi north of Granite Falls. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1117507#Post1117507

Trip: Silverton - Various Date: 12/10/2013 Trip Report: Surprised I was, that no one else seems to have gone to Silverton off the Mountain Loop during this last cold snap. I made three trips there over the last week or so, so here is what I found. Thursday December 5th: Matt S., Kyle, and I headed in with the usual expectations of taking the tools for a walk. There was one set of footprints leading 2/3 of the way in. Travel was a bit annoying with powder over brush/rocks and the first three falls you encounter in the valley were quite wet with big holes as usual. We headed farther in and up a bit to the Silverton Sickle. This was also running with a lot of water so we hiked up the brushy gully to the right of the ice and rapped in to check it out. There was actually more ice than we thought and it was pretty solid, but we had a TR so we ran 50m laps on the second pitch. The lower angle gulley above had open water and ice on both sides, but seemed like a recipe for a swim. After lunch we did another rap and TR'd the first pitch, also leadable and easy after TRing it (gotta love the early season wussieness factor). Sunday December 8th: I returned with my girlfriend Courtney, figuring the continuing cold might have further set things up. I was right and all three of the nearest falls appeared fatter. We chose to try the rightmost of the three falls and climbed ~105 meters to the top of the main falls. The first pitch was fun WI2 up a rocky gully with cool ice features, the second had a tiny bit of WI3 in steps and ended at a small pool. There was a short rotten looking bit of ice above that but we called it good and rapped off a tree and a v-thread. Tuesday December 10th: I figured this was the last chance before things warmed up so I talked Matt H. into driving out to join me to climb the longer looking lefthand line of the three. We arrived to find things looking quite a bit wetter than Sunday despite temps still a bit below freezing (high flow?). We headed up anyways. Great plastic ice just kept going up and up and we ended up climbing SIX full pitches (~300 meters) of mostly continuous ice. The first four pitches got us to the top of the falls including a bit of lower angle stuff on top ending at another pool with a large log across it. I led two more pitches up with only ~40 feet of walking between until things started to get a bit bushy. We could see some more rambling ice a couple hundred feet farther up but didn't want to do the snowy bushwhack as it was getting on in the afternoon and our ropes were freezing solid. I imagine this route parallels the Sickle route, maybe merging higher or getting near the west ridge earlier. A few steps of fun WI3 and some pleasant cruiser 2-2+. We made double rope raps off 3 trees, 2 v-threads. and a rock horn. We didn't see any signs of previous ascents and who knows how often these freeze solid enough to climb. I'd love to hear if anyone else has done any of these three falls. Just in case though I'll continue the metal implement theme and call the left line the Silverton Spoon and the right line the Silverton Fork. Someone needs to climb the Knife in the middle as I didn't have time and am heading to India tomorrow. At a base elevation of only 2000 ft I would expect these to be falling apart but who knows, the Sickle supposedly stays in shape as it's more insulated in its gully. More pictures here: https://picasaweb.google.com/104708573545176184583/SilvertonIceClimbing?authuser=0&feat=directlink Gear Notes: Lots of screws of all sizes, no rock gear needed. 2 ropes (the mythical ones that don't get wet and freeze would be nice). Approach Notes: See Washington Ice. Park on the side of the Mtn Loop highway and walk across the bridge. It appears you have to cross private property to get to the Silver Gulch trail but no one said anything to us. Be polite and low profile.

Cool!

Obwan is pretty correct, if you get a handful of ice days in a season you are doing pretty well for a weekend warrior or someone who decides to go skiing instead of driving 5-16 hours when the ice is buried locally. That being said, hit me up if it gets cold enough. I often have weekdays free. With my usual handful of days on ice a year I'm always feeling rusty leading on WI 4-5 but I can follow anything and lead my share.

Nice, way to get off the beaten path!

Wow, what a great trip!

If you really want to get up one of the super popular routes and your day is going to be totally blown if you don't, being at the base at sunrise is the ticket of course. Leaving the parking lot at sunrise might not be too bad. If you get up at sunrise (7ish?) and get to the lot after 8 and dink around and leave at 9, you will have plenty of friends. If it's a route that is high on my tick list, I've never regretted getting there early, plenty of times I've regretted getting somewhere an hour (or 10 minutes) too late. Nothing like that satisfaction of once hiking up to Snow Creek wall in the pre-dawn hours with my then girlfriend with her complaining about how early it was for a 1/2 day route. All the way up to the base, she couldn't see any headlamps so thought we were still too early. Halfway up the first lead two parties totaling seven climbers popped out of the bushes at the base. YMMV, don't blame me.