OlympicMtnBoy

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.

Sweet, now I can advertise it as a "new" rope on craigslist! That sucker is fat and heavy. And why the heck were you rapping off death stumps? We had nice bolted rap anchors except for the one sturdy live tree on Blueberry. I mean if Ivan were with you that would explain things but you said Josh.

Yep, that's it! Rattle and Slime says not to rap pitch 3 of Dark Rhythm if you want to leave with both your ropes, hehehe. I pulled your rope up then cut over to a tree anchor on Blueberry and went down from there to P2 on Dark Rhythm than to the ground. A good day out in the sun on Rainman for us. Finally went to the summit too. I've been enjoying Belgian sour beers lately, but I like anything with color and flavor. Let's get out again soon! Or come to our Halloween party this Saturday in Georgetown!

Freed your stuck rope and carried it out. Describe the rope and where you left it and I'll try to get it back to you! - Stewart

Out there today basking in the sun and not a soul around, on a weekend! It's the season out there!

Nice, beautiful fall climbing up there! I wussed out and just aided the 12b, that final pitch was a bit scary/fun to lead too! Looks like you had a great day out.

Same dilemma a lot of folks face, I did too 7 or 8 years ago. There is no way to learn to ski downhill better than going to a resort and ponying up for at least a couple of days and maybe a lesson or two. Some resorts offer pretty good deals for a like a "3 pack" of lift ticket, rental gear, and lessons for beginners. You will pick up skinning uphill and stuff pretty quickly, especially if you've spent time on XC skis. You will need to learn to go downhill, trust me, I've been there with approach skis at the top of the hill, and ended up postholing all the way out while carrying my skis. As far as gear, rent downhill stuff a few times. I've found that old cheap approach skis cobbled to climbing boots are only really skiable if you already know how to ski. It's a crappy set up for a beginner. My skiing (and fun) improved exponentially when i quit trying to do it in climbing boots and got some used AT gear (a few years old, not decades). Actually the newer pack of boots out there climb amazingly well too, IMHO, the "approach ski" is on it's way out being supplanted by boots that both ski and climb fairly well for the average weekend warrior. Even if you don't crave the steep, it's nice to get into skiing to have another thing to do in the winter and more friends who won't ditch you. If you are lucky you can still ski in and out of climbs too!

Maybe they will chime in here? Some real participation in the climbing community would do wonders to help collaboratively approach some of the issues raised instead of continuing the antagonistic "enforcer" relationship. I'm not sure posting up pics of cairn removal and spraying about how many fixed rap anchors they've removed is helping. Yosemite climbing rangers have done a much better job than Yosemite forest rangers for example, through two way engagement and developing mutual respect. The beginning of this program is a great time to start that should Adam read this. :-) Best wishes to those working out there in the hills!

I remember getting real drunk trying to kill a keg, and then feeling fine but my partner throwing up on top of Catapult at Castle Rock the next morning. I think I met a girlfriend at one too. I don't think it was 2005 though. Is there one this year?

Yep, pretty simple, I'm down a blue #1 TCU but I have a spare gray #00 TCU. Trade me straight across. Gray TCU is in good used shape, sling is good, action smooth, lobes with usual scratches. Let me know if you have a spare blue tcu! P.S. My blue is stuck on Princely Ambitions at Index, beer if someone can get it out and back in usable shape.

Bump, partner found for Tuesday but still free Mon and Weds! Looking warm, anyone wanna swim/rap a canyon instead?

Weather looks great and I want to get on some rock! I haven't been cragging all that much this season (more alpine and backpacking) but I'm probably still leading mid-5.10 trad, maybe harder depending on the pitch. Looking for a partner for cragging or multipitch rock. I have rope, gear, and a car and would like someone who can swing leads at around the same level (or rope gun me up something harder). Cheers, Stewart

Sweet!

Great pictures, I've been wanting to do some sort of trip like that!

Wow, really cool. I love the picture of the hanging lake off Mystery with the meadow beneath. I've wondered what was in there this time of year! Thanks!

Yeah, early season is definitely the way to go on this, much easier than stumbling through scree. We didn't make as much use of water en route as we should have but some of those nice snow patches are probably long gone by now. I can't wait to get back in there to do the rest of the ridge past Terror. It looked awesome, and intimidating!