OlympicMtnBoy

Cool, thanks for that little tidbit! The cracks on the Owl looked pretty nice with pretty large continuous blocks making some good splitters. Peak 1 and 2 served that same nice afternoon climb role since we were camped just below Peak 1 at the creek. Also on closer inspection of Beckey I think Peak 1 and 2 are the "Nada Creek Crags" that anchor the end of Temple Ridge but aren't labeled in his pic.

Nice, looks like some fun and speedy work!

Crampons but no axe sounds like a good way to get yerself on something steep with no way out. I'd go the other way and just bring the axe if it were me. The snow as of last weekend would take steps with a little work and your axe will keep you from taking too much of a ride. Besides, an aluminum axe is lighter than aluminum crampons. :-)

How was the snow? Did you need crampons or just your axes?

Lots more pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/matthiesen/BlackPyramidAndPrussikWithMatt#

I have the older non-goretex Nepal Extremes but have use the above mentioned wax stuff for years with no problems. I do try to work it in to the seams and stitches pretty well, but haven't used a real "seam sealer" for it. The wax stuff may impair the breathability a bit but I haven't noticed it that much, my feet still generally stay much drier than in my impermeable double boot lines, so it must be breathing a little bit. On my leather and fabric hiking boots I use a combination of wax on the leather parts and the aquaseal fabric stuff on the fabric bits (get the fabric wet first) and it seems to work ok. Ultimately no amount of goretex and sealer will keep any breathable boot totally dry after a day in really wet snow, at least in my experience. Those things help stave it off though.

Count me 3! Maybe we can get a cc.com group discount somewhere!

Sounds like a great adventure! Did you get any pictures?

almost regardless of anchor type Option 1: lower through the anchors = small wear on the anchor which can be noticeable over time Option 2: rappel from the anchors = no wear on the anchor I always try to have the lowest impact possible (in climbing and many other things). Always seemed pretty straight forward to me. Unless you are on a crag where you are involved in replacing the anchors yourself, or at a gym where you are paying others for the upkeep.

Woohoo, nice dood! So what are we getting on next?

Much of the route fell down (we're talking train car sized blocks). I'm not sure it has been climbed since then, it looks scary with loose block and would likely be mostly new route now. Here is a picture from last year, look at the large whitish scarred area on the left side, that is where the route used to be as far as I can tell. I would love to hear a report if someone goes and does it, as long as it's not an accident report. Sounds like it used to be a fairly moderate line in a cool location.

The looks like it ought to hold for a while. I always like the before and after pics on these things. You ever gonna tell the exciting story of how this happened? ;-)

The looks like it ought to hold for a while. I always like the before and after pics on these things. You ever gonna tell the exciting story of how this happened? ;-)

Nice to see it public now! Looks great! I've got more pictures if you need em. :-) Or we can go take some!

I know we soloed the summit block and used the rope as a hand line/body rap to get down, but it is exposed and probably worth having a few medium pieces for anyone not as comfortable, or in case you get weird weather.

I was up there a few years ago on a sunny May weekend and climbed Triple Couloirs one day and the NE Couloir on Colchuck the next. Weather was warm and sunny, snow was great on Dragontail and mush on Colchuck. The aspects aren't exactly the same but I figured it was close enough and the snow would be better on Aasgard than Colchuck Glacier. Fortunately I wasn't too far off. :-)

Here are the pics from our trip a week and a half ago, a couple pics of Dragontail in there, but it's kind of falling down. http://picasaweb.google.com/matthiesen/EnchantmentsTripWithCourtneyAmyAndBrendan#

I'm pretty sure they do a regular loop, at least on the weekends, all through permit season. I would expect to get checked if you are on the main trail then. Hardly a soul up there the last non-permit weekend though!

I finally put some pictures online of our three day backpack last weekend. There is a pic of the South Face of Prusik looked nice and dry. http://picasaweb.google.com/matthiesen/EnchantmentsTripWithCourtneyAmyAndBrendan#

Yeah, the right hand crack takes a more fun looking line up the face for sure. It just looked like it hadn't been done in a long time, or someone ran it out a lot more than I on crumbling moss holds. Both are possible. The approach was not as bad as I was expecting, there were only a few spots of really thick dead fall. Having sticky rubber approach shoes made walking on the down logs easier, James took a few less of the elevated highways than I did. The routes up there are mostly only a few pitches long but I wouldn't mind heading up there again, some of the rock looked nice.

You can see it on the drive in to the park, but not from in the park itself since it's on the opposite side of the formation from the parking lot. Depending how bad the knee is, the flat trail along the river will give you a good view as well once you round the corner of the Smith Rock Group. Other than the drop to the river from the parking lots it's flat, wide, and well graded and could probably be traveled by wheel chair. I think you could probably find the back road that leads to the Monkey Face side and accesses those big houses over there too and get good views.

I have always been happy with my CAMPs in many different types of snow and they have decent front points. I have also been impressed with the Grivels that friends have used, and I kind of like their anti-bot plates better. I had to make my own for my CAMPs but they may come with some now??? My CAMPs fit on my low top approach shoes and my giant double boots no problem.

Yeah that was us, we waited a bit and watched, lots of wet slides in the expected areas but I think Asgaard was reasonably safe. I knew it would be more solid than the Colchuck glacier route. We had great step kicking snow all the way up till near the top. We had a great camp up on the ridge with an awesome sunset and didn't bother putting on the snowshoes until the next day. I'll post some pics tomorrow. We just did the loop and hiked up Little Annapurna, foregoing Dragontail because of the avy/rockfall danger.

Trip: The Mole - North Face Date: 6/5/2010 Trip Report: James put out a call for partners for the weekend and I saw my opportunity to convince someone to undertake the 'schwack up to the Mole. We met up in town and were off a bit after 10:00 on the nice trail up to Yellow Jacket Tower. Following the description in Beckey and the new Kramer guides we left the trail just below Yellow Jacket and made a rising traverse into Hook Creek. We probably stayed a bit too high and had some funky slabs, but the route wasn't too bad for the most part. Once we crossed the creek we made good use of the elevated highways nature has installed (trees) and it got a little easier. Eventually we hit the snow which was mostly crappy but quicker in the old consolidated avalanche debris. It took us probably 4.5 hours to get to the upper basin below the Hook Creek/Rat Creek group but we spent another good hour or more looking for a tent site. We had both brought lighter sleeping bags and didn't feel like stomping forever in the slushy snow to get a wet platform, so we searched high and far for a melted out spot before finally settling on "tick ledge" about 30 feet off the snow. It was only a tad wider than our tent, but at least it was dry (and full of ticks as we would later discover). - The Mole is just above Jame's head with the flatter top, the North Face is facing us. It was now quite a bit later than we had planned, but given the longer days and the questionable weather forecast for Sunday we decided to make it a sunset climb and racked up on our ledge. The snow was steep but good for step kicking now and we made better time to the base of the North Face. - The Shrew from the base of the Mole. The diagonal moss filled cracks splitting the face were obvious. I took the first lead, starting from the snow and up to where the cracks split left and right. Kramer makes it sound like you should keep right while the original route splits left. I tried the right option and was soon faces with fist cracks filled to the brim with moss, standing on crumbly wet moss, and no clear evidence that anyone else had been that way for some time. I didn't feel like excavating that much stuff so I downclimbed 20 feet and took the left route which soon revealed some cleaner cracks amidst the moss and some fun 5.7 climbing. A long pitch led to a nice ledge with some bushes and slings where I stopped and brought James up. From there he took over the lead for a second longer but easier pitch (60+ meters) that led to the summit. I followed quickly as we watched the sun sinking. The views from the top were well worth the effort, especially with the evening light! After photos and snacks there was only one obvious rap route so we took it making three single rope rappels into the gully on the south east side. From there it was some quick plunge stepping and then an awesome glissade all the way back to camp. We made it just before we needed headlamps. Enjoying the single beer I brought and our dinner we crawled into bed dreaming of the Shrew for the next day. These dreams were dashed by the sound of rain sometime in the morning. We stuck our heads out and decided to go back to bed hoping it would stop. We watched the ticks crawl on the outside of our tent and contemplated new ways to kill them. Four hours later or so the cloud finally sank low enough that it stopped raining on us so we packed up and left our tiny ledge. The hike out was drier than we had psyched ourselves up for, but not any shorter. We ran into Jim Donini and Kevin Rose at the Hook Creek Boulder right before the car. Even the old schoolers were bouldering that day! Overall a really fun climb, although it would have been much nicer to had had a second day up there since we had the gear. The approach wasn't bad, but also not great. I'd like to check out the other option via Toketie next time. Go get at er, alpine season is here (if it ever dries out again)! Gear Notes: Brought a bigger rack than needed, but the climb took lots of 0.5-3 camalots with a few options for larger nuts. Not much need for small gear. If you take the right hand option you may need to build a gear belay, but going left gets you nice trees. Approach Notes: Cross the bridge, hike up to Yellow Jacket Tower, head right on a level or slightly rising traverse, cross Hook Creek and head up hill. Keep heading uphill. Head up hill some more. You'll still be able to see the road.

We went up Aasgard on Friday evening. There were frequent sluffs caused by rockfall off Dragontail and surrounding peaks, but it was ok except for crossing a few chutes. Some aspects were slushy up to mid calf level. In the upper Enchantments it got cold enough to form a crust you could almost walk on, but that went away shortly after the sun hit and we were glad to have snowshoes. In the lower Enchantment it was a bit better with snowshoes optional and the snow mostly disappeared below the Snow Lakes. I should have had my firn gliders up there!