John Frieh

This Wednesday August 26 7 pm at the Portland Arcteryx store Portland climber Trevor Lewis will talk about his recent Nose in a day climb. Beverages supplied by Oak Shire brewing. More details: FaceBook

When are you guys going up again?

Eloquent and succinct. Bravo. I don't climb at Beacon enough to claim regular status but I absolutely agree with this. Not a big fan of bolts but given the history out there it would seem we're just one accident away from closure or additional regulations.

Buzzed by a drone this morning while finishing up the last pitch of Young Warriors. Based on the flight path my guess is the pilot was on the summit. Looked like a DJI Phantom. I was half hoping to see a Peregrine take it down but wasn't so lucky. Better luck next time.

Love my Arcteryx FL 45 so much I picked up a FL 30 for routes with no overnight. Used the Alpha FL 30 in Alaska on Lucifer recently. Have used my Alpha FL 45 on the French Ridge of Huntington (two bivies) West Witches Tit (giant push) and Dickey (one open bivy). Both awesome backpacks that climb well.

Sent you an email Bill

Fish once made one called the Captain Hook that worked well. I have one you could borrow if I find it. http://www.fishproducts.com/catalog/hooks_heads.html The Petzl one is nice also

Fixed it for you

Trip: Lucifer - North Face "Agua Sin Gas" (FA) Date: 5/15/2015 Trip Report: Summary: New route on the north face of Lucifer on May 15 2015. John Frieh (Portland, OR) and Doug Shepherd (Denver, CO) "Agua Sin Gas" III W4/steep snow Lucifer is the peak just left of center: Details: I made my first trip to the Stikine Icecap in 2009 to make the first ascent of the west ridge of Burkett Needle. The climbing on the Needle was trumped only by the scenery; the Icecap seemed to be teeming with beautiful lines. I was amazed to learn many of them were unclimbed and as a result have more or less returned every year to attempt to climb one of them. In 2014 while approaching the West Witches Tit Jess and I spotted on the other side of what local climbers call "The Cauldron" or "Witches Cauldron" a very attractive looking face. I took a few photos and made a mental note to keep it in mind when a conditions and weather window coincided; I didn't expect it would be the following year. After reading SE Alaska's snowpack was 30% of normal earlier this year I more or less assumed I wouldn't get to climb there unless a weather window appeared early in the year. In August of 2013 I was shut down by extremely difficult glacier conditions in a low snow year and didn't want another "scenic helicopter flight" trip. I was in Salt Lake City the Monday prior training with some climbers when I noticed a solid weather window was taking shape. I pinged the usual suspects and Doug was available for a quick trip. I flew home from SLC Tuesday night, packed bags and drove to Seattle Wednesday night to meet Doug and catch the early flight north Thursday. Wally zipped us in Thursday afternoon; it was after he dropped us off as we were setting up camp that we realized I had in fact forgotten the stove in Portland. I think for most trips this would have ended the trip right there but the warm temps of the high pressure had turned the glacier into soup and we found a few shallow pools to collect water from. Still... no hot water meant no coffee which is an epic in my book. Doug earned a partner of the year nomination for not killing me right then and there. Given the heat wave we opted for a 2 am departure from camp in hopes of climbing a large majority of the face in the predawn hours. We found the same puddles we had collected water from the night prior unfrozen at 1 am so we knew it was going to be a mess. We managed most of the face before sunrise but we found the face slow going with numerous crevasses and sloppy snow in the unusual heat. We were hoping for a direct line up the headwall to the summit but given the temps and conditions opted for a safer, less direct line off the face climbers left of the summit. We managed the ~4000' face in about 12 hours; though we encountered some vertical snow/snice in places found the majority of the terrain to be moderate. All in all a good day out. We managed to snag a pick up some day and were back in Petersburg later in the day on the 15th making for a <24 hour Petersburg to Petersburg trip. Given my fuck up we opted to name the route "Agua sin gas" which in Spanish means "water without gas" Though usually this is reserved for still water (i.e. not sparkling water) it happened to also hold true for our situation. My 5th first ascent on the Icecap; my 10th in Alaska. Pictures: Glacier shenanigans Throw the horns! Partner of the year Gear Notes: Petzl Laser Speed Light screws. Arcteryx FL 30 was the perfect size for this route. Approach Notes: Wally at Temsco Air in Petersburg

Good times You owe your girlfriend. Big time.

Are people still camping in the same spot on the Root Canal after the 2011 accident? In 2014 I saw a few teams camping in a questionable location. Memories fade...

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/943650/Searchpage/5/Main/72873/Words/Yellow+Hardman/Search/true/RIP_yellow_hardman_pad#Post943650

Keenwesh is partially correct. Karen's route was climbers right of our line and is pictured in his photo though 1) she rated it WI4+ and 2) they did not reach the summit. From Karen's 2003 AAJ entry: Keenwesh's photo makes our route look fairly threatened but if you actually ski up to the base as well as fly over the top of it you can see only the start of the route is in the firing line of the serac. As you move across the face the prominent rock buttress protects you. Exiting off the face too early and you will reencounter the serac but if you continue far enough right the serac shrinks and you are only faced with a minimal cornice. We all have different risk tolerances for exposure. I find it comical that numerous climbers will camp in the Root Canal every year for days exposed to cornices without a second thought but everyone shits the bed when I move under a serac for a few hours.

It is in Eugene for select members of the track team. I have a sponsorship with ClubSport which means you'll see me on the TVs in the club. The most compelling data I have seen is sleep high (actual real altitude) and train low which for us would mean sleeping in the Timberline Parking lot each night and commuting to Portland. Some data out there for sleep low train high (altitude rooms and real altitude) but not enough to suggest it gives a measurable advantage. As I have access to the ClubSport altitude room in 2013 I experimented with doing my zone 4 and zone 5 work in there. No noticeable difference for me.

Lots of data, journal articles, etc etc that show "no proof athletes at the simulated higher altitude performed any better than those at sea level." I consider Brad a friend and wish all the best on his endeavor but I think your money is better spent if improvement in climbing is your training goal.

Big thanks to Paul of Talkeetna Air Taxi for snapping this photo of us on the route.

Thanks all. For the record we only had two rope lengths of heinous trenching; a large majority of the route was not nearly as bad... if it was we'd still be up there. Not a crack baby AFAIK but for sure curious to see what I can do given the other commitments in my life. You only get once chance at this life... right?

Route Line. Once on the summit plateau we continued to the summit and descended the west ridge.

Trip: Mount Dickey (Ruth Gorge) - NE Face "Blue Collar Beatdown" (FA) Date: 3/20-22/2015 Summary: New route on the NE face of Mount Dickey on March 20-22nd 2015. John Frieh (Portland, OR), Jason Stuckey (Fairbanks, AK) and Chad Diesinger (Fairbanks, AK) “Blue Collar Beatdown” V W4 M4 65 degree snow Details: After much deliberation over where the low would settle in the gulf and what that would mean for weather in the central range I finally committed and grabbed a last minute ticket to Fairbanks. I landed early in the morning of the 19th and Jason, Chad and I immediately departed for Talkeetna. We rolled into town just as the Roadhouse opened where we each pounded the traditional half standard, a Rudy and a Razzy before heading to Talkeetna Air Taxi. After some bag shuffling we departed for the Ruth. As always Paul was gracious enough to “fly slow” on our way in and, after some observations from the air, ruled out a few possibles and made a decision to look at the NE face of Mount Dickey. After establishing camp (one of the downsides of being the first team of the year is you can’t recycle old campsites) we skied over and glassed the NE face. Though what we found wasn’t exactly confidence inspiring it was enough to merit a “let’s go see tomorrow” plan for the following morning. Upon returning to camp we found in the 90 minutes we had been gone a pack of ravens had ripped several holes in both brand new tents, opened a few duffels to pull out their contents out but mostly shit on everything. You can probably guess how we felt about this. The following morning we departed camp at approximately 4:45 am and made the short ski over to Dickey. We cached the skis near the face and started hiking. To be honest I can’t recall when we reached the face (it all sort of blends together) but I want to say around 7 am or so. We climbed two full pitches of snice (snow ice) that took sticks great but was a little limited on protection options. Given how thin these pitches were in places it would be my opinion that possible repeaters of this route should plan on an early spring ascent. These two pitches put us on the snow ramp that slashed the face. We immediately started blocking it out; simulclimbing when the terrain allowed for it. We encountered bottomless sugar to mixed climbing and everything in between. I had the final block of the day that started at dusk and ended well past dark. Our original plan/hope was to be off the face before the sunset and then rely on my knowledge of the descent from my 2012 ascent to descend in the darkness or, worst case, enjoy a sit, brew and exercise session on the summit plateau. Unfortunately we were not and after getting shut down by complex route finding in the dark we resigned to digging a pseudo snowcave into the side of a snow fin and sitting down to wait for dawn. When we finally sat down and settled in it was around midnight so we "enjoyed" four long hours of the Alaska night. Ironically (at least to me I suppose) that night was the last night of winter and the following morning was the first day of spring. As none of us had brought any bivy gear the Reactor saw plenty of use that night. No one slept out of fear for their fingers and toes. As soon as it was light we blasted out of the cave and promptly restarted our efforts to get off the face. After two failed attempts we finally found a way off the face. It was much later in the day than any of us had hoped. We slogged over and tagged the summit around 5 pm or so (again: it all blends together). We reached 747 pass around 8 or so and sat down for a final brew session as the last of the daylight faded away. Coffee, Perpetuem and what little we had left to eat was consumed before we began what would end up taking another 8 hours to finally reach our tent on March 20th at 4 am. All told we were awake for 48 hours and more or less on the move for all of it minus the 4 hour "sit and suffer" session. "Blue Collar Beatdown" is my second first ascent on Mount Dickey and my 9th “first” in Alaska since my first trip in 2009. Many thanks to all the great partners that have climbed with me on these over the years. My thanks to Paul and the great people at Talkeetna Air Taxi for the superior service. I cannot emphasize how critical a solid, reliable pilot is to the “Smash and Grab” approach; arguably it would be impossible without one. Fly TAT; you get what you pay for. Also a big thanks to the great people of Mountain Gear and the Alta Group for supporting local climbers like us as well as many local projects that benefit the climbing community. Finally many thanks to my Gym Jones family for teaching me how to suffer and the power of self image. Onward. Pictures: Off the glacier Looking back Trenching it up. The trench exceeded 6 feet in places. The pseudo cave. A dark night As first light breaks we immediately started climbing again Hour 40. Wasted. Gear Notes: Petzl Lynx: everyone wore these Petzl Laser Speed Lights: I can't get over how light these are but how well they hold up. The future. Arcteryx Alpha FL 45: My third "big" route in AK with this bag. Absolutely love it. The roll top took me a little bit to warm up to but I am a big fan now. Perfect size. GUs and Shot Blocks for the high heart rate stuff; bars and peanut butter for the lower heart rate stuff. Coffee and Perpetuem makes the world go round Laser Speed LIGHT! Approach Notes: I'll say it again: My thanks to Paul and the great people at Talkeetna Air Taxi for the superior service. I cannot emphasize how critical a solid, reliable pilot is to the “Smash and Grab” approach; arguably it would be impossible without one. Fly TAT; you get what you pay for. http://www.talkeetnaair.com

Thanks! Trip Report soon

Love mine. Multiple trips to Alaska with mine. Recently picked up an Alpha 30 FL.

Have to say I haven't read a trip report I didn't like. Arguably the best way to contribute to the site. More TRs please!

Sounds like Colin and Dylan finally took down the Heart of Darkness. Rock on dudes

I live in Portland and will either fly through SEA to Billings on Alaska Air or through SLC to Billings on Delta. Price usually dictates which carrier I use. You can fly into Cody but it bumps the price significantly. I'd recommend either flying to Billings (2 hours to Cody; 2:45 to the Ranch) or Bozeman (3:30 to Cody; 4 hours to the Ranch) if you plan on climbing in Hyalite or the Beartooths in addition to Cody.

Good times Kevin and David. Let's do it again soon. Second the recommendation on the DDX bunkhouse; much improvement with the new owners and AAC members still get their discount.