Friedrich

Spionin, your tagline is a misnomer. I'm nominating this for best TR contest, great read!

Hey that is a pretty good idea there dude. I'd love to see how that top piece holds up under repeated pounding. If it works well, you should propose the mod to MSR! I bet if Larry Penberthy were still alive (RIP) we'd see that modification offered at retail next season. Nice blog.

That would be cool. What bugs me is the unpredictability of it. I parked there overnight on Dec 17th blissfully unaware, no problems. Then 2 weekends ago after calling and getting the scare-down, we parked super far away for our overnight, because it would really suck to get back from a climb and find out your car was towed. Too much risk. Luckily we were able to thumb rides both to and from the trailhead almost instantly. Nice people around here. Too bad the owners of the facility aren't so welcoming.

If this pisses you off too, please continue discussion on the 'access issues' forum: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1012363#Post1012363

Reposting this discussion happening over at the climber's board. The Summit/Alpental ski operators are cracking down on overnight parking despite the fact that their uppper 2 lots sit on forest service land. This restricts access to popular trails like snow lake in winter, which are also on USFS land. Not happy! http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1012362#Post1012362

I called the above number recently and spoke to security. Unfortunately what they told me is that they ARE towing all overnight parkers. Even though I offered to pay the $10 bucks for the RV fee and park in the RV lot (as described on their website) they said 'no, that's only for people who are going to stay in their vehicle.' They were adamant on the subject-- apparently they've recently decided they are going to "enforce the policy" to not allow overnight parking "during the ski season" whenever that is. This kinda pissed me off, especially because the upper 2 lots are on forest service land. I politely asked how they could do this on public land? The guy on the phone said that they have the ability to do this under the terms of their conditional use permit with the US forest service. Call the number yourself and see what they say. This sucks.

A couple ideas/requests: Since there are 5,525 TR's, even if someone's read 250 of them, that's only like 5% of the available candidates. I'm personally hesitant to say I've read THE ONE that's the best. Perhaps some of the old hands could post their personal "top 5 favorite TR's"? Kinda separate the wheat from the chaff a bit for everybody. It would be fun to read them, then we could '+1' the TR we liked best out of those lists. Another idea is that people who've authored a lot of TR's could volunteer the one they're personally most proud of, y'know, like those Academy Award ads which say "for your consideration." I agree, TR's are one of the best things about this board. I would enjoy reading more good ones.

Great pics! Love your TR

Check it out- Last time I saw something like this was about 10 years ago, when I spent the night in the WAC cabin at snoqualmie pass. There was a big group of us, and instead of sleeping, we listened to avalanches rumbling down all night off the surrounding mountains. Awe inspiring.

Well done! I second what Heinrich said

Shaabang! TR of the month for sure! Awesome

Hell yes! What Tom said. And Curtvelt. Also, nice to see someone else is rocking the Scarpa Brios

Thanks Dane. Heading out today again. Have fun in Cham!

@raisedByPikas, I don't know. Good technical question. Maybe someone knows the answer. The screamer deployed about 25% and the rope was a Beal 8.6mm 1/2 rope. That's why I'm being cautious. Probably still fine but why risk it? I'll use the other twin for leading alpine from now on, it's still virgin. The rope I fell on can become the rap line. @Alex, I'll second that. We stayed away until things stabilized a bit, but still took every precaution. Alpine start, beacons, shovels, and above all, seperation, observation, speed.

Nice, thanks for the tip!

Dude do not camp. You are crazy. Save up all you can before you leave; eat ramen, sell your TV, take the bus, do anything to save enough for a cheap Gite while you are there. You will have SUCH a better time. I like The Vagabond it is (or was) a dirtbag climber kind of place that is 60% pub, 40% hotel, and cheap IF you skip the "half board." 5 minutes from town, 10 to the midi station. By beta is pretty dated but friends I have sent there in the intervening years have liked it. Walk out there and check it out. The thing about the Vagabond is that if you are cool with them, they will be cool with you. The reverse is also true. In other words prices vary. We got friendly with the girls behind the bar and the owner, and they would let us store our stuff for free while were out for overnights. Don't know if that was a general policy but they made us feel special. Buy them a few drinks on your first night. The favor may be returned. BTW, In general, never pay for breakfast, even if you stay elsewhere, it's never a good deal. Find the supermarket and stock up on bread, nutella, etc for your breakfasts. Another way to save money: buy all the bars and other trail food that you want here, and haul them over. Everything costs 2 or 3X as much there. Soon, though, you'll be packing a tin of pate' and strapping a baguette to the outside of your pack like the rest of us. Beats power bars any day. There are (or at least used to be) some huts that are "self serve" this time of year too, if you're looking for an acclimation climb you can skin/snowshoe up there and sleep in them for free. Just a roof over your head, though, nothing fancy. These are generally up the valley and not near the midi or mer du glas. Run up your credit cards, have a great time, climb safe, and if you really want to increase your chances of fun and survival, hire a guide, but only this specific one: Francis Kelsey. He's American, he likes his job, and he 'gets' us. http://www.nosiesta.com/ Francis was the first American to become a certified Chamonix Mountain guide. Great guy, will set up a customized mountaineering course for you (He taught me and a couple buddies how to alpine climb back in the day. Great base education, way fun, best money I ever spent though I didn't really have it. What's cool about Francis is he and actually likes climbing fun stuff with clients, and will suggest interesting routes according to your ever-increasing abilities. Unlike the french guides we kept passing, who always seemed like they were pissed off they inherited this shit job from their dads. No fun. I have never hired a guide before or since, but I'm so glad I did that first time. Just sayin. PS: To answer your crampon question. Mark Twight gave me some advice about crampons for my first time in chamonix: Bring classic semi-rigid mountaineering crampons like Charlet S-12's. He was right. Unless you're a hard man like Dane and want to do the Supercouloir on Mt. Blanc du Tacul, you'll be mostly climbing snow and frozen snow, not water ice. Cheers!

I don't think it's the same Chad, unless I'm mistaken. I'll let him chime in though. (cjones)

Trip: Upper Alpental Valley - Source Lake Line Date: 3/23/2011 Trip Report: Went up to grab some late-season ice Wed March 23rd with Cjones after meeting up via the partners board. Awesome day out, good climbing, ice conditions ranged from excellent to marginal. Yes, the route's still in shape for those who want to get out. I hear there may be one or two headed up there tomorrow. Let's zoom in a bit, shall we? Note the huge missing icicle, dropped off sometime in the last month. We both had a great time from start to finish. We felt like we got away with something, having a water ice day on March 23rd so close to town. Thumbs up for late-season ice! HOW LONG WILL IT LAST? This route currently gets a bit less than 1 hour of early-morning sun each day. Being higher up the valley, seems like it intrinsically must have a longer season than the stuff near the road. Full sun, just enough to turn pitch 1 into plastic today. We saw just a few drops of water on wed, and wore fleece pants without getting wet. Like it was still winter or something. Still, it's getting smaller each day. Get after it if you want it! OK, to the route: 1st pitch seems low angle from the pics but has 2 near-vertical sections. On sticky snice, they went quickly and were super fun. I found good pro down low, ran it out a bit up high, then swam through snow to get to the belay. I'm not much for rating ice, but maybe between WI 2 or 3 with the two steps. Reaching the belay after pitch 1. Route's back in shadow already. Still early morning. Chad came up in style, commenting that it was harder than it looked. Professional flatterer The belay has 2 fixed pins and is tucked safely away in a cave to the left of the fall line. What a spot! With room for 2, a soft snow fence, and great views, this is the Club Med of belay stations. Belay Room with a view. A sheltered belayer is a happy belayer. The comfy belay room was good because we hung out there for a while. 2nd pitch is a vertical waterfall. You have to traverse out of the cave to your right to get on the face of the waterfall, and get some air under your feet. The waterfall overhangs slightly for 2 moves at the start, then you can get your foot on a bulge, stem across, hang on a tool, and rest. Alpine hard men and women would proceed without pausing, but this is as far as I got. Crotch shot. This doesn't look too vertical, does it? Wait.. why are those straps and slings hanging sideways? From there, it goes almost dead vertical but with bulges for about 15-20 feet, then goes right and eases to the top. The pro is solid low, marginal in the middle, and unknown above. This pitch seems like WI 4 or 5 just like it says in the guidebook. The waterfall is composed of an open lattice of icicles ranging in thickness from 1 foot to 3 inches. About 30% of the volume is empty pockets. Hard to find good screws but they are there if you take the time. I highly recommend pre-planting one up high before you swing out onto the waterfall and into space. Ironically given my posts on a recent discussion, when we looked at the start of the 2nd pitch from within our cushy belay, we realized it would actually be OK to fall here, if one set things up well and stayed in control. I knew the start of this pitch would be right at my limit, and then I'd be pumped for the vertical section without room to rest, so we considered bailing, but the more I looked at the landing/flying zone the more comfortable I felt with that scenario, should it come to pass. So we set things up to give us every advantage. With a couple of bomber screws, free air below, and deep fluffy snow below that, it was pretty much ideal as a place to push it on lead. I had never fallen before on ice or alpine, but there is always a first time! And I was in the mood to push it. So I did, twice. Yep, the first fall was when a pocket pulled out. It was fine, in control, dropped about a body length and a half. Factor 2 fall though, so close to the belay. On the nearly new rope we decided to go for it again, try and get past the vertical bit onto the lower-angled bulgy stuff so we could send this thing. Fell about 2 feet above my previous high point while placing a screw. Ripped a yates screamer halfway. "Ok, that's it" said I. We were gone. Two falls approaching factor 2 on the same short section of rope? Guess the blue rope is relegated to rap duty from now on. But wait, what about that half-placed screw up there, out of reach. For that matter, what about the other 2 screws. The smart and safe thing to do at that point was to just aid up to it on scews. Time consuming, but totally lame. So that's what I did. No, I'm not proud. I also aided down. Yeah safe not sorry, that's my motto. We rapped from the fixed pins leaving a double sling and steel rap oval. Once we were down, we decided to use the setup as a toprope to play on the other lower-angle route going up and right. Fun but it was too fluffy to go far. Just as well. That was it for the day. Chad contemplates the pendulum effect. The right route Chad is on has a blue ice tongue up high but probably no one ever bothers, being mesmerized by the main waterfall. It would be interesting to get up there though and see what it's like. Overall a great day and what's more, we made good time. In the continuing saga of my efforts to get back into shape, I'd dropped another 6 pounds since my last TR, making 11 pounds gone in 31 days. Middle aged couch potatoes represent! Going back out this weekend yo. 5 more pounds to go before I'm back in fighting trim! Not that anyone is still reading at this point. But it's good to have written goals, they say. Gear Notes: 6-8 screws if you want to sew it up. All sizes long to stubby. Yates screamers 2 ropes for bailing or rappel Approach Notes: Hike to Source Lake on the winter trail, then go up in the direction of Chair, and when you get onto the first bowl, you can see the climb to your left. 3:30 am departure from Seattle, at the parking lot at 4:30. Made good time to source lake, getting there about 6:15. Arrived at climb about 8:15, breaking trail on snowshoes in medium fluffy stuff. Back at the car 2pm.

Update: went up there yesterday morning with Cjones. Awesome fun, good climbing, ice condition ranged from good to marginal. Stopped by marginal ice and weak arms on 2nd pitch but a stronger climber could probably send it. Details and TR to follow.

Wow. Just.. wow. And to top it off, those guys are STILL an accident waiting to happen. Will's comments are right on the mark. Will: 'The belayer says towards the end says "Falls are to be expected." NO THEY'RE NOT, not on ice. ' Preach it brother! Like most climbers my age that I know, I have never fallen on an alpine or ice climb EVER (15+ years) This is NOT because I am a hard man, this is because when I am pumped, I back off. When I am scared, I sew it up. When I need to, I hang. When I am well within my abilities, sure, I run it out like anyone, but these yahoos are climbing rambling, ledge-filled water ice routes like they're on top rope, when they're not! But they definitely should be. My reactions, in order as the 12 minutes rolled by. 1. HOLY SHIT what a fall 2. HOLY SHIT what idiots 3. Wow, those guys are brave for posting this video. Kudos for that, at least. I really hope someone in their community reaches out to them, and points them towards Will's post, and they take all his advice to heart. OK I can't leave this alone. Man, that dude is lucky. Things like this are why climbing culture's tendency towards one-upmanship, style wars, and cliqueiness kinda sucks. Perhaps it's part of our manly manly manliness or just human nature, but we all know there is an element of our culture that is intimidating to newcomers. Most climbers I know are very friendly and approachable but still, something makes it scary for people to come up to us and say "Hey, can you teach me how to do that?" This leads to a lot of self-taught climbing buddies who don't have any experienced mentors or formal training. This needs to change. We need to make new guys feel welcome, teach them what we can, constantly learn from each other, and be humble. Jesus that was longer than a blog post. Now I'll probably go fall off the climb I'm doing tomorrow morning.

The season's not over until it's over! Who's up for a quick trip up to Snoqualmie pass to climb Source Lake Line? It looks PHAT, and Feck confirms this past weekend there is still a lot of blue ice on those northward faces up there. Any morning Wed 23rd through Sun 27th. Alpine start, climb till it starts to warm up. PM me. I have experience, screws,and Subaru.

Feck you are unstoppable! Nice.

Sweeeeet, thanks. Yeah spring is here for sure, but with these consistently cold nights running week after week, I'm hoping to get away with a late-season ice climb before it's all gone. Gotta be this week methinks. With an alpine start, could happen. Now to arrange things so I can sneak away mid-week!

Way to go out and grab it! Love your pics too. Hey since it seems like you guys were one of the few to get out this week, I was wondering if you happened to look back over your shoulder at Source Lake Line as you went up to the notch. About a month ago it was PHAT ICE, and it hasn't warmed up any, tucked away like it is, so I'm thinking it's probably still there. Any beta? Muchos Gracias. Pics taken 2/20/11

Well done bagging all those peaks and making the most of your trip. You guys were really cruising! Love the beautiful pics. Too bad about about the snow on the Schmatterhorn. Go back and get 'er next time!