Friedrich

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!

Things are looking too sketchy from where I sit. Bummer. The winter is slip-sliding away...

Droool.

Great pics and great year! Kudos! I love love love the hiking and canyon exploring in Zion. Wish I'd had time to climb when I was there. Amazing place.

You might try the WAC too. They don't do as much in the way of classes, but I used to be a member and met some good people. Several of them told me they gravitated to the WAC because it was a little less "rules heavy" then the Mountaineers. I don't speak from personal experience, just sayin.' http://www.wacweb.org/default.view

Ah! Ok thanks. I'll update the description in the gallery for these pics. Much appreciated.

Acha! Thanks Wayne

bump-still available.

@DetachedFlake- Hi there. I *think* this is a shot of the same route in current conditions, but I'm not sure. I took this wide shot and closeup of what I thought might be your route as we passed by on our way to the Slot Couloir last weekend. (See my TR) Is that CK the right? Or maybe the left, or neither. Can you clarify? Here is a closeup of the route on the right, which seems like it might be Calvin Klimb from comparing your pics. But again, not sure. Thanks, I'm trying to figure out the backside of Snoqualmie mtn. Maybe when I've got it puzzled out I'll try to get a wide shot of the face, draw in the lines, and post that for the convenience of the community. Cheers.

@kakuzka1 - Hi there. I *think* this is a shot of the same route in current conditions. Can you confirm? Thanks. I took this wide shot and closeup of the cave as we passed by on our way to the Slot Couloir last weekend (see my TR) Closeup of cave. Is this the same route as "Calvin Klimb"? I don't think so, but I'm posting replies to the author of the Calvin Klimb TR as well. It's tricky trying to figure out what's what on the backside of Snoqualmie.

PM sent

Looking for a partner for possible new route(s). Did a recon last weekend and looks doable but hard. Mixed with a lot of dry tooling and scrambling. 3 or 4 pitches. See my TR for a taste. Snoqualmie Mtn NW Face Recon 3-6-11 Location is NW Face of Snoqualmie Mountain. Planning on camping 1 or 2 nights to increase chances of success, due to deep snow and longish approach. I have more details to share if you're interested. This is a trip for experienced folks only. Timing will be tricky, we have to wait for good avvy conditions, which might come at any time. This weekend is out. I can go mid-week if need be. Should be fun! Or at least interesting.

Trip: Snoqualmie Mountain - Recon of new route potential- NW Face Date: 3/6/2011 Trip Report: On 3/6/11 with Ktschmid. Avvy danger stabilized enough for us to get out again this past weekend. Saw quite a few skiers enjoying the new snow. As they passed us in our snowshoes we said “well, they may be faster on the way UP, but we’ll be faster on the way.. oh.” Our Recon/exploratory climb/turning-into-showshoe hike around mt. Snoqualmie went up via phantom slide, then traversed below NW Face, checking out potential new routes, then up slot couloir. Then epic wandering descent in the dark, where we got off-route and Karl uttered the unfortunate words “well, as long as we don’t end up above the waterfall.” Of course, we ended up above the waterfall. Out came the rope and 2 raps later, we were past it on the left, and strolling down to the car. 8am departure from car, 12:30am return. Long day! Good workout but wow, once we left the boot track behind and struck off into seldom-traveled territory, we were postholing on the way up, and plunge-stepping on the way down. In our snowshoes. It was that soft. At one point, we said, let’s put the crampons on and try to claw our way along the rock/snow interface to get to the damn route. Bad idea. It took me an hour of swimming uphill in fluffy, chest-deep snow to go the 100 feet to the little patch of ice that marked the beginning of the route. Should have conceded it and put the snowshoes back on, but the snowfield was so steep at that point, the shoes weren’t much better. When we finally got to the base of the route, exhaustion, bad pro and an initial slightly overhanging move defeated us. Given the lateness of the hour, we decided discretion was the better part of valour and left. We barely got 2’ off the deck on our new route. We then traversed over to the slot couloir/enigma gully and slogged up in our snowshoes. Did I mention it was SOFT! Still a great day out and awesome exercise. Fantastic beautiful setting on the far side of that mountain. I’ll definitely be back ASAP. I am gripped by new route fever. Other routes: NY Gully and Pineapple Express were snow covered. PB&J- The Breakfast of Champions. Chair Peak under a brooding sky. It was overcast all day, but no wind (and no blinding heat) made for a pleasant outing. Looking down the descent gully to the NW face. Enjoying the spectacular setting. A fine time to wipe my nose. Nice picture Buddy. Looks like I'm digging for gold. As others have remarked, there are moments where you can get a real big mountain feel over there, especially if some clouds roll in. We loved it. Gear Notes: None yet. Gotta climb it first! Gut notes: Losing 4 pounds in the 2 weeks between our last TR and this one was extremely helpful I was almost able to keep up with my 20-something partner this time. Getting back in shape yeah baby. Now where’s that beer? THE RETURN: Next time, (once the avvy danger subsides and allows another window) It would be better to camp overnight, to get a fresh start on the route(s) in the AM and increase chances of success. Anybody want to partner? Karl is going to Utah for some sport climbing (smart man) and has given me permission to have another go without him. You need to have experience with drytooling and it would be great if you were a hard man/woman who can lead M6 so I can bask in your reflected glory. Approach Notes: Phantom Slide is a nice way up here, for sure. There is a good description by Dane in his TR for Blue Moon which was helpful. Only thing to add is go uphill right after you enter the trees, taking the first solid-looking boot track that offers.