JensHolsten

Nice guys!

I've gotta do this one...so cool!

Hi guys- I'm going to be showing some pictures from a trip to Alaska I took this spring. I'd love to see some folks come out and enjoy beer, brauts, and a good story or two. I know it's short notice, but stop by Leavenworth Mountain Sports tomorrow night at 6:30 PM on your way to crush the Cascades this weekend! Cheers!

You for sure do not need crampons to gain the Complete North Ridge...if the snow on the glacier is hard, just walk below it on rocks...you might have to cross a snow field or two, but I'm sure you don't absolutely need crampons to get through that minimal amount of terrain. Have fun!

Is anyone here good at crunching the statistics on this sorta stuff? All my simple minded brain can tell is that we climbed 20 (would have been 21 with Ghost, which we missed by few feet) major peaks and numerous smaller summits, but I was sort of wondering if there was a way to figure out how many miles we hiked, elevation lost and gained, that sort of stuff... Also, I do hope to go into some gear analysis here and break down our systems a bit. We did some things right and other things wrong. Hopefully we can all learn from our silly mistakes!

Awesome guys, simply awesome

Trip: North Cascades - Desperate Country: Seven Days On The Fence Date: 7/7/2013 Trip Report: To see this same trip report with a bunch of great photos, check out Always Upwards . Warm air rushed through the windows as my beater Subaru huffed and puffed towards Newhalem. In the trunk was kit for the mission. The stereo pumped out slamming techno and I gorged on pastries from the Sultan Bakery. Psyche was high. The following day, with Chad Kellogg, the gun went off and our dash through the Pickets began. On July seventh at 3:30 AM we left the car with 35 pound packs stuffed with climbing gear, seven (to ten if you really pushed it!) days of food, a light jacket or two, sleeping bags, fuel, a stove, and a sill nylon tarp. We sweated buckets climbing out of Goodell Creek, but the way was clear and easy. Arriving in Terror Basin we re-hydrated and made good time on easy snow slopes to the base of the McMillan Spires. With knowledge from my 2011 Pickets enchainment and fresh bodies, we raced over all three summits and arrived at our bivy 12 hours after leaving the car. I felt really good about our day and enjoyed resting through the afternoon. Day two started with a taxing traverse of some small towers in between our bivy and Inspiration Peak. In 2011, Sol had navigated this section with relative ease, but I still struggled to find the way. When I did find the path I idiotically chose to make a long simul-climbing traverse with all 80 meters of our rope out. A bunch of drag later and some sketchy 5.10 moves in my boots and I finally arrived at the base of Inspiration's East Ridge. With a clean hand crack ahead we soared up and over both summits, descended, shot up the fantastic East Face of Pyramid, and scrambled Deganhardt to end our day. Tom Sjolseth spotted us on the ridge from his bivy in the Crescent Creek Basin and ascended to our camp to chat and take pictures of the beautiful sunset. It was great to have this unexpected encounter with a friend in such a spectacular place. After Tom began his descent, Chad and I settled in for a brisk night. Since we had failed to stick our plan on day two (we had hoped to make the summit of the Rake), we began early on day three. To regain our pace, we put the hammer down and climbed the East Ridge of Terror, The Rake, wound through numerous smaller towers, cranked out the 5.10 on East Twin Needle, scrambled terrifying rock on West Twin Needle, and then completed the technical crux our journey, monkeying up the mighty blade that is the Himmelhorn. By the time we rapped into the Ottohorn-Himmelhorn Col we had been on the move for 17 hours. I was astounded at how long we took to complete this section even though we were climbing well and I had traveled the terrain before. It was 1:00 AM before we curled up in the dirt. Dehydration dried out my tongue and torqued on my muscles. We were afraid to burn excess amounts of fuel to rehydrate properly at the windy and exposed col. In hindsight, we did have enough fuel to rehydrate here and it was this crucial mistake that cost us the final two summits in the southern portion of our enchainment. A cold and windy dawn had us struggling to stay warm in the early hours of day four and with a primal focus on getting more water in our systems, we descended the Mustard Glacier via a snow couloir on the col's north side and arrived at Picket Pass where we sat by a tarn and drank to our heart's content. The past three days of leading had me a bit frazzled and fried. A few times I questioned my sanity. Was I really putting myself in this position again? Why yes, yes I was. We left Picket Pass intend on using the latter half of day four to transition into the northern section of our journey. We hoped to climb Outrigger Peak, East Fury, and West Fury before lying down for the night. We ran into Tom and his partner Matt on top of Outrigger and enjoyed a social session on the summit. After a refreshing break, all four of us descended and then climbed to the summit of East Fury together in a thick fog that made navigation difficult. Never the less, we employed good beta from Tom and worked our way through worsening weather to a very cold and windy bivy below the summit of West Fury. The night passed somewhat excruciatingly as tough winds and moisture-laden clouds swept over the peak. The morning of day five brought some clearing, but rime ice lingered on the rock, as temps were slow to raise enough to melt the slippery nuisance. Finally, at 11 AM, we left the summit of West Fury and began moving down heads up terrain towards Swiss Peak. We both felt the loose down climbing and committing rappels in this section demanded much respect. The weather continued to be cold and unsettled. Chad had to encourage me through building doubt about our position. Our clothing was very minimal. If it started to rain or snow, hypothermia would come quickly on the exposed ridge. As on any grand adventure we were toeing the line of control. The remainder of day five was spent climbing around many pointy spires, summiting Swiss Peak, and climbing up and over Spectre Peak. Again, like on West Fury, getting off of Spectre was a dangerous exercise in uber-choss down climbing. We also made one rappel in this section. This terrain, though technically easy, was the most serious I've ever encountered in the Cascades. In very cold, windy, and foggy weather we climbed up towards the summit of Phantom Peak until we hit our wall for the day. Our camp that night was an exposed perch overhanging Phantom's north face. It was hard to keep our minds off the weather, but we managed to make it through another cold and hungry bivy. The next morning (day 6), like robots, we stuffed our sleeping bags and got down to business. Some morning clearing showed the long ridge ahead. Unfortunately, we knew the improved weather wouldn't last for long as a hazy ring cradled the sun and wispy clouds floated in the west. Knowing we had between 12 and 24 hours before the weather tanked, we climbed out of our bivy with focused determination. By the time we had summited Phantom and connected the ridge-line to Ghost Peak, clouds were bearing down on us. We were so intent on getting off the ridge that we chose to not scramble 20 feet of third class to the summit of Ghost. We just kept moving towards salvation. Finally, as I was leading the last two pitches to the summit of Challenger, snow flakes started to fall. In the 10 minutes it took us to high five on the summit, make a short rap and walk over to our glacier descent, the weather gave out. We tried to make our way down the Challenger Glacier but were unable to see anything. A gentle ski run with easily passable cracks in good weather, we only found ourselves strung out over giant schrunds in a blowing mist. Our thin jackets began to get wet. I could feel my survival instinct telling me to abandon our descent before we were hopelessly lost and climb back to the rocks near the summit. Sure enough, just under the top of Challenger, Chad found a cave. It was a damn uncomfortable spot, but it was a key find for us. We huddled sleeplessly though the night, staying warm by fighting off the snafflehound from hell. Day seven dawned beautifully, the breaking storm amplifying the magnificence of the sunrise. We quickly left our cave and descended down the glacier and onto Wiley Ridge. It felt wonderful to sit in the heather and not be exposed to the weather and other dangers that had mad the previous days so intense. All that remained between us and a bag of potato chips was a long, long walk home. We spent the rest of day seven slogging out to Ross Lake Boat Camp. Even though only seven flat miles remained to our car, we had to stop. We shivered in the 70 degree weather and my stomach was twisted in pain. It had all caught up with us. I felt like I had predicted I would at this point. Utterly worked. Mosquitoes pestered us through our night in the dirt, but we were too exhausted to care. On the morning of day eight, after a couple hours of hiking, we stepped onto Highway 20. Chad and I are absolutely stoked about or enchainment despite not summiting three of the peaks we had hoped to. We climbed nearly all day, every day, for seven days through demanding and serious terrain. We had minimal equipment, no cache, and no support. With the cold and unsettled weather in the latter half of the trip, it was a true challenge to keep the mind at bay (and get any sleep!). Looking back I see many mistakes and have learned many lessons that I hope to take with me to future objectives. As always, the path of growth continues. There is no crowning moment or pinnacle of achievement in this sport, but rather the continuing evolution of skills and consciousness. I am so grateful for Chad as a partner. Only interested in the most outlandish ideas, I appreciate that our drive is to focus on objectives where success seems improbable. We always hope to travel the hardest, least traveled road we are able to. I am also grateful to my incredible friends Sol Wertkin and Dan Hilden for our 2011 Pickets adventure. The beautiful moments from our enchainment have not been belittled in my mind. What a fantastic part of this journey! Dan's recent Alpinist article about our 2011 effort features more poignant thoughts about adventuring in the Pickets than I am able to come up with at the moment. It is a must read for sure! And of course, a huge thanks to Wayne Wallace for not only being ok with me taking over his obsession with this objective, but encouraging me along the way. Thx Wayne!!! Jens Holsten Gear Notes: Light as we felt was prudent...and even a bit lighter! Approach Notes: In via Goodell Creek, out via Wiley Ridge

Yeah Clint!! What a season dude! See ya next year

Very nice! Looks like a cool area

Super cool Marc! Thanks for inspiring

Oh and Darrin, I would love to break the gear down a bit...give a me a day or two

Thanks for the kind words guys...Of course, I wanted to be the first to say I had accomplished the Complete Pickets Summit Ridge Traverse, but it was not to be, even despite spending 7 days giving our all to come as close to the ideal (climbing every peak while staying on the crest in the Pickets with no support or cache) as we possibly could. It's funny how good of a lesson this is for me...I will have to come to terms with the decisions we made and cherish the memory of our experience despite missing the truest mark. As climbers, we can't attempt these sorts of routes for the glory, but rather for the valuable experience that is pushing our limits in beautiful mountains. We dealt with many variables and in the end, made the best decisions we could. I will never forget this one and look forward to someday hearing about the first Complete Pickets Summit Ridge Traverse. For now, I am happy with our enchainment and the effort we gave up there. Many, many thanks to Chad for a great time up there, Sol Wertkin and Dan Hilden for sharing part of the journey with me (we repeated the SP Traverse in 2011), and most of all, Wayne Wallace, the master Pickateer himself. I've had a lot of fun trying to pick up where he left off on many objectives in the Cascades. He is a true inspiration!

Great to run into you Tom! Our high spirits were pushed higher by our encounter with you and Matt. Big, big thanks! Just so it's clear what we did exactly I've chosen to re post what I put on Facebook this morning. We gave the traverse our best effort, but did leave a few skeletons in the closet for a future Pickateer to clean out. More to come, but here is a quick recap: I've just returned to Leavenworth after an incredible trip to the Picket Ranges with Chad Kellogg. Our intention was to make a summit ridge traverse/enchainment of both the Southern and Northern Pickets and we mostly accomplished that. However, we did not summit the Ottohorn, The Frenzilspitz, or Ghost Peak. The Ottohorn and the The Frenzilspitz were skipped in favor of descending to Picket Pass after a 17 hour day getting to the Ottohorn/Himmelhorn Col. We NEEDED water badly and did not have enough fuel to melt a sufficient amount at the col, tackle those two peaks and move on. We knew we may have to give a peak or two up in the name of doing our best on the entire traverse, so we chose to step off the crest and head to Picket Pass (running water) so we would have the energy to give the northern section our all. A few days later we passed within 10 meters of Ghost Peak's summit, but chose to just keep moving along the ridge crest instead of tagging it. It's not often I skip a summit a few feet above my head, but weather was bearing down on us and we were trying to get off the traverse with all our might. Sure enough, it started to snow as we summited our last peak, Mt. Challenger. We desperately tried to descend our final glacier in a total whiteout, trying to get to lower lands. We had a very, very light kit and finally realized we would die if we tried to keep going. We retraced our steps in the whiteout to the summit of Challenger and huddled in a cave through the night. Two mornings ago, the sun returned and we began the long journey home. Chad and I are very happy with our effort despite missing a few peaks and we both agreed we made good decisions in doing so. It was surely one of our top missions ever and took us to very near our physical (and mental) limits. We went very light and the weather did not turn out to be as nice as we thought, so our week out was mostly cold and uncomfortable. Aahhh, alpine climbing! I really like how you can't play games (link ups, speed records) in the Pickets. You get what you get and don't throw a fit. It's real out there. Jens Holsten

Yeah guys! Even with all the good routes in the Stuart Range these days, the North Ridge still holds it's place as the #1 stunner of the area...what an amazing route. Nice work!

All Along the Watchtower is a fantastic line (obviously). The approach is easy and beta should be no problem to come by. The descent is also easy. Mark talks about bringing a #4 Camelot, but it is not needed. Heed Mark's route finding advice low on the route. Once you get in the corner, you can't get lost. The climbing in the corner is very soft for the given grades (except the almost always wet crux), with climbing mostly in the 10+ range instead of the 11+ shown in most topos. That said, the crux is real, requiring good footwork on polished edges. Such a great route...have fun!!

Psyched to climb up there...thx guys

Cool guys...so much fun stuff up high on the south side...

Awesome dudes!

http://www.jensholsten.blogspot.com/2013/03/finally-got-er-done-story-of-fwa-of.html

Man...that all sounds so easy! Makes me wonder why it took me five tries to get this done in winter The reality is that only one or two of the 13 pitches we climbed were easy leads (for me). Even "the snow ramps" were time consuming and scary. Powder snow on rock...kinda insecure! And then there was the slab pitch that gains the route's crux 5.8 corner...that was way scary, but cool. I wondered if it would go covered in snow and wearing crampons. It did thankfully. I really wanted this one. To me, it represented one of the last major, classic routes on one of the range's main peaks to be climbed in winter (a Beckey route to boot!). With Colin Haley and Mark Bunker's FWA of Stuart's North Ridge, Ade Miller and John Plotz's FWA of The Backbone, Ade Miller (nice Ade!)and Alasdair Turner's FWA of the Serpentine Arete, and Nate Farr, Colin Bohannan, and my FWA of Dragontail's NE Buttress, only the NE Buttress of Colchuck remained. That it took me five tries is no suprise as winter climbing is hard and success comes rarely. In the five years I've been trying to climb in the Stuart Range during winter, I've only had four (out of like 20 efforts!) major (for me) successes: The second winter ascent of Stuart's Complete North Ridge in 2009 with Cole Allen, the FWA of Dragontail's NE Buttress last winter, the first ascent of the Hilden-Holsten on the NE face of Colchuck, and now the FWA of Colchuck's NE Buttress. By far, Colchuck's NE Buttress had the most serious and difficult climbing, which is no suprise as the terrain is slabby and the cracks less defined than on many of the range's similar routes. Aiding is not always an option. Now it's time to move on, let this dream die, and move on to the next challenge!

Hell yeah Dan!

Thx John and Steph! That made my morning

Beautiful

A lot of talk about the "low snow" on Dragontail...seems really typical to me, if not more covered than in the past few winters. The reality is, I've only seen the face in really good ice condition once in the winter. I've seen it fat for a two to three week period every spring for the last five years though...These spring cycles of warmer, wetter, calmer storms followed by sunny, long days are what will bring the north face into condition. We are just now starting to see that cycle begin. I would guess things are going to be shaping up nicely in the next month or two...true winter season climbs in the Stuart Range usually (not always!) involve scratchy mixed, thin ice, and sugar snow. Connect the frozen moss clumps, get gear when you can, and mixed climb like you mean it! Good work up there guys! Bedellympian: My friend Shaun and I ran into you on the way out after climbing the NE Buttress of Colchuck...super fun to see folks out getting some this weekend. What beautiful weather!

Climbed the Gerber-Sink on D-tail on 2-10-13. It was thin, but in...great climbing!