Chad_A

Still have it? My grigri is MIA; looking for a replacement. Thanks! -Chad

The word is that it's buried.

My, my.

Al, thanks for posting the info; didn't see that until just now. We were there; saw John and Eric (glad you're healing, Eric), but didn't see anyone else. Didn't know we were in such cc.com company. I was just happy that it didn't piss on us on Sunday.

Very nice, Ade and Stuart. Great effort; I'd like to get to that area, sometime

RIMEY!! Very nice job guys. I second Doug's suggestion, BTW.

Cool, thanks for the information. Sure, yah, I'll try those routes. No, wait a minute, I won't. If I want to kill myself, there's much easier ways.

Thinking about taking someone up Moscow for a bit of alpine rock training. Then I read in Watts' book that that part of the wall is closed from February to July. No one ever talks about this, but it may be because there's no sun over there this time of the year, and no one typically climbs there right about now. Do they still do this, or is this a thing of the past? Thanks. Chad

Yep, curious as well. John, give up the goods.

Dragontail on 2/17/06- the runnels looked really thin per my binoculars:

Question: why ice a tendon that receives so little blood flow? I've read that heat actually works well, but I'm not sure at what stage (I'm not disagreeing with others here, just simply wondering, that's all). When I had it, I'd actually formed a scar tissue bulge on my right achilles, from trying to "run through it". According to my podiatrist, it was at a point close to rupture at one time, but had dealt with the trauma well, and had protected itself. I am now on custom orthotics, and to deal with the tight plantar facia, my doc recommended massaging the bottom of the foot with a golf ball. Keep one with you throughout the day; when you're off your feet for a while, kick off the shoes and get a massage goin'. My podiatrist also mentioned a "calf stretcher"- a device with some type of band that you can use during periods of sleep; it probably connects to the ball of your foot, and stretches your calves continuously. Replace the shoes every few months, especially if you're using them more than average. Also, see if you can visit a reputable running shop that can watch you jog, and then pick out a shoe that fits your foot pattern (neutral, supination, pronation, etc).

Good point. I think it's easy to not think outside the box when the way's been paved so many times by others on well-described routes (whether it's on cc.com or a guidebook). I'm going to take that thought with me more often into the mountains.

Hmm; is that an obscure name for a route, or is it the Madness that encircles the TCs? Sorry, not too "up" on this stuff... Edit: PM answered question. Not the TCs at all.

I was hoping that the high freezing levels and sunny weather we'd had a week or two ago would've created some ice; alas, as some predicted, it had not, or not much. Stewart and I planned to go in and check out the TCs on Dragontail, and see if anything was climbable. I'd had the foresight to bring a small set of binoculars; I couldn't tell if the runnels were really thin ice fingers, or simply "snice". Either way, we instantly elected to come back another time, when it would be more fun, and in condition. So, we camped on the edge of Colchuck Lake with little or no wind (contrary to the forecast) and soaked up the views. One thing I learned from this trip was that the NF of Dragontail gets absolutely NO sun this time of year. I thought that maybe it might get a bit, but was surprised to see that it didn't get ANY. Furthermore, we took a walk up to Colchuck to look at the NBC and the NEBC, and on the way there, heard a tremendous "WHUMP" underneath what felt like a rock hard, icy slope. We traversed off of it, and realized that there's probably still some slabs existing on North facing slopes. (Even with the long dry spell, I guess the cold weather has kept things from consolidating a bit). Part of the learning curve, I guess. Here's some pics. The NW face ice/mixed routes on Dragontail: Stewart keeping himself warm: That shot of Glenlivet helped; the wind was lacking, but it felt much below zero farenheit at night

I know that Hannah spends a great deal of time up there, and that it must've been a worthy objective to her. For that, congratulations, Hannah!

Wow, very, very pretty. Nice job

Thanks

Hi, Doug; Rodney introduced me to you a while back. Sounds like you had a great time. Congratulations!

I'm assuming the road is still gated at Bridge Creek. How much time on skis or snowshoes to get up to Colchuck Lake? I know it's 4.5 miles to the lake from the TH, but I can't remember how long the road is.

If you still have them, I have a pal that could use them. Let me know; thanks, this is very nice of you to donate.

Thanks, guys. Yeah, it was solo- I was in the right headspace for it; a couple years back, I soloed Leuthold, and I liked the mental challenge of it. Also, the Reid is a great route to refresh routefinding skills. Alan, thanks much for getting Meg's skis done so quick! I owe you beer for that, and your sunglasses that I found in my jacket pocket. I'll be looking forward to a photo class from you...this camera just doesn't seem that user friendly for it.

Climb: Mt. Hood-Reid Headwall Date of Climb: 2/11/2006 Trip Report: Got shut down on the 10th due to high winds; decided to head back up to give it another shot before heading back to work for my 5 day stretch; hence the ultra early start. I'll do it Colin Haley style, to save time. 00:54- Left Timberline. 02:38- At Illumination Saddle; spent ten minutes refueling, rehydrating, and geting out the tools and crampons. 03:30- Futzed around the bergshrund trying to find a way over. A couple of teetering blocks, and weak snowbridges- wasn't comfortable with crossing them solo. Diverted climbers-left over the rock ridge that separates Leuthold and Reid, to bypass it, then dived back into the towers and ice formations above. Found a fun gully with some WI2 in it. 05:15(?) above the Queens chair on easier ground. Ate and rehydrated; enjoyed the views of the beautiful moonlight illuminating all the ridges and features before me. 05:48- at the summit. Took more crappy pictures with my camera, that didn't turn out. Here's what little's worth seeing. The top of the WI2 gully: The worst picture of the summit I've taken, with the moon above Portland's lights: Pic of I-Rock on the way down: Gear Notes: Pair of Quarks- glad I had them, for some funky downclimbing I had to do. G14s, my minidisc player, and a crappy night-time picture taking camera. Approach Notes: Perfect walking on styrofoam the whole way. The Reid is perfectly closed up.

Very nice pics, iain! Looks like you did a nice ski tour. Last night, headed up there to do Reid, but it seems that after walking above treeline, someone turned a freakin' turboprop on, and faced it right towards us, from the east. Fearing the icefall because of it on the west side of the mountain, we bailed; but the walking (what we did) seemed really windpacked, and icy. Almost slipped and fell a few times on iced over snowboard tracks.

I looked around, but the best I could find is the Park Glacier route, that goes right up next to it. I think danielpatricksmith did the Park Glacier a while back; maybe he can chime in with what he saw up there?

Initial exposure was rock climbing in tennis shoes in Wisconsin. The name of the area escapes me, for some reason. But, what got me hooked, was that same person that showed me rock climbing, dragged me up to Camp Hazard on Rainier for my first time, in 2000. I never had set foot on a mountain, and I had no idea what I was getting into, but I wanted to come back; still haven't had a chance to finish off the Kautz. Anyway, I finished up school, and transferred out here. Haven't looked back.