Chad_A

Awesome. Posting from the road. Heading in tomorrow.Thanks for posting the info!

Tough packs to be sure. Still have my Chernobyl; going on 6 years old and I imagine it'll be around for another six. Neat design- how many cubic inches is that CCW that he built for you? Cheers, Chad

Hey, Dane, Thanks much for sharing! I'm jealous that you cool Seattle folk have this in your backyard. Though, still, not that bad from PDX. Great pics, great writeup. Lookin' forward to March? Cheers, Chad

After seeing the winds down here in PDX, I rationalized that I should stay home and get some money out of a car I wanted to sell. Now, seeing this, I should've looked north, for sure. Thanks for sharing! -Chad

Good job and way to keep after it, Ade! That tenacity for ya. Cheers, Chad

Hey, John, Such is the life of an ice climber Glad you got something done there, and had a good time doing it. Hope to drag Stewart to Hyalite this next weekend for a couple of days of climbing. Sounds like a great season for Hyalite! Cheers, Chad

I'd like to go take a look...unfortunately, I'm in North Carolina

Something tells me that it'll go down this year...countdown to a TR?

Kevin, I understand your amp, but get with the program. Grab a pint of your favorite stout and chill

Nice pics- Get off, the crack, Ivan.

Nice pic, thanks for posting!

Classic me -always messin' up the details. My bad.

Ok, not to beat a dead horse, but this has been well covered. All the access trails are closed as of now. There is NO access via foot or vehicle from that area. The Tilly Jane trail is officially closed, as well as the Cloud Cap Road. It sounds as if once the snow falls and the fragile soil is covered, things will lighten up a bit, or so let's hope. Here is the statement, from October 10th: Due to rehabilitation activities and sensitive resource conditions associated with the Gnarl Ridge Fire, the area shown as ‘Closed’ on Exhibit A is closed to entry. This closure includes the following campgrounds, trails and roads: • Tilly Jane Campground • Cloud Cap Campground • Cloud Cap Road #3512 • Cooper Spur Trail #600-B • Polallie Ridge #643 • Wagon Road #642 • Tilly Jane Trail #648 • Tilly Jane Trail #600-A • Tilly Jane Trail #643 The area shown as ‘Restricted’ on Exhibit A restricts use of motorized vehicles within the area excepting use on Forest Road 3511. ALSO: Order No. MH-2008-11 AREA CLOSURE FIRE MOUNT HOOD NATIONAL FOREST HOOD RIVER RANGER DISTRICT ORDER Effective at 0001 hours on Friday, October 10, 2008 and pursuant to 36 CFR, Sec. 261.50 (A) & (B), the following acts are prohibited on the area shown in “exhibit A” and including sites as described in “exhibit B”. This is designated as the Gnarl Ridge Fire Closure Area and remains in effect until rescinded. 1. Being in or upon a closed area. [36 CFR 261.52(E)] 2. Use of vehicles off National Forest System Roads [36 CFR 261.56] Pursuant to 36 CFR 261.50 (E) the following persons are exempt from these prohibitions: 1. Persons with a permit, waiver or contract specifically authorizing the prohibited act or omission. 2. Any Federal, State or local officer, or member of an organized rescue or fire fighting force in the performance of an official duty. This order rescinds and replaces Order # MH-2008-10 signed on September 29, 2008. Done at Sandy, Oregon this 9th day of October, 2008. ______________________________ GARY L. LARSEN Forest Supervisor Mt Hood National Forest Violations of these prohibitions are punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000 for an individual or $10,000 for an organization, or imprisonment for not more than 6 months, or both. (16U.S.C. 551, and 18 U.S.C. 3559 and 3571) Here is the map: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mthood/news/2008/gnarl-fire/10_08closure.pdf

Mike, Pro Mountain Sports is getting stuff from Grivel- he just procured a set of spare frontpoints for my Rambo 4s without any issue.

Letsroll- neither one of us realized what we were in for on that route, but it all worked out for the best. The congrats really belong to Keith for leading that crux pitch, though It was a great experience I shall not forget! Dane- the Shooting Gallery looked to be in good nick when we were there, but how did that water ice pitch turn out? we were wondering if it was real water ice or if it was unprotectable sn'ice. We didn't get a good look at it before heading up A.A. Congrats to you, as well

Again, Dane, inspirational! Here's pics from this fall; another 5.9 A2 IV (though not as long as the others), Asteroid Alley. My buddy, Keith, is ropegunning the crux pitch. Me, following: Looking down the fun upper part of the crux pitch: The lower ice face and the route from afar: My partner snapped this pic of me; he named it "Merry Screaming Barfies". The first ones of the year always suck. I'll be the first one to say that the route was overwhelming for me, and that I don't throw these routes lightly as future plans anymore. I think I'd like to get some more craggin' done first.

On that same rampage, I think he did Humble Horse, as well.

http://www.downwindsports.com/ice_fest.html It was my first time ice climbing, at the Michigan Ice Fest. Could be a nice time to get started, if you want to demo some gear and see a slide show. Otherwise, go up there on your own with a pal (or a smokin hot 23 year old) and have a good time. Plenty of TR-able ice if I remember correctly, but ask Down Wind about that- they should be able to provide all the info you need.

At least some of us drink way too much beer and form up plans that aren't feasable...but you're probably too young for that (or should be ) Start training, and find a dry tool crag to run laps on. At the very least, hit the rock gym. Oh, and I feel your pain. I, too, can't wait for ice season.

In that vein, I'd certainly like to hear of some stories you have from years prior. On the topic of the changing conditions (now vs. then) I certainly don't have the same experience as you to say; but I hope to be up there in that beautiful area some more to forge my own experiences. On the whole, though, my observations are that the local talent is easily dealing with the evolving seasonal conditions in the CDN Rockies quite well. My hope is that I'll become one of the "young lions" finding out for myself.

Hi, Dane, Nice post. I had to chime in; we were up there in that neck of the woods, late September, to do some climbing in the area up there, this year. After the first objective, we thought about Deltaform. The wardens at the Banff info center directed us toward another office (the rescue operations center?) where another head warden was offering to give us advice on the route. 20 minutes later, we were staring at beautiful photos of this face, on large monitors, in the office. He proceeded to give us tons of beta (big difference between what you'll find in our own parks here) when I noticed that the pictures were from a rescue, and that items left over from a tragedy last year (perhaps the year before) were highlighted before our very eyes; a set of ice tools high on the face below the rock band, other items below on the lower snow slope. It filled me with enough dread that I wanted to go elsewhere. No point to my post except to say that "fall conditions" up there have changed; the word on the street up there is that routes such have this have higher success rates in the spring, now. Here is another example from this year: http://live-the-vision.com/cms/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=41&func=view&id=7679&view=flat&catid=11 At any rate, thanks for sharing. I for one appreciate it (and second what Cobra mentioned).

Ditto to just about whatever everyone else said, and I'll add this- if you're looking for a boot that will do a little bit of everything, and that will last for a while, I'd suggest something with true leather to it. It will last longer than the synthetic lightweight boots out there. As Dan said, La Sportiva, Boreal, etc, all put out a boot that's true leather, burly, insulated and warm. The Nepal Evo and the Boreal Pamir are great boots to look at. And I'll also say this: I don't know if you're into ice, but you're in a great area to try some. The weight and price will be somewhat negligible to upgrade a step to a set of crampons such as the G12 or the BD Sabretooth; you might find that you'll be perfectly happy to climb Rainier with them and hit the Ouray Ice Park when you're back in CO. Good luck and have fun.

I've used the previous version, the Alpha, with the Omega liner in them. Basically the same boot. I used my own custom orthotics in them, so I never had issues- they were pretty warm and when I was in Peru, it was really common to see them used.

I use the Rambo 4s; did all last season. I hadn't planned on picking up a set...much like other pieces of gear that I have, it was a good deal that fell into my lap. It's been a great experience climbing with them. To me, lots of the ice boots out there (particularly the Boreal Ice Master) are labeled as rigid boots, but aren't quite "rigid" in effort to make the walk into the climb more bearable. The rigid Rambo 4s help out with that; they're not the lightest crampons out there, but they sure climb well to me. In the alpine, I tend to refer to my BD Sabretooths (I'm on my second set) as they do everything pretty well.

Yeah, I bought one a couple of years ago for the helluvit. They bite quick and start easy, but the fold-out knob isn't quite there; kinda flimsy. And the knob doesn't turn very easily, either (it's simply thick wire turned into a hook shape with the knob turning inside that "hook"- it binds up easily). I think with a bit of work they could be a really great ice screw.