dylan_taylor

Mike, did you drop the tent poles? Nice Job!

wasn't ours. we dug it up. We lost a fuel can, a bag of garbage, some dirty underwear and socks, and a green stuffsack with minidiscs and film in it. I heard someone lost a tent...

I did have a few scanned - from the one roll which survived the trip. Racking up for summit day... The summit of Waddington as viewed from the NW summit in shitty weather... Our tent, during a digging mission partway into the storm... Descent from high camp, looking north Mike King picking us up at Rainy Knob

thank you.

Both shovels were BCA shovels - aluminum. Both blades broke at the exact same spot. The aluminum ruptured around the shaft at the blade-end of the weld. Repeated warnings to not pry may have not been heeded by clients. Who knows. I have abused shovels far worse than this, and had them last longer. The client's shoulder reduced on its own, but his arm was useless and he had little feeling in his right hand. Slinging his shoulder sufficed for the trip out.

When flying out of the Waddington Range towards White Saddle, one can look out of the left side of the chopper off to the distance in the north west (north of the waddington range) and see a nice rock peak with a formidable east buttress. I am searching for information and history about this peak.

Climb: Super-Brief Waddington TR-Various activity near Plummer hut and Bravo Glac. Date of Climb: 7/23/2005 Trip Report: I headed into the Waddington Range twice this summer. The first trip was up to the Tellot Glacier. I was guiding one client. We camped at the dragons back after being dropped off at the plummer hut on July 16. On July 17 we climbed a new? route on the dragons back, it would be a little to the right of the 5.10 (the second route from the left side) in Don Serl's guidebook. We have no name for it, it was nice 5.8 hand-jammies for about three long pitches, then a short lichen pitch to the top of the wall. It is short, obscure, and I wonder if anyone will ever climb it. We have no name for it. On July 18 we attempted a route up the highest Tellot Spire. It was extremely windy, and the rock was verglassed. We ended up veering left at the second pitch (more towards Tellot #2). The first pitch was easy mixed, the second was dry rock. My client dislocated his shoulder while reaching down to unstrap his crampons on a ledge two pitches up. Rope trickery ensued as I lowered and tandem-rapped my client a couple pitches back to the glacier. We went back to our camp, I dragged our heavy kit to a flat spot below on the glacer, we hoofed it to the Plummer, and flew out that afternoon, and returned to Bellingham, somewhat disappointed, the next day. On Monday, July 23rd, I returned to White Saddle with another Guide and 4 clients to attempt the main summit of Waddington via the Bravo Glacier. We flew on the morning of the 24th, and made good progress up the lower Bravo to the Cauldron Camp. It was in much better shape than it was when I climbed it earlier in July a year ago. The following morning we found that crossing the 'Schrund was MUCH easier than it was a year ago. No two-tooling was required. We made rapid progress up to Bravo col, then up to Spearman Saddle, where we camped. We climbed Spearman Peak the next day, following the convoluted knife-edge ridge away from camp and up towards the petite summit pyramid. Here is Spearman Peak (not my pic - client's digi pic) The next day we moved up to the high camp at 12,300 feet, right below the tooth. A shovel broke this day breaking camp. Bad news. On the 28th I summitted the NW summit with two clients. Beautiful climbing in poor visibility with high winds. The other guide and his client were turned back on the main summit (at the notch) by these winds. We returned to camp at the beginning of a nasty storm. We were storm-bound for three days, digging like fiends with our one functioning shovel. One tent was burried (later recovered). We woke on monday, aug 1st, 80%buried ourselves, sharing small 2-P tents between three spooning men. Some sleeping bags were rendered useless by the wet nature of the storm. The wind blew at least 60-70 MPH in camp, and at 100+MPH over the ridge 150' away from us. Any person who left the tent to dig would find themselves plastered in rime within seconds. Eyelashes would freeze together. Goggles or shades were useless, as they rimed up almost immediatly. Probably 6-7 FEET of snow fell around camp in less than 72 hours. It was far worse than any storm I have ever seen on 9 trips to the alaska range. Partly because it was warm and extremely wet. Here is a view of the summit tower - heavily rimed: While digging out in the sunshine, we broke the second and last shovel. I shudder to think what would have happened if it had broken sooner. We departed camp tuesday morning, and couldn't locate our cache at spearman saddle. The cache-markers were completely buried (bigtime snow-accumulation zone in the wind eddy at spearman saddle. I bet 5-10 feet could be deposited here in a big storm due to the side of the fetch on the buckler glacier side). In this cache is garbage, extra fuel and food, dirty sox and undies, some minidiscs, and my USED FILM. If anyone ever finds this cache sometime in the next century, let me know! All I would ever want back is my film. I learned my lesson. It was the first and last time I have ever cached film. We flew out that night, and pancakes at White Saddle the next morning, and went to squamish. Gear Notes: lots of shovels. Longer cache markers.

Used Alphas with intuition liners on Denali last year and Aconcagua this year. I liked alphas because of their low weight, and comfortable, precise fit. Intuitions worked ok in them, but intuitions are a bit bulky at the cuff and make closing the boot all the way a bit tough. This sucked, as the tongue was not sealed onto the boot well, and snow or whatever could get in under the tongue quite easily. I fixed this on Denali by wearing supergaitors. No problems there. On aconcagua, i didn't take gaiters, and gravel and sand crept in under the tongue, wearing holes in my liners, ruining them. My boots stayed in basecamp when I returned home. I am not sure how the new heat moldable scarpa liners fit in the boots. I would assume that, since they are proprietary, they fit better. But those liners don't seem to be as warm, or last as long as intuitions.

Horton Creek is free, as is the pit. Both can get slammed by wind. Inquire at the ranger station for directions. Guidebooks for the hot springs are also in the ranger station and at wilsons. good hunting.

I second the suggestion to get rid of your rope if traveling together on the upper orient - either that or take a lot of pickets for running belays. Going up is one thing, but coming back down the OE to the rock ridge is exposed, and you will be tired. There is all kinds of fixed garbage in the couloir just above the most popular camps on the upper rib (the couloir terminates at the balcony and becomes very easy 3rd and 4th). The couloir can be climed relatively easily with one axe. In some years, it is full of snow and requires only kicking steps. It was bony and blue when we were there in 2002. A couple screws, a couple long slings for slinging horns, etc. can be helpfull. You could place cames if you bothered to take them, but I would leave them and make some mid to large nuts work. Maybe a pin or two. Depends on your comfort level I suppose. Some groups elect to avoid the upper rib descent by either a)carrying over and descending the buttress (heavy) b)going lite and descending the west buttress all the way down to 14k, where you would have to sleep in an extra tent, or bum tent space from someone you know. Then you would have to hike up to 16k and get your schwag back. DT

if you want to ship you can also ship on the airline too. It is 89 cents a pound, regardless of dimensions, and often comes out way cheaper than USPS, FEDEX, or UPS. Alaska cargo is easy and convienient, and if the city you are flying from isn't served by Alaska airlines, you can take your bag to the continental or American cargo facility, since they are both partners. After you drop it off at the cargo facility, you can go catch your flight, then pick up your extra bag in skankorage just down the street from the departure terminal, at Alaska Air Cargo.

My friend and I were trying to figure out the double bivy issue for a trip to India a year ago. We decided to settle on taking one sleeping bag, with a custom wedge of material sewn on so that it could be zipped in to allow the bag to fit over us. It was tight, and uncomfortable, and we had to spoon big time (both of us are over 6 ft). We named it the "snake pit". For weather protection we brought a bibler eldo tent. minus or plus poles, depending on how big of a ledge we bivied on. For 6.5 lbs we stayed warm and dry down to -20, just not comfortable.

Normally, it isn't tough. the skinny line will want to slip through your device faster than the fat one, so all you have to do is make sure the knot attaching your two ropes together is on the skinny rope side of the anchor, then do a normal double rope rappel. You have to pull the skinny line at the end, which takes more effort, but since the fat line comes down last, it is less likely to tangle around every flake and bush. Of course, you can always rappel a la the tech tips describing a fig 8 on a bight clipped to the other rope, and its great for rapping with gri-gris, but gets snagged easy when you pull.

If you want to save money on shipping, have your stuff air cargoed up there. If you are flying Alaska airlines, this is easy, as the air cargo pick up facility is just down the road from the terminal. If Alaska Airlines doesn't fly to your departure airport, and Continental or American does, call up their cargo offices and ask about rates. They are partners with Alaska. I paid 89 cents a pound, and it gets cheaper the more you ship. It saves significant money over checking a 3rd bag, or shipping UPS or FEDEX, and is often faster. When you fly up to AK, schedule a stop into the cargo facility at your airport, drop off your stuff, and you don't have to see it again til you arrive in AK. No lugging heavy stuff around airports.

Bring a rope gun and sick them on it to get your gear back. It is safe, you get your gear back, and you get to toprope it afterwards!

I would think it would also be difficult to prusik past such knots. Probably not a big deal if there is only one or two of them though. I like F8's tip about a knot close to the climber to quickly clip to an anchor. Its not very hard to prusik around a knot (especially if one is a tibloc). You just need a 3rd little piece of 6mil. You also need a third prusik as the rescuer if you plan to haul past butterfly knots. The knots usually shouldn't end up between the crevasse lip and the victim. If they do it means that a monster whipper was taken, the knot was tied to close to the victim ( tie the 1st at least 2m away from each person) and/or there was too much slack in the rope (a bad scene all around). If you can't haul the butterfly through the lip, use a different rope (your coils) and prep a new lip. Pre-tying a "clip in" knot in the rope can cause more problems than it solves. Good luck clipping your anchor to it while the rope is under tension and you are splayed out in self arrest. You are adding an unneccessary step to the whole process, and you probably won't be able to reach the knot anyway. You also can't use your prusik as a belay. Stick with the prusik systems. There are lots of them and they work well. Take a class, read a book, and go do practice (a lot). Another skill people rarely practice is prusiking up over a lip (serious pain in the ass) or using a second rope when the loaded rope is cut too deep into the lip (this is what carrying coils is for). Or rappeling in to the crevasse to perform 1st aid then climbing out. It could happen...

the climbing is great in ecuador but watch out for the pickpocketers. I lost $120 on new years eve. Oops. Quito can be a rough town. olyclimber, if you have any other specific beta questions feel free to ask. I don't have answers to everything but i have recent info on routes if it helps. Todd, I am jealous of bellingham. I would almost prefer drizzle to the 100 deg heat in Mendoza right now! -DT

Of course i don't want to sound too cynical, I do love it down here.

I'm done climbing here for the season. I've been here since the beginning of November and I need a break. Too many scammers and taxi drivers trying to rip off the gringo.

If you need beta, I am in quito now. The conditions on the peaks are still comparatively good (better than last year at the same time). All summits are possible on the glaciated peaks: Cayambe (quite mellow with a little nipple on top, snow extends almost to glacier -rock junction at 16,400'); Cotopaxi (direct route only, endless plodding up 37 degree slope, then tricky ladder crossing); Antisana (make up a route up the N face, then traverse E below summit 'schrund - get permission and driver from almost any climbing outfitter in Quito - $10 per person permission); Illiniza Sur - as of two weeks ago it was in great shape, but the route in the old Yossi Brain guidbook and the route today are quite different. The approach is way rockier, there is a 4th class rock band to get up to the normal route, the 'schrunds were all easy to cross (but they change quick). Chimborazo: The Whymper summit is currently doable but you need to get to the top of the Ventimilla summit in less than seven hours if you want to tag both and get below the Corredor befor the rocks start falling. There is no snow on this route untill almost 18,500'! Just rock, black ice, and kitty litter. Carihuairazo (2nd hand info). The hut is cheap and clean, the approach is straightforward, and the glacier ins 100% dry (no hidden crevasse hazard). Chunky choss moves for 20m up to the summit. Good luck. -DT

One of the easiest ways to get to Bariloche is via Puerto Mont, Chile. It is a 9 hour bus ride, pretty cheap. I thought frey was amazing, conidering that it is in "Patagonia" but the weather doesn't always suck. Its a lot like going to Washington pass, except that the rock doesn't grind off when you smear on it. The face routes are spicy and sandbag. I've never seen so many 3/8" buttonheads. The crack routes are awesome, and a little soft on the ratings. THere are classics from 5.6 to 5.12+. Most of the routes are short, the longest routes being on Cerro Catedral (4-8 pitches and 5.8 to 5.11 depending on route choice). Some of the best routes are the one and two pitch routes that ascend the micro-spires and gendarmes scattered about. And the cracks on the Campanilla are splitter. Camping is free, and since the economy in Argentina has been rock bottom since January 2002, eating in the hut is cheap. In early 2003 beers were 3 pesos (around a dollar) and pizzas were 14 pesos (about five bucks) and feed up to three people. I thought Bariloche was dirt cheap compared with what Argentina was like back when they were pegging the peso to the dollar. And the blue-eyed latinas with tight shirts are hard to beat...

http://www.fairvote.org/factshts/irv.htm If only we were mature enough to use this...

Have fun in the sierras, please stay away from any choss, or I will have to take out a life insurance policy on you...

I will miss you in the pacific northwet when I get back next week marc twig- I mean mike layton

Take two pair of sneakers! If there is deep mud (which there is sometimes) you are going to get soaked anyway! I encountered the most torrential rain I have ever seen there in 1998. It washed out bridges, drowned a couple of people, and put the hiking trail under knee deep water. Sometimes you just get wet...