Mountainstyle

Well, I have to admit I am jealous. Someday....

Good to hear there is peace and joy in the world of CC.com. Ryan is an honest guy, maybe a bit of a climbing dirtbag, but wouldn't we all like to be the guy who can run off to Canada and climb for a month? I am sure he wouldn't try to rip anyone off. And I've seen those boots you bought, Pisco you are getting some good shit when it get's there.

I did lib ridge July 5-7 2006, as a team of two. Be prepared to pick your way around a lot of crevasses. We actually had great ice up above the black pyramid. The snow bridge at the top had melted out at that point, so topping out involved some fun moves on ice. We simul-climbed the entire route, with the exception of an ice screw to protect one move on as we were moving onto the ice cap. Be ready for considerable rock and ice fall. The Willis Wall is alive at that time of the year. Saw a big ice fall/avalance off of ptarmigan ridge. Heard some rock fall while while I was laying in my bivy sack at thumb rock trying to catch some zzz's before the summit bid, had a pea sized rock hit me smack in the forehead. Was pretty glad that is all that came our way. The route is great, and can be in at that time of the year. In my opinion, it was almost too late in the season to get on Lib Ridge when we did it. I didn't hear of anyone else going up after us that year. But.... it was in. Just took a long time to approach with all of the crevasse crossing. Also, the descent (down Emmons) sucked because it had sun exposure all day by the time we headed down. We hiked all the way out to White River CG that day.... it was a long day. Good luck.

It is terrible to hear news like this, very close to home. I was hoping to head up Gib Ledges on Sunday with a team of four, but with Avy conditions as they were opted for Hood instead. The conditions were still heinious, no summit, but plenty of rime. My thoughts go out to the family of this young man.

Nice idea with the small fire. However, I would not recommend Sardines! Last winter (Dec 22-24) on an attempt of Mt Washington in central OR, my climbing partner and I got caught in a bad storm and ended up digging a snow cave to wait it out. We started our approach around 7:30 pm, heading in through the forest, towing sleds with base camp supplies. Around 12:30am the snow was coming down so hard we decided to stop where we were, and dig in to wait it out. By 5am with the snow cave built and some water melted, we were starving, cold of course, and ready to crawl in our bags and sleep. Not in the mood to cook anything, we decided to open a can of Sardines to munch on, in the snow cave mind you. Mmmm, delicious! Well, we spilled some of that nasty sardine juice inside the snow cave, and got to spend the next 36hrs with that wonderful smell. All of the gear I had with me on that trip reeked for months! A snow cave with two folks for an extended period of time smells bad enough as it is, sardines are definitely not needed.

Well, I must say I am pretty thrilled, after reading these posts, that I have tickets for tonights' showing in Tacoma. Bummer movie year, bad warren miller and bad Banff. Guess I will have to get off my lazy ass and go climb something myself!

I actually just talked to the rangers last week about what they wanted to see to pre-register a team for a winter climb. I have two friends who are flying in to climb as part of a 4 person team. Two of us are local, and the two flying in are from here originally. I was hoping to go up the day before they arrive and pre-register the team and get a parking space so we can take off (weather & conditions permitting) the day they get here. The rangers said they will want to know why type of equipment we are bringing, they don't need to see it though. Since I am coordinating the logisitcs behind the trip, I will just bring the pack list I emailed out to the team. I asked if they wanted any type of climbing resume, since two of the teammates won't be there the day of registration and they said no. I did mention that we all have a fair amount of experience, to include guiding in the Cascades. But from what I can tell, the Rangers just want to make sure folks are prepared to be out in the elements. Also, the climbing rangers are off right now, so when you go to register or if you call in, you will get a general staff ranger. You can leave a message for the climbing rangers, but who knows when they will get those messages.

The only thing about those protien bars, or any other "bar" on the mountain in the winter is they freeze and get rock hard. I can tell you, when you already don't feel like eating much due to various mountain ailments, it SUCKS to try and chew on a brick. Gu or shot blocks are a good alternative.

I'd suggest you wand the route you ascend, if you are planning to descend via the same route. If you get caught in whiteout conditions, you can navigate between wands and have an idea of where you are in a featureless environment. It doesn't hurt to turn around and look at your descent route occasionally, it is nice to have that perspective. Don't forget to bring at least 3 days worth of extra fuel and food. You can probably do your fuel equation assuming you will consume 1/2 pint of fuel per day. Instead of going light, consider hauling a sled into your base camp with the necessary equipment, food, fuel, etc. Make sure your summit pack contains enough equipment and supplies to hole up high on the mountain and wait out a storm. Like others have suggested, Gib Ledges is a typical Rainier winter route. Call and talk to the rangers before you go. It might be hard to get a solo permit for the winter if you have never done a winter route on Rainier or any other mountain for that matter. Also, do a forum search, there were several people posting last week looking for a team who wanted to do a winter summit. Maybe you could get on with a team of experienced people and try to get your winter summit in that way. Good luck and be careful out there. Ps. I have either come back from winter climbs absolutely exhausted from the effort of the climb, or fully rested because I spent the entire time curled up in a snow cave, sleeping, waiting out weather. You might want to bring a book with you.

well said!

Climbmax (new stuff) is good, Next Adventure(used) is ok.

Loren and Mike, thank you for the insightful information and opinions. It looks like access will be tricky this winter.

It sure does, do a search for "Crown Jewel" or "Ainsworth" in the ice climbing forum.

The metal shovel has multiple purposes. I know a team who lost their cooking pot high on Denali, in a wind gust, and used their metal shovel to melt water. Not a good situation to be in, worse if you had a plastic shovel.

Hey, is this any of your stuff.... $1000 trad rack for sale on Craigslist. http://seattle.craigslist.org/search/spo?query=climbing&minAsk=min&maxAsk=max

If you can find an inexpensive memory foam mattress topper and put it over your camping pads it works great. We have a Dodge Sprinter van, and that is the set up we use for our bed. Good luck and long live the dirt-bag, van living climbers!

Bill, If you search there are some pictures posted from three years ago. I looked at them last night, but I am too lazy to find them for you and post the link here. Did I mention I reconnected with Peter, the guy who we randomly climbed C.P. with on that trip?

I regularly drink anywhere from 1 cup to 6 plus a day. The caffiene in coffee doesn't do much to pick me up, nor do I notice an enhancement when I am exercising. If I don't keep up with water consumption, I will notice a decrease in performance due to dehydration. On the other hand, if I am absolutely dragging I will choke down a red bull (this is a rare occasion), which seems to give me about 1.5 hours worth of mental and physical enegry... followed by a nasty crash. Sometimes you gotta do it. I can only imagine I feel a difference due to the massive amounts of sugar in the Red Bull, as I tend to stay away from huge sugar highs. As for all you coffee junkies out there, regular drip coffee has more caffiene per cup than your double shot espresso drink. The legal overdose on coffee is around 13 cups o' joe if I remember correctly. All useful things I learned as a barista, slinging coffee to make my way through college.

Yeah, matchstick kicks ass. What I want to know is where did they get all those little clone kids who needed to pull their pants up?

Wow, another good Tacoma story, makes me glad I moved up here from Portland. Well.... Tacoma has better access to 'lots of mountains. And, to make you both feel better, last year when I was visiting friends in N. Portland (Alberta Arts District), my Subaru was parked infront of their house and was shot, twice, in gang gun fire. At least the meth-heads out here haven't started shooting at us. Still very sorry to hear about your cars and gear! I am keeping an eye out on Craigslist for you.

Hey there... three of us are going to hike up to Snow Lake from the Alpental Parking lot. We should be there by 1:15-1:25pm, meet us there if you want to go. Late start this morning, too many drinks last night. As we were departing Seattle, after too much Korean food and lots of wine, we decided we were going to hike up and get some turns on Rainier today. Leave town bright and early this morning... I woke up at 9ish.... feeling lazy, a few cups of coffee later we are finally getting motivated to do something.

That is one tough cookie. Any reason why you chose that route over some other classics (I realize Yokum is also a classic)? My climbing partner and I were slated to get on Yocum last winter, we had a great weather window, but the mountain was closed due to the climbers that got lost. My climbing partner used to guide for Timberline Mountain Guides and has done many of the classic Hood lines; Yocum is a route he hadn't been on but always wanted to go for. The exposure looks amazing. He grew up in Oregon, but is in Boston for grad school right now. So, if we get the chance this year while he is out visiting, we'd jump on Yocum.

Hey, sorry to hear about that! Where in Tacoma?? I live in the N. end... and am a subaru driver. People suck. I hope you can recover your gear somehow. At least you have a good list of what is missing.... do you have homeowner's or renter's insurance, it should cover your gear.

Great trip report, love the witty sarcasm! What's climbing in the NW without getting on a choss pile now and then and enjoying some bushwacking. Glad you made it down safely.

I have a team that is going for Gib Ledges Dec 15-20, weather and avy conditions permitting. If we luck out on weather and get an early go we might cruise down to Hood and try to get on Yokum Ridge, anyway...I'd love to see a trip report if anyone gets on Gib Ledges before that time!