sean_beanntan

I was on the summit on Monday, nice late start had us on the summit at 3pm..Yea for cold weather climbing!!! temp inversion kept temps nicely in the 20's, winds upper teens on summit. Groomed slopes made for good skinning. Stached skis at Palmer, boot pen to 10,100 variable from surface to 8". Top layer light snow with poor bonding but no big wind layer. Snow Pit at 10,300 SE aspect on 30 degrees failed at 23cm on a Q1 CT 26. Bond failed on a rounding surface. LIttle energy or propagation observed in pit. Another smaller pit revealed similar. Bootpack to hogsback is a low traverse with 2 traverses from hogsback to west crater, lower traverse just above the hot rocks seemed the better option. A little ice step in 2 oclock gully has climbers heading straight up to the rim. Bergshrund open on the left but good snow bridge, hogsback spine even more to the left than last year. A good day on the hill for sure However seems like the weather is changing

Wire gates seem to me to be easier to gets the screws in and out, I go with a BD Oval biner with wire gate, seems to work fine

Hey the patch comes attached to the arm, well at least to the R1 Hoody, what can I say Mr Iain, Its hard to get off the patch....... esp when its cold outside.

Great TR Chris but you left out a photo of the "Drumstick" which had me wanting my brown trousers for sure. It was a proud lead on the wet verticality.

Maine-iac, Holk was commenting on a group climbing that he saw?, I was commenting on a technique to explain the group but you are commenting on a single photo at 1/8 of a second? I agree while there appears to be slack in the rope, its a photo of an instant in time, maybe if he knew he was being observed, he would have done it better.

Holk, "my biggest beef was with these groups of roped climbers who didn't know what they were doing." What do you mean by your comment? The photo looks like a guided group, the guide is in the back as a anchor. The technique is called short roping, check out the AMGA, IFMGA sites. Under certain conditions this is the best way to climb up and down the mountain. Its based on low dynamic loading, semi static falls, no rope stretch, no snow touching slack in the rope. Before a climber falls fast and has to self arrest, he loses his balance, slips, falls and then falls out of control, Short roping catches the loss of balance or the slip before it becomes a fall. This is far more effective than "long ropers" climbing with no pickets, (they dont count if they stay on your pack) separated by 60 feet of rope with bundles of slack in their hands...which they will immediately drop if they fall, creating even more slack. If you still think this technique is unsafe, check out how many guided accidents there have been on Mt Hood versus independent climbers. Its about control and not the illusion of control that matters

Two men have been rescued from the Red Wall climbing area of Smith Rock State Park. KTVZ-TV reports 24-year-old Ian Wallace Carlsen of Puyallup, Wash., called 9-1-1 at about 6:45 p.m. Saturday to report that he and 22-year-old Russell Scott Howard of Gresham were stranded. Both had been rappelling and had underestimated the amount of rope they needed to descend the wall. Carlsen was stranded about 250 feet from the bottom and Howard was stranded about 200 feet from the bottom. Deschutes County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue members climbed to the top of the Red Wall and lowered two mountain rescue members over the edge . The stranded men were attached to the mountain rescue members and lowered the rest of the way to bottom of the Red Wall. Neither was injured. -- Associated Press Link: http://www.oregonlive.com/gresham/index.ssf/2010/11/gresham_man_rescued_smith_rock.html

My one advice, only use one daisy chain. If the aid is not difficult, your fifi is probably connected directly to harness. So you are then using the daisy chains to safeguard dropping each set of aiders, You run the risk of having a daisy chain on the lower piece as well as the upper piece at the same time. If that happens and the upper piece pulls, you fall onto the lower static daisy chain....ouch and the rope through the lower piece is not going to do you any dynamic good. I say this because I have seen this bad technique used several times. comments? anyone? anyone?

Ok so I did a search and could not find the link to "load photos for dummies" can anyone out there post a link thanks

I posted this in the newbie section but included it here as well since it mentions Mt Hood. Hope this helps some folk recognize the limitations of technology, how it can help but also give us false security. Its does not reflect the view of the mountain rescue community just my own. http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6942483/ A friend pointed out that maybe I should make a true v false list of the statements but I assume folks can do that on their own

hope this helps some folk recognize the limitations of technology, how it can help but also give us false security. Its does not reflect the view of the mountain rescue community just my own. http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6942483/ A friend pointed out that maybe I should make a true v false list of the statements but I assume folks can do that on their own!!

A note for anyone that climbed the Reid Glacier routes this year. The subjects just became visible (ie meltout) last weekend on the mountain due to the high snow year. It would not have been possible for any climber to have found them in the normal course of climbing any earlier in the year.

Hmm you must have seen our steps since we climbed it in calmer winds 20, 21 of july. I have climbed it in much steeper and icer conditions but still a fun route. We managed to find a entry onto the northwest slope at 9300ft and descend on snow, so so much more pleasant

Climbed Thursday and got a Sudden Planar, Q1 at 9800ft on 28 degrees, S aspect 30cm down at 5am. It failed on the melt freeze layer from Sunday. Observed 30cm - 50cm of snow from the Tues-Wed storm cycle. Thursday had a inversion with snow temp 6 inches down -5C at 8500ft and -2 at 9800ft. NOW the good news, by Saturday night, Sunday morning, the bonding at the same location was in good shape. Got a CT 26 on a Q2+. Good solid conditions observed up high on the hill and we climbed to the summit via old chute. Conditions should remain good through this week, planning on climbing myself Tuesday night/Wed morning. Hope this helps

Hi Folks, just a quick update. The subject was skiing up Snowdome in a group of five. As they got near the top of Snowdome, weather clouds came in and reduced visibility. Snowdome looks like a triangular moraine in that it is wide at the base and narrow at the top. The top of the dome also gets a little steeper on the climbers right. In the low vis, the subject traversed, (out of sight of the others) a little more to the right than normal, unaware of the opening exposure to the Coe Glacier and the slightly steeper incline. At the top of the dome, when the subject failed to appear, the remainder of the party began a search. It appears that he fell while still skining upwards. Attempts at bringing the subject down from the mountain on Wednesday were hampered by high winds, blowing snow and no visibility. (The litter at one stage lifted several feet off the ground acting as a kite for a few seconds)

Hmm, me, I guess. I will try to post some pics today. basically the West Crater slide started from a point release off Castle Crags and ran past Illumination Saddle to around 8,500ft. Clearly visible are the 2 slab layers as reported last week. 3 Slides zones observed in Devils Kitchen, that covers E, SE and SW aspects. Not sure when slides happened. Hogsbacks slid below Pearly gates, no sign of activity observed higher on the old chute area....ie upper reaches still loaded with unstable layers. Snow bonding is failing on wet, rotten snow, any facets appear to have saturated producing slush. Digging pits required chopping through a thick ice layer as it appeared to have rained up to at least 10,300ft. Joe PMR

Just heard that 2 male climbers did not return from a climb yesterday morning. Search initiated this am.

For all the newer climbers out there, climbing is not like a marathon at all imo sorry. In fact some of my most difficult clients are marathon runners who cant seem to pace themselves to anything after 7 hours, most climbs last 7 - 12. Its been my experience that hiking up to the day of the climb is fine and awesome. For climbers trying to get fit, hiking and especially cycling seem to work best....but this is only my opinion, different body types need different workout routines. I have seen a off the couch client summit Baker after working out everyday for 2 weeks right up to the climb.

Dane, thanks for the the report, I agree on the conditions and have seen lots of instability on Hood. Got turned back at upper triangle this w/e, low vis, winds and snow but the big issue was a CT13 Q2 at 12 inches and a CT21 Q2 at 30 inches, SE Facing on 28 degrees, repeatable, also breakable crust from 6 to knee deep. I expect similar readings on Rainier. Was hoping to climb later this week but my plans are a changing.

Yea, the #4 is not much use since the crak is so wide, careful when walking up a piece, I always seem to walk it up a little too far and after I pass it, it wobbles and wants to walk. Saying that I would just take a #6 if you had it, you can walk it much higher.

For anyone wishing to get info on ecuador, I guide there each december, here is my blog, feel free to ask questions regarding hotels, transport etc joeowens.wordpress.com

Hey Chris , you forgot to mention the old DMM bulldog that you placed. Also, that I in my lazy haze, I did not take out the pins so they are there for the next climber visit. For the Scottish climbers on Cascade, the warthog stayed at home. Sure was nICE climbing with you as always,

Dont waste your time on the single pitch sport stuff, the trad routes are where its at esp the mulitpitch routes like frogland, dark shadows, geronimo, johnny vegas. Getting into higher grades, black orpheus, bulah's book, refried brains, fridgeraire buttress, Y2K, ginger cracks, power failure, all good. No reason 3 climbers cant travel as fast as 2 climbers on most routes so dont let that stop you. Coffee bean has free wifi

Hey with all this interest in self rescue, I would be willing to teach a class at Ozone WA, near Portland sometime in the near future for anyone that is interested. As reference, I am a full time climbing guide and PMR member for 15 years. It would have to be midweek and involve rock rescue which is easily transferred to CR, we would cover the basics, escaping the belay, munter/mule tie off, rap to subject, ascend back up, 3/5 : 1 raise and a tandem rapell

Lost a leash while descending from Superbock. It from a Petzl Quark, thanks,