sean_beanntan

Hi Folks, sorry about the spam, hope this is related to some of you. I am a professional Mountain guide. I am in the process of remodeling a house and need some help with a multitude of tasks like Tiling, wood floor refinishing, replacing dry rot, leaking roof, painting etc. I can teach Rockclimbing , Rock Rescue, Mountain climbing like Mt Hood, Mt St Helens etc. Crevasse Rescue, Teach Avalanche/Snow Science. Even climbers who have been climbing for a while can benefit from instruction. Been climbing for 20 years and Mountain Rescue for 12 years. regards, Joe 541 915 7520 House in NE Portland near Killingsworth and Interstate.

It was snowing above Timberline yesterday, high winds meant the the boot pack was filling in within an hour or so. So the gully will have wind deposition from Yokum. Plus lots of rime from the w/e. Having said that, there is no real way of knowing until you get there. Look for decent freezing or the Reid traverse will be tiresome. I will be on th ehill wed/thursday and can give you more info then

Just climbed the Luetholds on Wednesday and its in great condition. No big runnels. Some breakable crust getting to the hourglass but styroform after that. Exits on the right in fun condition. Enjoy. ps the big mistake that people make is in low vis. There is a cleaver on the reid that in a white out looks like its part of Yokum....I know hard to believe in clear skies. When climbes reach it, they immediately turn right and head up onto the reid. You need to drop around the toe or climb through the ramp in the middle. I will post a pic if someone needs one...sometime

Dont stay in line, climb the Reid Headwall and decend West Crater Rim. Excellent condition at the moment

All good questions. If the second falls and he falls by you, there is tremendous force placed on the second. In rock climbing, it can "equate" to a factor 2 fall potential. Enough force to rip you out of your stance and even blow a snow picket. The snow up there is a combination of ice crust and sugar which makes very weak anchors. What you did was not incorrect but the last person down has no real protection and is in a no fall situation. That is fine if you are aware that is the case. An alternate is for you to place a picket on the way down to limit a fall, he removes it as he downclimbs. Another option is to decend the west crater rim which last w/e had less ice and is not as steep. It is very difficult to arrest a fall above the Shrund. The conditions are usually ice and in the chute, the ground is covered in shards of rime ice that offer no purchase for the pick. Also there are so much bootprints that the pick can easily pull out during self arrest when it hits one. A fun route fof your both would be west crater rim using snow pickets to ensure that if either climbers falls and fails to self arrest, there is another attachment to the hill. pm me if you need more info Your options may be

Looking at your photo, another option is to continue around to the saddle between North and Middle and start climbing the ridge from there. That way you will be be climbing on snow the whole time and you wont have any rock or gendarme issues until the hump. You traverse the mountain more to start the climb buts its quick travel and certainly the recommended way to decend

eldiente, when you say falling down the mountain, exactly how many feet did the group fall. "Had it not been for the guide"....thats redundant. They would not have been there without the guide so your point?. If you noticed, I changed to a belayed lower after a discussion with my client. West Crater is not the Pearly gates, there is plenty of room to decend. How many people were long roping this w/e without placing pickets? Do you seriously think that the rope would help a fall on the steep icy sections with so much slack and stretch. Anyway, If someone wants to start another tread, I can write some more. On the "famous incident" that you wrote about, I was first rescuer on scene. I was also first on scene last year when 3 climbers fell above the shrund. I am very realistic when it comes to climbing on the hill and the level of control that is needed.

I am assuming that you hiked in from Pole Creek and that you climbed the south ridge on the East Side. Once you accend the ridge from the col, where the ridge starts to flatten out, start looking for the entrance onto the west face. The big thing is not to traverse too far. There are 2 traverse pitches usually. Then start looking for a vertical step of about 10ft that marks the entrance into the bowling alley aka the 4th class gully to the top. Stay to the right in the gully heading toward the south pinnicle and where it flattens out, traverse to the true summit to the north. Recommend bringing some cord to use as slings for protection.

Motomaqik, this is not the thread to debate climbing techniques, so apologies to all the other readers. I am a member of the American Mountain Guides Association, AMGA. It is their technique and some research will show you the list of amazing climbers/guides that are part of this organization . Your email also seesm to imply that the team was at risk which I clearly resent. My job as a guide is to manage risk, reduce it to an acceptable level for my clients and create/maintain control. Any uncertainty came from climbers outside of my rope team. To answer ECJ questions, the climbers were trying to climb Luetholds and could not find the correct entrance gully. If you leave the Reid glacier too early, you start climbing the Reid Headwall which is more difficult. The weather on Saturday did produce cloud and rain and snow late in the am/pm so that visibility did decrease for the climbers. To access the Reid, you cross onto the west side of the mountain away from all the light on the southside. In fact you cant see the southside route once you are on Luetholds. That said there were other groups climbing Luetholds that morning that may have thier own lights.

It depends on the snow conditions. This time of year, its possible to drop off the south ridge onto the west slope a little earlier, see Jeff Thomas guide on page 98(although if you are asking this question, maybe you dont have access to the book and I can send you the page). I was in teh Sisters last Thursday and so saw similar conditions to you. Later on in the season, you climb higher on the south ridge before the traverse due to the rotten loose rock. You then have to basically drop down on the west side of the hump, traverse on the west side before again gaining the south ridge and then a small traverse of the east face. Hope this helps

Motomaqik "rope team" of 5 people tied 5 feet apart from each other, literally, slipping and sliding down the west crater... seriously the one girl fell 5 times" Hmm, that was me. I am a guide and in case you dont recognize the short rope technique, that was it in practice. Short rope is based on the fact that the guide catches a slip or loss of balance before it becomes a fall. There is no slack or rope stretch in the sysyem to produce a dynamic force since clients are tied approx 7or 8ft apart. When short rope becomes unsuitable, the guide changes to belayed climbing, like you saw me do. The client slipped but did you notice how far they fell...the fall was arrested immediately, without the guide moving out of position. I also remember asking you not to down climb directly above me. If you were to fall then you would have hit my group. There was no need for you to decend directly above us on an open slope like west crater rim. Climbers on this web site know my qualifications and my climbing/guiding ability so I wont bother to list. But I have also done mountain rescue for 12 years. I am a volunteer and have never beeen paid for this work. I dont complain, our creed is mountain safety through rescue and education. Hopefully climbers of all experience will learn something from this mission that will prevent a more serious situation in the future. I do not want people to be charged for a rescue since it may stop them from asking for help when they need it. The "girl" in question enlisted the expertise of a guide because she realized that the climb was outside her own personal ability which is to be applauded. She was tired but motivated and dug deep to summit. Her effort was inspiring.

Blurpy, nice photos, Hope you dont mind a quick question but I notice that there was no protection placed in the chute on the down climb. If this is correct, what is the reason for the rope?. Sorry but seems if the climber fell, the rope team is going for a ride...based on my visual past experience....of course, he could be the highly skilled leader after belaying the other climbers down.

Just got down from the hill today. Crampons on at the top of palmer. There was an thin ice crust over soft snow. Even on boot pack trail there was boot pen to several inches as you broke through....very warm overnight even those there was no cloud cover. Pearly Gates has lost lots of rime ice, no longer the tight squeeze of last week and is now starting to look more normal. Certainly the route to accend if there are crowds. Only need one tool to accend, maybe 2 to decend depending on you comfort level. Decended the left chute, one tool is fine. The biggest obstacle is the sugar snow under the ice crust. I saw someone break though to their knee and then fall forward just below the chutes. He did manage to stop

When the summit tower is melted out, you dont really need rock pro since the easiest route is 4th class or easy 5th. Either way, there is rock pro if needed. The technical part of Jefferson is the steep snow traverses which can also be protected

Quick note, been seeing some climbers placing vertical pickets below the Pearly gates on Saturday. These pickets were placed in snow consisting of a ice crust and sugar snow. Hmmmmm......try using T slots with a vertical backup if you want the anchor to do its job and hold a fall.

Thanks for the switch, but can I still post my Beacon Rock reports in the Oregon section. Any megalight trips lately?

Sorry i did not to post this for the sunday climbers but here are the conditions for saturday surface cooling and medium 15-25mph, winds produced a good breakable crust with boot pen to 6-8". Coming down from the summit there is a good bootpack to palmer. Most climbers using left chute. right chute of pearly gates in great condition. Decended using west crater rim to hogsback. Great conditions on decent, good boot pack on accent. Under surface crust is about 18" of sugar with little consolidation. Recent warming producing wet slides on Thursday and Friday. Just to recap, the right chute of the Pearly gates does not have a 70 degree ramp as reported, its a small WI2 series of 3 steps about 4 ft each. No biggie if you can climb alpine ice.

Skied Mt St Helens fron summit yesterday. Started from Marble Mtn car snowpark and went via the Worm Flows. Snow level is down to the 244c trail or about 15 mins from the car. Ski conditions yesterday were excellent even with the warm temps and high freezing level. Snowpack was consolidated, no weak layers observed, good bonding. Great corn conditions and when the corn collapsed, it was still steep enough to drive the extra 3-4 inches. Sweet!!

Sounds just like me. Got on some WI5 stuff in the Ghost and still used my Sabretooths. Left the G14's in the Car.

Hey Chris, I dont believe that I am going to miss another slide show. I will be in Yosemite next week and then Red Rocks for a while. Joe

Jamin, sorry but i have a problem with "I am very confident with my self-arrest skills, and I have had plenty of practice in the past 3 years that I have been snow climbing" Now I have been climbing for 20 years, have climbed LR and I am not very confident with my self arrest skills. Self arrest is over rated and is extremely difficult to achieve on a steep icy slope. The area in and below the Pearly gates is littered with rime ice particles that makes the footing very unstable even with crampons. It feels like you are walking on giant particles of sugar and self arrest is not an option. I climbed to the summit on Sunday and so know the conditions. I have also seen people try to self arrest and not stop on Hood, the rest of the tale is a sad one. Also if you manage to self arrest , all you need to do is have the pick find one small boot depression, pop out and the wild ride starts all over again. How many boot prints are on the upper slope above the hogsback? Self arrest happens when you have lost control. Stay in control like climbers should. Hope this helps, have fun out there

Bring a Umberella.....seems silly but the sun can be opressive at 11,200 or 14,000. Yes I know you can hang a tarp from the snow walls but that can be difficult and the sun moves. A small Umberella is sweet sitting outside your tent. Also an insulated French press for those social gatherings at 14,000. You can bater almost anything for a hot cup of Joe at ABC

The step is steep but not vertical and usually appears between Nov and December and is about 15-20ft. It then disappears under a bunch of snow. This is happening as I write this. So when are you climbing?. If ts it in April or May , it should be a non issue.

Hi: Just curious about "Everybody raves about red rocks, but tI think there's better" What have you climbed down there to give you this opinion.. For me Red Rocks is about No Vegas strip since I need to be up at 5am to hit the climbs like Black Orpheus, Birdhunter Buttress, Black Velvet Canyon etc. How about a combo of Dark Shadows and Y2K for a complete day of climbing?

Thats because we are climbing in Canada and Washington