BigLegs

You can do it with a single 60M rap. First rap from the bolts above the big ledge (a walk from the summit) to the bolted anchor mid-face. Second 60M should reach the base of the face, then walk off to the right (climbers left) and around the backside of the dogtooth crags. No need to rap the lower pitches. You can also rap with a single 50 - same strategy except you have to rap around the corner from the mid-face bolts into an alcove (this is climber's right of the main face) then downclimb from there to the base of the route.

Many good options for summer-season listed above. For all-season hikes I'd add: -Twin Falls from North Bend side (prettier and shorter than from exit38 side although that also makes a decent option) -Cedar Butte (Possibly the easiest summit hike on the I-90 corridor)

There is an alcove to climber's right of the main slab about 20' higher than the belay station. This alcove can be reached by a single 50 meter rappel from the mid-slab bolts, and a ~3rd class scramble from there will get you back to the base of the main slab. It sounds like many people rappel the lower slab also but it is possible to downclimb (2nd-3rd class?) from the base of the main slab towards the west to easy ground and then traverse around the dogtooth crags to your packs. Using this method it is possible to descend from the upper bolts with one double rope 50M rappel (into the alcove mentioned above) plus 3rd class downclimbing - this would certainly be much faster for parties larger than two (and the downclimbing is less scary than the SW face in my opinion).

I climbed the south ridge of Ingalls on Saturday - there was virtually no snow up to Ingalls Pass, then mostly snow from there to the base of the route (the route is snow free). I'd guess the snow will be around for another couple weeks. An axe and gaiters are useful but I'd leave the crampons at home for the approaches to Ingalls as the snow was generally very soft. If you have the time, a nice easy trip would be to climb the East Ridge of N. Ingalls (mostly 4th-5.0 with one move of 5.7), with a possible side trip to East Ingalls from the notch, then rappel and climb the south face/ridge (2 pitches, 5.4 to 5.6 depending on which crack you take). Supposedly the west ridge of Stuart is nice too, but I haven't done that.

Climb: Banner Peak, Mt. Ritter, Cathedral Peak-SW Slopes, N. Face, SE Buttress Date of Climb: 8/19/2005 Trip Report: I visited my friend Nathan in california this weekend and we did some mountaineering and climbing in the Sierra. Friday we drove to Mammoth, took the trailhead shuttle bus and hiked to Nydever Lakes in the Ansel Adams wilderness. The next day we climbed Banner Peak (12,945', class 2) and Mt. Ritter (13,143', class 3) from the Banner-Ritter saddle. The crux was climbing 45 degree hard snow without crampons to get to the base of the route. There were great views of the Minarets as well as Garnet Lake and Thousand Island Lake from the summits. We hiked out Sunday, spent the night in Tuolomne and got up at 4AM monday to climb the SE buttress of Cathedral peak. This "50 crowded" climb has been described as the busiest alpine rock climb in yosemite. However there is a reason for the crowds; 700 feet of easy 5th class (mostly 5.4-5.5; crux is a 5.6 chimney) in a truly spectacular setting. We were first on route and shared belay ledges with 4 other parties at some point during the climb. The cool thing about this climb is that you can basically climb anywhere on the wall, which is completely covered in chickenheads, so it feels less crowded than it is. Minarets Ritter(L) and Banner® Cathedral More pix at http://faculty.washington.edu/~jimurray/banner_ritter_tuolomne/ Gear Notes: Boots, Ramen, Digital Camera

The route crossing the nisqually A large group (mounties?) practicing ice climbing on the nisqually The turtle, ice cliff Our bivy and views Morning views from the ice chute Climbing the ice chute Upper slopes On Top DC route descent

Climb: Rainier-Kautz Date of Climb: 8/7/2005 Trip Report: Sir_Vent and I climbed the Kautz glacier on rainier this weekend, starting from paradise, carrying over and descending the DC. This was a great trip; our paces matched well, our packs were not too heavy, our bivy was sunny and warm, there were only two other parties on the route (neither of which we ever saw during the day) and the route was challenging enough to be fun but not scary. Day 1: We left Seattle around 6AM, registered at paradise and by 9:30 were hiking towards the nisqually. The nisqually crossing is mostly dirt with small ice patches except in the middle which is ice with small dirt patches. We were a little apprehensive about "the fan" because of reports of loose rock. However, we found it to be generally solid relatively low angle small talus/streambed all the way to the edge of the wilson glacier. Climbing the edge of the wilson included two short sections of ice. A few hours of mostly snow climbing led to scenic bivys with flowing water above 10,500 feet. We arrived around 3:30, rested, had dinner, enjoyed the views, sunbathed, and sir_vent told bad jokes. We slept out in sleeping bags on top of our packs, I had a bivy sack but didn't use it. Day 2: Around 3AM a party that had camped 1000 feet down the ridge walked past our camp with headlamps. We had decided we wanted to be able to see in the ice chutes so we got up at 3:45, packed up, had breakfast and were hiking towards the ice cliff by 4:30. Staying on the left branch of the climber's path took us to a short drop onto the kautz that we rappelled, bypassing the debris gulley at camp hazard. We simulclimbed the lower (?30 degree) section of the ice chute and ben led the upper section as one pitch, protecting it with ice screws (pickets were useless here). We took a route off to the left side of the chute that was slightly steeper but more featured than the center of the chute. Once past the chute we ascended easy slopes to the summit saddle and then up to columbia crest, arriving at 10:15. Routefinding on the upper kautz was pretty straightforward but we crossed about a dozen crevasses that were just starting to open up; in a week or two this upper section will take a lot longer. We had lunch at the summit register, then descended the DC route. This was definitely the way to go; we left the summit at 10:50 and were back to the car by 3:00. Neither of us had been on rainier before and we enjoyed the contrast of descending a different route; the DC route currently has much more interesting crevasse/serac fields than the kautz. Booty: a blue sit-pad, a pack of banana gu, an advil Gear Notes: Sleeping bags, crampons, two ice tools each (I had two short mountaineering style axes which worked ok for following in the upper chute but would have been scary for leading), 4 ice screws, bean and cheese burritos Approach Notes: Approach from paradise was fine. The fan is not loose, the turtle has plenty of snow, and it much more interesting to carry over and descend the DC than to descend the route. This also forces you to only bring what you might need; my pack was lighter than it is on some one-day climbs.

I think everyone under 55 looks 30 with a helmet on.

1)The avalanche danger will be at least as dependent on the wind patterns as the amount of snow; when we were there the places that seemed like they would have the highest danger based on slope angle (the 'hourglass' above the pinnacles and the gullies leading out of the upper ridge to the false summit) were blasted completely clean by downslope winds but a reasonable amount of unstable snow had accumulated on the flank of the pinnacles - we didn't have beacons but they may have been a good idea there. Ultimately its got to be your call based on the avalanche forecast and your level of risk whether you go with beacons, no beacons or no go. 2)We didn't bring a rope, and were glad not to be carrying the weight. 3)The last practical camp is right at the beginning of the pinnacle traverse section, that is about 10,500 - from there it took us 5-6 hours in nearly ideal snow conditions. 4)Check the forecast. Above timberline the wind is usually ferocious this time of year, bring a balaclava, etc. We had a strong headwind the entire trip up. 5)Unless you ski don't do it. Instead, leave as much gear as you feel safe leaving at camp and have a lighter summit day. I'd descend the west face gully route and traverse back to the ridge once you're below the steeper/more exposed upper section.

Haven't been on sargeant's ridge but was on Casaval ridge late march or early april three times Definitely bring snowshoes for the approach from bunny flat, even if you leave them at the base of the ridge/gulch, you'll be glad to have them for the hike out. Mt. Shasta is famous for wind; one year we crawled out of our bomber northface tent at a 10,000 ft camp on Casaval ridge to see another party's tent completely collapsed. It would be reasonable to expect you will be facing a 50-100mph headwind for most or all of the ascent. Make sure you have a good full-body windshell setup (ie bibs and shell). You might want a balaclava too. 14,000 feet is high, if you aren't used to that kind of altitude think about setting up a high camp (there were good spots between 10,000 and 10,500 on Casaval, don't know about Sargents) to maximize your chances of summitting. The wind makes this somewhat unpleasant though; if you plan to camp at timberline, I would do a true alpine (aka midnight) start. A rope was never necessary for us and I think Sargent's ridge is the same, but it is important to be competent with your ice axe as there will be some pretty steep hard-packed snow on the upper ridge probably. They have free kitty litter bags at the trailhead for you to use for your solid by-products. Lots of useful info is available at climbing mount shasta. We always stopped by the black bear diner in mt shasta city afterwards, that place rocks