TrogdortheBurninator

if a then c seems to me that is exactly what you and selkirk were saying.

Why is hindquarters better with bolts? The top is easily accessed by climbing dogleg, or walking around. It'd be one thing if only one or two bolts were used to connect features on the route, but a sport climb in that location, with that top down access seems unnecessary. It is a super fun line though, and definitely seems a good bit harder than dogleg.

Here are a few more photos from frank (alps): getting into the crux: gaining the north ridge: harder than it looks, but super fun: On top and smiling:

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the rock step was still there, and definitely the crux of the route. maybe not quite as tall though as when you climbed it. you can make it out near the top of the third picture. i think frank might have another picture of it closer up.

sounds like a good adventure. nice working getting it done. Nice talking to you guys in the morning.

Trip: colchuck peak - ne couloir right var. Date: 2/25/2008 Trip Report: On friday night Frank and I arrived in leavenworth much too late, and after 2 hours sleep woke up much too early. We skied the road, ditching our skis near the trailhead and switching to snowshoes for the trail. After ~4 hrs we arrived at the lake in beautiful weather with only a few other folks around. We headed up to the moraine intent on climbing something on the NE side of colchuck. Plan A looked a bit hard, so we moved to plan B, which was a direct ascent of the NE couloir. I tried the NE couloir a few years back, but we bailed after getting pummeled with sizeable spin drift avalanches. At the time I noted most TRs and beta suggested following a left trending couloir at 2/3 height, dealing with a problematic cornice, then intersecting the colchuck glacier route a few hundred feet from the summit. Looking at pictures of the route, it seemed as though a right hand variation would also be possible, finishing more or less directly to the summit. I'm sure this has been done plenty of times before, but I couldnt find much info on it.link right hand finish in red, left hand finish in green (original photo stolen from summitpost.com) Anyhow, we dropped our snowshoes, poles and 2nd rope at an opportune return spot on the glacier and headed up the couloir. Conditions in the couloir varied from soft powder to nicer consolidated almost neve. Along the way we checked out a few detours toward the NE buttress, but sugary unconsolidated snow ended those efforts quickly. We climbed unroped past the bottleneck to a nice stance just below a rock step. Here we ate and drank, and frank decided to throw one of his gloves into a rock moat (recovered via excavation). We were getting pretty tired from lack of sleep and excess of exercise, so we werent moving particularly fast at this point. After the well earned rest, we broke out the rope and I belayed frank to the base of the rock step. After much digging in snow, he finally found a suitable belay and brought me up. First a led off out left towards an iced corner, but a complete lack of protection opportunities led me to downclimb and climb the iced rock step directly. The climbing was fairly tenuous mixed terrain, with difficult to find, but just barely adequate protection. After a while, the angle eased off to thunker neve, followed by steepish sugary snow. I climbed towards a promising rock outcrop, just reached it on a taught rope, and started digging for anchors, but the rock provided no cracks. I secretly wished for a bolt kit Anyhow, after moving massive volumes of snow, I gave up and down climbed to another outcropping out left and repeated the excavation process, this time I was lucky to find a solid crack and a manky crack to build an anchor (all in all, finding this anchor took the best part of an hour). I belayed Frank up as the scenery opened up and became more dramatic. hmm, interesting.... From here, Frank led up steepening sugary snow, originally heading straight for the short rocky headwall, but backing down from the unsupportive base, and instead moving rightward to a notch on the ridge crest. Here, sugary snow covered awkward mixed moves, but there was good protection again. From the notch, it appeared that an easy snow gully would lead straight to the summit (this may be the standard north buttress finish). However, the sugar snow made upward progress nearly impossible until I abandoned hopes of climbing snow and instead focused on the gully walls. Ultimately I topped out a few yards from the summit and belayed Frank up in the beautiful setting sun. A quick jog to the summit and we headed down, admiring the beautiful sunset and great looking ski tracks coming down the glacier. We were able to find our way back to our gear stash just as weather started to move in, but from there the way down was just easy and tedious. Gear Notes: half set nuts lost arrow + knife blade cams: blue tcu to gold camalot 3 screws, didnt place, but only because I left them behind with frank at rock step. would have been nice to have one of the 13cm with me. 2 pickets - only ever used 1. Approach Notes: trail was well packed, and followed summer route very nicely. good job whoever put this one in first. Snowshoes were useful, but not necessary for the approach. Skis made the road descent much faster, but only slightly less painful.

for me, it would be hard to find a day pack that would do both. For day ski trips I wouldnt usually take much bigger than a 25 L pack, but for day ice/alpine climbing trips i usually would bring from 35L up to 60L (not full).

i've got it

hurry on over, dont forget.

http://www.climbingwashington.com/contact/

.75 to 2 or 3 camalot are probably the most useful for starting out. then add yellow, orange, red tcu sizes. then double up 1 and 2 camalots. then buy 4 camalot. then buy little cams. then double up more cams. buy 5 and 6 camalots if you see routes in the guidebooks that interest you and require big gear.

btw, they usually issue a 20% off coupon with the dividend, so might want to wait till that comes out before you blow your wad.

tis true, balance is there

Looks great!! what'd everybody else up there climb?

the one having the most fun?

sick! http://climbing.com/news/hotflashes/steckeigerrecord08/

when i'm feeling sketched and runout and placing a screw, I sometimes clip a draw into one of my tools (well placed), then clip the rope through that. After the screw is in, I transfer the draw from tool to screw. Still not the best style, but it provides a bit of a backup. In general though, look for any sort of stances you can find, and consider climbing further between screws to reach those stances (assuming you arent in serious ground fall region).

g2TSvADlAeM

even with 8-10k freezing level?

videos of vanishing point (previously posted) http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qy5jZnFUhDE http://youtube.com/watch?v=is8hRmGOJgc http://youtube.com/watch?v=A_YXpzDcXt4

no go, not enough interest. If anybody wants to play in the future, just respond to this thread, and when/if we get enough responses, we can try again and get something going.

"Clinton to block"

Almost all the holding power of a good screw comes from the outer threads of the screw (closer to the hanger). Moreso, the actual thread length on 13 cm and 22 cm is pretty similar (or identical i think). Your statement is only true if the surface ice is bad, but the underlying ice is decent. Even then, you could clear the surface ice. On a mixed alpine climb where the choice was between one screw and zero, you are far more likely to find thin ice <13 cm vs >22cm. In that situation, the completely driven 13cm screw is much stronger than a half driven 22cm screw.

13 cm if you dont think youll need v threads 19 or 22 if you do