TrogdortheBurninator

"no bolts, all natural gear, full madness on overhanging spray ice" http://gravsports.blogspot.com/

damn that is a lot of ice. that direct start looks great.

rope stretch

Geko lacks the high sensitivity chipset, which would make it a no go for me. Did you consider the etrex vista hcx? Basically all the features of the 60csx, but smaller and less expensive ($100 less on amazon). Best GPS forum I found is this: http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/ Lots of good info there.

looks like a fun route! pictures show fine for me. did from the moment the TR was posted.

while slightly ambiguous,I believe the original post refers to a SLC pub club during outdoor retailer.

omg, so hot right now http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/chat

Marmot Helium EQ. Have one, and very impressed. Water resistant doesnt breathe quite as well as other shells, but saves the wegth of a bivy for certain endeavors.

Leavenworth Driving down tumwater, a quick glimpse of Drury looked nice and fat. Most snow melt climbs further down tumwater looked pretty thin or snowy. Mountaineers creek still needs a lot more melt. We saw maybe one climbable line while we were out skiing yesterday mid day. Wet and wild looks very fat. Probably not much longer. Bad photo: Icicle buttress is very snowy. Not sure how much ice is under there. Most other snow melt things in icicle looked thin or snowy. The ice in and around rainbow and careno is the best i've ever seen it. Fat blue and yellow ice abounds. Three distinct lines at rainbow. At least two more at careno. We climbed the easy left side of rainbow right yesterday afternoon. Good pro, good ice, wi2+, 100' or so. Right side of rainbow right looks good. Rainbow left looks outstanding right now. Bouldered the first bit and found excellent ice.

very nice!!

Haffner is about 45 min from Banff, on 93 (sw of banff). Balfour is probably 1.5 hrs from banff, up on the icefields parkway. Balfour is much less popular than haffner, but has more pure ice routes.

Skookum Falls. See recent photos in ice conditions thread.

photos: lower main tier of BV falls lower eastern tier. climbable today at wi3 with sporty pro and topout lower easter tier. climbable tomorrow at wi4ish??????? Pax leading main tier. WI3, sporty pro. Best ice to belay is up and left at small out cropping. Other belays (ours) are slightly more suspect. lots of small ice damn bursts on main flow.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/331789/Searchpage/2/Main/22971/Words/dragontail/Search/true/TR_Dragontail_NE_Couloir_4_3_2#Post331789 stopped at the rock

nope, ross skied this one too.

Chairlift falls is melt fed. I bet it is pretty anemic and not worth the hike right now, Especially with so much ice closer to the road. There are plenty of small flows in the alpental falls area right next to the parking lot. Many of these could be toproped.

you mean up the source lake drainage (S. Fork Snoq)? There is a nice waterfall about 30 min up the drainage from the alpental parking lot. I climbed it a few years ago in another cold spell. Temps were single digit during the day. Seemed about what was necessary to freeze the high volume. I would expect it to come in now. I thought it was one of the finer easy single pitches I've climbed in WA. Can be easily top roped too.

TELL YOUR NUKEAGE TO STAY OFF MY ICE Tonight: A 50 percent chance of snow after 10pm. Increasing clouds, with a low around 16. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible. Wednesday: Snow. High near 21. Southwest wind between 7 and 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 13 to 19 inches possible. Wednesday Night: Snow showers. Low around 16. Southwest wind between 7 and 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 6 to 10 inches possible.

how about some general impressions?

where are you coming from? exit 32/38 are somewhat mediore compared to some of the great crags in WA like Index, Darrington, parts of leavenworth. Compared to crags in some parts of the country, I'd reckon they are pretty good, 32 especially. They have plenty of steep hard climbs, if that is your thing. After work bouldering is surprisingly limited, or at least poorly advertised. There is great bouldering near Index (1 hr), but it is up a pretty nasty dirt road that adds a lot of extra drive time. There is some less publicized bouldering near Exit 32, but it requires some hiking to get to, so still not ideal for after work. In terms of living in seattle as a climber, expect a fair amount of frustration with the weather, especially if you are an alpine climber. However, when weather cooperates, it is a wonderful place to be based out of. If you dont mind 2-3 hrs of driving, you can rock climb 9-10 months out of the year, splitting your time between the west and east side of the state.

a topo drawing tool would be good. also, some sort of grading consensus thing like mountain project would be nice.

If my second has bigger hands than I do, they often have some trouble cleaning the U-stemmed Metolius cams(I place them deeper without realizing I am doing so). On the up side, if a Metolius gets overcammed, you can rig a sling around the trigger and use your body weight to unstick it. I recently added a yellow Omega Link cam to my rack. Love it! It gets used on most every climb. With the range of three cams(at the weight of two), it's sweet to throw in when you are too sketched to fiddle for just the right size; also good to save for gear anchors, so you are more likely to have a piece of the necessary size left on your rack. the new small link cams are supposedly lighter then camalot equivalents

I picked up one of these for $50 on closeout at REI. http://camp-usa.com/products/ice-axes/alpax-special-hammer-100402.asp Quick change pinky rest for plunging and leashless. Pretty light at <20 oz. Seems just about perfect for couloir climbing and other moderate alpine endeavors. I hoped to give it a try last weekend, but we bailed before the start of our route. I have faith it will serve it's purpose well. I'm looking for a companion for mine if anybody wants to unload one.

there is very little snow in the stuart range as of this past weekend.