Ponzini

I saw Ruth from a distence on Sunday, it looked very snowy, from being there in summer I wouldn't anticipate any crevasse problems on skis. You may have to walk the trail for a ways as it faces south and could be melted out...

We looked down from the top, it looked clean and firm. Would be a nice 2 day trip if one camped at upper Pierce Lake....

Straight up from the road looks real bushy for at least the first 1000 feet, and further than that after the snow leaves, and there looks to be some greasy slabs to boot. There's still lots of snow from 4000 ft upwards but only minor patches on the ridge, the east face is still fairly snowy. The other climber was Mr. Derrick Johnstone. I'll bet that that the companion NE ridge is waiting for a first ascent, one could reach it from the road (bushy), Pierce Lake (long) or by rapping from the col between the two Crossover peaks to the small glacier to the N and hiking down to the ridge toe, which looked fairly easy.

Climb: Crossover - SE Ridge of East Summit Date of Climb: 5/21/2006 Trip Report: We were looking for a close yet obscure summit, and decided on Crossover. We decided to make a direct attack from Nesakwatch Creek instead of hike the lengthy Pierce Lake trail. As we forgot the camera, I stole some pictures to illustrate our route. This shot, by Greg Jones, shows the true summit of Crossover on the right and the slightly lower eastern summit on the left. We walked the road to the Slesse memorial, and then headed up the righthand side of the great slide track off the NE side of Slesse, giving the pocket glaciers a wide berth. About 30% of the bypass glacier has broken off and gone over the edge, but everything else is in place (albeit precariously!) We climbed steeply through open forest and then snow to Crossover's east ridge. From there, the main peak looked like a tottering shitpile, while the east peak seemed like a sporting climb. We decided to give the SE ridge of the east peak a try. East face of east peak of Crossover from Nesakwatch Creek, photo by Jordop: Our route was the left skyline. We climbed five 30m pitches with some simul-climbing, it was windy and hard to hear so we kept the pitches short. The climbing was mostly 4th class but with lots of small 5th class steps, and the rock was surprisingly clean and firm. The route is similar to the N Ridge of the N Nesakwatch spire, a bit shorter but harder and with more sustained climbing. There is less greenery, the crest is much sharper and the exposure is better. Plus the views across to the north side of Slesse are intense! All in all, I'd do this climb again before the N Spire, and I was surprised to not see it written up anywhere. Certainly a recommended route for a group looking for a moderade climb in a neat area, I'd say it was a PD+ (Derrick suggested AD-). The summit register had only one entry, Roy Mason and party from 1994, but there was no indication of the route they climbed, nor could we see any rap slings anywhere on the mountian. We downclimbed to the col between the east and west peak and made one short rappel to the snow (look for a blue cord), and the rains hit just as we were packing the rope. It was a fast but wet trip out to the truck. Gear Notes: Rope, slings, set of hexes

Is that the crag that you can see straight ahead as you cross the Nicolum bridge at the start of the Coq heading north? I've always wondered if there were any routes up there....

There's a Japanese restaurant in Squamish called, fittingly, Sunrise Japanese Restaurant. It's on government road near mamquam road and is reportedly pretty good. I assume they have sushi, you can always call ahead....

I can't believe I forgot my pack cover!!

Cool! When you're gettin' hit with shitballs, you gotta get a shitbat...

D-oh.

Must one go all the way to the parking lot on the far side and come all the way back to their starting point to say they did the neve twice in a day? Or if I skied from elfin to glacier pikes, back to Opal cone, back to the pikes and then home via elfin can I say I did the neve four times in a day?

What's the two-pack? Garibaldi & Mamquam? The Chieften & Garf's?

People usually ski to the schrund on the NE face and boot it from there, but if the snow's good and you like the steeps, then take your skis up and give 'er! It's too steep to skin up, though. NE face is the best descent in my mind, it's a more continuous run than the E face. Plus more direct to the top.

Hiking will be OK if you keep them loose or in walk mode. They are good for climbing steep snow, pretty good on ice, and suck big ass on rock. If there isn't much rock (never been to Chair Peak), they'll be fine.

Usually. You might want an ice axe in addition to crampons given the hard snow conditions. It's best to camp on the neve below the NE face, climb it first thing in the am, come back and pack up camp, and head out the rubble creek trail.

The north face of Tremor is an excellent ski, not to be missed... Traversing to NW couloir or NW face of Fissle from Whirlwind/Fissle col is fairly easy, and gives a nice spicy finish to the trip, the snow should be real solid. You gotta like steeps, though.

C'mon Jordan, there's plenty of excitement out there:

"I have a family emergency/situation that I need to take care of today" Just act depressed and chances are that nobody will question you.

Downhill skiing with XC skis is way-rad, it makes you a much better alpine skier and takes a lot of skill, as opposed to, for example, snowboarding.

Serl's guide notes some ice down on the north side of the Mountain, me and some other SFU outdoor club dorks found it, but it never really formed in the 4 years I had class there....

The postholing won't be bad neither. Expect a lot of unconsolidated snow that has just been ranied on (ie dangerous). If it froze hard it would be great, but that doesn't look likely.....

Cool photo of a small avalanche on Sefrit

There are some nice lower angled areas in the trees near the artist point parking area....but the problem is that with this much snow, you need steep terrain or you'll likely just bog down. I'm going out for some trailbreaking exercise around Seymour this weekend - save the steeps for next weekend

Someone from Cache Creek owns a computer?!?

Blackcomb opens Saturday the 5th! Stoke!

I predict that monoboarding will make a comeback, but that the new monoboards will be shaped, so even gapers can monoboard with style