KaskadskyjKozak

Homo homini lupus Man is Wolf to Man Men feed on each other Claws rend flesh as the pack descends Yeah, the Walking Dead sure has gotten dark the past few episodes. ;-)

Nice! I was hoping to get some colors like this on Windy Peak this weekend, but nothing came close to what your camera captured (we got some nice larch views on the drive out from the TH only)

Agreed. Stopped there a couple times this year myself.

They may have been better 15 years ago, but the last two times I stopped (2-4 years ago?), it was no good at all.

Sweet! Thanks!

I still need to run back up there to get the summit myself... Nice work, kaskade!

"Good Food" was neither.

Thanks Rad I found the route to be pretty chill... nothing too spicy. But perhaps I'm just inured to it at this point. :-) It's a wild place though, and very beautiful back there!

Nope. Good guess though :-)

Trip: Horseshoe Peak - Standard Date: 9/7/2014 Trip Report: This weekend I enticed a few folks to tackle this remote, less-traveled peak. Interestingly enough, we were far from alone - a party of two that I am friends with hit Horseshoe and Buckner C2C the day we approached, and we encountered another party of 3 doing the same itinerary as an overnighter. We got to a crowded Ranger Station at 7:15 to secure our permits and drove to Cascade Pass TH tout de suite, anxious to make progress on this long approach. We set no speed records to Sahale Camp (~4 hours), took a water break, and then proceeded downwards along the impressive rock walls extending from camp to the E. Cascade Pass around 9 am: We stayed on rock as we traversed before crossing one short snow patch above a recently calved snow/ice block and then headed down class 3 rock. We stayed skiers left to avoid the potential objective hazard from these blocks and to keep the stream in sight. This proved to be a mistake as the going was slow and halfway down the waterfalls the terrain steepens dramatically and is no longer class 3. After some scouting around, I traversed sharply to skiers right and then angled downwards and right all the way to talus. From here we descended cement-like, bullet-proof dirt with embedded rocks to cross the stream at about 6700' and then went up a short steep slope to the top of the "hidden gully" leading down and into the upper Horseshoe basin. We crossed a small snowfield and then scouted around the slabs above us for a reasonable flat spot to camp. Within a few minutes we settled on a spot at about 6800 feet. Total approach was 9 hours with all the route finding shenanigans, but it was only 6:30 or so. We woke up before dawn and began our traverse around the basin. The first 1/2 or so of this was on a very nice easy ledge/slab system that went quickly. Once we hit talus the going became much slower and more tedious. We ascended dirt to the remnants of an old mine. We then continued up hill under Ripsaw Ridge, keeping right against the wall where the ridge meets the talus as much as possible. Pano looking back towards camp from the traverse: Early on we hit one snow patch, which was bullet proof and required crampons and careful footwork. At about 8000 feet the going became significantly worse as we crossed a few nasty drainages (dry). The very top of the ascent was the worst by far, once Lick of Flame came into sight. Just below and to the left of Lick of Flame: After a brief rest we began scrambling class 3 terrain trying to find a way to the base of the route which we could see. In fact a party of three was already topping out the route there. With some routefinding shenanigans we found ourselves at the base of the climb. I led first and placed 3 pieces of pro. The final move to the summit required some thought, but I was able to get a cam in right before and felt comfortable pulling the move free. I brought up my follower and then our other party members joined us on a 2nd rope. The views were spectacular! Buckner: The mighty Boston Glacier: Since we had two ropes we just did a double rope rappel which got us to the soft dirt in the gully just below the route. Rappeling next to the one and only technical pitch: View South: It was late (1:30) and we knew Buckner was not in the cards today. We retreated retracing our steps to camp. Two party members were feeling the effects of 2 long days (9 hour approach, 12 hour camp to camp summit day). With only 1.5 to 2 hours of daylight remaining to get through the nasty gully, bullet proof dirt slopes, and class 3 terrain by the waterfalls we all opted to spend an extra night out and beg forgiveness from our bosses post facto. We slept until 3:30 am and headed out. The weather was already worsening in the morning - cold, windy and cloudy, but no precip. We all acknowledged that we'd made the right choice as even fresh in the morning it took 6.5 hours to get to the cars. The ice in my cooler had melted completely but my beer was still cold. :-) Gear Notes: C4 #3 or .5, red tri-cam, small cam, long cordelette for anchor. Approach Notes: 99% snow-free (or at least you can avoid it)

The Kautz is a great moderate alpine ice climb later season. I highly recommend it.

Trip: Big and West Craggy - S Face and Traverse Date: 7/29/2014 Trip Report: I took my three boys backpacking with the intention of taking one or two up to tag some summits. In the end only my tried and true partner took me up on the offer for summit bids. Ironically he is the youngest of the three (age 12). We left town late in the morning on Sat, stopped at Mondos in Marblemount and got to Winthrop in the heat of the day. We checked a map of fire closures at the Winthrop Ranger Station and saw we would be fine and headed up to the Copper Glance Creek trailhead. Boots on the trail at 4 pm; at camp by 8. We had one routefinding issue in the off-trail section where we struggled with blowdowns and some brush. Our route-description from Summit Routes said to head off trail right around the creek crossing. On the way out we discovered the better place to leave the trail is at the small lake at 6200 feet. Meadows on the approach: Camp near sunset: Morning reflection on lake by camp: Anyhow, we got to bed at dark and got up before 6 am. The climb of N Craggy went well, with us on the summit at 9 am. Magnificent Isabella Ridge: Scree and talus slopes on the S face of W Craggy: We enjoyed the views and began the traverse to W Craggy. Getting to the col was fine, but from here we ended up dropping too low to get below cliff bands (as per Summit Routes). The col at the base of Big Craggy's W ridge: We traversed, dropped elevation, etc, until we gave up and just dropped to 6750 and got on the standard approach from camp. In the basin below Isabella Ridge, we picked a wide gully and then traversed left at 7600 feet before ascending a final, wide, upper gully to the ridge. From here the hike to the summit was straightforward. View of N Craggy from W Craggy: We avoided the flying, stinging insects on the summit by sitting down a few feet away. Beware of stinging, winged insects! The hike out to camp and to the cars went uneventfully, but the day ended up being quite long (13+ hours) My son negotiating steep scree on the descent from W Craggy:

TFPU. I'm hoping to get my boys up this soon. We did Abernathy C2C weekend before last.

LOL!

I need to get back there. TFPU!

Thanks for the update Mr. Sunshine!

Trip: Klawatti, Austera, Primus - Inspiration-McAllister-Klawatti Traverse Date: 7/4/2014 - 7/6/2014 Trip Report: One thing I have learned in the past few years of climbing is not to let opportunities go by - both in terms of weather and motivated partners. Carpe diem, motherfucker! So I ate a lot and rehydrated after Little Tahoma on Wed and Thu morning, then packed my stuff and met one of my partners in Bellevue at 2 pm to head up to Marblemount and get a permit for the Klawatti zone. We knew other folks were headed up there and with it being 4th of July and all, wanted to ensure we could get out on our objective. We camped at Mineral Creek and got up at 4 am, had breakfast, drove up to the Eldorado TH and were off at 5:45. We made quick work of the familiar trail up to the boulder field, and continued to the waterfall where snow was still lingering. From here the rest of the approach was mostly snow, save the gully down below the base of the Eldorado glacier. We continued up to the E ridge of Eldorado, took a rest break, then roped up and traversed the Inspiration glacier to Klawatti col, arriving in camp just after 3 pm. Approaching Klawatti col: Klawatti: We set up camp, and, noticing the weather was changing from perfect blue-bird to ominous-looking weather opted to scout for a route up Klawatti. Yes we were tired, but, as I said before, carpe diem, motherfucker! We had met a party on the way in that said the standard route was a no-go, so we followed some beta we had from a previous year looking for a short pitch above the moderate snow ramp (45 degree) near camp (around the corner on the south), and found something promising. My partner, SA, led up a mid-length pitch to a nice ledge and set up a fixed line. My other two partners and I prusiked up (last on belay). I then started up looking for a scramble route to the summit with my partners just below. I mostly stayed on the ridge line (SW?) sometimes crossing right, sometimes left. The rock was quite loose and fractured... and shitty. It was mostly class 3 with some exposure. Eventually I got to class 2 terrain and a tedious boulder hop ensued to the summit. No register was found, and it began to sprinkle so we high-fived and headed down. We retraced our steps and rappeled the initial pitch and downclimbed the moderate snow. We boiled dinners and started melting water when the rain really started to kick in, soaking us all. We set our alarms hoping the best, but it rained most of the night and past our wake up time of 4 am. About an hour later the rain stopped and we crawled out and roped up. We left camp at 6:40 and headed for Austera. The skies looked significantly better and the weather improved as the morning went on. Carpe diem, motherfucker! We got to Austera's ridge quickly with just one obstacle - a short, mildly exposed downclimb onto the Klawatti glacier over a small moat against the rock ridge separating the Klawatti from McAllister glaciers. Notch downclimb from afar: Notch downclimb close-up. I'm on the left: We met two other parties at the summit ridge - so a total of 10 folks all hit Austera at the same time. However 3 folks opted to just hang out on the ridge, and the remainder of us tackled the final scramble/pitch via two routes. A party of 2 climbed the chock stone and let one of our team members prusik their line. I led up around the right side of the false summit (facing Primus), downclimbed 4-6 feet onto a snow ramp, crossed to the base of the summit block and made some easy moves to the summit. I set up a fixed line and my other two partners prusiked up alone with one party member from another team. We quickly cleared the summit doing one rappel down the chockstone pitch, with the party of 2 going first. 7 people got up and out of there pretty damn quickly - much quicker than I expected! Me preparing to lead. My partner, SA, on the right. Yes I have an excessive rack - it was intended for Dorado Needle and I just had it in my pack: Crowded Austera summit (photo courtesy CBarmon): KK rappeling down the chockstone (photo courtesy DMotes): At this point everyone but me wanted to continue on to Primus. I climbed it last year via the Borealis Glacier, so I bid adieu and solo'd the glacier and short scramble back to camp, where I drank water, baked in the sun and ate dinner. My party returned by about 5 pm and by then the weather had turned foul again. We melted water and prep'd for day 3 and it's objective: Dorado Needle. We crashed at about 8 and set alarms for 4. The rain never let up all night, and we slept in until 7 or 7:30. By this time precip was more of a mist and we were in a white-out. We hemmed and hawed about whether to make a go of it towards Dorado in case things improve en route, but in the end decided to count our blessings on getting three summits already (two for me), and headed back to the cars. The hike out was uneventful and quite easy. Gear Notes: Standard glacier travel gear; minimal alpine rack for the pitches on Klawatti and Austera. Approach Notes: Boulder field melted to the first waterfall.

Jason, there were gnarly cornices everywhere. I'm not sure the conditions were so usual this year...

Trip: Little Tahoma - Frying Pan/Whitman Glaciers Date: 7/1/2014 Trip Report: Little T is another peak I've had on my tick list for years but never attempted. It's been on the calendar, yeah, but always canceled for one reason or another. I have this week off from work so I decided to go for it with a great weather window that opened up and found some friends to join me. We made quick work of the hike to Summerland (2 hours). Lingering avy debris made for a quick hike up a stream bed instead of the usual switchbacks up to Summerland. However, on the way out the snow was noticably melted and this way up will not be really viable soon. Luxury accommodations! From Summerland we traversed too much than we needed but still got to the top of Meany Crest in 4+ hours. The bivy sites are all melted out. No running water. We woke up just befor 2 am and headed out onto the Frying Pan glacier. Alpine start: With the freezing level rising from 7K to 14K I was worried we'd have soft snow the whole way, but thanks to a very windy night and clear skies, we got perfect cramponing across the glacier to the notch before sunrise. As the day went out the snow did soften but we had to contend with it really only on the descent. The Whitman is still in good shape but crevasses are opening, including a large on up high. It will be in a while longer. Approaching the notch between Little T and Whitman Crest: Traversing from the notch across the Whitman Glacier: Great shot of Rainier from the Whitman: We had some routefinding shenanigans on the choss pile summit block. Basically we traversed left and up a lot before finding an obvious way up to the notch. From there I led out and set a fixed line for my partners. Steep snow transition to summit block (pic taken on descent): Shot from summit back to notch: Summit selfie: Summit p0rn: For the descent we rappeled from the base of the gully across the top of the steep snow. We had good plunging stepping down the Whitman Glacier, but the top layer of snow was sloughing off and entraining and we set off one microslide (2 inches deep maybe 10 feet wide). The Frying Pan glacier was easy to traverse with no postholing. Gear Notes: a couple runners, 1 nut and 1 cam for belaying to the summit. Approach Notes: Snow free until after the stream crossing. Snow approach from Summerland to Meany Crest.

Hey, Sobo... What time is it???

Trip: Clark Mountain - Walrus Glacier Date: 6/21/2014 Trip Report: I've never attempted Clark. I've had it on the calendar and bailed from the couch a couple times due to weather forecast. Finally, it happened. The plan was to hit Clark and Luahna in a 3 day trip. The approach went fine...the 10 miles and 4000 foot gain was not bad. Even the infamous Clark skeeters seemed overstated (bad in first 4 or 5 miles only). However 15 min out of camp at Boulder Pass we encountered unexpected shenanigans with steep downcliiming on bullet proof snow down from cornice remnants. Other salad-tossing shenanigans were encountered near the not-guite-melted-out summit block. Once we summitted and obtained an adequate vantage of the Richardson glacier and Luahna approach, we opted to bask in the sun for an extended break and return to camp early to relax and crash. A few pics from the climb. Usually I have to wait for a summit pic for summit p0rn: Walrus money shot. Coo-coo-ca-choo: Summit ridge: Team "ST" on the summit: Shot back up ridge on descent: Gear Notes: Standard. Approach Notes: No snow until around the creek crossing.

Yeah, some of our group had mountaineering boots only and it looked more dicey that way for sure (but they were on TR)

Trip: Big Snagtooth - Standard Date: 5/24/2014 Trip Report: Some friends and I climbed Big Snagtooth on Saturday as a consolation prize for Logan, which we backed out of due to weather concerns. We had great weather at WA pass and a wonderful time on this route off the beaten path. Some pics follow. We encountered no difficulties beyond some tedious postholing at the very end coming out and up to the highway. A suitable log crossing we found across the turgid waters of Early Winters Creek: A great day to be in the mountains! Some streams were encountered and crossed: Ascending moderate snow towards the final, longish ridge. Looking up towards Snagtooth Ridge: Nearing the summit block: I led the final moves to the summit. My partner spotted me while I made the awkward moves off the deck: Gear Notes: 2 small cams, 2 mid sized cams for the short class 4 pitch onto the summit block. The final summit block is unprotectable. Approach Notes: Patchy snow from close to the road, lots of postholing, with too much dirt to really ski. Snow is melting fast!

My friend climbed NBC on Colchuck and said the conditions were perfect. Go for it!

I have a wake every day