KaskadskyjKozak

Trip: Mox Peaks SE Spire (Hard Mox) - West Face (Beckey) Date: 8/6/2013 Trip Report: I had planned to climb Goode this Sat to Tue but my plans fell through. I had previously corresponded with my friend Andy B who was one summit short of completing the Bulger List about climbing Hard Mox, so I pinged him and he was available to climb Mon-Wed. I got the time off from work - game on! We approached on Monday per the usual and camped at the Depot-Redoubt Creek divide. Depot Creek Falls were flowing fast and furious, with lots of spray. Lake Ouzel is completely melted out and the outlet was a bit tricky to cross. Andy donned some rubber shoes he brought for camp and I chose to wade across barefoot. Drying off feet after crossing the outlet: Ascending slabs above Lake Ouzel: We started out from camp around 4 am on Tuesday. The first part of the traverse was entirely melted out and the talus was tedious to negotiate. Once we hit snow, it was a lot easier. The snow stopped short of the Col of the Wild by a few hundred feet, and more tedious talus and scree was in order. Looking back at the traverse from camp: The Col of the Wild in August conditions: Route-finding to the base of the final gully leading to the start of the route was straight-forward and pretty much exactly as Beckey describes. The snow finger was quite melted out and undercut so we rappelled it (60m). We were not sure how we'd get back up, but figured we'd do what we had to when the time came. We started up the rightmost gully around the rib below the snow finger and hit the class 4 terrain. Since we were not sure if we were on route or what was above we set up a belay. 20 feet higher, we knew all was well, and so we shortened the rope and simulsolo'd up the class 3 gully (loose) to the base of the route. The 10-foot step: Man what a place! Andy traverses the crumbly ledge: Checking out the snow finger: I led the first two pitches. You can't exactly zip up the route, but there is pro where you need it. I then gave Andy the honor of leading the third pitch to complete his final Bulger summit. As for rock quality: "doveryaj, no proveryaj" ("trust but verify"). We did 3 rappels back to the start of the route, downclimbed the top of the gully and then did 2 rappels to get past the class 4 section. Everything else went smoothly with one bit of trickiness at the snow finger. We camped a second night and hiked out early Wednesday. Andy prepares to rappel from the summit: Some shenanigans at the snow finger: We were the only souls on Hard Mox or at Lake Ouzel as far as we could tell, with the exception of a party of two that we spied ascending Easy Mox while we were summitting the SE Spire. View towards NW Spire from the summit of Hard Mox: Congratulations to Andy on this notable summit! And thanks for such a great trip! KK summit stoke: Andy celebrates on the summit: Gear Notes: 4-5 C4's .5 to #3, a few nuts, #1-2 Master Cams, pink and red tri-cams.

Like Torment and TFT?

it's not that bad! I find it's better up high to walk right along the wall on climber's right (Concord Tower) to avoid the loose crap that is the worst in the final couple hundred feet.

Trip: Maude - Circumnavigation and Return Date: 7/28/2013 Trip Report: KH, SG, and I planned to do the N Face of Maude this weekend. With the long stretch of warm temps I was worried the route might be melted out and not in shape - and some route descriptions I found warned about this after mid-July. But the weather was perfect, so we went for it. We hiked in to Leroy Basin on Saturday. Prior to the trip we read a few TR's that suggested the traverse from the 7 Finger Jack-Maude col could be sketchy so we opted for what seemed like the "no brainer" approach of camping at Upper Ice Lake and approaching from the East. After some bushwhacking and 2 or so miles farther in in the sun with full packs we later questioned our wisdom in making this choice. Leroy Basin: Talus on approach toward the SW ridge: We set our alarms for 3:30 am on Sunday and were moving by 4:15. We thought the way around the side side of the lake looked shorter and started up that way. However the lake outlet was below a cliffy section and we could not easily see a way over it. We reversed direction and headed back towards the SW ridge, ascended to 7600 feet and contoured that way to the obvious col leading to the N side of the mountain. SG taking a pic at sunrise: The col we traversed to (middle of pic): From a map it appeared we'd be travelling about 2 hours from camp to the base of the route. It ended up taking us 4. Our team was strong, and none of us thought we were moving slowly. By the time we got to the base of the route, the snow was softening, with an inch or two of sloughable snow over hard pack. We were surprised by how melted out the N face looked. It appeared we'd have to zig and zag a ton around rock islands, and possibly do a few gear adjustments (crampons on and off). With some discussion, we reluctantly bailed, hoping to at least tag Maude on the way out. Our view of the N face from where we turned around: The traverse back was also time-consuming. But we did get some nice views to look at. Upper Ice Lake looking very blue, with beautiful sparkles from the sun's reflection: Once under the SW ridge we scrambled talus to a steeper section and did some class 3 moves for a few hundred feet before getting to the endless talus slope that dominates the SW side of Maude. Talus Hell: We guessed there'd be a trail on the far left (climber's), but opted to just climb up and angle that way. Eventually we hit some boot paths and topped out just after noon. KK posing: Summit p0rn: We found no register up there, so we just ate and drank our last water before heading back to camp. The hike out was painful with full packs after our already long day. The cold IPAs were quite welcome at the TH. Approach Notes: BLACK FLIES

class 3? (I'm thinking of doing something like this with my 11-year-old)

Poor prole. He is simply surrounded by people too stupid to appreciate his wit and special sense of humor mocking those who suffer from medical conditions. If only more were like prole, the world would be a better place for us all - full of humor and good cheer!

Everyone: stop climbing at WA pass! You are ruining my own personal wilderness experience. Stay home so I can enjoy it all to myself!

I'm betting sobo's perv radar will pickup your avatar and draw him to post an update :-)

We need Gator back!

The bottom rappel on SEWS is definitely a bolted anchor now. The tree(s) used in the past will be spared. Most folks only do one other rappel above the chimney and I think that's still a tree. I have no idea who put it in.

Like.

Trip: Boston Peak - East Face Date: 7/20/2013 Trip Report: My friend CC and I have not climbed in years. We like to do long strenuous day climbs with a car camp. After some vacillating between objectives we settled on Boston Peak. AM and MT joined us. AM is a newb and MT a new trad leader. We car camped at the Boston Basin TH and got up at 3:30 am Saturday. It was warm even in the middle of the night, so we were glad to be moving in cool temps. The standard stream crossing into Boston Basin was not too bad at 6 am: View up BB in the morning: We took a rest stop and break to refill water at a rock island just below the Quien Sabe glacier, then roped up and headed up. The Quien Sabe in the morning: We bore left and crossed under the cliffs with Sharkfin Tower above us, crossed the flats, then headed up and right. Route-finding was straightforward with just a few open crevasses until the bergschrund. The schrund was open almost wall to wall with a huge collapsed snow bridge you must climb into and out of. Endrunning the bergschrund: We unroped at the Boston-Sahale col, dropped some gear and headed up the ridge towards Boston. I had been this way two years ago, so it was straightforward to get to the point you drop down. The ridge was as exposed and butt-clenching as I remembered it. KK and MT on the knife edge before the false summit: We got to the Boston glacier, put on pons again, and headed to the ledge going along the East Face. CC and MT headed up first with AM and I following. CC and MT swapped leads, and I rope-gunned AM. We did the route in 3 pitches with a final belay along the summit ridge for safety (it is exposed) but only one piece of pro. Despite the reputation of this peak, we had little trouble. Yes, there are pebbles and small rocks on every foothold/ledge, but we found very few big rocks or porta-holds, and avoided knocking anything substantial down on one another. CC leads up the first pitch: CC leads up the second pitch: Where's Waldo (AM)? View along the exposed summit ridge: The views on the summit were awesome, and the summit register was as impressive as advertised. We were the 2nd party to sign the register so far this year. A party of two came up right behind us though. CC and KK on the summit: Obligatory summit p0rn: We took longer than we had hoped to summit, so we did not linger too long there. It was also quite windy and chilly and some wispy clouds blew in after we had taken some good clear photos. MT coils a rope: CC on rappel: We descended the ridge in about half the time we ascended it. Apparently we had "acclimatized" after a day of exposure on friable rock. Some of us actually smiled: Originally we had toyed with the idea of going over Sahale and down the arm, however, it was late and we decided we wanted to get to the cars as fast as possible. So we retraced our steps down, foregoing Sahale. Our only concern going down was the stream crossing, so we opted to go straight to the high crossing on the flats at about 6000 feet. This proved a good choice, as the waters were raging. We got to the cars just after dark. Gear Notes: 60 m rope allows for 2 rappels. Small alpine rack up to 2". Approach Notes: Stream crossing into Boston Basin fine in the morning but much more serious late in the day.

WTF????

Will you be my friend, Porter?

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlq0lYB3iSM

Molodtsi! You guys kick ass!

People have a right to judgement. Sucks. We all do it. We even judge the people who have judgement. People also like to be contentious and bicker. Especially about shit that doesn't really affect them or matter. Spray is a perfect example.

trollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrollingtrolling

Gays have suffered enough. Heteros feel guilty about it and want to reserve the hell that is marriage all to themselves as an act of mercy.

Little Tahoma or the Tahoma Gl on Rainier?

Agreed! And thanks for your TR - I used that beta for planning! Any advice on Klawatti -- we are thinking of doing it in a week :-)

Haha, no, not me! I bet Oleg would need to elaborate more to clarify this ! tsyganochka moya, morganochka moya...

thanks off - and happy b-day! i got a lot of beta from a previous TR from this site. so thought i'd give back some

It was a Big Sky IPA. That helped offset the temperature.

Also, apologies to the two folks we camped by. In retrospect we were too close. We were tired and lazy and should have spent 5-10 minutes to go farther along the moraine.