KaskadskyjKozak

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.

Trip: Primus Peak - Borealis Glacier Date: 7/7/2013 Trip Report: I recall looking over at Primus last year from the McAllister glacier as we approached Dorado Needle, and thought "damn that looks far from here". So, I did a little research and learned a little about the approach from Thunder Creek: rugged, steep, some route-finding shenanigans - my kind of trip. So I talked a few willing victims into this masochistic endeavor and we headed out early Saturday morning. We were surprised to find out we were obtaining the very last available permit for the Klawatti Zone and wondered if we'd actually see anyone else up there. Well, we'd find out. The hike to McAllister Camp went quickly and we found there was no creek to ford - there is a bridge to the camp, despite what some TRs had said. And a good thing too as the creek is full and flowing fast with no logs spanning it anywhere in sight. Thunder Creek near McAllister Camp: We noted the ridge we wished to ascend and proceeded into McAllister camp. The trail was trivial to find - just follow way trails through campsites, bearing up and torwards the ridge and you will be on the climber's path. We soon hit the first steep, cliffy section. It was a lot less than I expected with just few steep steps involving veggie belays with some exposure. The trail continued from here up and up until about 4000 feet where we hit one more cliff band which you traverse under the left side then up and over the top of. At this point the trail becomes indistinct and hard to follow. We just stayed in the middle of the ridge and headed up. Eventually we hit trail again, then broke out into a nice sunny rock outcropping with views of the back side of Snowfield Peak. Breaking out: From here the trail becomes hard to follow again and brushy as it goes through forest for a few hundred feet, mostly flat. Eventually you break out into open heather slopes with an obvious climber's trail. We hit snow patches starting around 5000'. After a 1000 feet of this we hit the moraine below the lower Borealis Glacier and camp. We were surprised to find a couple there who were apparently just finishing the Inspiration Traverse. We camped below and away from them near some flowing water and pools below snow. It will not be there long. Views from camp here are absolutely amazing. One of the best camps I've stayed at by far rivalling even Ouzel Lake. Back side of Snowfield Peak as viewed from camp: Tricouni and Primus: We set off early in the morning (5), following the boot path from the couple who had arrived a day earlier. They were skirting the lake on the right. About 200 feet into the traverse I punched through and fell waist deep into the icy water. Booyah! Bring on the frozen gonads and sure-to-come ass-crack chaffage! I extricated myself from my bath, thought of Bear Grylls jumping into that stream on Iceland, and told my party we'd need to move until I got dry/warm - which we did. We opted for the right/late-season variation to the upper Borealis Glacier. The left variation looked to be a go, albeit a steep one, but we figured it best not to have any shenanigans get up there and go with the "sure thing". We traversed way right, then up and left to an elevation of maybe 7000 feet then did a rising traverse above the cliff bands and exposed ice. View of upper Borealis Glacier as we skirted to the right: View of the traverse on descent: We did not go all the way to Lucky Pass as snow made it possible to make a steeper, more direct line up. Pic of team on the steeper (40 degree top) section on the downclimb: We headed that way hitting just a couple or three rocky sections to scramble though before hitting the final summit area. The views from here were even better than I thought they'd be! Baker, Shuksan, etc: Eldorado Ice Cap area: Buckner, Forbidden, etc: KK summit stoke: The descent to camp went fine. The hike out was actually pretty exausting - mentally and physically. The 2 sections that were hard to follow going up were even harder going down and we did have a little bit of schwacking and route-finding shenanigans, but nothing major. It was opressively hot, and when we arrived at the cars at 9pm our beer in the coolers was warm and no restaurants were open. But it was well-worth it!

ah yes, the route that I doubt will ever be ... eluded again molodtsi, vy, dvoye gornykh maniakov :-)

All true. Plastics are overkill for volcanos in the summer and that's usually what rentals are. My first pair of climbing boots were Scarpa Mantas. Leather, not too expensive, and a bit on the heavy side. I never got blisters from them, and there was zero break-in required. None of the boots I've bought since then had any break-in come to think of it. But I do take a long time in the store trying on 2-3 sizes in 2-3 makes and narrowing down from there.

Pugh is totally mellow with a big payoff (views of Sloan in particular) If you are good with the drive, I'd say Observation Rock or Echo Rock (or both!) would be a good solo trip. OR is barely class 2 - bring crampons and ice axe and you'll be golden (I know rocketparotlet)

Pugh is totally mellow with a big payoff (views of Sloan in particular)

Kaleetan Cashmere Red Mountain Mt. Forgotten

My son (age 11) dropping onto the Muir Snowfield from Camp Muir yesterday. His first trip to Muir and first trip skiing out of bounds: I'm proud of him, but they grow too fast!

Forgo a joint and get up earlier. Climb Das Toof before the other f-ers then relax and celebrate :-)

I know I'm getting old when I realize AC/DC suck. The same three cords and screaming. AC/DC are awesome! And still crushing it. Love Tom Petty's stuff too!

Hardly a come back album. Of course it is. Their original singer died. Duh.