KaskadskyjKozak

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.

Sabbath stopped putting out albums years ago... although it really was mostly JUST Iommi putting out those albums. Think mid-90's. I think of this more as a last shot to reunite before one of these guys croaks. they are overdue for this. And they sound good. Listen for Geezer's lines underneath the tracks... old school sabbath. I liked the last Rolling Stones album too... Bigger Bang. Almost every song on that is awesome. I'd rather be in a world with it then w/o. You are right about AIC and Soundgarten... I haven't even bought those albums.

that's a tall order, and not a realistic one. It's good, but they aren't what they used to be. That said, it's better than any of the uninspired Tony Martin albums they did, and better than Dehumanizer or Technical Ecstasy. Not sure how much farther I'd go than that.

I'm digging the first three songs the most. The last song Dear Father is pretty weak, and the rest are ok. I'm not sure about the 2nd disk in the deluxe set - are these leftovers? Iommi's tone reminds me more of Heaven and Hell than any of the classic Sabbath albums with Ozzy. Not that that is bad, but I would have loved to have them return to the grittier sounds of the 70's. Some of the songs remind me a little bit of the tone on Technical Ecstasy (if intentional, that is a weird choice as it is arguably their weakest album with Ozzy). The solos are definitely reminiscent of stuff from Heaven and Hell. The songs do seem a bit formulaic in mimicing some of the original classics - the song End of the Beginning reminds me at times of the song Black Sabbath (including an uptempo part following the slow and gloomy chromatic riffs) or "Under the Sun" from Vol 4. And then there are the bongos on Zeitgeist reminiscent of Planet Caravan. All in all I am liking the album. It's no flop, but not as good as say the reunion album from Van Halen.

WTF? they don't hurt my feet. they are heavy though (relatively speaking)

Molodets', devushka!!

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T-wFPFClLY

We got on the ridge right above the timbered slope on climber's right of the N couloir. It's the rocky area you see from way down low on the approach. We dropped onto snow at the minor col below the final rocky buttresss/false summit that blocks and is in between the col and the final summit block. In other words, we dropped onto snow at almost the last possible moment.

well said!

Thanks for the update!

Fixed the subject for y'all

It's just a long ass day. I suppose you could haul packs to 6400 feet (nice bivy spots) and then the NW ridge would be a lot more mellow. But as a one day, you do have the advantage of knocking out in reasonable time (10-14 hours C2C) FWIW the approach to the NW ridge is much better than the approach to the Mole.

"The walk down down was basically a 6-hour debate about whether it would be worth carrying skis all the way up the route, since walking down sucked. " Great TR!

Trip: Cannon - NW Ridge Date: 6/15/2013 Trip Report: With good weather on Saturday and iffy weather pretty much everywhere Sunday, I was inspired to do a long, mellow, non-technical scramble. I floated the idea to Gaucho Argentino who is currently on break from school. Having been on the couch, a mellow non-technical outing sounded appealing. We car-camped at the Colchuck Lake TH and headed up just after dawn to beat the heat and ensure a summit with a non-epic return. We made short work of the road, which is crazy overgrown in several places, and started up the burn-out disaster area. Gaucho embraces the suck just above the turnoff at the washout: Gaucho surveys the intervening obstacles between us and the summit ridge: We kind-of sort-of followed climber's trails and game trails up the ridge - intermittently losing one and finding another. Eventually we broke out on the glorious rock ridge with views of the North gully. View of the N gully option from the ridge at about 6400' In its current state, the gully did not appeal to us, so we headed right and up the NW ridge. As we got to the top of the burn line snow patches were encountered. They were bullet proof, and expecting mostly-melted rock on the summit ridge, we were not keen on multiple gear adjustments, so we made efforts to wind through dirt patches. This tactic eventually proved futile as continuous snow was encountered high up and crampons were mandated. Bullet-proof snow patches scattered amongst trees between 6900 and 7900 feet elevation: We topped out on the summit ridge at about 9:30. With a mile ridge walk we were stoked - this will take us what, one hour, one and half max? Well under the 6-8 hours in Smoot's guide book! Arriving at the summit ridge after 4 hours (7900'): Gaucho looks ahead along the ridge - "It's a long way to the top..." As it turned out, there were quite a few snow patches along the summit ridge and along its sides. They were still bullet proof. Much route-finding shenanigans ensued. Hoping to stay crampon-less we spent a lot of time yo-yo-ing, mostly below and climber's right of the ridge top. Somehow we burned 3 hours with this bullshit and still had a bit more to go to the summit. Where's Waldo? Looking back along most of the summit ridge: At this point we were running the top of the ridge and came to a final col before the last major obstacle between us and the final summit push. I did not see an obvious way straight up it, or to either side. Earlier we had considered abandoning the ridge for the snow above Coney Lake where a solitary boot path headed up a couloir. A brief burst of rage rose in me. Motherfucker. "We're doing the snow couloir" I stated angrily. I then scree surfed to the snow line, put on 'pons and hauled ass down and across the flat area below the couloir and started up it. Somehow I had energy for this part; Gaucho - not so much. Gaucho running out of steam: The snow in the couloir was firm and made for easy climbing. Above it, on Druid Plateau, it was soft and the postholing proved too tedious for my taste so I wandered to the right where some rocks and dirt were melted out. Ignoring the damage to my crampon points, I moved up this slope with as much enthusiasm as I could muster (meaning zero) - until all dirt and rock was exhausted. Finally! Approaching the summit block: I resigned myself to the postholing and moved up and left. This is truly the summit that never appears. Fucking-a. Finally, scrambling rock and trying not to get wedged in spaces between them on snow, I came to the block and spied a large angled rock. One of THOSE summits. Motherfucker. Crampons off. I go left - hmm smearing. I go right, a crack leads up high... still smearing. I return left and suck it up and scramble up to the precarious perch to admire views. Total time up? 8 hours from TH to summit. Ladybug invasion on summit block: Temple Ridge behind Druid Plateau: Sherpa, Stuart make a mountain p0rn appearance: After an hour on the summit, with some refueling, we headed down. Gaucho downclimbs the slope above Coney Lake: Cool looking rock on ridge facing the N couloir: The ridge traverse going back went a LOT quicker with us avoiding a repeat of shenanigans. Most of the once-bullet proof snow was now plenty soft - both along the ridge crest and on the forested slopes below it. Somehow we managed to follow game trails back the way we came and arrive at the washout. When the monotony became overwhelming, I put on Goat's Head Soup. Somehow "Dancing with Mr. D" and "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" seemed a propos. The pounding, stabbing pain in the lower extremities upon reaching the car was unbelievable. Fortunately I had Lagunitas IPA on ice in my cooler. This trip required a two-beer analgesic for recovery. Nelson thanked me and was especially grateful for this "mellow" and "non-technical" outing I had proposed for him off the couch and not in his best shape. Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, motivation. Approach Notes: Embrace the suck.

Feel your spirit rise with the breeze Feel your body falling to it's knees Sleeping wall of remorse Turns your body to a corpse Turns your body to a corpse Turns your body to a corpse Sleeping wall of remorse Turns your body to a corpse