KaskadskyjKozak

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

I'm hearing rumors of a lot of ice. Seems unusual at the beginning of June is all.

Are these conditions the normal/expected for this time of year? particularly the amount of ice? I'm a bit surprised by the variable conditions you encountered (and am hearing about subsequently/more recently)

This route is so much fun when the snow is melted out of that gully you start up - the best 3rd class scrambling anywhere. I highly recommend waiting until July-Aug for this one...

I'm not as far along as you. Have had too many turnarounds :-(

Skiing is legit. Snowboarding, OTOH... sickie

How many have you bagged now on the Bulger?

This could be just like livin' in paradise!!!!

You guys aren't doing anything wrong anyways, right? So it's ok!

Yeah, teach him to aid climb... ;-)

James - the folks those ropes belong to were in squamish this weekend. I will forward them your message. One rope was green if I recall.

anyone been up there recently? I'm curious what snow conditions are like there. I've hit a lot of soft snow and postholing hell in the past couple of weeks elsewhere

What a surprise!

Trip: Ingalls, North Peak - East Ridge Date: 6/5/2013 Trip Report: We climbed the East Ridge of Ingalls yesterday... and descended today. We had a late start, hot temps low, cold wind above, managed a summit bivy, and earned few style points. The Some pics below should suffice for beta on the current snow pack. Enjoy: MS hydrates on the warm mid-morning approach. Lots of snow on and around all three peaks: Scrambling up the chock stone gully: MM belays me mid-route: Summit P0rn: Rappelling the South Route in the morning: Gear Notes: C4 #4 for crux Approach Notes: Hot, start early.

Funny, I'd always assumed it was you, but thanks to my special moderator vision I can see you are indeed two separate ip addresses, and I doubt you'd hassle with the spoofing just to try and defeat my awesome powers. Clearly ALLCAPS is "some kind of monster"...

About 1 hour from the base of the E ridge of Eldo (the popular high camp) to the col by Dorado. You could easily combo the two by camping at Eldo, and walking over to the col by Dorado. The N side route is shorter (3 pitches IIRC). My guess is a small rack - lots o places with that info (summitpost.org, Selected Climbs in the N. Cascades)

soft snow with tons of postholing in that area as of yesterday

Snow was pretty cooked this weekend with horrendous postholing. We tried for NW Buttress but got thwarted by whiteout and very cold/windy conditions this morning. Bailed after hemming and hawing from about 7:30 am to 9 at the col at the base of the route. :-(

You just like him 'cos he's an Irishman with a very bad temper.

The reality for some of us is we can't climb anywhere nearly as much as we'd like, and don't have cool TR's to post, beta to share, etc. as often as we think about climbing. So, yeah, we drop into the site, get some fill of good stuff in the other forums, then head straight to spray to spend some junk-filled cycles we'd rather spend climbing, and talking about climbing. :-)

I will....however it is still raining from time to time today....so we have to drive out and see what happens. when you get back, post a trip report with pictures