MCash

5.8 - SW Buttress of SEWS 5.7 - North Face of Concord Tower (direct variation) 5.6 - Beckey Route on Liberty Bell 5.4 - South Arete of SEWS

The top of the Cascadian still has some snow. There are still quite a few steep snowpaths on the West Ridge to be crossed. We saw a party of three coming up on Sunday from the North Ridge.

Tooth/Chair Traverse. Was planning on soloing the 5.8 splitters.

http://www.mountainwerks.org/cma/2005/colchuckb.htm Nice TR on your site! That does sound like an adventure. I especially liked the last photo showing the route with annotations.

TMG is a good outfit. I would suggest one of their 3 or 5 day cources which includes a Hood ascent. Good instruction at reasonable prices.

So how hard is the NW Buttress to downclimb? Raps?

Madrock is stickier than 5.10!!!

stickiest rubber? Welcome to marketing...uhhh gee, i fell off my latest proj cuz my shoe rubber just wasn't up to snuff... I have compared Madrocks to my Anasazis on technical slab, and the Madrocks were significantly better. My statement is based upon reality not marketing. Please tell me you've done the same, and aren't just guessing.

Madrocks still have the stickiest rubber around, so if you are looking for maximum slab grip, get Madrock not 5.10. FYI, the durability of the rubber is less.

Interesting. Make them better in what way? Increase the expansion ratio? Make the cable more durable? Change the shape of the ball to make them more effective in flared cracks or pin scars?

Not sure. It seams much easier to take the west fork of Mountaineer Creek up. Where is a good spot to bivi for the lower north ridge if approaching from the north? Are there good spots near the toe of the ridge or along Mountaineer Creek? Has anyone seen the condition of the Sherpa Glacier for downclimbing recently? Thanks.

Nice job, you were moving!

Nice. Did you reach the summit? I didn't see a log entry.

Thanks for the pics and beta. Where did you guys bivy on the descent?

Thanks. The rock on the ridge is very nice, but well featured making for nice scrambling with some good exposure in several areas. The bush along the creek is not that bad at all, I've been in much worse.

Climb: Sherpa Peak-Northeast Couloir to East Ridge Date of Climb: 6/19/2005 Trip Report: NYC007, bwr, and I left the Stuart Lake trailhead at about 7:00 enjoying the hike up to the junction in the cool morning air. We made our way past the second swamp and enjoyed the first view of our destination. Right where the trail started to gain elevation going up to Stuart Lake, we headed due south crossing the stream that drains from Stuart Lake. We stayed high in the boulderfields on the west side of the Mountaineer Creek drainage until forced down into the valley. Here we found a climbers path on the west side of Mountaineer Creek and proceded up the valley until we determined that we were in the wrong fork. After crossing a small buttress, we log hopped, scrambled through boulderfields, and bushwacked through vines and slide alder up the middle fork of Mountaineer Creek. Klenke Terrain! Shortly thereafter we arrived in the basin below the Northeast Face of Sherpa Peak. The western spire (main summit) of Argonaut looked inviting, no of us had ever seen it from this direction. From here we checked out the route and looked at descent options. If the Northeast Couloir was too difficult to downclimb, we decided we would traverse to the Sherpa / Arognaut col, then downclimb the mellow snowfield back into the basin. The approach up to the entrance of the couloir was about 1,000 feet of lovely scree, rocks, and gravel following a big avalanche path. Gotta love climbing in the Chosscades! We scrambled up to the entrance to the couloir and put on crampons. All of a sudden we heard a rumbling. Here comes several large rocks flying down the couloir. Thankfully the rocks followed a notched out path down the middle of the couloir diverting the rocks away from us. We looked at each other having second thoughts about this route. After some discussion, we decided to continue, but stay out of the central debris chute that had formed. The climbing in the couloir looked easy from below but the warm temperatures made the going slow and strenuous. I kicked in steps for Matt and Bruce up the snow finding irritating sections of slush that would give way under my weight. About 150 foot up we had to go through a thin mixed section which was mildy interesting in crampons and 1 axe. The couloir was about 1,000 foot long with an average slope of 45 degrees with a few steeper sections. The wallowing was quite strenuous and took a lot of energy out of our group. We finally arrived at the notch on the East Ridge. Bruce and Matt were tired and it was already 2:15, so they decided to head down. I was going for the summit, and would meet them down in the basin. I looked up at the East Ridge route and could see the balanced rock. It didn't look too far, the start looked quite straightforward. The route description said 4th and 5th class to 5.0, it sounded pretty easy. I scrambled up the start of the ridge finding easy terrain. About 1/3 the way up it steepened and the rock improved. I scrambled up a 4th class chimney with rap slings, then up another harder chimney with a couple single moves to mid 5th. After passing through a tunnel I traversed the north side of the summit ridge crest and scrambled up to the summit. I was the first one to sign the register this year. The balanced rock looked really fun, but not something I felt comfortable trying to solo (especially the downclimb). That will have to wait for another time. Views from the summit were nice, but I saw a thunderstorm approaching, so I took a couple photos and headed down. I raced down the ridge trying to beat the rain. Getting down the couloir was a royal pain, as we suspected. Pretty much the only option was to back down in the slushy snow. The hike out was faily uneventful, though we were all pretty tired for the last couple of miles on a 14 hour day. A fun route. The climbing is easy but it is a lot of ground to cover in 1 day. We all had a nice time and enjoyed the variety of terrain from a trail along a river to meandering through the woods, tons of log hopping, boulder hopping, bushwacking, moderate snow, and some nice granite. Gear Notes: Crampons Ice axe Rope (Did not use) Approach Notes: A wide variety

Nolse, I assume that you're talking about the North Ridge of Baron Tower, the largest rock feature in the Sawtooths. It sure does look nice. Do you have a topo of it?

I remember some feet and wide stemming at the top of Inca Roads. If you didn't use those, the vertical fingers section might seem harder than 5.9.

Agree with CBS, the routes on Amazonia Wall don't seem soft to me.

Some of the older Castle Rock climbs seem like good benchmarks. 5.4 - Saber and Midway 5.7 (Original Beckey Rating) - Angel Crack 5.9 - Crack of Doom

Why would you want to climb low angle choss like this, when you could play around sick 6' high pebbles like this.

The 6th pitch of Silent Running has a couple of old ones, but the rest are new hardware.

I just checked out a PDF of Whitelaw's guidebook. Thanks Matt. Man the third pitch of Silent Running and fourth pitch of Total Soul are really great.

Thanks. I haven't seen his guidebook. Where can you get a copy?

What is that route just right of Total Soul that joins it at the fourth pitch belay? How hard? What is that route just left of Silent Running? How hard? Thanks.