Chriznitch

here's a couple late photographic entries, courtesy of Mr. Natro's camerawork... resized for those with special viewing needs See sweatinoutliquor's gallery for the full size images pre-climb bozos Chris on the approach to high camp leaving the 2nd belay view of traverse section from below awesome morning at Schurman, post-climb

nice work and cool pics! out of curiosity, how many entries are in that NS register now? It's been there for 13 months.

thanks guys

watched these two movies a while back--in older VHS format with both films on the same tape. Fairweather documents the Canadian first ascent by the team that included J. Wickwire and D. Jagersky. This was the trip where Jagersky and rope-mate fatally slipped on the descent. The 2nd movie Ascent is much shorter, dialogue free, and features 2 climbers doing a technical route on a cascade volcano. Anybody familiar with this film? What peak is it? Gotta be Adams, Rainier, or Baker? Either way, check it out if you can get your hands on a copy...

I just rolled the chaos up ptarmigan ridge. The bivy pad was okay for the first night, but the 2nd night was a little less comfortable Certainly worth the cost for the bells and whistles, but i'd recommend fitting it prebuy if possible

granite! i've heard rumors of people climbing the large face of the matterhorn

nice work! out of curiosity, how many entries are in that register now?

there is usually only one big crevasse to deal with on that route--"the 'shrund" pay attention to that and other crevasses that may be present on the upper palmer/whitewater (rare but can happen). also plan to see some rockfall that time of year as the "pearly gates" will be more like the "dirty choss gates"

you can get replacements issued here

hey Patrick, It's quite a haul from whiteriver to the ridge. I always thought the liberty ridge approach was brutal, let alone ptarmigan! Try your best to arrange a car shuttle from mowich lake--this approach is much easier. If not, plan an extra day or two to cross the many glaciers and ridges from whiteriver. however your descent will be cake!

well, sitting here on my butt, it's pretty easy for me to say go for one of the cleavers. These are rarely climbed and would offer a challenging adventure fit for the solo'er. Long approaches are important considerations/turnoffs, but you could earn bragging rights if you've got the energy to do one of these long hauls

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if you went through the process of getting a solo permit don't you at least have something in mind?

cool pics--much appreciated

awesome pics

the "East Face" is the classic...currently rated a 5.7 I believe after years as a 5.3 or so. Many opt for the east buttress as a less crowded option. There must be a dozen routes up the east side of the whitney group.

yeah...why was this gate put in a logical location?

way to execute a well-oiled plan! Nice work robert and girlz (root beer)

that's a purty place

few more pics... Nate on the approach nearing bivouac: working the lower portion of ridge with camp and lower Carbon Glacier in background: Little Tahoma:

nice work...what a weekend eh?

Climb: Rainier-Ptarmigan Ridge, 1934 variation Date of Climb: 5/27/2005-5/29/2005 Trip Report: as the rising sun lit up the route friday morning, Nate and I knew that we'd finally have our chance at the classic Ptarmigan Ridge. Although the temps were hot, the route looked good! This culmination of countless emails, airline ticket commitments, weather checks, and patience was finally going to pay off... We arrived at Mowich Lake early Friday and took a 3-hour nap. We set off after some brief gear decisions and a bad pep-talk from an armchair mountaineer about how dangerous the route is. From beautiful Spray Park we began breaking trail--this didn't stop until the summit of Liberty Cap. You LUCKY DOGS that followed us the next day! The bivy was awesome: We camped 100yds away from the standard camp--separated by a knife edge that we weren't interested in after the long approach. We got a pretty late start at 5:30am on Saturday and hit the route. It was in good shape--nice snow for kicking steps and good support. Little ice was found--only in the shade. We basically had 4 leads of about 600' each--using a running belay until the gear was gone. We took the 1934 variation which was incredible--traversing west (climbers' right) over the Mowich Face. The exit gully was crazy. The crux is only a 10' vertical step, but we found this obstacle verglassed and gathering a lot of the spindrift coming off the Liberty Cap Glacier. As you were instantly soaked, climbing these mixed moves was like trying to climb blind while submerged in ice water. Luckily it was only a short step! After reaching the upper glacier, things turned for the brutal. We broke trail slowly through 6-18" of soft snow. The final 1600' took 3.5 hours and wore us down good. As we arrived at the Liberty Cap summit some thunderheads were forming and clouds blew in. Eventually a white out was upon us. We didn't have the luxury of knowing that the forecast had actually improved. Luckily after a brief scare the winds kept up and blew the clouds away. All of a sudden the skies were clear again. Snapped a quick photo at the summit and followed the welcome boot track back down the Emmons Glacier to Camp Schurman where we crashed hard. This was the first sign of humans we'd seen since some tracks in Spray Park. An early start the next morning put us at White River in 3 hours. We cooked breakfast burritos and relaxed. Great trip--well worth the flight from AZ! Special thanks to Mel and Bella for being our support team and driving around the mountain Gear Notes: 4 pickets, ice screws, ice tool, ice axe, couple pieces of rock pro for gully, 60m half-rope, peanuts there's a fixed pin in the exit gully on the left Approach Notes: breaking trail was gnarly in the soft snow

definitely go for it. we did it last august and it was great. bring a couple ice screws and glacier gear for sure. camp hazard is pretty awesome and offers many bivy sites with rock windbreaks--and sometimes flowing water! don't camp too close to the ice cliff as it's falling lots that time of year in the afternoon--get an early start on summit day.

dude--good luck. go light.

good to see some smiling faces Cheers! (root beer)