skeletor

So, newbie question here: I've always heard that if you want to climb alpine ice, better to go with more of a traditional, straighter shaft, and if you want to climb waterfall ice, go with the newer curved shafts. Is that still true? I'm interested in ice climbing in order to expand the types of mountains and routes i can climb, say something like North face of Hood or triple couloirs on Dragontail... what sort of tools would you guys recommend?

I've been driving my SUV for 8 years and this stuff is still under ice? geez, I feel betrayed....

Another option would be to go for a true AT set-up, and then get a pair of beat-up skis for times you want to approach in your climbing boots. Skiing in climbing boots ain't going to be that grand anyway, no need for a high-end ski...

I'm in for one print as well.

wow! That's super! I wonder if you would make a larger image available to folks who wanted it... Larger than what's behind the link, I mean..

up now, act fast...

You may want to check on access before heading out there. Looks like there are few fires in the region. http://alpineinstitute.blogspot.com/2009/07/lightning-storms-ignite-more-fires-on.html

Heading up there for the first time in two weeks. Can somebody tell me a bit more about the summit pinnacle? Just a scramble or pro needed? Rap off or downclimb?

Bulletin ran a story about it today. About that ring around Black Butte: Experts say... Weather may be cause of rare phenomenon known as ‘red belt’ By Kate Ramsayer / The Bulletin Published: May 29. 2009 4:00AM PST Something a little odd has appeared on the slopes of Black Butte and a few of its neighbors. Midway up the butte west of Sisters, a distinct stripe of rust-colored trees has appeared between the evergreen pines. While it might look like some deadly tree disease swept through a swath of forest, the trees aren’t dead — instead, it’s just the needles that have shriveled up and turned rusty. The likely culprit is a combination of weather events — including temperature, sunlight and wind — but foresters are still trying to pin down what exactly happened. “We’re still trying to piece it together,” said Stephen Fitzgerald, forester with the Oregon State Extension Service in Redmond. The stripe of rust-colored trees on Black Butte, between 4,400 feet and 4,600 feet in elevation, is called a “red belt,” he said, a rare phenomenon in Central Oregon. But this year, Forest Service silviculturist Brian Tandy has spotted a belt across Black Crater in the Three Sisters Wilderness, as well as Green Ridge in the Metolius River Basin. All have the same characteristic swath of rust-colored pines, which is caused when needles lose moisture and dry up. That can happen when the roots of a tree stay frozen in cold soil while its needles thaw. They thaw when they’re exposed to warmer temperatures, direct sunlight and the right winds, and then come out of their winter dormancy and start cranking up the plant’s energy-producing machinery. During one step of that process, needles release moisture through microscopic holes. Normally, the lost moisture is replenished by water the tree takes in through its roots, Fitzgerald said. But when the roots are frozen, the water stops flowing, and the needles’ water supply is shut off. “The needles would desiccate or dry out,” he said. That doesn’t mean the tree itself has died, however, Tandy said. While some of the trees on Black Butte might look pretty bad, some of the needles are still green and can still photo-synthesize to churn out the energy needed to support the tree. And the buds on the tree are still alive and green, so in a while, Tandy said, the dead needles will simply fall off, and new green ones will replace them. “It could take a year or two for it to sort of fade away,” he said. The question that still puzzles foresters, Tandy said, is what caused the red belt in the first place. “It’s hard to know what actually caused it,” he said. “To me, it feels like it might be more associated with an inversion.” An inversion — a weather event in which cold air is trapped below a layer of warm air — could have caused the needles to come out of dormancy at a certain elevation, he said. An inversion before Christmas could have done the trick, he said, causing the trees to start turning to the rust color in January. Jack Barringer, a retired forester who lives in Black Butte Ranch, did a little sleuthing of his own to try to find the red belt’s cause. He searched weather records from Sisters and the Hoodoo ski area to look for inversions, and went online to check the precise angles at which the sun’s rays hit Black Butte’s slope throughout the winter. His candidate is an inversion that occurred during the middle of January, he said, bringing a fog bank over the bottom of Black Butte. Temperatures under the fog bank were cool, but above it the air was warmer than usual, he said. And the sun’s rays could have bounced off the top of the fog, heating the air surrounding ponderosa needles even more, he said. Barringer attributes the band’s sharp upper edge to snow and ice that perhaps clung to needles above a certain elevation, preventing the needles from warming up. “It’s just a rare occasion; the weather has to be just right,” Barringer said. And it doesn’t often happen in Central Oregon. Forest Service employees who have worked in the area for about 40 years have only seen red belts a couple of times, Tandy said, adding that he’s only seen it once before. It takes more than just an inversion, he noted. “We have inversions all the time, and nothing like that happens,” Tandy said. Instead, he said, it has to be a combination of events like an inversion, strong sunlight and maybe winds that blow across the needles, drying them out even more, “like the perfect storm.”

Leisurely approach? You realize it's 18 miles in...

Hey, Steve did you go up on Monday? I'd be interested in hearing about access and conditions...

I was coming down on Saturday, probably about 9:00 a.m., when I came across it.

Leora-- I saw your ice tool. Coming down the south side, I saw it sticking up in the snow about 300 feet above the Palmer lift. I sat there for 15 minutes debating whether to take and post here, or to leave it in hopes that the person who left it was still coming down. I obviously made the wrong call... Really sorry. Hope it finds its way back to you...

I'd encourage anybody in the area to visit the memorial. I've been twice, once during a tourist stop in Talkeetna and once before climbing Denali. Not only is it extremely moving, i think it helps climbers gain perspective on what they're doing. You just take things a little more seriously after seeing that list. There's also a lot of famous graves there of bush pilots and climbing legends.

I went sans ice axe and didn't feel I needed it. Not much exposure in the areas covered with snow. I may have glissaded down a bit further had I had one with me, but otherwise no need. There definitely is not a boot track to follow. parts of the trail are clear, but other parts are snow-covered. As some points, you just have to hike cross country towards the ridge, and then follow your footsteps back to the trail on the way down.

I was just up there yesterday. You can drive all the way to Strawberry Campground. Intermittant snow from Strawberry Lake to the summit.

Hey, Gabe! Did you ever make it to Stuart? Wondering what conditions were like?

I suppose I should post this on the Newbie section, but congrats to Gaper Timmay and Gaper Becky who delivered the next great backcountry skier last night, Kaydee came in at 7lb 4oz, 19 3/4 inches long So if anybody's got an AT set-up with skis about 30 cm, please post in the yard sale forum

Weather looks good for the next 5 days or so. Highs in the 50s, sunny, not much precip forecast. Lows below freezing. Bring a winter bag. There's snow on the peaks, if you're planning on summitting, but if you're just out for a nice walk/camp, you might not encounter too much. As for next week? Who knows? You can check www.tripcheck.org for road closures, and they have some web cams that will show you outside conditions at various passes. Enjoy!

Not sure I can answer all your questions, but here's a few thoughts -I think most people go North to South, Pole Creek TH is probably the easiest approach for North and Middle -NW Forest Pass covers parking at the TH, fill out a backcountry permit at the TH -Not sure about camping locations, but I think you can pretty much camp anywhere. Might be some standard regs about distance from the trail etc. There are some designated camping areas in the wilderness but not sure what your itinerary is... -Note that we've already had a lot of snow in the mountains, depending on how weather holds up, might make traverse to North Sister a little more difficult, as well as add time for the entire route you described...

There's snow on the mountain now...

Link be broke.

I'm in. I'll wear climber garb too...

I came by around 7:15 and couldn't find anybody. But would be up for another try...

Try REI. They keep them right behind the Toblerone...