OlegV

Hey Chris and Nate, you guys did hell of a job breaking a trail for us! Made our climb much more relaxed and safe. The traverse was nicely fixed - even though the snow there was mostly sliding mash. Big thank you!

Nice TR, Eric. Just want to mention again - thanks to Chriznitch and Nate for making guiding boot tracks. Every single step was solid. Especially on traverse.

A friend of mine just climbed Emmons this Monday-Tuesday. He said THREE people got hit by avalanche at Camp Muir. There are fatalities, not sure how many. Ironically, we planned to climb Nisqually the same very days but decided that all good routes are out because of the fresh snow.

OK, you got me, comrades! I am a secret service agent sent by Putin to track down any suspicious activities on Northwest. People climbing the mountains? Hmm.

Actually, we are climbing clones.

somebody tell me, what did I do wrong???

Donn, thank you for taking your time writting a great TR! Here is more pictures from our trip. Donn and Chad just over bergshrug Jeff soloing steep ground Chad climbing rock Leading into the mist...

Well, I share your optimism, Iain - people die on LR, but not because it is particular nasty. I can see how one can die on Gibbs Ledges in whiteout - by diving into the abys. LR attracts people from all over the world because some poet labeled it as "Rainier classic". My point is this self-inflating fucking hysteria over LR has no ground whatsoever. One should count relative statistics on various Rainier routes, and I bet it will be pretty similar.

Has anybody ever climbed LR on a Memorial Day weekend? I am concerned this place will be crowded, objective danger is higher than usual because of people dislodging rocks and there will be no camping at the Thumb Rock.

Today, I am, an old fool, decide to check out the Horsethief State Park. One thing, I didn’t take into account, Mazama drifts towards the sun, and likes it that way! I thought, it’s a funny shot with no comments.

To fully enjoy LR, you must climb it in bad weather...

Great job Eric and Josh! Did you take a good look at the NF? As you well put it, I am also at the terminal stage of SAD and would climb this sucker as long as there is some ice left.

I climbed it last November. HW was mostly crust over soft snow. Luckily, I came down safe - an hour later a big avi came down the HW. Keep it to the left on the HW - the upper burgshrug is much smaller there. Good luck! It is the most beautiful route on Hood.

Yo people, what I mean - "Smith Rock rocks!!!"

Thanks people! Smith rocks!!! Can't wait to go back.

I always thought that as a sport, rock climbing is a static and gear-dependent activity. Very few climb the rock without protection sometimes paying with their lives. I wouldn’t. My personal rock climbing experience is limited to several visits of New Hampshire, Gunks and a couple of climbs here in Cascades. I spent this weekend at Smith climbing with and learning from Pete and Dru. I was deeply impressed with a variety of routes and with people who climb them. Better said, this place struck me as the city of climbers - the city without boundaries. It felt like the entire Portland climbing community was there. Frankly, I prefer the solitude in the mountains, but this time I enjoyed the people and the rock. I don’t know why, but three of us skipped the required warm-up climb and jumped on 5.10c . I shortly discovered that the rock at Smith has lots of amazing features. It is simply solid. Thanks to those who polished these slabs with their hands and feet. I could trust my weight to every tinny protrusion on a face. The same afternoon, I led my first 5.9 pitch; minutes later - followed my first crack! Some of the cracks we did are amazingly difficult but fun to follow. The second day we luckily escape crowds and climb Spiderman. I loved its roof traverse that begs for a top belay. Shortly after, we followed a mixed line of crack and face climbing just to the left of Spiderman. It felt like 5.10 but was probably easier than that. In the end, I felt like I discovered a new home, a place to which you always want to return.

Great job, Eric! Nice pics.

Great job! 30-hour climb - can't beat this!!! Based on the last two reports, it sound like Stuart is in a bad shape now.

Congratulations, Clintoris! Nicely done! I am surprised you got some sunny weather out there.

...and we could've had more fun bivying on an open spot!

Thank you all!!! It was great meeting all of you guys! I was very impressed with Baker, it felt like we are in Himalayas - remote, cold and very "calm" environment. If something falls, it will be the size of a truck. We were so lucky with the route conditions. I was kind of wondering, what if the weather goes bad, there is no way one could make any progress or hide in this jumble of ice. Very impressive route! Esugi, you first have to downsize your pictures (mine are too small - 1 Mb medium quality JPEG), upload them to the Gallery, and than insert pics from your gallery into your TR.

Thanks, Chad. Great pictures, by the way! I downsized mine too much. The line you draw is probably more accurate. A section between ice cliffs and shitty traverse was kind of sketchy. It's been great climbing with you!!!

Climb: Coleman Headwall - 3-13-5 -Coleman Glacier Headwall Date of Climb: 3/13/2005 Trip Report: My first encounter of Mt. Baker was last summer when I spent three rainy days on a lower Coleman Glacier practicing ice climbing. The weather wasn’t that good, so we had to retreat without a summit. That’s why when Chad (vw4ever) called me and asked if I want to attempt Coleman Glacier Headwall, I was more than intrigued. Chad’s previous attempt of this route was unsuccessful because of various factors including difficult route finding. Two of us left Portland Friday morning and were at the trailhead late afternoon. Our plan was to hike up to the base of the headwall next day, spend a night on a glacier and climb a headwall Sunday morning. We spent the rest of the night in the back of the jeep (fondly named ‘Hotel Anderson’) eating, drinking and reading horrifying climbing stories in ‘Rock & Ice’ about climbers falling off El Cap or freezing to death (doesn’t add confidence). At 3 am three alarm clocks went off simultaneously. Quick snack and we were on our way to unknown. We encountered two more climbing parties heading up a trail, and with whom we had a visual contact for a little while. We loose any site of them as we cut across the Coleman Glacier aiming at the Roman nose. Even though the weather was clear and cold, the strong northeast wind started kicking in changing our light-minded intention to camp on an open glacier field. To move more efficiently, we didn’t take a tent and only carried bivy sacks and light 20-degree synthetic sleeping bags. By the time we neared the headwall, the wind became unbearable forcing us to crawl into a small nearby crevasse at 8500 ft. We liked this crack on a spot. A small, 15 ft long and 4 ft wide platform, confined on three sides by icy walls. We didn’t run stability test, even though that thing might have been a roof of something bigger. It will become our castle for the next two days that protects us from the wind and potential icefall. We spent the rest of the afternoon brewing hot drinks, chatting, napping and simply staring at damn beautiful glacier. Incredible feeling of solitude and inner piece! To draw a mental picture of our tomorrow route, we make a short unroped trip to the base of Roman nose. I noticed gigantic blocks of ice, one - size of a truck, resting on the left outskirt of a headwall. They projected off the scary-looking ice cliffs that will become our first real obstacles tomorrow morning. The mountain kept the silence (except for the wind) rewarding us with a spectacular sunset. We set an alarm for 2 am and crawled into our cocoons for a short unsettled rest. There were two different ways to climb this headwall – protected or unprotected. Both are equally dangerous, either because of a longer exposure to objective hazards or from the fall. We guessed that the route condition will vary and that our best bet is to simul-solo it. I heard the headwall doesn’t give you a second of break and a slope varies from 50 to 70 degrees (some books say vertical) for 2000 vertical ft. We roped up and headed down the glacier first losing and then gaining altitude. As we approached the steep part of the headwall (~8400 ft), we unroped and started moving up and left in a hope to find an easier passage through the ice cliffs. I was barely with Chad, who moved efficiently and restlessly. As we approached ice cliffs, I was struck by their dimension and complexity. We took our first break here sitting on the lip of the crevasse, snapped some pictures and moved on. Climbing across the ice cliff was relatively straightforward but steep. A lot of the route didn’t retain in my memory as it was a continuous zigzagging around crevasses, steep steps and cliffs. Often it was nothing but a guess game. I hope Chad will compliment my picture of the route with his memories as he was often in the lead. We began cutting across the slope to the right where, we thought, there was a clear passage through the schrund. You can see this part on the picture as a steep traverse under the rock band. This spot was particularly memorable because of bad ice conditions. We both felt the whole wall of ice was going to slide down. In general, the route varied from hard snow to sections of water ice requiring full swing - no sloppy movements here. Once we crossed the rock band, we got to the longest the most exposed part of the wall. Violent morning breeze started kicking amplifying the sense of insecurity. On the top of this pitch we hung on a screw for a minute, took the first daylight picture of the route and went for the final push. We completed Coleman Headwall in 4 hours returning to our camp in six. We named this day as “the perfect climb”. Bivy site View from crevasse Route First rest Second rest spot Summit - Chad Summit - Oleg Gear Notes: 2 ice tools 1 ice screw

Getting really itchy for Rainier. Any betas on current conditions on those icy routes?