pup_on_the_mountain

Here it is:

That makes sense.. good to have "access" to several pairs.

Schweeeet!!! I see that you're still a proud owner of three (or four?) pairs of ice tools .

Great read!! Thanks for sharing.

I know a guy who slipped on some ice at the entrance to the couloir and slid down for ~40 ft. He arrested well before pulling his partner out. He didn't really get hurt, except for a small strain in his ankle. They went on to finish the route after the fall as well .

There was not much ice to climb any ways. I was going to say that otherwise the route should still be in the same (climbable) "shape" into the weekend, but the forecasts are calling for snow in the Pass today and tomorrow. Not sure if that'll change things.

Rapping down the NE Slab was not bad at all. We just rapped from tree to tree. In fact, someone had already set up most of the anchors. We backed them up for the first two (heavy) guys to go down. We sacrificed one oval biner for the last rap. It was the first time up the route for all of us, and it looked like the ridge pitches would create a lot of rope drag. We had observed the NE Slab route on the way up and thought we should be able to use the trees without much issues.

Climb: Tooth-NE Slab Date of Climb: 2/19/2006 Trip Report: On Sunday, Tom Hemm, Sergio, and I tried the NE Slab on Tooth. WE started a little late (8 am from parking lot). There was hardly any ice on the route. We placed 3 screws in total all in one place for the anchor at the top of pitch 1. It was mostly thin crust over powder on steep terrain (>= 55-60 degrees consistently for the first two pitches with sections of 70-75 degrees). The crux section was pitch 2, which would've been a solid WI3 if there were any ice. As such, we could not get any piece of pro in that pitch, and ran it out till we reached the tree above. About every third pick was good . We had two bad cluster fucks, and wasted quite some time undoing them. We got to the ridge and did two pitches (got to the col which Nelson talks about), and realized that we still had three more pitches to go, and it was already 4 pm. So, we decided to bail, and rapped the way we came up. It was one short rap followed by four full (douple rope) raps to get to the snowslope which we downclimbed. We had our headlamps out for the last rap. Another team of two started up the route after us, but bailed after the first pitch. Overall, it was a fun trip. Pro was marginal to non-existent in the first two pitches, and no ice to tell your momma about. It was a bad day for batteries. Both my camera battery and my car battery died. Sergio might want to post some pics. Gear Notes: 1 picket 3 screws (used all of them at one place) 2 angles a few small cams (upto 1 in) double ropes two tools Approach Notes: No need for floatation.

There is a guy named Al Hodgdon in Pullman. He's 64 or 65 years old, and in great climbing shape (he runs ~35 miles every week to keep fit, apart from the climbing trips). He has climbed all over the place here, and has done some 13 different routes on Rainier. We were talking about doing Rainier last year, but didn't come around to it. I'm pretty sure he'll be up for Kautz or some other less crowded route this year, but not sure how he'll take the whole documentary thing .

Work sucks .

Here are some more pictures: View of Argonaut with a shade of a rainbow: Dan leading a snow/rock pitch to exit the NE couloir: Me drytooling on to the summit: Ryan starting his ski descent: Ryan skiing past Dan, who's climbing down facing the snow: More turns:

Awesome job Chad!

Great TR Ryan! Dan and I made two double rope raps down the South side. We found a decent horn off the snow field, and then a strong enough bush for the second anchor. We were still short by about 50' from safer terrain, but couldn't find anything to rap off. Dan cleared out more than a feet of snow to find ice, but it was not thick enough to make a V-thread. So we downclimbed that portion, which included an interesting step of what I thought was thin WI2 (about 10 ft long). We then walked over the East ridge that connects Argonaut and Colchuck. On our way up, we had noticed a couloir coming off from right in the middle of the ridge. It was not easy to spot that when looking from above though. There were some cornices jutting over the edge and we had to be careful not to go too far looking for the descent couloir. After wandering a bit, Dan climbed up to a vantage point on the ridge and spotted the exit to the couloir. This couloir was still in the shade and hence the crust was decently hard at places. It was only around 35 degrees steep, and we plunged our way down to meet Ryan at the bottom of the couloir. We thought we heard some voices on Sunday afternoon when we were packing out (at around 2:30 pm). Dan shouted a big Howdy, but didn't get any response. I was pretty beat by the end of the day. It took me more than two hours to walk out the road from the trailhead, and 2 Red Bulls, 1 180, 1 Monster, and 1 cup of coffee to drive back home . PS: I'll post some pics later this evening. Patience you must have .

Got the grey one for 6 bucks from a gas station.

We're bailing. Tomorrow doesn't look anywhere near decent. Will be in the couch tomorrow .

Thanks for your concern guys. I've been watching the avy conditions. We are most probably going to wallow up just to spend the night somewhere safe up there and not climb anything. Just want to get out of the couch.

Heading in tomorrow to Colchuck lake. Will see what the conditions are like, and what route looks good, and take it from there. Original idea is to try NE Couloir on Colchuck.

Work sucks

SummitHaus is the outdoor store in Ashford (just outside the West side entrance). This store rents equipment for the clients of RMI. They rent all gear (including plastic boots). Looks like they changed the name/ownership of the store recently though - whittakermountaineering.com.

You might want to try SummitPost. Their CA board sees lot more traffic than the PNW one. Apparently, there are (at least) 50 people in San Diego who're on SP and are looking for partners - link .

Maggi 2-minute Ramen is quite popular in India. The Indian grocery store in Redmond should carry it (I know that they carry several Maggi products including sauces and ketchups, but I've not looked specifically for the Ramen whenever I was there).

I have the Timex Helix watch. I got it from Campmor for $50 a couple of years back. It has been running pretty good so far, but I have not tested it for below zero altitudes.

That was indeed my try at a 'Heinrich double-whine line' as I've heard from you .

A buddy of mine and I tried approaching Chair Peak today (had ideas of trying the NE Butt or NF). Tons of soft snow low down. We were breaking trail pretty much from the parking lot. After struggling for about 2.5 hours, we gained a paltry 700 ft of elevation . I wish I had the extenders for my MSR Denali snowshoes. As such, I was sinking till my knees most of the time, even when I tried following the snowshoe tracks of my friend. We gave up promptly, and settled for a morning beer before driving back home. The snow was deep and soft, but at least I was sinking till my waist regularly . Driving your car for eight hours and taking your gear for a couple of hours of snowswim could only be classified as stupid alpine training . PS: It was not snowing much at all when we were there. The snow did not show any signs of instability either (as far as we went). So, maybe some brave soul could use our tracks to lighten their workload tomorrow.