sweatinoutliquor

I haven't had a look at it recently, but I would expect a long approach, and a relativly snow covered ascent up to the red saddle at the base of the summit pinnacle. This portion of the climb is straightforward, mostly featureless snowslopes. The traverse under the pinnacle will probably be in condition, but be wary of rock or icefall from above, especially with warming temps over the course of this week. I would want to be past that part before it really starts cooking in the afternoon sun. On the pinnacle I would expect rotton snow over rock, but otherwise relativly straightforward conditions. I personally prefer a rap off of the pinnacle (don't count on a solid anchor being in place yet), so make sure you have one of those rope thingys. When are you planning on heading over there? I have a feeling lot's is going to change up there (on the pinnacle) over the course of this week. Have you considered any other routes?

Sick. Shit, I hate work. Damn damn damn. That looks so sweet! Thanks for posting and making a dude envious. I guess I am going to be part of the masses flocking to the hills this weekend for sure. Can't till then. Oh well! Good TR

Ummm... Who said that? Sounds like a bit spicy for the route and a RMI trip. 70-80 degrees would definetly involve a second tool or maybe a fixed line. Does that sound at all characteristic of RMI trips? I have no idea, as I have never climbed this route or been on a RMI trip.

Careful out there everyone. Just cause it's late season and nice doesn't mean that it can't still be nasty! News Report

Way to get up there dude, any pictures?

Hey Chris, Actually we didn't climb this in August... It was July 7th. Conditions were pretty much perfect though. Conditions this August may be similar to last years July if it keeps snowing like this. I would expect that the crevasse negotiation on the upper part of the route would maybe be a bit trickier, but not by too much. Overall it's a fun route. Do plan on a backup though, just to be safe!

Jeez, sounds like a pretty serious adventure. Glad those guys made it off okay. Good story and pictures.

Glad y'all played it safe up there! Hopefully you get the route next time!

So dude, what's going through your head when you are doing that... Are you looking down, or just at the line? And what's with the safety tether? I bet it would be way cooler without one, maybe while you are drinking a mountain dew or something. What happens if you have to take a piss half way across... Can you stop and go? Now that would be a sweet trick. Way to go dude, looks pretty cool in the pics. Thanks for sharing!

I think I may have just pissed myself... Best friggan post I have read in a while. Sick job up there, it sounded epic.

Okay, you guys are starting to freak me out! What is going on up there! Is this another mysteriously unfinished trip report from the south side... "Okay son, if the snaffles are moving in on your position and you can't talk, just click your mic twice to indicate that you are still okay." Oops, there it is. Glad to hear you made it out of there.

Well, now that we have heard from the Eugene side of things, how about Medford? Anybody have anything positive to say about it? Not that I think it is better in any way, but I mean, if you were the town of Medford and you read this post, wouldn't you get Eugene envy? Okay, here are some positive aspects of Medford. 1. It has running water, at least most of the time. 2. Very close to I-5 which makes it only 15 hours to Mexico... that's about 2 hours faster than from Eugene. 3. Apparently there is a Meth problem there, which sometimes makes for funny stories in the paper. Those meth heads always are doing the strangest things! 4. When your driving gets "a bit squirrelly" you don't have to worry about running into crazy bike riding population, which makes them mad. See? Medford isn't all that bad.

On the way down there wer what?? Don't leave me hanging like this! I am already on edge enough for a thursday morning in the office! Is this your last transmission and whatever you saw prevented you from writing!? How about, "on the way down there wer hordes of snaffles converging on your position, and you weren't sure how you could hold them off..."

I didn't sweat out any liquor... Oh wait, yeah I did.

Awww yup!

If I am in arrest position holding the fall of my buddy I want my feet pointed toward the crevasse, and I want the rope to go from my waist straight down. I don't want it to go from my waist up to my chest and then straight down... That's gonna put a lot of stress on my back, and essentially I would be holding my buddy with my chest harness, rather than my waist harness. Ouch. Not a comfortable position to try to place an anchor from. Or if your chest harness is tight, maybe it would tend to pull you head first towards the crevasse, making arrest even harder.

Get the geko... Shave a bit of weight and price. I went with a mapping GPS and haven't found mapping useful. Current maps aren't good enough for getting a good read on the features that you want to know about on a cascade mountain, and can even be misleading (like, whoops, how did we end up cliffed out?) You carry a map and compass, and obviously know how to use them. Setting waypoints at home or on your way up will provide the backup security you are looking for. Another obvious but good idea is to really play around with it before you start to use it in the mountains. For example, I figured out that the altitude feature can be really useful at an estimated gps accuracy of 8-10 feet, but at an estimated accuracy of 30 feet altitude can be off by hundreds.

So, I have a Marmot harness that has those rigid plastic gear loops on it that make clipping easy. I was skeptical at first, but after using them for a while, I realized that yup, they are pretty handy. Yesterday, I was messing around in the back yard and accidentally stepped on one of the loops of an aider that I had clipped onto the plastic loop, and it snapped instantly, with only a very little amount of force applied (seemed like it broke easier than a pencil). This immediatly dumped the 4 other items that were also clipped into the same loop. Has anyone else out there found that these loops are super easy to break? I would have been pretty bummed if I was actually on a climb and I dumped four or five peices of gear, especially if it included necessary gear (such as one of my aiders) on a long climb. Also would be sweet to get hit with that stuff at the belay. I guess I am going to duct tape the loop up, but I think I may find it harder to justify putting those supercheap cams or ice screws on something that can break so easily! Any thoughts on this?

If it's warm out, I may consider placing an extra screw above the primary anchor that is not equalized with the rest of the anchor system. Attach this screw to the powerpoint with a runner with maybe a couple inches of slack... I only mention this because if the conditions are right (or wrong, I guess), a weighted anchor may slowly start to shift it's position in the direction of the pull, and having an unweighted backup could be useful if the whole thing descides to move. I guess a good rule of thumb would be to check on the anchor as often as you can, especially if the climber is spending a lot of time hanging on the rope.

Nice dude! That looked a little bit more exciting that I expected, based on what I had heard about Humphreys... Cool traverse too. Any interest in busting out those Atomics on a trip like that?? Looks like the skiing would be amazing. Glad to see that you are still getting to play in the snow down there... I'm guessing that you are going to have an unfair breathing advantage when you roll back for Memorial day! Now if you could only find some steep ice down there (or up here for that matter...)!

Dude, I love ninjas... I think I am going to start rappeling with a gun in my hand (for safety reasons). Or maybe a sword.

Awesome trip report and photos you guys! It seems like you picked a good time to be up there. I wonder how long into the season glacier routes like this will be "in"? I wish the N. Cascades weren't so damn far... I gotta get up there. Thanks again!

Is that rooster? Looks like fun. Thanks for the finger... I needed one of those to remind me that I'm back at work.

My girlfriend and I went up to Triangulation peak yesterday, and checked out the trailhead conditions for Whitewater creek, or whatever the Jeff park approach trailhead is called. Yeah, road is passable to the trailhead with clearance, but even without you're still parked only about a quarter mile from the trailhead... Anyway, don't let road conditions deter you from heading up there. Not much snow in the woods... On north facing slopes above 5000' there was still a few feet on trails, but really well consolodated... Just walked on top the whole way. I imagine the approach to Jeff park wouldn't be bad. The mountain was looking pretty awesome- if I get some pictures maybe I will put a few up...

Hey Adam, nice climb man! I think I may have only got one picture of you approaching the first gully from below. Then we lost you until when we popped out at the queens chair and saw you up high. It would have been a great shot but I only had a disposable and you were too far away! We got pummeled going through the hourglass with spindrift and small ice chunks. We should have followed you up the reid! Anyway, pm me an address if you would like me to mail the photo (if it even comes out, I haven't developed them yet).