sweatinoutliquor

Look in the yard sale and buy ChadA's quark ergos for 225 bucks plus an extra pick. Best deal in town right now in my opinion, and I would be all over it if I really needed a 3rd set of tools for the two days of ice climbing I do a year...

Yeah... That sucks. I heard a couple weeks ago. Certianly one of the best companies we had to choose from for ice climbing gear.

Phew! That's some scary stuff dude, glad you are okay. I'm sure that folks heading up that way will appreciate the warning here as well as the hole you opened up for them to ponder.

Well done!

Moderator, please move these mountains to Oregon.

Let me just pick my jaw up off the floor... Wow... That's both beautiful and inspirational. Awesome report and I'm sure memories for a lifetime. :tup:

Nice trip report, and welcome to the site! Any pictures from your climb? Kayfire and StreetBoss are clearly very awesome climbers.

That pic with the bear is pretty rad. Should have made it part of your rope team. Looks like an awesome trip!

I went there last november with our dog, and I guess that I wouldn't recommend it if you could leave it. We did take her into some of the less popular spots, but there were signs on most (or all) of the trails saying no dogs. Lot's of NPS folks patroling with nothing better to do too. Even in the campground we got hassled twice for having our dog off leash (she's really well behaved and doesn't even wander off), once even when we took off her leash for 5 minutes while she was eating. In general, I hate being somewhere and always having that feeling like you are doing something wrong and are either going to get ticketed or piss someone off. Was interesting to see my dog freak out when the coyotes started calling not far from where we were camping.

Great work J and James... Congrats on getting that route finally! Sounds like quite an adventure on the decent. Seems like I've got to hold my breath every time a buddy of mine climbs that mountain!

Right on dude, I'd like that. Always looking for ways to make the next one better!

Way to go dude! That looks awesome! :tup:

That's a great pic. Well done guys!

Schweet pics dude. Looks like an awesome little romp up there.

No permit needed. I got a good look at it this weekend and it's still got a lot of snow on it. Any approach will require floatation (at least this weekend). I can't confirm, but I've heard that you can't drive all the way to the whitewater trailhead, so tack a couple of miles onto your approach probably, depending on which route you had in mind.

I think the problem with rockfall on the JPG is that in order to skirt around some of the glacier's upper crevasses you generally tend to go to climbers left, which exposes you to the rockfall from the molar tooth gully. The glacier/snowfield is usually pretty littered with rocks, so it's easy to see where the danger zone is. Perhaps my buddy will chip in with his story, but from what I recollect he mentioned traversing below the gully a little later than he would like and just got one of those bad feelings about "where he was at" and decided to start heading down quick. I believe he said that 15 minutes later a major rockslide kicked off literally filling up one or two of the crevasses with debris and obliterating his tracks. The gully I'm talking about is a little left of the molar tooth (middle pinnacle in picture). As for decending the russel glacier, if you decide to go that way, here's a little tip. In the picture below, you can make out the rock band that forms the knife edge ridge. Start down the milk creek gully but sorta aim for the base (kinda not shown in the lower left of the pic) of the rock formation that makes the knife edge ridge. Once there continue to traverse on the contour back to the north and you will pop out on top of the russel glacier route. Bill I appreciated your comment about being process oriented instead of goal oriented. That's an elegant way to describe something i've fumbled around explaining before.

I know more than one individual that's almost been toasted by rockfall coming from the gully next to the molar tooth. Just use your judgement, be careful, and get passed the bergschrund by a reasonable hour. Yes the JPG is on the north side. I reccomend decending the russel glacier if you choose that route.

I'd love to see them work their rope system for something like this. They must be pretty darned dialed (both physically and technically) to raise and lower that distance in the given amount of time. Impressive work Denali mountain rangers!

http://canyoneeringusa.com/utah/tech/blocks.php Here's a link to a canyoneering page that demonstrates a few ways to rappel single strand. Just make sure you have a device that can provide enough friction to go slowly when you approach the end of the rope.

bring some slings for boulders/horns. I'd expect snow on the summit pitch, so maybe a picket or two... You can always wedge/drive them in between rocks if you need to. Maybe a couple of chocks, too. Should be interesting!

Maybe I missed it on here already, but I had a pretty good time on Backbone Ridge, and for many here that would be considered a moderate.

I tend to agree with your statement... Not sure that there is really a whole lot that's negative about what happened (although I could be wrong)? The guy got out without serious injury, and it teaches people a good lesson. That's pretty unique I would say! Scary when it happened I'm sure though, and glad for him and his family that he is okay!

Good work fellas, that one's been on my list for a little while now, and seeing the pictures is a good reminder that I need to get out there and give it a try! Thanks for posting.

Nice work guys... No shortage of snow up there it would seem, and overall a nice day on the mountain.