sweatinoutliquor

Saw that one in the catalog... Could you imagine that happening right next to you? I think I'd have to change my shorts.

I'm not going to explain the details, but I just wanted to say that once again I've been blown away by the folks who work at Berg's... The quality of service is incredible. Not only do they REALLY know their stuff, but they go out of their way to be friendly and genuinely helpful. They take pride in their work and want to make absolutely sure that you are happy with what they've done for you. I know there are other good ski shops out there, but this one has my business for as long as I'm living in Oregon. PS. No I don't work for them or have any affiliation with them other than as a customer.

I watched a gal who was tele-skiing arrest with a whippet after taking a fall on a pretty icy slope on shasta once. It was pretty steep, and although the runout was probably okay, she may have picked up speed quickly or at least slid for a while. Like dan says, they are only "okay" for self arrest, and you have to practice with 'em to figure out how to hold them best and transition into a good arrest position. I'm always worried that I'm going to wipe out and impale myself with it, but that's one of the benefits of the condor... When the conditions are sketch I'm usually going slow and have the pointy part out, when it gets nice again it's easy to snap closed.

Grivel Condor Grivel leaving the states Nice thing is that you only have to have it out when you really need it, then it snaps closed real easy. (sorry I couldn't post a pic here, oh well)

Damn... Not sure why I hadn't seen this earlier! Nice pics man!

Schweet... What a beautiful area, huh!? Bummer about your camera though. Nice writeup and I hope Kevin's Dad is okay.

Wish I could justify these... Price is right, but really just don't need another set of tools.

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.