sweatinoutliquor

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.

Just wanted to join the masses and say a big congrats to you and Shirley and the rest of your team... Your adventures and trip reports are always a pleasure to read!

Well done guys!

fotogina, please don't take offense to Bill's post, and thank you very much for clarifying the circumstances. Lot's of people are upset about what happened to FF and I'm sure that Bill's intention was not to be acusational. Good luck and welcome to the site!

Nice work guys... I hadn't realized that lassen was such a neat looking mountain. Good route you picked, looks like it made it wintery conditions, which I can imagine is better than summer!

See rules listing.

Gotcha... Sorry, I haven't heard of anyone doing it that way. If you start at S. Sister and work your way north, the technical difficult will become incrementally harder with each summit. The route from the top of middle, down the N. ridge to the saddle, and back up the S. ridge of North is pretty clear when you are there. Technical difficulty on the ridges is pretty low, although the scree can make it a pain in the ass. Once you get to the part of north sister where you have to traverse around the camel's hump you will start to get a taste of the exposure on this part of the route, and I would suspect that from this point to the summit, a fall from any point would be a long one. The terrible traverse is indeed terrible, and although I have never done it in the summer, I never wish to either (search for some TR's in the "Oregon" forum for photos). People do solo N. sister, but they are generally pretty experienced and I think it's pretty common for them to rap from directly below the summit down the "bowling alley" pitch, even in the summer time. Like I said, if you approach the route from the south you will be gradually stepping up the difficulty, but you will also be insuring that you have a great and memorable trip (the top of south sister alone is quite beautiful). I second the recommendation that you should consider including broken top, rather than reversing your route. Why climb the same stuff again when you can knock off another one!? Good luck and be safe out there.

You can run, but you can't hide (from atmospheric deposition)! I used to live on the east coast and the mercury levels in fish there were alarmingly high. There were always warnings not to eat more than one fish you caught per month, and not at all if you were pregnant, etc. Sad for sure.

Looks like a beautiful day in an awesome area! Good work on getting out there!

1. What's a double traverse? 2. Can you define what you mean by "I don't have much alpine experience" cause the summit area of North Sister isn't a good place to be for someone totally new to alpine climbing. p.s. Welcome to the site!

Ummm... I haven't used the tibloc or ropeman for this application, and I have both... My expectation would be that falling on either would be bad, although I think the tibloc would be much worse. Especially on a rope <10.2mm. Even on the "non-toothed" version of the ropeman I would suspect that a fall would be pretty rough on the rope's core. Also, if you are going to use one of these setups, you will probably have to anchor it with a multidirectional anchor, right? (so it can handle the upward drag of the rope, but catch a downward fall from either the leader or follower)? Anyway, I won't ever do it, and I would recommend that you at least test it out before using it. Maybe try testing both setups out real close to the ground to see 1) if the rope feeds through easily without pulling the gear out and 2) what happens to the rope and hardware with some "top-rope" style falls. I'd be interested because this certianly isn't the first time this discussion has come up.

Impressive line Kevin, and some great shots on the way down! Way to get after it this past weekend you two!

Funny, but I've made it through modifications one and two listed above, but haven't thought of cutting the trigger part off yet. Only other mod I can think of is rubbery mastic tape on the shaft above the grip, which is nice for extra grip and insulation. Thanks for the pics!

Photos look good! Nice report too. and welcome to the site! I'd also like to comment on the excellent choice of maple bars at the bakery.

Still a lot of fun to read what's there... Thanks for the good lunch entertainment!

I'd take the black alien off your hands too if you haven't already shipped the other stuff...

Sent ya a PM... Thanks for posting the pics.

interested in the aliens, but I'd like to see the photo first if possible.

I lived in NH for the first 22 years of my life and never went ice climbing once. Then I moved to OR, and have tried to take up the sport after getting a taste of it on some of the volcanoes out here. Seems pretty hard to do out here unless you've got a flexible schedule, and don't mind driving hours to get the the frozen stuff. If only I had the money, desire, or intelligence to try it back when I was there! Great work and nice report arentz!