Kraken

GILF

here's the page BigTree, it's here in the MR forum, for future reference. Weather, webcams, and climbing conditions. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/429686/an/0/page/0#429686

Anybody know why the Rainier (Paradise) webcam hasn't been updated since the 9th? Come on rangers, how else am I supposed to see her?

sounds illa' than mcguyver, dudes. Hopefully I'll have a chance to explore the Tatoosh more this summer. Did you cats get any pictures? Total time? Crux?

APOCOLYPSE NOW, my fellow Alaskans!

still no dust in anchorage, seems the volcano is subsiding...for right now. I still feel the appocolypse in the air. Regarding the active volcanos, (and this is just off the top of my head), I believe my geology teacher said there's something like 148 volcanos in the Aleutian chain, there are about 50 active ones today though. I kept waiting for something of Spurr's magnitude to come from Augustine...with havoc and chaos running rampart in the streets of Anchorage, people with face masks on, ash everywhere...never happened. Mayhem and madness will have to wait for another day I suppose. Many flights to and from Anchorage were cancelled, delayed, or circumnavigated over Canada to avoid the ash cloud. There were some problems, but none that were serious...yet.

I would like to, but don't know when I will have another 4-5 days off again. There's that ramp on the left that looks easier. I can't lead that chimney and I'm not sure i'll get the chance to go out with John again soon. The ramp is sustained steepness of maybe 60-75 degrees and there might be more pro on that ramp. February looks promising.

any reason why the pics aren't working?

hey if anyone is ever looking for info and pics about alaskan climbs (famous or not), the AMF really has a pretty strong database. There are pictures and info there that aren't anywhere else. Check it out!!!! It is like a mini cascadeclimbers!

John Kelly has been attempting several new routes on Yukla over the past year. He already put up a new route on the Northwest face earlier in 2005 and has tried several others since. I finally got a chance to join him on an attempt at a line on the Northeast face. Our line is just barely visible under the snowfield on the far left Another better view of our route, which is just to the left of the obvious white smear under the snowfield on the left. Yukla, first climbed in 1967 via the Icicle Glacier by famed Alaskan mountaineer Art Davidson (first winter ascent of Denali and auther of the book 'Minus 148') sees little traffic due to its hearty approach and difficult access, and has probably seen less than 25 ascents, even though it is only 8 miles from the road. At a height of over 7500 feet, it is the fourth highest mountain in the western Chugach, and dominates the skyline around Eagle River. The Northwest face is one of the biggest walls in the entire Chugach, and is still, for the most part, virgin...with the exception of two or three routes. I flew back to Anchorage on Saturday, December 31st at 8 AM and was on the trail by 2 PM. We bushwacked through the tedious Icicle Drainage and finally arrived at our first bivy site in the valley at 2:30 in the morning...a great place to bring in the new year. On the way to the drainage, we met a nice girl sitting alone at the Echo Bend camp who hooked us up with some great...stuff. We really owe that girl, she made the rest of the approach go easier. We woke up the next morning in true Alaskan style, and were on the go by noon. We simulclimbed up the snow fan to the base of the virgin Northeast face and spent the next three hours chopping out an awesome bivy ledge on a 60 degree slope, 500 feet over the valley floor. All the while, small sluff avalanches continued to pour over our route-to-be. John leading pitch two. We awoke at 4:30 the next morning and were climbing well before six. It finally started getting light at 9 and we were up the first two pitches by then. John lead most of the hard pitches, which consisted of M5-M6 climbing with overhanging rock and long runouts at parts. His most amazing lead took place at the chimney, on the fifth pitch. He started at 2:45, and spent the next 2.5 hours meticulously inching his way up the virgin terrain while I belayed and shivered inside the cave. By 5:30 it was dark and John had finally lead his way up the crux and had established a belay station. After tediously following John's line and cleaning the pro, I unlodged his pack from the overhanging section and he hauled it the rest of the way up and I carefully finished the crux, wishing I could have watched him lead what he called "one of the most amazing pitches of his life," big words coming from John, who has done some big climbs in his day, to say the least, We knew we were getting close to the top of the face, where we would meet up with a lower angled snowfield which would allow us to top out and then walk off on the Icicle Glacier and then back to our high camp. I led the next pitch, which started off in a narrow hourglass below a five foot tall rock buttress that steepened to a steep snow slope, then to a 20 foot step of WI3 crumbly ice with crappy protection. I put in one snarg and a 16cm screw and continued climbing. I slowly climbed up the couloir in seemingly endless unconsolidated powder snow that dissolved whenever my hands or feet touched it, and ran down right onto John. For several hours, I went left and right, up and down, diagonal and zigzag, trying to find suitable places for some protection...but there was none. The cracks were seemingly nonexistant, all to common on the Chugach rock. I managed to get in one #3 stopper at the base of a seemingly gravity defying vertical wall of powder snow that was about 15-20 feet high and had a 5 foot tall overhanging powder mushroom on the top. I stuggled in vein for several hours, trying to find more protection and a way to surmount the powder wall. If I had had better pro in the walls, I feel I could have gotten up the wall, but I was not willing to take a lead fall on a poorly placed stopper with at least a 100 foot runout behind it. The lights of Anchorage illuminating the sky At about midnight on the 2nd, we decided to can it and retreat, figuring we were close, but still had another pitch or two to go. It was a dissapointing defeat, especially when we saw how close we were to being finished and getting our names on a new route. We spent the next 5-6 hours making a total of six rappels. I had lost my cell phone in the cave on pitch five and was convinced I would never find it again...oddly enough it was waiting for me at rappel station number four...how it stopped right there I will never know. We got back to our high camp at six in the morning, planning on walking back down to the boulder camp and sleeping there...we woke up at 10 AM with our feet sticking out of the tent and we weren't even in our sleeping bags. I still had my helmet on. We had been climbing for 24 hours straight, had both consumed less than 2 liters of water during that time, and had hardly eaten anything. For me, it was my first big experience in alpine climbing and I learned a lot. For John it was another defeat on the walls of Yukla. You can clearly see our line. It follows right up the middle, through the chimney, and then to the hourglass snow couloir. Our highpoint was just at the base of the hourglass. In different conditions, that powdersnow headwall might be easier to surmount, but conditions weren't favoring it at that time. From there it is merely a walk up. John really deserves most of the credit for the climb. He lead the hard pitches and was patient with me as I learned the ropes. If time allows, we might go back and finish the line in February. Last March, John and his friend Dan completed first ascent of the Heritage wall on Heritage Point in Eagle River, which was featured in the American Alpine Journal.

again, thanks for the great advice. i'm still hoping to get a gig guiding this summer, we'll see how it goes in May. BTW, NEVER did i mean that AAI or Todd Burleson is evil or whatever. Todd is a very nice guy and I actually think that AAI is one of the best guiding companies (if not the best) out there. I would love to work for them someday, talk about possibilities! Thanks again

and i thought my 30 pound cat was huge...

yeah i actually saw her a few days ago for a moment while crossing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. She was entirely visible with a big lenti over her crown. I'll be giving her a shot in march, trying for a late winter ascent.

You should read Breaking Point. Waterman did the route originally (i think with a partner) then came back and soloed the route in 145 days. Athens, Randall, other guy repeated the route, doing the first alpine style ascent of it in 13 days with 6 days of rations. It is all covered in the Alpinist, talks about Johnny's climb (which is nothing short of amazing...the guy is a major hollywood motion picture waiting to happen...even though he is dead (supposedly?!?!?!)). I actually just had a slideshow series with Dave Johnston, who had the second ever ascent of Hunter. It's a pretty amazing mountain. Still amazes me that it is so overlooked when compared to Denali. Hunter saw something like 10 or so ascents last year, whereas Foraker saw only 2, I believe. Pretty amazing compared to the 500+ from Denali. Thus, we digress...

yeah, i think it is called the southeast ridge/spur or something. I was asking because it seems like a route that has probably only seen a few other ascents besides that of Waterman and Randall/Athens/Other guy. Come to think of it I am almost positive it's the southeast spur. clint

damn dude that's one hell of a deal. good luck selling those! Whoever picks those up for your asking price is one lucky bastard.

We're talking the Waterman route here right? I just read "Breaking Point" by Glenn Randall about this climb, pretty amazing stuff. Some of those bivy spots are pretty hairy looking from the pictures i've seen.

La Sportiva Nuptses (HELL YEAH!), a Reverso, a Climbing calendar, Black Diamond Stratos Gloves, random clothes, money money money...

i've got six friends down there now. to think i was almost the seventh:(

THANK GOD! Taken from: http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/21/arctic.drilling.ap/index.html Senate blocks attempt to allow ANWR drilling Move seen as a defeat for Alaska's Sen. Stevens WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate blocked opening the nation's largest untapped oil reserve in an Alaska wildlife refuge Wednesday, denying President Bush his top energy priority and delivering a victory to environmentalists who said drilling would threaten wildlife. It was a stinging defeat for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, one of the Senate's most powerful members, who had hoped to garner more votes by putting the measure onto a defense spending bill. That forced senators to choose between supporting the drilling measure, or risking the political fallout from voting against money for the troops and hurricane victims. Instead, Stevens found himself a few votes shy of getting his wish. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, who led the floor debate in opposition to the drilling provision, called it "legislative blackmail" and said Democrats agreed they "were not going to get jammed" by the tactic. Republican leaders could not break a Democratic filibuster threat over the drilling issue, falling three votes short of the 60 votes need to advance the defense spending bill to a final vote. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, left the bill in limbo as he, Stevens and other GOP leaders gauged their next move. The measure was widely expected to be withdrawn and reworked without the refuge language, although Stevens warned he was ready to stay until New Year's if necessary to fight for the drilling, a cause he has pursued for 25 of his 37 years in the Senate. Democrats as well as a number of Republicans were already angered by Stevens' tactic that delayed action on the $453.5 billion defense bill including $29 billion for hurricane relief, the war and border security, and $2 billion to help low-income households pay this winter's heating expenses. "Our military is being held hostage by this issue, Arctic drilling," fumed Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader. But Stevens, 82, the Senate's most senior member known for his sometimes cantankerous nature and fiery temper, expressed frustration, but had no apologies. "Every time this subject comes up ... the minority has filibustered," Stevens complained, reminding colleagues of his 25-year campaign to get Congress to allow development of an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil beneath the coastal tundra of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the far northeastern corner of his state. After the vote, Democrats celebrated as did environmentalists, knowing they had tangled with one of the Senate's toughest members and won. "It took a lot of guts for a lot of people to stand up," Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Connecticut, said after the vote. He said he expects the 43 senators who voted against drilling -- all but four Democrats as well as GOP Sens. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island -- not to yield to further pressures and change their vote. But no one believes the issue -- which has galvanized environmentalists determined to protect the refuge from development -- is going away. "I expect to see it again next year," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, a longtime drilling opponent. "Yes, it'll be back," agreed Lieberman. Environmentalists rejoiced, aware that never before had drilling proponents come so close to victory. The House already had approved the defense bill with Steven's drilling measure included and President Bush was eager to sign it. Congress approved ANWR drilling in 1995 as part of a budget package that was immune from Senate filibuster, but President Clinton, a drilling opponent, vetoed it. The Sierra Club called it "an against-all-odds" victory. "Drilling proponents pulled out all the stops, and tried every trick in their playbook," said Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. "This is a tremendous victory for all Americans and proof that the fate of the Arctic refuge must be debated on its merits, not as part of a sneak attack." Stevens argued that Congress in 1980 agreed to allow ANWR's oil to be developed at some future date as part an a compromise he supported that expanded the federal refuge to 19 million acres. It was a commitment, he maintains, that has not been met. Those who advocate drilling contend the oil -- an estimated 1 million barrels a day during peak production -- is needed for national security to reduce the country's dependence on imports. Drilling opponents say ANWR's oil would do little to curtail imports. Steven's proposal would have required the Interior Department to issue its first oil leases in the 1.5-million-acre coastal plain of the refuge within 22 months and another package of leases in 2010. Oil was not expected to flow before 2015. Developing the Arctic refuge's oil has been one of Bush's top energy priorities and the administration stepped up lobbying for the ANWR provision this week. Interior Secretary Gale Norton has said repeatedly that the oil can be developed without harming wildlife given environmental safeguards in the bill and use of the most modern drilling techniques. But drilling opponents argued that ANWR's oil should not be exploited because of the coastal plain's fragile ecosystem and wildlife. While the region looks bleak during its long winters, and oil can be seen seeping from some of its rock formations, the coastal strip also is the calving ground for caribou and home to polar bears, musk oxen, and the annual influx of millions of migratory birds. "Destroying this wilderness will do very little to reduce energy costs nor does it do very much for oil independence," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California. EDIT: There we go

BTW, here are some pics http://community.webshots.com/album/268570095FMoIjB

Listen to what Ryland_Moore has to say. I went there last year at this time. I flew in to San Jose and immediately drove south and took a ferry from Puntarenas and eventually went to Montezuma, a quaint NON Touristy town with great beaches, cheap food and beer, and beautiful scenery. We then went to Liberia (which is quite americanized and i found boring) and finally went north to the Arenal volcanos. That was great! I had an awesome time and would HIGHLY suggest it. Great people, scenery, and very easy to escape the crowds if you do your research. Pick up a Lonely Planet book on Costa Rica and find what suits you. I'd check out Montezuma though for sure, and stay in a bungalo. There are no hotels, only bungaloos. Great stuff really! You'll love it.

hey man, how about late december climbing in the olympics. I'd be down for Mount Cruiser in the Olympics or Olympus if we could get a pair of bikes or something for hte trail out there. where is 'home' for oyu in washington state? i'm in bremerton. my name is clint by the way and i'm 21, have climbed rainier 3 times, and have climbed and hiked in the n cascades and olympics. I live/go to school in Alaska now, but was born and raised in washington and my folks still live there. clint

I'll be down from Alaska from the 23rd-31st and will be free from the 27-31. I'd really like to get out and do something, I have to get out and do something. I've kinda been interested in doing a hike-climb and would like to do Mount Cruiser in the Olympics. I'm looking at the 5.7 variation to the summit block and really need a partner. I've heard the weather is "good" down there, meaning little snow lately. I'm not sure if that's good or not, but for this, sounds fine. If you're interested, gimme a hollar! Also interested in Rainier if a superb weather window opens up. I'd be willing to extend my trip by a few days if something looked promising. If anyone has any other ideas, I'm open to them as well. Constance? Washington? Lincoln? Let's get out and do something!

Dave Johnston tomorrow. Sounds like its going to be a packed house. The grand finale should indeed be grand.