JohnGo

Great photo . . . but, IMHO, a maddeningly lame report. Why bother with a post like this? It's not much help to anyone who wants to try the route.

great photos and a nice post. Congrats!

This software looks extremely cool. I plan to start playing with it soon. Thanks so much for posting!

The Mazamas is located at SE 43rd and Stark in Portland, near Portland Nursery. for you non-map people . . .

My best wishes for healing and condolences to the affected families. I am truly sorry for your loss. I never knew these climbers personally, but they clearly shared the passion of so many on this forum, and led a life of sharing and service for others as well. To fellow CCers: Thanks for keeping this thread respectful and free of speculation. A note to the media: Here's a link to the position of Portland Mountain Rescue on: 1) Why climbers should NOT be mandated to carry "rescue beacons" 2) Why climber should NOT be charged for rescue costs http://www.pmru.org/pressroom/headlines/20091213PMRStatementRegardingMissions.html

Bill, If Lynn Hill showed up at Smith and said she wanted to take out a few Mazamas AR students to teach for the day, we'd say yes. If a skilled non Mazamas climber, not name brand, but known to the class leader, wanted to teach, he/she would be welcome too. Key is, please contact the class leader in advance so he/she can plan their instructors. I have a 5 yo girl (she's about 2 in this photo) and a 2 yo son. My son sorta looks like your classic avatar. John

Porter, Thanks for the question, and thanks to the Mazamas bashers out there who have yet to chime on on this thread. =^) I've been an instructor and lecturer for about the past 8-10 years. The class will give you solid skills for moderate trad climbing. A big change in the last few years is that more time is spent on firming up your skills with more controlled practice sessions before turning you loose at Smith. This has resulted in more safer and more confident (but maybe impatient!) students. Eugene is indeed a master teacher. (BillCoe, a point to clarify, non Mazamas are welcome to teach/lecture any portion of the class. I am glad this limitation has been removed, sorry you had to deal with it.) Feel free to PM me if you want more details. Cheers, John

Trip: Mt. Hood - Cathedral Ridge Date: 6/8/2009 Trip Report: I climbed this route with my good friends from Portland Kari Friedelwald and David Byrne a few months back. It was Hood route #13 for me, and had been on the list for awhile. Here's some beta on this remote climb. See a complete photo gallery at: http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/ [img:center]http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/slides/2009%20June%20025%20route.jpg[/img] The route we took Times: Topspur trailhead to McNeil Point: 3 hours, mostly all in snow, GPS was very handy McPoint to summit: a leisurely 8.5 hours Summit to Timberline: about 2 hours, with some long breaks. I made it from Crater Rock to the car in about 35 minutes with the awesome glissade device, yay! Total: about 11 hours, camp to Timberline. We drove up to Timberline, left one car there, piled into the remaining car, and drove it pretty much around to the opposite side of mountain to the Topspur trailhead. Be sure you have good driving directions to the trailhead; we got a bit turned around going in. Tip: After you turn off Lolo Pass road, do NOT turn right over a bridge and cross the bridge over the Sandy River; bear left and head upriver instead. We were able to park about ½ mile from the trailhead, instead of getting stopped way down the road by snow. We were pretty darn happy to find that! Once the trail started up from the road, it was immediately snow-covered for the entire way. Being the navigator geek that I am, I had about 12 GPS waypoints for the route up to McNeil Point. These were quite handy to have, as I had not been on this trail for a few years. Hint: there is a reason why it's called the Top Spur trail. Most of the way up to McNeil Point is indeed on top of a fairly pronounced spur. Fortunately the snow was quite firm and easy to walk on through the trees. (I've never even tried snowshoes, and I hope never to do so.) Following GPS points and the occasional boot track of previous wandering hikers, we made it to McNeil Point in about three hours (about 2,000 foot gain). [img:center]http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/slides/lost.JPG[/img] A difference of opinion about the approach route The cube shaped stone shelter, with a few bags of garbage and assorted detritus from previous visitors and a bare dirt floor, do not look very inviting when we first step inside. But after we got settled in, snuggled into our bivi bags and brewed up to the first cup of soup, things started to get pretty cozy. The ground outside was pretty much all snow-covered, so staying inside the shelter was a pretty good plan. We decided to only bring one stove, and cut it pretty close with the fuel. Note to self: one tiny gas canister for a Jetboil stove and three people is not quite enough, if you need to melt snow for water. [img:center]http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/slides/2009%20June%20018.jpg[/img] David chill-axing at McNeil Point shelter. Note grim weather . . . The whole way up was pretty much walking inside of a cloud, with heavy mist and about 100 foot visibility. We were trying to keep our spirits up, but we knew that this same weather the next morning would not be much fun to climb in. The low cloud cover stayed with us through the evening, and we went to bed trying to think happy weather thoughts. The alarms went off at three. David stuck his head outside, and reported swirly fog and low visibility. He suggested sleeping another hour, which we promptly agreed to. Four o'clock came all too quickly, but it was now or never. We packed up, had a quick breakfast and started up through the low heather fields above camp. And then came one of those glorious weather breaks that's you just dream for when you're in the mountains. About 500 feet above camp, the cloud above started to fade, in a few more steps we had glided into a bluebird morning. The amazing break in the weather was somewhat daunted by the view above; we could now clearly see the entire route, and it looked like a very long and circuitous way to the top where we were. After about a 10 minute back-and-forth discussion along the lines of: should we go on, should we bail because we're getting a late start, we went for it. Ice axes out, crampons on, and we stepped out onto a long flat snow traverse which would lead eventually out into the ridge. [img:center]http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/slides/2009%20June%20026.jpg[/img] Kari, looking good on the lower snow traverse After so much snow down below in the trees, it was surprising to see bare rock on almost all of the route above us. At the end of the long flat snow traverse stretch, we were quite happy to find a bit of running water at the base of the snowfield. We all topped off our water bottles here. There was one trickle of water higher up as well, but this was all we saw on the route. The rock on Mt. Hood is so porous that any surface water almost immediately disappears down the cracks. A majority of the route was fairly solid third class talus, with two or three steep snow pitches just before Queen’s Chair. This was not the “make 3 steps up, slide back 1” evil scree of St. Helens, but actually pretty decently consolidated talus. (Well, maybe decent by Oregon Cascades standards.) [img:center]http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/slides/2009%20June%20034.jpg[/img] Kari ascending 3rd class talus and 30 degree snow after passing the gumdrop on the right There are two significant route features that we saw easily from low down. The lower, left prominent feature we called the shark's fin. This is a pretty obvious large dorsal fin looking rock gendarme. Above this a few hundred feet is another much larger block on the ridge we called the gumdrop. We gained the ridge above the shark fin and below the gumdrop. The gumdrop was easily passed on the right. Note: The guidebook talks about bypassing the two “prominent gendarmes” on the left. Because these were the two obvious rock features we can see from low down, we thought that the shark fin and the gumdrop were the two gendarmes mentioned in the guidebook. They are not! The actual two gendarmes are about 500 feet above the gumdrop. This is an important route detail that we did not figure out until we were well under way. Note to self: Whoever is out in front scouting the route should have the rope and some pro. I ended up mostly in front doing route scouting. David and Kari were five or 10 minutes back. I ended up soloing two pitches, thinking about halfway up, “Damn, I should really be trailing a rope for my partners behind me.” This was especially true on the second to last pitch near the top. David and Kari both kept it together and soloed the steep part in good style, but it was an unnecessary risk. So, we continued up the easy talus above the gumdrop to the first of the two gendarmes. This is where the ridge becomes narrower and starts to drop off a bit more abruptly to either side. I stepped around to the left and moved out, following the path of least resistance on about half 45 degree snow and half third class loose rock. It definitely got my full attention, because below me was about a 3,000 foot tumble to the base of Barrett Spur. The climbing was fairly easy, but as everything up to this point had been pretty much a stroll in the Park, I had to mentally shift gears pretty quickly. This was for sure a “DFU” pitch if you are soloing. [img:center]http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/slides/2009%20June%20040.jpg[/img] First of 2 crux pitches, passing the first gendarme on the left Thankfully, this pitch had a nice flat bit at the top for some R&R before the next one. As is typical in the mountains, foreshortening made the last pitch look quite a bit steeper and longer than it actually was, at least my eye. David took the lead, sinking one picket early, and then running at out about 80 feet on steep hard snice. He then topped out on the flatlands where he sank another solid picket. Kari and I simulclimbed behind him, with me cleaning at the caboose. With my limited ice climbing skills, I was extremely glad I brought my second ice tool at this point in the program. This was an honest 50°, a “DFU” 3,000 foot run out below, and sinking front crampon points only about an inch. [img:center]http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/slides/2009%20June%20041.jpg[/img] Second and last crux pitch, 50 degree snice a few hundred feet below Queen's Chair About 200 feet more of low angle snow led us to the Queen’s Chair. From there, it was just a slog through the rime ice to the summit rim. [img:center]http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/slides/2009%20June%20044.jpg[/img] Looking back at Kari and upper Yocum Ridge [img:center]http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/slides/2009%20June%20043.jpg[/img] David, above the clouds at Queen's Chair Because we topped out just after 2 p.m. and were quite concerned about soft snow going down through the crater, we chose not to go over in tag the actual top, which was about 20 feet above our highest point. We descended the Old Chute, plunging in occasionally to mid thigh in the softening wet snow. It was little spooky, but we kept good spacing and all watched one another in case of an avalanche. I chose to move as quickly as I could through this hazardous terrain. The final way back to safe ground was the climber boot track, which led directly over the fumarole on the north side of Crater Rock. I've seen this area over many years, and the bottomless crevasse hole that is always here never fails to send a shiver up my spine. Yet here was an obviously well used boot track on snow that went right over the hot rocks. Was the snow 20 feet thick, or 2 feet thick? We didn’t know, and after coming this far being safe and conservative, we didn’t want to find out. We broke out the rope one more time, tied in, and crossed this last potential landmine over to the safety of the lower Hogsback. [img:center]http://www.outdoordads.org/cathedral/album/slides/2009%20June%20045.jpg[/img] Boot track over fumarole, lower Hogsback From here was the descent I have done so many times, but I think this time was an actual record: from the bottom of crater rock to the car was less than one hour. I slid the entire Palmer snowfield in about 10 minutes, using my awesome hard black plastic glissade mat. Weaving among snowboarders I made my way to the car, took out my sleeping mat and laid down in the shade, awaiting my non-glissading pals 45 minutes behind me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Overall, this is a very nice route on a seldom visited side of the peak that more people should try. I hope this trip report motivates someone to give it a go. Feel free to PM me for more beta. Gear Notes: We found really only two pitches we needed to rope up for, the last two pitches before the Queen's Chair. Suggested gear: three pickets, two or three medium stoppers or tri cams, a second tool with a hammer head, and maybe two or three knife blade or angle pitons. Overall, it is only slightly more technical route than the south side. Approach Notes: Approaching from Timberline Lodge would have been a completely different experience, not necessarily better or worse. If going any earlier then early June Timberline would be the better choice, as the access roads on the north side would likely be snowed in and mandating a longer approach slog on the snowy road.

Chester, At the risk of removing the mystery, here's da beta. It's a superb peak, in a pretty remote place, technically easy and stellar vistas. I climbed it and Deception over a long weekend in July 2008. Camped in upper Royal Basin. Ascended to low point to the ridge running east of Deception summit, then dropped down a steep but doable scree slope into the beauuuutiful Deception Basin. Ascended Mystery glacier on climber’s left (no rope needed). From notch above glacier, it’s tempting to head straight up the ridgeline towards the summit. Do not. Instead, traverse laterally left about 200 feet, then head up. Doing this lets you skirt some tricky blocky benches and steeper snow. No rope needed or pro used on the whole route. Beginners might want a harness and a short bit of rope for 1 pitch of a 4th classy gully right at the top. Helmets: definitely yes. With a start from camp after 8:00am, you could almost leave the ice axe home too. We barely used ours. Times 4.5 hours - car to high camp in upper Royal Basin 8 miles 1 hour - camp to deception Basin 1 hour – basin to head of Mystery Glacier 1.5 hours - head of Mystery Glacier to summit 3.5 hours total: camp to summit 3.5 hours - to return to camp, including 1 hour summit lounge and long break in Deception Basin TOTAL – 7 hours round trip from camp Bear canisters are required for overnight stays in Olympic national park. REI rentals are expensive. The place to get bear canisters is called Wild Birds Unlimited, in the small town of Gardenier WA, at Hwy 101 mile post #276. Call before you go to reserve them for your team. Good food on the drive home is at the Snug Harbor Cafe, a mile or so west of the junction of Hwy 101 and Hwy 20, at the south end of Discovery Bay. Do not camp at crowded, mosquito infested and no views Royal Lake. Instead, go about 1 mile farther to tree line, and look off right of the trail for some large gravel benches near a small tarn that make great group camps. Here’s a slideshow from my ascent of Deception and Mystery. Some slides have route info drawn in. Enjoy! http://outdoordads.org/deception/album/

The Mazamas teach a crevasse rescue class twice yearly in the spring. This year it was very popular, and sold out. I mention it here so folks searching in the future can find it. (The price is right at $50 Mazama members, $75 nonmembers.) Mazamas.org --> Education & Classes --> Skill Builder Classes Direct link: http://www.mazamas.org/your/adventure/starts-here/C119/

Hi All, The OP put up a very nice TR. I'm glad it worked out (more or less) well for you. I wrote a very detailled TR for my own climbing journal after my ascent. I posted it to my personal website. I think anyone considering climbing the West Ridge or Stuart will find it very useful. Check it out: http://outdoordads.org/mazamas/stuart-westridge-tr.pdf

The Mazamas web site has a "Food and Nutrition" section on their Tip of the Week page that has some good food ideas as well. Chekc out the Tip of the Week pages, with over 200 climbing and backcountry tips: www.mazamas.org --> Resources --> Tip of the Week Direct link: http://mazamas.org/your/adventure/starts-here/C423/

Hey folks, this is agood topic and good posts. I learned a few tips, thanks. Here's my personal list of food reminders. A few highlights: Olives rock as a comfort food. Good balance of salt and fat for in camp. Pecorino Romano cheese is great. Again, salt and fat, and keeps forever. My vegetarian buddy likes gardenburgers and mustard in English muffins. Small, compact, and pretty crush proof. Not as dry in the mouth as bagels can be. Here's my list: Driving early morning to a one day climb · Banana · Hard boiled egg, peeled in bag with salt · Balance bar or bran muffin · Water (20 oz) · Thermos of green tea · 1 can of Ensure or mixed Spiz energy drink Food while climbing · brown rice syrup or Gu packs (3 packs per day) · Spiz or carb drink mix added to water · 2 liters / 3 20 oz. Gatorade bottles plus 16 oz water · 4 or so hard candies per day · halvah (small amount, winter only) · olives in Nalgene bottle · bagel with Trader Joes’s olive tapenade mix · sliced pecorino romano chese · landjaeger (German dry sausage, get at German delis, 1 stick per day) · Chocolate covered espresso beans (winter /cool weather only) Breakfast on multi day climb · granola bars, or Muesli in bag with protein powder, mix w/hot water in bag · NO instant oatmeal for breakfast · Car camp breakfast: Muesli w/protein powder, rice milk in a small solid plastic jar, ziplock bag, spoon Dinner on multi day climb · Dried miso soup (Trader Joes) or Ramne for first course · condiment packs (parm cheese, pepper flakes) · Awajimaya Thai flavor top ramen packages · DINNER: 1 cup Trader Joes dry tortellini, 1 packet instant pasta sauce (Alfredo, Pesto, 1 oz. olive oil, packet of red pepper flakes, packet of parmesan cheese, 1 quality zip lock freezer bag. Boil 2 cups water, pour in bag with ingredients, put in fleece hat, then inside sleeping bag, eat in 10-15 minutes. For the car afterwards · nice canned treats: Trader Joes dolmas · corn chips or potato chips · fruit juice · Trader Joes chocolate milk

I posted pretty extensive beta on this peak on my Summitpost TR: http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/232349/stevens-peak.html Also, ericsbasecamp.net has a nice TR, photos and maps of the whole traverse: http://ericsbasecamp.net/trips/Tatoosh1/Tatoosh1.htm http://ericsbasecamp.net/trips/Tatoosh2/Tatoosh2.htm This would be a great late season trip and I wish you big success Cheers, johnGo

This is a thoughtful sensible answer, and one I personally feel is correct. The distinction between a "fixed" and a "moving" knot is important.

Wayne, The Mazama Annual article on this route will be posted on the Mazamas web soon. I'll let you know via PM and post here once it's up. Radek, Shirley, Jeff: Superb climb, great trip report and photos, and biggest congrats!!! Having a dream like this for years and then finally sending it makes it taste even sweeter, no? Way to go!

I've been carrying 40 meters of 8mm static cord for crevasse travel for a few years now. It weighs a bit over 3 lbs (compared to 8 lbs 10 oz for a 60m 10.0mm lead rope), is inexpensive, and works great. You don't need a dynamic rope for crevasse travel. Such a rope might work well for your proposed style of backcountry travel. Read more on the Mazamas Tip of the Week pages: http://www.mazamas.org/your/adventure/nw/try-a-short-static-rope-for-glacier-travel/

I cannot give you times on this route. But, if you are fit enought to hike Whitney on 1 day, the standard route on Shasta should give you no troubles.

If you want to read more than 150 climbing related tips (sans spray) you'll find 'em on the Tip of the Week page on the Mazamas website: www.mazamas.org --> Resources --> Tip of the Week direct link: http://mazamas.org/your/adventure/starts-here/C423/ Yep, most tips are mine and I maintain the page, so comments here will be answered.

Hey moderators, How about a new Forum on "Tips and Tricks"? This single post clearly has a lot of interest. We climbers have lot of tips to share. There are a few gems in this post, but they are buried under all the others. Good tips would be easier too find if they were seperated more by topic, in a separate forum. Whaddya say?

Can anyone explain why a prusik minding pulley is close to $30, and a "standard" pully is about $10? It's always been a mystery to me. Construction seems to be about equally simple in both cases, and it's hard to see why one should cost so much more than the other.

The Mazamas offer rescue/evac insurance to all members. It's a pretty nice benefit of membership. Rescues above 6000 meters can be covered for a small additional fee. They "self insure", and do not go through an outside company. See www.mazamas.org --> Resources, or here: http://www.mazamas.org/your/adventure/starts-here/C41/

Ivan, the glacier is still very much there. I descended Wy'east on Sun Feb 17. We came down around 11:00, with snow softening fast. (We went down fast, too!) All of the above comments on avy potential apply to this east facing climb. It's best to try this route in cold conditions, or be pretty much off it when the sun comes up, which means an extra early start. If coming from Timberline, go to top of the Palmer chair, traverse right to White River Canyon, then find a fairly flat spot to drop down to the glacier. This way you lose minimal elevation (@100'). The only 2 pitches of note to consider roping for are the last two. The first is a balancy traverse right up and over a rock step which is a no fall zone, then the last steep (50-55 degrees or so) pitch to the summit. Snow here can vary wildly, from crotch deep sugar to thick rime ice. I's take an extra tool 1 picket per person and a light rope, in case you decide you want them. Here are a few photos I posted to the Mazamas route description pages: http://207.58.183.187/images/routes/wyeast1.jpg http://207.58.183.187/images/routes/wyeast2.jpg http://207.58.183.187/images/routes/wyeast3.jpg

Here is a cut 'n paste from the Tip of the Week section of the Mazamas web site (www.mazamas.org, under Resources). It covers metric and cubic inches comparison, something most people find a bit confusing. (Shameless plug - There's over 150 more climbing related Tips on this page once you read this one, so check it out.) Link: http://www.mazamas.org/your/adventure/nw/metric-and-inches-conversion-chart-for-backpack-volume/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Metric and inches - conversion chart for backpack volume You see a backpack review in a magazine that touts the latest European designed spectra-clothed carbon-fiber stayed wonderpack, the perfect size for an overnight climb at 50 liters. When you stop by the local gearhead shop, you are shown a similar looking American made model that the clerk is plugging, which holds 2500 cubic inches. Are these two volume measurements close? Which one is right for your needs? When shopping for a backpack, it’s useful to know the pack size you are after in metric, typically liters, and US sizing, typically cubic inches. Here’s a conversion table to assist you (cubic inches are rounded off). Metric - US 20 liters - 1,200 cubic inches 30 liters - 1,800 cubic inches 40 liters - 2,400 cubic inches 50 liters - 3,000 cubic inches 60 liters - 3,700 cubic inches 70 liters - 4,300 cubic inches Some pack volume rules of thumb: * For a one day summit pack (Mt. Hood), look for something around 40 liters, or 2500 cubic inches. * For packing light on a 1 or 2 night climb, consider a pack in the 50 liter range, or 3,000 cubic inches. * And for you folks who do take along the kitchen sink, look for a honker pack of 65 to 70 liters, or over 4,000 cubic inches.

One more vote for the Cold Cold World Chernobyl! I love mine.