powdrx

BUMP

Anyone up on the Sulphide last weekend?? Heading up tomorrow and wondering how much trail is melted out before we start skinning and how the summit gully is looking. Should we pack shoes and switch to boots etc... Any info is great!!

WOW it goes fast!! I got a little beta on TAY.com as well. They said snow becomes continuous about 4200. Still worth a shot!! Thanks a bunch!!

Great job ignoring the weather forecasts!! Anyone check out the Silver Star Creek start to Silver Star?? Is there still snow from the road?? I'd like to get that ski in soon!! Thanks for any info!!

Yeah sorry about that, they flare inside, so you throw a cam in to fit the slot, but it flares away inside and the cams walks back or opens inside. I've found hexes work well in places where the cams won't. Good time to learn that kind of pro and they are cheaper to get a starter rack going.

Don't forget Mush Maker (5.7) and Jam Exam (5.9) at Royal Columns!! I have led the former and followed the later. As a new leader, I found them both challenging for the grade, but nicely consistent. I think this place is great to start leading... I recommend some hexes here as some of the cracks flare a bit.

Second that!! They did very well!! Didn't stay for the finals, but only person I saw send the hardest qualifying route was from VW!!

Go get the Selected Climbs Vol 1 and 2. Full of alpine options in this great area. Rainier is open, Hood, Baker, Hwy-20 peaks, Colchuck, Dragontail, Stuart.... You should just get out and explore. And all peaks are "good" peaks bro... just get out and climb!! Check out the TRs and see what people are doing and conditions updates.

The Washington Alpine Club also teaches a Basic Climbing course. But it is also already started for the year. Smaller course, but well packed with basic climbing skills, intro to alpine climbing and mountaineering/ glacier skills as well. Another to add to the list of "club-organized" classes. One thing for the longer classes is more practice and more repetition to solidify these base skills where as a weekend course throws you in the fire more and if you don't stay with it, you may forget somethings after a couple weeks off. Depends how motivated you are I guess!! Good luck getting started!!

I love Glaucoma mediaction!!! Great TR!!

Just because I don't spend most of my waking hours spraying all over this site does not mean I am not educated or don't have opinions. My tough guy comments were directed toward your immediate need to chop the bolts some "retard" put up because You don't like them. It is still perfectly climbable whether you clip or plug for protection... nothing has been "ruined". I am interested to hear what the evil bolters have to say.

I should clairfy my statements by saying that I would NOT have climbed the route without the bolts because I am not at 10b trad leader... yet. Like I said, I will come back to climb the route with gear when I can, but it was fun on Friday with bolts!! Maybe Jim and/or Marlene with chime in with their reasoning for the bolts...

Well, we know who to talk to when they are chopped MCash. And what a waste of time that will be... how about climb the route and don't use the bolts if you don't want to. WHO CARES!!! Go climb, have fun, and if you are such a tough guy that you have to cut bolts, maybe you should be out putting up new routes in whatever fashion you desire. I thought the route was really fun with the bolts and it already had 5 bolts on it to begin with.

I met Jim and Marlene first weekend of October while they were adding bolts to Go Cat Go. Climbed the route yesterday and it is a great route, even with the new bolts.

Trip: Ingall's Peak - East Ridge and South Face Date: 8/23/2007 Trip Report: My buddy Scott and I went out to the Trailhead Wednesday night hoping to enjoy some mid-week solitude. We left the car at 5:30 and took a break at Ingall's Lake at 7:30. The start of the East Ridge is pretty obvious and we just scrambled up to the first notch and then roped up. I took the first pitch past a few neat moves and stopped just short of the next notch. We moved past the notch and Scott sent out on the 2nd and I took the 3rd, getting us to the "crux" pitch. Both these were mostly 4th class, but we just pitched them anyway. Scott sent the top pitch and we summited at 11:30. We did 2-30m raps down the South Face, then re-racked and quickly climbed the top two pitches of the South Face. The middle 5.6 crack was pretty fun!! But since we weren't done yet, we decided to get our rope stuck on rappel, so Scott climbed the top pitch again just for good measure. 3 raps later, we packed up and cruised down to the lake for some post summit medication!!! A quick hike out got us to the car at 4:20 for some frosty Sparks cooling in the river. This was a fun day out and both routes made it all worth while. No pics cause my batteries were dead, but everyone knows what Ingalls looks like!!! Gear Notes: 60m rope, Cams 3,2,1,1, Orange and Red Alien, Orange and Yellow TCU and nuts= Plenty. Forgot the Tri-cams and they would have been useful... but both routes are pretty straightforward!! Good times!! Approach Notes: Walk in, climb, walk out. No snow so follow the trail!!

Trip: City of Rocks / Castle Rocks - Date: 8/15/2007 Trip Report: Spent 3 days at City of Rocks and Castle Rocks last week. Clipped many bolts in the 90+F temps with afternoon clouds everyday. We climbed 4pitch Big Time (5.7), 2 of 3 pitches on Zinger (5.8) and Shock and Awe (5.10a) at Castle. Shock and Awe was a BLAST!!! Must do. At the City, we climbed Fred Rassmusen Crack (5.8), Snack Break Direct (5.8 with 3 bolts for ~55ft = SPICY), Scream Cheese (5.9), Too Much Fun (37m 5.8) and New York is not the City (5.10a). I think the best part of the trip was the lack of other climbers. We never waited for anything. If you can handle the heat, I recommend this time of year to avoid the crowds. And we also met Brad Shilling, long time climbing ranger. He gave us great beta and was fun to talk to. Great trip!!! Gear Notes: 2- 60meter ropes will get you off any route up there, and many draws!!! ENJOY!! Approach Notes: 12+hr drive from Seattle

Trip: El Dorado and Dorado Needle - East Ridge and NW Ridge Date: 8/1/2007 Trip Report: Me and a buddy "strolled" up El Dorado Creek and into Rosch Basin to a sweet camp at 7800ft on the East Ridge of El Dorado. I was wasted!! That is a long 5700ft and we had food for 5 days. But the great views and some tasty Dehydro helped the recovery process. Thursday, we departed at 8am and headed across the Inspiration toward Dorado Needle. All went well and with some crevasse navagation, we reached the base of the Needle at 10:15. The standard snow ramp was broken in two places, so we needed a new plan. We have a small rack and a 30m rope. We found a decent route up the moat on the right side of the snow ramp and with three small pitches, we were on the ridge proper. Two more pitches and we were on the summit with views all around!! We down-climbed the ridge and then one 15m rap and a little down-climbing got us back to the base at 1:45. Great climb. We followed our steps back to camp and rested for a couple hours. We then trooped up El Dorado for a two-summit day. AWESOME!!! We had plans for Austera and Primus, but awoke to clouds pouring into the basin. We caught a few sucker-holes, but with more clouds forecasted to come in, we heading out Friday and over to Leavenworth for some fair-weather cragging!! Great weekend and two awesome summits!! Gear Notes: Basic glacier gear, 30m-9mm rope, 5 cams and a couple pieces of passive gear, aluminum ice axe and crampons (useful the first couple hours in the morning). Approach Notes: Trail is there all the way up!! But it is a solid hike at 5700 vert!! Glacier travel was good and nothing really tricky presented itself.

Love CofR. I grew up on Burley but only bouldered around till the last couple years!! Another sweet sport route is 4-pitch 5.7 Jackson's Thumb. It is a pillar on the west side of China Dome and has a great view over the whole valley. RAD!!

Yeah, thanks for the raps AlpineRack. Didn't mind hanging out!! It's a great area!! PM if you need a partner sometime.

No it is not plowed, but enough room for 4-5 cars is cleared out. There are also a few pull-outs that are plowed. Also, posted 4 pics in the gallery. I am techno-dumb and couldn't post them here.

We got to the TH about 7:30 and found and there were two other cars there, but by afternoon, there were many more cars. We counted about 25 people going over the pass toward the B-Day tour. As usual, mid-weeks or get there early!!

There was snow on the South Arete route. We saw 3 people climbing it in boots. I didn't see much snow on the Becky route, but there is snow all the way to the notch. You should be good and the skiing rocks!!

Trip: South Early Winter Spire - SW Coulior Date: 5/6/2007 Trip Report: 3 of us left the Blue Lake TH at 8am. Followed tracks up through the trees to the basin. Good skin track in, but it was pretty icy in the morning. Followed it up to the base of the couloir and traded the skis for ice axe and crampons. The route was great and we soloed the whole thing (Nice steps Toby). One 8ft icy spot with some loose scree showing through, but we moved on past. We were lounging at the top of the couloir by 11 and enjoyed some sun. Ira and I hopped up to the summit; a little more fun with AT boots on and icy rocks. We met another group of three coming up and matched ropes for 2x 60m raps past the icy "crux" and downclimbed the rest. The 3 guys we met took off on foot (Good to meet ya'll), and we straped down the sticks!! Fun tracks in soft creamy snow on down to the trees and then bumper pool to the cars. Great day!!! Gear Notes: Aluminum crampons, ice ax. We brought 3 pickets, 4 cams and 1 screw that never got used, but the pickets and some rock pro could have been used if needed. Approach Notes: Follow the path(s), then follow the boot steps!!

Trip: Kaleetan Peak / Chair Peak Circumnavigation - East Face ski Route Date: 4/29/2007 Trip Report: Four of us set out Sunday morning for a summit of Kaleetan via Bryant col with the plans of finishing the route via Melakwa Pass and completing the Chair Peak circumnavigation. The two plankers cruised pretty well to below the steep snow below Bryant col. Snowshoer packing a board was a little slower in the slushy snow. The K9 was doing OK up to this point. Skiing down to Melakwa Lakes was nice of crusty snow, and we quickly moved up the valley to below the East Face of Kaleetan. Near the top of the "steep gully", the K9 began struggling and the thin traverse out of the gulley was sketchy. I took my dog down at this point while Mark and Nathaniel continued onto the summit via the remaining South Ridge route. There was slide debris EVERYWHERE from Saturday, but conditions were pretty stable on Sunday. Me and the dog lounged at Melakwa Pass until I watched the summit-possee come over and ride the East Face. Looked pretty sweet, but apparently a little icy. Skiing down to Snow Lake was fun in thick snow, but it is skiing!! Made it back down to the car in time for beers!! Good day out and the K9 slept all day Monday!! Gear Notes: AT gear x2, Shoes and board x1, standard BC gear. Approach Notes: Decent skin track most of the way were it wasn't washed out by slide debris. Some boot kicking near the top of the steep gully on Kaleetan.

Too much analysis!! A true puffers best friend is the wind-proof lighter!! On the hut issue, it quite easy to get grumpy and say nothing, then blister someone in an online forum. Most people can be quite accomodating when properly approached. To each his own, but if everyone worked on their inter-personal skills in this technology age, we would all be better off.