laurel

Thanks for all the recommendations, everyone! Looks like I have lots to do next time I'm in Leavenworth!

I'm getting kind of not that excited about going to the same places like Pearly Gates, JY, Classic Crack. Does anyone have any favorite Leavenworth routes/crags they're willing to share? I am most interested in the 5.9+ to 5.11- range (yeah yeah, me and everybody else). I was hoping this would be helpful, but once I eliminiate the boulders, alpine routes, bird closures and stuff I've done I think all that's left is Iconoclast and Hyperspace.

If you daisy chain your rope it will not tangle. Yes, I also thought this would be obvious but I keep hearing people say things like "I washed my rope and now I need to untangle it for hours". daisy chain == http://www.animatedknots.com/chainsinnet/

I took a "Hybrid DLP" WFR course last year -- we had to read the book and do some online quizzes beforehand, then had 5 days of hands on. The 5 days were over two weekends at the WAC cabin at Snoqualmie Pass (which was convenient for night skiing/climbing). That particular class just happened so you'd have to wait for next year to do the same one. http://cascadeoutdoored.com/ http://www.wildmedcenter.com/schedule.html#dlpwfr I can't compare with other providers or class lengths as realistically if I take 2 weeks off work and travel somewhere it's going to be for "fun", so this was likely the only way I was going to do it.

I thought when the campgrounds were "closed" for the winter you are still allowed to park on the road and walk in to the campground (with no facilities and no $). Is that not the case this year?

If you're doing a guided climb (or a course) you may need the hardshells because you may be 1) hiking in the rain because you can't reschedule because of "bad" weather 2) practicing self arrest (ie sliding around on wet slush) 3) standing around a lot because that's part of the agenda or just because you're a large group On personal trips you have the option of never falling in the snow, deciding to do something else if it's pouring down rain, etc.

There's the mountaineer's clubhouse bolt ladders if you really don't want to drive very far.

http://www.blm.gov/or/districts/prineville/files/Wildlife_Closures_2013.pdf

I'm not planning to be there so it'll probably be nice and sunny and totally not thunderstorm on you every afternoon.

How many climbers, maps, compasses, and gpses does it take to find Eldorado?

Since someone was asking about Snoqualmie Pass area stuff. As of last Sat Feb 8: Alpental Falls/Alpental 1 appears to be snow and wet rock: Alpental Falls by Laurel Fan, on Flickr We TRed Kiddie Cliff, there was a little bit of nice steep ice. Top out is a bit hollow and slushy (though in my experience that seems to be normal). Toprope up on Kiddie Cliff by Laurel Fan, on Flickr

Moar seracs!

If you got on the NE Buttress on Sunday (the 13th) I may have pictures of you: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelfan/sets/72157632674866462/with/8439414222/

anyone wondering what Abiel looks like? Abiel Peak from Annette Lake (click through to the flickr thing if you want to zoom in enough to actually see anything) My friend Sunshine and I climbed a pitch of snice/ice/bushes/moss/rocks. I guess technically I could call it two pitches -- one 58m pitch to a, um, mixed anchor and one 3m pitch to a tree suitable for bailing off of.

Apparently everyone wanted to climb it on Sunday. There are probably a handful up there at this moment (we gave up our place in line at 2).

Looks like a great time, and beautiful paintings! Maybe we should have joined you, the rain/snow/cold ended up chasing us all the way through Utah to Red Rocks, would have only been a few more hours to JT...

carolyn, I have the same boot as you -- Nepal Evos in size 39 (or maybe 38.5 or 39.5 -- yeah I can't remember my own shoe size). My own crampons are Petzl Vasak in the leverlock (no toe bail) version -- they fit as in have not fallen off yet (I've had the crampons for about 5 years but the boots for only two) -- but they are on the too wide side so the front points are kind of hidden under the boot if that makes sense at all. I do a lot more ice walking and gully slogging than ice climbing so 99% of the time the frontpoints don't matter. The posts on the back also do not really do anything at all, but that hasn't seemed to be an issue. I demoed the Lynx with the toe bail at the Bozeman Icefest. The front point problem appears to be solved with the toe bail (and adjustability thereof) but the heel post things have the same issue. The Petzl rep told me not to worry about that (of course he would). Due partially to clinic malfunctions I only climbed about a pitch and a half with them so not enough to form an opinion. But they also did not fall off which is a good start. (disclaimer/etc: I don't actually know that much about crampon fit due to lack of experience and that it's hard enough to find crampons for my boots that don't fall off while waving the boot around in the store, and again, I ice walk a lot more than ice climb)

Thanks for the info! It appears that the weather is probably going to herd us further south this time, but I do want to check the place out sometime...

she, actually. But apparently if I'm ice climbing I look like a dude. And if I'm jugging in an especially incompetent manner I look like two dudes.

Ha, yeah, there was totally a guide. Two of them. They were very professional -- I did not hear one "I thought _you_ knew how to get there". I thought about asking for a refund but it was "only" $125 and presumably is going to the Friends of Hyalite fund so I'll just consider it a donation.

That was me, actually. And by "good part of the day", I think you mean 6 hours, which was essentially the entire clinic (after half an hour waiting for one person who was late and one person who never showed up). It's true that conditions were challenging, I probably would not have done better myself (in fact, I walk around in the woods all day in order to not ice climb all the time), and you can't expect guides to do everything for you, etc etc, but I was expecting them to at least get us to the bottom of a climb, so I'm a little annoyed. I did get at least one thing out of the clinic, which was learning the approach to Elevator Shaft so we could climb it on our own the next day. That was fun.

What's the weather like in late December? The averages on climbingweather look pretty cold and wet but if you just look at averages, it's even colder in Vantage and I go there in Dec/Jan all the time. I'll be passing through the area on the way to Ouray in a few weeks, should I put Hell on the list of possible stops? I've never been there... looking at this south face of the flatiron thing mostly because there's an actual picture of it with lines drawn on it. I assume that will be in the sun?

I did the Zipper last weekend. Conditions could be described as early season, but it's in. Especially if you like squirming behind chockstones. Do it now before it gets less fun (ie. easier)! Well, maybe not right this moment, since it is nighttime and the Longmire gate is closed and the snow stability may not be conducive to climbing a wind loaded terrain trap. More details than you need: There were more than average bushes, rocks, and stream crossings on the approach. I "discovered" a stream crossing technique that uses snowshoes to take advantage of excessive bushes. On the route, we were expecting (hoping for?) two ice and/or steep snow steps -- instead we found three rock/mixed (ie mixed w/ the usual hollow ice, powder snow, dirt, plants, etc) steps. We roped up for the third one, which was probably not necessary, but I found a little chockstone chimney in the back of a cave that I had to squeeze through. No way would I have fit through with a pack with snowshoes strapped to it, so I needed to drag the rope up to haul with anyway, then it turned out the snow above could take pickets with a bit of stomping, so I built an anchor to haul the packs and belay my partner up the outside of the chockstone (figuring that trying to pull packs and snowshoes through the hole was just asking for trouble, and not having enough rope to finagle a way to haul on the outside and also allow my partner to enjoy the squeeze). Most of the route was pretty much plowing heavy powder. Most of it was knee deep except for the last 50 feet or so at the top where it was above my head. You most likely are taller than me so YMMV. Oh, and lest I forget the descent, we found more open creeks than expected coming down from the Denman/Lane saddle so we got extra fun on the way down too (or maybe we just went the wrong way). Some photos: I unfortunately did not get a picture of the awesome squeeze hole because I did not have room to get a camera out of my pocket but it probably looked kind of like this:

From last weekend... There is some ice in the Colchuck Lake area. Whether it is "in condition" may depend on your definition of "in condition". We bailed on the North Buttress Couloir because we found walking on loose rock with 6 inches of loose snow to be annoying and time consuming and were not looking forward to drytooling for 1000 ft in a whiteout. After bailing we played around on some frozen-waterfall-looking-things at the toe of the glacier. Paulina playing on some steep ice by Laurel Fan, on Flickr No, we did not actually climb the steep thing. We just poked it long enough for facebook profile photos and made hot chocolate with some of the icicles that fell off. The unsteep thing next to it was more climbable but not to the point of taking screws unless they have started making 8cm screws. (more photos from the trip including overview photos of CBR, Dragontail, and Colchuck if you click through above) There are a handful of TRs from this area last year November... comparing photos, it seems there was more ice and less snow last year.

There's a book called "Snowshoe Routes Oregon". The Washington version may also be of interest. You can peek at both of these on Google Books.