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I haven't been able to make it up to the mountains to go snow skiing, so instead I've been working on the next best thing: early morning waterskiing on Puget Sound. No other boats. No lake chop. Just the cold, fresh glass of summer. Ahhhhh. Here is the video . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgh3GJD04r8

Trip: Tumwater Tower - Normal Route and Upper Notch Route Date: 8/10/2007 Trip Report: For some reason, Bruce and I climbed Tumwater Tower. It never really made sense before we climbed it and in retrospect, it hasn't made sense since. Tumwater Tower is in a class by itself: not really an alpine route, not really a crag climb. One could be bitter about such an annoying approach for such little time on the rock. You can't even hang your hat on the pride of accomplishment as this gendarme blends into the side of Tumwater canyon. Nevertheless and despite all of these dings, Tumwater Tower is what it is, an obscure and fun adventure. We had three sources to go off of: Smoot's Rock Climbing Washington (1999), Whitelaw's Weekend Rock (2005), and Kramer's Levenworth Rock (2003). In the end, Whitelaw gave the most contemporary perspective and Kramer offered the most comprehensive descriptions. We would have left Smoot's description at the trailhead, but his account included a suggestion of a faint trail along the river. It has been some time since 1999 and if there had been a faint trail then, there certainly isn't one now. If the water level is low, keep to the boulders along the Wenatchee River for the first third of the approach. Otherwise the entire route is an uncomplicated bushwhack. Even along the east side of the Tower, we failed to observe a single sign of any prior visits: no boot-prints and no goat trails of any sort. The only signs of life were fresh bear tracks headed in our same direction along the river at 7:15 in the morning. We never saw a bear, but we did see plenty of dry brush and blackened trees. After arriving at the notch below the "Normal Route", we proceeded to climb the tower. Bruce lead straight up the face and failed to step right onto the flake near the top. This turned out to be a more committing and tenuous sequence that probably rated a grade higher than the 5.6 line from the flake on the right. By the time we got to the summit, the bushwhack was beginning to sap our enthusiasm. We rapped back to the belay and reconsidered our alternatives. I was all for going back to the Icicle. Bruce still had enough drive to give another route a go. Thank goodness. The Upper Notch Route (5.8) was the hit of the day. A committing friction move from the thin crack and big air around a blind corner were enough to get my spirits up. The Upper Notch Route made the trip worth the pain. Rock Climbing Washington says that there is only one route worth doing, the "Regular Route". However if we had relied on this guidebook alone, we would have missed the real fun. Of course, each author has his own perspective. In the end, the only way to really evaluate someone else's route description is to climb the route onseself. Tumwater Tower continues to entice the curious. Next time you're heading east into Leavenworth on Hwy 2, about a mile from town, take a look across the river and consider the possibilities. Gear Notes: Gear to 4". A single 50m rope is suffient for the rap. Approach Notes: A 2 hour bushwhack variously called brutal, arduous and painful.

I have a family car-camping trip to Pacific Beach coming up in August. It would be really cool if I could squeeze off an hour of bouldering with the S.O. while I was there. Are there any known bouldering spots near Pacific Beach? I've read up on those mentioned in Olympic Mountaines, but they seem too far away from Pacific Beach. There must be some sort of guide for bouldering along hwy 101!

I'm thinking of doing a trip up Ruth. Anyone have any beta on the skiing conditions?

Were you ascending or skiing down?

Do you mean that they started to ski down but their legs were so tired that they fell and couldn't stop on steep terrain?

I've skiied at resorts all my life. Over the last five years I've been climbing mountains. This winter, it finally dawned on me: if I'm going to all the effort to climb to the top of a mountain, I might as well have fun and ski my way back down (when there is snow on the route). This year I've done Heather Ridge, Castle Saddle, and Sauk Mountain. Now I'm ready to consider a glaciated peak. All of the training I've ever gotten and every guide book I've ever read suggests roping up for glacier travel, however, I notice that there are a lot of photos of folks skiing down this or that glacier unroped! Does that make sense? Do back-country skiers rope up for the ascent and then uprope and ski down? Isn't that kind of dangerous? I can see the argument that by traveling at 20mph on two long planks, the proability of breaking through a crevasse would drop due to a reduction of the force and duration of the force applied to the snow above crevasses. However, how safe is it? Are there any statistics that show relative accidents of descending ski mountaineers compared to all mountaineers? Is falling in a crevasse on the descent unlikely to happen? Is the risk totally dependent on conditions, for example season, snowpack? Or is the risk of falling into a crevassea even an issue at all for those in the know! Someone please help me figure this one out.

Ya, that would have hurt. I took the crampons off at the Colchuck-Dragontail Col. We had a little duct-tape that we used to try to hold the boot together at the col, in the place of the crampons. About halfway down the glacier the duct-tape wrap came off. I continued on glissading to the lake shore with the floppy boot sole. We ran into a camper along the lake that gave us some more duct tape. This time we wrapped the tape closer to the instep. It still only lasted a couple of hundred more yards. It seemed not to have the best grip on wet leather and tended to expand slightly after walking. After that, we didn't take any other corrective measures because it seemed that if I angled my foot up slightly as I took a step, the floppy sole wouldn't catch roots and such. It worked enough to get us to the trailhead, but the flopping sound just about drove John off his rocker!

Trip: Colchuck - North Buttress Couloir Date: 6/20/2007 Trip Report: John Banes and I climbed Colchuck's North Buttress Couloir on 6/20. The snow in the lower couloir was discontinuous in three closely spaced sections. A couple of apparent forth class moves got us over the first rock band. At the second rock band we followed the snow up to the right searching for an easy way over the obstacle then decided that we needed to rope up. At that point, our progress for the day ground to a slow crawl. We traversed left and up on a rocky spine, then back into the snow of the couloir. This was a 40ft, 5.2 pitch with one piece of protection and a crack for a belay. The pitch ended up bypassing the third snow discontinuity so that was the end of our rock-climbing in the couloir. We couldn't see farther above us so we kept a running belay to the top of the couloir. Unfortunately, John had to kick the steps by himself, all the way to the top. Midway up the couloir, I noticed that the sole of my left boot had partially-detached itself. I put my crampons on to keep it in place. Another delay. After topping out on the couloir, the going got even slower, we kept a running belay, only because we didn't know what to expect. A significant amount of snow had melted off the Northwest face. We lost the snow and traversed too far to the right. We then back-tracked to find the snow route. At that point, the day had worn on and because it was so warm and sunny, the snow was really soft. We were post-holing, sometimes over our knees, making for slow, arduous going. Being tied together on the rope became a real hindrance and we both decided to coil the rope and rely on our scrambling skills to finish off the climb. After topping out at the base of the summit block, we traversed to the right and found what looked like the only reasonable way up, a 15ft 4th class/low fifth class section. Since my boot sole was still partially-detached, I did it in crampons. We summitted after 10.5 hours. We were feeling jubilant that it was nearly the longest day of the year , that the weather was still looking good and that the views were fantastic. After descending the sandy benches to the head of the Colchuck glacier, we realized that the soft snow was now a friend to our behinds. A 2,500ft glissade ensued, all the way to Colchuck Lake. We were back on the trail in minutes. I took off my crampons and proceeded to flop 4.5 miles back to the trailhead. All in all, it was a boot sole shy of an epic. Gear Notes: ice axe, rope, small rack. Use the rope for the lower rock bands, then pack it away and scramble to the summit. Approach Notes: trail snow free

Trip: Sauk Mountain - East Face Date: 6/18/2007 Trip Report: Skied Sauk Mountain on Saturday 6/16. Road is snow-free to 1/2 from the trailhead. Trail was snow-free to the ridge and from there a scramble. It was foggy and drizzly but the snow was a lovely butter. Get it while it is still good! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L480iNI_A3E