scheissami

So... All the crevasses were filled? Sounds safe sans rope, eh? Pics?! Glad you had a good trip, cheers.

Rad trip! Noticed you belaying the second on autoblock off your rope... Pretty ingenious way to extend the anchor, I'll have to try that. Is that a butterfly knot?

Three Sisters Wilderness in central OR might fit the ticket. Four mile hike in to Green Lakes, then plenty of stuff to explore on day hikes.

Three of us drove down on Sunday for some touring in the Sisters, but the weather hasn't been kind. We ended up just climbing at Smith. According to the rangers, Cascade Lakes Hwy is open only to Bachelor (still 2-4 ft snow beyond), so still a 4 mile skin in to the Green Lakes TH. On the east side, the road (I think it's state road 16?) is plowed about 2-3 miles from the Three Creek TH. Have fun, post a conditions report if you get out! -erik

Thanks, Lowell, that's getting me more stoked! Been reading "Oregon High" and "Backcountry Ski! Oregon" looking at possible routes. We're not interested in any speed records, or even necessarily summiting each peak... I just think it'd be a superb outing for a few days. Cheers! Erik

Nice... Just downloaded it and have been poking around on it. I really like the inclusion of the avy rose on the telemetry section. Strong work!

This looks amazing... I can't tell from the description or the screenshots, but are Oregon areas included? What about backcountry areas (i.e. places with weather stations but not resorts, like St Helens)? If so, I'm sold! Nice work!

Checked out "Oregon Descents" on Amazon, yikes! $500! I have van Tilburg's Oregon Backcountry Ski book, hopefully that'll fill in the gaps. So North to South, eh? That's the kind of info I was looking for. I'm not sure if we'll do the base camp thing... I'm more interested in doing it "alpine" style, even if I'm not a hard man Probably just bivy while on the traverse. Maybe a base camp to relax afterwards? How long for a moderately fit group? I was thinking 2-3 days max, unless the weather is grim. Any need for protection/rope-wankery? I figured just an ax and crampons should do the ticket. Don't think our group will be too focused on summiting, if the climbing gets sketch we'll likely just try to bypass the difficulties. I certainly don't want to lug around pickets and such. I've not climbed anything in the Sisters, but my understanding was that most of the peaks have walk-up routes unless the conditions are particularly icy. Thanks for the info!

Looking for a line rated for both half/twin use, light as possible. Most likely use for glacier travel and ski mountaineering; I rarely ice climb but wouldn't mind the option of using it as a twin for that purpose. Favorites? Poking around on the internets, I found the Edelrid Apus, 7.8mm, 42gm/m, looks like decent impact forces. Thoughts? Cheers.

Considering trying to do a May ski traverse of the Sisters and Broken Top. I'm sure this has been done, but I wasn't able to find any beta on it here (other than this link). Is May a good time? Seems like there should be enough snow to actually get some decent skiing in. A back-up plan would be to just hang out on the Jefferson Park Glacier for a few days. Thanks for any info. Probably just try to figure things out by reviewing Oregon High, but wonder if the climbing routes would offer up the best skiing options. Cheers!

Beautiful shots!

Thanks! Considering the Oetztal Traverse...heard much about it?

RAD pics!

Howdy, Hoping to head back to Austria next spring (2011) and visit my family near Vienna. Any recommendations for relatively mellow hut-to-hut tours in the Austrian Alps? Maybe about 5-7 days long? I'd certainly consider the French/Italian/Swiss Alps as well, just feeling nationalistic. Either posh or ghetto is fine, looking for some good, moderate ski terrain with minimal technical travel (roped glacier travel, ice falls, rock climbing, etc.) and would like to minimize the amount of gear I have to hump along. Any other ideas where I could look for further resources? Cheers, Erik

Photos: Socked in on the way up Sweet views from high above the clouds (ignore the two ass-clowns in the pic) Sweet turns from the summit Good snow most of the way down Mount Hood in the distance