sparverius

very nice you guys

yes, this weekend is a perfectly good time to watch the yanks get their asses handed to them in S. Africa

I am looking for someone to climb with at Tieton tomorrow, monday the 31st. I have all the necessary gear and live in Mount Rainier NP (Longmire). I can drive as well or meet someone from the east side there.

1. Date: Monday 5/31 2. Destination: Tieton 3. Origination: Longmire 4. number in party: 1 5. if you can drive or not (and the mpg of your car if so): Yes, 20 mpg, and can fit 2 more people and lots of gear. Am also looking for someone to climb with on this day.

Marblemount diner. Their fish and chips are a great post suffer-fest feast.

I am going to be in the Bariloche area the last two weeks in February and would like to climb at Cerro Catedral as a warm up for more committing climbs south. I'll then head south to the Chalten area the first three weeks in March. On my radar are the Aiguilles Mermoz, Guillamet, and De La S, the Franco-Argentine route, or anything up to and including TD.

I'm going to be in Patagonia Feb 17 - March 23 and am looking for alpine partners. I will be based out of Bariloche in Northern Patagonia and am interested in climbing at Valle Cochamo as well as some of the climbs out of Bariloche. I am also considering a trip to either Torres del Paine or the Fitz Roy range, but have yet to get my hands on a guidebook or map for the area.

Having bacon in a crevasse is a little extravagant. But there was that guy that pulled out two whoppers on Liberty Ridge a few years ago.

way to slay the beast

Here's to hoping they find TJ soon, or he finds them. At least there is good weather forecasted through the weekend.

I concur with Gene. Don't have any exposed skin. I got minor frostbite on my face in the whites years ago. It's also the only place I've climbed where the wind has physically moved me. Be prepared. It looks like you've been given some good advice thus far.

This is great news. Now pray for ice in the gullies

count me in for one Steph

Josh, your "climbing heart" prevailed, as did your lower intestines. Well done.

the last pitch on pilgrimage adds the adventure climbing flavor to the route. I agree that those headwall pitches are among the top for their grade, though I was too hosed to enjoy the last pitch. I skipped the gendarme pitches on stuart, unfortunately, so I can't compare.

no wasps in Cathedral Fork, though we camped near a snag at Cathedral Lake that had a big hive. I'm curious if you've exited both ways from Cathedral lakes and have a preference?

Trip: Cathedral Provincial Park and Pasayten Wilderness - MMG Traverse, Cathedral (SEB), Pilgrimage to Mecca Date: 8/23/2009 Trip Report: Donn and I headed up to the Cathedral Provincial Park and Pasayten Wilderness for my last major trip of the summer before heading back to the honkey tonks. The approaches and general travel were a welcomed change from some of the N. cascades sufferfests we’d been through this summer. Our main objective was the SE Buttress of Cathedral, which was put up in 1973 by Pete Doorish and Glen Wilson. Glen was Donn’s buddy from high school and boy scouts and first introduced him to climbing in 1970. We approached via the Ashnola River Road and parked at the 39 K sign, just next to the foot bridge. The hike into wall creek took us about 4 hours and was a moderate uphill on a good trail through lodgepole tinderbox. We took the first fork on the centennial trail @ 1.5 hours after leaving the car and were soon at our campsite at the base of grimface. We’d heard conflicting reports of how long the Matriarch Macabre Grimface traverse took, so we decided to give it a go our first afternoon. We climbed scree fields to the ridge just southeast of Matriarch’s summit and roped up. The climbing was easy and fun and the setting was superb. The traverse begins with an exposed 5.4 (short) section leading up to the bolt ladder and webbing ladder. Just beyond the ladder we arrived at the summit block of Matriarch. It presents several options, and we chose the tight 5.3 chimney that Donn led elegantly. Most of the traverse was class 3 and 4 scrambling along the ridge. photo by Donn There was an exciting, but easy chimney that lead up to Grimface's summit and was a good way to cap off the traverse. Deluxe bivy sites abounded on this route, and I was especially fond of this one near grimface’s summit. The entire traverse took us about 3 hours, or 4.5 hours tent to tent. The rock was solid and the late evening sun turned the fine granite a glowing yellow. It was a short scramble from Grimface's summit to an enjoyable scree surf back down to camp. The traverse is a good way to spend a half day if you’re up wall creek. Better descriptions of the traverse can be found on MVS’s TR: http://www.mountainwerks.org/cma/2005/grimface.htm as well as this one: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/581962 The next day was a travel day, as we left wall creek, scrambling climbers right of the Deacon onto a nice heather plateau that gave us great views, espcecially of the MMG traverse We descended into the Cathedral Fork Valley and had relatively easy climbing to upper cathedral lake. It took us less than a half day to travel from our camp near grimface to cathedral lake. We rested and gazed at the many butrresses of Amphitheatre mountain and even looked for a path that would lead us away from lower cathedral lake at the end of our trip. Wednesday morning dawned clear and cold and we made a leisurely start towards the SE buttress of Cathedral. The first pitch was a wake up call for me, as it was more strenous than expected. photo by Donn The second pitch was a chimney that required passing behind and then over a chockstone. photo by Donn The rock was pretty solid and enjoyable. I think we climbed it in 12 pitches, two of them being very short. There were nice ledges at nearly every belay. Fighting off hand cramps, we tackled the final headwall pitches, with Donn leading the first fun pitch, while I scratched and clawed my way up the 5.10a finger crack. photo by Donn photo by Donn The summit was spacious and gave us a good view down to upper Cathedral Lake. photo by Donn The hike off was a bit of a scramble, exposed in one or two places, followed by more knee-preserving scree surfing. The next day we decided to climb Pilgrimage to Mecca on the Ka’aba buttress of Amphitheatre mountain, first climbed by Darrin and Owen 5 years ago. The climb follows the cracks on the left side of the buttress. The approach was about 20 minutes and the climb starts on a block at the base of the buttress. photo by Donn We climbed it in four pitches, and all but the last pitch were outstanding. I got apparently off route on the last pitch and had to downclimb 60 feet to avoid a loose block. photo by Donn We took a variation on the second pitch that Darrin recommended, but hadn’t tried himself. It was capped by a sweet 5.8 lieback. Unfortunately, the lower half of this pitch was guarded by a six foot tall loose flake that I had to dance around. Donn tried to kick it off as he seconded, but was unable to get it from above. It could likely be dislodged from the side by the second, but presents a real danger to anyone trying to climb that variation again. The third pitch was another fun one, a sweet 5.8+ dihedral. We didn’t linger on the summit for too long since we had some work ahead of us on the hike out. We opted for the ill-advised Cathedral Fork route instead of the scenic highland stroll up and then down to Wall Creek. There was fierce blowdown en route, and morale reached its nadir for the trip. But there were clean stretches along game trails and we managed to get back to the car just over 6 hours after leaving the lake. We saw one couple at Cathedral Lake, and otherwise did not encounter a soul for four days. It was a great trip in a remote setting with a ton of options for climbing on solid granite. Gear Notes: Medium alpine rack, 60m 9.4 rope, makers mark, pringles Approach Notes: left america and parked on the Ashnola river road. approached wall creek and grimface via the centennial trail and wall creek trail. Deproached via Cathedral Fork Creek

Thanks for the great TR and trip Steph. The highlights for me were our ridge bivy and seeing a pair of peregrines and a golden eagle near the crest on the first day.

I was up there last week and did the crossover descent. There is a sketchy rappel at the second critical routfinding point indicated on the topo. The block seems solid, but there are a lot of large, loose blocks on the rappel route. Be careful. We camped at the crossover pass and found water downhill of the pass (west). It was a stream coming off of a snowfield, draining into a pond. It was a good, clean source, as we were dehydrated at that point. We took a forested/slabby rib down instead of traversing under stumpy hill to the easier gully and ended up doing 4 rappels and some 3rd class to get down to the snow. Once in the trees, we found flagging and a faint trail, which led us left (to avoid the cliffs) and down to the stream. We lost the trail at the stream, but the bushwacking was short to find the trail up near the memorial plaque.

for those interested, the new west kootenays guidebook calls that first pitch a 5.10a, noting that it's new rating is consistent with other 5.10a climbs in the region. Hard to believe that a pitch could jump from 5.7 to 5.10a, but it does seem closer to the latter. And the tricky move around the roof higher up is 5.9, although I thought it was harder than anything else on the route.

Ian, you should do Backbone Ridge next time. It's much more enjoyable than serpentine.

well done. Wonderful photos. Thanks for getting Steve's gear. That means that Steph, Donn, and I are off the hook.

Trip: Mount Redoubt - NE Face Date: 7/17/2009 Trip Report: Donn and I climbed the NE Face of Mt. Redoubt on Friday. I was ready to get back on the horse after the fiasco on Mt. Terror and Donn was eager to climb the face after two aborted attempts in recent years. We were able to drive about 2 miles up the Depot Creek road and crashed there with nary a car in sight. The skeeters were busy and gave us a preview of what was in store for us at Ouzel Lake. The hike in on Friday was reasonable. We arrived at the border after 45 minutes of hiking on an old logging road through 2nd growth forest. photo by Donn Soon after crossing back into the states we passed a posh cave that I wish was available on the N. buttress of terror. We followed a well maintained path through pretty Hemlock old growth forest climbers left of Depot Creek for about 4 miles That put us at the base of the impressive waterfall. I haven't seen a waterfall in the cascades backcountry that matches the sheer volume of this one. Several fixed ropes made the wet slab climbing less intimidating We climbed steep ground through alder, talus, and forest left of the main fall and were cooled by the mist. Soon we were atop the falls in a marshy/meadowy flatland infested with mosquitoes that allowed us first glimpses of the face. Photo by Donn Looking back down Depot Creek Valley and into Canada. From above the waterfalls it was only about 1.5 hours to Ouzel Lake. But we made the mistake of climbing up through alder to the left of the creek when we should have stayed closer to the water. We made it to Ouzel in roughly 5.5 hours from the truck and had the lake to ourselves. We were able to see the top of our route near camp, including the ice apron, arete that connects the apron to the hidden couloir, and the final couloir. photo by Donn photo by Donn The bugs forced us into the tent early and we both had restless nights. I dreamt that I was back in the cave on Terror. But it was more precipitous,and I was tied into a block that kept falling out. Shaking off the nightmares, we crossed an outlet of Ouzel Lake @ 5 a.m., the pain from the cold water bringing us to life. After a short scramble above the Lake we traversed on snow and slabs to the Depot Glacier Donn led us through a maze of crevasses and icefalls to the base of the apron. He set up a belay above one of the bergshrunds and I led up the apron. The snow was in good shape for kicking steps and we simul-climbed the entire apron. Deadmen pickets gave us decent protection and we were able to place screws in the ice under the shallower snow slush we found near the apron's crest. I belayed Donn from a crevasse near the top of the apron and he led the last hundred feet. The apron was about 700 feet of climbing. Donn has some good shots of climbing on the apron. Once on the arete above the apron, Donn led up to it's end and then traversed left and up for about 30 meters to the base of some easy rock climbing that enabled us to bypass the exposed entry into the hidden couloir. Indian paintbrush on the easy rock pitch leading to the hidden couloir After two short pitches of easy climbing we rappelled into the couloir. Donn led up to the right of the couloir for 200 feet, placing protection on the rock before traversing left under the cornice and topping out on the summit crest. The couloir was soft from baking in the sun all morning and was steeper than the apron. Donn started some wet snow slides as he traversed that picked up speed as they harmlessly rushed past me. We down climbed loose third class briefly and then traversed rotten ledges to the intersection of the south side route. We ditched our packs here and simulclimbed up easy ledges, through the cannonhole back to the northside, and then up 100 feet to the summit. The ascent had taken us 10 hours from camp. The views of Bear's North Face and the northern faces of both Picket Ranges were incredible. photo by Donn We did three raps from the summit and then downclimbed back to our packs. Donn rappelling under the cannon hole The descent was straightforward from there, following the path of least resistance back to the snow, which led us all the way back to the Redoubt Glacier. The long walk on the expansive and mellow glacier was enjoyable in the evening light. We made it back to camp 14 hours after setting out for the climb. We feasted and drank cold beers I'd stashed in the snow and scrapped any plans we'd had for slogging up Spickard the next morning. At that time, beers at boundary bay seemed more enticing than a scree fest. We slept for 11 hours and on our hike out the next morning passed at least four parties headed up to the lake. Overall, the climb was an exciting mix of rock, snow, and ice, and was worth the approach. Gear Notes: 60 meter 8mm rope, three pickets, three screws, 4 pitons (used one) handful of nuts, four medium cams (should of brought smaller ones), one axe, one tool, steel crampons, deet, headnet. Approach Notes: Depot Creek road driveable in 4WD up to washout (~2.5 miles up) Trail to base of waterfalls is in good shape, with signs of recent maintenance. Trail from waterfall to Ouzel Lake easy to follow.

Well done fellas. Thanks for the inspirational TR and beta about the gunrunner traverse.

pm sent