northvanclimber

My buddy and I were just up there the last couple days. I'd say you'd want a vehicle with decent clearance for the drive it as there are some pretty good water bars along the way... But for what it's worth, my forester got right up to the trailhead no prob. Was cold last night. probably lows around 2 celcius at the memorial.

was on honeyman falls last weekend. right side was good! didn't go all the way to the top as the gusher up high was sending out quite the spray. hit rambles right too and everything was fairly thin and/or small, but you could definitely get on stuff. we often stay at the mile-O. it's okay...

Lol, the foreshortening is quite deceiving in the photo. the mushrooms (especially on the right) were freaking huge and very challenging to get through with discontinuous and chandeliered ice everywhere. I bailed halfway up...

+1 Here's what it looked like when I was there in late 2010:

i've stopped going on the long weekends. just too busy. any other time in spring or fall is great though. but, warning to our american drivers, gas is around 1.40/litre around here. I think that works out to over 5/gallon... and that's in canadian dollars. so, i think it works out to about 12 bucks american

Not closed up by any means! New parking lot (note that the directions are different now), you don't have to pay anymore, and for better or worse, the new approach is shorter and has almost no elevation gain! get 'er done!

no argument here

nice work dude. nice to see that some people are still willing to go have an adventure.

munters definately have their time and place (like after you've lost/dropped your ATC). Twice now i've had partners either drop their device or just discover it's missing right before starting a series of raps. I learned to multi-pitch using a munter and while it works just fine, the convenience of an autoblocker can't be beat. speacking of which, I really like my BD guide. but then again i typically use either a 9.8 or half ropes and so like the extra friction. my old reverso developed a knife like edge on the top after a couple years of wear. scary...

many areas along the duffy lake seem remarkably dry this year. anybody able to speculate why? seems odd since it's been reasonably cold and (compared to last year, where the fall was very dry) I presume there would have been plenty of water available for freezing up. the upper tier of rambles center was bone dry the other day when i went up there...

the rates at the mile-o have gone up: 75/night with climbers discount i believe. still a bit cheaper than other places...

did the climb on thursday and i'd say the first pitch was a 5.9 that feels like a 10a. The crux moves come early in the pitch when you're still a little sleepy and haven't had a chance to really warm up. At least the new rating will give climbers a heads up that the first pitch will require some effort, which you might not be expecting from a 5.8...... at least it protects well!

The approach across the glacier to the bottom of the climb can get pretty chewed up by September. I've done it in both July and August and early/mid july was certainly easier, especically under the darkness of night.

yeah, 99% of the time this is exactly how things progress, so as the second you can pretty much guess with good confidence what the leader is doing. still only a guess, but what else are you gonna do, wait for a sign from god?

So what's up with the Sleese Creek Road these days. Your TR says that it was locked at Chilliwack road. does anyone know if its permanently locked these days to keep out the riff raff or can you get a key??