jesselillis

Identify route they were left at the base of (or shoe make and model) and I will mail them back to you.

Thanks JBo6- they were my first go-to (after emailing Dynafit customer service), but they did not have the part. They suggested I trade-in the remainder of the heel piece with them for credit towards a new heel unit. I'm going to hold out for a bit in hopes that there are entrepreneur-ing folks out there that have made after market replacements (and that I can find those persons!).

Thanks Bronco, their site looks promising, fingers crossed while I wait for a reply to the email I just sent them!

Dynafit Vertical ST binding I snapped the heel tower (where the tower meets the plastic plate that caps the heel piece). Any ideas on how/where to replace this bit? Thanks!

Last year I bought Silverettas to access climbs in Quebec, seemed like a killer solution to avoiding carrying two pair of boots or slowshoeing 16 miles into Parc Jacques Cartier. I used them once on a short approach to make sure they didn't fall apart (they did a bit, but probably because my DIN is too low/I am terrified of them breaking my ankle- anyhow they go back together easily). Then I brought them to PJC and skiied 16 miles on them and they absolutely destroyed my heels- biggest blisters of my life. Imagine your entire heel was a blister. Obviously my ice boots don't articulate like my AT boots. What is the solution? I tried looser, I tried tighter, neither seemed to help.

Any current-ish wisdom on the availability/safe functionality of a chemical treatment to apply a dry coating (water repellent coating) to the sheath of a dry rope that no longer acts as a dry rope? I noticed Backcountry.com no longer sells Nikwax Dry Proof...

What is the string loop on the rear of the BD aspect harness for? I realize one could use it for a chalk bag or as an extra racking loop, but it doesn't seem specifically designed for either of those purposes.

Two friends and I are planning to climb the upper West Rib of Denali (West Buttress to 14K). We're not sure if we'll down climb the upper West Rib (and return to our high camp and then 14K), or do a carryover (climbing the upper West Rib with our high camp gear, descending back to 14K on the West Buttress). Conditions and our comfort en route may make the decision for us. I'd like to hear from anyone who has down climbed the upper West Rib. Feel free to post or PM me.

thanks fromage (name well chosen my friend, how often i regret my own selection...). i hate sounding like a tool. most of the time. bizarrely sometimes i don't. i'm not sure what drives those moments. perhaps toxoplasmosis. in any case, now i'm well equipped with the vernacular to come across as a tool or not, as i choose. tips also much appreciated.

Looking to re-waterproof the outer layer of a GTX hardshell pant. It's GTX so I don't actually get wet, but the layer above the membrane holding water can make for some cold, heavy pants. I've seen recs for this brand: Granger's. REI sells 4 of their products (1 spray, 3 washes): -XT Proofer Waterproof Spray -Performance Wash -One Step Wash and Waterproof -Performance Waterproofer. Not sure which, or what combo might work best. Any experience to share? Or with other similar products? (NikWax?) Thx

Climbing Denali. Leaving things at home is definitely an option, but I'd like to consider it amongst alternatives.

I'd like to recharge ipod, some fancy phone, kindle, things of that nature while out and about for a few weeks. I found product 'solar focus battery bank', which sounded perfect, but based on reviews appears to be debilitatingly inefficient. Are there solutions other than solar panels?

Team of 3. Planning to bring a 60m, diameter TBD. Light is good (8mm?), but so thin that prussiking out of a crevasse is agony is less good. Dry treatment probably necessary since the thing will be getting dragged across snow/ice for the length of the entire route twice? Or dry treatment doesn't matter since it will be worn off after dragging the rope up the first 2000 feet, twice? What do you recommend? Or what did you use, and as a result what did you wish you had used?

Team of 3. Planning to bring 2 stoves. One MSR XKG based on multiple recommendations Considering a different (quieter?) model for the second. Recommendations? Anyone have experience with a MSR Whisperlight at elevation? Wind, cold or altitude have any disastrous effects?

Thanks all for your insights. I'm still not sure what we'll do, but we'll definitely be considering the points you've raised.

Polling the masses. Climbing Denali with 2 others (West Rib Cutoff) For shelter, bringing -2 bivy sacks for emergencies -1 Megalight and floor for kitchen/backup shelter if our group divides -1 4season, 3person OR 4person tent. 4person. Pro: Bigger, Less hating each other while storm/tent bound. Con: heavy. 3person: Pro: better for a party of two if one stays in the Megalight at 14000. Lighter. Con: less space, more frustration when tent bound. Which would you bring? I also don't see many 4person 4season tents on standard online retail sites. Make/model recommendations appreciated.

Have these changed at all in 5 years? What's different between the 2008-9 model and the current one?

Right now I have a cable tie through the tongue attachment point of my Spirit 3 boots, and the Dynafit cable leash attached to that. The leash extends and clips to the nylon strap/metal ring which is attached to my Dynafit binding (tour/ski toe lever). The idea is the cable tie breaks if I give it a good enough yank, so the skis don't anchor me down in an avalanche. But the zip tie has now broken on three separate non-avalanche occasions. If you have a better breakable leash setup, please describe it for me. Elsewise, I'll just look for a beefier cable tie that still fits through the tongue attachment point. I'm disinclined from breaks. Though I'm also disinclined from losing skis. So... Thanks

I'm planning to climb Denali this summer. I'm looking to connect with some folks that have climbed it (and worked out all the logistics on their own), that I can bounce questions off of. I won't abuse your goodwill, should you agree. PM me if you're willing.

Trip: Mt. Slesse - NE Buttress Date: 7/27/2012 Trip Report: NE Buttress- Mt. Slesse: Trip Report July 27-29, 2012; with Seth Bushinsky 60-second overview Between July 27 and 29 Seth and I climbed Mt. Slesse, in Chiliwack, British Colombia. Friday, we approached below the north glacier, and climbed the Northeast Buttress (NEB) from it's toe to the midway bivy ledge. Pitches to the buttress crest were strenuous and largely choked with vegetation. Weather moved in shortly before reaching the crest, reducing visibility to less than 50m for the remainder of the day. Several pitches of good climbing (much of it simul-climbing) took us (into the night) and to the large bivy ledge half way up the climb. Saturday morning again several pitches of fun and variably scenic (low cloud deck and sky islands) rock took us to the summit by late afternoon. Due to time of day, limited visibility and anticipated descent challenges, we changed our plan from the crossover descent (CD) to the standard (west-side) descent (SD). We descended via numerous rappels and oftentimes-obscure trails to campsites at 5800ft and slept there. Sunday we continued to descend 2000+ feet to the old road bed, then out on old forest road and eventually Slesse Creek Road (SCR). We hitchhiked from the intersection of SCR and Chiliwack Lake Road (CLR), back to the car. Pretrip planning Seth and I both read numerous trip reports and route descriptions prior to this trip (namely Becky, Nelson, Kearney and Abegg). I thought as a result we would encounter less complications than we did. Additionally we made numerous inquiries into the nature of the pocket glacier (has caused fatalities in recent years) and discussed at length the best decent strategy, ultimately opting for the cross-over. Approach Thursday Left Seattle around 1845 Thursday, stopped for dinner, arriving in Chiliwack ~2130. Pulled over by police and cited for speeding; first alerted to rescue in operation for WA climbers on Slesse. Officer offered no additional information and was of unpleasant disposition, so we made no further inquiries (later learned my good friend Peter was amongst them, though, circuitously, as a result of assisting another party in distress). Continuing to trailhead (TH) on Nesakwatch Creek Road (NCR), we encountered a lone S&R personnel, who could only add the party was now more than 24 hours past expected return time (no knowledge of which route), that Mt. Slesse is 'unforgiving' and that 'people die up there all the time'. S&R additionally offered that taking my Impreza to the Slesse TH would result in 'carnage' to the vehicle. Of course we tried anyhow, and of course he was correct. Cross ditches for drainage would prevent most vehicles without 8+ inches clearance from passing without scraping/worse. We returned to the Wind River (WR) camp area and slept at a pullout littered with spent ammunition, resigned to a 3 mile longer-than-expected approach. Friday Up at 0400, moving by 0500M. We drove to pullout before first cross ditch and start hiking up road to TH (road worsened in condition past the four cross ditches we did cross in the car the night prior). Noticeable absence of S&R vehicles. Arrived at Mt. Slesse TH without seeing a car, so presumably missing climbers got out while we were sleeping. Noticing we had three cameras between us (two point and shoot, one DSLR), Seth opted to stash his at TH. An hour hike (non-eventful) brought us to excellent views of Slesse, our route and the pocket glacier. Took crossover trail from this point (obvious sign), down to Slesse N-face drainage, intending to take this up to the base of our route. Instead wound up taking much of crossover route descent upwards though forest. Realizing this, at 0800 (and at similar elevation to route base) we cut off from trail towards base of NEB. Rather than taking our intended line (yellow in first picture below) we took a much less direct approach that crossed directly below the north glacier. Less than an hour after crossing (as we were racking up for pitch 1), the north glacier shed pieces large enough to knock climbers from their path. Base of climb at 1000. Narrative of climb Friday I wish I had made even brief notes as to character of each pitch along with notes on times. Next time. The first pitches up from the toe were very much vegetated. Sometimes to ridiculous extremes. Overcast all day after 1300. Visibility down to 50ft after ~1700. Climbing into night to reach large bivy ledge and snow for water. Saturday Woke to low cloud deck and sky islands, cloud deck ~500 feet below us. The clouds ascended as we did, but more quickly. The photos below are separated in time by about 30 minutes. Cool rainbow halos. Summit around 1530 Narrative of Descent/Return to car Saturday We rapped down a couloir immediately below our summit point (not the true summit, had a 60m climbing rope and a 30m tagline). And then followed that by another three or so. Reaching a large shelf we tried walking off (skiers left), but found ourselves quickly rappelling again. Four more rappels and eventually we reached the snow in the col, we opted to take (what we believed to be) the less complicated, traditional descent (despite our car being on the NCR), in hopes of reaching a road before dark and avoiding the snow of unknown character in low-to-no light. Trails of variable likeliness (at one point steering clear through a tree in an idyllic bivy site) eventually took us down to the 5800' alp, where we gave up on our intent to get out that night, and bivied. Sunday Similarly impish trails disappeared and reappeared as we descended down the ridge towards Slesse Creek. I ran out of food at breakfast, Seth never ran out. Lacking any confidence that we were on the prescribed descent we continued plodding confident (well, at least more confident that we were of other things) at least we were moving in the correct direction. At what our GPS told us was almost 1000 feet lower (2900) than we expected (3800), we found an old forest road perpendicular to our descent and followed this until it turned to old gravel roadbed, and eventually into the blast-site dominated SCR. Ideally we'd have dropped a car or bike here, but those plans we not laid, leaving us with a bit of an extra walk. For the next two hours I was surprised every 2-4 minutes that hitchhiking in Canada is as poorly received as it seemed to be. Ultimately a gracious gentleman and his son gave us a ride, all the way back to our vehicle and even brought Seth back to the TH (not without some scraping) to retrieve his camera. Additional subjective bits - 1/2L water is too little to climb with - two 60m ropes or a single rope and a 60m tag line would have saved us some hassle on rappel (we brought one 60m 8.5mm double rope and a 30m 6mm tagline) Gear Camping- bivy sac, light sleeping bag, blowup pad, jetboil Climbing- 40L pack, 60m 8.5mm rope, 30m 6mm tagline, BD cams .3-3 (doubles 0.5-1), BD nuts 4-11 and Metolius Astro nuts 1-6, 3 pitons, 8 alpine draws, 3 double length runners, 2 quickdraws, BD couloir harness, katoonah spikes and petzl aztar ice tool Time/Feature Summary/notes time landmark/event Thursday 1845 leave Seattle 2130 Chiliwack, speeding citation 2200 chat with S&R 2230 discover extent of cross gullies 2300 camping at Wind River pullout Friday 0400 get up 0500 leave campsite 0515 start hiking up Nesakwatch Rd towards Slesse TH 0600 arrive at Slesse TH (no car), Seth leaves camera 0700 Crossover trail junction 0800 break from crossover trail descent trail, and through brush in direction of route 0915 cross under north glacier 1000 start climbing route 1050 J top of P1 1115 S start P2 1145 S top of P2 1200 J starts P3 [magic carpet] 1245 J top of P3 1310 S starts P4 1350 J starts P5 (simul) 1420 S starts P6 (simul, ALL TREES) 1440 S leads another (P7, simul) 1515 J reaches buttress P8 (simul) 1640 S at top of P9 (his lead) 1720 J top P10 1800 S top P11 1945 J top of P12 (possible link of 5.8, 5.10, 5.9) 2015 S leads up tiny bit for better anchors (P13) 2055 J leads short section to 'beautiful ledge' (P14) 2135 J leads another short section to base of 5.8 layback crack (P15) 2210 J leads crack to 'gigantic' bivy ledge (P16) 2230 S to gigantic bivy ledge (snow, thank god) 2345 to bed Saturday 0630 get up- sore as heck 0900 S starts us out from bivy (simul, P17) 1000 J starts up first of 4 'summit' pitches described in Becky (5.7, P18) 1030 J at top of P18 1055 S starts up 2nd of 4 'summit pitches' (P19) 1125 S at top P19 1220 J at top of 3rd of 4 summit pitches (P20) S leads up above (P21, maybe off -route a bit?, lots of lichen) J leads P22 to a ledge S leads P23 J leads P24 to summit (after taking a lead fall (foothold broke) at the base of it and decking- ouch) 1540 summit! 1600 S at summit 1800 after 5(?) rappels, start walking down towards col (about even elevation with slender gendarme) 1945 after short walk, sketchy downclimb (J) and 2-4 (J,S) variably sketchy rappels, reach snow below NW of Slesse, opt for normal descent 2130 5800ft alp and campsites, make bivy 2230 sleeping Sunday 0630 get up 0745 start descending 0930 descent stops, start traversing Northward on something like a game trail, parallel to creek still far below 1030 game trail becomes graveled 1110 reach paved road, blasting site and signs for Slesse Creek TH 1220 reach 5540 Chiliwack Lake Road, start hitchhiking attempts 1320 catch a ride 1340 arrive back at car 1420 Seth returns from extra trip back to TH to retreive camera

I've just moved to Montreal. I'm looking for the Montreal/Quebec equivalent of Whitelaw's 'Weekend Rock' (Washington), which was the first guidebook I purchased when I moved to Seattle 5 years ago, and I found invaluable in getting my bearings as to where the climbing was, what sort was in each place, etc. Anyone have any ideas?

Trip: Bugaboo Provincial Park - Date: 8/4/2012 Trip Report: Bugaboos: Trip Report August 3-11, 2012; with Dan Nelson 30-second overview Between August 3 and 11, Dan and I climbed in the Bugaboos Provincial Park in BC. We had a phenomenal combination of good weather and good luck. We climbed W. Ridge on Pigeon (awesome), McTech Arete on Cresent Spire (good), Wildflowers on Snowpatch (dirty, but still good), and Becky-Choinard (B-C) on South Howser Tower (exhausting/awesome). Drive, Parking lot and Approach Left Friday evening. Bivied off some random bit of road in Idaho and finished drive Saturday, arriving in parking lot sometime around 1300. The parking lot had a lot of cars in it (est. 70 Scant chicken wire remained for porcupine-proofing car tires, spent some time foraging for sticks and rocks to support such. Took off on trail around 1500 with packs easily weighing 80+ (lots of good food and way too many ropes). Approach straightforward, hot, took maybe 2.45 hrs. A helicopter landed almost immediately after we arrived and picked up a young woman from a guided (hiking?) party with a leg injury. Hut We opted to stay in the hut. Despite 2.5x the cost of camping at Applebee ($25/person/night v $10/person/night), and longer approaches, we prioritized not being uncomfortable should notorious Bugs weather come in, and carrying no stoves/tents/etc. The hut has electric outlets, toasters, stovetops, cookware, copies of the Atkinson guidebook for sale (42CAN), and a bin of 'scrap paper' that is really printouts of route descriptions (some laminated) left by parties that have since departed (very handy). The hut is (as expected) noisy; earplugs are essential. Climbs (approaches and descents) Our number 1 objective was B-C, a route we expected to challenge us in numerous ways, as well as receiving the high praise of just about everyone we knew who had climbed it. It took us a few days to get to it, and then we were too spent to do anything else. Sunday-Pigeon, W. Ridge (5.4)- We opted to do this route on our first day to get a bit of the lay of the land. The Atkinson book recommended climbing it to scope the descents on Bugaboo, Snowpatch, Crescent, etc. The Bugaboo Col was in terrific condition: 40 minutes from hut (0700) to base (0740), another 20 to get up it (0800), and another 60 min to get to base of Pigeon (0900). Three parties were ahead of us on route, another arrived shortly after us and another shortly after them. Despite the cluster of folks, the route is mellow enough to accommodate numerous parties on slight variations of the same route. Dan and I simul-climbed and passed two parties pitching it out, while one party behind us (free-soloing) passed us. Overall a terrific route with great views; simul-climbing it took us 2 hours to summit. As indicated (Atkinson?), likely the best 5.4 I've ever climbed. Descent backtracks route, straightforward (passed two more parties ascending, and one descending). There is a throne-style toilet at the base of this climb (nice view), in response to numerous folks using that area for that sort of business (also one at top of Bugaboo/Snowpatch Col). Monday- Crescent Spire, McTech Arete (5.10)- This was our second climb to give us an idea of what 5.10 in the Bugs feels like, without committing to a lot of pitches (5). The approach here is a little quicker, 30 minutes to Applebee (0630) from the Kain hut (0600), and another 40 to the base of the Tower (0710, shorter if you trust the ice on the lake). We were fortunate to be the first party, two others arrived while I was leading the first pitch. It's a good route, the 5.10 pitch is definitely the best one, and the 5.9 dihedral/roof pitch is a good long one. A party of 4 shooting new BD gear followed us up and made for good conversation at the belays. Apparently having a testicle removed will greatly augment the comfort of your harness. We summited around 1230, after reading mountainsloth's TR, I was hoping to catch Dan tearing up at the top, but no such luck. Descent straightforward from chains at top. Tuesday- Snowpatch, Wildflowers (5.9)- We'd intended to do B-C next, but some weather was coming in so we opted for something less committing, and figured this would be a good way to get our transitions dialed on sustained 5.9. This climb is also on the Mt. Project classic climbs list. I don't think it should be. The route is covered in lichen and a fair bit of it is loose. It is in the shade for most of the day, which makes it cold, and it is slow to dry. The last pitch is wacky and fun, but one of our ropes got stuck while I was leading (no doubt could have been avoided, but resulted in an awkward anchor in flaring cracks with crappy pro), which made me bitter towards the climb. Nevertheless, it is a decent route that is worth doing if you don’t mind some funk and dirt. Most of the climbing is quite good, just don’t expect perfect clean cracks the whole way. Views are nice from Snowpatch summit. Similar approach as Pigeon (up to Bugaboo/Snowpatch col, then traverse under West face until reaching base of route, ~75 minutes from Kain). Descent is 6 or 7 single rope rappels (we avoided double rope rappels where we could, hoping to avoid stuck ropes) down back to base. The rap line is clean, easy and straightforward with new bolted stations. Luckily no storms, though a significant crevasse opened on the Crescent glacier (ascending to the Bugaboo/Snowpatch Col). Wednesday- rest day. Snowpatch took us longer than we'd hoped (Dan says we should have taken the IV grade more seriously), and weather was again supposed to come in. It did. Showers and hail storms intermittently through the day. I read through all the 'scrap-paper' iterations of beta for the BC route. Dan watched movies on his iphone. Thursday- S.Howser Tower, Becky-Choinard (5.10)- Here we go! Knowing that we are not 'fast' climbers, and opting for more time to screw things up with less pressure from the dark and fatigue (and to be on the summit with some light in the sky and be able to easily see rap stations), we decided to bring gear to bivy on the pitch 10 ledge... yup, heavy packs (6L water, bivy gear, food, ice axes, crampons, etc.). We left Kain hut at 0300, 0630 E. Crk bivy (last water). We started roped climbing close to 0800. The pitches were varied and fun. After the first crux pitch (5.9 small roof/flake move), I screwed up my lead by taking us up the wrong crack. Having received some beta from another party that several of the 5.8 pitches felt like 5.10, I pressed on, thinking I was just being soft, until I found myself pulling on a piece, and then another, and then barely able to get in my finger tips. Sometime around then, I realized I should have traversed to the dihedral crack about 50 feet lower. I climbed the crack furthest climbers left (closest to the top of the photo above). We reached the pitch 10 ledge around 2000, enjoyed the sunset and set up our bivies. We we blessed with a warm, dry night. Friday- Got started at 0830, the 5.10 wide crack felt hard on early-morning cramped up muscles, but was mercifully short. I was disappointed not to be able to enjoy this pitch, but suppose that's one of the trade-offs of overnighting on route. The remaining pitches were similarly varied and progressively more enjoyable as our bodies warmed and the heavy follower pack lightened. At some point my shoes decided to crap out, both laces broke and the leather of one blew). From the top of the chimney above the 5.10+ crux move (1520), we found the rappel followed by 200-300 ft of 4th with some 5th moves, to be challenging enough to merit roping up. Talking to others and reading enough TRs it seems as if this is not uncommon. When the book says ‘mostly 4th with some 5th class moves’ I usually interpret this to mean low 5th, while here it’s more like 5.8, or it at least feels that way by the time you’re up there. Arrived on the summit around 1800. The rappels (on (1) 70m double rope) went unexpectedly well, largely due to our mutual scrutiny of the 'new' (2008) rappel route. Some of those stations would be tough to find without such scrutiny, and doing it in the daylight definitely helped. Back on the Vowell glacier by 2030 and to the hut by 2245. bergshrund Saturday- pack up and go. We'd planned to either climb Bugaboo N. Ridge (if we got back early and felt good), Surf's Up (if we got back less early and felt ok) or go home (if we got back late and felt less than ok). With little motivation and an impending drive cross-country a few days later, we opted to head out and start the drive back Seattle. Left the hut around 1000 (carrying way more food than we'd hoped), back to car by 1145 (no porcupine damage). Was surprised by the chaos of chicken wire (far fewer cars), that was more or less strewn about and in unusable condition, despite signage requesting rolling and stacking in pens designed for such. Back in Seattle sometime in the early AM Sunday. Gear notes and mishaps I only brought 1.5L water capacity. To climb with 3L for B-C, I had to scrounge water containers. Approach shoes + aluminum crampons were fine for footwear. We didn’t use the #4 or #5 camalots that we brought. Things that were not needed Soap (plenty at the hut) Battery charger (hut has electricity) There are a lot of places to visit, a lot of places to climb. Usually I favor the new over the wonderful, but already experienced. But this place... I'll be back.

I occasionally climb alpine climbs with one (not two) double (aka: half) rope. 60m, 8.1-8.5mm (depending on who owns them). Is this unsafe? I gather that a second rope (of any diameter) offers a margin of safety in the event of catastrophic rope failure- either when rock fall cuts a rope, or a rope is cut over a sharp edge during a lead fall (I don't think either happens often). I also gather that folks like to have two ropes for double length rappels. I tend to avoid these as I have a knack for getting ropes (especialy skinny ones!) stuck. So in the absense of catastropic failure (would those failures really be so much less likely on a rope rated as a 'single'?) and acknowledging the inability for long rappels, are there other reasons (I'm primarily looking for reasons related to safety, not convenience or economy of rope life) to avoid climbing with just one double rope?

Is there a sufficient chicken wire cache at the parking lot that I can bank on there being some when I get there to wrap my car? [Just to clarify I am not asking if I need to use it (I plan to); I'm asking if I need to bring my own, or if there is sufficient discarded wire on hand that I can use that] Thanks

Trip: Dragontail - Backbone Ridge Date: 6/25/2012 Trip Report: Backbone Ridge- Dragontail Trip Report June 25-26, 2012; with Seth Bushinsky Pre-trip planning/events Seth and I had hoped to climb Slesse but opted not to after consideration of weather and recommendations of cc.com old-timers (concerns regarding pocket glacier); maybe we'll give it a go next month. Backbone ridge was on a list of climbs we could probably do in a day, but since we had two, we envisioned a link up of Dragontail and then Stanley-Burgner Route on Prussik, which would mean carrying full packs up and over on Backbone Ridge. 30 second summary Drove to Leavenworth Monday night and slept at Stuart Lake TH. Hiked into Apline Lakes Wilderness early Tuesday morning, and got shut down by weather/route condition on Backbone ridge. Spent most of day sleeping at Colchuck Lake. Better weather Wednesday allowed us to to climb it, though we may have been off route for as much as the first half of the climb. Totally missed out on Prussik. Backbone Ridge Pitches our climb broke down like this: Started at notch between start of Serpentine and Backbone ridge. P1 Jesse on lead, up 200 feet easy scrambling, bring up Seth. P2 Seth on lead, start simul-climbing towards cleaner rock on climbers right side of the crest P3 Switch over lead, still simul-climbing, some icy slabs (stayed right of crest from here to P6) P4 Notch forces us onto steeper terrain, sketchy pitch of broken rock, shallow cracks and ice P5 Climbing between side of crest and slabs, lots of easy terrain with a few fun chimney/offwidth moves P6 Seth takes lead to bring us on to top of crest P7 Seth on lead, simul-climb to base of fin P8 Seth takes first pitch of fin P8.5 Switch leads, Jesse up to base of 'twin crack' pitch P9 Jesse leads up twin cracks P10 Short pitch to flake/block, with some fun moves P11 Long fun pitch starts with finger crack and tricky feet, then traverses under huge block on big crack for feet, then to vertical offwidth P12 Last awesome pitch traverses across top of fin to a notch with feet in good crack and hands either in crack or scumming along fin; pitch through notch (to other side of fin) P13 Seth leads off, short section on cold (shaded) side of fin, before turning through another notch back to sunny side. P14 A short exposed step, and then a simul-scramble to the summit Narrative of climb Ruined this section up by not writing it up before taking off for Wonderland trail. Neither of us had a good picture of what the route looked like, so we missed the early traverse leftwards and the classic offwidth- this might have been snow-covered still, but maybe that's just wishful thinking. Instead we climbed the seam/slabs at the junction of the slabs and the right side of the crest until we were forced up onto the crest. From there we climbed along the crest to the fin and then got back on route as best we could. The fin pitches were the most fun (relatively clean rock, free of ice, only a few patches of snow), though they ended awkwardly traversing to the shaded side of the fin and back again, ultimately to a steep scramble on mixed terrain to the summit. While I'm pretty sure we were on N&P's route for some of the Fin, I think we may have taken a different crack system at some point. The vertical offwidth we encountered (to make up for the one we missed!) was too notable/enjoyable/long to not be in the pitch by pitch description we were "following". Descent: walk off South side of Dragontail back to Aasgard Pass, then back down to lake, took less than an hour due to snow in excellent glissade conditions. Back to car: the return to the TH was surprisingly easy. mellow, fairly rapid. Back to Seattle: Seth drove, so I only had to try and stay awake. Variably successful. Other If you're going to miss the offwidth pitch that needs a #5 for protection there really is no need to go buy a #5 the night before the climb… Time/Event Summary time landmark/event Tuesday 0030 Stuart Lake TH, sleep in parking lot 0545 get up 0630 start hiking, overcast 0700 bridge over creek 0720 Colchuck trail split, light rain 0815 arrive at S end of lake, overcast, light rain 0930 top of morraine, even with base of Serpentine and Backbone routes, lots of snow and wind, leave packs to go check out base of climbs 1030 back at packs and opt to attempt Serpentine 1130 abandon attempts (ice, snow, wind) 1300 campsite by colchuck, set up tent, etc. 1400 down for 'nap' 2030 up from 'nap', dinner 2215 down for bed Wednesday 0700 up, clear and cold → GO 0800 leave camp 1000 200 ft up route, SB takes off (P2) as leader simul climbing/scrambling 1120 notch between clean rock above and slabby broken rock we had been scrambling. P3 Switch simul lead, some easy slab, but lowest angle bits have ice on them. Crest wall and slabs forces us steeply upwards, time to pitch it out: P4-broken shallow cracks, wet and scary; P5- | slabs and sidewall of crest, some interesting offwidth/chimney moves 1330 P6- SB takes lead, 1 pitch brings us to top of crest, P7 simul to base of fin 1400 SB starts up first pitch on fin on lead (P8), JCL leads short section of P8.5 1525 bottom of P9 (fin P3, twin cracks to ledge) 1625 JCL to top of P10 (fin P4, had a couple sporty moves, some insecure rock) which led off from left side of ledge at top of P9 1650 SB to top of P10 (fin-P4); J up P11 (most fun pitch, traverse+offwidth) 1715 JCL at end of traversing P12 (now on shady side of fin); SB takes lead (P13) back to sunny side; P14 is a simul to the summit 1830 summit 1930 top of asgaard pass 2030 back in camp (glissading made descent fast!) 2130 hiking 2215 colchuck TH split 2300 car, quick scare on car battery 0200 back in Seattle Gear Notes: 50L pack, no avy gear, 60m 8.4mm rope, BD cams .3-5, nuts 4-11, 8 alpine draws, 2 quick draws, 3 double-length runners, whippet, katoonah spikes