skibum1087

Thanks for the info and advice. I have finished the route before and would love to again, but we'll be arriving later in the afternoon and most likely only will have time to climb partway (Which is also a nice excuse for being out of shape). Two ropes it is. Spencer

I am wondering if it is possible to rap from the top of the split back to the base with a 70 instead of taking two ropes? In the squamish select I think it says the pitch is 40 meters, and some of the other raps are long also, but I feel like I have heard others say it can be done. Has anybody tried this out and have any info? Thanks a lot Spencer

I know this has been covered before, but I could not find anything in a search. I am wondering about the details on the rappels from the top of dragontail down to the flats above asgard. Trying to avoid bringing crampons or axes on backbone. Thanks for any info Spencer

Dr Huang at the udub hand center is really good. He has experience dealing with climbers, and seemed to really understand what climbing does to the body and respect my concerns about my ability to climb in the future. I saw him for an A4 pulley rupture. The whole clinic was great as well, very friendly and efficient.

Is that the elusive Allen Henshaw Pre-Memorial? If so, did you approach from the lower parking as for main wall? I have not yet been able to steer myself to it yet...

If you have 70 meter ropes, olive oil (5.7) has good ledges for all of the belays and was quite fun. Also, we did the great red book as a party of three, and although the first belay does not have a great stance, it still accommodated everyone reasonably well due to its fat bolts and chains.

There are some really good mixed lines from 5.8-5.10 on main wall east.Lord of the dance and fiddler on the roof are really fun. Fiddler takes great gear the whole way, and is 5.9. There are about 4 short multipitches in all there.

thanks for the input. We will most likely forgo the hauling. Would I be correct in assuming that once you get to the memorial that there is water availible somewhere between there and the start the the route in that basin area?

We are planning on doing the NE buttress on Slesse soon, over the course of 2 days with a bivi on the giant bivi ledge. We figure our packs will end up heavier then we would like, especially on the first day with water. I was wondering about the feasibility of hauling the leaders pack on some of the harder pitches, like the 5.9+ roof pitch on the direct route. Is the pitch less than 35 meters so the pack could be hauled with the remainder of a 70 meter rope? Any info would be appreciated. Spencer

We attempted to do this route this weekend, a couple of notes. We approached via Burgundy Col which I would not recommend without snow. After crossing the SS creek/Varden Creek divide the descent to the toe of the buttress was on a particularly nasty talus field, huge mini fridge size blocks that were ready to roll with just a touch. It took us three hours from the col. The climb itself is in an awesome spot, feels super remote. We bailed after a few pitches due to the sparse gear. We might have been off route after the first pitch though. The first pitch was really good climbing, but had long up to 30+ foot run outs which was a little much for my head. Second pitch I am guessing went right, but I couldn't find any of the fixed pins and the climbing got steeper and continued to lack gear so I backed off (to the first ascensionist, after a small fir with a yellow piece of cord around it, do you head right into the shallow open book just to the left of the roof on your topo), went left and up until we bailed off of some trees. It is a cool looking hunk of rock for sure, but also a lot more involved then we expected.

Pete- We skied the north face of north twin a week ago. We had coverage right from the top all the way into the woods below the face. The snow seemed to be going fast though on the lower half traversy part of the face, and in the bowl below, get it soon!

bbuckingham- How much snow was on the road/trail up to colchuck? Can skis be used the entire time in the woods, or would we probaly be carrying them a lot this coming weekend?

awesome, thanks for the info

We are staying at the rampart creek hostel after our first day of climbing, so it sounds like balfour might make a lot of sense, do you just continue past the hostel until parking for the balfour area?

Thanks for all of the advise. I have been scouring the internet for more on haffner creek and the Balfour wall but have only found pictures. Where are they located in relation to Banff? We will be arriving in the middle of the night and would not be able to procure a guidebook before the first day of climbing, so we are trying to figuire it out ahead of time. Thanks

Are there any places that have might possibly have ice that can be top roped during this cold snap between bellingham and whistler? The skiing doesn't seem great and it would be awesome to try Ice climbing, but I don't have a whole lot of practice.. Thanks Spencer

I am heading to Banff for the first time around New Years kind of on a whim and was looking for a little bit of advise. It is a group of four of us going and we are all do quite a bit of skiing, and one of us has some ice climbing experience. We want to spend a few days skiing, and are all excited to go swing Ice Tools for the first time. We're wondering are there places where you can set up top ropes on ice/mixed climbs and go out for a casual day. Also, any recommendations on good day long ski tours would be appreciated. Thanks a lot Spencer

We headed up to Stuart this weekend, and just a heads up to others, contrary to popular belief the snow has been sticking to the rock. But the route was still super enjoyable, and the snow just made it slightly more sporting.

Have the mountains around Leavenworth been getting any snow in the past week or so? I was planning on heading up the west ridge of stuart or something on dragontail this weekend and was wondering if I should expect to encounter any of the white stuff on route. Thanks

I second Moby Grape with the Reppys crack start. Also Recompsense/beast flake at Cathederal ledge right next to whitehorse is awesome.

Trip: Dorado Needle/Eldorado - Northwest ridge/Northeast face Date: 7/22/2008 Trip Report: My friend Todd and I spent a 3 day weekend exploring the Eldorado area. It was both of our first times up there and my only thoughts are that I have been hanging out in the wrong part of the cascades, the Cascade river road area is awesome. The first day we suffered hauling our oversized packs up to 7600 and dry camping at the base of the East Ridge. The views spectacular. We had a leisurely morning, setting off across the Inspiration glacier around ten o clock headed for the Dorado needle. After about an hour of walking towards the pass it came into view. After a few shenanigans crossing the moat, where I stood on a teetering ice block that rolled into the moat, firmly wedging itself between the walls allowing us passage onto the rock. The first pitch was fun face climbing leading to the ridge crest where suddenly you could see thousands of feet straight down into the marble creek cirque. The climbing was easy, on solid rock, and constantly involved hands on the crest knife edge style moves. All too soon we were at the top. We down led one pitch, then 2 rappels brought us back to the glaciers edge. We had originally planned on heading out to austera next, but mushy snow and the heat of the day had us reconsidering. We went up the Northeast face of Eldorado on the way back towards camp. It is nothing more than an easy step kick right now with only a few small nessecary step overs for opening crevasses. The summit was great, we bootskied down the east ridge, and returned to camp for beef stick sandwhiches because we managed to run out of stove fuel on the very first morning. All in all it was an awesome trip. I found the dorado needle to be more interesting and enjoyable than other moderate alpine routes such as west ridge of prusik, the becky route on liberty bell and SEWS south arete, so I would highly reccomend it. Gear Notes: What we used: green alien, red alien, number 1 camelot, small set of nuts, and glacier gear. Running water was available 400 feet above the dry bivis, but I would not count on it remaining. Approach Notes: Eldorado creek, up up and up

point taken, apparently it was an extremely stupid sounding question

minor hijack, but as long as someone else mentioned the climb... who thinks that the first two pitches of boarderline and blazing saddles will be dry after 2 days of dry weather? I.e we are looking to go check that out on friday but the book mentions that that whole area is slow to dry.

rock and resole just did mine, I'll echo everybody elses thoughts. Great work, quick turnaround time, and really friendly on the phone if you have questions.

sorry to hear that, off topic a little, was the climb at least up to where you got all pretty dry, and how snowy did the walk off look?