skibum1087

Hey Wayne, is the number 4 still availible? Also, how does the size of the old style number 4 compare to the sizing of the c4s? Thanks Spencer

Sparverius- The approach is in great shape, we skied all the way to the bottom of the valley, crossed the stream and skinned up towards the glacier. There is no brush to be had.

The snow was pretty variable throughout the climb. The south face on the pyramid was set up pretty well but I think that was mostly from wind and perhaps that the snow all sluffed off during the storm. The sulphide was very bootpackable, but it was soft enough that kicking steps took a lot of energy. The same goes for the conditions in hells highway and on the upper curtis. Soft but not a wallowfest. The upper white salmon and winnies slide were a combination of supportable and breakable crusts, while the lower white salmon and the valley was mostly icey and or avy debris. I might have some pictures of that gully between the hanging glacier and winnys slide, I will check for you.

Trip: Mt Shuksan - White Salmon Glacier Date: 1/28/2007 Trip Report: My freind Todd and myself saw the forecast for sunny weather and decided we needed to go for a climb. We were hoping to do a bit of skiing as well, so we decided on the White Salmon Glacier. The skiing did not work out for the most part, but it was a great climb. We left the lower lodge at 2:00 on friday and camped in the valley where we got some great views of the peak The moon was bright when we left the tent at around 1 am, we easily climbed without headlamps until around 3 am when the moon set. At that point, natrually I dropped my headlamp and watched it speed off down to the valley floor. We went up the right side of the white salmon, around 2 am we saw a huge icefall come off the hanging glacier making us feel happy we climbing a good ways away from it.After kicking steps for almost 5,000 feet we finally hit sunrise on the sulphide. After that it was a slog up to the pyramid And finally the more exciting climbing begun The views were amazing to say the least. We ended up stopping about 200 feet shy of the summit up near the top of the pyramid. We wer climbing on a steep icy groove that every once in a while would turn to sugary snow that would not support ste[s, followed by more ice. Going up it was not to bad, but neither of us felt very comftrable about the prospect of having to downclimb any more of it than we had already commited to, and having brought only a 30 meter rope our rapping options were limited. I ended up leaving a picket and making a short rappel down to where Todd was stopped, and we proceeded to downclimb the rest and go home. It was a hard to turn around so close to the top, but overall it was a great trip on what I thought was a really fun route with great views. -Spencer Gear Notes: 30 meter rope, 3 pickets, once screw and skis/snowboard. Approach Notes: Skied down the clearcut from the cat track near chair 8, across the stream and up the valley.

I am thinking of heading to Squamish for my first time tomorrow, we went down to Erie and most things were dry and in great shape. Having never been there, and having at the moment a rack that is pretty limited in size I was wondering if anybody could give me any insight about the gear belays, paticularly in the penny lane area. Are there good cracks for stoppers, or do I need to be saving my cams for when I get to the top? We are looking for cracks in the 5.8 and 5.9 range that get the most sun, is the Penny lane area a good one to go check out? Thanks a lot for any Info Spencer

for the road to the sulphide you can get to about 20 min walk from the end as of tuesday

I've been doing some pondering about trying the White Salmon Glacier this weekend in a long day. I was thinking about taking the nordic trial to chair 8, and then crossing the valley to acsess it, is there a better way? It sounds quicker then the Sulphide as far as doing it in a big push goes, am i missing anything, perhaps a reason that it does not seem to be such a popular route? Any comments on the route would be appreciated, thanks a lot spencer

Colfax looked to be all snow except real jumbled ice and rock pieces, all feasible looking gullies seemed to be totally snowed in at least.

Climb: Mt Baker-Coleman-Deming Date of Climb: 4/22/2006 Trip Report: This weekend me and my buddy Justin decided to have a go at Baker for the first time. We were able to drive the road to about 1.5 miles from the trailhead, at 2900 feet.We started skinning around 1 pm The weather was wicked and the view from the road was impressive. After getting on the heliotrope ridge trail we realized it was pretty difficult to follow in the snow, so we ended up doing a bit of cross country navigating that led to a little bit of frusteration and postholing in shorts. After that bit of unpleasentness we broke out above treeline and were treating to mostly exellent skinning conditions with a great view. We gradually made our way towards camp. We got to camp around 7, at 6600 feet. We were promtly treated to quite a spectacular sunset. We arose the next morning a little bit before 4 and started the climb at 5. The darkness only lasted for a little while as we made our way towards the coleman-deming saddle We switched from skis to crampons and ice axes at the saddle and worked our way up the Roman Wall to the summit and mostly firm snow with a little bit of ice and little bit of creamy windbuff mixed in. At one point just after we took our skis off I punched through a snow bridge with one foot which made the climb feel a little more sporty. Eventually we made it up, and it was a hell of a day to be on top. The seas of peaks were mindblowing. The ski down the Roman Wall was icey and choppy, but from the Saddle all the way back to where you re entered the woods was beautiful windbuffed creamy pow. The trail was skiable all the way back to the car as long as one was willing to do a little bit of poling and skating at times. It was a pretty sweet trip and am definetly pumped to go back up to the area again. We even got treated to a small waterfall on the way out Gear Notes: Skis, Ice Axe, Crampons, Crevase stuff, lots of sunscreen would be key. Should have had a warmer sleeping bag, much colder than forecasted Approach Notes: 45 min from car to the trailhead on skis

This past weekend we went up to Baker looking to attempt the North Ridge or the Coleman Deming. We got shut out by weather, but we got a chance to check out the road conditions at least. With two wheel drive and chains we made it 6.5 miles up the road, and later saw somebody with a Suburu and no chains parked around the 7 mile mark. Not to bad, less than an hour to get to the actual trailhead. Seemed like a lot of people were curious, ourselves included, hope this helps.

Me and a buddy are looking at the Coleman Deming for Friday and Saturday, I was wondering if anybody had been on open slopes around that elevation and had info on snow conditions. We'd be on either snowshoes or skins, but are a little worried about major postholing and trail breaking. Also if anybody had seen the North Ridge and had info on what kind of shape it was in that would be sweet. I saw the thread on the road acsess and am assuming about a 4 mile slog on that, but if anybody has another opinion on that let me know. Thanks a lot Spencer

Climb: Guye Peak-South Gulley Date of Climb: 3/25/2006 Trip Report: Me and a friend climbed the South Gulley on Guye peak on Saturday, inspired by a trip report read here earlier. We got a late start and with a lot more sun than we expected the short approach to the bottom of the gulley involved a fair bit of postholing, but not enough to dampen spirits. The Destination Justin Approaching the bottom of the gulley Looking up from the base Some cool rock steps, but mostly snow making headway stoked at the summit Heavy clouds rolled in, but a pretty cool view looking across the other summits All in all it was a wicked fun day, and some awesome practice for running belays and whatnot. We descended our climbing route which was time consuming, but not to bad. With 2 50 meter ropes it would have been cake. We did 5 rappels and a bunch of downclimbing. Beat Dark by about 30 min, and got some amazing pizza in North Bend. Gear Notes: 50 meter rope, 4 pickets, a bunch of slings for trees, crampons, ice axe. Approach Notes: Snow Shoes on a warm sunny day for the bottom would have been nice

My mistake on the folder, its a little late. Heres a few more shots. In need of a quick break Almost there Finally looking over the summit ridge Coming down hogsback

Climb: Mt Hood-South Side Date of Climb: 2/9/2006 Trip Report: Started off gearing up at the registry at about 1 am, on the snow by 2. Hit sunrise up across from illumination rock At the same time the moon was setting, one of the coolest things i've ever seen. Clear day, endless visibility Getting closer Summit at about 8:45 A well deserved lunch below crater rock All in all it was an awesome day, about 10 hours on the mountain. First Summit of Hood for all of us, stoked to go back. Gear Notes: Crampons Ice Axe, Icy and exposed feeling on the wierd traverse between hogsback and pearly gates.Also the chute was icy, and while the crevasse was closed on the hogsback it was open below the steep climbing. Running Belay would have been nice, but not at all needed. Helmet was key even early in the day, some rolling ice balls were to be found. Approach Notes: 5 and a half hours, bellingham-timberline

Me and a buddy are interested in doing baker this weekend, either by the Coleman Deming or the Easton. I was wondering if anyone had been up there lately and knew how far up the road to the Coleman Deming trailhead you can drive. Also what is Winter acsess to the Easton trailhead like. Thanks a lot Spencer

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Quick question for anybody who has been on the South route on Hood in the winter. I was thinking of doing it next saturday. I'm hoping all of the freeze thaw this upcoming week should leave the snow stable, and i am assuming the crevasse is totally closed. Does this sound reasonble? I've only been on the route in the spring, any other input or things to watch out for on a winter ascent. Thanks a lot. Spencer