Frikadeller

Depends on how you would like to enter Valhalla. Some people use screws, pickets, and ropes and two tools on Leutholds. So just go at it solo with only an axe and pons. It all depends on conditions. Last weekend I heard of several parties being shut down early by icefall at the hourglass.

I have had some batteries from a couple of older Makita impact drivers that the batteries died, and makita stopped making those batteries. I took them over to Batteries plus on NE Broadway @ around 30th. They just replaced the worn out cells, and installed new ones, and glued the plastic case back together. Now my favorite impact driver is good as new.

Is that what that little ice block structure at the end of the hogsback is being used for?

Yeah, I saw them lowering her with a rope on saturday morning, and they where moving down the hill pretty fast. I was pretty impressed by the teamwork that crew was doing to get the injured party down on their own self reliance. 45 minutes later two PMR dudes where running down the side of crater rock, and stopped to ask if I had seen an accident, and I was , like, "dude, I saw them, like, lowering someone down, like, 45 minutes ago"...

Yup! The snizz that was raining down on me was coming from the rime ice formations, and some serious sized stuff too. There where no climbers above me when the mountain erupted.

You know, you don't have to climb with the mazamas every time. There are plenty of other people that climb the mountains. (Not trying to harsh the Mazamas, just sayin') As a good example, I climb solo alot, and just this weekend, I happened to hook up with another solo climber as we where skinning up and decided to climb together. It's that easy sometimes. there is also plenty of "plans and partners" forums, here and on other sites, so.... there is no real excuse to keep a party small (3-5 people)

Awww dude, thats too bad. You could still have had a fun time skinning up to hogsback, and then dropping in from there, and still had a great ride. Remember, it's not always about summits, but the line you ride back down!!

Oh,I did not take your comment as harshing on my climb. I think that you are right, and had the person I was with not suffering from "summit fever" I would have turned around at hogsback, because I cold forcast the impending doom just by observations of the conditions (and the 10,000 newbs flailing around up there) but thought that if we went fast we could make it. and we did, just barely. If I had the intestinal fortitude to leave my mental security blanket of snow cover, I would love to clamber the rocky stuff. But you can't really ski back down rocks, now can you? maybe one day, when I decide that a set of cams and nuts seems more of a reasonable purchase over some hot shit ski or snowboard mountaineering equipment, that will be the day I will probably never look back at some rock and ice belching choss pile volcano climb again.

Not everyone is into "big-rock-mountain clambering"...

I just climbed WCR/old chute route a few hours ago. No rope needed. The palmer glacier/snowfield is crevasse free, and if you are concerned about the bergshrund on the hogsback, just traverse under it's normal location. It is not visible at this time. I suppose some people would want a rope for the summit rim traverse, but right now, it's a well beaten path with a little bit of exposure. I would not use a rope. I echo Ivan on the second tool. I think that is more secure than a rope for this application. BTW, look out for Icefall, the place pretty much erupted today once in the sun.

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To add to Ptown's report. I summited around 10, and around 10:45 or so on my decent the entire south side of the mountain erupted in ice fall. I was taking golfball to baseball sized chunks in no apparent cycle of reason. There where several parties above me that did not have helmets, and had to bunker out at an ice gendarme. I basically ran across the "traverse" with my pack and helmet as protection. I yelled at the parties to "run" but they ignored me. I went on my way down the Hogsback. I have neither seen that amount of icefall this early in the day. It was scary, but manageable on my part. I mean, it was raining countiniously and getting worse as I decended the hogsback. If you go, go early, and get off early. I left at 2 am, and that was apparently not early enough.

yuck. You're just young. Wait till you get older, and you stand there looking at the beer isle and say: "Hmmm... I could buy a six pack of this overly malted, overly hopped BS beer that will make me thirsty after I drink it, or I could buy a 12 pack of something that will actually quench my thirst for the same amount of money..." That's how stuff like PBR and Busch wins the argument most of the times. Plus, drinking a Pale Ale on a hot day these days makes me throw up a little in my mouth... (Not to mention, for some reason micro brews always leave a way WORSE hangover than the cheap shit.)

I am planning on hitting it up, and most likely on Saturday. The weather looks like it's going to be great!

The Ice Axe is WAAAYY to nice for me to drink at. I prefer to dirt bag it with a few PBR in the T-line lot!

If you go up from Butte Camp, you most likely can avoid any rangers looking for permits. If you run into one, start speaking russian, and claim you left your wallet at home.

Just because the FL is at 7000' does not mean it will snow. Lower elevation weather patterns sometimes goes right around the mountain (like a doughnut), only leaving precip at lower levels, and leave the upper parts without.

See that's the mountain for ya. Sunny and nice one day, utter hell another. I have found my self in an utter hell wind and snice pelting nightmare just trying to sit on the picnic bench at silcox hut.

That's rad! That scene you saw on sunday was almost the same scene it was on saturday, minus the ten man rope team. But on saturday there where more people riding plastic sleds. Wow, you said that the snow was super hard on the WCR? Hmm... It seemed pretty soft on saturday, but I came down that later in the day in full sun. I looked for you in the P-lot, but did not see you. I left around 2 ish though. Thanks for the great Pearly Gates beta. This looks totally do-able!

Well, how do you feel about a road 1/3 of the way up the mountain?

Oh, well.... the snow was the "usual". Crust early on, crusty as you left the palmer, crusty until you got above triagnle moraine, and then all of the sudden! Powder! Holy smokes! Powder until you get to "the ramp" up the ss of crater rock. Further up the "ramp" POWDER again... Sheesh, this mountain cannot make up it's mind. Dropped in onto POWDER on the west side of hogsback. sweet turns until I got close to hot rocks... Hmmm.... Boot packed the splitty over that, and dropped in only to find a GIANT set of tents at Illumination rock... WTF! Veered away from the tents, only to find that mid-week jerks took EVERY line of the ridge off I-rock!!! Grrr...... I Decided, in my own self hating rage, that I would spray the tent encampment with "turn debris"... That was pretty passive agressive. The rest was butter turns until I got to the "resort"... So, yeah, If you did not drink 100 beers on Friday, you might have had some fun.... ( See, I only drank 7, and ate breakfast at 0330, and had fun)

That explains why I did not see anyone fitting your description. As a matter of fact, I only saw one other person skinning up, and one guy with slowshoes and packin' his board. Oh and yeah, today I must have seen 15-20 different people coming down the mountain riding plastic childrens sleds. WTF? I have never seen that many people before doing the sled thing. I blame a TR posted on CC.com for this.

Both my Nepals and my Evo Alps like to get untied on their own (must be a sportiva thing...). A good double knot solves all this BS, especially6 when it happens mid climb (and of course you're wearing gaitors, making this even more agravating...) Other than that, totally rad boots!

Where are the pictures? BTW, that pile did not include the snowboard boots, XC boots, and Leather Tele boots....