KirkW

That poor woman. Forced to eke out an existence on a measly $18 million

Bump for added pics

We drove to the Pioneer Gulch TH (4700ft) today easily with a high clearance vehicle. Front wheel drive car would have gotten us very close to that. Snow line at around 5500 everywhere except the road. Snow stayed firm but manageable all day in most places but generally it was thin everywhere. I wouldn't recommend taking your nice skis to Diamond right now. I didn't even bother looking at the bottom of mine yet but I'm quite sure much Ptex was sacrificed to Ullr today. Good skinning/walking conditions as it all stayed mostly frozen but the skiing was heads up all the way down. More like late spring conditions on a day that doesn't quite produce corn, but without the suncups and brown snow There is snow down lower...but not much. Buried treasure lurking everywhere The bowl looked like it might be decent up high but exiting through the boulder field at the bottom was more adventure than we had signed up for today. The summit ridge was mostly frozen solid. A couple of the small gendarmes on the ridge were a little more interesting than normal to climb around or over. Crampons would have been nice. KEEP YOUR FUCKING SNOWBIKES OUT OF OUR WILDERNESS!!!!!! We crossed these tracks several times all the way from snow line up onto the SE spur.

Looking for skins for a 181 ski with the dimensions 132/102/125 or so. Anything around that length at least 100 underfoot will work. Thanks!

FWIW: this season I've purchased a pair of very gently used Garmont Prophets for $200 and a pair of twice skied, three year old Synergies for $50. Truly in mint shape. Granted, those Synergies were a steal and not the average deal but there is lots of cheep tele gear out there right now. I'd doubt you'd get $150 for a pair of T3's even if they were still in the box. If you do, let me know, cuz I'm taking the pair I just gave to my buddy back and listing them here

Whatever device you decide to use (there are many that work fine, I use a Rope Man 2) tying some weight to the bottom of the rope will greatly facilitate the rope running through the device. Not allowing any slack to accumulate above you is the key to using any toothed device. Back up knots have saved my bacon and I've seen the results of someone failing to tie a backup knot and then forgetting to engage the cam on their ascender. Trips to the ER suck.

Water already gave you my synopsis from yesterday. Breakable crust over waterlogged pudding was the theme of the day. At least I wasnt working No idea what kind of shape the upper mountain is in as conditions were so poor that we never felt the need to venture much above tree line. Nothing but whiteout suck, freezing rain and sleet at/above TLine with rain nuking everything down lower. It dumped BUCKETS as we were leaving. I'm sure that most of that rain fell as snow at the higher elevations but based on the TR posted here from last week it sounds like it fell on a thick icy layer which would make many routes nothing but a ticking time bomb. YMMV of course. Also...there is a sticky at the top of The Oregon forum that deals with all things Hood. If you start a conditions conversation in there you'll likely get a few of the Hood regulars to chime in periodically.

Monday through Friday = early Saturday and Sunday = late And...what Ivan said. Or you could just climb 2 star routes and never have to wait in line

Thanks for the input Tvash. Would you prefer that we clear all of our posts with you before submitting so that you're not torn away fom your very important food labeling thread? Sorry you were forced to read a thread that actually relates to climbing that made you feel icky.

Disclaimer: its doubtful that you'll find chalk on it and be prepared for a little bit of questionable rock down low on the first pitch. I sewed that crumbling crack damn near shut. A number 4 makes the second pitch finishing move quite a bit tamer. It's not that difficult but Watts described it as a layback. It was two thrashing moves of off width for me but I'm not a very good climber. Shares the same finishing ledge as Moscow but there's alway someplace to build an anchor up there. I know it gets done but in my 7 years of frequenting Smith I've never seen anyone on it. Enjoy the bats!

Conga lines of climbers waiting for their turn to TR a multipitch route suck for sure but there are lots of other options in the park for easy multipitch. Havana (my personal fav), Sky Chimney, Rattle Snake Chimney (if you don't mind some pigeon poo) all jump to mind as being much more rarely laid seige to by the huge groups and Round River and Birds in a Rut are good options too as the hike tends to filter out the ones that are there primarily for the social aspect. Though I have seen a line in the marsupials its usually for the easy bolted stuff on the downhill side of Koala. Some fun adventure climbing over there too. Spider man on a weekend is a crap shoot even if there isn't a bus load of newbness in the park.

I've got a lot of brothers and you are most certainly not one of them. It's interesting that you stoop to childish name calling, proclaim you love acting like an immature ass and then accuse me of acting like a middle schooler. You don't even see the problem here do you?

It's nice to see that you're really impressed with yourself Tvash.

"I'm not judging you but I'm going to toss an inflammatory personal insult at you now just to show how fucking awesome I am" Nice work You are quite the smart ass drama queen though. I will give you that.

Yeah, you keep saying that. It's really cool how you denigrate people and judge them based on their geographical location. Sorry we can't all be your neighbor and live in the right place.

All 4 directions actually. What's your point? Is it that non climber types are suddenly going to realize the impact climbers are having on the environment and be so stoked about it that they'll enact mandatory bolting laws because they want more of them?

So Blake climbs and Raindawg aka Don Ryan sprays ....ummmm way to put it in perspective Blake Oh. I see. So climbing is an activity that allows you to make land use decisions but being a bird watcher, hiker, hunter, fungus picker, photographer, bike rider, or general wilderness loafer doesn't. Thank you for clearing that up. There is a storm coming that climbers don't seem to have a clue about. Enjoy your bolts while you can and keep acting like your needs supersede that of every other user group. Good luck with that.

This climb sounds sweet! I'm gonna hafta make my way north and get ON that thing. Now, where did I put my nuts? It's been a while since they've been used

Agree with just about all the advice so far. You CAN learn to ski in the BC on lightweight gear but its not nearly as fun as ripping on some heavier sticks. At the end of the epic 2012 season I bought some sloppy, old and hardly used tele bindings along with some slightly used T3's for $100 or so and a light but fat fish scaled ski, $249 brand new in the wrapper. Some closeout skins and a setup fee had me ready to shred for less than 5 bills. I then proceeded to fall down several volcanos. Luckily not injuring myself (too badly.) Your first Tomahawking wipeout down a wide open bowl with 30 pounds of shit and a bunch of pointy objects on your pack is a special day indeed. I now feel comfortable saying I can ski but It took more effort than I ever imagined and even after 50+ days in my duckbills Im still not very good despite upgrading to the beefiest used setup my meager wallet would allow. About 65% of those days were in the BC and were a great way to learn how to survive on skis. The other 35% were the days I learned how to have fun on skis. Skiing is kinda like sex though and you don't have to be very good at it to really enjoy the hell out of it. And what's this climbing thing you speak of?

That boarder was actually making turns! I thought they mostly just charged everything straight down the fall line these days Thanks for the stoke.

It's been done... http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=29254.0 Not by me of course. The skiing below illumination saddle was sweet though. Good luck.

Looks like someone's got some sexual identity issues they need to come to terms with? Or maybe you've got a degree in sexual identity theory or whatever they call it when you spend your life studying the gay? Or maybe you have no idea what the fuck you're talking about and simply gurgling out your piehole? I'll let my flamingingly fabulous brother know that he's probably not gay. Just like John Wayne. BTW...John Wayne definitely would have hated crocs. My brother hates crocs. Coincidence? I wonder what else you have in common with these two men?

The rangers at NCNP seem especially prone to this mindset. Maybe its time this underutilized park was returned to the people and withdrawn from the national park system? (Not a suggestion, just a thought for now.) It should be obvious that park rangers are following orders from above. I suggest you take the time to get to know some of the NCNP rangers before you make comments like this. A bit hyperbolic but you sound smart enough to get the point so... I'd suggest you study a bit of human history before making comments like this.

But then what's to stop someone from dirtbike raging through spray park alpine meadows or toothless Joe and his tweaker crack buddies from bringing their caravan of double wide meth labs and set up shop and maybe fell an old growth Hemlock or two to sell for some extra cash. Umm, yeah. I'm sure it's real easy to get a dirt bike into spray park right now and most tweakers don't own chainsaws. They pawned 'em a loooong time ago. And yes, the very concept of "closing" a mountain is one that boggles my mind. Close the roads so I can't drive? Sure. But telling me I can't walk (or ski) in the woods is idiotic.

I had so much fun skiing the Zigzag last week I'm going to go back and do it again next Thursday if this forcast holds true. I could go Friday if that turns out to be the better weather day and would be open to other ski options if conditions are safe but if they get half of what's predicted at 9k I'd assume things could be a little sketchy on steeper terrain.