Jamin

I went climbing this past weekend and had to leave a stopper behind. It was wedged pretty deep into the crack the wrong way, and I couldn't get it out. I had fallen on it. Are there any techniques or special tools that you guys use to remove chocks once they are really, really stuck. I have had problems removing chocks from cracks previously, but I never lost one before.

I agree with g-spotter. I have glissaded with crampons on many times. Is it safe? No. Is it sometimes necessary to save time? Yes. Contrary to public opinion, you will not always break your legs if you glissade with crampons. However, you should definitely keep your speed down. It is pretty hard to break anything when you are going around 5 miles per hour.

Wow man, lay off the weed. Good trip report. Sounds like it was an incredible adventure. Always follow your dreams, man.

If you are talking about all of the prominence summits in the cascades, you are talking about around 2000 summits. I think that only John Roper has done that many. Ambitious, but always follow your dreams. Good Luck.

I have generally used the self-arrest grip, but I have evperimented with self-belay. You can do self-belay with both grips just fine. The self-belay grip might make it a little easier to self-belay, but I haven't really noticed much of a difference. Sounds like there isn't much of a consensus in the climbing community anyways. Depending on snow conditions, It may actually be easier to self-arrest than to try to get the shaft into hard snow.

Don't get me wrong. I had a great time and I definitely think it was worth the drive. However, after seeing the awesome ice that you guys did, I am jealous. That ice is awesome guys. Wow

Shoot, I can't believe that I missed out on the real ice climbing. It is too bad that we could only find that 20-30 foot high patch of easy ice on Saturday.

Trip: Weeping Wall (Bluewood Ice) - Date: 1/13/2007 Trip Report: The weeping wall is located about 17 miles or so from Dayton. I was tired of the thin, unsafe ice around Pullman so I made the drive. The wall is in pretty good shape although it is a good bit drippy. The ten degree lows that we have been experiencing should take care of that in about a week. I was unable to do any completely vertical ice because I did not have a partner. I did do about 20 feet of a nice wall to the right of the freestanding pillars. There are a bunch of large stalactites that will probably become columns later. I used prusiks to protect the climb after toproping. They worked very well when I fell. However, I was unable to finish the entire pitch because it was neccessary to use both hands to slide the prusik up the rope, which was difficult because the prusik often froze to the rope and because the wall was completely vertical at the top. I can sort of see now why prusiks are not used to climb solo. You really cannot do anything more than fourth class with them as pro. Approach Notes: From Dayton, take 4th street and drive about 17 miles along the North Fork Touchet after you leave Dayton. The ice is to your left. It is difficult to see so keep a lookout for it.

Think what you want about me guys, that is your privilege. I sort of wish you guys would stop picking on me and go with me on a climb so I could learn some stuff. If I don't have a more knowledgeable partner to climb with, I will never learn the correct way to do things. Anyways, my participation in this thread is over. Good luck Earth N Sky. Rainier is one awesome mountain.

Will the prusik slide if it takes a fall or what will happen. Is there anything that will allow you have protection when climbing alone.

Well, the idea I have is to top rope a pitch, and let the rope run down the pitch. I will attatch a prusik or two to the rope and then attatch the prusik loops to my harness. I will slide the prusiks up the rope as I climb. If I fall, I will fall on the prusiks, that is the idea anyways. Is this a safe technique? I would go with someone else who could belay me, but it is pretty hard to find a partner. I have another question that you guys could answer for me. I have a few ice screws. After I place the screw and then take it out, the ice freezes inside the screw, which makes it useless. How do I prevent this from happening.

Um, I actually have climbed Rainier. I did it in a day and a half actually, and I was sort of disappointed how easy it was. I have plenty of rappelling experience. I actually have rappeled without a harness and biners before (something I will never repeat). I know how to belay, prusik, tie a water knot, double fishermans, munter hitch, figure eight. I also have pretty good self-arrest skills. I have successfully stopped myself on 50 degree+ snow slopes. I have used an ice axe ever since I started climbing. I wonder where you are getting the idea that I am a dumb hiker who doesn't know anything about climbing. I learned climbing in a hard school. My brother and I used to do a few things that we should technically have used pro for. When Pup on the mountain referred to me as being dangerous, I just think he meant that I took some calculated risks. I felt completely comfortable taking them, and I was positive at the time that they would not have caused an accident. There will always be some risk involved in climbing; we at the most can minimize those risks. However, we are always taking some risk every time we are in the mountains. By the way, I am experimenting with a technique of climbing solo. The idea is that I will top rope a pitch and then use a prusik attatched to my harness as pro in case I fall. Has anybody ever done something like this before? Is it safe?

I am sorry that you took offense guys. I would definitely have respect for anybody who does Denali, and I do have respect for anybody who has the desire to climb Rainier. The biggest beef I have with a guided climb is that it takes a good bit of the challenge out of climbing, and it makes Rainier little more than a long walk at high altitude. Why do you guys climb? Is it because you would like to get famous or is it because you like the idea of adventure. For me it is the latter. Having a guide belay you up the mountain takes a lot of adventure out of it all, doesn't it. However, in the end, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. And guys, I have had my rear end kicked in the mountains more times than I can count. This upcoming saturday, I will probably attempt to climb a peak in the Wallowas. There is absolutely no chance that I will make the summit, but I will try anyways. It should be a good time. Anybody want to come. Terrain is class 3.

Couliour, first of all I am not a punk. The reason I go up into the mountains is to have fun, and I generally do. Second of all, you don't even know me and I don't think you should label me as something unless you do When I first started climbing mountains at the age of 16-17, I did mainly easy ones, but I failed many times. My brother and I required 4-5 attempts to climb Mount Stickney. I learned a ton during those attempts. During the last year, I did many mountains, and I noticed that they were starting to get boring for me. There wasn't much of a challenge or a sense of adventure anymore. I knew we would always get up to the summit. That is why I decided to try a first winter ascent. I knew that they would not be very easy. The fact that I failed on my attempt did not bother me a bit. At least I tried, and I had a good time. As far as the commercialization of Rainier/Everest/other mountains goes, Sir Edmund Hillary is on my side. This issue has been beat to death many times. I think that if I had a chance to climb Everest or some other high mountain with a guide and no chance without a guide, I would have a guide. However, if someone says to me that they did Rainier with a guide, I would not have as much respect for their climbing ability as if they did it without a guide. That is sort of what I meant. Would any of you invite somebody to do Mount Shuksan with you if all they had done previously was a guided climb up Rainier. Oh and by the way. Good luck on your climb, Earth n Sky.

I am interested in checking out Liberty Ridge next year at least till thumb rock. If the conditions are good, I may try to go up all the way. What time exactly do you think would be the best time to go next year. I am thinking late May to early June, but I know that weather can be pretty bad during that time. How much much vertical feet of ice climbing can be expected during that time and at what degree of vertical.

You really are not climbing the mountain if you have a guide. If you need a guide, that means that you don't know a thing about climbing mountains and you probably shouldn't be up there anyways. Just my .02. Don't be offended or anything. I sort of resent the commercialization of climbing Mount Rainier, and I just don't think that you can really be proud of yourself if you don't do it without a guide. Do you have self arrest experience? Roped climbing experience? I am not quite sure how difficult the peaks are in Pennsylvania. Rainier is really not all that difficult in good weather. I found it a good bit easier than I thought. If you have a few experienced friends and you have a good bit of experience yourself, you probably could easily do it without help. Good luck to you regardless. It is one amazing mountain.

Um, well I have been on some routes that he rates as class 3, and well, frankly, I have been scared spitless. Then I learn that it was rated class 4 or 5 by somebody else. I am sort of wondering why this is. I like that Alaskan Rating System. So g-spotter, why would you rate it class 2 rather than 3. Just curious.

Well guys, I am just curious about what you guys would rate class 3, 4, or 5. Do you guys have a table that shows all the stages of the different catergories. I know pup on the mountain, who is an experienced climber, rated things different than me. I always thought of class 3 as something you wouldn't fall off very easily, class 4 as something that you could die on if you made a bad mistake but probably doable without a rope, and class 5 as a something that you would not think of doing without a rope. I was going through a few pictures of my climbs last year, and I was wondering what you would rate this. I would rate at class 3 using the Fred Beckey system because the handholds were very solid, and I almost certainly would not have fallen because it wasn't bad or anything. However, if I had fallen, I would have not survived. I am sort of confused about this. If the terrain is easy, but there is tons of exposure, what would it be rated as? I think Fred Beckey would rate it as only three. However,some climbers would rate Beckey's class 3 as class 5 due to exposure. So what if you have a section of rock to traverse that consists of a 4 inch ledge to walk on and a few meager handholds but you would only break your leg or get scratched up if you fell, could it really be called class 5 (outside of bouldering).

I sank up to my knees with snowshoes.

As far as not trying. I did 3900 vertical feet, 2.5 miles, offtrail, solo, in 5.25 hours, in soft unconsolidated snow up to my knees, after I crossed the North Fork Skykomish. I turned around at about 1:15.

I failed. Failed miserably. I am ashamed to call myself a climber. I think I might need some pro for it though. It looks like this. I made the right decision and turned around because I was going solo.

Hey pup, I know I have a lot to learn, but I really had an extremely high adrenaline level on Dome Peak. I am sorry that you had a bad experience and I hope you will forgive me. For me that was the best trip I have had this year. As far as that trip with Sunil went, I was more scared during that rappel than I have ever been during any experience in my life. We both did very scary stuff that day that I don't want to do again. Believe me, I have learned from the experience. I am a much safer and more experienced climber than I was back then.

If you guys don't think it will very much of a challenge for you, why don't you come along and prove what a wimpy guy I am.

Mount Si has been done in the winter a million times. This peak is remote. Talk about wilderness. I am not exactly sure that it is not a class 5 peak. I hope not, because I am not interested in doing frozen class 5 in the middle of winter. I am attatching a picture of the west face. The east face should be a walkup, but it may not be. I do not know the guy who did the FA in 1992. Come on guys, stop attacking my idiocy, and say you want to come along. It will be some awesome climb.

Come on guys the elevation of this peak is barely 5000 feet. Once I get across the river the terrain is merely class 3. Lots of people can do this kind of gain in a day. It will be a fun climb, but it would be better if we had a few other guys to help break trail. I already have one other guy who is coming with me. I estimate that the peak can be done in six hours once the river is crossed. I know of only two people who have ever been in that area. One of them took 6 hours solo to get to the lake that is .25 miles south of the peak. I think that it is doable in a day. Are you guys so fearful that you are not going to come with me. Moderate avalanche danger is a go. You would rarely get in the backcountry during winter if you were not willing to go in moderate avalanche danger. This peak is only 5000 feet high. If conditions are bad, an alternate destination will be chosen. However, the weather is supposed to be great. The only reason why this peak hasn't been done already in the winter is because it is inconspicous and because of the river.