ptownclimber

Trip: Mexico - El Portrerto Chico Date: 2/8/2009 Trip Report: I couldn't do a three day work trip to Monterrey without spending a day at El Portrero Chico. I'd heard a lot about this place and read a little, but the size and the charm of the place still surprised me. The weather was fantastic and it was great to get out of town to a warmer, sunnier, different location. I had a great time in Monterrey - it's an endearing city surrounded by mountains (hence the name el rey de las montanas "king of the mountains"). Lots of rock and many routes - I got on some hard 10's and 11's, good for me especially recovering from a shoulder injury in the fall. la hormiga; if you don't see beauty in the desert, you're not looking at it right Paul, the rope gun from Connecticut - gracias, dude. There are a lot of climbers there in the winter, it's really chill and easy to meet up with people to climb with. One day there was really just a tease. I could easily spend a week or two...like maybe next Christmas through New Years. If you ever have a chance, I highly recommend it - super cheap once you get there, the climbing is literally a 10 minute walk from the camping or posadas, and you will not run out of good rock to climb. Gear Notes: shoes, helmet, harness, chalk Approach Notes: Es mas facil, si puedes hablar espanol...y mas mejor, con poquito cerveza.

That just plain sucks

Maybe one rope length, if that, not counting the fan below. Low angle, mostly hiking up snow. We gained a lot more elevation once on the ridge.

Trip: Hood - Devil's Kitchen Headwall Date: 1/18/2009 Trip Report: With stable avy conditions and warm sunshine in the forecast, Jport and I hatched a plan to try something on Hood Sunday - assuming we'd just bail and ski down if the ice fall proved too ugly. We left town around 3am in puffy coat weather. We found warmer temps at Timberline, but colder/harder snow conditions than we expected. We left the parking lot around 4:40 in pretty warm air temps but with firm, icy snow underfoot and some wind. We had a half moon (waning) and a star full of skies - enough light to travel without headlamps. We found the skinning difficult outside of the groomed tracks and impossible above the top of the palmer. We (stupidly) strapped skis to our packs there and headed up just as the sun was starting to paint the eastern skies orange, over the sea of clouds lapping at the base of the Sisters, Jefferson and the foothills around Hood. sunrise shadow and illumination rock After stumbling through basketball sized chunks of rime ice and getting tossed around by the wind, we elected to ditch the skis a couple hundred feet above the top of the palmer. As it got lighter it was becoming obvious that no amount of warming could not be enough to make for good skiing on the rime. At this point we had to decide if we were going left to West Crater rim or right to Devil's Kitchen/pearly gates. After some indecision we flipped a coin (a piece of ice), which came up 'west crater rim'. Not liking this answer - having thus tested our intuition - we opted to go right, leaning towards Devil's Kitchen. Upon arriving at the basin we took a break and soon decided on Devil's Kitchen, as it looked to have the least exposed rock and best shade. There was a lot of ice and rock debris from the previous day, and stuff was starting to come down as the sun was warming the crater rim. We hurried over to our intended short gully. Climbing the gully went pretty quickly, mostly walking up, only using tools in a few spots. We did avoid one small volley of ice fall, much smaller than the loose chunks we had seen in the basin. Cresting the ridge brought us to a great position with sunshine and a lot more wind - pushing 30mph in places along the ridge. From here we followed tracks traversing up along the top of the W'yeast route. In spots this was still quite icy and hard, kinda precarious two tooling in these conditions. Other spots were soft snow with deep steps that we could walk pretty quickly. We topped out at 10am and descended via Old Chute, then down and east around crater rock. Old chute was much icier and more precarious than I've seen in the past. jport near the top of the gully looking back down coming up the ridge Upon reaching our skis we strapped them back to the packs and walked down - realizing that trying to ski this glassy, hard, crazy-ninja-rime-ice-from-hell was pointless. From the top of the palmer the skiing on groomers was fast - snow was still pretty firm in spite of the sun beating down. We were back at the car by noon, and after some obligatory parking lot hacky sack, back in town around 2. crazy rime on the way down All in all a really fun day. The views were amazing. I've never really made out Portland from Hood before but yesterday it was clear as a bell. Thanks, jport, for another good one. Gear Notes: Left rope and pro in the car

I would use your sportivas rather than plastic boots for the normal route or the false polish. You might want plastics for the polish direct...if the glacier is still there. I've used intuition liners in my koflachs - works great, and I have the original (unused) liners if you're interested.

Work is taking me to Monterrey in February. I'll have a day, maybe a day and a half away from work. Is there any good bouldering there or a way to find a climbing partner?

Excellent TR

Nice! Any Stuart photos?

Trip: Stuart - W. Ridge Date: 8/2/2008 Trip Report: It may seem rather silly to climb two routes on the same mountain within two weeks, but I don't get the chance to climb with Tony very often. We had climbed Cascadian Couloir in 2001, and our most vivid recollection from that trip was swearing that we would "never again" climb Stuart by that route. We had talked about the West Ridge for quite some time, and finally put a date on the calendar. Canceling such plans seems to be par for the course, but as this date approached nothing got in the way. We met his brother Steve at the Amtrak stop in Tacoma and crashed along the road before midnight, after a stop in North Bend for groceries and pizza. The forecast had called for a chance of showers Friday night, but we saw nothing but stars that night and not a trace of clouds in the morning. The night was colder than expected, but we slept well and were on the trail by around 6am. By the time we got to Ingalls Lake, we started to see some clouds developing to the West and North, but nothing menacing. As we gained altitude, the peaks to the west were more and more obscured by these clouds. Our hike was pleasantly mosquito free and cooled by a nice breeze. We ended up in long sleeves most of the day. From the end of Ingalls Lake we followed the faint trails which eventually lead along the ridge, then to scrambling and a traverse into the first couloir. After the first roped pitch we started to get more cloud cover, which thickened after we passed Long John tower. We chose to traverse high, by the 'scissor like' rock formation, and by the time we really needed to see, the clouds were starting to obscure the route. We attempted to traverse right (South) and then up, but one short pitch led us to more scrambling back to the ridge. This seemed a better choice given the visibility, and we were able to simul-climb to the summit without much route finding difficulty. Occasionally spotting the party in front of us, a few fixed nuts and a piton confirmed that we were 'on route', other than that it was hard to tell. The Ridge is blocky and there are multiple options to get around and over obstacles, some harder than others. With bivy gear and boots, we opted for the easiest cracks and chimneys. Down and to the right we found an easier chimney than the crack just above me: As we reached the summit we were in the sunlight again and looked back to the southeast to see Rainier looming over a blanket of clouds pulled snug up against the west side of Adams and Stuart, wrapping around Stuart to the north. The top of Glacier Peak was just visible. It was great to top out with Tony and Steve, especially after Gabrielle and I had to bail off this route last year due to weather. After some food and pictures we headed down, hoping to make it to the creek before dark, for a warmer night's sleep. Tony could still recall where to traverse high around the false summit to gain the top of Cascadian. On the July descent we had descended too far down the ridge and had to make one rappel. We were able to down climb on rock, crossing only about 20 feet of snow. Looking back up the ridge, clouds now drifting up from the North: Cascadian was kind of a drag after all that fun scrambling and climbing on beautiful granite, but we were happy to be going down the couloir. Towards the bottom we followed a trail veering south east, which became more and more faint until we were bushwhacking through brush, over a stream, walking along alder stems, and back into the brush and forest and more faint trails in the fading light. Just before we needed headlamps, we reached the main trail, a nice camp spot and the creek. We hydrated, refueled, aired out our feet and hit the sack. We were off and rolling again by 6:00 and back to the car around 9:00. We took the long way home, stopping for mole enchiladas, a swim in the Columbia and a little hacky sack. It was a great climb and a great way to spend the weekend. Thanks, guys, for a great climb Gear Notes: -red and yellow TCU, #1 camalot, nuts, tri-cams, 60m rope Approach Notes: -west Rim of Ingalls Lake is mostly snow free (east rim too, for that matter)

Nice! We saw you guys (party of 3) close to the trailhead on Sunday. You guys were motoring. Pictures and TR forthcoming.

Don't know. We camped at about 4,800 feet near some snow. It drizzled all night and the day held more of the same, so we descended without ever venturing about our camp.

Nice! What kind of shape do you think the route will be in by mid August?

Not on Bedal creek...but we were up there last weekend - road 49. The road is blocked but passable with a 4wd. We took mountain bikes to cut down the approach to something reasonable. There was a land rover parked at the TH. The stream crossings are reasonable (big log jams to walk over) and the trail is well flagged but slightly overgrown.

I think we only placed 2-3 cams on the first 5.9 pitch and a couple of nuts. There's a pin at the start of the second pitch, then the big cams, then you're pretty much done. There's a pin higher up on the second 5.9 pitch, but we got off a little and ended up circumnavigating that section. I did think the 5.9 pitches protected nicely - great climbing. And yeah...I guess I should have looked closer about where CC places Stuart...

Not really I didn't feel any f***ing anesthetic. Would have been nice to have some except for losing tissue... I'm still finding crap the little bugger chewed on...

Trip: Stuart - N. Ridge Date: 7/20/2008 Trip Report: While climbing lately I have often been caught up in a driven, motivated, aggressive, lighter, faster, run-it-out, "git er done" mindset. I even went so far as to tell Gabrielle that 'impatience' is a much maligned word like 'stubborn' or 'picky' - with an undeserved bad rap. This weekend, I learned a good lesson from my friends, Gabrielle and the Jeffs. We planned to approach Saturday, climb Sunday and descend Monday. I packed a light bivy set-up and enough food for two days, figuring there was only a chance that we would need Monday for the descent. From Ingalls Lake: Getting out of town 'early' on Friday is always easier said than done. We stopped in Hood River for beer and pizza, and rolled out of there just in time to catch the insane summer sunset of pink, orange and blue. Before we cleared the on-ramp there were flashing lights behind us. We all took a deep breath and sighed happily when we were given a warning to use the turn signals within 150 feet of the turn. Good karma. This must bode well for the climb, we figured. Now the back seat of Jeff's ride is capacious, so I was lucky enough to sleep most of the rest of the way. I awoke on the gravel road, and was soon crashed out again. The morning dawned cold, and we didn't see the sun until we were quite a way up the trail. Thankfully, we didn't have much for mosquitoes except for right at the end of Ingalls Lake. We spent forty five minutes at goat pass: napping, soaking up the sun and enjoying life in general. Jeff was surprised at how low the glacier was relative to past years - the crossing (with crampons) was easy going. Soon we were in the gully, which we found nearly devoid of snow. Fun, delicate scrambling (the first portion had some loose rocks) led us to the palatial bivy spots at the notch. With four hours of daylight left, we decided to relax, do some yoga, air out our feet, and take in the sunset and views, one hour at at time. Decadence. Crossing the glacier and ascending the gully: Views from the bivy spot: We started after the morning sun had some time to warm us up. We had seen a few people on Saturday, but Sunday we had the route to ourselves. We wouldn't see other people again until the top of Longs Pass. The North Ridge did not disappoint - pitch after pitch of fine, beautiful, mostly exposed granite. Great conditions and great climbing. We simul-climbed all but 4 pitches, and hauled packs over the two gendarme pitches (that took some time, but climbing the 5.9's without packs is the way to go). We had just a little bit of routefinding trouble at the top of the second gendarme pitch. Soon enough we were at the summit, taking in the dropping sun and relishing in the sense of accomplishment and camaraderie. We found two more good bivy spots and got together for another fine alpine dining experience. The trick when you drop some cheese in the sand: don't chew. Argonaut and N. Ridge of Sherpa from the N. Ridge: Gabrielle and I were benighted last summer after doing Sherpa Peak. Simply beautiful ridge climbing: Wee-hour views from the second bivy: The easiest way around a relatively steep snow patch and down the east ridge was to climb back up to the summit, which was a nice way to start the day. The sunshine seemed to add twenty degrees in the morning. We had mostly good luck following the cairns down to Cascadian Couloir. As we approached the dense treeline, the temperature really started to climb. How quickly the environment changed around us. We somehow felt it necessary to lose the trail after it crossed the creek, just to keep that North Cascades feeling, I suppose. The thought of Mexican food motivated us on the hike out. Even the trudge up and over Longs Pass was enjoyable in that context. We took some time washing up and soaking our feet in the creek, and enjoyed driving home in daylight for a change. I can't say enough about how generous Jeff was, driving, sharing gear and food, and generally being a zen master. Jeff and Gabrielle were great, too. And I learned a good deal about relaxing, taking it in, and enjoying the moment. I've never seen (noticed?) so many wildflowers on a climb before. Thanks, y'all, for another great climb. Gear Notes: -green C3, red and yellow TCU's, #1 and #3 camalots, nuts, tricams and many slings; #4 camalot seemed optional as there was a fixed cam -one stove for the four of us (amazing how good freeze dried food can taste at elevation after a good day of expending energy) -extra camera batteries - didn't need them -bivied in a puffy coat with two thin layers underneath - could have used a little more -extra socks :-) -apples, chocolate, nuts, gummi bears, rolls, hummus, flatbread...and leftover pizza

Nice!

Finally getting around to adding a photo. The crazy cool sunrise: And a photo from a July 4th ski trip in 2005, with the route looking in much better shape...one could still pass the 'schrund to the right of the rocks:

Ivan - yeah, it's been a good year so far... letsroll...indeed. Let me know when you want to go back and do it in a day.

Nice photos, as usual. Good on ya.

Trip: Liberty Crack - Date: 7/12/2008 Trip Report: Big plans for the weekend (Inspiration peak) soon took a backseat to birth-month celebrations: Mike Ness on Tuesday, mountain biking Wednesday, the Wailers on Thursday, and Moira's birthday bash Friday. After big talk about leaving between 4 and 5 am Saturday, I rolled over to Gabrielle's place around 8am. So much for an early departure. Upon seeing the condition I was in, she graciously offered to drive. I gratefully obliged. We made good time down the road, finalized our new plan for Liberty Crack, pulled off above the hairpin turn and geared up. The long road trip was enough to wear off the hangover. We soon discovered that I had NOT packed the ascenders and my extensive aid gear (two tiny grey cams), as I had intended to. Damn. We'd have to make do with the Bachmann knot. This saved some weight but we would soon discover that it makes jumaring that much more difficult. We weren't climbing until around 4:00. It was cool in the shade, with the snow at the base...and the mosquitoes were out in force. There were two other parties on the route, one rapping off after fixing the first three pitches, one rapping off after climbing the first three. We made pretty good use of the daylight and had the first three pitches fixed, rapped off and got our little bivy ready on a nice, big, flat boulder. We found some old fire rings here, and enough wood for a small fire which gave us a welcome respite from the flying bloodsuckers. We enjoyed some dinner and got set up for the night. The fire wound down just in time to hit the sack; I could have slept better if I hadn't left the sleeping bag in the car, but got good enough sleep. The mosquitoes were back first thing in the morning. First light was early enough that the first pitch was in the sun by the time we got to climbing it (around 6 am). We pared down our gear a little more. We were down to one pack: 2.5 liters of water, food, shoes and two shell jackets. At this point we were still wearing long sleeves and hats - it was warming up quickly but the 'squitoes were still bugging. We dropped the first rope to save weight. Jumaring over the Lithuanian lip seemed harder than leading it, but before long we were at the top of the third pitch. The party from Saturday was back and right behind us: guide and client. We shared most belays with these guys and got great beta. The fourth pitch presents that most difficult transition from aiding to free climbing. It was not easy, especially where the rock starts to get crumbly. This took a while, but then we were on to the next long, chimney/crack which presented much easier climbing...and got us back into the free climbing groove. We were now back to the high point letsroll and I reached last year, with warmer weather, much less weight and more energy. Thanks to all for the great beta from that thread. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Main/54181/Number/722333#Post722333 It was nice and warm at this point and thankfully, the mosquitoes disappeared to wherever it is that they go during the day. The remainder of the route went pretty well for us, aside from some GIT distress. We topped out around 4:30, with great views South and West and the breeze picking up. We had a little food and the last of our water - we'd planned on replenishing on the way down. In spite of having been there exactly one year prior, we had a hell of a time finding the rap off of Liberty Bell. I was getting aggravated and had to take a deep breath and remind myself: "...we've got good weather, plenty of time, no mosquitoes...no hurry". Soon enough, we were down to the gully, where we ran into some goats and lost the trail several times. More aggravation...more deep breaths as we still had plenty of time, we now had water and the mosquitoes were just picking up. Hiking back down the road, Gabrielle decided to see if we could get a ride. The mosquitoes were getting bad by this point and we were ready to call it a day. Most cars just accelerated past. Finally some dude with a van and matching trailer pulled over. As Gabrielle approached, his big, black dog almost bit her head off, or so it seemed. Undaunted (dog lover), she chatted him up, the canine calmed down and we climbed in. Clearly this guy was on an extended road trip. The van was carpeted in a nice early 80's shag, walls, floor and ceiling. The passenger seat was set back to make room for his dog 'Bear' to ride halfway out the window. Of course the dogs name was Bear. In the time we stopped, the van had filled with mosquitoes, so we're cruising down the road with a dog named Bear and some stranger driving and swatting at the skeeters with a big towel, almost knocking shit out the open window. This ride was over before it started, we bade him farewell and thanks, and headed up to retrieve our stuff. A longer trip with this fellow would surely have led to some interesting stories. We had to hike back up to get our gear (car keys were in that pack). We had just enough light to make it up, and we were motoring up without packs. We retrieved the stuff in good time and made it out OK by headlamps, losing the trail only two or three times. We pulled into a campsite down the road, re-hydrated, reminisced and slept like logs. We had a very leisurely drive out the next day, even visiting my nieces and nephews in Bellevue. It's still kind of hard to believe that the whole thing happened. Thanks, Gabrielle, for another great climb. Happy birthday to me. Gear Notes: -green C3 through #3 Camalot, some doubles in the 1/2" and 1" range -4 tri-cams -double set of nuts (one would have been enough) -hummus, naan bread and lots of nuts -zero luck with rechargeable camera batteries this trip :-(

But is snow dome still good those months? Anywhere else?

Trip: Hood - Sunshine - attempt Date: 7/6/2008 Trip Report: Headed out for the annual fourth of July ski tradition, and we had made plans to add the Sunshine route this year. The road to cloud cap is blocked by logs (not really blocked by snow, from what we could see) about halfway, but in talking with a friend we learned that we could head straight up the ski-trail, adding "about 1,000 feet of gain" and untold distance - but much shorter than 5 miles of road. We left town at 10, running on caffeine and adrenaline. We met up where the road is blocked - the impromptu parking lot/TH - and departed around 1am. The ski trail is *reasonably* easy to follow in the dark, except that the blue trail blazes really blend in with bark under headlight illumination, and none of us had ever been on that trail before. After reasonable progress/bushwhacking/"routefinding" in the dark with no moon (we finally resorted to GPS to learn that we'd overshot the cloud cap TH)...we were on the moraine after about 2 hours - a little bit behind schedule. After a futile attempt at skinning up the lower snow dome, we were back in crampons, lugging the damn skis up the hill - a little more behind schedule. Ray-lax was breaking in his new split-board set-up, so every change necessitated a boot change. On the way up we soaked up an amazing sunrise...red orange light with the sun rising like some kind of giant orange through low clouds/haze/(smoke from California wildfires?). We arrived at the top of the dome - a little more behind schedule - to find that the route was melted out significantly vs. 54-55 weeks ago. Perhaps this supports the hypothesis that the great snowpack this year is not any better above 9k feet. We roped up and went left of the rock at the top of the dome, up and around some small crevasses. After just a short break at the top to eat/hydrate/gear up...it was amazing how quickly the snow started to soften. We were punching in ankle deep on the steeper, NE facing section. Things were still pretty firm on the traverse over to the ridge, but starting to soften up. Altimeter said 10.4k, and it was about 9am as I recall. We had a quick pow-wow and decided that things were too soft to ascend and come back down the sunshine route safely. The descent to the dome was straightforward. More food, water, gear change...nice temps and breezy. By this point things had softened up to the point that we thoroughly enjoyed schralping the gnarr - to the point that we forgot all about the summit. Ray-lax was in love with the new split board. We found the trail a little easier to follow in the daylight, but not much. Between fatique and sleep deprivation, none of us could recall exactly which trail/road crossing we needed to turn at. It seemed like a week had passed since early that morning. We kept telling Ray-lax that it was still only 6:45am. We found the cars without too much trouble, enjoyed getting our boots off, cotton on, and cold beer in the belly. All in all, the most no-summit climbing fun I've ever had. Thanks guys, for a great trip. pictures forthcoming Gear Notes: -would have been a great day for ski crampons -4th of July partay leftovers...MMMMM, MMMMM Approach Notes: -10 consecutive months of skiing -we felt that mountain bikes & 5 miles of road would be easier/more fun than the trail (especially for the descent!)

Looking for ideas and suggestions on where to get some turns in over the next two months. Had a great ski on snow dome yesterday, and have skied many times in July, but never as late as aug/sept.

Indeed. We could have saved some weight had we known...