Good2Go

Nice work! I got a pic of you guys up there that Saturday, on the way over to Lexington.

Upper N Ridge w/ glacier approach = need both. Direct/Complete N Ridge = don't need either. You can get water at the base of the N ridge and there was water running off the snow patch just below the summit on Sat afternoon too. Have fun up there!

That's fast for an onsight, well done!

Jason Hummel and crew did a circumnavigation of Rainier last week and got some great shots of Liberty Ridge: http://www.myadventurecrusade.com/2018/04/29/mount-rainier-ski-circumnavigation/

I'd been wanting to ski the W Ridge notch couloir on Stu for several years, but could never get anybody interested in doing it over Ulrichs. I decided last year that I'd better get the FD before someone beat me to it, even if I had to go solo. Then I learned I'd been scooped when I saw the posting about it on Lowell's FD site. Great eye and nice style getting it from the summit!

There's still a huge patch of snow on the false summit, so you can get water there if you bring a stove. Personally, I wouldn't bring a stove, unless you are bivying on route (and I wouldn't do that, so never a stove I say). Drink one and grab a couple liters to go at the bottom and then bang it out. And while you're doing the death march back to your car, contemplate that Colin Haley and partner did this route c-to-c in under 7 hours:

Cascadian is in great shape. Sherpa isn't. There's running water around the base of the NR. There is still a big patch of snow on the false summit, which is hard to bypass in the dark. We went left. That's all I got (from last wknd).

Great TR and pics. It's such a fun loop. Now go get the N Ridge, if you haven't yet.

As in Leavenworth 5.9 == Index 5.7 or Castle Rock 5.9? I climbed it on Saturday and could not tell what was different. I took this pic from the start of the traverse (which is still 5.9, even on the Index scale). Maybe somebody has a "before pic" from the same spot?

The Dorais bros came in the next week and lowered it to 7hrs and change.

Ha! I remember talking to you about you soloing it and we both agreed those flakes were the sketchiest aspect. Easy enough still for you to lap it cordless?

Holy shit! Traversing into that flake was THE move of the route. How much harder is it now (i.e., in comparison to a SCW 5.10 like Iconoclast)? Could mean the end of the most popular "easy" multi pitch in WA.

Price of Complacency and Stress Management were on the column that fell. It also apparently smashed the block at the base of Thriller Pillar.

$600?!? I've got a fairly pristine copy of that book that I'd sell for a much more reasonable sum, if anybody wants it.

Great job making it happen w/ all the complications. I'd probably have bailed when I discovered the missing climbing shoe. The Sherpa glacier descent is always out of shape by this time of year. It's doable, but definitely more involved, slower and far more hazardous (this time of year) than walking down the Cascadian. The FKT for the CNR was set last year (6:45!) from the south, because it's way faster.