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Yeah, there was that girl, but she didn't seem like she would be very receptive to anything that I might say. Nor did her boyfriend, whom I presume is now her ex.

Trip: Ingalls Peak - South Face Date: 7/7/2007 Trip Report: Now that June has passed, weekend weather is assured to be good. In the spirit of being socialable, and hoping to meet some hot chica climbers, it seemed like a good idea to climb Ingalls via the south face. After all, next to Das Toof, Ingalls must be about the most popular alpine rock climb in the state. Surely hoardes of climbers would be found on a sunny Saturday. Surely I would meet my future wife along the route. No climbers were found before Ingalls Pass, but some four legged ones were found just on the other side. None of these were exactly my type, but I had faith that somewhere we would come across a pile of climbers. All I had to do was wait just a little bit, and surely we would be inundated with climbers, a prospect that I was really happy about. Three dudes on their way to the West Ridge of Stuart passed us by. Again, just not my type. So, we worked around to Ingalls Lake and then over to the Dogtooth Spires, climbing up and around to get to the base of what seemed like the first pitch. I say, "seemed", because it wasn't clear that we were on the right mountain. There was no one there, no line up, and no one above us. We scratched our heads for a while before digging out a compass and map. After shooting numerous bearings and consulting a GPS, Kevin was convinced that this was indeed Ingalls Peak and we were at the starting point of the South Face. I wasn't so sure, but led up a short pitch anyways to a much larger platform where a big boulder was slung for an anchor. I was again frustrated not to find a big group of climbers of the female persuasion hanging out there. At this pace I might never get a date out of the climb. I brought Kevin up, who then brought Tom up. Feeling frustrated, I led up a big crack on the right to a ledge above, and actually found evidence of other climbers. Long gone, of course. A three point anchor had been built into the rock with three WC Rocks for protection, and slung with slings tied with what looked like an overhand knot. Two biners sat on it. Somebody bailed here it seemed. I climbed one of the nuts and kept going. The crack got thinner and the climbing a bit more thought provoking, which meant that I was probably off route. No matter, I kept heading up, fully disappointed in the lack of a meatmarket scene on Ingalls. A nice ledge held a bolted rap station where I stopped to bring Kevin up. As I led off for the last, short pitch, I heard some voices down below. The voices were not the usual commentary from Kevin and Tom, but rather someone new. They were unfortunately out of my line sight and sounded male anyways. I anchored into a last set of bolts and the others rapidly climbed up. The two voices made it to the top shortly after we did, and did indeed belong to males. I resigned myself to a date-free weekend. We chatted with the two climbers for a while, then shared a long, double rope rap down to the big ledge at the start of the first pitch. A second double rope rap got us back to the snow, allowing us to avoid the any sort of scrambling or effort. Although there was still the walk out, and I might meet some women there, I was now smelly and dirty and sun burnt and thinking more of Mexican food in Cle Elum than of the fairer sex. Tom whispered sweet nothings into my ear as we plodded on down the snow to make me feel better, but stopped quickly when he realized his virtue might be in danger. -------------- Photos by myself, Kevin, and Tom. Gear Notes: A few small to mid nuts. A few larger hexes. Used 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 Friends once or twice. You'll want an ice axe for the approach. Crampons would be helpful, but are not necessary. Approach Notes: Trail is snow free to Ingalls Pass. Some hard snow to the base of the Dogtooth Spires.

Trip: Mount Cruiser - South Corner Date: 6/30/2007 Trip Report: What was supposed to be a four day Sawtooth Fest got weather-ed out to just a single climb of Mount Cruiser. I'm sure everyone is shocked that the weather didn't cooperate, but remember that we forgot to sacrifice Vancouver Bob the other weekend on Demonslayer. The approach is via Flapjack Lakes, where we camped in the rain on Friday and awoke to semi-blue skies on Saturday. The approach up to the lakes is snow free, and the trail out to Gladys Divide is snow free for a little while. By the time you reach the lower basin, you're in the snow. But, you also get some good views of the Sawtooth Ridge. Cruiser is not the phallic thing in the middle. Rather, it is on the far right. Doesn't look like the standard photo of Cruiser? That is because the standard picture is taken from the other side of the ridge, where the climbing happens. Instead, locate the left most notch. That is Needle Pass and is where you want to head. We cramponed up and started moving to the upper basin where we could gain a snow finger. Here is a photo of Needle Pass after we came down. Note the big needle in the middle. The snow is in excellent shape and stays well below 35 degrees for most of the climb up to the notch. It stiffens to near 35 degrees at the top. Good depth now and it should stay around for another few weeks at least. Below you can see Steve working his way up the last portion of the snow finger to the base of the needle at the notch. The Needle looks like a fun, if airy, climb, with a nicely overhung arete on the right. We lounged for about an hour here before starting the scramble over to the base of the climb. The initial part of the scramble featured wet, slimy rock, which we chose to simul. The route heads up a bit and then traverses over to the Mildred Lakes side (ie. opposite from Flapjack lakes) of the ridge. The scramble was longer than expected, but fun enough and the exposure was thrilling. We moved along and then descended a bit to get a nice view of Cruiser. This is the view that we thought we'd get from near Gladys Divide, but it is on the opposite side of the ridge. Unfortunately, a big, massive snow moat was in the middle of the gully we had to descend. The moat is about 15 feet high, and oddly shaped: The other side plunges very steeply before mellowing out. Our day was running a bit long by the time we were all collected and ready to go. After a bit of exploration, we realized that we could bypass the moat, but that it would take a long, long time and we had nothing to protect the steep snow on the other side. We opted to turn around at this point. Views into the interior Olympics were fantastic, but we couldn't see the tops due to low clouds. A big, expansive glacier was spotted, which we suspect is on Mount Anderson. Can anyone ID? We retraced our steps down to Needle Pass, then made rapid work of the snow slope. The Horn (or is it the Fin?) looked really tempting and very accessible. Now, I can't go climbing without doing some climbing, so I located a suitable boulder and sent a new V12+ problem, which I called Pork Buns. Everyone else agreed that it was really VB-, and that I can't send something by hanging on the rock and then jumping down, but I'm standing by my story. Gear Notes: Well, you'll want a cool bandana if you attempt Pork Buns. Climb Cruiser and let me know what rock pro to bring. Approach Notes: Hike up almost to Gladys Divide. Spy Needle Pass, which has a big, whomping needle in it. Climb up about 700 vertical feet to the notch. Head east-ish (away from Needle) and scramble up the ridge line. Traverse along, following a faint climber-esque trail, generally on the Mildred Lakes side of the ridge. Traverse about 0.25 miles on airy terrain until you see Cruiser. Get stuck by the moat if you go in the next few weeks. In early season, it looks like approaching from Mildred Lakes is the way to go. You're going to climb on that side afterall. The tricky part would be the brush down low, but once past it looks like a long, straightforward snow slog.

Does anyone have some beta on the Belvedere Basin route on Mount Clark? I've got Smoot's book, which has a little description of it, but I couldn't find much here or via google. Coming rains might have me running back to the rainshadow for another weekend of luckpushing. Thanks.

The Honeymoon Route is rated as grade I (hah!) and class 3. I would put it at grade II with extensive class 4. Perhaps things are different when the snow is gone. The glacier route with the big cornice is rated at grade I, class 2.

The big mega gully isn't the route. You can barely see the Honeymoon route on the pic that I posted. From the notch, it moves left onto snow, around a couple of rocks, and then up. To get to the mega gully would be a lot more traversing on snow. With snow there, it is best to avoid the notch and just climb up. I'm not sure where the big mega gully leads, but it looked pretty steep at the top of it.

Trip: Mount Deception - Honeymoon Route Date: 6/23/2007 Trip Report: The Eye of Doom came back for another spin over Puget Sound this weekend, thus frustrating our plans for getting some climbing in. For part of day, perhaps, we might have reasonable weather. We thought about something fun, like perhaps visiting the Hurricane Ridge visitor center and looking at maps. Or eating in Port Angeles. Or, if we were really bold, having a beer with our meal in Port Angeles while wearing our helmets. But then someone got the idea in their head that there was a rainshadow near Sequim. What is near there? Mount Deception! The fact that Deception is the second highest peak in the Olympics and therefore not in a rainshadow wasn't talked about. The fact that we had only part of a day of forecasted good weather wasn't mentioned much. The fact that a Red Robin burger had given me racehorse-killing heart burn was talked a lot about, at least by me. So, we found ourselves in the Royal Basin parking lot at 11 pm making our trailhead bivies. Some of us chose a fragrant place to nap. Photo by K. Gallagher The five of us were rolling at 5:20 under surprisingly clear skies. The approach to Royal Lake is mostly free of snow and the three smart ones in the group wore trail runners for the approach, carrying our boots on our backs, where they belong. Skies were very blue, which made us happy, although Red Robin was still trying to kill me. We quickly passed Shelter Rock and skated up the remaining trail (partly snow covered) to an upper basin which held some big rocks. We donned boots, crampons, and helmets, and began the snow plod. Our big rock is on the right hand of this photo. Our route begins by going up the gentle snow gully running from the rock up to the left. Me and Puyallup John climbing out of the gully. Photo by K. Gallagher. Once on top (near two tarns) we could see the full mountain and our route. We climbed to the low point of the ridge between Deception (on the left) and Martin (on the right). From there we traverse right a bit and then into a snow gully that ran, sort of, to the top. We did not climb the big, mega gully that splits to the left of the bottom basin. Kevin and Seattle John inspecting the route. Royal Basin holds lots of climbing opportunities. Here are the Needles and Mount Clark. The climbing became very steep, increasing from a 30 degree, pleasant walk, to a 45 degree strenuous workout. The warm sun, which was rapidly going away, had put the snow in perfect condition for kicking bucket steps, but caution had to be taken as a fall would have had rather serious consequences: There is little safe run out on the route and the grade is steep enough that arresting a fall would have to happen immediately. We had to transition over some crappy rock to get to the snowy basin below the ridge, but this was short and uneventful. Rather tired, we reached the notch in good order. The Great Destroyer (of Demonslayer Peak fame) and I at the notch. Photo by K.Gallagher. From the notch you've got two options. You can descend the other side of the notch to the glacier below and traverse around its head, then climb a very steep snow wall (about 45-50 degrees) underneath a nasty looking cornice to gain the summit ridge. Or, you can traverse your side of the ridge, drop down a bit, and gain the Honeymoon route, which is what we did. The Honeymoon route is a prominent, though narrow, gully that runs to the the same summit ridge. Below are The Great Destroyer and Kevin inspecting the route. To their right you can spy a little bit of the cornice against the white sky. Weather was beginning to worsen as we rested. To their left (but out of sight) is the Honeymoon route. To get to the route, we had to traverse some sketchy and unpleasant rock to get back to snow. Seattle John in front, with me and Puyallup John behind. Photo by K. Gallagher. Once back on the snow, the Honeymoon route looks alot better. We traversed below the rocks in the lower left corner, then went up the gully on the other side. The gully is steep, requiring some care, but the snow conditions were mostly good. However, there were a few rock steps to overcome and a few places where the snow thinned out too much for casual work. Some ice was encountered. The grade was consistently 45 degrees, occasionally higher, occasionally lower. As we neared the top and success seemed assured, we were faced with a choice of two gullies to follow. We opted for the left one, and climbed about 100 feet to some ice-coated rock that we had to negotiate. The first few climbers were able to front point on some slabby ice to get up, but the Great Destroyer and I had to chimney a bit as the slabby ice broke off after the third climber. Chimneying in crampons isn't a lot of fun. Neither is hand-foot matching. I still have all my digits. Below is Puyallup John coming up the rock step to what we thought was the summit. There was pretty serious exposure here. Photo by K. Gallagher. Unfortunately we were not on the summit. I declared us to be within 6 feet, which the Great Destroyer took great offense at. To be truthful, we were still 150ish feet below the actual summit, which wasn't accessible from our perch. So, we now had to downclimb the rock step in crampons and try the other gully. Me downclimbing the rock. To be honest, it wasn't that bad and you could butt scoot most of it. Photo by K. Gallagher. Weather was rapidly deteriorating. A storm that had been hanging on the Deer Park/Hurricane Ridge area broke off and was heading straight for us. Our time was running out as well. After down climbing to the split, The Great Destroyer took off, kicking big steps up the gully, which we ran up and over 4 foot vertical snow bank to a flat spot, where we could see the true summit again. Some long angle talus work got us over to it, and one final steep snow climb got us to the top. The storm was getting close and it was already after 2, which meant we couldn't muck around very much on top. Everywhere in the Olympics looked really nasty, except for where we were. Mount Mystery looked very appealing from our vantage point. We took the obligatory photos, then began our escape route. From L-R: (bottom) Me, Kevin, The Great Destroyer. (top) Puyallup John and Seattle John. Photo by K. Gallagher. The descent down was slow, with hundreds of feet of downclimbing and some rock fall. The setting, however, was immaculate and the storm had not yet hit us. Everywhere we could see in the Olympics was mired in storm, but it was still peaceful on Deception. Photo by K. Gallagher. We kept close together, however, so I only had to dodge a few slow moving rocks. I couldn't imagine climbing Deception without snow as the rock fall from people above would be unbelievably bad. Downclimbing, downclimbing, downclimbing. Our ascent steps were really good and I only had to re-kick occasionally. Below photo by K. Gallagher. Rather than re-tracing our ascent route, we took a direct descent instead of traversing on the crappy rock to the notch. Although it meant more work kicking steps on the down climb, it had the benefit of missing some bad rock and, once clear of the last of the jutting rocks, we got a sweet glissade. The storm hit us on the descent, but after some snow it went away, remarkably enough. The Great Destroyer even broke out a 360 degree spin. We gave him a 9.3 for style. Below photo by K. Gallagher. Once off the glissade, it was a casual walk back to the rocks where we left our runners and poles, with a little spitting rain. I donned my favorite skirt and runners and we began the hike out rather pleased with ourselves. Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, and helmet needed. Some parties might want a scramble rope and runners to set up a handline or a rap. I would probably bring another tool for the climb. Approach Notes: Trail is clear of snow to Shelter Rock. We left the cars at 5:20 AM and returned to them at 7:50 PM. From the prominent rock to the summit took us 5 hours, but this could be cut by almost 1.5 hours if we had taken a direct approach instead of going to the notch and if we hadn't gone up the wrong gully at the top. Exposure is high on the route and the snow is steep. I would never climb Deception after the snow is gone. You've got another week or two before it becomes a choss fest.

Drat! After conquering Demonslayer last weekend, I had my eyes on this first ascent for tomorrow.

Trip: Demonslayer Peak (FA) - Certain Death Route, 5.14b XXX Date: 6/16/2007 Trip Report: "Climb to glory!" shouted The Great Destroyer. In an effort to quell the weather gods, we had decided to take out the last unclimbed peak in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Demonslayer Peak, located in a remote, never travelled corner of said wilderness. There is an old legend associated with the peak, which I shall now recount in as few words as possible. There was a beautiful and chaste princess that lived in a verdant glen at the base of the peak. One day, a trapper from Canadia arrived and the princess fell in love with him. After fornicating for six days and nights, the trapper left under cover of darkness, slinking away to slake his desire for poutine and Molson back in his homeland. When the princess discovered him gone in the morning, she became so mad that she turned herself into a demon and invoked a curse that there never be good weather on weekends in June until a Canadian had been sacrificed on top of the peak. The peak has turned back many of the best climbers seeking to exorcise the demon and the curse. Beckey was turned back in 1956 by a furious onslaught from the princess-demon. Most recently, Haley and House were smitten by a Category 5 storm and forced instead onto the Emperor Face of Robson. Thus, I assembled a crack team of international climbers to finally remove the curse so that future generations of climbers might be able to have some fun in June. The Great Destroyer (left) and El Conquistador (right) Vancouver Bob (who just so happens to be from Canada) The demon-princess was sleeping as we approached up the arduous route leading to the South Face (ie. Certain Death Route) of the mountain, but when we reached the pass looking onto the glen where she once lived, she sensed our presence and sent a squall to dissuade us from climbing. "Don storm armor!" shouted the Great Destroyer. El Conquistador led the twelve overhanging ice pitches required to reach the base of the DogFang Spires, which sit at the base of the route. Knowing that we couldn't give up, for one might like to climb in June someday, we forged ahead toward the spires, which are behind and to the right of the prominent tooth in the center-right of the below photo. Not finding a name on the map for the tooth, we named it Fluffy Bunny Flower. Having reached the base of the DogFang Spires, we geared up in a high wind and I led out on the first of the 18 pitches rock pitches, the easiest of which runs 5.14b. The hardest is also 5.14b. As it was cold and I wanted to make it back to Cle Elum to get loaded, I placed no protection on the route. Our party of four topped out and were amazed at the amazing views to be had. However, a sustained 60 mph wind was blowing and we stopped only long enough to snap a photo so that our feat of mountaineering would be believed by others. Most unfortunately, we forgot to sacrifice Vancouver Bob. After down climbing the rock pitches, we remembered what we had forgotten, but were too spent to return to the summit. However, we found a party of four had had the same plans we did and were waiting to ascend the route. They had brought along a special wooden tool (seen in the below climbers hands) with which to sacrifice a Canadian, but had curiously forgotten to bring a Canadian with them. I do not know if they survived their ascent. Although we had conquered the peak, our forgetfulness means that awful weather on weekends in June will continue for the forseeable future. My apologies to all. ----------------------- Post Script. ----------------------- Ok, so we really tried to climb Ingalls Peak via the South Face in the middle of a storm. We bailed at the base due to wind, snow, and a lot of cold. That seemed like a rather boring story to me, hence the above farce, which I hope no one takes at all seriously. The actual events can be found at http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/faculty/cwillett/local/ingalls/index.html

Glad you guys made it off in one piece. I was in the group of four that made it up to the base of the climb as you two were gearing up. See more photos and text at http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/faculty/cwillett/local/ingalls/index.html

I can't believe anyone took that post seriously. To clarify matters, I'm not actually going to solo the Emperor Face of Robson in January in 8 hours. Rather, I'm heading to Nepal to solo the south face of Lhotse in a one day push. The axe got bent up during crevasse rescue practice. Because space was tight, in order to stretch the rope out we had to make a sharp bend in the rope and my axe was being used to keep the victim from swinging around. After the third time, I pulled my axe out to find the bend in it.

Being a cheap bastard, I thought that rather than spring for an ice tool, I'd simply convert my mountain axe into one by putting a strategic bend into it. Besides being cheap, I'm also clever. So, rather than taking the axe to a machine shop I instead got three budding climbers to rig up a Z-pulley system (other than being cheap and clever, I'm also lazy). My axe got plunged to the pick into the hard snow of Paradise and acted as a re-direct for a rope, so that the rope made a 90 degree bend around it. One of the benders went over a steep snow bank on the other side of the rope, the other two rigged a Z-pulley, and I kept my food on the top of the axe. Crank, crank, crank, and presto, a new technical tool: If you look carefully enough, you'll detect that my plan was not executed quite to my liking. Rather than giving up and buying an actual tool, I will instead develop a new mode of ice climbing adapted to axes with sideways bends. I will then solo the Emperor Face of Robson in 8 hours in January using this new technique.

It sure is lucky.

Trip: The Tooth - South Face and Southwest Face Date: 6/2/2007 Trip Report: So, the South Face of the Tooth gets climbed alot and there isn't much need for a whole lot of information on it, I thought I'd share some pictures from yesterdays romp on it. We climbed it and then descended and climbed the Southwest face route as well, on which there isn't as much beta. Most of the pictures below were taken by Joel with our communal camera. We left the Alpentel parking lot at 6:40 am hoping to be the first group on the route. Snow conditions are still ok on the direct approach up the Source Lake drainage, but holes are starting to appear and with the recent weather (if it continues) it will be fairly melted out within 2 weeks, meaning you'll want to take the trail approach instead. We went hard up the valley and quickly reached the basin below the Tooth and Pineapple Pass, only to see about 10 climbers starting up toward the notch below the Tooth. Joel went into pursuit mode, managing to catch the tail end of the group by the time they reached the notch. I was carrying 20 gallons of winter beer around my waist and reached the notch a minute or two later. There was a large group from the WAC and another from the Mountaineers, along with two independent climbers. A busy day on Das Toof, but everyone played nice and there were no quarrels. The Mountaineers sent us in front, just behind the first two WAC climbers, so there wasn't alot of waiting around. Thanks! I led up to the top in two pitches, passing a stuck green cam (BD #0.75?) near the top to the right of the catwalk and to the left of a stuck pink tricam, where lies the more normal direct route to the top. Fun climbing, especially as it was my first alpine leading experience. It took about 2 hours to the top, with about 30 minutes of waiting for routes to clear. ----------- Me at the start of the first pitch. Run the rope about 50 meters passing a rap station enroute. Me working around a delicate flake near the top. I'm off the normal route, just past the stuck cam. The climbing isn't hard (about 5.6), but the line to my right is easier, about 5.4. Joel and I on top for the first time of the day. The climber behind us was part of the duo that set off for a traverse over to Chair Peak. I'd like to hear about the experience, so if you're reading this, please put something up! ------------------- After climbing, we rested for fifteen minutes then rapped down the route, carefully avoiding the other climbers, and reached the base where a hoard of packs were stashed. We picked up our gear and traversed down and around the mountain to the start of the south face route. The cold snow felt very refreshing to my rock-shoe clad feet. The Southwest Face has a number of options at the start. There are three open books that you can climb at the start. We chose to climb the third one (furthest over). The remaining snow meant that we got to start quite a bit above the start of the climb. I led out heading toward a prominent tree that we could see was slung with several slings and rap rings. I didn't do a great job of route finding on the pitch. Some chimney action (no chimney in sight), some face climbing, a body crack, a lot of vegetation. A ton of rope drag thanks to my bad route finding. Almost an hour later I reached the tree and set up a belay, despite a lot of remaining rope. Check out the awful rope drag that I built into the system by my bad route finding: Instead of belaying here, I should have climbed higher up and set a belay so that Joel, on the next pitch, could have gotten to near the Catwalk, and I then I could have finished the climb with a third pitch. Anyhow, Joel led the second pitch which featured much nicer climbing (i.e, he did a good job route finding) and set up a hanging belay just to the left of another body crack (the other two open books come up through the crack as well). I cleaned the pitch and we swapped gear for another lead. Some delicate traversing got me into the crack where I could finally put some pro in. More dirty work got me onto the face and a bit higher, where I could finally get a second piece in. The climbing became much better after this, but I again didn't pay enough attention to preventing rope drag and I quickly found myself working hard against the friction in the system to gain elevation. After some face climbing, I reached a plateau and slung a large tree, adding the rope drag. I wasn't exactly sure where I was and was rather tired, so I traversed right, battling rope drag, instead of heading higher up. I should have headed up, as my traverse just reached a belay station twenty meters below the summit on the South Face route. Heading up would have reached a belay tree just below the Catwalk. A WAC climber was here bringing up a climber. I was tired and didn't want to go backward, so I slung the tree and brought Joel up. We had to wait a bit for climbers and rappelers to clear out, then Joel rapidly ran up the correct direct route (i.e, stuck pink tricam route) to the top. We were back on top by about 4:45 pm. We linked up with Laura and Scott, two other independent climbers, for a double rope rap down the South Face, eventually reaching the bottom after another single rap. Joel and I traversed back around on the snow, in our rock shoes, sans ice-axes (which were with the packs!). Tired and sweaty, we regeared and set out for the cars at 6 pm, reaching the Alpentel parking lot a little before 7. I was a bit tired out, but very happy, as the below picture indicates. Gear Notes: For the South Face route, just bring a few nuts and maybe a cam or two of medium size. On the Southwest Face route I found the smaller size TCUs to be invaluable. I put in a few nuts and some medium to large cams (#3 BD, #2 and #3 Friends). Protection isn't awesome, but it isn't too bad either. Approach Notes: Snow is still ok, but getting worse by the day. The snowy traverse over to the start of the Southwest Face route is a little thin where it transitions onto the rock. Be very careful when entering onto the rock! The Becky Route on the SW Face is the first open book and runs a purported 5.5. The Third Open book route that we took maxes out around 5.7 or so and is consistently 5.5-5.6. There are a few loose rocks on the way up, but these are pretty easily spotted and if you grab one or step on one, you'll know it very quickly. Protection is not as good as on the South Face route, but perfectly acceptable.

Trip: Tomyhoi Peak - Date: 5/26/2007 Trip Report: Despite the foul weather forecast, Bob, Brenton, and I decided to give a run to Tomyhoi Peak over the weekend. Knowing that getting to the top was unlikely, we hauled a bunch of glacier gear up with which to practice anchors and crevasse rescue. That meant heavy packs for the snow slog. Twin Lakes road is clear of blow downs for about 2.5 miles and Bob's Accord didn't have any problems getting up there. Snow prevented us from going further. There are two washouts on the road a bit higher up, which means you won't be driving to the trailhead anytime soon. After hauling up the road, we picked up the Yellow Aster Butte trail, which within a mile or so became snow covered, forcing us into taking a direct line up the snowy slope and into an open basin. Although the weather wasn't super pleasant, we had enough visibility to navigate and, after battling off some camp robbers, took to an ascending traverse around the southern flanks of the mountains on the far side of the basin. The snow was in excellent shape for kicking steps and I was happy, for once, that I had left my snow shoes in the car. We worked our way around the mountain, gaining elevation when possible, until we could see the drainage from Yellow Aster Lakes. Mount Baker should have loomed massively to the south, but we could barely see the lowest edges of the mountain. Realizing that we were too low, we ascended the snow along the rim of the drainage, staying well back from the heavily corniced lip, until we could see where the lakes out to be. I say "ought", because no lakes were visible under the snow. The weather was getting worse, with higher winds, and Tomyhoi was not even remotely visible. We dropped down a steep slope, with a big cornice above us, and dug in for the night after determining (guessing) that we were not on top of one of the lakes. General sloth kept us from getting any practice in. Instead, we melted snow and dined on Malaysian lamb curry and rice, which Bob had purchased from Hawkers, in Vancouver, and dried up at home. By 8 there was little to see, though we had managed to pick out the base of Tomyhoi and settled on what we thought the start of the climb should be. There wasn't much hope for a summit in the morning, as we wanted to be able to see more than a hundred feet while climbing. Larrabee Peak did come out of the clouds occasionally. Around 4 am the rain began to tap on the fly of the TGV. Aroudn 6 am Bob stuck his head out of the tent to take a look at our prospects and gave the typical Canadian curse, which sounded a lot like, "Hmm." I went back to sleep for an hour. Then another hour. The rain continued and I didn't do much more work for the next two hours other than point my camera out of the tent. Visibility was down to about 40 feet when we packed up and set out at 10 am to retrace our steps, in the rain, mist, and snow, taking less than 2 hours to reach the trailhead. The rain, which had let off when we reached the cover of forest, decided to come back again and accompany us down the road walk to the cars. Gear Notes: An ice axe is useful, as are trekking poles. Approach Notes: Twin Lakes road is drivable for about 2.5 miles. About 1/2 mile past that the road is washed out and will take some significant work before you can drive to the Yellow Aster Butte trailhead. Snow is in good shape and snowshoes are not necessary. Stay away from rocks, as I punched through twice, with my leg dangling in open air. On the way to and from the climb, make sure to stop at Grahams in Glacier. A big coffee and enormous apple fritter cost me $2. There is also an excellent selection of micro brews, including the rare Ur-thell Hop'it.

Trip: Vantage - Feathers - Various Date: 4/14/2007 Trip Report: So, I know this isn't the most original posting, but it might help people get through the week a little better. A crew from the Tacompton area headed East to Vantage for some drier weather and to get back on rock after a winter of plastic holds. Two days of solid weather, good climbing, and getting back into the mind set of leading ensued. There are loads of places to climb at Vantage, but we concentrated on the Feathers for the simple reason that they were closest to our beer stash. ------------- The conditions at Vantage are extreme, so Wayne made sure our Everest quality Wenzel was anchored right. Later on in the day (during a beer break), we watched a tent lift off in a gust and settle thirty feet away in some sage. Being nice, we returned the tent to its original position and staked it out. The gear inside must have been a mess and we realized that the owners, who left while we were climbing, must have thought someone rifled their stuff. So, if you're reading this, such was not the case. ----------------- Here is Sonny attacking a 10b next to Don Coyote as a warm up. ----------------- After getting in a few leads, including an awesome 5.9 and the far end of the Feathers, it was time for some beer back at the cars, the whole reason we went to the Feathers instead of the King Pins. There were some climbers drinking Steel Reserve as well. Steel Reserve? What, is PBR too expensive? ------------------ After relaxing on a 5.7, Tom's head was sufficiently clear to try the 5.10a to the left of Don Coyote, his first attempt at leading a 10. The route is pretty much straight up. Tom cranked pretty hard, but couldn't pull the move to the chains due to Popeye arms. Considering it was his first lead at the grade, he rocked. Sonny set out to lead it and retrieve some gear. The was getting low on the horizon, making for some interesting lighting. Sonny getting ready to make the last move to the chains. Yeah, the Feathers have some scenic quality. The climbing ended and we returned to the cars for some dinner and beers in the increasing windy (and cold) campground. We managed to stay up late enough to see the sun go down and the stars come out, but not by much. In the morning, and by morning I mean when the sun actually got to us and brought some warmth back to us (i.e 9 am), we hit the rock again. There was a party climbing what we wanted to, so we stopped and watched the Steel Reserve drinker as he led a 5.4. We waited for them to finish, then followed them over to a 5.7 and watched Steel Reserve guy lead a 5.7. I had watched this dude back clip every single bolt the day before, but his friends must have finally straightened him out over night as he managed to avoid doing it on this 5.7. This moron had also Z-clipped his PAS the day before, but had figured out over night that letting it hang low wasn't the wisest of plans and had it slung tight in the morning. He hung out a foot away from the chains for about 5 minutes before finally stepping up on the huge platform below them. Maybe he was enjoying the view or something. Come to think of it, that red shirt looks a lot like my red shirt. The moron also seems to be wearing a helmet that looks just like mine and even has my name written across it. Must have stolen it in the night or something like that. After a few more climbs we packed it up and headed back to Tacrackton, hopefully with all the winter rust polished off.

Yeah, that is the longer winded trip report that I also put up.

You guys did a great job for us.

Trip: Mount Baring - West Ridge - South Slope Date: 4/7/2007 Trip Report: I needed to get out in to the alpine, but I also needed to get broken in before doing something more difficult. I hadn't been up Mount Baring (Baring Mountain) and had heard wonderful things about its North Face. Well, maybe by wonderful I really mean terrifying. I would get broken by a route over there. So, instead I headed over for the standard scramblish route running up the West Ridge and onto the South Slope. You can read a full on TR at http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/faculty/cwillett/local/baring/index.html Here is a shorter, less long winded one. Mount Baring's north face is a little scary. Things there are of the grade V, 5.10 variety. I should probably get a wee bit stronger before I try a route there. From the Barclay Creek trailhead, an old road grade (not the trail!) leads about 300 meters to a large cairn that mark the start of the climbing route. Er, rather the bushwhack. There is something of a trail, and occasionally you get some flagging tape, but mostly just head up slope via the easiest route you can find. As no route is especially appealing, don't agonize over it, just go. From the top of the ridge (about 4000 ft, 1800 feet above the trailhead), you'll have about a mile of pleasant, mostly flat walking. Dip to the south and continue your traverse along the flanks of the mountain. There is hard, icy snow here in the forest and you'll want crampons and an axe. Climbing up to a notch at about 4800 feet where you can see the rest of the route. Cross the basin and head up the obvious snow gully. The main peak is to the left. The snow was in good condition and the steep gully was no problem. Without snow, I don't think this would have been very much fun. This is a view down the gully to some other people in our group coming up. The gully steepens to around 35-40 near the top, but the snow was in great condition and going up was like climbing a ladder. From the notch you get some excellent views off toward Mounts Hinman, Daniel, and Stuart (L->R, Hinman is the snowy, ridge like thing on the far right). From the notch, make a left and climb steep (but super good) snow toward the summit. Traverse to the left after the initial climb, through some trees, to reach the summit block. Beware that there are some cornices hanging over the north face. If you venure out onto one and it breaks, you'll fall for a couple thousand feet before you deck. Here is Steve chilling on top. The descent follows the same route, but dropping off of the West Ridge is really rather unpleasant. Steep and brushy, we had to use a lot of roots and rocks to make our way down. Be careful and take your time. Gear Notes: Bring a helmet as rock fall is fairly common lower down in the brush. An ice axe and crampons are fairly mandatory at this time of the year, but you only really need the crampons along the traverse from the West Ridge up and onto the notch at 4800 feet. Approach Notes: Take US2 to Baring and make a left on a FS road marked for Barclay Creek. Drive to the end of it and start up the old road grade. About 5 hours to summit, about 4 down. About 4000 feet of gain. Excellent early season or winter climb. It would pretty much suck in the summer.

I've used the Helix both in prototype and production versions in general alpine settings, but never where my life was going to depend on it. If you're in the mountains on moderate terrain and basically just need it for self belay, it works just fine. Forget about cutting steps, this takes forever (even longer than with the CAMP XLA 210). With the prototype version, I was able to jam the spike up into the shaft after about 3 weeks in the Montana Rockies. I'm happy to take the axe along on hiking-style trips, but I leave it at home if it has to see greater duty than self belay.

Our hut was set back from the beach, so at night it was pretty quiet. Around 8 or so there would be various fire swingers out and parties were ramping up, but by 11 I was generally asleep. There were some crowds on the various walls, but as we climbed a lot in the early morning, we had a lot of space to ourselves. By the afternoon, some areas were a bit zoo like, but even then it wasn't too bad, especially as we were at the end of our day and didn't mind laying around chatting with others as we waited for groups to get off of routes.

Yup, I thought this would be difficult for people. I spent Saturday and Sunday in the rain (14 straight hours on Sat!) at Snoqualmie Pass. Sweer Thai rock was thought about rather alot.

Trip: Tonsai, Thailand - Various Date: 1/1/2007 Trip Report: With the weather beginning to show signs of improving here in the NW, and the hope of another outdoor season approaching, here is some climbing porn from the happiest place on earth, along with some info to help get you out there next winter. I was in Thailand for 3 weeks this last December and spent a week climbing at Tonsai/Railey. See also the Khao Jiin Lae TR in this same forum. This is part of some web pages that I put up about the area. See: http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/faculty/cwillett/thailand2/index.html for more hot air. --------------- Ao Nang Tower. Note the longtail boat at the base of the tower waiting for climbers. In the high-res version of this photo, you can see the actual climbers, but they're pretty hard to spot in this low res one. Tonsai Bay is accessible only by long tail boat, usually taken from the town of Ao Nang. The big block on the right is Tonsai Wall, home of some pretty hard routes. The Tonsai Bay resort is just to the left of it. The rock in Thailand is pretty featured, and climbing is definitely three dimensional. Here is Fire Wall home of the mandatory Groove Tube (6a). There are a lot of guides for the area and a lot of people engage them to hang top ropes. One of the most popular areas for guided groups is the 123 and Muay Thai walls. There are a lot of moderate routes here (5-6a+) and there is a bunch of traffic. But, if you show up before 9 am, the air is cool and no one else is around. Here a guide is leading a 6b at 123. I had climbed this same route earlier in the day, working really hard. The guide walked it. 123 can be a real zoo by the late morning. Many of the routes start with a V1/V2 boulder problem. This one required two or three campus moves, and a hand from a guide for some. In the distance is the Thaiwand, a massive formation that sports several multipitch bolted routes. There is excellent single pitch climbing on both sides of it. Much of the climbing is rather overhung, but Tonsai Wall has some of the steepest around. Thaiwand in the distance. There are some very powerful climbers that show up in the area, and they seem to congregate at Tonsai Wall and Dum's Kitchen. I watched this guy work this route for about 15 minutes, never falling, never hanging on the rope. What was really amazing wasn't his strength, but rather his foot work. He was really slow and methodical, never seeming rushed or hurried or frantic. At one point stopped climbing, feet wedged into the rock, and was able to rest while almost completely horizontal. Here he is almost at the chains, about 15 minutes after starting. Next to Tonsai Wall is Dum's Kitchen, which is less overhung but has stupidly hard, long routes on it. The rock is slightly less featured and some of the easier routes on it are getting a little polished lower down. This one is, I think, a 6c+ or something like that. It follows the flake up, then blanks out for a while. The climber in the photo is almost to the chains. From the Thaiwand, looking back toward Tonsai. The big wall is part of Tiger Wall, hard enough that we didn't even ponder trying routes there. On the list of things to do, but not done, was an excellent 6 pitch bolted route called Humanality. It runs at 6b+ and comes directly out of the Tonsai Bay resort. It gets morning sun, so you need to be on it well before sunrise. Tucked back away from Tonsai Bay is The Nest, where I found it appropriate to leave my initials in blood. Some of my favorite climbing is on the Phra Nang side of the Thaiwand at a place called Escher World. You can climb here through the early afternoon, but after that the place gets hit with a lot of sun. Fun stuff, including an actual crack, a rarity for Thailand. After climbing at Escher World, you can climb up through a cave into the Thaiwand and come out on the other side. Then, just rappel down. Several routes come right up to and around the cave, so be careful. After 5 days of climbing, I needed something of a rest, so we went on a snorkelling trip to the local islands. You can hire boats to take you out to try to solo these limestone haystacks. It was hard to imagine the rain and cold of a Washington winter at this moment. You can also learn to dive in the area and there are plenty of places to rent kayaks as well. There are a few objective hazards in the area. The monkeys are mostly well behaved, but keep your stuff close together, don't leave food out, and don't get too close. ------------------- Some Logistical Help Getting there: Fly into Bangkok and spend a couple of days getting over jet lag and seeing the mandatory tourist stuff. Catch a flight from Bangkok (book online, for example on 12Go airlines, about $40) to Krabi. From Krabi hire a taxi at the taxi stand in the airport (no choice) to Ao Nang (about $20). The taxi will drop you off at the long tail ticket shack, where you can catch a long tail to Tonsai, Railey, or Phra Nang for about $2. Alternatively, you can fly directly to Phuket from Europe and then fly Phuket to Krabi. Or, you can take a bus to Krabi. Or, you can train part of the way and bus the rest of the way. Where to Stay: There is a lot of accomodation. You can stay at Tonsai (mostly dirt bag climbers), Railey East or West (more families, more posh, more money), or Phra Nang (pretty high end). Tonsai is pretty central and I'd stay there again for sure. It isn't a bad idea to make reservations and you can do this online. We stayed at the Tonsai Bay Resort, the poshest place in Tonsai. Cost was something like 2200 baht a night (about $60), including breakfast. There are cheaper places to stay, but I liked the air con, satellite TV, shower, etc, etc, that the place provided. The rumor was that a lot of the cheap places to stay were going to be taken down and a big, family resort put up. Guidebooks: There are two main ones: Thailand: A Climbing Guide, by Sam Lightner Jr. Rock Climbing in Thailand, by Wee Changrua and Elke Schmitz. Both will get you around the area just fine. They disagree occasionally on route quality and difficulty and I would bring both of them. We tended to plan a day's climbing using the Lightner book, but carry the Changrua book during the day itself. For general transit and information about Thailand, I've found the Lonely Planet guide to be mostly accurate and helpful over my two trips to Thailand. Routes: There are hundreds of routes and something for everyone. However, there are a lot of higher grade routes and the easier ones tend to get filled quickly by guides and their clients. Routes are on the French scale. I think there is a 4 somewhere. The easy routes (French 5 and 5+) and moderates (6a/a+/b) can get busy. But so can the higher end 7s. Here are some suggestions. The books have much, much more. Diamond Cave - Lots of good 5 and 5+ routes. A good warm up place. Inland, so you can't see the water and away from food. Busy with guides and clients, but if you hit it before 9 am you'll have plenty of space. Keep the Jam, Man (6a, 20m) and No Name (6a+, 20 m) were fun. Muay Thai and 123 - Tons of routes, but 123 can get especially zoo like. 123 is on the beach with Muay Thai in the forest next to it. Valentine (Muay Thai, 6a+, 17 m) and Samiboy (123, 6a+, 10m) were nice. But Make a Way (123, 6b, 25 m) and Massage Secrets (123, 6a+, 30 m) are not to be missed. Thaiwand - Some day I'd like to give the Lord of the Thais (6 pitches, 7b) a run, but I'm nowhere close to being able to climb it. However, there are some excellent single pitch moderates at the base of the Thaiwand. These are frequently the first pitches of longer routes, so don't clog them, especially in the morning. The 5s here are harder than in other places. Monkey Love (6b, 25m) was especially fun, but long and pumpy (for me). Fire and Cobra Walls - Excellent climbing here. Everyone says you can't leave without climbing the Groove Tube (6a, 30 m). This makes it a busy place where you might have a line. Instead, head out at 7 am and climb it without a line. The bouldery start looks harder than it actually is. After that, you're in a tube, stemming the whole way up, with a minor overhang to get around before the chains. It really is fun, but maybe a bit soft for its rating. Snake Whiskey (Cobra, 6a+, 25 m) is another stunner. Not to be missed is Mai Pen Rae (The Defile, 6a+, 25m), which features a very un-Thailand like blank start. This might have been my favorite climb in the area and it doesn't seem to get a whole lot of traffic. Another favorite was As Far as Sim (Escher World, 6a+, 15m), which combined some athleticism with technical world. Guiding Services: There are guides o'plenty and they all seem fairly nice. We didn't hire a guide, but if you don't feel like leading or bringing a rope and draws to Thailand, they are a good bet. They don't charge a whole lot and you don't have to arrange things much more in advance than the night before. Guides will also outfit you with shoes, harnass, etc, and show you around the area (i.e, take you to Diamond Cave, Muay Thai, and 123). Season: The winter time is a good time to go as it is less hot and rains much less than between, say, April and August. The high season isn't all that high as far as these things go. Many of the locals said the low season (April through August) is a great time to climb as there are few people. When to climb: If you climb early, though, you won't see many people. Many of the locals were shocked and refused to believe that we had put in several hours of climbing before returning for breakfast at 9 am. Some routes/walls get especially busy and it is a good idea to hit them early. Different walls get sun at different times of the day, and you'll want to climb only when they are in the shade. Walls that get morning sun can be comfortably climbed up to about 9 am. Typically we'd finish climbing around 4 pm and then lounge around, watching much better climbers work hard routes, or float in the Andaman, or drink beer. Most people seemed to start climbing around 9 or 10 am, took a long lunch break, and then climbed from 3 pm on up to nightfall. Costs/Permits/Paperwork: You don't need a permit. Visas are free for Americans, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis, and most Euros. Some people have to pay, though, to get in. Once in, you pay only for food and lodging. You can get a bungalow for as little as 500 baht at Tonsai, which is about $15, but you don't get a whole lot. The poshest place in Tonsai (Tonsai Bay Resort) runs 2200 baht for two people and includes breakfast. Food is more expensive than elsewhere in Thailand, but still very cheap. The more beer you drink (I drank a lot of it), the more you'll pay. Bottled water is cheap, and you'll drink a lot of it. Langauge: Well, they speak Thai in Thailand. However, most people in the Tonsai area that are directly involved with tourists speak enough English that communication isn't tough. The guides seem to speak respectable English also, though their vocabulary seems to consist mostly of "Left foot up! Right foot up!" Knowing some Thai helps and people appreciate you speaking it, even if you butcher it (and you will). Pick up a phrase book to learn some common things, like "Hello" and "Thank you". Gear Notes: Rope, draws, belay stuff, and a cheater. I'd bring 12-18 draws. If you're going after some of the multipitch routes, you might consider a skid lid and prussiks. Despite sweating a lot, I rarely used chalk. Don't bother with sunscreen, you'll just sweat it off. Instead, climb in the shade as much as possible. You can buy some gear at Wee's, but I'd bring whatever you need from home. Approach Notes: Most walls can be reached by short walks, though some are further out than others, depending on where you stay. From where we were, Tonsai Wall and Dum's Kitchen were a 2 minute walk, whereas the Defile and Escher World were more like 25 minutes.

Hey, I was in Railey in December after Khao Jiin Lae. I'm still working on pics and getting a page up and formatted, but eventually I'll have something about my week down there. Stayed in Tonsai, loved the climbing, most of which I did in the early AM before crowds came out. Great stuff.

Trip: Mount Washington - Route 4 (sort of) Date: 1/20/2007 Trip Report: After so much warm air sport climbing in Thailand, it was time to hit the Olympics and play in the snow for a little while. The forecast looked good enough for a run at Washington, though I wasn't quite sure what I might find in the way of avalanche danger. I teamed up with Lauren, Rhys, and Jake for the climb up to the top via a proposed Route 4 - Route 2 hybrid, leaving Tacoma REI parking lot at the stupidly early hour of 4:30 am. The road up toward Ellinor was a little frozen for a while, then the snow started piling up. Rhys got his 4-Runner high, perhaps a mile or two below the lower trail head, and out we spilled, starting the hike up at 7:30 am. ---- Jake on the road ---- We hiked up the hard snow for about two minutes and then cut right into the woods on a barely marked (some yellow flagging tape) use trail that ran up and around over awkward ground (heavy overnight packs!) before dumping us out into a clear slide area with good snow. We kicked steps up for 15 minutes as the sun got really nice on the Ellinor - Washington ridge, finally emerging back onto the road, but well past the Route 1 trailhead. ---- Lauren kicking steps on our shortcut ---- Our short cut put us about a quarter of mile from the Jefferson Pass trailhead, easily reached along the flat road. Several hours of road walking saved here. ---- Ellinor and Washington. Our route would go straight up by the prominent avalanche chute to the base of the headwall. The left into the gully and up toward the top. ---- We walked down the road and began cross country work just pass the Jefferson Pass trail sign, following a prominent creek up. The snow initially was pretty good, but as we began to clear the trees we frequently hit spots with rocks, or very fluffy powder that made climbing very hard. Much sweat lost, but the sun was shining and everyone was happy at the progress we were making. However, as we gained elevation the work became seriously tough, with very steep sections that paradoxically held deep, dry snow that wasn't solid enough to take the weight of a climber. ------ Jake on some bad snow. ------ Underneath was hard ice/compact snow that you couldn't do much with. Now, the clever person would have put crampons on and tried switchbacking a bit, but no one ever accused the four of us of being clever. Well, maybe Lauren is clever, but certainly not the rest of us. We eventually got up to near the base of the headwall (actually, behind some cliffs) and thought about traversing right. ---- Lauren coming over to where we had to descend. ---- We wouldn't be able to traverse, which meant we had to drop down lower and then move up once again. Once again, of course, our crampons stayed on our backs and some nifty (ok, thuggish) work was needed to get down off hard ice covered by 3 inches of fluff. But once down everything seemed grand. ---- Rhys in the distance ----- The fun continued as we gained more elevation, lost more sweat, and climbed high into a gully that turned worse and worse as we came up. We were trying to stay close to the ridge and the gully we were taking turned out not to be the right one. It led up to a narrow pass and dropped off into a large basin on the other side. ---- Where we got stopped (for the moment) --- Time was rolling on and we contemplated our options during a laughable session with the drawn map of the routes on Washington. We concluded that we were looking down on Route 5 and that we probably wanted to retrace our steps down the gully. So, back down we went, cutting into the main basin and heading up on increasingly challenging terrain, with hard, nasty ice underneath fluff. The challenge would have been, er, not so challenging had we bothered to put our crampons on. At least we looked cool (not like anyone was watching). ---- On our way back up. ---- We climbed up for another half hour and decided we should probably dig in for a camp and spend a little more time with the map to determine where to go. We were looking up at an icy gully that we thought might go to the summit. Not very far! --- The gully we thought was the last, from our camp --- The slope was at about 20-25 degrees, which meant we had to spend some time with shovels digging and slashing at the fluff and ice to get two platforms built. Task 1 accomplished. We never looked at the map, being too concerned with telling jokes about our respective mothers. Ok, only about Jake's mom. --- Home sweet home --- Smiles were everywhere, as the setting couldn't have been more grand. --- Rhys and Lauren Looking down to Lake Cushman and off to Hood Canal and Tacoma The big fatty came out and got some awesome alpinglow about 2 hours after this photo ---- We were all pretty spent and decided to try the gully and the summit tomorrow. Even if it didn't work, we didn't have a whole lot more options. The temperature surprised us by dropping precipitously when the sun went down, driving us into our bags at the early hour of 6 pm. But the South Sound lit up all aglow, and Jake's sparklers seemed somehow appropriate. After 13 hours in the sleeping bags, I finally stuck my head out of the tent to see what that howling sound was. I put my head back inside and curled up into my bag, happy with where I was. Rhys and Jake decided to give the gully a run any way. I had a shot of Canadian whiskey and went back to sleep after watching them for a few minutes. I dozed for a bit before finally wanting some tea, which meant that I had to go outside to fetch the stove. The wind was still blowing, but it wasn't especially cold as I melted snow for water. The two had been gone for an hour before I saw them slowly down climbing the gully and make their way back to the camp. They had reached the top of the gully and then climbed a thin, narrow one to a notch. From the notch led steep, technical rock with plentiful patches of ice. Then decided not to try it and came back. Despite the weather, they were happy with the bit of climbing they got to do. Due to a genetic disorder, Rhys has this permanent look on his face, no matter what he is doing. We packed up and headed back down (wearing crampons!) the slopes, sticking to the open areas for as long as we could. As we broke through tree line, our progress became more and more difficult. 50 feet above the road, we got stuck by a system of waterfalls and had to work seriously hard for 45 minutes to finally get down. We walked back down the road, picked up our old tracks, and retraced our steps back to the truck, plenty happy. Gear Notes: Ice axes. Crampons (try using them). Shovels. Canadian Whiskey. Approach Notes: You can't get to the lower trailhead now, unless afoot. Park where you can and hike up. Unless you know where the use trails are, you'll need to take the road all the past the Route 1 trailhead to the Jefferson Pass trailhead. From there, you're on your own.