Dannible

I don't see any blatant chest beating; just a bunch of guys who are stoked on the activity that they've dedicated a huge part of their lives to talking about where they want to take it next. I know a lot of these guys and know that their lists are reasonable for their level of experience. It doesn't always work out that you get around to doing everything that you want to in a year, but one should keep in mind the old saying about shooting for the stars and hitting the moon or whatever. As for me, I'm worried that if I made a list I'd jinx it and get hurt or something. I have bad luck like that. My goals are to not hurt myself too bad, go back to Alaska, do some stuff wherever the weather allows it this winter, and take steps in the direction of finding some steady source of income that gives me some free time and doesn't crush my soul. Basically the same goals I had last year I guess. And some people say that the world will end on Dec 21st, so I'll probably try to party hard for a few days before that just to cover my bases.

It was a good year for me. Sacrificed quantity of climbing for quality. Hung out in some neat places, and met some good people along the way. These do not cover every climb. I need to get better at getting pictures from my partners. Dragontail NW Face: My headlamp broke two pitches below the summit, in a storm, and I couldn't put my balaclava on right while belaying. Colchuck: Pickets: Denali: My buddy Matt learning to ice climb at home, in rubber boots. Sorry about not rotating the picture. The Ruth. Jens is on the far left and next to him is the great George Lowe. Aaron drinking stout with British climbers, from a pony keg donated by Irish skiers. 11,300 Aaron brewing up before bailing on Dan Beard: Me, too hot and dehydrated to be having fun on The Stump. Graham on LA Express (Snoqualmie) or something. I gave up the best part of the PNW summer to make some money, but saw some neat stuff:

I can say that having a shovel on one particular climb just as a safety measure ended up being pretty essential for my partner and I this year in AK. We got to a summit in the dark and had to wait a couple of hours for enough light to see the descent route, and being able to dig an alcove to escape the wind made what could have been a fairly serious situation into just another brew stop. I guess one of those plastic boards would have worked alright in that situation because we weren't digging a full on cave, and the warming work of digging was kind of nice compared to just sitting there. I've never seen one of those ones that attaches to ice axes. I wish they worked on leashless tools. Tents are the way to go for most intentional camping situations, but come on, caves are fun.

Agreed. You might feel like carrying one for emergencies, but if you actually plan on digging a cave to sleep in or you if you might be digging up your friend, you will expend less energy and save time with a real shovel.

I disagree. There has been some stuff in around Source Lake which is pretty high, so that probably survived the warmth. That said it's supposed to be pretty stormy with bad avy conditions up there tomorrow, so it probably wont be the best time to go up there. Sounds like ski season has returned, but I'll admit to being a little bummed out about the lack of roadside ice so far this year. The Source Lake line sure is a long walk for a couple of pitches. They're calling for some pretty warm temps in Ltown next week. http://www.nwac.us/weatherdata/alpental/10day/

That topo shows LA Express in a different place than the one on the bottom of the page here: http://www.mountaineers.org/nwmj/05/051_Shorts3.html We climbed the yellow line on this topo. Seemed like an obvious line so it defiantly could have been done at some point. If anyone goes back and climbs it know that the scary, seemingly precarious chockstone on pitch 5 seems to be solid when frozen.

Just thought I'd warn everyone that there is a lot of surface hoar on some sun exposed slopes at Snoqualmie (and all over I'm sure) due to all of the sun and cold. This will make avy conditions sketchy and unpredictable for a while once it starts snowing again. Watch out.

Fun route. I think that the left side finish is pretty neat. Almost makes the hard crack seem contrived. Approach, more or less: from that little parking lot head up the slide towards the waterfall covered cliffs, follow a wide snowshoe track (for now) traversing to the left through some trees to the left side of the slide. Branch off, heading uphill towards the cliff near the edge of the forest, go into the forest to get around the cliff, there are a couple of steep steps, above the cliff head back into the open (depending on avy conditions!) and jest head up keeping the forest close on your left. Eventually trend left through the forest. When the angle starts to decrease head up a bit more and start a hard NW (left) traverse when you think you are a few hundred feet below the ridge crest to eventually hit a lower point in the ridge line where you can downclimb 50 degree snow into the basin below the face. Seems like this slope could be a dangerous place on a sunny afternoon after some snow. Hope this info helps some people; I didn't know how to get in there before I went. This time we benefited greatly from a solid boot pack (much of which I put in last week though). On the way down clouds and cold temps kept us from wallowing and we were down in under half an hour. Last week some friends and I climbed another route which follows the first 100 or so feet of traversing to NY Gully, cuts off up and right on an obvious snow/mixed ramp, rounds a corner on a ledge then heads up on steeper mixed choss to the base of a weakness just below a chockstone roof. We avoided the roof via a face to the right (5.7 or 5.8?), and traversed into the weakness which we followed to the base of the hard crack on NY gully encountering two or three more big chockstones. 6 pitches to the top of the crack, and a bit harder than NYG. I know that there is some route called LA Express somewhere on that side of the face, but I don't know the details of that route.

Hell yeah. There's a place that many talk about but would rather avoid. Lets see those pictures!

Here are the details: http://www.nwac.us/weatherdata/alpental/now/ Pretty crazy inversion deal seems to be happening all over. Could change things a bit.

I was curious about that chockstone in the aid crack. Has it always been there or did some one at some point pick up a rock from the rubble below the crack and stuff it in there for pro? Not that it matters but it does make things easier than if it wasn't there.

I think someone posted something somewhere on here about looking around and seeing nothing. Just glancing at the forecast I'd say it's staying about 10 degrees too warm day and night for stuff to start shaping up. How much snow is on the ground there? Elsewhere: I don't really know how the source lake stuff is supposed to look, but it seems like some of that stuff might be climbable soon. There seems to be lots of it hanging around.

In Alaska this year we used a Tendon 8.9 double rope as a single, and I was a little surprised how trashed it was after a couple of routes and a lot of slogging. On the other hand on the Southern Pickets Traverse we used a Tendon 9.4 I think, which was not even new to start with, and it looked fine by the end even though we figured that the traverse is probably harder on a rope than most routes anywhere (that doesn't involve jugging) because of sharp rock and lichen. I've been really happy with the skinny Mammut ropes I've used too. I'd say just look for the best deal.

The reactor is faster at melting snow and is more convenient for that because of the size, so if you are gonna be doing that most of the time I'd say go with the reactor. It's also kind of neat how quiet it is. Otherwise go with the sol because it is a lot lighter. For your purpose, I'd suggest sol for sure. It works fine in the wind if you put a little effort into blocking it (I often will hold it close to me for the warmth and let my body block the wind) and I have used it with fine results below 0 degrees (again, holding it in my lap). It is so light and melts snow so fast that I carry a lot less or no water when I have it with me because I know I can stop and have a liter in 5 minutes or so.

As of a few days ago Mt. Snoqualmie is doing its freeze/thaw thing and the moss is frozen, which seems to be the most important thing. Not much real ice at all, but some of the snice holds weight and the approach up the slide above the road is bootable. Seemed like the skiing would be pretty bad. We climbed something between NY Gully and LA Express, or maybe we climbed LA Express. We climbed the yellow line in Dane's topo here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=868244 which is in a very different place than Waynes LA Express line here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1005888/2 In any case we thought it was neat and had a good time and my calves got tired.

Hold up, sorry for furthering this thread hijack (but I mean, what's done is done, right?), but did you break your leg while downclimbing the descent gully? That would suggest that the rap is not quite optional like you first said. In cornfed's picture it looks downclimbable because as I remember the top bit is the steepest, but it would be nice to have some clarification in case I find myself up there soon. Sorry about the leg. Thumbs up to all of the people who have been using the nice weather and to cornfed for letting us know how things are shaping up.

That is a fun video. I like the comparison between the burning man festival and climbing Denali. I was crashing at a bunkhouse in Talkeetna when some of those folks came through. Nice people, the stoke was high.

Sweet! I was hoping someone would say how things are going up there. Thats pretty much how I thought it'd be, it's been pretty consistently cold up high I think. Good call on bailing; I climbed it before any ice formed last winter, and it was interesting to say the least. That rock is some of the worst I've ever climbed on when it's not frozen.

Pretty crazy. And then there's this: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senate-rejects-amendment-banning-indefinite-detention "The Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the FBI and the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division have all said that the indefinite detention provisions in the NDAA are harmful and counterproductive, and the White House has issued a veto threat over the provisions." And yet the senate still went ahead with it. These people seriously have something wrong with them. At least Cantwell and Murray voted to ban it. The Patriot Act was supposed to be temporary, but they keep extending it, and now this. I wonder what's next? Obama better step up and veto it. The irony is that the people who made 9/11 happen win when our government does things like this.

Get the book Washington Ice. There are a lot of easy and moderate climbs at Snoqualmie Pass and near Leavenworth, and harder stuff all over the place, including at Strobach, not that far from you. Nothing stays in all winter, so you have to pay attention to forecast and temps. If it's been in the single digits during the night in Yakama or in the teens fairly consistently, then you can probably find ice.

Rings will make you strong in a hurry. Don't be discouraged at first, most of that stuff is pretty hard and you won't do it in good style. If you don't hurt the next day something is wrong.

Actually there are a lot of very stong boulderers and sport climbers who spend the dry months of the year in Ltown. I'm not one of them but they probably outnumber alpine climbers.

The reason it hasn't been done is because of whats across the way from there. It always looks more inviting: And here's Colchuck (the red line is a good backup plan for potential NEBers):

It hasn't as far as I know. Jens Holsten and I have gone up to try it a few times and each time it was too powdery. Strange sunless aspect so the snow just sits there, not shedding or hardening much at all. The one time that we actually got on it the first pitch was really hard mixed and thin aid, and the next pitch involved a pendulum to tricky mixed and a big unstable snow mushroom which stopped us. It took us half the day to get that far, so I called it (we didn't have bivy gear). The crux would probably be the slabby bits around mid height. They would have to be covered in firm snow (which like I said rarely works out there) or dry so that you could smear. Or maybe you could find a way around it. There is a snow arete up high where you gain the crest that will be really cool. We are gonna keep trying. A warm dry spell that melts some snow could make it relatively casual, but that's pretty rare (but when it happens stuff like this gets done). In the spring it is probably a lot more doable, but spring and winter climbing are different things.

I use and like the Baruntse, but I don't think they worked that well for my climbing partner if I remember right. If Scarpa seems to work better for you I'd say try the Scarpa 6000, I'm sure they're pretty similar when it comes down to it. I got mine in the spring for going to Alaska but was really happy to have them during a surprise storm on Dragontail in April. In lighter boots I might have been in trouble. My lighter climbing boots may climb technical stuff better, but I don't think they'll be seeing much use in the mountains anymore. It's just nice to not have to worry about your feet, and removable liners are really nice for multi day stuff.