Dannible

Buy used. Look around all year and maybe something will turn up. If you are moving to bozeman you can be picky and stay at home when it's really cold. I climbed about 20-25 days there a couple of years ago and don't remember going out on any really cold days because my partners were locals and wanted to stay inside and drink when it got cold. Cold nights and warmer days is pretty normal. You could also get some cheap used plastics to use on really cold days, and just plan on not climbing super hard (though learning to climb hard in plastics will make you a better climber when you finally get nice boots).

88 mph gusts where I was working at Stevens. Craziest wind I've hung out in in a few years. We shut down early. Pow now!

Nice first winter alpine climb. It's rare for such good climbing conditions and stable weather to match up for so long in the cascades like it did in the Stuart range for a while there. I can't imagine a better long moderate ice route than that in good conditions; one of the best in the PNW for sure. Last spring it was lean and involved a few tricky mixed pitches, but last week there was fat ice everywhere that made lot of reasonable variations possible. A neat way to finish the route is to go straight up the last snowfield to the runnel behind the fin. Last year it looked harder than the normal way, but now it's good.

Meanwhile, we've pretty much had three weeks of good weather in the mountains. Isn't everyone too exhausted to be worried about La Nina?

Bucketz, have you climbed the route? Much more steep climbing than the triple Cs. You climbed the easiest route on the face in 9 hours (didn't set any speed records yourself, but conditions vary) so it seems pretty logical that a harder route is a grade harder. From what I have seem Kurt is an efficient climber. Good job guys, it was fun running into you up there. I seem to always run into friends at Colchuck Lake. Our second climb went well. Fun, full day. There was a party at the base of the triple C's yesterday before dawn so I think people have figured out that it's cool up there right now.

Hot damn this thread is really going downhill. Anyways, Laural I'm pretty sure that is millennium 2. The drip is sure as hell not in. There is a bunch of ice there, but that doesn't mean you can climb it unless you are weightless. There is a nice spray of blood on it now though, which is good for the pictures. Most everything around here that grows ice has some ice on it right now, but tonight it will be covered in snow and in the next week much of it will be brought down by rain. This is Washington, and that's just how it works here. On the bright side, the next two days should be epic pow days.

Rapped in on Rainbow left today to see if it might be climbable because in the pics above it is way fatter than it was just a few days before that. From below it looks ok but up high (and probably down low) there is a huge gap between ice and rock and the whole thing shutters when you swing. Too dangerous to even TR in my opinion. I wish it would get just a bit colder.

Rainbow left is still standing, but is basically a thin free standing pillar because the rain delaminated it and huge chunks fell off of it's base. In my opinion climbing it would be very dangerous for the climber and belayer, and would possibly make it be unclimbable for even longer. Let it grow! Stuff might be in up the snow creek valley.

I was pretty bummed out when I drove by Drury today (well... as bummed as one can be after a pow day). Last week the first pitch of Hubba was fat and quality. A little thinner and delaminated up high, but I can't imagine that it all fell down. The lines to the right were thin and a bit snowy. We got 16 inches of snow in one afternoon followed by a few days of rain. Weird stuff. A lot fell down, but maybe it will be ok in the long run. Cold weather coming, and lots of water running. Might as well be optimistic.

Why not just save up some money and fly? I'm sure just being down there will be adventure enough if you've never done anything like that. Driving would be pretty hard unless you speak good spanish and have a very reliable car that is easy to work on. I've been thinking about trying to get down there next season and want to take buses part of the way back for the sake of seeing new places, but I wouldn't recommend that to anyone unfamiliar with travel in latin america. I couldn't comment on taking a boat down there. As for school: put it off if you want. Lots of my friends have graduated in the last couple of years (I did too) and most everyone is still working jobs that have nothing to do with what they did in school to pay the bills, or going to grad school because they don't know what else to do. There just aren't enough entry level jobs (that require a degree) in most industries for the number of people who are being pumped out of schools. The people I know who are most stoked on school are those who are back in it after years of doing other things. Maybe take some community college classes here and there so that when you do go to school you have a head start. Look into seasonal jobs (trail building, fire fighting, AK fishing, ski areas) and save your money. Seasonal jobs will guarantee that you will not get stuck at a dead end job and will allow you to take long periods of time off between jobs. Also, homelessness and hunger build character. Life can be pretty cool if you do it right.

Ok, I was just making sure of that. There have been discussions in the past where people talked about the need for trail markers in remote places, which I'm not that into. I was also just pointing out that in some cases we have done a good job of protecting the backcountry (mostly through a lack of roads going all over the place in the mountains), which was more in response to alpinisto than oldlarry. Sorry if I got too far off topic; it was 1am on thanksgiving, which means I'd been drinking for a long long time.

Really? I've never been there and I know I'm being a bit extreme, but when I think of the alps I think of hords of people, buildings on mountains and cable cars taking people to them, fixed gear and via ferrata. I'm sure there are many aspects of social and environmental responsibility where the are ahead of us, but if you've ever been to the picket range, the Dome/Gunsight area, or countless other remote places in the Cascades or Olympics, then you know that you can feel as out there as in any other major range in the world. You can go days without seeing any sign of people besides a little trail here and there. I know we have to protect what we have, but really I think we aren't doing too bad in some cases. Trails should be marked where there will be a lot of people, but flagging and signs in truly remote places is lame.

Based on all that Mark has said it sure sounds like the first belay at least could use a bolt or two. I don't want to hear about two climbers dying up there when a bolt could have saved them. Beats placing and removing pins over and over, or using fixed pins that will rot out or break quicker. Not a huge fan of the rap route idea, there are plenty of places to go craging around here and I've always thought of that route as one of the more proud ways to get up Dragontail, not just some nice, friendly climb to go do on a sunny afternoon. I know you don't have to rap off if you don't want to but it sure cuts down on the commitment, which is one of the things that makes alpine climbing what it is. Of course that is just my opinion and I respect whatever decision Matt makes.

Not sure if this thread is serious or not but it looks like skiing is indeed gonna come before ice climbing this year so we might as well embrace it. There's a good deal on the g3 onyx here. Way heavier than dynafit according to the listed info but cheap. Out of the tens of thousands of setups I saw working at stevens last year I only saw one person rocking those. They have a good deal on scarpa spirit 4s on there too, which are great bc boots, but not quite as good for day after day use on bumpy, lame, tracked out inbounds stuff. I haven't used enough different skis to have an opinion but I will say that after using cheap, old school skis for a few years a fat pair of Icelantic Shamans completely changed the game for me. I was never really convinced that I liked skiing but after a few turns on those things I couldn't stop smiling and laughing.

But sometimes they do hold falls, which I think is nice.

Some friends and I climbed the NE couloir yesterday. Just above the lake we were all saying that we'd never seen such ideal conditions. Neve, styrofoam snow, and even a water ice stick or two heading up to the route. The route was fun neve and pow until the final, steeper two pitches. Up there it hasn't warmed up at all and we found the worst granite any of us have ever seen covered by fluffy cold snow and almost no ice at all. In places we were literally swinging directly into decomposing rock and getting sticks that would hold weight. Lead falls were taken, picks ruined. It'll be nice to go back someday and climb it when all that stuff is frozen. TCs might be ok since the crux is a bit lower, but expect a slog up high. Still, perfect weather, more adventure than we expected and no one got hurt so it was a good day.

Those two are on the long, never ending list for sure. Something on Dragontail or Stuart first for me because they are close to home. There was sun up there today for the first time in a while so things could be shaping up pretty quick.

Just what we need! Plenty of snow up high, followed by warm temps, followed by wintery temps means alpine ice when you can still drive to trailheads. Skiing can wait another month.

I've never tried to ski there, but I think that trying to combine skiing with general travel there would be a huge pain. Public transportation can be really crowded and crazy and bringing skis and boots from place to place would be pretty hard unless you're planning on staying in one place for the most part. Getting all my climbing gear and other stuff to Huaraz seemed like a big deal at the time, but I was alone and on a tight budget so that could have made things trickier. Also you always have to have some place to stash your skis as soon as you get into a city, when if you just have a pack you can check things out before getting a room somewhere. Another option depending on your money and time is to go there, ski first, mail all your gear back (or bring older gear and sell it when your done, I sold climbing gear for a good price), and then go check out the rest of the country. It cost me about $150 to send 20 or 30 pounds of stuff home. Where? I would guess any of the mountains around Huaraz would be your best bet, and it's a fun town.

Hell yeah. Wasn't sure you'd make it with all that stuff you were bringing. Good workout, amazing route. I was thinking about doing that again today but I think I've had enough of that hike for the year until it gets covered in snow. Funny shuttle story.

Cool. I was wondering if those would fit. http://www.moosejaw.com/moosejaw/shop/product_Petzl-Trigrest-for-Quark-Nomic-Ergo-Ice-Tool_10101175____?cm_mmc=Affiliate-_-AvantLink-_-na-_-3057_cf5d495&ad_id=Avant&avad=3057_cf5d495

Yeah ditto on that, Chair Peak 1993ish when I was in SAR. Same one maybe? Guy had his helmet in his pack. Nope, I think that was in 2004 when I was in Skagit SAR. Chair peak is a good place for a helmet; both times I've climbed the north face there was a constant stream of ice raining down.

I've used hybrids for a lot of WI4 and mixed to M6. On 4s and 5s I've always been a lot more stressed out about the poor fitting plastic boots I had been using than my crampons (though I've only used clip ons for wi5 I think).

When I was 16 or 17 I helped recover the body of a guy who was killed by rockfall. A helmet would not have saved him, but I bought one soon after. My helmet has protected me from injury by rock and ice fall a few times, and maybe from death from ice fall and from slamming my head on rock features while soloing a few times. Recently I almost killed some people when I had a foothold break off and send a bunch of rock down at a popular spot near Ltown. I like my helmet and rarely forget it; when I do I feel naked.

Nice. Thats the little wall that's visible from the highway coming from Mazama, right? I've always wanted to check that out, but wasn't in a hurry because I thought not too many people cared to shwack up there. Lots of good rock in those parts.