ScaredSilly

Taking the line in yellow that Don drew one will avoid the Pocket Glacier. The flip slide is that you are under the path of the North Glacier which will also come tumbling down from time to time. But it does not flush like the Pocket Glacier nor has the volume of water. Also one is protected when right up again the cliff band. Finally, the patch of snow below the toe is not too steep and if done in the afternoon can be soft enough to cross without and ax or crampons (we did it without). I should note that if you wander too far left on the snow will put you back under the Pocket Glacier. Basically you want to pop up from the rock traverse just a bit to get out of the N. Glacier fall line and head up to base of the slabs and figure out the direct.

At this point in the process the goal is to analyze the alternatives and express critical views regarding each one. For instance, the NPS has selected a preferred alternative which I disagree with for multiple reasons. For instance, Camp Muir (and Camp Sherman) is an administrative parcel within an area that is otherwise Congressionally Designated Wilderness. As such, I do not feel it is appropriate to develop the area further - especially for commercial services. Maintain the current historical structures, rebuild the bathrooms which are necessary and have been there in past. And drudgingly I can accept the helicopter service. But there are reasonable alternatives to building new structures for commercial services that are used part time. Weather Port tents have been used for years in other parks (Teton & Denali) very successfully. They will not detract from the "historical" nature of Camp Muir given all of the other private tents near by. Such critical comments are needed to convince the NPS, namely the Super who will make the decision that the best alternative is the one you want. Clear and convincing arguments no matter where your view may lay.

Thanks for posting up the link. I have been waiting to see this EA for some time. If folks have questions about the process and what the NPS is looking for please post them I will be happy to help out as I have responded to way more NEPA docs than I care to think about. FWIW Alt 2 is my preferred because the area is wilderness (although Camp Muir is not), also IMHO one of the biggest problem with Muir has been concession and their mess around the "permanent" structures having them in seasonal tents would force them to clean up everything at least once a year. Also the clients tents would not detract from Muir any more than private tents.

Nice run up the hill but I have to snicker at the above. If you are on route, nothing below the rock buttress is more than about 50 degrees. If you can stand up vertically, put your arms out, and not touch the snow you probably on a slope less than 60 degrees.

Get a half bag, then you can use it when they out grow it. Wild Things makes one.

Bill, you should see the things our dog does to avoid water. But as a ridgeback it is to be expected as they hate water. Wow lots of snow still, I am really surprised to see that much at Traverse Lake. No wonder the Grande Ronde was doing so well when we boated it a couple of weeks ago. I wish we would have had some time after our trip to poke around. BTW on the other side of that pass is Trial Creek and some very nice country that drops down into the Minam. I was quite surprised. Of course I was even more surprised 15 minutes after the pass as I about got stampeded by a herd of elk moving through. I was up wind and we met at a blind corner.

I have soled the walk from the Aiguille du Midi to Mont Blanc, thus traversing Mont Blanc du Tacul and Mont Maudit in the process. It is a nice walk in the sky and is also known as the Triple Cols route (Col du Midi, Col du Maudit, and Col de la Brenv). The route between Col du Maudit and Col de la Brenv crosses under the north side of Maudit. Oddly enough I do not remember that section very well. However, it is well known area for serac fall and avalanches. One of the climbers who died was Roger Payne who is a well respected Britsh alpinist. He was guiding two clients. TP - it was not one large group but multiple parties in the vicinity. They tend to get bottlenecked on that slope. From what I read it was 28 climber who left the hut approximately together. The other ten were probably camped in the Valleé Blanche. A good description of the route: http://www.summitpost.org/three-monts-traverse/293351

That method works just as good, I should have noted it as well. Mostly making the suggestion to make future crossing more fun :-)

Spent many days up there. Great country, surprisingly still lots of snow this year. BTW when crossing a stream make your poles longer. And for a stream like that one facing up stream allows one to lean into the current while moving diagonally to the side.

I may be able to help a little but need to check with a friend who was up in that area with clients years ago. That said I can give a few general thoughts from my poking around the Glacier. I did not ascend it due to bronchial infection and walked over to and up the std route. It is possible to bivy up high near some of rocks/seracs but at that height the slope is 45 degrees plus so you would likely be chopping a platform. The good part is that one could probably kick their gear off and it would roll damn near back to Camp II (more than one climber has done this - not gear, but the climber with a very bad outcome!!!). That said, I am not super knowledgeable about the route but does it not start at around 5900m and rejoins the Polish direct at about 6500m with a traverse left below the last major rock band before gaining the summit ridge? If so that is not too far above Camp 2 (5600m). So it may not be too much of a benefit to bivy super high but perhaps just closer horizontally to the start which might make it possible to bribe someone into retrieving your camp. (i.e. I would probably try not carry up and over and was initially thinking the route started higher above Camp 2). From the top of the Polish Glacier it is a long walk to the summit. I watched a Polish climber get to the top of the Polish Glacier but then never to be seen again. I looked for him at the base with no signs and I think he went to the other side (literally and figuratively). Pretty somber to say the least. Can not help you with pro ideas but the rock is fairly crappy. The glacier can be ice or a snow slog. One other general recommendation. While some like to acclimate else where I would recommend acclimating on-site. The scene at base camp is not too bad. You can get away from it easily. And one can day hike up the gully next to base camp and get some great views on the S. Face. Some go to this col and descend down to Plaza Franco. I think it tops out at around 4800m-4900m. I did not quite go all the way as I was still recovering. The other is that if it is just two of ya and one is not well after the acclimatization hike you may not be motivated to head up to base camp by yourself. At least when I got sick my partner could continue on without me. Which he did by doing a carry to Camp I while I horked up my lungs in base camp. One other recommendation, if you are acclimated (or recovering) a carry to Camp 2 is not needed. We planned to do one but because we got nabbed in a storm and spent 3 nights at Camp 1 we decided to take 4 days of food to Camp 2 and go for it from there. We figured if we did not make it on our first try we would just come down and get more food. Although we found many abandoned caches at Camp 2 and could have survived for several more days. BTW I am assuming you mean 4 days from the Base Camp. Certainly realizable but personally I would plan for a few more days cause when Viento Blanco comes you want to be able to hunker down or get the hell down lest you end up like this:

What do you want to know?

Some fun on the hill. V: Hey A, can you get up here this weekend we have a high pressure setting up A: No, I am stuck in DC in meetings through the weekend. Think it will last until next week? V: They say it will last 10 days. A: Okay, let me try to clear my calendar when I get back and lets watch the weather. One week latter ... V: Weather is still holding through Saturday night. A: I have a flight pick me up at PDX at 4pm on Thursday. So the emails went. After the airport pickup we stop for dinner and beer arriving at Timberline around 7pm with blue bird skies but high winds. There is lots of activity in the parking lot from others settling in for the night. Not us, we set off hiking up to Illumination Rock with plans to bivy there for a couple of nights. Being part of the leisure class we set a blistering pace up the freshly groomed runs making the top of the Magic Mile in less an hour. Soon afterwards it gets dark and the winds increase. Then V admits he was up until 3am drinking with his brother and is not feeling the love of the mountain yet. At this point we are mid way up the Palmer. Ah what the hell, lets just bivy here and finish the walk in the morning (hopefully without the wind). At 5am it is light out but the winds are still blowing. Being part of the crack of noon club we decide to go back to sleep. At 7am we are awoken by the sounds of a snow cat. We can only wonder what the snow cat driver thought about seeing us bivied there in the snow - other than yup just a couple of slackers under estimating the hill. Finally at 8am we decide that it is one thing to be discovered by the cat driver but another to be skied over by those taking the lift so we finally decided to move along towards the saddle. We arrive at the saddle finding that the shitters had pretty much dropped trowel where ever they felt like it. There are thing called WAG bags, use them folks. And if you can't, shit yer pants or stay off the hill as there is no reason to shit right in a heavily used camping area. Finding a fecal free area we cached our tent and other gear. Finally, strolling out at 10:30am in the warmth of the sun and a lot less wind we drop down onto the Reid Glacier to find excellent névé. V has never been on this side of the hill before so we wander over toward Yocum Ridge and swing right up Leutholds. Conditions are fine as we wander up into the hourglass. We find a little ice but nothing that can not be climbed with a single tool and ski pole. About noon we stop at Queen's Chair for a picnic lunch and few pictures. After which we top out and only find one other person who is descending. Lovely to have the summit to oneself. We descend back to saddle where we brew up, lounge, have dinner, lounge some more, and BS about the usual three mountain topics. At 3:30am the noise makers show up. Why is it that people have to so damn noisy in the wee hours? Finally they leave. Then another set show up at 4:30am. We finally politely ask them to quiet down as we are trying to sleep. They leave at 5am. At the this point it is getting light so we decide to get up and get moving. We set off about 6:15am or so dropping back down on to the Reid. Same conditions as the day before. We wander across the Reid to the base of Yocum. Though a bit longer than we expect, we quickly go around the corner finding firmer and steeper névé than on the Reid. After one easy bridge over a crack we are down on the Sandy Glacier. Like the day before we head over towards a ridge, take a right turn and wander up the headwall. We climb up to just below the pinch before breaking out a second tool. Which was good timing as we found some nice ice. Above the pinch it was a mix of hard névé and ice but nothing on the route was more than 55 degrees. At this point we are a couple of hundred feet below another group (the 5am noise makers) so we head left a bit and pick up the ridge. Rather catch up to the other group we have another picnic at the Queen's Chair. As we wander up the last bit we can hear voices, lots of voices. Ah yes, it is a Saturday on Mt. Hood. Fortunately, the summit ridge is not too chaotic. It is odd though as it is our first time being on the same summit in less than 24 hours. We did not spend much time on top and began our descent. We were glad to be leaving the masses while descending via the Carter Rim. After arriving back at the Saddle we pack up our gear and headed down the hill. We finished the day with a beer and dinner at the Lodge and watched the weather roll in. Timing is everything. After that V dropped me off at friends for my 6am flight the next morning while he headed back north with a stop at his brother's. Though I do not think V was going to do any serious drinking. At 65 V is getting a little old for multiple benders but for two routes in two days. No pictures as our ascents were nothing of note, just a couple of guys enjoying some quality time on the hill.

I have decided to part with my Bibler 2 Door I-Tent. This tent was one of the last 2 door versions made. And even now it is in much demand. I have used either the I-Tent (not this one) or an Eldo in most of the mountain ranges around the world and they are the tent. This tent is in excellent condition with probably 15 trips on it in the past 5 years. Not one flaw, hole, tear, patch, etc and is very clean. I am including the ground cloth which has been used on one trip where the tent was pitched in the dirt. Otherwise it was pitched in the snow. Also included is the vestibule which has been used maybe 5 times. The tent is yellow with the std. black floor. The vestibule is gray and the ground cloth is black. I will include seam sealant and guidelines for it. I might have some pictures of it but most people know the tent. New with all the options would run over $750 asking $500 firm, not including shipping (will ship international) or paypal fees.

Fixed it for ya.

Nice, great photos. Sounds like after you did the second rock band you went up the ridge a bit farther than we did in 2000. We had a nice camp at round 16,700 that was in a rock out cropping that protected us from the wind.

nice to see some progress given what I get to read living in OOootah.

Wow - big balls on the walls. Amar is correct about the line they are one couloir over from Thermogenesis but it would appear that the lower section is in common as they state "Once through the couloir we traversed above cliffs and into the choke where we would be exposed to rock and icefall." I would interpret the choke to be the hourglass on Thermogenesis. That said, a gnarly descent.

What Don drew is pretty much the line we took in early August. The two patches of snow were much smaller but the pocket glacier was about the same size. There was a bit of debris from the north glacier but I would rather take my chances with it than being flushed by the pocket as there is lot of water coming from it. Thus it is well lubricated.

Bummer ... not a good day on the hill.

That is what is sounds like to me. Very understandable, probably skied of the summit towards the Coleman-Denning and was a bit right of the fall line when he fell and then went down the headwall. Harsh.

In general for glacial routes longer screws are preferred because finding good ice can be problematic. Also you can always girth hitch a long screw.

I would say what is drawn in red is not the preferred alternative to get the toe as it puts you under the pocket glacier. We came in from the right side, which while there is glacier/snow above you are less exposed overall.

I have done the direct start and then some as we did not want to venture out on the pocket glacier. That was in early Aug and it was broken up with lots of water coming down. When we did the direct start we came directly below buttress and wandered up slabs and started climbing. We did three pitches one of which was 5.10+ so we obviously did not do the true direct but the indirect - direct. Picture below of the 5.10+ section.

Oddly enough the two times I have been on Adams I have been temporarily in the wrong place. Much to my embarrassment both times have been in perfectly clear weather and for the most part daylight. I can get myself off the hill but I will be damned if I can find the right trail back to the road.

Nice little outing for a solo. Good on ya! A couple notes for you. IMHO going over to the north side via the Newton Clark is no big deal - I have done it from the high side a couple of times. Solo once in October and unroped in July. Lwer down there are cracks but if you do it from about 9k feet it is a cruise. As for the second step, 30' of at most 75 degree ice. IHMO folks way over estimate the steepness of ice. When ice gets to be 75 plus degrees it feels over hanging simply because of the way tools are placed and you are actually hanging off them.