olymand

Thanks for the great TR. heading up in a week, rethinking camping...looks like boston basin maybe completely snow covered still. perhaps better as a long day trip?

Great pictures. Thanks.

Trip: Black Peak - NE Ridge Date: 7/10/2013 Trip Report: Scott and I decided to take a leisurely overnight trip to Black Peak. Jim Nelson's description sounded like just our cup of tea. At Rainy Pass, we chatted with a solo climber who had turned around at the start of the rock, owing to its apparent steepness. He reported having issues with a frisky goat at Wing Lake. The goat had charged, and he was forced to climb a tree. Indeed, we had some issues with the [img:left]http://[/img] goat,nicknamed "Billy" by our predecessor, and we worked hard to keep him at a distance. We were very careful with our food and our pee, but he was very persistant. We tried to keep him at a distance by making noise and throwing a few light stones in his direction. The incident in the Olympics last year was certainly in our thoughts.. Took 4 leisurely hours to get to Wing Lake, easy to knock off one hour--two if day tripping. Left camp at 730, started climbing the rock at 10. Again, we were definitely "on vacation." There are some moat issues, severe overhangs. loose rock at the first half, but not too bad with just two of us. We didnt' know the route, but took the time to find the easiest way to the ridge. Great Ridge! Flat rocks like a two foot sidewalk... some solid fun pitches in the second half. We did it ass backwards-pitched the early loose stuff and simuled the second half. better to short rope and scramble the first half traverse stuff... summit at 430. Again, no speed records, but we were having a whee of a time in the sunshine...Left the summit at 5, back at camp at 730. Lots of scree surfing and class 3-4 downclimbing. Note to self: stay right longer and enjoy more soft snow and less scree. On our way out of camp we met 3 climbers headed up the scramble route with plans to camp on the summit. We watched them disappear into the gloamin' without the slightest trace of envy. Said goodbye to Billy the not-really-a-goat at 8, back at the car at 11. I packed my headlamp and had to do the bunny hop with Scott by the time we hit Heather Pass. Great trip Gear Notes: Boots, odd nuts, 1,.75,.5 Cams, (could have used a bit more pieces) 5 doubles, 5 singles. 40 m rope. crampons, axe, helmet. Approach Notes: Great trail to Heather Pass, some snow patches before Wing Lake, Wing Lake covered with snow, just open enough at the edges for water.

thanks for the report, much appreciated.

actually lost this skiing in april, maybe it's turned up now that it's melted out. bd raven pro 70 cm.

Saw Jiri's pix on facebook. Looked like a fair piece of work and a little bit of everything. saw that you rapped down a bit. was that on ice cliff glacier? Dan G.

Nice report. There is a lot to do down there isn't there?

thanks for the great report. thinking of going up next week and it is good to know what conditions are like. sounds like snow lake should be okay without a shovel.

Trip: The Tooth - South Face Date: 5/24/2010 Trip Report: Looking for something we could do with a late start that wasn't Leavenworth or Mailbox, Shannon suggested a quick run up The Tooth. We left the car at 815 and were back a little after 5. Snow was soft and still deep from the upper Alpental lot on. A bit of postholing in the Talus field in Great Scott Basin, but pretty solid snow and someone had recently put in steps and a glissade track. I had been concerned about loose snow slides. A trip up Commonwealth basin recently proved that there was still some consolidation needed to make for save travel, particularly in warm weather. However, my were unfounded. This was a big improvement. some small sloughs from the cliffs, but the clouds kept things relatively solid through the afternoon. There was the start of crust in the Basin, showing that there had been some overnight freezing. Overall, the route was in great shape and it appears that even with the recent snow, there has been lots of consolidation. 11 am found us at the base of the climb with blue skies and sunshine enough to suck us into the first pitch. Clouded up pretty fast after that and we had overcast skies and a smattering of rain on the return. Plenty of snow on the route. Enough to make it a tad hard to keep the boot soles dry. Still, easy climbing, mild weather, and we were down quickly. Had the hill to ourselves. Well, couple of camp robbers kept us company. A bit sticky on the way down, we did manage a couple of nice butt lides, and a terrific single run from the top of the couloir down to the creek. Seems like i am always pleasantly surprised by this climb. Expectations are low, and the rewards were much. Spectacular setting, fun easy climbing, and good company. http://picasaweb.google.com/dangreenfield3/20100524?authkey=Gv1sRgCJj82pGw38G7LA&feat=directlink

fwiw, following on that route is pretty sketchy affair, the down climbs have the disadvantage of lots of slack and lots of ledges.don't like that route much. btw, does anyone know if there is a reasonable walk-off/scramble on ingalls? i've yet to find one, but thought maybe on the northwest side?

Nice TR. Went with the mounties last year and found quite a bergshrund in may. we rapped off the summit which was fun. conditions were lots easier looks like and we had a pretty good glissade from high pass, and from pineapple. Sounds like you had quite a slog.--Steven, we did the tooth this winter if you remember.

Amazing trip. We were up there in July with lots of sun. Amazing how different it looks in fall. You guys made amazing time. We did a high camp above spider meadows and it still took most of a day to make it over to Chiwawa and back.

Any snow in Aasgard pass? I was thinking of trying a one day of Prusik, hoping there's an easy slide out.

Nice TR. Didn't you camp at the flat bivy sites right below winnie's slide? I remember getting right onto the snow in the morning. Maybe less snow for you? We had mostly just steep snow on Winnies and HH. We didn't have a mote under winnie's either. When we did it, we had lots of snow (2 mile hike to the Trailhead from the Baker parking lot.)Lost the trail in the meadow and were sloshing around for quite a while. That was a long day. Love that route.

i will try and scrape some pix up from my partner--we were in clouds and snow or hail almost all the time--so no views.

Trip: Constance - South Chute Date: 8/31/2008 Trip Report: I see the Olympic skyline on almost every clear day and have always wanted to get up that high spot in the middle. As with most Olympic climbs from seattle, weather and travel hassle always seem to get in the way. A climbing partner asked if I could make it this weekend and we joined a couple of others Saturday morning at the trailhead. The Dosewallips road is washed out, so we brought bikes and rode up 4.5 or so miles to the TH. Took a leisurely hour, seemed like a gentle grade, road is in great shape. The hike up to the lake went fairly quick too. Maybe 2.5 hours, lots of elevation gain, open forest with a pretty waterfall half way up and some steep scrambling near the top. Lake constance is a pretty green lake and trout were jumping. Wish I'd brought some tackle. Started the climb at first light, the hike through the cats ears was straghtforward, and not too difficult finding the notch at the "minor e-w ridge." Snow levels were low, so we elected to try the so-called "terrible traverse" which was really quite benign in the absence of snow. We dropped down fromt eh e-w ridge to a snow patch and crossed it toward the main ridge and that is where we ran into a little trouble. First we went up and cliffed out, and then we went too far down. The entry to the traverse was found by descending a couple hundred feet from the notch and looking north straight across at a steep cliff butress. A small, scramble-able flake was the access to the ledges of the traverse. From there, the summit was an easy walk. We erred a bit at the summit, going left at the headwall and having to retrace a bit, but we managed to find the true route and scrambled the summit block. Some may prefer a rope for this section, it is true fourth class and a bit dodgy downclimbing. Although we had been promised some blue skies, we had cold weather and August snow flurries. Alas, couldn't see my house from the summit. Even with route finding issues and my pokey old self, we still made it back to camp by 3:30. The weather was still iffy, so we elected to pack up and booted out by 5. Passed a couple of guys in sneakers and tees at 6 PM about 7 miles and 4500 feet elevation from the trailhead. One was carrying a large styrofoam plane and the other was carrying a five iron and that was it for gear. WTF? (I think that's an appropriate acronym.)Probably the highlight of the trip was the ride down the road. Sweaty and with sore quads, we just sailed through cool early evening air back down the road. With the pack weight and a perfect grade, we just flew. I only wish it had lasted longer. It probably only took agout 10-15 minutes to cover the distance. A perfect ending to the trip. Gear Notes: Brought a couple of 30m 8mm ropes, harness, a few nuts--didn't leave the bag. Crampons also got a free ride. Ice axe was useful on hard snow, and trekking pole(s) were really useful from the lake to the road. Bicyle doesn't really need to be a full on mountain bike, just something that can ride on an unpaved road. Approach Notes: Quite slick in a couple of places above the river going up to the lake. Bring Bicycles, it is far and away the best way to do this trip.

Nice TR and pix, nick. I really enjoyed that climb when we did it as a long one day in october (although the day was kind of short that time of year) we ended up coming back in dark and rain, but I was still wistful that we hadn't camped in that pretty little meadow. I think that is one of the nicest spots in the pass.

It sounds like you just scrambled the West Ridge. Is that right?

Thanks for the report. That route is one of my favorites. I think the bivy sites below winnie's slide are some of the best in the cascades. Were they snow-free during your trip? It was a bit harder carrying bivy gear up the chimney, but the camp was worth it.

The pictures are beautiful. Thanks for the report.

Nice report! Thanks for the great description and pictures. Enjoyed that climb a couple of weeks ago. We had lots more snow on the approach, but I thought the scramble up the gully was almost as hard as the climb. BTW, I hadn't read up at all on the route, so it was interesting to hear your description. We didn't know that pitch 4 was actually a pitch, so we more or less scrambled it--which I probably wouldn't have done had I read the rating.

Sorry you had to bail, but probably did the right thing. I really like this climb. Did it in October with a rather short day, even though we started around 530 with headlamps. The first part of the trip goes fast, but it is quite a hike down and up from Bumblebee pass. I think it took us a couple of hours to get to the climb. Second pitch took some time too. The move is straight up and over and looked harder than it actually was--so put it down to route finding. The scramble down was sporty too. You kind of know it when you pass lots of rap rings, but it was getting late. We didn't get back to ridge lake until 430 5-ish and ended up getting back to the car in the dark and rain. It's a pretty burly one day climb.

nice pix!

That is an amazing trip. How many days were you down there? I just got back from 4 days in the Moab area--we managed two or three one pitch routes, a backpack, and some mountain biking--I am in awe of your accomplishment. Next time I go I am bringing a serious number of cams.

Anyone here any news about the hikers at snowlake? I heard a two line story that a couple of hikers were killed by an avalanche in the last day or so.