mkporwit
-
Posts
814 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by mkporwit
-
-
The Bay Area is a good place to hang out for a couple of years, take advantage of what's good there (proximity to the Sierra, good weather), but fundamentally it is a fucked-up place. The traffic and the cost of living take their toll... and if you were single in Anchorage that's not likely to change in the Bay Area...
-
-
Please put it in the Oregon forum to spice that area up a bit.
I must admit that I am not computer-saavy enough to know how to do this... suggestions?
A mod can do this for you, I think. If not, PM porter or one of the admins.
-
Did you get to use the new tools...and how did they work out? Nice pictures and TR.
Hi Rick, yeah, I used the Grivel Air Tech tools I bought off you. They worked great except for the leash on the hammer -- too short, prevented me from getting a good swing as I had to choke up on the tool. My fault for not having looked at it earlier -- not a good thing to be discovering on 60 degree ice...
-
If you look closely at the large pic of the route, you should be able to see ski tracks. We took more or less the same route, with some variations to get some climbing in at the 10000-10200 level.
-
Trip: Mt. Adams - Adams Glacier
Date: 7/14/2009
Trip Report:
My June plans to climb Adams Glacier had fallen through due to the access roads still being snowed in, so when the opportunity presented itself to try again I jumped at the chance. Four of us, shannonpahl, KaskadskyjKozak, Cary and I took advantage of the weather window and tagged this beautiful line.
We left Bellevue Monday morning with gray skies and rain. The weather was supposed to improve, but we had our doubts. Fortunately these were dispelled on the hike in. By the time we got to the high meadows Adams was out in her full glory.
The North Face of Adams above high alpine meadows
We set up camp at 7500' at a little lake near the base of the North Ridge. What a great campsite -- bivy spots with high rock walls abound, water is 10' away and the view of the route is incomparable.
The view from camp
The 3am alarm on Tuesday came way too soon. We were moving a little before 4am and reached the base of the climb at 5. Between the moonlight and the approaching dawn we didn't have to even turn on our headlamps.
Dawn on the lower Adams Glacier
We climbed as two teams of two, Shannon and I one one team, KK and Cary on the other. At 10000' we encountered the first technical obstacle, an ice bulge that Shannon dispatched quickly. Above that was hard, steep ice and we pitched out a couple of rope lengths. Beyond that we placed running belays where warranted.
Shannon about to start up the ice bulge
All of the crevasses still have solid bridges over them and they appear good for another week or two. Not much in the way of rock fall on the route. The ice on the steep sections was starting to become very brittle, requiring some cleaning and multiple whacks to get a stick. Took screws well.
Closeup of the route
Shannon following
We topped out on the summit plateau at 11am. Since I had never been to the summit of Adams before we trudged to the summit proper. We were amazed at the number of people that were coming up via the South Spur -- even on a weekday there were at least ten in the hour that we were up there. Then we packed up and headed for the North Ridge.
I have to ask -- who in their right mind climbs that POS route? The descent sucked about as badly as people generally tell you the North Ridge will suck. At about 10000' we did not find the tiny unmarked notch to drop back to the east side of the ridge and wasted an hour trying to look for another way. Finally found the right notch and we were back in camp in 4.5 hours.
High on the North Ridge, before it gets all loose and crappy
We packed up and headed back to the cars, really hurrying the last couple of miles as the mosquitoes were out in force. At the cars at 9, in Randle at 10. Unfortunately nothing was open in terms of food. Finally found the Elbe Bar and Grill, which at 11pm still had their kitchen open so we were able to satisfy our cravings for burgers and beer.
Gear Notes:
Second tool, pickets and ice screws.
Approach Notes:
Follow the obvious trail
-
-
I read this as the first camel toe ascent of Mt. Washington...
-
Brian, I'm so very sorry to hear this. My heartfelt condolences to out to you and your family.
-- Marcin
-
Excellent news! Glad they managed to get the helo in there and get him out today!
-
Same with Poland. The Soviets (and Germans) fucked them over so bad that we have no conception of it and can't even start to understand. We had rationing in the US. My mom is telling me that they couldn't get much gasoline or sugar or some other things. In some of these places they were starving and happy when they caught a skinny rat to nosh on raw....or a leather boot they could gnaw on. Where the hell is Polish Bob now? Give us that story Glassgowkiss.
You want a story, Bill?
My mom's side of the family comes from just south-east of Warsaw, near a town called Garwolin. Before the war as part of the family farm they kept bees. During the war the Germans wanted to have access to the honey, so it was in their interest to make sure that the bees didn't die during the winter. Typically bees were given sugar during the winter to make sure they had something to eat. The Germans, wanting to ensure that the sugar would go to the bees and not the starving Poles would mix the sugar in with pine sawdust -- can't dissolve it out because of the resin, can't pick it out, can't burn it out... but the bees could work around it...
Or to give you another one... my paternal grandfather spent almost 1.5 years in Auschwitz, finally escaping from it right as it was being evacuated. He did a lot of hard labor there, fed just enough to maybe not keel over. Occasionally they had Russian POWs as part of the work detail -- those guys were basically starved to death. As part of digging a trench my grandfather and this Soviet POW found a rotting dog carcass mixed in with manure. The POW tore into it like it was Thanksgiving dinner, offering to share it with my grandfather... years later I saw the barbed wire enclosures at Bergen Belsen, where they would simply herd Soviet POWs into them and let them starve, so as not to even waste a bullet on them...
-
I continue to be amazed by the fact that such a beautiful line lay unclimbed for so long. Great job getting this. Oh yeah, and the movie's not bad either
-
Everett Mountain Rescue and Snohomish SAR responded to Darrington yesterday. The injured party was helicoptered out at the last minute before nightfall.
-
So for two climbers on a glacier, you'd want a long enough piece of rope such that the strand between you two would be big enough to span crevasses and allow for effective arrest on the glacier you're traveling on. Figure 10m for the cascades. On top of that you'd want more than 10m in a coil on each person. This would allow you to rig up a haul, prussik to the edge, rappel to your partner if need be, and so on. So my rule of thumb is you'd like about 35-37m of rope for a two-person team in this neck of the woods.
-
No roping up should be necessary for avalanche gulch -- it is just a snowfield, not a proper glacier where crevasses would pose a hazard.
-
Sweet TR. I especially love the shot looking back down at the route from the summit.
-
All the goats were over by SEWS -- we had a group of seven or eight of them, including three kids, hanging around at the base of the South Arete.
-
Now, it's getting to be a quest - I gotta find out what's going on. ISP tech support says they can get there fine, so does billcoe (next post). AV and firewall have been checked here, no issues with them. Weird.
You may want to check if your DNS server entries have been redirected, or if there is a file that overrides DNS lookup for certain domains... though that is grasping at straws. Viruses are known to do this sort of shit, but one that just targets summitpost?
-
-
am i the only one that thinks this is the best possible thing for his kids?
yeah, the freak probably didn't even vaccinate them
Somebody finally thought of the children. Helen Lovejoy would be proud.
-
-
A good guess but not at the moment. I don't want to accidentally walk up to the 1.9 Tesla field with it in my pocket.
Confucius say: Man who has hand in pocket feel cocky all day
-
The only disappointment I've had since switching to the iPhone is AT&T's connectivity. Verizon was/is better. BUt I wouldn't trade the iPhone for any other smartphone at this point.
+1
You can unlock an iPhone and stay with Verizon though
No, I don't believe you can. Verizon uses CDMA whereas the iPhone has a GSM radio.
-
Oh, and by the way, down is down regardless of the brand name.
Well, no, actually, it isn't. Some companies use duck down, others use goose down, for starters. Not to mention the variations in fill power...
Ah, for the good old days of hemp ropes and hobnailed boots...
New DMM Camalots !
in The Gear Critic
Posted