BirdDog

The bolted station at the left side of LL looks pretty recent, as did the first few bolts going up and left. Maybe someone's has replaced a few. Anyone have Viktor's new guide to see if he has any info on it?

Your boots looked pretty hammered, but send them Dave Page; he let you know whether they can be saved without spending a fortune. http://www.davepagecobbler.com/

...yea, and they snore like a heard of mad hogs!

Looked as if there was some, but it was kinda dark and hard to tell.

Prolly won't be busted, but not much point in camping out below SCW; we did the approach in under an hour.

You're probably right. Outer Space steps out right from Library Ledge, Edge moves left, and looks wicked.

I don't know anything about pumpline. Iconoclast goes to the left of Outer Space from Library Ledge, where there is a fairly new bomber bolted anchor. Inconoclast route looked like it hadn't seen much traffic lately and definitely had some lichen on it, upping the .10+ rating. Couldn't see hyperspace from our route. The entire wall is dry though, except for one small slimy water streak just below the summit on our route.

Danes advise is really good - dress as light as you possibly can. Keep two base layers with you, wear one while your moving, and then change when you stop. You can dry the wet one out in your bag, or just stick it back on knowing you have a dry one if you get cold. Also, make sure your outer wear has a good DWR finish on it. Renew it when the water does not bead up. Keeping the DWR finish is top condition allows the outer wear to breath much more than if it's soaked.

Trip: Alpine Lakes - Outer Space Date: 4/25/2010 Trip Report: So, the forecast for Vantage was 60 and mostly sunny for this weekend. I spent Thurs. and Friday trying to recruit someone, but no luck. Then I ran into Tom S. on Friday night and said "Hey Tom, what are doing this weekend." "Going to L-worth" "Oh yea, who are you going with?" "You" "OK, cool." Tom swung by my place at 6 with Shawn and Jack; and after a quick visit to Starbucks we heading over Stevens in light snow. This should have been our first clue. Pulled up icicle and stopped at 8-mile to do a first ascent of Classic; someone already on it. Oh well, I guess they get the FA. So, back down Icicle, tom says "Hey let's do Outer Space." So the group dynamic thing takes over, and next thing we're hiking up the creek. Boulder hopped Snow Creek, and trudged up through Tick Ville to the base. Tom does a nice lead up the bottom of the 3rd pitch, and across the "finger tip traverse", which is not only missing places for finger, but deosn't have much for feet either. It is now snowing lightly, and I'm picking ticks off every three seconds and shivering as I belay Jack up the crux. I have long pants in my pack, but it's still sunny and I like to climb in shorts. So here we at the Pedestal belay and Tom says, "you lead this one OK" and proceeds to load me up with cams. So, off I go. Get up to Library Ledge and bring up Jack. We spent the next while shivering are asses off waiting for Tom and Shawn to climb and re-supply us with cams. The very buccolic scene of Lower Icicle and L-worth were bathed in soft late afternoon light. The moon rose over the ridge opposite the wall. The cabins of the valley below were glowing with light reminding that some more sane souls were enjoying a nice glass of Cabernet by the fire. Jack I begin calisthenics to warm up. I start up the 6th pitch, my hands numb with cold; scrathing for for chicken heads. Running out of both chicken heads and cams, I had to resort to proper crack climbing techniques, which I have always found rather painful on the toes. Not this time, my feet were numb, so I styled up the crack, placing a my meager supply of correct sized cams, running it out to a dead tree thirty feet from the summit. Topped out as the clouds were turning pink. Since I was done climbing, I put on my long pants. Instead of taking the normal descent route we opted for a shortcut. Yea, drop off the backside to Pearly Gates, and down the trail. After a dark stumble fuck tripping over, crawling under, and smacking into numerous deadfall, we found the rap anchors at the top of Pearly Gates, in the exact spot Tom said they would be. So, it's got to be somewhere close to 10:30 and we're setting up a rap while contending with a pair of goats. The rope toss goes well, and so does the ATC toss; Munter hitch rapel! As the last one down I'm standing in the moon light trying to discern the "off rapel" call; only hearing the clop of goat hooves. I creep close to the edge to test for slack lines, and the goat is right on my ass. I back off, back onto the ledge; remembering the cardinal rules of goat management- never turn your back to a goat. While I wasn't really planning on a moonlight rapel, it was certainly preferable to getting butted off the Pearly Gates. After kicking some small rocks towards the goat I bought enough time to grab the chains and get my rap set up. See you old goat - and off into the darkness. The window glass was still intact in Tom's rig, but Gustav's was closed. Jack's summer sausage was savagely devoured as we headed back over Stevens in snow. Fun times, except for midnight bush wack. Gear Notes: Lot's of 2" cams. Approach Notes: Trail snow free to base.

wow. and peeps were skiing on that crap. cool link.

Found in camp area. PM and describe.

+1 what Bigtree said. From my personal obs; snowpack below 4500 is low, about normal above. Spring weather, ie:warm or cold, will have more to do with route conditions than depth of snowpack.

Thanks for all the updates!

Nice work, sorry I couldn't join you on that one. Great pics. You've been killing stuff this year!

Lunges - foward lunge and static lunge. +1 on the above advise - esp. rest. Really taper off your training two weeks prior to the climb, keep to an easy maintenance sch. with 2 - 3 rest days.

Oh holy fuck, here we go again!

Awesome to see FA's still being knocked off. NICE! Really great photos. Congrats guys!

Excellent. I jealous, only did Snoqualmie with my 10 yo - oh well fun family day.

Fig Newtons are aid.

You are an asshole!

I don't believe you need a reservation for Muir. You do need a "wilderness camping permit" however. A wilderness camp permit will not guarantee you a spot in the hut at Muir though, first come first served. You can get a wilderness permit by reservation or walk in. A wilderness camp permit is different from a "climbing pass". I'd call the park and talk to someone as this stuff changes periodically. And oh yes sunmmitchaser - medicsandy was inquiring about Muir not a climbing permit as link shows. summit chaser has been trying to get laid - he just too stupid and ugly for any success.

Oh, yea... I'd like to see a gully by gully avy forecast for the what, the 7000 or so gullys we have in the Cascades. We could fly 10,000 avy forecasters in on choppers every morning at 4AM - as soon as we build a couple thousand heliports. Better build a turnpike to Paradise with rest areas and restaruants every six miles. NWAC does a great job providing macro and meso levels forecasting. If you want an alpine start use yesterdays forecast.

Way to use that nice weather!

ooooh, sounds like someone was late getting home (tavern?) and got their ass chewed; might as well blame some slow pokes on the mountain....

Thanks for the beta, and yes I was planning on an overnight. Looks like a very cool area.