mountainsloth

every time i see photos of this place it blows my mind. it looks like Washington's own mini Bugaboos. Thanks for sharing, it looked like a great adventure.

yes, more visitors please! that place is sweet!

i climbed penny for the first time this year. the crux is definitely tricky but a hidden hold shows up if you look hard enough. Definitely worth doing if you have climbed all the others on the north butt

bits o class 5 but not sustained. I found it mostly 4th and low 5th. The gear was not plentiful or stellar anyway.

looks superb!

i wonder if everyone can be happy and only open half the road?

Trip: Mt Thompson - West Ridge - Solo Date: 9/7/2012 Trip Report: Its tough having a mid week weekend. No one is ever around to climb. Looks like another adventure on my own. Mt Thompson has been on the back-burner for just such an occasion. Weather looked iffy for an August day but figured it would at least be a nice walk in the mountains if nothing more. I took the PCT up to Kendall ridge and the catwalk. It dawned on me that I have been climbing and skiing around Snoqualmie Pass so many times but NEVER in the Summer! Red Mountain IS actually RED! The PCT was fast and easy. I made it to above Alaska Lake in a few hours. The sub-alpine forests were impressive Where is this granite coming from!? Up and over Bumble Bee Pass via a short but steep climbers trail brought me into the basin underneath Thompson. My first views of Thompson were veiled in disappointment. The mountain hid only occasionally giving me glimpses of her true self. What a tease. I began to ascend the talus and scree below aiming for the West ridge. The rock was unlike anything I have come across in my mountain travels. Look at those crystals! The clouds descended further and with them a cold, wet, and cloud-filled wind. Doubt began to weave its way in between the repetitive soundtrack looping in my brain. I reached the ridge, greeted by 30mph gusts of the same cold, wet, and cloud-filled wind, dropping temps well below what I was prepared for and cutting visibility to less than 20 feet ... but I began climbing anyway. 40 feet up, my hands began to feel the sting of the wind. I couldn't see for certain my path ahead. The doubt and unease pushed through the random melodies to the front of my thoughts and urged me to descend... so I obeyed. Working my way back through the upper part of the talus and scree disappointment set in. I sat and chewed over the growing list of pros and cons of turning around. Wait 30 minutes and see, maybe the wind will die down and the visibility will improve. I did, and it did. Back up I go, only to be greeted by the return of wind and clouds. ARRRRGGGHHH!! Frustration reared its miserable head again. This time I descended to a wall just below the ridge that blocked the wind. Again, I wait. I bide my time.... hello butt mushroom! 20 mins later it clears again... for the moment. At this point I made up my mind. The ridge is short and easy. Just GO!!! The next 30 mins are a blur of rock. Little flows through my mind except rock and the air around it. At one point the clouds and wind move back in, but there is little I can do so I let go of the unease and grip tighter to the rock. I reach the false summit and realize I need to tackle this last gorilla... Do you see him? With a last little bit of exposed climbing I am on the summit feeling like I walked through a worm hole. The weather backed off as if realizing that I had won. I am excited to see familiar names in the summit register. hello Josh and Gimp! I am also excited by the new vantage of the alpine lakes wilderness. Looking into Burnt Boot Creek valley. What a lovely waterfall! Life is good. The descent was pretty straight forward and found myself back up to Bumble Bee pass in the blink of an eye. There are two rap stations if you do not want to down climb two short 4th class sections. A notch view back to Bumble Bee Pass Back in Thompson Basin Back on the PCT I cruise the catwalk looking, listening, and smelling the fragrant air. It feels wonderful when a day in the alpine unfolds like it has today. Even the Pikas and Marmots seemed to share the joy with me. Solo climbing however easy or hard is a psychological game. Having no second opinion is tough, but in this overpopulated world, self reliance becomes a harder skill to hone, and I can think of no better place to do so than the mountains. I may downsize the objective, but the process of decision making is simplified. No other opinion matters but your own. The quiet becomes shockingly powerful and beautiful. Without the constant conversation of a partner, you open your senses to the nuances of a world so often unnoticed. For these reasons I have come to embrace my solo trips to the mountains. Gear Notes: Bring extra layers, its Fall up in the mountains! Approach Notes: PCT to above Alaska lake. Take the climbers trail above over Bumble Bee Pass.

amazing orgy!

cool! i drove through this area last year and had a feeling there must be some development.

I always wondered about the nok glacier and headwall. Didn't think it would be skiied though. Super rad.

stellar! I too am impressed with how we have ALL kept the bear population out of our human population in the Olympics. I always see them on backpacking trips, but from a distance, the way it should be. Hardcore wife, you must have found a good one. Happy anniversary.

see my squamish pics. She climbed Rock On with us

EPIC!!!!

so much granite!

so much granite!

that place is so F'ing rad. Definitely my personal Heaven on Earth. Looks like you had some fun.

3 people were skiing the North face of Matier the same day. We got to watch them work the face from our summit perch. They seemed to avoid any ice. Looked like a pretty rad run.

Trip: Mt Joffre - East Ridge Date: 8/12/2012 Trip Report: My friend and I spent a week in Squamish rockin' out to some rockin' routes but after battling crowds in Squamish on a Saturday of perfect weather, we decided it was best to escape to the alpine for our climbing fun. Not knowing the area very well, we settled on what sat right in front of us, Girabaldi. Feeling satisfied with our itinerary for the next day, we headed to the brewery for beer and dinner. My friend leads us onto the patio and makes a b-line to the tall blonde sitting by herself pouring over the Squamish guide book. He has a nose for these situations that I have all but lost in marraige. After a few awkward moments, he strikes up a conversation with her and soon I am involved as well. Long story short, we find a good friend, climbing partner for Monday, and thanks to her, a new and better objective for Sunday.... Joffre. Joffre is a great up and down in a day 8900 ft peak along the crest of the coast and cascade ranges with a wide variety of routes to chose from. We decided to approach and climb Joffre in one of my favorite styles of "lets go out there and see what looks like a go". We parked on the HWY along the old winter approach after realizing the forest road ahead was closed. We took the trail out to the hut for a couple hrs with occasional views of our objective. We passed the hut and followed a moraine ridge and started planning. "The east ridge looks pretty cool" The obvious arm of rock jutting out from the summit pyramid. Scrambling and snowfield crossings brought us to a long and steep 50degree snow slope straddling the east ridge. The snow was soft and easy step kicking but the exposure and runout kept us focused. Feeling confident, we ascended without ropes or crampons ready to break either out if necessary. One snowslope led to another steeper and more exposed snowslope. note the climbers on the snowslope of the SE face on the far right. This would be our descent. looking at the drop off from the North This brought us to the base of the steep rock on the east face of Joffre. Still feeling strong and confident, we continued to solo up the broken 4th, low 5th class rock. The rock was solid in general, but there were plenty of loose, large blocks to negotiate and test before trust was given. There were plenty of places for pro behind these blocks, but neither one of us felt we could trust most of it. This in conjunction with the wandery nature of the route convinced us to keep the rope and rock gear in our packs. Looking down our route The slab that led us off the technical rock. Once off the headwall we had spectacular views of Matier and the other surrounding peaks and glaciers. I have never seen such turqouise waters in my life! The color certainly trumps anything I have seen in the Cascades. Above the headwall we began to run into the couple of parties who ascended the standard SE face. Crappy loose rock ensued for a perfect opportunity for us to send shit down on each other at a bit of a bottle neck. Good times. The summit was not far ahead and we soon basked in the alpine glory above. summit photo Feeling happy, we made our descent with the party of 3 older locals we shared the summit with. The SE face was basically 2 large snowfields of up to 45 degree snow with pretty mellow runouts. The slopes were a little too steep and suncupped to glissade so needless to say, the going was slow. Having much longer legs than my friend I cruised down a bit faster and took a 20 min nap in the fading sun. The light and suncups made for a pretty descent down a lower snowslope. With a long way to go, we hussled down the way we came up only to stumble upon a trail that led us a more direct path back to the hut. Once past the hut it was just a seemingly endless romp downhill to the car and the cold beers waiting. My dogs and knees have not hurt like that in a while. 7:30AM - 5PM seems like a pretty good time. It had been a while since I tackled a fairly big objective like this and was happy to make hard but short work of it. The crowds slowly trickling out of Squamish, we were happy to return to warm and secure granite cracks Gear Notes: 60M rope, light rock rack, axe and crampons. Only used the pons and axe. Approach Notes: HWY 99 past Pemberton to Jofree Lakes Provincial Park. Park on the road on the East side of the Mtn.

beautiful!

seems like a shit choice considering all the pristine routes to choose from out there but sounds like you had fun so I guess that is all that matters. Good on ya!

yea, still working into the 11's and this was my friends first significant time rock climbing in a year. Grand Wall is on the list for sure next year.

this made my asshole clench I have to stop reading these while eating breakfast. F'ing aweful man!

Trip: Squamish - Various Date: 8/9/2012 Trip Report: After 3 Summers of trips to Squamish leading trips with kids it was time to enjoy BC's Yosemite for personal reasons. It was great to quickly fall into the glorious routine of: COFFEE - CLIMB - BEER - BED: REPEAT 8/9 Thurs: Apron, Calculus Crack A nice warm-up for my partner who had not climbed rock outside in nearly a year. 8/10 Fri: Shanon Falls, Klahanie Crack; Papoose, Hairpin & Centerfold Warmed up on Klahanie Crack and was turned back by crowds on Skywalker (yes it is new but insanely popular already) Klahanie Went to the Papoose and had the place virtually to ourselves. Hairpin is classic especially the 2nd pitch which barely felt 5.10a, more like 5.9. Positive holds the whole way. Pitch 1 Pitch 2 Start of pitch 3 Following the 10a slab of pitch 4 Centerfold was great up until the last pitch which had some significant runouts on some spicy slab. A later party finished on Pinup, the left facing corner to the right and said it was great but could use some more traffic. It seems like the better way to finish. Crux of pitch 1 crux of pitch 2 Howe Sound from an improvised belay on pitch 4 forced by an unsavory runout. Interesting rap chains 8/11 Sat: Attempt Rock On to Squamish Buttress (slow moving crowds = bail!) Trying to climb this combo on a Saturday was dumb and we knew it. We got up there around 830 to find a party of 2 on pitch 3 and a party of 3 on pitch 1. As we sat for nearly an hour we watched 2 other parties come up behind us. In the mean time, the party of 3 ahead of us continued to take their time. When we started watching the leader lead pitch 3 before bringing up their 3rd who was still waiting to climb pitch 1 we knew it was time to give up and find an alternative. So we headed to a place I thought would be deserted, The Bulletheads. From the Campground Wall we climbed: Feelin' Groovy - Slot Machine - Golden Labs Interesting underclings of "Feelin' Groovy" pitch 1 The ever classic Slot Machine Golden Labs, a 3 star route near the top of Slot Machine ended up being the highlight of the day. A small corner roof with perfect hand jams leads to smearing and laybacking this ever shrinking diagnonal crack. Just when you start to get pumped, an escape move gets you to the chains. This should be top 100 for sure! Too bad I didn't take a photo 8/12 Sun: Alpine, Mt Joffre (Good enough for its own TR) Sunday we headed to the alpine to find some personal space and we found it on Mt Joffre. Thank sweet Jesus! (Check out my next TR coming soon!) 8/13 Mon: Apron, Rock On Weekend crowds gone (so we thought), we attempted Rock On with a lovely lady friend we met at the brewery a couple nights prior. This route deserves all its glory as it was the best route of the trip. Zhana (aka Zed) the great leading pitch 3 Zed with another great lead on pitch 4 Having 2 50M ropes we had to break up the last pitch. Here we are crammed in a tight spot The last pitch is amazing with the crux being a slight puzzle with perfect jams. Perfect! 8/14 Tues: Apron, Snake - Buttface (Buttlite) Feeling exhausted from 5 straight days of climbing we tackled our longest route (aside from Joffre) of the week. Neither of us had ever been atop the Chef (yes, Chef, Chiefs do not wear aprons, chefs do) and it was about time. We considered finishing via the 10c buttress proper, but the week of climbing and all day work caught up to us and we were glad to finish via the Buttface which we both found to be really fun. Pitch 4 of snake The classic crux traverse of pitch 5 Pitch 6 Looking down Karen's Math (Super cool!) Memorial Crack The short 5.8 chimney on Buttface. Easier than it looked. The top of the Chef. Our reward, aside from the summit, was the young and talented team Lulu Lemon fresh from a hike up the backside, but this was just another highlight without a photo. Obligatory summit photo Feeling satiated with six days of climbing we went home. It felt good to climb so much without having to climb a single pitch at the Smoke Bluffs or haul kids up another round of Diedre. Happy days with a good friend and great weather. Gear Notes: Passports, beer (its expensive up dere eh?), and coffee.

wild trip and well captured. One of the better reads this month. Thanks!

Always love your write ups. Ice worms are cool!