mountainsloth

wow. always impressed with the Dolomites. Thanks for sharing.

i was just talking about how i want to climb more ice this winter

on another realm... nice work.

wowzers!

I love that place! can't wait to get back.

I grew up there. There is plenty of climbing and the best places have been mentioned. If you want info on Mt. Forist I would recommend talking to IME (International Mountain Equipment) in North Conway. They are a great climber store that might have some beta on it.

that place looks lovely! Montana has some hidden gems no?

wicked adventure!

solid season! keep those summers rolling

looks like a vertical suffer fest.

There is something to be said about a summit with the wife. I felt the same way when my then fiance and I climbed Exfoliation Dome together. It had been a multiple try en devour with a rich reward. Nice work Rad.

Solid work! That's how you get it done!

wicked! We thought about the BC for our trip but ultimately wussed out. Nice work!

@ Feck: Yea the amenities up there are pretty well established. My partner and I both agreed that Applebee seemed developed just enough to rid the camp of major issues while still leaving the place as undisturbed as possible.

Yea, Wildflowers was still a bit dirty, but that just added to the feel. Still highly enjoyable. I was kind of happy to see a lot of alpine plants sticking around that climb. It seems obvious that the climb was named after these plants that you have to occasionally stand on and use as hand holds. Too much traffic and they might disappear leaving people to wonder why it was named wildflowers.

Trip: Bugaboos - NE ridge Bugaboo, McTech R variation, Wildflowers Date: 9/10/2011 Trip Report: First trip to the Bugaboos and I gotta say there is a lot of hype out there about this place, but... it really sucks. I mean just look at this place! Nothing but snow and rock.... bleh The temps were only around 70 during the day and 40 at night, no one was there to keep camp interesting, and all they have at camp is running water, gear hangs, food lockers, and outhouses. Sheesh! I mean, look at the view from the outhouse.... really? In all seriousness, the Bugaboos have been a dream destination of mine for years and it exceeded my expectations on all levels. Too bad its so freaking far away from Seattle! Here was our itinerary for 5 days. Tuesday: Drive 12 hours from Seattle 3:30pm to 4am Wed Am. Sleep in the parking lot for 4 hours. Wednesday: Hike in with way too much food and gear. Promptly pass out assuming I was just dreaming the whole thing anyway. Thursday: Wake to another perfect high pressure day in the Bugs and climb the classic NE ridge of Bugaboo Spire as our intro. We got off route on the approach ending up on extremely sketchy-loose terrain, but quickly find our own way around. lead a crack, traverse, and rappel to a ledge. traverse the ledge, scramble to the ridge. Not exactly textbook. We climbed the ridge avoiding both Chimneys via nicer, and harder cracks. pitch 1 I linked two pitches of fingers to hands in two corners with a 70 meter rope skipping the first chimney And Chris my partner skipped the second chimney via a twin finger and hand crack that climbs steeply to the left of it. Both are highly recommended and protect well. The upper ridge was cruiser and we reached the summit around 5pm. Summit shenanigans ensued... but we quickly realized we still had a ways to go before dark. Exposure! Down climbing... and a few rappels got us through the technical stuff Racing against the Sun! All said and done, we reached the Col just as it hit dark. Friday: Rest/crag day. We climbed McTech with the right variation start mostly because we bickered over who would lead the finger crack and the book said it was 4 long pitches instead of 6-7 for the Arete. The first pitch was a nice, stout off-width-fist-hands layback (excellent!) The second pitch followed a corner that was tricky but fun. The 3rd and fourth pitches were out of this world! hands through a roof? The climb flowed seamlessly and all that kept running through my head for those last two pitches was "This is the best climb I have ever done!" Physical, engaging, unique, one style after another, and great gear! I climbed to the anchors and starred at Chris. We didn't say a word, just sat in awe. Our silence was broken my fits of laughter almost to tears. What a joy. The approximate variation we took. The rappels went smoothly, high from a buzz of pure elation. We landed in camp fully amped. We planned on doing something easy for our last day but McTech charged us to find something more challenging, committing, and as beautiful as today's climb. Wildflowers sounded like it would it the bill. A guy who came to camp solo fed off of our excitement and he decided to join us for the next day as our photographer. Sweet! Saturday: We awoke early and ascended the Snowpatch/Bugaboo Col. Wildflowers follows a corner system on the West face of Snowpatch Spire and is sustained 5.9/5.10a climbing for 9 pitches. Our only complaint is that we climbed most of it in the shade. Chris and I swapped leads through the corner system while Ky took photos: All are his below. Feeling a bit frozen, it was nice to reach the upper portion of the climb and hit sun. The last two pitches were exciting. The book talks of following a solitary crack to the summit. Hmmm... oh well, looks fun! We summited, celebrated with echoes and monkey calls to climbers on Bugaboo Spire, then prepared to descend the easiest and quickest rappels I have ever done in the mountains. goofing while simul-rappelling. Once off rappel we scrambled and crossed the glacier with rock shoes with an exciting runout down the icefall below. Feeling fully satisfied with how the climb went, we basked in the West facing Sun and strolled across the glacier. A few more rappels down the Col got us past the Crevasses and slid the rest of the glacier. The next day, camp was empty on a perfect Sunday... go figure. We slowly made our way back to the trailhead already thinking of when we will return to this magic land of granite and ice. Gear Notes: Doubles .3-4 inches, a set of nuts. 10 alpine draws Double ropes are helpful but not necessary depending on the route. A single 70M rope saved a lot of sketchy downclimbing from rappels on almost every route we descended. Approach Notes: Watch out for cattle on the way in and out!

looks like a great route! (read added to my list)

great read and good idea. thanks rob.

very nice glimpse into a place few see... including me. thanks!

truly lovely

Trip: Earl Peak - Forgotten Trail loop - SE ridge Date: 8/25/2011 Trip Report: News of my brother moving back to New Hampshire led me to a last ditch attempt at convincing him to stay via another glorious romp through the Alpine Lakes. I liked the sound of the forgotten loop trail for the solitude, easy peaks, and glorious views of the Stuart Range. It did not disappoint in any of these categories. The loop is a bit silly from a climbers standpoint. It circumnavigates 7000 ft Earl Peak ascending and descending its ridges loosing precious elevation when it could have easily traversed its gentle slopes and maintained elevation. The loop also includes some unmaintained trails that make route finding a bit difficult. All of these things just added to my brother's agony and adventure In hind sight, I would have just traversed ridges along Earl to make the trip quicker and with less elevation gain and loss. Here are some pictures. flowers are out So was Stuart and Rainier camp night 1 Ascending Earl in the eve via the SE ridge Earl Summit! Brother's summit cry We hung out on the summit for the sunset Ridge we ascended I mixed views of our stunning surroundings with a bit of short crack climbing I found near the summit. The short wall offered cracks of varying sizes in super solid and sand-papery rock. The next day was long as we got off trail and had to fight through some pretty loose scree and talus but at the end of the day we ended up where we wanted to be. Typical for me. Trail went down 1000 feet and up 1000 feet Should have just traversed across Missed the unmaintained trail, ended up on loose scree and talus. We fought our way back up to the ridge to reassess. We followed the ridge and then down into the next valley all off trail. Found a lovely meadow and spied the trail on the opposite side of the valley. Ascended the next ridge and realized our error. If you look closely you can see a switchback through the scree on the opposite side of the valley. Oops! This is an image of the map with a key. purple = SE ridge to Earl orange = Way we should have traversed to avoid unnecessary elevation gain and loss red = the route we accidentally took off trail. (not recommended) Night 2. Did I mention the bugs were bad? Great trip in an area seldom traveled. Gear Notes: Bug nets Approach Notes: Teanaway river road to Beverly Creek Trailhead

Trip: Big Snow Mountain - North Slope Date: 7/2/2011 Trip Report: Continuing my love of the Middle Fork and the Alpine Lakes, I planned a brother's backpacking trip around this often hidden and overlooked peak. I did not want to walk the road out to Hardscrabble Creek and so thought Dingford Creek to Myrtle Lake would suffice. The trail was a bit rough at times but we made the best of it. We camped at Myrtle Lake and found it frozen and covered in at least 5 feet of snow. Our pitiful attempt at keeping warm We did not bring crampons or ice axes so awoke leisurely to give the snow a chance to soften. Big Snow from camp. The yellow is the route I figured we would follow but ended up taking the red around Snowflake Lake. We started in steep woods, found a drainage and followed that. This brought us up to Big Snow Lake and Snowflake Lakes To my surprise I found lots of great looking granite all around. From here we traversed over to Snowflake Lake and followed a mini couloir to the upper slopes. upper slopes traversing the upper slope hitting the NW ridge and turning towards the summit. We reached the summit in around 4 hours and soaked in the perfect views of the grand Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Glacier Peak in the distance Lemah Summit Chiefs Summit Summit After hanging out we filled out the summit register. We were the first this year to do so and seems like only a small handful ascend this peak every year. The descent went extremely quickly. I introduced my youngest brother to glissading with trekking poles and we were back down to camp within an hour. We moved camp down out of the snow and enjoyed another night of solitude. The hike out was a joy amidst the often uber-green forest backdrop. This trip could easily be done in a day but stretching it out over 3 really allowed us to be lazy, enjoy the mountains, and goof off as only brothers can. Gear Notes: New boots make a world of difference in wet snow. Approach Notes: Dingford Creek Trail to Myrtle Lake

I just picked up a pair of those same boots. They guarantee 100% blister-free feet. I think you should take them back! Nice ascent gentlemen.

a wise man once said that your first and best piece of protection in climbing is your own ability. Fumbling with ropes and protection on easy terrain can often times lead to a fall. Light and fast on easy terrain.

please don't feed the animals.