kevino

Scott, I will be back in ellensburg on monday. And will be free to climb anyday between then and 1/5.

if/when you find out anything, will you please post it here.

does that mean it needs to be renamed?

yo yo yo. me and selkirk just got back from some sweet western washington ice climbing. perfect sticks, clear skis and packed snow on approach! NOT. pretty much the opposite. After excavating selkirk's subaru from the snow, we got hiking to franklin falls. us and another party of 3 decided the sketcy ice crossing and the abudance of water flowing would not make fun ice climbing. We then decided to go check out Keekwulee falls. Shortly after crossing the creek the snowshoe packed trail stoped. So I started breaking trail through waist deep (and deeper) snow. Here is Josh enjoying the wallowing! Finally we got a glimpse of the ice! All looked good until the saw the bottom 2/3 was in direct spray zone of the ice cold water. Not very appetizing. Well that was our day, besides the BLIZZARD OF 2008 we encountered on the way home. Just another day of (western) washington ice climbing. Hey Craig, I hope the entiat ice sucked and you got caught for trespassing.

i saw what looked like 8 people or so around the ice above the drytool area. busy area today!

Ask and you shall receive...left work yesterday afternoon and drove out to vantage. little or no snow on old vantage hwy. Frenchman Falls looks like its coming in pretty good. The ice on either sides seem to be forming up as well. Fugs is definitely climbable. I actually walked here and climbed sections, topped out and finished the loop back to my car. Ice is thin and steeper in places, more so than it would be in normal months as you can imagine, but still fun. Running gear death wall looked dry, however I only looked from my car. i have more pictures if people want to see'em, i was having trouble uploading them.

Well those photos are from wednesday afternoon. The drip, as you can imagine is fed by groundwater, so until a melt-freeze cycle starts its going to grow slowly. The actually falls will hopefully be growing as the really cold temps continue. oh, and if you do go, please be gentle with the ice. there is not a lot there and it would be really easy to take big swings and knock of lots of chunks of ice down to bare rock.

As suspected things are little at umptanum are thin. I climbed the drip, only got a handful of solid swings, rest were thin hooks. Heres the actual falls. I tried the right line but the ice was garbage, so I backed off.

do you think this cold snap will have formed solid ice further up the drainage?

I got laid off from my seasonal job in redmond, so I went back to ellensburg to work and climb. Anyone want to help me send my project? [img:left]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/DSCN0129.JPG[/img] Here is an idea on height: the road is the bottom left whiteness [img: left]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/DSCN0132.JPG[/img] This is about 15 minutes from my house. I'll be checking on other local areas in the next couple days.

After a group dinner, everyone throws in their credit card and the waiter picks one, and which ever one is chosen, they pay for the tab, and everyone else eats/drinks free!

Thanks. The video is good as well.

Braydon, what are you doing saturday? i'm thinking franlkin falls and up in that area could be in and fun this weekend. Short drive and shorter approaches.

bump for climbing today.

so i'm just editing this for today, sunday the 14th. I'm in redmond. Anyone want to meet up in north bend or issaquah to do some drytooling this afternoon? send me a message and i'll check'em.

At first I was like, John you seem to have the answers to those questions pretty well nailed down I thought. Dane, where'd you get the prices from? Anyone wanna attend for me and tell me what to do? $500 is quite unrealistic for me to spend on a seminar. Guess I'll just stick to what I read in books.

I see whats going on here.

Just in case anyone is interested... As of this morning: -the last mile of the stuark lake road is a complete sheet of ice. -it was steady rain with some snow -visibility was around 5k to 5500 feet -i hate washington

Thanks for the info Mr. Dave.

Do you just show up at 5 to compete or do you have to sign up?

I was up there last wednesday and it was pretty much sugar snow on top of rock. This warm weather/rain probably hasn't helped much.

got any other ideas you are willing to bet on?

Yeah. After 20 minutes of driving a certain someone got their third speeding ticket. It wasn't me. This person also lost credit card roulette.

Trip: Canada - Canmore/Banff - Cascade, Ranger, King and Hafner Creeks Date: 11/29/2008 Trip Report: Just as predicted, there were many PNW climbers up in Canada this weekend. We met one group of three free WA on Cascade Waterfall and in Ranger/King creek areas. There was also a group of two at Hafner from PDX. Small world. Anyway, Erik, Sonda, Jesse and I left thanksgiving night and drove until daybreak and arrived in Banff around 10ish or something. This was my first time up in this area and enjoyed it tremendously. I also got to do some official mix climbing, which also was quite fun. I keep the talking to a minimum so people can enjoy the pictures. Day One: Cascade Waterfall Erik on the first section Looking down at Jesse and Erik The other WA group. One of the guys was hit by a big chuck of ice (which fell from the big hole in the upper pitch) and they were leaving as we were going up. We agreed wit their decision. (the hole is barely visible) Cascade waterfall Day Two: Talked to a local worker and he pointed us in the direction of Ranger Creek. Jesse and I climbed Lone Ranger, Erik and Sonda climbed R&D. It was a lot colder and windier than either of the other two days. Jesse leading on Lone Ranger From left to right: R&D, Lone Ranger and some other WI5 route Me on some ice in Kings Creek Day 3 took us to Hafner creek for some mixed climbing Erik, who decided to sleep in the car for a little bit longer, walked up and hiked up Shagadelic without a hitch. Pretty good for first mixed climb of the season. I take that back, he was a little slowed down when he got his crampon stuck on a quickdraw There was even some ice to be climbed, albeit very wet Gear Notes: remembering how to ice climb. Approach Notes: Car. cheap canadian petrol and idaho state police.

Go climb ice cliff now and it'll be a lot more ice than snow compared to spring. You can also through in Mt. Kent when abiel peak is in. But after last weekend, I have to agree with Dane, just drive to Canada.