dawuda

Thanks for the ideas! Goode was definitely high on my list. But tell me I'm not crazy for this following idea for the ptarmigan traverse: day 1, start at South Fork Cascade River Trail and attempt to schwack our way up it and get as close as we can to South Cascade Lake. day 2, climb over south cascade glacier and either stay at white rock lakes or push on to high camps near Dome day 3, climb dome and sinister's north face day 4, return to white rock lakes day 5, German hamlet if we feel it, push on to Yang Yang lakes day 6, over to kool aid day 7, slog out, including descending the road to our car at the lower trail head unless some tourist gives us a ride (it'll be friday if things go well). This gives us 1.25 day buffer since I need to be driving toward the airport from the trailhead by mid morning on day 9. This also allows a bailout option of not doing sinister and/or dome OR even only doing the south cascade glacier to S-N ptarmigan traverse if we're feeling slow or weather craps on us. Also, if I read the NPS maps correct, this allows us to not have to wait in line to get a permit on day 1, a saturday, since none of our days our in the park. Kool-aid looks close, but just west of the boundary. Correct? Thanks in advance!

I'm from Oregon. Been out in CO for the last few years, but I am coming back for a week at the end of this month for a climbing trip with a friend. My objective interests are all over the board and I can't seem to decide or figure out what would be best. Based upon local reports of conditions, what do people think would be best? Any issues with a specific objective within an area I have listed? 1)Spend the week in Boston Basin doing TFT, Sharksfin, Sahale, maybe Buckner? 2)Spend the week doing the peaks around Eldorado Peak, Austerra, Dorado Needle, etc. 3)Pickets? I've never been. I don't want to do the water taxi, so a lollipop style loop traversing either the north or south would be idea. I think we're aiming for technical objectives with steep snow/ice and rock up to 5.6, maybe 7 for this trip to keep the loads lighter. Also game for glacier travel with 4th class summits. Suggestions? I'm very familiar with Steph's page. But curious what people think is in. 4)Ptarmigan Traverse. Is there a way to make a loop with this? Conditions? 5)Spend a few days on Rainier. Rest day/drive somewhere else. Do Another peak. Ideas? We have 8 days. Thinking difficulties similar to North Ridge of Baker, or the Kautz, or similar. 6)Base camp somewhere else and tag peaks (somewhere in the PNW) Fire away! Thanks for the info. -Dan

Mist falls this morning. I didn't get on it as I'm pretty green at ice and didn't feel like there was enough ice to safely anchor. Better safe than sorry, right. But figured the pics would be appreciated.

The schrund seemed fully filled in. I punched around a bit and didn't locate a distinct opening. I'd bet the chute would be amazing for skiing. That had been my plan before I gave up. Good powder and turns all the way to the car! I had ridden the mt hood express so I actually continued on skis down the 3.5 miles of glade trail to government camp! Also, most of the terrain was deep powder above Devils kitchen. Lower on the mountain was 6-12 inches of powder on some stiff crust that would snag an edge here and there.

Trip: Hood - South Side Date: 12/30/2015 Trip Report: Quick conditions update. Amazing weather on hood and great powder. Can't believe there wasn't more people up there. Started at 7 am on the 30th. No on else tried for the summit. I pushed my way up to the entrance to the gates but ended up wallowing in waste deep snow and didn't like the feel of it, so enjoyed some fresh snow on the way down. Beautiful day!

Thanks, I've got a planned excursion or two for the weekend as well. Will probably just do a quick jaunt up the SS on wednesday.

I'm hanging out in PDX for the holidays. I have gear and time. Weather looks to be improving later in the week and avalanche conditions becoming less threatening. I was at Meadows yesterday. The powder is soft and there is likely pretty good snow above treeline. Does anyone wanna go check out the mountain wednesday? I could be game for a Southside, Reid, Leutholds, or Cooper Spur climb? Or even just a tour on the Palmer or above Tilly Jane. I don't have bivy gear with me right now, but would also be open to other suggestions. -Dan 503-930-8643

Does anyone have any pics or conditions on this route. Thinking of heading up this weekend and curious about snow and crevasse conditions.

Trip: The Tooth - South Face Date: 6/6/2015 Trip Report: Climbed the Tooth Saturday. Attempted to avoid the rope orgy that occured..... wow. Simply had to share this picture. 1 team rapping. 1 fixed line being prussiked by multiple people. 2 separate teams with lead ropes, all on the same pitch and crack. FUN! Gear Notes: stuff

Trip: Three Sisters - North to South in a Day Date: 8/16/2014 Trip Report: I don't post many reports and mainly just stalk this site, but I'm proud of my weekend warrior efforts last weekend, and feel the need for a pat on the back..... I'm not a big birthday kind of guy, but seeing as it was my 30th, I thought I should do something mention-able. Crappy thing about not being a birthday kind of guy.... you don't tell your friends, and then they're all busy on you birthday. So I planned a solo trip. Initially I was just gonna aim for the wilderness with a bottle of whiskey and my dog, but as i pondered various solo excursions, I kept being drawn back to my desire to solo the 3 Sisters in a single push. No reason to make this long, so heres the deets... Woke at 2am on Saturday Moving by 2:40 Terrible traverse @ 6:10 - The traverse was still full of snow and was quite icy. Having been on the summit at least 3 other times, I opted to live another 30 years and forego the traverse (don't judge!) Being that it was my Bday, I had brought a beer for each summit. First beer at sunrise from North Sister! A little buzzed, I scrambled down to the saddle and ran up Middle. Arrived at the Middle Sister summit at 8:10 in complete solitude. Drank another beer.... As I scrambled to put my stuff back in my pack, my crampons got feisty with the last beer. The poor can didn't stand a chance and sprung a leak. My red bull attempted to defend the beers honor and suffered a similar fate. Realizing the circumstances at hand, I made a rash decision and chose to shotgun the Red Bull rather than have a 3rd beer. Probably the better choice. I hurried down Middle sister to Chambers lakes. Took an hour to get down. I hydrated and fill my nalgene. An old man traveling solo stopped by to say hi. Super nice guy enjoying some time alone in the woods. I had been down the North side of South Sister about 12 years ago and vaguely remembered the route. I spotted out a series of ridges that led to the Northwest ridge. But a small rock band choked access. I crossed my fingers that I'd find a way through and headed up. Amazingly, I found passage on the left side of the rock, albeit very loose! I was greeted on the rim to a cheering crowd of at least 10,000 people. Ok, maybe not that many, but holy hell everybody and their mom was up there. It was 12:30pm. I rested for 30 minutes and took a quick cat nap before running down the south side, veering East to Green Lakes. I hyrdated and swam, ecstatic about my accomplishment. I had originally thought the trip might take me almost 20 hours. It had been 12.5 and I had maybe 8 miles to go to get back to Pole Creek. I set a new goal of 14 hours and set to it. After hiking out of the basin, I started running. I ran for 3-4 miles before my legs started to tell me no. Accepting that 15 hours would suffice, I slowed and walked the last couple miles. I arrived at the car 15 hours and 15 minutes after leaving. Not bad for 30th birthday! I'm lazy, so ya'll only get one pic.

Hey all, I'm taking a relatively impulsive trip to Peru the end of March. I know its the end of the wet season and weather will be a s*#t show, but we're heading down with an open mind for adventure. Plans are to fly in the 20th, acclimate in Huaraz, and try to get on some easy summits like Pisco, etc weather depending. Leaving the 1st of April. I'm curious about any tips and input for climbing there: Gear: boots? double or is a single like the phantom guides ok? avi beacons, probes and shovel? yes/no? Logistics: hostels in Huaraz? good trekking alternatives if the snow and mtns are crap? (obviously machu picchu) Anyone have info know where we can get info on current conditions before we go? Maps? Buy here or get there? Are the newish regulations enforced requiring climbers to produce a UIAA affiliation like AAC membership? I dunno, spray away and tell me any beta you got. Thanks!

Not sure what can be done about it, but almost every time I browse this site with my android I get a malware/virus attack. I googled what showed up on my screen and it came up with this. http://blog.jasonsamuels.net/post/72183587582/this-is-what-android-malware-looks-like Hope someone can block this pop up/ "ad" thanks

Looked like the spur would go. The snow slope looked good when we were there and I could see a continuous snow line through the rock bands.

Trip: Mt Hood - North Side Conditions Date: 12/25/2013 Trip Report: Went up for an attempt on the north side of Hood. Found very warm temperatures and very little snow. We parked at the Tilly Jane gate Christmas Eve and caught a few hours of sleep. Up and on the trail before 2:30am. The first mile of the trail was solid ice, making for slow hiking. About half way to the A-frame, the snow covered some of the ice. There is only an inch or two of packed snow on the trail... There were some deeper drifts and more snow accumulation above the A-frame, but as soon as we gained the exposed ridge, we were hiking on rock again. The glacier was firm and provided fast travel with crampons. It was shockingly warm out, even on the glacier at 4am. I was content in a T-shirt as long as we were moving. We were becoming suspicious of the warm weather. At around 8400 feet, we stopped and checked out an ice flow on a cliff coming off the cooper's spur. It was fairly fat, but had water running down it. We decided to bail, assuming that if it was this warm before sunrise, that the gullies would be even worse after the sun was hitting them. We decided to play on the wet ice flow before descending. Good times. From the pics, looks like the ice steps at the start to the gullies would have been thin anyways.

North side conditions: I'll post a TR tomorrow probably, but went up for a North Face attempt Christmas day. Crazy warm temps. Tshirts on the elliot at 3am. Tilly Jane Trail felt like WI200 without any type of traction on the boots. At least the first mile of it is solid water ice and the rest is icy mixed with 2 inches of packed snow. Consolidated snow above with great cramponing, but very warm temps. We got to about 8500 and water was flowing down the icy cliffs of the spur. This was at 5am. Given the melt conditions, we opted to bail. The cooper spur looked thin at the top, but had a continuous line through the rock bands. I'll post pics of coopers spur and the north side soon.