BlackSheep

The Late Don Sheldon landed a few times at 14k for rescues. Its described in good detail in "Wager with the Wind" his biography. ( an excellent read for early Alaska range flying...) not sure if anyone else has landed there since...

no, they were fine, we left our shoes in glacier basin having never used them, we didnt post hole at all getting to the base of the ridge.

Sorry for the mis-understanding I hate snowshoes anyway, good ridence to those things, I carry them alot and never really use them so hopefully someone else can actually get some use out of them cheers

yes they are ours. (at least they were ours), jeeze, relax. due to coming out Paradise, getting sick and having a plane to catch they became a trip expense. As far as the russians go, I think they were off route but it didnt stop them. At the Liberty cap ice they fixed a line, used ascenders, hauled packs etc... so the brute force method on the descent didnt suprise me. Unless we totally mis-understood them in the parking lot and they were only refering to raping into the cravasse to retrive the pack that fell.

ps. there are two pairs of snowshoes stashed in some trees near tree line off of a tiny part of the dry summer trail in glacier basin. First come first served...

Thanks everyone for the beta. We had a good adventure! http://www.alaskamountainforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2072

thanks for all the input guys, it confirmed what I was thinking we are working off the post wedding hangovers and heading up there today. looks like it will be good bivy sack weather. I'll post a TR next week yep going with axe and tool. cheers!

We didnt have too many problems with mosquitos at 17, the wind must have blown them out.

Ok, so I'm heading down for liberty ridge next week. I had been planning on bringing a mountain axe and an ice tool each, my thought was that if pure ice conditions were encountered then the leader could take both tools and the second would have to sketch along with two axes... or lower the tools down. The most recent post on the route conditions blog mentions quite a bit of ice and not so much the deep early season snow, and I'm considering bringing both tools per person. anyone have any thoughts on this? does everyone bring two tools on this route? Thanks!

What the hell, In an effort of propaganda and ballot stuffing I need your votes! I made the instant classic and cheesy "Chugach Energy Drink" for a local newspaper video contest. Click the link below and get'Chugach" as the #1 video on the left side of the screen. http://community.adn.com/mini_apps/vmix/voting/vote.php All of the other ones suck except for "SouthCentral in motion" which I made too. Thanks!! oh yeah, this was all filmed outside of Anchorage, in the Chugach (duh)

Hi, I climbed it back in November 2005. The Route was staight foreward since so it is so heavly traveled. From the hut you cross a small glacier tounge then get on all this nasty frozen gravel before getting on the glaicer for real. This section simply sucked and called for still using crampons. Maybe with more snow it would be better. Anyway there are a few cravasses to get over but none were too bad. When I was there there was this super sketchy ladder to get up a 20' wall of ice which was the summit bergschrund, its that big blob of ice you can see just below the summit. I've heard that in different conditions you can go around fairly easily but I feel that this was the most dangerous part for both the ascent and descent. We bleayed with pickets a few times. Acclimitization is tricky in Ecuador, the towns are at like 10,000' and the hut at over 15,000' so the jump to the hut can simply wreck you. A few nights in quito, then heading up to the Illinizas. There is a really friendly guy in Lasso that has nice and cheap rooms, is climber orientated and has a a pickup truck transport into Cotopaxi park. Another thing, half way into Cotopaxi at around 12,000' there is an A-Frame hut and a small restaurant of sorts. You can spend a night inthe A-Frame hut (just a roof over your head) for cheap and go for mellow walks to break up the altitude jump to the hut, then hitch a ride the next morning up to the reguigo. Have fun.

Thanks!

The Liners that come with the Artis Expes are fine for Denali and likely just as warm as the intuitions, pleanty of people use stock liners. The important thing here is to have a good overboot if you are going stock liners and possibly a supergaitor also. Intuition liners are great but if you are spending the $$ and buying them for cold places they will pack out and loose their warmth if you use them all the time for summer trips, you might just want to save them for winter cold. Cant comment on the DAS, I'm sure people have used them on more technical climbs, but most people on the west butt use down.

Curious if May ascents need snowshoes or not? I'm coming down from Alaska to climb on the 28ths for either the Liberty Ridge or more likely now the Emmons. Any thoughts? I can posthole with the best of them but would rather not...

Hi there, First post on this forum. I'm coming down to do Rainier at the end of May 20-25 time frame and was planning on Liberty ridge... The park approved my reservation but now I read here that the road to white river wount be open in time. Uhmmm might need to start on plan B. Aside from that does anyone have any idea for snow conditions on the ridge early season? I'm coming down from Anchorage for a wedding in Seattle and we are doing this climb as a bonus so to speak. Thanks!