danhelmstadter

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - Curtis Ridge Date: 3/25/2012 Trip Report: I was looking forward to schlarping the fabulous powder that I had just skinned past on the White Salmon, but maybe, just maybe instead I would drop into a steep west facing line that I've eyed wistfully for years, the line is however quite exposed, steep, and windward... So my expectations of finding acceptable conditions were low. I reached the col from the sunnyside where I could survey the said line, looking down on it my first thoughts were -- there's no way I'm going to ski this thing! but after some time of thoughtfully soaking up the fearsome view, I slowly weaned myself off comfortable thoughts of powder on the White Salmon and adjusted to the possibility of accepting commitment to the exposure below. I downclimbed the first few hundred feet to scope conditions, and was amazed and stoked to find mostly powder with just a few crusty sections here and there, I scampered back up to the top drunk off stoke. The descent was awesome, favorite turns of the season for sure. Crossing under the seracs at the bottom was creepy, but over quick enough.

I just spent a couple breezy afternoons at the main wall, and hadn't been there before, I got lost and backtracked a couple times, but it was kinda fun to eventually dial in the approach with the help of the book. Didn't see any ticks, must still be little cool for em.

awesome, i love the skin track climbing shot.

cool, nice pictures!

No couch burning Keenwash though I think they lit their guitar amp on fire before tossing it off the lookout. Matt, I respect your capacity for empathy in a situation such as this that draws only anger from most, perhaps the culprit(s) were venting some pent up emotional anger from a fucked up situation in their lives, and maybe they are healthier from their trundeling experience, maybe they were just punk kids or crackheads. I don't care, shit happens all the time, what happened happened. I wasn't even really angry, just sad to see trash and a shitload of broken glass defileing an area that is soulfelt to me and a lot of other people. I went back the other day and brushed off all the holds and ledges on the bolted 10a on lookout wall, just don't go too far to climbers right on the exit.

The other day I drove up to Erie hoping to get some pitches in. Arriving at my favorite spot - the lookout wall, I found the entire area (ledges above & ledges/ground below) covered in nasty glass shards 3/4" thick, off road tires, paint cans, appliances, and a bunch of other shit. Extremely sad. I didn't have any work lined up for the week and the scene was too sad for me to walk away from. After a few afternoons up there, I've hauled all the big stuff out, amounting to at least a couple hundred pounds. I picked up most of the glass, but unfortunately there is still a bunch of small glass bits(multiple old big screen TVs were launched/smashed), and some of the bits and dust are still on the top out jugs, ledges, and holds on the routes. I may go back with a brush and try to clean them -- but beware! -- it would suck to end up with a bloody hand slapping the topout jug and there's just too many glass bits to get totally clean. It was cool to experiment with haul systems, I got a bunch of fun climbing in too including an aborted free solo attempt on the 5.8 at powerline wall, and a full on rainstorm toprope of the 5.6 trad on lookout wall, I tried to avoid the glass at top by laybacking the finish but I ended up with a bloody finger anyway. glass at the anchors, lookout wall hauling trash up

Sky, thanks man, it looks like those guys skied the central line, the one I skied is to the far lookers right. http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/topos/mt-shuksan.html Birddog, yeah the gully I climbed/skied was the standard southside one, then I skied down hells highway to the Curtis.

Thanks! It's hard to tell from the picture but that chute is a vertical frozen waterfall - there's a lot of it that is blocked from view by the hidden cleft feature below.

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - skiers left - curtis glacier Date: 2/15/2012 Trip Report: The other day I climbed Mt. Shuksan via the Northwest Couloir. The summit pyramid gully was in fantastic condition, as were conditions in general on the upper mountain. I was able to ski off the exact summit without any rime ice shenanigans. My plan for descent was open ended, I just wanted to climb high and ski. Thinking over options on the summit, I decided to take a look at a line on Curtis glacier that I've had my eye on for a while but has always seemed out of condition. The route cliffs out two thirds of the way down but there's a snow traverse out to the right that connects slopes. The traverse is really scary because it's fully exposed to active seracs above. I had climbed the route a couple years ago only to find the upper portion scoured down to glacial ice. This time it was stable sunny powder. Low clouds obscured the lower glacier and beyond, but I was confident enough I could find my way out. The line skied like a dream - The way out up and over the arm was surreal in the sunset and sea of clouds. Sky named the far skiers right line "Kurtis Blow" after the pioneer rapper, so it seems fitting that the skiers left line be called "Curtis Lowe" after the Skynyrd song>>> Youtube "Curtis Lowe" (if someone hasn't alread skied/named it) summit looking down the line into the clouds

Thanks! Stefan, I don't think useing a sled to access sking is lame, It would have felt like cheating at the time though.

Trip: a 542 area tour - various Date: 2/6/2012 Trip Report: Routes Climbed and Skied: Southeast face of Pleiades North couloir Pleiades South face Larrabee Southwest face Larrabee North face Shuksan I left the Hannagen parking area early Saturday afternoon, halfway up the approach some friendly sledders stopped and graciously offered a ride, but I declined cause I woulda felt lame. Arriving at a satisfactory bivy around sundown I felt nervous and lonely about dropping down into the Winchester drainage -- down into the unknown dark woods to the slide path at the base of the SE face -- from the bivy I could see where I had to go -- but the view inspired doubts. After a bit of shuteye I set out around 3am -- dropping down some ramps and then a chute -- crossing my fingers that I wouldn't get cliffed out and have to post hole back up and find a different way, luckily it went. The way through the woods was easier than I had anticipated but there were definitely some sections of thick deadfall and alder. Canadian radio was my friend. I scratched my eye making my way through some alder just before it got light, and had to wait for the irritation to go away before proceeding. The rest of the climb was a mindless slog except for an interesting water ice step. From a distance, the summit of Pleiades looks rocky, but there is a snow chute that connects the face to the summit. My plan was coming together perfectly. I sat on the summit contemplating an hour to kill before the sun was prime on the face. I made the mistake of looking down the north side - what I saw inspired a change of plan. I had definitely not expected to be looking down a rad powder filled couloir. After skiing it and regaining the summit, the sun was leaving the SE aspect of the face, I rushed to melt some water - then dropped in on the face as the final morning rays withdrew. The snow was still soft and a lot of fun, a few frozen rollerballs aside. I skied down to the valley 4500 feet below. The post holing was difficult back up to my bivy because the snow was deep and variable/crusty on that north aspect. I was planning to head back home when The late day sun on Larrabee caught my eye. I had plenty of extra fuel and food, the conditions were good, weather was great and a full moon was rising. No reason not to go up and spend the night in the Winchester cabin then ski Larrabee the next day. Conditions were the classic cascade pow on the north sides corn on the south -- the morning approach and climbing was smooth and enjoyable. I skied the South face first - then climbed back up and skied the longer southwest face down to the basin. I made it back to the cabin and enjoyed a sunset sipping coffee. The moon was out but the snow had crusted and the south face was a mess of frozen debris, but still fun to ski. The road out was fast but a little tricky because of the crusty/icy conditions and sled tracks -- making catching a tip and twisting a leg a very real possibility, but with tiring caution I made it out safe and sound. I made it to the bar and found out that the weather the next day was still supposed to be good. The next morning I woke up to knocking on my camper door, it was Andy Traslin! We ended up having a great day of climbing the NW couloir (which had several ice sections -- that Ben Price and Nick from Glacier shredded the day before in high style which was evident from their rippin tracks.) and skiing the North Face -- which I reconed for ice -- and found a narrow corridor of windhammered snow between ice patches. The skiing was really fun. the se face the north couloir on pleiades as seen from larrabee dropping the north couloir on pleiades slesse from the north couloir larrabee from pleiades glacier on north side of pleiades abp upper se face pleiades Andy Traslin Andy on the north face cheezy self portrait nwc north face of shuksan in the distance, winchester and my tracks in the forground.

Thanks Kevino! I hope someone finds the goods up there this week.

Thanks, I'm stoked to come back! I haven't used a soloist -- I've heard they work great, and are lighter and less expensive than the silent partner but I've also heard that they don't catch upsidedown falls. Those slackline pictures are awesome, I was thinking how easy (anchorwise) and fun it would be to set one up in that location. Is the girl in the last picture falling or is she shimming accross the line?

Trip: Smith Rock - various rope solo Date: 1/30/2012 Trip Report: I've been to smith once before, but most of that time I spent just trying to stay warm in sub-zero temperatures, this time - despite the mid winter moon, the weather was really comfy for the most part, and I was able to climb a handful of cool routes. I would have rather gone with some friends but as it was, I went alone and rope soloed. After some time on basalt cracks of northern point and student wall, I rope solo free climbed Spiderman - a 5.7 3 pitch crack climb with a few bulges and areas of tricky terrain that humbled me a bit and had my knees shaking with adrenaline after pulling the upper crux. Spiderman I've wanted to climb the Monkey Face since I saw it my last time down. The Pioneer route seemed like the choice option. A four star, four pitch - 5.7 aid/trad/sport route. It was awesome, especially the jugs above panic point -- where after the comfort of a cozy little cave, you have to step out over hundreds of feet of exposure and climb vertical rock with holds that are difficult to see - (but really big). Pioneer route on the left rap down A couple days later I came back and climbed the much longer West Face aid route. I was intimidated of aiding the first pitch finger crack, but it protected solidly with medium nuts, especially the #4, I only plugged a cam once. I had never jumared successfully before, but the system that I used (found online) worked really well -- One ascender, one aider, a grigri and a pulley -- though I didn't bring a haul line, so the weight of my pack tied to the line below made jugging a little more difficult than if it was unweighted. I'm really glad I brought a fifi hook and wore approach shoes, would'a been a sufferfest without em. I topped out in a beautiful red sunset then rapped down in the dark after nine hours on the route. I really liked this route and would do it again but i'd want to haul up some beer and spend a night in the huge cave. West face route on leftside of the Monkey overhanging terrain on pitch 2 My last day I climbed a few sport routes - five gallon buckets and outsiders -- a 5.9 just to the right. The "Huecos" were unreal. Bunny face was fun but getting to the first bolt was a little scary. Hueco on outsiders -- five gallon buckets was jugging from hueco to hueco the whole way. I'm kind of glad I still haven't fallen with the silent partner, cause that would be scary -- but it would probably help my climber-head to take a couple whippers in a safe setting to gain confidence in the system. Bend/Smith is such a cool area, I hope to return soon, not only is the climbing great, but the people of the area are awesome -- seeming generally a bit differant than the western washingtonions who I'm accustomed to. Maybe its just me, or maybe the sunshine, but more likely it's the fresherness of the Deschutes beer.

Thanks for your comments and pictures. I've noticed that I have a quarter size bruise on my leg where my pain was/is, so I must've got pegged by some ice while climbing the couloir, there was stuff coming down and I remmember a few stings. clarification, from Frankcd's Photo -- Frank I hope you don't mind that I had to load your pic onto my webshots to paint/post it.

thanks fellas, Sky -- looks like thats the north side, couloirs i skied were on the sur side. I'd love to get up on Slesse this summer -- hope you are here!

Trip: Pleiades, Larrabee, Mt. Shuksan - southside couloirs, eastside, nwc Date: 1/13/2012 Trip Report: On the 11th I booted and skied the NWC on Mt. Shuksan. Encountering mostly good but slightly wind affected snow. In a spot just above the first cliff band there was a questionable slab... I did some tests - finding that there indeed was a slab there but it did not propagate well with an extended column test, so I traversed a little to the left, and no more slab. The high traverse to the entrance chute was very icy, with a thick breakable ice crust and a bit of solid water ice here and there. Mostly good snow in the upper chute with maybe a 10' section of hard ice crust near the top. There was also a short section of rime ice above the couloir entrance that I made a point to remember for the ride down. I'm finding that I like to boot pack more thank skin, something about the movement speaks to me. The next day, after some grocery shopping in kendall, I parked my rig a quarter mile or so past the DOT on Twin Lakes Road... Skinned in, then booted up the gully to the west of Winchester, I descended and set up a bivy at the headwaters of Tomyhoi creek, I fell asleep under a canopy of stars, Orion directly overhead. In the morning I ascended the west ridge of Larrabee which had me kinda skered because it was mostly hard rime ice with serious exposure -- my intended descent route. At the summit I questioned my original intention, after some thought I decided to descend the south face route instead of the west ridge. Cautious turns down hard rime ice off the summit led me to the entrance of the south face, but on a whim I dropped into the east face instead, thinking that I would just skin back up and ski the south face too... But instead, once at the base of the face, I traversed out to the Pleiades couloirs and climbed and skied both of them. The first (the west one) was longer than the second, and held a hidden top portion, it held mostly good-variable conditions, the second held terribly crusty conditions necessitating jump turns to bust through the crust. On the way up the second I developed a painful leg cramp in my lower right quadricep, but being pretty close to the top, and having a hunch that the pain was just coming from a muscle cramp, I pushed on, I felt the pain during the skiing, but I had to ignore it because a fall was not an option. The angle mellowed once out of the rock walls, and I skied the phatty lower couloir/gully ALL the way to the valley floor(a long way down) it got dark. I massaged my painful leg a little, melted some water, ate some hot food, then began the long ascent up to the col between Winchester and Larrabee eying the way in twilight before dark. My leg started to feel a little better, but I was gimping it very slowly, staggering awkwardly to avoid stressing the muscle. I was booting up somewhere in some trees, and snow began to fall, it grew steadily heavier as did the wind. Reaching the col, I got lost for a bit before I dropped into Tomyhoi basin where I recovered my bivy gear, then ascended towards Winchester hut in heavy winds and snow, feeling stupid for forgetting my gps. I was surprised to find the door of the hut locked, I knocked... no answer, then bellowed an awkward "hello" ... "hello" in return came from inside. It was apparently around one o'clock in the morning, limping up from the valley had taken me quite a while... The peoples inside were super cool and cooked me a hot meal, I told them that I had intended to descend after an hour or so rest in the hut, but I ended up spending the night. The storm pounded the hut all night. In the morning, I set out in the still stormy whiteout and proceeded to descend - ski cuuttin slabs left and right, flushing my intended descent route( a gully) occasionally ski cutting a slab off the side of the gully, deepest crown was probably around 2 1/2 feet... Amazing powder skiing lower down... The ski on the road out was slow cause the deep damp snow stuck to my skis, and the leg cramp returned. After about six miles I found my motorhome and road-out under two feet of snow, shit... I am a dumbass for sure, for throwing away my rusted chains and not getting another pair, for not respecting the unpredictability of the weather, for parking up the hill instead of at Hannagen pulloff... To make the story short, I took some advice from a passerby, who said that I should coast down in first gear and to "lay off the brake" After digging out and turning around I ended up loosing control a couple hundred feet down, with my front driver side tire half hanging off the steep embankment, truck tilted, I remained calm as it went down, but I am really glad I didn't loose my transport and home in the rollover into trees below that would have resulted if I stopped a foot two later. This morning, the BP pulled me off tha' cliff and I gingerly drove down with ebrake half applied/sometimes more, front brake applied accordingly, and clutch and first gear in necessary transition. Looking back on my time there on the road -- there was little hardship, I was well provisioned and warm enough - except some shivering at night that I am used to -- in hindsight, I see that my experience was a positive one, since I had some high quality times playing my guitar -- I think I finally broke out of that plateau that I've been stuck on. some video clips of the variable conditions -- nooksack tower ice on tha traverse alpenglow larrabee ABP Skagit Range -- *edit* Cheam Range Tomyhoi! oh shit stay away view from west couloir Does anyone have a shot of the Pleiades couloirs? Would shurley apriciate...

Trip: Spider - Arachnophobia Date: 12/3/2011 Trip Report: It started with talk of skiing powder, emails were sent, somehow plans were made to stage a mass assault on the North Face of Spider Mountain. When the dust had settled six skiers stood proud. The snow was overall variable, especially on the Face (we skied Arachnophobia, a line on the north face pioneered by Martin Volken and Peter Avolio), a fear inspiring ice crust lay buried at a variable depth under a blanket of powder. The upper bit of the face held much less powder and much more ice, we sidestepped this section with axe clutched firmly in hand. Speaking for myself I can say that I wiped sweat from my brow more than once during that section. Much ground and el. had to be covered in return to camp - then car later in the evening. Sunsets and moonlit vistas were seen, fun headlamp lit turns were had, and a bit of whiskey was drunk. This trip was special to me not only because of time spent with awesome friends, but also cause I had injured my knee climbing back in September, and haven't been out in the mountains since, till this trip. I am very happy that my knee is now pain/swoll free, I was worrying that going under the knife was going to be the only road to a healthy knee. The object of fear and desire The courageous Dr. Wehrly, AKA E$, Ryan and Pete behind. DT nears the top of the line Eric skiing, photo courtesy of Drew Back at camp, photo courtesy of Eric. Left to right Ryan, Pete, me, Drew. Antonio must be melting water.

i was on an outward bound trip there a long time ago. 3 weeks backpacking, then we did a 10 mile "personal challange" run on the dirt road between the spires and highway. I came back years later and top roped there with my girlfriend. definetly wanna go back for some climbing! thanks for the stoke.

wo, those are some awesome pictures! i wonder how old that diagnal crown is on the nf of robson.

YEAH! awesome !!!

i've had a couple minor sprains, r.i.c.e is important but somtimes annoying and hard to stick to, but it works. try hanging out by a river or the sea and dunk your ankle until you can't take the cold, then warm it and repeat. when you start to see some improvment, draw invisible abc's with your big toe, again its annoying but it helps. don't stay in a cast too long if you don't need to! heal fast and well!

Thanks! Buckaroo, I took the shot from somewhere on the approach. PCG, I use a silent partner self belay device, the key is to build a multidirectional anchor, this might include having to retie the cordellette for anticipated loading, and reseting any non multidirectional pieces such as stoppers between pitches. I use an overhand knot occasionally above (but not to becuse you'll increase fall factor) protection to prevent excessive slack from accumulating. Don't use a rope larger than 10.2 and be careful if the sheath is drytreated because if it is and it's not frayed from some use, it might be too slippery and the clove hitch might not bind despite the belay mechanisim doing its job. use back up knots or at least a knot on the end of your rope, and climb with the ropes between your legs. carry the rope in your backpack, and be carefull to keep clutter out of the way of your device, as it might get caught in the hitch during a fall...

Trip: SEWS - East Buttress Direct - rope solo Date: 9/8-9/2011 Trip Report: I've been fine tuning my solo climbng syestem recently, with rope solo free climbs of the Sidewinder route on Liberty Bell, and a wide crack to the right of the the standard north face route on Concord Tower. I felt I was ready to tackle a bigger route. The East Buttress Direct on South Early Winter Spire is hard to ignore while motoring up and around the hairpin, an eyecatcher for sure. I left the hairpin around noon on thursday, and hiked up through the heat with more than two gallons of water. There is a fixed line up the fourth class gully below the SE face on SEWS, which made the approach easy. I bivied on the ledge below the first bolt ladder, and enjoyed the violet shades of fading day on storm clouds to the east. silver star & burgundy spire I slept in a little and tossed the local resident chipmunk a cracker for the nights use of the ledge before heading off for the bolt ladder. I am new to aiding, and didn't realize the pain aiders can inflict if you don't stand in them just right. Except for the bolt ladders I climbed the route free, in 9 leads, 9 rappells and 9 top ropes. The only non bolt section I aided was the short steep finger crack between ladders(11a), which I sent free on top rope. This was an especially memorable summit for me, the warmth of late day sun after an afternoon in tense shade, the ravens and their noises, the sense of accomplishment... I descended the SW gully, and made it to the road around sunset, and after only a few minutes of walking/hitchiking, a bueatiful smiley woman picked me up! Back to a cold beer at the hairpin before dark. cheese shot at bivy differant perspectives of the bueatiful sews

nice! i enjoyed your pics and words.