cbcbd

Thanks Sol, I talked to a buddy yesterday and he told me of this detour that we could've done. The signs didn't seem to point out a detour, we didn't know of one, and didn't want to drive all the way to MP 89 just to get turned back. Anyway, it all worked out in the end!

Ya know Gene, it actually wasn't too bad. The slabs were runout, but even when wet they were never slimy. The granite was very featured and felt secure even when wet... plus yeah, the climbing was 5.easy on the slabs. I'm sure I'd be singing a different song had we been on 5.hard wet slabs!

I guess she started the trend

Trip: Vesper - North Face Date: 6/24/2009 Trip Report: Warning: This TR is disappointingly without pictures... yeah, I'm disappointed too. So... no one told us Rt 2 would be closed from Sundays to Fridays from 7:30pm - 6am starting June 1st. (Note: closures are not in effect anymore) A quick change of plans and we 3 (Kevin H and Dustin) headed for Vesper with minimal beta and a vague idea of what the route looked like - something about an "open book" kept coming up. We made pretty quick time to what we thought was Headlee pass and then after that proceeded to get very confused as to where this peak was. After some tooling around in the Lake Elan basin trying to figure out which was Vesper, which way was North, and where was Headlee pass (for some time we thought we hadn't passed Headlee yet)... we decided to just head uphill for the hell of it - the exercise - and see what we found. We stumbled upon the drop to the glacier and had a view of Vesper... excellent! Moats were fun and committing. Required a leap of faith. We looked around for signs of travel and picked the route up the buttress, which then would snake in/out of mossy wet gullies. Interesting, protectable, mildly sketchy, and never boring. Then the rain started. Then the fog rolled in. We got wet. The rock got wet. We got up on the slabs and had 200' visibility. Raining, foggy, slabby. You could drink right off the rock face. In all it wasn't that bad, but it just wasn't great during that time, especially since we didn't really know which way to go... but up. Then the clouds went away, we rejoiced, we picked a route, we saw this "open book" thing and headed that way. Got to the top of the book, fertilized the surrounding soil, and went up to tag the summit. The descent was a blast and snow conditions were perfect for safe executions of my tele-boot-glissade. We made awesome time down and on the way back used the real Headlee pass. In all, great locale, fun route, cool looking peak, very easy to do in a short day. Gear Notes: Nuts and cams up to 3", slings. Crampons would've been nice, but we made do with approach shoes and axes. Approach Notes: Trail in good condition. Stream crossings fine. We went to the wrong Headlee pass... don't do it like us... to get to the real one just go all the way to the back of Wirtz basin (the first basin) and take the last gully to the right. The col and drop into Vesper glacier is snow right now but the snow is pulling away slowly from the edge. We did a quick rap off a bollard just to take the edge off the edge. The glacier was filled in and the moats at the base of the wall were hungry.

one of us, one of us

Some belay devices, like the BD ATC Guide and Petzl's Reverso and Reverso3 can be setup as autolocking for leaders belaying the second off the anchor. If you check out the manual for either one of these from their site you'll see how it works.

Excellent!

I met a guy in Canmore who had done just that - put the Quark rest on his Aztars. Basically what he told me is that you can just simply screw the rest onto the Aztar, but the problem is that the spike hole is too big so the screw holding the rest moves around in there, pinballing around and not keeping the rest in place. What he did was to get a piece of similar thickness (of the spike) aluminum and cut it to fill the spike gap. He then drilled a hole in the aluminum for the rest's screw and that was it - the aluminum plate eliminated that play and kept the griprest snug against the tool and in place.

I'd like to but you gotta tell me I'll see something better than kitty litter to climb on... how is the rock quality over there? You gotta take that claim up with Alex Bertulis

The winds were just kind of annoying since there weren't many wind-free areas to catch a break. Snow up top was dry but so windblown that it was never too deep or very loose. Most of it seemed to be ankle-deep powder with firmer styrofoam sections and some looser shin/knee-deep sections.

Use two lockers with autoblock - one locker connecting to anchor and another locker around the rope/wire. Have partner clip to the anchor. My preferable way is to tie off with your rope using a clove on a locker. Unclip the locker connecting the autoblock to the anchor-leave it on the anchor and clip the rope through it, which will be the first piece. Clip the locker around the rope/wire to your harness and now you're ready to belay. Partner/now leader can now undo clove and lead. Another option is for the second to tie off using a clove on a locker to the anchor point. The belayer takes the autoblock from the anchor and clips to harness, keeping both biners. When new leader is ready to go he undoes clove, clips rope through that same biner and voila. Page 1, item C: http://petzl.com/files/all/us/activities/sport/tech-tips-multi-pitch-climbing.pdf

So did they ever make it to Camp Rainier?

Trip: Mt Rainier - Ptarmigan Ridge Date: 5/31/2009 Trip Report: z-man and I went up the last 3 days to take a crack at Washington state's preeminent alpine route. Lithuanians have good taste. Day 1: White River to edge of Carbon Note: Road through Black Diamond is closed... detour in effect - d'oh We register with the cute ranger staffing the station. The only thing we pick up are blue bags, we're not smooth. Onward... Boot packed all the way. We rejoice and my visions of abandoning forsaken snowshoes mid-ridge are laid to rest - no need for those afterall. Camp is cozy, with surreal scenery, quick access to flowing water, and breezy. I bet if real estate agents caught wind of this location is would go at many zeros and commas. "Spacious, with panoramic views of Rainier's North side. Summer move in specials happening now. Low objective danger!" Day 2:Edge of Carbon to high camp on Ptarmigan We sleep in while the rest of camp heads up to their respective high camps. We like to do our climbing after breakfast. We enjoy the Libridgers' boot track until the middle of the Carbon and then start the refreshing feeling of snow on your shins and knees. Mellow day, not counting the sandy and chossy ridge right before camp. Today was the start of constant E/SE winds, which would later explain why I washed a cup of sand off my hair. The property value of this camp was still very high, and looking up at stacked ice cliffs felt very special, in a vulnerable kind of way. You'd have trouble convincing buyers that objective danger was low enough to allow pleasant dog walks around your yard. During the day at exactly 12:36pm we witnessed two simultaneous ice falls - one from the Lib ice cap onto the Willis and another from the cliff of Ptarmigan's ice variation to the East. Now we knew which ways we didn't really want to go and that you could safely walk your dog around morning time. We looked at our planned route and it looked peachy. Not necessarily lean, but not meaty with snow... icy in spots. No worries, we'll stick to the plan - from the rock buttress head West (the route of the 1934 first attempt), toward the upper edge of the Mowich face and then out the exit gully, wherever it was. Day 3: Up and out After a good shave, a nice long breakfast while reading the day's paper, and a routine trip to the John, I wake Aaron up and he's ready to go in 5. We're moving at 3 and snow conditions are as stellar as I hoped them to be. Temps are just at freezing and the constant tent-flapping-against-my-head-i-can't-sleep winds kept steps pretty cold and firm. From the rock buttress, which insanely looked made of quality materials unlike elsewhere on the mountain, we went right and came upon an awesome cascading ramp of blue ice. We pitched out the hard and brittle ice putting us on the crest at a great possible bivy near the various exit gullies. They all looked exit-like and had minimal snow so we picked the first one on the left which was long, enjoyable, protectable if you had gear, and had various fun low 5th class moves on surprisingly solid rock - I even found an awesome gloved-hand-jam that felt like crack. Addictive. Once on the cap the slog started. We had a combination of wind buff, AI, powder - all good wintry forms of snow. Remember the winds? Well, they were always there but now that we were exposed on the ridge we got to really enjoy them and now had to pay attention at which direction to do our hydration checks. I'll venture to say that we had 30-40mph winds with gusts up to 50-60mph. After many feelings of joy and warmth we made it to Lib cap at exactly 12. The summit craters were in the clouds and we were not - bonus. Switch minds for long descent down Emmons. My parents taught me that if I didn't have anything nice to say don't say anything. ... we glissaded down the Inter in butt-numbing joy. After some more time passed and stuff happened we were at Mazatlan having our fill of free-refill chips and all the water you could drink! We made it home alive despite a close call with some elk and a van... by far the closest call of the entire trip. Statistics don't lie! Water! Like, from the toilet. Squigglies on the Carbon. Objective dangers are closer than they appear. The blue ice ramp. One of the coolest features of the climb. After this shot my camera decided it had enough. Maybe Aaron will post some after pics for continuation. More pics http://picasaweb.google.com/dougseitz/RainierPtarmiganRidge53009# Gear Notes: 4 screws, 2 pickets Approach Notes: Boot pack trail all the way to the middle of the Carbon.

Also consider posting this on TAY... looks like a bunch of skiers: http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php

Your pull on the anchor point should be in the direction that you built the anchor to support. If you are loading the anchor in a way that might make the cordelette slip of the boulder then that seems a little sketchy and you should rethink the anchor. Nothing wrong with it being below your waist if you feel that it will support a load pulling up on the anchor. There is a boulder on top of Midway Direct (a few feet behind the tree) at Castle Rock with a big slit behind it that I sling and belay at the edge, above the anchor. The slit is deep and the roof above it prevents the anchor from moving up, so in that case it works fine.

Now that you mention it, when I was there last a few weeks ago it wasn't there either. Either way, that crack eats up gear. Either a #2 or #3, I think... right in the corner.

I definitively would. Temps will be warm and the snowpack, especially for approach during the day, will be sloppy and deep.

Good stuff, Marc. Can those dudes help me set up a net under Luna's NF for me? Thanks

You can pick them up at various Ranger stations for free. The few that I have gotten them at - Longmire and Paradise (MRNP), Sedro-Wooley (N. Cascades NP station, on the way to South side of Baker), at Trout Lake (Gifford Pinchot NF Station, for South routes on Adams), and also at the Wilderness Info Center in Marblemount while heading East to the NCNF. I'm sure they're available at other stations. The only non-blue bag I had was gotten at the Trout Lake station, where it was a mixture of plastic and paper bag with kitty litter... and a complimentary paper with a bullseye. My advice: Don't put it inside your pack - try to strap it to the outside somehow - I use my outside crampon pouch if I can. If you don't or can't and have to put it inside, pack extra ziplocks or bags and double, triple, quad/quin/sex/sept... bag that s**t. The blue bag+ziplock combo they supply is usually insufficient for negating the powerful scents generated from energy-bar-fueled ascents.

climbing w/ 3 is generally slower than w/ 2 - the n face gullies w/ 3 doubly so - speed was what they needed - if it had been just 2 climbers, their odds of survivial in this case would have been greater. I heard Twight, Blitz, and House were really dragging ass on "The Gift..." Should've left House at the base, eh? Great thing about a group of 3 is that if one is being a dick you have 2 people to gang up on him.

Not sure about who climbed it first, but it has been used as a (ski-less) descent route by parties climbing the north face.

Nice stuff dudes!

The freezing level for this weekend, including nights, was supposed to be above 13K'. I guess what you saw makes sense.

If you're nice to them maybe they'll give you the key to the lock on it

There were no porta pottys yesterday. A mountaineering club from BC was down there for a week and brought their own.