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Met a guy who had done just that. Since the hole in the Aztar's spike is large, the Quark griprest would flop around when bolted through it. He cut some aluminum to fill the empty space in the spike and drilled a hole for the quark grip rest bolt.

Sweet, it's got what plants crave!!

In my 3 trips last week 1/2 I saw the ice in the Source lake area just get thicker and thicker. I could only assume the NF is a go since it was good when we were in there. Now with the new snow... not so much.

Whoa, are those them newfangled Footfangs? Good work guys!

Hey Bob, thanks for the review. Interesting reading your comments on since some sound extremely familiar to me as a Nomic user. The top stein pull teeth on my Nomics have been filled down for the same reason - getting stuck when cleaning under bulgy ice. And since both tools have almost the same exact angles I also find that 2. Angle of ice, is exactly the same way with the Nomics - just stellar on steep swings, but hard to get a good stick on lower angled ice with the same swing. Enjoy the ice!

Congrats on getting that shoulder working and useful again!

Sloth... nice work and thanks for making me drool all of the keys, man!

Climbed more in '09 than in '08. Good enough!

Amazing climber. Just a shame. Interesting video putting more of a "face" to what happened.

Thanks, I'm going to try to find a trade but if that doesn't happen I'll get in touch. -Doug

Nice work dudes!

Super cool! This weekend I was just thinking about Big Four... thinking the same as you confirmed - the snow conditions would be perfect... where the snow started Looks like a great climb, way to get on it!

Trip: Chair Peak - North Face Date: 12/3/2009 Trip Report: Dirtbag Packworks and I headed up to the pass to take advantage of this awesome cold snap. The trail trough up to Source Lake was beaten and fast. The North face had many line options and we ended up starting out one left-facing corner left of the usual one which had thin unprotectable ice and was a lot of fun. From the top of that pitch I looked over to the "standard" first pitch on the right and looked like it had a lot more snow and ice. On P2 we trended right and rejoined the "standard" route. The climbing was fun and the conditions were great. The descent gully is a little bare in spots and has some downclimbing steps required. Spotted 4-5 rap stations. Didn't test them all but I'm sure they are all bomber, right? Anyways, get on it. E Face E Face, NE Butt, N Face First pitch Topping out Extremely clear day Gear Notes: 2 pickets would've been nice (we had 1), used one screw (2 would've been good if you do the standard first pitch which has thicker ice), thin and short knifeblades were the best pro I found. Found no nut placements down low. Approach Notes: Beaten path all the way up to Source lake. No snowshoes used - firm all the way to the base and out.

Hey Will, It was real good, especially the first pitch we did. I'll post a report in a bit.

Have two hammers on my tools(used), would like an adze. Are you tired of impaling yourself in the face with your adze when your tool pops? Let's trade.

Sure, here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=52713&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=15545

Its good, firm snow all the way in and out. Descent gully is a bit bony. From today: Full size: http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=52709&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=15545

I am booked already for the weekend so it would be nice to get out after while the weather is still good and cold. For a one dayer I'd like to get on Snoqualmie's north side. If you can pull off 2 then maybe we could get on something longer, eh? I'm also up to other ideas. I'll be unreachable this weekend so getting in touch before will be best.

No prob, Chad. The waist belt I removed (its removable) from one of my packs, a discontinued EMS Arete. It has sewn webbing slots for accepting ice clippers or biners so I just attached a biner to it.

Those are two sets of poles - so 4 pieces. I used what I had which was a pair of Rossi aluminum ski poles and a pair of CF Komperdell trekking poles. Do not use carbon fiber! The CF material was the weak link in my system and shattered many times while everything else held. The skinny end of the Komperdells fit conveniently into the fat end of the Rossi poles. The same could be done with another set of ski poles that taper in thickness. I drilled some holes through both and connected the poles with some bolts with wingnuts so I could easily take them apart or adjust the length (I drilled two sets of holes for different pole lengths) without tools in the field. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/ourbuddies/pulk/P1000872.jpg

I'll second montypiton's rigid preference. I played around with both and, borrowing some ideas from skipulk.com, made my own with some old ski poles - other than the carbon fiber sections shattering (only use aluminum), the pulk works great. It might be a preference thing but I tried to eliminate as much slop in the system that I could - feels more efficient and doesn't jerk me around as much.

Nice shaft! What is the material in the fingertips? I'm having the same dilemma - I just fixed my tips and other sections on my OR Extraverts (leather palm) and although my sewing job worked on those holes, the rest of the palm/fingers started to go on the last trip and now I numerous holes to fix, some very big. My glove is dying and that's just the circle of life.

When it was skied/boarded it was in spring (may and june) and it still involved hucks for ice cliffs and shrunds. If there is snow and the temps are cold I say just go for it.

The Matrix looks pretty sweet - nice!

It was a good climb and had tons of good hooks (thanks)! I originally lost the toss up for the lead but then got to give it a go when the winner let me have it (oh yeah!). I just remember doing a lot of shaking out while placing my last screw at the top of the column - screw in a little, shake out left hand, screw in some more, shake, screw in the rest, clip! It's all good Although sketchy was the part above that - a lot of loose snow hiding the mystery ice underneath. Lots of cookie cutting through the snow sticks!