NateF

I have not had a problem, but I remember thinking that would be a bad place to fall and flagging it in my brain so I would remember not to take someone on that route who I thought might fall there, or who would be spooked that it could be a problem to fall there. I think the route is plenty safe as long as both climbers are confident making the friction moves off the anchor. Since the guidebook makes an effort to flag potential hazards, it would be consistent to note that hazard in an update of the guide. Plenty of hazards like that around, but a bit out of character for exit 38 - good reminder to keep the mental force field engaged especially with less experienced followers. Thanks for bringing it up sandals, sounds like there have been a few close calls, glad no one got hurt.

you probably realize this already but a fair number of the crags & routes mentioned don't have walk-up access to TR anchors if that distinction matters to you

You'll have fun on the south route. Practice with an ice axe if you don't have experience/confidence walking on fairly steep snow, it gets a little bit steep just below the false summit. Some are perfectly happy with ski poles, some like an ice axe at that spot, depends on conditions. You won't be alone up there, but you'll come across lots of nice happy people and you'll get to the top of a huge volcano if everything works out. Awesome. Have a great time. On the descent take care to go down the same drainage you climbed up as you get back to treeline. The radial drainages can be a bit disorienting and there's likely to be tracks all over the place.

Way to stick with it through the wind, you had to have been at least a little psyched to summit!

I don't wish to detract from the excellent video, or potential ensuing (and repeated) bolt war, but wish to make the following PSA: dear climbing brethren: just put the rope outside your leg whenever possible unless your pro is fall line and your legs straddle it for a clean fall. make light of it but you set yourself up unnecessarily to get flipped by the rope and smash noggin upon rock. too many people let their friends do this IMHO. it's a pet peeve to me how many people repeatedly run the senseless and avoidable risk of turning a short and safe fall into a trip to the hospital or worse. it drives me nuts how often I have to remind friends who have been climbing for a decade or more of this, but I won't stop nagging and they do occasionally thank me for caring about them.

Timberjack protects well and there's a bolt to get you through the wide part towards the top. I recall a burly move to top out above the bolt but I remember the bolt being good. Good fun. Yeah the anchor's funky up there, old sling disappearing up into the woods to back up the bolts or something. I've followed Gorilla a few times, and offer the following suggestions despite all the bolts (unless you're confident at the grade & with sustained burly laybacks): bring some gear to protect yourself before the 1st bolt, the clip can be awkward. Also a large cam (or two) can be walked up between bolts to provide more of a G rated experience.

Great vid!

that soundbite gave me a good chuckle. all the news that's fit to print!

jeebemus, those are some stories, the UTW tale sounds like what I was recalling from ANAM. I think Messner recounts his tale in his book Solo:Nanga Parbat, about his (2nd I think) solo attempt of the diamir face on nanga parbat. earthquake caused an avalanche which swept the lower portion of his ascent route below him (also his planned descent route). great book, really delves into his thoughts and doubts throughout.

holy cow. there was an account in Accidents in NA Mtr'g a while back from someone climbing during an earthquake, I think they were on the N face of Baring. maybe during the nisqually quake? anyone know who that was?

Chinook Pass. I have not climbed there, but I remember seeing a TR or two on this site and some route beta in an old rock 'n road book. My impression was that it seemed worth checking out if you're in the neighborhood.

Yeah dude! Great pic's, that third one of the clouds.. nice

It can be pretty easy to get disoriented and lost once back down on the lower mountain too. Not as immediately threatening as getting lost up high, but with lots of radial drainages that look really similar it's not a given that you'll find your car easily after you hit treeline. I'll join the refrain: Go with a good weather window for the most fun. Bring ice axe and crampons and know how to use them. You won't need them in all conditions, but it would be a shame to get most of the way up there only to get turned around or sketched out if the steeper slopes are firm. The slope up to the false summit gets gradually steeper and is steep enough at the top that an ax is pretty handy.

TAY thread on uphill traffic @Stevens

jlag, maybe you can get them to put you and your buddies on the clock for your ski cutting efforts. Again, good luck fighting the man (it really sounds like Bachelor has gone sideways since the procurement), this will most likely be a continuing trend and I hope the outcome at Bachelor works out well as it will probably impact us all in some way down the road. With the increasing amount of uphill traffic at ski areas, these issues are likely to continue cropping up.

I don't ski at Bachelor, but what I thought jlag was saying is that he and others are skiing areas where patrol would typically do control work, prior to patrol arriving on the mountain. If I'm mistaken and jlag is poaching some uncontrolled area my apologies. Otherwise, I think it would be very very easy for the resort's risk manager to imagine a scenario in which a skier is injured or has an equipment failure or loss which leaves them stranded someplace prior to control work. They can't consider jlag's experience, skills and abilities in this decision-making process. If he does it, there's no stopping some gaper from doing the same. They'd have to respond in some way to prevent this from happening. Yeah, it's an affront to personal freedoms and I don't like it any more than you, I'm just saying I can understand why it would happen. That sort of thing (if I understand what jlag is saying) is very highly likely to put access at risk, and not because patrollers are upset by seeing tracks before they get on the lift. It sounds like I'm not intimate enough with the situation there to comment effectively, so take my perspective with a grain of salt. Cheers, and best of luck fighting the restriction as I do not agree with it either.

There's your "the few" not thinking about the many. You really think that's a good idea? Over time, events which are possible but not likely tend to happen occasionally. Like a skier becoming immobilized for one reason or another, then later being buried or exploded by control work. The resort has to consider these possibilities and regulate to prevent them from ever happening. Your decision doesn't sound very savvy, how would you expect the resort to respond? And no, I am not for the closure to uphill traffic, but there should be a certain amount of sensitivity and diplomacy exercised by skiers who choose to "tour" in a ski area.

That's kind of scathing. I can appreciate Fred & feldspar's willingness to voice their displeasure with the DOT, and in support of the livelihood of their community, even though I would not benefit from more tax dollars being spent on that road. You have to admit that the state of the economy, coupled with a relatively early road closure would pack quite a double-whammy to the Methow. Last time I was there, Winthrop was a ghost town, barely anyone out for dinner on a winter weekend. I don't know for sure, but I would imagine a lot of folks are hurting over there. I can understand that those of us who don't live in such an amazing place may get a little bitter about people over there having any complaints though!

Enjoyed yer write-up, thanks!

Shinsain obviously found out the hard way that you don’t climb hood at this time of year. No reason to bag on the guy joe.... Sounds like he learned not to climb Hood at this time of year, but is somehow blaming the lack of recent trip reports (hmmm, is that a clue?) and the guide book for bad decision making. Not sure how many sentences would be required in the guide book to get the point across. I don't think he would have had to ask too many people (besides Matt the Director) before being steered towards another objective.

Huh, I was thinking about this yesterday. Any idea why hangers would be set near horizontal on a pair of recent belay anchor bolts? Are they sometimes oriented in the 4:00 - 5:00 o'clock position so they'll tend to tighten the nut if they're loaded? Seems like a bad idea, since they can't be expected to rotate to the proper orientation if they are loaded. And if they do rotate, and if the nut's tight, the bolt may rotate too. Yuck. I'm sure many of us have failed a fastener in torsion.

Thanks for the TR guys. That sounds like a fun area, for skiing and climbing. Glad the ledge collapse turned out A-OK. The crappy guidebook sounds like it adds to the adventure, despite chapping a few a**es. As for hordes, it looks like you escaped them and got some climbing in.

If the situation had been that you had no way to verbally communicate and hadn't agreed on any rope signals, i'd say you did the best you could under the circumstances, and it worked out. Given that you say you could verbally communicate with and without radios I don't really understand what the question is. Like Joseph said, if (assuming you were BB) you're wondering whether they're off belay, just ask them. Sometimes people forget to tell you. I'd guess that since you yelled "That's Me!", AA either figured you had taken them off belay already, or they didn't care whether you took them off belay or not because they didn't have any rope to pull. They must not have considered that you could save some time and energy by knowing they were off belay. Maybe you can tell us, did AA just forget to tell BB he was off belay or what?

note that snoboy's scenario is without any slack. falling with slack onto a daisy, sling, or other non-stretchy stuff will generate a high shock load and is not good for the anchor, the daisy chain or your body. rocketparrotlet, what are you using for a personal anchor? how long was your fall onto it? there are a few reasons OSHA approved safety harnesses have screamers attached, one is to protect the worker's body from the shock load.