spionin

i love me some ice climbing, but i also got sunburned climbing warm granite at banks this weekend.

thanks all! stoke doesn't happen by itself you know. gotta bring it! i'm almost certain of it. baker's crazy like that. doug was saying something about packs of wild mountain poodles that attack bears, too. be careful out there! well, we'll definitely be going out - only getting closer to ice season!

the shark was totally after troy. that's why he kicked ass sprinting up that overhang! i have no review on fusions yet. this was my first time using them on "ice". i took off the fusion pick and switched to the laser pick for this trip. next time i'll try them in tandem with the nomics. i found it a little easier to climb very steep ice with them than with aztars, how's that?

Trip: mt baker - seracs Date: 8/29/2010 Trip Report: a mini-ice climbing stoke for august! doug (cbcbd), troy (t_rutl), and i went out for a day of tool whacking at the seracs. noaa predicted "mostly sunny in town of glacier, 40% chance of rain at the western flanks of baker after 11:00, and fresh snow at the summit of baker". surprisingly, it was about right. seracs little glacier tarns in summary, we hiked out from the heliotrope ridge trailhead around 10:00, and took about 90 minutes to get up to the edge of the glacier. after some scrambling around, we were roping up an hour later. by the time we headed out at 17:00, we had led 4 routes, and lapped them and nearby lines a few times. approach i won the toss-up for the first lead troy doug leads the cove-shaped 2nd route. although the start was slightly overhanging, it was total hero snice: single-swing sticks at every go. then we came to an overhanging wall with a large tarn underneath. doug led a stout line on it and we all lapped it. warning: ice climbing is a treacherous sport with serious objective danger! to practice clearing overhanging bulges we explored a line that contained three egg-shaped coves, which we named "the hatchery". while belaying, somehow one of my tethered tools managed to escape, slid down the icy slope, and ended up at the bottom of the tarn! here's troy, ice fishing for it with his tool. amazingly, after about 6 throws, he got it! as forecasted, it started to rain and hail around noon, and by the end of the day we were quite soaked. following a brief whiteout, we saw a fresh dusting of snow on top of nearby peaks. great day ice cragging with some of my favorite partners. rainbow on the hike out Approach Notes: heliotrope ridge trail -> glacier vista branch

wow - looks like a very productive couple of weeks! good job!

wow! those are some fierce photos!

nicely done, guys! hope you're enjoying the local glaciers, seb!

nicely done! that's amazing that the route is still in shape!

coleman-deming on baker was great last weekend!

thanks all! it sent down rockfall that nearly pancaked doug at one point. scotty, it's not hard blue ice, but it certainly ain't snow either. don't want to be negative or anything, but while climbing it never crossed my mind to ski down the ridge here's what it looked like:

it looks trippy when you stop and look uphill - as if you turned around and went up!

way to go, josh! kudos for persevering and getting it done on this try!!

haha - great TR! sounds like a great recovery route: sustained snow for thousands of vertical feet, icy moats and flying rocks to watch out for, and of course - pro-free wettooling on rock that looks like compressed mud. rad.

really awesome report/photo-essay. that granite looks stellar. have fun getting your carbs on!

word. seriously, dave. nice work!

whoa! two-for-two! rock on!

woo-hoo! way to persevere with the plan. glad you scored a combination of a solid partner and good weather! the 2006/2010 photo comparisons are stellar, thanks!

awesome report, and great photos, and way to give props to other parties! glad your tent didn't end up taking a scenic tour down the mountain!

suh-weet! and happy tr anniv!

it was nice to run into you guys. we were totally wasted, otherwise it'd be great to hang and bs about climbing nicely done, and great pictures! hope you have an easier go at the summit soon. cheers!

unbelievable, dudes. wow. i've no other words for this.

thanks! i shoot with canon powershot sd780, which i really like. the battery life is very good, and it's very small (155 g). a few of these pictures are doug's, who uses panasonic lumix dmx-lx2 (it has the added benefit of wide-angle shots). i hear that Arm on vftt has a similar one

dave - i remember seeing one person with skis on back. that must have been you! right on. AA - good luck with finding people! i know what you mean, i've gotten a lot of "i'd be a competent follow, but wouldn't be able to step up if necessary" responses while looking for partners. hope you score it this season! re: pictures. thanks! i actually forgot to put my camera down in the equipment list! it's a 155g canon powershot sd780.

thanks for leaving the fixed piece on route, dude. should help the rest of us go faster and lighter next time

thanks all! it was definitely a full-value experience for my first trip up rainier. val - i'd never climbed glacier ice before, so didn't know what to expect. it plated a bit, but screw placements were bomber! GO, nastR - thanks for the props! as a post scriptum, here's a full list of gear that i carried (i'm particularly happy with how we packed for this). hope it's useful for somebody! http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/bdv7A