spionin

we have thoroughly enjoyed these for the past few years. alas, did the dress-up st helens ski this time. nice to see that people had a blast yet again!!

when i bought mine, i contacted this guy and he was very helpful: James Good Warranty and Returns Manager Petzl America Work 801.926.1500 x 7271 Toll Free 877.807.3805 x 7271 jgood@petzl.com www.petzl.com good luck.

yup-yup! but really, it's just a 15-lb training weight. no biggie see you around!

nice report, kellie! i like that the writing style seems to be following the snack-type style of the food you apparently consumed for the past month.

wow. did you even go to school? looks awesome, z, can't wait for your return (read: doug needs a skiing partner, i'm out of commission for the season)!

great report, and looks like you cruised the route despite all the little "setbacks"! well done!

nice job, jesse and danimal!

nice! looks like quality snow!

wow, i seem to have missed a lot. oh well, next time thanks for the beta, i added it to the TR.

thanks, guys! shapp- i remember looking for placements (for those supplemental TCUs), but couldn't find anything. maybe i missed the opportunity from being in the "slab climbing zone", just trying to desperately reach the next bolt

Trip: spring mountain - romantica and other side of the tracks Date: 5/16/2010 Trip Report: kind of a belated TR... the area definitely deserves more traffic for the long routes and great, varied rock! *********** Rafael_H and i climbed at spring mountain crag in darrington area. thanks to mattp for the packet of hand-drawn topos! we arrived on friday and scored a primo parking/camping spot next to a river. despite our fears there were no mice or anything else annoying. we saw a few bats at night. on saturday we climbed the awesome and highly rated other side of the tracks (5p: 5.10a, .9, .10b, .9, .9). rafael took the two crux pitches, and i mopped up the 9s. p1 - wavy. looks dirty from the bottom, but is totally fine on the ascent. p2 - our fave pitch on this route. cruiser, run-out. starts out on a slick, plated slab and goes out onto an exposed, bare arete. p3 - crux. slick, with sloped, tapered ribs and minimal feet. steep, reachy and pumpy. lots of funky chickenhead features. p4,5 - cruiser. we initially thought of simuling, i started skipping bolts, but then realized we'd have too much drag. the end is a white, moss-covered granite flake with a sweet undercling crack. there's a strip where the moss was removed to the right. it'll lead to the final anchor. sorry, no photo of this particular part. stoke! gear notes: it's possible to lead the route on draws only. however, here's additional gear beta: on sunday we climbed the 6-pitch romantica (5.9, .8+, .10b, .10a, .9, .9) p1 - slabby, but fairly straight-forward, very nice start. long - 155 ft. in the middle of the pitch was a short headwall that requires a cool mantling move. i was about 15 feet above my last piece of pro, so i put in a black alien into a thin, dirty crack. reached up to grab the mondo holds for a pullup and saw a bolt. so, technically, no gear was required. animal p2 - the rib on the right looks good, but isn't. i ripped off a chunk. stay on the face, climb the thin, balancy ribs. this pitch brings you up onto a large shelf. you have to move the belay up to the base of the next pitch. to the right is this beautiful white, overhanging wall p3 - follows a series of pumpy unlock-the-sequence moves up a face next to a waterfall i found a friend while belaying the rock is amazing. difficult and very steep. p4 - follows next to another waterfall. here's rafael leading in a shower stall. looking down p5,6 - starts cruiser, and then comes up to this steep, disconcerting dihedral made of charcoal-black stone with a series of sidepull ridges. this is where i lost my shit and had to back off the lead. thanks to rafael for finishing up. exposed Gear Notes: rafael used a yellow, a green, and a red c4 on p4 of romantica. we used a single 60m to climb, and had a 7mm, 60m rap line.

yessir

sweet! Rafael_H and i did romantica and other side of the tracks a while back. SO GOOD!

wow, it looks WARM for the weekend. we skied around that area last sunday, and it was a good 10 degrees colder than what's predicted for next sat/sun. just saying. the snow was properly cornified by late morning, so would probably make for difficult climbing. there was definitely a lot of debris that moved in the few days prior, and we saw evidence of previous slides. here's a pair of pics from tooth: the large slide looks like it came from a snow deposit that slid off the shelf. you can see the fracture in the remainder of the deposit. be safe. good luck.

thanks, burchey! indeed, the quality of the screws matters, b/c that's how you have to make the anchor on top of the glacier - no trees to rap off of the surface tends to be quite baked and ends up getting covered with graupel-y, rough ice chunks. here's a representative picture from mt baker in august: but the ice underneath is incredibly dense (sometimes you have dig deep to get to it). if you ever climb glaciers at higher altitudes you see very hard, bulletproof stuff. like this: b/c of how it forms, it doesn't tend to dinnerplate like some WI. so even on the solid stuff you'll get pretty localized fracturing.

i made a complete gear list after our trip up lib ridge on july of 2010. i don't run particularly warm, and was very happy with all the gear i brought. i opted for hardshell layers (both top and bottom) b/c of multiple days on the mountain. not only did they weigh less, but there was never any concern about having to dry stuff. hope this helps! https://viewer.zoho.com/docs/bdv7A

i had a great time with these boots on rainier (july 2010), and wore them with lightweight smartwool ski socks. the conditions were far from warm, and the boots were very comfortable and appropriate on this trip. my two partners were wearing LS Nepal Evo and a Vasque boot (can't tell if it was the Ice 9000 or the Super Alpinista) on the same trip. the key was to make sure the boots were clean and dry at the end of each day, and i kept them in my sleeping bag overnight. the one person in the group who did not do that ended up with frostbite.

wow, unusual destination! looks like difficult routes - awesome work!

yep, two weeks ago, about a repair. no response. update: re-sent original email, got response just a bit ago. thanks!

nepals and spantiks fit into fritschi bindings, too. just another option.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/19/10450796-3-dead-8-missing-in-wash-avalanche stevens area (near which the avy occurred) had the same avy forecast as snoq pass for today.

awesome climbs, great photos. you guys are harvesting that area!

thanks!

looks nice! did you happen to glance at denman on your approach (the peak on your left right before lane)? if so, how did the ice look?

climbed in source lake basin today: the telemetry from the past few days suggested pretty cold temps and very little precip. however, there was quite a bit of fresh snow on the ground. it snowed all day, and we could see accumulation at the end of the day. it was warmer in the morning and got colder as the day progressed. bring hardshell and synthetic insulation. we approached without flotation (not recommended. at least bring gaiters for postholing). huge props to rachel for going all-terrain on the snow and breaking trail through some very wallowy sections. it was REALLY overcast and disorienting this morning (and we knew exactly where to go). make sure you have your bearings. we first approached source lake line. p2 was too thin for my flavor, thin and chopped up at the bottom. looks like it's gotten quite a bit of traffic, so i'm sure there are some awesome climbers getting on it. i took a few pictures on rappel: we went right instead and went up the deceptively steep curtain. there were no pick holes, and it was fun and plenty challenging for a warm-up. we rapped from the top and did a high traverse to flow reversal. very mushy ice on p1. we did a long p1 to the startof the crux curtain, i was able to place 3 screws the entire pitch, most just fell out in the mush. the belay was a shower stall = i got soaked. the curtain was very mushy in places and sheared a lot. it also had some generous pick holes, which definitely made it easier. super fun moves, but the "ice" was very ...meh and scary in places. this is my ultra-contrasted photo that's supposed to show how water-logged it is: awesome day all-in-all!