icmtns
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Posts posted by icmtns
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Sorry been out climbing in the cold (-30C this day). Mostly at night as I had forgotten just how short the days still are.
That's cold....-22F...
Thanks for your great blog. Lots of good info!
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Please take the time to send an email indicating your support to allow maintenance on the Bachelor Creek Trail. See text below or click on link to see blog and post comments.
This effort started from Dan Lauren's experience last fall passing through the trail, and an inquiry to the forest service into permission to cut out the alder and other brush from the trail. Turns out that cutting is not legal right now, we need this trail put back in the forest service system as a wilderness class 1 trail, then we can clear out the ungodly brush!
Thanks!
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Hikers and climbers who complete the North Cascades’ Ptarmigan Traverse return home with memories of alpine meadows, colossal glaciers, rugged peaks, and a treacherous slog through the Bachelor Creek trail, the southern approach route from Downey Creek and the Suiattle River Road. If you have ever traveled the Ptarmigan Traverse, or if the route is on your bucket list, your support is needed to add the abandoned Bachelor Creek trail to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest Trail System so that the trail can receive well-overdue maintenance.
The Bachelor Creek trail was originally constructed in the 1930’s for response to a wildfire. Although the primitive trail was dropped from Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest’s official inventory after 1990, Bachelor Creek remained an important route for those accessing the Ptarmigan Traverse as well as anglers hiking to alpine lakes in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Slide alder and downed trees mangle the route, but until the trail is officially added back to the National Forest’s trail inventory, the Bachelor Creek trail cannot legally receive attention by eager volunteer trail crews.
The Mountaineers encourages hikers and climbers to submit comments in support of designating the Bachelor Creek trail as a Class 1 Wilderness Trail. Comments in support of the trail will be considered until January 30th, 2011, during the public comment period for the Suiattle Access and Travel Management Plan. Comments may be directed to Peter Forbes, Darington District Ranger of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, at pforbes@fs.fed.us. Use the template below or write your own original letter. With your help, we can reclaim the Bachelor Creek trail and make the entire Ptarmigan Traverse something to look forward to!
Peter Forbes
Darington District Ranger
Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest
1405 Emens Street
Darrington, WA 98241-9502
Dear Peter,
I am writing in response to the Suiattle Access and Travel Management Plan. Please consider adding the Bachelor Creek Trail to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest Trail System as a Class 1 Wilderness trail. The Bachelor Creek Trail is a critical link from the Downey Creek Trail and the Suiattle River Road to the Ptarmigan Traverse, a nationally-recognized crown jewel of the North Cascades.
The Bachelor Creek Trail is notoriously overgrown but still remains a vital access route to the Glacier Peak Wilderness and the Ptarmigan Traverse. Please add the Bachelor Creek Trail back into the National Forest Trail System with a Class 1 Wilderness Designation so that the trail can be legally cleared of downed logs and overgrown brush.
Thank you,
[Name]
[Address]
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Great to meet you guys and thanks for letting me join in!
Anytime Wayne! Lots of fun climbing with you!
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Trip: Bozeman Ice Festival + a few days -
Date: 12/16/2010
Trip Report:
Geoff and I went to the Bozeman Ice fest to enjoy the social nature of climbing.
After watching Emily Stifler's, "Women at Work" a film on her recent women’s trip to the legendary Cirque of the Unclimbables in the Northwest Territories on Thursday we hit the ice!
Day one (Friday) 12/10/10):
I volunteered to help Majka Burhardt and Lilla Molnar (A.C.M.G, I.F.M.G.A) at the Women’s ice clinic: Vertical Runway.
Audrey Gariepy and Caroline George lead other women’s clinics. Hyalite Canyon on Friday was full of women ice climbers, about 60 or more!
Majka showing how to move on ice...I'm now the proud owner of a pair of Darts (Thanks Geoff!):
Geoff ran into Dane in the afternoon and went into the canyon to find some ice.
Dane leading The Thrill is Gone.
We went to see the slide show "La Vie de Guy Lacelle” in the evening.
Day two (Saturday):
Noname wall was calling us today! We climbed Elevator shaft, Fat one, and Jeff’s right. Geoff lead the spooky Elevator, the mid/upper conditions were interesting. Then we set a top rope for some of our friends that we ran into in the parking lot and along the way.
Here I am hauling a rope up for our friends on Elevator Shaft (Photo credit: F. T.)
Day three (Sunday):
Thought about heading over to the Matrix, but found a team heading up there, so wandered over to Mummy II. We met up with some friends that were taking a clinic on Mummy II. Geoff decided to warm up(!!!???) on the scepter and I lead one of the left lines of Mummy II. My first lead of the season was kind, with nice plastic ice. I was also reminded why I wear a solid helmet like the ECRIN ROC....
Geoff leading Scepter
Cody joined us for some laps on the left lines of Mummy II
After all the climbing we heading to the Rap party and feasted on all we could eat Spaghetti and beer.
Day four (Monday):
Deciding a trek was in order, we went to see what was happening at Cleo’s needle and twin falls. The weather was getting warm and cleo’s second pitch looked really soggy, so opted for Twin Falls. Wayne, Geoff and I spent the day climbing together on the left and right falls.
Other then a late arriving guided group we had the falls to ourselves.
Wayne and I on the left twin falls:
Day five (Tuesday):
We decided a rest day was in order....Blame our friends, they spoiled us with their warm hotel room...
Day six (Wednesday):
Went up to the dribbles and ran into a guided group, so went and climbed silken falls then came back to the dribbles. Silken Falls was in fat WI3 conditions. After a warm up early in the week, it got really cold...Conditions were brittle on dribbles, with a lot of fracturing surface ice.
Leading first pitch of Dribbles
Thanks JoJo for making the Bozeman Ice Fest happen and providing an opportunity for ice climbers to get together in one canyon! 
Gear Notes:
Standard ice climbing gear
Approach Notes:
Lots of approaches for lots of good ice
(Photo credit D. S)
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Anyone been to lillooet within the last few days and have conditions?
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Fun climbing with you Wayne.
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Cool Doug and congrats on your knot tie!
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This is the way to do it
Or one can hike around too, not as creative, but an option....
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There are plenty of routes than are only any good in early season, before the snow falls...
Which would you recommend?
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Thanks Dane for the good reminder...Trying to get lots of hours in the gym and drytooling. Bozeman looks pretty awesome right now!
Last year, the ice ended up coming in pretty fat in mid Dec (and then disappeared later) Chair was thin in Dec, but got rolling in jan maybe?
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I forgot my emergency lamp so many times after leaving one pack at the base of the route that I decided to always leave it in my pants pocket.
Getting off a climb just once using a BIC lighter to look for anchors will make a guy a little paranoid
One time we forgot headlamps in pack at base....it got very dark, we attempted to take pictures using the flash to detect the drop offs then got "smarter" and droped rocks to find the cliffs. It was an adventure....
Someone suggested taping a headlamp to helmet, especially in winter. I need to do this.....
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This thread is so awesome.
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What about boots for tech climbing in Alaska? What kind of boots do you wear and what kind of fit?
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Thanks so much for posting!!!!!
I also like Mark's comment “Another skill is his willingness to wait for the right weather, conditions, and psyche. He does nothing out of impulse. This trait is as important as any piece of gear.” That’s a great point and something I like to remember.
I haven't had any trouble with my down FF jacket or sleeping bag around the cascades. They use a solid fabric. But I haven't taken them to Alaska yet.
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:tup: Super cool! :tup:
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Trip: Tatoosh: Pinnacle Peak - North and East Ridge
Date: 2/28/2010
Trip Report:
Shannon Pahl, Geoff G and I went to the Tatoosh range to climb Pinnacle Peak via the north ridge. This turned out to be wonderful adventure with lots of interesting challenges, a full moon, fantastic views and the break in the few month of summit attempts for Shannon.
(Pinnacle Peak: East ridge to the left, North to the right. Photo JT)Approach
The approach on Saturday was in clouds and we broke trail in deep snow to our 5400 ft camp. We easily found the location in the thick cloud cover using Shannon’s GPS. Hoping that the weather forecast was accurate for Sunday, we set our alarm for 6am so that we could catch the sunrise. I watched my barometer and optimism drop as it continued to snow. Shannon said the GPS wasn't going to get us to the base, because his prior trip didn't go to Pinnacle, we'd need clear skies.
A bit of hope appeared with the light of the full moon breaking through the cloud layer around 9pm. Sometime during the night I woke up to clear full moon view of Rainier, the Castle and Pinnacle, spectacular, thank goodness for drinking that quart of water before bed. Then I awoke again to the mountain and everything else enveloped in clouds. Not very optimistic for the morning views, I fell asleep. 6am came, with the beginnings of a very spectacular sunrise. Lucky!
(Sunrise at our camp. Photo SP)North Ridge
Our approach to the north ridge was in knee deep snow with snowshoes. Stepping out of the snowshoes landed us in at least waist deep conditions. We managed to wallow up the initial entrance coulior, as quickly as we could, keeping our eyes on the menacing cornice overhanging above us.
(Heading up the Coulior. Photo GG)
(Photo GG)The last 5 feet we roped up due to sketchy conditions on thin unconsolidated snow.
(Photo SP)The next section required a very exposed, marginally protectable climb up a chute with a ugly top out. In the right conditions, a fun climb. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the snow conditions, and an attempt would be exceeding our luck, so we determined that we should bail the route. But we were all happy with getting to break out our ice tools.
(NR Photo JT)We down climbed the route via a ledge and then a reverse trip of the entrance gully.
East Ridge
Our optimism for unlocking the peak not waning, we decided to checkout the east ridge. The snow conditions on the east ridge seemed consolidated so we took a risk and left our snowshoes at the base of the rock.
At around 1:30 we were soloing the first bit of rock.
(Photo JT)We roped up at the triple trunk tree, someone’s initials “PW” etched into one of the trunks. We watched part of our sun baked descent route avalanche in a wet slide, it snaked its way down the south face and through the trees far below. This will be a challenge, but the avalanche was shallow and we figured we could arrest ourselves at the crown if the slope began to slide.
The rock on this peak is fragile, I discovered what Fred meant by the Matterhorn of the cascades. Although, the east ridge rock seems less sketchy than the north. Geoff led this spicy pitch.
(Spicy pitch Photo GG)
(Photo SP)After assessing the next 30 feet of rock, we determined that it looked sketchy, “shit snow on shit rock”, so Geoff enthusiastically led the rock. I couldn’t see any protection spots, but it ended up taking pitons well. Shannon and I discussed the next level in leading ability the “Choss leader head”.
(Spicy 2 Photo JT) We used ice tools to gain solid holds on this section, and the pitch turned out better than expected. Since we were climbing up the route as three on a 60 meter rope, Geoff used a dead man picket in the snow to belay us up. With a standard rope length, there are trees about 50ft from the top out that would make a good belay.
From below we observed the heavily corniced ridge, so we were mindful of our travel on the snow along the summit ridge.
(Photo SP)
(Hard earned summit! Photo JT)The descent follows the south face route. An easy down climb and short rap off an elastic dead tree.
(Photo GG)We arrived back at the parking lot at 6:30pm, in plenty of time to beat the gate. Shannon went to camp at paradise for his trip up to Muir on Monday, we drove back to Seattle.
On our way out of Narada falls, we saw a sign: Seattle: an arrow pointing to the left, Paradise: an arrow pointing to the right.
More pictures located:
http://picasaweb.google.com/shannonpahl/PinnaclePeak
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153927&id=621514058&l=af34e7c830
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053941&id=1099406911&l=156fd12519
Gear Notes:
Pitons
Picket x1
A sparse amount of cams/hex/nut
Ice tools
60meter rope
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Was a fun climb on a great day, cool to have company on the route during the alpine winter!
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Poor ice conditions, rain, bad skiing. Thank jesus for whiskey.
Haha
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It doesn't take that long to walk around.
I've been looking at climbing Drury, and am not to keen on the river...I'm not a rafter...
Do you have info on the hike around. We've looked at it from 2 and it seems to cliff out.
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Great Pictures!
[TR] Tatoosh - Lover's Lane with alt end, NR of Pinnacle, Castle 1/27/2011
in Mount Rainier NP
Posted
Trip: Tatoosh - Lover's Lane with alt end, NR of Pinnacle, Castle
Date: 1/27/2011
Trip Report:
Needing a warm-up after a slow January, Geoff and I did a peak bagging trifecta and climbed Lane, Pinnacle and The Castle on Jan 26/27. We watched beautiful clouds on Rainier during our climbs:
Lane Peak: Lover's with alternate ending.
We thought our route more aesthetic and direct then the Zipper finish. After the rap into the zipper, about 50 meters up the zipper, there is a weakness in the cliff on the right. It's at an obvious Y in the zipper. We took this route. The route crosses a 30ft cliff then cuts around a corner and up a 60 degree neve section. After which the route travels to a tree to sling. At this point the route goes directly up, intersecting the summit ridge.
Snow in Lover's was well consolidated after the initial step.
Our Route:
Somewhere in Lover's before the chockstone
The summit ridge: (we came up on the left)
The next morning we headed over to Pinnacle and climbed the North Ridge. Last year the route shut us down because of very deep wallowing in snow.
It's a great route with exposure, A spicy mixed climbing pitch and snow gullies. It took us about 2 hours to complete the route. Fred Beckey calls this route "Somewhat Treacherous and Steep".
After the snow gullies and first snow ridge, the ridge was about 5.6 and protected with pins and a cam, Geoff had to clear off crust on sugar snow to find foot holds and pro, but fun climbing, about 60 meters. One more full pitch after that with a few loose 5.6 moves.
Geoff led the mixed pitches.
Our Route on NR of Pinnacle:
Second snow gully-the conditions in both gullies and first ridge were easy climbing
Spicy mixed pitch
NR of Pinnacle is a fantastic ridge route, with easy access.
Then we headed over to the Castle and climbed it via the SW instead of the snow slog up the SE. It was a fun variation with steep snow slope and rock climbing. However, chossy rock prevails.
Trifecta! The summit of the Castle
After our day, we took a nap in our tent then packed up and headed back to home in plenty of time for Happy Hour
Gear Notes:
Pickets, Pins, small rack
Approach Notes:
Nice and Easy. Great snow for glissading