Val Zephyr

Trip: Mt Stuart - Ice Cliff Glacier Date: 5/26/2014 Trip Report: Jesse and I snuck in a climb of the Ice Cliff Glacier route on Mt Stuart under the relative safety of cloud cover and before the Sunday mountain weather hit in full force. With encouraging reports of the Stuart Glacier Couloir Route being in great shape this year, Jesse and I decided to give it a go ourselves and maybe stick around the Enchantments for a couple more days. We had a leisurely start from Seattle and began hiking up the Mountaineers creek approach to the north side of Mt Stuart at 5:15pm. We probably should have given it an extra hour because it was time for headlamps about 20 minutes before we got to camp. I forgot what a pain that approach is. We found an excellent flat rock and threw our sleeping bags out on it, cooked dinner and slept under the stars for a few hours before it was time to start up to our route at 4am. We had started out with clear skies, but that was quickly changing. A bright red sunrise greeted us and we began wondering what climbing the 5.6 rock on the west ridge of Stuart would be like in a white out. We passed the Ice Cliff Glacier route, it looked to be in good shape but we had both done this route before. We hiked a little further, saw more intense clouds in the distance and made the choice to head back down to the toe of the Ice Cliff Glacier. At least we knew that we could finish the route if it started to snow, whereas I was less sure of my ability to climb the west ridge with a fresh coat of snow. The Ice Cliff glacier has considerable objective hazard from rocks, ice and huge cornices guarding the exits, and I have experienced the large amount of debris that can be released by this route first hand on my last trip up there in June of 2008 (a warm, sunny day). With the cloud cover however, the route looked much more inviting (and in the end we only saw one stray rock fall all day). We started up the lower icefall with a running belay and occasional ice screws or pickets for pro on the steeper sections. The icefall went smoothly with only a short 10’ section of real ice to climb. The angle eased and Jesse took the lead, post-holing in the softer lower-angled snow. We had one more difficulty to pass as the angle increased again: a bergschrund split nearly the entire width of the glacier. This ended up being the crux of the route. Jesse had already had his fill of punching through shallow snow bridges on this trip, so I got the lead again and took us over a thin snowbridge on the far right hand side. It pays to be lightweight sometimes. I got over the bridge and put in a two cam anchor on the rock above. Jesse followed (without incident this time) and continued on, traversing on steep slushy snow above the gaping hole. The unsure footing on this section was the most mentally challenging section of the route, but was otherwise not difficult. Given how many older sets of footprints went right over the middle of the opened ‘schrund on old collapsed snowbridges, I doubt that our route will remain much longer either. The snow became better as we ascended the rest on the couloir, ending in the firm, calf-burning variety. We hugged the right-hand side to stay clear of any potential late morning snow/ice/rockfall, placing rock pro and pickets when available. The top out was a fun 10’ section of solid vertical snow, we put in a couple of pickets below it and climbed over the top. I opted to throw a leg over and roll, Jesse went for a belly flop. The snow had hit about an hour before our 1pm top out and we were happy to not be on the SGC/WR route. Jesse’s knee had been bothering him from one of his earlier bergschrund punches, so we opted to skip the summit walk and begin a slow, wet descent without further delay. Back at our camp rock, we had had lots of food/fuel/gear and no plans to leave yet, so we waited out the rain until Monday morning. As we were packing up the following morning, we watched as the east side of the north ridge avalanched down over our previous day’s route. It only took a dusting of wet snow to destabilize those steep slopes. We both agreed that we had the ICG route on Stuart out of our systems for a while now, the SGC route is still on the list though! It was great to be back out on a multi-day trip again, I’d been so focused on long daytrips and comfortable beds, that I’d forgotten how great it is to sleep under the stars. I also forgot how heavy an overnight technical pack can be, especially when you aren’t sure exactly what your plans are. Why, why, oh why did I carry my rock shoes up the ICG?! I’ll never know. Ice Cliff Glacier Bergschrund is just below the rocks; up and left of Jesse Snow finally hits near the top Nearing the exit View south after topping out “summit” photo Descending the Sherpa glacier Camp rock! Gear Notes: We took way too much gear Two pickets a light rack and two screws would be sufficient Approach Notes: Mountaineers creek is nearly snow free

We rappelled from the west ridge notch. With a single 60m rope, it took 5 rappels off rock, 2 off of bollards, and some more down climbing. It was some solid type two fun. For what it's worth, I enjoyed the route, but probably more for its dramatic location on a ridge surrounded by glaciers than the actual climbing. Great TR! Beckey always needs to be interpreted with caution.

Thanks for the encouragement Dave. I'll keep training on the crags and keep my eye on this route. It sounds to be very much within reach. I loved the Acid Baby route next door. If The Valkyrie is better, then I really want to have a go at it!

Overall this is a very high quality route. 23 pitches and only two of them had some crappy sections, that is a great line! There were several pitches that we finished and immediately commented, "that was some fun climbing!" I'd say its definitely worth a trip. But, as I sit here saying that, I'll add to try to climb it on a weekday to avoid some of the potential rockfall from parties above.

Trip: Mt. Garfield - Infinite Bliss Date: 7/16/2013 Trip Report: Ian and I climbed Infinite Bliss Saturday. Infinite Bliss was put up on our very nearby Garfield Peak (just 40 miles from Seattle) during the summers of 2001 and 2002. Once finished, it was reported as the longest multipitch sport climb in the country. It is amazing to me that something like this exists so near Seattle and I’d heard of it, but I hadn’t even given it much of a thought, never read a TR, and didn’t really have it on my ticklist. But it was Wednesday pub night once again with the UWCC, I didn’t have a plan for the weekend. Robert spoke of tails of getting to pitch 18 on Infinite Bliss and it sounded pretty fun. I immediately buzzed-dialed Ian (who I heard also wanted on the route) and the trip was set. We left Seattle a little after 6am, and were ready to climb at just 8:30 (after a ~45min hike in). There were already 3 teams ahead of us and one at the base. The team at the base kindly let us start ahead of them. Speed is key on a route of this length. We simulclimbed pitches 1-9 in three blocks, making good time and passing two more teams in the process (Thanks!). At this point we began to be periodically showered with rockfall from the final team above. Unfortunately, the route funnels any rockfall from above onto the lower pitches. There were a couple of close calls here. We pitched out 10, 11 and 12 which included one of the 5.10 pitches. We strung together pitch 13 and 14 with a little more simulclimbing. It was only 12:37! Just over four hours and we’d banged out 14 of the 23 pitches. We were totally on schedule to finish this thing! My simulclimb block was next: pitches 15-17 looked like no big deal, just a single bolt 5.2 followed by two pitches of no bolt 5.0. I sped up the 5.2, no problem. I was surprised to have caught up to the party ahead at the anchor atop of pitch 15. The rockfall earlier began to make more sense as I spoke with them. They’d been up there for 1 hour and had made two attempts to find the next set of anchors with no success. The face is rotten and loose in many places and it was easy to knock debris down, especially if off-route. They gave me their best advice as to where not to go and I left with a seemingly good plan. I’d traverse 80’ just like in the topo, and turn straight up at the first bush, just like in the topo. I ran out the entire rope. No anchors. I searched all over the face, no anchors. I screamed and swore at the rock, yet still no anchors appeared. I downclimbed back to Ian at the belay, pulling one mediocre cam placement and picking up another that didn’t even pretend to be a psychological placement, and instead pulled and zipped down the rope. Yuck. Ian was ready for a turn though. He again ran out the entire rope in a slightly different direction. At some point he yelled, “Are you OK simuling?” Me: “Did you find the anchor?” Ian: “No.” Me:“I don’t want to simulclimb then!” Ian: “But I just need 20’ to get to some slings in a tree.” He hadn’t found the anchors, but he had found the tree rap station marked on the topo. At least that gave us some clue as to where we were. I unclipped and gave him the 20’ he needed. I climbed up toward him and then, when no gear remained between us, ventured higher onto the face in search of the anchors. Another grid pattern-like search and we finally spotted the anchors!! They were now below me and between Ian and I. About 80’ directly above the tree with the slings. Looking at the topo again now, this kind of all makes sense, but not really…. Ian climbed up to me and continued on to the top of pitch 17. Our good timing had come to a screeching halt, it was now 3:30. Everyone below us had decided to rappel. I took off to the top of pitch 18, trying to climb as speedily as possible. Ian took the 5.10c crux in good style. I followed, it was 4:30 now, we were tired. I got the short 5.7 and Ian took the long 5.10a chimney pitch. 5:30, passed our turnaround time of 5pm. We knew that we’d be rappelling some of the lower pitches in the dark if we continued. We decide to bang out the final two as quickly as possible. I got a very fun 5.8 and Ian got the final no-joke 5.9 (that thing was freakin’ hard after 23 pitches and ~10 hours of climbing). We summit!! It’s just before 6:30, we’d likely be rappelling the lower slabs in the dark. It was well-bolted there and the anchors are marked with orange flagging, so we are OK with this. But, just as we reach the top, the unthinkable happens: Ian’s belay device dives into the abyss. Probably a combination of being tired and me shifting to take a photo at just the wrong time, but it doesn’t matter. We are 23 pitches up, already running late and we only have one belay device. Crap. We briefly consider the Munter Hitch, but after a few rappels the double ropes would surely be a kinked-up mess. I remembered a cool trick that I’d learned in the Mountaineers Basic Course 14 years ago, the carabiner brake rappel. I’ve been so amazed at how these lessons have continually helped me out in the Mountains, even if it took years for the situation to arise. I fiddled with the largest biners that we had. I don’t have the old D-carabiners that we used to have in the Mounties course anymore, but I found some that worked. Yahoo, we had a way down! We got through the runout slabby pitches and were on about pitch 14 when it got dark. Everything slows down in the dark, especially since I had to construct my rig and triple check it every rappel to make sure that I didn’t screw anything up by being tired. There is no room for mistakes when on rappel. We made our way down slowly, but smoothly, reaching the base (and our hiking shoes!) at 1:30am. Wow, what an adventure. Before getting on this climb, I was curious how a mostly well-bolted sport-climb can earn a grade IV. I get it now, I think that one could get by on just multipitch sport techniques for this climb if everything went exactly as planned. But more likely, to complete this number of pitches in one day and to be ready for anything that may go wrong, you need to have your whole bag of alpine tricks with you. Photos! The view up from the base of the route: Lower slabs: Pitching out some fun climbing nearly halfway up the route: Happy climbers! My circuitous route up to the pitch 16 anchors: Fantastic climbing higher on the route: View over the other side from the top: There are 24 rappels on this route!! My carabiner brake rappel set-up. I backed it up with a klemheist above instead of an autoblock below the device in case my set-up itself failed. This made me pretty comfortable with the set-up. It got dark about ½ way down the route, but we were through the run-out slabs, so we knew that we could follow bolts to find the rest of the rappel stations. Gear Notes: Half-ropes Small set of nuts A couple small cams ~25 draws

It was nice meeting you guys! I think that I'll try your Paisano to Burgundy "awesome" pitch link-up next time. It sounds like a lot of fun.

Gene, nice meeting you up there. I think that the chimney might be unfinished business for Nate now. How was the Paisano-Burgundy link-up? That might be a good return trip idea.

Trip: Burgundy and Chianti - NF and Rebel Yell Date: 6/29/2013 Trip Report: Nate and I spent two nights up at Burgundy col, climbing both Burgundy Spire’s north face and the East face of Chianti Spire (aka Rebel Yell). This trip actually began at the end of last summer. I was feeling pretty good on steep rock and wanted to have the lead of the crux Rebel Yell pitch, this gave Nate the exposed blind-step-around 5.8 slab pitch. We’ve learned a few things since then; I’m not very comfortable leading offwidths and Nate hates slabs. In short, this trip didn’t go. So, a few months later we returned with a better strategy; I’ll lead stuff that I’m good at and Nate will take the pitches that he’s good at. Kind of a no-brainer eh? We left Seattle at 5:30am, were hiking by just after 9am and arrived at the col at 1pm. With lots of daylight, we went straight for the NF of Burgundy. We were quite surprised by the relatively poor rock quality lower on the route, we also didn’t have a great description of the route nor an appreciation for just how long it was (it was supposed to be our warm-up after all..). All in all, it just cost us more time than we had expected, but no big deal. The upper pitches after the westward traverse were quite nice and on good rock. There are many options here and we weren’t quite sure what was best. We ran into a couple fellow CC.com’ers on their way down from the route and they gave us a look at a perfect topo from the area that they’d copied out of the new Washington Pass climbing guide (we are both planning to purchase this guide now). Thanks! Armed with more solid information, we chose just about the silliest routes up the final piece of rock. We avoided the 5.8 corner to the right, labeled “awesome” on the topo. Instead, Nate having an odd attraction to wide cracks attempted the 5.10 chimney, finding seepage up higher forcing him to bail off a nut and a slung chockstone. I have an even stranger attraction to slab every once in a while and went for the 5.8 slab labeled “scary” on the topo. Yeah, we are both odd ducks; luckily both of these characteristics would come in handy for Rebel Yell the following day. After the 5.8 slab we finished with a nice handcrack to another offwidth. We slept in at the col the following morning. The weather wasn’t sure what it was going to do yet (there was a 30% chance of thunder storms) and we were tired from our previous day. Finally, we wandered over to the east face of Chianti Spire and after some shenanigans in order to get us on the route and our stuff safely on a rock near the final rappel , we were ready to climb. The snow was a lot higher than it had been late season last year, so the 1st pitch started way up right at the 5.8 crux, a little interesting in wet rock shoes. The rest of the pitch is mellow and fun. Nate, of course, got the 5.9 offwidth next. It’s a mix of delicate face climbing and real throw-your-hip-and-shoulder-in-the-crack offwidth climbing. I took the next two pitches; a 5.7 followed by an exciting, exposed 5.8 slab. We had to wait just before the 5.8 slab pitch as the weather once again needed to decide if we’d get rained out or be spared for another pitch. Heavy rains passed us by just to the northeast, but we only felt a few drops, onward! I pulled through the blind corner on the slab only to find a huge loose chockstone that had been slung! Nate took the next two pitches, which included the crux and endless #4 camalot cracks. We each took a turn climbing to the tiny summit of Chianti. What a cool little summit! It was such a treat to pull off two of these climbs in two days after being shut down last season. Lower down on the NF of Burgundy: Higher on Burgundy, Nate goes for the chimney: I go for the slab: Nate finishes to the top with an offwidth: Approaching Chianti: Drying out my rock shoes before tackling the first pitch: Top of the 2nd pitch: Nate makes the blind move around the corner: How Nate feels about slab: Nate starting out on the crux pitch: How Nate feels about offwidth: I tackle the 5.10a offwidth at the top of the crux pitch: The final climb to the top: Camp life at Burgundy col: Finding creative ways to conserve fuel: Goaty visits camp.... and then never leaves: Gear Notes: Doubles from 0.5- #4 camalot Double ropes to rappel from Chianti

Great pics! Fantastic-looking climb! Thanks for posting! I'm curious how this route compares to Acid Baby? I've been trying to break into leading at this level for a while now. I had the opportunity to follow Acid Baby last summer thanks to "pu", but would still hesitate to lead it with the two 5.10+ sections in there. Are the 5.10's on Valkyrie easier/harder? As sustained? More/less runout (Acid baby was fairly well protected, but I do recall a couple runout moves on slab)? It's great to hear that there is another route up there that is of equal or better quality. If it's a touch easier than it's neighbor, it might make a good end-of-summer goal for me.

Looks fantastic V! You really know how to get the most out of those quick trips.

Here’s a quick TR/conditions report: Kris, Dan, Svenja and I took advantage of the long weekend and made the drive out to Bozeman in search of ice. Hyalite Canyon is said to have some of the most concentrated ice in the country and sure enough we had more ice than the time to climb it (not a bad dilemma to have). A few tips for those interested in a Hyalite trip: We stayed at the Ramada. It’s inexpensive; the four of us split a huge room for $82 each (stayed three nights). We got a free continental breakfast (saved time in the morning). We got a ground floor room with an exterior door (there’s a ton of gear to dry out every day). There’s a hot tub and a 90’ water slide. It’s silly, but oh so fun after a day of ice. Take the “red-eye” drive out. We left Seattle at 1am Friday morning and were in Bozeman at noon (10hrs + 1 hour time change). We were in the Canyon to warm up on the ice our first afternoon there. With 4 people to split the drive, it wasn’t bad. We drove home Monday at 1pm (after a morning ice session) and with the time change in our favor now, we were back in Seattle at 10pm. Have a post-climbing beer at the Bozeman Brewery. No food, but great beer. Climbing (lots of moderates are in fat condition right now): Lower Green Sleeves: Hangover (photo by Kris): Final pitch of Hangover: Fat Chance: Thin Chance (photo by Dan): G1 area: Steep WI5 pillars on G1: This was my first trip to Hyalite and I definitely want to head back next year. It’s much easier to get to than I had originally thought. There is a much greater climb to drive time payoff than anything that I’ve done in WA. Cool place!

LEKI trekking pole found Sunday just climber's left of the ridge. PM me and I'm happy to return it.

Trip: Lillooet - -Marble Canyon Date: 1/6/2013 Trip Report: First of all, here’s the Lillooet conditions report: Marble Canyon: Icy BC P1 and P2 are in, P3 looks very difficult to protect Deeping Wall is in: There are two great lines here to lead or TR (only saw the right side led). There was discontinuous ice in the left corner of Icy BC that someone braver than us led. Rambles: It was reported back that the left side had good, fat ice, but was wet. I’m not sure about the Rest of Rambles photo by Veronika Photo by Veronika Carlsberg: In, but thin. WI6 condition Nightingale: appeared in Sychronicity: appeared in (river crossing reported to be difficult/not possible, traverse instead) photo by Veronika Shriek of the Sheep: Appeared to be nearly in, the final pitch might not by completely connected Honeyman Falls: lots of ice, but also lots of running water, perhaps good after another cold snap. The Plum: reported to not be in yet, difficult approach in current conditions photo by Veronika Red Wall Wanderer: Saw crux pillar from the road, could be good, likely also has difficult approach with dusting of snow on bare rock. That’s all I remember right now. Thanks Veronika for filling in some of the beta here! As for our trip, Rafael and I spent 2 days getting in some ice practice at Marble Canyon. We started out on Icy BC. Rafael got in his first lead of the season with P1. I followed. We rapped and he led P1 again. Both of us cut our ascent time in half on this second lap. We’re getting into the swing of things. We continued on to the second pitch. P2 was thin near the top and one of Rafael’s pick placements went through the hollow tube with running water. We took a look at P3, but decided that it looked too difficult to protect. We went back down to the base, and got a TR on Deeping Wall from a group of fellow CC.com’ers. Thanks! This was a tremendous help for my confidence on ice. I found that I could take plenty of “rests” on this steep WI5 route if I planned it right. There were quite a few places that I could get most (but not quite all) of my weight on my feet and take turns shaking out one arm, then the other. With this strategy I made it up with no falls! I still can’t quite imagine what it would take to place a screw while leading this route though! Day 2 was my day (as Rafael called it): We returned back to Marble Canyon and, with a few great pointers from Rafael, I got to lead P1 of Icy BC. That’s been a goal of mine since trip to Lillooet in 2009! Continued on to P2 of Icy BC (now getting quite wet and thin). Rafael took a stab at leading P3 (there was a top rope set there by another party, making for an easy bail out). He stopped after finding it difficult to look up with all of the running water from this section of waterfall. Temps had warmed up a lot since Saturday, we decided to call it an early day and start the long drive home. Hopefully it will cool off again in Lillooet. There’s a lot of ice there and it wouldn't take much for it to be in great shape again! Rafael Leads Icy BC: Deeping Wall: I get to lead P1 Icy BC: Ice formations:

Excellent TR and photos. Thanks! I'm looking forward to climbing at Seneca and more next time I'm on the east coast.

We did the WR yesterday. It was THAT bad, but there's not much summer left, so we made the best of it. Here's a photo of the north side. You can't even see all of the glacier below. That's a lot of smoke!

Alex- screaming barfies on High Exposure?! Ouch! Matt- High E was indeed the most action packed 5.6 I've ever seen! For the grade, this place is wild. I found that if I drop my expectations a little for what grade I think I'll be able to climb/lead, the Gunks is full of interesting, unusual, and fun climbs. I've never really thought of that area of the country as a good climbing destination, but I'm already looking forward to checking out more of what the East coast has to offer while my sister is stuck out there in grad school. I hear that Vermont has good ice... I'll have to look up this Verdon place too.

Trip: Shawangunks - High Exposure and others Date: 9/17/2012 Trip Report: Hayley and I kept the sister’s trip tradition going another year with a quick trip to the Shawangunks in New York. The goal of our sister’s trips has always been to find a new and unique challenge. This year we decided to learn the art of the horizontal crack and climb the mega-classic, High Exposure. We had been to the Gunks briefly before and I made sickeningly slow progress up a 5.5. The climbing there was intimidating at the least. This year we set aside a day to warm up to this style of climbing. We’d use our second day to hit up one of the most well known and exciting 5.6 routes out there, High Exposure. Sister’s trip 2012 challenge: the strange, horizontal cam My first difficulty was getting out of bed Thursday morning. I flew into Baltimore on a Tuesday night red-eye and we drove up to the Gunks Wednesday for free camping in the park (as long as you’re a paying technical rock climber, you can claim one of the 22 sites in the park). Thursday morning jet-lag hit hard. Hayley brewed some tasty coffee though and we were off! Our line-up included 7 pitches of 5.5-5.7 roofs with plenty of those strange horizontal placements. Once you learn to trust that there’s always going to be pro around the corner and usually a jug when you need it (though you sometimes have to look for a while), the climbing is very fun. We finished the day with 5.6, 5.9 and 5.7 vertical cracks! It was funny how inflated the ratings on vertical cracks were (compared to everything else). Hayley leads up P2 of Jackie Taking a break from the horizontal Heading back to camp after a day of climbing The next morning we hiked out to the base of High Exposure early to beat the heat, and the crowds. The route was everything we wanted. The first pitch is a fun 180’ 5.5 corner crack with an exposed traverse. The money pitch had a thoughtful move around a roof, followed by juggy steep climbing. The setting and exposure are pretty cool (though I have to say after alpine climbing in the cascades with over 1000’ of exposure sometimes, the exposure was a little lost on me). We finished the trip with another classic 5.6, Frog’s Head, with more exposure and more roofs. Hayley was getting used to the rock now and led the steep second pitch of Frog’s Head. I’m glad to see that grad school and city life haven’t softened her too much. She’s still got it! P1 of High Exposure Hanging out at the belay Team ahead of us taking in the exposure before pulling the crux move My turn to go for P2 Hayley tops out on High Exposure Next team climbing the second pitch of High Exposure Me at belay on Frog’s Head Topping out on Frog’s Head Hayley at the top of Frog’s Head We squished in a little bonus trip Saturday morning with a little climbing at a crag in Massachusetts (Rose Ledge). This was another example of the fact that wherever there is a rock, there will be climbers to send it. Hayley led another thoughtful 5.5 here and we TR’d two of the 5.10s. Fun little crag if you find yourself in Massachusetts. It was great to get in another sister’s trip. Let’s keep ‘em going!

I'll keep this stream in mind for my next trip up there too. Thanks! We carried up a jetboil, melted snow on the glacier, then walked~300' and found the running water I mentioned. Whoops

No water at Burgundy col (I was there three weeks ago). With crampons and an ax, you can access the glacier for water (the upper glacier at Burgundy col was solid dirty ice). There was plenty of running water directly below the east face of Chiante spire. Hope that helps!

Trip: Goode/ Logan - NEB/ Fremont glacier Trip Report: It seems like every year I throw myself at the mountains multiple times on several different routes hoping for just one or two truly memorable adventures where weather, objective, a good partner and general luck line up just right. This was that trip for me this year. Aaron Z and I climbed the NE buttress of Goode and a bonus Fremont Glacier route on Logan over a sunny four day weekend. I don’t think that this trip could have been any better. Aaron had been up Goode 5 years prior and thought that the route was well worth repeating (it definitely is). This time, his plan was to go faster, lighter, bring more food and stay better hydrated so that we might attempt the rarely climbed SER on Buckner afterwards. We left Seattle at 5am Friday and made a quick stop to buy tons of junk food (Aaron somehow survived 4 days on a diet primarily consisting of cake, gummy worms and candy bars). His calorie to weight ratio was far superior to mine (mostly bread and cheese for me). We secured our permits and hit the Bridge Creek/PCT at 9:30ish. Hiking the first ten miles in tennis shoes was a good move, the miles flew by on the slightly downward trail. We stashed our shoes and continued another 5 miles on the north fork trail until directly beneath the NEB. The ford was easy this time of year and we crossed the creek just in time to get the last few rays of sun before it disappeared behind Goode. From there we started on the left side of the slabs. Heading up talus, then slabs, then moving slightly right and up more. We passed the bivies at 5200’ and made camp at the bivy at 5400’. We had just enough time to make dinner at sunset, watch some frighteningly large blocks fall off the icefall to climbers left of our route and pass out. Scrambling to the bivy sites: Alpine flowers on the way to the bivy: Full moon rises: We got going at around 8am and moved quickly under the icefall (thankfully, not the same area we watched crumble the night before, we stayed far to climber’s right of it). Soon we were a WI2 ramp with some fun easy ice climbing. We simuled this using one screw. The ridge is was easy to gain on the right-hand side. After gaining the ridge we climbed to the top in 6 long simul-pitches. We stayed just to the left of the crest for the first 2, then stayed on the crest after reaching a large ledge with a rock. This is where the ridge gets really spectacular. The climbing is fun, solid and the position above the glacier is incredible. Soon I forgot that I had an overnight pack and boots on and was just enjoying moving over soooo much rock! We topped out just after 3pm, enjoyed the view from the top, and began looking at the condition of our next potential objective, Buckner. The SE ridge is another long, grade IV ridge route involving several gendarmes and up to 5.8 climbing. It would be a long day. To complicate things more the descent route is to rappel to the glacier on the north side and descend it to the base of the route. The north glacier had a bergschrund that spanned the entire glacier. We considered trying to get back over the Booker-Buckner col, but we couldn’t see the entire col (we’d see later that it actually had a schrund of it’s own) and that would make for a very long day. We put off the decision for now and began our descent off of Goode. Two raps brought us close to the notch. A quick pitch brought us up to the notch were we scrambled down 50’ and found the first rap, then another rap and we were downclimbing the nasty gully. But apparently not the nastiest gully in all of the Cascades, because between the two of us, we could think of several more places that we’d rather not be. Once free of the loose rock we followed random climber’s paths, cairns and animal trails until giving up and making a straight line to the valley bottom and the Park Creek trail. Somewhere in the woods in started to get dark, we crashed through the trees faster. By the end, I could barely see and was just following the brush crashing noise ahead of me (presumably Aaron, but could have been a bear for all I knew). Finally I hear, “I have the trail”. Hooray!! We finally put on headlamps and started toward 5 mile camp. Conveniently we came out of the trees just 5 min shy of camp. What a great short-cut (joking)! Logan at sunrise: The active part of the glacier is at the left side of this photo, we climbed right of the photo to where it is easy to access the glacier: Easy ice brought us to the right side of the ridge (no moat issues here): Ridge climbing! Summit! Rappelling toward the notch. It’s a long way down to the valley that we’d come up the day before: Sunny Park Creek side of Goode: We were really tired by now, we discussed options for the next day: Hike out, leisurely hike out in two days, go for Buckner or climb Logan (which Aaron was pretty sure he’d heard enough about the route to figure out the way). I responded that I my goal for the trip was to leave a happy, content pile of mush. He promised that he could guarantee at least one of the three if we went for Logan. We’d both been dabbling with the Bulger list too and didn’t have Logan crossed off yet, so Logan it was! We got another leisurely start at around 8am after some much needed sleep. The route up Logan involved ascending the trail to Park Creek pass which was one of the most scenic stretches of trial that either of us had seen and was a real treat after brush bashing the night before. After the pass, you descend about 200’ then ascend straight up to some meadows and make a long traverse to climbers left until near the base of an obvious tower (of course we were just guessing a lot of this as we were going off Aaron’s memory of route descriptions and TRs and we didn’t have a map for Logan). It worked though! From near the tower it was just up a little through snow and rock to the small Fremont glacier. Then some fun (exposed in places) 4th class scrambling with plenty of helpful cairns marking the way to the summit. Logan was one of the most scenic summits I’ve been on. The whole Eldorado Ice cap is laid out in front of you. We were back to camp in just under 12 hours. We must have accumulated quite a ripe smell by then because that night we were harassed by a herd of deer that must have thought we were a giant salt lick. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. We continually chased off deer that were within 3 feet of our sleeping bags! Scrambling Logan: View from summit of Logan: Beautiful Park Creek Pass trail: Our final day, I woke up a near pile of mush. The mileage and elevation gain was finally catching up to us. The long hike out should finish the job. Several hours later I hobbled out to hwy 20, a happy, content, thoroughly exhausted, pile of mush. Still a long way from the pass: Happy to be back after a fantastic trip! I haven’t been this exhausted all summer! Thanks for the trip Aaron! Gear Notes: single set of cams 0.3-2 + yellow link cam single set of nuts ~8 single alpine draws and 4 doubles 60 meter half rope doubled over

The Carne high route is much more scenic than the standard route. You found a pretty cool bivy spot there too. Nice!

Hey Eric, Thanks for the TR! I've been wondering what the conditions were like on Goode lately, I'll be heading up there tomorrow. Would you recommend bringing a screw or two for the WI2 to gain the ridge? Was there a good spot to gain the ridge without a bunch of moat issues? We'll be going up and over, so won't need to deal with the glacier descent at least. Thanks!

I'm happy to see that you're getting an early start in the mountains. You're lucky to have two strong, enthusiastic sherpas until you get on your feet!

Thanks for the replies, we sure did enjoy the route! dkatz covered the rappel beta well. I think the half ropes did save us some time though. I'm glad that you mentioned the glacier crossing (I should have put that in my approach notes). The snow was steep enough after the bivy mound that I wouldn't have wanted to do it without an ice ax and crampons.

Trip: Mt. Triumph - NE Ridge Date: 8/19/2012 Trip Report: Aaron and I attempted Triumph over the weekend August 4th-5th. It may have been a little ambitious considering Aaron was essentially attempting this route straight off the couch. We both knew that perhaps a little less ambitious objective might be more reasonable, but he agreed to give it a shot anyway. Thanks! With the hot temps and overnight packs, the approach did prove to be a little too ambitious. We made it to the col and had a comfortable bivy. Took a good look at the route and decided to save it for another day. Luckily the “another day” came very quickly. The following weekend, Ethan and I were on our way up to the col. Only this time, we passed the col, crossed the glacier and waited at the base for Sarah S and Co. to return to take the rack off their hands (after enjoying the lighter packs on the way up). Love the gear trade! We were going for the prize bivy, a large ledge 1 pitch up from the notch with an uninterrupted view of the southern pickets. We arrived at the ridge bivy at sunset and quickly got to work photographing in the fading light. We watched our friends traverse the glacier by headlamp as we ate dinner on the ridge, hoping that that would not be the case for us the next day. Ethan got me up the next morning, reminding me the need to be speedy so that we’d have plenty of light for the long hike out. We were moving at 7am. We simul-climbed everything up until the crux on a doubled over half rope (this worked perfectly!). Ethan carried a pack with water, snacks and emergency cloths and I carried a second half rope for the rappels. On the crux, I kept saving both of the #3 camalots for the wide part, but found that the pitch protected quite well with smaller gear 2 #2s, a #0.75 and a #0.5 were plenty. I found it pretty funny to get up there with both of the large cams unused. Ethan then took the lead for the final run to the summit. A couple short moves gained the great notch and some simul-climbing up class 3-4 heather gained the summit ridge. Here we unroped at the first rappel and scrambled the final bit to the summit (4 hours to the summit and 4.5 if you include the 1st pitch to the bivy site). The summit was beautiful. We celebrated briefly and readied for the long, tedious rappels. I was confused briefly by the first rappel. It was supposed to go straight toward the great notch (with double ropes), but instead was re-directed towards the ascent route. After looking around a bit, I convinced myself that this was the rappel that would bring us toward the notch (skipping the loose stuff that we encountered on the way up). It was, and I located the next rap station easily (this one took us right to the notch and probably saved some time). Many many more rappels later we were down to the ridge bivy. We gathered our stuff and made one final double rope rappel to the notch (4 hours rappelling in all). For the most part, our rappels went very smoothly, I can see how this would take a lot longer if anything went wrong (hooray for no rope stuckage!). We made a brief stop for some ice cold water and hit the trail (only breaking out headlamps for the final mile). Thanks for being an awesome partner Ethan! I’m still amazed how comfortably you can climb with all of that camera gear.