bellows

I care! I enjoy wasting time at work by reading trip reports by folks on this site, from gnarly Alaska first winter ascents to exotic Oman climbing to just another run-of-the mill trip up the Tooth. It gives me inspiration for new climbs, or good beta for old climbs. The catalog of trip reports on this site is amazing.

Hah, yes, we laughed once we hit Lake Serene that the ultimate link-up would be to continue up the NF of North Peak or one of the gnarly couloirs between the peaks.

Trip: Index - Bridal Veil Falls Date: 2/8/2014 Trip Report: Bridal Veil Falls is IN! Jay A and I headed out to Index Saturday morning, not sure what we’d find and prepared to continue driving over the pass to Leavenworth. But Bridal Veil Falls was fully formed and relatively fat thanks to the record(?) cold weather in western Washington this week. Buyer beware with the warming temps this week though, when the curtain comes down it apparently does so in spectacular fashion: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=857357 We started center/left on the falls up the first ice covered dihedral, climbing two long pitches to a huge tree on the left side. From there we moved the belay further up to a second series of falls which we climbed in a shorter two-tiered pitch. Continuing several hundred yards up the drainage (sans rope) we came a third larger section of ice with quite a bit of water in the center. We found a line up the left hand side, involving a little Cascade mixed climbing with a couple turf sticks. At the top of these falls we figured it’d be just as fast (and more enjoyable) to take off the rope and scramble up the frozen creek all the way to Lake Serene. We were able to stay on ice in the creek the whole way up, avoiding occasional holes to the water below and enjoying fun little bouldering problems on the way to the lake. Arrived at the lake ~3:00 to amazing wintery views of the north side of Index Peaks. Overall an amazing day! For future reference, here’s the 7 day temperature profile from the weather meter in Index, ~1000 feet lower than the base of the climb. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?wfo=&sid=TINDX&num=168&raw=0&dbn=m Looking up the the base of the climb: Jay starting out on the first pitch: Further up the first pitch: Second set of falls, lower tier: Third set of falls: Continuing up the creek to Lake Serene: Cheese: Nice views to top out to: Considering it is visible from Highway 2 we were surprised not to see anyone else on the route. Go get it while you can! Gear Notes: We brought and used a dozen screws of various lengths. Approach Notes: No snow at all on the trail to the base, although that likely changed last night.

Nice work! I was in the party of two below you on the North Face proper yesterday. I like your pics, we were curious what your line looked like. Notes of the NF (with apologies to OP for the thread drift) - the bergschrund is wide open, we pitched out a crusty snow traverse above it to get to the normal starting belay - the hard rain crust made the approach and hike out pretty cruiser with crampons - we brought 4 pickets and 6 shorter screws and used it all, two pickets were used for the belay on top of the first ice step and two more were nice to have for the runout pitch to the trees - it was my second time on the route (last time 2 years ago) and I thought there was much more ice this time around And sorry about your lost screw. With the hard snow conditions I'm guessing it slid quite far! On the traverse under your line it almost felt like if we slipped we'd end up all the way down at Snow Lake.

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Trip: Banks Lake - Devils Punch Bowl Date: 1/12/2014 Trip Report: Brian S and I chanced the warming temperatures and made the long drive from Seattle to Banks Lake Sunday 1/12. An early alarm clock had us at the Devils Punch Bowl pull out a little after 9AM. Temperature at the car said 38. One advantage to the warmer weather was the infamous deathcicles were pretty much completely gone. There was a nice pile of ice rubble far down by the lake showing the remnants of them. It must have been quite a show when they came down. Devils Punch Bowl was in good shape and we each took a turn leading it, once towards the left and once far on the right. Conditions were good, a little wet at the top but nothing to complain about. Easy walk off to the south. view from the car Brian leading up the left side We took a look at Trotsky’s Revenge which looked rotten at the top and threatened by lots of hangfire above it. Trotsky’s Folly was also quite wet, and the upper pillar was melted out at the exit. After Devils we drove further north to Electric Avenue and climbed a single pitch on Electric Ramble(?). It gets pretty overgrown towards the top so we rapped off a tree. It’s really short and brushy and probably not worth the 30 minute scramble up to it but not much else was in that we felt capable of leading. short & brushy For future reference, here’s a temperature graph showing the last week at the Blue Lake NOAA station. Ref: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/getobext.php?wfo=otx&sid=TBLUE&num=168&raw=0&dbn=m You can see it hadn’t gotten below freezing since early Friday AM. In retrospect this may have been a good thing since it eliminated the deathcicles at Devils. All in all a worthwhile day. We gambled with the forecast a little and were prepared for just a long day of driving but totally worth it in the end. Gear Notes: No worries about screw length at Devils, the ice is super thick. Approach Notes: Drive East! The access road to Electric Avenue was completely snow free. Apparently it isn't plowed so you have to walk in once the snow flies, but there wasn't a lick of snow anywhere. You potentially need a Discovery Pass for Electric Avenue as well.

I'm interested. PM'd you rother.

Trip: South Early Winters Spire - Southwest Couloir Date: 11/15/2012 Trip Report: Not enough November trip reports! I had an opportunity to sneak in a solo outing up SEWS yesterday afternoon after working the morning. Left the Blue Lake trailhead ~1:30PM and hiked up the summer trail in 6 to 8 inches of snow which got up to maybe a foot deep by the time I got to the bottom of the southwest couloir. The view from the first avy clearing on the summer trail. The giant chockstone almost turned me around but I managed to awkwardly get by it on the left side. I rapped over it on the way down. The white line in this photo was just powdery snow that disintegrated when I floundered up to it. Conditions were variable above the chockstone, with deep snow & avy debris down low and about 30 feet of alpine ice at the first constriction just above the split. This section was a lot of fun and I happily used both my tools on it. Waning daylight and falling spindrift added to the alpine feel. It was too short though. Topped out at 4:30 and made my way down pretty quickly. I would have liked to rap the short section of ice but a slabby traverse over to the rap station on skier's left seemed sketchier than careful downclimbing. Above the chockstone looking up the couloir. Pulled out my headlamp and hiked back to the car by 6:30. Gear Notes: Two tools and crampons & a rope for rappels Approach Notes: 12" of snow on talus is annoying

Good meeting you on the NBC Shaun! 6 hours car to car is flying on that thing, well done. Thanks for the photos. -Dana

A second tool was nice for the little ice showing through on the first pitch but probably wasn't worth the weight of carrying it up there. 1,000 words from this weekend:

Trip: Rainier - Kautz Glacier Date: 7/31/2011 Trip Report: Climbed the Kautz Glacier Saturday/Sunday. We bivied Saturday night on dry ground at 10800'. Woke up to high winds at 4AM and went back to bed. Got going a little later and tentatively moved ahead with an eye on the winds and visibility prepared to bail. Traversed with a short downclimb through the notch at 11200' to avoid Camp Hazard hazards. Minimal ice on the route, maybe 20' worth on the lower pitch which we simul-soloed. Still snow on the upper pitch. At the top of the second pitch we we roped up as the skies started to clear. Crevasses on the upper Nisqually were not trivial. Pretty intense winds at the crater rim. Carried over and enjoyed a quick stress free descent down the DC bootpack. Great weekend on Rainier! looking at the route from above camp on saturday easy work with a second tool large crevasses on the upper Nisqually gps log of route Gear Notes: Brought screws but didn't use. A second tool was nice but not necessary.

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