davidk

the snow you will encounter on the Stuart Glacier and crossing below the west ridge face on your way to the north side of the peak can get very hard after a cold night. If you plan to cross it in the early morning, take crampons and ice axe. If you plan to cross in the afternoon, you probably could get away with not having either. While you don't need permits to climb Stuart or camp at the base, you do need a Northwest Forest Pass to park at the trailheads. $5 for a one day I believe, available from most local gear shops and often at the trailhead too.

love the Iron Bored sculpture installations!

Doesn't sound like Morton's Neuroma to me. I would guess it's related to plantar fasciitis, only yours is affecting the front of the tendons instead of where they attach at the heel (most common). Were the shoes you wore significantly different as far as arch support compared to your running shoes?

I would stay with what you've got, so long as the FF Volant fits well over the Arcteryx shell. Since puffy layers are usually only worn at rests/belays or around camp, it's easiest to just throw it on over everything. It's also warmer that way: no loft compression, and the major contributor is no loss of warmth due to taking off your shell prior to putting on more insulation. I used to buy shells to fit over puffies, but then they are too loose for activity. Now I buy shells to fit perfectly over a midlayer, and I buy my puffy jacket to fit over the shell easily.

That's the fact, Jack!!!1 :lmao:one of my all-time favorites, thanks for the reminder sobo!

Always. Same goes when I'm on my bike. A note on that though: bike helmets are for biking, climbing helmets are for climbing. I see a lot of people biking in their climbing helmets, and most climbing models will do little to protect your head in a bike crash. You wouldn't wear your uber light, full-of-vents road bike helmet to protect you from falling rocks and ice, would you? Just like you shouldn't wear your climbing helmet (which is designed with primarily top impacts in mind) to protect you from the side, front, and rear blows common in bike accidents. Sure, it's better than nothing, but our heads are irreplaceable, so it's in your best interest to protect appropriately. I've had my life save by my bike helmet in a serious downhill mountain biking wreck. Good helmets work very well.

You can hike in to the South Pickets via Goodell Creek, explore the ridgeline south of the MacMillan Spires, and even have a go at West MacMillan Spire. If you want to venture into the North Pickets, I suggest you ensure that your boss is comfortable with North Cascades bushwhacking and potential epics, or you may be fired afterwards

Cool, thanks for sharing. I was on ice during the past summer (Nov.-Dec. 22), but the closest I got to the pole was calling on the HF radio during snow school, and I roomed with a couple polies when I arrived at McMurdo. Spent six weeks in the Dry Valleys for geology research. I have a google picasa album of a selection of my photos - it can definitely take up a couple hours of your time: http://picasaweb.google.com/davidfkiehl Good luck with the rest of your winter-over! -David

sounds like a great route - any pictures?

Sweet! That's a huge effort on your first day - quite impressive. Your last photo sums up the weekend up there: beautiful conditions and shit-eating grins everywhere. Glad to see everyone had good trips.

Trip: Eldorado - NW Couloir Date: 5/25/2009 Trip Report: Despite repeated proclamations by both Kevin and I over the past few months that "it's rock season now," we nonetheless found ourselves jonesing for some steep snow/ice. Conditions looked good leading up to Memorial Day weekend, so we decided to have a go at the NW Couloir route on Eldorado. The other TRs on here of previous climbs of the route were all in October or November, so we were a bit skeptical as to the relative amounts of snow and ice we would encounter. The Eldorado plateau was a zoo over the weekend, but there was plenty of space for everyone to play. Kevin, Peter, and I hiked in on Sunday afternoon to a bivy at the base of the east ridge. Shoutout to the cute climbing ranger, Erin, who we met on the way up. We got up at the crack of dawn and set off across the Inspiration Glacier. We followed the approach detailed in AlpineDave's TR: rap/downclimb the obvious gully at the base of Eldorado's north ridge (between Eldorado and Dean's Spire). A single 30m rap from a fixed pin at the top of the gully got us to snow that we could downclimb. (In late fall parties make 2-3 raps) Traversing the Inspiration in the morning Coming up to the gully to cross to Eldorado's west side Kevin rapping as Peter downclimbs. Note the second rap station with blue webbing at right-center (a little hard to see). After traversing back towards Eldorado's west face for about 200 yards, we got a glimpse up the route. Boy did we score! The route had two sizable steps of water ice (grade 2/3) separated by a bomber alpine ice luge track. The top 200-300 feet consisted of steep, soft snow. The walls of the couloir were guarded by steep and deep snow, making it hard to access the rock for pro. Plus, most cracks were iced up, so we only bothered with rock placements for belays. Kevin leading up the first water ice step In the luge track: firm snow and alpine ice made for quick movement Kevin leads up the second water ice step while Peter intercepts falling ice and I belay Looking down the couloir After the second ice step we simul-soloed the steep snow to the top of the couloir. Peter topping out: A quick trip up the knife-edge staircase of the east ridge got us to the summit, just under six hours after leaving camp. So our suspicions that this would make a good spring route proved true, and we were rewarded with excellent conditions and super fun climbing. Props to Peter - this was his first time ever on ice, and he did well. Gear Notes: 60m rope 2 screws (10 cm and 16cm) - could have used 1-2 more cams BD #1&2; yellow and orange TCUs; red Mastercam; set of nuts - used most cams, no nuts 1 picket - came in handy for one belay Approach Notes: Snow from about 4500+ feet up. Skis are highly recommended - we didn't use any flotation, and put in enough postholes for a border fence.

I wait for the "belay on" call from the leader - otherwise I don't know if I'm safe if I tear down my anchor. However, if I'm belaying from a really spacious ledge, I might break down the anchor as soon as I hear "off belay," but only if I'm comfortable with being unanchored given the situation at hand. This is something to discuss with your leader, not just the peanut gallery here. Some people might have different sequences for when they yell off-belay in relation to when they build an anchor, and you and your partner should know this before the leader sets off.

I think this beats the time Kevino had to use his nut tool as a utensil. Resume shoveling!

bare steel cable will eventually abrade a sling. This is why we use biners to clip a sling to a nut, hex, or any cabled pro. This is also why cams have plastic tubing covering the cable clip-in loop.

Wow, that's very impressive. I like the super-gutsy move at 1:58, when she slides headfirst down the pole and catches herself in complete control about foot from the floor. Probably - I can't even come close to a front (or back!?!) lever

Sweet! Love that last panorama.

Nice TR, beautiful weekend to get out. and thanks to you for passing on the beta!

add Metolius Master Cams to your list. My small-cam rack consists of #2-4 Metolius TCU's and #1-4 Master Cams. I always grab the Masters first, and have been quite pleased with their performance. Like Aliens, but with a stiffer stem and better thumb loop, and a bit cheaper. TCUs have their place too, but I almost never place the #4 (red one) because it tends to walk and rotate a lot unless the crack really restricts its movement. And that's where TCUs shine: pockets and non-parallel cracks because the geometry of 3 cam lobes accommodates more surrounding curvature than 4 lobes. Aliens are great, and have a super solid feel when you place them. I would own a set, but I got a better deal on Metolius cams when I was piecing together my rack.

thanks for this outstanding contribution! Welcome to CC.com

I have found those routes to be dry after one nice day following a week of rain. Enjoy!

(From blog) descent was 20 raps, made by pulling rope directly through ice v-threads, plus downclimbing Impressive LNT! I didn't know that method worked, but 20 raps sure is a lot of proof.

Way cool guys! Me too

As for packs, my feeling is simplicity matters more than lightweight materials, ie. a pack with the bare minimum features (but still all that's necessary) and minimal seams, built with middle-of-the-road fabrics in terms of weight and durability, will still be an acceptably light pack.

I would say that the super light fabric/synthetic alpine boots have actually lived up to their hype. Everyone knows the immense benefit of significantly lighter footwear when it comes to covering lots of ground, and I have had good experience with durability with my Scarpa Charmoz pair. Two years of hard use, going into their third year and they still don't need a resole, the GTX still works, and the fabric is holding strong. And they've seen plenty of brush, water, mud, ice, granite, talus, and scree. If I notice the fabric fuzzing out after a trip, or a slash in the rand, etc. I just apply a bit of Seam Grip to prevent failure.

Prius has industry leading blind-spots that I was annoyed by after riding in one for a day