tvClimber

Shoot! If you had posted earlier I would have looked for your shoes. Went up there over the 7/1-7/4 and tag a few other peaks and the area is in great shape. Lot's of snow, but lot's of dry campsites available on the Moraine and one at the Col. Approach is mostly snow free until about 5000ft. The bugs are coming out and are around the moraine. If you do Colonial, don't go up the steep snow like we did, save yourself some time an look for the snow ramp at the col which should get you to easy terrain that you can reach the upper snowfield. It was Really, Really Beautiful up there right now.

Thanks Ivan

Quick update on conditions for folks planning this weekend. There is about 2 mile hike to the Boston basin trail head due to large snow pile at the very last turn at cascade pass trail head. Wish NPS would just put a temp gate up but just be prepared to hike more. Lots of snow everywhere! Easy travel up the Quien Sabe, across the Boston Glacier, Horse Basin and almost snow completely all the way from Sahale Camp to Cascade trail head. We were able to still go down the valley and not take the endless switch backs. We traverse on some firm snow to get below water falls, but with warmer conditions this weekend that might not be an issue at all. Sharkfin Col beta - the actually Col looked like an easy scramble without the 5.7 climb moves which are still covered in snow but likely will need to do a double 60 meter rap to reach the other side. We went over the alternative col which is full of snow on the Quien Sabe side. The Boston Glacier side is moating out, but we were able to rap onto the top part and head skiers left where we put in a picket and rapped another 60 meters over the bigger part of the moat and onto the Boston Glacier. From the ground we saw that a group of skiers rap off of a block from the skiers right side so there are two options now to get to the Boston Glacier with only one 60 meter rope. I am guess this will stay true for a few weeks. Crossing the Boston was very easy because temps and large snow pack this year. We climb up to about 7400 feet and basically walked straight across at that level to the base of Buckner from there we kicked in snow steps running a belay using our three remaining pickets all the way to the top. It's really straight forward and should be easy now with all our footsteps. The last 150 feet was nerve ice so having two tools was really nice and I bet it will stay that way for a little while.

Has any one climbed Fuggs Falls this year? Wondering what conditions look like.

Trip: Forbidden Peak - North Ridge Date: 7/24/2016 - 7/26/2016 Trip Report: -Pictures at a later date- The North Ridge of Forbidden has always seem like something of a myth in the local climbing community. Those who have climbed it in prime conditions say it's one of the best routes in the Cascades. Yet, compared to other long routes like the west and north ridge of Stuart there isn't a whole lot of beta or spray on the internet. On the 24th of July the weather gods lined up with perfect conditions to climb this route. After stopping at the Ranger Station to pick up our permit for the Forbidden Zone at leisure hour of 9:00am where the nice guy working the counter informed us that the col was out. We simple smiled and thanked him for his services and left- hint the foreshadowing to come. We hit the trail and reached the col about 3 hours later. From here we first checked the Alternative Col that seems to be the most common way folks have been going lately. We took a look and opt out, sounds like Jeffery team did it earlier in the day. One quick rap and we were at the base of the described Sharkfin col in the Nelsen's Selects. I put on rock shoes and lead the 5.7 slab part. I was able to protect it with a BD .1 and then place a BD .2 after the move. Then we hauled packs and my partner followed in approach shoes. At the Col it was apparent that a 60 meter rope wouldn't work but we saw a nice crack that we figure we could hammer a couple pitons in and do another rap there. My partner rap down and I waited at the col in case he need to climb back up. The pitons we brought were too small (A knifeblade 4# would have worked) but he found another crack that would and he hammer a KB in and then slung a small horn in addition. I rap down and pulled the rope and prepared to rap down to the glacier. On my rappel, the piton popped and I drop a little ways but thank God the sling held. I quickly, found a great crack and put in a BD .2 in it and hung off the piece. My partner then lower our other small cams and I added BD .1 to the crack and created an anchor. We quickly decided that our best option was for my partner to rap down to me and then rap off the solid cam anchor. We didn't want to trust the single sling because there was some sideways movement on the rap. My partner did a short half weighted rappel to me where I fixed the rope to my anchor and then we easily rap to the glacier. In Short- Lesson learned just make a double 60 meter rope rappel and you won't have a problem getting to the glacier. Perhaps the best setup would be one rope and a tagline. Once on the glacier, with all the time lost going over the col we were forced to move quickly across the Boston glacier. I must say this was maybe my favorite glacier crossing ever. So remote and so beautiful and it felt almost effortless weaving around one big crevasse to the next. We opt for the lower ramp that made the north ridge longer but gave us a better bivy site with great views of Eldorado, Primus, Logan, Buckner and even Sahale. It was a gorgeous night and Milky Way was incredible beautiful and there were lots of shooting stars. Isn't this why we climb in these places? We started climbing the ridge at 6:30am and summited at 3:45pm. Yes, I am sure folks have done it faster but this was only my partner's third time climbing together and our simul-climbing skills improved as our day went on, plus we did the longer version so cut an hour and half our time. Here's what I got to say about the ridge itself. It very, very much lived up to the myth! My partner said it best when after we crossed the upper snow field (really the only snow on route), "This route really has it all! Snow, solitude, amazing views to basically every peak in the North Cascades, scrambling ledges, sweet knife climbing that has extreme exposure on both sides. The crux is at the start of the tradition start, where there is what my partner and I call a Leavenworth 5.5-5.6 move, which seems harder with our overnight packs. From there it's a wild ride because unlike the north ridge of Stuart there isn't much human information to draw upon. You just kind of guess which side of ridge looks easier as you go. We probably crossed over the ridge about 8 times in all, but we tried our best to stay on the true ridge most of the time. Down low we favored the left side and higher up we favored the right side. There were lots of time I wonder if the route would go or if we would need to belay a pitch out, but were able to do a running belay the whole time. We exit left to gain the summit the right side had some loose rock and didn't want it to fall on me or my partner. At the summit, we decided to down climb the west ridge since I had done it twice before. We made great time, because I knew the route and we caught two west ridge groups at the col. We choose to rap over down climbing the snow gulley because we were tired. Another group choose to snow gulley and we beat them down so efficiency in rapping really does matter! From there we down climb the unnamed glacier got water and when we couldn't find the trail across meadow in the dark. We choose to just bivy another night under the beautiful starry night and wait for daylight. Turns out in the morning we were about 50 yards from the trail. We were able to take advantage of low water levels to cross the streams and hiked out in about 2 hours. Then a mandatory stop for coffee and burritos. Conclusion: This is a real gem of climb for many reason, perhaps crossing the Boston Glacier and bivying in such a beautiful place is reason enough to do this climb. Gear: Ice axe and ice tool- (we could have done all of the climb with a light axe but we came prepared) Crampons on approach shoes (use whatever setup works best for your shoes) Glacier rescue kit (2 pickets, 2 short ice screws, pulleys, prusiks) Stove and fuel- (because we had to melt water) Rack- BD .1, .2 (lost in anchor), then .3 thru #2, double .75, middle size set of nuts, and two hexes (#2, #3 BD Cam size) which we placed a lot. Lots of Slings -15 singles, 9 doubles, a triple and a cordelette Rope : 60meter, single at 8.5mm, but if I did this again I bring a 60meter tagline, so I don't have to deal with any shenanigans at the sharkfin col.

Good post, I am member of the Mountaineers and a climb leader for the club and can understand that in the heat of the moment it can be hard for folks to take constructive advised or recognize when they are endangering themselves and/or others. That said, our club is very serious about having high standards for climbing and are very concerns about the safety of other members in the climbing community. We do have a safety committee that analyzes and reviews all kinds of issues regarding safety concerns. I know from my own experience life/climbing we all make mistakes one time or another and most of us walk away un-harm and are un-aware of the mistake. My best learning experiences have come when someone has constructively point out these issues so I can avoid them in the future. Perhaps the more constructive thing here would be to write an email to Mountaineers explaining what you saw so the individuals can learn from this event.

no bug issue as of yesterday

Trip: Vesper Peak - Ragged Edge - 5.7 Date: 6/29/2015 Trip Report: Updated condition report- Approach is now snow free and route is dry. We had a lot of fun climbing this new route and recommend it. We took the variation start and I think it's pretty good. The 5.6 crack has one move that might be a little harder on lead, but otherwise the ratings seems right on. There are quite a few pitons not mention on the topo. Also top of pitch 3 has a couple of fix nuts that you can use to help build an anchor. Anyway, top quality route that needs more traffic to clean off the dry moss, that's on a couple of the lower pitches. Get after it! http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1112076

I've been up there a couple times this time of year and in normal years this hasn't been much of a problem. The early summer and lack of snow is the likely issue at hand. Additional, why wasn't there a Ranger up there to enforcing camping regulations. If you're going to have Rangers they should be out in the field helping create a better environment for everyone. Otherwise we shouldn't have them at all, which in many cases I am okay with that. Hopefully, next year our snowpack will be much better!

Wow! Thanks for sharing, I just wish there was someway to educate these folks about climbing ethics. I was up at WA Pass this weekend and there were lots of folks climbing but everyone had awesome climbing ethics about letting faster folks pass when possible, not overcrowding belays, extra.....

Hi recent post and calm weather makes it sounds like a good time to do this route. I like to find someone interested in climbing the Triple Couliors this weekend 2/21-22. If you're interested let me know and we can talk.

Trip: Mt. Baker - North Ridge (condition update) Date: 7/27/2014 Trip Report: Quick notes on route condition. Currently the Coleman Glacier crossing is still reasonable with no crevasse hoping at moment (6500ft is where most of the traversing was). Once across going up the hourglass is your best shot. Two parties that went around got stump and turned back. Currently, you can climb up to the Moat/berg below the hourglass head right and easily walk in and out of it (I am guess this will be good for at least a few weeks). The ice climbing part is in great shape! Ice had more of water ice feel to it down low and didn't turn into snow until halfway up the football field above. Bring screws you will use them. The traverse to the summit is also in great shape. Walking out sucks of course but the beer at car is great! Hope this helps - Go out and get some climbing

As of 1/26 conditions seems to be about the same. We did the climb in two Running belays. I put up new webbing on the second repel. Fun day, T-shirt weather and long summit lunch. They kept the gate opened for us, We arrived back at Longmire around 5:25pm.

Yep we went right on the first pitch. I was able to kick in a large step on the Traverse, but it was pretty narrow. Have you gone left? I thought about going that way but had no idea what pro would be like?

Yes there was a group of three following us up the route. They were just starting to rap as it got dark. So it's likely these are their ropes. I didn't catch their names, sorry to here they had an ordeal.