TRbetaFlash

Jim was a student of mine in the BOEALPS Intermediate Climbing Class in 2010. He went on to instruct with the class in later years and we had a blast climbing together. He was a great student and a wonderful instructor and many climbers around the area can attribute their skill to Jim's teaching efforts. To top it all off, he was a master spray lord and could both dish out and take climbing smack talk like no other. This is truly awful. I cannot believe this suddenly happened. It doesn't seem real.

I think the worst part about the Chosscadian is that you have to stare at Long's Pass the whole time down, you go all the way to the valley floor, then have to claw your way back up. One of my entrepreneurial goals was to set up a paragliding rental shop halfway down the chosscadian couloir. I'd make a killing.

Nice work in there Mr. Dave! Bill here, lurking as usual. While you're out gettin' it, I'm in here reading about it. doh! Pretty cool to learn about that little bolt too!

Trip: Mt. Stuart - Ice Cliff Glacier (w/video) Date: 6/26/2011 Trip Report: The conditions were fantastic and the crux was rather a rather hilarious semi-acrobatic step up/pull-up move across a crevasse. It's in the middle of this long video somewhere. [video:vimeo]25889881 Some crazy Summit Viking was up top, harassing all the climbers. Hey, at least he was wearing a helmet. We got up at about 1:30, but didn't get on route until 2:30 at least. Here's a picture of the harsh conditions we had to start in. The majority of the climb was perfect styrofoam step-kicking fun. As we stood at the crux crevasse step-across, I peered over to the left. I couldn't help but notice the precarious little boot track going up this snow formation, which continues 80 feet away on the other side of a massive collapsed snow bridge. It was incredible to think how someone could have walked across this recently. Gear Notes: - no flotation required. - used two screws just one time each - used 4 pickets a lot for simul-climbing - 1 ice tool and 1 mountaineering axe did the trick. Approach Notes: As stated in previous posts, don't cross the boulder field hiking to the base of this climb. Drop down to the left and use the creek as a handrail up to the bivy spots. - Sherpa glacier route is still in, chosscadian couloir has a ton of snow still - watch out for that damn Viking.

salamander, we appreciated your beta! Not everyone will stop and chat on the way out of there and you went out of your way to do so. Thank you!

Damn, there's still a lot of snow up there...you forgot the skis! After this big snow year, heliotrope trail must have been a disaster. Nice work powering through all that.

How about those crevasse crossing shenanigans? Apologies for all the flying/falling ice! I was in the green jacket, two teams ahead of you guys. And then we had those others above us! There were 4 two-man rope teams on that climb all at once, including you guys. That rut straight up from the crossing was such a bowling alley, it was impossible not to be hit. Going low and using that creek as a handrail (thus completely skipping the boulders) was critical beta for us. Luckily, a very nice guy stopped to talk with us as we were hiking in and shared the info. I'm definitely using that low approach next time. For those who need the specifics: On the way in, once you reach the boulder field everyone talks about, ignore all cairns and head left, going toward the creek. There's a faint trail which follows (but never crosses) this creek full of delicious drinking water. I'm pretty sure you two were the last people who were going to make it over that particular crevasse crossing. That step is going to drop out any moment. Did you happen to look over to the left 100 meters of that and see the boot tracks walking up toward the crevasse and starting again on the other side? That snow bridge that collapsed was massive. What a gorgeous day for a climb.

There are certain images you can't un-see. That last pic is one of them. Wicked trip, man!

I see you're also a purveyor of the fabled Summit Headstand. I thought I was the only one! Those are great because you can pretend you're holding the entire planet above your head.

Wow, nice work! I was up there in 2002 fishing for pollock as well. I stared at that mountain quite a lot, dreaming of just walking out of work at the dock and hiking to the top of it. That view is amazing. Something freaks me out about that island. Perhaps it's the fact that there isn't a single tree on it. Hey, no slide alder. score!

I'm at a loss for words. Dallas had a special part in my life as a mentor and someone to look up to. He was my distance running track coach for all four years of high school. You should have seen how dedicated this guy was - to his runners, to sharing his infinite knowledge, and to keeping his personal fitness sharp. He was the kind of guy you just _have to_ admire for all the amazing shenanigans he'd pulled off in his life. He was always cramming in route development sessions on Mt. Erie between track practices. He disappeared on impromptu runs up Sauk Mountain. The guy was an animal. I don't know how to put it otherwise. He was a blast to climb with, whether cragging or in the alpine and he had a true respect for the mountains. Some say that when someone important to you goes away, it's helpful to write your feelings down. I guess this is that time. I don't know what else to say other than - If there is one person to follow the example of in climbing around here, it's Dallas Kloke. .Bill

Hey do you have info on that original ptarmigan traverse? It's unrepeated? I noticed these routes do have a lot in common. lincoln, nookie, and index are all falling apart. Loose rock is scary. I suppose this is why 5.8-ish routes clean people's clocks some times.

holy son of a... SICK!

I used a gopro HD cam for the filming and iMovie for the editing. I don't really do anything crazy while editing these things since the footage is all pretty fun. When the videos get longer or I want custom effects, it's time for something like final cut. For those asking, the fun beta we found was from Ms. Abegg's site. I suggest you check this out. http://sites.google.com/site/stephabegg/home/tripreports/washington/northcascades/burgundy

I love it! Finding that note Swenson was in on is like finding buried treasure. I love how we find things like this while climbing. Nice work!

I mentioned the stream at the bottom was great for drinking water. Not really. I failed to mention I got some parasite which ripped my intestines apart the night I got back. So if you drink that stuff, purify it first. I'm an idiot! We saw some guys topping out on Paisano that day too. It was the afternoon some time. The winds were already about gale force and they disappeared pretty quick. Weather got ugly. That helmet cam is turning out to be pretty cool. Aside from the dumb-ass block on my head (the camera), it's worth it to make fun flicks to share. This is a great route!

Trip: Burgundy Spire - North Face Date: 6/26/2010 Trip Report: I'm trying my hand at a video trip report here. [video:vimeo]12967376 After little planning, we found the weather was going to be great Saturday and slowly lamer on Sunday. The climb can be done in a day but we had a full moon and a great night ahead so we camped out at the col to get an early start Sunday. The last part of the approach is quite snowy still, but it's melting fast. We climbed the wandering north face up through the center and to the right. This means we just kept going mostly right and ended up with the 5.7 face crack to the 5.7 offwidth final pitch. We were practically drowning in beta after reading Steph's route overlays from her site. Here's Rose getting up to the sandy platform by the top of Paisano Pinnacle. The only problem was that there are still large snow patches on the route, namely in the boulder tunnel. This is quite lame in climbing shoes! summit fun The raps were a bitch with two ropes. We saw another team haul ass with a single 60m rope but they snagged it once for about 20 minutes. Pulling two ropes over those shitty loose flakes is nerve-wracking. I'd probably bring one rope next time. The snow on the way down made for enjoyable plunge-stepping too. Gear Notes: gaiters #4 Camalot is useful raps can be done with a single 60m or doubles. Approach Notes: The stream at the bottom by the cars is rampaging and full of good water. It's the best spot to tank up. Snow for the last 1000 feet to the col as of 6/26. There's room for about 6 to bivy comfortably at the col right now. great spot

Kickass! It looks like you can ski West McMillan right now. Hah! That pic you took looking down on the first raps, where those huge broken blocks of snow are..WOW. That's all seasonal snow. This goes to prove that the gully is utter nonsense for descending. It's a wet, chossy bowling alley all year long. That free-hanging rap is pretty fun. I had a pair of 60m ropes for all that descending and it seemed to make it go a bit quicker. IMO, that trail is pretty nice before the brush starts going nuts in the Summer.

Looks like I need to bring my splitboard and *shred the gnar* d00d!

When I looked down the chimneys a month ago, it wasn't totally covered. Now it probably is. Plus, it gets cooked in the sun all day. I wouldn't climb it until you can see more rock. Why not just walk up the sulphide or white salmon glacier? Maybe the north face?

Apologies to Walter @ index Thanks to whoever replaced those bolts!

Good to hear you got out there too! How about that avy debris that came down from the arm a while back? That was pretty intense. Did you notice what those flags said on the wands? I saw "korean climber" on them. All I could think about was some guy who saw shuksan on a postcard in Korea who set out to fly over here and climb it. In those trees, we were totally lost, front-pointing on moss and rocks. ahhh!

Damn! I don't know whether the sun shining on that is a good thing or a dangerous thing. It sure makes it look awesome though.

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - White Salmon Glacier Date: 2/20/2010 Trip Report: Yay. I threw my camera in the creek. [video:vimeo]9637482 We decided to launch a casual 1-day attack on the White Salmon Glacier this last weekend. Conditions on the glacier were favorable for skinning up and shredding down. Avy danger was very low since it seemed the previous storm's snow had firmed up and what was heavy and dangerous had already slid off. We saw about 6 other parties just absolutely gang-banging the whole mountain. The approach down from the bottom of chair 8 is mostly snow, but the sections in the tight trees are either steep snow-free moss surfing or *mandatory* crampon dirty rotten snow. This was taken on the hike out what other approach beta calls 'the clearcut'. As you round the large rock outcropping at the very base of the mountain (where N. face climbers go left), we looked up right to this. We got to the top of the white salmon glacier and contemplated going a little further to shred winnie's slide, but the sun and views were insane. We plopped down and ate lunch, snapping our boards back together. Surprisingly, that face on the South side of Shuksan that you can see from fisher chimneys hadn't slid that much. The chimneys were falling apart and there was exposed rock all over the place. There was a very recent boot pack up it. Baker was all pretty, as usual. We dropped in from the spot where the chimneys top out. We had the entire (skier's right) side of the white salmon glacer to ourselves. It seems like the snow on the Northern side of Shuksan is superior to the conditions around the rest of the ski area and surrounding mountains. At least that's what we were hearing from people out there Saturday outside the ski area. A couple thousand feet of freshies. Gear Notes: Aluminum crampons were more useful for the trees than the glacier! Approach Notes: Drop straight from the top of the clear cut for the approach. Coming back, the clearcut is pretty brutal, so you might want to go left toward the arm and follow tracks up there to about 3,700 feet and traverse back to the top of the clearcut.

http://acmewidgetco.com/climbing/inspiration-peak-east-ridge-iv-5-9/