ARob

Headed up to Meadows trying to find a waterfall at some elevation, but it wasn't even close to in. The apparent inversion for the last few days wasn't helping much either. By the way, we noticed a pretty persistent slab layer where we were playing around. We were on a eastern aspect in the trees, just wanted to put that out there.

Good work gentlemen, way to get on it!

I think there's a good web cam from paradise

What are you going to be practicing on? Always looking to get out. Stoked to get some turns.

Plan? Don't really have a plan in mind but let me know when you are heading out and maybe we can slay that.

Trip: Goat Rocks - The Plan had been Old Snowy Date: 6/6/2009 Trip Report: Not even sure if this counts as a trip report, but some folks were interested in what we saw so I thought I would post it. Our plan was to go establish a base camp at Packwood Lake and make for Old Snowy Mt. by getting up to Packwood Saddle. The Ranger said that was just about the only TH accessible right now. The trail was pretty much clear of snow the whole way to the Lake. We set up camp on the far end of the lake and started hiking the next morning. The creeks were running too high and when we looked at the map we saw we were going to have to cross 7 or 8 of them and they were only going to get bigger with larger snowpacks feeding them. We bugged out and headed for Lost Lake, with the hopes of maybe getting to Chimney Rock. After a while of not being on the trail and scrambling around the snowy forest we said forget Lost Lake, we're just getting lost. Besides, it was just a white out up above (never saw a peak the whole weekend because of low clouds) and my new Scarpa Summits were giving me blisters (but I still think they are going to be sweet boots). Headed back to camp and chilled. Which sucked about as bad as fishing, napping, and drinking hot buttered rum can suck. Beat the hell out of being in the city. Looking forward to coming back and doing a Goat Rocks Traverse later this summer. Didn't really take any photos interesting enough to post here. Approach Notes: Snow level is around 3,500' even on south aspects. Creeks are running really high.

I was thinking about heading up to the Goat Rocks this weekend. Has anyone been up there lately? The ranger said you could get to the Packwood Lake TH but beyond that she didn't know much. I was thinking about going for Johnson Peak but I am finding limited beta. Any other suggestions or ideas?

sick . sick sick on the sickter scale

I just have Sunday off and was wanting to head up to Hood and do something on the west side or Cooper Spur (not sure what the conditions over there look like right now) let me know if you are up for heading there. I would be down with other ideas as well, just wanna get out.

Does anyone know what the road heading up to Tilly Jane looks like or how much snow is around there right now?

Trip: Paradise, Mt. Rainier - Heading Around Pan Point Date: 4/11/2009 Trip Report: We headed up to Paradise to get above the rain and hoping for some snow. All we did was head into a white out. We strapped in and headed up toward Pan Point because you couldn't really see anything and that's the only place we could get to with basically our eyes closed. It was blustery at points with some snow but it wasn't really dumping like we had hoped. There was some trace snow over a hard pack of a few inches. We took the time to dig around and do some testing. About four inches down was a persistent weak layer of mushy snow. We did some block testing and found that it didn't fail under the compression snow shovel test but when we pulled on the block it sheared under moderate pressure. We looked at the shear line and it was between Q1 and Q2 a little over a foot deep. We continued to get up to Pan Point and the conditions were not that great on that slope. It was pretty crusty when we headed down and we skidded around until we got to gentler slopes. The white out got even thicker and it was hard to tell if you were going up or down or what the snow you were going over looked like. It was good practice skiing in those conditions but it wasn't the most enjoyable day on the crown jewel of the Cascades.

Had a fun hand numbing afternoon at Ozone. You could get a little warmth when you climbed into the sun shine but the wind really blew through there. Rock was nice and dry though.

Yeah, remembered that after I posted. Now I am not sure what I am going to do tomorrow, maybe head up to Hood for some skinning and skiing.

Sorry, it's Thurs. afternoon, and I am only now responding. But what do you think about an alpine start for Beacon Rock tomorrow morning. We have three and need a fourth so we can do two ropes. My girlfriend has to be at work at 4, thus the alpine rock. Bring your hand warmers!

Got the next couple days off, looks like blue skies, looking for something to do. I was thinking maybe some backcountry skiing while the snow is good around Hood or St. Helens. Also down to go cragging if the rock is dry.

So I was scrambling around Rocky Butte because it's basically my backyard and I saw what looked like one of the most difficult single pitches I have ever seen bolted, but I am wondering if the holds are chopped out. It's next to the water drainage that comes down next to the guard rail below the fence, I believe that wall is called "Mean Streets." I can't find my Portland Rock Guide at the moment so that's part of my predicament. This route is overhanging the whole way with seemingly no foot holds except maybe a heel hook on the far off arete to the right. It's pretty blank except for some pockets that look like they are almost too perfectly placed, I mean you can just about see the moves from the ground. It finishes with two monos to a relative jug just below the anchors. I was wondering if anyone knew what was up with this route, I would just like to see someone climb it, it looks crazy.

Headed up to Timberline yesterday. My girlfriend Rachel, myself, and our two dogs started heading toward Illumination Rock. Got about two thirds the way up the Palmer lift, a few hundred yards to climbers left and it was like trying to skin up ice cubes. We decided to call it good. Everything else was good, the weather was amazing, no one was out there, ski patrol didn't give us shit for marching our dogs through the ski terrain. By the way, we saw a decent looking ice fall coming off the south butt of Illumination Rock, but it was precariously crowned with snow that showed evidence of sluffing off in chunks recently. Once we traversed to the east side of the Palmer Lift and skirted the White Glacier, we found the snow more wind loaded and the skiing like butter and wished we had just been on that side the whole time. Oh well.

Crazy! Got those photos up quick!