keenwesh

Just going to throw this up there. Last spring I climbed this line on 11300, Some friends had done it to within a short distance of the summit the year before. Apparently this line was first climbed in 1983 by Kimbrell and Gaskin. They called it the Right Couloir (there's a prominent couloir that it takes a right out of). This line is fantastic, Higher quality than Ham and Eggs, and includes a full value Alaskan ridge traverse to the summit that is excellent in its own shitty way. The climb is not close to over once you top out the couloir. http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201213399/Peak-11300-West-Face-Right-Couloir-Reality-Peak-West-Face-Devils-Advocate We skipped the 3 mixed pitches at the start, soloing around the left in the name of speed. The couloir itself is great ice to 90 degrees, followed by some weaving around seracs on a ridge to reach the summit. Highly recommend this route, it should be done more. A half hour to 45 minute skin from the standard west fork camp. Initial ice pitches: Upper Couloir I debated posting this a little bit, as I think that one of the best parts of climbing in this range is digging up old reports and taking the time to learn the background. However, this isn't in an obscure spot of the range and is a great objective. Go and do it.

Everything in the valley gets gang banged, even as early as 5 am. late June can be triple digit hot. High sierra is great though. Great Escape is shady, and routes on the Fifi Buttress. If you enjoy hot sports action, Rifle is phenomenal. All my friends, they'll tell you. It's the most excellent. Just wait, you'll see.

You can also ask Siri "to whom does this iPhone belong?" And she'll tell you.

The crossover does kind of suck. Has anyone tried the alternative downclimb that drops you at the propeller cairn?

For future reference, when a big can gets stuck it can be easily retrieved by hammering it out with a rock. Whack it a few times downwards until it either pops out or is in a wider spot. If you're the one who got it stuck chances are it's not in there that tight and there won't be any mangling. I pulled a #4 that was deeply welded out of the Bastille crack (if you place a #4 on the Bastille it will get stuck) and bent the lobes pretty bad, but I was using a wall hammer and had to hit it 15 or 20 times. Goodluck!

What I'm suggesting is not recommended, but we found it not unreasonable once we saw the trail and amount of traffic it received. You very well might want a rope if traveling during the warmest part of the day in June, and that is fine. Do what you want, we just found the rigorous steps that everyone seemed to follow on the mountain to not be the most ideal. For example, we single carried from bc to 11 in one go. It kind of sucked, but then it was over with and we weren't stuck in the wet slop down at 9600 camp. Someone told us we were going to die going from 14 to the summit. They got edema and had to be brought down on oxygen. Basically, don't listen to what others tell you (myself included) and figure out what will work for you. I do highly recommend dragging around a sled with skis before you get in there. If you haven't pre stressed your hip flexors you'll be in a world of hurt. Oh, and anchor your sled to your backpack, not to your harness, your backpack doesn't mind being squeezed in half, you might.

We also skied the orient from the top of the rib. It's big, but very manageable. Highly recommended. The rib is a great way to the summit as well, terrain similar to the ridge from 16 to 17 on the butt, but without the people and for a longer distance.

Skis are emphatically the way to go up to 14. You'll have to bootpacking from 11 to 14, but going down takes 10 minutes and is actually fun. Additionally, when the weather sucks in 14 you can go ski from the base of the fixed lines. Depending on your comfort level skis will also allow you to not rope up on the entire mountain. The pack is put in by people with snowshoes, so as long as you're on it there isn't much of a chance of punching through bridges. I skied around a buddy who had postholed to his waist with snowshoes while he cursed me. Having 2 pairs of boots is great as well for keeping your feet warm and comfortable. I honestly think the safest way to go up and down the fixed lines is unroped. They're barely 45 degrees and there are steps kicked in for the way up. On the way down bring a pair of leather gloves and do an arm wrap. You'll be able to minimize your time there and have less of a chance of getting hit by the guy who put his ascender on upside down (actually saw this) because it "didn't slide well" in the correct orientation. Denali is a total gong show, but it's a really cool mountain. Have fun up there!

Durability on the spectres isn't fantastic and the lock lever freezes very easily. They are alright otherwise.

Kurt made a video I figured should (or at least could) be tied to this TR: [video:youtube]

Speaking of a different Castle Rock, the 11c boulder problem start to Country Club Crack in Boulder Canyon gives a lot of people trouble. I just reached through the crux moves and then greased out of the glassy 11a jams up above because I actually suck at climbing. I managed to not onsight The Wisdom in Eldo while getting move by move beta sprayed at me.

right, for the Ruth 404's are the way to go. It's super flat. Even going up to the west fork from the mountain house is flat. If you brought a real ski setup you could do the Japanese Couloir which would make a fantastic ski descent. The time for that would probably be april or early may...

If you're going to Denali bring an AT setup in addition to your Spantiks or Phantom 6000's for the upper mountain. The skiing is fantastic and the only way to get around. It took me 2 hours from 14 camp back to BC, including the skin up heartbreak hill and digging a cache at 11 camp. When the weather sucks you can always entertain yourself by getting in ski runs. Skiing with a sled isn't the best, but there are ways to rig it so you can ski easily and quickly downhill.

The Denali setup is like 4 or 5 six foot by 4 foot mega panels that they drop in with a helicopter (Wilderness rules apply to everyone but the NPS). Most solar panels would charge a setup like that, but my guess is that the battery would drain unless it was unplugged every night.

I'm had LS boots explode on me more than once. Sent them in for warranty and every time LS has told me that it's not their problem and basically to get bent. If you're only using them rarely you'll probably be fine, but keep in mind they have shit durability and LS will not honor their warranty policy when they do go bad. For reference I put at least 60 days a season on my workhorse boots. (LS Baturas)

This is my first season on skis since I was 10 and foolishly took up snowboarding. Fortunately it's coming back quick, and ski lines are so chill when looking down them compared to ice routes. N couloir of Abiathar makes it to maybe 2/3rds height, although it has been skied from the summit by descending the hanging snowfield to lookers right (only "fills" in rarely) and traversing in before the abyss. The couloir itself is really close to the road, I think when we did it we started booting up the line itself an hour and a half after leaving the car.

Trip: Greywolf Peak - West Face Couloir Date: 4/25/2015 Trip Report: The season in the rockies has not been as deep as last year, but the side benefit it that stability has been phenomenal all year long. I've lucked out getting to ski lines in mid winter that are usually far too dangerous until the springtime stabilizes things. Some of the things I've managed to do this season North Couloir of Abiathar, Outside Cooke City (not my photo) Chamonix Couloir, East Rosebud 8 inches of blower pow on The Fin, above Cooke City Countless days in Hyalite. This one in particular stands out, 5k of vert with 18 inches of fluff, and perfect stability. Last Saturday I made the trek over to Missoula to check out the Mission Range. West Face of Greywolf Dane and I left the car at 5.30, after a wonderful breakfast prepared by Dane's mom at 3 am. When you only go home a couple times a year you get non-negotiable extra special treatment. The first 2500 ft (straight up) were on dry trail with no snow in sight. Dane had his beacon on just in case the snow appeared. Eventually we reached snowline, around 6500 ft, and transitioned to skis. Skinning up below the S face we contoured to a notch in the SE spur, and dropped into the basin below the East Face. Putting the skis back on our packs, we booted up the East Face Couloir in full sun. At about 2/3rds height the wet slides started ripping down the runnel. We picked up our pace and made the saddle before anything swept the entire couloir. Transitioning into downhill mode was all smiles for the upcoming descent The upper couloir was firm, but edgeable, and smooth. we both savored the turns and great fall line skiing with a backdrop of the St. Mary's peaks. The lower couloir was runneled and choppy, but we still were left with huge grins at the bottom. To escape we skinned up to the shoulder of St. Mary's. Skiing over a rollover on the descent back to the road it was wild to see 4k of vert separating us from the lake. Eventually the snow ended and we followed the steep trail straight down for the last 2500 feet. We ran into 4 folks hiking up with overnight packs, so unfortunately we didn't have the range completely to ourselves. Once down a 3 or so mile hike on the road brought us back to our car and cold beer. A great day out in the mountains. Gear Notes: Did not bring crampons, but they would have been essential if one was booting up the WFC from the St. Mary's side. Approach Notes: Straight up

Completely different ballgame and genre of climbing, but I think Silvia Vidal has to be one of the toughest human beings to ever live. Spending that much time alone on super remote walls, with no outside communication, much respect. Aid climbing isn't anything like 5.15, so sorry for the derailment. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the NE butt of Slesse is all that difficult of a solo, at least in summer. There are lots of folks out there who could do it, many of them female. The more I climb the more I realize that things I initially perceive as really gnarly and extreme aren't actually that bad. N butt in winter, right now I think that's super full on, but maybe in a few years it'll be routine

You want subjective? Try ice climbs. I've done routes that the guidebook gives WI6 but is soft WI4 due to being completely hacked out. Or aid grades, the conventional A1-5 system is pretty silly. The casual rating system is much more accurate and helpful NBD-No Big Deal NTB-Not Too Bad PDH-Pretty Damn Hard DFU-Don't Fuck Up

I've called all the hardware stores, upholsterers, pool supply, mattress places. Nothing. The mattress store in town is going to check with their foam supplier and get back to me, but I'm not all that optimistic.

I'm trying to track down a wide sheet of foam to make a pad for a double bag, but am having zero luck. Anyone know where to get something 40" wide? 1/4 or 3/8ths thick?

Karen's route is the obvious WI3 flow. Blue Collar Beatdown is the next weakness left. The seracs above would scare me shitless, but I don't have much AK experience, so that will probably fade after more trips. I'm guessing they rip very infrequently. BTW, that flow of ice in the far right I believe is undone, however big seracs make up the top. Again, I bet they rip very infrequently.

you can actually leave hooks as pro when aid soloing. Put a long prussik on the hook, so that there's tension on the rope from the bottom anchor, and then clip the rope into a scream-aid on the hook. If you whip there is enough movement in the prussik so that it won't come tight and increase your fall factor, and the tension from below will keep the hook from falling off after you climb above it. If you're aid soloing you should put these prussiks on ever 50 or so feet, whenever you notice that your gri gri is backfeeding. It also makes cleaning safer, as any sharp edges the rope is running over will be isolated and not rub (if you plan the placement of the prussiks correctly).

Don't find a partner, no one deserves the boredom that comes along with belaying someone on an aid pitch. Aid climbing is all problem solving, looking at what's in front of you and making it work. Here's a problem you have to solve before you can get off the ground. There have to be some blocks below that you could lasso, and/or a tree. Look harder. Alternatively, you can place several pieces that would hold in an upward fall and clove the rope into them as you go, making that the anchor. Using the haulbag as a "partner" is a handy trick when you want to have a softer catch, but don't rely on just the bag. Usually that technique involves the rope running off the anchor, down to the bag, and then back up to you. When you fall the bag gets yanked up, but stops once the rope comes tight on the anchor. In my experience it's kind of a pain to rig, and probably doesn't make enough of a difference to merit the work unless you're on some new wave A4 pitch.