The Cascade Kid

Jeezus. If the trout creek approach is long, it's a wonder than anyone climbs anywhere. Time to do some pushups.

How did you make that first pitch look so steep? :-)

thanks for relocating it. I don't really care if folks are climbers, just that their access doesn't intrude on mine (as much as that's possible). I don't go to the mountains to hear people yelling obscenities at one another across a lake, or to see them bathing with soap in alpine lakes. The scorn is directed not towards hikers, but towards the uneducated. FPCA it is.

Are you wearing Keens?

I feel weak.

Dirtay!

Trip: Prusik Peak - West Ridge Car-to-Car (FKFA) Date: 7/19/2013 Trip Report: Nick Till and I made the FKFA (first known formal ascent) of the West Ridge of Prusik Peak last Friday, going car to car from Stuart Lake to Snow Creek trail heads crossing the Enchantments in just over 13 hours. The weather was beautiful, thought the enchantments were full of bumblies camping on lake shores and right next to the trail. Rough times are as follows. Left Stuart Lake TH — 00:00 (6:15 am) Mountaineer Creek turnoff — 00:40 Colchuck Lake – Top of Asgard Pass — 02:55 Top of Prusik Pass — 03:55 Base of the West Ridge — 04:05 Summit — 06:30 Back to Our Packs — 07:30 Snow Creek trail head — 13:10 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos, map, topo, and further TR on Mountain Lessons --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Route: It was easy to reach prusik pass and to traverse on the north side of the ridge to the notch just about the balanced rock. The beginning of the route was glaringly obvious, heading directly up to a very clean #2 camalot crack in a large block. We simuled to below the slab, making just one 5.6 ish move over mostly low-5th terrain. The 12 ft slab was interesting but over quickly, and there's good gear at the base to back up the FP there. After the 3rd class ledges, we opted to climb a 5.8-ish clean finger crack in a dihedral, then finishing with the direct offwidth (5.7?) rather than traversing to the S side. 5 easy rappels beginning at a bolt and a slung pinch took us to the ground. The deproach was a little bit painful. Walking out snow creek is a knee buster down granite slabs and switchbacks. Gear Notes: Cotton shirts and shorts all day long. 9.1 60 m single rope Single set of nuts Metolius TCUs yellow, orange, and red. Camalots .75, 1, 2 8 slings/QDs Even with the offwidth finish directly up the summit block, there is no need for any larger gear. Approach Notes: From SL TH the walking was easy as pie. Asgard Pass still has running water. This was my first time up this joyful pass, and I have to say, it's overrated at this time of year. I can see how it would be bad if it was icy, but it's downright civil and not even terribly loose. There's a trail for god sakes.

Crack kills.

Trip: Mt Hood - Illumination Rock, South Chamber Date: 7/1/2013 Trip Report: Nick Till and I braved shitty rock to the West Gable of Illumination yesterday via the South Chamber route. I've climbed the East Ridge of the south chamber and can say that both have equally repugnant rock quality. Photos, conditions of the Reid, Leuthold's Etc, may be found here: Climbing Illumination Rock - Mountain Lessons We approached on skis and transitioned to rock shoes at the left wall of the chamber. The route is choose-you-own-adventure via lesser-of-two-evils route finding tactics. Gear Notes: Single rack to 3, doubles 1-3, more than good. A buckload of slings and rap tat. Approach Notes: Skis, left at the mouth of the chamber. Fun corn skiing on the way down.

Hello Neighbors-to-the-North, It is I, an Oregonian, with a choice question. Were one to arrive at Paradise @ Rainier in the Late Afternoon without the time or energy to travel to the fabled "Camp Muir", is there somewhere nearby where one, or three, people could sleep? Assume that this hypothetical group has no car. Assume also that they have very little money. For a third, assume that these travelers are hardy, adventure-willing, and imaginative in their accommodations. Thank you for your help! -Southerly Mossback

As the one who biked hood, I gotta say, this sounds pretty appealing. Certainly seems like you could lose several hours and come in under 24 easily w/o stopping for pizza etc, and better weather would maybe give you another 2 hours. The one catch is that if you start timing yourself, ultimately the driving will become a factor, and that's iffy. That said... love seeing some Vision & Action. Especially the Action. Cheers!

link?

Trip: Mt Hood - South Side from Portland By Bike (18:25'15) Date: 6/8/2013 Trip Report: On the afternoon of June 8th I left SE Portland by bicycle (SE 65th and Duke) for Mt Hood, carrying my climbing/skiing gear. Full story and photos on Mountain Lessons. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/cc.jpeg[/img] I arrived at Timberline Lodge around 10:00 pm, and began climbing the south side around 10:30. I reached the top of the Magic Mile by Midnight, and Triangle moraine by 1 am. After ditching my skis there, I summited under a moonless sky at 3:00 am, the first to reach the summit that night. The snow was excellent, allowing ski crampon use to triangle moraine, and facilitating fast travel in high dagger up the old chute. The winds were incredible, sustained 30-40 mph until the crater, with gusts in excess of 50 mph on the summit ridge, requiring crawling on the descent. I skied from triangle moraine on what would no doubt become great corn about 6 hours later, and after repacking, was back on my bike towards Portland by 5:30 am. Total time round trip to Portland was 18:25'15. 110 miles by bike, and more than 12,000' vertical gained total. This is no doubt not the FKT, and I am aware that this has been done before. Whatever. I'm happy to have finally ticked this project in well under 24 hrs. Gear Notes: Full list available through the link. Lightweight ski-mountaineering gear, minimum layers. Keep moving. Stay warm. Approach Notes: By bike. The stretch from zigzag to govy is long, and uphill, and frankly worse than timberline road.

I'm unclear, is this tree climbing or landscaping?

Trip sounds fun. TR photo fail though.

Hey. That's sick.

Nicely done. Do you really think a second tool is necessary? Whippet and axe perhaps...

Good to meet you after coming down of triple couloirs. I was trying ti figure out why you looked so familiar then, and it was because I've seen your face on here before. At least you had a bomb day of skiing!

Solid.

Jens, that's the spirit. Didn't mean to imply low snow in some global warming year-long trend kinda way. but looking at old photos of the TCs and the north face, it's clear than when the routes are in good nick there's usually more and more-consolidated snow. Nice work on Colchuck!

sporadic dirt for about 3/4 mi, then snow covered

the photo with your skis in it made me poop myself a little bit.

b/c 3C's was a spur of the moment backup, and all of our beta was from memory and now from an extensive review of available TRs. Speculation... but I bet the north face may fave most more difficulties than usual in the low snow.

Didn't climb through the runnels, didn't successfully bypass them due to lack of snow/ice for even the bypass. No ice anywhere. And with as much spindrift as whips around that thing, of course there were no snow bollards left.

(Stuart) (Sunrise on the bivy perch) (Night falls above the Stuart glacier) (approaching the route on the Stuart Glacier) (The first crux pitch of the great gendarme)