Going up?

WOW i just read a story about my self... ouch! Just kidding. I shared a story from last weekend and I was told it was funny and given a link here so I just can't help but share it. As coppied from the email: Subject: MP Match Dot Com (disclaimer) I wrote a novel, read at your own risk... Well, I how do I say it. I should have gone skiing with Ed and Austin. A few months ago I put out an ad on MP for an ice climbing partner. and a couple of people responded. I was wanting to ice climb this weekend and so I solicited them. One of them responded and said he could only climb on Sunday. Lets call him Duncan. Although I wanted to ski with Ed I had my heart set on getting some ice climbing in this weekend. So, we agreed on Sunday. A bit later he sent me info on a route and said "check this out!" and seemed quite stoked about it. It was the north face of Longs peak. This a great solo, 2.5 pitches of low angle rock up Longs with a shit-ton of walking above and below it. But not something I want to waste a "partner" on... red flag number one. So, I called him up to discuss a route and details. As we were discussing routes in the area it was clear that I would be leading everything. Red flag but I was OK with that. Then I asked him a climbing credentials type question. To which he responded "well, I mean I climb 5.11 in the gym." (red flag #3) I was taken back to say the least. I mean we are getting ready to do a mixed ice climb and he refers to gym climbing?... totally unrelated to any skills you would need mixed or ice climbing on a bigass mountain. So I asked him "have you done much ice climbing?". And he said "yeah I climbed some ice a couple of years ago". (ambiguous and dated answer... red flag #4) I also ask him about this fitness and he quickly replies "Oh yeah I'm fit". We decided on Alexander's Chimney a 5 pitch M4/WI4 classic line up to Broadway ledge, from there we would take any number of routes up to the top from the ledge, likely Kiners (a mellow but big mountain jaunt). I am out climbing dry rock the day before with a good friend. When I get home I have a message on my phone. Duncan left a message saying it was "urgent". So I called him back and he was concerned about the wind. Rightly so, high winds suckass. But what surprised me is that he was specifically concerned about "spindrift". He felt that spindrift was, i don't know... dangerous? I am still unsure what his concern was. We talked a little bit about logistics and hung up. I played hide-and-go-seek with the kids, put them to bed and went to sleep early. 0150 the next morning my alarm goes off. I juice some beets, carrots and apples and have a big bowl of fried rice with sunflower seed butter to fuel up for the big day of climbing. I roll into the parking lot about 5 after 0400 and walk up to a guy packing stuff at the back of his car and say "Are you Duncan?" He says he's not so I go back to my car to wait. It's almost 0430 and I am picking up my phone to call him when another car rolls into the lot. Of course its him, he apologizes for the late show. He is ass and elbows getting ready and he mentions he just brought a mountain axe. I was a bit shocked, I told him we would have to climb another route. He said some guy told him it would be fine "besides the route in the summer is only like 5.5". I explained to him that rock climbing in crampons and on ICE is not directly comparable to the YDS of rating routes. I said he would need a second tool for us to do the route. He said he had one and showed me his pack. To this pack were two 70cm axes, they were huge and hugely inappropriate for the route at hand. But you could climb the route with those. So I relented and he kept packing. I told him to leave any pro because I had the rack squared away. I also told him that he wouldn't need the chalk bag attached to his harness. I told him he didn't need to, but he insisted on putting on his harness in the parking lot before the 3+ hour approach. We were about ready to leave and his pack was looking odd. There were a pair of gaiters hanging down to ankle level from one of his ice axes, helmet hanging freely from the other, a pair of traction spikes (the kind for trail running) and the rope wrapped up around all the clutter. I flaked the rope for him and secured it to his pack ,but one thing really bothered me. He had the traction spikes but no crampons that I could see. He assured me that he had a pair of "kick ass crampons". In fact he though it ridiculous that I thought he would show up to ice climb with traction spikes for crampons, they were "just for the icy trail". Honestly, Duncan, at this point I would have not been surprised one bit. I am starting to get cold standing there as he does the final touches to his "kit". SLR camera slung over his neck and shoulder. Insulated water bottle on the belt loop, it falls to the ground, he picks it up, it falls against my foot, finally he has it attached to his pack belt. And to top it off a fixed blade knife attached to his waist... I shit you not. 0505 we leave the parking lot. 0506 "STOP" I stop, I think I forgot my crampons. Really? I thought we just covered this?! Pack bomb: he unbuckles his belt and his water bottle falls to the ground, camera, puffy, gloves. He occupies a huge section of the trail with all his crap and people are trying to get around him in the powdery snow. Yep he has them. 0508 "STOP" I stop, "I need to adjust my layers". He takes a full minuet to take off his hat and gloves, "OK I'm good". I continue to hike at a good pace to warm up and I notice he is falling behind. I stop at a short cut to wait for him. He shows up sweaty and heaving. "here's a short cut lets take this" we take it. He calls out to me but I ignore him. A short while later he calls out to me again. I respond back but there is no reply. So I walk down to him. We are MAYBE at 9,000 feet at this point and he is obviously hypoxic. I tell him that he has AMS and he defends himself stating, practically slurring, "I've climbed... hundreds of... peaks", "I'm usually the one passing people", "I'm in the top 5% for the 5K". I try to explain that fitness is not an indicator for adaptation to altitude and I try to give him an out because I see where this is going. I say to him that I have found a correlation between lack of sleep and poor altitude performance. I ask him how much he got and he said 1hr. "There you go" I said "You know, we have a huge day ahead of us there is nothing wrong with turning around". I look at him, he looks relived. 0525 I give him his second rope, he returns to the car. I stash my rack and harness and head up the trail to climb something alone. for the record I dont blame him i blame me.

Did not read all the other statements that people made but the OR Furio pants are just what you are looking for! love em' mostly what I use for any winter outing...

burchey, I have the Apex. It is cheap and effective. I use it for truly cold tempatures on bigger climbs and when I plan on climbing through the night. Other than those situations a multitude of other lamps work. I happen to have a tactikka (sp?) for that stuff. You wont regeret your purchase of the apex.

all the bullshit routes people comment on and nobody has anything to say about this gem. Good work. (climbed it with jeff)

Ben, that was quite the comprehensive TR. BTW that Wyoming dude was Ed's partner: I dont know if you heard of the wyoming ice climbers who got hit by an avalanche...

yep that was me. we couldn't have asked for better climbing conditions.

Trip: hood/rainier climb/ski - NF and Liberty Ridge Date: 6/10/2012 Trip Report: Liberty Ridge: NF of Hood:

I have a question for anybody who has climbed Yocum Ridge. If you have not climbed and at least rapped off the 3rd gendarm then please DO NOT comment. I do not need your "speculations" or "best guess" i want reliable information from someone who is not a poser. Now for the question... Can you rap off with a single 60m? I know that is not what is recomended but i want to know if it is possible. If you used judicisous down climbing or if you could place another anchor. Thank you in advance

two questions for you. Did you ever get an eye on Yokum? If so how was it? When decending coopers spur is there easy/safe access to the base of the north face? or would you have to walk a long ways arround the cliff band? thanks

No idea about the E face. There were a lot of hikers arround...

Since I'm computer challenged i couldent write anything under the last two images. So here it is... -The second to last image is the wall you are to climb left and under but with the ice there it is possible to climb up, into and through the snowy icy corner. -The last image is simply a photo of the start of the hidden traverse

Alex, We were hoping for a little more ice or at least a little more solid and well adhered ice on the pitches out of the bowl. For the rock portions we were also hoping for more pro. But any cracks were covered by snow and rotten ice. But the occational shrub to sling and moderate climbing made it dooable.

Trip: North Face of Mt. Index's North Peak Date: 12/29/2010 Trip Report: Attempted this a couple of days ago and wanted to post some Beta since it was hard to find much. -The Climb: Lots of opportunities to simu-climb and save time given the easy but exposed terrain. We found the climb to be, in its current condition, very run out. No joke, not much pro at all. There also seems to be several options to climb to get to the bowl depending on conditions. -I would say late winter / early spring would be your best bet for success. More day light and better Ice. During a cold snap (a must for safety) and if the stars align… a full moon and clear skies. -I would avoid a decent in the dark I see an epic happening there. -As the guide says the crux pitches are getting out of the bowl. You get out of the bowl by going to the upper left side of the bowl (the highest part) and then climb up and right up a slaby coulior for two pitches. The crux is not the difficulty of the climbing but the exposure and total lack of gear. This is what turned us back. With some decent ice in on this pitch it would be child’s play, but if not your dancing with the devil. -Even with us bringing bivy gear including a stove for water and a tent we only brought one pack and it weight only 20 pounds. We each had an insulated water bottle, puffy and belay gloves clipped to our harness. and just swapped the pack to the follower. -I have some picture that would be great to share for good beta but I can't figure out how to post them! Can some one throw me a fricken bone here? For now you can check out the video... Enjoy Gear Notes: I did/ would take: -Bivy gear (we were able to use a small tent) -Food for 3 days (2 nights on route) -Tag Line for decent (we almost got cliffed out with two ropes so a single would be a bad idea) -Tibloc's and grigri for simu-climbing (didn’t bring but would probably use in the future) -Screamers Our rack for reference: 3 pins (use full) 6 ish chocks mid sizes 4 tri cams (covers large chock sizes and small to mid cam size) #1+2 link cams #3 C4 10 ish slings plus some double lengths. 2 pickets (the most use full pro for us... scary) 2 13cm screws ...and you know the other standard stuff... Approach Notes: Trail in: -the "rough" road referred to in the guide, Selected Cascade climbs Vol. 1 is closed and you are forced to walk it. this turns the approach just to the lake into a 5mi hike. No biggie because the trail was well built. For reference it took us 1hr and 50 min. - Yes a NW forest pass is required for the parking lot. - Currently the trail is well packed and snow shoes are not necessary

Thanks alot... now my buddy from Spokane has convinced me to drive there for a weekend climb... from Cheyenne WY.

KaskadskyjKozak, Thanks a lot for getting in front of everybody and moving slow. Alpinism is moving fast and light not slow and light. Seriously everybody was jammed up because you were climbing at a snails pace.