nels0891

just drove by the section that had the mudslide an hour or two ago.... that thing pushed around some big boulders. time for all the boulderers to break out the brushes and get to work.

Ya I read about that... seems a little sketchy, but at this point i think i could do him the service of recognizing his accomplishments as a climber and leave his personal stuff out of it.

Erhard Loretan was killed in a fall while guiding in the Bernese Alps. He was the third person to summit all 8000 meter peaks. RIP Swiss mountaineer dies in fall

liberty ridge is also at the top of my list. I've been on rainier quite a few times, just haven't gotten on lib ridge yet. i noticed that it says your out of coeur d'alene, and i'm actually in moscow at U of I, so if you want to get out and do some rock climbing to get to know each other and make a plan, that would definitely be a possibility.

I dont know if i'll be able to afford a trip up to alaska, but for the rest of the 6 months where are you going to be climbing? I am from the seattle area and will be looking for partners this summer. You and i seem to be at a similar level as far as climbing ability is concerned so if your in the area and are interested in any of the cascade volcanoes or north cascades i'm sure we could work something out. Chase nels0891@vandals.uidaho.edu

Although you might be right about personal preference of the guides, I think what he was asking was why have the guide services and the national park dictated the DC route as the standard for many guided trips. And i think the answer to that question, is that its the easiest out of the paradise side, relatively accessible when problems arise, and muir is better suited for larger numbers of people than camp shurman. Also, thats where the guides started and have a long history on that route. As much as people on this thread are bashing on the DC, I really dont think its as bad as it might sound. I mean, if it were an absolute death trap then everyone would refuse to climb it. It doesn't look good for guides' reputations for their clients to be picked off by rocks on a regular basis, and they wouldnt be on the DC if that was the case.

The NPS also finished up the new trail up to glacier basin, so you no longer have to make your way up the rocky creek bed for that section of the trail since the flooding a few years ago. I climbed the Emmons about 2 weeks before they finished the new trail, and that was probably the only part that stuck out to me as kind of a pain. Also, another really good way of increasing your chances of a successful summit is to make it a three day trip and hang out for a day at high camp before going for the top. Not only does it give you a little more time to adjust to the altitude and recover from the hike up to high camp, in my experience it also gives you a chance to talk to more people that have good insight of the current conditions on the route. In fact, I think planning and preparation will have a lot more to do with a successful rainier climb than choosing between the DC and Emmons routes. As far as safety of the routes, i think its safe to say that the Emmons has a slightly higher degree of safety in certain regards. However as people noted above, there are very real dangers on both the DC and Emmons, so if I were you I would approach them both with the same mindset. Good luck and have a fun climb!

kurt, i sent you a message on facebook, you should check it out and let me know what you think.

captain panther.. if you find out where this is, we should get some people to head out there some time next week.

fair enough. i wasnt trying to criticize you by any means, im a student myself and was really just wondering.

I know its unrelated to your question, but i just have to ask. Why get a degree in financial economics if you dont have any interest in it?

Just wanted to remind everyone to be careful out in the backcountry now that winter has returned. Im just as pumped as the next person to get out and enjoy the snow and do some awesome winter climbs, but keep in mind to follow the necessary steps to stay out of avalanche danger. When in doubt, do yourself a favor and take a class. Here is a link to a report of a fatality a few weeks ago on morning star peak. Morning Star Avalanche Report

you could consider me in a similar situation.... ive really contemplated on dropping everything and going somewhere like that. unfortunately ive settled for waiting until i graduate in two more years. if your looking for boats, there are a lot of websites out there for boat owners looking for crew, and people that are looking to ride along. most are unpaid (but if your going to patagonia, who cares anyway), and some require previous sailing experience but not all. I think it would be a little trickier to find one that fits the bill if you go in with specific criteria, but if you dont really care where you go i dont think it would be that difficult. as far as driving... you should just look really closely at the political situations in all of the countries you would be driving through. i really have no idea if there is any concern or not, but its something to consider.

i'll be home from school next thursday, so any time after that im definitely interested in checking it out. got any dates in mind?

I'd be interested in the routes you mentioned as well as a few others. Also would you or anybody else on this thread be interested in doing rainier this winter? not too technical... but i still want to get a winter climb on the big guy. brandon, i'll be back from school in about a week and a half so whenever your ready to do some climbs im game. and captain panther, your from rei tacoma right? ive talked to you a few times, if your interested in getting out as well im game. reply to me on here, send me an email at nels0891@vandals.uidaho.edu or look me up on facebook. hope to hear from at least one of you guys within the next few weeks.

more specifically than WA or OR, what area? how about like a closest city. if its in washington within 2-3 hours of the seattle area i'm interested.

I'm planning a winter climb of rainier in late december or early january. the specific dates will be more dictated by the weather, so i havent narrowed it down that much. if your interested and have some previous mountaineering experience just let me know. I plan on going up the gib ledges route.

Taking what alex said a little further: you might consider the north ridge of mount baker early in the season. If you get out there on the earlier side, then the pitches of ice are short and not terribly steep. Also crossing the coleman glacier earlier in the season is much more straight forward. I did the route last summer as a similar "next step" than some of the standard walk up routes, and did not have any trouble with the terrain or the ice. Later that summer I did the kautz route and found them to be comparable in difficulty, but I found the north ridge of baker a lot more aesthetically enjoyable. It also makes the up and over routine easier if your not comfortable descending the kautz. when you go up and over from the kautz, you have to haul all of your gear with you, where as on the north ridge of baker you can leave your camp behind and get it via the descent route. If you have any more questions about the north ridge or beta just give me a heads up.

I am all for pointing out climbing trails with signs, however, I think there is another issue at play. In many areas that regularly get large amounts of snow and climbing traffic like many of the alpine climbs in higher country, the snow melting out can result a maze of different trails. Look at Mount Rainier for example, in many of the low meadows out of Paradise, when there is plenty of snow, people establish trails wherever the they want to go. Well as the snow melts out and reveals more and more bare patches, people end up crossing through said patches because they dont know where the actual trail is. And when the snow first melts, those meadows are particularly fragile and easily give way to new trails. This after a few seasons results in a maze of trails, which seems pretty regular to me on popular climbs. Dont get me wrong, I'd love to see it change, but I just have a feeling that it might be less than "people just dont give a shit", and more unintentional. In fact ive never come across someone that has intentionally avoided a trail on a long approach slog. So maybe that just means we need to come up with creative ideas of marking trails that is subtle, but will keep you in line when snow patches cover much of the actual trail. Maybe pinning something to certain trees in the way blazes used to be used. I'd love to hear interesting ways of creating a solution, and its something I wouldn't mind implementing either. Putting a little time into fixing up the places around here is the least we could all do considering all the fun times to be had.

if your still around through the weekend, i'm planning on going up to post falls on saturday to do some climbing. feel free to join. chase

its supposed to rain at the coulee this weekend too... just find somewhere overhung enough it doesnt get as wet. ie deep creek out of spokane.

ptown, im with you, these people should clearly not be giving info when they seem quite misinformed to the dangers of climbing. Looks to me like these folks dodged a bullet. This is the reason why so many people get hurt on mt. hood.

Does anybody know which routes on the black spider have been climbed and which ones have not? Also is there any up to date information source about the routes? I have just been intrigued recently by the climbing up there, however information is relatively limited.

this really makes me want to drop out of school and go climbing....

I have plenty of mountaineering experience myself, but am relatively new to ice. I am going to school in moscow idaho, but will be home on winter break from mid december to mid january. If you are interested, i was also thinking about a trip to bozeman in early january to climb in hyalite canyon. send me a PM if you are interested. Chase