Jason4

I don't know how to answer this, I'm very torn between beer and indoor deep water soloing. How about routes that are marked by color coded holds with tape only on the start and finish hands? How about organizing problems into circuits of similar difficulty and then having a posted schedule and changing one circuit at a time so regular members know how long they have to finish that one last problem that they are working on? How about routes with difficult moves but large jugs to warm up or to continue to climb long after pumping out on the crimpers? I haven't been to the Edge but these are some general observations I've made from the small handful of gyms that I've climbed in stateside after spending 7 months climbing in the Netherlands at a gym call Monk (monkbouldergym.nl check it out).

My experience with the group that I've been out with is that transition times don't make a signigicant difference between skis and a splitboard. I can transition in nearly the same time as the skiers and as soon as they get any dyna-fiddle issues I'm the one that's left waiting for them to clear snow. That said, I can't side step across icy sections. I don't have a lightweight spring set up for those days when it's not about the down but the up. I don't have walk mode in my boots and I really hate the feeling of a snowboard boot with a soft heel spine. I don't have convenient crampons for my snowboard boots. What I do have is a big smile on my face because either way, when I'm in the mountains I'm having fun.

Did you get your ropes yet?

Check out splitboard.com, there are good reviews and lots of good info there. The current Burton Freebird seems to be a good board at a good price, K2 makes it easy with the entire kit, I'm riding a T.Rice with Karakoram bindings and am happy with it for the most part but I think it is more board than most people need. I haven't ridden any of the other splitboards that are on the market but there are more choices out there now. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

My hope and dream for 2012 is to see a good bouldering gym open up in Bellingham. Something of at least the quality of the Spot in Boulder. If that doesn't happen then I'll stick to bouldering on the beach. I'm going to go back to the Circus in Squamish to get a few of the routes that I didn't get when I was up there last summer. I'll also stare at some of the harder ones just like I did last summer. I'd like to snowboard off of Larabee, Baker, and Shuksan too but I'm not sure what I'll have time for. Wait, that's not rock climbing...

I'm jealous...of how bad ass you and your adventure are. Such a fun sounding tour.

This is the best answer here. Other than that, listen to the guys who understand physics, freebody diagrams, and applied forces in a pulley system.

I bought a copy for my parents for Christmas and almost bought a second one for myself. I'm going to hold off to get it at the SAC event.

So I just checked the picture again and in the upper left corner it says the kit is for 2 people for 2 nights...could it be assumed that it would be good for 4 people for 1 night?

Important protection Don't forget this important piece of protection.

Are you ever up in Bellingham? I might be interested in trading you for the same thing in a large, it's even orange.

I've gotten good beta that Twin Lakes can be accessed by snowmobile early in the season before avy danger gets too high. That was our plan and how I know it's been done before. Doing it that way really doesn't require an overnight stay at the look out but it sure would be a great place to spend an evening.

I bought a CiloGear 45L over the weekend with the shovel pocket and couldn't be happier with it for split board touring. I already have about 12 miles of touring with it on 2 day trips. I haven't loaded it up for an overnight trip but a split board set up alone is close to 20 pounds so I wanted something that could handle the weight well. I found that it is more stable than any previous snowboard pack I've ever had. It looks to be durable in the right places and light with just enough optional lash points to be a really flexible pack.

I've searched here and found lots of info, it sounds like the main route is a chossy scramble that can be done pretty quickly from the parking lot at Twin Lakes. I'm eyeing it for a winter ascent starting from the look out on Winchester.

I forgot to mention that I took that picture on Sunday, 6 November.

That's on the east side of Rainy Lake at Rainy Pass. I don't think it would be more than a 2 mile hike from the trail head right at Highway 20. I shot the picture from the ridgeline on the west side of the lake coming down from Maple Pass.

You can find photo evidence of the adventure here: Flickr

Here's a link to a bunch of pictures from Friday: Flickr

Since I'm not finding enough patience to embed pictures here's a link to Flickr instead: Flickr

I'm no ice climber but I know a frozen water fall when I see one. I'll just leave this here... Flickr

I got to put some miles on my splitboard over the weekend and thought I'd share some of my positive gear experiences. I went up to Heliotrope on Friday with a friend who had an older version of a Cilo 45L pack that he was happy with. I was carrying a very full and very old smaller REI pack that worked ok but wasn't going to fit enough for overnighters or even long day trips with alpine hardwear. I broke a buckle on my pack and decided that was enough of an excuse to get a new pack. I made it in to AAI before they closed and picked up a new 45L pack and shovel pocket that I was oggling on Wednesday. I got it out on Saturday with the same load that I was carrying on Friday and it felt good right away. There is definately a learning curve to using this pack and I still have some fiddling to do to figure out how I want to use the straps. For the load I was carry this weekend I simply pinched all but the top side clips together on both sides and then strapped the shovel pocket to the outside. With this configuration I was able to carry all of my day trip stuff and was able to strap my board on with the most stable carrying board pack I've ever used. There is plenty more room to add a sleeping bag, shelter, food, and alpine gear to the pack and still be able to carry my split board if I need to. I was a little concerned about the lack of pockets and access to the inside but it was never an issue. I'm satisfied that I can quickly get to my shovel and probe in the external pocket. I can carry my skins between the pocket and the body of the pack for the fun part of the day and I can fit everything that I want to get to quickly into the top pocket, it never flopped around and hit me in the back of the head either. So far I have somewhere around 11 miles on this pack over 2 days in the snow with touring gear and am very satisfied with it.

I'm not an ice climber but I did notice a lot of ice forming above Rainy Lake that would be worth exploring if the weather breaks again before the highway is closed.

Trip: Heather and Maple Passes - Date: 11/6/2011 Trip Report: To finish my weekend off I went out with a friend from SAC who wanted to ski Maple and Heather passes. He was out there a few weeks ago and said he wished he had his skis for the snow fields. I was a bit skeptical after my Friday trip to Heliotrope but I wanted to get out in the mountains and the weather was nice. We started out from the parking lot towards Heather Pass on skins but I was moving slow on my splitboard and the snow wasn't very deep. I quickly found a good way to carry my board in the pack and was making better time than Don was on his skis. We found a few exposed water ice crossings (at least a meter in length!) and quickly made our way to the top of the first pass. Somebody else had already skinned the entire way and once we got out on the open traverse above Lake Ann we could see tracks high on the ridge. We stopped for lunch around 130 near Heather Pass and enjoyed a quiet meal and shared a beer. Unfortunately the other beer fell victim to a hazardous ski crampon. After lunch we followed the skin tracks up to Maple pass on took a few turns on the south face and found rocks. On the way back up I learned how to deal with a stiff wind pack on my split board and it wasn't graceful. Once back at the pass we dropped down into the shade and found about 10 amazing turns without a single rock until we tried to traverse around the bowl that we were in to get back to the trail. We gave up on the traverse to the right when the talus field inflicted too much damage on my board and instead went left and back towards the trail on the ridgeline. Don chose to ski down some more of the trail which was more adventurous than I felt ready for (for the sake of my board). When the snow got too variable for skis we both ended up booting about 3 miles back to the car to arrive after dark at about 530. The suffer factor varied from "shoulder season" to a high of "awesome" and a low of "Trent" but it was a good day overall. We only saw 6 other people the entire day while we were out there which was a refreshing change from the previous two days. I learned a very important lesson: check the bases of your partners skis to get an idea of their tolerance for low snow conditions... Pictures to come after work. Gear Notes: Splitboard and snowboard boots. Approach Notes: Boots and skins

Trip: Table Mountain - Ski area-Austin Pass-Artist Point-Table Mt Date: 11/5/2011 Trip Report: Due to a long day Friday and big plans for Sunday I got a late start on Saturday but still made a good time out of it. We left Bellingham at 11, made a quick stop to drop off some goods for the NWAC benefit at Chair 9 in Glacier and got to the parking lot around 1pm. We made quick work of the hike up to the face of table and played around with some short and sweet turns in the new snow there but it was still pretty shallow. When we left we decided to follow some other tracks on the traverse past the buttress and into Bagley bowl. That was a bad idea. The first chute that we passed was looking pretty sharky so we went to the next one which didn't look much better. The third chute over looked more committed so we decided to make the best of the second chute. There was about a 40 foot rock band across the entire chute and thin snow below it. Two of our group downclimbed through the rocks and two of us pointed it and ran it out. We all clipped a handful of rocks below that on the ride to the lake but I worked my way left and got onto the tracked out and left over snow field where a lot of the spring avalanches settle out. The snow in there was good but short, low angle, and tracked. We traversed around the west side of Bagley Lake, up passed the interpretive center and out to Terminal lake. The snow on the road was fast enough to coast all the way out to the parking lot easily. Pictures to come after work. Gear Notes: Splitboard and snowboard boots Approach Notes: Enough snow for skinning the entire way

Trip: Heliotrope Ridge - Standard Date: 11/4/2011 Trip Report: I took my first trip to Heliotrope Ridge on Friday with a group who knew the area well. We left Bellingham before 7am and made it to the trail head about 830. The last couple of mile of Glacier Creek road were snow covered but I was able to make it all the way to the trail head in my Audi wagon with Blizzak snow tires. When we arrived there were only a few other cars there. Somebody had started skinning from the parking lot but we chose to hike instead. The Grouse Creek crossing was a little bit exciting, mostly climbing up the other side (and back down on the return). It looks like there is an easier crossing 50 meters down stream from where the bridge is washed out. We started skinning when we hit the moraine and made pretty good time getting up to the snow field but rocks were common on the way up. It was sunny with a stiff breeze at the bottom of the field and still air at the top of the ridge line. Surprisingly it was more comfortable at the top than at the bottom! We got two laps on the snowfield before we turned to descend to the car. We rode down almost to the top of the moraine until we started hitting too many rocks. We all decided to boot it out from there. I found some thick water ice under the snow on one of the traverses to the top of the approach trail. We started to descend on the top of the ridge in a half walk/half boot ski technique until I ventured off the ridge to the left and found easier going in the deeper snow, I could control my rate of descent much better that way. We made the long slog out to the cars and left at about 330, in time to get back to town by 530. All in all it was a great day but I'll wait for more snow before making that walk again. I'll post some pictures if I have time after work. Gear Notes: Splitboard and snowboard boots, happy to have a puffy sweater when we stopped to eat. Approach Notes: Next time I'd make the approach in my mountaineering boots instead of my snowboard boots and stash them in the trees at the bottom of the moraine.