Jason4

Thanks for pioneering new routes in the Twins! I was in that area on Saturday and found lots of new flagging on the way in, some of it hanging on trees right next to the existing blazes, excessive especially since the trail is so easy to follow in most places. It's marking a less direct trail from the last creek crossing (Hildebrandt or Wiseman?) to the big old cedars than is necessary. I picked up flagging that was laying on the ground on the way in and ended up with a full pocket. I'm happy to see people enjoying the area but want to repeat what Darin said about picking up after ourselves and leaving the area clean for the next party to enjoy.

I second the Atomic Backlands. I have challenging feet to fit too and went with the Backlands since the entire shell can be baked in an oven and stretched to fit. The boot fitter that I've been working with says they're really easy to punch after the initial shell molding process too. I got the regular ones for splitboarding and they are soft enough to ride in without modification, it makes me wonder how people ski in them at all, you'll probably want to step up to the carbon version.

Some of the lookouts can make for really fun outings and a lot of them are more exposed than you might expect. I really enjoy the hike up to Hidden Lake Peaks Lookout, Park Butte is another fun one with good mileage and a great perspective to get you excited about the range of peaks you can see from there. I haven't been up to Lookout Mountain (near HLP) but I hear that trail is a grind as well. As for places to learn more professional guides will offer the most focused education experience, volunteer organizations offer various levels of education but typically their courses are spread out on weekends that stretch on for several month, a climbing mentor can be the most rewarding but that's very dependent on who you end up matched up with. Good luck and stay safe in the mountains. BTW, I agree with JasonG, 4th class scares me more than moderate 5th with good protection.

I'm pretty sure that's the time of year that the guides are running Denali prep on Rainier. As has already been warned, be ready for bad weather.

A lot of friends have been up Baker lately on the Coleman-Deming route, it looks like it's skiing nicely. The road to the trailhead opened up tentatively a couple of weeks ago, I'd expect it to close again is we get a really heavy rainstorm. The south side (Easton) should be driveable to the trailhead now but there's going to be snow most of the way from there. I'd skip that side just because of the southern exposure. It sounds like the Sulphide Glacier on Shuksan is in good shape right now too. The approach access for the south side of Baker and the south side of Shuksan is pretty close together. Cascade River Road has been closed for a few weeks but that'll open up again on Friday which opens access to Boston Basin, Eldorado, and J'burg.

That depends on what crack you're interested in.

I bet it isn't too hard to find a partner if you try squamishclimbing.com or tinder.com .

This came up in a discussion I was having with a friend of mine that guides in the Cascades. Not specifically clean descents but the idea of minimizing tat and plastic left on the mountain by using fixed rap anchors on popular routes. Our conversation ranged from the impacts of rap anchors on the fauna of an area and how likely critters are to chew on nylon slings to the idea of not damaging the rock and leaving things pristine. We settled on the preference of using wire slings over horns or through holes that could be removed if needed, aren't appetizing to critters, are likely to last through several seasons, and they're more subtle than a piece of bright yellow webbing. Not especially convenient but better than leaving nylon in the mountains.

Thanks for following through and sharing your TR. I wish I was climbing stuff like that in high school. I wish I was climbing stuff like that now too. Way to get after it!

Can you give us the clifs notes in a reply? Maybe just a couple of answers? What route did you use for the approach? Was the road still closed near the highway? How was the snow? How broken up is the Coleman glacier? Did you have any exceptionally awesome or sketchy moments up there?

You already got further along than I did, I was never even able to get a post to show up as a reply to the TR that I posted. You might just copy the text in as a reply.

Good report, will read again. I kid, I had some problems with posting a trip report a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't ever get it to work as a TR but I was able to create a new topic as a regular topic. I probably could have copied my TR complete with gear and approach notes from Word or Notepad but I posted it on TAY instead. That said, please figure it out, I'm really interested to hear about the approach and what condition the snow was in on the Coleman.

I tried to post a TR last night from home for my better half but it just came up as blank. I'm trying again from my work computer. The road is driveable (but very tall vehicles might get blocked) to the Shannon Ridge trailhead for south side access on Shuksan and the trail is bare and wet for the first 30 minutes or so. My fiance and our friend Maria were up there on Wednesday. I posted a full TR over on TAY. Hope this info helps anyone else looking to get up there soon.

I ran into him high on the White Salmon and he trotted by us at what seemed like a jogging pace. Inspiring to say the least.

I guess I'm checking in. Splitting for 5 years and snowboarding for 26. Check out splitboard.com and turns-all-year.com too. Congratulations on the acceptance of your knuckle dragging ways.

He was dealing with a serious hip injury a couple of years ago, he even mentioned it in his trip report in Jan, 2013. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1095329 From Facebook, I gather that Dan has been spending a little bit of time rock climbing, scaring himself with surfing on the coast, and some amazing chainsaw carving. I hope he gets back to skiing now that winter has returned to Washington.

If you've already got a "button" then it makes sense to keep the map app simple. I was looking primarily for an SOS button and was swayed by the mapping and com's. It came in handy when Krissy was on the volcano tour in May, I could watch their progress from my desk at work every morning. It was a lot of fun. That said, I think only two messages have ever been sent from our device, one just to try it and one to let me know that Krissy had locked her key in the truck at a TH and that the Delorme battery was dying. The message sent after she plugged the Explorer back in 2 days later.

Hey Jason, I've been using a Delorme Explorer with the companion Earthmate app and have been mostly happy with it. If you're in the market for a satellite communicator and SOS button it might be something to consider. I suspect that the free or cheap apps above will cover most of the functionality if you aren't looking for two way comms when you're in the woods.

I'll take it. Look for a PM.

I was out at lake Ann on Saturday looking up at the upper Curtis Glacier and Hell's Highway on Shuksan and there are a few thin ribbons of ice next to HH. I spent some time looking at it through the binoculars and it looked very thin but I'm not an experienced ice climber. It's exciting to see more than streams up high right now though.

The seracs are fun right now. I was on the toe of the Coleman in late September playing around on one that easy to get to from the climbers trail onto the glacier and had an alternate low angle route up an arete to set up a top rope for the steep face. The glacier ice was very forgiving to me swinging tools for the first time. Watch where the water is running on the glacier though, we had to hang our packs because anything flat enough to hold them was puddling up.

I got a look up that way from the Twins last weekend. It looked like there has been a dusting of snow but I didn't spot any ice. I'll try to remember to look closely at the pictures I took to see what shows up. I think it's been too warm though, it's been balmy in town.

Read the latest Marc Leclerc blog to get pumped on skiing in mountain boots and silverettas. And get some insurance for your knees. http://marcleclerc.blogspot.com.ar/

That'll depend on snow. If we don't get any real snow down to 4000' then the seracs on the Coleman will still be dry and safe for wandering around. If we get snow down low then I'd be hesitant to walk around down there.

Let me know if the screw sale follows through.