downey

I hope these pics give you a feel for the good time we had last Saturday. Also, I'd like to recognize Kevin and his regular climbing partner Doug (who couldn't make it due to work) as the masterminds of this climb, and that I was just a lucky dude who happened to have an obligation-free Saturday. Will leading insecure 'shampoo ice' on pitch one - *camera tilt unintentional. "it's been a while since i've climbed ice" "thumbs up" for bomber rock anchors!! *Sorry no summit pic for ya, Wijavascript:void(0)ll! - Stoked to be back at the 'bivy boulder' after a disorienting descent in a whiteout

nice job dude! nice lookin ice too. looks like there's always somethign goin on on hood.

GA, Might want to bring your rock ski's for Asgard pass. Doesn't seem quite worth it to me.. I'd wait for it to fill in a bit more. I didn't make a mental note/pics of Asgard though but that's what I'd guess based on my general impression of conditions up there. hope that helps, B

Thanks! Of course I don't mind.. that's what this place is for road 7601 is gated at Icicle Creek Road. I haven't done much skiing in mountain boots but would consider bringing them to cash at the Trailhead for the ski back down 7601 (not for flotation but to cut down on travel time back down the car at the end of a long day). I welcome suggestions on this topic. Ski's above the TH doesn't seem worth it to me with a solid boot pack already set all the way to the lake. Someone ahead of us broke trail from the head of the lake en route to TC. No idea about Assgard pass... probably at least some postholing in talus but you'll have to go there to know for certain. Have a good trip! OTHER ICE: While i'm at it, I didn't see much ice coming in at all on other routes on Dragontail . There were some short but cool looking ice/mixed options on the Eastern flank of Colchuck - near the col. ALso, I noted some nice ice options up to a few pitches on the approach to colchuck lake (East side of the drainage.. Cannon mountain around 4500' elevation?? ish) that looked to be worth exploring.

Trip: Enchantments - Colchuck - N Buttress Couloir to N Buttress Date: 12/3-4/2011 Trip Report: Last Sunday my buddy Chris and I climbed Colchuck. Due to leaving in a hurry, we didn't gather any beta other than a couple good topography maps for approach/descent. Having that said, I'm pretty sure we climbed the North Buttress Couloir to N Buttress. *the character of the route makes it hard to describe.. lots of choices and options for routefinding so my best beta is to just follow your nose. *camera tilt unintentional Route: The climb started in the rightmost of two obvious couloirs on Colchuck (NBC). You can't get a good view of the NBC until you’re pretty much underneath it. One noteworthy detail of our climb is a 25m traverse left into another couloir which eventually led to the rocky broken ridge. Once we gained the ridge it became apparent that speed was more prudent than taking pics.. sorry. About 7 hrs from start of route to summit. Descent: Straightforward jaunt to Stuart-Colchuck col. Might be more exciting in icier conditions. Conditions: We encountered long stretches of highly variable snow climbing (from deep wallowing to wind-hammered) connected by shorter sections of snowy rock and ice. We solo’d most of it aside from a few 50-100’ pitches of easy 5th and a couple blocks of simulclimbing on the ridge . Gear Notes: We brought 4 or 5 screws (didn't use them) and a single rack from blue metolius tcu, .4-2 C4 (used all), wires, and a few pins (used one blade). Since we didn't know what to expect we brought twins but only used one - this worked great since the cruxes were short. Approach Notes: Solid bootpack to Colchuck Lake: about 3-4 miles on a road to 3-4 miles boot packed trail.

cross fit made me more conscious of my nutrition because I wouldn't be able to do the workouts if I wasn't eating an awesome diet. Seriously - i would become lightheaded (prematurely), sleepy, tingles, etc.... this all changed when i started eating better. The gains I made from doing crossfit definitely made me stronger not just in the mountains, but at the sport crag as well. That's just me though. Having that said, if you have the extra time and money just go alpine climbing.

anyone have thoughts on which b'ham xfit gym is better (considering factors like quality of instruction, price, etc)? thanks

fuck it.. i need to study anyways

anyone have tomorrow off? thinking colfax peak or something. Braden 6I43I56226

thanks for the pics! how was the road up to heliotrope ridge trailhead?

Looking for alpinists in the Bellingham area who are psyched to train hard, talk climbing/skiing, get psyched and/or hopefully get out and climb in the alpine or maybe some waterfalls (and maybe a trip to the canadian rockies around thanksgiving). I'm a working student so unfortunately most of my free time is spent studying/training (x-fit style home workouts, HIT board, running in the chuckanuts and cycling), but once in a while when the weather, partners, and schedule comes together I hope to get out and climb. pm if interested. looking forward to hearing from ya braden

thanks for the advice

Does anyone know any ankle exercise to help stabilize my ankles while running? I've done a particularly large amount of crack climbing this year (for me). I'm no doc but I think that may be a contributing factor to my recent sprained ankles while trail running. any other thoughts on the subject are appreciated as well. thanks

glad you found it useful, Dave! there's a lot of good stuff on twight's site.

I came across this while on Mark Twight's site. I certainly took something from it. Maybe you will too. http://pindancing.blogspot.com/2010/12/answer-to-will-you-mentor-me-is.html

I had to drive a total of 100 miles one-way looking for condoms when I was there in 2007. Oh, and correction - you can find similar weirdness like that in Utah as well. Looks like a fun trip, btw! those pics brought back memories of the best roadtrip of my life... thanks!

Don't take it personally. If you scroll through my posts, you'll find a few unsuccessful solicits looking for a winter alpine mentor. It's easier to find partners for summer objectives when it's less serious. I finally had some luck with partnerfinder on mountainproject.com... but If I didn't have a relatively strong skill set (in the rock realm) to contribute to the partnership, he probably wouldn't be interested in taking me in for more alpine (snow, ice, mixed)-type objectives. One other bit of advice you didn't ask for... don't get impatient by finding a dangerous partner. The cascades in winter are unforgiving and bad partners can easily get you killed. Although I can't offer a mentorship because i'm broke and my time is valuable, feel free to pm me questions about climbing out here... it takes some figuring out and I have ideas for beginner winter routes if you're interested. Good luck PsychedWIll!

Thanks MtnBoy.. for the suggestion and reminding me of the positive side to the situation. The geko was a nice light, small unit, but it didn't work well under canopy which was a bummer. I'll look into the foretrex when I get a paycheck

well, if you go up to find it, you've earned it. that's the biggest chosspile and bushwack i've ever climbed.

yup... it's a garmin geko 300-ish. small, grey.

i think some people go overboard with electrolytes and suppliments in general, but i think these 'researchers' aren't spending their days on El Cap sweating their asses off for 10 hours or more! If you're not taking in something salty when you're sweating a lot, (salted almonds are one of my favorites), you're going to get severe hyponatremia http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001431/ drinking loads of water without enough salts will also dilute your system enough to make you very sick... I vomited the entire way down castelton tower to the TH because of hyponatremia (ahhh that sucked haha!). Less water and more salt would have prevented it. in the end it's whatever works for you. experiment.

With some experimentation, I've found that a liter or two of Nuun (in addition to plain water) throughout the day and a bananna (potassium) during breakfast fixed the annoying cramps I get in my forearms when wall climbing. Look for the fruit-leather type at Trader Joes... i don't like the taste but it does the trick for me. btw, on my last trip from sea level to 14,400' w/minimal time to acclimate, my climbing partner told me to cut back on the potassium intake because it inhibits acclimatization. I have no idea if this is true, but it's worth looking into if you're worrying about AMS.

it's officially lost - small grey gps may have fallen out of pocket somewhere on J-berg N rib (mid august) / descent to cascade pass, or possibly torment-forbidden traverse (mid-late aug). if you found one, i'd be stoked to have it back. thanks, Braden

way to get after it and thanks for getting me PSYCHED!!! GURR!

or pm me if u might be interested and have questions for me. Anyone?