B Deleted_Beck

a few cans of wasp killer and a plan for a hasty retreat, i'd think. dont get any on your rope.

pics.. such as they are. not the most impressive trip album i've ever compiled. wasn't much pic taking occurring, once the weather started getting bad john getting ready at the car dan getting ready at the car on an area we dubbed "15-minute ledge," dan putting on his gortex.. me peeing, not wanting to drop pack to put on mine (stupid) me and dan coming up the couloir above "15 minute ledge" dan smiling?? holy bleep.. not sure when this was, the orientation doesn't fit anywhere in my memory bank dan bringing up the rear on the flip side of the ridge we traversed to gain the lake ledge and this would be the one and only photo taken after the weather really turned to shit... many hours later, my el baño

where's Jim x Jim, and the rowdy Russian team? my buddy Bobby and his wife got there late on the 14th, headed up to about 8,000' where they caught up with "Jim Squared," and made camp. the wind was hellacious, but they got their tent up and in and made it through the night- about the same time my team was retreating through the upper spur of the SE corner. they got up late the next day, made it to piker's peak, took pics of OUR route, and opted to descend. that high-pressure ridge WE were supposed to be climbing in came a day late, for us... glad some of you guys had decent climbing on the 15th, though.

these are the numbers we went with, but like i said- it was a shot estimation from Hot Rocks, and once on it, we weren't busting out inclinometers. but i can tell you that the upper pitches were steep- steep enough that our first couple raps down where mostly hanging on the rope. as to what i'm calling "hard alpine ice," you're right- more accurate would be "hard ice crusted hard ass snow." but that's what spilled forth from mine fingers while typing this old TR out in one swoop yesterday.

Trip: Mt. Hood - South Slope via WCR (Western Crater Rim) variation Date: 8/28/2011 Trip Report: Wanting, NEEDING to get up something, anything, before the summer let out, we shot for a south-side summit on Hood. Work was hectic, schedules hard to align.. we had a small available window, and beautiful weather. I'd been hearing the WCR was actually a decently exciting route late in the season, and we could get it done in a day... so there it was. Leaving the parking lot at 10:30 the night before, we began up the dirt switchbacks under the magic mile... why didn't we take the easier (for the time of year) climber's trail? Because we didn't see it, of course. It was dark, and none of us had climbed Hood before. After forever of dirty ass switchbacks and pitch-black clear sky (new moon... go figure), we finally got on the glacier above the palmer lift, roped up for GP, and b-lined it for the summit. Somewhere along the line it went from 60 degrees and calm to a blasting wind crashing down the palmer glacier, which was a little chilling... but overall, the weather was very pleasant. We sllllooooowwwwwllllllyyyyyy made our way up toward the crater, had a couple small arguments about the route (standing at the top of the glacier cliff on the south end of the Triangle Morane)... it was so damn dark, I was leading by compass alone. Dan was concerned that the route was "out" when we walked up on the moraine, but I was still very confident that we just needed to scramble up 10' of dirt and continue up into the crater. Still hoping for a shot at the Hogsback, we were aiming for a right-side approach into the crater. Sure enough, I scrambled 10' up scree and could see the route quite easily up to crater rock. We dirt climbed the rest of the way to the glacier (can never remember what it's called) to the right of crater rock, got back on snow, and continued to Devil's Kitchen. At this point, it became obvious to me that my partners were pooped. The rope had been tight between me and Dan for some time before I called a break. I could tell they were about to mutiny on me, so to forestall the inevitable, I suggested we take a break, eat some fude, drink some water, and rest a bit before continuing up to the Hogsback. The skies began to light up as we munched breakfast and shot the shit... then the conversation turned toward the rest of the climb. The lamest part is over! Suck it up! Get on your feet, quit your bitching, and get up that fucking headwall! I did not speak these phrases, of course, hoping to woo them into it... but finally, Bobby spoke up first: "Dawg, I'm fuckin' done. I can't climb anymore." I looked over at Dan, my last hope.... "Yea, man.. I think I'm with Bobby." Awesome. What a fuckin waste. But Bobby wasn't a climber, and Dan was very new to volcano climbing... I couldn't hold it against them too much. I just said something to the effect of, "shut up, eat your food, take a nap... rest, then we'll decide for sure. OK?" (Pooped) We sat for a while, the mood didn't improve. But then.... then.... something magical happened. Just as I was about to start hating these two guys, I hear the sound of boots trudging snow. I whip my head around, and what do I see? I see a blonde-haired, pony-tailed kid wearing a spandex tanktop, spandex shorts, wearing hiking boots and a Jansport bookbag with two pilfered bamboo boundary poles as trekking poles. He looked up, saw us, got an excited expression on his face and bounded up to where we sat. "Allo! Allo! Do you summit??" he asked enthusiastically with a very stereotypically german accent, and beginning to shiver upon stopping. I glanced at my pooped out partners, and replied, "On our way up, you going to the top?" "Ya! Vell, I vanted to, but I thought maybe I had small chanze to summit, for I haf no gear. Zat is vhy I vas so happy to see your tracers in ze znow! Can I climb vis you??" (Toby up on the Hogsback by Crater Rock- after finally putting on a shirt) So we headed back up the rest of the foot trail to the saddle on the Hogsback to check out our options. Bobby mustered the strength to head up the Hogsback to a very wide Bergshrund to check out the chutes- all of which were dirt/rock, and very steep. Fuck that... the WCR headwall was also very steep, but fully snow. Rockfall was definitely an issue: golfball- and baseball-sized rocks were zinging down every few minutes, and the left and right sides were deeply runneled from larger rocks. (Bowberry [bobby] recceing the route) We quickly estimated the headwall to be 45-50 more than halfway up, angling up to closer to 60-65 for about two pitches above. We could loan Tobias a harness, helmet, and ice tool, but his hiking boots wouldn't take crampons... but he was willing to just hold on tight and follow in my footsteps up. Le Route So I dropped ruck, backpacked the rope, and headed up. We only had one picket, and the snow was nice and hard- my cyborg front points sunk in and stuck well, so we didn't bother with a belay. In the end, kicking in steps for Toby was a pretty tiring process, and in hindsight, I should have insisted on leading up, anchoring, and having him jug to my position. Would have taken longer, but I would have had a lot more fun- my points held me fine, and kicking those steps in through that hard, hard alpine ice was incredibly draining. He wanted me to switch back a time or two, but I was starting to get extremely agitated with the extra exertion, and finally just B-lined it for the crater rim for the last pitch, following a long vertical rock band that seemed to have decent enough holds. Toby struggled to get up that last pitch, but he made it, with smile (youthful strength and exuberance... miss those days). Straddling the knife-edge ridge, his victorious grin was worth all the step-kicking I had to do for him. I was glad he was there. And then it was just the nice 50m or so hike over to the summit... nothin to it, dawg. I was pretty pooped, and concerned that Daniel and Bowberry might be getting impatient and do something stupid, we didn't hang out long. I wandered around a bit snapping pictures of all the late-August fires blooming all around the MHNF.. took some perspective pics for the non-climbers in my life, and Toby and I had a conversation about how to get back down. I would have been perfectly comfortable just down-climbing, but Toby's footwear was a concern... he didn't want to slide and die, and I was really growing fond of him and didn't want him to slide and die either, so we opted for a multi-pitch rap back down. We used boulders for the first couple anchors, then snow-bollards for the next 2 or 3 raps. In all, we rapped 5 or 6 rap pitches, and by the time we got to the where it bent back to closer to 45 degrees, and sun had softened the snow well enough that we coiled up the rope and just half-trudge-half-foot glissaded back down. Toby starting the first rap pitch Me at the bottom of the last rap. Who says you can't climb Hood in late August? Gear Notes: For our super late season climb- pons and tools a must... I stuck well, but a running belay wouldn't be ridiculous if you have the protection available. If not, just make sure you get back down before noonish, or the snow will be pretty fragile. Approach Notes: Take the climbers trail in no-snow conditions- much more direct route.

Trip: Mt. Adams - MGH (Mazama Glacier Headwall / Sunrise Camp) - Didn't even get on the route, turned around by a combination of weather and inadequate shelter. Date: 10/14/2011 Trip Report: I'll add pics when I get them. Our third planned trip up the MGH, twice before having to cancel for weather, we watched the weather very closely for the last two weeks. The reports coming back were good- chance of light snow, calm winds, cold temps, 50% clear skies... so we headed up Friday, 14th of October 2011.. Dan and I live in Saint Helens, John lives in bend, so we met up in Hood River at 10:30 yesterday morning. We transferred John's shit into Dan's Blazer, paid our toll, and headed north across the bridge into enemy territory. A quick stop in Trout Lake for a Wilderness Pass, we got there just as the Rangers were closing down. They warned us of potentially shitty weather, and informed us that we'd need to have our vehicle back down Bird Creek rd before Sunday afternoon, when the gate was to be closed for the rest of the year... this was, indeed, our last chance at an MGH send from the Yakima side. We got to the upper trailhead (the one at the top of the spur where the road swings sharp right down the spur- not sure what the head is called) at around one 1:30, with 5 hours of light left. Steel skies, 1/4 mile visibility, and damp. We shed our cotton, donned our polyester, re-calibrated our Suuntos, and headed up the climber's trail to the right at 5,700' around 2pm. I predicted we'd be finishing the leg in the dark, but that we'd make it fine. The maintained mile of the trail was easy following. John was definitely the strongest of the three of us, and took lead early on. We came on patchy snow from about 5,800', but there were footprints leading back to the dirt trail most of the way up, and constant snow from about 6,100 up to the viewpoint at 6,500. From there, the footprints ended, and we were on our own for route-finding along the not-very established climber's trail to Sunrise camp. Routefinding became a bit of an issue from there on, costing us some small time. John and I are both experienced land navigators, and despite the now 1/8th mile visibility and increasing rain, we were able to pick our way through the scree piles.. but we stopped frequently for bearing. We did make one minor navigational error, still having trouble with our 1:64,000 perspective map (very little landform detail and elev contours at 200' intervals), which caused us to believe we were farther north than we were... which caused us to climb the first big spur rather than circumnavigate it. HOWEVER, that actually put us, in my opinion, in much better approach position for the shove up under Sunrise- and the next attempt at MGH, I will take this same route. Why walk all the way around the bottom of the spur just to have to hike all that long way up the upper end of the draw? I'd way rather have a short steep climb than a long, low-angle hike. Anyway.... By the time we got to the top of the spur, the wind was starting to pick up. We'd been getting gusts in the 15mph range since leaving the treeline, but at the top of our traverse, we got smacked with a few 30+ gusts ripping through the saddle above. Rain was increasing, and I was getting damp... should have put my gortex on long before, dammit. As we approached the saddle near the lake at 7,650', the clouds opened up and we could see, for the first time, the route up the Sunrise. Dan groaned. We continued on for about another 400' of of gain when John indicated to me that he wasn't feeling good about our situation. He'd seemed very cool with everything until that point, so it was sort of a shock to me. Dan hadn't said much of anything, because Dan is generally just too tired to speak when we climb... so no change there... Still shy of our objective, and in a relatively flat spot on decently cushy snow, I called for camp. We were extremely wind-exposed, but I didn't think it was going to get any better higher up- and to tell you the truth, I was getting soaking ass wet and my hip hurt and I was coming down with a cold, I really wanted to get into my bag. So we dropped packs where we stood, and with about 20 minutes of light left and visibility coming in to around 50 feet, we busted out shelters. And that's when the trip started to fall apart. As we began to make camp, it became slowly evident to me why John seemed suddenly worried, and that neither of my partners were doing well at all. The wind was now screaming through our shelf, and John's "shelter" turned out to be a backpacking tarp. Dan was moving extremely slowly with frozen fingers, so I just sat with my back to the wind holding my end of our ultra-light two-man tent while he fumbled and cursed. I had nothing to do but hold things and watch, since I'd never set up Dan's superlight tent.. so between occasionally tying this, or staking that, I was watching John struggle with his tarp. He looked like a test model in a wind-tunnel... by the flapping and him stumbling all over the place, I'd estimate the winds hitting him at a good solid 40 with gusts to 50. I staked in the part of the tent I'd been holding, and walked over to John. The first conversation went something like this: "How's it goin', Dawg?" I screamed over the wind and rain pelting our shells. "Um... I'm not sure, man. (Chuckle)." "You gonna get it?" "Uh.. dude... Yea, I think so." "Ok, good. I'll be over here." I went back to our tent, where Daniel had finally gotten the poles in and the canopy up. I helped lash the fly down and was about to start gathering rocks to pile on for anchoring. I looked back at John... his shelter was no longer strung up. I thought it'd blown off the mountain, and walked over. When I got close enough, I could see that he had it all balled up and was tucked over it, probably trying to keep it from ripping out of his arms. "What do you think, Bro?" "I think I need to go down, man," John said. "I don't want to bust your attempt, though, so I'll just go alone." "No way, man. You're not going down alone in this shit. We'll all go down together." I went back to Dan, who had basically just put on the finishing touches and was dragging his pack toward the vestibule... "Pack it up, we're descending." And if looks could kill, I'd be splattered all over the side of the mountain right now. My goal was basically just to get low enough to get out of the wind, get John's shelter up, and figure out the rest in the morning. Visibility was 50' and shrinking, the wind was trying to push us down the mountain, and since my bite valve had frozen, I figured this freezing fucking rain would turn into literal freezing rain soon, and really wasn't wanting to be slowly transmogrified into an extremely handsome popsicle on the side of Mount Adams. So we began the descent by following the fall line off the shelf and down into the draw that leads to Hellroaring Meadow. But as we followed the fall line, I picked up our tracks from the spur traverse, and opted to just go ahead and backtrack. We just needed to ascend about 100' to get back to the saddle we crossed at, and then we could very easily follow our own tracks back to the established climbers trail, so long as the rain stayed rain. So that's exactly what we did. I led for about half the descent until, in a moment of need to expel some angst over our lame descent, I sprinted down a few hundred feet, and tired myself out. John led the rest of the way down from there. Back to to the treeline at around 6,500..... NO WIND. The thought occurred to me there that we should make camp, and push for Sunrise in the morning... we were provisioned for three days on the mountain (with a planned two)- but then I remembered that the Bird Creek gate would be CLOSING FOR THE YEAR Sunday mid-day, and abandonded my last little hope that we might actually, finally conquer the elusive MGH. I didn't even mention it, and my partners seemed perfectly content to be heading back to the car. Back to the car around 8:30, we stripped off our soaked-through shells (all three of us had a soft AND hard shell layer on over base, and all three of us were soaked to the skin- it was seriously wet up there), put on delicious cotton, warmed the car, one of us smoked a bowl, and we proceeded down and away from my last chance at this damned route for the year. As I sit here at my desk, coughing and sniffing and feeling achy and weak, I'm almost glad we did descend last night... then I look out the window at BRIGHT BLUE SKIES without a cloud in sight, and I'm just plain pissed. LAME. Gear Notes: Well... for us, it was crampons and headlamps. But MGH, depending on the time of the year, can require between a handful of pickets, an ice axe, and a 30m rope, to a 60m rope, ice screws, and technical ice tools. See other TRs and route over-views for more details. Approach Notes: Roads are bumpy, but doable in any vehicle remotely designed for off-road travel. Ground clearance is the biggest issue, but I can imagine that 4x4 would become necessary in some weather. Route-finding to Sunrise is sort of sketchy if you lose the trail, but IS pretty intuitive if you have a map and compass. Just follow the high line all the way up and W to NW until you get to the mountain proper. Then the route just meanders generally NW until you reach the saddle/shelf between the two bigger spurs between the approach spur and Sunrise. I recommend climbing the first, bigger spur- you'll find a decent saddle to shoot for, climb it, and then traverse the backside up to the shelf. You'll know you're there by the glacier lake in the slight depression at the head of the shelf. If visibility allows, you'll see three small popup buttes- camp is in the col between the farther away butte and the mountain.

well OUR trip over on Sunrise was a bust. a member of our party did not have usable shelter and the weather was atrocious... so we packed up and descended from 8,000' in sideways rain in the dark. he wanted to go alone, but he was getting blown over as he stood there making the statement- i wasn't sending him off alone in the dark.. be interested to see how everyone else faired

i believe it was left there by Glacier Mining Co. in the 30s... Adams is the only cascade volcano to have ever had active mining at the summit.

scored sum mo'... still need like 2 more... anybuddy? dont make me go to REI... besides, they were plum sold out last time i was in there... gotta be local, BTW... Portland and surrounding. thanks for the offers, seattle guys. UPDATE - since i can't edit the OP... i have all the pickets i need, now.. thanks guys

it's gonna be pretty cold... have you spent any prolonged time in snow in sub-freezing conditions in the boots? some guys seem to run hotter than others.. but i personally wouldn't take anything less than mountain boots. i'm right now sort of desperately debating bringing my plastiques, even... and i really don't want to climb in plastiques. craigslist will probably be your friend, to buy, or you can definitely rent. my partners rent.. gets the job done. i'd personally have crampons. it would really blow to get most of the way up and have to turn around because it's all crusty and your rubber wont bite.

i talked to the ranger at trout lake earlier this week and she said no permits are currently required, parking or climbing, because the mountain is "out of service." just need a free Wilderness Pass available at either station.

BUMP!

i'm going up MGH on fri/sat, and there's a couplefew groups planning a south spur hike at the same time http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1035624/1

dibs on: -snow stakes... i don't really want to bogart them all, but i'll take them all if nobody else wants them... mostly just want the longers -trekking poles -alpine hat -mittens -dry bag / free sacks no price on the poles, BTW... how much? where located?

bump again.. still could use two more

bah! forecast looks great! chance of light snow flurries, cold tempts, calm winds- what more could you ask for?? our team on the MGH is at 3 men, and we're still 100%, as well as our shadow group on the south spur... don't start making other plans yet, gentlemen.. i think it's gonna be a great trip.

i'll believe it when i see it

cash prices on new stuff - prices shipped or FTF (ships free, basically) EDIT: -8, 6, 5 cams still available - $30 ea shipped -Turbos - $25 ea shipped -Rain gear still available - $15 shipped for pants, $25 for jacket -ski pants still available... $15 ea shipped

short or long leashes? any chance for a pic of the whole set? i want to be interested in these- supposed to be picking up another set tomorrow afternoon in p-town.. these are a little closer to what i need, though a lot farther away

man.. all i get is emails from guys who CANT make it... not doggin on you guys, just commenting on the irony. i'm sort of flexible on this, this weekend.. might be able to go tomorrow too, or possibly sunday..

i'll go check it out with you bring thy ice tools

bump - edited above post to reflect my desire to do this tomorrow can meet you in p-town and carpool in your fuel-economic vehicle... my truck gets 9mpg, so anything better than that is "fuel-economic" to me.. X-D forecast calls for "slight chance of rain up to .06"" tomorrow at the summit with a high of 36 and breezy gusts to 35mph. be dressed accordingly..

bump.. still need more pickets

ever seen this? http://climbingweather.com/Washington/Mount-Adams

bump... whole new thread, new stuff