PowderHounder

Was making the slog up the Colchuck glacier yesterday (5/31) and saw a chopper make three separate trips to the beach on Colchuck lake just below Asgard Pass. An hour later, around 2pm a different chopper made a rescue near the top of Dragontail - looked like maybe in the Tripe Couloirs but was hard to tell. I've never witnessed so much helicopter activity on a day in the woods before. Anyone know what happened?

Hi All -- Planning a summit attempt in June for fourth time up Rainier. Would like to hit Fuhrer Finger depending on how it shapes up. One idea we had was to camp on the summit (of course conditions permitting). Can't find much beta from others that have done this outside of emergency situations. Is it recommended? Any advice anyone can share? My concerns are: -Where on the summit to build a camp (in the crater, on the rim, etc...). -Do Rangers take issue with camping there. -Is it worthwhile - the summit always seemed very... barren. Curious what folks that have done this might think makes it worth the exposure and hauling extra gear up top.

Hello, Heading to the BIF this year and have room for up to three more. It is myself and a close friend in a new, safe, suv with winter tires, awd, heated seats, etc... Let's save on gas! We are both normal (relative term I suppose), working individuals. Happy to meet for a coffee or IPA beforehand if you are nervous about spending ten hours in a car with someone you don't know We split gas evenly between however many of us are in the car? PM me and I'll send over my number.

Hi all, I'm heading to Bozeman the first week of Dec for the Bozeman Ice Fest. I'm hoping to tackle a car to car climb while there with my climbing partner. Something similar to the NE Buttress of Chair Peak in the Cascades (if you are familiar) would be great. For those not familiar, a grade III, WI3, AI3.... give or take. Was looking at Beehive peak potentially? Any ideas?

I'm interested and meet all your requirements. Shoot me a email and lets chat. anthonyw.clark (at) gmail.com

Anyone thinking of heading out there from the Puget Sound area? I have a reliable, comfy, truck but no friends willing to make the trek out! I was personally thinking of getting in a couple days skiing at Big Sky, and a couple days ice climbing at the festival. Open on the dates/time to leave. Would be willing to coordinate a carpool. Get in touch if you're interested and we can throw out some ideas.

Debating attempting Baker via the basic Coleman-Deming route. Never been up there this late in the season. Anyone been up recently? Any thoughts? I would imagine snowpack is probably pretty bulletproof, but just a guess...

They are sold out everywhere! I'm love some as well if anyone else has some to spare, don't mind paying a slight premium, will take up to 5.

Nice work! I was in the group that saw you at Lake Anne and again camping at the base of Winnie's slide. We were wondering how you fared. You were an inspiration to all four in our group. Great job!

Great point goatboy. Agree 100%. I didn't mean to come off that the chimney was primarily 5.6/5.7. Def primarily 3rd and 4th class. I would estimate a coupe short pitches pushing 5.6, and maybe a 5.7, although not the norm at all, and I wouldn't pin myself as an expert either in climbing grades. Just to be clear for those doing recon on the route, I think rock gear is unnecessary, we were able to use webbing and runners around rocks, roots, and trees when necessary. Just be prepared for plenty of exposure. Thanks for the clarification.

Trip: Mt Shuksan - Fisher Chimney Date: 8/13/2011 Trip Report: https://picasaweb.google.com/anthonyw.clark/Shuksan?authuser=0&feat=directlink After some issues tracking down a part for our stove, the four of us (Mt Shuksan Virgins) got off to a much later than expected start leaving Seattle. We got to the Lake Anne trailhead around midnight and opted to head out, with the intention of making it through the Fisher Chimney before the sun came up. (with help from a very bright full moon) This plan quickly turned south as we weren’t able to immediately find the trailhead (the road to the trailhead is still closed due to snow cover a mile or so down road). In our search we ended up following a set of reflectors along a ridgeline for a good hour and a half until we realized we were not going to be descending into the valley anytime soon. The beginning of the actual trailhead is still covered in snow, with the sun melting off the top layer of snow daily there is no boot pack to follow per se, so if you’re planning on heading out in the next few weeks, DON’T follow the trail of reflectors. Just as the sun was breaking through (around 5am by now) we came across a decent looking flat spot probably 700 vertical feet below Lake Anne. We decided to set up a small camp and rest for a little bit (so much for getting through the chimneys by daybreak!) dug out a small bivy site, made some water and slept for about 2 hours. The hike to the base of the chimneys was pretty uneventful (except for running into a man that was attempting to bike from Bellingham to the base of Shuksan, summit Shuksan via the chimney, summit Baker, and bike back to Bellingham in 33 hours). The first moat we encountered was quite sketchy. We were able to kick step into the side of the moat and eventually hit a point where we could extend a foot out onto the rocks, and push off the moat to safety, although I could see things melting off just enough to make this impossible within a couple weeks. We made pretty quick work out of the first portion of the Chimneys until things started to get exposed. This was just after a second moat which was equally, if not more sketchy than the first. I won’t get into the details of how we crossed it, but be prepared if panning this route. From here forward the Chimneys were slow going. Although they aren't technically difficult (5.6, maybe an occasional 5.7 pitch at most) it is incredibly exposed. We opted to forgo some of our speed and set up belays for a few of the very exposed pitches. This conservative approach ended up biting us in the ass timewise, but seemed like the smart thing to do all being first timers on the route. The ropework combined with arduous route finding through the chimney made ended up delaying us quite a bit (a common theme so far this trip). It took us about 5 hours total to get through the chimney. We all agreed that a subsequent trip, now that we know the route, should be doable in 2-3 hours. We set up a camp at the bivy site at the base of Winneys slide. Set the Alarm for midnight, and hit the sack. The next days summit push was pretty uneventful. Both the slide and Hells Highway were in great shape, firm snow, no ice. We ended up setting a running belay on both of these. We were at the base of the summit pyramid just before 5 am and looked back to see Baker engulfed in a layer of black storm clouds that were heading our way. There was another layer of clouds much lower that was looking pretty nasty. We huddled up and made a very tough call to turn back. We made this decision both because of concern about getting caught on the pyramid in a nasty storm, as well as concern about getting down the chimney if it was indeed caught in a rain storm, as it looked like was the case from up above. This was such a tough call, but at the end of the day the mountain is not going anywhere. After a couple hours of descending it looked like the storm had stabilized over Baker, leaving Shuksan untouched. This stung a little bit, but I feel like it is best to not second guess these decisions once they are made. The descent was relatively uneventful. The Chimney was damp, and misty, but we avoided the rain that we were fearful of. If you keep an eye out and stick to the worn trail there are quite a few rap stations. We ended up rapping three pitches and were down within an easy 2 hours. All in all, a great trip, bagging the summit would have been great but we had a blast either way. For those of you looking to attempt this for the first time, Buckley’s description of the route is spot on, as are the many trip reports out there. The one thing I would add would be just how exposed the Chimney is in places, although the rock is not technically difficult, be prepared to climb 5.6’s with loose rock and a thousand foot sheer drop below you. Gear used: Three pickets for running belays, four sections of webbing for devising anchors and protection through the chimneys

Hey all, Been skiing my whole life, and mountaineering for years. Finally decided to combine the two and get into touring/ski mountaineering. Had an incredible winter/spring so far. Using the Dynafit TLT 5 boots and love them. Have already hit a couple peaks here in the PacNW on them. I have a couple questions. I often see videos of people and pics here in the forums crossing shallow creeks and large puddles in their skis and boots. Is there some trick here I'm missing to not ending up with soaking wet feet? (example here ) Second question is around gators for these boots. "Walk mode" consists of keeping the top buckle loose, which causes the buckle to protrude quite a bit around the calf, I have yet to see a gator that will accommodate this. (Have tried XL size of both OR's and MH's mountaineering gator). What to people do around this? I know much of the time is spent on skis, where this isn't an issue, but there are def times where I find snow getting packed into the boot, especially on bigger mountains in pitches where it's not feasible to tour for a while. Thanks!

So are you saying you have a Bivy Sack for sale or are willing to trade for one? Not 100% sure. Thanks