Dave7

Please see my MP post for pictures and prices. Mountain Project Post

Trip: Tombstone Pass, Oregon - Cone Peak & Iron Mountain Date: 1/30/2016 Trip Report: It has been a while since I posted a TR, I figured I would post one and give a quick update on conditions in the OR Cascades. I have been in graduate school for the past year and half which has been a good opportunity for meeting new people and getting out in the mountains. Unfortunately, it has not been very conducive to writing trip reports and reading as many climbing blogs as possible. But, it is the adventure that matters, not live tweeting or instagraming your life right? Anyways, my regular climbing/skiing partner Sam and I made plans to ski Cone Peak on Saturday. We planned to ski with another friend, Nilo, whom we hadn't skied with before. Cone peak is a mellow little mountain in the Tombstone Pass area off of OR-20. The plan was to check it out and see if we could take advantage of the storm cycle that had made its way through OR at the end of the week. We took off from Corvallis at 0700, driving east on OR-20. About 10-15 miles from our destination we encountered a semi-truck that had gotten stuck in the middle of the road. A little Toyota Tacoma had driven up ahead of the semi and tried to pull it out using a tow-rope. It was silly to watch. Eventually we made it past the truck and ended up at the Tombstone Pass sno-park. One other vehicle was parked with some skiers gearing up. We stopped to chat with them and come to find out the group turned out to be some of our friends from Corvallis that had similar plans! We decided to team up and tackle Cone Peak. The skin up was fairly mellow. There was 6-8 inches of new snow on top of a pretty solid snowpack. We were feeling pretty good once we got to the saddle just below the summit. The summit cone looked pretty thin and wind scoured so we decided to ski from the saddle down back towards the road. From there we could make a lap up to Iron Mountain, which looked to have some nice clearings to ski. The ski down was fantastic, nice knee deep powder all the way down. We skinned up Iron Mountain, cliffed out, and skied another 1000' of pow back to the car. A great day out with friends and great conditions! Be careful of some steeper wind loaded slopes. Gear Notes: Standard Avy stuff. Approach Notes: OR-20 to Tombstone Park. Make your way east along the road for about 300 meters and head north up the mountain.

Looks sweet! Thanks for the report!

Right on!

I was out that way about 10 days ago...didn't spot any ice, but there is definitely snow filling the couloir that looks like it would go....Given the high temps, I think hitting it early in the morning would be the best bet. My partner and I were looking at skiing it, but was not in skiable conditions for us, but looked like a fun climb.

Check out my post on MP for pictures here Sherpa Hat - $10 Patagonia Mini Mass Messenger bag - $35 Patagonia Nano Puff pullover, size small - $70 TNF Varius Guide Pants (HyVent ski pants), size small - $60 Patagonia Light Guide Pants, size 30 waist (small hole in the right upper thigh) - $50 Arcteryx Atom LT (a couple years old but in great shape) size small - $110 Knock $5 off if you want to pick up local in OR (Corvallis area) leydetd at g mail (dot) com

Trip: Mt Shasta - Avalanche Gulch Ski Trip Date: 3/20/2015 Trip Report: So it has been quite a while since I have posted a TR up here on CC, but seeing as I am living back in the PNW I figure I should share up on some of my adventures thusfar. After a few year hiatus in the Southeast and Northeast US, I had the opportunity to come back to the PNW for grad school. I figured, grad school and living in the PNW, I will have plenty of time for climbing! I didn't realize how much time goes into grad school, especially when you have a family as well :-) Luckily there is no shortage of climbing/skiing partners around here so the stoke is always high. After the poor snow year we have had here in Oregon we decided to check out Mt Shasta - a mountain that was having an "average" snow year...or so the blogs say. We took off on friday the final day of finals and made the drive to NorCal in a rather timely manner. We spent the night at the trailhead at bunny flat before making our way to horse camp (~7880 ft) for the rest of the weekend. Seeing as saturday was a splitter weather day we got in a few laps in the morning before deciding to set up camp and eat some lunch. This trip was very leisurely, I was lucky to have chill parnters who were also just happy to be in the mountains. After setting up camp we decided to do one long lap for the rest of the afternoon. We skinned up just below helen lake (~10000 ft) to take in the views. The forecast for saturday night and sunday didn't seem very good (high winds, precip) but a number of climbers were hopeful to make a summit attempt. The ski back to camp was fantastic, smooth buttery corn all the way down...Best runs this year!! After hitting the sack saturday night, the weather rolled in. The high winds and fresh new snow covered the route and made for some great early morning runs. But as the day progressed visibility significantly decreased, wind was a factor, and the warm temps made the snow feel like the standard PNW cement that everyone talks about. The forecast didn't seem be any better for the next day so we decided to break camp and head to Umpqua hot springs for the final day! As we were breaking camp a number of climbers were descending citing the wind and low visibility for bailing. I do believe one party made it to ~13000 ft before bailing but no one made the summit on sunday. The hot springs were relaxing and awesome albeit a little busy. But it is spring break so you can't complain too much. For a conditions post this is a little late, but you can find good avy/weather conditions on http://shastaavalanche.org/#null The snow was fairly isothermal while were there, but there were several point avalanches (wet slides) from the casaval ridge on climbers left. If you are skiing the ridge to the climbers right (i think it is green butte?) be careful as there are cornices on the northern aspect of those slopes. Overall the spring skiing is great! Go get it! Enjoy some of the pictures from the trip! Gear Notes: Skis, and BC set up. No need for pons, ropes if you are skiing the gulch. Approach Notes: Start at Bunny Flat TH and skin a little overall a mile to Horse Camp at ~7880 ft. The trail is fairly obvious, but trend climbers left. The middle of the gulch is the route up but there are several lines you can take.

Gardner is a great guy - I remember meeting him a couple years back when I first got into climbing. He was very welcoming and very motivated to get into the alpine. Let me know if you guys put something together this summer...I wouldn't mind going up with ya'll. Cheers!

Thanks for sharing. Lots of great information we can all learn from! I wish you all the best in your recovery.

Weather can be fickle in the spring, but you shouldn't need a full down body suit. http://www.mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/ This website has some pretty forecasting resources and climbing blog that will have relevant info for you.

"I also played scrabble with specially-weighted letters that were harder to pick up and move onto the board." I think this is the critical component to the success of your trip. Thanks for the report and photos!

Rad! What a trip

Right on!

Rad! Have fun in AK!

Fantastic TR. Great job!