cam yarder

Thanks for the info. I’m thinking the Buckner-Booker col is the best option.

Hey all, Does anyone know what it's like getting from the summit of Buckner to Park Creek Pass? Looking for a direct alternative instead of dropping into the Stehekin Valley and joining the Park Creek Trail. Descending SE from the summit looks tricky on Google Earth, but sometimes the satellite view is deceiving. Would the east-trending ridge from the summit of Buckner to Park Creek Pass be a viable option? Thanks

it was a while ago and my memory is kinda hazy...but i remember going left-ish up the slabs. steep for sure but mostly just yarding on cedar branches. felt pretty secure. might be an option for ya in the future.

i'll take it if you're willing to ship!

I have a 55cm BD Raven Pro in good condition that I'll sell you.

did you take the route to the summit of dragontail?

just walk the road. you're acting like they've put no trespassing signs on the gate.

the time window to climb the north ridge snow-free in rock shoes and also descend the sherpa glacier is small. the bergschrund at the base of the couloir opens as the season progresses and can be difficult to pass. i have crossed it with zero shenanigans as late as the summer solstice, but that was after a particularly wet and cold spring (2011). the stuart range got a lot of snow this season but it's also been quite warm. another consideration is the heavy gear you might bring along if you were to descend the sherpa. in soft snow conditions with an ice axe, you could down climb the sherpa glacier couloir without much problem in running shoes. in hard snow conditions, i would want an ice axe, crampons and sturdy mountain boots. but carrying all that extra gear up the north ridge is a pain in the butt, which is why i would just go down the cascadian.

We make a big stink about how we climb UP a route: onsight, didn't yard on gear, didn't bang in pins, day packs up a grade VI in 45 seconds c2c, blah blah blah..but we almost never talk about the cleanliness of our descent. Leaving behind tat, nuts, cams, and pins for rappel anchors seems completely okay, but isn't the "ethical" self-congratulatory jerk sesh awfully hypocritical if you leave a bunch of shit behind on your way down? shouldn't the descent be just as carefully scrutinized as the ascent? how many climbers take the time to tidy up rappel stations, leaving only a single piece of cord or well-jammed nut? yeah, I understand there's often no choice, that you just have to leave behind junk if you wanna go up in the first place. But sometimes there are alternate descents that, although inconvenient (and therefore won't allow you to spray to all your buds about how fast you did a route) allow the climber to descend without leaving a trace.

I just looked at the MP post; did you actually look at the links provided? The NPS website hasn't been updated in 9 months and one of the webcams is out of service. Bump.

What websites do folks like to use for forecasting in the Alaska Range, specifically the Ruth?

Petzl Vasak- $125 Light cosmetic wear. Practically new. Grivel G22- $180 Light cosmetic wear. Practically new. Osprey Kode 32- $110 Like new. Ski touring pack. Scarpa Maestrale, size 29- $150 Well-used but functional. Has some broken buckles. Dynafit TLT Vertical ST bindings- $290 White color. In great condition. Probably have only done 20 ski tours with them. For photos, check out my mountainproject post here: mp sale

Selling my pair of Petzl Quarks. Probably a 6.8/10 conditions-wise. Still plenty of use left. Includes the grip rests, adze and hammer. PM or reply here if interested. Will entertain reasonable offers. Buyer pays shipping from Bozeman, MT.

i was in the canyon on friday and was shocked by the amount of climbable ice. there was a storm cycle a couple weeks back that came in warm and ended with an arctic cold front, and many climbs are in fat right now. ice conditions shouldn't suffer from the warmer temps in bozeman. the parking lot to access climbs is 2,000' feet above town. Thanksgiving and Friday look to be the warmest, but the cold is forecasted to return this weekend. If it were me, I'd definitely make the drive. at this time i'm more concerned about avalanche conditions. very dangerous today and will probably remain so for a few days or longer. still, there are plenty of routes to do in hyalite that are safe. as for top-ropeable climbs, the g1 area is always a good bet. outside of g1, there are not many easily toproped climbs.

when i climbed tft we were considering climbing the southeast face of torment but i'm really glad we didn't. i THINK the start to the southeast face is just above the bergschrund climber's right of the south ridge moat-crossing start. most summers, the 'schrund is nasty and maybe even impassable. maybe that wasn't always the case, especially in beckey's time. i don't know why you'd want to climb the southeast face anyway. the rock is awful, crack-less, ledgy and grassy. the south ridge isn't exactly a gem either, but i don't recall anything harder than 5.6, and even then it's only a move or two on the whole route.

"A mountaineer may be satisfied to nurse his athletic infancy upon home rocks, and he may be happy to pass the later years of his experience among the more elusive impressions and more subtle romance of our old and quiet hills. But in the storm years of his strength he should test his powers, learn his craft and earn his triumphs in conflict with the abrupt youth and warlike habit of great glacial ranges." -geoffery winthrop young

radical! such a beautiful, varied and fun climb, especially in winter conditions. that whole north side of stuart is so fucking wild. your photos have inspired me to go climb this one again.

size medium, blue, latest 2014 model. still in great condition as it's only been used a handful of times. retails for $170, it's all yours for $130. call or text will at 2 zero 6 - six six 0 - 5 5 1 3 or email willryandean at gmail

not exactly a partner story, but close. A couple summers ago, my friend Todd and I climbed and skied the Fuhrer Finger on Tahoma and encountered a very ill-prepared skier high on the Nisqually. We had climbed the Fuhrer and the lower portion of the Nisqually and were melting snow when we saw a solo man below us on skis slipping and sliding around with every step. We had switched to boot crampons at this point and just figured the skinning was difficult. He eventually caught up to us and the crevasse we had just crossed, which involved a steep traverse above it. He seemed worried and communicated as much so we offered him a belay but he declined. Still on skis, he pulled his ice axe out and started across the traverse. We watched in disbelief as his skis skated around on the hard snow. He then proceeded to slip and started sliding towards the gaping crevasse. At the last second he self arrested with his axe, one ski dangling in the void. He sketchily gathered himself, finished the traverse, and embarrassed, introduced himself. "Coloradan. Climb 14'ers for breakfast, sometimes in winter." At this point I noticed that his skins have not been cut to fit his skis. The skins completely overlapped his skis like the bun around a hot dog. He then decided to switch to boot crampons. But his crampons did not fit his tele boots at all. We tried to tell him that the crampons did not fit his boots, but he completely shrugged it off and claimed he'd used them for dozens of 14'ers in winter. He took off in a hurry and proclaimed he was off to ski the Kautz. We watched in horror as he bypassed the mellow glacier slope to the right and tackled a more direct AI 2 step with his shit crampons. His feet cut multiple times but somehow he made it to mellower terrain above. We continued with our climb and descent and arrived at Paradise in the evening, where a ranger asked if we knew where the "sketchy solo guy" was. Apparently the rangers had been watching this guy all day with binoculars because he didn't register for a solo permit. He'd even triggered and almost been caught in a slide on the lower Wilson. We saw him later that evening in Copper Creek restaurant. He'd successfully skied the Kautz but was stopping for a bite to eat before he headed to the hospital to have a self-inflicted crampon hole in his leg stitched together.

Take care of those sesamoids. In my experience, the best thing to do at this point is rest your foot and very gradually resume climbing and other foot-intensive activities only when the swelling or pain has subsided. If your symtpoms persist, don't ignore them as sesamoiditis can become a chronic problem as it has for me. Dr. Richard Bouché is the guy to see in Seattle if you want orthotics. I have reconsidered the use of all soft rock shoes like the moccasym in favor for stiffer shoes like the tc pro. A looser fitting shoe is also a good idea.

has anyone been on these climbs in the past few days? wondering about conditions...

like most people here, i don't understand your reasoning for bolting a rappel route down the west face of news. the preexisting descent route is easy and safe, but may be hazardous for guided clients with minimal mountain experience. i'm sure the rap route is a good business move for ncmg. why should the challenge of a climb end at the summit? isn't how we get down just as important as how we go up?

Update: the doctor has told me she thinks it's a stress fracture of the sesamoids. Has anyone dealt with stress fractures of the sesamoids or sesamoiditis? success stories? i have not found many success stories after hours of googling...

for the sake of clarification, i'm talking about sherpa pass, not the sherpa glacier descent

check out this thread: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1032472/Sherpa_Pass_as_a_Descent_from_ my friend and i descended sherpa pass after climbing the full ridge last summer and it didn't go quite as quickly as we would have liked. the above thread makes it sound really easy to get to sherpa pass from the summit of stuart so maybe we were a bit sandbagged by the info. if i were to do it over again, i would just approach/descend from the ingalls side. the cascadian is really easy and painless. just turn off your mind and go!