alpine et

Thanks, looks like a cool area - got one on the list... 5 days for one climb - more than I figured, but scenery looks amazing! Is that common to have long approaches in the range?

Anyone have suggestions for moderate glacier and rock routes in the Southern Alps of NZ? Scheming on a ~3 week trip in Dec-Jan time frame and was curious if anyone had suggestions of areas to look into, particular routes, or anything in between. We’ll probably be camping / hutting it for the most part. Considering whether a car is necessary… shuttles seem to do a good job, and we’re more interested in checking out one or two places thoroughly than trying to get to all the areas down there… Thanks! Erik

As some have mentioned hybrid means it lacks a toe welt, and will work with crampons that have some sort of plastic or metal clip on the front that doesn't require a toe welt. But I wouldn't read much into how compatible your boots are with certain crampons... buy the boots for your feet, then take your boots to the store and make sure your crampons fit tightly with no clearances. FWIW, I use the above boots with the strap version of these . Rear strap fits down very nicely... but it's well worth it to take your boots with you when purchasing crampons.

love the brand. i have these, and they are great. everything i've wanted or needed from Rainier to everything else. climbs rock well. stays dry. warm.

there was a porta pottie there last weekend.

I've had better luck with this link over NOAA: http://www.atmos.washington.edu/data/rainier_report.html though I wouldn't be surprised if it comes from the same data... but the pinpoint NOAA site I usually use averages over a region and this one probably picks out the values for the summit perhaps?

rapping into the golden light. a descent from a wine spire.

Anyone driven up the Middle Fork road recently? NF website is actually rather up to date (2/11/13) but only says snowline is 1000'.... wondering how far a Subaru could get.... http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mbs/alerts-notices/?cid=stelprdb5150497

Early morning huck off Granite Peak

Banks lake deep water solo (simple B&W conversion in LR)

Trip: Mt Hood - Southside Date: 2/10/2013 Trip Report: Headed up with my wife to climb Hood in the weather window this past weekend. Skinning was real easy up to Palmer lift. Right above the lift there was plenty of icy bumps that made it quicker to just boot it up. We learned later that if we had gone further climbers left we probably could have skinned efficiently all the way to Hogsback. Being our first time, and still dark, we just threw the skis on packs. We went up the Old Chute, which had plenty of traffic on it the last few days, with fairly solid steps for the most part. There were a few 10-15' sections of frontpointing required, which was OK on the way up and spicy on the way down. Not bad, just slowed us down more than planned. 4" light snow on bulletproof wasn't too much fun. Skiing was great when icy chunks could be avoided, which was usually easily enough to do. A bit scratchy above Hogsback, nicer skiers right on the way down and the groomer cruiser run on the way to the car was excellent. Great trip to a beautiful and unique (to us) summit! Gear Notes: The norm. Approach Notes: Drive, walk up ski area.

Bivy on Granite mountain proves worthwhile:

a busy day in the pearly gates

great... thanks for the info!

Anyone have knowledge or a better guess than mine regarding conditions of North Fork Sauk (forest road 49)? I believe this is the road that was further opened later this past year south of Darrington allowing somewhat closer access to Glacier Peak. The trailhead is at 2045 ft, so I was hoping that meant we might get somewhat close....From Darrington you take a forest road south to what is marked on the topo as Bedal (~1280') then turns east. Would appreciate any info from anyone venturing out that way. I have seen this site with FS road info, but it's just listed as "snow" and not cleared, so not sure how bad it might be for a Subaru...I'm guessing not good, but was hoping for some good info! thanks!

Camping right at the snow park is the norm, I've found. Campfires and drinking are excellent ideas for Saturday, I know of nothing else. If you want to escape the crowds you can always walk your camping stuff in (45mins? 1hour?) up to Chocolate Falls and camp in the flats there. You'll have views of the mountain, which is nice.

So I need some time swinging tools at ice, and need to be able to do some toprope before I take to leading. What are good destinations out of Seattle to daytrip top rope ice? I've heard Alpental valley has some possibilities, though I haven't seen much about conditions recently. I'm guessing the inversion destroyed most things up there? Perhaps just need to wait for it to be colder for longer again before ice in our backyard comes back? http://www.nwac.us/weatherdata/alpental/ thanks for any thoughts... Erik

Amazing, thanks for sharing!

not much to scrape off the roads... it is rather warm up there! http://www.turns-all-year.com/woptelemetry.php?id=timberlinebase

yeah, very busy. I believe we were second in line, but weren't sure if we were really going to have a go at it (a little over our head) so we checked out the route, let those behind us get on and traded in for the consolation prize... chunky variable snow on the north face to snow lake. Conditions on the approach held great snow in the AM, but rather sun effected my PM. Here's a shot of the beginning of first pitch. [img:center]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/uploads/22119/20130113-IMG_5242.jpg[/img]

oh nevermind! just noticed the author probably incorrectly wrote 2012. thanks for making me look at that again!

I was hoping for some recent information. I saw that TR too, and didn't realize for a while that it was last year (2013 now). I expect we'll find similar conditions, and ice tools and screws will turn into training weight, but figured I'd see if anyone had been up there...

...bump? anyone been up recently?

Anyone know how far you can drive up the Cascade river road... assuming AWD?

remember if you take too long getting down, the road to paradise is closed on tuesday and wednesday now, so may as well just do a carry over and ski down Lib Ridge. It's not an ice climb if it's covered in 10' of pillowy powder, right??