bedellympian

Ade, I would love to read over that list but every time I follow the link it takes me to a 3 sentence blog post saying you added a winter routes page. The hyperlink to the "winter routes" page just takes me back to the blog post I'm already on. There is nothing else on the page. Am I missing something? Browser problem? If anyone has an idea let me know.

Wayne, I haven't heard of the Bull River before and an internet search turned up minimal info. Can you provide some beta for us? What are the climbs like? Access? Is the season shorter than Banff/does it come in reliably? The idea of breaking up the long drive with some more ice sounds great!

Maybe you could inform us as to what you actually want to do in these locations? What are you able to do? Are you looking to new route or climb existing lines? Do you want to rock climb, mountaineer, full on alpinism, or hike around on some trail with a guide who will cook you dinner? Personally, if I was going to do a once in a lifetime trip I would want to do something on a really big feature in Patagonia or Pakistan... long, technical and varied to a difficult summit.

I just wanted to revisit this thread and thank you fellas for the suggestions. I aid solo'd the west face of the monkey yesterday and it was wild. Someone said it would feel like a grade V and it kinda did, well at least a grade IV. Took me 9 hrs car-car and that was with linking the bolt ladder as a single pitch. Jugging the dynamic rope was ridiculous and motion sickness inducing. I'm pretty sure aid climbers are supposed to bring a hook for the move off the belay anchor for the final section of bolts to the cave, for me it involved etrier to blank slab stemming to gain unprotected slab moves to a short finger crack from which I was able to clip the next bolt in the "continuous bolt ladder" definitely took some time to figure that one out. Does anyone have some suggestions for aiding overhangs? I found the steeper parts to be very strenuous and taxing and found it really hard to reach the next bolt at times, I'm 5'10" with a normal ape index so I'm guessing this should not be a problem if I do it properly. On the really steep stuff I would clip both aiders to the same bolt and push one out behind me to allow a precarious stemming stance, then I would stand up and hang a draw from the next piece so I could clip an aider to it while sitting in my harness fifi'd to the last piece. It seems like there is probably some technique for standing up on just one aider without having your feet fly out form under you but I couldn't get it to work on the really overhung parts.

MDre gets after it! Makes me jealous but as someone who can only get away for big trips in summer its nice to see that Patagonia can have good conditions in winter too!

Based on "SW coast" I'm assuming you're from Canada... lousy weather. You should come south to Oregon and climb the North Face Crack on the Monkey... just torque the sh!t outta those tools!

Anyone have experience with climbing AK Range in June or July? Glaciers, approaches, route conditions? Sure Denali is in condition, but what about the Ruth, Kahiltna or other lower zones? I know some folks got a heli in to the revelations a year ago and were able to get up peaks mainly rock climbing...

Thanks Kroc that is an awesome resource... I will definitely put it to good use and write a TR when I get back!

One of the questions asked what my physical and gear limitations are when climbing... what do you mean by that?

As for the rest of the replies... Jason4: Yes I have put in lots of vertical in the mountains in back-back days... 5k' per day is pretty chill ski touring for me, as is doing it on 14ers. G-spotter: Yes SoCan is plenty on the radar and there are lots of routes in the Bugs (thanks Alpine et), Slesse and several other areas on the radar. And yes the Winds are definitely on my list of places to climb too. These just rarely have ice in summer, and I would really like to try the combined challenge of ice/mixed/rock/aid on a big face that I just can't send in a single push. Sportnoob: Thanks for the perspective, for the record I have nothing against local climbs, including grade IIIs or shorter. I realize there are lots of great local climbs and I really want to do a lot of those. I have no problem staying local and realize that climbing is a process. I am not trying to poo-poo the Cascades or quality routes/classics/testpieces simply because they are not grade Vs. In fact I am stoked on climbing these routes most of the year. I'm just trying to get some ideas on bigger objectives that fit into this time window I have and can serve as big goals for me. Maybe I'll try a bigger route and decide as you did that it's no better than staying local. Either way I have the time and the motivation so I would like to see what a grade V+ alpine ice/mixed/rock/aid route in a "greater range" looks like in person.

Thanks Jason, yeah I have the Selected Alpine Climbs guide and would like to get up there and do some of those routes working up to the 5.9 A2 grand cours. Obviously that guide is fairly out of date relative to the shifting climate, do you have any specific suggestions on where to get up to date approach beta, I was hoping this thread would catch some folks with recent experience up there.

Trip: Hulk/Fairview/Dana - Yggdrassil/Reg Route/Third Pillar Date: 9/19/2015 Trip Report: I was trying to organize a long weekend trip to Index but no one seemed interested and my buddy Brian mentioned he was in Tuolumne and looking for a partner for some mega-classic alpinesque rock routes. He dropped a few route names that I'd been dreaming about for a few years and he had me hooked. I packed the car the day before, woke up at 5am and drove straight to Bridgeport to meet him. We ditched his car, drove to Twin Lakes and started hiking to the Incredible Hulk. Ice fog on the drive down through Oregon. This was a good reminder that the internet, especially a certain mountainproj.com has a lot of BS posted by people who have no idea or else have some severe handicap they fail to mention. The interwebs had informed us that the hike to the Hulk would certainly take around 6 hrs with our overnight packs. In actuality it took 2 hours at a very relaxed pace having never done the approach before. I could have slept til 7am and still done the drive and hike with day light to spare, oh well! The next morning we climbed Yggdrassil, aka the Red Dihedral (10b, 12 supertopo pitches). We linked a couple different pitches with a 60m rope, making it a 10 pitch route. We had two parties from SoCal ahead of us at the start but they graciously acknowledged we were moving faster and let us pass. I out ro-sham-bo'd Brian for the lead on the Red Dihedral pitch and I was a little nervous for it, having never climbed this grade in the Sierra and thinking it would be akin to a splitter Valley test-piece. It was actually quite doable and awesome at the same time. The left face is slabby and I think most people face this way but if you look over your shoulder several cracks in the right face provide opportunities for stem stances. The crux bulge at the top looked puzzling but I was able to stem through it quite easily. Definitely not hard for the grade unless you were somehow pumped out of your mind at the top and got tunnel vision. The rest of the route was stellar quality stair-step terrain on bomb-proof white granite. Some people say Red Dihedral is chossy but if you have climbed any amount of alpine rock in the Cascades you are going to be impressed. The top out involves hopping over the summit ridge and following 3rd class ledges (ice and snow covered when we were on them) to a dirty block- filled chimney and a dirty 5.6 chimney pitch to the "key hole" finish where you squeeze through a small hole to reach the summit. As someone said in the summit register regarding the final pitch, "that was the most work I ever did to go caving". Beside the last two top-out pitches the route was outstanding and I'd say the best alpine rock climb I've done. Positive Vibes, though only a jump up to 11a, looks much more sustained but is apparently also much higher quality. Given what I saw on the Ygg, the Vibes must be one hell of a route. The Hulk! Looking left at Positive Vibes and Venturri Effect (the corner?) Up from the notch belay. Views to the right. Looking back down from the summit ridge. Summit ridge block towers What's better than a two bolt anchor? Two bomb-proof #3s! Brian on the summit. Note the snow still on the north facing aspects behind him. We hiked out that afternoon, the route only took us 6 hrs. People talk mad-sh!t about the descent gully but compared to Oregon Volcano Choss it was quite mellow and short. We drank some beers and swam in Twin Lakes before heading into Bridgeport for dinner and then to free camping at Buckeye hot springs for the night (worth every penny). The next morning we slept in to the leisurely hour of 7:30 ate breakfast, sorted gear and then drove to Tuolumne. Our plan for day 2 was to get a late start on the Regular Route up Fairview Dome (1000ft 5.9), giving slow parties a chance to move out of the way. As it turned out that didn't work so well. We showed up to see two parties moving exceptionally slow on the first two pitches. We thought about bailing to Daff dome but found out that the top party had a guy with a dislocated shoulder. The other party was climbing up to them so they could tie both ropes together allowing the first party to rap off. This process took them a while but finally the injured guy got down and the other party continued. We were concerned that the second party would take a while as they were really slow on the first couple transitions but after the first four pitches they started moving better and a couple pitches later we simuled past them. It seemed like many of the groups we passed on this trip were perfectly competent and able climbers but they all made the mistake of thinking that they were moving fast because they were climbing fast. They were actually fairly slow because they were not good at transitions. By comparison Brian and I had no extraneous gear and took less than 2 minutes at most belays, allowing us to climb these routes quite quickly without ever feeling rushed. If you are taking 10 minutes to swap gear and put your buddy on belay (these guys on Fairview took closer to 20 at the top of pitch 3) you need to reevaluate your systems and also realize that you should let people pass regardless of how fast you move between belays. Overall the reg route was an outstanding route on bomb-proof rock. It was however very slabby on the bottom pitches, making for some insecure feeling smearing for the grade and we found that we used more gear per pitch than expected because of this (we opted for one set of nuts against the guide book and could have definitely used the two sets recommended). Brian waiting on a belay ledge at the top of pitch 2. Views of Daff and other domes from the route Looking down the splitter slabs of the first two pitches That night we slept in the pull-out just outside the park by Tioga Lake. The next morning we got up at 6am to go do the Third Pillar of Dana. There was already one car that had showed up in the night and as we were packing up two more groups showed up. One group, foreseeing the ensuing cluster got back in their car and headed for an alternate route. We got on the trail and caught the guys ahead of us; they had just arrived in the Sierra and were struggling with the altitude a bit. We ditched a pack at the top of the Third Pillar and scrambled down the adjacent buttress following the beta to stay left, this didn't work out as we ended up too far left and had to go down around the toe of the buttress and hike back up to the start of the route. Once on route pitch one was amazing, starting with perfect hands on, again, bomb-proof granite right off the belay stance. The second pitch went much further left than the supertopo made it look like but once in the cracks was straightforward. This pitch had insecure feeling flared fingers, arguably the crux of the whole route. Pitch 3 had multiple options, I got a little confused and stopped early (there was an old rope hanging out left above a ledge and I stopped there instead of continuing up). Brian led another good pitch and I led a short cruxy face pitch protected by RPs to get us to the belay below the final headwall (if I had just got pitch 3 dialed I could have led this last one!). Brian got this pitch, which is one of the best pitches I've ever climbed, "all time" as Brian said: strenuous, steep, splitter, good rests, good gear, long, varied, amazing position, mind blowing top-out (we both heel hooked through a small roof at the top). Then you just have the mellow 90 minute walk back to the car, no raps, no descent, nothing. We drove down to Lee Vining and celebrated with the World Famous Fish Tacos at the gas station where Tioga Rd meets 395 (best food between Bridgeport and Reno?!). me on the flared fingers, by Brian Brian on the final pitch spot Brian on top of the Third Pillar after topping out, Mono and Tioga Rd below Mt. Dana proper with a sweet ice couli in on the left. All in all, we climbed three of the best routes I've ever done in three days. It's a long drive south, but it's sure worth it. Get psyched and go get it before the weather turns! Gear Notes: 60m rope. Doubles of cams with single small cams and a set of nuts got us through just about everything. We did take most of the supertopo-suggested extras on the hulk and did not regret it, could have used another set of nuts on Fairview but got by without, definitely bring the RPs on the Third Pillar. Approach Notes: See above... It's the Sierra, it ain't exactly complicated.

I just started working as a teacher this year so I have a chunk of time off in the summers. I've been working up to doing bigger alpine climbs and am planning a training cycle that I want to cap with a trip in June next year and then take some down time in July to peak for one or more big objectives in August. I am trying to get ideas for places in North America (I want to build experience locally before going to the Cordillera Blanca say, or other far-off ranges). I realize that because of low altitude and climate shifts many glaciers could be pretty well screwed up. I would appreciate advice of those who have been in bigger ranges more recently on what is approachable and climbable. I am really looking to get on genuine alpine routes that are big and technical so please don't go spraying about walk-ups on Rainier or "alpine" rock climbs in the lower 48 . Ideas I have had so far include the Canadian Rockies, Alaska (multiple ranges), and Waddington Range, but I'm sure there are other areas in northern Canada that offer similar routes. Obviously higher altitude stuff like Denali should be pretty good in early to mid-summer but I'm looking to not get that high next summer and focus on quality and length of routes without throwing in altitude yet, so stuff under 16,000 ft please. Anyway, that's it, spray away!

like the title says, I'm looking for some modern touring skis that I can use in variable conditions, a couple resort days, mostly touring, steeps, pow, corn, etc.. I have old skis that are too long and too skinny with Fritschi bindings and want to finally upgrade. NOT interested in telemark or another set with Fritschi bindings. Open to a wide range of prices depending on the quality of the setup. PM me if you have something.

Trent, looks like Steph rapped the West Ridge and its access gully which is on the South face. This is the same route which I climbed. She used double rope raps. Probably no better than the gully I used, plus I brought a 100' rap line so it would not have helped much for that much descent. http://www.stephabegg.com/home/tripreports/washington/northcascades/pickets/southernpickets2#day2

Trip: WA Pass - DEB + Lib Crack Date: 8/15/2015 Trip Report: This is kind of a tag-on TR from my Pickets one: S. Pickets TR This will be much shorter but I just wanted to really encourage people to get on these routes. Both are excellent and very doable, but I think their position and rep cast a bit of an intimidating shadow. Friday night Nick met me at the North Cascades Mountain Hostel in Winthrop... which as I write is evacuated due to fires. But when they get back open along with the rest of that region that is a great place to crash for a night in a real bed and a shower, as well as great company. I was loathe to leave new friends but the mountains called and I was like a child on Christmas morning. We headed up to the pass that night and bivied road-side. In the morning we headed up to the DEB (Direct East Buttress) on SEWS. This route seemed really intimidating to me because of the grade but honestly if you are solid on 5.9 and pull on a couple draws the route is really very quick and easy. A short approach with relatively little scrambling leads to easy 5th for a rope length, then two pitches of solid 5.9, then the slab bolt ladder (11-), a traverse pitch (can be combined with the pitches on either side of it, we combined with the pitch after), and a vertical bolt ladder (10+ on good pockets and edges), followed by much easier climbing (5.6 to 4th) to the summit. We polished the route off in 5.5 hrs and it felt quite leisurely. If we had not been doing Lib Crack the next day I think we would have added on another route like NW Corner or W Face on NEWS. We hiked down to Blue Lake but in the future I would probably try the scramble down to the hairpin as it looks much quicker and not that sketchy. We briefly scoped the apporach to Lib Crack, even easier than DEB, and then headed to the cars for a nap and food. That night Nick made us a dirtbag deluxe dinner (DDD) steak marinara on pasta. There had been people fixing a line on the first two pitches of Lib Crack. Something we had eschewed for the true single push rah-rah-rah BS. We discussed what we would do and joked about microtraxioning the first three pitches on someone elses line just for shits in the morning... funny looking back and now knowing what they were for. We woke at 6am and headed up to the big ol' face of our Liberty Belle. And were climbing sometime around 8am. On both routes we opted for a small followers pack with a 4L drom (half full on the DEB and full on LC), extra clothes, some bars, headlights, etc. Nick lead the official pitch 1 (5.11-/10+) and was able to free it with style. I followed with a full pack and pulled on gear. I took the Lip pitch, Nick watched and laughed at me as I had no roof aiding experience but it was perfectly doable. I tied off the rope once Nick was past the lip and started short fixing pitch 3. Nick arrived just in time to put me on for the first bashie, something that I had never used before and found a little spooky. I was able to aid fairly easily through most of the next pitch quickly with only a few easy free moves and some chicken choking (supposedly there is a sweet hook move somewhere but I didn't bring one and had no idea where it was supposed to be, we got by fine without). While this happened the owner of the fixed ropes walked up... none other than M.S. the Wallstein himself, must be trying to free the roof crack so we both felt like a couple of total noobs floundering around on a stupid C1 pitch... cest la vie. Nick took the next pitch (5.10 hands, the lucky bastard) and I flailed after him with the pack. The next pitch was the 5.8 "burly wide" pitch but required no OW technique and honestly can be well protected without many big cams. I placed a #4 and #3 C4s but could have easily found alternatives. I think this route could go comfortably with a single #3 if you're willing to run it out 15' on 5.8/9. Nick lead the next pitch to the "rotten block". He spent several minutes on the "5.10 flare" before abandoning that option to french around the block on the fixed pieces out left (pretty smooth and featureless). This was quite a shit-show pitch for us, and we had a good laugh as I flopped onto the belay like a beached whale. The next pitch starts with more 5.10 chimney moves which I shamelessly frenched/stepped on the belay bolts to get past. I linked this pitch with the next one quite easily (5.7/8 slab corner with a couple moves of 5.9/10) to the first good belay ledge of the route (sweet tree to sit on) but it was impossible for Nick to hear me and took a while to get him up there. Nick then tackled a 5.6 chimney and linked it with the 5.9 corner pitch before running out of rope. He established a quick belay, brought me up to the last good ledge and then finished to a good bushy ledge in the middle of the 5.0 slab pitch. From here we simul-climbed a short bit of easy terrain until we reached the tree covered ledges for the descent and unroped. We did the Beckey scramble to the summit and hung out in the sun for a while before the standard descent on over-exposure to the notch. We were back at the car by 8pm (13hrs car-car) and Nick took off immediately to make it to work in Bend for the next morning... that is what we call dedication. What a boss! I spent a couple nights enjoying the company of new friends and headed back to Bend myself. Both these routes are awesome and very doable. Liberty Crack is definitely much harder than DEB and much more sustained, but it is still much more attainable than I imagined. Get after it! Pictures>>> top out on SEWS perfect North Cascades weather SEWS summit! yours truly approaching da Belle (photo by Nick Mestre) under the face (photo by Nick Mestre) Nick at the belay having freed pitch 1 (photo by Nick Mestre) myself struggling at the lip (photo by Nick Mestre) looking down pitch 3's sick finishing finger crack myself exiting the rotten block belay with impeccable style (photo by Nick Mestre) the awesome tree belay ledge and nick getting it on in the 5.6 chimney summit pics (photos by Nick Mestre) summit... Nick stoked despite the fact he has to be at work in 12 hours Gear Notes: DEB... nothing special, a selection of cams and draws, 60mx9.4mm rope. Lib Crack... doubles from #0 TCU to #3 C4, small offset nuts, one set etriers, small ascender setup for pitch 2 (we used microtrax + grigri for a mere 1/2 pitch and follower just frenched the rest), 4L of H2O all got drank, 70mx10mm rope used but could have gone with a 60m. Both... 30L lightweight followers pack for approach shoes, water, bars, and spare clothes while climbing. Approach Notes: Short climbers trail to some scrambling on both routes.

Thanks for the beta Nastia! Glad I didn't try that route on Terror. And yeah maybe I was on the best possible option for Inspiriation with that gully... wowzers! FWIW everyone, the ridgeline once gained is way better rock and so cool. I'm pretty psyched on "Walking the Fence" aka the S Pickets Traverse. That would be an amazing route to do!

for purely illustrative purposes here is a rough topo of my movement on inspiration... red is line of ascent, orange shows variation on arete during descent, red circle is where is was pinned by blocks, route used only because moat gave easy access, not recommended

Trip: S. Pickets - West Mac y Inspiracion all alone Date: 8/11/2015 Trip Report: Last week I drove up North by myself, unable to wrangle a partner for the whole week. I had a range of possible objectives, but after a day scrambling up Liberty Bell and SEWS (someone recently said its not climbing if you wear approach shoes), I realized that the forest fire situation demanded something further west to be enjoyable. So I headed to the Pickets for the first time. I slept at Goodell Creek TH that night and started hiking at the bright and early... sometime around 10am The approach was actually not as bad as I had imagined. The trail is fairly well established and not too bad, at least compared to what I had read. There were a ton of invisible spider webs across the trail that kept getting in my mouth and eyes, so I quickly adopted the use of a thick 14" long stick I christened "The Dong" and started waving it in front of my face as I walked, chanting horrible off key versions of various songs from the Lion King. I must say that I felt an amazing amount of gratitude and respect following that trail for the climbers who went before me. I can only imagine what it must have been like before the trail was established as well as it is now. Even in the relatively well traveled state it is in now it felt very remote and adventure-y. The approach reminded me of stories my dad used to read me from National Geographic, especially the one about Hiram Bingham finding Machu Pichu. I almost expected to stumble upon lost ruins or be waylaid by an undiscovered tribe, but in reality what I found was even cooler... The Pickets. When the climbers trail turns off the Goodell Creek Trail it begins to ascend quite steeply for about 3600'. If you have ever hiked the steepest trails in the Chuckanuts, this is steeper and more overgrown for triple the elevation gain. Another comparison people on here might be more familiar with is if you were to hike from The Country to the Upper Town Wall at Index, imagine doing that ten times without stopping but a bit more overgrown... so not that bad Anyway, I finally popped out on the "heather benches" and found it to be full-on Huckleberry season. This was quite nice as I was almost out of water at this point (I hadn't started with much, the less weight the better). I gorged myself resulting in a minor stomach ache and continued at a slower pace towards Terror Basin. The whole approach was definitely longer than anticipated, by a little bit. It just keeps coming but around 4o'clock I had a camp setup on a rocky bench near the outflow from the glacial lake. I then decided that I could just scramble up West MacMillan Spire via it's easy 3rd class W Ridge before it got dark. This was pretty straight forward. looking up the glacier At this point there is nothing more than a minor snow field leading to the climb and the approach gully is dry. However, this means that there is quite a bit of loose rock left exposed and made for an "interesting" 30m segment of 3rd classing. snowless approach gully The view from the top was awesome. My first view of the Northern Pickets, so remote. And then I noticed the Mongo Ridge and shat my pants... not literally but almost. I AM NOT WORTHY!!! But one day maybe I shall be ... From the summit I looked out at the glacier in Terror Basin and was disturbed, but not surprised (thanks to Nastia's recent TR), about the condition of things. I had thought a solo of Inspiration's W Ridge might be attainable but it sure did not look accessible given my personal gear/partner situation and the crevasse maze laid out below me. I descended to camp and ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches while wondering whether or not there were any other humans out here. alone in the tent mt. triumph In the morning I decided to head for the Barrier instead of Inspiration. The glacier was too fawk'd and I thought that maybe I could find an easier way over the barrier than through the heavily crevassed upper cirque. Then I could just summit Terror via its' W Ridge (also just 3rd class) and call it a trip. Also, there were dark storm clouds obviously raining to the south and I did not want to be caught in a storm on technical rock. clear skies on the Pickets approaching the Barrier rain to the south I found an easy way onto the barrier quite low on the left side of the glacier and climbed an arete between two gullys, roughly 4th class, but what I would term X-RATED DEATH CHOSS . How is 4th class x-rated you ask? Well, kind of like how when you can't trust any gear rock climbing its x-rated, when you can't trust any holds on 4th class its kinda the same schtick. I reached the top of the barrier and looked down into the next basin. Two things were quickly apparent, travel over there would be on an unpleasant amount of scree, and getting there would involve multiple rappels on fairly suspect rock. looking up the death choss from the glacier looking over at mt. terror So as a consolation I decided climb to the top of a short spire next to me on the barrier via what looked like a mid 5th corner. The corner wasn't hard but getting out of the corner involved more X-RATED DEATH CHOSS this time in the 5th class category. I got to the top of my little Aiguille and realized that the entire upper ten feet were composed of detached blocks. I took several minutes to gingerly locate a position from which I could remove my pack and shoot some pictures before reversing my moves to the notch and back to the glacier... a tad terrifying, which is only fitting for Terror Basin. At this point it was only 10am and the clouds were still all to the south while the Pickets stood in a little circle of blue-sky and sunshine. So I decided that I could at least wander up glacier and scope the crevasse situation. From this far side (climber's left) of the glacier things didn't look too bad. adjascent choss pinacle from my mini summit looking up the glacier, Inspiration at left and West Mac on the right After crossing some hidden crevasses, which once passed I realized were thinly covered and large enough to swallow a sizable truck, I was close enough to Inspiration to see a way I might be able to approach it. The standard gully to the notch was blocked by crevasse and moat, but a collapsed section of the moat gave me access to what looked like a 4th class slab and gully system next to it. I figured I would give it a go and see where I got. the access tbuttress to Inspriation and the glacier approaching it: 4th class X-RATED DEATH CHOSS quickly escalated to low 5th. After some shenanigans I found myself in a chimney that seemed to be composed more of sand than rock. I climbed past several loose blocks, careful not to weight any. Once past a very dirty chockstone I gingerly touched it with my foot and watched the whole microwave-sized chunk drop away into space before the ensuing cacophony as it scoured the face below. After more shenanigans I reached the ridge and downclimbed some thin face features and improbable little turrets (improbable because apparently the only thing supporting them were the fingers of the Angel Iseult, guardian of North Cascades imbeciles such as myself) to reach the notch below the West Ridge of Inspiration. Looking up I realized that the rest of this would be a breeze, relatively speaking. In fact the "3.5 ropelengths of 5.7" to the summit went in under 20 minutes and never felt harder than 5.5 (quite disappointing for a Beckey route really). I reversed without rappelling and then began the careful process of downclimbing the X-RATED DEATH CHOSS to the glacier. summit selfie, not stoked for the descent Northern Pickets from the summit looking down at Terror Basin and the lake where I was camped I quickly realized that due to the steepness of the buttress I was unable to identify my path of ascent from above... stupid is as stupid does, that was one of many new lessons for the day. I quickly ended up off-route on a parallel buttress. After downclimbing and reclimbing several times I ended up on the right arete but the easy climbing I had taken was on slabs down and around the other side. Instead of reverse again I committed to downclimbing overhanging loose flakes on the arete itself with full exposure. I carefully weighted each flake, only four out of ten foot holds stayed in place, the rest plummeted away disturbing some birds nesting below me. Thanks to the juggy nature of the flakes that was all I needed to lower myself to the ramp below and continue my descent (felt like 5.7/8ish). A few hundred feet lower I was finally near the end of the climbing. The collapsed moat section that I could use to access the glacier was ten feet down and right. I was climbing past a v-groove stacked with loose blocks the approximate dimensions of truck tires and I let out a sigh of relief. I was basically done. As I moved over the blocks they rotated in complete silence. I faced away finding sloping handholds when I felt a sharp pain in my left heel and heard the crunch of rock. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the blocks had shifted and the bottom one had com down and pinned my left foot against the rock. A quick glance told me that if all moved at once they would take me with them down into the black, bottomless moat beneath me. If I let go with both hands I would be unsupported in my half-turned position and would pivot around my foot, probably smacking my dumb head before pulling the assemblage down on to me. I thought maybe I could pull my leg out from under the block so I set my free right foot and pulled as hard as I could. There was no movement, not even a little shift. That was when I started to get a little concerned. I was still in my mental soloing bubble so my emotions weren't manifesting physically but I did think that I might actually be at the end of the line for a second. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself and summoned my logical fix-it mind, determined to try every possibility. I let go with one hand so that I could look over my shoulder properly and saw that the block pinning my foot had another block atop it that was acting like a cam and forcing the other block down. That explained the lack of movement. I realized that I could probably roll this block off without taking other stuff down with it. However, to do so would bring it dangerously close to my foot. If I crushed a foot bones out here I'd still be in a bad boat. With my left hand I carefully applied pressure to the camming block to see which way it could roll. Satisfied that there was a 90% chance of not screwing myself I gave it a big heave and watched it miss my toes by 2" as it rumbled down into the black moat. Now the block pinning my foot was a little looser. I gave it prod and realized that luckily it had just gotten the rubber heel rand of my shoes pinned. It had smacked my heel but was not bearing weight on my actual body. I gave the block a shove and then quickly spun in place and stepped up and out of the way in case the whole assemblage now went down into the black chasm of doom. It shifted a few inches and then settled with several blocks rocking back and forth in precarious positions. After observing that all movement had stopped I carefully avoided the blocks and climbed those last ten feet down and over to the snow. This whole process probably took less than two minutes. I took some deep breaths as the adrenaline pumped its way out of my system. This was definitely the closest call I've had in the mountains and obviously I am not proud of it. Writing about it here feels like it offers some catharsis but no doubt several of you will want to take me down a peg or three for poor judgement. Do as you will. I can't recommend my path of ascent to the notch, even to competent roped parties, and will probably be avoiding such features in the future, as well as bringing partners to the Pickets for future excursions. Lessons learned include: -be more observant about your path of ascent to better facilitate down climbing/rappelling -be 100% focused 100% of the time when in these situations, even once the exposure has lessened -rappelling though dangerous may be safer for getting off of choss piles -random shit happens, control what you can but know that you also can't, and accept that in full knowledge when going alone, including the ultimate consequences After getting out on the glacier I noticed dark clouds finally coming over the ridge. I got back to my tent around 2pm and waited to see what the weather would do. After a snack I took down the tent, which of course precipitated immediate rain fall. Luckily it did not last long and I was soon back in huckleberry shangri-la. Crossing a rocky gully I recognized the place where I had left my trusty spider stick (aka The Dong) I began calling out "la sticka!?! donde esta la sticka?! como esta la sticka? todo bien?"... yes I know la sticka is not spanish for "the stick" okay? I had a castaway moment so leave me be. The rest of descent went quickly once I had my trusty Dong in hand and I was back at the car by 7:30. I took a "shower" under the spicket in the National Park campground and fell asleep. The next day I iced my stiff legs in Diablo Lake and drove to Winthrop for a proper shower and bed at the North Cascades Mountain Hostel (holler at my brother Paul who is da man and runs a sweet place, I highly recommend!). On Friday my buddy Nick drove up from Bend and we went climbing at WA Pass (solid rock thank god!!!), but that needs another TR. looking back up glacier dark storm clouds a coming, taken from the campsite Overall, I would encourage people to get into the Southern Pickets. The access is better than the horror stories led me to believe and it is truly a beautiful and inspiring place. In under 35hrs I had a full-on adventure and really enjoyed myself for the most part (minus the X-RATED DEATH CHOSS ). Just remember that there are some sections of quite terrible rock and the glacier is fairly broken up right now. Bring a partner and a range of gear. Expect some shenanigans but also expect to learn something. Be safe and have fun. -Sam Bedell Gear Notes: -HELMET! -I used guide tennies w/ strap-on pons which worked fine for what I did but may make crossing moats more difficult, I also only had one axe which again was fine for what I did but may limit you on other routes -I brought a BD Couloir Harness, w/ 100'x7mm rap line and a selection of old nuts/slings/cord in case of rappels (used none) Approach Notes: Goodell Creek TH, climbers trail to Terror Basin is very obvious right now. Minimal bushwhacking and easy route finding. No water on the heather benches until you drop down towards Terror Basin. Glacier is a shit show.

I have a bone spur on my left foot (medial cuneiform) and when I have long days hiking in my Nepal Evos it irritates the heck out of it for a couple days afterwards. Obviously I can start wearing alternate approach shoes and just climb in the Evos where possible, and I could try other boots but otherwise these fit me pretty darn well. Anyone out there with similar issues or ideas to try? I currently use the factory insoles and am considering getting something more supportive that might stop the irritation. Thoughts?

Thanks Taywen, I had them all figured out except for Mcgregor. Dome, Mcgregor, Bonanza, Needles, Dome again, Goode... Can someone confirm that that is the Gunsight Range and Sinister Peak on the left of Dome?

Trip: WA Pass - Clean Break, NEWS WF, Da Bell NWF Date: 6/27/2015 Trip Report: Over the last two weeks I've made two trips up to the WA Pass area while visiting my friend Ryan who recently moved to Leavenworth. While these routes are fairly popular I figured folks would appreciate some disambiguation and encouragement to get after it. The first trip (6/18) Ryan and I climbed Clean Break on Juno Tower in 13 hrs car-car and 6 hrs on route despite getting lost and spending some time in slide alder purgatory. Ryan has the Supertopo guide and we noticed several inaccuracies: first the climbers trail starts on the left side of Silver Star Creek not the right, and the route topos were fairly disproportionate (something that held true for all the routes we climbed), and lastly the description says to stay right of the crest at the top of the route but we found the left side to be consistently easier and more solid. We also consulted Steph Abegg's TR and found her beta to be pretty spot on... Steph's TR Two places on the approach that we screwed up: 1. waiting too late to cross Silver Star Creek (you can cross pretty soon after the valley levels out and then head straight up the hillside and traverse around to Clean Break, thus avoiding the slide alder creek beds) 2. not traversing far enough over to reach Bench Camp and the Burgundy Col trail on the descent (we had never climbed in this area before and did not realize how far skiers left you need to traverse, so we traversed back right to find the trail we thought we'd missed, crossing more slide alder creeks and finally just following some game trails straight down to the road) Besides that the route is fantastic (great rock, great climbing, great belay ledges and awesome position) and much less sustained than the pitch break down would suggest. GO GET IT! Pics: Pitch 1, with lots of snow next to it. mellow climbing Ryan psyched for sunshine Top-out stoke! Looking up toward Silver Star's N Cirque West facing pics L-R from summit. The second trip our friend James came up from Bend and Ryan's friend Megan came along so we could do 2 rope teams. We initially planned on an enjoyable stroll along the Torment-Forbidden ridge line but with weather looking no bueno for Sunday/Sat-night, the excessive heat, and a potential lack of permits, we decided to just enjoy some alpine cragging on the Liberty Group. Saturday we drove up late in the morning and spent the afternoon OD'ing on vitamin D while being stuck at hanging belays behind two ladies on the West Face of NEWS (the bottom of the route was more crowded than morning glory wall on the first saturday of spring break! ). Just in case you are super stoked on doing this route... it is OK... that's right, I said just OK. Others may disagree but the pitches are generally very short (Supertopo says 60' for the crux 11a pitch but I would be surprised if it is over 20', basically a slab boulder problem on sharp finger locks). On top of this several of the belays are not that comfy, especially when the sun is on you. Maybe a cooler day where we could have burned it off in a couple hours would have swayed my opinion, it is certainly a good route, just not a 5-star classic as some people have suggested... my 0.02, end of complaints. It is worth noting that we managed to totally sink a brand-new nut on the crux pitch. It is a totally bomber fixed piece above the crux and none of us could extract it, funkness style, nut tool or otherwise. Finally, there is a new bolted rap line climbers right of the West Face route that goes straight down the face, it is very nice, but I have not done the other rap line into the gully so can't compare. Pics: simul rapping the WF Ryan at an exposed belay stance on WF Wine Spires looking attractive Sunday we woke up somewhat tired and dehydrated from the day before and opted to do a mellow adventure route before heading out. We settled on the NW Face of Liberty Bell to avoid crowds and the heat, although with rain in the forecast and overcast skies we could have probably climbed anywhere. The approach is pretty straightforward once you know it. The Supertopo guide says go up a step of low 5th 75 feet below a cave. There are three potential caves in the approach gully, we went up below the highest one and it worked fine but we had to hike down and around some slabs, it looks like the next cave down would have been more direct but we didn't climb up there so I can't guarantee it goes easy. The Supertopo says that you follow a ledge system above this step to its end and the base of the route. The "ledge system" you follow is really a big hill side covered in trees, we were unsure if the ledges ended above these trees and the slabs but you just keep hiking down and around and back up and you will see that where it ends is a really big drop-off. Everything in the route topo is pretty accurate except the length of pitches 2 and 3 are flip-flopped: pitch 2 is actually the long one and you want to stop on pitch 3 before going into the dihedral (P4) because you can't link them with a 70m rope and will end up in an awkward hanging stance (believe me I know). I thought this route was fantastic and tons of fun, but the flakes on P3 are definitely hollow down low and some of the moves in the P4 dihedral are awkwardly difficult, not everyone in our party agreed with me. Compared to the W Face of NEWS the pitches are long and interesting and the position is pretty wild feeling, things I really like in a route. Pics: Ryan topping out the NW sub-summit of Lib Bell Summit shenanigans... I was too hot in that t-shirt and its color had the unfortunate quality of attracting several wasps while leading the crux pitches Conditions pics as seen from summit of NEWS 6/27, I would love it if someone could help me identify all of these: Gear Notes: We found the supertopo gear lists to be right on, this past weekend sunscreen was more important than a windbreaker, I never used another layer, climbed in shorts and took my shirt off whenever possible, especially in the shade... climate change sucks. Approach Notes: See above, avoid slide alder, keep moving to avoid mosquitoes.

I'll be in the Leavenworth area and want to pop over the hill to Index too. If anyone wants to team up or mentor me on a little aid let me know. -Sam

I'll be there. I have trad, aid, sport, mountaineer gear. I'd love to climb at Index as I've never been there before and would like to try some aid, but really I'm down for just about anything. PM me if you're interested in teaming up. -Sam

Also thinking about doing a quick run up Adams south side to ski a lap next week. Any more recent updates?