bedellympian

Jason, I will. My trip was funded in part by a Live Your Dream grant so I'm in the process of writing a fairly comprehensive one for them. Once I'm done I'll link it and provide the basics in a TR on CC.com Some other specifics for the training plan... I started strength training by doing two sets of the circuit and was doing four sets at the end of the first 8 weeks. The isometric hangs were one arm hangs on ice tools. On max strength I started with 4 sets and finished doing 6 sets 8 weeks later. At the end I was doing 4 reps on squat and deadlift with 205# and 250# respectively. Pullups 2 reps with 60# added. One-arm hangs on straight shaft tools 7x7sec with 30#. Weighted laps in gym were done on an auto-belay. I down climbed everything I climbed up. I wore Nepal Evos and pack with 15# padded in blankets. I topped out with 55min of continuous laps on a 5.9 (maybe 5.7 outdoors). Nagging injuries in my arms (one from a bike crash in April, and one from an ice chunk while belaying in Hyalite in Feb) forced me to be pretty chill about this and I was not able to do maintenance of my max strength due to my shoulders being pretty messed up. Weighted hill climbs were done on a fairly steep and loose hill side with 500ft of gain. I wore old approach shoes and did the same deal with weights wrapped in blankets and then also strapped my bike to my pack (awkward as fuh!), when I got to the top I would ride my bike down to prevent impact on my knees with the extra weight but once I got past 30# in the pack the bike descent definitely got a little hairy. Nagging issues from pushing the squats and deadlift eventually required me to take two weeks off from this protocol before my roadtrip to the N Cascades. I cross trained on the bike and was fine once I got to the mountains, but I was pretty concerned for about a week there. House and Johnston recommend recording volume according to aerobic zone determined by heart rate. I don't own a heart rate monitor and in my experience running (even in zone 1) is much harder on the body than biking or hiking. So I just recorded all running time as volume, cut walking and biking time in half, only counted hiking/approaching/ski touring when going in the uphill direction. I've heard folks complain about how the TftNA approach takes too much time and is not intense enough since it emphasizes easy aerobic volume. What I got from the book is that you should do easy aerobic volume regardless of how much time you have. I also didn't think it was lacking intensity; 2 hard strength workouts each week, a cragging day where you hit a ton of pitches in a short time, a threshold day, and a long workout (can be done pretty quickly with a run) on your weekend. That is 5 days out of 7 doing something that is fairly intense in one way or another and only leaves 2 days each week to do easy aerobic volume. I also found that if you are trying to get mountain experience on the weekends you end up getting a ton of volume in those days. Many weeks I would just bike commute to work (20 min each way) and that was almost all of my Mon-Fri volume if I wanted to progress according to the 10% rule since I would then put in two long days approaching Sat/Sun.

I figured I'd post this here in case folks were interested. This year I followed a plan I made that was based on "Training for the New Alpinism". The focus was on strength which I had very limited experience with prior to this. I also chose to allocate an extra day for climbing each week and remove the threshold workout since I was a collegiate runner and have 10+ yrs of bi-weekly threshold workouts under my belt but only 4 yrs of climbing, and wanted to significantly improve my technique on ice/mixed this year. I trained from the start of 2016 (Jan) and peaked for a two week trip in late July. Here is my plan... Weekly Schedule (first 16 weeks) M-Strength T-Zone 1 W-Pitches R-Strength F-Zone 1 S/S-Climb/Ski/Hike Aerobic Metabolism (mostly Zone 1) -start at 150min/week -10% increase/week -50-70% down week every 4th week Cicuits (first 8 weeks) 1. Turkish Get-ups (full) 2. Split Bench Squats (legs) 3. Push-ups (arms) 4. Box Step-ups (legs) 5. Pull-ups (arms) 6. Squats (legs) 7. Dips (arms) 8. Hanging Leg Raise (legs) 9. Deadlifts (legs) 10. Isometric Hangs (arms) 11. Incline Pull-ups (arms) 11. Incline Pull-ups (arms) Max Strength (second 8 weeks) 1. Squats (legs) 2. Pull-ups (arms) 3. Deadlifts (legs) 4. Isometric Hangs (arms) Strength Endurance (until road trip in June) 1. weighted endurance laps in gym (boots and pack) 2. weighted hill climbs (steep) 3. Max Strength maintenance (see above, OR hill sprints, car pushes, bouldering) Weekly Schedule until roadtrip M-Zone 1 T-Weighted Laps W-Weighted Hills R-Pitches F-Zone 1 S/S-Climb/Ski/Hike 10 days in North Cascades 2 down weeks (hiking and light running, some easy cragging and hangboarding, one max strength workout) drive to Bugaboos to climb while waiting for weather window, heli into mountains and climb big routes I feel like this got me in pretty good shape but also wrecked me a bit> I probably could have chilled out on the max strength, I got pretty excited when I started seeing big gains and pushed it. If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them, or if anyone with more experience has suggestions for how I could improve or tweak this in the future I would appreciate that. -Sam

almonds and chocolate chips or any similar trail mix type of thing, pb and honey sandos, whatever snack bars are cheap... clif, odwalla, fig bars... if they taste good, wont freeze solid, and have plenty of calories I'll use it

Haven't done it this year, but did it last year around this time with my wife. Should be fine given we had more snow this year, crevasses were not an issue. I would bring some light crampons just in case its firm in the morning, and a light axe never hurts for comfort either. If you are quite comfortable in that situation I'm sure you could run up there in tennies but since you're asking I'd suggest erring on the side of caution.

I was with the only other party climbing in there when it happened. We ran into Steve and Alex coming down to camp as we went up to try the same route. I only met Laurel once when cragging at Index but we got in touch via facebook when we both saw that we were going to the Waddington Range. I was really looking forward to sharing the experience in there with her and her partners. My thoughts are with her friends and family. -Sam

For those who have been up there a bunch, what do you prefer and find most reliable for given areas? Environment Canada doesn't seem to have the ever-helpful point forecast that NOAA does (or maybe I'm missing something?). Been checking multiple sites but having trouble pin-pointing data specifcally for higher elevations. Thanks, Sam

Thanks for posting Max, I was disappointed not to read a sick FA story, but I totally agree with your assessment. If groups want to practice long-roping for crevasse travel they should go to other parts of the mountain, maybe where there are actual crevasses, and not endanger everyone else. Like diepj said, there is a reason most of the local and competent climbers don't climb Hood during tourist season.

Nice Work gentlemen! Glad you got some good conditions this late in the season. I would not have expected that.

Trip: Mt. Baker - North Ridge Date: 6/25/2016 Trip Report: Posting partly as a conditions report and partly to see what others have done... Saturday I climbed the North Ridge on Baker. This was my first time to the summit (I attempted something on the south side a few years back). I left the car at 4:45am. The glacier and ridge were in cloud, it was misting, the fresh snow from Thurs/Fri was slushy. I could see some foot prints leading out across the glacier to where I thought the ridge should be so I followed those. Had to back track a few times around crevasses, and had to sit and wait for clouds to clear a few times when visibility got quite low (with the forecast calling for sun I had not bothered to take goggles which was dumb). Lost the tracks near the top of the glacier. I eventually found what I thought was the bottom of the ridge and climbed what I thought was the right-hand start. It turned out I was climbing a snow gully that was lower down and more direct, but it went fine with the schrund being the sketchiest part in the fresh wet snow and some slush on rock at a choke point before I reached the ridge crest. At this point the slush had gained a thin ice crust on top. I wasn't sure I was on the actual North Ridge until I saw the definitive ice cliff through the clouds. Climbed a right-hand variation on the cliff, felt about the same as WI3+ in Hyalite, though since I was soloing it could well have been easier. Topped out by going straight up the serac at the top (it was mellower than that sounds). It looks like the large serac block that was hanging at the top is greatly diminished. Hit the summit at 11:39am, wanted to set a good time so descended quickly, switched to my approach shoes at the base of the glacier and speed-hiked/jogged back to the car by 2:08pm. So car-car 9:23, but with the conditions I think it could be done at least 2 hrs faster, would be curious to see what others have done? low visibility schrund getting on the ridge ice cliff and sun finally appear, I climbed about 50ft to the left of the rock knob, about a third of the way over to the low angle prow on the left view from summit, serac on right is directly above the North Ridge back at the bottom of the glacier I then climbed Fisher Chimneys on Shuksan the next day but someone already posted a TR for that so I'll spare you all details except to say that the creeks/trails had a lot more water on them later in the day, and the summit pyramid snow gully was getting slushy on that south aspect by noon. But, you all probably already know that Gear Notes: stripped-down quarks, strap-on pons, approach shoes on the hike, Nepals on the climb Approach Notes: Heliotrope Trail

Matterhorn Peak scramble up route (SE face I think?) approach from Twin Lakes. Mt. Thompson in the Trinity Alps is also a fun scramble up in CA w/ no people but a long approach hike (10+ miles), I did it in April with skis. Castle Peak in Donner Pass during winter/spring would be good too, just check avy forecast. Also, same area, Mt. Rose (NE of Tahoe) is a fun early winter ascent with a little snow. Sierra is plenty serious, closer to home, and offers better access to high elevation peaks with snow travel and more solid rock scrambling. All 3 of the sisters are pretty easy climbs, Middle is my favorite (less crowds, still asthetic and varied), North is sketchy 4th class (I would save it for a spring-time when you are more comfy on steep snow and mellow ice), South is an easy trail up scree (crowded and unpleasant IMHO). Hope that helps.

Bumping this post. I have a partner. We need two people to split the heli-cost with. We are both free from July 12th until mid-August and would like to spend two solid weeks in the range if weather permits.

I'm sure there is already a thread on this but I wanted some up-to-date opinions. I'm looking for what I would like to be one pair, but I suspect may have to be two pairs. First, a summer alpine shoe that I can cross some glaciers with and also climb and hike a fair ways. Second, a super durable shoe that climbs slabs and cracks well. Ideally, I'm looking for something that I could use in the Bugs to approach the Howsers or to approach something like Forbidden Peak in the North Cascades. However, I would like it if the same shoe could be used to lead something like Serpentine Arete on D-tail, or keep my feet comfy while warming up on Gold Rush at Trout Creek. Seems like lots of experienced folks like the Boulder X for the latter, there is a mid GTX version of this but it didn't get great reviews that I saw. Ganda is discontinued no? A friend suggested the Scarpa Tech Ascent but I don't think that will climb as well as I want. Saw the review on this board for the Dead Bird FL GTX which is also pricey, but maybe a good combo? I was looking at the Salewa's too, but have no experience with them.

Yeah buddy! Way to get it done.

caltopo.com

Thanks guys! It was nice to meet you mthorman and catstack. Pretty stoked for linkups on Hood. The more I think about it the more possibilities I see.

looking up at the only real ice step on DKH: Eliot Headwall beta pics: first ice pitch on Eliot, hero swings the whole way looking up the face from the top of the corner pitch, I went to the obvious white line at the top left the exit pitch up close, deceptively steep but not very long dropping into Leutholds, tracks from parties who had come up earlier in the day

Trip: Mt. Hood - DKH/Eliot/Leutholds Linkup Date: 4/16/2016 Trip Report: What I did: -left Timberline at 5:50am, skinned up S-Side to bottom of Devil's Kitchen Headwall (~2hrs) -put skis on my pack and soloed DKH left most variation w/ left exit, tagged summit and traversed summit ridge to the West -stashed skis at West end of summit ridge and downclimbed Sunshine route to just above Eliot Glacier -traversed snow above Eliot 'schrund until I saw a good ice flow, soloed to top of Eliot Headwall following ice and neve (almost identical to the R variation marked in Mt. Hood Climber's Guide except for fun dihedral starting L of route) -tagged summit and traversed ridge back to skis, clipped into skis on summit ridge, skied Leutholds couloir to Reid Glacier -traversed Reid glacier and booted up to Illumination Saddle, skied back to Timberline, at car by 11:45 (~5:55 car-car) Conditions: -DKH is super easy right now, a little wallowing getting up into the couloir and then its mostly 40-50deg neve with one ~10ft step of real ice -Eliot is looking good, many tantalizing options, lower routes that go up the North Face Cleaver look like they are more snow than ice right now -Leutholds is windpacked up top (changing fast I'm sure), breakable crust on powder down low (also will change, afternoons might be good if its not too warm) Overall: a fun morning on Oregon's most accessible alpine crag. Pics... I'll try post some soon, first pitch on Eliot was SOOO GOOD! ... Gear Notes: dress socks from work actually weren't bad in the ski boots, could have done without that second liter of water I carried all morning Approach Notes: skins are the ticket right now!

Trip: Mt Hood - Reid Headwall Date: 3/19/2016 Trip Report: Solo'd Reid on Sat the 19th. Decent skiing snow above Palmer made for potentially more work to hike around but there was already a boot pack from two guys climbing Leutholds (thanks guys!). I mostly followed the "recommended" variation (14 in Oregon High, 8a in the new Mt Hood guide). Conditions observations: -The schrund was barely visible, a whopping 6" step across. -Bottom half of the route was not terrible post-holing but not perfect neve either (you are welcome for the boot pack). -Upper half once you traverse left around the snow rib was awesome neve most of the way, lots of hero swings to the hilt. -Any "steps" were so filled in that there was nothing above 50deg angle the whole way. As a result I made a couple detours to make things more fun. Detours: -Above the schrund the gully turns left. The cliff band on the right has a fun but short vertical-ish rime gully with some actual WI in the back. Probably WI3ish, I was able to stem out on rime to either side which made it pretty mellow. Recommended. -On the upper headwall I followed the gully until I saw a mini rime slot up on the left. It was small and cramped in a Harding Slot kinda way. Not recommended. -At what looks like you're near the top is a big rime cave to the right. It lead to a couple of body length steps. Thin ice on the first and with easy "mixed" moves. The second was rime covered but still easy. Recommended. Overall, route is definitely "in" but very easy. Finding variations makes it more fun if you want to do some real climbing. Ran into a guy who solo'd Devils Kitchen left variation on the summit. He said it was also incredibly mellow right now. Depending on the spring I think it might be a great year to snag steep routes in easy condition. What do ye old spray-lords think? Total time car-car 6:45... definitely a little tired and not pushing things. A fit and dialed climber could do this leisurely in under 5 hrs. Gear Notes: Pickets? Might get some screws if you dig around, especially higher up. Approach Notes: Follow the boot pack or bring skis if you want to enjoy the descent.

I'm headed to Bozeman with some friends from Bend Feb 19-29. We are looking to split costs and keep stuff cheap while climbing a sh!t ton of ice. Any beta on where to sleep, eat, climb, or a fourth activity that I haven't yet considered, is much appreciated. Cheers, Sam

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, not really a partner search or standard ride share but figured I'd throw it out there where most people will see it. I am in the early stages of planning a trip to the Waddington Range for this summer, late july/august. I talked to Mike King (White Saddle owner/operator) who is the go-to guy for flying in. He quoted me $3200 canadian or $2600 US for 4 people and gear to helicopter in to the plummer hut, a little more for sunny/rainy knob. If you are interested in sharing this cost ($600-700 US /person) please PM me with your contact info and possible dates. Thanks, Sam

Thanks for the invite Montypiton, that sounds like a good option. I will see if I can pin down the time and let you know.

PM sent

i live in Bend. Have a week off in late Feb and wanted to get some ice mileage. Was thinking a trip to Hyalite would be the ticket but I've never climbed ice outside the PNW. Any suggestions?

Check Daniel's TR of Hood North Face, also the list of routes on the thread Ade posted. Where is your location? People might be able to point you to nearby gems, no need to drive a ways if you're just getting into it.

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.