bedellympian

Trip: Dragontail - Gerber-Sink variation? Date: 3/24/2015 Trip Report: Edward and I both had time off in the middle of this week so we drove up to Leavenworth from Bend to take our turn on Triple Couloirs. We hiked in to Colchuck Lake Monday night and went to sleep dreaming of a cruiser climb up steep snow. That night it started snowing. We woke up at 4am and it was still snowing so we went back to sleep. At 5am it was still snowing, and finally at 6am it stopped. We expected an inch or two but soon found out it had snowed about 6". We got out of bed and looked at the clearing face to see constant, large spindrift avalanches coming down, many dumping into the hidden couloir and blasting snow out the bottom. We sat around for an hour wondering what to do and finally decided to check out the white streaks right of the center buttress. I knew that the Gerber-Sink was in this vicinity and that it had been climbed as an ice route, but did not know where it went. The white streaks had not gotten dumped on by spindrift for maybe 30 minutes so we got to the base and Edward started to try climb a mixed pitch left of the main streak. He tried two separate starting pitches, both had no pro and as soon as he got into the business it started coming down again. At one point I couldn't see my tools in the snow two feet from my face. The sloughs were constant and unrelenting. After backing off from both attempts we presumed the trip was a bust but I wanted to try one more mellow ramp pitch further left where there was less spindrift coming down. I climbed up some stubby trees on top of a ramp and accessed a snow ledge above where I could build an anchor. Edward came up and it was already around 10am. We discussed bailing but a runnel led up and right and Edward said we might as well do another pitch just to see where it went. Up the runnel we traversed right on steep snow and popped out a pitch up the white streaks which were now obviously perfect steep neve. Unable to resist I led the next pitch up perfect sticks with a couple screws and ended up on more steep neve above and no decent anchor. Edward came up and with no anchor and more perfect neve seeming to continue forever we committed to the face. A couple simul pitches later we emerged from beautiful runnels to a steep snow field. We thought we could see the bypass entrance to the third couloir but there was another couloir up and right tucked behind the Fin from the Backbone route. We wallowed up that way thinking it would be an easy top-out, but soon found thin ice and mixed climbing forcing us to break out the rope again. One pitch later Edward worked up the crux of the route, a verglassed slab-layback with gloved hand jams. It was pretty committing but had obviously been climbed before due to the two fixed nuts and faded sling we found on the pitch. One more short mixed step above this deposited us a couple rope lengths from the top of the third couloir. We slogged up through deep snow and tagged the summit around 6pm before heading straight back down Asgard to the Lake. We had both told people that we would be back in Bend that night but it was now almost 8pm. We packed up and hiked out making it to the car just after 11pm. We drove into town to get cell reception and then took the first available forest service pullout and slept for a few hours before being awoken before 6am by the cold damp that comes from sleet falling on the tent. After looking at the Beckey guide, I can say that our route was not the Gerber-Sink because it started on the right side of the buttress and followed the ice runnels and neve streaks which at some point probably shared several pitches with the G-S. Then instead of climbing the rock buttress at the top we climbed the gully behind the fin. I'm sure all of this has been done before by other parties, except maybe a couple of our starting pitches to avoid the spindrift might be slightly different. Regardless of what route it is, it is fantastic and I enjoyed it immensely. Here is our route with the false starts marked in red. Here is the picture sans route. Gear Notes: 60m rope, 4 screws (1x stub, 3x med), single rack, tools/pons, and a deep water-proof hood for spindrift Approach Notes: boots of even guide tennies, trekking poles help with the slick trail but its not too bad

Bought these Nagos, size 39, cause the shop didn't have 40s and I needed shoes. Too tight for sure, not gonna stretch nearly enough. I used them once to climb one pitch at Smith. They are in new condition and sell for $99 usually. I was hoping to get around $70 for them plus shipping. I live in Bend OR if you want to pick them up. PM me if interested. -Sam

Christoph- one of my partners who does rope access work uses a shunt for solo TR. He likes the redundancy and non-toothed cam, but he has to pull slack through the shunt by hand. That's the downside. It does work though.

Several people on MP's thread for solo TR have recommended using a CAMP lift. It seems pretty similar to the Petzl microcender. Does anyone one have personal experience with the Lift? Would it be likely to have similar problems to the Ushba? I was contemplating using a Lift and a Microtraxion so that I had redundancy and one cam-only device with one toothed cam. Thoughts?

Also, as my list #3 indicates, I need more ice/mixed/alpine experience. I have a week off in late March and would just like to put it out there in case anyone needs a partner or would be willing to provide some mentorship in exchange for beer and a belay slave.

Going to the Bugs in August if everything works out... B-C is my #1 objective but I'm not sure if my partner and I will be fast enough to tackle it. We did Backbone/D-tail in 19 hours car-car last August. I know I can move fast on moderate terrain and snow, and I know he can climb all pitches no problem, just not sure if we can keep up with each other on our non-strengths and avoid taking the dreaded bivy gear.

1) Have climbed. Exum Direct (car-car first trad lead) Complete North Ridge on Stuart Jeff Park (winter solo) North Sister (winter, stormy weather) Tenaya-Matthes-Cathedral solo linkup 2) Capable of but have not climbed. Torment-Forbidden Traverse N Butt on Terror Beckey Chouinard on S. Howser Regular NW Face on Half Dome Evolution Traverse 3)**Want to climb but need more experience or to climb harder.** Polar Circus North Face of Mt. Alberta Ragni Route on Torre Super Canaleta on Fitz Roy Slovak Direct on Denali (why not set big goals?!) 4) Admire but will never climb. 5.14 (I only climb 5.11 right now, but I'm tryingg not tto set limits) A4/5 scare fests (I'm fine with C2) double corniced ridges (hopefully, but you never know where you might find yourself )

Just curious if Hyalite is still reliably in during late March?

I have a week off in late March and thought a road trip to the Tieton for a few days might be a nice break from school. I've never been and I'm wondering if it can be warm enough to enjoy camping and climbing that time of year. Obviously the weather will determine things ultimately, but is it worth making tentative plans there or would it be a waste of time?

Wanted to plan something for spring break in late March and would really like to ice climb. Wondering if anything in Hyalite or Canmore is still in by that time? Jasper? Should I just go alpine climbing instead?

so finally got in to see the specialist, diagnosed with acute tendonitis of the peroneus brevis. negative on all fractures, which is a relief. cleared for boring activity like lap swim and stationary bike. hopefully a month or two of aggressive ice massage and good activity will get me back towards normal. kinda crazy this thing went so long without getting figured out.

Thank you gentlemen... I have now dabbled in almost all the above listed activities (no details). Just saw a foot specialist after 3+ months of minimal activity. The official diagnosis is now acute tendonitis of the peroneus brevis which is impinging itself and getting all pissy and inflamed. Glad its not a bone thing, but basically cant do sh1t except ice it hard and baby it. Possibility of surgery down the road if it doesn't improve... I am cleared for all boring activities, in-line, low impact motion in supportive footwear on even surfaces (no hiking, climbing or running), only boring stuff like stationary nike and swimming...

Sloth, there are a ton on the three blog posts I linked if you want to check those out.

Yoga sounds hard when you can't stand on one foot. Kayaking sounds fun though. I have some friends with kayaks, maybe I can borrow them for some spins... winter kayaking sounds hard core, maybe even more fun than alpinism in a blizzard! Gene, I would love to build something, used to do that a lot, unfortunately we rent right now so my options are limited. Maybe I'll make a crack machine and invert it for some campus-roofclimbing. I was thinking about a road trip to the coast too... I'm sure some vitamin D deprivation will really speed up my bone growth

Maybe I should start to meditate... then I can amputate my mind from my lame body. Oh wait there are other ways to do that

Yeah I got a little crack in my metatarsal... I have a hangboard at home and access to a gym. Ideas? What should I work on? My first goal was 100 pullups, I did that last week. Now what? My life is meaningless without some sort of exercise

Yeah I know. Normally my other go-tos would be running, skiing, biking, and hiking... all of them are out. I've been watching Netflix but too much screen time turns me into a grouchy zombie :: . I have also been tooling around on the guitar but that's kind of like climbing on sharp crimps... you can only practice so much before it just becomes unpleasant. I've been cranking out pullups on the hangboard too... but again you can only do so much (got a pretty bad crick in the neck when I did 102 last week). My wife gets a gym membership through work so hopefully I can swim and bike a bit as this gets better. Anything worth doing outdoors that only requires one foot?

So I think I have a stress fracture... still. Long story, had it in a boot for 7 weeks, took it off like a jumped up idiot because the dumb doctor couldnt get me in for an MRI for two more weeks... Anyway, I need something to take my mind off climbing. Its prime season at Smith and the good alpine routes are coming into shape and I'm staring down the barrel of another couple months or more of fawk all. I'm in grad school so I'm kinda busy but still need something to break up the homework and endless BS. I know this is spray... entertain me in my self-pity and misery you hopefully healthy assholes!

For those of you who may be down at Smith this fall and like to climb on the basalt of the Lower Gorge, there is now a 10m extension to Gruff (classic 10a crack on Wildfire Wall). Local climber Matt Farrell got the FA. I checked it out this weekend. It still goes at 10a/b and involves some easy ledge climbing past copious birdsheet, followed by a really fun overhanging hand crack and layback to chains. Apparently you can lower/TR with a 60m but only have a couple meters to spare, we used a 70m. A #2 and .75 camalot protect the crux nicely. Matt posted a comment about it on the Mountain Project page for Gruff. He refers to it as Gruff Plus (lame name but its his call)... http://mountainproject.com/v/gruff/105803718

Thanks John, nice to meet you and Loren. I've enjoyed your TRs for a while, Chris and I were actually just talking about your Hyperspace TR on the drive up there. I appreciate the compliments but we've got a long way to go before we're on the level of "ancient" guys like you!

Trip: Dragontail - Backbone Date: 8/16/2014 Trip Report: Chris Sepic and I drove down from Bend Friday to tackle the Backbone. I had wanted to do this route since I first saw a photo of it and Chris had a similar desire. I won't spray all the details as there are a bazillion and a half TRs on this thing, I'll just give our impressions and a brief summary. If you want a complete story and pictures check out my blog... Mountain Mischief Our estimate for the route car-car was 12 hours, definitely wishful thinking. We left the car at 5:30 am and reached Colchuck lake by 7:00, there is a small tongue of ice and snow we crossed to reach the 4th class ledge system. The rock was wet from the rain the day before, especially down low. Chris led the OW, we opted to bring doubles to 3 and one 5. He wished we had a 6, as does apparently everyone else who goes up there for the first time (see MP). This took us a long time and the next pitch was also slow with wet rock. After that we did a couple more odd pitches and then blasted into a simul block to the base of the fin. I linked pitches on as much of the fin as possible but it is definitely longer than expected. We reached the summit after 7pm. The snow field descent doesn't require pons or axe if you hit it in sun, but it was just a little slick in places when we got on it. Neither of us had been down Asgard, we thought we were on the right track, but definitely weren't. The light left us about a quarter of the way down with no cairns in sight. Awful knee bashing on loose rock (maybe from that rockfall Blake and Jens heard a couple weeks ago? or more likely that's just standard, either way, we were way too far skier's left next to Dtail) went on forever. We didn't find the proper cairns until within a quarter mile of the trail. Eventually we made it back to the car at 12:40 am. Overall fun route and we had a blast despite the descent. Gear Notes: doubles to #3, one #5, bring a #6 if you aren't super confident on 5.9 OW, 70m rope allows some serious linkage on da fin. Approach Notes: no pons or axe req'd

Thank you for saying what we are all thinking, so that we can further justify our elitist attitude, and feel awesome about our lives, and our lack of nice cars. I say this with sarcasm but secretly mean it with the utmost sincerity.

Nice work Bellinghamsters! That's an impressive month of alpine rock.

That was a blast to read. Super stoked to eventually get in there. Just when you forget about the Wadd something like this comes along and makes you want to drop out of school and blow a huge wad of cash on a trip to the Wadd and then blow a huge wad of something else climbing in the Wadd. (puns intended)

Nice work. North is intimidating the first time with that exposed choss. You should consider climbing the Oregon Cascades in the winter... sounds like you have some experience with ice. There are many routes that are quite moderate snow/ice and much safer in the right conditions.