johnnygraec

Been a while since I posted this but realized I never mentioned that the solo climber in the first photo is @laurel Condolences to those who love and miss her.

Trip: Dragontail - Triple Couloirs Date: 5/9/2015 Trip Report: Jason and I climbed it yesterday with a soloist and one other party of two on route. We left camp on a big flat rock by the lake around 5:45am and topped out on the ridge at about 1:30pm. Since there's plenty of beta already I thought I'd post pics for those curious about conditions. It was still in great shape yesterday. To the soloist who passed us on the first pitch of the runnels, I took a few shots of you coming up. If you are interested in them PM me and I will send you what i have. looking back down on the first runnels pitch where we were passed by the soloist. looking up from the top of the first runnels pitch Jason had an awkward intermediate belay here due to us starting the first runnels pitch below the usual spot....so I put an anchor in and belayed him to finish the runnels off. looking up the step from 2nd to 3rd couloir. of course we went all the way to the top will never get tired of this photo the runnels Saturday around 5:30pm

Hey Florian did you find a partner?

you don't like climbing when it's snowing?

Looking to get out wed-fri for something, maybe NY Gully, Chair Peak, just some skiing, ice?

I got a pair right before climbing the north ridge of baker a couple months ago and they worked great if that helps you decide. I thought the rebel's were supposed to be lighter than the trango s but they were nearly the exact same weight by my scale. For me the rebel's walk way better/feel more natural than the trangos and climbed moderate ice great.

Trip: Mount Baker - North Ridge Date: 7/28/2013 Trip Report: It all began with a 7 or so mile bike ride up Glacier Creek Road. Went by fast enough. The 18 gears on my Surly Cross-Check were not quite enough to make this go by without a lot of stand-up pedaling. Took us about 2 hours to the trail head. Getting close. Jeff with his pannier/backpack haul method. Is that a bike attached to my backpack...? I added the rear rack the day before I left Seattle. Best $25 I ever spent. Jeff had some old static line in his car which worked great for securing the pack to the rack. Never had to stop and adjust on the way up, on the way down is another story..... We made it to the trail head at about 8:45pm. Decided to throw in the towel. It was pretty nice having a picnic table at our campsite. So this is what the north side of Mount Baker still looks like. We were hiking by about 7am on Saturday. Took the usual amount of time to hike in. We scouted the highest campsite we could reasonable see. Pretty sure this is the typical high camp for climbers. The plan for Saturday was to route find through the glacier a bit and maybe climb around on a serac if the opportunity presented itself. It had been more than a few month since I had swung my tools. Jeff grabbed some sticks on the hike in and there were some laying around our camp so we took them out and marked the way back out onto the glacier. Took us about three tries to find a reasonable way through above camp and down onto the Coleman. One final offering before trying to get some sleep... which I didn't get much of. I thought I might be a bit apprehensive about the climb but I think the light outside kept me up the most. We were up at 2am and hiking out of camp by 3. Honestly we could have left earlier but this seemed like a reasonable time. It took us three tries from the location of our previous days serac'ing to find our way to the bergschrund at the "high" start to the route. I'd say we found our way to the base with relative ease compared to some of the roadblocks we encountered. Jeff's intuition proved quite reliable. Despite our path appearing to go right into an icefall we found a perfect way thru without losing too much altitude. Right before the bergschrund. Here's when we encountered the only rockfall. You can see previous rockfall laying around. It started with some smaller rocks whizzing by not too insanely fast but at a good speed, then a larger basketball size rock landed 30 feet up slope and came to rest a foot above my pack. After this it quieted down for a second. Jeff headed into the bergshrund and as he climbed down into it more rocks started coming down. These were moving pretty fast, mostly smaller chunks, but the finale was definitely something I will not soon forget. Due to my location I didn't notice it until it was hovering about 15 feet off the slope above the bergschrund and spinning at a haunting rate. A piece about the size of a tire which sounded like an airplane propeller came cruising down about 20 feet to our right. This was my first experience with rockfall to this degree so it got my attention. I quickly headed into the bergschrund and we stood there for a minute waiting to see if any more rock was coming down. It was quiet so Jeff headed up and over the slightly overhanging lip like a champ. I followed and we were on our way up. We simul-climbed with a picket between ourselves. The snow was pretty firm and the slope just steep enough for a mix of front pointing and french technique. Unfortunately this is where the route photos end. I was a bit ambitious about bringing the SLR along and it didn't quite fit into the climb like I hoped it would. This route required all my attention so I decided to put the photos on hold. At our rest the sun started coming through and the ridge started looking bigger. I headed out from here placing pickets/screws as we went and finally establishing our first belay at the circle in the photo. Jeff took the lead up and over the edge of the ridge. The ice was brittle on the surface, lots of plating and digging to get to solid stuff. Jeff established two more belays before we began simul-climbing again. The beta we had spoke of a secret passage to the left and an option that seemed to go right up and over as well. The later was definitely blocked by an overhanging wall of about 30' so we started the leftward traverse. At this point we were following a bootpack of sorts which was nice for comfort's sake. This led into a little icefall with a fin sticking up and the path headed over it. I climbed up to the fin and peeked over. It dropped off quite a bit on the other side so I threw in a picket and delicately climbed over. The bootpack continued beside a large crevasse and up what appeared to be the summit crater disappearing into the clouds before crossing the crevasse. We followed along in good faith and finally came to a solid bridge across. A little more slogging and we were at the end of the climbing. The descent was pretty tiring. We started too far south on the roman wall along the Easton route and had to traverse pretty far back to the Coleman/Deming. About half way down there was a massive crevasse which spanned almost the entire width of the glacier from Colfax all the way back to whatever that rock wall is called which continuously sheds rock. We had to traverse pretty close to the wall and cross through the rockfall zone for about 5 minutes to get around the crevasse. Interestingly enough there were lots of snow "craters" as we were heading down. Some were pretty large but all seemed to have a collection of small rocks at one side or the other. Maybe a volcanologist can explain this? I have my theory. We made it back to camp at about 5:45pm and back to our bikes at the trail head just late enough to have to ride back down in the dark. Despite looking forward to the bike descent the whole time I was on the mountain, it proved to be mostly nerve racking when factoring in the low batteries on my headlamp, the half-paved/half-gravel potholed road, serious fear of a flat tire, and the constantly shifting weight of my pack on my bike rack. We both made it down in one piece and it definitely felt further on the downhill than the up. An hour later we were back in Bellingham where I picked up my car and headed for Seattle with a few stops along the way for food and red-bull. I rekindled my love for the Circle Jerks, Black Flag, and Bad Brains with the windows rolled down trying my best at singing along to stave off exhaustion and my rapidly closing eyes. 24 hours after I awoke that morning I was back in bed, this time with a wife who wouldn't let me get any sleep. Classic climb. Definitely climbed beyond my previous limit this time. Felt good. Scary at times but good. Gear Notes: 6 Ice Screws - used them 4 Pickets - used them New pair of Scarpa Rebels - worked great. Grivel G12's - wish I had brought my BD Cyborgs. point and shoot camera next time Grivel Matrix tech tools worked great, Jeff had one tool and a light-weight Camp Nanotech which also worked great. Approach Notes: Long Bike Ride If you have time, find your way through the glacier when it's light outside

My partner blew his knee out last week so is on the fence about baker this weekend. I want to make this climb happen so I'm looking for someone to either join us or just me on the North Ridge. You need a bike to ride the 7 or so miles up glacier creek rd. Flexible on departure date, thinking about making it 2 nights out to allow for some relaxing and maybe serac'ing on the glacier. This will be a more advanced climb for us so perhaps you are at a similar level.

Looking to climb something between Thursday and Sunday... Anyone interested/have any ideas?

On the east coast check out Katahdin in Maine. If you are hiring a guide you might as well climb something above your lead ability level and if you have been rock climbing for a while I'm sure you can swing ice tools so aim for the cilley barber route. The only way to get in there in the winter is a 13 mile hike so most people drag a sled, there's your sled dragging experience. Definitely one of the climbs I wish I had gotten on while living out east. http://www.summitpost.org/cilley-barber-route/259394

sold

I've got a pair of La Sportiva Baruntse that have never been worn outside of trying them on a few times. They are size 45 and as the picture tells, new in the box. Trying to subsidize the purchase of a pair of boots which fit better. I am in Seattle and could meet anywhere in the area/ship them... $500 [img:left]http://www.johngrace.com/chair/baruntse.jpg[/img]

Seeing if anyone wants to head to source lake tomorrow for some "last day of the high pressure system" ice climbing? Ive seen a couple climbs that are in up there not sure exactly the names but look like maybe WI3-4's. Ideally looking for someone comfortable leading so we can swap. I'll lead a 3 but might have to be amped to lead a 4....

I just saw a blurb on the news about an accident on Chair Peak today with a climber apparently injured and a rescue postponed due to high winds. Anyone know whats up?

HA, well at least conditions don't look that good today...j/k [img:left]http://www.johngrace.com/chair/Alpcam.jpg[/img]

Trip: Chair Peak - NE Buttress Date: 1/14/2013 Trip Report: Jason (Yikes) and I headed out to see what chair peak looked like. We left the park-n-ride on Mercer Island around 6:45 and were hiking towards source lake an hour later. Definitely some ice in, source lake line, as well as something high up on the other side of the valley - chockstone falls... (fat on the bottom maybe a bit thin on the top but hard to tell) We encountered a soloist on the uphill above source lake who was also headed to chair peak. We hit the thumbtack a couple hours later and into thickening clouds with the soloists poles hazily visible in the distance. Visibility was maybe 150-200 yards so not too bad. We took a break and waited to see if it might clear a bit. We decided to head up to the ridge and take a look. Here is where the wind created some "bitter" cold conditions. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/chair/5494small.jpg[/img] looks about how it felt At the top of the ridge we had a discussion about whether to try the NE Buttress or N Face. We settled on NE Buttress because why not and Jason led up the first pitch. A bit later I followed encountering mostly thick-ish brittle ice crust with soft snow beneath. Jason placed an excellent tri-cam, two girth hitches and a piton. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/chair/5483small.jpg[/img] looking up the first pitch At the top of the first pitch Jason graciously passed over some hand warmers as mine were getting numb, and my feet were headed in that direction. (new boots?... I was wearing Sportiva Trango Ice Evos (older version of the newer Primes) but all in all I'd say they were plenty of boot for what we were doing) I took the 2 pickets from him, some ice screws, and headed up. I slung a small tree about 15 yards out and came to a stop. The crust which had been supporting my weight thinned to the point of breaking off in slabs revealing sugar snow all the way down to rock. I tried forward progress on both sides of the tree but kept slipping back down. I was increasingly concerned I would slid down with a larger chunk of crust and due to my inability to get a leg up I decided to call it quits and down climbed. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/chair/5490small.jpg[/img] uninspired image making from the top of p.1 - you can see the small tree I made it to before turning around We rapped off. Back at thumb tack we could still see the soloist's poles and were a bit concerned as he had a jump start on us but as we started down we saw him in the distance. He had success on the N Face and mentioned encountering some similar snow conditions as us. Perhaps I could have continued trying to power thru the snow but I felt uncomfortable with it as this is my first season climbing in these types of conditions. Cheers to Jason for leading the first pitch and being game for Chair on a Monday. Gear Notes: tri-cam 1.0, piton, hand-warmers Approach Notes: Carried snow shoes but didn't put 'em on.

Looking for a partner to head to Snoqualmie with this week anyday Monday thru Wednesday. Forecast looks great....

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - Fisher Chimneys 9/16/12 & 9/28/12 Date: 9/16/2012 Trip Report: Even though it was a few months ago I thought I'd finally post this TR so I didn't feel so bad about the cold rain outside. As a recent east coast transplant I was psyched to get on a classic route out here. I spent a lot of time researching this route. I mainly looked through old TR's. I noticed there were a few mini-epics...route finding being a pretty big issue as well as underestimating the length/time of the route. Initially there were going to be three of us, a buddy I had only climbed once with and his friend I hadn't climbed with before. I was a bit nervous but figured since they had spent time climbing together that the friend would be fine on Shuksan. As the trip neared I found out the friend's brother was going to tag along as well....4's a crowd on Fisher Chimneys. The friends brother had never been on a glacier before so even though we moved slow and didn't top out, it was most fun sharing the mountain with him. We got a noon or so start from the Lake Ann trail head. The hike in is pretty great. At lake Ann we hung out for a bit then headed towards the climbers trail. When we arrived at the first gully or "chimney," I thought we were headed up the route, but this is actually just part of the trail leading to the massive scree field before the route. It took us a while to find our way around some snow blocking the first gully. The loose scree/dirt around this part can make for some slippery traversing. There were a few places on the approach where loose dirt/scree made for some of the least controlled moves on the entire route. I think we made this first part way harder than we had to as I continued up past the rap station coming out on the scree field towards the top of the grassy gully. If you climb up past the rap station on the right you should start looking for a trail up beyond that to the right. There is a decent grade trail which skirts the rest of the gully and deposits you towards the middle of the scree field above some trees. Luckily for us there were two perfect size flat bivy spots right there because when we I topped out the gully and saw the massive scree field and the actual beginning of the route beyond...I knew we weren't going to make it to the top of the chimneys by dark. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/IMG_4112.jpg[/img] Why this route is so awesome for photography... [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/IMG_4134.jpg[/img] bivy at beginning of scree field It was about 6pm when the others arrived and with only two hours of light left we decided to call it a night where we were. The friend had some trouble with exposure on the gully and I was definitely worried about how he would handle the next day already feeling unsafe. Luckily we saw two guys rappelling down the entrance section of the Chimneys so we felt great about having a visual for the following day. Next morning I was at the base of the chimneys by 6am waiting for the others to arrive and watching their status from camp. Later did I find out that the friend wrestled with whether or not to start up with us that morning but was motivated by his brother's decision to come along. The Chimneys are great fun. We didn't use a rope anywhere. There are a few sections that are exposed, but mostly 3rd class stuff and even easy trail sections mixed in. Our pace was slooooowwww here. Being my first time on the route I made some poor decisions about which direction to take here and there. Nothing a little traversing couldn't fix but made things more complicated. Here we ran into our first group, a guided climber who had been vomiting all night but still seemed stoked. I guess this was perhaps a sign of things to come. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/IMG_4233.jpg[/img] maybe half-way up the chimneys We toped the chimneys and put on crampons/boots and stowed our trail runners in a bag. I think when you top out on the chimneys in late season it's not really necessary to put on crampons at this point. Climbing onto the snow it seemed like the right thing to do but I would say just getting your axe out is fine. You initially climb a low angled slope which leads to a shit load of rocks you have to climb over before winnie's slide. At the top of these rocks were a few decent bivy spots but no running water that was easily visible/hearable. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/IMG_4254.jpg[/img] Winnie's slide was well kicked in. I placed a picket half-way up and just over the top mainly to give myself some security due to the inexperienced climber behind me. Wasn't necessary though and mostly wasted time. The moat from the top of the slide to the rocks below the glacier was a bit wide but not too bad for stepping across. Here's where the decent bivy spots are. A running creek out from under the glacier entrance ramp provided water. We scraped our way up the rock fin to the left of the entrance ramp which was a huge waste of time. If the ramp looks semi-decent I would take it up and two weeks later when back on the route we walked up it. We also saw a serac roll over near the ramp so that had us on our toes. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/IMG_4280.jpg[/img] yellow tent=best bivy on shuksan From here it's just winding up and around crevasses then back down towards hell's highway. Hell's Highway felt a bit steeper than Winnie's slide. The slog to the summit pyramid is just that, straightforward and hot in the full sun. Arriving at the rocks we hung out for a bit and ate some lunch. It was about noon so I was a bit worried about our getting back to the parking lot by dark. I had a mental turn-around of about 12:30 so figured we'd give it our all to see how far up the rocks we could make it. I started up and cruised past a few rap anchors then headed right which turned out to be a mistake .I found myself looking over the NE ridge back at our route and continued for a bit then hit a spot with some exposed low fifth class moves and imagined myself tumbling to the glacier below so I turned back. Getting back on route I waited for the two scragglers to catch up at which point we had a "should we turn around or not" conversation. It was about 1:30 and I knew since our team was moving painfully slow that we had to get out of there if we wanted to make it to lake Ann before dark. One of the guys had been feeling a bit ill and had been talking about finding shade since we reached the rocks - he was starting to get a bit of heat exhaustion. We decided to turn-around. We had brought the rope up with us in case a rappel seemed safer than down climbing, having not been on the route before, but it didn't seem necessary until the ill climber mentioned rappelling back down as he wasn't feeling good. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/IMG_4298.jpg[/img] turning around.... The other two guys started to down climb as I began to rig the rappel. At this point the ill climber started vomiting. It really caught me off guard because I knew he was tired and hot but didn't realize the extent of his discomfort. I went down the rope quickly to give the ill climber a fireman's belay. Fortunately he was okay to continue down-climbing after only two rappels. Back at the gear I suggested we move quickly to avoid down climbing the chimneys in the dark. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/IMG_4335.jpg[/img] views for miles We were roped up and back down to the bottom of hell's highway in no time, don't think we place any pickets this go-around. I was now in the back of the rope team and argued with the leader about how high a route to take up the glacier past the hourglass. We had passed another party just before the summit pyramid and our tracks had melted to the point of looking like the numerous other half melted tracks winding around from the weekend. It's not crazy high on the slope, a comfortable distance from the rocks, but this time of year anyhow there was a large crevasse which blocked a more direct route back to the bivy rocks above Winnie's slide. I think we actually re-entered the rocks above the glacier entrance ramp instead of down climbing the ramp which definitely wasted plenty of time. The glacier ramp is far superior to scrambling on the rocks. A quick water fill-up and we were on our way over the moat and down Winnie's slide this time not taking it so slow as before. Back in the chimney's we made our way down and to the scree field just as the sun was disappearing behind Mt. Baker which makes quite an epic photograph... [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/IMG_4470.jpg[/img] almost down the chimneys...holy shit this route is photogenic [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/IMG_4481.jpg[/img] I think this is where the last rap option is if you want it We made our way across the scree field and hit our bivy sites to pack up the cached gear. There is a pretty decent trail across the scree field if you can manage to follow it. The ill climber was moving slow and I'm pretty sure had been vomiting periodically since the summit pyramid. He was moving strong enough though and surprisingly agreed to try and make it down to lake Ann. I think at this point I was certain we could even make it back to the car by 11pm or so. Sliding around the few dirt/scree slopes leading back to lake Ann we made decent time to the creek below the lake. I waited with my buddy for the two brothers to catch up. They were making slower time due to his illness and hit lake Ann to meet us around 11pm or so. We scouted a big flat spot and flopped down for the night. I was all outta food except for maybe one bar of something so was bummin out a bit about going to bed hungry but low and behold the two brothers pulled a bounty of mountain-house out of their packs, more than enough dinner for everyone. Of course this excited and satiated me plenty so I kept my mouth shut but definitely was a bit miffed as to why so much extra food had been brought and got me thinking about what other extra shit might have been brought. We stuffed ourselves and talked about how bad Mountain House peach cobbler is. We fell to sleep starring at the most stars any of us had seen all summer. It wasn't such a bad thing to spend an extra night out. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/IMG_4489.jpg[/img] lake Ann, plenty of flat spots but it was monday night... maybe not so much on a summer weekend The next morning we got a slow start. Everyone was a bit wasted and hungry without any breakfast so we powered through the hike out as best we could. The last bit seemed like the longest uphill ever. Once back at the car we broke open the celebratory chips and salsa which at 8am tasted pretty great. Definitely a super fun trip. It's so hard to gauge how long a climb will take given you've never done it before, but I think like many TR's before mine, I definitely underestimated this route. It's not particularly far but there are so many transitional areas where going from rock to snow/glacier can eat up a lot of time if you are not paying attention. I can also see how guided groups protecting the chimneys and summit pyramid do this in three days. I would say it's a two day trip for the most part. If you get an early enough start from the Lake Ann trail head making it to the top of the chimney's for the bivy above Winnie's slide is a great place to spend the night. It's easy enough from there to summit and get back to the car before dark. [img:center]http://www.johngrace.com/shuksan/chimneys%20pano.jpg[/img] gratuitous photoshopped pano Disappointed with not making the summit, my buddy and I headed back to Shuksan on the 28th of September. Without getting too deep it was a 24hr effort. Hiking out in the dark, 1.5hrs to lake Ann. The next morning we had alarm problems so we didn't get out till about 8am, got to the summit and were back at lake Ann by 6pm or so. I carried my approach shoes up to the summit pyramid which made it easier to cruise up to the top. We took the glacier entrance ramp this time which was slippery as hell due to loose pebbles. Didn't place any pickets and easily made it up the chimney's in under :45 and down them in under :30. With a smaller party and some concentration you can cruise up this route. We managed the hike out without headlamps. As we stopped for water before arriving back at lake Ann, the alarm went off...it was set for PM instead of AM...damn IPhone Gear Notes: First time around placed 2 pickets twice, didn't use them the second time. Rope for glacier travel, used it for 2 rappels off summit pyramid first time around, only used for glacier travel second time. Brought light rock rack first time around and second ice tool, whoops. Heavy camera recommended Approach Notes: At the first gully/climbing part after leaving lake anne, look right up a bit after the rap station to find trail that skirts around to the scree slope.

grassrocket-sent you a pm

Looking for partners in Seattle for Ice Climbing, maybe try heading up to Snoqualmie...? I'm available during the week as well...

pm sent