scottrinck

Thanks Pete!

rock_joe, it's a top notch objective for sure. Enjoy!

Thanks Mountainmatt. Glad you like the photos. It was definitely a spectacular trip out. Cheers!

Nope, ours was orange, but we saw that one. Perhaps they headed up in the Eldorado direction.

Trip: Spider Mountain - North Face Chute Date: 3/31/2013 Trip Report: Last weekend held grand adventure and a gorgeous alpine experience in the form of Spider Mountain’s north face, a dream line for the a great many of us. Ranking right at the top of my season, I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to climb and ski such a grand classic. Two days with my frequent cohort, Brian Fletcher got the job done. The first day involved a 3am departure from Seattle, a tandem approach of about 4 miles up the Cascade River road on Brian’s snowmobile, and a long day of ski touring from the Cascade Pass trailhead to Arts Knoll, the saddle directly across valley from Spider. At camp we were treated to a top-10, mind blowing sunset on one side, and a haunting and imposing view of the following day’s objective on the other. Sunday morning broke with still clear weather and allowed a safe and expedient climb of Spider once we found the key to crossing the mammoth bergschrund at the bottom of the upper face. The skiing was nothing short of amazing with stable soft snow from the summit to the glacier far below, with but a single enjoyable mandatory air over the gaping bergschrund to keep us on our toes. Rare are the days where such an outing can be achieved with so little objective hazard. It’s always a pleasure to be in the mountains, but in this instance, it was a rare treat indeed. Yummy. More photos and words on my blog here: http://blog.scottrinck.com/freshies/freshies-spider-mountain-in-the-deep-north-cascades/ blue line is ascent, green line is descent: Gear Notes: 1 Whippit, 1 Mountain Axe, Aluminum Crampons Approach Notes: Cascade River Road snow-bound at Mineral Park campground. We removed a log 3 miles before this with a chainsaw. Road snowy but clean from Mineral Park to Cascade Pass trailhead except avalanche debris. Deep solid snow base from Cascade Pass to Spider Mountain via Cache Col and Arts Knoll

Trip: Columbia Peak - West Face Date: 1/19/2013 Trip Report: Like many, I've long been captivated by John Scurlock's photo of the west face of Columbia Peak. Previous attempts have been aborted due to stability or coverage issues, but a week from last Saturday the conditions were ripe and in the company of Brian Fletcher, Erik Svege and Eric Wehrly, I was able to climb and ski this glorious line. Brian and I left Seattle at 3am on Friday. We covered the ground between Deer Creek and Monte Cristo with the help of headlamps and a brave snowmobile. The two Erics were already in the Monte Cristo area and had started out slightly ahead of us. Brian and I opted for a longer but more gradual approach by climbing west out of the Seventysix Creek drainage and gaining the west ridge of Columbia early, while Erik and Eric climbed the lower northwest face of Columbia hoping for a good look at the N. Couloir summit route. Eventually we all ended up on the summit in time for the snow to be nearly ideal for a long and exposed descent such as this. After bagging the summit, we started our ski descent about 50' below the actual high point which was unskiable in it's current state as a pile of loose rock and rime. We were able to ski continuously through all of the rock bands in the upper face and continued on that aspect until around 5600 feet where we turned the corner to the north and an exit via Seventysix creek and Monte Cristo. Visit my page for more photos and a video of the adventure: http://blog.scottrinck.com/freshies/freshies-columbia-peak-sw-face