Kameron

Looks like an awesome trip! There was still a lot of snow eh. More than when I was in there significantly earlier season a few years back for skiing. Really suprising that 3 groups were up there together.

Later in the season when the snow melts the scramble gets a lot longer, nearly a full 30 m. I need to get up there and camp on that ridge again, when it isn't raining!

Well I've skied with Ingmar and he's certainly a crusher/sandbagger. Don't go with him if you want to feel "in your prime" ;-) Rope scramble shenanigans look ok. Nice and short. Anybody got an old static line for me to hike in there and replace the deteriorating fixed line with? From your photo of the lower glacier, conditions actually look good for the direct approach up the valley, gaining the ridge higher up. Nice one!

Definitely lucky, although it seems the decision to bail was the correct one. Thanks for the share

Current pictures I've seen show really bad conditions on the upper part of Rainier. Maybe it's "skiable", but I doubt it's very fun skiing. Maybe better to plan a walk-up.

Cool! If you have any pics towards Primus/Klawatti zone, I'd love to see those.

At the moment, 410 is closed at the Crystal mountain road. Once the road is driveable, the bike approach becomes worthwhile. https://wsdot.wa.gov/travel/highways-bridges/passes/chinook-and-cayuse/home

Yes, definitely ensure a good multi-day weather window for that one. Bike approach from hwy 410 (once it's open) to White River is a great way to do it. You will have that side of the mountain to yourselves.

That shit is steep! Nice

Awesome, Jim! Would be cool to see drone shots of the "extreme snowboard" route on the NE face somewhere put up a few years ago.

Lots of powder snow.

I read just a portion of the FS documents (which are many, many pages) and commented that I'm not necessarily against it, but would appreciate the road access being maintained throughout the process. So I let them know that and told them what months I most enjoy being up there. Also, I'm not sure what "selective harvesting" means. I haven't seen much logging around here that isn't full on clear cuts.

Copying from Facebook TAY group, posted by Andrew McDavid: "The MB-Snoqualmie NF just posted an update to a logging project along 542 that seems like it will impact access to Heliotrope ridge. I wasn't able to get a clear idea about road/trail closures from the draft impact statement, but they will be logging around the Heliotrope trailhead right up to the Wilderness boundary. Comments on it are accepted until April 3." Here's the main project page: www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=58218 Here's the pdf about recreation impacts (note highlighting on Heliotrope ridge): www.fs.usda.gov/nfs/11558/www/nepa/113769_FSPLT3_5599267.pdf Here's the link for comments: cara.ecosystem-management.org/Public//Co...bIscf877t14dI0sIy8v4 Please let the FS know your concerns. They should be hearing from backcountry skiers, hikers, and climbers. What the North Cascades Conservation Council thinks: http://www.northcascades.org/wordpress/north-fork-nooksack-threatened

Sounds like you are maybe wishing you'd gone on a ski-carrying schwack instead ;-) Looks lovely

No it's not okay. Maybe for someone else though :-)

Wow this is incredible! Dare I say your line to K6 west looks potentially skiable? Although I don't think so at 70 degrees.

Wow, wild to go anywhere non-standard on that crumbling choss-pile. Please post pics!

Went for a hike to Hannegan peak Sunday. Not a lot of new snow up there, so there are a number of rockbands. This is from the morning, and much of that white was gone in the afternoon.

S6302701.AVI video from the summit Ojos de Agua panorama

Trip: Valle Aconcagua 2010: Gloria & Parva del Inca - normales Trip Date: 09/01/2010 Trip Report: Figured I'd share some other climbs I did when I lived in Chile. These were less exciting/dangerous than Licancabur, but that's probably a good thing! Valle Aconcagua is the canyon leading into the mountains from the town of Los Andes, the same valley that takes you to Portillo and Mendoza, Argentina. Both of these peaks are north of the highway and a valley apart. Cerro Gloria (Sept 2010) The best reference for Chilean climbs is the online guidebook Andeshandbook. Here's their description of the ruta normal: https://www.andeshandbook.org/montanismo/ruta/140/Normal It's a chill walk-up. We approached in 1 day and climbed and retreated the next. Good ice climbing possibilities down low. The route heads right and around the back of the peak. Felipe and Ramiro taking a break Ramiro higher up. The big, glaciated peak on the left is Nevado Juncal, and the fortress-like peak just right of it in the foreground is Alto Los Leones. Tilted summit shot with Aconcagua on the left Walking down the choss. To the right is the big cliff on the S face of Gloria Parva del Inca (November 2010) This was the most technical mountain climb I did that year. There's a scramble section that we rappelled, and we had to climb some thinly covered low-angle ice past a hidden bergschrund. It's a fucking rad peak. The summit is perched above a monstrous cliff. According to Drew Tabke it's maybe been skied by someone? To get to this one you go one valley deeper towards Mendoza and head north up Estero Ojos de Agua. We did this over 3 or 4 days, with 2 to approach high camp. https://www.andeshandbook.org/montanismo/ruta/253/Ruta_de_Hielo The tip of the peak visible from the parking lot Better views higher. Like everything in the Andes, the scale is hard to comprehend. Sick views of Juncal and los Leones, camp 1! Jagged ridgeline above camp My best shot of the route, next morning. We would gain the glacier plateau on the shadowy left side, then pass through the rock choke and gain the left of the summit ridge, which we'd take to the summit. We moved camp close to the base of the peak and started on the morning of the 3rd day. Brewing up in the tent with Victor. I only this year got rid of this sweet BD Mirage tent. Good tent but too cold for the Andes. Looking down on Ramiro and Victor after the scramble We threw a rope down for Daniel, who wasn't psyched on the scramble as much. The crux bergshcrund crossing, pretty hard ice underneath the powdery snow. We didn't rope up mostly from ignorance about the proper techniques. I remember being pretty comfortable on the ice, probably from having hiked around in snow and in ski boots for a long time. Above the choke we climbed straight up until we encountered more ice, then backtracked and traversed off climber's left to the rocky ridge. Summit! Aconcagua dominating behind. The valley with Portillo is the next over, but Laguna del Inca is out of sight. Big cliff right underneath the summit. You can see the highway and border facility in the distance, and of course Juncal and a bunch of other big peaks. My guess is the big one in the middle is Marmolejo, the furthest S 6000m+ peak, but I'm not sure about that. It doesn't come out in my photos, but we could barely make out the sea to the W. Summit register was a big book with entries going back to the 50's Heading back down with the homies. It was fairly steep cramponing in the choke I stepped into a crevasse and my leg went in up to my waist! Luckily it was only 6" wide or so. I was so clueless! Not roped up of course. After this find, I headed back to our uptrack. Now, I recognize it was pretty damn dangerous conditions to travel unroped... powdery 6-12" on top of some old snow just perfect for hiding the crevasses. It might have had some avy danger, too, although it hadn't snowed in a while and the powdery snow up top I think was just weak, faceted old snow. Wish I had a picture of another axe I borrowed. It was hand-welded out of steel, with a square shaft! I think I left that at home and just brought my massive 80 cm traditional CAMP axe. Rappelling the rock step Not much I remember about the trip except that we were so late getting back to the truck that Daniel was pissed! He had a wife and kids to get to and a real job to work the next day. Here's Daniel, Victor, and Carlos at my going-away party a month later Gear Notes: axe, crampons, friends Approach Notes: use Andeshandbook

Thanks! I had a Chilean rock climbing trip where our car was actually stolen. We got back to where the car was parked on the highway, at the climbing spot Las Chilcas, and all that was left was some broken glass. They must have been pros because it's a busy road and was a new car with all the anti-theft features. My acquaintance who owned the car luckily had insurance for theft. Humorously, just as we realized the car was gone, a police car was driving down the road. We flagged them down and they gave us a ride to the local station where we reported the theft. From there we caught a bus home. Good memories....

I feel like my memory fails me a bit on the details of that day... now that I mull it over more... I think I might have realized that object wasn't a mine eventually, although it definitely scared the shit out of me at first. But I'd definitely forgotten that when I first posted this. I saw that picture and my files yesterday and was like "whoah!" I found a website from the Chilean de-mining commission that shows the types of landmines used in Chile: http://www.cnad.cl/?page_id=83 as well as maps of affected areas http://www.cnad.cl/?page_id=171 Antofagasta: Zoomed into the area around Licancabur. The peak is located south of MF-E1-22, which was the area we passed through. This map is dated from January 2018, and the yellow color means "campo minado depeje en proceso" or minefield partially cleared. This area did not have anything more than that one small sign on the ground marking it. Best I remember our route and camp

Found this, basically the only sign that we were in a dangerous place, no evidence of where the boundaries were. We'd driven through a fully fenced minefield right off the highway, but this was on the rough road as we're approaching the flanks of the volcano and the border.

You could be right (edit: I think it is a radiator cap now too @bellows, haven't seen any mine photos that have the metal base, but it looked a lot like a mine!)... I didn't want to pick it up and find out. There are a number of different models that the Chileans have used. I'm not sure what all of the designs look like: http://archives.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?url=lm/2003/chile.html They claim to have cleared out all mines from the country, but I doubt that is even possible in these large, remote areas. http://www.icbl.org/en-gb/news-and-events/news/2020/chile-announces-mine-free-status.aspx When it rains, they have can wash away and end up anywhere.

This was also quite the relief!