bargainhunter

Holy type 2/3 fun Batman! That was an incredible write up and one of the best TRs that I've read in a long time! I've been drooling over that route for decades and you pulled it off in impressive style despite multiple setbacks along the way. Awesome commitment and honesty in reporting! Great photos! And 5.11 at altitude, massively dehydrated, with those big ass packs? Holy shiiite that's proud! Looking forward to your write up of K2's Cessen Route in approach shoes soon. So is Technique Extreme still there? When I was last in Cham 20 years ago they had super cheap gear of dubious quality, kind of like the Harbor Freight of mountaineering gear. That selfie of you and the summit Madonna is classic! Frame that in black velvet with black lighting above your bed! PS: Watching you shred those nice packs by hauling, ouch! Consider a Fish Atom Smasher or equivalent like the Metolius Mescalito or Express haul pack...much more durable for the granite grind, albeit heavier.

Great TR Jon. Thanks for posting with such alluring pics. I've been wanting some colonialism even since I heard about Watusi Rodeo. Kuato, can you please tell me what ridge specifically are you referring to?

Wonder if they had a sense that the snow was soft on the approach to the lower Nooksak Tower, BEFORE turning back from soft snow that dropped down to the Price Glacier? I could see anyone descending from the Tower late in the afternoon after the rappels to feel relieved to be back on the snowfield and just want to power down back to camp or car, unaware or too tired to care about the avalanche danger, and getting hit by a similar slide. Man, those guys were lucky. That's a long way to get dragged. Could have been much worse. Sobering example of spring slide potential. Thanks for posting!

Chouinard made an adapter for mountaineering boots to fit in cable tele bindings in the 1980s. I have a pair and used them on some fairly long mountaineering trips in Alaska in the Wrangells and on Denali. It was a toe piece with an axle that fit into a modified Riva cable binding and allowed the rigid mountaineering boot to pivot at the toe. I like your idea as I have tele gear and mountaineering boots and don't have an AT set up or plan to get one. I did mount some old Silvretta 404s on some approach skis but haven't used them yet. I suspect that set up, with the heel not latched would work fine for approaches and gentle touring. I have to decide between ski touring or a mountaineering goal and then choose what gear to take (tele vs mountaineering boots). Having an AT set up with boots that one can climb in would make this choice obsolete. But I'm kind of slow to embrace this change and I enjoy the free heel touring experience. Classic climbs in the Alps were climbed then the slopes were skied back down to Chamonix in regular (non-ski) boots. Perhaps bringing back a similar cable binding set up might work? Also, Altai skis (maker of the Altai Hok) has a universal approach binding that will bind any boot but I doubt that offers much in the way of performance.

I've done this route a number of times both in summer and winter, solo, in a day, camping out, etc. All of the options you list are good. Skis for the approach could save you from post-holing. Storms are no joke on that mountain. That little step up around 13,000' is a great place to experience the full force of cascade tempests and have your tent destroyed. Great place to test your gear and mettle for bigger ranges (hint for Alaska: dig a pit 5' deep in the snow and build an additional circumferential snow wall. A snow saw for making blocks is helpful. When it's really coming down, expect to shovel every 30 mins so you don't get buried). Crevasses were a non-issue, but all of my trips were 20-30 years ago. Don't get stuck on the approach road! Many fun, interesting and challenging routes of Shasta...lots to explore. Steep snow basics like bomber self arrest technique are assumed, and yes I descended the same way (don't fall!). Be safe! Please post a TR to share your experience.

Did you loose these items recently near the backcountry access point near the Mt. Baker Ski Area? If so, please describe them and when you lost them.

Or ask Colin Hailey how he broke his cheek bone.

Renato Casarotto could add some insight to this discussion.

Great opening scene in War Games in the missile silo . I'd never heard of Whitehorse. It's now added to my list of peaks to climb. Thanks for posting. Beautiful TR here: http://cascadecrusades.org/SkiMountaineering/whitehorse/whitehorseglcier2008/wh2008.htm

Mountain Hardwear is now making the Direkt 2 again under the name AC 2. They have a vestibule too for $170. For a 1/2 pound more than the Direkt 2 vestibule weight (630g) you can get a full coverage fly by improvising using a 850gm Mountainsmith Mountain Shelter LT tarp tent (see below). It adds a layer of versatility/protection for basecamp scenarios, then you could take the Direkt 2 alone up higher to save weight. The pics below show it covering the Directk2 in my yard. Staked out, it's bomber in heavy storms and wind. I slept in just the Mountain Shelter LT 50 days a year (without the Direkt 2) for a couple of consecutive years in the Sierra during every month of the year. It's a floorless tarp tent. The piñon green color is great for stealth camping in Buttermilk sagebrush. It's been discontinued but you can still find them online for $70-100 on sale or pay $120-150 retail. I made carbon fiber poles for mine as I don't hike with trekking poles. An idea for the budget minded plus you get an awesome tarp tent to use alone too. It's heavier duty construction is appreciated for something that I'll use often and need abrasion resistance for wear and tear, but it's not ultralight. I swapped out the reflective guylines for lighter weight non-reflective cord.

Definitely makes the Direkt 2 so much more comfortable/ functional.

"Going up and down the icy sections without a backup required total focus and perfection" So true! I hit it solo back in mid-August, and an icy Winnie's definitely gave me pause. Strangely, I had the entire summit pyramid to myself. When you are back at the trailhead, it's cool that you can see both Winnie's and Hell's Highway from parking lot,. Before I climbed it, Shuksan's complexity made it hard to figure out where the route actually went. What an awesome mountain. I look forward to doing some of the North Face routes and of course Nooksak Ridge/Tower and Jagged Ridge too. Looking down on the Hanging glacier from the summit was wild! Descending the route in a whiteout/storm/darkness would be epic!

You can get a 70”x20” pad like that from Sierra Trading Post with free shipping to their store for $7/ea and they weigh 234g. https://www.sierra.com/trespass-radix-sleeping-pad-70x20-rectangular~p~443fm/ The gossamer gear ones cost $32 PLUS $20 just for shipping alone for a single pad, and it’s 1” narrower and 11” shorter. F that.

Thanks for the beta! With your trip report (and reading over ALL of the older ones on CC) I was able to climb it confidently solo on Friday 8/14/20. Winnies slide almost shut me down. The ice halfway up gave me serious pause. Bad runout into rocks. I had perfect conditions but easily see how one can epic on several of the sections. Crevasses, falls, bad weather (wind/white out on the sulphide summit plateau) and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to try to descend down the Chimneys in the dark or in rain. It would be easy to loose the trail over the talus patches on the way back to Lake Ann from the base of the Chimneys at night as well. Full value strenuous day. Knowing about the glacial run off at the upper Curtis was great for hydration. There were snowmelt drips even on the summit pyramid, which is a lot bigger/longer than I thought. Glad I took steel crampons (Grivel G12s) on my Scarpa Rebel carbons instead of aluminum crampons. Camp Corsa axe did the job but two Quarks would have been more secure on Winnies and Hell’s highway. If I had had a rope I might have rapped it. The boot track from previous parties made navigation a no brainer and relieved a lot of stress (thank you!) , but the track had faded when I descended in the afternoon. Wands or GPS breadcrumbs would be useful if it’s misty/low viz. Crevasses were visible and bridges were solid, but I would have turned back immediately if I felt sketched about the solidity of the lips/bridges. Also, the moats by the rocks can be treacherous. I had been wanting to do this route for 30+ years. Definitely a satisfying mountaineering goal! Beckey described it as torturous. I’d call it extreme walking. Classic!

What’s this buttress called? Routes? Topos? Beta? It’s on the opposite side of Ruth Creek from Mamie Peak. It descends off of the north side of Nooksack Ridge between Ruth and Sefrit (not the similarly named Nooksack Ridge which is nearby between Nooksack Tower and Shuksan’s summit).

Might be simpler/cheaper to put a plastic bag over your head and rubber band it around you neck. If you can do 50 laps on Chair Peak in winter without removing it, wearing only running shoes and a wife beater, then you may be ready for the Kukuczka line on K2. Just don't buy your rope used in a Katmandu bazaar.

Such a good tent for its intended purpose. It’s a shame they discontinued it.

You have good taste. That is my favorite fleece hoody. When I saw they were discontinuing it, I drove from Bishop to their Reno outlet to buy their last one in stock. It's a great cut for alpine bods, long in the waist to tuck in for extra warmth in the low back, full overage hoody which even when not pulled over the head really keeps your neck warm when fully zipped up. Breathes well. The large fits my 6'2" 170lb frame perfectly. I own two of them and would buy another few if I could. It's the one go-to layer that I always seem to take climbing, backpacking, skiing, and for house/urban wear when temps demand it, as it's great alone or in combo with other layers/shells. The warmth/weight/durability ratio is better than any of my other backcountry wear. Used prices for them are ridiculous, as I paid less for new ones at the Patagonia Outlet back in the day. Perhaps I need to visit their store to try on newer equivalents like the R1, etc.?

I hardly think posting beta from a 48 year old guidebook is going to "insta-wreck" anything, especially because the "masses" arriving at the trailhead will be confronted with a thigh deep creek right at the parking lot. Then, if they look for an easier way across, and have the gumption to walk through brush a hundred yards upstream or downstream, the ice-covered log jams spanning the river may also give them pause. If they make it across, the 1 mile approach trail described in "101 Hikes..." is actually now 4 miles due to the Ruth Creek washout. That's just to reach the gravel bar of the Nooksack. To get to the cirque itself, it's another 5 miles of walking on riverbed boulders and crossing tributaries, with occasional bushwacks at points where the river forces you back in the forest (with temps dipping into the low 20sF in the fall permashade). The place is often described as "seldom visited" because the masses are, in general, too hardship adverse, lazy, and phone dependent. If the hoi polloi make it to the cirque itself, they aren't going to stumble through mossy boulderfields and alder thickets to find a specific overhanging boulder. The Trog isn't that obvious, one has to actively look for it. The "summit register" in the Trog was weathered and looked like it had been there a few years. The plastic bag which contained it was riddled with rodent nibbles and writhing with Hanta virions. There was only one name in it: mine, because I had just signed it. I'll go back to re-check it in 5-10 years and if it's overflowing with visitors, you will have proved me wrong and I'll delete this post and never mention the area again. Average Joes just aren't going to go there, while mountaineering masochist like you and me embrace this type of approach. Meanwhile, back on topic, yesterday I took a late afternoon stroll up the Hannegan Pass trail. Near Silesia Camp, after walking in snow for several miles in lowtop approach shoes, I caught a nice view of Shuksan from the northeast in twilight, already gripped in a wintery embrace. Shuksan, Price Glacier, Nooksack Tower and ridge from the Copper Ridge Trail west of Silesia camp 11/8/19:Damn! Further east was a impressive view of the north face of Mt. Blum, the most prominent peak between Shuksan and the Pickets. Mt Blum's north ridge (5.9, III) was first climbed in 1971, a year after Spring and Manning's "101 Hikes in the North Cascades" was first published. Mt Blum, from the north: I turned back at this point because it was dark and I was losing the trail in the snow. My planned turn around point at the Copper Ridge lookout was still 2 miles away. The perennial debate of sharing info vs keeping quiet even created tension for Manning and Spring. An interesting discussion of that can be found here: https://www.historylink.org/File/9381 So who is going to post a TR of their ascent of Sulphide Creek Falls?

From Spring and Manning’s “101 Hikes in the North Cascades”, early 1970’s edition: PS: There were no crowds. I was the only one in the whole valley. Only my car at the trailhead.

Nooksack Cirque had endless possibilities last week for the adventurous, intrepid mixed master who doesn't mind significant objective risk. Pics taken on 10/31/19: View from the Trog: At the base: A buttress on Jagged Ridge: Seahpo/Cloudcap:

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/sea-to-sky-gondola-sabotaged-concludes-report

Stunning photos of mountain grandeur. Thank you for sharing. Our ice is disappearing. Rainier may be an iceless slag pile in my lifetime. Sobering. This article from the Seattle Times yesterday shows some dramatic melting of the Bering Sea far more than I would have expected so soon. Bottom temps 12F (!) higher than 9 years ago!

As someone alluded to above, Colin Haley and Mark Bunker climbed it in 2009. Here's the TR: http://colinhaley.blogspot.com/2009/01/watusi-rodeo.html Returning home from rock climbing at the Pass yesterday, we stopped at Diablo Dam. The view of northern aspect of Pyramid Peak nearby was impressive. Colonial Peak is out of view to the left of Pyramid, hidden by the forested ridge.

My set up for these situations is a pair of Scarpa Zens with strap-on Black Diamond Nevés, and a Camp Corsa axe. I hardly notice the weight.