Nate G

Your hope is correct, i was able to use them this weekend at the Bozeman ice fest and felt that they were very similar to the quantum techs with greater clearance for bulgy ice and slightly more weight in the head. The swing felt very natural being that most of the weight is in the head and the tool requires very little momentum to get good sticks (think Nomic with pick weights). The hammer does seem to be more useful, but i didn't place any pins so i can't speak from experience. Grivel picks are absolutely the best in the industry....the saying "twight proof" comes to mind. Grivel picks also come detuned for mixed climbing so they require less initial modification than conventional picks from BD and petzl. As a side note, BD picks are know to break when torqued hard into cracks..... If I had total freedom of choice on my gear (i.e. unlimited funds) I would only trust my life to petzl and grivel, at least when it comes to crampons and tools. http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2013/02/grivel-crampons-respect-is-due.html Customer service will be top notch with grivel and petzl too.....BD may replace your gear but the problem will likely be pushed under the rug.

Hyalite is in...way in. Things are phat here and it's only a 14 hour drive

Sure dude....been working a lot lately but we should head out to index one of these days, hit me up when you get a chance.

Way to go, Ryan! What solo belay system are you using?

Took my girlfriend up for the first time on Friday and Saturday, we made the summit but the route is way different than usual years. Rather than going straight up to the football field and over to the black beautes the route goes around (to the right if you are looking up from hogs back) of heliotrope ridge, then descends into the edge of the football field basin and continues around staying as high and close to the black beautes as possible.....it then does a bunch if switchbacks to avoid crevasses until you hit the pumice ridge. Pumice ridge on it looks like normal conditions but everything below looks way worse than a normal late, hot august. Even with all the craziness of the boot pack there was only one 3 foot crevasse to jump.....so just count on the route being longer than usual and no camping on the football field like normal. Someone did camp under the black beautes alongside the bootpack I wouldn't recommend this due to roackfall danger....good luck!

Bump for next week

I took the whole month off from work and in between traveling and school stuff I'm hoping to get out and get after it! I was looking at the west ridge of forbidden, south buttress of cutthroat, north ridge on baker, ice cliff glacier, ptarmigan ridge or stuart glacier couloir, but to be honest with ya I just want to get climbing....been way too busy the last month! So I am open to your ideas. Hit me up with what you think.....and if we jibe well I'm also looking for another regular partner for the rest of the summer! Nate G

Thanks Smack! I need you to hurry up and come back, all my partners have left or are busy for the next couple weekends!

Impressive to say the least! It's awesome to see how quickly the general opinions (or at least my opinion) of colfax have gone from "a choss pile" to "a choss pile with some badass ice and mixed routes"!

I haven't climbed it...or even gotten near it. But it looked like there was still a little snow but it is still ass cold in the shade up there. It was 19 degrees when we got there and we were still getting barfies when when we were in the shade....in the sun it was great as long as there was no wind!

Good job Dana....looks like a bad ass route!

Thanks guys, it was my favorite climb of my so far relatively short climbing career....if that says anything. No reason why it shouldn't be in the next select guide....short approach, awesome views, and a huge variety of climbing.

Trip: North Early Winter Spire - Early Winter's Couloir Date: 4/15/2015 Trip Report: I like to think that most high school seniors sleep in on skip days, but then again I also like to think I'm not a normal high school senior. After getting my parents blessing to skip Wednesday and finding a sub for my work shift we were set, a solid team of three, Steve, Rich, and I. Setting off from the hairpin turn around 7:30 we made quick work of the lower approach slopes that were still frozen solid. 30 minutes later the sun hit us and with it came temps 20 degrees warmer, and we started tossing off layers like it was going out of style. The sun brought softened snow......and wallowing. All told the approach took about 2 and a half hours wading through knee to waist deep powder. A team of three let us switch off who got to punish themselves breaking trail more often. The first step of the route is a small 10ft AI3 step around the first chockstone. It looked easy and fun until we saw the spindrift coming down that would have sent us flying if we got caught in it. For that reason we roped up for the easy terrain and simul climbed our way up the knee deep snow above. Steve got in a bomber nut and a good picket in the section between the chockstones. Halfway up the couloir we got to the second chockstone which involved a little bit of thin AI3, an easy stem, and an ice chocked crack before we could swing into the neve above. I tied in too close to Rich on our single rope and he was subsequently showered with spindrift while climbing this part. Punchy neve followed most of the way to our belay under the cornice. Once under the cornice it was decision time. We brought a shovel to burrow through it, along with aid gear if we couldn't. The cornice looked well consolidated with several fracture lines running through it, more than likely it would have taken hours to burrow and wriggle through it with the possibility that it caved off on top of us. So aiding around left was our best option. Rich stepped up to the plate and impressed us with his single alpine aider skills, his second piece blew when he weighted it and scared the ever living shit out of us. When he made it to the lip of the cornice he executed a perfect bellyflop/beached whale dyno onto the cornice, and fixed the rope for us to jug up. I grunted and muscled my way up the line while Steve shed Mr Hanky below the cornice. Jugging overhanging terrain is always that much better when you smell what Steve had been packing up the mountain in his gut! As always Steve made me look like a pansy and effortlessly jugged up on a tibloc and a microtraxtion. The last pitch went at M4 60m with good pro the whole way up, it was my first time on a mixed pitch that long so I felt like bamby on ice towards the end! The top afforded us awesome views of the north cascades and almost no wind. Overall an awesome climb that is deserving of classic status, I'm left wondering why it isn't climbed more often! The descent was easy and all 4 rap anchors are bomber and can be reached with a single 60m. We got back to the car at 7:30 making it a 12hr round trip. We didn't set any speed records but the loose snow slowed us down the whole way. We were greeted by a nice note telling me how horrible I was for taking up too much parking space.....my message to the writer "When you wake up at 3:30 you can have as much parking as you want!" I don't know how much longer it will last with the warm temps, shit was coming down like you read about at the beginning of the day. Rating:WI3, A1, M4 Gear Notes: 60m single rope, full rack of C3s and C4s up to #3, some small KBs, LAs, a few medium angles, a couple nuts and 4 pickets. Used all C3s for the aid pitch, most C4s, one small KB, one big ass LA, 3 medium nuts and 2 pickets.

Already did.....at this point I'm ready to show up at the crag w/ a case of beer and see if I have any takers!

I am headed down to Moab with my family this Sunday (4/4) and will be there until next Friday, we will be doing the usual touristy stuff (arches, mtb'ing, rafting etc.) but I am hoping to get out and climb a couple of the days we are there and some of the afternoons we aren't doing anything. Open to pretty much anything but I would really like to climb castleton, ancient art, and do some craging in indian creek....I'm sure I won't get it all done but would like to pack as much as I can into this week! I will be brining some cams draws and a rope, and can lead 5.8-9 trad and 5.10 sport. Beer and gas money will be provided! Hit me up with a pm and let me know what you are in for!

I am looking at calcium channel blockers right now, but I really don't want to be on a medication 24/7 because I only get attacks when it is bellow freezing or wet and cold. I'd rather have a medication I can take before/ during a climb so I was thinking nitroglycerin cream.....has anyone tried the Murray method? I've heard it can do wonders for many. I always thought this was normal until about a month and a half ago while climbing the Coleman headwall and subsequently getting frost nip while my partner was fine!

Who's got it? What do you do to keep warm whole ice climbing in the extreme cold (therapies, medications, glove systems, etc.)? For those who don't know raynauds is a syndrome where the veins in the extremities overreact to the cold and shut off blood flow to the area, often called the "white finger". It greatly increases the risk of frostbite/ frost nip..... and the screaming barfies.

I was up on the Coleman on baker 2 weekends ago and conditions felt like late may early June....guys were already starting to punch through. Going to be an interesting summer in terms of glacier navigation. What time are most people planning on hitting the N side tech routes? I'm thinking early may maybe even late April? Early season weather will suck!

Were you the party shooting for the polish route?

What are conditions looking like in Lillooet? Trying to decide whether to head north or go east to Banks Lake?

Good to know....thanks!

Had plans to do the NEB of chair peak but my partner bailed, hoping to still get on ice this weekend or do the NEB if somebody is up for it. Would be open to other options just give me a shout.... I'm young fit and full of stoke, can lead wi3 and can follow just about anything else. Email is preferred: ntgoodwin@gmail.com

It's getting cold this weekend, think anything will form up at snoqualmie or maybe east of the mountains? Is it even worth trying or should I plan on doing something a little more reliable?

Summited yesterday at aprox 12, couldn't have asked for better weather or conditions! Ice was super solid took picks and screws really well, van trump is the way to go the extra 1,700 was worth it after we saw the nisqually and fan on the way down. The ranger told us that lately it's about 50/50 whether parties take the nisqually or van trump, however the last ranger team took the van trump. We started at 8am on saturday from comet falls and were able to climb the technical section before sundown, camped at 12,500 slept in, then summited the next day!

It's all good man! Thanks for the links, We'll make sure to talk to the rangers before we leave.