Alisse

Nice work getting up and down safely, great write-up. Her first volcano climb? That's RAD!!! I guess she's now either completely hooked (most likely I bet) or swearing it off for awhile? It sounds like you two had a full alpine adventure, complete with the sustained winds and whiteout. That ice tool transfer system is a good tip/strategy...but leading/simuling 10m of blue ice with just one tool (the last section), hmm.. 🤔 This route has been on my list for many years. It seems a little too spicy for my solo risk tolerance.... so if someone (experienced) reading this is interested in it for later in the season (this or next or next-next year), send me a message!

If anyone sees this and is looking for West Ridge Terror beta, here's what the couloir looked like last Saturday 7/19: There is a bail rap station near a moat not too far up on climber's left You'll see it as soon as you get up a little bit. Getting down into Crescent Creek Basin and making the traverse was pretty chill: Snow was in EXCELLENT climbing conditions, even for aluminum pons on Altras! The left-side snow finger at the Y in the gully felt exposed with the moats, but the step into the dry gully was chill. Crossing Terror Creek was very chill. There is a thimbleberry bush that offered us an abundance of amazingly perfect thimble berries. Last, there was a family of goats (mom, auntie, other auntie, and BABY) at the bivy which is very important beta. If you're as lucky as I was, you'll see a baby goat and a pika hanging out -- at the same time!! No, we didn't summit.

Where's the "love" button? Thanks for the time you spent conveying all the pieces of your journey!

What's the rap beta? Pls thank you

Looks much more interesting than the NW Ridge! Thanks -- I'll have to check it out

Sounds like a great adventure! Thanks for the photo beta!

Beautiful 😍

Thanks for your TR, Christopher! Dan and I had our own alpine adventure on the NW arete of Argonaut this past weekend, approaching and climbing to the summit on Saturday, sleeping near the summit, and descending Sunday. I am definitely glad we did it this way -- it made for two relaxed days without any need for headlamps and the snow on both approach day one and post-rappels day two was great for climbing, never too firm or icy. We thought the climbing was really fun and the whole trip had good adventure factor. I felt silly wearing trail runners and carrying light mountaineering boots AND rock shoes but it worked well for me; I think if I'd been climbing a whole lot of 5.8 recently I'd probably have felt good in approach shoes/not needing a third pair of footwear. We brought a single rack and that worked for us for 5 long pitches with a tiny bit of simuling. We were able to avoid MOST of the slide alder but luckily we weren't carrying skis and it wasn't the "trap you in place" variety so the handful of minutes of it didn't feel too tuff. We both switched to rock shoes for the "slab crossing" before the snow finger. The rock was sticky and great. There was snow under the big summit block so we didn't go thirsty with our summit bivy (beautiful sunset!). The descent made us think a little bit, but there are a lot of rap stations and trees and lots of beta. We did three single rope rappels and some 4th class downclimbing that could have been avoided... Here are our pics in case they're helpful for people heading out soon or hoping to check snow conditions in the area (high-quality photos are Dan's): Snow finger (that's a false top to it) Snowfield on the descent before starting rappels: Our second single rope rappel into the gully, we walked across 4' of flat snow then butt scooted/au chevalled the moat to get to the notch, rapped off tree on other side for third rappel: The traverse from the bottom of the raps over to the south side of the Colchuck Col was BEAUTIFUL:

Thank you! Davis has been on the list...this seems like the way to do it!

Sounds like the best way to just feel older.... Anyway sitting in traffic sucks! I love how the adventure extends throughout when you bike somewhere!

@primate, revisited earlier this month and descended the gully the best way 😊

Thanks!

Sent you a private message!

What a beautiful flow. I'm glad Colfax let you pass and complete the climb without any injuries!

Yes, you do!!! And whoever is reading this has decided to continue being alive (Louis CK spinoff). Go us! I just meant that for a technical climb, they're on the very easy side of the grade spectrum.

@JasonG is that when I turn 50?

Tamarack Meadows is BEAUTIFUL. I got to spend one very rainy night there awhile back. Thanks for reminding me of these easier adventure climbs!

Way to take perfect advantage of the January drought! That looks like basically the perfect winter trip in the face of no pow ❤️ congrats!

Pretty sure Oregon volcano snowpacks are doing great this year! Butttt who knows how the spring warmup will go and what the weather will be like for the days you're around? I wouldn't recommend buying plane tickets to do specific objectives up here in the spring, but if you are flexible and could pivot to still have fun if you can't do these specific peaks, then great! I haven't been up Jefferson before and I love skiing and have technical snow and ice experience, so if the timing works out I could get stoked on it! Send me a message with your phone number and a few paragraphs about your climbing experience, specifically steep snow and ice!

Thank you so much for sharing this journey with us -- congrats, you two!

Congrats, you two!

Damn, @Michael Telstad!! Thanks for this exciting read. Love the northern lights photo especially and all the details, "6/10" 😂 Nice work coming home in one piece! ..and with all the skis!

Winter has arrived!!! 🥳🥳🥳

Was this meant to imply it won't open before November 12? They've kept the gate closed Friday, yesterday, today...

Love that area, glad you were able to get up there ♥️