Alisse

Trip: Mountain Loop - Mile High Club Trip Date: 07/20/2019 Trip Report: Finally made it out to climb Mile High Club, and it was a super fun and awesome route!! The update is that it appears that perhaps the intermediate rap station on pitch 3 was hit by rockfall; the chain and rap ring were gone, and one of the bolts is a bit bent and sticking out about a half inch. We were able to use a hefty tree and a boulder to the right to easily downclimb to the big unexposed ledge after coming off rappel, and walking over to the next rap station felt completely fine to us. Views of Glacier and Baker were awesome. The water in the gully is still flowing well. No other parties on the route (unexpected but awesome). Thanks a ton, @Rad and @dberdinka for a super fun route with such a short approach! My partner's knee limited our options to short mileage and elevation gain, and this route was perfect to allow us to do a multipitch to a little summit in an awesome setting ☺ (oh yeah, and it was his first multipitch alpine/alpine-esque route!) I hope more people get on this. Lots of really fun moves! Leading evens or odds, you'll get good climbing! Gear Notes: I appreciated how well-bolted this was. We brought 12 QDs and 3 alpine draws, and that seemed to work well. 70m rope! Approach Notes: Easy

Sounds amazing. Fantastic photos!

Congrats, Tyler! Inspiring!

Summit city, goat-ville

Trip: Chelan Mountains - Pinnacle, Cardinal, Emerald, Saska - 3rd class routes Trip Date: 06/13/2019 Trip Report: Tessa and I scrambled up the four tallest mountains in the Chelan Range on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm glad she's working on the Bulgers, otherwise these may not have been on my radar. The "Chelan Slam" was super fun: no rope or skis to carry, great weather, easy scrambling, snow still covering lots of the scree, lots of flowing water for drinking and shirt/hat dipping, good snow conditions for travel, amazing views, and a good amount of up and down. My summary: Pinnacle: 1 star Cardinal: 3 stars Emerald: 3 stars Saska: 0 stars We met up in Wenatchee at a park and ride a bit before 11 AM on Wednesday, and Tessa drove us up the Entiat River Road. We set off along the Entiat River and it felt like it was about a million degrees out. The turn off for Emerald Park Trail is marked by a burned up sign post. This area is neither brushy, snowy, nor emerald -- it is charred, ashy, and really frickin' hot in the sunshine. The trail is easy to follow though! We turned off this trail, away from Snowy Brushy Creek (flowing well), up toward Borealis Pass, before getting into the guts of Pinnacle. Looking up toward Borealis Pass A few marmots were spotted. I think Summit Post says it's 13 miles from the TH to Borealis Pass. We ended up going up a narrow talus/scree gully (not the beta, but it went OK other than the loose rocks...) to get up to the broad basin (snow here) on Pinnacle and then wrapped around the choss pile to get on top. Very sedimentary/slate-ish/exfoliating rock. Not much 3rd class at all. Great views of our other three objectives to the southeast. Panorama that Google Photos made me From there, we descended the proper way which was further west than where we came up, went back down over the pass, crossed the creek, then set out on the very charred/ashen landscape up toward Saska Pass. Luckily we found the somewhat difficult-to-follow burned out trail relatively quickly. The plan was to get up to the meadow camp described on Summit Post/Klenke for our bivy/setup for the next day, but daylight was going quickly and there weren't lots of great bivy spots (steepish terrain, dead but standing trees everywhere). We decided around 9:45 to stop at a slabby bench that had some tiny flat spots and was surrounded by some of the only green trees around (lots of larches in there!). I slept between a rock and a conifer, more comfortably than I expected! The moon, mostly full, was bright and the sky was full of stars.... Good enough The next morning we set off a bit before 6 AM up and over the pass (some snow, no crampons needed) to the side of the living, found the trail pretty quickly, and made quick work over to Cardinal. This North Fork basin was beautiful! Getting up to the sweet basin below Cardinal was quite straightforward, and then from the saddle over to Main Peak was easy, pretty solid rock, friction slabs, and a fun steep snow traverse with full-hilt axe plunges and solid feet. Minimal scrambling, great views everywhere! The descent included lots of fun snow running! From a bit above the saddle on Cardinal, can you spot Bonanza? We went back down to the trail, and next was Emerald. Emerald turned out to be a little more complicated (so many gullies, so many depressions between them, which one?!) but because of the minor shenanigans, we got a bonus summit (the north NORTH summit) and a few actual 4th class moves including an unexposed VB boulder problem up and out through a hole, which was fun. All that only cost us about a half hour total, and luckily it was very easy to get down and over to the correct gully and up the correct summit. Great views! Some peak identification: Bonanza, Maude, 7FJ, Goode. More fun snow running and boot skiing on the descent! Damn, that one is definitely taller.. Last was Saska, which sounded like the easiest of the group... but it also ended up being a choss pile of unimaginable proportions. UGH. Highly do not recommend. The best part of this one was that there was still a fair bit of snow on the lower third. This did not make up for the stress induced by the shitty, shitty rock everywhere on this thing. Interesting to notice about 5 different types of rock, 4 of which were really crumbly/peeling/disintegrating/etc. Pretty windy on top and we knew that we had a slow descent in front of us, so we didn't hang out long. I'm waiting for Tessa to get out of firing-line range Looking toward Saska Pass, I believe We headed back over the pass and picked up our sleeping bags/pads, I unloaded my last muffin onto Tessa, and we headed out in much cooler weather (thankfully). We played a few rounds of hanky panky, an interesting name for a pass-the-time word/rhyming game I learned going up to Bungundy Col in 2014. Tessa came up with a great one: her clue was waterfall, and the hanky panky was MOUNTAIN FOUNTAIN. Yesssss! So charred My feet were ready for the Chacos when we got back to the car at 9:45 PM. Great trip, thank you Tessa for this idea, and I highly recommend at least Cardinal at this time of year! Did you know?! You probably already did, but according to Wikipedia, the name Chelan derives from the traditional Wenatchi name Tsi-Laan meaning "deep water". Gear Notes: Brought light axes and crampons -- got out axes a couple times, never used pons. I was glad to have a helmet on Saska. Approach Notes: We took Entiat River -- you could also approach via the North Fork Entiat.

@Rad Thanks for this and your commitment to the route! ☺☺☺

Hey! So sad, the route overlay and other photo links seem to be broken for me. Is it just me?

@JasonG Huh, well..her water bladder is soft plastic and they definitely didn't have a problem biting through it 😢

Trip: Mount Constance - Finger Traverse Trip Date: 05/23/2019 Trip Report: This past Thursday, Zorina and I climbed Mount Constance via the Finger Traverse. I know there's a lot of route info out there, but this website needs trip reports and maybe someone wants a conditions update The trip was great: the route was interesting and in the conditions when we were there, a little taste of everything: talus, steep snow, scree-skiing, slab, class 3/4/5 scrambling, and sweet ridge-walking. And an improbable-looking giant summit block! Wednesday we made the approach to Lake Constance. We didn't want to mess around with bikes, but it wasn't a big deal. It's about 5 miles along the Dosewallips from where you can park to the turn-off for the unmaintained trail up to the lake. The trail is flagged/marked the entire way and easy to follow. Cool trail: burned out steep section, flatter middle section with crazy moss and enormous boulders (glacial erratics?!), and then some root pulling up top. Lots of blowdowns the whole way. Saw lots of wildflowers and trees in bloom, including rhododendrons, lupine, indian paintbrush, and a dogwood. Lots of some big beetle and an interesting black and yellow millipede-like insect. At the lake, we did have to cross some sections of snow to get around to the north side where there are a few camp spots. Bear wire and toilet intact! TONS of fish, wish I had a fishing setup! (I think we saw a sign that said after June 1, fishing is allowed.) The snafflehounds were out in full force, and it appears that one gnawed a hole through Zorina's water bladder (of course, right at the bottom...) In the morning, we got going around 6 AM and were on talus then snow and a bit of scree gully up to the notch with a rainbow behind us. Descending traverse over to the next gully system, and then up scree or more solid rock scrambling. Not bad! At the next (E-W) notch, a rising traverse and some steep snow. Working our way over, finding a few cairns, we finally found the finger traverse, which is exposed but manageable; it was still under snow for probably half of it (I think?) so it might be harder once all that melts out. As it was, there was a nice moat for your feet for part of it. Then some more ridge walking, some steep snow traverses, then a descending traverse to the base of a gully in these crazy choss pinnacles. Ridge scrambling fun, then to the summit block -- spiral scramble staircase up the back, and then you're on top! I really should have brought my skis... Photo by Zorina A pair of bald eagles soared on thermals for a good 3 or 4 minutes while we were up there. Spectacular summit views including Puget Sound and islands, Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, The Brothers, Jupiter, and Olympus! Photo by Zorina Photo by Zorina The descent was uneventful, with some down climbing and plunge stepping and boot skiing (both on snow and scree) and some glissading. The steep descent after the lake was not for the weak-kneed. Owch. Luckily, no one had broken into Zorina's car! A great ending. Times: 6ish hours up from lake, 3.5ish hours back to lake. Gear Notes: Light axe, light pons, 30m rope and a few nuts if you want to protect the finger traverse Approach Notes: Dosewallips River Road to road end; walk/bike road to well-signed turnoff for Lake Constance

Hey all, I'm volunteering on a week-long backpacking trip with youth this summer through Big City Mountaineers, and thought maybe some of you would be interested in going on one of their trips. Feel free to pass along this information to others you think may be interested! Spoiler alert: there is no mountaineering. Just backpacking. Here is the email I got from the volunteer coordinator: * * * * Greetings PNW Friends and Big City Mountaineers Supporters, I am emailing you because I am still in need of 6 more male volunteers, and 1 female volunteer for our Big City Mountaineers trips this summer. Our volunteer mentors are integral to our mission and to a successful trip, and if you have given your time before on a BCM trip, or already plan to volunteer this summer, I want to express my deepest gratitude! Below are the dates of the trips and the associated youth agencies that still need volunteers. If you think you may be interested in making an expedition fit into your summer this year, please email me and we can start the process to registering you on a trip. If you know others who would be impactful mentors and willing to give a week to this experience, please pass this email and my contact information along. Portland-based Trips: POIC—Rosemary Anderson High School June 25-July 1 Male trip: need 1 volunteer Female trip: waitlist Ant Farm July 11-17 Male trip: waitlist Female trip: need 1 volunteer Police Activities League July 16-23 Male trip: need 1 volunteer Female trip: waitlist Seattle-Based Trips: Seattle Nativity School Juy 21-July 27 Male trip: need 2 volunteers Female trip: waitlist Boys & Girls Club of Bellevue July 30-August 5 Male trip: need 2 volunteers Female trip: waitlist Volunteer Training: June 1, 2019 in Portland, Oregon * it is very important to attend this training, but if you cannot, and would still like to volunteer on a trip, please reach out to me regardless and we can work something out. Below are the steps to volunteering on a Big City Mountaineers trip if you have not before: Here is a link to a presentation that will give you more of an understanding of Big City Mountaineers and the experience as a mentor. I have also attached the Mentor Position Description. For more clarification and details please call me (phone number below), and I’ll be happy to talk to you more about the volunteer experience. If, after watching the presentation and reading the description, you feel like this is an experience for you: • Submit an application through this link: https://formstack.io/59DD8 o At that time I will reach out to you to set up an informal phone interview o I’ll check your reference, and get you set up with an expedition date • Submit a registration and $150 volunteer fee (to help cover expedition costs) • complete the background check • Get stoked! This is truly a wonderful experience spent with inspiring youth and like-minded adults! Participate in a Volunteer Training June 1st, at the Mazamas in Portland, Oregon Thank you so much for your support and for passing this along to people you feel are—or could be-- passionate mentors! Sincerely, Anne Hayward anne@bigcitymountaineers.org * * * * Alisse

Thanks, @Rad! I hope you are doing well and you've been getting out some/enough this spring! As far as rope: No, we were not roped up. We based this decision on the conditions of the glacier that we saw/felt when we crossed on skis the evening before, the conditions of the snow in the morning when we set out, and the fact that we we only had a very short section of glacier to cross before getting around/above the bergshrunds. The risk of a crevasse fall, especially carrying big packs and skis, seemed really remote. My punch-through, in fact, wasn't into a crevasse as far as we could tell, since we could see boulders at the bottom and there was nothing that looked like glacier ice. Perhaps not the 100% absolute most conservative choice (not to rope up), but I think we would still do it as we did if we could go back. I will definitely read/consider whatever you or anyone wants to say on the topic.

They are working this morning for me! Beautiful! Maybe my internets were temporarily jammed.

Beautiful shots @JasonG that I can see! I will have to be sure to add this to my list 😀 I'm getting a bunch of broken image links after the eighth photo...

Trip: Buckner Mountain/Mount Buckner - North Face Trip Date: 05/14/2019 Trip Report: Last week, Tyler and I skiied the Sahale Arm. This past Monday/Tuesday, though, we decided to ratchet it up a bit and go check out the north face of Buckner. Our plan: Boston Basin > Boston-Sahale Col > Boston Glacier > camp > Buckner > Horseshoe Basin > Sahale Arm. With skis/splitboard! We had a beautiful, amazing adventure! We discussed our hesitation with Tuesday's 2-4" snow and gusty winds forecast; I really appreciated Tyler's rational explanation of how it probably did not mean certain death, but that he was open to other objectives, too. "I just want to be in the mountains." We decided to take fuel and food for an extra day if we ended up needing to hunker down.We left the Boston Basin trailhead with a fine alpine start of a bit past 11 AM. Tyler decided to try carrying his splitboard as Star Wars thrusters. I decided not to ski strap my skis together, and we both thought our mods worked well! I think he's doing a shakedown, stability-test dance We were able to get onto snow relatively quickly and start skinning. Conditions were great, fairly cool and mostly overcast. We were able to skin all the way to the col with no issues, then switched to crampons and made our way up and around the ridge toward Boston. There was a little section of steepish snow to go around to wrap onto the Boston Glacier side: About to get over onto the shoulder of Boston; Boston Glacier in background. Photo: Tyler But then we were on the glacier, transitioning to skis/splitboard, and having a blast on the great snow!! The sun had come out for a bit, and it was amazing. These two photos are looking toward Sahale: We skiied/splitboarded around the huge crevasses and made our way toward the bottom of the north face. We had to skin a bit, but then soon we were making a sort of snow lean-to in the slope. Tyler made sure to put in a skylight/window. The sunset over Forbidden was fantastic, and the night was wind-less. Tuesday at 5 AM was when the weather was supposed to move in, but there was just light overcast and nothing ominous in sight, no wind. We packed up and started uphill... about 20 minutes or so after we began, I punched through some rock moat thing up to my chest (feet dangling in space until I realized I could kind of stem). Exciting! After I extricated myself, our headlamps revealed ~8' down to some big rocks. I was super super slow on this section and Tyler was extremely patient! About halfway up the face, we saw the nasty black clouds coming in and the snow finally arrived. As we got toward the summit, the winds picked up. Finally we were on the summit (Tyler signed the register/log and noted that the last entry was last October, hmmm) and then quickly off, downclimbing steep icy-ish slopes to the southwest in very low visibility. Photo: Tyler Photo: Tyler We found a shallow moat to shelter in as we refueled ourselves, and then we continued downclimbing for about 800ish feet to where the angle eased up a bit. We put on our skis/splitboard and carefully made our way across the icy-ish slopes of Horseshoe Basin and all of the avy debris. By this time it had changed to rain, and the snow was softening up. We got some good turns in! Finally we were toward the bottom of the exit gully and put the skis/splitboard away, and booted up and up and up in very low visibility. Some phone GPS-checking confirmed our route in the (did I mention?) very low visibility: Finally, within sight of Sahale Glacier Camp, we put on our skis/splitboard and got some good turns in without succumbing to too much vertigo, using our Sahale Arm ski memories to get into the Soldja Boii Creek drainage and with only a few minor tree shenanigans, finally got to the end of the snow, and then popped onto the Cascade Pass trail, and then back to the car! The pizza and beer were well-earned. I'm really grateful that I was able to go on this adventure with Tyler. He's patient, kind, generous, and encouraging. Thank you, Tyler! :-) Times: Day 1: 8ish hours Day 2: 9ish hours Gear Notes: 1 60m half/twin rope --> not used 3 pickets + 2 long screws --> not used One regular axe + one tool --> good Skis/snowboard --> worth bringing! Ski crampons --> yes Bivy sacks + shovels --> dope Goop --> yes (Tyler's calorific concoction of peanut butter, chocolate chips, and oats, in a ziplock bag) Approach Notes: Through, up, up, over, down, around

Sweet! Could you shoot me a text so we can be in touch by phone? My number is in my original post. Thanks!

Hello, I'm coming back to Western Washington next week and I'm planning to ski and climb until fall, with no pesky work commitments to use up the good weather windows! I need more partners for weekday adventures. I've been climbing for 8 years and backcountry skiing for 4 (I am coming back to WA after a half-season in Alta). I have taken the AIARE 1 and companion rescue courses and completed my WFR at the beginning of May. I'm happy to tell you more about my mountain experience (and hear about yours). Here are some example objectives I have on my list for the next few months: Fuhrer Finger on Rainier, Whitehorse, White Salmon Glacier on Shuksan, N Ridge of Baker, Watson Traverse, Logan, Daniel, Chimney Rock, Overcoat, Dome, Fernow, Snowfield, Cathedral.....I'm also hoping to spend a few weeks in Squamish later in the summer. I think I am in the middle on the risk-taking spectrum and it's important to me that our fitness levels and senses of humor work together. Let me know if you want to talk more/meet up to see if we can climb/ski together! Alisse 36O-224-778three

Thanks for posting this!

Thanks for the reply. I went to the backcountry.com store and was able to confirm that the medium volume Pro Tongues in the same size as my shells do fit -- did have to adjust the buckle ladder thing, though. Interesting point about the warmth. I will definitely be molding these with my thinnest socks, and I will probably still use the old stock liners for easy descents.

Hey! I need to replace my TLT 7 boot liners, and I want something stiffer than what came in the boots originally. A trusted person recommended Intuition Pro Tongue liners...but they've only used them in TLT 6s. Anyone out there have experience with this liner + boot combo? Or just the liners, and have some thoughts/review? Thanks!! Alisse

Make an offer! I'm leaving WA next Monday!

Text for photos! 1 - Osprey W's medium backpack in like-new condition (used once; too small). Aura AG 65, Challenger Blue. Go climb Challenger with it! $150. Retails for like $200, screamin' deal! Osprey anti-gravity support system + Osprey All-Mighty lifetime warranty!! 2 - Older Stubai Hornet ice tool. Bent shaft, leashed, hammer. Pick and spike in good condition, hardly filed. Some wear on grip. $20! 3 - Schwinn floor bike pump with gauge. Like new, has Presta and A header valve adapters. $15 Call/text 36022477eightthree. Local Seattle pickup only. I'm located in Ballard and work in Capitol Hill regular hours.

Pm sent

You first, @ggres335!

Didn't get any action shots, but the powder was fun yesterday near Steven's! Beautiful day, fresh snow, thick trees, views of Daniel and Hinman, fun people... Life is good!!

That sounds amazing, too. Enjoy! There'll be a good base when you get back (hopefully).