Alex Leone

I wonder if the crevasse you fell into was the same one we jumped a month ago in mid-December? That was the only visible crevasse that we crossed on the upper Ingraham, just below the Cathedral Rock saddle. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1132408/TR_Mt_Rainier_Gibraltar_Ledges I've had a lower section on the new carbon fiber whippet snap too. I wish Black Diamond would have stuck with aluminum - the older one aluminum ones were actually lighter, and would bend instead of snap.

It's definitely one of the more beautiful places in the state. Are there any other glaciers that are as long and flat as the Blue Glacier in Washington? Maybe the South Cascade Glacier? gpx track on gmap4 gpx track download

Trip: Mt. Rainier - Gibraltar Ledges / Ingraham Direct Date: 12/14/2014 Trip Report: Summary: After a festive Saturday night at Muir, Aaron and I made it up Rainier Sunday the 14th during a beautiful December weather window. We went up the Gib Ledges and down the Ingraham Direct. Conditions Report: Gib Ledges are in excellent shape as of 12/14: The Cowlitz from Muir to the entrance of the ledges is a mix of 6 inch deep powder and hard snow, with one or two crevasses to pull over. The ledges are fully snow covered and very straightforward. The exit chute is hard snow, no ice. The upper mountain is hard wind-textured snow and very direct from the top of Gib Rock to the crater rim, with one crevasse to pull over. The upper Ingraham bowl is heavy/deep powder with one large crevasse that we jumped on the way down. It could be end-run but that wouldn't be as much fun. The lower Ingraham to the flats is a little broken up, but only required one snowbridge crossing. Cathedral Gap down to the Cowlitz is full of ice flowers which tinkle nicely down the slope when dislodged. Details: Ledges are fully snow covered. In contrast to last January. Skinning up to Muir Saturday evening. The real goal of this trip was to bring Christmas lights up to Muir. Christmas lights, caroling, hot cocoa and fireball. We opted to leave the skis at Muir. In hindsight, a good decision since the upper mountain, the lower Ingraham, and Cathedral gap would not have been enjoyable skiing. We left Muir about 4:30am, hit the crater rim around 11:00am, and were back at Muir about 2:15pm. We packed up at Muir, skied down what was now the Muir icefield, and drove back to Longmire a few minutes before they closed the gate. Sunrise on the ledges. Nearing the exit chute. Top of Gib Rock. Crater Rim. No wind!! Crevasse that we jumped on the upper Ingraham. Our route through the lower Ingraham back to the flats. The flats to Cathedral Gap was a straight shot. Full Album gpx track on gmap4 gpx track download Gear Notes: We each had a whippet and axe. Pickets, Ice Screws, Ice Tools unused. Down jacket didn't come out of the pack. Forecast said 9F and 5mph winds, seemed about right. As evidenced by my peeling lips today, not enough lip balm.

You can punch holes in the toe and heel of the overboot, see https://www.wildsnow.com/3743/ski-boot-overboots/ You have to take the extra CCF footbed out or else there isn't enough clearance below the toe and heel. Amen. We took pulled off the overboots entirely when switching from crampons to skis for the downhill.

Here was my setup on the West Buttress June 2014, all the way to the summit and back with no toe loss: - Smartwool merino wool liner socks. - Reynolds Oven Cooking Bags, Large size. - Smartwool PhD Ski Medium weight socks. - TLT6 mountain, 1/2 size bigger than normal (30.0 mondo instead of 29.5). - Thicker footbeds than stock. - 40 Below Fresh Tracks overboots, with the ~3mm? CCF footbed that went between the TLT6 sole and the sole of the overboot. My feet were fine and never got cold. The oven bags worked great, both in preventing blisters and keeping the outer sock dry.

I've used cell phone + gps exclusively for the past 2+ years. Current setup is Nexus 5 + OruxMaps + ziplock for waterproofing + small 7500mAh usb battery pack for multi-day trips. I'll usually follow a gpx track from peakbagger, and use the built-in OruxMaps map creator to download Google Terrain/usgs topos for offline use. If I want high-quality topos, I've manually screen-shotted the t4 topo layer from gmap4 and used the OruxMaps desktop app to create my own map tiles. This setup even worked all the way up the West Buttress of Denali, with a solar charger. I like that I can take decent pictures with my phone if I'm too lazy to bring a bigger camera. Just remember to put the cell phone in airplane mode and manually turn on the gps.

Trip: Mount Olympus in a day - Blue Glacier / Crystal Pass / Rap Route Date: 8/1/2014 Trip Report: Dave and I climbed Mount Olympus in a day. Final time was 19 hours, 51 minutes round trip. It was 40+ miles and 9,000ft+ total vertical gain/loss. We started from the Hoh River Trailhead at 3am, hit the summit at 12:30pm, and returned to the trailhead at 10:51pm. Overall, the route is in excellent shape. The Hoh River Trail was great. It is no longer necessary to descend the ladder down the washout just before Glacier Meadows - a new trail has been dug into the slope. The loose trail from the top of the ridge of the lateral moraine down to the glacier wasn't bad with poles (and crampons on the way up). The blue glacier was beautiful and blue and we walked straight across without any route-finding issues. There was a good bootpack going up Snow Dome and around Crystal Pass that didn't cross any visible snow bridges in danger of melting out soon. We climbed the rappel route and there wasn't any moat issues getting onto the rock. We still haven't seen the first few miles of the trail in daylight. The washout before Glacier Meadows. The ladder is unnecessary, note the new trail dug across the slope on the upper right. Lots of running water on the glacier, forming deep Moulins. The route around the southwest side of the false summit to the summit snowfield. Bridge over the Hoh River where the trail turns up the valley. Full Album: https://plus.google.com/photos/103764998885643953728/albums/6043425121260634209 This was first time either of us had done more than 20 miles in a day, so I think we did ok for doing more than 40 miles! We started cramping about mile 11, and Dave had some toe bang on the way down. Huge respect to off_the_hook for such a ridiculous 11h6m time: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/895000/TR_Mount_Olympus_FKT_Blue_Glac Our (very slow) splits: Steel Bridge, 12mi?: 2h43m Glacier Meadows, 17.5mi?: 4h29m Snow Dome: 7h22m Summit: 9h30m Glacier Meadows: 12h45m Steel Bridge: 14h27m Trailhead: 19h51m Gear Notes: - Trail running shoes for the first ~19 miles from the trailhead to the top of the lateral moraine. - Lightweight mountaineering boots with strap-on aluminum crampons for the Blue Glacier and above. I had no problems climbing the 5.4-5.6 rap route in mountaineering boots (Scarpa Chamoz). Dave didn't get enough mixed climbing in this winter and climbed the rock pitch in steel crampons . - 30m skinny glacier rope. Didn't come out of the pack until the rock pitch, since the glacier was bare and there was a good bootpack on the snow sections. - slings, 3 cams, nuts. I think we used two cams and slung a chockstone and a horn. - 30m tag line to pull the rope after the rappel. - Two whippets instead of an ice axe and trekking poles. - 1x picket, never used. - 12x Succeed Caps (salt pills). I should have brought twice as many. My calves started cramping around mile 11 where the trail starts to gain elevation, probably because I wasn't replacing all the salt from sweating. - Gu, protein bars, cliff bars. - Small Jetboil between the two of us + 1x Mountain House each. Never used.

Nice work!

A spectacular weekend. Here are some of my photos: First view from the Carbon Glacier Dave on the Carbon Heading up to the toe of the ridge Looking up at Thumb Rock The next morning above Thumb Rock. There were a few pitches of unavoidable glacial ice Putting on skis below Liberty Cap Boiling water with a view on the way down Rapping down a section of glacier ice Just above the black pyramid vthread Tag line worked great for raps Full album: https://plus.google.com/photos/103764998885643953728/albums/6002308739623361137