mrice1225

In the moment I swore I saw a UFO while bivying in the white mountains in NH during the presidential traverse. It looked like a bright star moving in a strange unpredictable pattern in the sky, definitely not a satellite. Looking back on it I attribute it to lack of sleep and extreme fatigue.

Guye Peak south gully had great alpine ice on Saturday. Most of the gully was hard snow and ice, and there were around 4-5 short mixed steps (~M3) which generally had solid ice above/on them, making for some super fun climbing, including a layback move on ice sticks with high feet on rock edges. A lot of the trees had tat on them already, some with rap rings. Knifeblade pins were useful.

That looks sick, thanks for the pitch breakdown and pics.

You could do something like chair peak circumnavigation at Snoqualmie pass? People normally ski this, but I don't see why you couldn't snowshoe it.

Was waiting for this one! Thanks for posting. Congrats guys, epic trip report and pictures.

Thanks for all the hard work you've put into the area. Haven't checked it out yet but I plan to. Seems stiffer than the cougar mountain/black ice crags... I'll definitely be top roping

Great trip report and great pictures - glad everything turned out the way it did. Hope you have a speedy recovery!

Glad you were able to get it done! Definitely extreme walking. I agree with the sentiment about the quarks, I used a sum'tec and quark to ascend winnies slide since it was very icy in the morning. A single tool would have been fine but I brought two in case the slide was pure ice like it was last year around this time, so might as well use them!

Thanks for the encouragement, yeah it was close, he says he thinks it was a mix of dehydration (not peeing all day) and exertion. Will probably try it again, since the climb itself is so much fun over such varied terrain. The summit pyramid has a ton of really loose rock, but yes I should have been more careful knowing there was a party below. Luckily it wasn't too bad.

Trip: Mt Shuksan - Fisher Chimneys Trip Date: 08/09/2020 Trip Report: On Sunday my friend and I attempted a car to car climb of the Fisher Chimneys, so here's a quick conditions update. The road was gated at the Chain Lakes trail head, about 0.35 miles before the Lake Ann trail head, although I believe they are clearing it today so parking at Lake Ann should be open soon. This was my second time attempting the route - the first time all sorts of shit went wrong (rain, forgetting stuff in tents) and we bailed. This time the weather looked perfect and we were feeling good. We left the car at around 2am, which may have been too early. We were tired and moving slow - more "sleep" might have been beneficial. The chimneys are completely snow free, although there is some snow at the entrances to the chimneys which currently poses no problem, although it could get weird as it melts out more. Route finding in the chimneys is pretty straightforward - if you don't see an obvious trail or mostly moss free rock, you're probably off route. In the start of the chimneys: Winnie's Slide is still mostly covered in snow. There are two small ice patches on the left hand side, and a perfect staircase on the right hand side. Gaining the upper curtis is also still mostly snow, but is melting out quick and could become icy soon. The upper curtis itself has a few crevasses starting to open up, but we were able to easily step over them. Hell's highway had a nice boot pack going up as well. On the upper curtis: It was around noon, everything was going great, and we were halfway up the SE rib on the summit block when my partner got sick and started puking. We made the call to bail since we still had a long day ahead of us. Conveniently there is a rap station halfway up the SE rib which puts you back at the base of the summit pyramid. On the rappel I dislodged a rock, which launched straight at a party below me. I yelled rock and it ended up hitting some guy and giving him a bloody nose. I apologized and we began our descent. The rappel station above Winnie's Slide looks impossible to get to right now due to the moat, but down climbing is no problem. There are also plenty of rappel stations in the chimneys if you're not comfortable down climbing. The slog back to the car was pretty miserable, and we finally got back at 8:30pm. Gear Notes: Glacier gear, small rack for the SE rib, second tool unnecessary for Winnie's slide Approach Notes: Might be moat problems soon to get into the chimneys

Great write up and pics, the steep heather sections sound heinous! Pretty sure I would shit myself.

Great approach beta, thanks for posting!

At cascade pass this weekend I saw a group of three all with matching sun hoodies, thought it was kind of weird. Must be the new cool thing.

Awesome pictures! Looks fun.

"Everything you see on the screen is real. Eleven men and women were killed or injured on these mountains during the months it took to film High Ice." Uhhh what. This is great.