cgolden123

Over the last couple years, I have loved using CC.com for trip reports, route conditions, or just procrastination at work, looking at all the epic adventures these users go on. However, it seems like this season, traffic has decreased significantly. I remember checking CC.com almost every Monday morning last season, and it always felt like there were 5-10 new trip reports to read. It could very well be because the TR forums are now modularized, which I didn't like at first, but now I'm definitely a fan of. Just a bit bummed that it feels like such an awesome climbing resource seems to have kind of fallen by the wayside. Please correct me if I'm wrong. This is only a thought, not meant to throw any shade or anything of that nature towards CC.com, or the awesome volunteers who keep this site running. I'm just not sure if there's another resource out there that's popped up recently that has kind of stolen CC.com's thunder or what. Can't express how much I love this site, I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't.

@JasonG Yes, it helps. I was just under the impression that that feature from the old site was going to eventually be back with the new site.

Thanks @JasonG . I am probably just blind, but how do I access that link without using the actual link itself? When I go to 'Forums', I don't see a link to 'Trip Reports' like your link suggests. All I see are the options listed under 'General Discussion' (Climbers board, CC.com News, etc) and 'Route Reports' sectioned off into different geographies. Again, I am probably just missing something here, it just doesn't seem obvious. As always, thanks for all you guys do.

@JasonG Yes and yes. I am logged in, and I'm trying to access the 'Latest Trip Reports' link on the sidebar of the front page.

Still having an issue trying to access 'Latest Trip Reports' from the homepage. Everytime I click the link, I get the below error. "This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below." Any ideas on how to access latest trip reports? I've been getting this error for awhile now.

Oly, the new tool looks and works great! This is exactly what I've been looking forward to. I know I've been one of the people pestering you about this site, so thank you so much for all of the hard work you put into it!

Hey there, Me again, asking about TRs. Will there be an option to view TRs like the old site? All TRs in one area, sorted latest to oldest? I see that you guy shave TRs sorted by area, but I'm wondering if you'll have a view that has them all in one area. Thanks for all you guys do, and sorry for beating a dead horse!

Ahh, thanks Oly. Looking forward to the new site being completed.

Sorry if I missed this somewhere in this thread, but how do we access trip reports? Will they be displayed similar to the old site (Most recent to older)? Are they available right now, or is that one of the things you are working on adding?

Thanks again for your help on this. One last question. Do you remember how many raps, if any you did? Debating what size rope to bring.

Thanks! What was the exposure like? It seems like it could get pretty intense in some spots?

Two buddies and myself are planning a Maude, 7FJ, Fernow and Copper trip in late August, and we are curious about the ridge connecting Fernow and Copper. Anyone ever traversed it? Seems like most people drop down east to the glacier when going from Fernow to Copper.

Two buddies and myself are planning a Maude, 7FJ, Fernow and Copper trip in late August, and we are curious about the ridge connecting Fernow and Copper. Anyone ever traversed it? Seems like most people drop down east to the glacier when going from Fernow to Copper.

Trip: Colchuck Peak - Colchuck Glacier Date: 5/21/2017 Trip Report: Drove up to Leavenworth Friday night, camped at Icicle creek, woke up early Saturday and headed to the ranger station to try our luck at getting a Colchuck Lake Permit. There were 6 other groups at the station trying to get some permits, but everyone else wanted a Core Permit, so we lucked out and got the Colchuck Lake permit we had been wanting so badly! Once we obtained our permit, we spent the morning/early afternoon doing some trad routes at clamshell, then headed up to the Stuart Lake TH around 4. We started hiking up towards the lake around 4:30-5pm, and it was slow going. Partly because this was my first time out this season and I'm out of shape, and partly because the trail is still mostly covered in snow, and it is melting fast. Snow conditions were pretty bad, lots and lots of postholing. We got to Colchuck around 8, set up camp and had some dinner, then off to bed. Although the standard route up to Colchuck Peak is pretty straightforward, the snow conditions this weekend really made things tricky. We started up the Col around 4:30am, and the snow was alright. It didn't quite freeze overnight, but it was still consolidated enough that we were able to make it to the Col around 7am. However, the south side of Colchuck Peak had been baking in the sun for a few hours, and the snow was awful. After a short break at the Col, we headed up to the summit, and were standing on top at about 9am. We had a quick snack, and then decided to not hang out very long as the snow condition was detiorating very quickly. The descent back down to the Col was pretty sketchy. The conditions were MUCH worse than what they were when we went up. We would not have climbed the snow that we descended. It took us about an hour to get back to the Col, and another hour to get back to camp from the Col. We were back at camp by 12, and back at the car drinking a beer by 3:30pm. The weather was fantastic for this climb, however I can't stress how horrible the snow is right now, with all of this heat that we haven't had since summer. A massive snow pack is melting out very quickly. There are rangers stationed at Colchuck Lake that are trying to keep people from going up either Aasgard and Colchuck Col due to the avy danger and rock fall. They are pretty much saying that if you are going to go up, make sure you are off the passes by 2 pm, as that's when both start getting sun. There is loose-wet avy debree all over both passes, and both passes turned into a bowling alley once the sun hit both late in the day. If anyone wants to go bad these peaks with this great weather, just make sure you are aware of avy conditions, and get an early start! You do not want to be anywhere near Aasgard/Colchuck Col once the sun hits them. Still lots of snow on the approach Colchuck lake still mostly frozen Looking up the Col Almost to the Col Looking back on the south side of Colchuck Peak. Sun had been baking this section for awhile, snow was horrible. Gear Notes: Usual alpine gear. We had pickets, didn't place any. Approach Notes: Trail is still mostly snow covered. Lots of post-holing, it was a very mentally draining approach.

Trip: Mt. Baker - Coleman-Deming Date: 8/26/2016 Trip Report: Didn't think I would be able to squeeze in a Baker climb this season, but when two buddies reached out to me on Wednesday, I couldn't say no. We left Seattle on Thursday night, got to the Heliotrope Ridge TH at 9pm, slept a few hours, and we were heading up the ridge at 1am. Reached the Coleman at about 2:30 - 3am and roped up. We had a hard time finding where the dirt trail meets the snow, so we had some fun route finding for the first few 100 yards until we found the boot path. The route is in late season conditions right now, with multiple crevasse crossings and snow bridges. The snow wasn't even frozen at 3am when we transitioned. With that said, our glacier travel was quick, and we were at the Roman Wall at about 6:30am. As this was my first time on Baker, I did not know what to expect from the Roman wall. While it is some very steep climbing, the boot-path turned into a 3 feet deep trench all the way up. We were at the summit at about 8am. A little windy, but otherwise it was a pretty fantastic day to be on top of Baker. Headed back down, had lunch at the base of the Roman Wall to avoid wind, then we were back at our car at 1PM. 12 hours car to car, and we basically had the entire route to ourselves all day, besides the two guys that passed us right as we arrived on the glacier. There were a lot of groups who were doing the Easton, but only us and two other guys on the Coleman-Deming. Can't stress the danger of this route this time of year. Yes, this trip was smooth, but the crevasse crossings are all sketchy, and the hanging glaciers on Colfax are falling apart. I witnessed my first glacial calving on this trip, as a block of ice the size of a house broke off from the hanging glacier on Colfax. Came to a stop about 30 yards away from the climbers boot path. While it was incredibly awesome, it was also pretty scary. Be careful out there. Gear Notes: Glacier travel gear, crevasse rescue, all the bells and whistles.

I am a member of the Mountaineers and it pains me a little bit to read this. I agree, roping up in this area is quite a bit more dangerous than ascending rope-less if you are not placing any kind of pro. I was up on Hood on a Mountaineers climb two weekends ago. We went up the Pearly Gates, while roped, and placed multiple pickets. While we clearly weren't the fastest group on the mountain, we played it safe and had a great time. Unfortunately this seems like a pretty big problem on Hood. Obviously I think that organizations like the Mountaineers and the Mazamas need to be held to higher standards. However I believe that Hood is 2nd most climbed volcano in the world, which as you can imagine, leads to a lot of people climbing who don't know what the hell they are doing. Glad you pointed this out. I definitely had to put my 'Mountaineers Pride' aside while reading this, but I completely agree. Ever since I have been a member of the Mountaineers, every climb we've done has been extremely safe, sometimes a little ridiculously 'too safe' if that's possible. It really surprises me that a leader would do this. Anyways, thanks for pointing this out. This is one of the most important things for people to consider if they're ever thinking of climbing Hood.

Ok, I may have exaggerated when I said 'a ton of pickets' Regardless, better to have them and not need them then need them and not have them. Glad you guys had decent weather on Sunday. Our original plan was to drive up Saturday and summit Sunday, but moved it up a day due to the weather forecast.

Trip: The Brothers - South Couloir Date: 5/7/2016 Trip Report: Got off work at 4PM on Friday, left Seattle for the Edmond's Ferry at 5PM, and boarded the 7PM ferry bound for Kingston. After a quick McDonald's stop, we were on our way to the Lena Lake TH. Began hiking up the Lena Lake trail at 9:30 PM with our headlamps. We reached the lake at about 11 or 11:30PM and kept chugging along to the climbers trail. This is where things got interesting. The climbers trail, as we were told, is filled with blow downs and washouts. Combine that with hiking in complete darkness, and it took us until 1:30AM until we reached the climbers camp. The climbers trail is relatively well marked with pink tape, but again, these were at times difficult to see due to the darkness. We woke up at 6AM and started climbing up from the climbers camp at 7AM. The weather could not have been any better. Hiking through the burn/avvy washout was not very fun, but once we were on the snow it was smooth sailing. Be careful when selecting the correct gully to start up. It is the northwestern-most gully that heads basically due north. There is still a very decent amount of snow up there. There were boot paths that were relatively easy to follow in the snow, although they were mostly melted out. I would imagine we were the first ones up there in 3 or 4 days. Snow conditions were perfect for kicking steps. We had our crampons but did not need them. My group (3 of us total) ended up leap-frogging another group of 2. At about 5000 ft, when the steepness began to increase, we combined forces and decided to rotate step kicking. Didn't take us much longer to reach the base of the summit scramble, and were at the top by 11AM. We were not alone at the top, as two goats began stalking us up the mountain at about 5500 feet. They were within 10 ft at times, making things a little unnerving. However, whenever we made any kind of motion towards them, they made sure to get out of our way. After an awesome summit lunch, we were on our way down. Glissading was simply amazing. It took us 4 hours to get to the top and only an hour to get back down to our camp. We had another short break, then began hiking down the climbers trail toward Lena Lake. Turns out this trail is WAY easier to follow in the day time...funny how that works. It took us about 3 hours to get from the climbers camp to the car, arriving at 4PM. After a quick beer at the Hood Canal Brewery, we were back on the ferry headed home to Seattle. Overall, a great trip with no issues! Hope to be back in the Olympics sometime soon! Gear Notes: Mountaineering boots, ice axe and crampons are necessary for this time of the year. We didn't end up using our crampons, but it was very warm. Had it been overcast or 10 degrees cooler, crampons probably would have been required. We did see one group going up as we were going down who had a ton of pickets. There's really only one section that has any exposure, right before the base of the summit scramble, but this section is not hard as long as you know how to properly use an ice axe and go slow. I guess pickets might provide some mental assurance, but unless you're doing the traverse, I would say unnecessary. Approach Notes: Pretty mellow approach. Climbers trail past Lena Lake had lots of blow downs, but route finding was not difficult (in the daytime). Hiking through the burn/avvy washout to the base of the climb kind of sucked, but other then that, this is a pretty straightforward approach.

Hey Lucas! Sounds like the website took down your post, but it would be awesome if you re-posted a condensed version of your original report. I'm planning on doing brothers on May 8th and this is the only semblance of a report that I've found so far. Any information would be awesome!