sfuji

Just to add a few of my thoughts on an awesome day in the mountains: The warmth was a bit concerning, but fortunately it stayed just cool enough that the snow and ice remained fairly stable. As we passed the Thumbtack I was on the fence as to whether it was wise to continue, but Michael convinced me that we should at least try the first pitch. He led through to the tree grove, and by the time I reached his belay I knew we'd made the right choice and felt psyched to continue. I initially went a bit off-route following a plumb-line from the grove, but ended up downclimbing and traversing left. This long simul pitch was technically easy but I felt I had to be cautious not to commit my weight to loose, shallow snow on a slippery slab. I placed a microtraxion on a decent cam about halfway to the base of the crux ice step. Michael led that next pitch with aplomb, while I ducked under a small roof to shield myself from the icicle bombardment, belaying from two ok screws and a pounded-in tool. The ice I placed the screws in was a little more melty than I would've liked, but fortunately still in the shade. If it had been in the sun I would have tried to excavate a rock anchor, at least as a backup. The rest of the climb I got to pretend I was Ueli Steck and sprint up solid snow to a belay off some frozen scrub trees on the summit ridge. In a higher snowpack these trees would surely be buried, but a butt-belay should suffice. We began descending from the summit just after 1:00pm, and by the time we were rapping there were clumps of snow and ice sloughing off sun-heated rocks. The descent was mellow (thanks to Michael's aid climbing skills to thread the rope) with a 60m rap (we brought a tag line), but there were plenty of actual and possible intermediate rap anchors in the gully. There is some easy snowfield down-climbing both before and after the rap. No doubt the snowpack is changing rapidly in the next few days, but for future reference carrying the skis was definitely a wasted effort in these conditions. I feel like we got a bit lucky regarding the weather's effect on the route conditions, but it definitely felt like some type-1 fun on a beautiful day in the mountains. Watching an ocean of fog settled over Seattle and the Puget Sound valley strengthened my delight in being out of the city on a Monday in December.

Nope I've been using it and loving it for a few months now. Thanks Phil!

Hey zizzou, I'm based in Leavenworth and interested in doing some adventurous routes around the cascades and possibly beyond this summer. I usually have Fridays-Sundays off work, and have some flexibility to take other days off. I'll shoot you a message with more details!

Feathered Friends was having a moving sale a couple weeks ago and was selling a used rental bag around that temperature rating for I think about $350. Might be worth giving them a call on the off chance they still have it and are willing to give you the deal.

I just picked up a very lightly used CCW pack, only to find out that in size large it is slightly too large for my torso. Check out the website for sizing info and pack details, and google for reviews. This is a kickass pack! I'm hoping against hope to swap for the same pack in size medium. I might also be interested in another CCW pack. Show me what you got! I am also willing to sell for $135 + shipping. Located in Seattle.