Michael Telstad

A classy traverse in even classier style. You spared yourself the worst choss by skipping Frenzelspitz.

Dream team 😍

I borrowed a copy from a friend several years ago and distinctly remember reference to several lines on that buttress. Regardless, It's great to see attention being paid to these lesser known features!

I just stumbled across a post on Facebook announcing that Alex Cunningham AKA @AlexC192 has passed away. I don't have any information whether it was climbing related or not. I don't think I ever met Alex, nor did I ever really interact with him online. Many of you have probably read his Yak Peak TR where lots of wise words of advice were given. It's sad to see some of our worst fears come true. Here is a Go Fund Me link that I came across if anyone wants to help his family.

Rumor has it that years ago while skiing the line, someone ripped an anchor in the runnels and stuck the landing into the couloir.

@Doug_Hutchinson I don’t care if I’m on belay or not, it’s all for the pizza and margs.

@Doug_Hutchinson You should be proud of me for finally getting a radio. Maybe next time you'll have the peace of mind to start drinking even earlier.

Last month a group of 7 friends and I went on a trip out to the remote Icefall Brook. An otherworldly cirque in the mountains north of Golden BC, housing likely the highest concentration of big ice routes in North America. While out there we climbed several of the classic ice lines and one new mixed route that we think was pretty classic. The new route we climbed parallels Fossen falls for five pitches up to M7 WI5+ with an A1 roof crux that we did not have time to try and free. It probably goes free somewhere around M8 or 9. Overlay of the route. You can see Doug near the bottom of Fossen falls for scale. P1: Our first pitch followed an obvious chimney system up into a cave below the beginning of a steep flare. Protection was decent, but the rock quality wasn’t the best. The cruxes consisted of a few bulge pulls with poor feet and decent snice sticks. P2: The second pitch was absolutely classic mixed climbing. The ice on the right wall was barely thick enough for good sticks, but stemming, chimneying and good rock gear eased the stress as the ice got steeper and fatter. A tunnel and a bunch more rock gear protected ice took us up to what is essentially the top of Fossen falls second pitch. P3: From here, I stepped out right and tiptoed my way up a barely-there smear aiming for a short but steep pillar above. Again, gear was hard to come by, but when I did find something it was usually good. More incredible ice and mixed took me to another protected comfortable belay stance in the back of the main cave. A scary, but spectacular pitch. Kurt said following it was one of the best pitches of mixed climbing he’s done. P4: Now under the crux, it was Kurt's moment to shine. He started by trying to climb some thin glassy ice out to the right in order to skirt the roof but backed off when the rock above looked downsloping, loose and generally really hard. Instead he opted to take the roof straight on, tagging up the drill and placing 3 bolts with a few pieces of intermittent gear. Once at the lip, he sent the drill back down and started free climbing again. As he climbed out of sight things got slow and quiet. Standing in my cave I watched rocks rain down into the abyss as a combination of snow and down plumes floated in the air from Kurt's shredded down jacket. Eventually he called off belay and I also aided my way through the roof to save time. The climbing above proved to be hard, grovely, runout and wide. The upper part of this pitch was bone dry and entirely chossy. A less classy crux than we had hoped for. The first attempt going out right that we backed off of. Kurt approaching the roof, I'm hiding in the back left corner. P5: One more pitch up a slick ramp took me up to a pedestal just above the top of Fossen falls. With no suitable cracks for an anchor, I hammered my tool into a deep pocket and tagged up the drill, drilling the only bolted anchor on the route. From there we rapped onto Fossen and took that the rest of the way down. Slogging down to the hut, we were welcomed by some cold dinner and the rest of our group already asleep upstairs. We called our route “Jumping for Joy” (M7 WI5+ A1). A phrase that Kurt's late father used often, for the simplest things in life. Rack: Double rack .2-4, handful of pins and ~10 screw including several stubbies. 2 70m ropes for rapping, but 60's are fine for the route.

I doubt the FS would, but the NPS absolutely has and will. There are certain bored NPS employees that love spending their time snooping YouTube looking for infractions. Maybe think twice before posting that sick video of you paragliding off Mt. Shuksan.

Oh damn. I heard super 3rd hand it was a party attempting Superalpine. However that is most definitely the base of our second pitch. Glad they had good weather and were able to get flown out of there. There’s a video now LINK

The people want to see the Nooksack report! You might not qualify, but you should try reaching out to Mark Smiley about getting some cash for those pickets. He sometimes reimburses young climbers a percentage of their bail anchors to discourage rapping off shit gear to save money. ANCHORS LINK

So many thanks to you @olyclimber. When the CC landing page turned into a virus riddled porn ad I was fearing the worst. If the day does come that the site has to die (god forbid), all I ask is that we try our best to get it archived like SuperTopo. The amount of history and beta here is invaluable.

Polish goes in “easier-than-usual” condition. Get it before it’s swiss cheese.

Shhhhh 🤫 Honestly I would be so happy to see someone else fill in another line.

Probably WI4 for the pitch, but after 20ft of steep traversing it was all over.