kmfoerster

Awesome! Love that route.

I took it as he has the bell bottom blues not too much length

Could hem the bottom of the leg in a bit on and existing seam and seal the new seam with seam grip and or tenacious tape.

Thats a great response, thanks. While I certainly don’t view it as a beginner skill, I would admit that I don’t practice it regularly and have only had to do it a few times. I’ve never been in a formal mountaineering educational organization. How often is self arrest practiced on a slope steep enough that you would likely want two axes or tools? In the context of nols, mountaineers, etc. My point wasn’t necessarily that self arrest techniques don’t work, it was that they aren’t maybe as viable as slope angle increases or if you take a fall from a steeper section onto the slope. Think of a skier tomahawking.

And no my first response was not judgement at all either. Maybe more so trying to explain to Norman the character of the route in the likely conditions it was in and giving my feedback on the specific question as to if I would solo it or not.

Perhaps I got too far into the nuts n' bolts of the route character that has been the regular as of recent years in early season. No matter what, anything we say here as to what had happened will be speculation. I think getting knocked off balance is by falling rock etc. is very likely when the route is in rotten condition. I witnessed some that wasn't far out of the line of fire. With all due respect man (seriously), I think what you're saying here is bonkers. Suppose someone just went for it on bad conditions at the cruxes. They are now going to fall in a way thats not conducive to self arrest. No the couloirs themselves are not crazy steep, but to say self arrest in them is relatively easy seems crazy to me. Maybe a little slip in the couloirs themselves would allow a proper self arrest. But a tumbling fall from blowing a move or a hold giving or getting hit with debris at one of the cruxes or hell even in the couloirs? I sincerely doubt it and I'm not sure that has anything to do with anyones risk tolerances. Maybe more so its that arresting a fall is not as easy as people would like to think on slopes steeper than what maybe people might glissade down. Especially on firm snow. I had a feeling that the question asked by Norman was going to lead to a bit of an irrelevant tangent. Truthfully I'm a bit bummed on that. I do find value in this discussion on how people rationalize when its okay to solo. I think there are few things in alpine climbing that gets taught to us that in reality shake out to being mostly lip service. I think that self arrest techniques are included in that and lose effectiveness as the slope angle increases. I don't think that just because a route is in prime conditions to solo all the sudden falling is no big deal. Deaths happen on "easy" terrain by experienced people all the time.

This is all very sad and sobering. My condolences to Rick's family and friends. I personally can't imagine soloing this in all but the best conditions, i.e. alot of firm snow and good ice. Perhaps conditions similar to what that face had in April of 2015 and 2017. Even then I would likely opt for a partner and a running belay. A friend and I climbed it in late March of 2019 and the section through the hidden and second couloir, or runnels and runnels bypass, and the section connecting the second and third couloir were pretty thin, insecure, and at times fairly scary. We ended up using the runnels bypass because the runnels proper proved too thin for us. Mostly involving dry tooling on slab or somewhat rotten rock covered by unconsolidated snow. I also remember because of the condition of the snow and what little ice there is that protection was less than ideal. I don't think I'd be able to reverse any of the moves through those sections safely if I would have had to. Judging by the time of the year being similar and looking at recent photos of the face I''d imagine the route was in very similar conditions. I think your conclusions on the route are spot on. Any fall unroped would lead to a very long slide and fall. I don't think theres any feature along the route that would cut a fall short. I hope this clears up some of the questions and I am very sorry for your loss.

If you dated this tr to sometime in late May I'd absolutely believe it.

Nice work! Quite the roll you're on.

As someone who has climbed TC's in awful conditions, I'd wait until you're sure its good. The north face of Dragontail is probably one of the most photographed aspects in the Cascades. I bet even so in winter. Social media is your friend on checking conditions of the face. You'll have to wade through 1000's of photos of bikini clad women in the foreground to get to the recent winter shots. You want to see wide, continuous white through the runnels between the hidden and second couloir. Most will tell you to wait until late March through April. Maybe May if it hasn't been warm.

Pick guards made from 3/4" vinyl tubing and some shock cord. Great for storage and transport.

Awesome! Looks super fun.

Cool. Didn't really feel like the juice was worth the squeeze on that one ya know?

I've found that exposed sandstone scrambling is very unappealing for me. Turned around just after this photo. SW Ridge of West Temple in Zion.

Nice work! This is really, really cool