daylward

I agree; it certainly gets more difficult as time goes on - I've always descended the Cascadian when doing Stuart in late season conditions so I haven't personally been on the Sherpa at that time of year, but I've heard some stories from others that didn't sound pretty. Nonetheless, if you're headed back towards Leavenworth, it's still pretty much the easiest descent that direction.

After ditching our extra stuff near the top of our route, we scrambled to the true summit of Stuart, then retraced our steps back down to our stuff. We descended the Sherpa glacier, which was a casual glissade, though a couple of glide cracks were starting to open up in the couloir. The entrance to the Sherpa couloir from the top is very near the top of the Ice Cliff ridge; pretty obvious if you're paying attention. And yes, that descent is quite feasible for the Girth Pillar or even North Ridge as well, assuming you want to go back down towards Leavenworth rather than Ingall's/Teannaway...

Sorry man, everyone's gotta start on an equal playing field if it's going to be a fair game! These are other pics of the day, including climbing on the Ice Cliff Ridge: http://www.timmatsui.com/fs.shtml?media/20070602_STUART/index.htm

Trip: Mt. Stuart - Girth Pillar attempt, Ice Cliff Ridge actual Date: 6/2/2007 Trip Report: The notes of Tim Matsui (slightly edited with his permission): Dan Aylward, Dylan Johnson, Chad Kellogg and I were going to do the Girth Pillar on Stuart. We were debating access via the N Ridge notch, straight up the Ice Cliff, or, as Dan thought from some Scurlock pix, we might be able to hop over the ridge between the Ice Cliff and Sherpa Glaciers and then traverse into the upper Ice Cliff or rap in. From the ridge crest (snow over slabs gave us easy access from the Sherpa) we saw the Girth was drippy wet, the 'schrund on the Ice Cliff couloir (and easy access to the approach rock pitches for the Girth) was looking difficult, all the hangfire cornices and rock and ice fall down into the basin made us alter our plans. For those of you interested in the Girth, here are some pictures that show its condition at the moment: We climbed the rock of the Ice Cliff Ridge, Chad and I turning the eastern corner and finding gorgeous, well featured Stuart Range granite complete with chicken heads, splitter cracks, slabs and steep corners. There was quite a bit of rock fall. small stuff (nalgene-sized) to coffee table sized. most of it was spontaneous although, with the gentlest of touches, Chad accidentally pulled an (est.) 1000lb block down; i was fairly sheltered but sprayed with shrapnel. it bounced down the line Dylan and Dan had passed through only minutes earlier. The snow slopes were pretty gloppy and prone to sloughing earlier in the day. Chad and Dan got to play a little dodge-em before we reached the dry rock. We heard the ice cliff go and heard some other large rockfall from our ridge and from the NE Face of Stuart. Dan and Dylan chose the shaded, snowy, and wetter northwest aspect of the ridge and had what sounded like wet 5.10R while Chad and I had more pleasant and sunny 5.8/5.9. We also witnessed some potentially killer sloughs down the ice cliff glacier couloir and I saw one down our descent couloir. Fortunately things settled down by the time we headed down it. We postholed to the summit, searched for my lost gloves, then descended the Sherpa. The bugs and visions of burgers down at the FF Rockfest camp had us jogging down the trail not long after. I would highly recommend this route for a fun, shorter N Ridge type climb. Apparently it's been done from the toe of the ridge at about 5.9. For the Girth, I would not recommend the approach we took until the cornices drop. The left side of the ice cliff, from the top of stuart, looks good to go right now but, again, beware the cornices; you would rap in right beneath a big one. The girth could use a little more warm weather to melt out...and by then maybe negotiating the bergschrund will be better. In spite of our 1.30 start, it was a hot day and a lot of snow on route made things wet (we even did some aiding on 5.8 terrain). ahh...alpine climbing. Here's some more shots: http://www.timmatsui.com/fs.shtml?media/20070602_STUART/index.htm Gear Notes: Standard alpine rock rack to 2 inches for the upper part of the Ice Cliff Ridge. Approach Notes: The Sherpa Glacier approach to the Girth Pillar seems to be a feasible way of getting there - just ascend the Sherpa glacier, pop over the Ice Cliff ridge below the upper headwall (involves a little low fifth class climbing and perhaps a rappel), and traverse across the upper ice cliff to the lower pitches of the Girth. It would avoid objective hazard of the Ice Cliff itself, although it might be threatened by its own cornices sometimes (such as at the time of this writing).

Okay, upon further pestering with Google, the Internet seems to vaguely imply that [uHMWPE (Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethelene) = HPPE (High Performance Polyethelene) = Spectra = Dyneema] has a high natural resistence to UV - roughly equivalent to that of Nylon. Apparently Nylon is considered to have a high UV tolerance, at least when compared with other synthetic organic fibers, like Kevlar, Vectran, and Technora. Clearly, even so, Nylon is far from immune to UV - but I retract my statement about Spectra being decisively better in that respect. One rumor I had also heard was that Spectra/Dyneema weakens with flexing. I found at least one study that showed that not to be the case for Spectra/Dyneema, whereas it is strikingly true for other fibers such as Technora, Vectran and Kevlar. http://www.amga.com/ComparativeStrengthTest.pdf Note that this study did not have a pure Spectra cord included, but rather cords that were a mix of nylon & Spectra, but it leaves me with the strong impression that Spectra is very similar to Nylon in its ability to withstand flexing.

To ressurect an old old post, who knows if mammut_rep is still around... but I have some more info... Based on some information I found on various websites, Spectra and Dyneema are both HPPE, but they are not the same. The difference lies in the fiber size. Dyneema has finer fibers than Specta. Kiteboarders use Spectra and Dyneema kite lines for their high strength, low creep, and slipperyness (compared to rough Kevlar lines, the slippery HPPE does not cause abrasive cutting forces when lines cross). But it turns out that Spectra kite lines last longer than Dyneema ones, because the individual fibers are thicker and therefore they don't fuzz up and lose strength as quickly. That made me think about my climbing slings - I do notice the same effect there. On my old BD slings, I see a few loose Spectra fibers poking out, but the slings are generally in pretty good shape after years of use. My newer Mammut slings get fuzzy much more quickly, and I can see the fibers are a lot finer than the Spectra ones. It seems that small, sharp crystals in the rock catch on the fibers when they rub across the sling, and they're more likely to break the small Dyneema fibers than the thicker Spectra fibers. I still love my Mammut slings 'cause they're so light and easy to deal with, and I will continue to buy them, but I have a strong suspicion that they lose their strength much faster than the Spectra ones, and I'll definitely retire them after less time. It is also interesting to note that Spectra and Dyneema are much more resistant to UV than Nylon. So if you need to rely on a sling that's been out in the sun for a while, go with the HPPE one. However, the melting point is much lower than Nylon. HPPE begins to lose strength at temperatures in the low 200's. So anything that causes friction against the sling can exceed this fairly quickly. Dan

Yes, it is doable, though it would involve quite a bit of backtracking if you want to avoid the Colchuck Glacier (and indeed, I would recommend avoiding the Colchuck Glacier). I don't know how familiar you are with the Enchantments, but the only easy way out of the upper end of the Enchantments is Asgard Pass, which is to the northeast of Dragontail. To summit Dragontail as you're leaving the Enchantments, hang a left just before you get to Asgard Pass and go up the permanent snowfield (which has some exposed water ice now and may require crampons), then hang a right after topping out on the snowfield and follow steep sandy slopes up to the summit. You would descend the same way you came up. If you wanted to continue on to Colchuck, just traverse the sandy slopes below the ridge crest of Dragontail until you get to a wide gully that drops you down to the Colchuck/Dragontail col, where the Colchuck Glacier tops out. Traverse the col and head up the other side, staying somewhat climber's right (within reason - follow the easier terrain). There's a little bit of class 3 in places but mostly hiking, and the summit is not far away. There's no snow between the summit of Dragontail and the summit of Colchuck, and I would plan a couple hours to do it. Then you have to retrace your steps all the way back over Dragontail to get back to Asgard Pass. So Colchuck is at least a 4-hour detour from the regular Enchantments escape. Hope this helps! Dan

Climb: Colchuck-NE Couloir Date of Climb: 8/7/2005 Trip Report: I was going to do the S. Face of Prussik yesterday, but my partner was too sick, so I had to figure out something else that I could do on my own. I'd never been to the summit of Colchuck before, and the NE couloir looked easy enough to solo, and I'd get to tick off another Selected Climb. I knew there wouldn't be much snow in it, since it was a low snow year and it's already August and it's been hot for a while, but there was even less than I expected. I was only on snow maybe a couple hundred feet altogether. The rest was a great combination of choss, kitty litter, falling rocks, mud, stacked death blocks, and exposed 5.7 moves. There were at least three times that I certainly would have turned around if I thought I could get back down what I'd already come up! After 3 hours of extreme concentration, delicate and deliberate movements, and not a small amount of luck, I made it to the ridge without incident. The rest was fun. I traversed over the summit of Colchuck, then continued on over Dragontail and down Asgard. About 9 hours car-to-car. I would not recommend the NE couloir in late season! Dan Gear Notes: Brought 1 ice tool in case there was water ice in the gully, but a light axe would have been enough. A partner with a rope and gear would have made it safer, but if I had that I would have done something else anyway!

Regarding the summit register on Torment - it completely didn't cross our minds to look for it! We just got there, ate a bite, took a picture, and took off. But hearing about the pencil lead issue, now I'm glad I didn't waste the time! Dan

I saw a fire over there today from the top of Dragontail and I was wondering if it was near the Teanaway river road... Definitely still burning! There was also a fire to the north, looked like near highway 2 or maybe up toward Lake Wenatchee? It was smaller and looked like it had just started... Things must be getting pretty crispy out there! Dan

Apparently you haven't yet checked the lost and found forum! Your glasses are right here next to me. Dan

Oh yeah, aluminum crampons would be plenty fine; I brought mine, but didn't even use them at all... the track spikes were good enough. And definitely no need for anything larger than 1 inch; of course if I'd looked hard enough I could have found places for a #2 or #3... or #4 or #5... or 3' 2x4... but who wants to lug that crap around? Dan

Found a pair of Smith wraparound sunglasses while descending the Boston Basin trail on Saturday (7-30) evening about 7:00. If you can tell me the color of the glasses and the color of the strap attached to them, I'll get 'em back to you! Dan

It should be fine. I can't imagine it would deteriorate much in the next couple weeks: My report from 7/30/05

Climb: Torment & Forbidden-Torment-Forbidden Traverse Date of Climb: 7/30/2005 Trip Report: Unfortunately, no lesbian action pics in this T/R. My old ski buddy John Phillips shot me an email a couple weeks ago with the implied complaint of inadequate flow in the rivers he customarily kayaks, so I figured I could provide some alternative alpine entertainment. His climbing experience is somewhat limited, at least if you take in perspective that his dad is Jim Phillips... but he's fit and comfortable in the mountains, so I thought we could do something fairly ambitious. First thought - west ridge of Forbidden (I hadn't done it before, can you believe it?). Then I thumbed back a few pages in Selected Climbs vol. I, and saw the Torment-Forbidden traverse, which reminded me that I'd been wanting to do that for a long long time. I also wanted to make it to a BBQ in Mazama on Saturday night, so we definitely were going to have to keep the pedal to the metal. At the trailhead at 3:45 am, we accidentally woke up a guy from Bellingham with the noise from our preparation. He was not annoyed, and instead came over and introduced himself and said he and his partner were planning to do the T-F traverse in 2 days with jackets as bivi gear. In accordance with the information I'd gathered from various sources, the deadfall on the Boston Basin trail is rather prolific, especially in one section where there had obviously been a debris torrent at some point. But the trail was well-traveled enough that it was easily visible through it all, even in the dim light of our LEDs. We traipsed very near many peoples' silent tents as we entered Boston Basin, then began the long off-trail rising traverse through the lush grasslands toward the Taboo glacier and the S ridge of Torment. The Taboo Glacier was not impassable, contrary to what some unknoledgable fools on this board seem to have thought (no offense intended to said unknoledgable fools; I mean it in the most flattering possible way). We did have to do a little crevasse spelunking, but nothing my 5/8" running spikes couldn't handle. Though John did fall into one crevasse and managed to snap shis shot between screams of terror before he hit the bottom: (just kidding, he wasn't falling) We started up the rock from the S. ridge notch by 8:00, soloed the S ridge route (all but the direct finish, which required one belay) and summited Torment by 9:30. I was very impressed with John's tolerance for exposure! He later said he was a little scared, but he didn't show it. As the description indicated, the first part of the traverse was the most difficlt, at least in terms of routefinding. We bypassed most of the gendarmes on the left, but once went around to the right (SE) side. The rock was generally solid, but I found one teetering stack of 3 huge blocks... a hand jam caused it to completely collapse as I yanked my arm away quickly. Wow, what a trundle! It went right down into the bergschrund of the Taboo and clouded me with dust. The snow traverse was soft snow. We opted to solo it, for maximum safety. It was not difficult; the steps sunk in deep. Unfortunately, one step did collapse out from under John, and he went for a ride! Fortunately, he was actually able to self-arrest before hitting a steeper section that preceeded some ablated areas that were in front of some crevasses. Freaky! We decided to go "up" more than "across" after that, which made it easier to kick good steps. From there it was nothing but fun and joy and happiness, as we simul-climbed along one of the best knife-edge ridges in the Cascades. In places it's like a sidewalk, just with several hundred feet of exposure on both sides! We ran in to the Bellingham dude and his partner just as we reached the start of the W. Ridge of Forbidden. The were descending. Apparently one of them had forgotten his bivi jacket, so they changed their plans. You all know the W. ridge of Forbidden. No need to go into detail. It was awesome. As was the summit. As we had only one rope, we took the E. Ledges descent. After reaching the exit notch in the E. ridge at about 5:00 pm, we were able to link a couple snowfields with bits of gully-downclimbing for a rapid glissade-enhanced descent. John appeared at the trailhead at just after 8:00 to the sight of me walking in circles swatting flies. Little bastards. We made it to Mazama just in time to have a couple hockey pucks that had been on the grill for 3 hours or so. Mmmm! Gear Notes: We took a fairly large number of pieces - 7 aliens thru red & .5, .75 & #1 Camalot, and nuts and 10 draws. We wanted to be able to simul-climb a long way without having to stop & switch gear. It worked out well.

Jim Nelson sent me this picture that John Scurlock took a few days ago (I hope it's OK that I posted it John; don't hesitate to let me know if you want me to take it down!) It's sort of hard to see the line from this angle, but I traced the line I thought we did in red, then sent it to Forrest who traced his interpretation in white (with letters that theoretically match up to the same letters he has on his web page about the route: http://www.saarch.com/forrest/hardyfull.htm ). Maybe our actual line is somewehre in between...?

Hey, just saw this thread, I've been in Peru. Great job guys! It's always a great feeling to see your route get repeated. I'm hoping with more ascents the loose rock will be removed and the quality will improve, but yeah, it sounds like it was better where we went on the lower part. So, from the S-shaped gully, when you got to the chockstone (I know that's vague... I think there were several chockstones), did you then go up onto the face to the right, toward the ridge crest? That face had some small trees growing out of cracks, but mostly it was pretty good rock and not too steep. I seem to remember sticking pretty much to the "crest" from there, and it naturally led us in the line on the topo - where we had to bypass features, we did so on the left, but then cut back to the crest as soon as possible. I don't remember anything too run-out before the upper headwall, and there was some loose rock, but not too bad. Now I want to go do it again to see if I remember right... Dan

Hey, nice TR & tick! What did the NE Buttress look like? I imagine rock at the bottom but big piles of snow near the top? And what were the snow conditions like on the hike in there? Spotty? Nothing? Was it postholey at all?

Anyone been on the PCT south of Rainy Pass in the last couple weeks? How much snow is there? The answers to this question will help us decide whether or not to bring snowshoes. I'm currently leaning towards "not". My friends have expressed skepticism towards my leaning. Their skepticism should not be vindicated. Dan

Actually, that's more than a small part of why I wrote the report. I think it helped some. Time will tell...

Climb: When Triumph Feels Like Failure -NE ridge FWA Date of Climb: 2/26/2005 Trip Report: [pictures will come later] I had a hot date planned for Sunday night; super cool girl. We’d been out a couple times before, and I was really looking forward to seeing her again. She was going to return on Sunday from the ski vacation she’d been on in Steamboat with her family all week. Then Colin called. When Colin calls, it means only one thing – weekend plans ruined. What was it this time? The NE ridge of Triumph hasn’t been climbed yet in the winter? And yeah, the weather forecast is perfect, and yeah, the ski season sucks and my season pass at Crystal is a sunk cost, and yeah, Triumph has been on my list for a long time (I made one attempt several years ago but got turned back by rain). But I have a date! I gave in. I told Colin we could go, as long as we make it back to Seattle by 8:00 pm on Sunday night. I convinced myself it was possible… the moon was nearly full, so we could conceivably climb a lot at night. Colin said we could drive all the way to the trailhead. And he’s fast. I made a schedule in my head… Wake up at 1:00 am, summit by noon, back to camp by 3:00 pm, back to the car by 5:30, then back to Seattle by 8:00. Ambitious? You think? Anyone else? Can we get a consensus here? No? I emailed said super cool girl in Steamboat. I sent her a link to the summertime route description and my planned schedule. I assured her everything would work out… and she assured me that I should definitely go for it. I met Colin at the Ravenna Park & Ride at 5:00 on Saturday morning, and decided to take my car because it has a CD player and Colin really wanted to listen to some political rap. There was some snow in places on the road to the trailhead, but by that time the music had changed to Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson so we got through it fine. Colin realized he’d forgotten his sunglasses, but fortunately I had a pair of way rad purple reflective jobbies I could loan him… wearing those, he was unstoppable; even more than usual I mean. We left the car at about 8:00 am. The only people who had been up the trail recently had been on skis; we could see the remnants of ski tracks where there was snow, but certainly now there’s no way to make it all the way with skis on. Typical of late February days in the Cascades, it got hot very quickly and we had to strip down. For those keeping track of snowpack, after the 2-mile section of flat overgrown-road trail (which still had some snow in shady places), we didn’t hit snow again for another mile up the switchbacks, and snowshoes were still impractical until a mere 500 vertical feet below the ridgeline. We thrashed up a steep & deep hillside (must have been off trail there) to the ridge, then thrashed down a steeper and deeper hillside to the lower Thornton lake (off trail there too for sure). The Thornton lakes were frozen over, but the lower one definitely looked thin in places… We went for it anyway though, just ‘cause it’s such a pain in the ass to go around, and accomplished the transit with ease and without incident. By the time we got to the upper lake, it was so hot… We were standing there in the middle of a frozen lake, our shirts off, waves of heat coming off our foreheads, eating Clif bars, wearing way rad sunglasses. The hump up to “the col” (or alternatively “the notch”) had patchy snow, but the glacier beyond “the notch” (or alternatively “the col”) had snow aplenty, and we were very glad to have our snowshoes there. We found a flat spot on top of what probably would have been a cavernous crevasse in the summer, not too far below the approach gully for the NE ridge, and set up our camp there. We stomped around with vigor to make a tent site as flat and level as a billiards table. It was 3:30. Time to eat dinner & hit the sack! I lobbied hard for the 1:00 wake-up time. Colin lobbied hard for 4:00. I whined “But I have a date tomorrow night! If I’m late you’ll be sorry!” Colin said “No, you’ll be sorry, sucker!” We compromised on 3:00. Shortly thereafter, I realized I had left my harness in the car. And belay device. And cordalette & locking biners. “That’s interesting,” I said. Colin pointed to the wad of ½” rap-sling webbing I had insisted on taking and said “That’ll make a nice swami belt, sucker!” However after a bit of discussion, we decided he’d be the one to wear the swami belt and I’d wear his harness. After 4 hours of sleep spread sporadically throughout 10, I was relieved when the alarm finally went off. The moon was bright, the snow was firm, and Colin’s swami belt was tight. We soloed up the gully to gain the ridge; the climbing was easy. We stayed left of the crest at first, until we gained the top of a small side-buttress, then we roped up and Colin led a steep mixed pitch to the actual ridge crest. I think that way is significantly different than what would be feasible in the summer. The sky was beginning to get light as I took over and led a long simul pitch that was mostly snowy and pretty easy; there were a couple rock outcroppings I could get gear in. Finally, I went up a steep gendarme with a few hard moves, after which I decided it was time to belay. We pitched it out from there through the crux (with little bits of simul if the rope wasn’t quite long enough to get to a good belay position). The very edge of the ridge on the SE side was exposed rock, due to sun exposure, so often it was possible to walk along that and use ice tools in the snow on your right for balance. When we got to the crux it happened to be my lead (fancy that), and I opted for the right-hand variation. All of this climbing was on the NW side of the ridge, so it was really covered in flutings. Fortunately beneath the flutings there was water ice, or frozen heather, or positive rock holds… so as long as I could keep excavating, I could proceed. I took a rising traverse up and right, past the bottom of the 5.7 offwidth (which was choked with snow), around the corner to sort of chimney with more exposed rock. Gear wasn’t ubiquitous, but I could get enough in to remain confident. Above the chimney I had to wallow up some more steep flutings, which took a lot of time & effort (reminded me a bit of Watusi Rodeo!), but I eventually reached the large ledge that marked the end of the difficult climbing after about 55 meters. It felt good to suddenly be in the sun again, and there were rappel slings right there to belay from. After Colin followed the crux, he led one long simul pitch from the ledge, across the face to the left, up a 60º snow & heather slope, to the summit. It was 12:30! We were standing on the summit! That wasn’t too far off my schedule! Maybe we can make it! We just have to descend in 2 hours, hike out in 2 ½ hours, and drive home in 2 ½ hours! We can do it! Yeah right. The first decision we had to make at that point was which way to descend. Neither of us knew the south ridge descent route, but I thought it must have to be faster than going down the way we came up. It turned out that there was certainly less snow on it, it was rock almost the whole way. And it probably was quicker overall. But we only had one 60m rope, and I think we didn’t get the route exactly right, because we had to set all our own rap stations after the first three. We ended up going right down the south side of the east face, in a total of 7 raps, and eventually connecting with a ramp of snow that we could downclimb to the glacier. That put us almost directly above our camp, but in the end it took 3 ½ hours to descend, putting us at camp at 4:00. Hmmm… Schedule slipping… We packed quickly & were snowshoeing back to “the notch” by 4:45. The lakes were still frozen, fortunately, but there were definitely more holes of liquid water showing on the lower one than before! We walked across it anyway, skillfully avoiding the holes. It was deep twilight as we hauled ourselves up 400 feet of deep powder to the ridge, where we saw the footprints of… other people! We tried to avoid them, but finally succumbed to their direction. You know the drill from there… dark slog long knee pound occasionally satisfy hunger yearn for car hike fast through pain. Almost 9:00. That’s when we got to the car. Hey, 4 hours isn’t bad to cover all that distance, with the snow & all, eh? But that wasn’t fast enough for my date. We threw our stuff in my car and I rallied down the road, finally getting cell phone reception in Sedro Wolley, My phone beeped. “2 Messages” it said. I listened to them. “Hi Dan. I didn’t expect to get your voice mail. I’m back from Steamboat, but I don’t know where you are. I’ll try calling back later.” “Hi Dan. I thought I was going to see you tonight, but it’s getting late and I’ve had a long day and I need to go to bed. Hope you’re ok, I guess I’ll talk to you later…” Triumphant failure. Gear Notes: Small rock rack (1 Ti piton, several nuts, 6 cams to 2") Worked great. There was not enough ice for screws.

It's better this way anyway. With that big picture in the thread, it didn't allow the text of the other posts to wrap narrower than the picture, which forced some painful horizontal scrolling for those using 1024x768 (like on my cheap old laptop at home). But it is nice to see the picture with such detail... it's amazing how different it looks from that angle than from right below the route! Thanks Alex.

Someday, when conditions are just perfect, there will be an instant traffic jam going up that road!

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/429116/an/0/page/0#429116

Sorry, I was having a stream-of-consciousness moment.