zoroastr

Those gullies on Sherpa are a hoot! E. Johnson and I climbed the peak via one of 'em a couple of years ago in late season when they were ice. Your pix make me wish I could ski!

I'm not a "two-planker" [alas...], but from what I've seen others do on skis, I'd say you could "skin" about 70% of this one. You'd get some awesome turns off the top of Index, and I'm sure there must be several descent routes that would drop you practically to the valley floor if you wanted to traverse the entire route, and maybe use two cars.....

Here's a shot from Persis, taken earlier in the day. The circle shows our turnaround point, just before the top of the last bump on the ridge. It looked to us like we had about an hour and a half left, but it was already 2:30 PM, so we u-turned. Made it back to the car before dark [whew!]...

Trip: Index - Mt. Persis / Mt. Index Traverse Date: 2/10/2007 Trip Report: Just a few snaps from a longish but wonderfully solitary trek from the summit of Persis over to Index. Erick Johnson and I saw no other trax all day! The ridge between the peaks was mostly like this, with lots of little "problems" to figure out. Can you find Waldo in this shot? Here's Index from about the midway point; most of the hard work is done. There's nothing technical on this one, just a few steepish slopes and cornices to avoid, but mostly spectacular scenery and a nice "alpine" feel. The weather was perfect: warm, slightly overcast, but with constant views of distant Rainier, Puget Sound, and even the Downtown Seattle skyline. --a terrific slog! Gear Notes: Both crampons and snowshoes are a good idea for this one, not so much for steepness, but in order to maximize your efficiency of movement. Approach Notes: One frustrating note: because the barely-discernable approach trail is so nasty with blowdowns, punchy snice and other annoyances, after getting to within an hour or so of the top of Index, we turned around so as not to have to repeat the approach trail on headlamp. Sucked, too, because all the hard work was done, and the rest was just a jog! Serves us right for taking a late start, I guess. We'll be back to finish it off next week, weather permitting.

Trip: I-90 'Haute Route' - Humpback / Abiel / Silver Peaks. Date: 2/3/2007 Trip Report: Tried this hike last year in slush, but didn't get far. Better snow this time permitted Erick Johnson, Cristopher Kearney and I to complete a tour of the Anette Lake valley. Started by heading up Humpback... From the top of the first hill, we considered the possibility that we might have set our sights a bit too high...left to right: Silver, Abiel Peaks. Nearly halfway around the valley, Silver still looked impossibly far away... There were actually fewer problems getting around the valley than we feared. Summit ridge on Abiel: Pausing on the lower slopes of Silver for a glance back at the N. Face of Abiel... Final, nicely-corniced summit ridge of Silver Peak. After topping out on this last one, we followed the ridge back to the road. S'really nice to just make up your own trail through the snow. Whole valley lap took about 7 hours, which might have gone a bit quicker had we brought our snowshoes, but conditions were favorable, and postholing minimal...fun tour! Gear Notes: Lightweight aluminum crampons over running shoes worked well for steepish, well-frozen snow slopes on the peaks. For the lengthy, flat traverse sections, snowshoes are recommended. Bring a stick. Approach Notes: Humpback is accessible from the old equipment building just off the Iron Horse road [take a right off the Annete LK. trail about 1/2 mile up the trail.

My Gawd! Those are the kind of pix that would have sent Ansel Adams screaming into the hills! Dood! you are one freaky good snapster!

nice job! i like hiking and scrambling in that area, and have done those two already, but I was thinking I might like to go back for another day hike and climb up Red Mtn--do you remember if it had much snow left on it? thx for the T.R.

....just gimme a second to get my jaw up off the floor....there. A-W-E-S-O-M-E T.R.!!! Thank You.

Very enjoyable T.R.! ...especially the frank and honest way in which the author dealt with certain...er...biological imperatives.

Great story, jaw-dropping snaps, fabulous trip report--perfect adventure for armchair alpinists like me... THANX!

Incredible Pix! Thank You.

Awesome! Would love to see the bigger pics....try this: edit your existing TR, only take off the last 4 charachters in the image links that are appended by the script that links your gallery images. In other words, go to your image links and remove the "-med" that appears right before the ".jpg" file extension. If you do this, your full-size images will display, and we won't have to squint at these postage-stamp sized pics. You took some awesome photos from a great route--let's see them the way they really look.

I believe that's the Iceberg Lake drainage--we got a good view of it last year from te summit of one of the Lemahs. As far as approach alternatives go, yes, we used the Commonwealth Basin shortcut on the way in, but felt that with snow tracks so hard to follow this time of year, and with the C.W. Basin still buried under firn, the best thing to do when it's dark out and you've only got one headlamp between two, is to stick with the "freeway" route.... --cheers

Climb: Mount Thomson-West Ridge-Direct Date of Climb: 6/24/2006 Trip Report: On Saturday, Erick Johnson and I chose to usher in the Summer season with a repeat climb of Mt. Thomson's West Ridge. We knew we were "jumping the gun" a bit with this one, but we had no idea what a battle we were to face. If we had, we'd probably have left the trailhead a tad earlier than our 10 a.m. start. What was planned as a moderate, relaxed day climb on a familiar route would eventually become a physically and psychologically taxing mini-epic. It wasn't just the brutal heat, the endless side-hilling on early Summer "snice" patches, or even the massive volley of rockfall that cut our rope on the very exposed third pitch--it was the combination of these and other unforseen factors that eventually reduced our party to a pair stumbling, wet-booted zombies. Actually, considering all we went through, we both felt pretty good all day, and even enjoyed the last couple hours of headlamp hiking on the pretty but needlessly circuitous PCT section. First glimpse of Thomson... The 600-foot West Ridge is the left-hand skyline... Pretty little Ridge Lake is still a giant no-salt Margarita... Distant Chickamin Peak from the interior of a melting "snice" cave on the trail just before Bumblebee Pass. Once on route, I started us off with the awkward first pitch, then Erick--shown here--ran out the next one... At the top of the Great Slabs... Eejay makes short work of the terminal rock step... On top, Erick demonstrates superlative rope coiling technique... Johnson shops around for the East Ridge rap anchors... The peak casts a big shadow over frozen Edds Lake, with frosty Joe lake beyond... Gear Notes: Stick, extra food, extreme patience, headlamp...oh, and bring a HELMET! Approach Notes: Not really in shape yet, unless you have a big, red "S" on your chest.

Very nice peetchers! That route is one of my favorite day climbs. I can't imaging doing it with the eqivalent of a small couch tied to your back---my hat is lifted! Too bad 'bout the crap weather--you'll get up next time! gr8 snaps! THNX!

Awesome T.R.--thanx for the gr8 pix--more eloquent than prose...

KEWL! Thanks very much! ...now I have TWO [count 'em!] pairs of Marblemount Shell Station specs...

Climb: Pyramd Peak-Colonial Glacier Date of Climb: 6/19/2006 Trip Report: Nobody took the bait when I posted to the partners list, so I had to go to the big, scary mountains all alone. I also felt really crappy most of the day, so I just did a short one. Here are some snaps from the Colonial Glacier and Pyramid Peak, which I climbed by an interesting route. Two of the three peaks in the area that I'd wanted to "bag" stayed in the clouds all day--I never actually got to see the Bunyan Stump or Pinnacle, but Pyramid was fun. I ended up taking several photos of some of the pretty little Glacial ponds on the Colonial--it was gr8 to come upon this oasis after that unbelivably nasty approach hike. Long, steep, and in places non-existant, the "trail" had only one upside: about five miles in, I found the sunglasses I'd lost three weeks ago--score! Another pond shot, with Colonial Peak... The same ponds, from several hundred feet up Pyramid Peak... Played some MP3's on the gloomy, socked-in summit of Pyramid, while noshing on Pop-Tarts [special "Pirates of the Carribean" promotional tart--Strawberry, with weird, yellow frosting.] Frankly, not one of Kellogg's best efforts.. More pondage... Two hike-out shots: The Dam.... ...and an over-the-shoulder glance back at Colonial. Gear Notes: 'pons, stick, food, toonz. Approach Notes: This approach is in contention for possibly the most god-awful in-hike I've ever voluntarily suffered through. You'll love the glacier and surrounding peaks, but there's a very good reason the area sees little traffic.

Thankx for the conditions report, JoshK; my climbing partner and I have been thinking of repeating on Prusik's W. Ridge--some snow might actually help on the approach. I did your hike a few times b4, but w/o benefit of bike, opting to get the boring road section up to the Colchuck Lk. trailhead done first, then "Assmaster." That way, you get to descend all the way through the Enchantments and the lower lakes and back along the freaking interminable lower section till the burnout. There's a few snaps from one of the trips on my cheesy personal site--click on the "Image Gallery" button...cheers! http://www.pioneernet.net/zoroastr/default.htm

Hi. My climbing partner's out of town this weekend, and I'm planning a long, moderate, but interesting day up in the Colonial Pk. area. Going for Bunyan's Stump, Pinnacle, and Pyramid--a class 3 scramble, a class 4 face route, and a walk-up. Lot's of altitude gain, possibly some steep snow, etc. and would like to move pretty quickly to get everything in. Have car, gear, etc. Bring big lungs.

Wow....fascinating foto trivia! As I mentioned earlier, I'm more the naiive, point-shoot-pray shutterbug, but just to set things straight, here's exactly how I manage my images: 1. I never snap at the camera's highest resolution, but choose the next one down [1200 by something, I think]. 2. after sucking 'em into the computer, I manage and edit using an older 32-bit app called ThumbsPlus. 3. After cropping for composition, and downsizing to either 67% or 50% of original, I occasionally tweak the values for saturation, contrast, seperate RGB values, etc., but since I have a rather crappy monitor, I hardly ever mess with this level of editing, since I don't trust what the screen is telling me. For the pictures from this last trip, all I did was crop and resize using ThumbsPlus, which may be applying some magic fairy dust that I'm not aware of...

A Parting Shot... Since people seemed to like the snaps, here's one more. Jesse the photogenic meatsack cautiously down-climbs to the first rap station, as the fog finally clears...

"Sharpening afterward?" ...I only wish I knew what you're talking about--it sounds interesting. Alas, I'm strictly point-n'click.

Glad folks like the pics. Canon A520 [3.4 MP], 2 years old, bought from Fry's on sale for 140 bucks....

Climb: The Tooth-South Face Cluster-F*** Date of Climb: 6/10/2006 Trip Report: On a gray but meteorologically promising Saturday morning I met my climbing partner, Erick Johnson, a couple of my office mates and their invited guest for coffee at an I-90 Tully's. The plan was to introduce a few experienced gym rats to the glories of traditional alpine climbing in a safe but rewarding manner--it was at this point that Erick announced that he had brought only a single rope. As things turned out, this trip could have appeared in the Mountaineer's Handbook in a chapter entitled : "Don't Let This Happen to You!" Actually, Erick did a great job of keeping everybody safe, and our whole group got up and down on one rope, two rappel devices, and some Pop-Tarts. The Tooth is a too-popular, 300-ft., low fifth-class face climb in the Snoqualmie Pass area. About half our party chose to climb the first pitch-and-a-half roped, and then free-climb the less-exposed upper half of the mountain. Here's a shot of climbers strung out on pitch one. John clears pitch 1, belayed by Erick John invited Jesse, a petite but frighteningly capable rockster who fairly danced along the mountain's upper reaches in a pair of rock shoes that looked like they'd fallen from a charm bracelet. 300 ft. above tiny Pineapple Pass, the summit of The Tooth takes on a surreal quality in the mid-day fog as climbers from the Moutaineers club prepare for their first rappel. Jesse, A.K.A. "Meatsack #1," prepares to be lowered, single-strand from the summit. Back down to pitch #1's belay ledge, the group get set to finish things off, while Mountaineers sort gear 80 feet below. The fifth member of our group is not pictured here, because he graciously volunteered to retrieve a $50.00 cam we'd left about 100 feet back up the route--THANX, Robin! We owe you large. Gear Notes: Bring way more than we did. Approach Notes: Hardpack all along the trail and up to Pineapple Pass. Excellent butt-groomed glissade runs on the way down.