robertm

I have climbed there. I was looking for a good alternative to Vantage without the crowds. The routes are all REALLY short... around 25-30 feet at the most. The talus field on the approach was crawling with rattlesnakes and it was super hot since it is fully southern exposed (maybe good winter spot). It is kinda out of the way and I always felt like my car would become like all the cans, bottles, signs and appliances discarded along the road and riddled with bullet holes. You could hear some good ole boys unloading what sounded like some automatic weapons a few miles away... cool looking rock and it would be worth the "objective" hazards if the cliffs were twice as high.

Don't know about the avy conditions. We climbed the route this last year and also climbed Nooksack ridge to Shuksan. The old log was gone (around price creek). There was another smaller log about 200 yds. East (away from price creek)... you will need your crampons to cross it. You can check out our pictures on http://www.alpinezone.50megs.com

The omega was mine... someone left a brand new Petzl locker which was better so I swapped it R-

Attempted Pinnacle and Castle peak on Sunday 1/14. The area had just received a dump of about 1+ feet of fresh Utah like powder. We abandoned our climb and yo-yo'ed from the col to reflection lake twice. Great snow but poor climbing! Some others were shooting for Castle but were stymied by loose and unconsolidated snow over rock. Avi hazard was really low since we where bombing down 35 degree gulleys and setting off sluffs but thats about it. If we get any wet snow in the future this underlying "dry" layer is going to act like ball bearings. Anyway we had a blast.

I love em. My feet are a bit narrow and they fit great. For people with stumpy feet they don't fit all that well. As far as sizing they are what they say they are. A 10-1/2 fits my 10-1/2 foot great with a good thick pair of smartwools. I have climbed everything from steep technical rock and ice to volcanoes and waterfalls in them. Real similair to the La Sportiva Nepal Tops.

The Face has very little if any Ice as of 1/4. We did the S. Face of the tooth as a alternate. It was really warm and the rock was bare and dry. It reminded my more of April or May than January. As others have said the N. Ridge of the tooth isn't happening at all. No ice, just bare rock to get onto the ridge. Very similair in appearance to the N. Face of Chair actually.

I was on the NE Buttress of Chair this weekend linking up patches of vertical ice and frozen Heather clumps. The N. Face IS NOT in... mostly bare rock. We had do some 5th class just to get up to the notch on above the "thumb tack" basin. There was one other party that turned around after witnessing us use gear on the approach The climbing was spectacular... very exposed but also run out. A real classic mixed climb. With the conditions we found and the variations that we did I would give it Grade III AI 3 5.6 (Left car at 8:30, climbing at 11:00 AM summit at 4:00 PM back at car at 7:00 PM) Not super sustained.. you had no hands rests after 15 feet of climbing or so... the gear was sparce though. The only gear we used was a #1 & .5 camalot, a #6 nut and 4 kbs (some tied off). Oh, and slings for the occasional krumholtz. Climb the rightward slanting gully (5th class) to some blue slings. From there head right and up onto the ridge proper. From there head towards a Yellow sling a full rope up and right. From there look for a cool band of water ice cascading over some technical terrain... this is the AI3 section for about 30+ feet... there are some trees atop this cliff. from the trees angle right along the ridge using trees for anchors... this is class 3/4 ground (50 - 60 degree snow with good anchors) You should end up in a notch after 300-400 feet. The summit is another rope length along the ridge to your right. The descent is straight ahead. Head down the gully by down climbing. You will end up at a col above the exit gully. You should see some anchors (yellow and blue super tape). Use these to rap into the gully (recommend 2 60 m ropes... can be made with 5 single rope raps... some of the anchors look dubious).

Hey Forrest... I remember you from Feathered Friends... you were just leaving as I was getting started. remember the Peter Principle We did the Tower and Ridge in Late July of this year... The schrunds get nasty after mid august most years.

The rock climbing wasn't especially difficult.. as long as you are on route. The rock quality on the ridge connecting the tower to Shuksan is some of the worst I have seen in the Cascades. The rock on the tower itself is ok. 4th to mid 5th class climbing on the tower... a couple of 5.8 moves along the ridge (Beckey 4th class). It seems that some of the ridge might have fallen off since Fred did it The ridge I would give a YD 5.8+ (one roof move) grade III+ by itself with mostly mid 5th class climbing and REALLY loose 4th class. You can bivy in the col between the tower and the ridge. Take 2 ropes for the rappels (double rope technique is ideal). We established anchors with double 60M ropes... combination of slings and titanium pitons. Our ambitions were to also climb Shuksan once on the plateau... but ran out of gumption. There was another party that we watched climb the Price (50 classics), they topped out an hour before a wet snow avalanche scoured the entire route (unknown to them). They must have ran out of gas too because we followed their foot prints and they didn't head for the summit. All in all a awesome place to climb with spectacular scenery and some of the most rugged terrain I have ever experienced. The other thing about the tower that is so intimidating is the fact that there is no easy way down. You are faced with down climbing really steep snow and ice with no margin for error. You could almost say what we did was safer... especially now that we have established the rappels. It was surprising to us that only one other party had done what we did... Judging by the names in summit register it looked like about 1 party per year does the tower... surprising since it is in the Selected Climbs. I think when people get up there and look at it they get psyched out a bit. I know we did. It took me my third time up there before we did it. I don't think the Ridge gets done much at all. There were no fixed anchors on the Raps or the ridge until the last tower before the Shuksan plateu. This could be because people have tried to climb it coming the other way (from Shuksan and then bail when they realize how poor the rock is). One other thing. I forgot my helmet... not a great place to do that. Here is the link to some pics: http://www.alpinezone.50megs.com/