robertm

That Rap looks sketch! I remember bounce testing a similar looking one on J-berg and it snapped. Eye opening.

Yes, I did climb with MVS. I know we ran into each other a couple of times. VW in Redmond and maybe the Bugs...

Dan, I live in Bozeman (lived in Seattle for 20+ years). I agree with what others have said here... I haven't spent much time in Driggs/Victor except on my way to/from the Tetons. I would say that Victor/Driggs area is really up and coming. They (Driggs) just got a new climbing gym that looks nice. You are close to skiing at JH and GT & Tetons!. Close to Yellowstone and the weather is probably a lot more mild down there then up here in Bozeman. With BZN being a college town there is always a lot going on here - both good and bad. Lots of climbing -- ice & rock minutes from town. Skiing is great -- in general you need to like winter to live here. They are long! We get our first below zero cold snap and snow in October and snow sticks around from October usually through April. Bozeman (or BozAngeles as locals are calling it now) is getting very pricey -- even the restaurants are charging Seattle prices. not sure what is driving our popularity -- but usually a couple of winters here creates some turnover. Happy to talk specifics if you shoot me a DM.

That descent from Sherpa to Argonaut col cost me an unplanned night out too. Very long descent with lots and lots of rock ribs that you go up, over and down. I think the best bet in hindsight is to descent down the 3rd class gully directly from the summit to the west towards Ingalls creek. Descend this until you are below the major rock ribs -- probably 1500 feet. Aim is to be about 200-500 feet BELOW the col (targeting around 7000 feet to contour). This looked like it was the best path after experiencing the alternative. I think Peter Croft stayed close to the crest from what he recollects but he did say that that traverse was one of the slowest that he encountered.

sweet. I need to get mine done... I heard Black Diamond will just resling and not clean / lubricate

Nice! Bear is a lot of work... I can only imagine how much worse the "trail" is from when we did it back 10+ years ago!

Amazing photos! Thanks for the inspiration.

Trip: Inspiration Peak - West Ridge Date: 7/29/2015 Trip Report: Climbed Inspiration and McMillan both up their west ridges on Wednesday 7/29. Glaciers are in rough shape -- needed to approach Inspiration from far western (left side) of the glacier. Moat proved to be the crux getting into the gully with much loose and minimal protection. Upper three pitches are spectacular. Wanted to get on the east ridge but large bergschrund and several slots blocked the way. Access appears to be possible by a committing rappel from Mac/Inspiration col. Current view of Terror Glacier - we needed to access from far left edge of photo at 6500' straight across to west ridge. The Money Pitches Looking back at the west ridge gully and route. Crux was accessing the gully from snow finger across moat. Gear Notes: Glacier gear, small rack to 2" & some extra webbing. Approach Notes: Trail in great shape. We took 6 hours to high camp with several breaks.

Anyone been up to Inspiration lately? How does the glacier look? Headed for the East Ridge -- any update would be helpful.

No snow on the ridge and you won't need crampons or Axe to get to lower ridge from Goat Pass but you will have to go down the loose dirt moraine.

Depends what you mean by "in" -- it will go. Two chockstones on the route require some mixed climbing with marginal rock pro -- 5.6 or so. Some mid-waist wallowing interspersed with firm two dagger action. Lovers Lane is mostly drytooling. Summit pitch is dry rock to corniced ridge with two raps down the SE side.

I was up there on March 9th and climbed The Kone -- maybe one of the few winter ascents :-) . We had to stop the low clearance car due to snow about 4 miles from the trailhead up to 3 O'clock rock. (there was about 3 feet of snow on the road) The rock was bare and dry once we got to it... it has been a few weeks so I am sure that you could drive much further in now... maybe to the TH. From what we could see of the road it looked good. There were a couple of smallish trees across the road 3 miles in that could be taken care of with a Ax. All Culverts looked good.

Eric, check your PM(s)

I am leaving Seattle early Sunday -- probably ~5:00 AM and driving up to WA Pass to climb Liberty Bell. Plan is to meet up with the first ascentionist and climb the route. PM me if interested --

Thanks to Hamballs! Ice Axe Found!!

there was plenty of wire there last week with a full lot -- they built two newish bins and it had piles of it along with new fence posts. Thanks for snagging my Ice Axe when you are up there :-)

As I was rushing out of the Kain hut I left my Ice Axe. It is a Air Tech Grivel - Silver with a 4mm perlon red/yellow cord for a leash. It should be on the Ice Axe hooks outside the hut. $50 reward and my gratitude. - Robert

Anyone been lately? How is the snow up there? Same as in the cascades -- which seems about a month behind (i.e. seems like late May / Early June)? Headed up there in a couple of weeks. thanks

Climbed OS and some towers up there on Saturday. It was good to go -- no snow on the descent. Lots of ticks and goats to keep you company.

I have done the raps with a 30M rope with one intermediate anchor that had tat on it already. a 50 will get you to the standard anchors.

Older laid back dude (pushing 40 in search of occasional weekend alpine/crag partner(s)when I get out of dad duty. I have 15+ years of experience climbing in the cascades, sierras, coast mountains, rockies etc. I lead 5.9+ trad, low 5th class choss, 5.10+ sport. I am not looking at chasing numbers -- just enjoying some good climbs and company. Send me a message if interested.

I know it "has" been done - which is different than "it gets done". In any case - it is a cool climb that is very obvious and to be honest it did surprise me that we didn't find more signs of passage. Since I am no hardman (maybe the opposite) the reasons I can come up with are: 1) poor rock (it is good where you need it to be) 2) the circumnavigation challenge (a mtn bike left at the lodge solves this) 3) the rappels into the unknown (they are there now - might need a backup) Go get it - I want to see someone tick the traverse this summer. It is one leg of the elusive "Cascade Blue collar Triple Crown", the others being the Mt. Index complete Treverse, JBerg NE Butt and the Nooksack Traverse.

Maybe... If they did it prior to 2000 they must have levitated down from the nooksack tower summit. There was only one obvious way to rappel to the col and there was not a single sling nor pin encountered. We had to leave several along with 40 ft. of webbing. There were two spots on the ridge that required a free hanging rappel - again we had to cut one of our ropes to create more anchors. It might be a trade route but I have yet to hear of (or read) of anyone else doing it. But now that the rappels are set a strong party could probably do it in a day.

That was my TR. I did that a few years ago. I would say it is pretty classic and not that hard. Nothing harder than mid 5th class and the objective hazard is fairly low due to the traverse on the ridge tops. Be sure to check every hold. Take double 60M for the raps into the col. The position is awesome - I wish I would have climbed shuksan on the traverse - but was worried about being overdue (which we ended up being anyways) - so the complete traverse all the way to Shuksan Summit still awaits the hardy adventurer. Winter would be a great time to do it - it might make it faster.

Yep, as others have said you should have gone right. The idea is to regain the crest of the ridge. From the tree belay you drop down about 10 feet and head out right... If this sectio feels harder than 5.7/8 you are off route. Once on the crest there are gear opportunities so don't place a piece on the traverse if you can help it since it will result in rope drag.