robertm

A good day trip is to do Del Campo, then traverse the castles and hit Gothic. The views are great. Is the summit register on the Castle you are refering to still a bandaid box from the 50s placed by Boy Scouts?

Although I never met Frank I too felt connected to him through this board. My thoughts go out to his family and close friends. Looking at the Teton guide it appears as if the East Ridge is 5.7 (6 pitches)on "stellar rock" with "great positions".

In my opinion the traverse pitch is the reason for doing this climb.

Dru, we saw CrazyJZ and AlpineK in the Col. We climbed Skywalk and they had just returned from Kashtrya. There was another Seattle party in the Col as well taking a whack at Skywalk. We also attempted the Angel Glacier route but soft snow and creaking seracs turned us back. 2 guides from Colorado were climbing Flavelle-Lane the day we were leaving.

This is what we used when we were there. I had some lightweight goretex salamons with aluminum crampons and they worked great. If you are decsening from Snowpatch, Howser or Pigeon be sure to use the new 25m raps to the left of the icefall. This way is faster than descending through snowpatch - bugaboo col.

I was just up there and climbed Wilmans peak. Depends what you want to climb. If you just want to climb Wilmans peak you should head up by E. Wilmans via the gully from Glacier basin. From there to Wilmans peak is 3rd class scrambling. It is difficult to access the 76 glacier from Wilmans peak or E. Wilmans Spire due to cliffs. We did engineer a rappel down to the 76 from a gully. If you want to Independence tower or Sawhorse or E. Wilmans Peak I would reccomend Wilmans gap from the Glacier Basin. You might want to hit Columbia peak if you go this way and then do the loop out through Silver Lake. I have heard the trail to 76 basin is not great and in any event it doesn't look easy to get from the basin up to the 76 glacier as there are steep slabs and cliffs -- which I am sure can be negotiated if you are into that sort of thing. One tour I reccomend is to climb N. Wilmans, S. Wilmans and E. Wilmans Spire. I set up some good rappels direcly from South Wilmans spire to the East Wilmans spire gap. These rappels make doing all the spires easy to do in a day and makes the trip more worthwhile. The route up the S spire might be cooler than East Wilmans actually as it involves a short section of knife edge ridge. In addition the S. Spire is the highest for the peak bagger in you.

Ditto on Boston... Catbird... that was me and Derwander on the wilmans spires. You were in front of us so we taked N and S. We then climbed the East and then over to Wilmans peak and on to Columbia.

All the rock is free of snow. Silver Lake is still iced over as are twinlakes but not for long. Snow covered trail above poodledog pass. Traverse was cool. Wanted to tag MonteCristo through Wilmans gap but ran out of gumption and due to time lost in reaching 76 it was deemed out of scope. Saw Sawhorse tower and thought of ChucK... Cool area... with so little sweat to get to it is surprising it doesn't see more visitors... especially the wilmans peaks via glacier basin. Rock quality isn't too bad.

Hello... anybody traversed from Wilmans Peak over to Columbia? We had an interesting experience this weekend attempting this. We started off climbing N. Wilmans, S.Wilmans and E. Wilmans Spires and then headed up to Wilmans peak. Getting onto the 76' glacier via Broadway ledge didn't look like it would go due to crumbly vertical red rock that comprised the "ledge"... I am curious if others have run into this impasse? Anyways we descended a nasty gully until we were tired of that and then pioneered a couple of overhanging rappels down to a ledge system that enabled us to get onto the glacier. From there it was was straightforward to head up Columbia (std route)-- Last register entry was Joshk on 4/10/04 -- and then descend out Poodledog pass. Snow on trail 4000' and higher. New twinlakes/silver lake trail is pretty cush but roundabout.

I thought it was hard for 5.6 for what it is worth... but perhaps is is just that it has not been devalued by 'grade hyperinflation' .

no snow on the rock... go have fun.

Thats awesome! I too stashed a bike at the ski area... very much recommended. Nooksack rules!

I have had really good luck with salomon boots. Their light Goretex hiking boot is priced well and holds up well to abuse. I used these for 5+ days on glaciers and my feet stayed dry. In addition the rubber is pretty good for rock climbing and they withstand abuse from universal crampons without stitching coming apart etc. This model was a couple of years old so with the new model (Expert Mid GTX LTR) YMMV.

Wayne, did you climb the N. Ridge in 99 or 2000? I might have seen you up there -- we were bivied where you guys droped off your tennis shoes to head across the glacier (bivied at the base of the N. Ridge)?? (July I think ?) The rock quality on the Beckey route is reasonable except for a spot at mid height. As far as the traverse goes the rock gets really poor about 1/2 way and doesn't really improve too much after that. The rappels off of the tower are fairly reasonable actually. 3 double rope rappels (1st. bomber off of a large block.. 2nd Ok off of Pin and Nut equalized, 3rd is off of a good horn) The col is a good bivy in the wind scoop. The first bit of climbing is pretty good out of the col on solid rock. (when the climbing gets hard > 5.7 then you should stay East - right of the ridge crest. Really enjoyable ridge traverse until mid point and then the rock gets worse. Not too much pro worth much but the climbing is easy. There is a final gendarme that will need to be rappelled from the ridge prior to accessing the Crystal? glacier. This rappel is scary as it is from a teetering block... you might be able to bypass this tower on the left (west) of the ridge crest. Once on the glacier you are home free. Go get it! Good job Colin and Ade! Great climbing.

I would be happy to contribute. Our experience on the route might be different than some parties due to the fact that we did the climb in April (snow cover). The mountaineers description for access to the Great Basin is so misleading that it would be better if you had no description at all. From lunch ledge (~5300) ascend right and up eastward several hundered yards. You should be no higher than 5800 feet to find the gap to head into the great basin (it is farther than you think). That being said I think the traverse from the S to N isn't all that bad (summer might be a different story). Also, SE ridge of S. brother is a pretty cool option rather than the standard S. Coulier. (my .02)

Pics:

Climb: Brothers Traverse-SE Ridge to S. Brother to N. Brother via traverse Date of Climb: 4/11/2004 Trip Report: Der Wanderer and I headed over to the Brothers to climb the Brothers. I have looked at them long enough so I decided it was a good weekend to give them a go. We approached on Saturday to Lunch Ledge and bivied. From there we climbed the S. Brother SE ridge climbing a series of gullies and a 1/2 pitch of super solid 5th class rock to put us on the S brother summit ridge. The traverse from the S. Brother to the N. Brother had steep exposed soft snow that improved on the west aspects. Rock pro came in real handy to set reliable simul anchors. It took us about 3 hours between the peaks. Note: Finding the lower approach over to the "Great Basin" to do the traverse N. to S. is really involved. This is how we ended up climbing the SE ridge. The rock over there is really pretty damn good. This is a real classic as far as I am concerned... challenging, great views and rewarding summits. Gear Notes: set of med to large chocks (used frequently) 8.5 mil rope long slings pickets - snow too soft to use Approach Notes: No snow until 3000 feet. Soft snow above.

That Sucks. MVS and I briefly parked at that lot the same day and noticed all the vehicles with their windows broken out. We decided we would park and walk in from the main lot. We talked to a guy that was coming back and was only gone for a 1/2 hour and he had already been hit. Nothing was stolen from his rig either.

slightly offtopic .. is there anyplace local (seattle) that fixes the old style two stem camelots ? I need a new trigger and cables and no place local sells the old style anymore.

you are right it is slicker than snot... and what you don't see it the cliff right below in the picture! Luckily it is mercifully short. Vertical Brush has so much to offer... this section reminded my a little bit of Jberg. Steepen it up a bit and add 2000ft of it

I could post a TR of the East Face since I was the one to start the E.Face rumour... verification would be welcomed. We started up the East face based on the description in Selected Climbs Vol. II. We found shattered loose rock for two pitches until we were able to traverse left (with 1 rappel) into the steep gully between the main peak and its satellite to the South. I wish I would have taken pictures but since I had very little film (before my digi camera) and it didn't dawn on me that perhaps there had been a rockfall... I didn't. I can tell you that the climb was scary and loose -- that didn't fit the description that was in the book. Once we were able to climb onto the SE Face and the ridge the climbing was great. Here are some pics of the trip. Rounding the southern satellite of Gunsight (Backside of the group) Climbing on the exposed Ridge crest (upper part of the E. Face as described in Selected Climbs) Nearing the summit of the main peak (final pitch) If I was to go back there again I would do some FA(s) on the Southern peaks and hit the Nelson route. I didn't bring wide gear so I was not keen on the OW. The backside of

they plow to 29 pines... still about 10 miles from the TH unless you can bribe the 'bilers with brew or smokes.

Thanks... those are great suggestions.... all except the last one