robertm

Just climbed it this weekend. Snow was in good shape. Brought along pickets and rope but didn't use. Took 2 tools which allowed us to solo route as we felt very secure. Stay high on traverse from col -- probably around 7700 ft. Might be best and less time consuming to descend the standard trail route back to camp (sw shoulder) as the descent gully(s) are pretty shitty (some down climbing encountered is steeper than the route) and loaded with loose rock. I had a close call as a 4ft diameter chockstone gave way as I was descending almost taking me out. I managed to leap out of the way at the last minute after getting tagged in the leg. I came out OK but my crampon was sheared as the rock must have rolled over it. Get on the route before it gets softened by the sun -- an alpine start is essential. I thought it was a great route with cool views and a nice overall package. Mellow climbing in a beautiful setting. We did Seven Fingered Jack in the same day and wanted to hit Fernow but it is a long ways over there. Camped at the SFJ high pass that you take to desend into the basin below Fernow. Awesome bivys but many which stole my lighter and lexan cup. Woke to rain so we didn't hit Fernow as planned. Hats off to those that did Fernow - SFJ and Maude in a day. Don't think I could get that motivated.

Thanks All! Sounds like it is in good shape. Will let everyone know how it goes. Planning on climbing it this weekend.

Anybody been up Ptarmigan ridge in the past couple of weeks? How are the overall conditions ? Also how is the Emmons doing for a snowboard descent -- is it pretty broken up now? Thanks for the info

How about the Brayshaw HorseCock sit start --

The route is mellow. You won't need rock pro or a rope. Take a walking axe, helmet and crampons and you are set. You weave around some rock formations but you don't actually climb the rock. It is kind of like a mellow lib ridge.

it was a couple of weeks ago but NW corners still had snow in the corners with a ton of wetness generally

Has anyone done the 5.7 route in the Beckey guide up Sloan (SW face?) that mentions excellent rock? I have always thought that would be a cool way to get up Sloan (which I still haven't had a chance to do yet).

I was refering to the west ridge gully. I have done the East ledges descent too and it isn't too bad but I think the west ridge descent is safer as long as there isn't a mob scene on the west ridge.

Indeed, it appeared as if the route had seen significant "cleaning" by prying exfoliating flakes off. There was one pitch where many of the holds were incuts from missing rock.

This time of year shouldn't be too bad with fairly deep snow still. I have gone up there several times early (May, June) and the gully was a mellow plunge step after the single rappel. I don't think I even used my Axe.

Climbed "Ride the Lightning" a couple of weeks ago -- overall a good route. The dihedral pitch is great (no bolted cracks) and the next pitch after that one is cool too. One point to add is that the rappel is located about 100 feet west and down from the top of RTL and not 300 feet. There is some orange flagging still about where the rappel anchors are but there are no cairns as it states in the description and you cannot see it from the pine tree (everything looks like a cairn up there). I am suprised the entire top of goosegg mountain hasn't slid off -- super loose stuff. Next would like to try Shock and Awe. It looks like there are several new routes up there all recently manufactured with a crowbar.

The NW Corner route (N. Early Winter) is not in as the crack is full of snow. The west face still had snow on the slabs above the 10A crack. SE Winter coulior was in as is the S. Arete although the 5.4 gully pitch was full of ice which made it a bit harder to bypass (5.7?). The slab pitch with the bolt was snowed over so you could walk across it. Beckey route as mentioned was in with the additional challenge of stemming around ice and snow patches on the route. Concord Tower - The standard route on Concord is still a mixed affair (5.7 M420).

I especially like the overhanging 5.7s

We wanted to scope out NY Gully and the weather and visability was poor so we decided it would be fun to head up the infamous Enigma Gully (get some conditioning and learn the approach). It was hard to find the entrance into the basin below Snoqualmie peak due to visiblity. We ended up heading too far up the valley (I think .5 miles is too far) and hit the ridge too far West. We traversed the ridge and weaved around some gendarmes that proved the most exciting part of the day. The clouds lifted for a moment and revealed the basin and the lower part of the North side of the mountain. We dropped down into the basin on 25 degree stable slopes with breakable crust. At this point crampons were balling up. We headed over towards NY gully and it didn't look in to us. The rock was wet and there wasn't much ice that we could see. The lower part of slot couloir had unpleasant breakable crust but about 100m up it turned into harder snow you could stay on top of. There were a couple of big rocks exposed in the middle of the gully due to overall lack of snow this year. It was a really cool easy climb and the horrible visibility and hard snow fall added to the fun. What is neat about the coulior is that you can barely see it at all as it is completely hidden with only an avy cone to betray its location. At the top of the coulior was 3 inches of new snow over ice for the last 50m. The descent down the SW slopes sucked because the crust wasn't strong enough to support your body weight so you would sink in and then somtimes be thrown forward because your foot wouldn't come out. At about 4000 feet the snow turned to rain and we trudged back to the car. Another party had headed for the N. Face of Chair and reported no or little ice on the face. They opted for standard climb up the descent gully which they said was in good shape.

- Bear Creek Spire - CA - Early Morning Spire - Pickets (Inspiration, Terror) Cavey -- Sun Ribbon is great. Wish I would have taken my camera on that. Long as hell for a grade IV. Thought the total climbing was about the same as Slesse. Take crampons or axe for approach gully. Ran out of daylight in June and bivied on descent.

I don't think they can be TR'd since there is no safe way to get on top and around. I haven't climbed these bolted routes but have climbed the flows near them.

9 miles from the road closure to the summer trail head. If you bring a half rack of bud light you could probably get a ride in... and possibly out. The road was groomed to Beverly and then packed down all the way to the TH

Oh, there were two other flows (one further to the left -- looked easier) and one to the left that looked harder. I will post those pics when I get a chance. I think the freeze thaw action and the inversion is making from some fat ice at the right elevations.

It is about .25 mi before the parking lot on the right side of the road. I was up boarding and didn't have climbing gear with me. There is a well groomed snomobile trail up to the parking lot that would make for easy skinning. I would estimate it is 9 miles from where the road is closed.

I too thought the first couple of pitches were the best up the gully -- thought provoking but with reasonable protection. I have climbed it a couple of times now and think it might be more exciting to head right rather than left as the buttress steepens. There is a ramp that leads out onto the N face where there usually is a 20m 80 degree ice cliff that forms between the N. Face route and the butress. After climbing that you head right and finish up at the top of the N face.

I have it on good authority via private PM that this has been climbed. It looks fun and if it gets colder it should be pretty fat. Jason/Alex... is this in your impending guide?

Saw this ice flow when up in Esmerelda Basin this weekend. Looks fun... the flow from various vantages appeart to go to the top of the formation. Has anyone climbed it? The access seems reasonable.

Just noticed the date is wrong on the Stuart picture.. that was this Saturday 1/18/03! The camera is a Sony dscp5... I reduced the pics to 80k to upload... they look a lot better at 800k.

Helped a friend out around his cabin so he took me up to Ingalls on his snow machine. Got some good runs in on Saturday before the sun turned the snow to mush and the high markers showed up with the bud light keg (god damn we aint never seen snowboarders over here before). It was very warm on the east side above 5000 ft (50 degrees with the inversion). Not was much snow as I was expecting. There was a thin crust with powder underneath but stable conditons on South, East and West Aspects. Ingalls Peaks Rainier above Esmarelda Peaks Above Longs Pass Stuart on 1/28/02

Not when we were on it. No water at all... lots of ice smears and great styrofoam snow. The last ridge pitches are actually really cool solid class three rock with lots of exposure. Good views... could see downtown seattle and puget sound and lots of clearcuts. I would make sure that before you do it the avy danger is low and the temps are freezing at 3000 feet. We didn't see anyother people... must have all been in the alpental basin.