philfort

I was in that valley on Saturday too... we took the trail in, but came out the west side of the valley, which I highly recommend. Waaayy quicker... don't need to mess around with all those stream crossings, and its open slopes all the way from the railroad grade (side-hilling, so may suck on snowshoes, but with a track in, you'll get out in no time with a long descending traverse on skis).

I'd say it was a hidden run before the guidebook. I bet it sees 50 times as many people now. (based on nothing but the fact that people are competing for fresh tracks down it these days, whereas I never saw any tracks in it in 3 times there prior to the guidebook).

I believe the summit register is on the knuckle in the middle, at the west end of the flat area. But Jason, I told you I have a picture of a lower peak rising above that middle knuckle, taken from the 2nd knuckle from the left. So therefore, 2nd knuckle from the left must be higher. **** edited to add, I think I have my knuckles mixed up. There is a sixth knuckle that isn't visible, between 1 and 2 from the left. And the summit register would be on knuckle 2 from the left, but the invisible knuckle would be higher. Aw shit, I don't know....

A copy of it passed through my hands a few years ago, and was a bit underwhelmed, after all the hoopla people gave it. There wasn't a whole lot of info in there - nothing like Selected Climbs or CAG. You'd do just as well with a topo map and a pair of eyes. Anyway, after all the excitement of getting my hands on it, I didn't think it was of much use, and I didn't even bother photocopying it. (not trying to put down Kloke's work here - but it didn't live up to the hype other people gave it).

If there was a defect with that one particular helmet, I'd see your point. But if this is a well-known and expected quality of the helmet, you sound like yet another customer trying to take advantage of their return policy. Take it up with Black Diamond's QA department or something. I have a go-lite pack. After only a year or two, it's slowly ripping apart due to the heavy use it has received. I'd feel like a total chode trying to return it to REI because of a decision I made to choose something lightweight and non-durable. edited to add: ok, so maybe you have a point. Looking at BD's site, the half-dome appears to be marketed as a durable full-strength helmet.

Getting a pair of hard boots, mated to the cheap light voile mtn-plate "binding", makes for a nice light setup that skins well. If you're used to soft boots though, then you might find it sucks (I dunno, I've only ever used hard boots). I have a friend with softboots, and his strap bindings are slow to get in and out of, and it's hard to get at the pin to change from ski to board mode, because of the bulkiness of the strap binding.

Haha... nice. I think you can see the easier line Dave and I took in the gully hidden in the background here: (but we didn't have nice ice at the start like you did, so we had to waste time thrashing up rotten rock and dirt on the side somewhere ).

I hear Chair's grove is nice

Wow, what a trip... We were in the area on Sunday, below the Dry Creek route when we saw the chopper fly in... it was kind of ominous as it hovered overhead (we tried to hide in some trees so it wouldn't mistakenly spot us). We ran into some sheriff-types at the ice caves area and were glad to hear no one was hurt at that time. I really hope things go well with your partner's toes.

Where can you park to access Tunnel Creek?

Holy scary crevasse pictures! Agree that the slope below the ice cliff doesn't look like glacier...

If he was drowning in powder, that would have to be some big surface hoar... maybe last weekend's crust has disintegrated with the cold temps? Hard to believe though, that was some thick crust.

The only thing to note, is that it negatively affects your steeze.

Complete ass, like breakable crust on top of deep sugar?

Sno-park conditions: http://www.parks.wa.gov/winter/parks/motorparks.asp?Region=1 Looks like as of the 13th, parking was at 1160ft on the Schrieber's road. Sounds like a long walk to me :-) I think you'll have better luck with Glacier Ck, that gets less snow than Schreibers. Sounds like parking there is at 2000ft, although it's hard to tell from their little blurb.

Don't do this at home

Nice! Those must have been your tracks we saw and voices we heard while skiing out from Stuart. The argonaut couloir looked discontinuous at the bottom... did you have to rap? How was the snow?

Picture of Ice Cliff and Sherpa (on the left): Bigger image

Climb: Stuart area ski adventure- Date of Climb: 2/12/2006 Trip Report: Snow-mo'd in to the Stuart Lake trailhead not too early Saturday morning (after a toboggan busting incident 100 yards from Bridge Creek). Skied up to a camp at 5400ft below Stuart. Somehow, Jason managed to lose his helmet on the way, even though it was loosely danlged over his foam pad on his pack. Made an afternoon run from the moraine below the Ice Cliff glacier and determined conditions to be ass. Josh didn't have his laser-ski-condition-o-meter with him, but we predicted conditions would be ass-like on any north-facing snow higher up too (this, after skiing through some promising shaded re-crystallized snow down low). Got up late Sunday morning, and went for a run on a 1200ft couloir on the opposite side of the valley. The sun was baking us here, and we got a nice run in softening snow, spiced up by a cliff in the middle. We returned to the frigid valley, packed up and skied out. Paul bloodied his arm running into a tree, and nearly fell off the Mountainer Creek bridge when the snow on it collapsed as he was crossing. Sunny and windless all weekend... nice up there, except less snow than expected up high. Gear Notes: Crampons (for placing cook stove on top of) pickets (for staking tent) ice tools (for staking tent) ice screw (staking tent?) rope (pillow, and for sitting on) harness (snowmobile tow)

Paul apologizes for the destruction of the snow ramp on top of the Mountaineer Creek bridge. As exuberantly elitist as he appears to be about skis, for some reason he decided to remove them to cross the bridge

The peak on the right looks like Glacier Peak

Not sure, I'm just going by what it says here, updated Feb 1st: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/conditions/road_conditions_report.shtml "Gate closed at Deer Creek, no access to Barlow Pass. Snow starts here but gets better half-mile up the road. "

fyi, the road is now gated before then, so expect a few extra miles of road hiking.

Same thing just west of the pass... I would have to agree it was too deep.