philfort

hmmm - reminds me of something I was thinking about a while ago - getting payed for providing recent beta! Kind of like some people have posted here wanting to pay someone to hump their gear up to Camp Muir. Some rich guy could pay someone to go check out , say, how consolidated the snow is leading up to Liberty Bell Beckey route, will they need snowshoes tomorrow, and how much snow is left on the route? Checking the condition of hte Lib Ridge bergschrund would obviously be more expensive, though for a lower rate, you could just hike up to lower Curtis Ridge and take some telephoto shots of the bergscrhund to give to your 'employer'. Probably not a huge market for this though :-)

Again, depends on the airline. I've travelled with stoves on planes before without a problem, but the reason dbb asked, is because Continental, which is a really really *lame* airline, explicitly forbids any kind of camping stove or bottle, even if it's been purged of fuel, even if it's brand new. Says so on their website, and that's what they told me in person. But can you get away with it? What happens if you get caught? It's definitely *not* a violation of FAA regulations (since other airlines do allow purged stoves/bottles), so probably just lose your stove, no fine... Has anyone flown on Continental, or any of the other stupid airlines that prohibit stoves, and what did you do?

Looks like everyone got picked off by the chopper in the nice weather this evening. Perhaps one of them will post the whole story on this site??

Speaking of the bombpack - did they change the size of that or something? I'm currently looking to buy a pack in the 60L range for multiday trips, and I've noticed that 50L packs are a LOT bigger than my bombpack, which is specced at 52L. And I've got a large. I bought it about 6 or 7 years ago - did they change the size??? It's freaking me out. Anyway, any suggestions for a lightweight alpine pack for multiday trips (say 2-4 days)? I'm headed to the St Elias range in a few weeks, and I definitely need something bigger than the Bombpack for multiday "sojourns" out of basecamp. My other pack, a Terraplane, is certainly big enough, but it weighs more than 7 pounds by itself. I've been looking at stuff like the Wild Things Andinista, and the Arcteryx Khamsin 62. Is the Nozone big enough for something like this? Who sells Nozone's in Seattle? phil

Hard to imagine how an avalanche could "wipe out" part of the route - I'm not really sure what that means. What I assumed that to mean is they saw/experienced an avalanche, realized the snow was extremely unstable, and thus couldn't continue safely. Of course, this is all speculation, so I'd better stop! As for "return route" - perhaps they had started to bail?

...yikes - just the thought of being up on Liberty Ridge in yesterday's weather is pretty scary. Luckily the weather is good today - hopefully they'll get them out unscathed... How was Ptarmigan Ridge? TR?

!!MY GUESS IS THEY HEADED IN FROM MOWICH LAKE OR IPSUT CREEK, CONSIDERING THEY APPROACHED THE RIDGE FROM THE WEST !?!!

mmm... booty. Last time I did the Tooth there were two brand new cams stuck in cracks along the way. We decided to try to get them out on the descent, but a thunderstorm made us concentrate on descending instead of the booty :-)

Hmm.... we did it last year on a semi-weekday schedule. Thursday-Friday-Saturday. It was crowded - 14 other people (in 6 parties) on route (8 of us converged at the crux of the route, just below Liberty Cap - much pelting of ice ensued). We got the last available "reservations" for Thumb Rock when we arrived at White River Thursday morning. So going mid-week may not be a guarantee of uncrowdedness. Most people seemed to be from out-of-state anyway, on extended vacations.

No one has mentioned that the White River Road is still closed. Scheduled to open only next Monday, according to http://www.nps.gov/mora/current/current.htm#roadopen If this is true, that adds a lot of miles.

Agreed - the standing glissade is the way to go. I always get my butt and feet soaked when doing regular glissades (my gaitors suck). Unfortunately the standing glissade is a little more conditions dependant.

Hmm - I've got a friend coming to climb Rainier in early August, and we were thinking of doing Ptarmigan Ridge - I wonder if that's going to be a little late this year. I guess I'm mainly worried about rockfall on the snow slope leading from the glacier up to the technical pitches. Does that snow slope ever melt out? I get the feeling from stuff I've read that Ptarmigan Ridge has one of the longest seasons of the more technical routes - but maybe that's just because there isn't any nasty glacier to navigate through on the approach. Phil

<sigh> here we go again...

Wow, hardman slaphappy! Guess you found it in the right conditions - but yipes, that's some hardcore glissading! Anyone else have tales of "extreme glissading"? (intentional or otherwise :-) I wonder if the C-J couloir has ever been skied....

Here's what the Carbon looked like 9 days ago: And a blow up:

Oh, I was thinking of Mt Terror I think... oops

Oh what glorious fun 'tis, gregm! I recall our roped glissade down the Interglacier, in side-by-side attack formation, and the looks on the faces of the ascending climbers about to be "tripped up" by us, as we headed towards them at high speed....

This is the route Jim Nelson describes in Selected Climbs II as "Exposed class 3", correct? Typo? The actual text description made it sound a little tougher than that.

And how far apart are the bolts?

Very cool... good job! Pictures?

A very helpful link on my Links pages is the "Planning a trip? Find out which places to avoid" link: http://praxis.etla.net/~philfort/Links.html They have a great search engine.

The scariest part is the suspension bridge across the Carbon. However, there were still a few talus fields that the trail crossed that still had snow (but not much) on them, so if the snow is hard, it could be exposed, and your wiff might be scared. I did not go past where the Carbon "bends" (~5600ft).

quote: Originally posted by Backcountry: What was the hike like up to Moraine...are the av chutes "fun" around Dick Cr.??? um, it was pretty snow free until around Dick Cr. Don't recall any avie chutes. At least, none that had snow in them. Things are looking bare up there.

I hiked up to the Moraine Park area from Ipsut Creek on Sunday. I could tell that the "access ramp" that leads through the Carbon icefalls to the base of the ridge wasn't nearly as smooth as mid-June of last year (when we climbed Lib Ridge). It appeared to have several cracks going all the way across it.

Training: for what it's worth, before climbing Rainier last summer, I would try to run up a local peak twice a week during the evening (in addition to regular weekend stuff). That seemed to keep me in good shape, and I didn't have any problems on the climb. Started a month or two before the climb. Didn't bother with any extra weight on the back, that just kills your knees. Mailbox peak is a good one for that (4000ft vertical, and continuously steep trail).