JasonG

Anyboby want to get out skiing (I'm actually on a split) around Table or Herman this weekend?? The roads might suck, but the conditons should be nice. I'm in Mount Vernon . . . Shoot me a PM if you are interested. Thanks!! Jason

Oops . . . That should be INGRAHAM glacier. Gotta keep things spelled right since Mike is checking in. And to answer your question Mike, I was a little bit confused by the new sleeping arrangements at the shelter. It seems like the bunk space has been reduced (now you sleep parallel to the long wall) and a new door added on the south side (unusable in winter). Is this to make it less crowded/more like the original design?? We didn't have any company in the shelter so it worked out perfect for us. Winter climbing on Rainier would be much tougher without the shelter! One last note . . . We roped up at the start of Gib chute and stayed roped up to the crater and back down to Cadaver Gap. We unroped for a short bit down to the Cowlitz, then roped back up for the walk to Muir. We punched legs through several weak bridges during the day and were real nervous we were on heavily crevassed terrain (snowpack is still pretty meager). Oh, and if you're climbing Rainier in the winter, I found out that a face mask of some sort is pretty key. That wind is cold!

Climb: Mt. Rainier-Gib Ledges Date of Climb: 12/28/2004 Trip Report: Well, as they often say the "third time's a charm". At least it was for me on my several year quest to climb Mt. Rainier in the wintertime. Even with good forecasts in seasons past, all of my previous attempts had been thwarted by high winds, avalance danger, etc. So, with some time off of work and a great forecast I once again madly tried to convince every climber I knew to join me for a Mon/Tues attempt on the Gib ledges route. Sunday came with no bites, so I enlisted the help of the cc.com to find me a partner, and was not dissapointed. After some last minute phone calls, the plan was set- I would meet OlegV and Justin RR at Paradise at 11am Monday. I had met nor climbed with either, so it truly was a pretty cool feature of the website to be able to plan a climb on such short notice. Plus this would be both Oleg and Justin's first time trying to climb the mountain. Monday morning found us in the Paradise lot, as planned, sorting gear and eyeballing the lenticular sitting over the summit. It was windy, and I was dreading another failed attempt, but I kept my doubts at bay and continued packing. Leaving the cars around noon, we followed the well beaten path to Muir, arriving at about 4pm to cold temps and moderate winds. Melting snow and cooking dinner occupied our exciting evening- we were in bed around 7pm. Up at 3am and away around 4, we were soon breaking trail up the Cowlitz to the start of the ledges. A bit of windslab made us nervous, but not so much so that we thought sticking to the tedious ridge around the beehive would have been better. Crossing the ledges was exposed, exciting, and generally great and secure climbing- as others have said, it is a really fun route. We traveled unroped for speed (there isn't much pro anyways), but didn't see or hear any rockfall (we crossed before the sunrise). I've heard that Gib chute can get really wind-loaded, but yesterday it was firm and icy-perfect cramponing. It was at this point that we were treated to a beautiful but cold winter sunrise-full of color, but not much warmth. Thankfully the winds were rather mild, only 10-20mph. Above Gib Rock, the upper mountain was scoured and icy and generally in perfect climbing shape. Justin started to slow from the altitude and elevation gain and opted to unrope and wait at about 13,500', which was unfortunate, but at least he got to experience all of the actual climbing. Oleg and I hurried upwards, arriving at the crater rim around 10:30am. It was cold (I don't know what the temp was, maybe single digits??) but not too windy (maybe 10-15mph). Due to the shortness of daylight, our partner waiting below, and our general feeling of this is good enough, we opted out of the traverse over to the highest point. We just grabbed a bite to eat, shot a couple of pictures, and marveled at the view. So even though the purists out there will say we didn't climb Mount Rainier, it was good enough for me. Leaving the crater at 11am and reversing our way back to Justin and Gib Rock, we decided to head down the Ingrahm and through Cadaver Gap rather than descend the ledges. Under good snow conditions, I think this would be almost as fast and probably safer, but for us it was a wallowfest. Mostly knee and thigh deep plunging, although at least it was downhill. The icefalll proved a little tricky to negotiate (we headed down the right side), and we had one instance where we did a short rappel off an overhanging lip of a crevasse (an ice horn served as a handy anchor). Cadaver Gap was reached shortly thereafter, and the descent down to the Cowlitz was easy and uneventful (no windloading and perfect plunge stepping). A final slog brought us to Camp Muir about 2:30 pm, where we drank, ate, and packed madly (gotta beat that early winter sunset). Away at 3:30, we were treated to an amazing sunset (bad weather looked to be approaching) on the hike back to Paradise. We arrived at the cars a little after 5pm, just barely avoiding the need for headlamps. All in all a fine adventure with a couple of guys whom I'd never even met the day before. I would definetly reccommend this climb for anyone who is looking for a little wintertime adventure on Rainier. It is fun, direct, and has quite a bit more interest than the more standard slogs. Jason Griffith Gear Notes: Ice axe, steel crampons (alum. would've worked fine), helmet, 8mm 30m rope. Brought a second tool, didn't use. Approach Notes: Boot track well established to Muir. Some wallowing to be expected on the Cowlitz and coming down the Ingrahm.

So my trip last week didn't pan out. I'm looking to try things again this week and the weather is looking fine without much wind. PM me if you are interested! Jason Griffith

The long range weather forecast is looking mighty fine!

I have some time off next week, and it looks like high pressure may be in order. If anyone is interested, please shoot me a pm. Thanks

So . . .. I have had a Voile for about 4 years of so and really like it. But so far, I have mainly stuck to wintertime BC turns (using normal softboot snowboard bindings). Towards the end of last season I got a pair of plate bindings for it and started using my plastic mountaineering boots for some climb/ski combos. I found out that they pretty much suck for snowboarding, and it is hard on the boots. I also found out the the skins that come with the setup (not full length) don't normally stick real well when they get totally soaked in spring snow. So that leads me to two questions for those wise old BC types that might be perusing the site . . . 1. What is a good lightweight AT boot (I'm willing to pay for a good one with a thermo liner) that people would think would work for snowboarding? I'm thinking something that is fairly flexible by ski boot standards . . . 2. Fat skins that would work on twin tip boards. The waist width of the ski is around 150mm . . .. Or should I just re-glue my existing skins and hope for the best (they work fine under cold winter conditions) Thanks for any and all advice!!!

A friend and I went in last October before the floods and it did indeed suck. Much of the time is spent in a brush tunnel, but you won't find any crowds (we didn't see anyone the entire trip). After leaving the Chilliwack trail we couldn't find much of a climber's trail to Ruta lake, on the way in or out. Beautiful area though . . .

Wayne- No snow from the flapjack side?? Thanks for any info, thinking of taking the wife up there in the next few weeks. Good trip??

Just wondering if you need an axe or crampons this time of year. Thinking of heading up for the nesakwatch enchainment and would rather not carry the extra stuff. Thanks for any info!

Fern- Is that why this thread is in the BC forum? Dru- Thanks for the info. With all the rain last fall I was wondering about washouts and such (having never driven the road myself), but I guess the road is just fine.

With all of the flooding last October, is the road still in 2WD shape?? Thanks!!

Climb: Dakobed Traverse- Date of Climb: 7/14/2004 Trip Report: We originally planned on heading to the Colonial/Snowfield group, but somehow changed plans at the last minute to something a little bit more obscure. Maybe we wanted more bushwacking, road walking, heat, bugs than Colonial would have offered, or maybe we were just looking for more of a remote adventure, either way we got it. The trip started with my wife, myself and two friends from Mount Vernon meeting a friend Steve at the Lake Wenatchee RS. It was here that we discovered that our plan B would involve an extra 3 miles of road walking due to the White River Rd being washed out at the Tall Timbers Ranch (note from wife- call RS beforehand!!). That made our first day around 14 miles and 4000+ feet of gain in 90 degree heat to gain Boulder Pass. I had to make it much more fun for myself by forgetting my camera in the trailhead (discovered when I reached the normal TH), adding 6 more miles of fun in the day for me! So I spent the rest of the day trying to catch the group, alternately passing out from the heat and being woken by bugs draining my precious bodily fluids. I finally got to Boulder Pass around 6:30 pm dehydrated and finding the rest of the group in similar condtion. I could tell I had close to a mutiny on my hands. It'll all be better tomorrow I promised. . . And it was, for the most part. We got going by 6:30am and were roping up for the Walrus Glacier by 8am. At this point Steve wasn't feeling well and decided to bail on the rest of the trip. This started to tip the scales against any of us going any farther, but I managed to convince people that it would get better/cooler/less bugs/more downhill/etc. and we carried on to the summit of Clark without Steve. Quite a nice view! We orginally had plans to summit other peaks down the line that day (Luahna and Challangin) and then camp at col 7750. Screw that! We had enough just traversing over to the col, nothing scary or hard, but a long distance to cover sidehilling (you cross the Walrus, Richardson, Pilz, and Butterfly Glaciers) after our sufferfest the day before. The good news was the camps at the col are downright amazing. Great, flat tent sites with 360 degree views and running water nearby. That evening we gorged and rested from the two long days behind us and looked forward to a more mellow day (at least that's what I told them, but I wasn't too sure. I was a little bit worried about the descent to Thunder Basin- it looked steep!). I went scouting after dinner and thought I scoped an OK line down into Thunder Basin and realized that we would probably have to skip Tenpeak in favor of Neyah point. We needed something easy with a good view and Neyah was much more in line with our energy level (only 400' above camp and less than a mile away). We'd have to lose a bunch of elevation and traverse a ways to get over to Tenpeak, tough to sell to the rest of the crew (including myself at this point). I wasn't too disappointed though, and headed to bed looking forward to a fun, easy summit. The next day dawned clear and didn't disappoint. We were on top of Neyah point within an hour of leaving camp (including time to summit a gendarme we thought was Neyah point- D'OH). Much time was spent napping, snapping photographs of the east side of Glacier Peak (very cool), and remarking how glad we were to be there instead of traversing below to get to Tenpeak. After 2-3 hours we headed back to camp and packed up, uneager to begin the descent into the unkown. Too soon we were ready to leave and began descending easy snow to reach a "poorly defined rib" described by Beckey. Things got very steep from this point, but every time we thought we needed to get out the rope, we would find a goat path skirting the cliff bands. It's exposure demanded constant attention, but the worst was over after about a 1000' of drop. Another 1200' of dropping around cliff bands found us in one of the most beautiful basins I have camped in. No evidence of camp sites, bear and deer tracks everywhere, flat meadows for acres and acres, and a large creek to swim in. There was even tons of avalanche supplied wood for a roaring fire (on the sand bar, so we didn't leave a lasting mark). Truly an idyllic spot, and the bugs weren't even bad! We slept in, and reluctantly packed up to leave around 9am the next day (day 4). We had 10+ miles to cover (~3 miles without a maintained trail) and were a little worried about how the schwack might go. We weren't disappointed, as we surely found the "dense brush" described by Beckey at the immediate exit from Thunder Basin. It went by pretty quickly and we were able to follow a trail cleared by some hunters mostly the rest of the way back to the White River trail. This was a godsend, as some dense slide alder sections would have downright sucked without the tunnel cleared by the hunters. It hasn't been maintained in proably over a decade so it won't be long before it is gone completely. The 7 mile hike out the White River trail was uneventful except for the ford of Thunder Creek (brige out and the creek high). We even managed to get a trail crew worker to give us a ride down the three miles of road to Tall Timbers (you can go around the washout through the camp but it is private property and they won't let the general public through). A quick dip in the river and dinner the Index Cafe finished off a fine adventure! Overall we were surprised at the lack of evidence of human passage after we left Boulder Pass. I don't think this area sees many visitors and is very beautiful for those looking for some solitude. Gear Notes: 37m rope, light axe Approach Notes: everything including some stream fording

Climb: Bonanza-Mary Green Glacier Date of Climb: 7/4/2004 Trip Report: With a three day weekend and a pretty decent forecast for the east side, we (my wife and two friends) headed over to Field's Point and caught the Lady of the Lake Saturday morning. It was total chaos at the landing, with the boat running late from the sheer volume of humanity trying to cram aboard. There were literally no seats left once everyone was on, and they even had to break out a bunch of folding chairs to calm the teeming masses. We left a good 45 minutes late and arrived in Lucerne in due time ($26 RT). We(I) had neglected to reserve a seat on the bus to Holden, but mangaed to cram on the floor in the back of one of the buses for the painfully slow crawl up the hill to Holden ($10 RT). I had never been to Holden before and I thought it had quite the cool feel with the mining relics and all. It'd be great to base out of in the winter I bet- Anybody done that?? Anyways, the hike to Holden Lake went by quickly (~2 hours) and soon we found the climbers path on the east side and were at the great camp sites at Holden Pass (3.5 hours total). This early in the season there are dry spots to camp with small meltwater streams providing water just feet from the tents! Given Beckey's intimidating description of Bonanza, we got a 5am start the next day and expected a full day of battle. Imagine our surprise when we arrived on the summit at 8:30 am! The glacier was not badly broken, the rock not nearly as loose as I had expected, and the route finding straightforward. If we felt pretty good on our performance, all we had to do was open up the summit register and find out how slow we really were. Sean (Courage??), Andreas (Schmidt??) and Greg(??) listed a time of 4:10 from Holden village!!! Now that is fast! Regardless of times and such, we had a good time on the summit and lounged for about 3 hours, napping and photographing the amazing vistas surrounding us. Finally the time came to say goodbye and we started down, passing a group of Mountaineers on their way up (part of the reason we waited, so as not to knock rocks on them). I think it took us less than 3 hours to descend and we were kicking back barefoot in the meadows of camp by 3pm. A short hike out on Monday, followed by a swim in Lake Chelan after arriving at Field's Point, and dinner at Gustav's made for the perfect 4th of July weekend! All in all I'd highly recommend this outing for those looking for a mellow long weekend in the high Cascades. Gear Notes: 37m, 8.5mm rope Picket- just in case axe alum. crampons-nice for the early morning small rack- didn't use Approach Notes: trail in great shape as is the glacier.

My wife and I are planning a trip for this Oct/Nov and are curious what would be considered a good deal on airfare, and/or where people have had luck finding such deals. We plan on spending time in Thailand on the way back so we will probably buy two tickets, one RT to Bangkok and another RT from Bangkok to Kathmandu. Currently I'm finding fares around $800 to Bangkok and $600 fares RT between Bangkok and KTM. Thanks for any info/help!!!!

FWIW I have worn out a pair of the Trango S's in under one year of weekend warrioring. In my opinion the boots are about as durable as a pair of running shoes. I've worn the soles flat and blown out the Aramid (sp??) sides . .. I'm not happy that La Sportiva will not warranty them saying "I've used them for too much". I work full time, (not in the mountains as a guide or anything, and I didn't use these boots for work) and don't think a mountaineering boot (even a lightweight one) should wear so quickly! Anyone had good experiences with the Kayland Multi-Traction??

Anybody been up there recently?? Curious if the snow is continuous all the way down and across the creek . . . Thanks!!

Climb: Wedge Mountain-NE Arete Date of Climb: 4/25/2004 Trip Report: Given the perfect forecast, and my fearing the re-instatement of the draft, my wife and I fled to Canada this past weekend to give Wedge a try. We left Mount Vernon about 7am on Saturday and pointed the Civc towards the Great White North. Luckily, we passed across the border without losing our secret stash of dried meat and fruit and sped north towards Whistler. A near diaster was averted in Squamish when we were caught in a mad rush for donuts at Tim Horton's. People were practically running over each other to get into the parking lot. It was truly a crazy, chaotic scene. All we wanted to do was use the bathroom .. . next time I'll just pull off the side of the road. Anyways .. .The road to the TH was hit hard by the October floods and we could only coax the Civic about a km up the road. We left the cars around 11:30 am and began the toil upwards, upwards, upwards. We soon found out that we were out of shape and the trail was steep. All in all it took us a little less than 5 hours to get to the hut . . . we were going slow for sure! The hut was a welcome site and we were greeted by a solo euro named Anton. He promptly packed up his stuff and left the hut to us! There are benefits to being really, really, stinky, I guess. He left to go bivy on the glacier and mentioned he probably wasn't going to climb the next day. Bummer, we would have to break trail all by our lonesomes. The evening was a little on the cloudy side, but the next day dawned clear and calm. We left the hut around 5 am and began the slog upwards. With snowshoes we didn't sink much down low, but gradually the snow got deeper till we were sinking ankle deep or so. Where the glacier steepened, we took off the shoes and started postholing upwards to the low col where we were to gain the NE arete (the full arete looked snowy and time consuming so we opted for just the final steep bit). This took awhile as it was mostly calf to knee deep wind slab. Once we got to the col, the snow firmed a bit on the arete and it was a pretty fast hour up to the summit (around 5 hours from the hut total). The arete was mostly knife edged, but not so much that it made for tough travel. The wind kept pushing us around a bit (and any snow we kicked, goggles would've helped), but not enough to make it scary, only fun. Man, that arete is cool!!!! Worth every bit of slogging to get to it. Due to the cold, and the long walk back, we didn't spend too much time on top. We descended the West ridge gulley, which was straightforward, but steep and wind loaded at the top. It would have been fantastic skiing conditions, but a little questionable on the avy danger side. It is a quick and good way to get down though. From the gulley it was a slow, hot, slog back to the hut, arriving 7.5 hours after we left. We crashed for a few minutes in the sun and tried to get up the motivation to hike down. This took awhile, but eventually we left and arrived at the cars (about 5:30pm) to end a fantastic weekend. The hike down sucked, big time (lots of plunging into tree wells). But the pain was seriously dulled by the fact that we had such beautiful weather and the hut and mountain to ourselves!!! Now we only had one more crux . . . getting past Tim Horton's in one piece. Gear Notes: Two pickets, axes, aluminum crampons, 37m rope. Ski poles and snowshoes were nice on approach and descent. Approach Notes: Snow starts about 1200m

I climbed up and down the SW couloir by myself on Sunday. I'm not a very bold person and I didn't think it was a bad solo trip at all. Crampons and an axe are all that you really need. I used a second tool a bit on the down climb. Beware of other parties above as there is a bit of loose rock high up the gully. Have fun, it is short (<2hrs car to summit) but good!

Just wondering if you could drive all the way to the TH. Of course any info on the approach right now would be great too! Thanks.

Climb: Shuksan-North Face Date of Climb: 4/10/2004 Trip Report: DR, my wife and a friend headed up on Friday to a nice dry bivy on the ridge below the North Face (3 hours from the White Salmon Lodge). Got going by 5am on Sat. and had pretty good, albeit variable, conditions on the face. Some hard crusty cramponing, some ankle deep soft stuff, and some windslab. It took us about 2.5 hours up to the shoulder and another couple of hours to the summit. Great weather, good snow conditions greeted us pretty much the whole day, with an especially fast descent down the White Salmon Glacier. We were back at the cars by 4pm, and drinking beer and eating pizza at the Beer Shrine by 6pm (one of the best parts of the day) A fun, and more moderate than expected route. Good times!!! Gear Notes: Brought a couple pickets, one screw per team (didn't need any of it), 40m 8.5mm ropes, second tool (only used on the summit pyramid). Oh, and lots of Canadian Rye bread (didn't use). Maybe a copy of "The Perfect Storm" (didn't read). Approach Notes: Beware of the deep slop low on the White Salmon!!

If you are a relatively skilled/fit skier and are interested, shoot me a PM. I'm solo right now, and plan on a pretty early start from Mount Vernon (home). Thanks!!

I think we were on the summit between 12:30 and 1:30pm. We made one 50m rappel from the deep notch below the summit. The cornice you rap under is getting HUGE!!

Climb: Chair Peak-North Face Date of Climb: 3/13/2004 Trip Report: Myself, wife, and friend left the cars at ~ 6:20 am under high clouds and booted it up past source lake to the base of the north face. I think it took us around 2 hours, and conditions were excellent for walking (didn't break through). We were the first there and started up the route to find excellent ice (actual water ice) and not so excellent snow. The ice was plastic, thick, and took screws well. The snow was a bit sugary, but wasn't too insecure. In general, the face is looking a little on the thin side (although this was my first time, so I'm not sure what is normal), but still in pretty good shape. We spent about an hour on top enjoying the sun and view and made a speedy return back to alpental once we got past the wallowing above source lake (we didn't bring flotation and it warmed up enough during the day to make things messy down low). Fun times!! Gear Notes: 3 pickets, 5 screws, a few pins, twin 50m ropes, some took two tools, some a tool and an axe. Approach Notes: snow

We left about 4am. Cathedral Gap had almost no snow around it, must have been too windy this winter. Cadaver gap was looking pretty wind-loaded, although we weren't really close enough to tell for sure. We didn't hang around long enough to dig a pit, but in the loaded areas, the (relatively) soft layer was >2' deep (plunging my axe didn't hit anything hard). Wind was really the big factor though . . .