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Nice trip report Jon, that was us making noise over on Heaven's Gate. What a busy day on the upper wall! Hard to pass up such perfect conditions. I spent a day on Wildest Dreams this spring, and agree that it is a total classic. The first pitch is a great warmup for it or other climbs, and the 2nd pitch is totally superb with an awesome finish. I felt the 5.12 pitch was definitely honest, but think it would be worth A0'ing if not up to the grade for the final pitch. We sussed the gear on p3 and it seems like after the last bolt you use two green C3s in a row, then either a purple or red C3 near the top where it opens back up a bit. We brought brushes to scrub on our outing but found the route in really clean shape. Hats off to Chris for his fine work.

The plumb line, first go and all smiles? wow.

Climbed this route recently. It was a quality climb with only a few spots of dirty or mungy climbing (mostly in the first pitch). Haven't climbed Acid Baby, but my partner had and commented that Valkyrie seemed like the better route. Val- I'd get on it. The stated grades seemed a bit soft, my impression of the pitches were: 5.10-, 5.10 (awesome), 5.9 (one move), 5.8, 5.9, 5.9. A #5 C4 would make the 10' off-width section top roped on lead, but a #3 fits in half way. We also only took 1 #3 which seemed fine.

"the slight double fall line nature of the couloir naturally managed my sluff" ha, nicely done Dan!

If I were to buy a gopro, I'd go for the v3 Black. While 1080p resolution is plenty for most uses, shooting at 2.4k (or 4k) allows you to do more aggressive image stabilization later. Also, having 1080p at 60fps is unique (most provide 720p). However, those extra features may not be important to your uses. FWIW, I have an original Hero and I mis-aim it all the time, especially when skiing. Screen/remote app (which I think Contour has also) would be really nice. If you're just doing a little fun editing, iMovie should probably work well enough. Otherwise, I'd probably recommend investing the time to learn Premier as it natively edits H.264. Transcoding to ProRes is a pain and explodes your disk storage.

FYI: a team went up recently and reported that a significant rockfall occurred to the left of the route in the past week. Be aware that there could be rock dust and small debris that ricocheted over on the first couple pitches. Given the location of the rock fall I doubt (though could be totally wrong as I have not been there to see it yet) that any bolts were effected, though the final rappel-only ones may have been. You can easily skip this station by rapping back to the top of the first pitch anchor if need be.

Trip: Exfoliation Dome - Snake Charmer 5.11- Date: 9/6/2012 Trip Report: Last week a group of friends and I finished up a new route on the witch doctor side of Exfoliation Dome: Snake Charmer 5.11- III 6p (9,10-,10,11-,10,10). Topo here The climb follows flakes and cracks that wind a fairly strait and sustained route up the far left hand side of the main wall. An easy approach will get you to the base in less than an hour and a half. Ralph an I had attempted this route ground up 6 years ago, but were turned back by excessive moss and dirt after a couple pitches. It laid dormant in the back of my mind until this summer when Elliot suggested we take another look. The recon showed that it was sufficiently rad to warrant a return to polish the line. Big thanks to Ralph, Elliot, Fitz, Austin, and Zac for all your hard work and keen visions.

Ian! Nice work on the book buddy!

Join us at Feathered Friends, April 12th @ 7pm for an evening of climbing related film shorts from a Smash & Grab style ascent of Burkett Needle in Alaska to mixed climbing with Steve House to disabled climbers keeping the dream alive. Films by Dave Burdick and Duct Tape Then Beer folks Fitz Cahall and Austin Siadak. The American Alpine Club and the Washington Climbers Coalition will also be kicking off a fundraising campaign for a toilet at Vantage.

Note: there was a small error in the temperature graphing that is now fixed. Also, hope to have an android version out later this winter.

Felt long when I did it, but what descent off Stuart isn't long? I think that the round trip via Teanaway is probably easier though.

Great info. I did the "Lite" version a couple weeks ago and the only thing I'd disagree with is the "runout" description for the end of pitch 6. The topo also says "scary 10d" but it's totally well protected. Sure you need to pull a couple moves above your gear but usually that means at your feet. Definitely not scary if your up for the rest of the burl fest! Also, a #2 camalot can be handy on the downward traverse of p3 as an extra piece.

I remember seeing a modified ice screw of Paul Claus' used in a similar way to that first image. This one had a built in spool of webbing that you could clip to the knot in the rope. I recall him saying that they worked sometimes, but were unreliable.

I took a lot of the comments from here and emails and incorporated them into a new version that is available now. Changes include: - sick day racoon lines can now be removed. Note: only available on iPhone 4 w/ the LED flash - now a native app on the iPad - works with devices down to iOS 3.0 - You can now view the raw data for Telemetry graphs - Added several Weather Forecast locations, including the Spokane, Idaho, and the Wallowas. - Added hourly forecast graphs for all Weather Forecast sites - Added the NWAC Mountain Forecast - Added several Satellite loops - Created a Web Cams section with many sites through Washington, Oregon and BC promo codes - get 'em while they're hot! (if you use one, consider writing a review) MLR9K9HXE3M4 L94NXPRHPF9H PKM7WP76KPFT and feel free to post here or email me suggestions: info@nwsnowbuddy.com

Dan- Yep, working on it for this fall! scheissami - like Kevino mentioned, it draws data from all of the NWAC sites, so many areas in Northern Oregon are covered. What I would like to do is expand the weather forecast link section for Oregon, so if you have other point forecasts (http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sew/) that you'd like to see added, drop me a line.

Hey all, I wanted to post to explain how I use the new NW Snow Buddy iPhone app. I wrote the app to make checking snow related resources easier, so the following is roughly the steps I take to figure out where and when to ski good snow. Starting from the home page of the app: I'll usually check the Snowfall Predictions area first to see what the general snowfall amounts are going to be over the next few days across the state. When I looked on February 26th, 2011 I was stoked to see this: This told me that Monday the 28th ("+2 Days Snowfall") was going to be an amazing day for skiing, and that Sunday the 27th ("+1 Day Snowfall") would have some new snow but not as much. I'll then usually check the Weather Forecasts section for the NOAA point forecast where I'm going to be skiing. In this case, Sunday night was calling for 10-16 inches over night! This is all well and good if you are planning ahead and looking at what's coming. If you want to look back at what snow has already fallen, you'll want to use the Telemetry Data section. The data here is simply the NWAC weather data (precipitation, temperature, wind, 24 hour snowfall) shown all together in a single graph. This is what the snow looked like for Monday (the 28th) at Crystal Mountain: The graph is a little confusing to read at first because there is a lot of data packed into a small space. I'd suggest that you read this explanation first. That page contains a graphic that explains the axes of the graph and some example data. For the above graph: (-) you can see from the 24 hours cumulative snowfall plot (green dots) that there was a total of about 16" of snow at 6am on the morning of the 28th. rad! (-) the temperatures (orange/red lines) at 4480' (base of crystal) and 6870' (the top) stayed in the low teens to low 20s Fahrenheit. (-) the winds (vertical black bars) were pretty high Sunday (the 27th) night, averaging in the upper 30s with gusts up over 50mph! The winds conveniently calmed down to around 10mph for the daylight hours on Monday. (-) the blue bars are precipitation per hour. half way up the graph = 1 inch per hour, all the way up the graph = 2 inches per hour. 3am-5am on the 28th saw 1.75 inches of snow an hour. sick! (-) the fun didn't stop Sunday night, as we can see by the green dots that another 12" or so had fallen by the end of Monday the 28th. Still confused about the graphs? Touch the "Explain Graph" button from any Telemetry graph view to get a reminder of what things are. Here is Alpental's graph for the storm that happened the week before. Essentially, 8-12 inches each day: Finally, NWAC only shows the previous 10 days of data. With NW Snow Buddy, you can look back at all the data for the entire year. Simply touch the "Edit Dates" button on a Telemetry graph view and you'll get the following screen: You can select the length of time the graph shows here, up to 5 days. For a less epic powder example, here was a really nice day at Crystal (the 5th) with 8 inches over night. Note the little bit of warming on the 5th--good info to have as you arrive so you know to stay on higher, shaded aspects. If you have more questions or want more information, visit the website: http://www.nwsnowbuddy.com/ I hope some of you will find it as useful as I do. Dave

Nice job straightening the line out. Mt. Kent is surprisingly fun given how close it is to town, eh?

cya looks to be in about the same shape as the last time I climbed it.

Just thought I'd add a few more pieces of beta to this great report: On the crux 4th pitch, you can get a #0 C3 (green) in between the 2nd and 3rd bolt for the last couple moves up to the 3rd bolt. Not really needed, but doesn't hurt. Make sure to pull it after clipping the bolt due to drag. This pitch goes way left, then way back right (further right than the belay). Burdo added a better final pitch a year or two ago. Just keep climbing up the crack system, past the traverse into some dirty rock up to the big roof. Step right onto flakes, then move back left past a bolt to a nice finger crack in a corner (5.10a). Makes for an easy and aesthetic finish to the route.

Essentially everyone is talking about the same book, the Atkinson Piche book published by Elaho. It is the bomb compared to the competition.

Nice job skiing two peaks in the same day! That open fly couloir is so much fun. We did it again earlier in May 09 and had some decent snow (though the icy runnels at the bottom were survival). I bet this is in good nic right now!

is this the gully with the huge chockstone?

Attempted the astrain the other day. Got off route on the traverse and burned too much time. The approach pitches were pretty boney with unconsolidated sugar, but the rest of the route looks to be in good shape.

I second the electrician's splicing tape (not electrical tape but the no adhesive stuff). The stuff is very cheap ($2-3/roll), grips well and doesn't absorb water. If you use skateboard style deck tape (or anything with too much texture) it has the tendency to ball up with snow on alpine climbs.

Can anyone pm or email me Jim Ruch's contact info? Thanks dave@alpinedave.com