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is that two hours from the car and with nice alpine ambiance mr. Berdinka? that looks like a gem!

who are you, Fred Beckey or somethin? summit chief does look good. in fact, alpine chicken looks better than the FA conditions. nice solo trip. that must have been fun to cross such remote terrain alone in "winter"

Not too surprised, but I recently found out that the north peak has been climbed before in winter. I don't know who or when, but it sounds like it has been done at least a couple times.

nice work bros!

Jens loves approaches. give in to the dark side homie

Get better soon P! I hope you have sassy nurses.

Trip report with a few more pics..

be good kids or the monster in the cave will come for you in the night..... you know, the cave. the one just off the kitchen.

I nikwax the palms of my gloves and it actually makes them a little tacky. Don't put too much seam grip on the palms of your gloves. Put a little on such that any exposed threads are "sealed" but do not try to make the seam "waterproof". Waterproofing is a lost cause, and all that seam grip on the palm will make the gloves way less sensitive. you really need some SNAGs (sensitive new age gloves)

And on the front cover no less! way to go Colin!

Definitely buy the #2 camalot at least. you will use it everywhere. you can get by with hexes or cheaper cams (like forged friends) for the #3 and above camalots if you're just starting out. Eventually get a #3 sized cam though (I almost always carry one on rock). I would recommend you buy a #1 and #3 metolius cam or camalot C3 equivalent for your other cam. That's what I did when I started out and I ended up placing those two small cams a lot more than the 3 inch piece.

I think you could get hurt pretty bad if you go around squeezing balls! I think it just comes down to frequency and intensity of your workouts. Do more endurance/moderate climbing workouts than you do high end technical workouts. Listen to your body and respond when you need to back off. Staying in constant shape makes things a lot easier, as I'm sure you know..

nice trip! things look fat up there

Blake- something you may or may not know is that the loop road into the regular red rocks area has "open" hours. If you are parked in there past the open hours and without a late exit permit, you'll get a ticket. Red Rocks is awesome, you'll love it. A small selection of good stuff: Frogland Climbs on the brass wall, esp the 5.9 finger crack Ginger Crack Sport climbing at the Gallery (classic RR sport!) Great Red Book Johnny Vegas to Solar Slab (long classic) Geronimo Tunnel Vision (chimney!) Cat in the Hat (crowded with gumbies, but in the sun and fun) red rocks has tons and tons of fun climbing 5.10 and under. I second the drive to Zion idea. It is a great place to take a hike or do some canyoning. If you drive through the park, about 30 minutes from the north entrance is the coral dunes national monument (big pink dunes of sand). Having driven from the grand canyon to zion and then red rocks last spring, I'd say it is not worth the lengthy drive on a short trip.

I had a job once where these were posted. Well, my favorite one wasn't posted:

Nice work family man

Drive to Darrington and take the Squire Creek Road out of town (it's near the west end of town). There are essentially no turns off the main road so it is easy. Drive up some switchbacks until you are traversing the left hand side of the valley. about a mile before the trailhead there is a small land slide over the road. you could probably 2WD over this if you brought a shovel to smooth things out a bit. There are some small (3") downed trees on the road ahead, but nothing that you couldn't wheel over. Once at the washout trailhead, hike along the closed road. once across the washout look to climb up to the old road bed. Follow the road to the old trailhead, passing the Squire Creek Wall along the way. Simply follow the trail until it meets a creek (marked on USGS) before the trail begins the climb up switch backs towards Squire Pass. Drop down tothe valley bottom and follow the river about another 30 minutes up valley (no brush at all!). You'll enter a clearing where you can see Three Fingers's East Face. Go to the river and cross on logs. Follow the dry creek bed up towards the basin under the East face. It takes 2 to 3 hours to get here from the car. hike towards the middle of the basin and ascend a narrow and steep couloir that breaches the cliff band in the cirque. There are some obvious trees that mark this couloir. Once above the cliff band, traverse right to the base of the route. To descend, find the shoulder between the North summit and the Northeast Buttress route. This leads to the North face. Descend while keeping left, easy walking, until you reach a steeper couloir at the bottom. It necks down but there is no need to rappel in the conditions we found. This puts you down at the Craig Lakes.

The slope above the climb is actually pretty mellow in angle, and varies between 10-20 degrees. Given the conditions, I wasn't worried about it at all. Natually you would not want to be on the climb/descent (or any climb!) if there was the possibility of spontaneous avalanches...

Thanks for the comments guys! A big thank you to Mr. Scurlock for finding yet another jewel of the cascades and to Mr. Berdinka for all the approach info and stoke! the descent goes over a shoulder under the north summit and descends the North face. Fairly straitforward to follow, but it could be easy to mess up. We used the left hand cliff band a a guide. The north face is directly below the North Peak in this photo: and don't forget those ear plugs when climbing with John!

Strong work fellas! That looks like some incredible climbing. This shot is saaaawweeeet!

The central gully is a little further right and goes more towards the summit. Here's what I think has been done, though I haven't climbed the central gully.

way to get after that thing scott! look nice

sweet! more (nearly) roadside ice! that looks like a fun route

nice work guys