DPS

I LOVED those things. My parents only let us have them when we went hiking.

Good luck, the North Ridge is a great alpine tour!

Rainy Pass repair in the U district.

Used to be Index when I had the guns for it. Now its 11worth cause there is more easy stuff for me to climb.

Assuming this is not a troll, I would say that you may want to choose easier routes for your first time up Rainier, especially if you are new to Mountaineering. Routes like the Disappointment Cleaver or Emmons Glacier are probably more appropriate. Later in the season an obvious boot path is established making it fairly easy to not get lost. Of course wanding the route help ensure you can get back down in case of poor visibility.

I would go with a light weight soft shell like Patagonia's Guide Pant.

I think this is especially true of the Cascades.

172.5! Lost five pounds by not eating after dinner.

We climbed Buckner on Sunday, I suspect it was your party that DirtyHarry saw.

Climbing unroped high on Coleman Headwall on Baker, hurrying to get out from under the seracs we heard a large 'boom'. I thought a serac cut loose and was going to wipe us off the face. Then I saw two fighter jets fly low overhead. Scared me pretty good.

We did the approach via Boston Basin. After rapelling onto the Boston Glacier we saw no running water until descending into Horseshoe Basin.

Diedre, St. Vitus Dance, Snake, Banana Peel

Way to go Joe!

My partner had the camera, when he sends photos I will ask permisison to post them.

Except for several small snow patches, Sahale arm is melted out to the glacier. There is still a lot of snow on the glacier though, I would personally opt for boots, but that's just me. The arm is incredibly beautiful right now. Enjoy!

I missed that, must have been buried by snow still.

Trip: Mt Buckner - North Face Date: 7/12/2008 Trip Report: Before I got sick I would have done this route car to car, but my new reality is that I am slow and have to take it easy, so we planned on a leisurely two day tour. We took our time getting to Boston Basin and had a nice chat with a friendly ranger. Learned a bunch about the history of the park, the work he does, etc. Saw 15 people coming and going on the Quien Sabe glacier. Dropped over to the Boston and saw no one until we got back to Cascade Pass. We camped on a level spot in the middle of the glacier. The next morning we walked to the face and climbed climber's left to avoid a series of cracks. About 2/3 height, we stopped a belayed a funky down climb into a strange deep, steep walled trough in the snow that went all the way to the rock. We climbed out the other side and made a belay. Another 1 1/2 pitch through a constriction in rock band was the crux: hard, dirty black ice. We simuled to the summit, screws and pickets were both useful. The descent was down through horseshoe basin and up to Sahalee Arm, with a lunch break below the final climb. The arm was freakin gorgeous! We admired all kinds of alpine flowers and lush greenery. The descent from Cascade Pass was enjoyable. In the parking lot a family from out of town struck up a conversation and asked me to name all the peaks in the view shed. I happily obliged and took photos of them in front of JBerg with their camera. Then they asked to take photos of me with their family! All in all one of the best trips in recent memory. Gear Notes: 50 meter rope, two tools, 4 pitons, 4 ice screws, 4 pickets. Everything was used. Could have used 6 med-large nuts. Approach Notes: Up through Boston Basin, over the gunsight notch climber's right of Sharkfin Col, cross Boston Glacier, descend Horseshoe Basin and Sahalee Arm. Chat up girl to get ride back to our car.

Thanks a bunch!

I have only done Easton Glacier once, CTC on skis, and I don't remember much about it. I am taking a couple of friends up this route this weekend and had some questions about where to camp. Selected Climbs mentions bivi sites at the margin of the glacier ~7,000 ft. Is this a good area to camp? Any idea how far it is to these camps? Is there a better place to camp? In general I like to camp as high as is reasonable to make the summit day shorter. TIA, Dan

I wore boots. There was continuous snow from Ingall's Pass to the lake and below the peaks.

Very good points. Ice screws on the DC this time of year are probably not necessary. Tiblocs are a great idea. I have at times pre-tied two very short prusik cords to the rope and clipped them off with carabiners and carried foot slings and a waist sling in my pocket. The idea is the short prusiks stay out of the way and in a crevasse fall all I need to do is clip the waist and foot slings on.

30 meter rope is probably enough, but I would still tie in short of each end to give yourself a bit of rope to work with. One picket, one screw, one pulley, plus a few slings and carabiners for each person on a three man team is sufficient. One prussik is fairly useless for ascending a rope. Setting up a z haul system is not really intuitive, nor is ascending a rope. Best to spend some time with your partners reviewing the skills.

Ha! My interest rate is lower!

For the most part the rock is well textured orange rock, but is in places fractured exposing the green, glassy stuff.

Trip: Ingalls East Peak - South Ridge Date: 7/5/2008 Trip Report: Richard Zeigler responded to my partner wanted ad for an easy day trip on Saturday. We decided on a traverse of the Ingall's Peaks. We hiked up to the North-East Ingalls Couloir under poor visibililty and theatening skies. We started scrambling easy rock on the left margin until I chickened out and asked to rope up. We climbed over the chockstone to the gain the slabs of the East peak and in two pitches reached the summit. The first pitch was low 5th, the second 4th class. Three rappels brought us down to the start of the East Ridge of the North Peak. Richard lead off in a light drizzle. By the time I reached the belay it was raining lightly and I wasn't having fun on the slabby rock so we bailed, making one rap to the couloir and another down the couloir to the snow. On our hike out we saw a family of mountain Goats at Ingall's Pass. All in all a nice day out desipite the gloomy weather. Thanks Richard! Gear Notes: Small rack, rope, axe Approach Notes: Snow, wear boots