DPS

If your parents are footing the bill and you are truely interested in climbing I would think about switching schools. Colorado College (Colorado Springs, Colorado), Whitman College (Walla Walla, Washington), Reed College (Portland, Oregon), and Dartmouth (Newhampshire) all offer outstanding academics as well as great climbing and outdoor recreation opportunities.

If I had to guess from which college it would be some type of sunday school for big kids like Seattle Pacific 'University' or Bob Jones 'University'.

One way to get started is to take a comprehensive course from American Alpine Institute here in the Cascades. The Alpine Mountaineering and Technical Leadership courses 1, 2, and 3 would teach you tons about climbing in a relatively short amount of time.

Jason Martin and I climbed a route on the North Ridge of Pinnacle Peak quite a few years ago. As I recall we gained the ridge on the west side via an ice ribbon and/or ice gulley which lead to a col and then a gendarme of very compact andesite. Bring KBs/Bugaboos. Here is a photo: http://gallery.photo.net/photo/6793769-lg.jpg The route climbs behind the big blob of rock to a col then follows the left hand skyline.

I would have to disagree. There are many benefits to climbing in a three person party. Group gear is distributed among three people so each climber carries less, if something goes wrong having an extra climber can be livesaving, and the dynamic of three people is often more fun. An experienced party of three who knows what they are doing is really no slower than two people. Belaying two followers using double ropes is cake with an auto locking plaquette style device (Petzl Reverso, BD ATC Guide, etc) and no slower than belaying a single follower as both followers climb at the same time. Many two man tents will fit three people pretty easily. My Mountain Hardwear Annapuna (same foot print as the Trango 2) probably could have slept four in a pinch. John Varco was telling me how their three person party on Annapurna III shared a Mountain Hardwear EV 2. The third climber slept with his head towards the back and his feet stuck into the vestibule.

Hi Jesse, Try giving Alex or Dane a PM. They have both been to the Canadian Rockies quite a bit. Dan

Sadi Carnot must have been a closet aid climber.

Hey, be easy on the kid. Most of us listened to crappy music when were young too. I mean Duran Duran, what was I thinking?

There was a post here from a fellow that shortened a BD X-15 BRS to create an alpine wall hammer. He had to use a heat gun to melt the glue holding the spike in as I recall. Edit: found the post: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/913446/New_BD_Alpine_Hammer#Post913446

Nooooo! He was the sweetest guy. My thoughts are with his wife and parents.

Nice work. One question (not a criticism) why did you choose the left hand lobe over the right hand lobe? From your photos it looks like the right hand lobe is not as threatened by seracs.

Seems to me that climbing is inherently risky. Why make it more so by establishing inadequately protected routes? I realize that back in the day routes where often run out because it was difficult to hand drill from stances but in this day and age if you are going to the trouble of placing bolts then why not place enough to make the route reasonably safe? Isn't that the whole purpose of placing bolts? If the element of risk is of prime importance to you then why not free solo everything?

I'll let you know Gene.

I'm waiting until March when (hopefully) it will be thickly iced.

You don't actually know what a theory is, do you?

Would you characterize the route itself as loose, somewhat loose, mostly solid or very solid?

The UI threw me too. Try this: http://www.patagonia.com/us/tinshed/index.jsp?src=avl&avad=3057_af41509&netid=1

I enjoyed the mandolin music. After 4 years of French you would think that I would have understood something they said other than just 'Allez'.

Chamonix? Alaska?

Finding partners would not be your biggest obstacle. If you want to climb water ice, well we have that, sometimes, but if water ice is your game you are better off going to the Canadian Rockies or Ouray or Hyalite, or Cody or really anywhere else but the Cascades. Except maybe Florida. The ice season here is so fickle and some years only lasts a few weeks. If you are interested in winter alpine climbing then you stand a better chance of finding something climbable. But then there is the weather which during the winter in any given two week stretch has a 98.3% chance of sucking ass. That said we consistently get a ridge of high pressure right around the President's Day weekend and can last a few days or a couple of weeks. So, my $0.02: If you really want to come during the winter plan to come mid-late February, investigate potential winter alpine routes in addition to water ice, and be flexible; if you ski then bring skis so you can at least hit the lifts if the avalanche danger keeps you out of the 'pine and the water ice is more water than ice. Bring rock shoes and a harness and hit one of the many climbing gyms if the weather is completely miserable. That said, winter is my favorite season for alpine climbing.

Are you sure the new gates will affect winter access? By my reading the highway will still be gated at the same spots in the winter: Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: WSDOT Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 18:39:11 -0500 (CDT) To: Subject: WSDOT North Cascades Highway Update Hi all, We just finished up installation of two new closure gates on the North Cascades Highway. They’re not for use during the winter – those gate locations are determined by elevation, roadway design and lots of other things. The new gates are there for dealing with a mud or rock slide or possibly even a forest fire during the months the NCH isn’t closed by snow. (We’ve had several such events over the past few years.) The rub has been that using the winter closure gates to close the highway in the summer cuts off access to lots of trailheads and campgrounds. The new gates are on either side of the area west of Rainy Pass where we’ve had those “summer” slides. The new eastbound gate is at MP 146.75, about 13 miles further east than the winter closure gate at MP 134. It means that from the west side, you will have access to trailheads at East Creek, Canyon Creek, Panther Creek, Eastbank and Happy Creek. The new westbound gate is at MP 156.7, just west of Rainy Pass. From the east side, that opens 14 miles of highway and access to the Washington Pass Overlook and trailheads or campgrounds at Lone Fir, Cutthroat Creek, Blue Lake, Bridge Creek and Rainy Pass. This has been kind of an “under the radar” effort. Winthrop city officials wanted it and so did the Forest Service, but they didn’t have any available funding. WSDOT’s NW region and NC region maintenance administrators scraped together $13,000, which would cover the costs, if we did everything ourselves. Over the last few weeks, our bridge crew got the materials and built the bases and gates and signs at our shop in Wenatchee. They installed the bases a couple weeks ago (some of you e mailed asking me what we were doing) and they spent Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, installing the gates and signs. (It takes some time, even in the summer, for the concrete bases to cure, before they’ll support the weight of the gates.) Here’s the link to the FlickR page where some pictures of the new gates will be posted soon: www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/ There’s also another new feature on the North Cascades web page – A “Frequently Asked Questions” FAQ page. (Dustin dug through the last couple year’s worth of e-mail that we’ve gotten and produced a page with all the information in one place.) Check it out – I’ll bet there are questions there that you hadn’t even thought of yet! www.wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/Passes/NorthCascades/FAQ.htm Jeff Adamson adamsoj@wsdot.wa.gov (509) 667-2815 PS: Thank you for the many kind e mails regarding the award WSDOT won for this newsletter.

I'm stoked because my wife decided to start ice climbing again and I got new leashlesstools for my birthday. I'm finally joining the 21 century, already in progress.

Sweet! Conviently located between work and home, I ride my bike right by there. I do hope they build lots of cracks. Mmmmm, crack.

There is an ice climbing guide book for Washington State: http://www.amazon.com/Washington-Ice-Climbing-Jason-Martin/dp/0898869463/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287108553&sr=1-1 Also a companion Web site: http://www.wastateice.net/Guide.aspx

Just trying to keep it all above board here.