DPS

That's Native American Summer to you.

I just bought these for myself and my wife: http://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/,2774H_Lowe-Alpine-Ice-Wall-Climbing-Gloves-For-Men.html Haven't used them yet but they have all the latest techy glove features. I ended up paying less than $50.00 for them with a coupon. I bought them because the last pair of gloves I bought ten years ago for about $50 are also Lowe Alpine and are hands down (get it?) the best gloves ever. Leather fingers and palms, Triple Point Ceramic shell, Primaloft insulation. Very warm, very durable, yet very dexteritous.

Very nice TR and photos. It reminded me that one need not travel too far outside the Cascades to experience new and exciting places.

Has anyone called Joe Sambatoro at the Access Fund? He owes me a favor. He knows what for.

http://bryanburdo.blogspot.com/ http://www.washingtonclimbers.org/Forums/member.php?u=7

How would Mt Olympus be as a trail run? Bring aluminum crampons and a light axe? Might be the most pain free way to climb it.

Well known by husbands everywhere, women are a heat sink. An XS woman is just gonna be that much colder what with the increased surface to volume ratio and all. My suggestion: Wild Things Belay Parka. Oh look, it is on sale and they have extra smalls in stock: http://bcgear.com/catalog/appareldetail.cfm/WT200

Thanks for taking the point on this Chris. I occurs to me that some sort of non-profit (Friends of Peshastin State Park?) could raise enough to fund the basic necessities (restroom, parking lot maintenance, open and close the gates in the morning and evening, and grabage maintenance) and volunteer to do provide the labor to do the rest (trail maintenance, etc). Perhaps if the state park system was approoached by a cohesive group or organized and funded volunteers, backed by other recognized groups (WTA, WCC, Access Fund) they might be more receptive to alternates to moth balling the park.

Maybe invest in a guidebook to the range: http://www.amazon.com/Mountaineering-Patagonia-Alan-Kearney/dp/0938567306/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1286722575&sr=1-2 Yikes! A bit pricey, must be out of print.

If you need a recommendation for a spine surgeon then Dr. Reginald Knight at Orthopedics International is one of the best. Best of luck.

I don't think blasting is really the best way to 'create' rock climbing elements in basalt. IMHO you would be better off having a climber experienced in installing sport routes. Maybe try getting a hold of Leland Windham or Bryan Burdo to take a look at what you have and if there is potential for routes.

As long as your boots have a prominent groove in the toe for the bail to fit, they work fine but I have seen older boots worn to the point where the crampon bails pop off at inopportune times.

I'm just waiting for the spray and threat drift that inevitably accompany any post related to summitchaserCJB.

Text by Dwayner/RainDawg: "Just go dry tooling at any established sport climbing cliff. The bolters have already fucked up the cliff in perpetuity for all generations to come. If you want I can post photos of the routes with big red circles around each bolt."

I did it on Oct 24 last year and while there was up to a foot of snow on the approach and decent the route was entirely snow free. We ended up doing a couple of extra rappels because the snow was so hard on the north side and we hadn't brought crampons or axes.

My partners would make fun of me for wearing a helmet at Smith Rock. One of the few times I forgot to wear a helmet I ended up taking a pretty nasty leader fall. I now have a big scar and permanent brain damage to remind me to wear one.

Steve, It would help to know when you are planning your trip and what your experience/skills/abilities are. For example; are you comfortable climbing techinical ice? Do you rock climb? Will you be on skis? Generally in the winter I have found several areas to have good access and routes for a variety of skill levels. Snoqualmie Pass: Mt Snoqualmie has routes ranging from easy ski up or walk up routes to very demanding ice and mixed routes. Guy Peak also has a variety of routes from easy to harder Chair Peak is the defacto classic winter climb at Squalmie Pass but requires techinical ice climbing skills. The Tooth has a classic, easy rock climb that goes year round and also a couple of rarely in shape, hard ice and mixed routes. Bryant Peak has both walk up and technical routes. Enchantments/Mt Stuart Range: Dragontail Peak has both walk up routes and big, technical ice and mixed routes. Colchuck Peak ditto. Argonaut has a moderately technical snow climb Stuart, nothing really easy but has some very good mixed glacier, snow, ice and rock routes. Mt Rainier NP: The Tatoosh Range has moderately steep snow climbs on Lane and Castle Peak and a more difficult ice/mixed route on Pinnacle Peak. Cascade Pass: Most years the road is drivable to MP 20 into early January. Eldorado with both everything form an easy walk up to steeper snow/ice to a harder mixed ice/rock route. Sahale has a number of routes that would be interesting in the winter. Mixup Peak has a moderate snow and rock route in winter. Although sending it would put you in a very small group, the NE Buttress of Johannesburg Peak is the best winter climb I have done, even considering we had to skip the summit due to a non-functioning stove. My advice about taking an avalanche course still applies to all of these routes. They are all prone to avalanches under the right (wrong?) conditions. Hope that helps. Dan

While climbing with 3 people is certainly not a 'must' prevailing wisdom will tell you that a party of 3 is safer than a party of 2 on glaciers so that if one person falls in you have two people to arrest the fall, set up anchors and possibly a z haul system if the victim can't Prusik out on his/her own. The question you have to ask yourself is how proficient are both you at crevasse rescue? There are avalanche risk on both Gib Ledges and the Ingrahm. How big the risk is varies depending on the snowpack, when the last storm came through, how much snow was dropped, what the ambient temperature is, and so forth. Northwest Avalanche Center posts avalanche forecasts on their Web site. http://www.nwac.us/. If you are climbing in the winter you really should be versed in avalanche science and be able to dig pits, analyze snowpack, slope, aspect, etc to make your own decisions. There are crevasses on the route, big ones from above the chute all the way to the rim of the crater. Now, you may be thinking to yourself "If I come in the middle of winter then all of the crevasses will be well bridged". The fact is during the winter the prevailing winds are from the south which strip the snow off of the upper part of the route (above the chute) creating only very thinly bridged crevasses. To make things worse, sastrugi snow is often created which makes it very difficult to identify where crevasses are. My suggestion is come late in the winter, after the prevailing winds have shifted and the crevasses are well bridged. March may be your best bet, however weather can still be very iffy. It makes an excellent winter route, very direct from the Muir shelter. In fact, winter and early spring are the only times I would recommend the route.

From your photos that traverse looks rather improbable.

Nice. Beckey Route on LB is one of the finest climbs at that grade IMHO.I like the Sean Courage style rolled up pant legs in the last shot.

Driver, putter, 9 iron. Do you need to borrow some clubs? I have a full set.

I did NEB Chair once in summer. I remember it as a pleasant, solid climb up the 's' shaped gulley, maybe a bit loose once on the ridge, but an easy, clean, leftward traverse across the east face on a ledge system (I recall an old bolt somewhere there) and some blocky climbing on the far left side of the face to gain lower angled heather slopes. These heather slopes were the sketchiest part of the climb. Certainly not hard, not loose, but no pro (no need for a rope at that point anyway). Perhaps the scramble down the gulley to the col was a bit loose but it certainly does not stand out in my mind as being any looser than other Cascades gullies. The rappel down the gulley was a surprise, usually I have done it with one single rope rap over the cornice and downclimbing the rest. This time it took mulitple raps. I do remember taking shelter under chockstones while my partner rapped, but don't remember anything comming down. Burnt into my mind, however, is the horrible scree field below the east face. I did the climb in low top approach shoes and my ankles were pretty banged up afterwards. Can't remember who said it, but a well know alpinist said the most important attribute for an alpinist is a short memory. Now only if I had the other requisite skills I may have amounted to something in the climbing world.

I guess at some point during my 15 ascents (14 in winter, once in summer) of Chair Peak I should have gleaned that.

NEB loose, really? I don't remember much looseness at all. Must be my memory failing.

I own the following pins: All Black Diamond -Long thin Bugaboo -Long medium Bugaboo -Standard knife blade -Thick knife blade -#1 Angle -#2 Angle -#3 Angle For most winter alpine routes I carry -Long thin Bugaboo -Long medium Bugaboo -Standard knife blade -#1 Angle -#2 Angle Are you interested in waterfalls or winter alpine routes? For winter alpine routes I find shorter screws to be more useful and carry 1 10cm, 2 13cm, 2 16 cm, and 1 19 cm (for V-threads) in addition to a medium sized rock rack (the above selection of pins, 6 medium sized nuts, 4 Camalots .5 - 2.0). For pure waterfall routes I carry 9-10 screws, mostly 16cm, a couple of 19cm and a couple of 13 cm screws.