Alex

nice job, its a nice route with good weather, I like it a lot more than the N Face

The stuff above melawka lake I've never heard of anyone climbing nor have I climbed them (though I did the stuff lower down, keekwulee falls etc) so I'd say good job getting out and climbing something!

nice to see shit still getting done

nice

great trip, great pics!

Nice climb!

I like the newer forum software. It's made me check out cc.com a few times in recent weeks. Not much to chat about in the winter, as right now I just post some random ski pics on FB. If there is a real ski TR it generally goes on TAY.

Honestly unless the weather window is amazing I wouldn't spend the time in the cascades unless you are ski touring. If you are ski touring, it would be perfect time of year for Isolation Traverse, Ptarmigan on skis, or Forbidden Traverse I'd echo Banff for ice, JTree or Red Rocks or Smith for rock climbing. Moab for a week of crusher mountain bikling. Indian Creek if you are up to it. Sierra for melting-out-but-probably very cold higher elevation scrambles

great pictures as always! worthy of a coffee table book!

Barney's Rubble, Roto Wall, Playground Point has a few climbs as Gene mentions, we also regularly TR Mountaineers Dome climbs, and make up a bunch more; it depends on your kid a bit. We started them on all these, then graduated to multi-pitch rock climbs and now the 10-year old is leading easier routes.

Hey Josh et co, good job getting up a big face in good style. This trip is a big undertaking no matter what the route conditions, so great job! Sounds like your training paid off and you got a great day in the mountains, and back down safe!

Take the fall, Ram

Lib Ridge and Ptarmigan both are traditionally marginal or "out" by early July in a normal snow year, which this is. Lib Ridge because the Carbon becomes very difficult to navigate and the ridge proper starts melting out. Ptarmigan for different reasons but YMMV. What's wrong with the route you already did? Kautz isn't a mobbed trade route so it's a good choice, and up-and-over should present plenty of challenge for your group even if you aren't front-pointing the entire way. I think the Spring will tell better what conditions present in July: If it remains cool and cloudy here with below normal temps, then my first paragraph can be tossed, and you could try Lib Ridge, which is remote but not technically difficult.

keen, yes. This is the standard level of in-ness. Some years its like this by late December. It's not that popular because there really aren't that many ice climbers in WA (certainly seems like less than there was 15 years ago) and the approach is for real. Left of Sep Gully gets hit by sun around mid-Feb. It doesn't take much sun to bleach out the ice and bring those pitches down, since most of them are very steep and don't have a lot of support from below, like Unholy, etc. The stuff on the right side of the cliff, right of Dropline, lasts longer. The stuff over by Dome Peak, like Watchtower, usually lasts til mid-March. Temps and daylight rapidly rise by late March early April, and while you can spring ski, outside of the Rockies you can't really spring ice climb.

Thanks for the report! Strobach trip looks good! About the same as it ever was. Per my experience, Sad Ce'bu and Sudden Change look to be "very typical" and I think had you got on them, you would have found them probably a little more moderate than what they looked like from below. But once you've gone in there, future trips will be smoother ..! The LWorth stuff, I might jump on next couple days. March 6th is generally quite pushing it for climbing ice outside of the alpine zones in Washington, so this season is lasting a bit longer than usual!