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Alex

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Everything posted by Alex

  1. re: avy, glad the climber made it re: snowmobile, Ive done it that way too and honestly all the futzing with the sled doesnt buy you much in the end over skis n skins re: ski out, yeah hi value
  2. The Ptarmigan Traverse that time of year can be done in 3-4 days pretty easy pace, I've done almost half of the total distance in 1 day over July 4th weekend in 2001, I think the biggest prob you will have is the car shuttle/logistics. But if you can get someone to drop you off at the Cascade Pass PL, while your car waits for you at Downey Creek, you'll be fine. IMO its honestly a much better venture than anything else you mentioned except Goode. If you take an extra day you'll get some extra summits. The Bailey Range Traverse is more time commit, best to take more time, eg 5 days + but I've heard from multiple peeps that it was one of the best outings, ever. It's been on my list forever, but I never get the chunk of time you are talking about, so ... it stays on the list... And June is ideal for Bailey because snow still covers much of the what-turns-into-scree-later making travel above treeline much more efficient. From Bend, I feel for you ... except no, not really, you have amazing outdoor recreation opps so no sympathy
  3. echo that, amazing to see this in southern Oregon, great effort!
  4. June is good time for traverses in the range and with the chunk of time you have and desire to go solo Im surpised you dont simply go Ptarmigan Traverse and Bailey Range traverse. All the other stuff except maybe Picketts trip is weekend or at most 3-day-weekend moderate fare, ...
  5. I think my own experience is probably similar to alot of folks: climbing used to be my life. i had an (easier) job, free time, no financial committments. i had several of my own climbing related web sites, blogger, and then cc.com arrived and honestly 12+ years ago UBB was pretty slick and made doing your own custom html 4.0 unneccesary. i had enough time to even moderate this site and write a friggin climbing guide for petes sake!! And I climbed alot!! Now my job has morphed into something far more stressful, im married, have 2 kids, have scary financial commits, have been hardcore into other activities other than climbing going on 10+ years, hang out on facebook alot more than BBS sites, and just frankly dont get out much or have much time. I recently got a climbing gym membership and discovered my last one was in 2007! Yikes! And most of my climbing partners are the same. Alot of them have found new passions: alot are kite boarding, mountain biking, or doing whatnot. Some of the hardest climbers I know are not climbing now. Or very rarely, just with friends, just for grins. After I had kids I also discovered climbing was a lonely activity compared to family life, or social things like sailing, and now I seek out things where I can include my family, rather than use my increasingly limited free time for a Banff trip or Bugaboos trip. This November I had the amazing fortune to take my family on their first ocean crossing! So cool! I honestly also lurk alot more, just because I dont feel I have much to contribute that is relevant. Now, if you wanted to jaw about ocean racing, we could do that, but most people would find it weird. So what Jon says it true for me: I am still here and still read, but very rarely log in.
  6. great report! the rating you provide doesn't seem very French though, I suspect some Brits were involved with this at some point.
  7. I'll probably get flamed for saying this but I don't think skis are all that important, as long as you get the general length right for your weight. Your boots and binders are more important, and sounds like you are on your way there. If you are doing multi-day touring obviously you'd want a generally lighter ski setup than if you doing single-day tours. I use K2 Shuksans, which are heavier, but also I am not worried about them as much breaking far from the car. One thing I have found is that for backcountry especially, getting a ski with a non-white ski tip is actually pretty important...!
  8. Yeah. I did Fisher Chimneys in a day car to car with Holly H, and it was a really long day; it might be better to break it up at least a little bit. I'd say if you are going to bivy, a bivy at the top of the Chimneys is a pretty nice spot if the weather is good.
  9. I saw that pillar from the highway, it looked like it formed because the E wind was so strong, kind of formed slanted to the right
  10. you could TR First on the Left, Sudden Change of Plan, or Sad Ce'bu if you can keep your energy going and hike up the gully and around to the top. Its totally doable. Just need the Mo Jo.
  11. dude, who IS that ultra-hot gal you're climbing with?? only soviets are that tough
  12. Ergo, there should be a parking lot bulldozed to Colchuck Lake?
  13. I have seen some very recent pics that show Banks is in very similar (extremely thin) shape that coldiron's pics also show from last month. Cable is mostly a dry-tooling/thin ice problem right now, Zenith is very thin but connected for those hardmen out there, and some other thin stuff. It's certainly cold enough, just not a lot of water.
  14. top rope, ice climb, and state of Washington are unfortunately never found in the same sentence
  15. Index granite is The Breakfast of Champions??
  16. Yeah, its not really visible from the road so it gets only occasional traffic, as you can see from the other thread.
  17. someone local should weigh in with real facts, but my magic 8-ball says this is the warmest, driest, and least PNW-ice-friendly season in my 20 years of living here. It is Jan 29th, about 2 weeks prior to the "normal end of our ice season", so if you are swinging tools on something other than pandome, you're doing pretty good.
  18. all this said, if the current drought continues late-May will be too late this year, so best post this kind of question here about a week before u go
  19. Index, DerWorth. I was there today too Wayne and it was just pure magic. That said I have never been nor will be a solid 11/12 leader so Index leaves me with not that many routes, which takes me to De Worth, where a decent 10 leader can get alot more mileage and honestly I just love camping in the Icicle especially in te Fall. Leavenworth reminds me a bit of the NE, where I learned, so I like that ambiance
  20. NE Ridge Black W Ridge Stuart
  21. The Metolius 00, 0, and 1, are they TCUs or something else?
  22. One thing you might consider is re-slinging any older cams etc, to make the safety factor ++. I've found older gear still as bombproof as the day I bought it, but nylon is nylon...
  23. 8 Mile Road because it's around the 8-mile marker from town up the Icicle.
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