Alex

chris, its technically very easy - a few crevasses, a big bergschrund, a brief knife edge rigde to the summit, thats about it. A good time of year to do it would be June, July, something like that.. Alex [ 02-25-2002: Message edited by: Alex ]

Willow Creek climbs along the North Cascades Higway, about 2 miles down from the hairpin turn below Liberty Bell, are fat and blue.

Lost: white Petzl helmet (unmarked) and a nest of older girth hitched slings at Bridge Creek campground trailhead, last Sunday night. I had pretty much written off the slings, but discovered the helmet missing today... Anyone find this stuff?

yes. There were SO many slides at Washington Pass Friday, it was rediculous. The snow in the backcountry has gone to shit this weekend...

taz is JERRY SANCHEZ???

and with that reply, Caveman gets my vote!!!

Luna Lake - can approach 2 (or more ways), I have done it from Whatcom Pass. From Whatcom Pass (reach via Hannegan Pass to Chilliwack River, cross river on trolley rig), traverse around Whatcom Peak to reach Perfect Pass. Now traverse Challenger Glacier, then drop down to Luna Lake from Challenger Arm. Total approach time from Hannegan Pass TH would be a full 2 days, might go quicker if the trails are snow free (they should be in late summer). The traverse around Whatcom is pretty exposed. Very beautiful area, with great views of Shuksan, northern Pickets, Spickard and Blum massifs. Alex

payaso, I bought a Garmin GPS III+ a little more than a year ago. I originally bought it with 2 purposes in mind: sailing, and approaching and documenting remote ice climbs in the Cascades. The III+ (and now other models) has a built in map. Pretty nice, compact unit. Pretty expensive hit if you ever drop it overboard. I would not use this thing on a normal climbing trip in the summer, but for more expedition style climbing it makes it pretty nice: you could leave a cache, mark it as a waypoint on the GPS, and not have to worry about finding it again in poor weather. For sailing, its da bomb! Alex

went and played around with a postage scale and discoverd that Camp makes a locking krab that weighs only 45 grams. Thats pretty amazing, considering the lightest biner made is 39g. We weighed some other lockers and other biners and while regular lightweight biners weighed in at 40-52 g, other lockers we weighed came in at 65-80+ grams. Makes the Camp lockers pretty appealing for lightweight climbing... Alex

saw a pair (hammer, adze) of std Black Prophets at Second Ascent last night, 119.00 each, no leashes. Second ascent is selling the leashes seperately (one adroid, one robo ) Pretty good deal on great tools, though. that BRS X-15 is still there the Charlet mono grade 8s are still there.

March is a good time to climb that side of the mountain. I would suggest you bust a move to Illumination, check out the route, and decide on 1 of 3 options: 1) do Leutholds Couloir proper unless there is alot of crap coming down it, your approach should have given you a good idea about conditions. 2) Reid Gl Headwall, the snowslopes directly above Illumination to the right of Leutholds. These slopes are reasonably protected from above from the stuff coming off Yocum and down Leuthods. You can then traverse into the top of Leutholds and get to Queens Chair without all the rockfall. 3) Head back over to the Old Chute and go up the S Side. Careful though, this particular way is much more prone to *large* slab avalanches than heading up Hogsback from Crater Rock on the right (standard route). It does avoid the stonefall though. Alex PS: 4) if none of this stuff looks fun, strap on the boards (you DID bring skis didnt you?) and head on down

TERRAPIN, there are multiple gates, seems like every possible way to get i there has a gate. I have aproached 2 different ways, once from Mosquito Lake Road and once from the (N Fork?) Nooksack Road. Anyway, take the gates seriously, both times I scoffed at the gates and got locked behind them. In both cases it took days, lots o hitchhiking, and money to get the car out. Take a bike, no matter how much it sucks in the winter with a pack, it will suck less than having to walk out if your car gets locked behind the gates. Alex

I think Lowell might be a better source as far as history, but I can tell you from recent experience that without alot more snow, you wont be skiing NE Buttress Couloir - the upper couloir would be fairly straightforward from about 3/4 up, but the top is tight and steep with contrictions and minor rock steps, and about 400 vert from the bottom the couloir necks down to a 6 ft wide contriction, with just a foot of snow over rock (you can basically see it below me in the second photo mattp posted to this thread). The runout, should you biff, is poor, as the couloir snakes around a bit and so you'd hit rock wall sooner than later. If you were willing to not ski summit to base, and take off your skis a few times, you could probably do it. Alex

Short TR, version with all the pix is up on my website here. Went into Colchuck Lake this weekend with danielpatricksmith and mattp. The stated objective was NE Buttress Couloir or N Buttress Couloir on Colchuck, but we were trying to keep an open mind should Triple Cs or the N Face of Dragontail be in. The weather report was favorable, though warm. The approach was hastened with the aid of a tracked backcountry access mechanism, which we parked and left at the normal trailhead. Skied into the lake, breaking trail for 2/3 of the way. dps battled his slowly deteriorating climbing skins to make it to the lake. Snow was wet and sloppy, and there was not much of it at all! At the Lake we were stunned to find very lean snow conditions. I have never seen so little snow at Colchuck Lake in winter, there is only maybe 2 feet on the ground. On the C Balanced Rock side are two 1-2 pitch WI3-is ice routes. Triple Couloirs looks well-iced (Hidden to 2nd), but very little snow in the couloirs proper. The Norht Face of Dragontail (the face to the left of Backbone and right of TC) is currently continuous, but looks like shallow snow on rock. Made camp, good time was had etc etc. Got up at 6, burned up the last of the fuel for breakfast. Started the approach, lots of windcrust and tough skinning made me and Dan ditch the skis down lower, while matt persevered...he intended to bring the skis up the route and ski down. Traversed past N Buttress Couloir to entrance of NE Buttress Couloir. Climbed steadily up steepening obvious gully system, to about a pitch from the summit, where we set up a belay for a hard-looking rock step. Dan valiantly tried several variations, including tunneling under a huge boulder, but it was no go. Dejected we started down climbing. About a 1/4 of the way down we traverse a minor rib looking for another way up, when we found a smallish step of very thin WI2+ that led to the exit couloir. Dan soloed the ice, then dropped a rope for us two following. Then Matt led a (much harder than it looked!) short mixed pitch with good belays, and we finished snow to the summit ridge. Went down, but got disoriented and ended up on the West Ridge, overlooking Mt Stuart and Stuart Lake. Kudos to Matt for actually bringing map, compass, and altimeter. Scariest part of the trip happened next: Dan slipped on some boilerplate steep snow and went for an uncontrolled slide which he somehow self-arrested after several hundred feet! We all donned crampons again. We traversed back to the correct side of the mountain, descended the glacier without incident, packed quickly, and got out at a decent hour, despite many spectacular crashes on skis through the trees and on the trail. With alot more snow this route would be even easier. As it was, it was a full-on grunt fest without reprieve - there was only one flat spot to stand between the lake and the summit ridge! Alex [ 02-19-2002: Message edited by: Alex ]

his name has always been spelled Yvonne, Dru

Hubba Hubba is in. On the way up Mountaineers Creek road, saw many fine flows formed on the opposite side of the valley, about 1.5 miles from the bridge - in stark contrast to the non-existant ice along icicle canyon road.

"where all of the crevases are open," how do you know? Alex, do you think it is really impossible to garantee safety by climbing something like the sitkum glacier without a rope in the summer? yes, I think it is IMPOSSIBLE to guarantee safety on any glacier when you are not on the ablation zone. It may be IMPROBABLE that you will fall into something on the Sitkum. Do you understand the difference? If you did you would understand my argument and fucking wake up. Have I soloed the Sitkum? Sure. Would I solo it again? Sure. Can I guarantee my safety and those of the others soling the route with me? Absolutely not. Are you a mountaineer? Or just a member of one of those groups that I pass everytime I ever get on a Glacier in the summer. Wow, dude, you are hard core. You must be so fast to pass all those people! By implying that I might be a Mountaineer...oh, my heart condition! Someone save me! Aldesair, save me from my slow pace and my ignorance! Alex

I swear, every BC climber I have ever known worhips John Clarke all "John Clarke 3rd class", namely 5.4-5.6... whoh dude! hard core! sounds very much like "Beckey fourth class" dude can outwrestle a grizzly bear and dig like a wolverine... and he smells like a goat... So does the Sale chick, but now they are giving her a Gold Medal? must be a Canada thing...

"Its alot of fun and alot of people do it" So is Crystal Meth, but I would not recommend that in a Newbie forum! Everyone makes these choices all the time, in the interest of speedy travel over alot of ground, or being able to go alone. But people need to realize that travelling non-ablation zone glacier is a very dangerous thing, despite how many people dont think much of it simply because they've never had the good fortune of popping through something, breaking an ankle, and dying on the mountain. I think John Clarke and Freb Beckey should get into the BATTLE CAGE!!!! We could call it, Battle Cage: Pacific Northwest Legends! I bet Beckey would win. [ 02-15-2002: Message edited by: Alex ]

I would suggest the following rules of thumb: Ablation zone of the glacier? rope not needed. All other situiations. Rope needed. Of course a rope does not substitute for knowing what the fuck you are doing with it, but that can be said about any aspect of roped climbing Examples: corn snow? rope neededno visible crevasses? rope neededspring/early summer in the cascades on a glacier? rope needed Have I followed this rule of thumb always? No. But I was gambling with my life. Will I always follow this rule of thumb? I am prone to following it alot more since I got a stern talking-to by a climbing partner who I respect greatly, after saying something like "its corn snow, no visible crevasses, blah, blah, blah" The truth is YOU NEVER KNOW unless you are on ablation zone. Do you REALLY want to be known as the idiot who died unroped on Sulphide Glacier? Alex [ 02-15-2002: Message edited by: Alex ]

we're all hoping the curiosity will get the better of you and you'll show up at the next one.

I think the Ptarmigans have one up on the KTK

I did a WMA WFR course in 1995. Great course! About 2 weeks after I completed the course, I was parked at a red light near the mall in Bellingham, when *SMACK* right before my eyes an Isuzu Trooper broadsides and rolls an old VW beetle with (get this) 7 people inside. I pulled my trusty medical kit out of the car and proceeded to the scene. Another guy there was an EMT. No one died, and everyone in the beetle was so panicked that they just PILED out of that thing at light speed, so forget about keeping their necks immolbilized! Between the two of us we did the best we could, one woman had a bad jaw injury. Not one week later, I am going up my first ever Burley Canadian Rockies Ice Climb (Louise Falls, eh?) and a leader on the pitch above us takes a HUUUUGE fall! He ends up being alright, but the belayer has a broken left leg. We bring everyone up to the belay, and proceed to splint up the dudes leg and lower him down the climb. Not much blood, everyone calm. The dude who took the fall ends up walking out to the car while the guy with the fracture gets a helicopter evac...from Louise Falls! A few years later I am sitting in Rampart eating mush, and some doctor from Rocky Mountain House is sitting next to me telling this same story. Turns out he was the other party on the climb who helped us evacuate this pair. Everyone who takes climbing seriously should complete one of these courses. Alex

Will Gadd gets style points for laughing at himself: "WG Note: While some may fault this web site for reporting such climbing, I feel that it's a major leap forward in standards and vision. Look for new crampons, picks and screws from Black Diamond for this futuristic sport. A world cup may be organized for 2010."

if you dont have a mortgage and dont have kids, the choice is obvious