Alex

I have Shuksans and they are solid. I don't think you can go wrong buying either pair.

Awesome to see you try it! I've done only a few of those but sounds like a really cool project!! Looking forward to hearing about the "SCW 15", Hyperspace, Outerspace, and Orbit in a day!

Thanks for the reminder that slide alder IS NOT REQUIRED FOR A GOOD TIME

Or arachnids, even.

Good. I'm tired of all these students with no job and lots of free time getting all the climbing done. Sheesh!

That looks really fun!

good to know, thanks for the info

great deals john, wish the suit fit my XL frame!

Gene and I tried it but never got on it proper, opting for the SE route instead. I posted a TR for Buck somewhere here.

I didn't walk into Jade, but it's as "in" as Honeymans is. All relative I guess. Capricorn final pitches were definitely there. If anything its been plenty cold (perhaps too cold) and was overcast every day for most of the day, but there is absolutely no new water feeding the routes so the ice is getting old.

The ice was very very hard, cold, and brittle last weekend up on the Duffy, stuff definitely felt harder because of it!

Hi, just a few additional comments to Dru's, and please don't take them personally. As Dru/G-Spotter noted, you're on Rambles Center, which clocks in at pretty vanilla WI3. I and partner climbed both PS-Dihedral (Rambles Right) and all of Rambles Center last weekend and it was all in, and basically WI3. Rambles Center top pitch currently has a nice variation up a chimney and pulling through a roof. I and my partner climbed Isadorth on last Monday. It was nice and rambly, but never more than WI2+ though much longer in its current incarnation than 150m advertised in the guide. You can cross the Cayoosh easily anywhere directly below the route on abundant ice dams. We solo'ed the whole thing. Probably 300m of climbing, then walk off climbers left. Not too bad except the 10 min of slide alder bashing. Belmore is also in, but lower angle and would be hard to justify taking a rope. Cherry Ice and Honeyman *are* in, we climbed Honeyman last week as well (Saturday). Honeyman has a gusher on it's left side, but otherwise offered 3 full pitches of quite highly entertaining ice to WI3+ (the first pitch). westcoastice.com typically has all the latest conditions, but should anyone else be heading up in the next weekend, here are some additional tidbits: Phair Creek: hill was a sheet of glass, no way no how. We almost destroyed the Impreza trying to go just 400 feet up it, then sliding backwards downhill uncontrolled at like 20mph!! Bridge Creek: Jade in, Capricorn in, NightnGale in, everything else out. Shriek has a huge roof on it's last pitch where an outer curtain fell off, looks solid 6. Birkenhead: The Plum, Valentine in. Lots of ice up that valley right now, some very close to the road. Didn't have the new guide that day to put any names on anything but the obvious.

this is Primus Suckus... When I was there last weekend...we climbed first on the left...and could see primus suckus...there was nothing between the two climbs. But I do remember a flow to the left of primus suckus. No, it isnt. Please see my previous post. Primus Sucks is the left-most route on the entire cliff; the first route you encounter as you approach from 609 (which means coming from the northwest), or the *last* route you encounter coming the other way, from "First on the Left". The route in your quote above is "Second on the Left" in the book, which we're calling Unholy Baptism.

For sure, you were halfway up it!

It's unclimbed, its the route to the right of Primus Sucks. This one is also unclimbed. This is Unholy Baptism, aka "Second on the Left". The bottom pitch has seen an ascent, and the top pitch has been seriously tried once but backed-off of by a very skilled climber (during a season when he was running laps all over testpiece 5s). Bottom pitch is a 70m WI4. Top pitch is a full-vertical 60m 5 or 6. I installed a 2-bolt anchor at the top of the second pitch during the summertime many years ago, with the idea that I'd bolt the lower half of the second pitch to enable getting up it even in lean years, but after inspecting the rock decided it was best left alone and safe ascents would only happen if ice was covering the junk rock. Probably one of the finest routes in Washington. Basically, there are four or five regularly forming routes left of Separation Gully. One usually doesnt form, so in normal years there are only 4. But whatever. From left to right, as you approach from 609 road, it's Primus Sucks, Unclimbed, Unclimbed, Unholy Baptism, and First on the Left. Seperation Gully. Then Sudden Change of Plan, Sad Ce'bu, Right Stuff, Dropline....etc.... So yeah, you've got pics of essentially 3 FAs there, afaik.... Alex

Cayoosh creek is running really low, ice dams abound right now, and there is NO SNOW anywhere low in the Duffy, so approach direct to the creek down the hill. Synchro doesnt look that healthy right now, but is climbable.

May I make a suggestion? As the WA Ice guide book author it would be nice to have either an updated web page or post more succinct information when asked (pics, grade and route description) on routes not in the current edition. Please note this is a TR for "Water Ice". I didn't name anything here as I am not so vain or naive enough to think these lines haven't been done. Just have yet to read a credible route description. I would also doubt this route would ever be 5 pitches even with a 120' rope and you could climb the longer one (call it "Blue Moon" if you like) with a 120' rope if pressed. I'd have to think anyone capable of climbing the top 3 pitches would put a rope on for the approach. (since it gets skied) The "sounds like" answer isn't very convincing. Until I see pictures of someone climbing the crux corner, sorry I'm not convinced. As there are two sets of rap tat below the crux...and neither of them where it would be if you were/had actually climbed it as a ice climb or even hard mixed. That seemed to be the consensus of the five of us who were there this weekend anyway. I have updated web pages, actually, on wastateice.net. Alpental valley and Rap Wall are not there yet; I work on this stuff as time permits, which these days is rare. I didn't see you claiming and FA, so thanks for the clarification that you are not. I am just offering what little I know of the history of the area and likely the route you did. I disagree that "I should have just known" from whatever description is written and pics: there are alot of possible routes above Source Lake, it's often very difficult to figure out what people are doing or where they are without pictures of recognizable features or UTM coords. But your second pic has that clear boxy roof up above, same as Roger Strong pics, which is why I commented as I did. But it's academic, as the most important thing is folks climbing and having fun! Here are the photos I have of Flow Reversal, you're free to draw whatever conclusions you like.

It's a new trend Dru, get with the times.

Thanks Dane, I'm pretty sure your "Once in a blue moon...." is Flow Reversal, the second pic you posted looks like the same as one Roger Strong sent to me years ago when the route was first reported. It's not in the book because the draft had gone to press by then. It was first climbed a few years ago either by Roger Strong or one of his friends, and was done very early season as a 5 pitch route (there are two rambly pitches below when there is less snow) at WI5 X. It's been repeated several times since, every few years.

That's Not Quite a Plum. Bryant Buttress is the large rock wall/buttress in the upper left of the pic. That's Frenchman Falls, actually. That's Fuggs Falls.

I believe it's Flow Reversal, but you'd have to show me on map where you climbed it.

if you are not filing down the new picks after purchase, you're going to experience difficulty in cleaning - its true for both bd cobras and vipers. once you file them down a bit, especially the beveled teeth on the bottom, things will be fine.

That's Kiddie Cliff/O Tanenbaum

Sorry to create confusion, but that's not Bryant Buttress actually, that's the route called Not Quite a Plum. This picture: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/0223.jpg is the giveaway: that tree above right there is the top of the first pitch. I think the guide has some non-commital words about Not Quite a Plum because at the time I was calling it something different than that, but I figured it out a little better after the book went to print. Oh well, its a fun rotue!

Likely obvious to everyone, but the photo of the person abseiling on the left are the same person about 12 feet lower, but the same exact spot, as the image on the right.