Alex

Cool, that itinerary is on my list for next summer

Fun times. Looks like you carried the skis alot though, which is a bummer. White Rock Lakes is one of the prettiest spots I've found. Actually, that's Mixup.

I was going to comment on how that all looked very similar to the SE Route on Buck that Gene and I did a few years ago, then realized ah right it's in the same range just one vally over....

Good job, thats a nice trip

"but there's probably only a handful of people in the country with a rack big enough for this pitch. " ..or balls... Seriously though, nice looking route and great pic there from the last belay.

What is that low-angled thing, Cascade?

Trip: Cutthroat - South Buttress Date: 6/28/2008 Trip Report: Drove up to the pass "the expensive way" (300$ speeding ticket) Friday night and bivied at Rainy Pass. We were already a bit surprised to find the picnic area unplowed and snow still on the pavement, so in the morning, realizing that there was way too much snow for the ambitous plans we had, we scaled back and settled on the S Buttress of Cutthroat, which neither of us had ever done. Of course we discovered we had forgotten the camera! The approach right now is one of the few that is snow free. The approach is also in the sun all day, so yeah it was hot and we got fried. We climbed up to the base of the approach gully, which still has snow, and made our way to the notch. There was another party on route, which had left their car some hours earlier, but they were cool and didn't send down any death from above. The first pitch proper starts about 30m up from the notch, and is a short slabby traversy thing at about 5.6. Rock shoes really help on this one, though. Next come several pitches of 3rd and 4th up very easy terrain. All this is simulable, though rope drag will be severe in spots. Eventually you get to the crux pitch, which is steep but blocky 5.8 climbing for a 30m pitch, leadable in boots. More easy climbing leads up to a low angled area between the two "humps". Here we caught up with the first party. From here you downclimb 10 feet into a prominent notch, and have to do a boulder move up the other side. This is the "unprotectable 5.8" covered by all the guidebooks. 100 feet later you have to repeat this whole procedure, downclimbing into a second notch and leading first a 5.6 slab (leadable in boots) to a 5.6 offwidth (one move wonder, leadable in boots) with adequate protection. For the offwidth, although it will protect with a #4 camalot or whatever the guidebooks say, you can pretty much leave the boat-anchors at home. It's one move off a ledge, and trivial once you find the key hold inside the crack. From there the summit is a 50 foot scramble away. The decent is a series of very well established raps back down the way you came. They go fast, and have easy pulls. Everything is set up for 30m raps. Once back at the notch, you do another 30m rap down into the approach gully, then hike down to the lowest spot possible, skiers left, and rap from a huge anchor off a tree over the moat to the snow. The ramble back down to the car was uneventful, and we finally got back into the shade created by the sun going behind Whistler as the evening came. The stream crossings at the end were non-trivial because of the raging torrent created by all the melt. Gear Notes: We used a very light rack of 6 cams to climb this route (#2, #1, #.75 camalot, red, yellow, green alien). Take lots of long slings. We used a single strand of 60m 8mm rope, which was fine for both up and raps. My partner climbed the entire route in boots, I used shoes for a few pitches. Approach Notes: Mostly snow free. Pretty area, lots of lillies!

Get a job hippy! Seriously that looks very scenic! I've only actually climbed at Banks in the winter, I can see how on a hot summer day it would be really stellar climbing and then having so much water nearby.

Gabbi is WAY too nice to you Gene!

Good effort!

This should help. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=2&Number=494005&Searchpage=1&Main=36351&Words=Burgundy+Alex&topic=0&Search=true#Post494005

With skis (if there is snow, doubt there will be enough now...), Elbert and Massive. Without skis Crestone group - Crestone Needle, Crestone Peak, and Humbolt.

Go do Olympus if you get a few days of good weather, you'll kick yourself if you don't.

Dougs direct is an alternate *approach/descent* to the base of the East Ridge on Jberg, not an alternate to the route itself. It lets you climb the East Ridge without having to deal with the CJ Coulouir or the hideous yuckness of the traverse from Gunsight notch. Time from parkinglot to base of the East Ridge route is about 4.5 hours, if you can move at good speed. This trip report has some info, and if you do a "Search" on this site, you'll also find plenty. http://www.mountainwerks.org/alexk/climb/TRJBurg04.htm

Even though you're looking for partners, you can do almost all of the 14ers solo, they are mostly just hikes. Feck has a good suggestion though, the further away from large population centers, the better. Also, if you are used to Pacific Northwest approaches, even the "long" approaches for some of the 14ers will be cake: always on roads or good trails, with no bushwacking. A great place to go and get a set is Sangre de Cristos, where you can get Crestone Needle, Crestone Peak, Humbolt in one go from camp, and Kit Carson nearby.

Yeah if you thought Index or JTree were rated "stiff" Tahquitz is definitely up there too. I love the place though!

N Ridge of Baker is probably about it. Perhaps NE Face of Redoubt. CW used to call NF Maude alpine ice but I think it gets just too melted out these days. If you want August alpine ice, gotta go to the Rockies.

congratulations on your engagement!

The problem with "mountaineering peaks" right now is that their access trails are a muddy mess, and hoards of folks would damange the wet trails much more so than if the FS / NPS lets them dry out for a few more weeks. If you are looking for good "mountaineering" day trips, there are still plenty out there: Colchuck via Colchuck glacier Dragontail via Aasgard Pass Mt Daniel Any of the volcanoes if you can figure out the access Baker with skis Hood with skis Olympic Mountains many Tatoosh range summits Yellow Aster Buttes/ Tomyhoi with skis

And BoC is definitely nothing more than 10a! Sheesh!

The graph is interesting in another way...from roughly 1940 to 1975, the overall murder rate was way down. Hmmm, I wonder if I could correlate that to another series of events...WW II, Korea, and Vietnam, maybe, when a significant number of our young male population was overseas killing foreign nationals instead of each other? Not saying there is actually a relationship there either, just saying that correlating murder rate to "prohibition and war on drugs" seems pretty far fetched.

We're going to make it a little easier too. At some point in the coming months we'll post something with directions to the crag, topos/gear info for the cleaned and established lines (there are about 8 so far).

Far side routes were dry as of Sat.

"full scale VII's under 5.11c/d and WI5+ " Colin and Rollo's Torre Traverse falls squarely into "moderate" then, it seems. How about a more realistic definition of moderate? Something along the lines of * Even on the worst weather day, you won't die on the route * Helicopter or airplane not required to approach it * A reasonably experienced climber can lead it off the couch * Good protection throughout (i.e. no R or X climbs)

I've decended the Perren after climbing up to the Cogan hut with genepires via Scheisse Ledges. The Perren route is MUCH more direct than the S Ledges route and much cleaner, and as far as technical ground at most has probably 1 or 2 shorter pitch of 5.7 on it. We chose S Ledges on the way up because it had no technical terrain and so seemed like we could just go go go without breaking out a rope. On decent of the Perren, there is one major rap over the one 5.7 pitch, but the rest of the decent is unremarkable. That's not to say EITHER of these routes are easy routefinding, though. There is a LOT of scrambling and if you are unfamiliar with the area in general or the Rockies, or have difficulties with loose rock, finding and traversing even these well-travelled routes will be a challenge.