Ade

The Ice 9000s are no lighter than any other plastic, but for me they climbed a lot better than by Invernos.

One has to question your sanity for even attempting such a thing. Descending the Cascadian is a "tedious, never-ending slog of despair" - let alone climbing up it.

We took bivies. A tent would have meant a lot more digging.

The kicker is that the descent is pretty complex and doing it in the dark is going to suck. It would be way easy to get seriously stuck. We started rapping in the dark and realized it wasn't going to happen. Stu had to work on Sunday and I had a 30deg bag to sleep in so it's not like we fancied another bivi or anything - although we did get really cool views on Index at night and a beautiful dawn.

You sooo don't get away with it that easy. What happened? Did you also light the fire at Lake Serene? Ade

Climb: Mount Index, West Face-Murphy's Law Date of Climb: 2/17/2006 Trip Report: Stuart and I went in to check out the west face of Mount Index on Friday, planning to climb the Eve Dearborn Memorial / Supercouloir route (EDM). The approach wasn't that bad although the ‘shwacking up the lower part of the face was pretty tedious. We soloed the lower gully and bypassed the second step up mixed terrain to the far left. From there we simul-climbed the left hand fork of the couloir where it is split by the small rock spur. We climbed higher but moved left too early thinking we were higher on the face than we really were. Essentially mistaking a lower snow patch for the upper one described in Nelson. Call it ineptitude or an inexplicable enthusiasm for steeper terrain. The route we took leaves the EDM approach couloir and climbs an ice step before heading up an ice runnel on the left side of the couloir. This leads to a snowfield level with the EDM bivi site (as marked in Nelson). We bivied on the top of the snowfield, below a rock buttress. It wasn't possible to continue up the runnels - the next pitch being discontinuous snice. Failing upwards we traversed left about half a rope length across the snow patch and climbed another ice system on the left side of the buttress. From there the route stays to the right and climbs steep snowfields and ice smears for four pitches. It finishes immediately to the climbers left of the North Peak, another rope length leads to the summit. After a brief trip to the summit, to make absolutely sure we were descending the right way. We traversed the ridge to the false summit of the North Peak. This requires a short but awkward rappel to get across a notch in the ridge. We made it about 200’ below the false summit before nightfall and bivied. The following morning we descended as per Nelson's description, rapping off trees almost the whole way. We used some existing fixed anchors lower on the face. Grade: V, snow and ice to 80º, steep mixed ground. Notes: We found tracks from some other parties low on the mountain but didn't see any signs of anyone else on the summit ridge. For the most part the ice conditions were poor, aerated ice and snice – OK for climbing but bad for pro. It was, as forecast, very cold although grew less windy by Saturday afternoon. Props to Forrest Murphy for his company on at least one recce in lousy weather and for telling me this was “the” Index weekend even thou he was off skiing. I don't have a topo photo, the best picture of the face is in Beckey 1, p227 (on which the EDM is not marked). Nelson 1, Ed. 1 also has a picture p104. Its worth noting that the picture in Nelson shows only the upper half of the terrain depicted in Beckey, which in turn only shows the climbing above the first bypassed ice pitch. The top of the Beckey photo seems somewhat foreshortened based on the amount of climbing we did there. Gear Notes: Rock gear to 2”, KBs and LAs, ice screws and lots of slings. 60m ropes.

Been there for sure.

http://www.pbase.com/image/53643650 http://www.pbase.com/image/40358778 Which one... left or right?

Definitely a good effort. Stu and I nearly went and had a go at this a few weekends back luckily the weather bailed before we had to actually do anything but talk about the approach. How about some more info... Like what was the climb like. Ade

Anybody got one? I haven't been able to find anything. I'm after something a bit like the picture in Beckey but digital and sans copyright so I can make a topo out of it. Cheers, Ade

Nice job! I went for a look see at that a while back but never got back to have a go at it. Ade

That's the book. Great read isn't it! As you can see from the guide the route isn't that technical but don't underestimate its length, remoteness and the weather. A buddy of mine went to try this years ago and didn't even see the mountain in several weeks. Elias is higher and closer to the coast so it gets the worst weather. I remember being in Gulf Air's hangar one year when they were trying to airdrop food and snowshoes to some guys who were half way up when it snowed another four feet and pretty much buried them. Ade

It's written up in the Alaska select guide. I'm not sure what NZ 3+ equates to I think you'll have to give a link to something that equates grades to routes in N America or the (French) alpine grades.

Thanks for the super useful information.

I was biking a lot last year and saw huge gains in aerobic performance and endurance, combined with some weight loss. I commuted to work, rode on the weekends and did a few events. Unfortunately it does hardly anything for all those upper body climbing muscles and trains your legs very differently from running and hiking. Later in the season I started to do more running just to stop my legs killing me the day after a big descent in the mountains. This year I'm going to do more of a running and biking mix - not hard as I prefer running in the rain to riding in it. The climbing gym twice a week is a very good way to train some muscles and neglect others. This is bad news, especially for alpine climbing. I'm going to try and do more general workouts to balance this and improve core strength plus some more flexibility work. The important thing is to pick something that works for you and stick with it. I have high hopes for CrossFit for me. I've never been able to stick gyms (health clubs) mainly because they just feel weird to me. CrossFit is a very different vibe and a lot more variety. There's also the group aspect to it, rather than working out alone. Of course (I have to say this) the best solution is not to put the weight on in the first place. It's a lot harder to loose than it is to put on.

The review here is for the Mk2 versions that appeared in some places in the Spring of '05. http://alpineclimbing.blogspot.com/2006/01/review-vasque-ice-9000-double-boot.html I'm not aware of a newer model.

Another reason to climb with two hammers.

See: http://alpineclimbing.blogspot.com/2006/01/review-vasque-ice-9000-double-boot.html

In addition with this much snow the approach may be somewhat lengthy.

That would be great. Like Dave I need to know. With the Grivel Trigger did you use the large size (black)? Cheers, Ade

Does anyone own one of these yet? Has anybody got any solid info about them? My XGK is well over ten years old and isn't performing like it once did. I'm thinking of replacing it, not immediately but sometime soonish - before another big trip probably. So if you have any real info on using one of these I'd be pleased to hear about it. Specifically... Is it as easy to maintain as the original, are all the parts as replacable and who controlable is it etc. Cheers, Ade

I agree up to a point but where are you going to stop? I mean you could wear motocross body armour to protect yourself from falling ice.

Make sure you look at the avie forecast first. Last I looked the bowl below the Tooth may not be such a smart place to be playing this weekend.

My system is designed to stop you dropping my tools and loosing them, not to hang off. As such it's designed to hold the weight of the tool. If I replaced the pin loops with something stronger then it would hold body weight but not much more. This is by design. Currently I still climb with a set of androids that I tuck away. If the going gets tough I clip in. As such I'm no worse off than I would have been under my old system. In the case of this specific accident my system, or any other that attaches the climber to the tool, might have made things worse had the weight of the icicle pulled the climber off as it fell.

$50!!! Make your own. I knocked up a set for like $5. I made them just long enough that when clipped into my harness I can use the tool at full stretch. The shock cord is only knotted inside so I can tweak them later. See attached picture. I got the pins, mallons and key rings from Home Depot and the tubular tape and shock cord from REI.