Ade

I started to compile a list http://www.ademiller.com/blogs/climbing/winter-routes What have I missed? I'm sure there are some. Post them as suggestions here. Cheers, Ade

I got to climb on a new set of Petzl doubles last week and quite liked them. How durable they are wasn't really put to the test however. I'm definitely in the Mammut camp having tried various other brands.

Nice! Looks like a new variation/line. I'm pretty sure we were on the route described by Roger & Dan. It fitted the description pretty much to the letter although the M6 pitch may have been slightly easier that when the 1st party climbed it. The bottom was drytooling but further up I was able to climb very thin ice out from the corner. I haven't climbed enough M graded routes to really have an option although it was at least as hard as the M4 & 5 lines I've been doing in the 'Daks this week. Ade

Definitely not rock shoe territory on the traverse. It's west facing so probably clears up pretty fast.

You've gotta love that Welsh slate! Not for me though... It's a short guy's route.

Trip: Mission Improbable: Guye Peak's West Face - Improbable Traverse Date: 2/1/2009 Trip Report: Hopefully this'll keep you entertained when you should be working. There's some more pictures etc on my web site . The tape starts… “Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to climb the Improbable Traverse route on the west face of Guye Peak. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds…” But that’s messed up, it’s the middle of winter. Why would anyone want to try and sketch their way up all that loose rock and then across a slab when it might be covered in snow? “Well, it’s mission improbable, Dr. Miller – not mission difficult.” Fast forward… Which is why Chris and I found ourselves gearing up at a turnout below Guye Peak at 7am on Sunday morning. We had a cunning plan. So cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel. Neither the weather nor avalanche forecast looked exactly great so we’d take advantage of Guye Peak’s proximity to the road and an approach which followed the tree line to get something done. The Improbable Traverse route is steep enough that it holds minimal snow so provided we could get to the base of the route we’d be in good shape. We leave the car and take turns in breaking trail up the edge of the talus field below the west face. From the road the entire route looked almost devoid of snow but as we get closer we can see ice on the first pitch and more snow on the pitches above. Snow conditions are pretty good and we’re at the base of the route and geared up within an hour. Chris leads the first pitch. He makes short work of a nice 3+ flow followed by a snow ramp that puts us at the start of the real business. Time to call a halt to this insanity and retreat. The ice on the first pitch actually took good screws. Good ice in Snoqualmie Pass? Something is desperately wrong for sure. We should bail now before things get really weird. The next pitch leads up broken mixed ground below Lunch Ledge. Lots of balance moves on snow covered ledges with ice and frozen turf. In places the turf is too dry to be really usable but the gear is reasonable and the typically thin cracks make pretty good hooking. The pitch ends at a good block belay (as described in Nelson) with a nice stance sheltered below a short wall. Like the rest of Snoqualmie pass the rock on Guye Peak leaves something to be desired. The solid parts tend to be super compact and hard to protect. The loose parts are, well loose and – you guessed it – hard to protect. Knife blades and bugaboos are pretty much mandatory if you want to keep runouts sensible. They should really tear the whole thing down and replace it with some nice granite. Chris soon arrives and sets off up the next pitch which was more of the same except for the last few moves follow a steep layback corner/crack and then traverse left to Lunch Ledge. Chris can clearly levitate as this short section left me floundering for footholds on the smooth sides of the corner. From here we have a good view of the traverse which seems somewhat… improbable. The traverse pitch takes ages to lead. The ledges which make up the traverse are snow covered, many of the slope downwards and are too slick to be usable in boots. In winter the pin that protects the crux seems less inspiring and flexes alarmingly when loaded. After a couple of attempts I tension off the first pin to traverse slightly lower and make the step across. In winter this is a whole different game. The second pin turns out to be worse but there’s better gear beyond and the climbing eases a bit. Finally I make it to the ramp after a strenuous move off the final section of the traverse. It’s covered in snow so I have to climb higher up before I can move across to a belay in the corner. The rack is mostly used up so I have to get creative with the shattered rock that makes up the right side of the ramp. A lot of hammering and muttering later and I have a belay*. I dig a bucket belay seat and tug on the ropes to get Chris moving. He must be frozen after nearly two hours of belaying. Even seconding the traverse takes a while and requires care but Chris makes it to the belay and we’re good to go. Chris takes the rack and does a great job of avoiding kicking rocks on the belay and more importantly the belayer as he makes his way up the loose rock on the ramp. This gives way to snow which means rapid progress to the nose at the top of the ramp and a solid tree belay. In theory this is the end of the real technical difficulties so we shorten the ropes and start to simul-climb the right trending ledge system. Of course all that would be too simple. A mixed rock step and another left trending slope brings us to a short rock wall just below the summit. Chris opts to struggle up the off width corner as it is protectable rather than the wall itself. The corner is narrow and his pack gets caught. Above the corner he’s able to quickly finish the last of the climbing in the last of the remaining daylight. We just have enough time to traverse the summit and find the boot track leading to the Guye-Snoqualmie saddle before it finally gets dark. The leeward side of Guye has lots of unconsolidated snow but thankfully we’re not on it for long and conditions descending from the saddle are much better. By 7pm we’re back at the car. Gear Notes: Full alpine rack. Lots of thin pins and slings. Approach Notes: Park in the Alpental housing development and hike up the south side of the talus below Guye to the start of the route.

Lifestyle crap is where the big $ are. Go wander around Bellevue. On saturday there's more dead bird gear in the Lincoln Square than you'll find on the icefields parkway.

Possible reasons... You're not logged into Picassa any more? Picassa has decided that you've cross linked pictures to CC.com and are effectively bandwidth stealing from them (lots of sites/tools do this)? Congrats on getting it done. I'm desparate to get on Colonial but this weather window it was not to be. I really want to see the pictures Ade

I don't suppose you have any info on the condition of ice lines like Death Picnic from your ski around table mountain? Ade

Nope. It was dark. Given the forecast - normal Cascades winter will resume tomorrow - the question is probably moot anyways.

Trip: Mount Snoqualmie - Pineapple Express Date: 1/25/2009 Trip Report: So Marko and I decided to have a go at The Pineapple Express on the north face on Snoqualmie on sunday. The first crux was getting out of bed and on the road before 5am but eventually I met Mark in North Bend. Note to self; partying the night before an alpine start looses its appeal sometime past your 30th birthday. Excellent snow conditions meant that the approach was pretty much cake although it's still quite a hike. We met Colin and friends at the saddle - they'd slept in and taken the Phantom Slide approach (see below). We chatted to them and geared up before descending into the bowl below Snoqualmie's north face. We went to check out the Pineapple while Colin and Dillan tried their luck on NY Gully and another of their party soloed the slot couloir. Dillan had looked at our route the day before and said it was thin but we thought we might as well take a look. Hey, we'd walked all that way right? Half way up the first pitch I was revising the "what the hell" sentiment as I contemplated the holding power of a tied off bush with respect to my substantial 200lb frame. I muttered to Mark about having second thoughts but continued upward to find something better to bail off if nothing else. Thereby successfully conning myself into climbing the whole 60m. The pitch definitely lived up to the R rating. Mark summed it up nicedly with "I knew you'd brought your sense of humor when I saw that first screw". Mark led off up and left on more thin ice with slightly better gear. At least the belays were all equiped with substantial trees. As Forrest Murphy once said to me "in the Cascades in winter trees are your friend". Mark belayed me up and we inspected the next pitch - apparently the crux at M6 with good gear. We'd discussed the small wrinkle in our plan during the approach, namely neither of us could really say we were M6 material. No matter... we had age and cunning on our side, Mark said he could even do a pullup (just one) and "good gear" is really a secret code for "you can aid it if you have to". Standing below it aiding seemed a little problematic but clearly the first couple of moves looked feasible. Having been offered the plum pitch is seemed rude not to at least try. Besides there was a nice soft snow slope to land in and a big tree belay. The pitch disappeared up a long right facing corner with the promise of another tree 150' above. The first moves off the deck were strenuous but with several OK gear placements. After that the angle eased for a bit and along with more (thin but good) ice there was TURF! Oh yeah. Ice is great and all but big fat lumps of frozen moss and dirt... now that's where it's at. More good gear could be had in the corner on the left. All in all... Cake. Of course that would have all been too easy. Above the angle steepens again. The corner was completely dry - providing good gear but harder climbing on the compact rock that's typical of Snoqualmie Pass. Thankfully there was a very thin ice smear out to the right. Good gear high in the corner and a quick step down to reach a few inches of well adhered ice and Robert's your father's brother, thirty feet of upward progress and... more TURF! Mr Turf say hello to my little friend, Mr Spectre. A bit more climbing, more rock great and some entertaining tree pulling and cursing and I was belaying Mark up from another nice fat tree. Mark led the next pitch which moved right onto a spectacularly exposed ridge before taking a snow slope up to just below the ledge system leading across the base of the headwall. Given that I'd gotten the nicest pitch Mark led us home... We simul-climbed the next four pitches to the base of the last pitch on NY Gully. Mark led across easier but exposed mixed ground including some not so easy sections with huge exposure over the whole of the north face. Anything that fell of plummeted into the mist below. The 5.8 crack that represents the last of the difficulties on NY Gully was iced in. Mark did a stellar job of aiding it and tackling the thin ice above to the end of the difficulties. Usually this pitch is dry but still hard, as evidenced by the growing collection of fixed gear. I followed with the pack and somewhat less elegantly. We descended in thick fog trying to make the most of the remaining half hour or so of daylight. Mark's navigational genius, or blind luck (you choose) got us back to our gear stash without any real hassles. We followed tracks down the Phantom Slide and were back at the car in next to no time. Surprisingly we had taken just under twelve hours car-to-car. Plenty of time for Pizza in North Bend on the way home... Ummm... A big helping of alpine climbing followed a serving of fat and carbs. What's not to like? Gear Notes: Full rack up to #3 Costalot including wires and (thin) pins Slings are useful for slinging trees, bushes and anything else that might slow rapid downward progess. Take some stubby ice screws for comedy value and to make yourself feel better. Pictures: There are none. Between the two of us we were too lazy and incompetant to bring a working camera between us. Somethings its nice to just climb and not worry about a camera. Approach Notes: We approached as per Nelson's description. Colin and co. hiked up the Phantom Slide directly from the Alpental lot. We descended this way. Colin's description "it's five times easier" is not an understatement. I'd use the Phantom next time. Obviously this is dependent on snow conditions.

Most of the climbs opposite Alpental looked "in" yesterday. Alpental 1 (first climb on the right) looked pretty fat (given usual conditions). Note: We walked past these things at first light and didn't stop to inspect so treat this info accordingly.

Jens, Cole, Ahh glad that's cleared up. I'd heard someone had got out and done it. As John and I were hiking into Colchuck it seemed like this was one of those purfect windows to try Stuart. We actually bumped into you guys at the lake... Thanks for the warning about stuff coming down the TCs. Nice! Ade

Not much is in form what we saw on the way down. Hubba Hubba was spraying water and the stuff on the other side of the road from the Stuart FSR was pretty much nonexistant. Ade

That works... but only up to a point. Since taking up a more structured CrossFit based training approach I've gotten stronger and my rock climbing and alpine climbing has improved. Dispite holding down a "real" job and getting older. Ade

Used to own Beal but wasn't that impressed with their durability. Seemed to go fuzzy very quickly - or was that because I dragged them up thousands of feet of shitty rock in the Yukon? Either way I've been very impressed with the current set of Mammut ropes I own. Survived similar treatment and still looking OK. Ade

Nice. I happened to bump into one of your packs while at marmot Mountain in Bellevue the other day. Really solidly made without a lot of the bells and whistles - that just add weight - which other manufacturers seem to love adding. Ade

Nice. And there was me wondering what it was like further North.

I have the same issue with my Vasque Ice 9000's. The heel on the Charlet Sarken's was too narrow for those boots. I've always had good luck with the BD Sabretooth's they're a beefy (heavy) crampon but seem to fit my large boots/feet.

Icy and rutted but skiable (remember I'm from London and therefore the worst skier you've probably ever seen). There's a short bare patch about 1/4 of a mile up the road but othet than that it's good. Ade

You read CC.com for informed opinion?

Trip: Dragontail - Chasing the Dragon Part 2 - Backbone Ridge, FWA Date: 1/16/2009 Trip Report: Here's the TR and some pictures. You can find even more pictures in my gallery here. When John Plotz emailed me last weekend completely convinced that conditions on Dragontail’s Backbone Ridge were going to be perfect I have to say I was skeptical. Previous experience told me the Colchuck Lake basin was bitterly cold most of the winter. But local knowledge is local knowledge and it’s not like I had anything else planned for the end of the week. So… Thursday morning found me standing at the Eight Mile trailhead waiting or John and Kyle to arrive so we could ski into the lake. If winter climbing in the Cascades demands nothing else it demands optimism. We skied up the road in the cold fog convinced warmer air lay above the inversion. Kyle had originally planned to accompany us to the trailhead and possibly further but a fall the previous week had left him with a back injury and he wished us luck and turned back shortly after we left the cars. John and I continued skinning up the trail. The previous week’s rain had reduced the snow cover and it was mostly easy going all the way to the lake. Either that or my skinning has improved which doesn’t seem that likely. At the lake we retrieved a cached rope and some large cams and pitched a tent on the edge of the ice. We planned to climb the route in a single day figuring we might be able to rappel from the base of the Fin into the top of the Triple Couloirs route and climb that for a quick finish if darkness looked like it was going to overtake us. Being benighted would not be fun. An early start was in order… John gearing up at the base of the route. The following morning John and I left the tent just before six and hiked the twelve hundred or so feet up from the lake up to the base of the route at 6,800’. The snow was really well consolidated so we made really good going and reached the base by around dawn just after seven. We geared up on the moraine and I set off to the start of the route. In winter the lower part of the route climbs a shallow gully and then traverses easy angled snow slopes first left and then back right to the base of the 5.6 corner a pitch below the off-width. We simul-climbed the snow to the corner using trees as belays. Soft snow made it seem like hard work but at least it was really easy climbing. There are actually two obvious corners below the off-width, in winter the left hand one looks to be the better option. It had less ice than on my previous attempt a few years ago with Alasdair. The snow ended in a short ice smear up the base of the corner. We drytooled and then rock climbed the corner to the obvious tree anchor. Probably at about M4 or so – because every Cascades route seems to get M4 these days. John following the last of the snow above the mixed corner. We put away the boots, crampons and ice tools and put on rock shoes and, in my case, attractive 80s style leg warmers. The warm temps and rock shoes allowed John to make short work of the pitch Alasdair and I had spent ages aiding on our last attempt. Heavy packs made the first 5.6 moves feel like hard work though. By 9:30 we we at the base of the off-width corner which had some snow deep in the crack but was pretty much dry. We broke out the aiders and big green Camalot. I was worried the corner might really slow us down but a combination of aid, French free and free climbing soon had me hauling packs and John following the corner. The wall above looked largely free of snow. John belaying the off-width. We were able to free climb the 5.8 pitches above the off-width to gain easier ground on the ridge crest below the Fin. We simul-climbed the forth class pitches to the base of the Fin. All really fun climbing without much of the unpleasantness usually associated with winter climbing. In fact other than the overly heavy packs, it was all starting to seem a bit too easy. Leading the 5.8 pitches above the off-width. Very dry conditions. From the base of the Fin we could see directly into the upper of the Triple couloirs. Like everything else on the face snow cover was thin. As we were watching a TV sized block came bouncing down the gully dislodging other rocks and taking them into the lower couloir. This made our cunning escape plan seem a whole lot less cunning. John led the first pitch up from the base of the Fin across the ledges. Which is where Dragontail started to bite back. There was a lot more verglass on the slabs and icing in the cracks than we’d found lower down making the climbing somewhat harder and hard to protect. John did a great job of making it to the belay ledge in the middle of the Fin without being able to get much gear. Working up towards the ledge belay on the Fin. I led a short pitch up the face but was stopped as grove above me was filled with snow. Further up the remainder of the crack system was completely iced in and not in a fun mixed sort of way. I belayed John up to our high point and we examined our options. These seemed somewhat limited given that we are over a dozen pitches up the route and our bailout option of the Triple Couloirs looking very unattractive. Other than the groove leading right there was another set of cracks to the left. I remembered a topo showing the left hand variation so we opted to give it a go, neither of us actually having done it before in summer. It seemed like the only, and therefore best plan. John starting the left hand variation on the Fin. John headed up the first series of cracks to a great belay at the start of a rightwards traversing rack system. While the cracks weren’t iced in you definitely had to be careful where you put your hands and feet as there was much more icing than lower on the route. I climbed the cracks right and ended up in an obvious notch in the crest of the fin and belayed John up. We were rewarded with a fantastic position and amazing view of the surrounding peaks and the lake far below. On the minus side the sun was starting to set over Colchuck and it was getting cold. The Fin traverse. OK. So it's now cold. I’d been to the notch before in summer while exploring another variation – usually called “being off route” - and vaguely remember a loose ledge system on the back side of the fin. The ledges led to another notch, onto the front of the Fin and then ultimately to the summit. Of course in winter this turned out to be covered in either ice or soft snow. We quickly changed out of rock shoes and into boots. It was now past 4pm and darkness would be on us in under an hour. John doing the business on the final section of ridge. The traverse was slow going with many loose blocks waiting for the unwary. After a little aid and a lot of cursing we regained the ridge crest just as it got truly dark. Rather than continue traversing the summer route’s iced in ledge system we opted to put rock shoes back on and simul-climb the crest of the rock ridge. I belayed in the dark as John grunted up another easy (in summer, in daylight) off-width to the ridge crest and continued along it. He ran out of gear just below the summit. I followed the cracks - more swearing and grunting - and finished off the final fifty feet of mixed rock and snow gaining the top just after 6pm (total time on route about eleven hours). I know what you're thinking. We did NOT stop to take drugs on the summit. It just looks that way. We took a few photos and headed down. The descent was straightforward except for a short section of scree at the top of Asgard Pass we were able to plunge step most of the way to the tent for a round trip time of about fourteen hours. Next morning we left camp early the and John skied and I slid down the the trailhead. Yes, there is a difference. How anyone can ski with a forty pound pack on is beyond me, I half expected John to rail slide the handrails on the bridges over the creek. Either way we made it to the trailhead were we were met by Kyle. We swapped stories and then skied down the road to the cars. John skiing out across the lake. By 2pm I was waiting in Starbucks in Leavenworth with the other sheeple trying to get a coffee for the drive home. A full value trip and the weekend wasn’t even half over with. Thanks to... This has been a project of mine for the best part of five years since climbing the Serpentine Ridge in winter with Alasdair Turner in 2005. Numerous winter attempts with Alasdair, including one that failed above the off-width, and several summer rehearsals with Forrest, Justin and John and Kyle Flick all contributed to being able to make the most of the weather this time and get it done. Thanks to everyone who’s tried this route with me – summer or winter – and especially John for watching the weather and being an excellent partner for the trip. Summary First Winter Ascent of the Backbone Ridge (Weigelt-Bonneville, 1970) with Fin Direct left hand variation (Anderson-Brugger, 1974). Ade Miller and John Plotz, Jan 16th 2009 (2000’, 5.9 A1 mixed). The route follows the summer line climbing easy snow to the base of the 5.6 corner. Climb the corner system (mixed) to a tree (possible belay) and continue up rock to the base of the offwidth. The the route to the Fin crest is as described in Beckey. On reaching the crest traverse the south side of the Fin on loose icy ledges (mixed, one pt. aid) to regain the crest at an obvious notch. We avoided further ledge systems on the north side of by climbing up to the crest and traversing towards the summit. Gear Notes: Full rock rack to #6 Camalot with some doubles in the mid-sizes. Pins (KBs and Angles) not used. Ice tools and crampons required, we took one heavy set for the leader and a light weight set for the second. Double ropes increase your options should you have to bail. Approach Notes: Ski or snowshoe from the Icicle road. Good trail to lake. See Colchuck Lake conditions thread for more details.

Full TR in the works but here's what conditions are like up there. Reasonable bootpack in to the lake we skied but mostly doable without floatation, especially if the weather continues as it is. Warm weather and rain has left a very thin, dense snowpack with patches of bare ground in spots. The east side of the lake is not well frozen. We skied the west side near the shore and it was fine. Be very careful on the lake. Snow cover is very low at the moment. Asgard pass has very little snow on it's upper section and the Colchuck glacier still has patches of blue ice showing. Not really great skiing yet. None of the mixed lines on Dragontail are in good condition; Dragontail Madness, Triple Couloirs, North Face, or the Gerber-Sink. Very little snow or ice build up. Not that surprising most of these are late season routes anyways. The TC's have very little snow and there was significant rock falls down it both days we were there. Another party climbed the NE Buttress couloir on Colchuck and said it was snow all the way. The NE couloir also looked reasonable. Definitely a better bet than the TCs. Currently the inversion is making it much warmer up there than you would expect. Clear skys are allowing things to set up at night but even then it's really not that cold. The NWS forecast of daytime temps in the forties and no wind are pretty much spot on. Cheers, Ade

Good work sticking with it through the bad weather. I'd have bailed for sure! Cheers, Ade

Did all the rain strip whatever ice there was. I'm wondering what sort of condition the routes might be in. It seems like it's still very warm so I'm not expecting anything to be in great shape. Braydon - what did the faces look like? Did the rain clear them of anything climbable?