Ade

But you must have walked right under the NW Face Couloir. Any ice in it or has it all melted out and not refrozen?

See this thread.

Pictures are here.

Friend of mine used maple scraps he acquired from somewhere. You want a hard wood.

I have a DAS and really like it, but mainly for belaying when ice climbing. It has lots of nice features; oversize hood, mesh pockets for drying gloves. I found it warm enough for ice climbing in New England / New York and in Lill'wet this New Year (when it was actually cold). It is pretty bulky though. For alpine I often take something smaller and lighter, like a down sweater or Wild Things primaloft jacket.

Really good pictures! The red sky one is incredible.

Has anyone ever used or even looked at any gear by these guys? http://www.themagicline.com/

The McLane guide gives it TD- ice, 5.7. Beckey about the same. Seems about on the money to me although it felt pretty commiting. It's going to vary a lot. Later in the season there will be more ice, not snow lower down. Until the couloir melts out that is. Higher up there will be a lot more dry rock to climb, you could probably climb in boots/shoes from the col but might need to pitch more of the couloir. We descended the way we came whereas McLane suggests rapping the Beckey route. Later season you might be better decending the Beckey as it sees more traffic and has more established anchors (maybe). The rock quality wasn't good by Cascades standards. I'd be interested to know what the rock on the N Ridge is like. Anyone?

Snowy. The North side of the tower gets less sun and consequently has more snow on it still. The Nelson/Gerson traverses onto the South side slightly. Most of the stuff that fell on us when we were descending was coming off the Beckey route. In some places it follows gullies which were still full of snow. I'll have pictures next week.

Couple of my friends back East have been there. If anyone's really serious I could ask from some beta.

Film went in today. I'll get them back next week and scan them. Colin's may be back sooner but he doesn't have a scanner. The bikes really worked out although I think I need a wider saddle. The one I have is very narrow and was somewhat painful with me and a full pack on it.

It depends on the activation force. A screamer is supposed to activate at a few hundred pounds, so that it starts to rip before the gear gets seriously loaded. For Via Ferrata use the assumption is that the "gear" namely the steel cable and its attachement point will never fail but your body might. In which case the activation force may be much higher.

Hey, you did the route. So were you planning to rap the steep sections on the decent or can you actually ski or jump them? Probably a dumb question but then my idea of great skiing is the frozen lake - flat and no objects to hit.

Climb: Nooksack Tower-Nelson/Gerson Date of Climb: 4/11/2004 Trip Report: My guess is Colin is busy today, whereas I’m just at work… Colin and I left Seattle Saturday morning and hiked into the base of the Nooksack Tower the same day (see Approach Notes below). We made an early start the following morning (5am). We managed to only have one headlamp so an earlier start would have been problematic anyway. The schrund is still pretty much buried so accessing the couloir wasn’t an issue. We soloed/simul-climbed most of the couloir to the notch (second used the rope for a couple of steep sections). The cornice at the ridge turned out to be pretty easy to turn on the right side. It's obviously very windy up there in winter. There were these big flutings on the minor peak next to Nooksack and big snow mushrooms on the East face of the tower. Colin made short work a steep but solid(ish) rock pitch up and left above the col. This actually had some tricky but cool mixed moves up a corner system and then led leftwards into a natural bay in the rock. I climbed the next pitch up a rather loose chimney – lots of swearing, scraping of crampons and a momentary reduction in points of contact with the rock. This pitch allowed us to reach a large snow ramp leading toward the summit. The snow had already had a lot of sun so wasn't the best. Colin led a rope length up this, getting another good rock anchor. We weren’t really sure how much more climbing there was so I headed for the crest. After half a pitch of snow and some moves on snowed up rock I pulled over the lip and found myself looking down the other side with the summit just a few feet away. Colin followed and we congratulated each other on a job half done. The top of the Nooksack is the coolest. It's really small with great views of pretty much everything. We sat there for a bit rehydrated and enjoyed trying to figure out what all the peaks were. Of course you still have to get off the mountain. Colin did a great job of setting anchors on the descent; I guess he's had a lot of practice. We had do search around to find good ones under snow covered rock in some cases. We rapped to the col and then down over the cornice and once more for a steep section where the couloir narrows. The rest of the snow we down climbed while trying to dodge bits of falling snow mushroom... unsuccessfully. Times: Left the bivvy at 5am, summit at 11am (5 hours). Back at bivvy by 4pm (11 hour round trip). Note 1: Remember your suncream, then nobody at work will know you went climbing. Note 2: If you have the "Headlamp of Immunity" then you cannot be eliminated (or fall off). Gear Notes: Pins (definitely!), nuts, cams (no need for screws and in most places pickets would have been useless). Lots of slings/tape for rap anchors. Suncream would have been nice. Approach Notes: Drove to the end of the Nooksack road. Biked the section after the removed bridge. Snowshoed the last half mile to the river crossing. The log is still there. Hiked most of the valley to Price Lk, snowshoed the last section. Snowshoed all the way to a bivvy on the glacier. Just under seven hours in and three out - bikes rule.

Nice job... Hope your buddy is OK. What were the snow conditions like in general. With the freezing level at 10k I was expecting things to be pretty soft this w/e.

As always... What do you want them for?

Bouldering kicks ass! Once all the snow has melted I'm heading to the Buttermilks with my monos.

My pictures! just came back so here they are.

A friend of mine was up at the lake last w/e and said that there was a lot of stuff sliding off. The freezing level is still high so I might expect the same.

There's at least three going in Half Price Books in the Crossroads Maul on 156th in Redmond if anyone has been foolish enough not to already have a copy.

The SSC was going to cost $11 Bn, compared to $300m for NUSEL. In the grand scheme of "big science" this isn't really that big. Seems to me the potential revenue boost for the area is minimal 60 construction jobs maybe the same again in staff after completion. And in return they put 1100 cars per day on the road (after construction) and generally mess by the Icicle. Methinks the site in S Dakota would be a lot more sensible.

Worse than Kitty Calhoun?... Is that possible?!

Alasdair and I went last year and had a great time. Didn't even bring skis with us.

So the skiing was great and the climbing would have sucked. You and I can breath a big sigh of relief Layton... No alpine mayhem was missed. Hope everyone has a good time cragging or carving... or even bouldering (Distel).

Hans Florine Show The American Alpine Club and the Climbing Club at the University of Washington invite you to join Hans Florine, speed climber extraordinaire and us at this event. This will be an excellent presentation and the details are: Date: Thurs April 8. Location: University of Washington HUB (Husky Union Building) 106B. Time: 7:00 PM. Cost: A minimum donation of $5.00 at the door. Proceeds will go to the Access Fund and ASCA. There may also be some raffle items. Hans Florine holds numerous solo and team speed records on many of Yosemite's classic big wall routes. He is one of three humans to solo "The Nose" in a day; first and only team of two, (or any number), to have climbed El Cap three times in a day and Half Dome twice in a day; one of eight persons to have climbed The Nose of El Cap and The Regular Route on Half Dome in a day; one of two people to climb, alone, Half Dome and El Cap in a day; the only person to climb El Capitan twice in a day, solo; guided the first and only blind person ascent of El Cap. In 2003 he set the speed record on all the legal 14,000 ft peaks in California; ascended 20 of the classic rock and peak routes, from the "50 Classics of North America" book, in 20 days; ascended fourteen of the California 14,000 ft peaks in under ten days. Hans has climbed over 60 routes of grade 5.13, (7C+), or higher, repeated one 5.14 and established one 5.14. Hans has also been over 21,500 ft on Aconcagua, and over 17,000 feet on Shivling. For more information go to http://hansflorine.com As there is limited seating we are allowing reservations to be made with members of both clubs receiving guaranteed priority. Each member may bring one non-member as a guest who will be given the same priority. To put you and your guest's name (include their name) on the list, please email to climb@u.washington.edu no later than Wednesday March 31st. At that time we will email everyone on the list to confirm attendance, so we may allocate remaining spots to non-members. If you are a non-member, who wants to attend, please email to be put on the list and seats will be allocated on a first received basis. You have to be on the list to attend. We will notify you by April 2nd to let you know if you have a seat. For information about the American Alpine Club go to http://www.americanalpineclub.org and for the Climbing Club at the UW go to http://students.washington.edu/climb/ --