Ade

Buried?

Pretty much everything at Colchuck was shaping up nicely. I'm hoping for a couple of good freeze thaw cycles to thicken up some of the ice and setup the neve nicely after this dump of snow.

Great weather != Great climbing conditions

East Slopes: Tonight 1-3" Friday 1-2" West Slopes: Tonight 8-10" Friday 1-5" I tried to sneak into Colchuck in Feb with a very similar forecast. Result... 6" of snow on the lake. The Enchantments seems to get quite a lot of crest related precip. The snowpack was very iced last weekend. Lots of stuff will be sliding if new snow falls on top of it.

But... If you think "spurs are aid" and shouldn't be used when climbing in the best style, then they're like pulling on gear. You don't downgrade routes to factor in pulling on gear. I'm very happy to see mixed climbing moving away from all the stuff that made it more like aiding. Didn't really seem to be in the spirit of going leashless - leashes were aid but hooks on your feet weren't. It's all about honesty and style. I'm amazed when people say they "led" a route when in fact they rested or even pulled on a bunch of gear. I think I've even read this definition in a guidebook. I always thought leading implied no rests no falls. Try for the best style and the most fun but be honest about what you did.

Nooo... Make winter never end.

Easy... not enough book time prior to climbing I misread/misremembered Beckey, who mentions a winter variation in 1983. Being conservative, we figured that if it had been climbed once then it had probably been repeated, as that's how it usually goes. Hence "a couple of others". Turns out the variation in Beckey was climbed by Tim Wilson and John Wesson was in April 1983 (vol. 1, ed. 3, p282-3), so isn't technically a winter ascent. At least as per the somewhat arbitrary rules of the game. The line, as described in Beckey starts right of the Serpentine and follows thin ice for four pitches to a snowfield, followed by a mixed pitch and up and left to meet the arete route. Wilson's account in the AAJ (1984, p162) clarifies this, saying they joined the Serpentine two mixed pitches from the top. Regardless of the date of their ascent it seems that it's essentially a separate line in the depression right of the Serpentine. We could see some of this line from the arete. I'll try and post some pictures when I get them back. Like Marko I still find it surprising that a line that obvious hadn't been climbed in winter. However, it's hardly alone in that regard, there's plenty more like it in the Cascades. Al and I looked this up in Beckey, Nelson (vol. 1, ed. 2) and the AAJs back to '73 and can't find anything else. If anyone has any more information on this, or any other unrecorded winter activity in the Colchuck basin, I'd love to hear about it. Cheers, Ade

I thought I looked it up in Beckey and that someone did it a long while back but I'll check tonight when I have the book to hand. BTW: There were ski track heading up towards Stuart from where the trail forks to go to Colchuck Lake. Does anyone know who went in there and what conditions were like?

Are they specific to the Primus or could you use them on pretty much any stove? If they're the ones I think I've seen then they're fit pretty much and cartridge.

Almost all gas stoves are a little tippy just because putting the fuel cell under the burner makes them too tall. I've used a gas stove with the fuel off to the side on a tube but this is even worse in the cold as you get no reheating from the flame. Adding a foam insulating jacket makes tipping worse. The bag 'o rice idea is a good one. Obviously adding a copper heat conductor is a very stupid thing to do. Don't do it, watch TV instead.

I have one. I've made a windscreen for it out of the bottom of a roasting tray and a thermal insulator for the stove out of closed cell foam and duct tape. I also have a heat conductor made from 1/4" copper tube. I'll try and post a pitcture of it at some point. Work pretty well in Cascades type winter temps. Very light and compact compared to an XGK.

Climb: Dragontail-Serpentine Arete Date of Climb: 3/13/2004 Trip Report: So... not being able to decide on what to do Alasdair and I "lamed out" and headed back in to Colchuck Lake. We'd been in earlier in the year and not climbed anything - too much snow, not enough time and not enough psych. This time it was warmer than in Feb but pretty windy. It took six hours to reach the lake from the road (Al and I are both shitty skiers - you can probably do better). We sat on the lake for a bit and considered our options. The TCs and North Face routes both looked in but maybe a bit thin. Both the couloirs on Culchuck looked banked out. After some debate on our choices, option A "Fuck it, let's do what we said we'd do" won out. A further one and a half got us to the bivi on the moraine below the Colchuck Gl. about 700' above the lake. The snow conditions below the lake were pretty trashy but the slopes above there were iced. The wind and sun had pretty much setup the snow. There are a couple of OK bivi sites among the boulders on the moraine lip that are out of the wind. We left the bivi at 5pm and started up the ice smear, that covers the summer approach pitches, by 6. The smear leads you to a snowy ramp that goes up and right to the ledge system and tree on the arete below the 5.8 crack systems. A couple of hardish mixed pitches get you to the large ledge at the cracks. Above we climbed pretty much pure rock with short snow ramps, as per the summer route. Lots of the 5.7 and mid-fifth turned out to be much harder than we remembered - lots of aid moves. Luckily only one of the upper crack systems was iced in (probably the crux). The snow was hard enough to kick steps and didn't require crampons. We managed to simul-climb a few short sections but for the most part had to pitch the whole route. The final rock pitch to the summit can be avoided by dropping down a short gully on the left and then climbing up to the summit ridge at the top of the fin. We summited at 6:30 (12:30 hrs total) just before it got dark. It was still windy but great views of Stuart and the rest of the Cascades. All of the snow slopes on the descent were very icy. Both of us had done Dragontail before so it was pretty easyroute finding in the dark but required care under foot. I've nearly gotten majorly lost in bad weather on the summit there so take navigation gear. We descended Asgard pass and skirted the bottom of the North face to get back to the bivi. the last few hundred feet back up to the moraine were hard work. We made it back by 8:30pm (15:30 hrs round trip). Bivi high and it saves you time in the morning when it counts. If it snows this week then conditions up there are going to get dicy, new accumulations over an icy base. As we skied out Sunday morning conditions were starting the deteriorate. Disclaimer: Climbing is dangerous, watch TV instead. Gear Notes: Full set of wires, bunch of pins, three cams and two screws. Two belay jackets, food and a stove (which we didn't use). Approach Notes: Skied up the road, which has started to thaw out. By next weekend you will not be able to ski all the way from the turnout. The trail is almost hikable but needs a cold night to harden it up. If its cold you might manage without floatation.

There's a page on Scarpa's site: http://www.scarpa.net/ (warning evil flash site that launches full screen ) Marmot Mountain in Bellevue have them in stock I believe.

Just taking a BD screw and resharpening it requires some care. I wouldn't want to try and take an OP screw and try and change the angles etc on the teeth.

I think you mean porn timmy, At least I hope you do.

I'll be there... like I have anything better to do.

I got mine from PMS and they rule (no this isn't a viral marketing campaign for Jim's store). Ideal for Cascadian approaches, don't try and climb steep/hard ice with them and you'll be fine. Also remember that if you go ultra light and fit them to a pair of approach shoes or runners they're pretty uncomfortable for extended wear. A light shoe will not give your foot any support and the crampon has to be strapped relatively tight to stay on a flexing foot. It's not unbearable but my feet weren't loving life after a couple of hours of this sort of thing. For crossing slushy glaciers these crampons, plus approach shoes and a couple of Safeways' bags are the way to go.

ABC News "The driver, a woman from Houston, was taken into custody but released after interviewers determined she hadn't known the grenade was in the car, Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Tim Shields said. The woman's husband works for the U.S. military and is apparently stationed at Fort Lewis, south of Tacoma, he said." I'm sure the US Military will be most happy that they've found their grenade.

N Face of Pitchoff is NEI4 I think. The ice season this year (I'm in WA but have friends back East) has been really good so I imagine it's in pretty big now. That area is very sheltered and thus reliable if conditions aren't good elsewhere. Screw and Climax, and the routes next to it are also pretty good multi-pitch 3/4 outings. If you want harder stuff (4+ upwards) then a good concentration of them can be found at Poke o Moonshine; Mid Life Crisis, PT, Poko Waterfall, Bushido. PT on a good day is the bestest ever! The guide is very out of date, there's stacks of new routes, mostly quite hard, that have been put up since it's publication. As far as I know there's no new guide but NEIce.com and the Mountaineer are probably your best bets.

I'd definitely recommend Multiplication Gully and Chouinards as easy classics. There's a lot of harder stuff too, Chapel Pond has very easy access and a lot of routes, not all of them easy. Power Play for instance is one of the two big ticks in the 'Daks (the other being Positive Thinking).

It depends a bit what condition the Liberty is in doesn't it? When I did it there were large sections of quite steep and hard alpine ice, the traverse out from Thumb rock was actually black. I was very glad to have two technical tools I could swing into it. But I have heard of people doing the route and feeling that they didn't need a second tool and kicking steps up the whole thing. This is a very similar axe to the Air Tech Racing, same pick but 2oz heavier. I suspect that most of the additional weight is in the shaft, not the head, as it gets the stronger 'T', rather than a 'B', rating for the shaft. I have one of these axes and for approaches and descents with very short technical sections, like Stuart N. Ridge, Dragontail, or rock routes were saving weight is most important the Air Tech Racing is just fine. I've tried climbing alpine ice with this axe and it sucks. There isn't enough head weight to get a good swing, you have to provide the force yourself. Fine for a short section, not fine for hundreds or thousands of feet of ice. The total weight saving is a couple of oz over a light tool like the Alp Wing or a BD Shrike. Do yourself a favour and take a couple of full weight tools unless it's a snow plod you'll enjoy it a lot more.

For ice they're the business. I've been using a pair for a couple of years and haven't dropped anything yet. For mixed there's a bit more problematic. You're more likely to be using your hands to climb with tools hanging from your wrists. There is also less ice around to stick your tools in when you unclip them so it's easier to drop one.

Yep... We were there too. I skied right into a tree. A sharp branch missed my femoral artery but ripped my bibs... which I think hurt more.

You need to spend like six hours wading and thrashing in to some pointless objective and then turn around and ski out crashing in to several trees on the way. It isn't going to help your climbing but it will make the following weekend on the couch seem like a good idea.

Mike might be single but you are definitely so TOTALLY whipped!