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AlpineK

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    FREE CHICKEN!

    in Spray

    Posted

    Even the Colonel hated what KFC turned into. Are you going to go for a multinational chicken company or a company run by local boys.

     

    Don't piss Lenny off

     

    [img:center]http://hoopedia.nba.com/images/2/26/Wilkens1.jpg[/img]

     

     

    [img:center]http://www.basketusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/lenny-wilkens.jpg[/img]

     

     

     

    And don't even mess with Oprah

    [img:center]http://traceyricksfoster.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/oprah-winfrey-b.jpg[/img]

     

     

     

    Ridiculous to alpine ski down from Camp Muir?

    in Climber's Board

    Posted

    Just like walking up to Muir make sure you know the weather predictions. White outs on the snowfield are bad bad bad.

     

    The slope angle on most, but not all, of the Muir Snowfield is in the, "Blue Square," range for skiing if snow conditions are good. Snow conditions are often not that good. New snow and wind creates pillows of snow where parts of the pack are thick and hard to turn in while on other parts turning is easy. Knowing how to look ahead and read the snowpack is a very important skill to have.

     

    If your skiing experience is at the ski area the Muir snowfield will be tough. You can always return to descent by walking.

     

    Have you thought of renting an AT or Tele set up? Those would be a lot lighter. If you have skins you can ski uphill too.

    [TR] Washington Pass 2009 Ski In - Big Kangaroo

    in the *freshiezone*

    Posted · Edited by Feck

    Trip: Washington Pass 2009 Ski In - Big Kangaroo

     

    Date: 5/3/2009

     

    Trip Report:

    The annual Ski In party is always fun. Skiing potential near Washington Pass is huge, and the climbing/cragging is worth doing. The party gives you the added bonus of a cool place to camp, and a fun group to hang out with. Oh yeah beer and bbq too :brew:

     

    Prior to the event this year I started thinking about cool skiing to do in the area. The standard routes are always fun (Silverstar/Birthday Tour), but doing something new can add a lot fun and or adventure.

     

    While driving west from Mazama you can look up Willow Creek near the Wine Spires on Silverstar. I guessed the skiing in Willow Creek was a fantastic idea, but I wasn't sure about the best access to the valley. Also skiing down to the river below the Wine Spires looked marginal to funky.

     

    On Friday the 1st we all met up at the Ski In camp site near Mazama, and talked things over. A few of us had skied the Nipple on Kangaroo Ridge a few times, but we were all guessing about getting into and out of Willow Creek. The weather report looked good for Saturday but marginal on Sunday. Eventually the group think decision was to go up the Nipple on Kangaroo Ridge and figure it out. Entrance to the line was not obvious, but we all had a good idea of problems involved with the exit to the route (cliffs/trees).

     

    Saturday the 2nd looked good weatherwise, or good enough at the very least. A group of five of us drove to the hairpin turn east of Washington Pass and started skiing up.

     

    Picture from Sunday 5/3

    1-View-Above-Hairpin.jpg

     

    The ski up to the Nipple was straightforward since we'd done that before. The sky told us that weather was moving in, and Sunday might turn out to be sketchy as predicted.

     

    View of Silverstar 5/2

    Silverstar-day-1.jpg

     

    We got to the summit of the Nipple and started looking for a good entrance to Willow Creek. Nothing was obvious. Snoboy scrambled around for a bit. His eventual report was we needed a rope, that we didn't have, to rap to a notch in Kangaroo Ridge. We new right from the start this might be an issue, but the worst case scenario was we'd get to repeat a killer ski run down to the hairpin in nice corn snow.

     

    Skiing was great, and snow started falling lightly as we skied back to the car. Driving back to Mazama rain showers became the weather theme. Everybody figured we'd have a somewhat crappy Sunday. Oh well.

     

    As things turned out blue skies were a weather theme on Sunday. We had a nice pancake breakfast and headed to the pass.

     

    Here's our view from the hairpin with marked routes

    1A-View-Above-Hairpin-marke.jpg

     

    There were seven of us on Sunday, and the uptrack was soon behind us. A short scramble down from the notch on snow/scree brought us to the point were we could start a new (to us) ski descent.

     

    Here's our view down with tracks

    Descent-one-day-2.jpg

     

    The north face and an inch of new snow produced a little bit of powder.

     

    One shot looking back at a few of the tracks through larch trees

    Descent_up-day-2.jpg

     

    Here's another shot from lower on the descent

    Descent-four-day-2.jpg

     

    Eventually the trees got tighter. We new this would happen. I didn't take any more photos for a while (due to the extreme conditions ;) ). Eventually we made it to the river and found a snow covered log to cross.

     

    Dave doing some extreme skiing

    Descent-five-day-2.jpg

     

    From here we were on skins again. We stayed on skis till about 40 feet from the road.

     

    Most of us hung out at the guard rail on HWY 20 while Cman hitchhiked back to the rigs.

     

    All and all this Ski In and trip down Willow Creek was really cool with a fun group.

     

    Gear Notes:

    Snow sliding gear, maps, and a beer to wave at drivers headed west to inspire them to give one person a ride.

     

    Approach Notes:

    Park at the Hairpin or near and go up.

     

    Prior to skiing drive down to the Wine Spires and check out snow conditions and locations of cliffs on the exit section of the ski line.

    Top 5 routes in PNW

    in Climber's Board

    Posted

    Back when I was a kid my dad told me, "Crag climbing is fun, but it's only practice climbing for the real stuff in the alpine." He otter know.

     

    In no particular order:

     

    Complete NE Ridge of Slesse with the Crossover descent

    NW face of Forbidden

    South face of Prusik

    Liberty Ridge (Ok maybe Ptarmigan)

    North face of Viennese

    Backbone Ridge on Dragontail.

     

    One of these days I'll climb Thermogenesis and dump my other two Rainier choices. :grlaf: Ok maybe not.

     

     

    Dammit! I just moved to Colorado...

    in Climber's Board

    Posted

    Yep, playing with lightning is a bad idea. Start early for any climb you do. There isn't an exact turn around time, but 2 PM is a good time to be descending or already down.

     

    Long's peak and surrounding mountains have some great rock climbing. Be warned though the hiking trail to the top of the 14er is super popular (close to Denver). There are times when there are literally thousands of, "climbers," making a summit bid from the trail head.

     

    Often times the group moves slowly even though it isn't an organized group. I remember one morning climbing the Flying Buttress on Mt Meeker right next door. We started running/line cutting past the Long's mob. The early folks on the approach kept yelling at us because we didn't say, "Passing." We got sick of saying, "passing," every 3 seconds.

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