pete_a
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Posts posted by pete_a
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..Added a few pictures from my trip to the cc.com photo gallery, more to come later. enjoy!
http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showgallery.php?cat=510&thumb=1
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Most folks heading into the Tatoosh ski the area immediately around Castle and Pinnacle peaks...but its usually not nearly as crowded as Paradise. If you get up there and there are crowds, consider traversing over towards Unicorn , and you'll probably have that peak all to yourself.
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sorry, didn't notice any spare nalgenes lyin around the hut...but then again most of the time I was at the hut I was sleeping or hanging out next to the keg of guiness
I know its popular terrain up there, but the lottery system to get the hut is fine by me....keeps the crowds down...when I got up to Unicol there were tracks all over the low angle terrain beyond the granite glacier...heli skiers were fighting for freshies the ridgeline over from us while our hut crew had all the powder we could want.
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Just got back last night from spending a week at the Fairy Meadows hut in the Selkirks. Had the time of my life skiing the best snow and most beautiful terrain I've ever been around.
We started the week being extremely cautious, digging pits everywhere and staying primarily in the trees, but as the week progressed and the weather turned from freshies to cold and clear bluebird days we headed into the alpine, again digging plenty of pits....there were obvious windslab layers at 2' down and again at 4' down, they sheared cleanly but took a lot of force for them to release. During the week we had no sloughs propigate into avies, no 'whoomps', and only saw natural releases on south facing aspects.
When the week was over we had skied just about all the big lines and tours around the area, Unicol, Friendship Col, Pioneer Col, Pioneer and Sentinal Peaks, the Houdini Needles Chutes...etc etc.
I think all of us in our group considered ourselves to be very lucky to hit the Fairy Meadows region during a rare period of relatively stable snow and weather this season.
Longer trip report found here:
http://www.turns-all-year.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=tr0303;action=display;num=1049103345
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I do have a pressure cooker (3 liter size). I have been trying to decide whether to actually bring it of not...its a little on the heavy side.
I've also heard that the backcountry oven covers can boost stove efficiency as well...we may pick up one of these anyways to do some baking.
anyone else have a per day fuel consumption recommendation?
1 cup pppd for 5 people for 25 days = 7.8 gal of fuel
10oz..... = 9.8 gal
1 pint..... = 15.6 gal
thats a hell of a lot of fuel
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Thanks for all the info. Right now my group is planning on 1 cup of fuel per person per day, thats what most books recommend...a pint per day seems excessive, suprised that the park service recommends that.
I've ran into plenty of folks who've recommended showing up at KIA with your gear and instead of fuel and food just bring a roll of $5 bills and bum and buy everything you need on the mountain, it would be fun to try that, but as we are first timers on the mountain, I think we're hoping to be as self-sufficient as possible.
But I suppose it would be safe to budget in at least a few days worth of our fuel will come from groups trying to give it away.
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I'm going to the Fairy Meadows Hut up in BC to go skiing...uh I mean I'm going to the Fairy Meadows Hut in BC to read books, get drunk, sit in the sauna, and watch avalanches rip down all the slopes I wanna ski.
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Yeah...more questions about Denali..you cc.com'ers are just too damn helpful with all your beta for heading to Alaska.
So, my group is trying to figure out what to do with fuel bottles. I know that we'll carry our fuel in one gallon tins we pick up on the glacier and we'll probably cache some fuel at basecamp and 11k for use on the way down, but what i am trying to determine is...when planning for your nights above 14k camp did you haul one of those fuel tins to 17k camp or did you bring along enough 22oz and 33oz fuel bottles to stock your high camp with? If we go with the small fuel bottle option, my group of five will be taking somewhere around 8 33oz bottles to 17k. Seems like a lot of freakin bottles. Just trying to figure out what folks have done in the past. Also, anyone noticed any performance benefits from running XGK's off of small bottles versus large bottles? just curious.
Again, many thanks for all your help with the trip planning.
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Hear ya go Russ... I've been having fun with this postal scale that I bought...been weighing all my gear thats going on the trip, I don't trust the manufacturer website weights.
Total weight for size 12 mens boots with insoles-
Koflach Degre shell model with Artis Exped Liner 3 lbs 4.6 ounces for each boot
Dynafit TLT 4s ski boot with new model Dynafit thermofit liner 3lbs 5.8 ounces for each boot.
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Well, I received my artic liners for my Koflachs the other day in the mail and it pretty much sealed my decision on what to do about this minor boot dilemma. I had been weighing my Koflachs with the stock liner and there had been a 4oz difference between my Dynafit boots and my Koflachs...but guess what...the Koflach artic liners are 3oz heavier than the stock liners and now there is a mere 1oz difference between my ski boots and my mountaineering boots. Yeah french technique is still easier in the koflachs but I figure with the weight savings of bringing only one set of boots I'll be more motivated to drag my skis on up 14k to take advantage of any good ski conditions there may be.
...Who knows I could change my mind at least a few times between now and then, but for now I can move on to other big logistical nightmares, like meal planning.
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...And here I am getting ready to go to the Fairy Meadows Hut in the Selkirks for a week starting next Saturday...hope to hell things stabilize and get nice before then, otherwise I'm going to run out of books and booze in the hut before the trip is over.
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My group is 99.9% sure we'll dump skis at 11k...the only folks I know who've taken them higher were on denali to ski from the summit, which is a goal thats a few years off in the distance for me I think. If conditions are perfect for skiing above 11k while we are there...the skis will probably go higher, but we just won't know till we get there.
I figure at this point, its getting pretty damn close to our departure date and all those late minute costs are adding up...If I can find a pair of junker skis, more importantly if I can find some cheap Silv. 404's or 500's then thats what I'll probably use. I've got some old Lange alpine boot cuffs that I used as stiffeners back in the good ol' days with my leather tele boots...they may help to stiffen the Koflachs.
My Dynafit boots ARE comfy and relatively light, 4oz difference between those and my Koflachs, not much and of course the bindings weight half as much as the Silvrettas. Its the lack of ankle flexibility that I worry about since the West Butt is for the most part a relatively low angle route. Both my Koflachs and Dynafits fit my crampons and my overboots (40 Below Superlights)...gotta love that neoprene for stretching over buckle boots.
By the way, thanks to all of you for all your input, definitely appreciate having this place as a resource.
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...We leave from Seattle on May 15th...weather cooperating( haha) we'll be on the glacier by the night of the 16th.
I had originally hoped that my dynafit intuition liners would fit into my koflach shells, but they don't, they're too thick.
If I had an unlimited amount of money I'd buy a pair of silvretta bindings and mount them on some junker skis, but I'd really prefer to just use a setup that I already have.
I've used the dynafit boots on trips before, but I've always been skinning, never boot-packing. Maybe it would be best if I did my best gaper impression and hiked Mt.Si wearing my dynafits and see how the feet and ankles are feeling afterwards.
Either way I figure I can make it work...just want my feet to be comfortable up there and keep things as light as possible on summit day...and getting in a few turns up there wouldn't be bad either...maybe I'm asking for too much.
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Okay, so I'm up to my armpits in climbing and camping gear trying to get ready for the West Buttress of Denali in two months....still one thing I haven't completely figured out yet....boots.
Here's my dilemma....my group is travelling on skis...I have a Dynafit AT setup that I'm using, some folks are using them as well, some are using Silvretta bindings. What I am trying to figure out is, should I climb the mountain in my Dynafit TLT 4 boots or pack along my Koflach boots in my sled to switch in to at 11,000ft when we cache our skis? My Dynafit boots weigh 4 oz each more than my Koflachs, they do have thermofit liners so they are warm enough to use all the way to the summit....Just trying to figure out if a weight savings of 4oz on each foot higher on the mountain is worth the weight and bulk of a second set of boots in the sled for the first few days of the trip. Any thoughts? Is this a stupid thing to be mulling over?
My thinking is that I should bring the second set of boots to change in to to save weight when high on the mountain...figure that folks bring bottles up hootch and stereos and all other sorts of silliness on the West Butt...so hauling extra boots for a few days isn't the end of the world.
Anyways...thanks for your input.
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Hey Lowell, thanks for posting the report....sounds like a great race. Really glad to hear the Life-Link folks are going to work on bringing the cost of the rally down a bit. I'm sure efforts on their part will be accepted with great appreciation by the cheapskate dirtbag backcountry crowd (myself included).
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If you must hit the backcountry this weekend, sticking to low-angle tree skiing that has low objective hazard from steep terrain above you is going to be the safest option, besides staying home. Good tree skiing can be found on Mazama Ridge near Paradise and there are some good glades on Skyline Ridge across from Stevens ski area. That being said this weekend is not a good weekend to head out into the bc if you don't have an experienced crew to go with. Hopefully no one will get dead this weekend.
...Guess I spoke too soon
"A guy just died at Crystal after he fell into a tree well and suffocated. Sad, and condolences."
damn thats awful.
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You should cut this guy some slack.
Ran into him up on Hood on Sunday...soloed the Devil's Kitchen Headwall. Figure he shouldn't get too much ribbing for a typo. yeah, I had a typo in my post too.....I haven't had my coffeee yit thiz murnin.
haha
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Hey Pete,
Nice to run into ya. The ski down was far more pleasant on sunday than the survival skiing on saturday nothing like turning in zero visibility with a pack and sled...nice suprise with the inversion weather yesterday though...best damn turns were at the top of the Palmer. Still getting used to skiing that randonee gear...skied seven years on tele, this is my first season with locked heels.
If you've got any good meal plan ideas for Denali from your experience that you could pass along to Ryland and I, it would be greatly appreciated!
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fourth weekend in a row snowcampin and skiing...denali training is fun
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Perhaps we could combine this weekend skiing/beer guzzling event with a dirtbag backcountry race as was being talked about here:http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB1&Number=137444&page=4&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1
Just a thought... if we're up around Wash. Pass if anyone wanted to have a race we could make the dash up and over the col by S.Early Winter Spire and then down the chutes towards the hairpin turn.
Of course I'd be content booze it up for a couple days and ski Silver Star and the Sally Portman Birthday Traverse.
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I climbed Orizaba and La Malinche in January of 2002. Secor's book was the only resource I had. Trip went great...hell of a lot of fun. If you've got the time, definitely go to Veracruz after you're done climbing...nothing like sitting an a beach drinking a margarita less than 24 hours after standing at 18,000ft.
If you have any questions at all about putting your trip together feel free to email me.
I also have a scanned copy of the map for Orizaba, getting an actual copy is hard to come by, let me know if you'd like the file emailed to ya.
-Pete
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yeah, I thought it was odd that the Silver Skis race was only a race on the way down...a round trip from paradise to muir and back...thats a good enough leg burner...and a mellow enough pitch that for all but pan face you really don't have to worry about avy danger.
So, perhaps a dirtbag rally is in order sometime this season.
...homemade trophy built from cans of rainier and h.c. mmmm!
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I had been thinkin about entering this years race at Alpy or Stevens..but after I saw the cost of entering, forget about it.
Maybe we need to throw together a 'dirt bag' backcountry rally...possibly revive the old Silver Skis race on Mt.Rainier...get a bunch of wacky cheapskates together and do the mass-start chaos of fifty people skiing from Camp Muir back to Paradise.
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Yes, avy danger is a major concern, thats why we are hoping to get folks who are equally safety concious. There is good tree skiing around the hut though if avy conditions to do permit skiing high in the alpine. Our trip is still almost two months off...plenty of time for avy conditions to change for the better.
More info can be found here:
http://www.alpineclubofcanada.ca/facility/fairy.html
The heli flight is arranged by the alpine club of canada... I do not know the name of the air service.
Skiin is fun I should do it more
in the *freshiezone*
Posted
Gracias
Glad you like 'em. Our group at Fairy Meadows had a few video cameras and a movie is being put together. Our resident ski partner/videographer/footage editor will hopefully find a spot to post the movie on the web when its done.