dberdinka

How hard is the Compressor Route (in it's current state) anyway? Is it like a 15 pitch 5.8 A1? Or a 30 pitch pitch 5.11R A3? Anyone know, it never really seems to get a descriptive rating anywhere. There was great quote on Supertaco that went something like "Americans just showing up in our country thinkin they can do anything they want...". Made me think that this is climbings version of bringing democracy to the Middle East.

Oh the Life of Colin...

Drive to Manning Park. Park at Lightning Lakes (~4000'). Ski along Lighting Creek 8 or 9 absolutely flat to slightly downhill miles to the base of the NW Face of the North Peak. Easy, in good conditions you could get there in half-a-day. Looks like a wicked ski descent for those of you inot that sort of thing

Anotehr pic of Courtney from John Ropers Site.

Worth a look? Craigslist Ad

Thats COURTNEY PEAK. An old friend has climbed that face in summer (chossy) and done a couple easy to moderate mixed winter routes as well. She says they were pretty good. Way out the hell in the middle of nowhere near Twisp. Supposedly beautiful summer camping at lakes and some good skiing in the winter, like the alt-Silverstar tour.

Backpacking..... Late March there will probably still be a snowpack on the rims on the Grand Canyon. Check with the NPS there. In Zion (2+ hrs north of redrocks) the Narrows will be both cold and potentially closed due to flow volumes. Again check with the NPS. A good two night trip in the area is up in Kolob Canyons of the park. Hike 6+ miles back into La Verkin Creek (I think) Spend a day exploring up to Bear Trap Falls. If you really want the best Colorado Plateau Backpacking check out Coyote Gulch in the Escalante. This is probably a 5-6 hour drive from Vegas but absolutely incredible (and fairly crowded). 3 days is perfect. The real crown is the Paria River. A 30+ mile one way trip down an incredible canyon. Permits need to be arranged well in advance as well as a shuttle at the start of the trip. Again a 5-6 hr drive but well worth it. PM if you have any questions. D

I had a good look at Vesper a couple of weeks ago from a nearby peak. Yes the slab holds snow and the bottom half was streaked by thin runnels of ice. Still though it looked like a less-than-spectacular winter line. There were some enormous ice pillars situated in the basin west of the summit (draingae towards Spada Reservoir), but this is a stupidly remote place to get to in winter.

Nice work gentlemen! The"Slipstream" of the North Cascades has been climbed. Looks like you hit it in absolutely stellar conditions. Having been in there in the winter all I can say is, That is a hell of a lot of ground to cover in one day!

That sounds really smart. You guys must have been literaly flying to cover all that ground in sub-24. Nice piece of work. That full moon sure was beautiful.

Would that be Man ON Sheep rather than Man and Sheep? Leave your number next time you call redhead.

Doesn't "headpoint" mean to Top Rope The Shit out of something before leading it? If thats the case then the lack of bolts is not really a statement of boldness. Should everyone else be expected to rap in and TR the shit out of to before leading it? Seems like the route creator should equip a line in a way that they would be willing to lead it from ground up without preinspection.

Oh Man, I thought I got my fix, I really did. I was saying like "oh man that was great, I had a successful season, I don't need to go climbing again this winter" and then I looked at the forecast last night!!! 2000' freezing level with sunny skies through Saturday! Oh god this is friggin killing me having to be at work and god damn if I don't have family showing up this weekend. I'm, I'm feeling itchy all over. Things are set up (at least at lower elevations) I really hope someone is out there killin it. If you ever wanted to climb the North Face of Index RIGHT NOW (like right f#&kin NOW!) is the time to be doing it. Or go climb one of the other big friggin ice climbs there on Hall Peak. Big 4 is probably good to go as well. I wonder how things are at higher elevations? Probably not all that good, more freeze less thaw makes for rotten snow. Back to work.....Back to Work...... And Curt, Mtn Loop Highway is currently plowed to Deer Creek about a mile past Silverton. This would leave a short walk to Big 4 and about 7 miles to Barlow Pass.

I was looking at Sloan for a good part of the day. The actual face with runnels only picked up the sun in the late afternoon like 2 or 3-ish. So it's not getting sun all day, still might be enough to make for some nasty ice though.

Thanks Tyree. I'm not dead yet!

Mike doth protest too much! West Face of Sloan on 1-30-2007. Looks pretty continuous to me...

Trip: Hall Peak - NW Face - N Ridge Date: 1/30/2007 Trip Report: On Tuesday, January 30th, Dave Brannon and I climbed a fun snow and ice line up the NW side of Hall Peak. This is a relatively low (5484') but extremely rugged peak located just west of Big Four. Access is incredibly easy from the collection of cabins called Silverton. We left the car at 5:15 AM, an hour later we hit treeline. Another hour and we were standing at the base of the very impressive, 1900' tall northwest face. View of Route from Descent The route we climbed was first attempted in May 1962 by Dan Davis and a 15-year-old named Steve Skubi. Steve died in what was apparently a large avalanche. I have no clue if the route has been climbed since, but I really doubt we were the first people to ever carry ice gear in here. Conditions were absolutely incredible. The snowpack was setup as solid neve and loads of good water-ice coated everything. Near the top there was some rotted out snow but it was the exception rather than the rule. Starting up the NW Face on bomber neve Starting from the bottom left side of the face we climbed up and right on steep neve to reach the base of an obvious steep couloir that ends at a deep notch in the north ridge maybe 500 vertical feet below the summit. The couloir was more bomber neve with ice coated walls that took good screws for protection. Dave finishing the traverse out of the notch From the notch continuing up the ridge crest appeared unfeasible. Instead we did a tenuous and challenging mixed traverse for about 80' across the NE face. This started on very steep rock and very thin ice and ended with rotted neve for the feet and loose, sloping sidepulls for the hands. Fortunately there was lots of generally suspect rock pro. A little more traversing led to a steep runnel that was followed for two full pitches back to the ridge crest. The runnel was a wonderful mix of water ice to 80 degrees and steep 50-60 degree neve. A final pitch on the ridge crest up more great ice and a final moderate snowslope led to the summit at 3:15 PM. I really can't overstate how good conditions were, I think we placed ice screws at least 12 times to give a sense of how much ice there was. Final snowslope below summit On the Summit with Big 4 in background The descent is a real piece of work and has serious EPIC potential. Basically you following the west ridge for about a half-mile to a notch and then descend down the 2000' north face. This a steep convoluted face littered with some enormous cliff bands. It would be too easy to get all commited on a rappel and suddenly pop through the brush above a steep nasty 600' drop. After downclimbing a bunch of snow we did 7 full rope rappels with a fair bit of traversing inbetween to reach the valley floor around 7:30 PM. Dave set most of the rappels leaving me to enjoy the brilliant full moon that thankfully illuminated the face. If you go climb this peak make sure to have a plan on how your going to get down. See John Ropers report to get a good sense of what the descent route is all about. An hour-and-a-half later we were back at the car, just under 16 hours roundtrip. Thanks Dave for an excellent day in the hills. There is a ton of potential for more alpine routes on the NW Face as well as loads of ice climbing near the base in the right conditions. Anyone else ever been in here? Gear Notes Screws, pickets, nuts and a few knifeblades

This is the best photo I have seen in a very long time. :tup:

Nice Work! Beautiful pics! I've experienced a similar mix of snow and ice on that summit pyramid in winter as well. Can you comment on how the snowpack was set up on various aspects. Was north face consolidated at all? Boot packable? Base on pics south looks pretty firm. Thanks. D

Hahhh! Perfect beta. Thanks!

Holy Shit I don't get out much these days! Might peel away from responsibility here for a day, so.. Anyone have a good idea where the snowline is right now, as in how high up logging roads can one get? Particularly in the Mountain Loop area. Thanks for any input... D

And when are we GOING TO MARS anyway!??? Haven't heard him mention much of that latey???

A couple summers ago I spent a lot of time climbing in the Green Creek Valley. Definitely a beautiful place, but the rock is typically only OK, the climbs are generally short and the approach is not neccesarily pleasant. However it was all less than 30 miles drive from my front door. What a relief to spend only 45 minutes in the car verses 3+ hours.

Honestly as an "experienced climber" it would be my slightly-informed opinion that the most a significant contributing factors to this accident were based on decisions made within the time span of "MONTHS, WEEKS AND DAYS" rather than "minutes and seconds".

MIKE LAYTON submit your Trip Report NOW on behalf of all CC.COMER! Mikes Turd on Cutthroat Peak MAKE US PROUD!!!