dberdinka

Hey Curt. The NE Buttress would be behind the tree on the righthand side of the photo. Still could be a worthy climb, though no easy way to get back to where you started. The area is definitely worth a visit.

Climb: Salish Divide- Date of Climb: 10/12/2006 Trip Report: Gene Pires and I both skipped work on Wednesday to go enjoy one last "summer" day in the mountains. A brutal thrutch got us up to the glorious high divide seperating Three Fingers and Whitehorse Mountain. Explorer-ating ensured. Enjoy! Gear Notes: chain saw, machete, agent orange Approach Notes: Thou shall suffer.

That is so sweet that you guys walked up to X-Dome in this day and age and knocked off 5 pitches onsite no bolts. I hope you spend you all your freetime cleaning it up. D

By the time Boeing gets done with 80 million they'll have a taut string connected to some empty tin cans. I'd guess that the more rugged parts of our border (i.e. North Cascades) will have a much lower level of security than say Zero ave near Sumas.

Rad didn't quite get his post right above. In fact he didn't even mention the bolts in question, probably because they are even worth mentioning (as in being kinda pointless). Obviously you can break the climb down into 7,6,5,4,3,whatever pitches and belay all over the place, but the stance at the bolts in question is not a neccesary or particularly good place to belay. After climbing the 5.9 finger crack and the slick dihedral above I've always belayed about 30' higher at a nice, exposed small stance with a great horizontal that eats gear. A short strech of face climbing leads into the dihedral in question. In total it's a 55 m pitch or so to the big ledge atop the difficulties. Replacing the bolts in unnecessary and doesn't really qualify as an "improvement" on such an old, classic route.

You need to get a hold of Dan Howatt and challenge hime to a duel...

From the Elbow Lake trailhead you could shwack straight up the Green Creek drainage per Mythic Wall etc. A slightly longer but more scenic approach is to follow the trail almost to Elbow Lake the schwack up to the crest of the sisters divide. Good camping between the tarn and Wiseman(?) Lake. Drop down to the start from the edge of the Green Creek Glacier.

ALPINE rock! Proud, proud hunk of greenschist

Thanks Mike, thanks a lot. More photos The glorious approach Marcus about halfway up route Sunrise as the weather moves in Ruth on L, Icy on R

Well Sweet! Glad everyone has had as much fun as I did!

Amazing!... It gets repeated.... By guys who live hundred of miles away (and 5 minutes from the Icicle) Aren't you two a long ways from home? What inspired you to schwack up there?

Did you confuse your FA list with your chossy-heaps list??

Sad to see that "snow" traverse melted down to old grey ice after what was supposedly a big snow year. Nice pics! I like your TRs

Global Warming Sucks.

Gene and Alex recently went and had a look-see at the ridge. They didn't like what they saw. Jens claimed he was going to go try it last summer. Never reported back though.... They all might have more beta.

And obviously you must have been stoned out of your gourd when you approached that climb!

Climb: Early Morning Spire-SW Face Date of Climb: 8/6/2006 Trip Report: On the first beautiful weekend in August I finally managed to get around to climbing Early Morning Spire. Prior to leaving I was a bit surprised as to the lack of information or trip reports for such a well known objective. So…here you go! Allen Carbert and I used the Roush Creek approach as per the East Ridge of Eldorado. We wandered across the Inspiration Glacier to the 8000’ Mcallister-Inspiration Col then quickly dropped 400’ to the col between the Mcallister Glacier and Marble Cirque. There are numerous bivi sites scratched into the dirt here only one of which is large enough for a small tent. A drip of water was very hard to come by, so we mostly melted snow. Great views to Eldorado and Tillie Towers. The next morning we easily descended onto the dieing glacial remnant in Marble Cirque. After dropping down to 5800’ we traversed across talus slopes to the snow gully leading up to the face. Crampons were very handy. You might get by without them but that sure would be a bummer if you had to bail due to firm conditions. It took all of three hours to reach the start of the route. Though that probably had a lot more to do with our aging, out-of-shape bodies than the terrain we covered. The climbing was excellent as expected. We started more directly than the topo indicated but it would be really hard to get lost! The only really outstanding pitch was the fingertip traverse up high. Every other pitch typically had an easier vegetated section mixed in with mostly high-quality climbing. There is very, very little loose rock on the main face. The upper ridge is licheny, loose and not all that great but the views are outstanding. We brought a #3 Camalot and used it only sparingly. A medium rack to a #2 would have been plenty. It took us five hours up climbing efficiently. The descent off the backside was a dirty piece of work, downclimbing rotten gullies, but went quickly. After reaching the saddle separating EMS from the Dorado Needle massif we decided to return to camp by go up rather than down. We climbed a pitch-and-a-half of shattered low-5th class rock to reach the col between Preying Mantis and Marble Needle. From here easy scrambling led to the Marble Needle summit, then two single-rope rappels got us onto the McAllister Glacier a 5 minute stroll from Dorado Needles Northwest Ridge. This was a delightful two pitch climb on solid blocky rock. Downclimbing and one rappel got us back to the base and fifteen minutes later we were back in camp. That night the full moon rose to the south while the northern lights flickered beyond the McAllister Glacier. Both routes are highly recommended. What a beautiful place!

Well ain't that the shit!

The SW Buttress of Dione is an excellent low-5th class rock climb. Combine it with the standard route on Tantalus for a good day from the Red Tit Hut. The DonSerl-north face route on Alpha was OK. Another good day trip from the hut. If you can figure out the river exit the price of a one-way flight in is worth it. Fly in Day 1, Climb Dione-Tantalus Day 2, Climb Alpha Day 3, Long Hike out Day 4. Beautiful place!

Some of those dudes in FlowMotion are rockclimbers.

Buck Creek Pass to High Pass to the Napeequa Valley is an off-trail backpack through absolutely outstanding scenery. Lots of options and potential summits to hit.

Very doable in a day. The sooner you go the better though as a snow covered approach will save you LOTS of pain, time and suffering.

That's a scary ass story! Glad everyone is OK! It seems that people (me included) are more willing to attempt Cascade ice/mixed routes in much warmer conditions than was once considered acceptably safe. Any old-timers agree? You get away with it 99% of the time...until that 1%.

Recycled = Mitch B. ???????

I was just thinkin it would have been WAY cooler if Dean had video-soloed this thing. At least then his summit-vibration feeling would have some merit!