dberdinka

Long enough that it's no longer next to the toilet.

Looking for experienced, fit and emotionallly stable climbing partner for weak-hearted attempt at something alpine around Washington Pass on Friday. Cutthroat Peak? Something else? I'm in B'ham, wouldn't hurt if you were too. Could meet at Albertsons in Sedro Wooley around 5:00 AM if not. PM or e-mail at dberdinka ATT yahoo DOTT com. I'll check before 5 PM and again later tonight. A little history of what you've done this winter wouldn't hurt. Complete resume not needed Darin

And is Steve House blaming himself? or is he blaming Bruce Miller for their failure on Nanga Parbat? Or am I confused and just not getting the WAY? - Confused

Maybe I've just gotten lucky but I've encountered very little "typical" winter snow in my last couple trips. Pounding them in with my hammer while simuling long stretches of steep neve has felt pretty darn secure to me. Nice work by the way. Pretty cool how two big unclimbed features got done on the same day.

The North sides of Stuart Goode Slesse all have multiple high-quality routes, including not only three of the most popular and classic rock routes in the range but also have plenty of opportunity for mixed or snow and ice routes in the right conditions. Fury sounds pretty sweet too as do other big faces in the pickets, but the difficulty of access and lower quality rock kind of excludes them in my book.

That looks total f%#king rad. Nice work.

Dru, after 24,500+ posts you're just....sad. A majority of your posts seem to be lame little one-liners dissing other peoples accomplishments. It sucks. As for Peak 4800+/Pootie-Tang/Fallacy, Gene and I make no claims of first ascents of peaks or routes. There is an old cairn on top of "Tang Tower" as well. We just named things for our own amusement. While yet to be confirmed, I have been told that Chris Greyell and Dave Tower did climb several routes on these peaks and evidently drew up topos as well. I don't think it will ever be a rock climbing mecca. It's too hard to get to and the rock quality is subpar compared to Static Point or D-Town. Maybe it will just be rediscovered every ten years by someone looking for adventure. Due to the density of exfoliations on the south face it would be next to impossible to exactly follow someone else "route", all future parties should consider their climbs FAs and name them as well.

In your reality that peak is known as 4800+. In our's it's known as Pootie Peak, the small point to it's east is Tang Tower. In Chris Greyell's reality it's known as Boulder Crags, though I've yet to talk to him about it. Here is a rapidly scribbled topo. Sine your Pitty... was quite good. " " Buttress was forgettable. In general it's like climbing on a slightly chossier version of the West Butt of Blueberry Hill. Still a good place for an adventure.

Thanks for posting. Excellent facts.

Whoaaa! Thats an intense tale, to see that pack again would probably stir up a lot of memories. Thank you for sharing.

Awesome. Post more pics!

I don't know maybe conditions change really fast, but I'd like to think that it will remain in for a lot of people. I've never had as much fun climbing in the Cascades as I have this winter. To actually climb in the Cascades on mountains that are frozen (ice) and not just snowy (glaciers) has been incredible. As good as it looked if anyones considering the Polish Route based on the photo I posted, I feel the need to point out that the final pitch is a big dagger hanging several (5+ ft) out from the ice curtain below it. Getting on it would require some type of horizontal movements that looked a heck of a lot harder than the 5+ rating in Jason & Alex's book.

Ooops! Cosley-Houston, Kearney. I got all my 1980's/1990's Bellingham climbing guides confused. As for the crux it's a short bit of WI4. Doesn't quite look it in the photo, but it's steep! Good times.

They'll be offering the same class next year, and the year after that, and the year after....can't say the same about the ice conditions lately.

Climb: Colfax Peak-Kearney Route Date of Climb: 3/6/2005 Trip Report: I had finally bought myself a pair of ice tools and wanted to use them, but the warm forecast for the weekend sucked. We figured if we got really high we would still be in for a good time. So we headed to Colfax Peak, which at 9400’ is considerably taller than just about everything in the Cascades. The road was blocked short. So the three of us, Darin, Allen and Larry, left the car at 3000’ and maybe a mile short of the Heliotrope trailhead. No worries, by now it should be all melted out. After carrying our skis up the trail we then carried them up the Hogs Back braving one of the more intense blizzards of the winter. Eventually we arrived at the Black Buttes and set up camp around 7200’. It was quickly determined that I had brought the poles for The Other Tent. Really though I blame it on Larry because he was distracting me while packing. Mother is the necessity of Invention, so we made do and soon erected a sagging, squalid little hovel to call home for the night. The three of us did our best to get along in the cramped quarters. Freezing rain, snow and wind eventually gave way to clear skies. After a rather depressing night we got moving slowly. Larry was feeling unmotivated as usual and decide to stay behind. This was probably a good thing, as he tends to be a dispiriting influence anytime I’ve tried to climb with him. The Coleman Glacier is going to be seriously messed up sometime soon but for now Allen and I managed to ski and posthole our way up to the base of Colfax Peak. There is a ton of ice on this thing. I wanted to throw in a photo of Lincoln Peak as well just because it’s cool looking. We climbed the Kearney Route. Not the big obvious iceflow, that’s the Polish Lamb Sausage Route. The Kearney route climbs runnels and ramps connected by the obvious small pillar to the right of that. Skies were still looking good when we got on route around 9 AM. The first pitch was over a full rope length of beautiful alpine ice leading to the base of the crux pillar. The crux pillar was short and sweet leading to a good belay off rock gear on the ramp above. The climb was in phenomenal condition; even the low angle sections consisted of alternating water ice and thunker neve. Three long pitches including a lot of simul-climbing led to the summit. Of course by now the weather had gone to hell. We descend the East Ridge in a whiteout then a downpour. Wallowing down the glacier, punching legs into deep, dark, mysterious holes, generally enjoying life, we eventually made it back to camp. We were glad to see Larry and he seemed glad to see us. After a meeting to ascertain the safety of continuing our descent in the dusk we packed up and headed out. Complete success was achieved by arriving at the North Fork Beer Shrine before the kitchen closed. This route is really freaking good and accessible. I would hope that if we get some more sensible temps soon it should be in condition for a good long while. Gear Notes: short and long screws several pickets sm rock rack to .75" Approach Notes: Should be able to drive to Heliotrope TH.

Looks freakin incredible, looking forward to pics. Caught up with school work yet?

No winter conditions here... Damn, none here either... Looks like freaking August!... Why aren't they wearing T-shirts? If this gets sent those wankers better add an asterick... Interestingly enough the depth of the snowpack has very little to do with whether winter conditions exist or not. For those people who actually got out and tried something, it will be rememebered as the best conditions for technical alpine climbing in a long time and quite wintery as well!

I've been thinking about the same thing. I've come to the conclusion the light and strideable is going to be better than floation and turn ability. If you need lots of floatation are you really going to be climbing anything? And if your skiing in mountaineering boots how well are you going to be cranking out the turns anyway? Finally the sheer weight of some approach-ski setups I've seen is just ridiculous. It sounds weird but I think I'd mount Silverettas on a pair of 170 cm lightweight tele-touring skis (I ski 190's), something like the Fischer Rebound or similar. They'll tour way better on logging roads, they weight half as much as a pair of AT skis and you can generally get them for cheap. In part my decison is based on the fact that I've been teleing on a pair almost exclusively for several years now and have learned to love them.

I don't think Justin has any desire to come back to our sandbox and play nice....

Anytime I hear the name Pitt River I think impossible to access. Is that the case here as well? Sounds like one hell of an effort! And what in the heck is doglotion???

Post deleted by dberdinka

Justin is a far better writer than I am A Message from Necronomicon: TR - I'm Frosty for Prosti-Tots I'm no hardman, but I've done some stuff, and this is by far THE BEST alpine climb I've done in twelve years of climbing. When Darin sent me John Scurlock's picture of the face, I pretty much creamed my jeans. The line looked CLASSIC. Awesome colouir splitting a huge face. Unclimbed in winter. FUCK YEAH!!! But you can't see into the gully in the picture, the top looked bleak, and you can't scope the route until you get to the base, after climbing around the entire mountain. Would it go? Act 1: Snow wallow on skis. Everyting I hate about climbing, except for the views and the friends. Exhaustion, equipment failure, deep snow, and we didn't even SEE the route. I especially enjoyed being repeatedly assaulted by my pack on the descent, re-learning how to ski in leather boots. Build speed/try to slow down/lose balance/crash/turtle/pack off/skis off/skis on/pack on/ repeat ad neaseum. Fun? Act 2: This is why I climb. Wake up screaming at 3 a.m. after nightmare of being chased by demonic forces in a cramped earthen basement while covered in painful insect bites. Fun? The alarm went off at 3:15. Dropping down from the Chair Col in the dark over steep snow. "Could we climb back up this shit?" Controlled plummet past hidden bergschrund. Fat man's misery busting through breakable crust. "How's it look Darin?" "Looks like a blank wall." Fuck. Look to the East and the Sun begins to touch the sky. "How's it look Darin?" "There's a gully!!!...I think it's gonna go!!!" And it did. The normally mild Darin at the crux mixed chimney with iced-up over-hanging chockstone and failing snow mushrooms: "Fuck. I think I fucked myself. Fuck. FUCK. I don't think it will go. We're fucked. Fuck. FUCK! FUCK!!!!" Then: "YEAH! FUCK YEAH!!! OH MY FUCKING GOD! FUCK YEAH!!!!! IT'S FUCKING AWESOME!!!" And it was. Pitch after pitch of INCREBIBLE climbing. Ice, neve, snow, mixed. Simul-climbing on narrow ice runnels through tight chimneys. Always challenging, never desperate. Spin drift avalanches, try and wait them out, balanced on front points, pack pulling you down, but they don't stop. You could wait forever, so fuck it and climb through. One swing styrofoam. Good ice, shitty ice, good snow, shitty snow, good rock, shitty rock. Past the point of no return conversation with self: "Will it go? Will I die here?" Yes and no. A reprieve in the Sun then the hidden gully past the cornice and to the summit. We did it. The route, the summit, the friends, the views...gifts from the Gods. "IV WI3 5.8R Mixed, 1600'." TOTAL FUCKING CLASSIC!!! We gave the route a secret name and went home. This is why I climb. Later, bitches. See you in the hills. -J

Climb: White Chuck - East Face Couloir Date of Climb: 2/27/2005 Trip Report: Look at the pics then read Justins post "A Message from Necronomicon:" a little further down the page. It's far better than my slop In the beginning of February, when Dave Brannon and I were finishing up the Northeast Ridge, it became readily apparent that the east face of White Chuck was big, steep and split by a very deep coulior. With a little help from John Scurlock I managed to get an excellent photo of the east face. Ummmm....that looks good. Gene Pires, Justin Thibault and I climbed the route on our second attempt on February 27th. First climbed in September 1970 by Ron Miller and Ben Guydelkon, it had all the making of an un-classic. The CAG admonishes, "best climbed in late summer when dry", "scare protection" and "hard hat recommended". In a veil of ice and neve we figured it might be a very good climb. On the first attempt too much new snow and too little time turned us around before we even saw the face. Though the weather had become unseasonably warm we returned over the weekend to try again. On Saturday morning Justin managed to coax his truck up to 3100’ on FSR 2435. From there we slogged up logging roads and a scenic wooded ridge reaching the basin below the south side of the peak in the late afternoon. At around 5000’ temps in the shade hovered around forty degrees. But north-facing slopes still held fine powder snow giving me some sweet turns, and us hope for decent conditions in the shady couloir. Justin and I passed out in the sun while Gene summoned the energy to pack down part of the approach for the following morning. Just before sunset John Scurlock made a serious of terrifyingly fast and tight circles around the peak in his yellow rocket plane. Sunday we left camp at 4 AM and traversed up to a “chair-like” pinnacle on the southeast ridge of the peak. We dropped down a very steep ramp to the base of the face and began a long, miserable traverse through breakable crust. At first the route appeared to start with a blank rock wall. As we ascended the debris cone at its base a beautiful ice-choked chimney appeared, leading up to the left. Starting up the first pitch Ultimately the climb was far better than we could have imagined. With occasional simu-climbing we broke the climb into seven long pitches, the last ending forty feet from the summit. Two pitches in the middle consisted of steep neve. The other five were primarily beautiful runnels of water ice sometimes no more than 1’ wide. While a majority of the climbing was WI3 or easier the second pitch had a difficult crux of vertical and rotten snow covering thinly iced chockstones with hard-fought protection that felt pretty serious. All photos by Justin Thibault. Below the long, beautiful runnel of pitch 3 Leading off for the summit Descending the Northwest Ridge One of the boyz below P6 We topped out maybe eight hours after starting the climb and took a long rest before beginning the exposed and tedious descent back to camp. Justin, Gene and I all felt that this route was quite classic and deserving of repeats. During a normal snow year there would likely be more wallowing, less ice and a big cornice to surmount at the top. We thought a fair rating in current conditions was WI3 mixed 5.8 R. Gear Notes: Plenty of screws Pickets Pins - KB to Baby Angle small rack to 2.5”

The fact that you wear women's thong underwear is well known. Do worry we're laughing with you....

TR: We carried our gear around and had a nice day in the hills....