dberdinka

Ice still does exist in Washington! Located along the east margin of the White Chuck Mtn glacier (not the WC glacier near Glacier Peak), size was hard to judge. At least 80’ maybe more, maybe quite a bit more. Looks hard, it’s only a three hour walk to find out. As far as a FWA I have no clue. Regardless White Chuck has lots of cool terrain for winter climbing.

Climb: Still Winter on White Chuck- Date of Climb: 2/2/2005 Trip Report: While the consensus has been that this winter sucks, on the bright side getting into the mountains is substantially easier than usual. Yesterday Dave Brannon and I decided to take advantage of the unusually high snow levels and take a swing at White Chuck Mountain. The logging roads were in great shape and Mattp’s concise directions eliminated any early morning anxiety from the drive. We were stopped by snow around 3800’ though a 4wd might get half a mile further. An hour of hoofing it up the road got us to the timbered ridgeline leading towards the peak. Around 5000’ there is 1’ to 4’ of snow depending on exposure. We had decided to climb the northeast ridge. Getting there required skirting the toe of the long northwest ridge of the lower northwest summit. So far conditions had been more spring than winter-like but as we passed the ridge toe and scrambled into the large north-facing basin below the mountain we entered an amazingly different landscape. A thick layer of verglas covered the exposed rock slabs of the basin. In the distance a slender pillar of ice teased us through the clouds. Numerous climax slides during the pineapple express had left huge piles of ice blocks scattered about. A football field size section of the snowpack had slid maybe 20’ cracking and warping into standing waves of snow. We were surprised to find the glacier to be significant and heavily crevassed. The mountain was still buried in clouds, and our route began from the highest point of the glacier, so we ascended directly to the north face then traversed along it to find the “down-sloping gully” that started the route. We were impressed by the extensive amount of water ice on the north face of the peak. It seems that the snowpack has become so waterlogged that any steep terrain below a snowfield is now frozen over in ice. In pour visibility we reached the “down-sloping gully” which is better described as a steep bowl. A climax slide had stripped it’s center down to verglas covered rock, so we followed a thin band of firm neve along it’s right hand side using a running belay. Protection consisted of pins, our one ice screw and the occasional cam or nut. After two pitches of neve, we climbed a short pitch of genuine WI2, then more snow to the ridge crest. The next pitch, a smooth downsloping slab of greenshist, was rated 5.2 in the guidebook. Covered in more verglas and snow, and with massive exposure down the east face, it was one hell of a pitch of 5.2! Dave methodically led it with mediocre protection finishing on an arête of 60-degree neve. About this time the clouds we had been buried in all day rapidly burnt off revealing a panorama of the Cascades from Baker to Stuart. From here a final pitch of steep snow led to the ridge crest maybe 100 meters northwest of the summit. A quick rappel and a long running belay on more exposed snow got us to the summit at 4 PM. As great as the views were we wasted no time beginning the long, somewhat complex and definitely exposed descent of the standard route. While not technically difficult, when covered in snow this is genuine “don’t-fuck-up” territory. Moving fairly quickly it took an hour and a half to reach the basin at the foot of the peak. The snow pack is so minimal on south facing slopes we were able to easily follow the summer trail and eventually our morning tracks back to the car by 7PM. As Dave summed it up “That route had everything but a bivouac…thank god!” Gear Notes: small rock rack KBs, LAs, baby angles screw(s) snow pro would have been nice Approach Notes: Can drive to 3800'. Road in good shape.

Rope soloing it's easy to link P1/P2 (the free pitches) Then link P3/P4 (First aid pitch then triple roofs) I've always done a 140-150? pitch from there, then one more easy, short pitch 50'? to the anchors below the chossy gully. Not sure if the last two pitches link in 60m, regardless it would be real close.

Thanks Matt.

Mattps advice was to follow my nose......looking for something a little more specific, but I'll check!

Does anyone have any recent (i.e. last year or two) experience getting into White Chuck Mtn just outside of Darrington? The maps just show a confusing jumble of logging roads. Looking for specifics on how to get to the "new" TH inparticular. Thanks! DB

Ba-aaah--ZAT!

At least those that weren't married off at the age of 14 their 67 year old grand-uncle.

For those of us who only vaguely recognize the name "Corderoy-Cotter" yet are well aware of the angst it draws out of those more in the know...maybe a little history is in order. Whats the story?

retired & bigwalling: One more question When using just two Yates aiders how do you have them set up? Sounds like each daisy is permanently clipped to one aider. How do you go from piece to piece? After testing with one aider and getting on a piece of gear, do you clip the second daisy/aider into the biner of the first daisy/aider, while you sus out the next placement? Assuming this is the case I would guess that the ladders are slightly offset, is this at all an issue? Thanks DB

On Ropes I once had a 9.6mm Sterling Marathon that rocked for freeclimbing. The rope fed very smoothly, it was very light (which makes a difference when you have to hump all the shit to the base of the cliff alone) and was surprisingly durable. Soloing walls fills me up with fear so I went and bought a 10.5mm Stratos. One less thing to worry about. The feed is poor for freeclimbing but works just fine for aid. One benefit of it's high-friction feed is that you don't have to prusik the rope to pieces of gear to prevent excess feed from happening. Still though the rope is a clunker, I wouldn't get another one. Jugging is hard on ropes I would get something with a very durable sheath. A Sterling Marathon 10mm or maybe one of those skinny "Big Wall" ropes marketed by that harness manufacturer in CA.

Evidently Metoloius developed that rating out of a fear of liability should the daisy be miss-used. The carabiner is clipped into a small loop of webbing located within a much bigger loop that one grabs with their hand to adjust the length of the daisy. If the carabiner is loosely clipped into that much bigger loop then the breaking strength is 300 lbs. When used correctly it is much, much stronger. Webbing gets frayed pretty quickly but is replacable for like $5.

Hey foo I use a single Petzl AM'D (regular locking) carabiner to attach the Silent Partner to my harness. (I don't use that carabiner for anything else) Certainly not as multi-directionally strong as a stainless steel screwlink but a hell of a lot easier to deal with each time you need to detach the rope from the SP. (once on once off each pitch) I orient it so if the SP is hanging off the biner (rope feeding down) the gate is facing the harness. In the event of a fall (theoretically) the SP and carabiner should be able to cleanly pivot 180 degrees without the gate mechanisim catching on anything. Between the SP, your backup, your daisy(s) and whatever else you have attached to your harness (I don't tie into the end of the rope) you have to work hard to keep things from becoming a total clusterfuck. I can't imagine using two carabiners or anything smaller than the AM'D, which is pretty damn big. (See more detail below) Yes, crossloading is a potential issue, but it's worked just fine. Plus this is why you always remain clipped into a back up knot. You're using a backup right!? More detail on how everything is organized on my harness Daisies (Metolious adjustable) are girthitched in middle, one to either side of the rappel loop, yellow always on left, blue always on right. On either side of that I have a locking AM'D carabiner, gate facing out when carabiner is oriented such that opening is at top. If the pitch trends left clip SP to righthand carabiner or vise versa. Other AM'D serves as backup knot carabiner. This will help cutdown on backclips through the loop formed by the backup knot and other rope mismanagement issues. By organizing carabiners outside of daisies you can actually open these things when you're weighting the daisies. If you don't turn into a hermit now that you got your SP lets go climbing sometime!

go back to stalking attractive women...

Go read it again. When setting up a top rope it is important to make sure the the locking carabiner(s) the rope is doubled through is actually attached to the anchor.

I was with Bob on Sunday and I refused to have anything to do with White Blotter. He did a fine job of hiding his disappointment, and seemed fairly content to stick to plain ole' unsandbagged WI5.

"PERIODS OF HEAVY RAIN WILL CONTINUE IN THE MOUNTAINS THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT. RAINFALL TOTALS EXCEEDING 10 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN THE OLYMPIC MOUNTAINS WITH TOTALS OF 6 TO 9 INCHES LIKELY IN THE CENTRAL AND NORTH CASCADES. THE SNOW LEVEL WILL RISE TO AROUND 9000 FEET BY TUESDAY." Seriously Fucked

I once made a double bivi sack out of a cheap roll of clear plastic sheeting and a roll of duct tape. It looked like the worlds largest sandwich bag. Cost ~ $5 Weight < 1 lb. We spent one night in it, during a continous light drizel, on the Grandstand of the Grand Teton. Spongy in there to say the least! Oh the memories....

JayB has confused Sloan Peak with White Chuck Mountain. Or maybe he's trying to confuse you. Regardless he's describing the West Coulior route (II 5.7) which might also be a decent winters outing.

So holy s!#t, two years ago these images were posted. Did anyone ever get on this stuff? It looks sweet! Pray for a good freeze-thaw cycle later this winter.... Here are the orginal posts. Phils Original Post with Photos Crackbolters lil bitchfest

+5 degrees Celsius in Hope today. It's gonna fall down in hurry, better get going Drew!

There is actually a book called "EPICS: Stories of Survival from the worlds highest peaks" It's quite good, and for $12 is cheaper than a single copy of Alpinist and has about 20 times the content. Amazon Link

I'll chime in. I've only read one of their news letters but it is very ANTI-ACCESS for everyone. If I remember correctly the entire article was about flood damage to the Mtn Loop Highway and how "we" need to make sure it doesn't get fixed. There was an article by Harvey Manning (sp?) that pretty much bashed everyone who hiked faster than he did, rode a bike, climbed etc. Came across as a real bitter, crusty toad. My take on it all was... NCCC is not the recreationists ally!

How long before Layton stops bitching about not being in a relationship and starts bitching about how the relationship is cutting into his climb time?