Colin

Asking $360 over the past couple months has been fruitless, and I just bought an expensive plane ticket, so I am lowering the price: $280 for a pair of Cobras. I can include either used Cobra picks or brand new Stinger picks. If you want to see them in person, they are hanging on the wall in PMS, although that tag still says "$360." colinhaley@comcast.net

Climbed the SE route on Formidable Sat-Sun. On Saturday there was about 1.5 ft. of seasonal snow on N-facing slopes up high, but it was consolidating fast. By Sunday afternoon most of the S-facing slopes were generally snow-free. The Cascade River road has several washouts, and Boston Creek is particularly bad. It's still closed at the NPS boundary.

"This is the Follsom-Heller route. It was done in 1975 and was one of the first winter excursions on the peak. Unfortunately, Don Heller (one of the first ascentionists) was killed on the descent following the climb." I have always called this "the 1971 route." While it's first winter ascent may have been in 1975, the first ascent of the line was by Eric Gerber and Charles Sink on August 1, 1971. I think it is one of the highest quality alpine ice climbs in the Cascades. More importantly, I think it forms very consistently relative to other alpine ice routes.

"ummm what does that mean? are you too cool for us now colin? Don't forget your roots...we may not be worthy, but we are people too... nice climb dude " Haha, very funny, Lambone... I meant geographically. I know there is a B.C. forum, but I generally think of that more as Squamish, Cheam Area, Chilliwack Group, Maybe up to the Anderson River Peaks, etc. Oh, and look up the posts back in 2000 to see all the dumb questions I was asking! Don't forget my roots? You mean mycelium?

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB9&Number=228679&page=2&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

Hey Matt, I'm selling my Cobras. They have a couple scratches here and there, but are mostly in quite good shape (most of my mixed climbing has been on other tools). I can include either a pair of new Stinger picks or a pair of slightly used Cobra picks. I'm asking $360 for the pair ($180 off retail), but maybe I'd consider something lower. Lemme know.

Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted a TR. I was figuring I'd just send something into the CAJ, since this seemed pretty out of the scope of cc.com, but hey, what the heck: Dan and I left Seattle Thursday evening, and met up with Don in Abbotsford. We ended up driving all the way to Bluff Lake that night, and at 4:30 am went to bed in the helicopter hangar. We spent pretty much all of Friday hanging around Whitesaddle Air Services because Mike (King) was off buying some window panes in Williams Lake. We finally flew in around 6:30 pm and constructed some sort of a tent platform out of the scree. We woke up at 4 am on Saturday and lay in the tent debating the rockfall hazard in the couloir. Don and Dan felt that it was too hazardous, and so I headed off with just tools, crampons, and helmet. The initial snow-cone at the bottom of the couloir went quickly, as did the first 300 ft of the couloir, because I was able to stay on neve. From that point the entire remainder of the couloir was hard, brittle, dinner-plating ice. It wasn't hard from a technical standpoint (60 degrees at most), but was extremely tiring on my calves, and I had to swing 2-3 times for each placement. It was a difficult balance trying to move fast to minimize rockfall danger while still making sure that every placement was bomber. I turned off my headlamp about 2/3 of the way up the couloir, and soon enough had reached the North Ridge. The final 200 ft. of the North Ridge was 3-4th class, with a little bit of "fresh" snow. I descended the South Side of the North Ridge for a long ways of 3rd class (put my crampons back on for two sections), and then finally spotted Dan and Don below me on the ridge. They advised me on which way to head down, and I advised them that continuing up the North Ridge wouldn't make for a very fun climb. We soon met back up at camp and began the long hike out of Whitesaddle Creek. We made the first 2/3 of the hike out that day, and then finished the rest on Sunday. It wasn't TOO bad of a thrash, but if you hiked in that way you'd be fairly haggard by the time you got to Blackhorn. It was a great trip, and my first in the awesome Coast Range. Thanks so much to Don for organizing it, and with putting up with my constant questions about the range.

When I was twelve my dad took my brother and I up the West Ridge (still probably the best climb of my life). It took us 3 days, and the helicopter was almost called because we had planned on 2 days. Last summer I managed 5:31 car-to-car while solo. I took a 50m 6mm rope and used it for the rappels down the NE Face. Probably the fastest way would be to solo the W Ridge and just downclimb the NE ledges descent, thereby taking no harness, no helmet, no rope, etc. I've talked to people who have downclimbed the NE ledges and it sounds like it isn't too bad. Another option I've heard of is to downclimb the last 100 ft. of the North Ridge, and then traverse onto the NE ledges.

I agree that something in print would be far preferable to something online. Websites end, computers crash - I want a set of booklets in my closet that I can refer to in 20 years. So, if a Cascade Alpine Journal were created, would we just stop submitting Cascades stuff to the AAJ? I think this would be fine as long as the longevity of the new journal is assured.

"ps. Colin, way to rip on dberdinkass. you should do that more often." I did realize after I made my post that it comes off as pretty rude. I even knew that Dberdinka was talking about Selkirks South, I just wanted to make an allusion to the awesome rock in the Adamants. That place blows away most of the Cascades.

"moderately sized, completely obscure, chossy mountains" Hmmm... Yes. Stay out of the Selkirks North, because they are totally chossy. There aren't 2,000 ft. walls of Prusik-quality granite. Mt. Adamant, the Tusk, and Iron Man aren't steep at all, and the Black Friar peaks - they just look lame!

"All I know is the La Sportiva Trango Series sucks balls." I haven't used them, so I'm not disagreeing, but I'd really like to know why/how they suck. "However I hardly can see any of the above boots thrashing in less then 5 years of abuse. Other words u can expect AT LEAST 5 years of service from any of the boots u looking at BTW." I have had a pair of Scarpa Freneys (the blue ones) for about 2.5 years now. They've been good boots in general, but they definitely are falling apart. I had to have one of the soles re-glued after about 13 months, but more significantly the uppers are really falling apart (my socks are becoming exposed on the achilles of each boot). I don't think that the Freneys are particularly flimsy or anything - I just don't think that any of those boots pictured have all that much durability. A heavier-weight boot (Nepal Extremes) is certainly more durable. I still think that the lighter-weight boots kick-ass, but there definitely is a trade-off in durability.

I'm geussing you're talking about a rock route, Mike, but in case it is of interest: Mark Bunker and I climbed a route there this past April, that consisted of a little ice climbing and a lot of mixed climbing (some of it actually quite fun). It started about 200-250 yards S of "Clean Break," and I think it generally paralled "Never Enough" a little ways to the right. It topped out on the ridge crest about 100 ft. to the N of the summit of Ares Tower. I've got a bunch of slides from it, some of which show where it went.

"Way to go, Wayne, Colin and Marko for realizing the fantasy of a forebearer that I bet you didn't even know you had! " Oh, Silas told me quite a while ago that Joan Firey had it as a goal. If you look up my posts, there should be one from last year of so, looking for Carla Firey's (she's the daughter, right?) e-mail address. And by the way, I think Wayne is doing some slideshow in the Portland area come October - perhaps he'll include traverse slides.

Donn, I think that you are thinking of the team Jim mentions. I know that Swenson and Martin were heading up to do it when they coincidentally ran into Bibler and Frederickson, so the four of them teamed up. I know that the Swenson-Martin-Frederickson-Bibler team didn't run into any others when they were on the route. I'm thinking that there was a spell of good conditions, and the two teams of four did the traverse within a couple weeks of each other. Hard to say - I'll ask Jim about it tomorrow.

"I have heard of people doing that traverse.....I thought it was a myth. I have heard experienced Cascade folk talk about that traverse as a waste of time. Cascade couloir is not that bad in the late spring or early summer." I did the traverse to Gunsight Notch after climbing J'Berg in summer, and it wasn't that bad at all. I wouldn't want to be in the CJ Couloir late in the day (which is when you'd be descending). As of two weeks ago, the CJ Couloir had about a 200 ft. section of no snow. It's a sad summer...

I just found out that Bill Sumner has never done the traverse in winter - only in summer. He has, however, done 4 different winter routes on the North face of the Main Peak! Only the one with Fred Dunham was ever written up. You bet it was a recon for winter, David! I probably wouldn't try that solo, though. I think that North-to-South is definitely the way to go (harder climbing, easier descents). It looks like it'd be an awesome winter climb.

I was also thinking that might be the case, Dru. Although, I would think that Beckey would mention it to be a south-to-north traverse, because he mentions that the second summer traverse was south-to-north instead of north-to-south.

Wow! A solo winter traverse sounds like it would be quite an adventure. I would love to read his account of that. I've always thought that the Middle-Main Peak Gully route he climbed with Fred Dunham sounded quite burly - "a 70 ft. vertical and overhanging waterfall about midway on the climb" as Beckey says.

After doing some reading in Fred and Jim's books, I'm confused as to who made the first winter Index peak traverse (North-Middle-Main). Fred says: "(talking about the Main Peak) The upper N face was climbed at the end of the long alpine traverse from the North and Middle Peaks by Fred Beckey and Pete Schoening on August 13, 1950. The first winter traverse was made by Larry Cooper, Mike Marshall, Don Page, and Byron Robertson during January 29-30, 1977." Jim says: "In 1977, Steve Swenson, Todd Bibler, Gary Frederickson, and Reese Martin completed the first winter traverse (north to south) of the three Mount Index peaks." Nothing important, but I'm still quite curious. Ideas/Opinions?

I do climb on Cobras, and they have been great tools. But, like anything that I buy made by BD, I waited until they had been out a year or two.

I agree that there are many really good tools on the market these days, and almost all of them will work quite well. However, to say that BD tools are more durable is just plain comical. BD is well known to put out far more unsafe (eventually recalled) gear than almost all other companies. Some of the Rage shafts came apart. I have a friend who was soloing once when the head of his Black Prophet came off the shaft! BD makes some really good stuff, but reliability is definitely not their strength.

Indeed, the Simond Fox is awesome. I did some research on these types of tools a while ago, and if I remember correctly: In order of lightest to heaviest (and worst to best at ice climbing): -Simond Fox -Charlet Moser Petit Loup -Camp Micro 1 -Grivel Compact 3rd

What cams? Was this today? Were they still there when you headed down? Urgent!

Anyone wanna do some cragging at Index tommorrow? I'm thinking of leaving Seattle around 8 or 9, and climbing till we're tired. I can lead easy 10's - but I'll be happy to let you rope-gun me up something way harder! Give me a call tonight - 206-232-1798