Marko

Craig, how bad do you think the slopes getting up to the East Ridge of Prussik would be?

Right on gents, definitely a noble failure! That looks like hard friggin' conditions. And then there's the wind... And bivy sacks... And what's up with the glacier, do the caves go all the way to the mote?

The Sube made it to within 1 mile of the trailhead (snow machine packed the whole way). Skiied the road (icy), the trail (couple bare spots on the way in, many on the way out), and the glacier (cake). The Polish route looks killer! The last piller doesn't quite touch down however. John probably has a good photo, I do too, but my slides aren't developed yet. Both routes are do-able in a day for sure. -M

Do you know of any shop that does good work? I know of one... any others? Thanks

I'd say descend the route. Traversing the summits westward was really cool terrain, but fucking long. -M

Congratulations Sky!

No way man. Hell, it's taken me 8 days car to car before to fail on the north side!

This is a very good way to go. I've got an old pair of Lowa Denalis with Intuition liners fitted by a guy at Marmot. Zero heel lift and toasty to -40°.

Both. The 'fat' rope takes basically all the weight, but the 6mm also threads through the rappel device. I haven't used the Techcord for rapping, but I imagine it's somewhat less user friendly going through the rappel device.

Gary, I've had pretty good luck stuffing 6mm cord into a gaitor and/or into a jacket front, and then pulling it out while rapping.

Bigwalling- What is clip cleaning? Same thing as back cleaning?

Very impressive and inspiring adventure gents! I'm thinking yours was the most significant ascent in the Cascades done in a helluva long time. It's something Doorish would pull off! Cheers, Mark

It's funnest when the whole thing is plastered in snow!

Yet another fine photo from Mailbox Peak: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=12756&sort=1&cat=509&page=1

Holy crap, that had to be some amazing flying. Cheers to the Pakistan army pilot. Glad Humar is down.

Ha! I like that bit. Good climb gents!

It's nice you manage to get out in the hills once in a while Sky! Did you see the two Richards up there?

Oh man, you guys pulled it off! Friggin' great job! I'm very psyched for you guys, that must have been a hell of an adventure. Inspiring! Cheers y'all, -M

Finally found the CD with some Stuart photos on it. Maybe moving can be constructive after all. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=172 I seem to have managed to put them in reverse order however... -M

If you stay on the ridge crests there are 2 short bits that you may want to rappel.

Something mellow like Cathedral Rock NE Buttress (the C.R. above Cooper Lk) or Sherpa W Ridge & Stuart or... -Mark

With crampons and an axe you should have no problemo.

Holy shit youth, your 2 week holiday was more successful than my entire 25 year climbing career! Nice job up there! Any photos from A-strain?

Not really, aluminum has almost 4x the thermal conductivitiy of carbon steel.

This is exactly the reason smooth pads are WAY better than corrugated pads for your typical sufferfest. When you crawl into your tent during a storm you're going to bring in some snow that ends up sitting on your pad and melting there. The smooth pads make it easier to brush the snow off before it melts. Evazotes also seem to absorb less water on their exposed surfaces than the blue pads. I'm thinking maybe the cells are smaller.