Kyle_Flick

About 50' before you reach the Pandora's Box, what you referred to as the top of the (Dragontail) Col, you climb up left into a rock gully which turns into a ridge. You can traverse high along the ridge for about 200' without needing any rope, fixed line or belay. Makes for a much easier approach to the south slopes.

The gate is open, and as of last week you could drive up to the Eight Mile TH. Should be able to drive farther up the road now.

South facing aspects of Tumwater Canyon (e.g., Clems Holler) and Icicle Canyon (e.g., Careno Crag) are dry.

That's okay Bug, we were powered on the Home Fires Bakery's croissant cinnamon twists for the tour. Thanks for stopping in and introducing yourself to Linda.

Relax Ben--how many people are going to make the long slog/sled ride to the trailhead, skin up and locate it? If anyone does, then they deserve the right to climb the secret ice. Nothing wrong with good beta.

Should be great conditions. The weather has been sunny for nearly a week and there's plenty of coverage. We're expecting some new snow later this week which should soften things up.

We had a good turn out. Lowell gives an inspiring presentation that will pique one's wanderlust for ski touring in the Cascades. Several of us were so inspired that we're planning ski tours this winter/spring that were done in the fifties.

Hubba hubba is in.

For the Icicle Canyon, top-outs on some of the climbs on Icicle Buttress leave much to be desired. While things are forming up low on south facing slopes, we need a good cold spell, maybe this week, to improve ice quality and adhesion to the rock.

Nice TR of your roadtrip and a compatible partner to boot!

The point is not to stop reading the TRs, etc. It's just to have a barf bag ready for the occasion when you're getting into substance of the trip report, the author has to throw in the route was "super fun" that you don't spill your up-chucked lunch all over the keyboard.

I've been reading trip reports in this forum for several years now and usually enjoy the narrative descriptions. But for some reason folks have gotten lazy and continue to use the same phrases over and over and over again. Everyone please stop using the phrase: "...super fun...." It loses it's descriptive appeal and is becoming boring. I don't usually rant, but more and more often it keeps creeping in and I thought it was high time someone said something about it.

Nice pix and TR Chris. Good to see you're still getting out. We did the same trip at the end of this past July except we went from Tuolumne (after Cathedral Peak, Eichorn Pinnacle and Fairview Dome along with Yosemite Valley cragging on a rain day) to the south for Fishhook Arete and E. Face of Whitney. I agree--a wonderful intro to the Sierra. The north to south tour allows one to acclimate a bit before heading to 14K'. We stopped in Bishop to boulder (the horror) in the Buttermilks on the way home, but we did seriously consider stopping in Tahoe for Lover's Leap, but too many miles and not enough time.

Welcome back.

Just got back from the High Sierra last weekend. The second day we were down there, we enjoyed the fantastic granite of the Regular Route on Fairview Dome. This semi busy route is not to be missed! It was nice to see several folks climbing other routes on the Dome.

Trust you had a good climb. For anyone else wanting beta: The ranger will tell you that the gully bypass/shortcut with the fixed line at 11,200' is safer from objective danger, but wear crampons because it is icy. The lower section of the Kautz is in good ice shape. You'll probably want to rap that section if you return that way. One of the better less travelled routes on Rainier, especially after peering down at the hordes heading up to Muir.

About 50' from the terminus of the couloir, you head up on the rock on the left and cross a short exposed rock ridge and drop over onto the southeast snow slope of Dragontail. You'll get it next time.

Truly inspiring and tastefully done! I thought the Umbrella tree was gone.

Wayne and Mike, I have a couple digital pictures of the face around 10:00 am that morning which after magnification show you guys as specks about 1/3rd the way up. I'd be happy to post or send them to you, but I'm afraid my computer technology is from the caveman era (Windows '98).

We just traversed over to the col between Kitling and Mesahchie. We skied down Mesahchie glacier up over the ridge/pass on the other side and down a drainage to the west of Kitling Lake to the road. It was a great tour.

We were skinning up enroute to the Mesahchie traverse Sunday morning when we heard voices up on Graybeard. A couple in our party saw you guys, but I couldn't make out where you were. It felt warm and looked loaded. Congrats on squeaking by! I'd love to go back and finish the upper section of Graybeard in the right conditions.

Nice work getting off it. It was starting to rain and snow when we reached Library Ledge that day, but it was much easier to climb up and off at that point than rap with a single line. That morning, when we first arrived at the base of the wall, I noticed that you took a sporty line for the first pitch of the Remorse route (which, as you mentioned, is really the 4th class ramp to your right). Nice to have nerves of steel. When you reached the highpoint that day you could have saved gear by just rapping to Two Tree Ledge and traversed over to the bolts near the top of the first pitch of OS. That dead tree below Psychopath that we use for rapping luckily has deep roots. Anyway, Remorse route is one of my favs.

When I climbed it several years ago during our family vacation, I used a guide and don't recall any discussion that would keep those without a guide from climbing earlier. My guide was from outside the area (Canada), and we just kept up with the Swiss guides on the ascent and figured it out for ourselves on the descent.

Talked to a climber up there yesterday. The second pitch is missing, but can climb around to the left of it. It was too warm on Fri. and objective danger was high; so they backed off.

Should we skip the ice screws to save weight? You and Wayne may have been the first to climb the route sans screws, no? Thanks for the heads up. That certainly is a bold monster face.