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Trip: 11 Day Pickets Traverse - W Fury - "Scorned Woman" (IV, 5.6) Date: 9/15/2014 Trip Report: After enjoying an amazing 7 days in the Pickets last summer with my high school friend Matt, we made plans to join forces for another trip this year. This time we would head in via Little Beaver to Whatcom Pass, carry over Whatcom Peak, descend to Perfect Pass, carry over the rarely-climbed W Challenger, traverse to Pickell Pass, carry over Swiss and the West & East Peaks of Mt. Fury, descend to Picket Pass, carry over Himmel-Otto Col, descend to Crescent Creek Basin, climb Twin Needles and Degenhardt, and exit via The Barrier and Terror Creek. This was obviously a full agenda, but based upon our successes last year I figured this would be a challenging yet rewarding adventure. It turns out I was sort of right. In an ideal world, we’d be able to complete this trip in 7 days. Matt told his contact we’d be out for 7 days, but that it was possible to be held up by weather for an additional 2 or 3. But this is the Picket Range, a place where plans and reality seldom agree. Leading up to the day of departure, I intently listened to the weather forecast, using all available resources. The last forecast I got before our departure indicated weather was going to be excellent for the first four days of the trip, then moisture would be moving in for a day or so, then it was to clear again. Weather at that time in our trip would definitely cause us to return late, so we both decided to pack for 9 days just in case. By some stroke of luck, my friend Mike H informed me that my friends Don B, Carla S, Mike C, and Brett D were going to be heading in to climb Luna Peak on Thursday AM. I contacted Don and asked him if we could share the boat ride up lake. Don was glad to have us on board, and we would all be saving money by filling the boat to capacity. So it was settled – meet at 0815 Thursday at the Ross Lake boat dock. Matt and I met in Federal Way that morning since I was visiting with my parents in Dash Point. Before meeting the boat at Ross Lake, we dropped off Matt’s car at Goodell Creek, our intended exit route. It took a little more time than we thought to handle all the logistics, and we wound up having to sprint down to the lake to be there right at 0815 sharp. But we made it! Before long, we were being dropped off at Little Beaver landing, and our adventure had begun. Day 1 – Little Beaver landing to Twin Rocks Camp 15 miles, 1100 ft gain, 500 ft descent With heavy packs, we set off up the dark, forested valley. Wild mushrooms greeted us frequently, and Matt found a few Chanterelles and Oysters. They looked delicious. We arrived in a deserted Twin Rocks Camp a bit tired from the heavy packs, but eager to get above tree line and happy to find a place to bed down for the night. We saw nobody between Little Beaver landing and Twin Rocks Camp. Day 2 – Twin Rocks Camp to Whatcom Pass 4 miles, 2500’ gain I was able to get a weather forecast in the morning that reinforced the one I heard before we left – weather moving in by Sunday night. As we made our way up to Whatcom Pass, the trail became brushier and fairly overgrown. At one point, the trail goes right at a creek crossing, but we missed it and crossed the creek. Immediately after crossing the creek, we saw the flagging upstream on the opposite side. We crossed the creek again back to the trail, but not before getting wet feet from rock hopping on slippery rocks. We stopped to try to dry our boots for an hour or so, and it helped a bit, but feet were still damp. By the time we got to Whatcom Pass, we decided to stay there so we could use the several hours of available daylight to dry out our socks and boots. We did not want to go into this trip with wet feet! Given our itinerary, we would ostensibly be on Fury on Sunday night. In light of this, we aimed to get to Pickell Pass on Sunday, a relatively safe spot to sit out the weather. Day 3 – Whatcom Pass to Whatcom Peak summit via N Ridge, and down to Perfect Pass 2.25 miles, 2400’ gain We awoke to beautiful blue skies and no wind, and we got started from camp around 9AM. We made our way up the N Ridge of Whatcom Peak, which was mostly rock with just a small amount of snow remaining (entirely avoidable). The climbing steepened a bit and there were bits of class 4, but for the most part it was exposed class 3 with marginal rock. Before long, we were standing on the summit enjoying the views we came for! Alan Kearney had signed the summit register that morning. In the register, Alan wrote that he was up there photographing the Challenger Glacier as part of an effort to depict glacial recession in action. He will be putting these photos up on his website and comparing them with photos he took in the 70’s. You can check that project out at http://alankearney.com. After savoring the views for a while and enjoying the warm temperatures and brilliant sunshine, we descended to Perfect Pass in perfect boot-glissading conditions. It took all of 10 minutes to get there. In camp early, we decided to lounge around and relax. It got hot that afternoon and we sought shade to cool down. As the evening wore on, the moon rose behind Challenger making for excellent photo opportunities. Day 4 – Perfect Pass to W Challenger summit to Pickell Pass 4.5 miles, 3000’ gain From Perfect Pass, we headed up the ridge to the glacier. Along the way, we encountered a memorial plaque commemorating the men who died on Firewood One on a SAR mission on the way to Redoubt Peak on September 11, 1980. It was interesting and sobering to see the crash site and find bits and pieces of helicopter on the way up. The setting is sublime. Heather and rock intertwine with small ponds that give way to dramatic views of jagged N Cascades peaks. May these men rest in peace in this beautiful little slice of our world. The Challenger Glacier is fairly broken up right now, and getting to the true summit of Challenger would be interesting (but not impossible as some recent reports suggest). Still, we weren’t aiming for the true summit of Challenger, we were aiming for the rarely-climbed West summit. Getting to the base of the W summit involved some careful crevasse avoidance and end runs and cramponing on hard ice with aluminum crampons, but it could have been worse. The route to the summit of W Challenger is best approached from the South to avoid a sketchy, rubble-filled gully on the N side. From the base of the rock it’s about two or three pitches of low to mid fifth class climbing (loose) to reach the summit. On top, we found the original summit register Kodak can with the Fred Beckey first ascent page still in it – all in perfect condition. What a treat. Rappelling back down the route involved delicate avoidance of loose rock and creative anchor-building skills, as the existing anchors I found left something to be desired. Continuing on, we descended through a notch between Middle and West Peaks to the glacier below, and traversed the W side of the Northern Pickets over to Pickell Pass. Days 5 & 6 – Tentbound at Pickell Pass Sunday night it started to cloud up, and by Monday morning we were in the soup. Visibility was nil when we awoke Monday morning as expected, and it was COLD! I had forgotten how cold it can get in September in the N Cascades. With our route ahead going over W Fury, we needed good weather, so we were prepared to sit it out for 2 days. It didn’t rain at all on Monday, but on Monday night into Tuesday it torrentially downpoured all night with freezing rain. When we awoke Tuesday morning, we had a sheet of ice on our tent. Fresh snow adorned the N flanks of the surrounding mountains. We needed Fury to be without high winds, we needed to have good visibility, and we needed the route to be free of ice-glazed rock. Until these three conditions occurred, I was unwilling to venture forward. During our stay at Pickell Pass (one of the most remote points in the lower 48 states), we saw nobody. However, we did have an odd-looking airplane fly over us less than 200 vertical feet above our heads. The plane came from Picket Pass, flew low over Pickell Pass, and continued to fly low out towards Challenger and flew directly into a large cloud and disappeared. We didn’t hear any explosions, so hopefully he made it out OK. Day 7 – Pickell Pass to Swiss Peak Wednesday morning dawned clear but windy. I would say winds were sustained at 30 gusting to 45. We were cold sitting around in all of our clothes at camp. These were not ideal conditions for being in the mountains – let alone climbing Fury – and so we felt the safest choice was to wait it out and see if the winds would subside. We knew we needed to contact someone back home to let them know we were OK, but we could not get cell phone reception to do so. We were concerned that people would be worried about us back at home, but we didn’t really have a choice.. we were at the very minimum 2 days in from the nearest road. We had a discussion that morning about changing our itinerary to exit via Access Creek, mainly due to uncertainty about the condition of Himmel-Otto col and the need to get out to the road faster so we could contact our loved ones before they could notify authorities of our late arrival. By about noon, the winds had calmed down enough and the sun had been out long enough to warm up the atmosphere a bit and give us the confidence we needed to continue on. We had listened to the weather forecast that morning and it indicated that warm temps were on their way back and it would be clear for the foreseeable future. So with that, we packed up camp and headed up towards Fury. I had done an E  W Fury traverse with Fay Pullen in 2009, so I was familiar with the route between the peaks and over to Luna Fury Col, but wasn’t sure about the route up from Pickell Pass. There is a W Ridge route reported by others, and I wanted to get up and take a look at it from Swiss Peak so I could see what we were getting into. So with that, Matt and I climbed Swiss and looked over at the route, and to our dismay the entire N side of Fury was coated in ice and snow. This would make climbing dangerous with our aluminum crampons and light axe, and so we decided to try and find another [new] route. By this time, it was already 3:30PM and we only had 4 hours of daylight remaining. Instead of trying to get up and over Fury today, we would play it safe and camp below the summit of Swiss Peak and get an early start on Thursday morning on a new route I had spied from Swiss Peak. I did not know how involved this route might be, so I wanted to give us all the time necessary. It turns out that was a smart choice. We bivvied at ~7500’ that night in the basin below Swiss Peak under clear, starry skies. It got so cold our water bottles froze completely solid. I would guess temps dipped into the mid-20s. Day 8 – Swiss Peak to W Fury Bivouac We awoke early to a very cold morning. We got a little bit later start than we wanted to as it was difficult to get moving in the colder-than-expected temps. Besides, we wanted a certain snow section on route to soften up before we got to it, as our aluminum crampons would be sketchy on the ice-hard snow. We started up a steep section of mid fifth class rock that eventually laid back to class 3-4. The route then crossed a steep (65 degree) snow finger, before entering into more steep rock just prior to gaining the crest of Mongo Ridge. From the crest, we descended into steep, loose gullies on the opposite side (class 4) that we opted to climb instead of the crest with our heavy packs and rather meager rack. From here, the route is a bit of a blur but we stayed right of the crest of Mongo Ridge, climbing over several very exposed towers along the way to the summit. In all, our route involved about 1000’ of climbing once we left the snow leading up to the col between Swiss and Fury. I would rate our route Grade IV, 5.6. As it was getting late in the day, we bivvied atop a very exposed tower on the crest of Mongo Ridge, about 200’ below the summit of W Fury. What a spot! I slept tied in, Matt opted to forgo the anchor. Throughout the night, I could hear a snafflehound in the rocks below me and plastic crinkling. I again tried to get cell phone reception that night, but could not. Day 9 – W Fury Bivouac to camp below E Fury When morning came around, Matt found that the little snaffle had stolen his headlamp! Strangely, all of our food remained untouched. We got going around 8AM from our bivy spot, and carefully made our way over to the summit among loose rocks. We signed the register on W Fury (Fay and I were the last to sign it in 2009), and continued on towards E Fury. It took Fay and I roughly 3.5 hours to traverse the ridge on our 2009 trip, so I was optimistic that Matt and I could climb it in roughly a similar amount of time. What I neglected to factor in was that we had a couple of things conspiring against us. For one, we had to ration our food because we were so overdue. This meant stretching 9 days worth of food into 11 somehow. As a result, we were both extremely low on energy. Also, we were carrying heavy packs. My pack going into this trip was about 75 pounds. While climbing Fury, I would guess it was at least 60. This made for extremely slow going. We eventually made it over to E Fury, but it took about 5.5 hours. By the time we got over to E Fury, we were tired. I tried again to get cell phone service, but I couldn’t get it. Not even a text message would send, despite my phone showing I had 3 bars of reception. That night we camped about 1200’ below the summit of Fury on some slabs. Day 10 – E Fury Camp to Luna Camp We were now in a mad dash to get out to the trailhead before a rescue could be called on us. We left camp and made our way down through Access Creek and out to Luna Camp. I saw a Blackhawk chopper flying over the Pickets and wondered if they were looking for us. We arrived at Luna Camp about 7PM after about 10 hours on the move. Hiking the trail 17 miles out to Ross Dam was not an option until daybreak. Day 11 – Luna Camp to Home We awoke early and continue our march out to the lake, hoping to flag down a boat on a busy, sunny September day on Ross Lake. About ½ mile from the lake, we encountered an NPS ranger who asked us if we had seen any bedraggled climbers. I said, “you guys aren’t looking for us are you?”. She held up a picture of both of us and that’s when we knew they were. It turns out Matt’s Dad (rightfully concerned with our late arrival) called the Ranger Station. They made the decision to send out two choppers, a ground team, and the ranger we ran into near Ross Lake. Crap. In retrospect, Matt and I both dropped the ball on this one. We should have been better at communicating our plan to our loved ones and to each other. My parents (who I usually leave my climbing itinerary with) are in India right now, and could not be contacted. Had they been contacted, I know for a fact my Dad would have said not to send out a rescue. I was carrying a PLB on this trip (a Res-Q-Link) and unfortunately that little tidbit of information was never relayed to the NPS. If they had known that I had a PLB, they would not have sent out a rescue. The problem is, I self-permitted for this trip because we had a boat to catch and a car to drop off, and I never contacted anyone at the ranger station personally. Had I spoke to a ranger at the time I permitted, I probably would have mentioned the fact that I had a PLB with me. I regret having valuable resources wasted on us. I understand the NPS is working with limited resources, and I feel terrible that this situation occurred. Still, it is a lesson learned and next time both Matt and I will better communicate our plans to loved ones (that are actually inside the country). This is the first time I have ever been overdue from a climb. It may not be my last, but next time I will have a better plan in place to prevent something like this from happening again. Thanks to the NPS and everyone involved in the search, and especially Kelly Bush who called my climbing partners seeking information and who went the extra mile to find us. She retired last summer, but still does some orchestration of rescues and other work for the Park. Her expertise and knowledge will be sorely missed. Mt. Challenger from the approach to Whatcom Pass. Matt hiking up the Little Beaver Trail to Whatcom Pass. Meadow below Whatcom Pass. Mt. Challenger and Whatcom Pass Trail. Matt hiking above Little Beaver Valley. Matt stops to appreciate the view of Mt. Challenger. Moon rising over Eiley-Wiley Ridge. Little Beaver. Mt. Challenger from our camp above Whatcom Pass. Sunset from camp. Alpenglow on Challenger. Matt hiking up to the N Ridge of Whatcom Peak. Matt takes in the views. Whatcom Peak and the Whatcom Glacier. Matt on the snow arête on the N Ridge of Whatcom Peak. Matt scrambling on Whatcom Peak. Matt scrambling. Looking down the W Face of Whatcom Peak. Matt on Whatcom Peak. Boot glissading down to Perfect Pass. Baker & Shuksan from Perfect Pass. Challenger at dusk. Hozomeen. The moon rising over Challenger. A pond near Perfect Pass at dusk. Matt at sunset at Perfect Pass. Matt scrambling up to W Challenger. Matt looks into the headwaters of Baker River. R.I.P. Near the memorial site. The N Cascades. Matt and Whatcom Peak. Looking into the headwaters of Baker River. Triumph, Despair, and Pioneer. Little Beaver Valley and the Challenger Glacier. Matt ascending Challenger Glacier. Matt on W Challenger. Matt on W Challenger summit. Matt rappels on W Challenger. The top of the Challenger Glacier. W Challenger. The notch. Matt downclimbs below the notch. Matt rappels below the downclimb below the notch. Matt walking down the S Challenger Glacier. The S Challenger Glacier. Matt and the Challenger massif. Sunset at Pickell Pass. Spectre and Swiss. Looking down Picket Creek from Pickell Pass. Mongo Ridge and W Fury. Spectre, Swiss, and W Fury. Matt and camp at Pickell Pass. Matt hikes above the Goodell Creek headwaters. Again. Mongo Ridge. Our bivi below Swiss Peak. Looking into Goodell Creek from our camp. Matt climbing a crappy gully on W Fury. Interesting rock. One of the several towers along the ridge. Matt looking tired. Dusk over E Fury at our bivi site. Matt at the tower bivi. Looking down from the tower bivi. Matt rappels. The S Pickets. Matt just below the summit of W Fury. The register. Looking back towards the upper ridge. Luna Cirque. Matt appreciates the N Pickets. The S Pickets from the summit of E Fury. Outrigger. Matt descends Fury Glacier in late season conditions. Crevasses were not small. Luna Lake. Matt on the ridge between Luna and Fury. Matt looks down on Luna Lake. Huckleberries were prime! Hucks.

Trip: Liberty Bell - East Face - F.A. Liberty and Injustice for All (5.12- 200m) Date: 9/5/2014 Trip Report: Liberty and Injustice takes a line generally 10m to 20m or so to the right of Thin Red Line. It is characterized by solid edges and thin crack features. It has a distinctly different feel than either Liberty Crack of TRL. The cruxes are mostly short boulder problems that lead to good holds and progressively easier climbing. Both of the 5.12- cruxes also come at the beginning of the pitches which should make them fairly easy to workout and then send. Two of the pitches share climbing with Liberty Loop, an obscure aid route established by Pete Doorish, Chris Chandler and Jim Langdon in 1975. A couple of their old 3/16" bolts can be seen along the way. A couple of the bolts snapped right off with a slight touch of the hammer! The gear is a mix of bolts and small cams. Some may find the small cams to be tricky to place but they are solid once they go in. Overall the protection is very solid but the occasional move has to be done above your gear. After 5 pitches (about 200m of climbing) it joins at the top of pitch 7 on Thin Red Line. Future parties can either continue on or rappel with two ropes from here. The rap is straightforward. From the top of P3 skip the P2 anchor and go straight to the P1 anchor. All anchors are two bolts with fixed biners. I established this route solo over 8 days of work. I'd planned on doing it ground up but after a fair bit of consideration I thought that pre-inspection would create a better overall experience and would reduce the risk of a botched and contrived route. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I redpointed the route rope solo which definitely added to the excitement and challenge for me! It turns out it is kinda scary to not have anyone holding the brake strand of the Gri-gri when you are pulling tenuous moves of 5.12.... Click for hi-res version... Yep that is Liberty Bell. Looking at the P2 face. really good and not that hard 5.11 or so. Great 5.12- climbing here. The gear is a bit exciting but solid. Pitch 4 corner and excellent climbing. I got a bit wet up there a few times... Pitch 5 boulder problem. not that hard once its figured out. Looking up at P5 thin crack. one move of 5.11 that is tricky to figure out. Old bolts from Liberty Loop. I left the old sling and bolt for everyone to admire. Gear Notes: Bolts and Cams... See the topo for the spray Approach Notes: 20 minutes from the road.

Trip: Leaning Towers - First Ascent - east face of Hall Peak Date: 8/16/2014 Trip Report: Are you an alpinist or alpine rock climber or even just a frequenter of the Patagonia catalog? If the answer is yes then chances are you’ve heard of the Bugaboos and chances are… you haven’t heard of the Leaning Towers. They are a group of three notable peaks 50 miles south of the Bugaboos. They feature similar age granite (granodiorite) to that of the Bugs but the 16 km approach that requires a significant amount of bushwhacking keeps the crowds away. The first ten days of August Winter Ramos and I spent bushwacking our way to the best alpine granite that either of us have climbed on. In our days in the range, we established two new routes on the east Face of Hall Peak: - The Direct East Buttress of Hall Peak (IV, 5.9+, 17 pitches, ~2000') - Post Credit Cookie (II, 5.10A, 4 pitches) The Leaning Towers are best viewed from the air; they are composed of three major named peaks. Given a hint after two of our friends had put up a new route on the east face of hall peak the previous year , we aimed directly at the largest buttress on Hall Peak's East face. The LT's are ~50 miles south of the Bugaboos. One of the best (legal) ways to get into the range is via the Dewar Creek Trailhead and then a hike up the pass just above Bugle Basin and down into the drainage below hall peak. This trailhead is accessed out of Kimberley, B.C. ~50 km of dirt roads. We horse packed in the first 12 k; then shouldered our big packs to hike up and over the pass. If you hit it early season enough there will be plenty of snow to make for easy going. At the top of the pass, we found our first view of Hall Peak's DRAMATIC east face. A night at the pass was followed by an epic descent into the most remote and exclusive bouldering area in all of British Columbia. Only a two day approach! This bush on the up had us hiking straight up the creek. UP, UP and UPPPP! we went until we were camped just below Hall Peak and our prize. The "Direct East Buttress" is in the centre of the above photo. This comes after a compilation of others routes in the ranges shows how much rock remains untouched! (Lines courtesy of Ryan Leary) With a bit of a rest day and a chance to scout around for our descent route, we racked up very soon after arriving to try for the Direct East Buttress. A 20 minute walk from camp at 5:00 AM had us at a nice ledge below our first pitch of climbing. The most intimidating feature on the lowers portion of the route is a large roof we could see through camp. Expecting something super hard, we brought out aiders and a few pitons. Winter found a sneak through on airy 5.9 moves. The rock was SPECTACULAR, lots of cracks only requiring moderate cleaning in spots where a bit more traffic would make for perfect climbing. Awesome face climbing just to the right of the main ridge (which is overhanging at this point), we connected cracked systems with a bit of slab all at 5.9! Winter led the crux pitch of the route, 40m of 5.9+ splitter hands! Our face climbing ended a the notch below a large gendarme on the direct south buttress, from here it was meandering mid-5th ridge climbing. After 17 pitches, some shortened for lack of gear and rope drag, we reached the summit!!! WOOT! From here it was a bit of down climbing 4th class slab, a few rappels, some steep snow and we were back to the col where we rappelled onto the snow field above camp. (image courtesy of Ryan Leary and John Scurlock) (image courtesy of Ryan Leary, NOTE, WE FOUND YOU NEED A DOUBLE ROPE RAPPEL TO REACH THE GROUND ON THE NORTHERN TIP OF HALL PEAK) Followed this climbing day with a day of rest, when we slept and played around placing pitons in our campsite practice wall The day after a much needed 24 hours of rest; we felt just leaving would be a bit sad. After taking two days to get to such awesome granite, why not keep rock climbing? A jaunt placed us just below the shorter northern aspect of Hall Peak. We spied a good crack system and ended up putting up a four pitch 5.10a we called "Post Credit Cookie" The first pitch was the 10a crux, clean cracks and fun lie backing and stemming moves gave us a fantastic intro to this face of hall peak. Then came another quality 5.9 pitch. The third pitch was 5.9 with an exposed slab and then low-5th You top out 100m to the south of the fixed rappel anchor. A quick double rope rappel takes you back to the snowfield above camp. We descended, packed up, and hiked partway out. We tried the high road on the way out, sticking to moraines and sidehilling on moraines on the northern side of the peak just adjacent the pass we were aiming for. A cold campsite for the night, then more STEEP bushes followed by three single rope rappels through vertical bush put us on an endless block field to the pass, we recovered some stashed gear and then down the other side. Even though it was incredibly hot, we relaxed our weak knees at Dewar Creek Hotsprings. Finally back at the trailhead several hours later we headed back down that isolated dirt road, looking forward to dinner in British Columbia's own Bavarian Village (Kimberley, B.C.). Block Tower and Wall Tower still offer large and probably HARD objectives. Wall Tower has no completed routes up its east face Hall Peak, thanks again! Get after it! Will be posting more writing and photos at my blog Gear Notes: We brought 2 60m half ropes. Full double rack to 3, with one 4. Could probably get by with single rack to bd .5 then doubles .5 to 3, single 4. If you are thinking of leaving the 4, we used it every pitch Approach Notes: Horse packers help a lot! http://raftkimberley.com/land-adventures Brad helped pack us in the first 12 km. Give yourself two days on the approach. Also! Would like to thank the Mazama's for helping to support our expedition!

Trip: Mt Despair, N summit - NE ("Bipolar") Buttress, 3700+', 5.9 Date: 7/28/2014 Trip Report: Low. (Our first glimpse of the double buttress from banks of Goodell Cr.) High. (Rolf climbs the final snow arête of the N Ridge to the N summit of Mt Despair. The highpoint of the NE Buttress is barely in view on right. Pickets background.) Route summary: the NE Buttress (“Bipolar Buttress”) of Mt Despair, ~3700’ net vertical relief of climbing and scrambling; a few hundred more are climbed thanks to multiple rappels into notches along the way. Difficulties up to 5.9. (Rolf nailed the name.) I think we belayed a total of 9 pitches, 8 on the buttress and 1 to attain the N ridge? This shot taken from the southeast shows the NE Buttress toeing down into Goodell Cr. Photo courtesy of John Roper, taken from the Roost. We began climbing at the base of the big open book in the area of lighter rock on the lower buttress. The feature can also be seen in the background of this shot taken from Mt Terror last summer: And here: Trip summary: a delightful tour of Picket-ness proportions; we approached via Goodell Creek, climbed Mt Despair via the soaring NE Buttress/N Ridge continuation, descended Despair’s west flank, and ultimately exited via Triumph Pass and Thornton Lakes trail to a bike, where the lucky loser of roshambo commenced the 8ish mile ride to retrieve the car. Lots of ups and downs. (On a map, this looks like a reasonable horseshoe route. Plan for three demanding days.) More-enterprising types might more fully express this route by traversing from the N to the S summit, thence to Triumph Pass and home; we left this for future work due to budget constraints of calories and time. A good thing too, as I botched the de-proach; in a monomaniacal fit of hubris, neglected to thoroughly research the route from Triumph Pass to the Thornton Cr trailhead, instead relying on simply a map and odd recollections. As a result, deep into the third day, we achieved new psychological limits by rat-schwacking up a 600+ vf stretch of steep, dense brush. My bad, brah. A soi-disant Cascades dignitary pronounced this a Last, Last Great Problem of the Cascades, while the other side of same mouth pronounced it “table scraps”. The Bipolar Buttress is more akin to eating a spilled gourmet meal off the floor, tasty if a little dirty--the floor in this case is the Goodell Creek valley. The NWMJ notes Roger Jung used Goodell to score FWAs on Mt Fury, but my contacts with real Cascades dignitaries yielded little info re: optimal access in the brushy summer. Sundry, pleasant surprises await those who in future travel this way. Route description/photo blast: Scrambling the lower buttress. Around 1300’ of mostly solid and well-featured scrambling up to low fifth class. Chimney moves to finish the lower buttress difficulties. From top of lower buttress, we rappelled into a notch; a party could bail from here at relatively low cost. Beyond this point, costs increase. Rolf leading out of a notch after a rappel. A very deep cleft in the upper buttress weighed on our psyches during the whole climb; the most technical pitches had occurred climbing out of smaller notches after rappelling into them. This deeper cleft can be seen in Tom Sjolseth’s picture from the N. Only the upper buttress is visible here, extending left—the cleft is near the summit of the buttress. With apologies to Jimi Hendrix, this is the Manic Depression. New lows were hit upon closer viewing of the chasm. The wall we needed to climb appeared very steep, overhanging in places, and meager viable lines looked difficult to access. We rapped in and scoped around, finally settling on a route beginning maybe 50’ to the south of the notch: a right-trending stair-step ramp kept the climbing at a reasonable grade. Watch for loose rock here. Rolf led the first pitch, and I got the leftovers; a bunch more rambling (an exposed stretch felt like the TFT) and we found a dee-luuuuxe bivy site on heather near the high col, where the two E-side glaciers meet. Views into the Pickets were available all day, and made even more enjoyable by respite. Smoke filtering in from eastern Washington provided color. Mr Bo Jangles S Pickets N Pickets The next morning we crossed the high col, climbed a 70m pitch of rock to attain the N Ridge, and then continued on its final snow arête. This pic shows the upper buttress (blocks view of lower buttress) on the right, with Goodell Cr far below. Descent was made by downclimbing to the notch S of the N summit, then down the W side of the peak; one rappel required. Demanding tour, but rewards with sweeping views and ambiance. Bunch more photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/ewehrly/2014_07_28MtDespairNEBipolarButtress?authuser=0&feat=directlink [Might add or swap out some photos upon receipt of Rolf’s.] Gear Notes: Medium rack with several pins, but never used them. Axe/crampons. Lithium. Single 70m rope. Approach Notes: See above.

Trip: Gorillas in the mist - Date: 7/14/2014 Trip Report: Jon and I enjoyed this route last weekend. Being hot it was the perfect choice as it gets no sun until later in the afternoon. It has the feel of a big-time Cascades route. If you haven't checked it out yet here is a link to mine, and the other reports I could find. I am hoping someone has info on the direct finish, thanks Gorillas

Trip: West Witches Tit - West Ridge "No Rest For the Wicked" (FA) Date: 5/28/2014 Summary: First Ascent of the West Ridge of the West Witches Tit on May 28-29th 2014. John Frieh and Jess Roskelley. “No Rest For the Wicked” WI6 M7 A0 No Rest For the Wicked ascends the left hand skyline of the left hand peak Details: Nearly five years ago I made my second trip ever to Alaska where Dave Burdick and I made the first ascent of the West Ridge of Burkett Needle. That climb made a huge impression on me and I began making a list of climbs I wanted to return for. One of the lines I found in John Scurlock's excellent gallery was the West Ridge of the West Witches Tit. John's photo made it look like a series of easy granite ramps and the Ice Cap manager confirmed it was still unclimbed. In August of 2013 I flew with a group from Portland intent on attempting that line; unfortunately a lean winter followed by a hot summer resulted in impassable glaciers so the team opted for the 50 classic East Ridge of the Devils Thumb. A nagging injury from earlier in the season forced me to sit that one out and delivered me my first Stikine shutout. I had to return. I did this year and on May 28th Jess and I flew from SEA to PSG where we obtained our Stikine Ice Cap permits from the Manager and then flew to the Devils Thumb massif's single landing zone SE of the Devils Thumb. We scouted part of the approach before turning in early. The following morning (May 29th) we departed camp around 3:30 am and began the long traverse around the Devil's Thumb massif to reach our proposed route on the West Witches Tit. After 8+ hours of traversing multiple glaciers and ridges that required climbing and rappelling we finally reached the West Ridge which we were "pleasantly surprised" to find was anything but easy granite ramps. We took a brew stop and debated our options; if it had been any later in the day I doubt we would have tried. In the end Jess said "why not?" and we launched just before noon. Almost immediately we were faced with stout mixed climbing. I kept thinking "that had to be the crux!" only to be faced with another hard pitch. Roughly halfway up the route Jess led arguably one of, if not the hardest pitch I've ever seen in the mountains. 15 inches wide give or take; perfectly smooth and would have been unclimbable if not for the ice in the back of the chimney. Exiting out required lying back a giant flake with your feet above your head to attempt to get sticks in shit snow. Stout! As the pitch took nearly 2 hours to lead my sense was to bail at this point but we couldnt let such a proud pitch go to waste. More hard climbing followed; all told I recall 3 or 4 solid M6ish pitches and one solid M7 when it was all said and done. Near the top we crossed over Bill Belcourt and Randy Rackliff's rap line from their original first ascent of the West Witches Tit in May of 1995. We summited around 11:30 pm making the fifth overall ascent of the West Witches Tit. We discussed our options; though we were told a rap line existed down the south face that would make our hike back to camp shorter we were very worried about finding it in the dark and then rapping down new terrain. In the end we opted to rap the Belcourt/Rackliff line as we knew were it started and had some good beta from Randy and Bill about it. It turned out to be the right decision as their excellent line took us down very steep terrain on a single 70m rope. As an aside their unrepeated line on the SW face looks amazing. We hit the glacier sometime around 5 am; at this point it all gets foggy for me as all told we were awake and on the go for 36 hours on a measly 3000 calories each. We likely would have laid down for a brief shiver nap but with the weather window rapidly closing we death marched our way back to camp where Wally promptly snatched us up. "No Rest For the Wicked" is my fourth first ascent on the Stikine Ice Cap in the five years I have been climbing there and one of, if not the hardest route I have climbed ever anywhere. I am proud of our effort. Thanks to Wally of Temsco Air for the superior service; Dieter Klose for continuing to tolerate my flagrant behavior in the Stikine and of course Jess for being a great partner. Thanks to Randy and Bill for the great beta and encouragement as well as John Scurlock; I lost count how many FAs his pictures have provided me. Thanks to the great people of Mountain Gear and the Alta Group for supporting local climbers like us. Finally many thanks to my Gym Jones family for teaching me how to suffer and the power of self image. Onward. Pictures: Morning Coffee One of the more involved approaches I have done Foreshortened view from the col Stout pitches early on About to finally get some sun Cruiser Le Crux Another stout pitch High on the route Summit Hour 30: Starting to break down but still 6 more hours to go

Been meaning to write something up on this new route we did last Jan. Finally found the time. Gilkison's Travels

After a cold week in Seattle.What has always been high hanging ice was on the ground on that day (2/9/14) FA ? I dont know. who out there knows. first shot is of leading route CYA with part of the touching down ice in background. the rest of the shots are of leading the touching down ice.

Trip: Commonwealth Basin - Little Late For My Eleven-WI4 Date: 2/11/2014 Trip Report: Doug Hutchinson & I were able to sneak out before work yesterday to try and track down some nice blue ice that I had spotted while skiing the Kendall trees last Friday. An early start, climb a quick pitch and a ski back out would have Doug back in time for his usual meetings... Here is what we found... Some snowfall since last Friday had covered up the lower half of the climb and there was some cleaning involved. The upper was awesome! Doug on the fat blue of the upper pitch... The heavy snow in and out of the basin made things go a bit slow and we both did our best to stay upright on the down with our climbing packs. Not sure if anyone has been on this before-it is such easy access. It should at least have a name for reference! Since Doug was sending emails from the basin that said he was going to be "a little late for my 11:00", we thought that funny and apprpriate! Here is a map to get there... This one gets lots of sun exposure so cold/cold temps are in order for it to form. Another one to add to the Commonwealth Basin worthy ice climb list! Gear Notes: Two 60's will get you down from the nearest tree above. Approach Notes: see map

Trip: Dirty Face Peak/Lake Wenatchee - Dirty Face Drool (FA) Date: 2/9/2014 Trip Report: Some climbs are harder than others to complete and the mighty Dirty Face Drool took me three attempts over four years to finally find the right conditions. This climb is probably of little significance to most everyone but me, but since this climb is right out the back door of my cabin; it has haunted me since I first saw it quasi-form in 2009. It is a south facing climb on Dirty Face Peak ½-mile past (west) of the Lake Wenatchee Ranger Station: It probably comes in for about 36 hours most years but the light colored rock creates a reflector oven to amplify the sun and quickly destroy it. Overview shot from a previous attempt which shows it better without today's fog and new snow (P1 hidden and not well-formed): My first attempts involved slabby mixed climbing up to M5 on P1 (I freaking hate slabby dry tooling) to find P2’s vertical curtain in not-yet-touched-down dagger shape. With the skiing continuing to be uninspiring, I was able to convince my favorite reluctant ice partner, Moira Armen, to give it a shot Sunday with promises of skiing by lunch when it turned into a dry tool fest. Surprise! We found stellar ice on a very high quality route. It went in five 40-60M pitches. Today, the climbing went up to casual WI4ish with lots of snow covering the frozen drainage in between fun curtains and shorter steps. P1 - easy today since all ice/no DT required. (Ice is obscured by last night's snow) P2 (so fat today!) P3: P4 was a move-the-belay pitch. Final pitch: The walk off was super easy with gorgeous Lake Wenatchee and Nason Ridge to add to the ambiance. And, we still were able to ski lots of laps at Stevens in the afternoon. PS - Every WA ice climb that I have done this year I think will probably be the last one of the season but two days after doing this climb (as in earlier today 2/11/2014) Justin Busch and I climbed really fat ice below Red Mtn. It is still out there if you go looking. Gear Notes: Screws only today but lots of rock gear used on previous attempts. Approach Notes: Oh yeah, that. Trespassing is technically required to reach this soon-to-be classic but the lots between the highway and the base of the climb are still undeveloped so park at the ranger station and walk softly.

Trip: Miyar Valley, Himachal Pradesh (India) - New Routes in the Sir Don Chuuudong Terrordome Date: 8/30/2013 Trip Report: Sometimes trips come together so well, that I almost weep with joy when I think about it. This is one of those trips. The bug hit me as I was sitting in the Victoria Theater in San Francisco for Reel Rock back in 2012. I was completely mesmerized…I was watching Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk climb Mt. Meru in India. My mind was set, I wanted to go somewhere far away and climb something that hadn’t been climbed. I hadn’t done an international expedition since my trip to China back in 2005. I was craving adventure. So, during the intermission of the film fest, I texted the most "available" climbing partner I know to casually gauge his interest in a trip like this. Jason (Spiceman) immediately texted back - he said was on board for some international climbing shenanigans...and we started scheming. We thought about going to Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan or China, but ended up deciding on the Miyar Valley in India’s Himachal Pradesh. Freddie Wilkinson had put a bug in my ear a few year back in Cuba, saying that the Miyar had loads of accessible, moderate routes just waiting to be climbed by a moderate guy like myself. Done. Luckily, Jason isn’t moderate. Sure, I am in decent shape, can carry a backpack, and am experienced at suffering…but I would need to bring a ropegun along to ensure success. We eventually added another “comrade” to our team, Sandeep. This was particularly awesome because Sandeep is an inherently funny guy and is also a rope gun. Not only that, but as you might guess he speaks Hindi (and not only the dirty words, like me). Sandeep also had a friend in Manali who could organize all the transport, base camp equipment, food, cooks and horsemen - and also help us navigate the confusing climbing permit process requirements in India. The Secret: Just don’t tell anyone! Our Steeley-Eyed RiCkShaW dRiVeR. We didn’t see him blink once in the heavy traffic. After a 3am arrival to New Delhi and a watching a morning monsoon storm from our shoddy guesthouse balcony in central Delhi, Jason and I jumped in a rickshaw taxi for a harrowing ride through New Delhi rush hour, our huge bags (full of heavy climbing gear) bulging from the three-wheeled-near-death-machine. 16 hours later we arrived in Manali, Himachal Pradesh - the jumping-off point for our three-week climbing expedition. Jason, at the “bus station” in Delhi…the bus eventually came a while later. We were quickly greeted by Sandeep’s friend Omi and his friendly entourage, and spent a couple days in Manali acclimating to the time zone and Indian culture before heading up to the hills. Sandeep arrived a day after us, with his parents in tow. Soon, Jason and I began to call his parents “Uncle” and “Antie”. It was a special treat to get to spend time with Sandeep's family, and once our big van was packed up to take us 9 hours to the trailhead, his mom and dad jumped in with us to enjoy the ride to the trailhead! Jason, Sandeep and Sandeep’s mum – along with our unloaded van. Our first hurdle was to brave the monsoon-sodden roads, and cross the Rohtang Pass, a couple hours in a bus from Manali. I was never really frightened on the 25 mike drive to the pass, but I was intoxicated by watching the road unfold in front of us. The higher we drove, the hairpins got tighter, the road muddier, the sides of the road became nearly overhung. Then the mud gets deeper, goopier. The mud is the consistency of a Wendy's frosty, the color of chocolate milk - perfect for mud wrestling. Traffic on the way to Rohtang Pass… Our van driver Sano repeatedly takes us inches from a precipitous cliff, or passing within a whisper of large trucks as oncoming traffic closes in. Part of it feels dangerous, part of it seems like a symphony. Either way, it works...and I think that some of the uptight Seattle drivers could use some of this traffic experience for a bit of perspective. In Udaipur, the last town before heading up the remote and sparesly-populated Miyar Valley, we paid homage to the local Hindu god in a hillside temple. I felt as though our souls were cleansed, and we were cleared to violate the mountains at will. Before we left Udaipur, we passed a shop with a large "Cold Beer" sign outside. I sighed to myself - no more beer for 3 or 4 weeks. At the last minute Sandeep convinced me to buy a couple packs of smokes. Buying sashes before entering the local temple in Udaipur… Jason, emerges from the temple ready to CrUsH! Eight hours after leaving Manali, we were finally driving up the Miyar River Valley, hoping to make our way to the trailhead that night. Other cars weren’t the only obstacles on the way to the Miyar trailhead… Entering Miyar Canyon from the town of Udaipur, you would never imagine there is a vast wide valley above. Canyon walls are steep and tight. The road is in-cut into the cliffs in some places. The fact that there is a road here at all, is rather amazing in itself. Our progress up the Miyar Valley was halted by a stream overflowing at a road crossing. The heavy rains had brought down large rocks onto the "roadway", and the stream was flowing fast enough that we decided to wait till morning, when there was less water flowing, to cross. Well, after much shenanigans and deal-making by Sandeep, we eventually found our way across the side-stream with the rest of our gear, and started up the Miyar Valley on foot, following eight horses carrying provisions for a month in the mountains. Sandeep straightens out the confused horsemen… Loading up the horses was a bit of a shit-show, but most of our stuff made it to base camp without falling off… As we hiked up-valley for the nest three days, the shepherds and flocks were making their way downhill, on their way to lower climes (Punjab or lower Himachal Pradesh) for the winter. Huge herds of sheep filed around us like air over an airfoil. We hiked for two days, up-valley, through open, huge expanses - with nothing barring our advance besides the occasional rock fence to find our way through. A quick smoke break with the shepherds… A guy can get lonely up in the mountains for a month. Don’t judge! On our second day hiking up the Miyar Valley, the side valleys started to reveal glaciers a few thousand feet higher up - we could start to see big mountains up these drainages but the clouds kept their true appearance a mystery. Still, seeing high peaks above us got us excited to start climbing! We probably started walking faster without knowing it. Mount Doom Looms Above! The sheep guarded the best bouldering spots… Four days after leaving Manali, we found ourselves at what we call "base camp"...a spot in a meadow, not far from the termini of the Miyar, Takdung, and Chuudong Glaciers. Our little tent city was a relaxing place to call home for three weeks. A fresh spring nearby provided clean water, and the flat land around was perfect for throwing the frisbee. Base Camp views weren’t bad! Our cooks, Jogu and Sanu, held down the fort for us while we were higher up in the mountains. And, while we were in base camp they provided us with TONS of delicious Indian food to recharge our batteries. The kitchen tent, with our cooks Jugu and Sanu. After our long journey from Seattle to base camp, we were ecstatic to find ourselves at the base of the peaks we had been looking at for months - from photos taken from previous expeditions we found on the Internet and in the American Alpine Journal. We had read about these peaks several times - but to actually see them in person - it was very inspiring. Our first couple days at base camp we spent trying to acclimatize to the altitude. Base camp was at about 13,000' above sea level - the peaks we hoped to climb were around 19,000'-20,000'. So, we had a lot of elevation to gain to attain our summits. With the help of some 2000-3000' high acclimatization hikes, and a little boost from Diamox, we decided to head up the Takdung Glacier three days after arriving at base camp. We packed up with full alpine climbing gear and enough provisions for 6-7 days. Yard Sale! Gearing up for our first trip up the Takdung… Our packs were heavy! Our sights were set on 4 or 5 prominent peaks up a side-valley of the Miyar - the Takdung. We hoped that at least one of these unclimbed peaks would provide a reasonable, yet technical and enjoyable, route to its summit. We were hoping for 5.10 rock climbing and fun snow/ice climbing. All we could do was hope. And start hiking. Up. Up. Up. The hike up the Takdung was, frankly, a bit brutal. We were hiking in a large boulder field for miles. Our speed was tortoise-like. Carrying a huge pack, while hopping from one loose rock to another, while not fully acclimatized to the altitude proved to be a challenge. We took a ton of breaks, often times supporting our heads on an adjacent boulder to help us from passing out! BUT... we continued up, up, up. Talus as far as the eye can see… Up and down, actually. The glacial moraines were anything but straightforward, and we did a lot of zig-zagging, back-and-forth, up and down the loose boulders that lay atop the miles-long sheet of ice that is the Takdung Glacier. By 5pm, we were exhausted after 9 hours of toil, and decided to stop for the night - at a rather grim spot that I called "Camp Drear". The setting was unsettling. Wet gravel provided a soggy base for our tent, the clouds provided us with short bursts of graupel every 15-20 minutes, and the glacier provided water that was silty grey. Camp Drear! It wasn’t that bad, really. But perhaps more of a downer was the appearance of the mountains surrounding us. The quality of the rock looked loose and crumbly, and basically unclimbable. The glaciers, that provided access to the peaks called "The Ogres"(which we hoped to climb) looked melted out, steep, and the lower slopes were constantly peppered with rockfall and avalanches from above. Avalanches came down from Ogre II constantly… Thankfully, as we continued up the glacial valley on the second day, the appearance of the mountains, and consequently, our attitudes, improved. We were finally motivated by the peaks of the Upper Takdung… We climbed through, and eventually above, a large icefall on the Takdung Glacier, and we found ourselves on clean ice glacier terrain - MUCH easier terrain to travel than the boulder hopping hell we had to endure on the lower glacier. Jason takes a breather in the thin air… We eventually found a reasonable spot to camp on the upper Takdung Glacier at around 17,000' elevation. When we arrived at camp, we were each at various stages of hypoxia, fatigue and cheerfulness (grumpiness). We quickly got the megamid tent set up, hunkered down for the night, and discussed our options for climbing an unclimbed tower that lay to the east of us, across the width of the glacier. Oh Boy! Sanjana Peak is in the middle of this photo. The next morning, Jason and I packed up the ropes and climbing gear and made the two-hour walk across the glacier to scope out possible routes up the unclimbed peak. We saw what looked to be a decent, steep, crack system leading from the base of the peak to slightly easier terrain above. We roped up, and Jason led off, up the virgin crack. He led a wonderful pitch of 5.10b-ish climbing a full 70 meter rope length above the glacier. This is what I brought the rope gun for! Jason, about to head up off the deck on Sanjana… Very happy with the quality of the rock, and our prospects for climbing the mountain the next day, we let out a loud series of signature crow calls, yelps, yee-haws, yah-hoos and other esoteric phrases from the base of the mountain. Sandeep could hear us a mile below at camp. We left the ropes anchored to the mountain that night, to give us a jump start the next day - then hiked back to camp. That night we went to bed with high spirits, and with a plan to start climbing the mountain as soon as the sun hit it - around 8:30am. I guess we should have started earlier. The Upper Takdung at before the sun comes up… Our high camp, below the back side of Neverseen Tower… Jason and Sandeep, making their way to the base of Sanjana Peak… The next day, everything started well enough...we re-climbed the first pitch of rock as quickly as we could, then started swapping leads up the mountain. Stoked to be heading up! Around 8:30am here… Sandeep awaits at the top of Pitch #1… Sandeep led the second pitch up a nice line of cracks and face holds. I led a long, but fairly easy pitch of ridge climbing, with a cool, airy, hand traverse over a "whales-back" feature. Definitely airy, and I was euphoric with where I was finding myself. Looking down from the whalesback… We were all in a pretty good mood. We were making progress, and the sun was shining on us - at that point. Feeling “dreamy”. Around noon, pitch #5 or so… All smiles in the sun! A few more pitches up, we were getting higher and higher on the mountain, and started to encounter snow and ice, which slowed us down a bit. It was also starting to get later in the afternoon. I started to think about the prospect of having to descend (rappel) in the dark...not the greatest scenario, but not as bad as sleeping on the summit. I was still hoping it wouldn't come to that. Later in the afternoon on Sanjana, starting to get tired and cold… As usual, the clouds threatened in the afternoon. This day, we were lucky. The terrain was snowy, and it was cold enough to warrant boots in lieu of rock shoes. I was also mega-paranoid of the frostbite my toes had endured on Mt. Waddington, and I didn't want a repeat of that episode. I led one final pitch in my rock shoes, half of which consisted of kick-stepping into 40-degree snow-on-slab. My feet were freezing by the time I arrived at the belay, and I changed into new socks, boots, and chemical foot warmers. Ahhhhh. It was getting darker by the minute now, and we kept making progress upwards...but we couldn't yet see the actual summit - just more walls above us. We Have To Be Getting Close, Right?!?? Darkness still creeping in, Jason led a pitch of iced-up 5.9 cracks in his rock shoes, leaving slings for Sandeep and I to follow on aid in our boots. It was a great lead - and it took us to the base of what seemed to be the summit pyramid. I led a traversey pitch in boots that required a tender foot on loose rock, a bit of aid, and some very trusting moves across large blocks to what HAD to be the base of the summit pyramid. By the time I had a secure anchor set up, it was pretty much dark. I put on my down jacket. I was already wearing all of my clothes that I had packed. Following on aid in climbing boots. Donning his headlamp, Sandeep led up a short pitch if iced-up cracks to a huge block. I heard a declaration of "the summit" from below, and was relieved to be at our high point. The wind was starting to pick up, and I REALLY didn’t want to spend the night in the open, on the summit, at 19,500'. I followed Sandeep and Jason up to the summit via more aided climbing, and we had a pow-wow. It was about 9pm. After some initial disagreements, we decided it would be best to stick out the night on the summit, and take our time to safely decend in the early morning light. And so it began, "The Summit Bivouac"... Being a fairly hyper guy, who also gets cold easily, I'm not sure how I made it through the night without losing my mind. For 9 hours, we huddled on that summit, most of the time crouched behind a huge boulder that was a windblock. But, I got cold sitting still, so I would get up every 30 minutes or so and take off my boots and warm up my tender toes with my hands. Then, I would bang my headache-drenched head against a rock to alleviate the pain - which was made worse by being tormented by watching Sandeep actually SLEEPING, just a meter from my feet. Jason seemed to fade in and out of sleep through the night, occasionally appearing conscious and mumbling something incoherent. As the night wore on, and the moon began to rise, I saw a terrible sight. Above us, looming like Mt Doom, was another tower. A tower that looked steep and formidable. I laughed an evil laugh to myself. We were not on the summit after all! And it pained me to think we had more climbing to do before we could descend in the morning. The view of the final summit pyramid at first light… Hours passed, eventually, somehow...And by 5:30am, we roused each other into a light level of consciousness - we were all very tired and a bit delusional, BUT we wanted to climb to the summit before leaving this mountain. Jason tied in and led a snow pitch to the base of the ACTUAL summit pyramid. Feeling a bit groggy after a shivery night… Spiceman bravely heads off to the base of the summit pyramid… To get to the summit, one more rock climbing pitch was required - Sandeep deftly led this pitch on aid, and I belayed him while being about 7/8 asleep. Jason looked on with one eye open, one closed. Eventually, Sandeep yells "belay off", and Jason and I head off to tag the summit around 9am. Jason and Sandeep on the airy traverse… Tim heads across the horizontal crack, feeling for tiny hand holds… We Got This! The final final final climb to the summit! Three tired comrades atop Sanjana Peak. We decided to name the peak Sanjana Peak, after Sandeep's late sister. The Cascade Route, goes around Grade IV, 14 pitches, 5.10b, A1. We were all extremely exhausted, but we began the descent with the first of nine 70-meter rappels that would take us down to the Takdung Glacier. We had one stuck rope(my fault) and I prusik-climbed up nearly the full 70 meters to fix the situation. I was completely exhausted after that, and I won't make that type of rope mistake again. Jason catches 40 winks on the descent… Just a couple more raps to get to the glacier now… By 4pm, we were back at camp - 34 hours after leaving. We didnt say much to each other before crashing into out sleeping bags - we ate dinner, fell asleep, then woke up the next morning and hiked 8 hours down the boulder field, and back to the paradise of base camp. We ate heavily for the next three days, gorging ourselves on Jogu's cooking. Dal, curries, chapatti, chai, coffee, custard. We ate and ate and ate. Negotiating the boulder fields of the Takdung… On our first rest day, I celebrated my 40th birthday. I am not one to place a lot of importance on birthdays, but I have to say that being on an expedition and climbing new mountains with friends is a pretty awesome way to spend it. Our cook, Jogu, was kind enough to make a wonderful cake with chocolate frosting, using just a kerosene stove. My 4oth Birthday present from Jason. Gummy Bears, whiskey, jerky and an FA – not a bad birthday at all! This guys showed up at camp every day. His name was Sir Donald Chudong. We still had about 9 days left in the Miyar, so we headed up the Takdung one more time to tackle a couple more peaks we had our eyes on. The weather had become quite fickle, and every day an afternoon cold front would move in and it would start to snow on us. With the bad weather hounding us, we opted to try a less technical peak this time. A snowy peak at the end of the Takdung looked appealing, and we set off to claim the prize of its summit. Jason and Sandeep scheming about our next objective… After a long day of glacier hiking, gully scrambling and boot-kicking, we dug out a little snow pit to hunker down for the night. Immediately, it began to snow, and at 5pm we were zipped in our bivy sacks for the night. We were all starving, but couldn't bear sitting out in the cold and blowing snow to cook our food. The amazing view from the ridge above the Takdung Glacier… Quickly setting up camp as the usual nasty weather comes in… The long slog across the Upper Takdung… A cold and frosty morning… A fitful night brought a beautiful, sunny morning. The sun slowly warmed our frozen boots and bodies. Lulled into complacency, we stalled getting out of camp and didn't head up the steep snow of the peak until 9am. By 9:15, snow had started to fall, and it was COLD. My tender toes really hurt and I screamed in pain as we progressed up the 19,500-foot mountain at the head of the Takdung. Sandeep, at the final rock step on Mt. Sealth… Luckily, Jason was feeling great, and he led about 4-5 pitches of steep snow to the base of the summit. A quick scramble on compact rock brought us to the top if the peak, which we named Mt. Sealth - the name of the Duwamish Chief who worked with Doc Maynard to accommodate white settlers in the 1850’s. Cold, tired, and a bit frustrated with the fickle weather, we started rappelling down the mountain. 2-3 hours, and 9-10 rappels later, we were back on the Takdung Glacier. Just one of the many v-threads we did to get down from Mt. Sealth… We were all exhausted the next day, and we decided to head down to base camp, leaving the splendor of the upper Takdung behind us. We were almost out of food, and the graupel-y weather had broken our spirits a bit. But, we also felt like our time on the Takdung was a success, and we headed back to base camp with our heads held high. Another long day of boulder hopping with heavy packs brought us down to base camp, and the comforts that go along with it - food, frisbee, warm weather. The last full day at base camp, Jason and Sandeep were still stoked. They headed out at first light and climbed a new rock route right above camp on a feature called David 62 Nose. Climbing on solid granite, they reached the summit just as the daily dose of graupel was being deposited on them from the heavens. They called their 7 pitch, 350m climb the Emerson-Owen Route, with difficulties to 5.10a. The route took them most of the day, but it was a high-quality ascent - and it was another first ascent! Way to go guys! David 62 Nose, from base camp. Jason, on the lower section of D62N. Higher up on David 62 Nose. And, so quickly it was over! The next day, the horsemen arrived with five strong beasts, and we hiked back down valley to the roads-end in a long single day push. Before we knew it, we were drinking whiskey and eating chicken under electric lights. Another day of driving, and we were back in Manali, with wifi access at our fingertips. That night Sandeep was off in a taxi to Haryana, soon after Jason was off on a cramped bus to Leh, and I bought an Enfield Bullet. The climbing trip was over, but it couldn’t have gone much better. Two new peaks, three new routes, a great cultural experience - and great times with comrades. Near perfection. Just like they used to say in those Old Milwaukee commercials: “Ya know, It doesn't get any better than this!” Summary: Sanjana Peak(5,937m), southwest ridge, first ascent (Tim Halder, Sandeep Nain, Jason Schilling) Mt. Sealth(5,968m) east ridge, first ascent (Tim Halder, Sandeep Nain, Jason Schilling) David’s 62 Nose, southwest face, Emerson/Owen Route, new route on face (Sandeep Nain, Jason Schilling) Some Parting Shots… Three Comrades, below Sanjana and Trento Peaks… View of the Upper Takdung… Myself with our adopted dog “Scrambles”. Gear Notes: The whole kit. We used everything except the #5 and picket. Food from Trader Joe's was very handy. Maggi noodles get old when you have them for breakfast and dinner 5 days in a row. Approach Notes: 1 day airplane travel, 20 hours road travel, 4 days on foot.

Trip: Bonanza Peak, Washington - FA: The Oregonian Route Date: 9/4/2013 Trip Report: First Ascent Trip Report The Oregonian Route a.k.a NW Buttress of SW Bonanza Peak (Slightly closer than the Soviet Route but also not really the “North Face”) 5.9+, 2200’ (1600’ new) Grade V A few other Statistics: Six days, 36 miles of hiking, 43 hours on route, 2 bivies We also wish to express our gratitude to Steph Abegg for her vision and research digging up the Soviet Route and documenting it. SW Bonanza Peak (right) and West Bonanza Peak (left) seen from the west. (Photo: Steph Abegg) 1. NW Buttress, “The Oregonian Route.” 5.9+ V. Keena and Bonnett 2013. 2. W Buttress, "The Soviet Route." 5.9+/5.10 V. Bershov et. al. 1975. (Overlay as documented by 3rd ascent party) When looking for some alpine mischief to get into this summer we stumbled across Steph Abegg’s excellent trip report from her third ascent of the Soviet Route. To our delight, we noticed a parallel buttress starting slightly uphill to the northeast. A bit shorter, probably a bit steeper, just as remote. Within moments we were smitten, ready for adventure, ready to go climb and explore the vertical world, ready to overcome obstacles… and of course there were many more than we had anticipated. Approaching Bonanza Peak has become increasingly complicated as of late due to the Holden Mine remediation to the east (the quickest approach). Since we were constrained by work schedules, we opted for a combination of mountain biking and hiking over about 30 miles from the west up the Suiattle River to Suiattle Pass. This approach offered shorter driving time, low cost, and schedule self-determination, but unfortunately no quality bushwhacking. The loaded rig. The west side approach also possessed the customary WA mountain road condition; limited use during construction. Riding past the work and gradually ascending the narrowing gravel road for 10 miles led to the FS-26 – Glacier Peak Wilderness boundary. We then hiked the following, respectively: Suattle River trail, PCT to Suiattle Pass, hiker trail to Cloudy Pass, finally cross country to Bonanza Col (South of Grant Glacier). MTB approach Great bridge near Suiattle River- PCT trail junction North Star Mtn and the cross country route taken to the Col (far right bench). High camp Finding ourselves still in dense fog and rain on a drab fourth dawn we were becoming worried about getting climbing weather before we’d have to pack up and leave. Just as the meteogram had predicted, however, the weather began to lift, just slightly, around midday (visit pataclimb.com for a great description on how to generate meteograms for climbing). With intermittent fog and less-frequent drizzle, we decided to pull the trigger. The approach and first afternoon of climbing was made continually challenging by the banks of fog and drizzle that continued to lethargically glide by. However we were grateful to have a “window” and excited to be climbing! We made the traverse from the top of the col, past the Soviet Route buttress, to the first climbing technicalities in an hour and a half (enough time to surf some stellar scree). Erik on the talus approach. At 3pm we began by making a somewhat sketchy approach-shoe traverse up the toe of the pocket glacier to the north. Gaining rock a few dozen yards uphill and left of the lowest point of the buttress, we were immediately making near-vertical 5.8-5.9 moves. The toe of the NW buttress. Climbing began on the upper left side Looking up from pitch one We continued ascending moderate terrain with more challenging moves for seven pitches to the lower ledge. The climbing was often loose, sparsely protected, somewhat lichen-covered, and wet, but with excellent position on the crest of the buttress. We only wish we could have seen the view! Erik making moves Banks of drizzle moving by added special "zest" to the evening. Seth Arriving at the lower ledge at about 10pm, we quickly prepped a flat talus surface and snuggled into our lightweight bivy system (1 bag + 1 foam + homemade nylon wedge + 1 small siltarp). We were excited to notice stars that night, and generally slept surprisingly well. We awoke at daybreak to clear skies(!) Morning light on N. Star Mtn and Glacier Peak from bivy 1 ledge. And… A near-vertical wall punctuated by several significant overhangs rose for over 600’ above our bivy ledge. Given the quality of the rock and length of the route, we considered beginning to rappel. As the light slowly increased, we were able to make out a small ledge system, traversing left to regain the buttress crest. This pitch ended up having the highest quality rock of the route and gave us the emotional pump we needed to keep going. It was 6:30am with the makings of good weather. First pitch of the day on great rock Working up and left around loose overhangs We continued for 8 pitches up arêtes and troughs, generally staying just left of the buttress crest, eventually reaching the talus field below the summit block. We climbed in micro-blocks of two pitches because we found leading over the loose and/or steep terrain mentally and emotionally taxing. We were surprised to notice that the rock was often better in the troughs and on vertical terrain, while the lower-angled arêtes tended to be looser. With a report of a party’s Soviet Route attempt ending in rockfall injury earlier this summer, we were very careful to position belays out of the line of fire. Up and slightly left (north) of the arete proper. Note the airborne rock- a constant working up the lesser vegetated troughs At the talus field, we considered bivying again since it was already 4pm, but decided to continue, breaking the remainder into two blocks: ascending the upper Soviet Route (Seth), and the descent (Erik). Some simul-climbing led us past the upper ledge (used to bivouac presumably by the Soviets) and on to the summit block. Three more pitches gained the summit in waning daylight. Summit of Bonanza SW looking west Summit of Bonanza SW looking north. Can you name any peaks? Looking east form the summit at the two higher sub peaks and Isella Glacier (right) THE DESCENT We had planned to descend the south ridge using rappels and down climbing. We had scoped the bottom portion of the ridge from camp, but standing on the summit saw a long section of sharp ridgeline leading down to what we had seen below. It looked like the descent would require several rappels down a loose knife-edge arête just to reach the ridgeline. That descent seemed like a bad idea even in the daylight, as did trying to bivy on the summit. Following previous party’s routes along the ridge to the northeast would also require extensive 4th/5th class climbing in the dark. As light faded, Erik spotted a talus bench between the upper and lower Isella Glacier, exposed by glacial recession. We quickly slung a boulder and started to descend as the ledge disappeared into darkness below us. A rope caught on the second rappel and was bravely fetched on lead by Seth. After three rappels we made our home again amongst talus, a few feet from the cliff edge. Though our thirteen hours of movement did evoked sound sleep, smashed up cheese wraps and celestial beauty were not missed. As the sun rose and we were pleased finally to be in position to benefit from its warming rays. As Erik brilliantly led the downward charge, we moved quickly in and out of technical terrain toward the toe of the main Isella Glacier far below. Erik and.. Seth, feeling fine in the shine (finally) Due to an excellent choice of rappel anchors we got to shower off in waterfalls during two rappels down to the sculpted bedrock below the glacial toe. We quickly coiled the ropes and walked out of the serac-fall zone, grateful to be back on terra firma! (belated) Summit Snickers. Background: Isella Glacier basin, the descent ledges, and the SW summit. The 2nd bivy was at the last snow patch before the summit Seth had to be back at work the following morning so we kept moving through camp and down the trail. Unbenounced to us, our last challenge still lay ahead. Six miles from the trailhead, tendinitis in Erik’s knees began limiting his ability to walk. Quickly Seth took all the weight while Erik staggered down the trail leaning on two trekking poles. Fortunately we were able to continue slowly to our bikes and arrived at the car just after 2 AM, twenty two hours after leaving our second bivy. A caffeinated drive, a divine shower at NOLS PNW, a quick goodbye, and Seth caught the 9:40am Edmonds/Kingston ferry with 12 minutes to spare! Gear Notes: Cams: triples in fingers, double to 2.5",single 3", and a tiny fella. Stoppers: rack of nuts and RPs. Two 60m ropes (we used an 8mm and a 9.6mm)and lots of single slings with a few doubles. Approach Notes: Park at mile post 11, FS-26 and give workers excess tomatoes to let you ride bikes past. Ride 10 miles to Glacier Peak Wilderness boundary. Hike Suiattle River trail taking PCT North at their junction. At Suiattle Pass take trail to Cloudy Pass. Navigate to Bonanza/North Star Col. 36+ miles total.. Or take the ferry/bus from Chelan.

Trip: Vesper Peak - The Ragged Edge Date: 8/18/2013 Trip Report: Back in August Gene Pires and I wandered up to the north face of Vesper Peak to check out the steeper and much neglected eastern half of the face. We managed to climb the obvious exposed edge along its right-hand side. The position and the underlying rock quality were generally fantastic but the climbing itself was horrible due to a thick layer of lichen, heather and dirt that covered the face. Rock cruxes were protected by beaks, belays tended to be marginal and the actual crux involved mantling across a series of quivering hummocks. A good time was had by all (I think) but it sure as hell wasn’t anything you’d recommend to a friend. So when I finally finagled two days to myself rather than hang out with friends, or go somewhere new or actually get in some pitches I carried a 70 pound pack of bolting, cleaning and bivi gear back to the summit of Vesper Peak. A dozen retro-bolts and fifteen hours of scrubbing later the end result is a potentially enjoyable six-pitch 5.6 or 5.7 rock climb in a stellar setting. The rock is excellent, the climbing is sustained at a very moderate grade, the position is spectacular and the protection and belays are solid and well situated. It’s pretty easy to overestimate the quality of your own routes but this has to be one of the better moderate and accessible alpine rock climbs on the west side of the Cascades. I should point out that what we did was essentially a series of major variations to the “Center Route” established in 1969. The fourth pitch was shared in common and probably the first pitch of the original start otherwise we had stayed further right near the edge. Pretty bold climbing they did back in the day. Until nature gives it a solid pressure washing the grit left behind from cleaning will inevitably collect in some of the cracks and edges I scrubbed. If someone heads up there this year consider bringing a small stiff bristled brush or at least a nut tool to clean off some holds. Would be psyched to hear feedback if anyone climbs it. Click image for larger version Approach Description The trail fades out as you enter the basin between Vesper and Sperry Peaks. Cross the outlet of the lake and follow an obvious talus ridgeline up to a col between the peaks. The climb is accessed by a ledge system that cuts across the north face of Vesper at about 5800’ elevation and begins at a small notch overlooking the Vesper Glacier. Allow 3+ hours for the approach. Walk out the ledge on steep exposed heather (snow until mid-late summer?). When you can’t walk any further either (A) scramble up over an obvious chockstone formed by a large, thin flake to a belay ledge or (B) as a variation backtrack a bit and figure out an exposed 3rd class traverse down and around the toe of a buttress before scrambling back up to an obvious and clean 5.6 layback crack (better start). The 3rd class slabs at mid-height on the first pitch could easily be accessed after climbing the lower half of the north face as well. Route Description: The ratings below are potentially soft. Bring a full set of nuts small to large and a single set of cams from #0 TCU to #3 Camalot with extra #0.75 and #1. Original Start - Red Line P1) Climb approximately 60’ of low-5th terrain to 3rd class slabs. Continue up the obvious flaky gully and arrange a gear belay just below a short overhanging wall (low-5th 170’). P2) Traverse right on a long, thin ledge then a short gully to a fixed belay on the skyline (4th 60’). Slightly contrived variation start with better climbing - Blue Line P1) Climb a nice layback flake then a low-angle groove to 3rd class slabs. Traverse hard right then follow the highest grassy ledge system approximately 40’ to a gear belay below a faint white dyke splitting a slab (5.6 160’). Note that you can also reach this belay from the original start as well. P2) Climb the dyke past three bolts to a thin ledge. Traverse right and up a short gully to a fixed anchor on the skyline (5.7 90’). P3) Step right then traverse back left on positive edges towards the skyline. Find a bolt then continue up a nice arête protected by fixed pins. Arrange a gear belay atop a heather ledge (5.7 95’). P4) Step right and climb steep, stacked blocks. Easy zig-zag cracks above lead to a fixed anchor. I aggressively trundled loose and semi-loose blocks off this pitch but some caution is still advised (5.7 95’). P5) Step right again and climb straight up in an exposed position. At the second bolt traverse right 50’ to a fixed anchor on the skyline (5.7 80’). P6) Follow the nice arête to a final touch of heather and the summit. (5.5 130’). Walk off to the southeast. A lot of the greenery in the following three photos is now gone. Never heard good things about the lower wall. Maybe a direct starts needs a scrub-down next year.

Trip: North Hozomeen Mtn - Zorro Face, IV 5.9 Date: 8/31/2013 Trip Report: “squamish?” Written at the end of a planning email for Hozomeen which addressed some nagging details, this would become our refrain throughout the trip. Labor Day offered a nice climbing window, and our list of objectives included just plain ol’ good times at Squamish, which typically promises immediate rock, clean rock, solid rock, protectable rock—all conspicuously (or suspected) absent at our objective. Most likely, many of you are aware of the opening passage in Jack Kerouac’s Desolation Angels: “Hozomeen, Hozomeen, most beautiful mountain I ever seen, like a tiger sometimes with stripes, sunwashed rills and shadow crags wriggling lines in the Bright Daylight, vertical furrows and bumps and Boo! crevasses, boom, sheer magnificent Prudential mountain, nobody’s even heard of it, and it’s only 8,000 feet high, but what a horror when I first saw that void the first night of my staying on Desolation Peak waking up from deep fogs of 20 hours to a starlit night suddenly loomed by Hozomeen with his two sharp points, right in my window black – the Void, every time I’d think of the Void I’d see Hozomeen and understand – Over 70 days I had to stare at it.” Later in the novel: “The void is not disturbed by any kind of ups or downs, my God look at Hozomeen, is he worried or tearful?... Why should I choose to be bitter or sweet, he does neither? – Why cant I be like Hozomeen and O Platitude O hoary old platitude of the bourgeois mind ‘take life as it comes’…” “take life as it comes” indeed. This is a useful mantra when approaching the west face. We had suspected an approach from the N down a gully would grant us access—Colin Haley’s blog post seemed to confirm this suspicion. However, this approach is nontrivial; the initial gully third-class down-climb, while loose, and dangerous, pales next to the shenanigans required to cross several precipitous ribs to our targeted launch point. A slip at any point spells an unpleasant end in the valley a couple thousand below. The approach took us a tedious and painstaking 4.5 hours (this after a first day of humping heavy loads 11+ miles to a camp just N of the peak.) Camp in that basin; S and N Hozomeen left to right, with the west (Zorro) face mostly out of view; some of its northern margin on the right skyline. Our approach continues down (out of view) from the furthest notch on right. Views during approach included the Picket range. Approach soloing; downclimbing skills or funeral bills. squamish? “take life as it comes”, also a useful mantra when trying to piece together leads up loose, sometimes friable and/or vegetated and/or wet, mostly welded shut (read: sparsely protected) metamorphosed basalt. The stuff is also called Hozomeen chert and was valued by the Salish for making knives and arrowheads. Hozomeen apparently is native Salish for "sharp, like a sharp knife." Looking up at much of our (foreshortened) route, which tends left to the central summit in this pic. Finally at the base, we decided to take it one pitch at a time, figuring we would try to retain the option to bail. squamish? Rock, paper, scissors, Rolf wins first lead this time. End of rope. I follow and gain an appreciation for the climbing challenges this Hozomeen chert will proffer; sparse pro and selective handholds will be the order of the day. I lead up a second long pitch to the only evidence of human visitation: a ¼ inch bolt and a bail ‘biner. Someone came, saw, and turned around; foreboding. (We did not see any other indication of passage higher than this.) After a couple pitches of metamorphosed basalt, we were talking about turning around too. But we could see trees on ledges above, and figured we could still bail in a relatively safe and reasonable manner. squamish? The land of milk and honey beckoned us. The third pitch required an exposed step-around with muddied feet; expletives drifted down to my belay. No pics. My pitch 4 went steeply up to a ledge, and traversed left; we were somehow making our way, and could still bail. Rolf’s face at the pitch 4 transition betrays some of our uncertainty. During his pitch 5 lead, some curses and words in the wind, “I wanna go home”. It was probably just the wind; he would’ve said simply, “squamish?” I’d like to forget pitch 6. I was forced up a steep 5.9 corner/arête with a paucity of gear. And what few pieces there were went into mungy and rotten fissures. Loose rock abounded, and without gear, there was no way to constrain the ropes from sending it down. Rolf didn’t get hit, but reported that he dutifully tied knots below his brake hand in case he was knocked out—so sensitive to my needs. I grunted up to a fat ledge, and Rolf managed to follow without getting shelled. Then Rolf drew one of the plum pitches, the seventh. 5.9+, climbs a nice corner (but with a section of unavoidable decking potential), then a tricky traverse to another corner, up and then traverse again to the only belay opportunity. Again, only so much gear and rope management was possible; missiles flew by my safe belay spot, but a few also threatened while climbing—somehow, no carnage. This wouldn’t happen in … Rolf up the p7 corner. Hand jams!?! Pitch 8 had a couple steep sections. Here Rolf discerns which holds to clean and/or trust. Pitches 9 and 10 stretched the ropes, continuing up the “corner” system we had identified as a weakness. More 5.9 (mostly easier) runouts. At the belay at top of pitch 10 I placed the only iron we used, a crappy pin to back up a solid piece and a marginal piece. For pitch 11, Rolf raced the sunset to a ledge. Uncharacteristically, this pitch didn’t stretch the rope; he thought we should take the bivouac bird in hand. I thought we were close to the summit and could possibly manage to climb to the top in the twilight-soon-to-be-night. He pointed out that idea was risky, and his logic prevailed. In retrospect it was definitely the right move. “take life as it comes”, also useful for shivering through the beautiful folly of an exposed bivy on a sloping ledge one nasty pitch from the summit. We’d brought some warm clothes but could have been warmer. All in all, the bivy wasn’t so bad, and definitely not as miserable as our unplanned bivy on Lemolo Mox across the way. Hozomeen wasn’t done with us. In the morning, I put together a long and winding pitch on some of the worst rock and pro conditions on the face—one strong cup of coffee, scary to the last drop. But it got us to the summit ridge! Unfortunately, the only spot to belay again made rope-disturbing rubble unavoidable. On the finishing moves, Rolf got clocked right in the helmet with a softball-sized rock, but was ok. Shudder. Top of our climb, just North of the summit, shortly after getting rocked. Glad to have done it. Another Scurlock masterpiece. Our route makes its way up to the left-facing corners directly below the summit. Our bivy occurred on the relatively large snow patch right below the summit. In the background is the Southwest Buttress, climbed many years ago by some hardcores. Kerouac again: “And I will die, and you will die, and we all will die, and even the stars will fade out one after another in time.” But we won’t die on Hozomeen. Hopefully not in Squamish either. But I will climb again at the latter. Both Rolf and I have mildly obsessed over this face for years, and were gratified (gruntled, even) to execute our vision. I expected technical demands exceeding 5.9, but given the challenges of Hozomeen chert, was glad for the limit. Probably half the pitches had some 5.9 moves, depending on what you trust for holds. We stretched the rope for most of the 12 pitches of pure adventure. I am fortunate to have a teammate like the curmudgeon: rich in experience (old), strong (for his weight), solid (old), and somehow able to check my relentlessly positive delusions. Thanks hardcore. A couple summit shots: And more pics. BTW, we descended the North Face route, rested, ate and drank, packed up and marched to car. The mosquitoes for the last couple miles were some other $#!+. Gear Notes: Single set of nuts. Tricams up to hand size v useful. We took lots of small cams, but the doubles would actually be better in the mid-range. Approach Notes: Nontrivial. Day 1, due to tons of rain the day before, we elected to take the scenic Skyline trail instead of the steep bushwhack. Day 2, follow your nose and low sense of self-worth.

Trip: Waddington Range - Bicuspid Tower - FA of "On a Recky" Date: 7/23/2013 Trip Report: This is the follow up to Ben's McNerthney Pillar trip report. I was waiting to confirm some details of past routes on the face and I got backlogged getting my place ready to sell here in Boulder so we can move back home to Washington. It’s time to end my 5-year hiatus from the Cascades! And for the record, that jump shot with Peter Rabbit only took one go… [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3686/9556712328_58681c0bd1.jpg[/img] Now then, after a much-celebrated rest day wandering around in the hot sun after coming down from Waddington, Ben and I went on a reconnaissance trip to scout out the Stilletto Glacier approach and potential new lines on Dentiform Peak. With Bicuspid Tower as a secondary objective for the day, we planned to leave a rope and rack at the base for a full attempt the following morning. The idea was that with the path dialed and lighter packs the next day, the approach could be done in 1.5 hours. I had called Graham Zimmerman from the sat phone the day before to see what he knew of routes up there. I just happened to catch him after he flew out of the Revelations with Scott and gleaned some more beta from their 2012 trip. After all, we still had a few more days of high pressure overhead so we wanted to make the most of it. As we left camp at 5:30am, our packs still felt heavy. I struggled to keep up with Ben on the initial third class scramble to the snow ramp leading to the middle section of the glacier. Could it have been that I wasn't fully recovered from McNerthney? Hmmm... We threw in the occasional wand to track our path but, this being our first go; we traversed too high and had to retrace our steps to reach the opposite end of the Stilletto Glacier. And with only a hundred feet to go, we came to a rather intimidating snow bridge requiring a narrow traverse and steep exit on soft snow. I believe Ian Nicholson had a similar obstacle in 2005 that he dubbed "Crunch Time.” After 2 short belays, we were across and at the base in 3 hours from Sunny Knob – turns out GZ was right on about approach time first go. [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3704/9553979235_cd8a362826.jpg[/img] Serras, Stilletto, Blade, and Dentiform [img:left]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7301/9553987657_1faed1ec9f.jpg[/img] Phantom Tower and Grand Cappaccino centered in photo Yet, bone-white granite and clean continuous cracks caught my eye on the steepest face of Bicuspid, and I soon lured Ben into my increasing frenzy to attempt a new route ground up and onsight. While much shorter, Bicuspid's splitter cracks looked more appealing than the various potential lines up Dentiform. And as if I needed any more justification, continuous cracks on clean granite were the perfect juxtaposition from McNerthney’s complex, adventure climbing. Only a tiny moat lay at the base and we found a nice ledge to switch into rock climbing mode. We left a pack, boots and crampons at the base of the climb with the plan of rapping back to the base. Bicuspid Tower sits just west of ridge line proper. If you plan on climbing Stilletto, Blade, or Dentiform from the Stilletto Glacier, it is far easier to rap down the opposite side onto the Upper Tellot. A short jaunt will take you to Plummer Hut. Ben led off the first series of 5.8 clean cracks rightward to reach a prominent ledge below the steepest part of the face. From here, it was like being in a candy store with numerous cracks to salivate over! The two furthest right led to a massive left facing corner crack, but thin unprotectable seams blocked the way and I wasn’t interested in aiding. I considered traversing high into one, but the possibility of a 40-foot sideways whip if I slipped out of a thin 5.11 corner did not sound…fun. On the far left, numerous wide cracks had their appeal too, but I had a hunch Ian may have climbed that part of the face. [img:left]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7321/9553995917_4a85d09610.jpg[/img] Pitch 1 Instead, We opted for the center crack splitting the face with changing corners. Fortunately, narrow ledges off right and left provided options for pro and stances to suss out each section. I led up with an ice tool and a few knifeblades in case I had no other gear options. Fun 5.10 climbing, some flaring cracks, and a hand traverse with a quick heal hook led to the first crux of the route, a tricky 5.11 sequence of slopers and crimps where the crack pinched down to a thin seam. [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3736/9556739566_e269e2603d.jpg[/img] Pitch 2 Pumped and psyched to get it clean, I set a belay after the crux in a small alcove since I was running out of gear. The third pitch only proved to be more amazing! A thin 5.10 crack with perfect pro and stems lead into amazing splitter hands on par with the middle 5.9 section of Thin Fingers at Index. And that’s no exaggeration! Ben took the 4th pitch, a 5.9 V-slot angling right. Most of the chock stones were solid yet he moved with stealth around a few loose blocks since I was right below. [img:left]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5460/9553951403_fa7b876b87.jpg[/img] [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3773/9556713334_8be3219efe.jpg[/img] Photos of splitters on Pitch 3! [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3705/9556804042_1161e6a05c.jpg[/img] Pitch 4 - the V-slot We made it through the steep section of the face, but the climbing difficulty didn't subside. Directly above, we climbed a short 5.10 corner into 5.9 face cracks to a large ledge. I initially climbed further up and left but the face blanked out and I down-climbed to the base of an intimidating R-facing crack. Ben came up and I passed the remaining gear to Ben. Ben headed up the 6th pitch, but we left behind a couple finger-sized pieces at camp and the rock around the crack flaked off small chips as Ben worked his way up. Ben led through some strenuous finger locks to reach a tricky pod. After a few solid goes and proud whips, we swapped sharp ends and I climbed up to Ben’s high point. A wide stem on a small flake and mantle move brought us above the pod, but the crack above required an insecure layback. Past this 5.11 section, I continued up and around a tricky 5.10 stem to reach the top of the east summit. [img:left]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7381/9556794352_dae9e2eda0.jpg[/img] Pitch 6 - the second crux pitch Wowie! Amazing cracks and stout cruxes on a clean continuous 6-pitch new route is dubbed “On a recky” since the best climbs are often those unplanned and not in a guidebook. [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3794/9553939105_5747127b11.jpg[/img] Route topo with previous known routes roughly marked We slung a large block and completed three full 60-meter raps down to our packs. We radioed Tim once we were across “Crunch Time” and wandered back into camp just after dark. After 17.5 hours, we were back in camp enjoying a hot meal and taking in the stark contrast yet unreal fortune of adding this spectacular new route to our second ascent of McNerthney. The next day, day 7 of the trip, I woke up exhausted, debating whether to join Tim and Ben on a final mission to hike up to Plummer Hut that day for another climb. Tim heads off mid-day while Ben and I rest a bit more at Sunny Knob. After eating, sleeping, and wandering around aimlessly a bit, we take off around 6:30pm. I plug the headphones in and head across the lower Tiedemann to the 1000-ft moraine of loose ball bearings. With that surmised, easy snow leads up and around the Claw peaks to Plummer Hut with only a short gully of rotten orange rock in between. 2.5 hours later, we plop down next to the Hut and eat a small meal to enjoy the sunset. Tim has his eyes set on Serra One in the guidebook and we make plans to head up the next morning. [img:left]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5494/9553971985_e089688abc.jpg[/img] [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3731/9556734840_5bcc6e9481.jpg[/img] [img:left]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5345/9556711448_9f91a72656.jpg[/img] [img:left]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2834/9556751366_3bb01053a7.jpg[/img] Sunset and dusk shots from Plummer Hut A long but straightforward approach up the Tellot Glacier led us to the base. We stepped across a small schrund and traversed across ice to the base. We roped up midway, which was smart because the snow bridge eventually collapsed leaving one of us dangling our feet in the crevasse. Tim led off and we started simuling behind. Fun moderate climbing up to 5.7 brought us to the summit of Serra One. [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3693/9556727370_45f0f0949d.jpg[/img] [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3830/9553935431_5a5e5f2d10.jpg[/img] The ridge travels down to Stilletto Needle, Stilletto, and the Blade. Behind us, the Serras’ complex ridgelines lead into the Asperity/Tiedemann massif. We could see Sunny Knob far below as well as the upper half of McNerthney Pillar. Yet another amazing 360 degree view of the Waddington Range with bluebird skies and peaks as far as the eye could see! It’s never a dull moment tied in with Ben and Tim and they break into a Spanish conversation as we summit, capping the trip off with wild shouts of “quesadilla” and “seven layered burritos.” [img:left]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5336/9556731716_777bf6ac85.jpg[/img] [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3818/9556715102_5488148549.jpg[/img] We head back to the hut, repack, and charge back down to Sunny Knob, psyched with the continued fortune. We verify that weather is on its way so we opt to fly out 3 days early. We do our best to finish the booze and eat all the left-over goodies that night, prepping to fly out the next morning on day 9 of the trip. The chopper arrives on time and we enjoy our final ride out back to civilization. 5 years in Colorado with only a short trip to the Ruth Gorge back in 2011 meant I hadn't been in real mountain terrain with complex glaciers for far too long. I was lucky to have 2 great partners I'm psyched to rope up with when I return to Washington. Hope to see you out there! [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3725/9556712888_d0daabac3c.jpg[/img] [img:left]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5322/9553940011_1dbebb37cc.jpg[/img] [img:left]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3690/9556727314_91b3ee69e6.jpg[/img] Map of the Waddington Range with our travel shown in blue over the course of 8 days Photos by Joe, Ben, and Tim

Trip: Revelation Mountains - Apocalypse (First Ascent) - A Cold Day in Hell Date: 4/7/2013 Trip Report: Well, since I'm now back in the normal "work world" and the adventures of the spring are nothing more than a distant memory, I guess it's time to spray about them. This was the first big Alaska climbing trip I did this year when I made my annual pilgrimage to the Revelation Mountains, located at the extreme western end of the Alaska Range. Since 2008 I have been to the "Revs" every year and have plucked off quite a few hidden gems in this seldom visited range. This year was particularly frustrating since we had to wait nearly two weeks to fly in due to the Revelations' fickle weather patterns. Apocalypse Peak is one of the highest peaks in the Revs at 9,340 feet. It was also the tallest unclimbed peak in the area and has always been on my hitlist. The 4,500 foot West Face is one of the most impressive walls in all of the Revelations. This peak looks like it belongs more in the Kichatnas. Several big walls, that are larger than El Capitan, jut skyward in daunting profile. April however, is a time for ice routes, so Aaron Thrasher, Jason Stuckey and I went sniffing around the West Face for a weakness that just may allow us access to the upper mountain. We were pleased to find the perfect "sneak" as Aaron called it. On the right side of the West Face, a weakness revealed a thin vein of ice dribbling several thousand feet down from a long and narrow couloir. It was an obvious line and we wasted no time in giving it an attempt. Aaron was out of time and had to fly out, so Jason and I started the next morning. The climb began with a beautiful rivulet of grade four ice, which we simulclimbed over about 300 feet. A steep gully of snow lead to more lower angle ice which went on for nearly 1000 feet. More steep snow lead to one of the route's crux pitches, a rapidly melting vein of grade five alpine ice that was no more than shoulder width for almost 200 feet. Just as Jason began seconding the pitch, my friend Conor flew by as he picked Aaron up from the glacier. They took an amazing shot of us on route. We continued up a steep gully that offered scant protection and eventually found a great narrow bivy just as the sun faded behind the peaks to the west. We chopped the ledge out for about an hour and then set up our First Light and enjoyed the rest. The next morning we set off early and immediately encountered more steep, cruxy ice pitches before the angle kicked back to 60 degrees. We simulclimbed most of the upper face, placing tons of ice screws and the occasional piece of rock gear. We eventually exited the technically challenging terrain but had lots of steep and very exposed snow plodding to contend with. We got to the summit ridge and could see that the north summit, a quarter-mile away, was about ten feet taller. We had to tag it...it was a first ascent. With only two pickets we resorted to trust. I wouldn't fall, if he wouldn't fall. Deal. The notoriously bad weather of the Revelations was no where to be found and we enjoyed perfect views the whole trip. The summit was extremely small, only one of us could stand on top at a time. The Apocalypse is one of the few Revelation peaks with a detailed history. It was been attempted several times by crusty Alaskan climbers in the 1980s, but has not even been tried for almost 30 years. Dick Flaharty of Fairbanks spent ten days on the central big wall, climbing 1,500 feet before encountering a band of poor rock. He was so enamored by the mountain however, that he named his clothing company, Apocalpyse Designs, after the peak. A year or two later, Karl Swanson of Talkeetna attempted the central snow line on a solo mission, but turned around when an avalanche poured over his head and nearly took him for the final ride. I was astounded to discover that he was less than 500 vertical feet from the summit. So close!!! We rappelled back to our high camp and had enough food to stay for another night. We had perfect weather and didn't feel rushed so we decided to enjoy our success and the perfect bivy. In the morning we continued our descent and touched ground by late afternoon. A major inversion had me shivering all the way to camp, and we were not surprised when our thermometer had bottomed out at -20. The next morning it was even colder, and when Paul Roderick from Talkeetna Air Taxi picked us up, he said it was -35. Another wonderful trip to the Revelations is in the books. Can't wait to go back next year! Hey Jens...you game? Check out my feature article in the 2013 American Alpine Journal (available in August), which fully details the history and potential of the Revelation Mountains. Thanks for reading! -Clint Helander Gear Notes: Tons of ice screws, a few pickets, a handful of rock gear (pins, a few nuts, some cams). Approach Notes: You gotta pay to play! A very expensive flight!

Trip: Mt Terror, Southern Pickets - Central Buttress of South Face III 5.9 Date: 7/13/2013 Trip Report: Rolf and I climbed this (likely) new route last weekend, provisional name = Fear and Loathing. Grade III (approx 6 pitches; we did 5 1/2 with a 70m), 5.9 adventure climbing on mostly solid (and well featured) Skagit gneiss. Another objective the next day turned us back, but we'll always have Terror. And loathing. After the most enjoyable and casual 6.5 hour approach (it's an acquired taste) to our camp near the Chopping Block, we could look across lovely Crescent Creek basin at Mt Terror. Hard tellin' not knowin', a route up the face sure looked improbable. We took a casual approach, waiting for the sun to get on the rock (frosty night), and weighed a number of potential routes. The most viable options appeared to be the butresses on the left, center, and right. We agreed the most aesthetic was the buttress snaking up most directly to the summit. Our route - poorly marked in red - goes up the barely lit central buttress to the summit: I didn't take v many pics, my camera was thawing out. And sorry ladies, no butt pics of Rolf on lead--he seemed to quickly disappear from view, as befits a rat. For first lead, I won rock paper scissors, and got probably the best pitch of the route. Up a steep juggy corner (careful hold selection), then a rising, more solid and exposed ramp, that at times gave that familiar feeling of pushing you off toward the void. Some 5.9 on this pitch, an engaging exercise putting together the pieces. Looking down pitch 1. Rolf's pitch 2 took the chimney/gully, 5.8 or 5.8+?, to a nice belay and decision point: the central buttress, or east buttress of the south face? We stuck with our original plan. For p 3, I hung a left and sent an easy boulder prob to gain the ridge crest and a spate of more sustained climbing before it relented to more wandery rambling. 5.8+ again? I stuck to the buttress crest, but there are certainly variations on this ledgy gneiss. Looking down p3 from a belay on the crest, just below a prominent tower; you can see the east buttress off on the left. Rolf's pitch 4 skirted the tower on the left; more moderate climbing, but also greater loose rock management. From his belay, I climbed some steeper rock (nice corners) and then ledge systems, carefully constraining the course of the rope to avoid dislodging some slayers. Super fun pitch, with fine air and views. Top of p 5; mt despair central background. For the last pitch, Rolf ran up a steepish blocky and juggy section, which then backed off to the remaining summit scramble. Nice views both ways along the Southern Pickets. L to R: McMillan spires, Inspiration, Degenhardt Glacier. We then boogied down the West Ridge route and then the couloir back to our packs. For fun and moderate climbing on mostly good rock, in a remote setting, I recommend this climb. More pics. Gear Notes: Tri-cams useful. Brought pins but did not use. Approach Notes: Lovely walk to Crescent Creek basin. There's now a non-high-wire-walking log that takes you across Terror Creek.

Trip: New route on "Peak 33" in Salmon River Range - NW prow Date: 7/2/2013 Trip Report: Once again, Pat does a great job of describing a new route we put up, possibly the first on the North side, of a delightful cliff above lake 33 in the Salmon RIver mountains near McCall. I'll just link that post on the Idaho Outdoors Forum. Peak 33 trip report. I had been waiting for the opportunity to do this for two years. The rock is solid and well featured, but the cracks above the winter snow line are full of moss. Someone with time on their hands could pick a 4 pitch line, rap from the top and clean the cracks, then have a great climb from the bottom. Gear Notes: Take a wire brush plus a smallish alpine rack. Long slings for girth hitching trees are essential. Approach Notes: Stay left on the approach to take the correct col into lake 33. It's not well marked. Once off the lake fork creek valley floor, follow the cairns to the col and down the other side to avoid cliffy spots. Great camp sites at the base of the cliff, with water, or down by the lake a 20 minute steep hike below.

Trip: Blade Runner FA + info on 18 new routes at Shangri La, X38 ONE PAGE PRINTABLE TOPO ADDED BELOW. Date: 10/12/2012 Trip Report: Blade Runner First Ascent (Shangri La new route info follows). We like to think that our best days are ahead of us. As climbers, we believe that if we train harder, learn new techniques, and buy the right gear we’ll break through to a new level. This works for a while, but the tides of time are against us. At some point we must pass our high water mark. Most of us won’t recognize this milestone until months or years later, but sometimes you know when it happens. Mine was 8am on October 12th, 2012. For 15 years I’d been on a 5.9 to 5.10 plateau. There were always excuses. Grad school, post-doc, start-up, kids, remodel. Years of weekend warrior climbing rolled past. The tide finally turned in 2006 when I took a job across the street from the UW climbing gym. I started bouldering regularly and met new partners. Two of them, Alex and Scott, opened up my eyes to the world of new route development. Together, we put up a handful of 5.9 and 5.10 lines in the Deception area of Exit 38. That summer I climbed my first 5.11 in 15 years. 5.11 is barely a warm-up for strong climbers, but for me this was a breakthrough. For almost two decades, 5.11 had been a psychological barrier, an impenetrable ceiling through which I thought I would never pass again. This made me wonder what my potential really was. At 38, I knew I didn’t have long to find out, so I set a goal to climb my first 5.12 before I turned 40. It was a long shot, but if I tried I might bump up to a new level and be able to climb routes that had long been out of reach. There were obstacles. I was working full time, managing our home remodel, and riding the night train of two small kids with a third on the way, but I did climb. First ascents on the Shangri La cliff at Exit 38 marked a slow but steady rise in my abilities. 2007 Guillotine, 5.10. A gear-protected corner with a sharp flake in the middle. History Book, 5.10. A gear-protected crack with an ancient piton. Small Arms Fire, 5.10. A sustained route with small holds on a steep slab. 2008 Metamorphosis, 5.10+. A two-pitch line on a 300 foot face with a mix of bolts and gear. Crouching Tiger, 5.10+. A route with sloping features and rock as rough as #100 sandpaper. Forty came and went without a 5.12 redpoint, but I did climb some great 5.11s around the Northwest. The following year, I found three spectacular lines at Shangri La at my limit. To climb them, I had to learn a new process: find solutions for each crux, rehearse the moves, draw a detailed map, visualize the sequences, work to link sections, and then go for the redpoint. This type of mind/body training is not new. Tony Yaniro was one of the first US climbers to build a training wall that simulated the specific movements he needed for his project. Top climbers of the day scoffed at his approach, calling it cheating, but our bodies are remarkable machines that adapt to the challenges we present to them. If you want to get good at pull-ups you train by doing pull-ups. If you want to get good at certain climbing moves you train by doing those moves. In 1979, Yaniro’s training paid off when he established The Grand Illusion, then the hardest route in North America. On the mental side, repetition of movements creates muscle memories that allow our bodies to perform complex motor functions. Once these muscle programs, or motor engrams, are mastered they can be played back with minimal conscious input. Watch a toddler try to eat with a spoon for the first time and you’ll appreciate how complex this task really is and how much focus is required to learn new tasks. What enables us to eat our cereal without spilling while walking down stairs and talking on the phone? We’ve mastered each of these tasks through repetition. Interestingly, we can also train for complex movements through visualization, or virtual rehearsal, where we imagine ourselves performing the task. Thus, training your mind actually trains your body, and vice versa. Achieving mastery of complex motor functions allows us to focus on higher levels of control, such as managing fear, optimizing arousal levels, relaxing unnecessary muscles, and staying focused in stressful situations. Even strength can be traced back to mental training, when we consider that strength training is driven by motivation, discipline, planning, and self-assessment. Free your mind and your body will follow. I started using these tools and was able to do three 5.11 first ascents: 2009 Free Radical, 5.11-. A striking line on an exposed arête. Hidden Dragon, 5.11. Four different cruxes spread over a hundred feet. Hypertension, 5.11+. A hard opening and then several more cruxes. But I still hadn’t climbed 5.12. The few I'd tried felt impossibly hard. It didn’t help that I was spreading my energies across different sub-disciplines: bouldering indoors, setting routes in the climbing gym, climbing routes outdoors, developing new bolted routes, and climbing in the mountains a few times per year. Time was flying past. If I was going to cross the 5.12 threshold I needed to focus on that goal. In early 2010, I found my first target: Rainy Day Women at Little Si. It suited my style, with three bouldery sections separated by good rests. I found solutions that worked for me, drew a detailed map, rehearsed, and tailored my training to the three cruxes. On March 14th everything came together. The final crux, which had felt desperate on previous attempts, went smoothly and I made the redpoint. I was elated, but RDW is known to be soft for the grade, so I looked for my next target. I’d heard Lay of the Land was good, so we gave it a try. As before, I made a plan, drew my map, visualized the sequence, and trained for the crux. I planned to skip a bolt near the end that was difficult to clip and created rope drag. The second trip out I made it to the anchor but missed a key foothold and fell trying to clip the chains. I added that foothold to my mental map and sent the route on our next trip. The satisfaction of climbing a route is usually immediate and fleeting, but this was deeper and grew over time. One route might be a fluke, but not two. I’d started across the elusive 5.12 threshold. Two months later, I bolted a spectacular line at Shangri La that I knew would be in the 5.12 range: Skullduggery. It was continuously overhanging, sustained, and technical. New routes are particularly enticing for me because they represent unsolved puzzles on unexplored terrain. Maybe a few will become classics that people will climb for decades to come. Skullduggery had all the right ingredients, but I couldn’t link the moves. Psychology shows that motivation is highest when the chance of success is around 40% to 60%. Above 80%, we assume we’ll succeed and don’t bother preparing. Below 20%, we probably don’t think it’s worth the time and effort to try hard. But it’s not that simple. Creativity, visualization, rehearsal, and route-specific training can dramatically increase the odds of success on a route. Finding a solution to the crux that matches your skills and strength might increase the overall odds of success from 2% to 20%. Rehearsing sequences makes you more efficient and gives you more energy for the final cruxes, perhaps increasing the overall success rate from 20% to 60%. But you have to choose the right objectives. Skullduggery was a perfect goal for me in 2010 because it represented a possible first ascent just beyond my limit. I drew a map that detailed 68 hand and foot movements, rehearsed the moves, and trained for specific movements. Being strong enough to do the moves doesn’t guarantee success. The proper mental state is also essential. I needed to be calm but psyched to give 100%, energized but relaxed, and, perhaps most importantly, focused on the process and not on the outcome. Zen. On a cool summer morning in July of 2010, after two weeks of rehearsing and training on a fixed line, I went up with Jens to go for the first ascent of Skullduggery. Fortunately, that morning I was in the zone, that rare space where mind and body perform seamlessly as one. It was almost as if I was a detached observer watching a carefully choreographed gymnastics routine. I sent the route first go. Oddly, it was both anti-climactic and deeply satisfying. Skullduggery was the hardest route I’d ever climbed and is definitely harder than the four other 5.12a routes I climbed in 2010. As far as I know it hasn’t been repeated. Fifty feet left of Skullduggery is a clean overhanging face whose crux involves improbable moves on a protruding blade of rock. This feature inspired the route’s name: Blade Runner. The day I climbed Skullduggery, Jens and I tried Blade Runner. We could do the opening moves but were completely shut down by the crux. There were features, but we couldn’t work out how to use them. My brain wrestled with this puzzle on and off over two years. I would envision a solution, get excited, and go try it. Each time, I was shut down and went home thinking I would never climb the route. But I kept turning the puzzle over and over in my mind. In the summer of 2012, I made a close inspection of all of the features on the route and started working in earnest to find a solution. Idea #1: Grab two sloping holds and do a huge dynamic leap to an undercling and sloper that must be caught simultaneously. Fail. The slopers aren’t as positive as they look, the footholds are crappy, and the catch holds are too far away. Idea #2: Lie back up the left side of the blade. Fail. This is very strenuous, and the blade ends well below the next set of holds. Idea #3: Knee bar up the cleft left of the blade. Fail. The wall where you place your feet slopes away so this is challenging, and the knee bars end where the blade ends, well below the next set of holds. I wasn’t making any progress. Truth be told, there were times I was tempted to chip a hold. A tiny foot chip on the blade, or an incut in the arch, might allow me to get past the crux. I have a chisel and hammer. No one would know. But I would. And I would be bringing the route down to my level instead of meeting the challenge presented by nature. So I refrained, as I always have, even if it meant I would never climb the route. Instead, I started to break the problem down into smaller puzzles. Idea #4 and Solution Part 1: I figured out I needed to lie back on a vertical sidepull above the blade to reach the next set of holds. Getting to the vertical sidepull became the new crux. I tried to get my left foot up onto a high hold to set up the lie back. Fail. I can’t get my foot that high without falling because the handholds aren’t in the right positions. Idea #5 and Solution Part 2: I figured out I could get a heel/toe cam on the flat wall of the blade and use this in opposition with the sloping rail to move up to the vertical sidepull in a compression sequence. The new crux became the transition between the compression sequence and the vertical sidepull. Fail. If you compress too hard you fly off when you try to bump your hand up to the vertical sidepull. But this can be fixed. Idea #6 and Solution Part 3: I needed to work out how to move into and through the compression moves, maintaining high body tension, without pushing myself off when I made the bump to the vertical sidepull over my head. Small adjustments to foot, hand, and body positions, as well as force angles and force magnitudes, were going to be critical. After many hours on the rock I found an optimal combination and could just barely make the compression to sidepull transition. I’d solved the hardest part of the crux but still needed to move over to the next holds out left. Idea #7 and Solution Part 4: Maintain tension and pinch the blade between my feet to push out left to a crimp. This feels strange, but it works. The opening moves needed to be more efficient so I would have enough energy for the crux and the hard moves beyond it. The section after the crux would provide unexpected challenges and an amazing sequence as well, and, of course, I would need to link it all together, but I was zeroing in on my solution. I wrote a map that detailed 75 precise hand and foot movements from start to finish. After each work session I updated this choreography. Now I needed to link the sequences together, figure out where and how to clip the bolts, and train my mind and body to perform the route. To prepare for Blade Runner’s crux, I trained to compress two sloping sidepulls while maintaining high core tension and balancing on my right tiptoe. From this position, I had to bump my right hand to the vertical sidepull over my head. What had once seemed impossible was beginning to loom on the horizon as something I might just pull off. But time was running out. It was October. We’d had the longest continuous run of good weather in a decade, but the winter rains were on the way. I trained for the specific movements I needed for the route, rehearsed and refined my solution for the crux, worked out the most efficient path for sequences before and after the crux, and started to put it all together. When mind and body are primed for peak performance there is a window of opportunity to break through to a new level. I had entered that window for Blade Runner, but it wouldn’t be open for long. On October 6th, I went out with Ed to try to climb the route. Unfortunately, I had a cold and was on pseudoephedrine. Attempt #1: I moved smoothly through the opening but fell at the crux due to lack of body tension. I rested, but the pseudofed wouldn’t allow my heart rate to return to baseline. Attempt #2: I got through the crux but fell on one of the last hard moves after burning too much energy clipping the last bolt. Attempt #3: I made it through the crux but fell below my previous high point. Attempt #4: I fell at the crux, too spent to maintain enough body tension to make the bump to the vertical sidepull. I needed a little more strength, a better foot sequence after the crux, and a better strategy for clipping or skipping the last bolt. We went home. I rested on Sunday, did movement-specific training on Monday, refined my foot sequence, and planned to skip the last bolt. I felt ready, but the Fates were about to intervene. The long-range forecast showed a wall of rain coming on Friday, October 12th that would shut us down for the season. Several partners said they could go out on Saturday the 13th, but that would probably be too late. My window was about to slam shut. I was 44 and had three growing kids, a growing list of minor injuries, and a job that was growing more fun and more demanding. There was no guarantee I’d be strong enough, healthy enough, or have enough time to climb Blade Runner in 2013, or perhaps ever. I made two back-up plans. The first was duct tape. Blade Runner is steep enough that only three of its holds get wet after a light rain. I dangled from the rope and fashioned duct tape tents and drain systems for these holds in case I had to make an attempt on Saturday in the drizzle. The second plan was to call Jens and ask if he would go on a Friday dawn patrol mission. Thankfully, he knew how much I wanted this and was willing to give it a shot despite a mediocre forecast that showed rain starting around 10am. We planned to leave my house at 6am. My wife would take the kids to school. Thursday evening I ate a hearty meal, got the kids to bed, packed the gear, took a hot bath to relax the body and mind, and went to bed early. Then my wife’s pager went off. A patient in Bellingham needed emergency surgery. If the patient came down Friday morning I’d need to take the kids to school and we wouldn’t get to the crag until at least 10. By then it would probably be raining. Kids and patients come before climbing, of course, but it felt like the Fates were taunting me. The patient came to Seattle at 11pm, and my wife did surgery until 1am, so I was free to go at 6am as planned, assuming there were no more emergency calls. There weren’t. I woke at 5:20am. It was pitch dark, but I saw water running down the window and heard rain gently pattering on the roof. Everything was wet. I looked at the forecast for North Bend. 70% chance of rain for 7am and 8am, 30% for the rest of the morning, then 60% for the rest of the day. The window had slammed shut. Should I text Jens and tell him to stay in bed? I’ve worked too hard to give up now, and he was probably already on the way over. Let’s just go take a look. Jens arrived at 6am and we drove East through the rain. There was no wind. The wall of rain was marching slowly and steadily East toward Blade Runner. Was the crag wet? Would the duct tape keep the holds dry? There was no way to know until we got there. Amazingly, we emerged from the leading edge of the advancing rain when we reached North Bend. I turned the windshield wipers off. The highway was dry. We got to the trailhead just before 7am. Everything was still dry. Either the sky was about to open up or the forecast I’d seen was wrong. We would soon find out. We hiked up to the Shangri-La cliff. Temps were cool. The rock was dry. All was calm. We didn’t know how much time we’d have before the wall of rain was upon us, but I needed a warm-up so we quickly climbed Crouching Tiger. Then it was time for Blade Runner. I knew I wouldn’t have enough strength for a lot of attempts, and the rain could start falling any minute, but I stayed calm. I was ready. I’d climbed the route many times in my head. It was time to climb it in real life. I tied into the rope, put my shoes on, climbed up to clip the first bolt, and then climbed back down again. I closed my eyes and breathed slowly in and out, in and out, to get my heart rate down. After a few minutes, I opened my eyes and cast off: crossover from the undercling into the first lieback, twist my left leg as I move into the second undercling (the opening flowed smoothly) clip the bolt at the crux, set my heel-toe cam on the blade, move smoothly into the compression sequence, tense the core, bump to the vertical sidepull (my mind was empty but focused) pinch my feet on the blade, press to reach the small crimp out left (I was now through the crux but had fallen past here before) keep weight on small footholds, skip the last bolt, deadpoint to a good hold (just a few more hard moves) reach left to the pinch, pop to the undercling (almost done now - breathe) cross through with the feet, balance on two slopers, lock a heel hook down, and move to the final sloping sidepull...Clip. Clip. It was done. The impossible dream had been realized. It was 8am on October 12th, 2012. I’d reached my high water mark. Jens tried the route, and then we removed the quick draws and pulled the rope. By the time we reached the car the rain had started. It wouldn’t stop for over a month, and the whole cliff would be soaked until spring. Blade Runner was one of the most rewarding experiences in my 22 years of climbing not because it was the hardest route I’ve ever climbed, but because it required a huge mental and physical investment that pushed me beyond my perceived limits. I’ll probably never climb a harder route. I’m OK with that. But twenty feet right of Blade Runner is an even steeper, more intimidating line that looks amazing. I’m sure it’s way too hard for me, but maybe I’ll just go take a look... ……………………. Shangri La Details on 18 new routes in the Shangri La area of X38 -Please pack out all trash. Obvious pathways away from the crag are on the lower approach so please don't soil them with human waste. Please leave carabiners on anchors for lowering a la Nason ridge. Enjoy! ………………………… Most of these routes get good sun exposure and dry fast. The start of History Book and one section of Guillotine are prone to seepage after a lot of rain, but most other routes dry quickly. Blade Runner and Skullduggery face South and are best climbed in the early morning or on a cloudy day. Metamorphosis faces East and can be hot on a summer morning. Route distribution*: 5.8 3 5.9 1 5.10 7 5.11 5 5.12 2 * - Ratings are subjective. Proposed ratings are suggestions based on how the routes might compare to similar routes at the Lower Town wall at Index. I will enter these on Mountain Project. Feel free to suggest your own ratings so we can arrive at a consensus. …………………………………….. Printable topo Approach notes: Orientation: The Far Side area of X38 has several East-facing crags in a line: Interstate Park, Eastern Block, Squishy Bell, and Headlight Point crags. Ellie's Sweet Kiss is a very popular route in the middle of Interstate Park. Shangri-La is on the Eastern and Southern faces of the large rock formation across the giant talus field East of these crags. A few Far Side maps: Driving map Roads and topo for X38 Far Side Crags map Far Side trails The trails map is not to scale. Winter Block is almost directly above Shangri La. Hiking directions: Go to the Far Side parking lot. Start up the trail that starts just N of the bridge over the SnoQ river. When the trail forks go left, then an immediate right/straight, cross a wet area on a tiny boardwalk, then go left. Gritscone is in front of you at this point. Follow the wide trail, avoiding turnoffs to the right. When the trail steepens turn left into the forest at a small saddle. Follow the trail up steeply to the where it flattens out. Turn right on one of the side trails and make your way to the line of cliffs that includes Interstate Park, Eastern Block, Squishy Bell, and Headlight Point. Shangri La is East of the obvious talus field East of these cliffs. There are two ways to approach Shangri-La from the talus field: 1 - Aim for an obvious dead snag on the buttress that is about the same level as Ellie's Sweet Kiss. To get there, follow a series of easy but exposed ledges that start below some brush on the E edge of the talus. Pass below a large pine and head to the dead snag. From the snag, scramble down about 25ft of 4th class to the East. This brings you to the base of the wall. The first obvious feature is History Book, a left-leaning dihedral. You may notice some chains at the top of the face near the dead snag. This is the anchor on Small Arms Fire, which is a rap in and climb out route. 2 - Follow the talus down to the bottom of the buttress, cross under the bottom of the buttress on a faint trail that passes a giant tree with a cable on it. When you get to a smaller talus field, go straight up hill. When the talus ends at the forest go straight up to the base of the Shangri-La crag with History Book and Guillotine and Skullduggery. You'll know you're in the right place when you see a giant corner with a huge flake about 40 feet up (Guillotine), and several bolted lines. To get to Metamorphosis and Magic Carpet Ride, go right at the top of the little talus field mentioned above. View of the talus and upper and lower approaches from the top of Ellie's Sweet Kiss. Looking back past Shangri-La with Ellie's Sweet Kiss in the background. Looking up at the 4th class scramble. It's easier than it looks. ……………………………………… The following routes are on a wall on the left side of the guillotine corner. From left to right: Science Friction = 5.10d bolted face with two friction cruxes. Left of History Book. 5 bolts. 15 meters. FA Roberts, August, 2012. History Book = 5.10a trad crack in a left-leaning dihedral. Follow the crack to chains at the top of the cliff. DO NOT trust the ancient rusty aid piton! A standard rack will suffice. 20 meters. FA (ground-up onsight) Roberts, August, 2007. Crouching Tiger = 5.10c bolted roof and face climbing. Start 10 feet left of History Book, head up and right to the first bolt, and then go straight up over a series of small roofs. 8 bolts. 20 meters. FA Roberts, October, 2008. Hidden Dragon = 5.11c (11+ if shorter than 5’9”) bolted face and roofs. Start 8 feet right of History Book. This route has four different cruxes, multiple roofs, and a clean upper dihedral. 12 bolts. 29 meters. FA Roberts, July, 2009. Hypertension = 5.11+/12- bolted face and roofs. A stick clip might be wise as the bouldery crux is off the ground. Requiring power, balance, and body tension, this route will test your versatility. 13 bolts. 28 meters. FA Roberts, September, 2009. Guillotine = 5.10b trad crack and flake in a giant corner. Enter the corner near the first bolt of Free Radical (a solid cam can be placed at the lip if you’re a purist). Climb up to and past the namesake flake on the right wall and follow the corner to its end. Then clip a fixed nut and make some airy moves up and right to the chains. A standard rack is fine. 22 meters. FA Roberts, August, 2007. Free Radical = 5.11a bolted route on the arête right of Guillotine. Outstanding moves in a great position. Shares an anchor with Guillotine. 9 bolts. 22 meters. FA Roberts, August, 2009. Hangman = 5.10a bolted face and roof with fun friction moves at the top. This starts at the Guillotine/Free Radical anchor and goes a full 30m to chains. You can link Free Radical and Hangman for a 52 meter pitch. You'll need about 23 quickdraws to get up and a 60m rope to get down. 13 bolts. 30 meters. FA Roberts, June, 2007. The following routes are on the overhanging face right of Guillotine: Bladerunner = 5.12c? (5.11 to V6 to 5.11) overhanging bolted face on pristine rock. Unrepeated. This route takes a striking line up the super-clean, overhanging face right of Free Radical. It has a devious crux that requires core strength and creativity. Easy to top rope after climbing Guillotine or Free Radical, but be sure to use the Bladerunner anchor as there is a sharp roof above that could damage the rope if you TR from the Guillotine/Free Radical anchor. Overhanging, South-facing exposure keeps this route dry most of the year. 4 bolts. 10 meters. FA Roberts, October, 2012. Skullduggery= 5.12b? Unrepeated. A bit of skullduggery (an act of trickery or deception) may be needed to get up this steep, technical, and sustained line Overhangs 17 feet in its 40 foot length. Starts fifty feet right of Free Radical. A worthy test piece. Use the hand line to ascend the slab. Belay/start at the bolt and fixed cam that anchor the hand line. 5 bolts. 13 meters. FA Roberts, July, 2010. Open Project = 5.12+ or harder route on an overhanging face right of Skullduggery. Bolted. The following routes are on walls around to the right from Shangri-La. To get there, descend a trail about 100 feet and then veer left into the next amphitheater. Three routes are ready for climbers: Meta Cliff: Metamorphosis = 5.10d adventurous two pitch line up the center of a 300ft face. If you stand at the giant tree, look up and left at a big face. Metamorphosis p1 (10+) climbs up the center of this. The first pitch starts at a small roof at the ground, gear goes in a small crack, two bolts lead past a bulge, gear protects moves up higher, and there is one final bolt before the belay just below a large ledge (5.10+). The second pitch starts up a flake and vertical crack, moves up and left and then back right past bolts and gear, follows three bolts up thin and exposed face climbing, passes a short crack before a ledge, and ends with a bouldery finish past a bolt (5.10+). You could continue up 4th class terrain to a bolted anchor at an airy perch atop the Shangri-La cliff. Rap with one or two 60m ropes. Ropedrag might be bad if you try to link the two pitches. Note: it is best to belay for the first pitch very low at a divot in the vegetation. Start climbing in tennis shoes and change to rock shoes at the small roof. Needs an approach trail. Gear from small cams to #2 camalot. 50 meters total. FA Roberts, May, 2008. Metaphysics = 5.11R? (5.10R to a well-protected V3 crux at the roof to a 5.10 upper section). Unrepeated. This trad line follows the start of Metamorphosis to the flake below the first bolt. Place cams in a diagonal crack on the face 6ft below this flake and then traverse straight right 6 feet. Follow holds straight up and over the obvious roof. There is good protection in cracks on the slanting roof section. Climb up to the second roof, place gear, and zag up and left to the anchor at the top of the first pitch of Metamorphosis. Microcams to a single #4 camalot for the last placement. FA Roberts, November, 2011. Magic Carpet Ride = 5.8ish trad crack up a series of corners. This is on the large slabby face about a hundred feet right of Metamorphosis. Head up to a large tree. Pass this and continue up to the higher of two left-traversing cracks. Follow a series of corner cracks/dihedrals to the top of the buttress. You’ll see the scrub line. Turn the last roof on the right and follow a mossy ramp to anchors up and left. This route is about 40 meters and will get better with more traffic. You can rappel with two ropes, just barely get down with a single 70 meter rope, or rap to the tree with a single 60 and rap again or down climb. Standard rack. 40 meters. FA Roberts, April, 2008. Unnamed = 5.9ish bolted line. This starts about fifty feet right of Magic Carpet Ride. Follow a scrub line up and right toward a small roof and a bolt. Follow a line of bolts up nice but slightly dirty climbing. Bolts are in a line but some zigzagging is needed to climb past the roof. It’s about 35m to the anchors so bring two ropes. Nice moves all the way to the end. 10 bolts? FA Krawarik, 2009. The following climb is on a face above the giant tree below the buttress with the dead snag. This can be approached by rapping in from chains at the top of the buttress next to the dead snag. Direct approach from the bottom may be developed. The following climb starts at the base of a large pine just uphill from the dead snag. Drive By = 5.8 bolted arête and face in a great position with excellent views. Clip one chain, skip the next chains. Put a long runner on a bolt 15 or so feet higher, and then aim for the slab/arête feature above you. There are several bolts on the slab leading to a final mantle. Rap the route. Be careful not to drop things on parties below. 25 meters. 8 bolts. FA Roberts, Krawarik, Anderson, May, 2007. Unnamed = 5.8 trad corner above Drive By that needs some gardening but is still fun. 27 meters? Standard rack. FA Krawarik, Locke, June, 2007. The following climb is on a face above the giant tree below the buttress with the dead snag. This can be approached by rapping in from chains at the top of the buttress next to the dead snag. Small Arms Fire = 5.10c bolted face with thin, balancy moves in a great position. Rap down to the starting anchor from chains near the dead snag. Lead out or do a top belay. 6 bolts. 20 meters. FA Roberts, August, 2007. The following route is quite close to Headlight Point, on the way to the lower approach to Shangri-La. Approach: Headlight Point is the first cliff you get to when coming from the Gunshow area. It is the Southern-most crag of easy (5.6ish) climbs on the trail. Right behind those climbs, is a tree and a dirt ramp that leads a few meters down into the forest. Follow the ramp a few feet. Skirt a bush, drop a few feet along a tiny talus field, and head across to the obvious cliff. A large flat rock at the base of a tree marks the start of Third Stone from the Sun. To continue to Shangri La, follow the small cliff to its end at the giant talus field. Cross that and head for the approach that goes below the bottom of the large buttress as described above. Third Stone from the Sun = 5.11c bolted overhanging face. Lots of action in a small package. 5 bolts. 11 meters. FA Roberts, June, 2011. Photos: History Book Crouching Tiger low Crouching Tiger middle Crouching Tiger high - McClellan Butte in the background. Hidden Dragon Red line is Hidden Dragon. Green is Hypertension. Both continue out of sight above. Guillotine Free Radical is the arete right of Guillotine, which Ian is climbing here. The Guillotine flake is visible on the left. Free Radical is the arete left center. Blade Runner is right center and ends at the visible chains. Duct tape engineering on Blade Runner Skullduggery Skullduggery Yellow is Metamorphosis. Red is Metaphysics. Metamorphosis is the yellow line. I'm approaching the top of Metaphysics. Both routes share a belay. Metaphysics Metaphysics Small Arms Fire Gopro shot from the top of Small Arms Fire. The dead snag is 10 feet behind me. Third Stone from the Sun Don't forget to hit the swimming hole! stay tuned for more... THANKS TO MANY GREAT PARTNERS AND HELPERS OVER THE YEARS: Alex, Scott, Jens, Matt, David, Ed, Michael, Mike, Blake, Leland, Frank, Scott, Ryland, and others. Gear Notes: See route descriptions above. Approach Notes: X38 Far Side trails. See details and links above.

Trip: Strobach - FA: Adrenalepherine WI 5 & Others Date: 1/11/2013 Trip Report: Sorry it has taken me so long to get this up. I have wanted to share a few photos from a trip Craig Pope, Tim Stabio and I had to Strobach over the Janurary 10th weekend. My 28th birfday was the previous wednesday and the excitement was high for a camp out at strobach. The temps were fabulous, air clean and crisp and the fire warm. I won't bore you with anymore boring details on how fun it was to camp at the base and just get to some photos Day 1: Tower of Power Tim doing the needful Craig following... This route was in great shape, technical to start and beautiful one swings to finish, smiles all the way. 2nd up I took Craig over to the base of Hate Pony and Ponderosa Pillar. Craig took a liking to the center line that climbs the narrow pillar and traverses the thin plate of glass to the top shield of Ponderosa. What resulted was a five star classic with good gear throughout. FA: Adrenalepherine WI 5 50m Craig Pope, Tim Stabio, Bryan Schmitz 1/12/13. Route takes pillar and corner left of Ponderosa and exits right shortly before the roof. Craig Pope getting closer In his element Day 2: Unholy Baptism Craig leading a very thin first pitch Tim styling the second pitch crux section Thanks for a great birthday weekend fellas, it was one to remember. ice is for drinks Gear Notes: the usual ice stuff Approach Notes: sloe shoes for us without a snowmachine...

Trip: Entiat, WA - FA Frigus Manus WI5+ 60M Date: 1/22/2013 Trip Report: Wayne Wallace and I spent two days up the Entiat this weekend. Friday we climbed What do Aredenvoirs Eat? and Tyee Falls. We scoped some new lines at about the 20.5 mile marker I believe and headed up to them Monday morning. Wayne took a crack at a sketchy looking mixed line but there is not natural pro on worse than shitty rock. He wise-fully made the choice to bail. We moved over to the left and climbed what we believe to be a FA which we called Frigus Manus. This named seemed fitting after my hands got so cold I had to have Wayne send up my thicker gloves. We rated it WI 5+. It was a full 60M to the belay. It is worth doing and should be in for awhile! Things up the Entiat are looking really good and should be in this weekend. Seems like the only place around with really good ice. Park right past Tyee Falls ranch at the first little pull out on the left hand side of the road and find the boot pack over the bank. River is frozen well enough. Sorry no time to write an in-depth narrative of the climb like for Goat's Beard. Too busy right now with other things. Approach Notes: Snowshoes needed. Walk up hill. We had horrible snow conditions took about 1.5-2 hours.

Trip: Strobach - Hate Pony (FA) Date: 1/6/2013 Summary: First Ascent of Hate Pony WI4 M4 Katie Mills Todd Eddie and John Frieh January 6 2013 Details: Took FIVE others into Strobach on Sunday... new record for most people at Strobach on a given day? We split into two teams of three: Brad, Rebecca and Nate fired out Sad Cebu (currently in crap conditions) followed by Sudden Change of Plans (excellent conditions) while Katie, Todd and I ran laps on Ice Dreams (excellent conditions) followed by the first ascent of what is listed as Unclimbed A in the book. I've had my eye on Unclimbed A for a few seasons now; even though the hanger hadn't touched down it was the most filled in I had ever seen it including just enough ice to negotiate the roof on it's left side. Excited to get up the remaining "Unclimbed" route from Alex's excellent guidebook. Shout out to Todd for leading Ice Dreams for his very first time climbing water ice. Ever. And of course one for Katie for making sure we all were "appropriately hydrated." Until next time Todd. First time climbing Water ice. On his very first lead. Bona fide Oh hey! HATE PONY Gear Notes: Gear to #1 camalot for Hate Pony + 1-2 10 cm screws 0.5 camalot key piece IMO Petzl Darts for dealing with the super thin ice on Hate Pony Approach Notes: Likely the best snowshoe track ever. You're welcome

My wife and I decided to enjoy the first day of the year doing some exploratory climbing. We made what we believe to be the first ascent of what we are calling Alta Falls. Alta Lake is a beautiful little lake surrounded by surprisingly large cliffs. Perhaps this area may support rock climbing in the future. Approach took about 40 minutes. Exactly 35 meters of climbing. One rappel with a 70 meter rope left no room to spare. Off of the N. Cascades Highway, follow signs to Alta Lake State Park. (Located approximately 4 miles from the City of Pateros.) The climb is visible from the road due west of the first camping area.

Trip: Squire Creek Wall - Skeena26 III, 5.9, FA Date: 9/17/2012 Trip Report: SKEENA 26 III, 5.9 (12 pitches) Bill Enger, David Whitelaw, Yale Lewis A couple of months back, my buddy Bill and I completed our third line on Squire Creek Wall. It's located way around to the south, past the Illusion Wall, Chickenshit Gulley and all that. We picked the last big chunk on the left and turned up a real jewel at a fairly relaxed standard. Its not like these things are a mystery. The features are more or less in plain sight from the trail. A short, fairly flat three miles and its all obvious. A pair of binoculars and its almost indecent. Its been right there all along, soaking up the famous northwest sunshine. Every once in awhile, basking on our bivy ledges we'd get to talking, passing the bourbon eh? " Well ya know," somebody would begin. "There's that stuff around to the south. We talked about it for years but with no real sense of urgency. Finally one autumn the Rodeo had been completed and we had to stare at each other and blink. Two buttonheads without a cause. At odds with the rest of the world since day-one D-Town has rambled on with the barest minimum of love for just over forty years. Too far, too weird, too low angle, too obscure, too wet. Two-thousand feet tall?? Two ropes?? Two hours from Seattle? Fuck that! Sometime last century, in a sort of cedar-smeared socialist epiphany we peasants smashed our machines and marched into the forest naked save for the hand-drill, and a crown of devil's club. Now the hammer has taken us full circle and despite the cold sweat of watching the tool so arthritically pound out the dust it is indeed the wilderness we have come for. Like Heidi's grumpy grampa, sequestered. By degrees we have been forgetting our old ways; road trips, guidebooks, beta?, campgrounds, this climb or that. No trails, no rangers, no fees, no pools, no pets. You just pay up front and place your bets. The not knowing isnt mearly a part of it, it's the heart of it. So we went around the corner to the south. We had no idea how to even get there. It was after all, the remote side of Squire Creek Wall; fabled for being unreachable. One November we walked up the trail and took pics of the southern ramparts with a dusting of new snow on them. Later,in spring we skiied up the road and attempted to snowshoe up the big hillside beneath the Illusion Wall. We didnt get very far but we learned a few things. The hillside is steep, but the forest provides sufficient cover so that there is little underbrush. It's only as you approach higher elevations that the lowland giants give way to the famous hundred-acre tangles of matted, down-sloping cedars and broken logs. While the sane played at Vantage this last spring, Bill and I thrashed around in the forest and the flies and the melting snowbridges until we found a workable path. It was getting to be a bit over the top! We were many many weekends into it before we even got an unobstructed look at our mail-order bride. In June we cramponed up snow gullies and tiptoed around huge psuedo-seracs and tilted snowblocks until we found a camp fairly near the base of the wall. There was snow everywhere. Cornices along the summit periodically cut loose and sent thousand foot cascades of shaved ice down the rock. The sun came out, the snow blocks fell over, waterfalls spewed out of big corners hundreds of feet above us, and the whole place sparkled. In all fairness we didn't know what to think. At least I didn't. It was different. It wasn't what I had imagined. We gaped for hours and wondered if it would play. The cirque arched around us in the sun like a collosal necklace with waterfalls for jewels and we agreed that the prize was worth the walk. Now with a light load and some solid prior knowledge the approach can be sent in around three hours. There would be no high-ledge bivys this time. Just a shady base-camp with prayer flags and our ubiquitous water cubes. From camp, a ten-minute hike across boulders, grass and wildflowers brings one to the start of the route with only minimal aggravations. What a summer we had! While the rest of the nation struggled with heat waves and forest fires Darrington became our always-sunny summer camp in the Sierras. We baked in the sun and it never rained. As usual, occasional guests and girlfriends joined us in the dirt and the heat and in particular Yale Lewis' hard work packing gear, jugging lines and shooting video helped us immeasurably. The route steadily advanced by a pitch or two per weekend. To our good fortune, the gully below camp held snow until late August, which in turn provided water for cooking and slush for our margaritas. Nobody said this pioneering shit had to hurt ALL the time! Bill on Pitch 1 Pitch 1 Drilling on Pitch 5 Dave on Pitch 5 Bill on Pitch 7 Photos by David Whitelaw, Bill Enger Squire Creek Wall, South Face Skeena26 in blue photo by John Scurlock The south side of Squire Creek Wall isn't as steep as the Illusion Wall or even Slab Daddy it's just that the rock is so exceptional and the setting so perfect. The stone is brilliant white and peppered with textures, bumps and knobs. When it gets a little steeper, the knobs get a little bigger and there are good places for gear on many of the pitches. This is a friendly route of high quality and though the first pitch touches 5.9 at a couple of polished spots most of the rest of the route is 5.4- 5.6 with sporadic freak-outs of up to 5.8. We tried to make a route that a 5.8 leader would find reasonable. We just went with the flow, and followed the knobs for a dozen pitches. Gear Notes: Standard rack to 3 1/2"

Trip: Mt Wake (Ruth Gorge) - S Face via Johnson/Wake Col "The Cook Inlet" (FA) Date: 10/22/2012 Summary: First Ascent of the South face of Mount Wake via the Johnson/Wake col on October 22 2012. John Frieh and Jess Roskelley. “The Cook Inlet” 4,500', V AI4 M4 Details: On October 21 around 4 pm, Jess Roskelley (Spokane, WA) and I, John Frieh (Portland, OR), flew from Talkeetna to the Ruth Glacier below Mt. Dickey in the Ruth Gorge. We were able to scope out two possible lines before it got dark. After some discussion we decided to attempt an unclimbed line on the south face of Mt Wake. On October 22 we crossed the schrund at 9 am (late start due to what little sun Alaska gets this time of year) and made slow but steady progress up to the Johnson/Wake col. We bypassed the serac (crux) on the climbers right with a few pitches of AI4 and 100% premium Ruth Gorge "cracker jack consistency" granite mixed climbing. From the col we climbed through some mixed bands (M4) to reach the summit of Wake shortly before sunset. Nine hours of daylight is as short as it sounds. We retraced our steps back to the col where we took a coffee/perpeteum brew stop before continuing the descent into the night. Minus an almost unroped crevasse fall (me) it was largely uneventful. We reached our skis around midnight (15 hours skis to skis) where we opted for a nap before continuing the ski back to basecamp in the morning. Later in the morning on the 23rd Paul Roderick of Talkeetna Air Taxi picked us up and brought us back to Talkeetna to make for a brief 40 or so hours in the range. Many thanks to John Calder for the ANC logistics, Paul Roderick and the TAT crew, and Jess Roskelley for taking a chance climbing with a complete stranger. Jess is a solid climber who I look forward to climbing with again. Also many thanks to my Gym Jones family for the continued guidance and encouragement. Much respect. Home in the Range Bedtime chores October 22 Jess Above the col Jess's first Alaska First Ascent Gear Notes: Two FAs in Alaska in October both on Petzl Lynx; they are quickly becoming my favorite crampon. Lots of Wild Squirrel Approach Notes: Smash and Grab style climbing in the Alaska Range would not be possible without the expertise and service that Paul Roderick and Talkeetna Air Taxi provides. The best of the best. Fly TAT! The MAN: Paul Roderick