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Trip: Black Peak - NW face Date: 5/19/2012 Trip Report: In a collaborative effort, Eric Wehrly and I climbed and skied the NW face of Black Mountain. There are ski lines that when viewed from a deceptive perspective, or through some camera trickery appear to be truly steep when in fact they are only moderate in slope angle. The Northwest face of Black mountain is not one of those lines. Steep, sustained, exposed, are words that come to mind when contemplating a description. Snow conditions were scary in places, but good enough for a complete descent in proud style. Rocks and holes shallowly buried with sugar snow, slick ice crusts lurking under variably meager depths, these conditions added spice to both the climbing and skiing. Little in the way of progress came easy, the ground we gained was fought hard for in places, and entailed many white knuckled / no mistakes hours of fun. As I write this days later, I am still in a daze of emotions and memories that will be long to fade. We got some good pictures, this is my favorite one, Eric shreds the knar John Scurlock photo Black peak NW face (left), and Black peak western summit (right). This was our first view of the NW side of Black, we had to make a long steep downslopeing traverse on variable snow to get to the beginning of the NW face (far right). Eric Wehrly photo On the traverse, Eric Wehrly photo E$ climbing lower face Eric Climbing steep sugar over rock and ice high on the face. cruxin Looking down on our route from the summit. Eric Wehrly photo $ $ $ Eric Wehrly photo Eric Wehrly photo Eric Wehrly photo $ $ $ Eric Wehrly photo E-Money crossing a runnell mid-face E-Money Eric Wehrly photo Eric Wehrly photo Eric Wehrly photo Eric Wehrly photo Looking back on the traverse

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - Curtis Ridge Date: 3/25/2012 Trip Report: I was looking forward to schlarping the fabulous powder that I had just skinned past on the White Salmon, but maybe, just maybe instead I would drop into a steep west facing line that I've eyed wistfully for years, the line is however quite exposed, steep, and windward... So my expectations of finding acceptable conditions were low. I reached the col from the sunnyside where I could survey the said line, looking down on it my first thoughts were -- there's no way I'm going to ski this thing! but after some time of thoughtfully soaking up the fearsome view, I slowly weaned myself off comfortable thoughts of powder on the White Salmon and adjusted to the possibility of accepting commitment to the exposure below. I downclimbed the first few hundred feet to scope conditions, and was amazed and stoked to find mostly powder with just a few crusty sections here and there, I scampered back up to the top drunk off stoke. The descent was awesome, favorite turns of the season for sure. Crossing under the seracs at the bottom was creepy, but over quick enough.

Climb: Degenhardt -Degenhardt Glacier Date of Climb: 6/28/2004 Trip Report: Sky and myself climbed and skied the Degenhardt Glacier along with a couple other lines in the southern Pickets on Monday 6/28. After suicidal avalanche conditions forced a turn around last week, plans were quickly made for a return trip to the southern Pickets. Sky and I left Seattle Sunday morning and were at the Goodell Creek group camp mid morning. We left the car shortly after 11. Good trail leads to ~ 1/2 mile short of Terror Creek. There we followed climbers path(s) to a log crossing at Terror Creek at 2,100'. On the north side of the creek we were able to follow a faint climbers path nearly to the top of the ridge. The previous week we spent many hours schwacking around on the lower areas of the ridge and dealing with many cliffy areas. This time though we found the path that trends up a gully near the log crossing. This way was waaaay easier. We topped out on the ridge near 3700' and made our way up to ~5400' where we made camp. Total time to camp: 7+ hours. Sunday we climbed to the pass near the Chopping Block and skied down into Crescent Creek basin. We traveresed the basin to near the bottom of the couloir that leads up to West Terror Col (Terror-Rake Col). Climbed nearly 800' to the col. We had been advised that this may not be the best way to get down into MacMillan Cirque as the slope on the North side of the col may be super steep. Upon reaching the col and peering over the north side we did find a steep slope, but one that was skiable. The first several hundred feet were real steep and then the angle eased back some and it was super cruiser. We skied down for nearly 2000' until we could traverse below the North Buttress of Mt Terror. At ~5400' we put skis back on the packs and roped up as we accessed the Degenhardt Glacier. We daddled around for a little trying to find a way up through the icefalls in the lower sections of the glacier, and eventually ended up climbing pretty much directly through after Sky found a little hidden line up through some ice blocks. The angle eases some in the middle sections of the glacier before coming to a steep 1500' headwall. there were some large crevasses but none that blocked the route completely. We climbed the steep headwall on the eastern portion. We topped out on the col between Degenhardt and the Pyramid. The ski down was spectacular. Conditions were ideal and the setting amazing. We skied our climbing line on the eastern side of the glacier and down to the icefall. At the icefall the ski line was blocked and we rapped ~100' down the icefall. From there we traversed back below the North Buttress of Terror and climbed the 2000' back up to the Terror Rake Col. We skied the couloir back down the south side of the col into Crescent Creek basin and bivvied just beyond the mouth of the couloir. Tuesday we had a leisurely morning and hiked back out the way we came. I've got some pics, but my camera went tits up on me during the trip, Sky should have some pics up on his site soon. Gear Notes: 30m rope 30m cord pickets used em for the rap Approach Notes: Goodell Creek Follow the climbers paths and it's not too bad...miss the paths and it can be heinous

Climb: Mt Buckner-North Face Date of Climb: 2/20/2004 Trip Report: Sky, Corey, and myself left Seattle butt-ass early on Thursday morning with plans to climb and ski the north face of Mt. Buckner. After a brief delay to discuss speed limits on hwy 20 with Trooper Joe, we were on our way up Cascade River Road. We were stopped by a large blowdown just past m.p. 18. One final gear organization, and we set off walking up the bare road. ~1/2 mile later we found continuous snow and were able to start skinning. The trip up the road was uninspiring as the views up to the peaks was obscured by low hanging couds. We left Cascade River Road just past Midas Creek. Skinned through open slopes and timber generally following near the creek until we broke above timberline. Here visibility began to become an issue. Solid white out conditions made the going a little slower than normal. But periodic clearings gave us glimpses of the route up towards the Quien Sabe Glacier. Up and around the moraine, and it was moderate slopes all the way up to near 8,000'. There the clouds broke and the peaks began to appear. Johannesburg, Forbidden, Eldorado, Boston, looking like islands floating in the clouds as the layer began to lower and break apart. We camped at ~8200' below a rock outcropping very close below Boston Peak. The next morning crystal clear skies greeted us and lifted spirits. After a leisurely breakfast and gear packing session we were off. Sky lead up the slopes towards the notch immediately S. of Boston Pk. that we were hoping to use to gain access to the Boston Glacier. Postholling was a pain, but it got worse as we entered the gully and encountered sloping slabby chossy crap covered by powdery, thin snowcover. Crampons were employed and a few tricky moves over a couple of rock steps led us to a steeper snow gully leading right for the notch. Sky was leading up and when he shouted "Holy Shit!, Holy Shit!" I thought that things were either really really good or really really bad. When he yelled again, "It's all good!", all questions were erased. The Boston Glacier reached right up to the notch where we were standing, and rolls endlessly away to the NE. To the E. was Buckner with the NF clearly in view. Man it looked sweet. With little time to enjoy the views we donned skis and enjoyed nearly 1500 v.f. of pure Boston Glacier pow. From our low point we put skins on and began climbing towards the face. And we kept climbing, skinning all the way to just past the bergschrund. There we strapped skis to packs and kick-stepped up the face. Climbing was straightforeward, and moderately steep. Highly enjoyable, with the Boston Glacier rolling away far below. Summited at 2:00, and enjoyed the views to peaks in all directions. The notch where we accessed the glacier looked so far away and our ski tracks down the glacier seemed insignificant on the mass of ice. With little time to linger Sky began the ski descent. He stopped a little ways down to shoot some pics of Corey and myself on the descent. The skiing was simply awesome. Wind buffed, soft, powder down the entire face from the summit. All to quickly we were back at our skin track, and began to climb back up to the notch. At the notch we decided to rappel rather than deal with downclimbing, and although it took a bit longer, provided much more piece of mind. At camp we decided to spend the night rather than ski out in the dark. The next morning was another blue bird day and we packed camp and enjoyed ~3000' of fine buffed out powder before finding crusty conditions lower down in the forest. A quick ski out the road and back to the car. PBR's were cracked and swilled, and the outing came to an end. ~Ross