iain Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Finally had a go at this gem today (5/03/2003). Left Timberline for Illumination Saddle at 0600. Encountered several groups at the saddle backing off of Leuthold Couloir for one reason or another. Bad weather was forecast for later in the day so we were questioning our decision making. We felt good about making it out before the weather, so we skied down onto and across the Reid Glacier. No crevasses in sight yet. Getting over Yocum on skis started out okay but we threw on the spikes when it got too steep and icy for our liking. Sandy Glacier is totally covered. We crossed right in the middle and over Cathedral Ridge. Crossed above Barrett Spur over the Ladd Glacier. Coe Icefall is impressive as always. Some bigger cracks beginning to show in places. Skinned up a ramp onto Snowdome, skinned to top of Snowdome to cross the Eliot Glacier. This was the only stretch we roped up for. There are some big whoppers opening up here but all were bomber bridges. More just a series of holes to avoid. The bergschrund to access the north face gullies is still bridged but just barely. We skied down the Eliot a ways in the worst breakable crust I've encountered in awhile. There is an awesome colorado-style ice climb up the east lateral moraine of eliot right now. looks totally sweet. huffed and puffed up cooper spur to tie-in rock. and became enveloped in a whiteout. stumbled across the newton-clark glacier in the soup, hoping not to run into the icefalls we knew of out there, but they were all very well filled in. skiing in a whiteout on glaciers you rarely visit is intimidating, and perhaps rather foolish. glided across the wy'east face and dropped into white river glacier. traversed out to wind up just above the palmer lift. excellent adventure on this oregon classic. looks like we beat the weather, but only just. the thickening clouds added to the experience. we brought crampons, axe, helmet, 8mm line, glacier gear, and were glad we did. I wore plastic mountaineering boots instead of my at's and regretted every minute of it. skiing refrozen avalanche debris and nightmare breakable crust above crevasses in invernos was some of the most challenging skiing I've done in awhile. all climbing routes encountered are in. Go get it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisT Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Nice job Iain! You win the mountain hardman award for the day! I was up at Timberline for gaper training today so I know the weather you faced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyclimb Posted May 4, 2003 Share Posted May 4, 2003 Nice, glad to see the post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iain Posted May 5, 2003 Author Share Posted May 5, 2003 yeah we were sweating it a bit coming around newton clark g. when that whiteout hit. thought that was the end of visibility for the next few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 Nice work ,Ian. Too bad you didnt get a look at the Spider. What exactly is Colorado style? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b-rock Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbw1966 Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 Judging from his description, I'm guessing he couldn't even see the spider. Nice job Iain. Next weather break we get I want to knock this out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iain Posted May 6, 2003 Author Share Posted May 6, 2003 Actually we got a close up look at the spider just as things turned for the worse, then it was basically like that scene in the matrix where everything is white for awhile. By "colorado style" I just meant nice water ice I guess. Just not used to seeing that kind of stuff here in May. If you guys are going to do it, you might think about spending a day on the north side to toy around on that ice. We didn't get to enjoy everything as much because we had to keep moving to beat the Wx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike1 Posted May 7, 2003 Share Posted May 7, 2003 Iain, Awesome! It must have been awesome. Great job! I was that guy standing on the saddle when you two dropped onto the Reid. (MRA?). We woke up at 0300 to start only to find we were completely socked in. Had we known it would open up for the rest of the day we probably could have climbed. As it was we thought the storm had come early and decided probably like the other two groups up there to sleep in. In hind sight, I think we still could have bagged it with a late start… I think it stayed frozen up there all day? How was the snow on the Reid? Were you concerned about the Avy conditions on the Wy’East at all? We saw some climbers heading up there at around 1000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iain Posted May 7, 2003 Author Share Posted May 7, 2003 Hey, yeah that was us at the saddle. Probably a good call with that whiteout you experienced, hard to say when that weather was really moving in. The Reid was a total cakewalk, hard ice, no problem. Sking over that debris coming out of Leuthold was tough though. Big cemented ice blocks that would break a ski. Wy'East was nicely set up with no concerns, the cloud cover keep the entire mountain in very good shape all day, and I think it was actually colder in the afternoon than the morning. There were a few tracks down the face heading to Heather Canyon. It would have been an awesome ski the day before. Hope you guys get back there to finish the business in L.C. It looks like Hood will have a late, but very good climbing "season". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 How many hrs did you spend on the thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iain Posted May 8, 2003 Author Share Posted May 8, 2003 hmm, I think we were back in the parking lot around 1pm, so sixish, sevenish hours or so? Didn't keep close tabs on time. Much time could be shaved off by not getting in whiteouts and not dinking around in general. I seem to remember you were clocking in at 5.5 hours or so, that's a pretty good time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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