tlinn Posted September 27, 2004 Posted September 27, 2004 Is the North Face of Shuksan still in condition or is it too broken up? It seems like most of the fresh snow over the past two weeks has melted off and it could be good. Quote
Gary_Yngve Posted September 27, 2004 Posted September 27, 2004 I was on another nordwand this past weekend. Found things to be quite broken up. There was snow over ice. Snow was bonding well. But it was too much to ignore (i.e. more than an inch or two), but not enough to kick-step confidently. Made things a real pain in the ass. Wish I had a shovel every time I wanted to place a screw, especially near the top, where the most snow was. Quote
Geek_the_Greek Posted September 27, 2004 Posted September 27, 2004 Agreed. Probably a foot or so of fresh on the north side of Forbidden yesterday. Nice for morning cramponing, I'd say, but probably a pain for placing ice pro. Quote
Ade Posted September 30, 2004 Posted September 30, 2004 North face of Baker looked in pretty good shape from lower down the Coleman. Hard to say how much new snow there was on it. Quote
tlinn Posted October 7, 2004 Author Posted October 7, 2004 Climbed Wedge Mountain NE face this last weekend instead. Found nice blue ice streaks with a few inches of consolidated new snow in between. The new snow made for nice, easy cramponing and the blue ice was great for screws. Placed the odd picket in a few shady pockets where there was more snow. New snow is above 8500 feet. Quote
Don_Serl Posted October 10, 2004 Posted October 10, 2004 (edited) Climbed Wedge Mountain NE face this last weekend instead. Found nice blue ice streaks with a few inches of consolidated new snow in between. The new snow made for nice, easy cramponing and the blue ice was great for screws. Placed the odd picket in a few shady pockets where there was more snow. New snow is above 8500 feet. ...and janez did the rethel/parkhurst/slot link-up the same day, in what i recall him saying was 9 hrs hut-to-summit of wedge. rethel was all ice, but it's not steep, so took only 2 hrs from hut to top. scrambling down from rethel-parkhurst col turned out to be much easier than ade and i had imagined last year (we declined, and walked over to the parkhurst-wedge col to descend after rethel). parts of the parkhurst couloir were melted out, so there was a bit of entertaining mixed. the entry to the slot was a short, delicate, free-hanging curtain, then the 1st half was OK. the upper half was snow-covered, and had some tricky melted-out steps. apparently the traverse from the couloir exit across to the upper west couloir was the crux of the trip - thin fresh snow over frozen gravel, above a big drop - scary, scratchy cramponing... and now it's snowing, so indian summer alpine ice season is probably over... cheers, Edited October 11, 2004 by Don_Serl Quote
Alex Posted October 11, 2004 Posted October 11, 2004 and now it's snowing, so indian summer alpine ice season is probably over... Jeopardy buzzing sound this next week looks stellar for weather! Quote
Don_Serl Posted October 11, 2004 Posted October 11, 2004 Jeopardy buzzing sound this next week looks stellar for weather! looks pretty fine down your way alright, especially out on the east side - see wenachee: http://www.weather.ca/weather/cities/usa/pages/USWA0487.htm but check out the situation up this way - whistler: http://www.weather.ca/weather/cities/can/pages/CABC0322.htm there's already fresh snow at higher elevations, and it's gonna be below freezing at valley height mid-week - then freezing rain and/or snow next weekend. not gonna be doing wedgemount, joffre, whitecap, goldbridge, etc routes any kindness. much less the remote chilcotin stuff... maybe time to come south for a few days? cheers, Quote
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