Alpine_Tom Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 (edited) Climb: Alpental ice-practice cliffs Date of Climb: 1/15/2005 Trip Report: Alex Mineev and I went out on Saturday to try out the ice at Alepental. We got to the pass by about 9:00, and the sign over the freeway displayed a balmy 11 degrees. We planned to start off on the area "Washington Ice" calls the practice cliffs (I think, I don't have the book in front of me) the gully between Guye and Snoqualmie peak. The ice was in pretty good shape, but the snow was hellacious! The least consolidated snow I've ever slogged through -- not even powder, a sugar snow that seemed to drain from beneath our feet. The gully is about six moderately steep (wi3?) steps, 15-30 feet high, with longish flat spots in between. The flat sections were pretty deep in snow. The top step was only about 15 feet high but the best ice of the day. The ice was really variable: sometimes really hard, sometimes really rotten where it was exposed, but where it had a few inches of snow over it, it was almost slushy. So, getting onto the ice was the hardest part -- finding someplace that would take crampons. Still it was a fun day -- thanks to the authors of the guidebook! We were able to rappel down what we couldn't downclimb from trees and branches. Here are a couple of Alex's digital photos. Gear Notes: I had my old Stubai steel ice tool and a little Grivel 3rd tool; Alex had twin Grivel wings. Approach Notes: Great -- ten minutes from the car. Couldn't make it without snowshoes. Edited January 18, 2005 by Alpine_Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Mineev Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 It was great climbing with you Tom! For both of us it was first time climbing on water ice Few little corrections The route is called Practice Gully. It had 4 WI2 steps. The one on the pictures is the first one and probably the easiest. The final 5th step was vertical curtain 15-25 feet high (depends on which side you start). Tom leaded the right side and I followed on belay the left side. This last step was the best. The whole climb took from 4 to 5 hours. I hope this was not the last time in the season... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treknclime Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Best place to park?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyselinck Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Alpental parking lot, where the bridge fell down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpine_Tom Posted January 18, 2005 Author Share Posted January 18, 2005 Alpental parking lot, where the bridge fell down. There was a guy up there in the parking lot, directing traffic. He didn't hassle us at all, even though we obviously didn't have skis or snowboards, and asked him where the bathrooms were. One interesting event -- I put in a screw, which cracked the ice a bit, you could see the crack deep in the ice. Alex assured me it was probably okay, so I went ahead and climbed up, my tool popped off, and I fell in the screw -- and it held! I really enjoyed myself. Thanks, Alex! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Mineev Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 I also had one titanium screw and it sucked this time. I had to apply a lot of force while screwing it in. Ice cracked a lot and when I jumped on it the screw poped off with chunks of ice. The best screws in terms of friction were BD, then Omega Pacific, then titanium. On the other hand I used this titanium on NR Baker and it worked fine. Probably this can be explained by the difference between solid water ice and airy glacier ice... Tom brought a couple alluminium(!) army ice screws They of course did not work at all, but looked very cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Damn, taking falls on a WI2 , climbing with old school implements , two full on ice newbies havin a good time, I give this TR two thumbs up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Mineev Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 Hey, if all climb was like the last vertical section it would be WI4-5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.