Ice climb practice area before 8/5/06 (Seattle)

[SplashClimber]

Does anyone have ideas on areas to get in some ice climbing practice before 8/5/06 withing Seattle area? I am also looking for general ideas on how to evaluate areas to go before I go (i.e. freezing levels?, trip reports?).

 

I am mainly looking for the ice screw placement and belay-changover practice on a gentle ice slope.

[Alpinfox]

click here for info on indoor ice climbing

 

For ice screw placement practice, and some top roping of seracs, you can go to the glaciers on the volcanos. Nisqually glacier on Rainier is popular.

[counterfeitfake]

Who has climbed that wall before? What is it like?

[Alpinfox]

 

I believe grand champion John_"the windshirt"_Frieh can tell us a thing or two about it.

 

[Jason_Martin]

The lower Coleman Glacier on Mount Baker is an excellent place to ice climb during the summer months. The approach is short and there is a lot to choose from. See the Washington Ice Guide for approach directions.

 

Jason

[catbirdseat]

I'll be there this weekend with a group of six. Say hello of you visit.

[John Frieh]

I believe grand champion John_"the windshirt"_Frieh can tell us a thing or two about it.

 

 

Foam is similar to the best hero ice you have ever ever climbed... only better. Just a simple flick of the wrist and your tools are set... in fact getting a tool stuck seems to be more of a problem there then ripping a placement. Worth a visit or two once ice season gets here... aren't you guys like at least a month early to start pulling on the rails?

 

Speaking of ice comps Marcus D and I working on putting together an ice season kickoff party at a location yet to be determined in PDX... something to get ice climbers and folks interested in ice climbing together to shoot the shit... talk about training tips... road trips people are planning on... you know... general spray Maybe break out the angle grinder so people can sharpen their tools up. If you are interested in making this happen give me a shout!

 

I'm going to do my best to get some vendors there so people can demo tools too... I think between Marcus, myself and a few vendors we should just about every ice tool on the market available to try out.

 

Now if we can just get TG to donate a keg...

 

[DanielHarro]

John- I am in...

[John Frieh]

John- I am in...

 

 

Tell me Daniel... what is it going to take for me to get you to climb some alpine with me this year? Carry your stuff? Beer?

[SplashClimber]

Two questions for you 1) do you know from beta or are you assuming there will be ice 2) how long to you think it will take from the car to reach some ice to practice on?

 

I am thinking about checking out the Big Four Ice caves. Not too bad of an investment in time if it does not work out ( 1 mile boardwalk hike-in, and maybe 1-2 hour drive).

[fishstick]

There is certainly a lot of climbable ice at Baker, although it won't be in optimal condition.

 

Generally at this time of year the ice is a bit soft for really hard pulling. Recent high temps compound that problem.

 

The trick is to avoid problems that directly face the sun. The more shade the better and often the steeper the better. Steep at Baker is very steep in WI terms. Also, lines with a small amount of grit (rock/dirt/dust) in them, although unasthetic, will have the best climbing in these conditions. The ice will be harder and take bomber placements. That stuff is hard on screws.

 

Total approach time is a bit over one hour depending upon the level of the second to last creek and your fitness.

 

Conditions vary remarkably by aspect and weather. Get there early in the morning and stuff will be firmer. Rain sometimes improves conditions. Too much rain doesn't. Keep in mind that your shaded overhanging problem might have a sun-baked flakey exit move or two. Use your head and look around. The conditions might be much better only 10 feet away (really).

 

Ponder not only the stability of your problem, but also the stability of everything around it. Think about how seemingly unrelated walls might fall and what will get swept.

 

Bury any TR anchors under a pile of ice and/or a pack. Watch for ravens getting into your pack. They will open any visible zippers (take the lid off).

 

That said, the area is 100% fun.

 

GB

[Alex_Mineev]

this is from last October on Coleman

[SplashClimber]

Thank-you so much for the help. I am potentially thinking of doing Big Four Ice Caves because it is a bit closer to Seattle (1 hour drive) and only a 1 mile hike in on boardwalk. I unfortunately have to be back in the late afternoon. So the ice caves might at least provide some easy going-through-the-motions practice. It might only have 50 foot sections to climb, and a ranger told me there is ice, albiet it not so predictable in nature.

 

Your information and help is extremely helpful for any area I end up at though. Thank-you so much for taking the time to help me out.

[MountaingirlBC]

fyi we had some trouble crossing the river just past where the climbers trail branches off from Heliotrope on the way to practice and play on the seracs on Baker last weekend. I couldn't get my dog across but the rest of our party made it. On the way back though it was much higher and at least a couple people went in.... one up to her neck.

[Jason_Martin]

The ice caves are nowhere near as good as baker. In addition to that, I belive that they can be a little dangerous...

 

Jason

[fishstick]

I did a quick afternoon session at Baker yesterday. The second to last creek is still running high. Take the trail that parallels next to the creek and follow it way up until it gets pinched off completely by an incut slope (creek is running a couple of feet from the slope at that point). Perhaps 6 feet above that the creek can be crossed sans gaiters, but ski poles are super-recomended.

 

From there, aim for what looks like a marmot trail 50 feet higher on the opposite ridge (less than 100m away). That trail leads down to the surveyors rock area (upper approach) so you don't lose your hard-earned altitude dropping immediately back to the original trail.

 

The creek problem adds about 10 to 15 minutes if done this way and using the upper approach.

 

Conditions were pretty good given the warm temps.

 

GB

[Chad_A]

After doing the C-D route with a group of friends, two of the guys (their first time ice climbing) and I went down to the lower glacier last weekend. We didn't have much time, but we did find a good crevasse not too far from the moraine trail with good platform on top for an anchor.

 

A bit dirty, but still good. The ice inside wasn't drippy at all (soft, of course).

 

Good vertical fun.

[scm007]

John where do you usually hold htis ice climbing intro? I've been an alpine climber for quite a while now, but I'm interested in getting into ice climbing; looking for someone to show me the ropes. PM me.

[SplashClimber]

I ended up at Big Four ice caves due to my time contraints. Thank-you for the Baker advice though. I have some advice ready for my next practice session, when I have more time. I might head back there in order to get some actual ice swinging practice in.

 

We left Seattle-area around 6:15 and were back around 2:30. We were at base of cave around 8:00 and finished practicing around 1:00.

 

We did not attempt to get in practice in this area for the actual hurling axes into ice on a steep slope. There might be some big holes/mini-drop-offs off to the right of the caves. But we did not explore this area. We were mainly interested in practicing running belays & hanging anchored belays. We practiced off to the left of the ice cave. The slope of this area is only about 30 degrees at most, but enabled us to do a belay and practice hauling up follower while looping the rope over taught line leading to belayer.

 

The whole area seems to be in the shade until about 1:00 or so.

 

The ice in our practice area was certainly not hard enough for relying on screw placements. But good enough for going through the motions. We were able to get pickets in, also well enough for practice. We did not place the pickets very deep, and maybe hammering down a bit more would provide reliability. The area we were in seemed safe enough, so we did not need to set up a top rope. Although for ultimate safety it would be possible to maybe set a picket and maybe bury a stuff sack etc. This might have been safer to set up a top rope, just in case a slot/crevasse were to open up. ( At the slope angle and the safe landing zone, we did not feel a top rope was necessary in our area. )