Ytrip Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 With a clearing in the weather I was wondering what the conditions were like up there. Good time to climb or not? Quote
ivan Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 perfect conditions on that thare route and you can drive to cloud cap - get'er done! Quote
stevetimetravlr Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 Looked at it yesterday from hwy 35, and the sun was gleaming off the ice sheet on it like a giant mirror, very cool! Quote
stevetimetravlr Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 The North Face still looks fairly plastered. If I head up that way today climbing, I will try and get some photos. Quote
ivan Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 Pics? How'd the north face look? looked great last weekend john, and can only be getting better - in fact, wtf are you doing not being there right now anyway? Quote
John Frieh Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 I try to only ditch work midweek for Alaska trips  I could see doing a night run later this week though Quote
dougd Posted October 25, 2011 Posted October 25, 2011 perfect conditions on that thare route and you can drive to cloud cap - get'er done! Â Sure hope conditions hold and a weather window appears one weekend next month... Â I'd like to get an up close and personal look at that thar spur... Â d Quote
ScaredSilly Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 (edited) Just a quick comment about the Spur based on a solo trip up it about this time of year but many years ago. As some have noted the Spur is nice firm snow and with some ice. I too found similar conditions which I was not expecting. Further, there had been a recent storm so there was a few inches of snow on top of everything. In places this new snow hid the hard snow/ice nicely. What one thought was firm bonded snow was not - in many places it slid off when punched through. Near the top, the snow was quite unstable and was at the perfect angle to avalanche. The ice was hard enough that in a few places I wished I had a second tool. Not because of the slope steepness, but because of how hard the ice was. All of which had the promise to send one skating down to the Elliot if they were not being heads up. Â Also I declined not to down climb the route and instead walked back around via the Newton Clark - which was great especially as one can scope lines out on the spider. Edited October 27, 2011 by ScaredSilly Quote
B Deleted_Beck Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 if the northish routes are anything like the south side, wait till there's some decent fresh snowfall. everything above 9,000' was clear crusty ice 1-3" thick and gigantic chicken-heads today- two climbers ahead of us fell on ice, one arresting by Crater Rock and bailing, one on the Old Chute zinging "all the way down" to Hotrocks... he walked off, somehow, but not without shredded pants, a mashed up eye, and, i'm guessing, some reevaluation of life priorities. Quote
billcoe Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 two climbers ahead of us fell on ice, one arresting by Crater Rock and bailing, one on the Old Chute zinging "all the way down" to Hotrocks... he walked off, somehow, but not without shredded pants, a mashed up eye, and, i'm guessing, some reevaluation of life priorities. Â LOL, well spoken Ben! Glad they walked off on their own power! Given that there was a heavy snowpack last year, the North Face, the gullies in particular, might be prime to fly up. 2 tools, ice screws, settled but cold weather and Bob's yer Uncle! Quote
Holk Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 A couple buddies and I ran up the Spur to tie-in-rock late yesterday into the night for a quick scouting mission - did a little bouldering here and there on the side - and noted the snow icing over real quick upon nightfall. Getting excited about climbing that side finally! Just not yet for me. Â On a side note [posting this in the lost in found forum too] I did by a huge chance come across a pair of prescription glasses at about 7,500ft along the climber's trail heading down the spur after dark. No insignia is present, but a photo description will hopefully do the job. Â Â Â Â Quote
stevetimetravlr Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 Cool photos guys. None from me as haven't been back up yet, but dug into my ice gear last night in the hope that the stars align and all is well in the world and we get some good alpine conditions for a while. Quote
powderhound Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 Dan and I made plans for a night ascent of the NF gullies. We made it all the way tot he snow/perfect neve and turned around due to rocks whizzing past us and the sand blast effect. The wind was pretty strong with gust greater than 30mph. Looked perfect up there though, so maybe next week we will get some more high pressure after the snow this weekend. Wasn't very cold, we talked to a couple guys who did the timberline trail yesterday and it didn't get above freezing for them. Quote
luvshaker Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 Powder-How far did you get into the NF gully? Did you get a good look at the big bergie? In a recent picture someone posted it looked to be maybe be the crux of the climb. Quote
ivan Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 Powder-How far did you get into the NF gully? Did you get a good look at the big bergie? In a recent picture someone posted it looked to be maybe be the crux of the climb. i was there 2 weeks ago, looking down from the top of the snowdome - was pouring spindrift down the center of the bergie on the right gully, but didn't look unusually hard to get on route via the right side. Quote
Holk Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 \Did you get a good look at the big bergie  Photos from the same trip on Tuesday:   Quote
ivan Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 why, that doesn't look like any fun at all! Quote
JRay Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the photos, Holk. Edited October 28, 2011 by JRay Quote
luvshaker Posted October 28, 2011 Posted October 28, 2011 Dang! Â Thanks for posting. Â Check the drool on the "balls of steel" direct line! Quote
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