2011/12 Washington Ice Conditions

[sobo]

Criminy Doug, that's mixed? It looks like you went rock climbing with ice tools and crampons on.

[kevino]

Big inversion going on up at alpental over the last 48 hours...

 

12 8 600 33 29 20 96 17 9 12 358 0 0 0 45

12 8 700 36 30 20 95 14 10 12 339 0 0 0 45

12 8 800 35 30 21 94 15 11 16 306 0 0 0 45

12 8 900 36 31 23 96 18 13 18 338 0 0 0 46

12 8 1000 38 33 25 88 19 15 18 358 0 0 0 45

12 8 1100 39 34 28 86 15 10 17 333 0 0 0 45

12 8 1200 38 37 28 84 18 12 17 351 0 0 0 45

12 8 1300 38 36 29 81 17 13 16 353 0 0 0 45

12 8 1400 39 37 29 90 18 12 15 353 0 0 0 45

12 8 1500 38 37 29 90 21 16 21 351 0 0 0 45

12 8 1600 36 37 28 91 18 18 21 0 0 0 0 45

12 8 1700 37 36 27 90 13 18 23 6 0 0 0 45

12 8 1800 37 35 26 92 13 16 18 360 0 0 0 46

12 8 1900 41 35 25 92 7 16 18 19 0 0 0 46

12 8 2000 44 33 24 93 13 14 18 20 0 0 0 45

12 8 2100 44 34 23 93 16 11 15 13 0 0 0 45

12 8 2200 45 33 23 94 17 10 13 9 0 0 0 45

12 8 2300 40 30 21 94 26 4 8 41 0 0 0 45

12 9 0 44 33 21 95 24 5 9 5 0 0 0 45

12 9 100 44 32 21 94 24 10 12 24 0 0 0 45

12 9 200 44 35 19 94 30 9 11 28 0 0 0 45

12 9 300 40 31 20 95 28 7 10 64 0 0 0 45

12 9 400 39 30 18 95 29 11 14 112 0 0 0 45

12 9 500 39 29 18 94 34 14 17 112 0 0 0 45

 

[genepires]

Hey Kevino, hows about a little education on the numbers above.

 

1st two numbers are the date then the time then the next numbers are temps for different altitudes? What is with the column with the 90's and column before the 0's?

 

thanks,

[Dannible]

Here are the details: http://www.nwac.us/weatherdata/alpental/now/

 

Pretty crazy inversion deal seems to be happening all over. Could change things a bit.

[pac man]

Headed to Rainier National Park yesterday and climbed a portion of one of the many lines on Denman Peak's north face.

Overview

 

Left low angle curtain

 

Main flow

 

We climbed the first 2 pitches of the main flow. Once on the ice we found they were definitely steeper than they appeared going at: WI3+ for 30m pitch, WI3 for ~40m pitch, the top pitch looked more tiered.

[hanman]

Headed up to lennox today. Decidely not in. High flow on most lines. 2" of ice on slabs. Floatation was a bonus in the fabulous talus section.

[Vernman23]

Got out and climbed Merritt Falls on Saturday afternoon. Was "in" on the right or left sides. I ran a lap on the right side and called it a day. I would think that its only going to get better as it stays cold.

 

[Alex]

Leavenworth Area, Careno and Rainbow areas trying/forming but not in.

 

The inversion was very telling at Blewett Pass!

[Alex]

Headed up to lennox today. Decidely not in. High flow on most lines. 2" of ice on slabs. Floatation was a bonus in the fabulous talus section.

 

Stout. I think this inversion is killing it more than anything.

[mountainmatt]

Headed about 6 miles up Ingals creek with OlympicMountainBoy hunting for ice. Some ice was trying to form, but unless you like climbing flowing waterfalls, we need some colder temps. If heading that way, there is a nice boot pack for the first 2 miles or so, after that, snowshoes were helpful.

[powderhound]

Went to Strobach:

Good News: hardy any snow on the ground and the roads are stil open. Makes for a super quick approach.

 

Bad News: I waked from Primus Suckus to Watchtower and didn't see a singe line that looked to be fully climbable.

[cfire]

Humped up to Drury yesterday and climbed the first pitch. 2nd was completely gone and the top was almost completely gone. Going to take awhile for it to heal. But, I'd highly recommend the approach just for fun. Punchthrough snow over talus and water makes for good times!

[yasso1am]

Has anybody had a look at the routes on Colfax lately? Any idea if the snow has blown off them and the ice is in? Any postulation is appreciated.

[jesselillis]

Out to Source Lake Sunday- SLL looked in challenging condition.

 

Headed to Rap Wall and tried to get up a mixed line above and right of the main wall.

 

The left line here

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos?tab=mq#photos/108513109565806365011/albums/5685494167627091649

 

Bailed after only ~20 feet: surprisingly brittle ice, crappy pro, AT boots, nerves...

 

Initially I tried to access the top for a TR by continuing up and left, but couldn't easily manage the steep snow, not adhered to the rock. After an unnerving fall soloing, returned to the base for the lead attempt.

 

Can one access the top of the rap wall from the left (looking at wall from base)? Could one traverse across the top?

[Alex]

rap wall is pretty difficult to access from above without extensive and time consuming shenaningans

[StephanieSavage]

Yesterday, 12/12/2011, we climbed the route that "Cornfed" did out at Snow Lake last week. Conditions were great still, and I put up a picture of another line we saw on the same side of the lake from our approach. I'll put the link to my thread reply below, hope that works. It was super cold, nothing was melting up there.

 

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1047696#Post1047696

 

[kurthicks]

Today, I walked to the top of the Rap Wall (up the left gully and across the top) and dug out the anchor on Chuck D. It took me about 15 minutes plus chopping. I'd hate to do it after a big snowfall. The anchor to the right of Chuck D is still exposed, though you'll have to chip ice off the chains.

 

There are a couple tree rap anchors on top, including 2 next to the huge broken snag...those will get you to the main portion of the wall.

[Jens]

A couple of the routes on the rap wall should have their anchors lowered a little bit. They were opened as October routes but 90 % of their traffic now is post Halloween with often deep snowpacks (although still pure dry tools and not really mixed climbs.)

Lillooet is FAT right now and was 4:45 total time from Seattle front door to touching ice and gotta love that Limestone for ultimate mixed climbing!

[spionin]

banks is looking lean.

champagne

h2o2 and the cable

 

devil's punchbowl and revenge

 

peewee's

 

 

leavenworth:

drury, sunbathing

 

rainbow right

 

the carenos

 

[telemarker]

leavenworth:

drury, sunbathing

 

 

Well, looks like Drury is rebounding after that inversion period. From last Sunday:

 

Thanks for posting this update V!

 

Edited December 16, 2011 by telemarker

[Dannible]

Just thought I'd warn everyone that there is a lot of surface hoar on some sun exposed slopes at Snoqualmie (and all over I'm sure) due to all of the sun and cold. This will make avy conditions sketchy and unpredictable for a while once it starts snowing again. Watch out.

[jstreet]

Went out today with Matt and climbed "Flow Reversal". Temps where just above freezing and with 3-4 inches of new snow the day before we saw quite a few small to medium size sluffs come off the cliffs, a few of which washed over me on the route. The bottom and top of the route where thin, hollow, and mushy. The middle portion of the route, including the crux corner had darn good ice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MrGecko]

Source Lake Ice from today - dec 17th

 

 

 

 

Also saw a long ice flow off some tallish face up the Middle Fork Rd out of North Bend yesterday. It was about 1-2 miles before the turn-off for the Middle Fork trail head, across the other side of the river and clearly visible from the road. Never heard of it before, anyone?

Edited December 18, 2011 by MrGecko

[Dane]

 

Nice guys! That looks so fat and fun right now. I am so jealous!

Edited December 19, 2011 by Dane

[keenwesh]

climbed a decent pitch of WI3 in between the 2 other lines taked about above snow lake. the top delaminated when I climbed on it and I'm not used to the quality of ice here in washington. I traversed right over the side of the gully and climbed the trees cause I trusted them more than the ice. Screws went in and then wiggled around in their holes, so I didn't place them. I was terrified. Go get it!