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2012 / 13 Washington Ice Conditions


Alex

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Leavenworth update - Jan 7. These are probably degrading seriously due to rain at the moment!

 

Careno/Candlesteins: nope

Rainbow: nope

Corner Route: nope

Pivotal Moment: nope

Millenium Walls: unknown

R&D: yep-ish

Chicken Gully: yep-ish

Heart of Gold area: drips & drabs

Hubba Hubba area: yep. It avalanched yesterday, but will certainly again.

Mountaineers Creek: unknown

Across from Castle: nope

Drury: lots of ice, lots of any hazard

Pencil: ice all the way. looks thin.

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I think Pan Dome Falls is in. I say "think" because I am not really an ice climber. Went up with a friend today to get a taste of ice on some rented Nomics (very sweet tools). We opted to climb some small bulges of ice off to the side of Pan Dome on top rope. Where we were, the ice seemed pretty thick, but with a crusty brittle snow/ice layer over the good stuff.

 

Pan Dome Falls proper looked a lot better, there was a thin layer of snow over some of the pitch, but the ice itself looked good, pretty thick, pale blue, sort of translucent (that's good right?)

 

Sorry, no pics.

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Anybody who has ever had Goats Beard on their radar, now is the time. This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity. This climb has never seen a repeat since its first ascent over 20 years ago. The FA team rated their climb at Grade V, WI5+, 5.9, A2. We climbed the complete route at Grade V, WI5. With what I calculate as over 1375 feet (420 meters) of ice climbing, this is now the longest pure continuous waterfall ice climb ever completed in the United States, maybe even North America.

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The cold temps trend should continue through this week. The weather pattern we are seeing is because of an interesting weather phenomenon in the polar region, that will allow cold air to push S into the United States (in general) for a period of time. So hang on because this weather pattern will be with us for a little bit, and should lead to some interesting conditions around Washington, Oregon, and BC.

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Is it? I googled it and its all over the web that the current continuous waterfall is 365m or something in Colorado. If its not, I couldn't care less either way. But I thought it may be a cool, fun fact and I would be stoked if that was in my own backyard.

 

" Barry took me up Stairway to Heaven, said to be the longest continuous ice climb in North America. Kind of cool that it's as user friendly as we found. " - http://www.thebackcountry.net/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1225

 

It is said that this climb is one of the longest continuous climbs in North America. There are more climbs in both Provo Canyon and American Fork Canyon.

http://www.utahvalley.com/things-to-do/outdoor/outdooractivities/rockiceclimb.aspx

 

 

•Utah Valley's Provo Canyon. Known as a "stairway to heaven," this site is an ice climbing destination that is touted as one of the longest continuing ice climbing locations in North America.

 

Edited by AlpineMonkey
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I understood what I read as being the longest pure waterfall, continuous (not broken up by ledges and crap) piece of ice. Slipstream and those climbs I don't think were include because they are alpine routes in nature. Maybe there is no difference, but I see a difference in character between Frenchman Falls (Water Fall) and climbing the North Face of Stuart in winter (ice/alpine in nature) for example. Whatever, if Its wrong, blame the guys that I got bad info from. :)

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I think there's a lot of continuous waterfall ice climbs in the Ghost that are at least 400 m and probably a lot on the Parkway. Its probably accurate to say your climb is one of the longest continuous in the lower 48.

 

Also, if you want to be technical, is the Goat's Beard truly a waterfall ice climb since its formed from snow melt?

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Also, since we're arguing technicalities, Slipstream may be considered an alpine climb (it is, after all, in Eastman's Select book and is on the side of a big peak) but it is a water ice climb, it just originates from a serac. Its not really mixed and mountaineeringy like N Ridge Stuart in winter.

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Jeff Lowe and Slipstream's first ascent party commented in print that they considered Slipstream the longest "waterfall" climb in NA and one of the longest in the world with the added objective dangers of an alpine climb bitd. It has been done on water ice bottom to top early season. 900m of elevation gain. Polarity, around the corner from Slipstream on Snow Dome should put the "longest" notion to rest by a KO. No snow slogging on that one.

 

wf-steck-polarity.jpg

 

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web07f/wfeature-canadian-rockies-ueli-steck

 

Riptide, Gimme Shelter, Reality Bath come to mind. Even lowly Polar Circus has 500m of ice tucked in with the slogging and even more elevation gain. Central Pillar and Weeping Pillar offer 160m @ WI5+ & 180m @ WI6. 7 pitches of steep ice ( almost like a 7 pitch vertical pillar in fact) with a nice belay ledge in between :)

 

My understanding is all the Canadian guide book numbers are elevation gain not the amount of climbing. STH in Provo is easy and short and not very serious by comparison to the others listed here.

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