Jump to content

2012 / 13 Washington Ice Conditions


Alex

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 143
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

A buddy and i went up to the Pencil/Drury zone today. It was hot and sunny. Drury looks fat, the pencil looks dicey. Both were cooking in the sun.

 

 

 

 

We found a mellow canoe-across spot, about 100meters downstream from the big pullout on the river-side of the hwy, just upstream from an island. Neither of us have our canoe merit badges and it was casual.

 

Snowshoes were pretty nice for the first ~800 vertical feet until able to walk on avi debris.

 

 

The Pencil is not looking too good, it was baking in the sun with large "pencil shavings" coming down regularly and what appeared to be a horizontal fracture @ ~70' up, but you can easily check it out before getting on the climb because the drainage continues steeply up to the left. This fracture runs above a hollow area where big chunks fell out as the sun hit.

IMG_21611.JPG

 

The cirque atop this drainage was amazing, with big chandeliers and steep pillars hanging and crashing all around, but mostly off to our right. In a better year with less sun, there'd be a pretty-looking ~4 pitch routes of pillars and mixed steps up the center of the cirque.

 

Here's the cirque above "the pencil"

IMG_21221.JPG

 

We followed the drainage to the upper left edge of the cirque/amphitheater, and climbed in the shade and stuff exploded off to the right. After one short step of grade 2 or 3, we did two long single-pitch routes, both ending at trees. The one on the left was about 65m, the one to the right about 45m and was a bit more mixed, with some pins coming in handy.

 

(we climbed the thing in the right-center, but chickened out about continuing up and right. Then we did the thing on the left.)

IMG_21583.JPG

 

Those two pitches aren't really worth the shenanigans involved in getting up there, but if you are looking for a backup plan or something after the pencil, they were both good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was in Leavenworth yesterday to scout the real conditions there.

 

Drury Falls are in (as far as i can see from the road).

DruryFromRoad.JPG

 

There were also two guys climbing at mile 96 (3 miles north of Drury Falls)

TwoGuysMile96.JPG

 

Icicle Canyon is not in good shape.

Only Hubba Hubba seems to be doable

Hubba_Hubba.JPG

 

Mountaineer Creek is not in at all.

MountaneerCreek2.JPGMountaneerCreek1.JPG

 

At least there was some ice on the road just to let my axes touch ice...

meidiot.JPG

 

Luigi.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haireball's ass-clammin' report:

 

bridge to Dog Dome in Icicle Canyon went up this week. Eight climbers working that wall on Wednesday. one of the most compact ice-cragging venues in the area, with seven or so lines on a wall only a couple hundred feet wide... mixed lines protectable by summer bolts...

 

Icicle Buttress is getting lots of traffic, including two ascents of R&D (mixed) last week

 

lotsa ice in the Candlestein-Careno vicinity; some interesting mixed lines around Black Power... Both Candlesteins are climbable

 

Pearly Gates saw action as well - three lines doable...

 

The Funnel goes without saying - traffic jam last Saturday...

 

in the Tumwater, two new lines in the Pencil ampitheater got climbed this week, the Pencil itself had a scary looking crack near the end of the first pitch... and that pitch is infamous for falling off at unexpected times...

 

Comic Book Hero and Plastic Fantastic Lover (across from Castlerock) got climbed over the weekend; no sign of the Penstock?!?

 

the Drip has not yet connected, but is close, and may come in by MLK weekend...

 

Drury looks great! breakable crust on approach dictates snowshoes, but snowpack is stable until the next snow -- then watch out!!! - a generous layer of surface hoar is growing...

 

waiting for beta on Snow Creek Wall - seems no-one has made the walk to Millenium Wall recently... weather profile has been promising...

 

temps in the low teens to low twenties predicted through MLK weekend, so come get some...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did Hubba Bubba yesterday with Pete after cragging at Dog Dome. The approach to Hubba is a bit of a drag, but our boot pack should make it better. Lots of ice up there. Hubba is fat and there are lines in to the left and the right of that for a full day of playing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the record: Black Power is the name of a rock route towards the downstream (climber's right end of the Candlestein Cliff.

 

Careno Crag is the name of the largest rock formation above the cabins on the road at Icicle Island.

 

Candlestein Cliff is the name from the original guidebook for Icicle Canyon (by Fred Beckey) for the rock formation on which the mis-named ice-climbs "Careno Left" and "Careno Right" form. I do not know why the Beckey name has not survived into the current generation of guidebooks. These two climbs have nothing to do with Careno Crag, and it might reduce confusion if we simply correct the names.

 

-Haireball

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anything on the east side that hasn't been under the cover of clouds/inversion this week is probably not looking very good.

 

In other news, Dog Dome is the place to be if you ask me. You can walk around the left side and top rope most of the routes (combo of rock gear, ice gear, and bolts). Park at the trailhead for Playground Point/Mad Meadows and levitate over the Icicle. These routes were dripping a little bit today, but things are still quite good in the Icicle on shady aspects.

 

Routes in the sun are delaminating this afternoon since the clouds burned off around noon.

 

edit: I wouldn't go near Drury or the Pencil. Telemetry shows it to be 50F up there!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went out to Silverton off the Mountain Loop highway on Tuesday and there was a bunch of ice up there.

 

The first set of flows you reach on the trail had a lot of water running.

IMG_2256.JPG

 

We kept walking a bit farther and saw this:

 

IMG_2265.JPG

 

 

And then this:

IMG_2264.JPG

 

We climbed this one, around 70m to the tree at top center left and then did a second pitch up the final short pillar. It felt like WI4 with interesting cauliflower ice and onion skin in places but reasonable screws for most of it.

 

Only about an hour walk in, thanks to whoever snowshoed in before us scouting. We didn't take flotation although it might have been helpful. With the inversion temps I have no idea what things are like now.

 

I also heard that Franklin Falls was in enough to climb on Snoqualmie.

 

Have fun out there!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

anyone wondering what Abiel looks like?

 

8393721455_9880f816a7.jpg

Abiel Peak from Annette Lake

(click through to the flickr thing if you want to zoom in enough to actually see anything)

 

My friend Sunshine and I climbed a pitch of snice/ice/bushes/moss/rocks. I guess technically I could call it two pitches -- one 58m pitch to a, um, mixed anchor and one 3m pitch to a tree suitable for bailing off of.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We also did the Tyee Falls, Please be respectful of the private property if you go in there. The 2 trails start up river, cross then approach down the river, then up the hill. They are aware that we ice monkeys are back. Please be nice and maybe stop in for a sirloin burger at the Cooper store.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Josh and I headed out to Hubba Hubba this morning. Got there a little before sunrise and didn't take long to get to the base of the route. It was in, a little bit of running water, but not a lot of ice debris at the bottom. We also did Left of Hubba Hubba (a little thin/mixed start, great top pitch) and Right of Hubba Hubba (again, thin/mixed start, great middle, scary top out). Right of Hubba Hubba had JUST enough for a 60m to reach a tree to the right to belay and rap from, done in one pitch. To our astonishment we had the WHOLE place to ourselves, except for one group of SEVEN Russians (and their two well behaved dogs) who TOOK OVER Hubba Hubba (I was glad to have gotten out of there before something bad happened).

 

Go out and get it while its there and before it gets beat up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...