Ski time

We with all the snow fall and sweet weather (ok not so good for climbing) it was time for a yo-yo weekend on the AT skis. Sat headed up with Dan to Bennet Pass to investigate the area. Have never been there before but heard good things about it. Dan had the map, I had the brawn to basically break trail all day long. We took an off shoot from the main pass road to hit a high point with some very nice glades. We did 5 long laps and I was bushed after. But sweetness what had all day long. I even fell into a creek. The snow was deep and only yielded surface slides, great skiing. Sunday headed up to the Cooper Spur Shelter with the Ski Mountaineering Class. We made great time on the way up. Visibility for the last 100 vert feet was not the best but turns were to be had and it was all worth it. Skiing like this happens once or twice a year around here and I wanted to farm as much as possible. Today Feb 27th I went with my dad and sister to Meadows ski resort for a day of lift serve. Very little untracked but the snow was so light, it did not matter. Just great skiing all day long. Visibility was not the greatest on top and it was windy on top all day long. We made every run count hitting the trees as much as possible (ok, I did). Sally did great on her board and Papa was look good for his only day this year. Man what a great 4 days. Wish I could just stay up there and get more turns. Hope others went out and got some as well. Too good to pass up!!! Now what to do this weekend? MMMmmmmm........

Presidents weekend 2007

After some thought about weather Cort, Frank, Brynn and myself decided to head to the eastern side of the cascades in Washington to the Enchantments in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area. The initial plan was to climb the North Buttress Couloir of Colchuck Peak. A huge step up for Cort but it would be a fun time. The plan was to skin the 8 miles into Colchuck lake set camp and climb Sunday and ski out Monday. Good long days but fun. Well sat we had spring like weather (me in shorts) and the skin in proved to be a bit tiring for some in our group while packing in all the gear needed for an overnight and climb. So the next morning after the weather turned nasty the during the night we decided to skin Colchuck Glacier and summit Colchuck from the West. Skinning across the lake was neat and a bit scary (over thinking on thickness of ice). The weather was the same all day, clouds in and out and windy all day. It took a long time to reach the top of the glacier so we decided that was our summit for the day. The ski back to camp (just below the lake) was fun with mixed snow conditions. Once back at camp we prepped for 12 hours in tent after eating dinner and making water for the night. The wind kept at it all night and into the next day. I did not think we were going to be able to ski most of the way out due to the difficulty of the trail on the way in but to my surprise we were able to ski 95% of the way out. Cort was amazing. First time on skis this year and she skied great on Sunday even with tired legs and then to ski the trail out with a heavy pack. All I can say is WOW!!! Brynn and Frank were great partners for the trip. We all had fun but I think we all agree it was a LONG trip in every way and not being able to climb made the trip not quite worth all the effort. But it at least I got back in there and I do want to head back and do some climbing for sure.

Now for the photo onslaught, enjoy (to enlarge pic click on it).

Dead Bird Gear

Well I did it. I picked up new rain gear. My old jacket is so warn that the hood laminate has cracks in it and the back lets the wind right through. Protection from the wet forget about it. Ok, only if I treat it after every outing. Pants are going good, but they don't protect from the rain anymore and the right leg zip is starting to have a nasty habit of unzipping its self in the middle of the zipped portion. A local mountain shop had a sale on Arcteryx gear. After some long thinking I did it. I picked up full bibs and a new jacket. This stuff is hand made out of Vancouver Canada. Not cheep but this stuff should last longer than the 3 years of my old gear. Oh and the best part, they FIT!!!! I needed gaiters to keep the snow out of my flood ready pants and the arms were slightly too short on my old jacket. Can't wait to try this stuff out. MMMM, better check the weather for this weekend. Time to climb :) I don't want to forget the very nice new Mammut rope next in the pic. Thanks a ton Josh. Used once and man it has a nice feel to it!!!

Future Project: Broken Top 5 and 7 O'clock couliors

Josh I took pics of the 5 O'clock Couloir. The clouds rolled in too fast for me to get 7 o'clock a.k.a Cannon Hole Couloir. Like that name. Anyway I want to give these a try. It looks like you will be able to walk off the back side. And the Cannon Hole looks SWEET!!! I think 7 o'clock will be a stemming problem with no pro till you hit the snow. Maybe a full rope length or more.

Broken Top 9 O'clock Couloir 2/3/07

A week after reading and hearing my friend Josh's adventure on Broken Top's 9 O'clock couloir I convinced others to go. Route description here http://www.summitpost.org/route/265396/9-o-clock-couloir.html . So the plan was hatched that Joel, Meg, Tania, Cort and I would start around 5:30 am for the 7 mile approach.

As usual getting started took longer than planned and we were off at 6 am. Tania and Cort were on snowshoes, Joel and Meg were on XC skis and I was on my AT setup. We were making good time. I had been back there before with Josh to climb 11 O'clock couloir so I was trying to stick to the snowmobile trails for ease of travel. Some how I nailed it to the wilderness boundary where we needed to be. At this point Tania was feeling tired and decided to turn around and the rest of us headed in. Meg was having trouble traveling across the ice so she and Joel ditched the XC gear for boots and met Cort and I at the base of the Crater. We geared up and headed to the base of the route with the clouds rolling in to engulf the top of the peak. As you can see the fog was quite thick and it was misting on us. But the fun part was short so we headed up anyway. We gathered up on top of the lower lip of the shrund guarding the base of the route.

At the shrund I took the lead with all the pickets we had and headed up. The climbing was easy a modest 4 deg slope for most of the way. About half way up there was a mini-shrund you had to be careful not to kick too hard in fear of blowing out the steps. When the rope was taught between Cort and I she headed up having no problem with the route. I topped out shortly there after and belayed Cort up the rest of the route. Cort topped out and we were wondering where Joel and Meg were. Joel should have started right behind Cort to minimize time on the route. Guess she was a bit scared of the climb and worried about getting down off the route, but after some reassuring words from Joel they started off. Joel leading out till the rope was taught then Meg headed up. She did great on the route and they both topped out quickly. The next thee pictures are of Cort heading up the route and kicking but. The last two is of Joel starting the coulior and the other is of Meg walking over to get onto the steeps. Now to get down. Josh told me that you could rap the route off some slings that were around a large horn. He thought we would be able to rap to the shrund with a double rope rap and skip any down climbing on the steeps. We even with rope stretch a double rap would not make it so I set up an intermediary anchor. After they had rapped down to me we set up a snow bollard to rap off. I was a bit worried that it would hold and me being the heaviest person I went first. It held most of the way till I had to put all my weight on it for a free hanging to rap over the lip of the shrund it went. I felt a jerk as I was in mid air. The backup held me while I finished and touched down on the shrund lip. MMM now what to do. Joel mad another, this time much, much larger and the three of them rapped off no problem. Lesson: make the snow bollard HUGE!!! Packed up we headed out and made good time to the car for a long 12 hour day. The route is fun and a great one for in intro to steep snow climbing but I will never do that route again this way. It was way too short for the amount of work involved getting in and getting out. If we had access to snowmobiles (like Josh did the week before) that would be different story. But we all had fun any way and now Cort is ready to tackle some real routes like Leuthold Couloir on Hood. Now that will be fun!!!