Utah Desert 2012

2-3-12 Tomorrow I leave to join up with my friend Mike for my 3rd trip to the Utah Desert to rock climb. The area has become my favorite place to do such activities.
The 1st trip was a 3 week road trip with Beau, and what a great time we had hitting many different venues: City of Rocks, Castle Rock, Castleton Tower, Indian Creek, and many others. The 2nd tripwas a sweet week with Jesse, Mike , and Britne his wife. Bagging 3 1/2 towers along the way.

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This trip was in February (4-17th) though, and it was COLD! Especially at night, with temps dipping to the single digits in the Swell. Day- time temps were fine at first, but gradually got more cold and windy until the storms hit us in J-tree and Red Rocks.

We started off close to Salt Lake, visiting the San Rafael Swell. We spent 3 days there, bagging 10 stiff routes. My favorite was Old Bushmills, (10b)

Old Bushmills

We then went to Joshua Tree NP at first finding warm temps, but over the course of the 5 days we were there, it got much colder and windier. It didnt stop us fron doing 21 pitches of great climbing however. Some of the routes includes such classics as: Illusion Dweller, Figures on a Lanscape, Solid Gold, Coarse and Buggy, Rubicon, Bendix Claw, Heart of Darkness, Clean and Jerk, to name a few. We also did the Chasm Cliff “Night Cave” traverse. Much fun, It was my first time there.

Solid Gold

Figures on a Landscape

We then wanted to try bigger routes, so we headed to Red Rocks only to find the snow pilling up . We still got in 11 sport pitches before it really hit.
Our last hope was a good forecast on the last day, so went for the Primrose Dihedral route on Moses in Canyonlands . It was a great time on my 6th tower. It was also the most demanding too. Thanks to Mike for being a great host, and climbing partner, I will be back.

p1, Moses

Moses

p4, Moses

Moses Group

The Replicant!

Replicant, center line

Lurking above the townsite of Banff are 3 tough ice routes. From left to right, they are:

Terminator, the Replicant ,and Sea of Vapors.

On our second try, Jess R and I tagged a dream of a route. I have been obsessing over it for over a decade. It was so amazing and I will be stoked on it for a long time to come. Conditions, weather, and stoke all came together this time for a great day in Banff. The approach went on forever. The avy danger was non-factor, thank god. It is steep and wanders up and over many features. It is nice to have a boot track, but it will blow over with the wind and you will wallow in some places up high. The 1st pitch was hollow, hooky, bouldery, and sketch. The 2nd is steep and sustained. the 3rd was so long and I got so tired, I stopped to belay after 30 meters. It was tough to follow Jesses pitch and launch into another 5+ lead. Jess then led the last short stretch to the top. I cant remember being so tired from an ice climb.  The exposure was tremendous. We felt like we had just done something amazing, and we are so excited many hours later. We pulled in the night before and went right after it, revenging a trip for it a month prior.  Yehaa! Cant thank Jim at Pro Mt. Sports for taking the time to get me the right gear!
We would have had better climbing shots, but the belays are tucked into tiny caves behind the icicles. Now for some pics!

Me on p1

Me on p1

Jess on p2

Jess swinging to the top

Fear in my eyes and nose

ON RAPPEL!

Hyalite-New Years 12

• Went to Banks with Tom and Daniel to find it wasting away in the warm temps. Someone suggested we go to Hyalite instead, and here we are on New Years Eve 2012, for freak sake.  Well we made the most of it, heading back to the Dribbles area. We broke trail in deep snow that fell the days before. Silken slot was fun until we were wallowing in waist deep snow, digging a trough to the 3rd pitch.
• 

  Dan on Silken Slot

   

• 

  Maid of the Mist mt.

  

  Silken Slot

  

  Dan on the Good Looking One

  The Next day we realized it would be better to go to a popular area rather than deal with the new snow. We ended up doing Magically Delicious in thin shape and laps on the Good Looking One in Mixed shape. Fun weekend with friends .Thanks to Jim at Pro Mt Sports for the new PMI ropes and the demo of the ice tools!

  

  Silken Slot p3

  

  Tom on Silken Falls

   

Dan on The Good Looking One

Dan on The GLO

Good Looking One, Photo By Tom S

Good Looking One, Photo By Tom S

Death Picnic

Tom on p2

12-23-11 Table Mt, Near Mt Baker. 2 pitch route named ” Death Picnic ” (D.P.)

Fa: Mark Houston, Alan Kearny Dec 1986. 80m, WI 5.

I became stoked on the route for several reasons:

Only 3 hrs from Seattle, 1 hr fun ski approach

Jeff S. had some good pics from his ascent last year,

and Cascade Climbers folks said it was in, and posted pics of it too, this season.

On 12-21 I made a run after it with Nate. We skied in under snowy skies and got up to the point to where you can see the route before D.P., named Death Banquet.. It was a thin, steep scarefest , we thought it was D.P. I found this out later when I reread the CC thread and studied the photos more closely.  We were 10 feet from seeing DP! I deleted my post on CC where I proclaimed the route “Not In”, and made plans with Tom for another run at it.

12-23-11 Both Tom and I invited a friend along and we became a party of 4. Bryan and I skied in, while Tom and Daniel took snowshoes. They beat us there as Bryan’s skins werent up to standard. Dan had the first go at it. It was the first ice outing this season for all 3 of my friends. You wouldnt have known that with Daniel, he marched right up with very few screws. After Tom followed, I lead up and past their stance with a 70m rope, to a better ledge area. It was my 19th and 20th pitch for the season, so I didnt find it that difficult. What was difficult was the relentless spindrift that poured on us all. It choked and blinded us constantly. Hearing Toms cough at one point, I knew he had inhaled snow in misery. In spite of this, I really enjoyed one of my favorite ice routes in Washington. The route itself rambled though troughs and bulges with good feet. We hugged the left side ramps, then p2 we stayed more left. P2 was deceptively steep, yet short. Rappels were made off a tree first, then a v-thread after that. What a great day in the mountains! Now for some pictures.

Dan scoffs at Death

Tom and Mt Shuksan

Table Mt

Tom and Dan at the base

Tom and Dan on D.P.

Dan sends p2

  

Bryan between spindrift avys

Tom Dances with Death

Wayne happy to have cheated Death, for now.

The Powderhound

Hyalite, late 2011

Me on Dribbles

Wow, what a roll Lane, Beau, and I are on! We are enjoying the Icefest and the Ice climbing available here in Bozeman. The  90 foot water-slide and the hot-tub at the motel,  are tough competitors for them though.

Day 1 warm up was Cleopatra’s Needle! We had a great time on route, which was much less full that last year. Seemed like a whole new route to me, thinner yet plenty fat, Not too picked out either.

Photos courtesy of Lane B.

CC trip report

Cleos, p1

Day 2 , we tried to go into Dribbles to do Silken Slot, but ended up in the Curtains area, doing laps on that and the Slot too. Fun in warmish temps.

Curtains

Day 3: Lane and I beat the crowds up Mummy 2 to get to the amazing 2 upper Mummy Cooler Ice routes. Delicate mixed climbing on: Mummy 3, was so fun as a warm up for the terror that lurked above:

Mummy 4. Jeez , what a lead it is when the Ice free-hangs over cobbled rock, which also leans back at you the whole way. There are few leads I have done that have pushed me like that ‘un! Rock the cobbles to the right of the free-hanger, then dance the blobs back left to join the ice right where it contacts the rock. first of several rests, wow, then you “Thread the Needles”, Weaving behind the daggers, until you get to the final WI5/6 near sheer curtain. What a ride, can’t believe I never fell off it. I will give it a gamely grade on page 5 for sure.

Mummy 3, 4

Mummy 3

Mummy 4

Mummy 4

Day4: Rest day for me. Lane and Beau did Green and Blue Gully. (only time there were crowds)

Day 5: we rounded the trip off with Dribbles. I spontaneously free-soloed the route , clinging to the left side. Great trip. Thanks to my friends and the Icefest. See you there next year.

Lane on Dribbles

Trip to Europe

Nov 6-2011. I recently went to Europe for my first time. It has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. My favorite climbing book in our grade school library was a huge glossy photo coffee table book from Gaston Rebuffat.  The birth place of the  sport has called me and I cant wait!  I had this trip planned for feb of 2011, but I got a surprise job offer then, and had to put it off.

The flight was quicker than I thought it would be, going through Iceland (13 hrs). I arrived in Paris  without sleeping on the plane. Traveling alone, I jumped the metro train to Paris. Once I got into town, I went into the 1st info booth to get directions to the hostel. Behind me a great commotion started. 5 guys were trying to break through the glass doors that myself and another guy were enclosed in. The other guy was trying to keep the doors from breaking loose and glass was flying everywhere. They persisted and it was truly terrifying to watch. Eventually they left, and I found out they were trying to mug the other guy for his cell phone. The Police came and I left to find my room. “Welcome to Paris” the other guy told me.

The info Booth after the Attack

My first run through Paris was great. 24 hrs in one of the worlds great cities was not going to be enough. The weight of the history pulled at my psyche tremendously. So many stories. I was glad I had Josh talked into exploring the place further at the end of my trip.

  

  

Versailles, Hall of Mirrors

I had plans for Chamonix coming up and it was off on a plane to Geneva. This is where the trip first turned into a struggle. As Tom and I approached the N Face of Le Doites, I began to feel a cold coming on. Auto-bail at 2 am-> to the trains again. Too bad, as the weather and conditions were optimal.

Approaching Les Doites, N Face in Background. NW Alpine Bibs in the house!

On the train between Geneva and Zurich, my main large duffel was stolen from the luggage keep.. Stuck in Zurich to file a police report left me wandering the station all night . It was my 2nd night without sleep as I refuse to pay big bucks for a hotel in one of the most expensive cities in the world. Losing everything, being sick, and delirious from lack of sleep, I was ready to pack it in and bail a week early. It was up to Michael in Munich to keep me from cutting the last week out of my trip. Of course his stoke got me back on track. We had a great 3 days in the Innsbruck and Dolomite areas.  Micheals Trip report on the Dolomites.

Michael near top of Sas Ciambac

  

  

Gotta give big thank you to Michael and his family for the great hospitality I felt better staying with them at their place in Munich. They moved there a few years ago from Seattle. Miss you guys already.

After a few great days in Munich, sampling the bakeries, and 30 m climbing gyms, I was looking forward to meeting up with Josh in Paris. Nice to know I wasnt the only one who struggled with the trains. He jumped the wrong one and ended up in the slums before getting back to the hostel we were in in Montmartre. Over the next 3 days we did a thorough march on the city visiting the great sites of Versailles, the Louvre, and the Eiffel tower were just a few. I was particularly smitten by the amount of work it must have take to do so many vast great works. Despite its peculiarities, what an amazing place to travel.

 

Gotta give huge high fives to a few key people in this adventure!

Lane B., financier

Tom G. for a chance at Chamonix greatness as well as Davide for the connection

Jim at Pro Mt Sports for helping me replace several thousand $ worth of gear.

Michael S  and wife Kris for every good day after the last bad one!

Josh for meeting me yet again in a crazy place

Thank you to Bill at NW Alpine for the salopette  bib pants! They are the perfect weight fabric for the legs. They may still have free shipping. Let the winter stoke begin!

Excellence meets excellence

New Routes in the Southern Pickets

Colin leading on SP Traverse

 The Southern Pickets   

“Because of the rugged terrain, the Picket Range has remained the wildest and most unexplored region in the North Cascades. It is not an area for the wilderness novice ; its isolated brushy valleys and jagged ridges are a test for the most seasoned mountaineers, The length of climbs, combined with steep terrain and variable conditions ,demands all around competence and fitness”

Fred Beckey – Cascade Alpine Guide

I could come up with many words to describe the Southern Pickets. Some are flattering, some not so. They are pleasing to the eyes, yet terrifying to the aspiring climber. They are highly accessible, but offer few route that are traveled with ease. They offer some the the most amazing alpine climbing in the states, yet there are very few routes to choose from. Thousands of climbers know about this fantastic range yet it is rare to see another party (outside of W. Mac, Insp. area).  Very accessible in winter, yet only a couple summits have been done during that season. It epitomizes our very idea of rugged mountain exploration yet, there has only a few recorded new routes the last 23 years.

It seems to stand in defiance of our modern sports culture.

There have been many brave adventures here though over the years. Beckeys books, NWMJ, and a few other publications have picked over the history well those earier exploits. I hope to just add to some personal and more recent flavor of the Southern half of our proudest range.

It wasnt until 2003 that I first got into the Southern Pickets Range. Lane and I went in in that summer and went from West Mac to Inspiration. The going was difficult but very doable. Once I found that out, the gates broke loose on an idea I had formulated a couple of years prior. 

   I was hoping nobody had previously done a complete summit ridge traverse of the range in a continuous push. My queries led me to believe it hadn’t. The idea went forward. I came back looking for partners who I felt could handle the task. I found a couple of partners that had some rivalry over the idea, but when we teamed up, the Summit Ridge Traverse was a dream come true for us, and many other people ( I was to find the Fireys had this vision decades prior). I can say it was, for me, a true highlight of my life. 

  Here is the Trip Report On that splendid trip. (pdf file, AAJ Feature Article, 2004 )        

Original Trip Report from Colin Haley. Warning, Due to my over-exuberence the thread gets dark.

• It recently has seen a repeated effort to not only do the Southern Traverse, but add the Northern on too!  Jens, Sol, and Dan did 12 of the Southern Pickets summits, getting the 2nd ascent of Sou. Pickets Summit Ridge traverse. They then pushed into the Northern group to summit Outrigger peak and Luna!
•  Here are their awesome reports:

Dan H.

Sol W. CC Report

Jens H.   Day1+2 , Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day7.

Between the 2 succesful traverses on the Southern range, I know of at least 3 attempts on it that fell short. Also in the same time line there were a few other new routes done on other summits in the group:

Mike and Eric’s Plan 9 on the Rake, NWMJ Report

Steph and Myself on The Thread of Ice, E Twin Needle. Her Blog Report, My Video.

Alan K MacMillan Report.

Rolf and Peters MacMillan (Cant find) Report.

Other useful S. Pickets links:

Stephs amazing Pickets Page

Summit post Page, again, mostly Steph

Cool Photos here

Steph on the Thread of Ice

Which only leaves to question: What possible new routes may be left?

Warning, there are some patches of real bad rock in this range! Descents from nearly All summits are serious affairs!

Route to the right of the South Face line on Inspiration.

S, Face of Himmelhorn.

Several unclimbed faces of Frenzlespitz.

N.face of Pyramid.

N face of MacMillans in Winter.

A direct route up the s. ridge of E tower or The Blob/Rake. Promises to be stellar. SP Ridge traverse takes a “Thank God Ledge” around it, left.

Only W Mac, Inspiration, Terror, and the Chopping Block have been summited in Winter.

People have been enjoying”Mini Traverses” along the ridge, bagging several summits on the way., The 3 Macs, and W. Mac to Inspiration are popular.

The truth is, except for the North side, The Southern Pickets are relatively easy to get into. The Goodell Creek Trail is a  quite manageable ,if you stay on it.. The Terror Creek isnt too bad, but it helps to have someone with you who has done it before, it has great spank potential. Again, the only option is to stay on the trail.

Enjoy the Southern Pickets, but a few words of advice: Permits are required and may fill up certain weekends. Pack as light as possible, it has to be good weather anyways to climb there. Watch for loose stuff and slippery lichen, it is almost everywhere. Get as much info as possible on  the objective, and by all means Go Fast!

The 3 Picketeers on the Rake

Something big going on.

As I write this, friends of mine are on a traverse that I have  held to be the last great traverse project. Joining the Southern and Northern Pickets summit -ridge Traverses stands to be the grandest of all the lower altitude alpine tours. It is now day 4 for them and they have yet to make contact with their phones, which is a spotty prospect at all. Like Ginnie said to me: If they are flying they should be clearing Picket Pass. God Speed Lads!

I am so excited for them as I have come to terms with my own ambitions with this daunting project. My knee and energy level are not quite what they used to be.  I had my time in this great range. It is just awesome to help, and see these fine young climbers pick up the torch and see dreams come true.

Sols Tr on CC.com

 

Jens tr. in web log form, so find the newer posts

Dans tr

Update below

South and North Pickets, photo by Seth

Update 9-9-11 day 8.  Dan H, Sol W, and Jens H pulled off the amazing feat of bagging the 2nd ascent of the Summit Ridge Traverse of the Southern Picket Range, adding Outrigger and Luna in the Northern range as well.. cant wait to hear the story!

Springbok Arete, Les Cornes (SCA direct start)

Me on p3 of SBA 10+, photo by Lane

Every now and then, I run across a route that challenges me to the near-fullest.

I cant think of more that 10 free routes that I have done that compare to SBA in terms of difficulty and length. A few come to mind: Sunshine on Snowpatch, Scenic Cruise in the Black Canyon, and Liberty Crack are in the same league. The league or 2 above these routes would be the Nose on El Cap. Hard, classic, and exhausting climbing from start to finish, nearly every pitch must be taken seriously. In this case we did 13 pitches of outstanding crack climbing up the Southeast Face of Les Cornes, this on our second attempt. The route must be started by doing the the first 3 pitches via the Sprungc_ock Erect start. That makes it a full day of steep fun. Easily one of my favorite routes of all time.

Steinbok on left, Ibex center, Les Cornes on right (SBA is on its left skyline)

A crazy move in the middle of the route. Photo by Lane

Lane following p3

Lane on p3

Lane pendulums the finish of p3

Lane on the 1st headwall pitch

We thought we were going fast until it went dark back at the car, and home @ 12:30am monday. I would suggest being on strong rock-climbing shape when considering this gem.

Me tackling the first headwall pitch (10+), the OW looms above.

Happy to take off the shoes! Until the descent...

Even with the mosquitos, we were happy that we bivied in the talus 400m below the route. The approach is easier, I am sure, in the light of day. We found the way though the alder, and once it got too thick on the road, we headed up through nice big tree ridge easily spotting the next flagging and cairns.

On climb day we got up at 5 am and on route at 7, topped put @ 3:30pm. The pitches take some time to figure out and the route finding is weird only in a couple of places. The most difficult place to find is the 5.8 hand traverse. It is preposterous at 1st glance. It goes around the left side of the ridge. We tried a couple of alternatives and I had to back off a 5.11 crack on one of my new stoppers. The climbing is spectacular almost the whole way. If it is hot, fill at least 2 q./person of water, as the route bakes in the sun.
The crux move is hard, but easy to pull around on a fixed stopper. There is lots of good beta on the route online, Here are a few, thanks to Jesse and Lane:

From Mike L: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=369132

From Drew: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=970812

From Tlinn: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=715845

From Sol: http://www.squamishclimbing.com/topos/Anderson-River-1207.pdf

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/710972/1.

Thanks again to Jim at Pro Mountain Sports for helping build the big rack needed for this route.

Johannesburg Mt, finally

J-berg from Forbidden 2010

Toms tr here

My prior J-berg experiences:

My first attempt was in winter way back in 199o. sigh. Such dreams of grandeur ended at the top of the base cone in utter awe of this new scale of  wall I hadnt yet conceived of. It was humbling for a while until hell year, when I just didnt care much about surviving. I  was in the middle of a divorce when in May 94 ,I made a reckless solo attempt that ended in me getting hit by 2 avalanches on the way down from half-way up the N E Rib route . It was then that I figured out that my kids need me no matter my silly ambitions. This mountain became a symbol of my ambitions vs cold mountain reality. Not to give in too easily it rained the next time I scurried around its base.

The very next year though it let me get up the C_J route all the way to within a few hundred feet of its top only to start raining again. My demons roared in dismay yet I was satisfied with that for  the next 16 years. This year I began to notice that I was picking off many routes that I had logged sooo many attempts on prior, and J- berg was about the last one standing.

With all of the grim tales I have heard about and been through, I was amazed to find a partner that had climbed it twice before over the last 2 years! this mountain truly has a hold on some deep primal, poorly understood need. Tom also knew another tormented soul who had this angst -ridden drive. Sergio was key, as the rope bearer that got us rolling yet again to the Dark Tower. This time the trip went great, despite me being a bit of a post trauma tight-ass. We did joke and had fun the entire way. The route was more difficult than any of us remembered from prior attempts. There where so many different extreme environments, it was surreal and disorienting. Here are a few photos, Tom used a bunch of all of ours on his tr.

Low on route

The Savage Brush mid route

The Savage Brush mid route

Good Rock upper-mid route.

Baker from bivy

Last stretch coming

the Last Stretch

An Artistic Standoff