TR Replies

Nice pictures, Chris. Wilman's Peaks sure are cool, looks like the Dolomites or something. Good thing Kam's a "sponsored athlete" the way he travels over those rock fields!

The debate over which method to the madness (ski or snowboard) to use and why is always interesting. I often tour with boarders. Sometimes I have to wait a few for them to finish ascent, but when we head down it's a blast for all.  Did the split boarder in the photos have sun glasses? Unless he applied sun screen to his eye balls, he might have burned.

A fun trip in an amazing area!  Glad to finally see (and ski) the Monte Cristo area.  Seems crazy that miners scaled many of the rugged peaks/spires in this area over 100 years ago!

The lighting was generally bad for photography (no complaints though as the torrential down pours held off until the drive back home), but some additional pics are posted here:

http://www.cascadesfreak.com/gallery/montecristo5-21-2005

Three of us did Heliotrope on nw side the 21st. Went up the direct route through the woods and due to reduced snowpack did not hit continuous until 4700. Significantly worse bushwacking than normal for that first 1100. Very warm and mushy with lots of naturals lower which led to powderlike stuff at about 6000. The powder cause some sticking skins. Such a price to pay for glorious freshiez. Upper part of Heliotrope was quite windy. Two long north runs were glorious but the winds started getting g...

Nice TR Joe!  I look forward to seeing some of your pics later.

Randocross? Cyclonee? Cyclomark? ;D

Very nice!

Kam, I'm hoping you had a bottle of wine in that pack, to accompany the baguette.... ;)

Actually I think it's 1300' from the glacier, maybe 1200' from the bottom of the actual cliffband

So that couloir is about 1,400'?  It sure looks nice, thanks for the report.

yup, aussie is the left hand line. I think a good name for the right hand line could be "Kiwi Couloir"

The first time we only went one-third of the way up, and turned back due to avi conditions. We skied down without incident. The second time we went half-way up, but turned back again due to concern about the avi conditions. As we were descending, my friend Chris triggered a 30 cm thick slab which swept him down part of the couloir. No one was hurt, but we were convinced we had made the right call to abort.

Cool picture, Scott. I'm third from the right, the one who's shivering.

Not a bad first post.  What do you have for a follow-up?! ;D



Nice Line!!  I've been looking at it for years, but have never pulled the trigger.

Out of curiousity, what considerations were involved in aborting the other two attempts?

Yep.
That was us.  Thanks for the overview shot, Scott.
Where was it taken from?  Looks like maybe somewhere over by the entrance to the main Nisqually chute.  Nice shot.

Zap and Jill, you guys are looking good!  ;D  Evidently your "senoir" ski bumming has been good to both of you.   :D

"If something goes wrong and you don't make it back out can I have your Beemer"?  

I actually found Josh's comment highly motivating!  My wife had been kind enough to loan me the car for the weekend, so I would simply think of the trouble I'd be in if it wasn't returned on time and suddenly I'd get this huge adrenaline rush good for several prussic cycles up the rope...  ;)

While we're on the subject of it being a bit scary going down into the crevasse, I have a "class improvement suggestion", Darryl and Ed please take note...
Just about the time that the "victim" is being lowered over the edge, it might be better if the safety belayer did NOT ask of the "victim": "If something goes wrong and you don't make it back out can I have your Beemer"?
Josh asked that of Marco as he was about to be lowered o...

cass, way to get back in the groove after having been gone for a while.  glad you're back in the states! ;D

Did you pretty much climb what you boarded? For what it's worth, I went up Ruth last time by pretty much going the normal Inter G route til just before Camp Curtis and then traversed slightly left onto the ridge. It's really casual that way. But then of course you miss out on slope assessment.

Well played, weepay.

Great photo, Charles.

Touring w/ snowboard- my brother always tells me that he doesn't care if walking 90% of time w/ shoes means that he can get a better descent than with skis.  

I see his point, but I dissagree and choose to ski when the majority of terrain is "rolling".  His argument for snowboarding a "touring" route is moot in my opinion as well => he can't ski!  His argument therefore starts to sound like a rationalization.

Re: sl...

We first headed for the SW chutes, but after a ski cut released a pretty impressive avalanche

What kind of snow/avalanche was it?  Slab/cold/fracture, or soft/warm/sluffy?  How wide was it and how deep was the crown?  How fast was it moving? thanks

Thanks for the nice writeup, Eric. I have to say that every time I do a trip with a good snowboarder, like Eric, I am reminded what a great tool the snowboard is for descending (though ascending is another question, and touring is probably out of the question). Eric graciously omitted from his report the part about my struggles in the breakable-crust-over-deep-mush section of Inter Glacier. I kept telling myself "ski it like powder", which started working when the crust weakened enough...

We had a skip in our step on the way down--being all full of gumption and such, so it took about 4 hours. Being my first time there, I just looked at the map and drove. I imagine any route is long...

46 days out the past 56 days...not too shabby of a road trip there Zap ... someday i hope to be as lucky.  
Have a safe drive back home.
Any plans to hit Shasta or Lassen along the way?