Conditions Report - September 15 2010

NORTHWEST:

--Seasons a'changing, if you haven't heard. Check out the fresh Cascades snow here.

--Mt. Loop Highway Closure Update: Snohomish County will close Mt. Loop Scenic Byway Sept. 17, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. instead of today, as previously announced. Workers will close the road 20 miles east of Granite Falls to repair Marten Creek Bridge. During this closure visitors can go through Darrington to get to Deer Creek road #4052, Perry Creek and Mt. Dickerman trails, Big Four Ice caves, Monte Cristo, and Bedal and Clear Creek campgrounds. Access to Lake Twentytwo, Mt Pilchuck, Heather Lake, Gold Basin, and Turlo and Verlot campgrounds will be through Granite Falls.

--Forecast for the West Slope of the Cascades.

--Forecast for the East Slope of the Cascades.

--Webcam for Leavenworth and the Stuart Range.

--Forecast for Mount Rainier.-- Route and Conditions Report from Mt. Baker Rangers: Mount Baker Climbing Blog.

--Forest Service Road Report for Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

--Mount Saint Helens, Mount Adams conditions and recreation report.

--Webcams for Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, Leavenworth.

--An up-to-date ski and snow report for the Northwest may be found here.

--Up-to-date Pacific Northwest ice conditions may be found here.

SIERRA:

- 3 full pitches of ice on North Peak Couloir. Check out this trip report.

--For up-to-date avalanche and weather reports in the Eastern Sierra, click here.

--Webcams for Bishop, June Lake, Mammoth Mountain, Mono Lake, Tioga Pass.

ALPS:

--Chamonix and Mont Blanc Regional Forecasts may be found here.

--Webcams for Chamonix Valley, Zermatt and the Matterhorn.

RED ROCK CANYON:

--Forecast and average temperatures for Red Rock Canyon.

--Webcam for Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.--The late exit and overnight permit number for Red Rock Canyon is 702-515-5050. If there is any chance that you will be inside the park after closing, be sure to call this number so that you don't get a ticket.--The entrance to the scenic drive had a parking area for those who wanted to carpool up until approximately April of 2009. That lot has now become employee parking and people who want to carpool are required to park at the lot outside the Scenic Drive exit.

--The scenic drive currently opens its gates at 6 in the morning.

JOSHUA TREE:

-- Some campgrounds will close for the summer season. See here for more info.

--Forecast and average temperatures for Joshua Tree National Park.

--Webcam for Joshua Tree National Park.

ALASKA RANGE:

-- For the most current updates on Alaska, please see our Dispatch Blog.

--Forecast for Denali.

The Euro Death-Knot

There is a commonly used knot out there that many people use regularly to join two ropes together that is totally misrepresented by its name. The Euro death knot (EDK) is not dangerous and it is not a death knot. It is likely that American climbers gave the knot this name when they saw Europeans use it because it looked sketchy.

The EDK is officially known as an overhand bend or an overhand flat knot. It would be far better to refer to this knot by one of these names as they do not strike fear into those that use the knot.

The Overhand Bend (AKA Overhand Flat Knot/Euro Death Knot)
In this photo the tail is very short and there is no back-up to the Overhand Bend.
Photo from Wikepedia

Most people like the overhand bend for two reasons. First, because of the knot's asymmetrical profile, it tends to pull smoothly over edges and doesn't get caught as easily. And second, it is very easy to untie.

To tie the knot, lay both ends of the rope together. Make sure that they are pointed in the same direction and then make an overhand knot in both ropes at the same time. This is the overhand bend. Most guides tie a backup by adding a second overhand bend next to the first. This will keep the knot from rolling if there are unexpected high loads.

In the past, most climbers tied the overhand bend alone. If the knot is tied by itself without a backup, there must be a significant tail. It is not recommended to tie the overhand bend by itself.

Some people tie an overhand eight in lieu of an overhand bend. This is far more likely to roll than a unbacked-up overhand bend and is not recommended.

Most of our guides tend to tie not only their rappel ropes together with an overhand bend, but their cordelletes as well. Guides tie their cordelletes with this knot because it is easy to untie. A cordellete that may be opened has a great deal more flexibility. It can easily be opened up and used like a webolette. Some like the ability to open up a cordellete because an open cordellete without a welded double-fisherman's knot can be cut up more effectively for anchor material.

Following is a short video from the Canadian guide, Mike Barter, on how to tie a overhand bend.



--Jason D. Martin

Climbing Scenes in Non-Climbing Movies

High budget narrative climbing movies are a genre in and of themselves. There are not very many of them out there and those that do exist tend to be filled with plot holes and ludicrous situations. But what about non-climbing movies that include elements of climbing?

Mountaineering, rock climbing and ice climbing are generally seen as extreme or eccentric things by filmmakers. The result of this is that they only use climbing for three things.

First and foremost, they use climbing to emphasize a character's bravery or uniqueness. You can see this in the following two clips.

In Mission Impossible II, Tom Cruise does things on desert towers that are completely impossible. This is a perfect example of climbing used for character development to show how "extreme" someone might be. There's a moment in this clip that is supposed to result in a laugh. They make a comment about Tom Cruise being on holiday. The joke of course is the question, who would ever go rock climbing for a vacation?



In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Captain James T. Kirk free solos the Nose on El Cap, badly. By the time this film came out we didn't need a lot of character development for Captain Kirk. Instead, this is -- perhaps unintentionally -- designed to reinforce the character's cocky arrogance.



The second use of climbing by filmmakers is simply to show something that is "different." They'll use it more for its novelty than for any other reason. Movies that do this include Axe, The Descent, and Wrong Turn. It's weird that most films that come up on a quick search are horror films...

Here is the opening climbing scene from the very bad horror movie, Wrong Turn:



The third use is when a character is forced to climb. This is an incredibly common thing in film. Movies that have scenes like this include North by Northwest, The Princess Bride, The Good Son, and Deliverance.

Here is the scene from the award winning film Deliverance:



Though they're not all available, there are tons of movies with climbing scenes in them. Check out the female mountain guide hero of Alien vs. Predator or Keanu Reeves as a Himalayan climber in The Day the Earth Stood Still. I'm sure there are dozens and dozens more out there that I haven't thought of. I'd be curious to know what they are.

What other non-climbing movies with climbing scenes can you think of?

--Jason D. Martin

September and October Climbing Events

--Sept 12 -- Bishop, CA --John Cyril Fischer Celebration

-- Sept 16 -- Salt Lake City, UT -- HERA Foundation Climb4Life

-- Sept 18 -- Pocatello, ID -- Pocatello Pump, Idaho State University

-- Sept 19-20 -- Bidsboro, PA -- 3rd Annual Clean and Climb

-- Sept 19 -- Index, WA -- WCC Index Purchase Celebration

-- Sept 25 -- Salt Lake City, UT -- Adopt-a-Crag American Fork

-- Sept 25 -- Indian Creek, UT -- SushiFest

-- Sept 30 -- Portland, OR -- Colin Haley Slideshow

-- Oct 2 -- Boone, NC -- Trip Crown Bouldering Comp

-- Oct 7-9 -- Seattle, WA -- Mountainfilm Tour

-- Oct 8-10 -- Red River Gorge, KY -- Rocktoberfest 2010

-- Oct 8-10 -- San Luis Obispo, CA -- Pine Mountain Pull Down

-- Oct 10-12 -- Golden, CO -- Craggin Classic

-- Oct 14 -- San Diego, CA -- Allied Climbers Annual Fundraiser

--Oct 24-26 -- Joshua Tree, CA -- ClimbSmart

--Oct 24-26 -- New River Gorge, WV -- Warrior's Way SPORT Camp

--Oct 29-Nov -- Southwest various locations -- Chris Sharma Slideshow Tour

--Oct 30-Nov -- Banff, Canada -- Banff Mountian Film Fest

--Oct 30-Nov 7 -- Italy -- International Mountain Summit Festival

Weekend Warrior - Videos to get you stoked!

Okay ladies and gentlemen, another trailer for you, this time for the upcoming Reel Rock Tour. If anything, just watch the first ten seconds. Something about a guy more or less "sprinting" up a 60+ degree slope on his front points just gets me pumped. Sure there are great videos out there of guys sending some seriously difficult boulder problems and sport routes, but moving quickly over steep mountainous terrain is just so much cooler in my mind. I guess that make me an alpinist.



Well, I'm not sure if I posted this one before or not, but I've been feeling pretty homesick lately and the Red River Gorge used to be my "home crag" (I'm from Michigan...). Here's a great video of some of our sport's best sport climbers going at it in the Gorge.

Colchuck Peak - The Elusive Northeast Buttress

With small children and a full-time job, it's hard for me to get out on personal climbing trips. Yes, I do get out into the field regularly to guide, but since we had children I have not had as many opportunities to get out and chase the types of routes that I love. I decided that it was important for me to try to do something new and interesting on a personal trip every summer. This year, that was going to be an ascent of the Northeast Buttress of Colchuck Peak.

Former AAI guide Jay Hack and I have been climbing with one another for over a decade. Jay and I both started guiding together in the summer of 2000. Since then, we have done many of our most memorable climbs together, including my big personal trip from last year on the Northeast Buttress of Mount Slesse.

Instead of planning for the standard two day ascent of the route, we decided that it might be better to go cragging in Leavenworth and to go out to dinner the day before our ascent. This laziness before hand gave us the opportunity to enjoy a pleasant four pitch route and a nice dinner before turning in early.

The route that we selected to warm up on was a classic Leavenworth line called Heart of Gold (II, 5.10a). This slabby route gave us just what we needed, a little spice, some interesting slab climbing, and some old bolts, all of which helped us to get our heads into the game for the climb to come.

Jay leading a slabby crux on the third pitch of Heart of Gold

Jay passing the second bolt on Heart of Gold

Jay belaying the fourth pitch

We started the hike by headlamp at 1:30 in the morning. I'm not sure if either of us said it, but we both knew that it would be a very very looonnng time before we got to see the car again. By 6:00am we were strapping crampons onto our approach shoes and were working our way up the glacier to the base of the route.

Colchuck Peak - Our route started just to the left of the discontinuous

snow colouir at toe of the buttress

Jay on the glacier below the peak

Wearing crampons on approach shoes isn't all that pleasant, but it is light!

Jay approaching the moat below the first pitch

Many parties have had a difficult time in the past getting over the moat to the toe of the buttress. Luckily a large snow block made the transition from snow to rock relatively simple. Had the block not been there it would have been much harder to do. As we crossed the snow block, one could look down into the darkness of the moat...and it wasn't clear that there was a bottom down there. For all that we knew, it could have just kept going and going!

It was cold and there was a crispness in the air as we pulled on our rock shoes and started to climb. The Cascades tend to see a bit of a shift in early September. Fall comes early to the mountains and to the mountain air. As we began working our way up, we found it difficult to keep our hands and feet warm. The wind had a bite to it all day.

Jay leading the first pitch

The rock on the route was not sound. Of the twenty pitches that we climbed, there were only a handful that were quality. Instead, we found ourselves negotiating bad and loose rock throughout the entire climb.

When I mentioned that I was going to try to do the Northeast Buttress of Colchuck, one experienced Cascadian alpinist told me, "that is the most bailed off of mountain in the range!" What he meant was that many climbers don't have much success on the route. Indeed, when we were up there, core-shot ropes, nests of slings and old pitons decorated that mountain from the bottom to the top, a testament to the number of people who have retreated. A combination of bad rock and tricky routefinding drew on all of our alpine skills. It doesn't surprise me that so many parties bail well below the top.

Jay leading up the fourth pitch of the route

Jay following the sixth pitch

Approximately half-way up the mountain, the route took a radical turn away from the buttress and made it's way onto the East Face for a number of lower angled pitches. We were supposed to follow fourth and low-fifth class pitches until we found a left-facing dihedral from which we could reattain the buttress.

We never found the dihedral.

Jason high on the East Face of the Route

We found a few pitons on the route. Like the rock, they didn't look very sound.
Instead they were old and rusty.

Low-Angled Terrain on the East Face

Eventually I was required to launch out onto a blank face with limited protection. It was good that the rock on this pitch was sound. I built a belay and brought Jay up.

The next pitch back to the buttress was absolutely stellar. I lead out, following a perfect crack system on sound rock. And although the route was windy and loose below, this phenomenal pitch made up for it...mostly.

The Central Pillar of Dragontail Peak is
the well-known route, Serpentine Arete (IV, 5.8)

We reached the summit of the mountain at 5:30pm. It had been a very long day of climbing with a few genuinely frightening pitches. We quickly transitioned from climbing mode to mountaineering mode and made our way down to the Colchuck Glacier. It would be another five hours until we were at the car, making it a twenty-one hour day.

Jason and Jay on the Summit

To see a topo of the route which shows our line as well as the Beckey variation (which we did not take), please click on the following photo.

Click on the Topo to Enlarge

I'm not sure that I would strongly recommend the Northeast Buttress of Colchuck to anybody. It was a bit on the loose side and somewhat "zig-zaggy." But it was a really grand adventure with a good friend...

--Jason D. Martin

Climbing and Outdoor News from Here and Abroad - 9/9/10

Northwest:

--The body of a missing Seattle mountain climber, the son of famed boxing promoter Bob Arum, has been found in the North Cascade mountains. Searchers on Friday spotted the body of the 49-year-old Seattle environmental attorney and avid outdoorsman John Arum on a rugged, hard to get to mountainside location five days after searchers began looking for him, according to a North Cascades National Park spokesman. To read more, click here. To see a thread on a forum about Arum, click here.

--The Squamish Access Society is beginning a major rebolting effort in Squamish. They have already completed the rebolting of eight classic lines and will be working on many more in the coming weeks and months. To read more, click here.

Sierra:--In late August, Yosemite Search and Rescue completed an amazing rescue of a Korean climber on the Nose. After the climber pulled a block off that crushed his legs, YOSAR lowered two medics to the man and then short-hauled him off the wall. To read more, click here.

Desert Southwest:

--Many climbers spend a great deal of time in the kitschy little town of Springdale, Utah, just outside of Zion National Park. The town currently has a great deal of charm, partly because a town ordinance doesn't allow for franchise establishments. A handful of local business men are suing the town to allow a change in the ordinance. To read more, click here.

Alaska:

--AAI guides Dylan Taylor and Danny Uhlmann joined former AAI guide Joe Stock for a ski trip into the Wrangle St. Elias Mountains in the Spring. Following the trip, Joe had the opportunity to do a report for Alaska Public Radio. To hear the report, click here.

--In early June, Doug Piehl and Erik Peterson made two first ascents of peaks in Alaska's Brooks Range. In a tremendously long 34 hours, the pair climbed an unnamed 7,191-foot peak as well as the 7,529-foot Peak 2240. To read more, click here.

--The Alaska Section of the AAC is celebrating the summer of 2010 by building a new hut on the edge of the Snowbird glacier. Located in the Hatcher Pass area, the original hut (at right) was purchased in 2005 from a private party. This hut has been an important haven for hikers, climbers and backcountry skiers in an area known for unpredictable weather. The original structure is now over 30 years old and showing signs of wear. The roof has experienced a partial collapse from heavy snow load. The deck is unfinished and rickety and the entire structure shifts and groans when the occupants walk about inside. Section Co-Chairs, Harry Hunt and James Brady have led the charge by actively fundraising for the last four years to fund the new hut construction. To read more, click here and here.

Notes from All Over:

--Peak Pobeda, a 24,406-foot mountain on the Kyrgyzstan-China border, claimed three lives in late August. Three Russians succumbed to the weather during a week-long storm. Many others suffered hypothermia and frostbite. To read more, click here.

--On the occasion of World Environment Day (June 5), the UIAA highlighted its commitment by announcing plans for a Mountain Protection label. The UIAA wants to make it easier for mountaineers to minimise their impact on the environment. For this reason the international federation is preparing the launch of a certification scheme. It foresees a label being awarded to tour operators and mountain recreation organisations which commit themselves to acting according to high mountain protection standards. To read more, click here.

--The man accused of burglarizing Mountain Outfitters in Breckenridge, Colorado three times earlier this year has accepted a plea bargain with the District Attorney's office and awaits sentencing. Jason Roger Oberg, who was 23 when the events occurred, was arrested in March early one morning near the scenes of burglaries at both Primo Outdoors and Mountain Outfitters in downtown Breckenridge. He was taken to a local hospital after he ran from police and had a violent encounter with a sheriff's office canine. To read more, click here.

--National Public Radio ran a story on Friday about the impacts of the recession on the outdoor industry. It appears that it has had little impact on the industry as a whole. To read or listen to the story, click here.
--Daisy chains are sketchy. At this point there is not even an argument about how sketchy they are. But different articles keep coming out and not everyone sees everything, so we will keep fighting against the use of daisy chains in any application other than aid climbing. To read a new Black Diamond article on this subject, click here.

--A veteran skyscraper climber who scaled a 60-story residential building in downtown San Francisco late Monday unfurled an American flag at the top and was promptly arrested, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The 54-year-old climber, Dan Goodwin, of North Lake Tahoe, who is known as SpiderDan, also claims to have conquered Chicago's Sears Tower. To read more, click here.