I can't play the flute

22-24 hours of moving out of 28, wasted tired.

Simple plan - solo time in the mountains, Try to climb Flute Peak.
Going into the South Fork Valley is a bit like going home, so many great days have been had back there, close to town, big mountains, long approaches.
Flute was the goal, but there are pleanty of other options if I didnt feel up to it.
rope, rap gear, bivy gear, stove, ice axes, megamid & not enough food all packed hit the Harp Trail at around 6pm monday night.

Trail conditions were horrendous, worst snow imaginable... heavy rotten wallowing for hours:


Spring tundra skiing at its finest, took the boards off about 20 times:


Took 3 hours just to get to Eagle lake, I was demoralized and tired.. but the lake looked good so I kept going in the cool wind and fading light, nice and fast across the lake, then more rotten slogging up the valley finally broke a skin track up ave debris to finally get to the first step at midnight. Stumled around tired in the dark, heavy pack took it out of me. then I lost my spoon in the snow and had to use a piton:


up at 5, nice and cold out, good crust. out of the mid before 6.. snap, WTF? I look down and my ski pole broke in half. Black Diamond crap, I sware their stuff is getting cheaper and cheaper, not too peppy. sluggish. skin skin, up up, Finally on the Flute glacier, up the right side, slow, steady. snow is good, pack heavy, damn rope... but no reason to turn around yet. to the base of the Couloir, the bergschrund is nicely filled in with ave debris. Out comes the probe.. one pole skinning.. probing to find the cravasse... no sign of it, must have already passed it... too steep to skin, time to boot. A bit soft, maybe its just on the bottom fan, up and up, humm ok, a little better, crampons on, up and up 45 degrees, not so bad, but a bit punchy, 50ish degrees. Is it going to slide and take me out? no its fine, no slab, the lower layer is re-frozen crust, its cold and 8am, stop worrying. higher, wow, this is going to go... topout - windslab? cornice? its cool, just steep, suck it up and finsih it.. top.



where too now, crampons staying on, some rock scrambling, "this isnt soo bad..." then finally the view I've seen photos of:


It dosent look too bad, but what is not visable is the 100+' death fall down to the right. Took a long brake here and gave it some serious thought...


after 2 "looks" I grabbed my pack and made it across the exposed traverse to the top of the small ice patch in the middle, from there the route cuts left and after another long time thinking, no Thanks, too exposed. I don't feel like vomiting or dying today. I will come back with a friend. oh well, 50' from the top is pretty damn good, and I gave my rope a nice long walk...



Down down down..
at the bottom of the couloir with some morning light:


The couloir cuts up the right side of the peak:


humm, its still before noon, must keep moving. Calliope. it has turned me back twice, there is no reason not to go for it, you're here scoped a route up the back side, the normal routes are on other faces, but this looked like it would work.



deep snow, kick kick, hot sun, kick kick, long way up... nice neve on the upper half, on to the ridge... sweet.. Cool summit, required a bit of poking around to find. The hours of kicking steps starting to catch up to me:


sick views of the high chugach - Polar Beak, Organ Peak, and Flute:


Down down, crampons, then booting, then snowboard turns...Back to the bivy and fired up the stove for re-hydration, I was going to spend another night but I ate all my cheezwiz and ho-ho's and my bivy was in the shade, so out it was, beginning the long march back to civilization:



looking back at Eagle Peak:


Eagle lake, good traveling:


South fork valley, not good traveling


back to the truck at 10pm brain damaged with one Gu left.
Its good to be back in the groove.

Vid

Bryce and I were listening to the Chemical Brothers driving home, it just seemed to flow well... the video camera didnt come out (or come at all) on the more technical stuff so this is mostly about the turns!



Billy's writeup and excellent photos here:
http://www.peakaweek.com/index.cfm?section=mountains&page=Alaska&cat=Talkeetna%20Mtns&&contentid=562&viewpost=2#gallery

Upper Talkeetna Glacier

With my knee uncertainties I was hesitant to make any spring climbing plans this year, that all changed after a huge day at Turnagin when I realized that the thing was pretty darn solid and could tolerate big days again. So I plead to Billy, Yvonne and the group he put together to throw me in a duffel and that I would break trail, knock off cornices and melt snow as much as possible. It worked. I threw all my shit together and within a few days we were flying out. The unfortunate last minute drop of Paul due to a cold brought the group to 4, which worked out well as far as camping and climbing goes.

The upper talkeetna is a seldom visited area. All the attention of climbing and big mountain glacier skiing goes to the Alaska range, High Chugach and the Wrangell St Elias. The area around mt soverign in the middle of the Talkeetna Mountains is quite remote, about 40-50 air miles from anything. The bueaty of it is that we had the whole range to ourselves, no other air traffic, and it all had a air of adventure since we really had no information at all about the peaks other than the topo maps.

A fat base camp, alot of good food, a week of perfect high pressure and countless peaks to climb it was hard to decide what to do and we quickly set to work exausting ourselves.

Home for 10 days:


First up: Mt Soverign - why not start with the highest peak in the area?
What appears to be a technical climb on a wall of granite actually is not the highest point, the real summit (on the map at least...) lies to the west, up a long, long ridge. We were all sucking wind with the quick jump from sea level to 9,000'. The snowpack was also horrendous - under a thin crust was bottomless granulated sugar snow and you would wallow in knee to waist deep. What looked like a straight foreward walk-up proved to be pretty tough! But we did get a good view of the entire area and got to drool over other objectives.

the South wall of Soverign leaving camp:



High on the peak, camp is the speck on the glacier mid level towards the left:


Descending from the top:


We got lucky and were able to glissade much of the way down on a mellow gully that wasnt totally bottomless sugar, otherwise we would have all been totally wasted.

Day 2: Looking for a mellower day to acclimize a bit more we decided to head down glacier and explore a bit, it ended up being a big day as we skinned around and made a big loop by connecting a series of col's on the map to bring us back to camp. We made one good south facing run in the sun while working on our suntans...

We dubed this peak "The peak of many Couloirs" Bryce and I later climbed one of the chutes to the left of the summit. We toured around the back of the nunatak and gained the upper bowl on the right:


Higher up, Mt Soverign in the distance:


After skinning for hours, the descent was very welcome and it closed the loop back to camp. Although all the south facing slopes were slough avelanching from baking in the sun, our route dropped down one of the few slopes that didnt have a big debris pile at the bottom - always a good sign!



With recon done, it was time to get down to business. Billy and Yvonne decided to head up the face right out of camp, while I talked Bryce to head up a steep couloir on the east face of the same peak with a mixed top to it. We set off with lots of gear, double ropes, rock rack and mountain boots to change into. Here is the cooler from the east.


We were really camped just below the peak to the right. After the skin to the base we realized it gets baked by morning sun (duh) so we dropped the extra gear and headed out to a peak we later dubbed "the iron nipple" a few miles across the glacier. From the col between the iron nipple it looked straight foreward, but what looked like sastrugi turned out to be breakable crust into waist deep sugar snow... yuck... you can see the trench we made in the first photo, we made it up the rocks a bit and said screw it.



Luckily there was another peak we could try from the col, so we half heartly headed up that, fully expecting for strike 3 from the snow conditions. Turned out ok.. we skinned high and carried our boards over the top, in the back of my mind I just knew we could traverse the peak and have a south facing descent...

Bryce loves steep exposed skinning on sastrugi without whippets or ski crampons - really...


He also loves steep booting with his skis on his back.. really...



We summited the peak and scoped the descent, a steep downclimb above a gaping bergschrund runout.. humm better not board it.. so we downclimbed then traversed the bergie and finally made sweet corn turns in the lower bowl.
Bryce's photo:




Billy Took this shot of us high on Sugar mamma, we are just barely visable in the lower part of the shot after descending the central Couloir and traversing left above the gapper.



Billy and Yvonne high on "Sugar Mamma"



Turns out it was sugar snow all the way for them, with some alpine ice (covered with sugar snow of course...) at the top. From there on all peak names were derived from sugar, or sugar substitues. We made it back to camp quick and I got Billy's big Nikon out to get some good shots of them descending the face:





Getting more and more familiar with the conditions and peaks, Bryce and I went for an ice route I had been drooling over for the whole time we had been there. It was to be Bryce's first alpine ice climb, so he was stoked, in a anxious sort of way.



We set a hero skin track up to the base of the face over the bergschrunds and got on the rock to the left. We lead up two pitches or so on the snow using some rock gear, pins borrowed from Billy and nuts for anchors. The rock was so perfect and free of cracks that the pins saved the day as we hammered in knifeblades with wild abandon.



Higher up...the snow thinned out and had brittle glacier ice below it. The climbing was secure, but screw placements were a bitch, requiring serious chopping to get to decent ice. We brought 7 of the groups 8 ice screws and we were wishing for that one more.



Bryce's shot of me hacking away!


The upper ice was totally sweet, steeper than we expected, but really secure placements.



Billy got this distance shot of us topping out the ice:



From the top of the ice, it was a mellow scramble to the summit.


The descent was more involved than we had hoped for, it ended up taking just as long as the ascent, we belayed downclimbed the rock shoulder on the left side of the peak and it was actually steeper in spots and way more exposed than if we had just downclimbed the ice, jeeezze. Traversing sketchy 75 degree sugar snow with ice isnt a good thing. We were glad to be off the thing, cranking some evening turns back to camp was a bonus.

a rest day please... no must keep climbing... a morning conference in the megamid determined that the weather was indeed changing and we needed to make the most of it. A cold wind pushed us the 4 of us down glacier to the famed Peak of many Couloirs. Yvonne and Billy headed further down for a Couloir that looked to make it to a straight foreward ridge, where Bryce and I headed to a steep and striking couloir which we had no idea where it would go after that.



Turned out to be perfect re-frozen neve, sweet! on went the crampons and we soloed up the whole thing.



the left slot...


At the top the angle kicked up considerably. I was nervous that our luck would run out and we'd hit sugar snow at the top out, with 1,500 of steep hard neve below you that's not a good thing, on went the rope and in went some gear for the top out.



That was it, the ridge was super exposed and sketchy, not for us.. down we went.




Then the storm came.. climbing was done. Two days in sloth mode, lots of megamid time, a day skiing in a whiteout, a day building a kicker.. another day waiting in a whiteout and out we flew..








This now constitues the longest and most time consuming blog post ever. Hope you enjoyed it!

last minute trip

Heading up into the Talkeetna mountains, Mt Soverign area tomorrow for 10 days to climb and do some ski/splitboard mountaineering.
Some pics of the area:






The weather looks good so we should be able to get in as planned, one at a time in the back of Mike Meekin's super cub.

I also decided I needed a new climbing pack, its been in my head for too long so I cranked this puppy out. its a bit heavy, but super duper burly and can handle heavy loads better than my ski pack. Design based on the BD Quantum, but with a removable hip belt with pockets that uses the same webbing, side pockets for pickets and a 4 point removable lid.. which is yet to be made. it should last a long long time.

powder and ice

Big weekend, I'm tired.
Gave the sewing machine a rest and got down to business playing.

Huge day skiing on Saturday something like 12 miles and 7,000' vert in 10 hrs. Covered some serious ground. Up sunburst, over taylor pass, to Pastorial, steep ridgelines, santa claus chute and then some.

Billy's write up and more pic's Here

Heading up Pastorial:


We were aiming for the Santa Claus chute, a north facing chute, but first we had to traverse this ridgeline.. it was a bit airy and had us all wanting ice axes...

Billy pokking around the corner:


Me probing ahead, photo by Billy:





i'm pretty at home on sketchy, exposed snow, that's why they invite me along, so I ended up breaking trail & route finding getting to the col. We came over the pass in the far background. The views were nothing short of stupendous in all directions! high pressure rules!

Billy, Yvonne and Bryce are the 3 dots in the middle on the ridge. sweetness:


Billy took this one of me looking back, we ended up dropping down the face to the right of me:


Although warned of the south facing snowpack we were lured the run partly by my stoke level on the asthetic line, and part of a totally bomber snowpack.



3 good fast turns then hammered, I dont want to talk about it... we half skined, half booted out of the basin, pure work in the sun...


Then it was time for the goods, santa claus chute.
Here it is in the distance, its the obvious big notch on the ridgeline, the peak we traversed is to the right.



Billy dropping in:


The north facing snow was weightless blower powder, bryce was stoked...


did another half run on the lower part and began the long cruise / double pole / skate out center ridge. The Swallowtail was in effect - check out the rooster tail!



Sunday Bryce and I went to Eklutna Canyon for some late season ice climbing. Had the whole canyon to ourselves. It was my first time on ice this season, but managed to lead Ripple. good stuff. Then we did another somewhat stiffer route with Bryce doing the lead duties. Nice place to be after a big day skiing.

April Powder

Front range powder skiing in April? sweet!

headed up to a new secret stash only a half hour from home. The runs were bigger than we expected (a good thing!)





Had fun in this little chute, the small slab I kicked off made things exciting. Tony got a photo of it at the instant it fractured,







only the 3rd time on the board this winter due to the knee, better late than never.

New bags

Finished a binge of seat bags earlier this week.
10, yes ten, super twinkies, including one very, very, special one.

Got a new smaller design worked here is that one, not so secret.



snowing like crazy, its april.. when will it stop?

New Shop

With Spring and summer on the way it was time to move the sweatshop out of the basement and into the garage. The light glaring through the basement windows will taunt me no more. Its still in the 30's so its really more of a icebox than a sweatshop, when you can see your breath sewing and can barely feel your hands you know you're making gear in alaska...



All the necessities of a good work environment, strong coffee, fresh air, really loud music, and instant brutal workout breaks provided by the fingerboard and rings.



Thanks Shelley for the sign!



Now where are those malaysian 10 yr olds?

Dan's Wedding

See that photo above? That's Dan, We've done countless trips together and I look foreward to many more. I was honored when he asked me to be best man on his big day.
It was a really special wedding, very true, very warm and sincere shared with a wonderfull group of friends and family.

It was really fun being back in Ft.Collins, havent been there since I moved away 6 years ago. Felt like a long time. Got some sun, and some snow, a healthy mix for springtime colorado.
Dan at Rotary,


Dan and I have been Friends with James Bleakly for a long time when he was first getting his roots set in the ground and starting Black Sheep . I think Dan and I both had ti softails # 4 & 5 and I later got the second 29er he ever made. James's wedding gift to Dan and Amy were their rings, which he machined out of solid titanium for Amy, and part of a seat stay tube for Dan's. James let me borrow a totally kick ass, bueatiful long travel softail, with a worthy price tag... I was totally stoked. It felt sooooooo good to tear it up on the old stomping grounds. Thanks James!



After staying out till 3:00 am friday night and working out the hangovers it was finally wedding day, bikes, bikes and more bikes! We rode to the wedding, then after the ceremony about 50+ of us took off to the streets for a cruiser parade of old town before the dancing began...








Congrats you two!

Knik Glacier

More here...

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=394949