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“Hey Bill – got any really ugly bright fabric you can make me some pants out of?”

 

The power pants humble beginningsPhoto ©Bill Amos
Bill sent me a text message with the above picture and a question “Is this obnoxious enough?”

So begins the saga of the power pants.

 

The power pants are so hot, I had to open the vents just to stay coolPhoto ©John Frieh
In early April, John Frieh and I took a short trip to the Ruth Gorge in the Central Alaska Range.  The adventure began for me in Los Alamos, NM where I have been living for the past year.  I left home on Thursday afternoon and after a quick drive to Albuquerque, a red-eye flight next to a woman who thought it was OK to text on the plane, plus a late night shopping spree at the 24-hour Carrs in Wasilla we crashed on the floor of Talkeetna Air Taxi for a few hours of rest on Friday morning.  John had brought the power pants with him from the PNW, so I first set eyes on them in a sleep deprived state, but knew right away that they were winners.  After an early wake-up and massive breakfast at the Talkeetna Roadhouse, Paul Roderick flew John and I onto the Ruth glacier.

 

Doing what I do best, making and consuming pancakesPhoto ©John Frieh
While waiting out a day of unsettled weather on Saturday (pancakes!), John and I decided to attempt the unclimbed Northeast face of Mt. Dickey, which he, Dylan Johnson, and Roger Strong had previously hoped to attempt.  The alarm went off early Sunday morning and after a quick breakfast/brew session we were skiing towards Dickey.  Ditching the skis at the base of the face, John crossed the schrund and we were off.  After the initial snow slope, we began what would be a long battle with thin ice slabs, overhanging snow mushrooms, mixed steps, and all around heady climbing.

 

The massive East face of Mt. Dickey. Our route begins on the white slabs directly above camp.Photo ©John Frieh
After a difficult 600m or so, we reached easier terrain and simul-climbed through wonderful ice runnels and steep snow to the base of the large chimney system.  It was now late afternoon and we were disappointed to find that only the first pitch, maybe pitch and a half held ice.  After that, it quickly turned into overhanging snow mushrooms and what looked to be difficult mixed or aid climbing up to a hanging ice curtain of dubious quality.  Even worse, the ice hose from John’s photos was completely absent.  This was obviously disheartening, but we had to focus on finding a bivy site.  A 70m traverse down and across the face brought us to a rock outcropping were we chopped a ledge for our tent and settled into our two-person sleeping bag for the evening.  Since we hadn’t brought any sleeping pads, the man spoon was essential for comfort.

 

Escaping the man-spoon and brewing up outside the tent on Monday morning©John Frieh
After sleeping in a bit on Monday morning, we got going around 10AM and eventually decided to traverse over to the French Route on the Northeast Ridge to see if we could exit there.  A lot of simul-climbing and some high quality mixed pitches brought us to a high point on the ridge crest.  We realized that with our limited gear, there was no way we were repeating the techno aid climbing that the French had pulled off over six days on the ridge.  A 30m rappel from the ridge brought us into a perfect runnel system that split the North face of the Northeast ridge, but didn’t guarantee success.  We knew that looming around the corner were the massive seracs nicknamed “Walmart” and hoped that we would be able to regain the ridge crest before having to confront that monster.

 

The power pants propelling us through yet another mixed step on our routePhoto ©John Frieh
Another few hours of simul-climbing combined with short belayed mixed steps and we eventually had to face reality, exiting through “Walmart” was our only option.  We could see a large snow ramp traversing the seracs to a probable exit point.  A quick food and water break and we were off, blasting through the seracs in two quick simul-pitches.  Suddenly, I was above the danger zone and screaming with joy.  I could see the summit and knew we had the route in the bag.  We reached the summit around 8PM on Sunday afternoon, 37 hours after starting the route.  The descent, while long and arduous, was straight forward and a matter of mind over body.  My personal low point was when John reminded me that not only was Dickey a vertical mile tall, but we had to traverse under the South face which was a vertical mile wide…

 

Two exhausted, but elated friends on the summit of Mt. Dickey©John Frieh
Thanks to NW Alpine for making quality alpine climbing clothing.  I’ve used and abused gear from most of the major companies in pursuit of alpine silliness and the combination of NWAlpinist salopettes and Big Four jacket is the best system of clothing I’ve ever owned for the pursuit.  That and green is so hot right now!

Portland Monthly, April 2012

Brendan sends us this note from the field:

I had the chance to test your wind jacket this weekend in some harsh leisure conditions. It performed very well. Brisk morning temps in the 60′s at boat speeds were no match for the wind breaking power of tight weave ripstop. It also successfully repelled the occasional errant bass splash and wake sprinkle. But by far the jacket performed the best during a midnight motor out to chum for Stripers. If only our fishing luck worked as well that night.

Brendan

Erik Wellborn sent us these shots from the Englishman’s Route on the North Face of Hallets Peak with partner Danny Murphy:

And Greg Sievers sent us this shot from his ascent of Brain Freeze over the weekend.

Keep getting after it our Coloradoan brothers (and sisters), this soggy Oregonian is quite jealous!

So we’re implementing a new guest blogging program. We’re asking some of our favorite people to blog about anything that’s on their minds, the only caveat being that it has to be at least tangentially related to climbing. If you have something to say and are interested in being a guest blogger, please shoot an e-mail to us at info@nwalpine.com

Our first post comes from our good friend Nate Tack. Nate is a Portland local who enjoys sailing his boat and climbing hard cracks.

Squamish has always been a special place for me. A really unique combination where perfect granite walls meet the Ocean with the Coast Range looking over it all. I’ve spent two summers in Squamish and made several other road trips there and never seem to get bored: bolts, big walls, slabs, bouldering and lots of crack climbing, every style of rock climbing is well represented. As an added bonus you can start your day with some Timbits from Tim Hortons. (Yeah, yeah I know in the rest of the world “Timbits” are doughnut holes or “Munchkins”. Canadians are proud though, call a Timbit by any other name and you might get punched in the nose.)

The only downside with such good climbing to be had is that everyone and their neighbor wants to climb their as well. Squamish is a regular part of the annual migration for climbing bums and weekend warriors alike. Trying to climb classic crack pitches like the Split Pillar or Penny Lane on a sunny day feels a bit like a trip to the DMV. That’s the nature of classic climbing, the routes are popular for a reason, because they are so damn good. I’m not unique, I like to climb clean, esthetic lines like everyone else, however I’d much rather do it without a huge group of French Canadians clambering all over me. Here’s a few routes in Squamish that in my mind are super classic, but don’t see that much traffic. If you’re tired of the wait on Exasperator check out these routes:

Milk Run- Tantalus Wall, The Chief. 5.11D or 5.10, AO 8 Pitches

An interesting route that combines the best and worst of Squamish. The first two pitches are a bit whacky and often wet as you wander around a slab moving left. However the awkward nature of pitch one and pitch two is a small price to pay for the insanely good corner that make up pitch three and pitch four. The fourth pitch is one of the better corner pitches I’ve ever done and goes at 5.10D. It’s one of those pitches that looks burly from the belay, fingers and laybacking in a steep corner. However like many Squamish corners, every ten feet or so a small edge will appear for your feet giving you a chance to shake out and place some gear. Conserve gear and pace yourself on this one, the pitch is fifty meters and rather sustained. Triples or quads of finger (yellow and orange Metolius master cams) would be a good idea, but save a single hand size piece for the small roof below the belay.

Rutabaga- Base of the Chief- 5.11, 2 pitches

This little gem would a great afternoon outing when combined with other more well know classics in the area such as Seasoned in the Sun or Apron Strings. P1 is short and fun, twenty meters of double cracks (5.10B) takes you to a bolted belay. The real treat is the second pitch, forty five meters of sustained laybacking and finger jamming in a corner. Every so often the crack will pinch down and you’ll start thinking thinking that this isn’t 5.11, but as always a nice crimper or foothold will appear on the wall away from the corner. Near the end of the pitch switch into bouldering mode as you’re forced to slap out right on an arete feature! to gain the belay. Exciting moves above a purple Master cam. Tough guys take note, with some long slings and a seventy meter rope this route can be done in one very long pitch. Yikes!

High Plains Drifter- 5.11 Sherifs Badge

The guidebook touts this route as being, “The best hand crack in the known universe.” That’s a bold statement, but having just spent a month at Indian Creek climbing a LOT of hand cracks, I can confirm that this is not hyperbole. If this pitch were near the ground it would still be top ten for sure, but put it 2,000 above the valley after climbing 14 approach pitches (Angle’s Crest) with the sea in front of you and Mount Garibaldi framing the background and you have something special. Hand cracks don’t normally intimidate me, it is one of the few types of climbing that I feel completely secure on, my hands feel like portable anchors when slammed into a two inch crack. However, when I looked up at High Plains Drifter from the fourth class approach ledge I was nervous. Not sure what it is. Maybe it’s the exposed position, or the slightly overhanging nature of it, but from the belay High Plains Drifter just looks burly! We had gotten delayed behind slow parties coming up Angles Crest, so by the time we made it over to High Plains Drifter the sun was setting. Climbing such a great pitch with the sun setting over Howe Sound with my good friend Dan, truly a special monument.

The crack itself is actually a detached flake, the whole feature rings when smacked with a fist. Starts out hands and big hands keeps on going for a glorious thirty meters. At about the twenty five meter mark, a slight crux is encountered where the crack widens to four inches. Mercifully the wide stuff gives way to a “Thank God” jug and a rest before some thin crack work to the chains. Triples of #2 BD, Doubles #3 BD, and a single #4 will be enough gear if you’re solid with big hands, although if I had a few extra hand sizes pieces with me I certainly would have placed them. It takes a bit of effort to get up to High Plains Drifter, but well worth it. If I only got to do one more pitch of climbing before I died, I would climb High Plains Drifter.

Hispar Sar 2011
By Bruce Miller


Climber: Steve Su Photo: Doug Chabot

“How come we’re not climbing that?” is the question I was asking myself. It’s the question any climber on the way to something else up the Hispar Glacier has surely asked when they glimpse the Southwest Face of Hispar Sar: a big, steep, discouraging tooth with one perfect weakness. A spindly couloir splits the triangle to just shy of the 6400m summit. I took a last look before turning off to our Yatmura Glacier basecamp. We still had a ways to go. I wasn’t the first time I’ve turned away from an obvious prize because of other plans hatched in a kitchen 5000 miles away.

The route follows the obvious central couloir Photo: Doug Chabot

Doug Chabot, Steve Su, and I came to Pakistan intent on climbing the South Ridge of Pumari Chhish East. The inspiration came from a photo of the Pumari Chhish Group in Shiro Shirahata’s book “The Karakoram”, but it didn’t take much head scratching for us to nix that plan. The only passage above the upper ridge went directly through a lively serac band our photographs had led us to believe could be bypassed.

It didn’t take much discussion to settle on Hispar Sar as our plan B. It was still unclimbed despite four attempts. Simon Yates and partners accounted for two of those. He and Andy Parkin had very nearly succeeded in 2004, retreating from above the couloir in a storm storm. If the Hispar Glacier were a more fashionable climbing destination it would certainly have had more attention.

A long day of talus stumbling, not yet fully acclimatized, put us in a high cirque at the base of the route. Another day was spent glassing the line. The afternoon rockfall and wet snow avalanches were predictable. So, we set off at midnight on August 3, and hoped for the best.

Climber: Bruce Miller Photo: Steve Su

We crossed the schrund at 5000m. The next 1100m of couloir was brilliant, with varied terrain ranging from WI4+ to delicate mixed pitches. Near what we thought was the end of the couloir, we exited right, both to avoid the increasing afternoon rockfall and a looming cornice (hmm… previously unseen). It ended up being a full 7 steep pitches of unstable snow and loose rock (M5); in other words, the best 7 pitches of the route. The last of those, 20 hours after the schrund, put us on the South Ridge where we hacked out a knife-edged perch.

Climber: Steve Su Photo: Doug Chabot

We quickly discovered our air mattresses, in their first open bivy, made excellent sleds and we spent a cold, restless night adjusting to stay put on our icy seats. The sun eventually reached us and brought some relief. We sipped our morning brews as we took in the Karakoram panorama from K2 to Nanga Parbat under clear skies.

The 300m to the summit above us looked easy. But, as is often the case, “easy to the summit” is the description of someone who hasn’t been there. We took us most of the day to get moving, climb those 300m, and rap back to the bivy.

Climber: Bruce Miller Photo: Steve Su

We descended early the next morning. Twenty-plus more raps. After a couple hours lounging, we reversed the long grind back to basecamp. Our old friends, cook and guide, Rasool and Ali were waiting with a congratulations and tea.

We spent our last available days hiking 20 miles back down the Yatmura Glacier and up to the Khani Basa Glacier to attempt Tatu Rutum (6,651m). Bad snow conditions and continued snowfall, quickly led to us abandoning our attempt. I appreciated that last detour. The Kani Basa Glacier amazed me with another slew of possibilities.

Many thanks to Northwest Alpine for making niche alpine gear. My search for a better salopette led me here. Steve and I weren’t disappointed. I haven’t found anything else comparable.

Yes. Waterproof/Breathable with superior abrasion and tear resistance.

We’re in the prototyping and testing phase, so it will be a while before it’s ready for production, but we’re too stoked not to share!

First off we’d like to thank the team at The Circuit Bouldering Gym for putting on an incredible event on Saturday. (If you’re in Portland and get the opportunity to check out The Circuit, do it, it’s a world class facility.) The Portland Boulder Rally was a day long competition and gathering of the climbing community. The culmination was an extremely high energy final and then raucous after party. The gym was packed with slightly-liquored-up spectators for the finals and the energy was awesome. Having never been to a bouldering competition before, it was extremely engaging and I found myself hoarse the next day from all the yelling.

While bouldering in the gym is about as far as one can get from the alpine climbing environment and still be climbing, the mostly young crowd (though there were a number of old Portland hardpeople milling about) was full of psyche and I couldn’t help but see a room full of future alpinists.

We talked to a ton of people about NW Alpine, about our mission, making stuff in the USA, plans for future products and the like. It was great to meet everyone and introduce our company to a new crowd.

We’ll be back next year when the PBR rolls around again, thanks again to The Circuit for a great day!

Free shipping today for anti-hype Tuesday! Order before midnight tonight (November 29th) and your shipping charge will be refunded after purchase.