V-Thread Video

Heres a link to a video demonstration by yours truly on how to build a v-thread anchor without a v-thread tool.

V-Thread Video

Backcountry Access Alp 40L

Guiding is a profession that requires a myriad of equipment for various applications while holding up against years of abuse.  I am no exception, and when it comes to packs I am not only abusive but picky as well.  Finding a pack that will do the job it’s designed for is not an easy task, but I think I have nailed it with the Backcountry Access Alp 40 liter. 

Andrew Councell Photo

I used this pack almost exclusively ski touring for the 2010/2011 winter.  The Alp 40 has a number of features I think are great.  Most importantly, it carries well.  The pack comes with ample shoulder and hip padding so your torso stays comfortable on that 7000ft Alaskan tour.  The pockets on the hip belt are perfect for storing a compass, a snack, and chapstick for quick easy access.  The pack also features back panel zippered access so you can grab your puffy coat that you accidently buried at the bottom of your pack when the mercury starts dropping.

Lets talk professional features.  The Alp 40 comes with a Velcro side pocket to conveniently store your avalanche probe and shovel handle as well as an external zippered pocket to store your shovel blade.  The pack lid is removable to make it lower profile and comes with a helmet fly.  BCA made the pack capable of carrying skis diagonally as well as A-frame style so you have options when booting couliors in the spring.  The side compression straps can be linked together to carry a snowboard or snowshoes if you aren’t on skis.  The Alp 40 also comes with BCA’s patented freezeproof hydration system that accommodates a bladder or wide-mouth water bottle.

Mike Soucy Photo

All in all, this is a great pack for recreational and professional use.  I look forward to another winter in my BCA Alp 40 and will be my go to for my upcoming American Mountain Guides Association Ski Mountaineering Guides Exam.

Fall Ice

Snow has been falling and temps have been dropping in the mountains, while the sun has been shining down in the Front Range.  This is prime time for sunny rock climbing with the cooler temps, but also a great time to be chasing the ice.  The ice is coming in and there's not too much snow, which makes approaching easier and avalanche hazard less prevalent.  

Two friends and I went up to check out "Deep Freeze" on the north face of Thatchtop high above Loch Vale in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Super high winds and blowing snow made the approach distasteful but perserverance led us to the base of the climbing.  A long 5.6 rock pitch brought us to the 3rd class "Cat Walk" we used to traverse into the Deep Freeze gully.  We cruised an easy ice and snow pitch, then up to the base of the ice on pitch 2.  A rambly ice pitch led us a nice ledge and the classic pitch of the route: "The Necromancer.  This pitch consists of spicy M5 drytooling onto a hanging ice dagger with an awkward chimney exit and finishing up with a nice runnel to the anchors.  An awesome pitch.  

Fighting the screaming barfies, I threaded the ropes through my rappel device and we started the descent back to the base.  Back to the car by 5, we spent 9 hours out round trip.  A great day in the mountains.

Karsten Delap Photo

Behind The Scenes

Working as a Mountain Guide, I get lots of questions regarding how to train for particular objectives or things people can add to their workout to prepare for a specific climb.  Much of this goes beyond just climbing, here are a few shots of what I do to mentally and physically prepare for an AMGA Alpine Guides Exam.

This is just a snapshot of what happens at Connie Sciolino's Boulder based facility, The Alpine Training Center. 

Exam Time

Finally, back home in Boulder after 35 days on the road.  This trip was particularly long with added stress from an AMGA Alpine Guides Exam.  I left the Colorado Front Range on September 7 en route to Washington's North Cascades.  The drive from Colorado to Washington is long and felt even longer as I was driving solo.  Old punk and metal albums kept me company as I traveled through the vast American West and mentally prepared for the upcoming challenges.
The Alpine Exam was scheduled to begin on September 18, so I had some time to do some "training" routes in preparation.  The first route I chose to do was the Northwest Face of Forbidden Peak (IV 5.0 50 Degree Snow).  While the actual climbing on this route is trivial, the crux is getting to the start as the approach is long and routefinding difficult.  We opted for a car-to-car ascent as both me and my partner have a distaste for bivys and like to travel light with less equipment.  The day went great, good weather, good climbing and good times with a friend.  We were round trip in 14 hours.

AC on the West Ridge of Eldorado

The next reconnaissance mission for me was the West Ridge Eldorado Peak via The Triad (IV 5.7).  While on a previous trip in the North Cascades a few years ago, we tried this objective and failed miserably due to poor navigation.  We weren't able to get to the base of the peak which is unacceptable.  This time we had a better tour plan, a higher skill set and more confidence.  Due to the length and complexity of the approach and climb we opted to bivy at the base of the East Ridge of Eldorado.  The bivy sites were great and we made it in just before sunset.  After a delectable freeze dried dinner we set our alarms for 4am and let the light breeze on our tent lull us to sleep.
We awoke the next morning, choked down some nasty "bloatmeal" and left camp.  The approach to the start of the West Ridge required us to descend almost 2500ft and pass through a col that of which the rock quality was not dissimilar to kitty litter.  Pretty standard Cascadian affair.  Once on route, it was classic alpine ridge climbing: sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, up and down Gendarmes, and a few rappels.  The rock was mostly good (for alpine climbing) and the position spectacular.  After 2000ft of rock climbing we were on the summit and awaited our 20 minute descent via the East Ridge back to camp.
The first week of weather in the Northwest was the best I have ever experienced.  Mostly clear skies, warm temps, and best of all, no precipitation.  The Exam was scheduled to begin in 3 days and I took this time to rest and prepare.
The AMGA Alpine Guides Exam is notorious for poor weather, difficult objectives, as well as mental and physical exhaustion.  The Alpine program is the longest in any of the AMGA certification tracks and arguably the most difficult.

Descent Beta

My first field assignment was the Torment-Forbidden Traverse (V 5.6) in a day from the Boston Basin High Camp.  This is a classic traverse that summits 2 peaks with a mile of ridge climbing in between.  I was eager for this objective and volunteered to do it when asked by one of the examiners.  The day went really well.  We were able to move quickly after summiting Torment which is regarded as the crux of the traverse.  Routefinding was difficult at times but never too bad.  We summited Forbidden around 4pm and descended the East Face back to camp after being on the move for 15 hours.  The next day our assignment was the North Face of Buckner via Sharkfin Col.  We made it through Sharkfin Col and traversed the Boston Glacier to the base of Buckner.  Dark clouds loomed overhead and we could see the other teams opting for objectives closer to camp.  We discussed our options in our team and on the radio to the other teams.  We chose to return back to camp as the weather seemed to be deteriorating.  We walked back up the Boston Glacier headed for the Boston-Sahale Col.  Of course the closer we got to the col, the better the weather became.  We headed up the col climbing on the so called "low grade ore" as description of the rock quality.  Once through the col we traversed to Sahale, summited then descended the Quien Sabe Glacier back to camp and out to the car, another 12 hour day.
Then the rain came....only for a day.  We met in Bellingham and got our assignments for Mt. Baker.  My team was assigned a sort of traverse that would summit 3 peaks if successfully completed with difficult glacier travel.  We hiked into camp the first day then headed to the glacier for low angle ice movement skills.  One of the skills involved traversing vertical ice/snow while using ice axe "bracing technique" only.  A task that was not as simple as it sounds.
A 330am wake up the next morning found us traveling through the ablation zone of the glacier and onto loose dirt climbing to get our intended route.  Once on the Coleman Glacier the sun came up and we were cruising for a while.  Then heavily crevassed zones slowed our progress.  We climbed through some complicated terrain and made it to the Baker-Colfax col and onto the summit of Colfax.
Shortly after, we heard on the radio from the other teams that a candidate was hit by spontaneous rockfall from above while on the Cockscomb Ridge.  All teams then descended back the Heliotrope Ridge Camp.
We packed up camp, hiked out to the cars, and met at the Mt. Baker Ranger Station for our next assignments.  Ultimately, the following day was cancelled and we debriefed a day early in Seattle.  After a long and stressful yet rewarding experience in Washington I was relieved by positive debrief comments from the examiners.

Dan on the Torment-Forbidden Traverse

Shortly after I was on I-5 south headed to Yosemite Valley, perhaps the best pure rock climbing venue on the planet.  I would not receive official word on my exam performance for another 18 days......

No Need For Alarm

Here are a few shots of Tim and I from a botched Diamond day.  After a not so good start, we drove from Boulder to Mt. Evans climbed Good Evans then dashed over to Empire to climb at the newly developed sport crag, Ra.

It was a somewhat strange and chaotic day but we still got some great climbing in and had a good time!

Sublime Buttress

SJ leading pitch 1

Last weekend, deterred from climbing a Diamond route due to a poor weather forecast, Steve Johnson and I climbed the Sublime Buttress in Rocky Mountain National Park.  A relatively new route, it climbs the sheer south buttress of the expansive Cathedral Wall.  Its characterized by challenging route finding and runout climbing on steep yet positive rock.
With a quick approach, this seemed like a good objective considering the rainy weather cycle we have had in the Park.  Steve and I made quick work of the approach and were at the base of the wall in about 90 minutes.  We were climbing by 730am.  The first pitch starts with a weird move behind a tree then follows a sparsely protected slab for about 120ft to a tree belay.  Pitch 2 is the .11+ crux with pitch 1 being a poor warm-up for the steep roof climbing above.  The crux climbing consists of steep crack climbing capped by a flaring hands roof.  Its pumpy, well protected and fun.

Great belay ledge atop p6

Pitch 3 starts the more spicy climbing.  Steve took the lead on the 5.8X terrain that loomed above.  This pitch takes careful route finding a calm head, a trend that would need to continue for the rest of the climbing.  Pitch 4 was more of the same, steep runout face climbing off the belay on poor rock to steep blocky crack climbing.  The fifth pitch was great, a 20 foot runout directly off the belay to a juggy traverse followed by brilliant face climbing with minimal protection.  A fantastic pitch.  Pitch 6 required good route finding skills to piece together the weaknesses that offered protection oppurtunities.  After pulling a few roofs on kitty litter rock and traversing back and forth, I was at the 2 foot wide belay ledge with great exposure below.  This pitch turned out to be pretty good, certainly not the 5.10+ R that it was supposed to be, but more like 5.10a R.  SJ took the reigns on the final summit pitch.  More steep blocky crack climbing, with some of the worst rock on the route.  This pitch was physical 5.10 climbing that had a very "Black Canyon" feel as you pulled through the crux with a bush in your face.  All in all, a great climb.  We began descending into the Andrews Creek drainage as the storm clouds began to roll in.  Some loose downclimbing and a double rope rappel off jammed knots found us back to the valley floor. We packed our gear and hiked out as thunder crashed all around us.

SJ following the exposed p6