Burchey:
I did a Russell-Whitney-Muir trip on 9-20-02. There are many ways up the north side of Whitney, but I found a fair amount of class four, some of it loose. As Steve implied, descending it with snow probably wouldn't be much fun.
I'm mostly self-taught, and I made plenty of mistakes when I was learning. However, I took a couple of rock climbing classes and occasionally climbed with a guide. One of my early partners got me to focus on whether we used good judgment, not just whether we tagged a summit and got out alive.
It's my perception that you tend to substitute ambition and technical equipment for experience and good judgment. You clearly have plenty of ability, but I get the feeling that you're a little too willing to tackle technical challenges that you're not quite ready to handle safely. I've never climbed with you, and my perception might be totally wrong. I just thought I should speak up and let you decide for yourself.
Bob
Hey Bob,
I appreciate the advice on being careful - this is definitely one of the things I'm working on. I picked up a lighter rope and more pro because I felt I was too lax on my last sierra trip ( my 60M rope and quickdraws aren't going to do me any good out there - too heavy and/or inappropriate ). I do an enormous amount of reading / studying other folks reports with successes and failures. I've learned it's best to pay attention to those that have gone before you. Also, I'm no stranger to bailing out on a climb if the weather gets ugly, and my resource management and time management in the hills is improving as well. In the house I practice rope handling / crevasse rescue / friction knots and their applications, and I've been rock climbing ( non-alpine ) for a few years now...equalizing anchors, etc. That's all nice, but I need to apply and test these things on the mountain. I look forward to the day when I have as many summits/trips under my belt as some of you guys, so I'm going to do my best to make sure I stay alive and get there. Example - when I did Mallory and Irvine, I wanted McAdie as well, but decided NO even though I plenty of time. The weather, my gear, and where my head was that day were inappropriate.
Besides, who are you to get on someone about judgment? You went up those dangerous winter switchbacks to trailcrest without your parachute
How dare you!
Here is a photo album from Bob R where he tried one of those chutes:
2007-10-14 Attempt of Mt. Russell...Say! The area just north of the "erg" of "Iceberg Lake" on the map looks like it should be an easy enough climb. But you never know until you get there...
Steve, thanks again for the recon on the info - you guys really come through on the advice, etc. THat's funny, I just climbed the NE face of Gorgonio with Dave G, he's a great guy. I think the chute they are going up is not one of the ones I was eyeballing - if I had to guess from those great pics from Bob R, it's the one directly north of the lake on that map. I think I may end up just doing the trad route around and up to Iceberg from the south - don't feel like messing with a bunch of steep loose scree. If they were packed with good snow most/all the way up, I might check out at least the bottom of the chutes in question. I'm guessing not, though.
We'll see if this is all for nothing, anyway. Fingers crossed for a "light" winter storm this week so I won't have to contend with a ton of new snow/avy conditions.
