Mt. Evans Massif - Descents in Orange, Downclimb Red
Met up with Ffej, Trailer Tom, Mark N, Bebout and Chris up on Mt. Evans road near summit lake. The 2nd Annual Ffej’s Memorial BBQ went off under bluebird skies and cold conditions. Our first attempt was to shred down the Diamond on Evan’s North Face, as we reached the summit and started the sketchy down climb into the couloir things didn’t look good. We were able to down climb to just below the large cave like structure at the top of the couloir, from here things looked good. This line is pretty much a no fall zone the entire way down and earlier we had watched as a skier made turns down the chute, cut lookers right hard and beater straight into a large rock — loosing his skis and tomahawking 50 ft or so. The snow at the top of the couloir completely sucked, clouds started to block the sun which made the conditions even worse. Tom decided to drop in first and check out the snow conditions, he was forced to slide down 20 ft or so and ended up getting stuck. We talked alot about what to do and we decided the safest thing would be to ice pick our way back up the chute and hike out. We did this ASAP. The next line we attempted we found ourselves down climbing to reach the large North Face snowfield. Not much better of an approach we were very exposed high above multiple cliffs on crap snow. Very scary. We took a long time to climb down to the safe zone before getting ready to drop in. I must say this is some of the most exposed gnarly backcountry I’ve gotten in all year. Each step required complete concentration and focus. I know each member of the crew had a few very close calls on this expedition. Mt. Evans and the chutes are very steep and lots of cliffs, not to mention the snow conditions sucked. After lots of down climbing, setting anchors and reverse kick stepping we made it down the face to the snow covered lake at 12,500ft. We were able to make some nice turns under the afternoon sky, although the snow was variable and choppy we were very very happy to safely make it back down to Summit Lake. We packed up and moved down to Echo Lake campground and fired up the BBQ. Pictures and descent video coming soon!

The Crew
 
Citadel - Big Mountain

JP - Toeside Surf

JP

Fritz and Jeremy - Cornice Drop

Is climbing Mt. Everest most selfish act on earth? From the looks of the latest news reports this seems to be the case. Reports of thefts at camp, impossible solo attempts, and even reports of 40+ climbers stepping over and walking past a dieing fellow climber in pursuit of the summit.

I’ve been pretty interested in all of these current Mt. Everest expeditions and I’ve been following some of the teams pretty closely. I have been especially interested in the ski descent of the Great Couloir or Norton, unfortunately this team has also suffered great lose when one of the members fell while rappelling down a 50ft cliff section around 8500 meters. Mt. Everest Ski Accident

Check out some of the links and reports below for details on the crazy behavior going down during some of these Everest expeditions. Brazilian Vitor Negrete Lost On Everest After No O2 Summit, Everest Fatality Silence Mystery Solved: British David Sharp Left To Die By 40 Climbers, Chinese Everest Official Reaches New Rock Bottom Level - Forgets 3 Deaths. Current news and more information available at www.mounteverest.net and www.everytrail.net.

“That mountain turned into a circus years ago, and it’s getting worse – I don’t have the slightest interest in going back there, ever. Moreover, I actually try to avoid reading on what’s going on there – I simply don’t care anymore.” –Juan Oiarzabal

ExWeb interview: Juan Oiarzabal, “They Are Not Climbers”

JP - Citadel
Met up with Fritz, Joe, Jeremy and Mir near the Loveland Pass turn off. We decided to bushwhack straight up Trelease and avoid the access road. The goals of the trip were to summit Mt. Trelease and hit the North Face and Ridge, from there slog to Citadel and hike the ridge to the saddle for our 2nd run. Beautiful bluebird day and good friends made the tough climbs easy. I was very surpised at the snow conditions on the North face of Trelease. Fritz picked out a technical line and dropped first into some nice powder turns. He kicked off a small slide near the choke of the couloir as I was filming from a cliff high above. The rest of the crew dropped in and made it down to the safe zone, from there we geared up and started the climb to Citadel.

JP - Citadel
The climb up the ridge to Citadel was brutal after summiting Trelease and ripping down, but we knew what awaited us and we forced each other to go on. Fritz lost his lunch about half way up, and I was pretty close. We reached the saddle just below the summit of Citadel and geared up. Shera dropped first and made some turns down the left side of the chute, Fritz next. At least 1500′ of wide open spring turns under bluebird skies everyone wanted another lap. I’ll let the pictures and video finish the story.

Trelease N. Face - Jeremy & Fritz

Citadel Cornice - Joe
 

Trelease N. Face - JP Filming
Mt. Trelease and Citadel Video (right click - save as)
Fritz’s TGR Report & Pics