a scenic bivy below the buttes, high pressure system, super-sized crevasses, teetering seracs, endless views from the top...what more could we ask for?
Spent a day working on crevasse rescue techniques then another day on the climb. Super chill, super classic line with incredible crevasse exposure for the lower 48. Blue-bird day gave us amazing pictures (see contributed images in gallery). Climbed mid-summer, right when the mountain was really beginning to open up. Some real man-eaters up there. On descent, we crossed a snow bridge that we had crossed earlier...only after summit the bridge was only about a foot wide and had a six inch and growing gap in the middle!
Great route. Got stuck on the Coleman in the open under a passing lightning storm...a little scary, but it only lasted about an hour; glad we weren't higher like some others were.
This route has it all. Beautiful old growth rain forest, fun snow slopes, a fairly steep headwall, and few crevasses. It's a fun, relaxing, and enjoyable climb.
Black Buttes to the summit in 3.5 hours or so. Pretty eerie to climb by starlight over the Coleman Glacier. Snow was awesome, and we made it from the summit to the cars in 4 hours.
Black Buttes to summit in 3:45. Because the mountain was so much warmer than the day before, the decent was tedious with all the punching through. Between the pumice ridge and Black Buttes wasn't much fun, as we were up to our knees half the time.
Climbed the C/D route solo overnight, 9/9/07-9/10/07, car to car in one push. Crevasses were hairy, and the route was straight up ice in places. Getting up was definitely easier than getting down in places.