John_Roper

Fun to relive with photos. Same route 50 years ago (1972) up N Ridge of Tricouni (NR) to Primus with Dallas Kloke, Reed Tindall, Scott Masonholder, Mike Theobald, Paul (not Bob) Greisman had a totally ugly tight-hemlock trailless brush bash approach from McAllister Creek to timberline.

Sam, please draw your line on Matt Lemke's photo.

Matt Lemke has a great photo of this buttress from Perfect Pass: https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8035967#&pid=605a92381deab5b6734adaabf6ea665a Looks like the head and trunk of an elephant (complete with eye) with floppy ears on either side.

The photo of the Thread of Ice and Thread of Gneiss was taken from Picket Pass on July 23, 1984.

Way to finally untangle the Thread. Very Gneiss.

That was 41 years ago, but I don't remember it being as bad as what you experienced.

Great route, Joe and Joseph up one of the last great trailless valley approaches in the North Cascades. Thanks for clearing up that we were not “sandbagging” Mike and Wayne when telling them about our Baker River approach to Spectre. Our 1980 party (carrying 60-pound packs) made it to a 5000-foot camp on Pioneer Ridge on the first day out from Baker Lake.

Eric, on second look, I think you’re right. I lie corrected. Looks like Doug Leen and Brad Fowler did that south Perry glacier lobe on the 2A of SE Mox in 1968 (27 years after Fred and Helmy). Silas, Russ, and I repeated it in 1982 (up and down). Take that north Perry trophy off the shelf, but don’t tell anyone.

Hat’s off and great sleuthing, Jake, Adam and Emilio, Very impressed especially as out-of-WA-staters that you uncovered several significant North Cascades’ firsts on your Chilliwacks’ trip: · New approach route to SE Mox up the N lobe of Perry Creek glacier to Col of the Wild. (Our similar 1978 plan to do this was diverted from Perry Creek to Col of Nature when a party member suffered GI distress). · First SE Mox to Lemolo RT traverse (and 2A of Lemolo). (This was our plan in 1982, when a lightning storm came at us over the Northern Pickets forcing retreat from Hard Mox.) · Plus first try at the Crazy Crushed Contours Wall on W of NW Mox. Take a look at the wild contours on the map here.

Thanks for getting the original Ragged Ridge names right.

Unbelievable audacity.

Great shots of Hunich Pipe and the Pipe Cleaner and all, Jason. Here’s the story behind these names: When I was growing up in Newhalem and Diablo (1944-61), I admired Ken Hunich as the one-and-only climber of all the Seattle City Light employees that ran the Skagit River powerhouses and dams out of those towns. Ken was in the party that made the FA of North Despair in 1963. South Despair was Beckey’s very first, FA in 1939. North Despair was done in style by Eric and Rolf in 2014 via the NE “Bipolar Buttress.” Ken was the second supervisor of Ross Dam and Powerhouse, succeeding my dad Jack Roper in 1954. While we were all living in Diablo in 1953, Ken, my dad, and I (age 9 then) made a try for Pyramid Peak above town before a lightning storm chased us off the mountain. Ken and my first successful peak together was a day-trip of Johannesburg in 1968 (returning in the dark from Gunsight Notch). Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Ken smoked a pipe and always teethed it at a jaunty angle under his moustache. In 1964, the year after Jay Haggerty and I rowed Jay’s one-man duck boat across the Skagit River at Sky Creek and climbed Big Devil left of the waterfall you see from HW 20 (launching in the morning, returning in the dark), Ken and his brother Dick climbed Big Devil via the route Jason’s gang descended. Ken told me then that they went by a “10-foot notch” below the Trapezoid to get to Big Devil. The day after climbing Fallen Angel in 1982, Russ Kroeker, Silas Wild, and I stood at this spot and admired these pinnacles and decided to give them a go. We chuckled at Ken’s 10-foot estimate and came to call these crags “Hunich Pipe and the Pipe Cleaner,” though in retrospect he was probably referring to the width of the gap and not the height of these peaklets. Another photo here: ( click to enlarge ). Six-foot tall Russ stands on the Pipe Cleaner to give scale to the actual height.

Hey Eric and Chris: Thanks for taking the bait, cheating doom and triumphing over the Grim Reaper his Scythe, and acting like you were actually having fun. Very gneiss, as Rolf said. Great route shots. Jeremy: Thanks for mentioning Hunich Pipe and Pipe Cleaner (just N of the Trapezoid) which were first climbed the day after Fallen Angel FA in 1982.

This is an historic event in Washington climbing marking the first time the FA was also the FWA, afaik.

Hey Devils Clubbers Mike and Erik, Props again to you guys, and since any route on the east face/buttress of ESE/Hardest/Lemolo Mox is possibly the premier route in the North Cascades, can you please lay a line showing your route and 95% end point on the above photos next to those of Eric and Rolf for historical comparison? Just curious to see how much of “After Hours” was “After Yours.” Don’t want to dis/tract from the classic Ross Lake/LB/Perry Creek approach-fun, but I bet future explorers might find the trail up Depot Creek over the pass between Spickard and Solitude 8405’ down into Perry Creek a more efficient way to get to the base and climb of any one of several frightening undone routes on that incredible east face of Lemolo Mox. JR