wotan_of_ballard

My experience(and others have concurred )is that the east ridge is the better way up from Crater basin(better rock than the S Face) S face with snow on it is prefered descent route.

go in via in Torment basin. or get a permit for the forbidden glacier bivy zone. chances are your'll be bivied on the N side of the ridge

estivate's got it right. I went partway up the direct climbers path last fall and it's well flagged initially , with some tread most of the way. mostly nice virgin forest, no mud, and little brush.

consider the west ridge of Jberg as the "best of a bad lot" Tom Miller solo'd the 1st ascent , and descended the same way. I descended this way and it's ok, altho a lot o' lucy traversing to west peak. way less rock fall potential on this route.

Had an excellent trip to west mac july 15-17. the approach was casual by Picket standards, the brushy section between 4000 and 4800' is tamed by a distict tread and trail tape. Wore tennies to 4800, after that mostly snow, so mtn boots. could have left crampons, rope, and harness at home. only notable hazards were many small moats and weak bridges over small streams, and bugs are emerging. The glacier on the north side of Triumph recently convulsed and turned a chaotic jumble of blue, it's death is apparently near.

I heard several years ago that there was a significant rockfall on Gunsight that changed a route. could it have been the west face? or was it one of the south routes?

we came in from the south, via Howard Creek road. I had the 7.5 minute map, with peak names and roads marked from Beckey's sketch map. this reduced first time confusion to a bearable level.the rock is cool, the approach problems dimish the otherwise great fun potential of this area. Georgia Pacific closes the lower gate at 10pm, biving in your car at 300' elevation would be weird if you didn't make it out by then. maybe next time I'll drive up the night before to allow more time, or with more snowpack down low would speed things up. still had enuf fun that "veal be boc"

Annie Green Springs is a much better route than TNF of Burgandy IMHO. Rock is sounder without the grit, cracks are not rounded, lots of interesting moves. There is a very obvious large chimney low on the west face, do not climb this but rather the crack system and left trending ramp about 100' to the right at about the same height. the topo is off in this regard but the verbal description is right on. route finding from below can be tricky, it helps to climb Pisano the day before and pick out the route. small tcus very useful, extra ones? I thought Clean Break was a great climb, better than the free climbing parts of Liberty Crack (assuming you don't free above mid 5.10)

A buddy of mine recently came out from Dome area via Bachelor Creek. In the past it's taken him 6hrs or less from Itswoot Ridge to the car, this time it took over 11 hrs because of the extensive avalanche debris for a mile. Some of the fallen trees were almost 5 feet in diameter. Perhaps a route can be found higher up to avoid this mess. Report back if you do!.

Mentioned in Beckey's guide as an "area classic" we found it pretty good but the climbing time of 3hrs was disproportionate to the approach time (5hrs)despite using mtn bikes. Do not use "Boot Lake col" it is rather steep on both sides, better is the col between Twin Crest and Saddleslab. There were a few areas of steep snow requiring mtn boots and axe. The super grippy Sisters Range olivine ROCKS for friction and good cracks. 6 pitches to 5.6 and some running belays. Scenic area despite clearcuts, interesting angle on Cascades and San Juans.July 2, 2002

Crossing the North Fork of the Cascade River is rather gnarly now. A 3 foot step across from a bare log to the root wall of an overturned huge tree, with the racing waters below. Kind of like the step across from Jello Tower on Castle Rock, reversing the move is more dicey because its balancey. Blow it and your body will be floating past Marblemount before your buddies could drive there. A tight handline or good extension to the log (well secured board) could significantly reduce the risk.

Gunn is in fashion as there was another ascent on 6/15 and 2 parties of 2 on 6/20. 4 hrs up, 3 down. Defintely the funnest and most challenging of the "Barclay Trilogy". Good preparation for the bigger challenges in the Enigma Range. Michael's description is very good , forget the Beckey mumbo. A bit of detail on the approach to minimize the bushwack:from end of spur road go up stream to the world's most slippery logs. After that thrash N about 10 minutes of Grade II-III brush to a barely discernable old logging road. walk this relatively easily westward until a few bits of flagging tip you to to the climbers path, which cruises to the alpine, and is quite interesting in its bypass of cliffs. go soon before snow no longer covers alder at 4500'. Hey, Heinz, how about cutting a little brush at the start, in the long run it would save you time and blood? Honorary membership in the Ballard Alpine Club and all the lutefisk you can eat to anyone who brushes out those bad 200yds. Wotan has spoken.

by Alan Kearney. Published by Alpen Books. Available at Marmot and ?. 51 climbs in the Northwet (4 in BC, 2 in OR, 2 in Idaho, rest in Washington) are covered, all done personally by the author. Photos are clear and well selected(including Fred B in a phone booth), and often from angles we haven't seen in print before. An interesting mix of climbs in selected , about half of the washington climbs appear in Nelson's "Selected Climbs" but the presentation is different, and often more detail. A unique feature of this book is the good story telling whether in the "friends & climbers" chapter or mixed in with the individual climbs.

mtnnut: did you summit on the spire? I was turned back where the ledge had fallen off, the only way we could figure out to do it involved 5.7? down climbing that was poorly protected for the second. we bailed for this reason and all the sharp edges. with double ropes this would not have been a problem. anybody else summit on the spire in the last few years?

Please don't misunderstand or distort my original point. I think the organization and photos of Alpine Select are excellent. Kevin McLane did a labor of love, but perhaps the "Lake Wobegone effect" "where every child is above average" has occurred to some extent. I have not done a "crappy" climb that is listed in Alpine Select. I have done several "average" climbs, I expected a minimum of "above average " from a "select" book. Perhaps it's my expectations that were too high .