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July/Aug for the north ridge by foot (not skis) may be best this year May/June?

Trip: Black Peak and Prime Rib - #methowmultisport Trip Date: 04/20/2024 Trip Report: For those of us up here in the north sound, it is hard to ignore the gravitational pull when Hwy 20 opens for the year. It is like someone pulls the plug in the backyard pool and we are inexorably pulled east into the vortex of Sprinters and Teslas. But not this past weekend. It was like older, mellower times. Maybe it was the front moving through in the middle of the weekend. Maybe everyone was like my brother and were caught unawares of the opening? Whatever the reason, I'll take it. It was a good thing that the masses weren't up there though. @geosean and I myself weren't terribly original with the plan- a ski of Black on Saturday followed by Prime Rib on Goat wall on Sunday. We even brought bikes to enliven the descent from Goat Wall (this is a good bit more fun than rapping the route). And, mostly it went off without a hitch. And by that I mean we had fun, didn't get hurt, and came home friends. However, we did stop a few feet shy of the true summit of Black due to the typical spring shenanigans of steep snow, exposed rock, and no climbing gear. But, that slight disappointment was soon forgotten amidst the better than average corn skiing down to Lakes Ann and Wing. I think it has been over 20 years since I've been up on Black and I can see that I need to return more frequently. Thankfully the weather on Goat Creek Road was reasonable, though chilly, Saturday night. We started early to beat the crowds the never arrived and shivered in the wind and snow squalls as a result. It felt distinctly alpine, climbing in long johns and belaying in puffys all day. I'm sure it would be good training for something hard and high, if I still cared about those sorts of objectives. Mostly though, I shivered and muttered. But, it had been about 11 years since I had climbed the route, and so Prime Rib felt sort of like a new and interesting experience. This pronounced alpine amnesia is definitely one of the benefits of entering my "mature mountaineer" phase. Maybe I need to climb things all over again. Except Nooksack Tower. @geosean at Heather Pass: @geosean and Black at Wing Lake: I was not having this and turned us around: #methowmultisport: Dispersed camping views of Silverstar from Goat creek road: @geosean living the alpine dream on Goat Wall: The hordes will descend next weekend! Gear Notes: the full kit Approach Notes: Follow the herd

I just have regular health insurance which paid (outside of deductible) for my collarbone break last year .

Another link to the declaration in case you ran into a paywall: https://ecology.wa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/news/2024-news-stories/april-16-drought-declaration#:~:text=In Washington%2C drought is declared,water right permits and transfers.

Oh wow... "Seasonal snowfall of 430 inches at the Mt. Baker Ski Area in 2023-24 was among the lowest since records started being kept there in 1970-71"

Hi Sara, I will be staying outside of Portland around that time and could potentially be up for a day trip! Sounds like our experience and style may be similar. I'm not sure if Hood conditions will be good at that time, but certainly Adams or something else could be fun. If you'd like to connect and discuss further, send me a message here or email me at dmill629@gmail.com. David

I can vouch for the Sony A7rii. I switched from a Canon 6D years ago and managed to save a bit of weight with the body. The lightest full frame setup I've found is the A7rii with a 50mm F1.8 kit lens, coming in at about 27 ounces. The 24mm F1.4 GM is also super lightweight for its aperture, and the Tamron 70-300 F4.5-6.3 is a good light option for telephoto. The 24mm GM from a climb in the Boston Basin area:

Trip: Aconcagua - North Face Trip Date: 12/22/2023 Trip Report: On 12/11 I hiked to Confluencia to start the trip. Winds have been the major prohibitive factor affecting summit success this year, and from the start even getting to Confluencia winds were gusting in the 20 mph range. For acclimatization I hiked to Plaza Francia the next day, which was even windier, but being lowish on the mountain still temps were great. 30mph gusts with wind chill bringing temps to about 40F at coldest near Plaza Francia. Apparently a few days later winds were so severe that folks were skipping the hike to Plaza Francia all together, reporting 50+ mph gusts. Make sure to check in with the ranger when you arrive at Confluencia to get the sign off on the permit, and get a medical check before moving to Mulas. Confluencia itself is a really nice camp. If you use a logistics service like I did (Inka basic package) you’ll get fresh food, a place to hang out, and even a bunk if one is available. If you’re fully guided I think the bunk is usually included. There are legit bathrooms there with running water. The following day 12/13 I moved to Plaza de Mulas. On 12/14 I cached at Camp Canada. A bit of a blizzard rolled in, hammering the high camps with wind, snow, and even collapsing the medical tent (for the second time this season) at Mulas. The camp docs ended up just going tent to tent doing the medical checks. The next day I took as a rest before moving to higher camps. 12/16 I moved to Camp Canada. I met a lot of climbers who skipped this camp for two reasons: 1: to get water you need to walk about 10-15 mins to collect snow to melt. 2: the camp is extremely exposed to wind If you don’t camp here one or two nights you’re looking at moving strait from 14k to 18k, which in my experience isn’t ideal for acclimatization. I chose to deal with the wind for two nights to use Canada as a stepping stone for higher camps. Definitely stand by that decision. Just make sure you have a tent that can handle 40-50 mph gusts from time to time. After caching at Nido 12/17, on 12/18 I dropped to Mulas to get more food and gas for an expected long stay at Nido (weather window seemed to have disappeared), and moved camp from Canada to Nido. Nido has great wind protection and even a water source. You dig a hole in the ice of a nearby pond and can extract water from underneath without needing to melt snow. My acclimatization schedule worked pretty well and I wasn’t feeling any AMS symptoms by the time I reached Nido. 12/19 was another rest day. A brief weather window opened up for 12/20 with winds dropping to the 30-40 mph range up top. Wind chill about -20F, which is about as good as it got the whole trip. Around 5:30AM on 12/20 I set out from Nido for the summit. With 4 layers on the bottom, 5 on the top, and full skin coverings the cold temps and windchill were entirely manageable. Up until Plaza Independencia the ascent tracks just to the east of the ridge. Most of the wind on Acon comes from the west, so up until this point there is some wind protection. Above Plaza Independencia, however, you walk on the west side of the ridge with full exposure to wind until you reach La Canaleta. Be prepared for extremely cold temps on this traverse when conditions are windy. There were two snow traverses requiring crampons. At worst the slope angle was about 40 degrees with a good boot path. Not sketchy by any means but still something I’d want an ice axe for. The Canaleta is this loose path through dust and rock where the dirt is so loose it helps to have crampons on to maintain good footing. One of those “one step forward half a slide back” kind of paths. Above that is the cave, where lots of people will rest before the final summit push. A very important thing to know - the official turn around time for the summit is 3PM, and on good summit days rangers will usually be there turning people around if they don’t reach the summit by 3PM. Once you get to the cave it is about 2 hours to the summit, and unfortunately I reached the cave at 1:45PM. Because of the 3PM deadline, I turned around and got back to Nido by 4PM. Another good window was forecasted for 12/21 and I moved camp from Nido to Colera. Like Canada, expect high winds. 12/22 around 4AM I set out again for the summit, this time reaching it by noon. Similar conditions with wind and temps. On the way down at 22k ft I ran into a woman who looked hypothermic, dehydrated, and suffering from altitude. Along with another climber and a nearby guide we assisted her down to Colera where she was airlifted to a nearby hospital. Getting from Colera back to the park entrance took only two days. One to get all the gear back to Mulas, and the next to hike out. The beer in Mulas is $9 but in Confluencia it is only $5 FYI Gear Notes: Ice Axe, Crampons, Headlamp, Ski Poles, Animal/Pet, Tent Camp Approach Notes: Maintained Trail, Unmaintained Trail, Open Country, Snow on Ground, Scramble

Trip: Goode Mountain - Northeast Buttress Trip Date: 07/29/2021 Trip Report: We started from the PCT junction near Rainy Pass. This is not far from the wildfires currently burning on the eastern slopes of Silver Star and North Gardner, but luckily a westerly wind kept the area mostly smoke free. The hiking is easy and straightforward all the way to the ford of North Fork Bridge Creek. With the dry temps and the heat waves of June and July, the river crossing was trivial. At most the water was just above the ankles. We took a rock gully strait from the crossing to the waterfall, which saved us any bushwhacking. The waterfall slabs were also not bad. A bit exposed at times but easy climbing. We followed the climber's trail through 90% of the alder above the slabs, losing it just at the end. But the bushwhacking is not hard even without the trail. We made camp at 5600' at a bivy site just below the slabs. To get onto the glacier we crossed over an icefall, which despite being broken to bits was fairly solid. Had a close encounter with rockfall off the cliffs above the glacier, a reminder to minimize time spent getting onto and crossing it. The moat crossing was also easy. A collapsed snow bridge gave us good access at 6800'. From there we ascended a class 4 ledge climber's left for a hundred feet or so. Above that was only one pitch of low 5th class climbing to gain the ridge crest. Ridge crest itself was easy 3rd and 4th and we soloed/simuled through it staying just left of the crest. When the ridge steepens we stayed right in the gully, climbing the low 5th class to reach the bivy ledge. From there we climbed left to gain the final summit ridge, low or mid 5th class leading to 4th class. No snow on the route whatsoever. We took the Southwest Couloir down, which redefined how I think of loose rock. Made camp at Park Creek, hiked out next day. Weather was fantastic, the westerly wind persisted and kept us with clear skies and clean air. All around a great trip. Gear Notes: Ice Axe, Crampons, Rope, Headlamp, Ski Poles, Bivouac Approach Notes: Road Hike, Maintained Trail, Unmaintained Trail, Open Country, Bushwhack, Stream Ford, Snow on Ground, Scramble, Exposed Scramble, Rock Climb, Glacier Climb

Definitely interested in doing some skills review and potentially a climb or two this summer. If we can get a group together let me know!

Hey, sent you an offer/request for the sleeping bag via PM. Please let me know.

Bibler I tent or Eldorado, cant remember exactly which one it is. Very light use. $450/best offer.

It sounds like we have similar levels of experience and I am also searching for folks in the Seattle area to make a good rope team this summer. I have a preference for weekdays as well. Let me know if you’re interested in discussing things!

As an FYI in the Methow Valley the local snowmobile club has multiple warming huts that operate similar to the proposed hut in Canyon Creek. As a relatively decent backcountry skier and absolute hack snowmobiler I really appreciate the chance to warm up and take a breather at the publicly accessible club warming huts. Also in the Methow there are the privately owned Rendezvous Hut system on the Methow Trails system. With the exception of the covid years those huts are always open for public day usage and function as warming huts as well. Plus Methow Trails operates a warming hut that is also on a trailer and is removed as soon as the snow is gone.

Thanks for the takeaways tbickford. For those interested, the public comments are posted here: https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//ReadingRoom?Project=65559

Looking for a pair of older bellowed Scarpa F1, F1 Race, or F1 Carbon in size 27 (shell marked 7.5-8, 301mm). F1 F1 Race F1 Carbon

I've just recently started taking my bike out on my gravely ground how do you find it? I've had a few near misses where I thought I was about to come off it, does anyone have sports insurance? I decided to take some out as I also like to climb and I thought it would be best:)

dark choc, dried fruit and nuts are a lot of things I take. The scotch I do not take but might have to take a cheeky bit next time I walk now lol

wowwww some of these photos are amazing, making me want to get out on the slopes

I wasn't there tonight but what @tbickford says above was backed up by a friend who was also present. Get yer comments in folks!

Some takeaways from the meeting this evening: I couldn't make the (sneaky!) 4 pm start time, so missed some of the presentations, but was able to speak to a number of folks about the proposals afterward. Basically, many of the concerns Kameron voiced at the start of this thread are spot on. - Most significant to me seems to be Aspire's plans to build not just a shelter at Heliotrope, but also one at Grouse Ridge and "a few" (Abram of Aspire's words) shelters at Artist Point. According to Abram, they would be running paid snowmobile shuttles to these shelters through the winter, and offering experiences to folks involving building fires and cooking food (read: glamping). They also hope to partner with guide services to offer ski trips and avy courses out of these shelters. Notably, the FS proposal only concerns itself with the Heliotrope shelter and many folks, including myself, were unaware of the other structures being pursued; when I asked Abram about this, he blamed it on the FS and took little responsibility for getting this rather critical information out to the user base. His arguments for the shelters centered on "spreading out impact" (not sure how running glamping trips on Heliotrope and Artist Point would be spreading out the crowds, personally) and the idea that lots of private companies make money off public lands, so why not them? A FS ranger told me that they are primarily considering the Heliotrope shelter first, and will make moves on the others depending on public comment and other vague provisos. - BMG seems to have zero plan in place for allowing the public to use their shelter, and they know that public use will be difficult anyway due to the logistics of reserving their shelter as a public user without official paid access to the Hampton land. And by "zero plan", I mean that BMG's owner said he literally hasn't considered it yet. BMG will pay 3% of their gross revenue to the FS for the land use. - the snowmobile club's shelter will be on wheels as stated in the proposal, and available to the public at any time. They'll pull it out every season once it melts out. - Roundhouse representatives weren't present, so not much information there. An interesting theme of the meeting was the general lack of information available about how these huts will benefit the public, how the commercial interests involved will run their operations, and how long these permits will be valid for. Numerous FS officials and guide service owners/reps had little to offer on these questions. The district ranger basically copped to a desire within the agency to make something happen with the proposal, whatever the outcome. We also caught the tail end of an interesting presentation on the possible impact on winter wolverine habitat, which would seem to mainly affect the Heliotrope site. Anyway, that's what I got. Sorry for the salty editorializing, but in my view this proposal is just ramrodding the interests of commercial enterprise down our throats with woefully insufficient information. I'm actually down with the snowmobile shelter, which has precedent in the Nooksack Valley and is being run by a nonprofit organization. The others are problematic, to say the least. Hopefully someone else can fill in the gaps that I missed or may have perceived differently.

Statewide Drought Declaration

Thanks for the reply. I saw a post on FB someone saying ID on Rainier is out already this year "...at 13,000' where I was met with a massive bergshrund that extended from the Emmons Glacier almost to Gibraltar Rock." Facebook link

t I was driving back from the end of the MF Nooksack FS road once and some guys were hanging around their car. One of them waved as we drove by and they chatted us up. The dude had been riding around on his dirt bike with a pistol in his waistband and it had fallen out. Kind of sheepishly, they asked if we'd seen it on the road. We said "nah" and got out of there.

Hi Max, I'm not sure what makes that approach more "legit" than going in from the MF Nooksack. As far as I can tell, either route passes through Hampton land which is gated and officially requires permission from the landholder. The route in from the MF Nooksack is also bikeable. If I'm off on those details, though, I'd be keen to hear it