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Trip: Snoqualmie Mountain - New York Gully Trip Date: 03/16/2018 Trip Report: Jacob and I scratched our way up New York Gully yesterday. With visions of grandeur, i carried a full aid rack and bivy gear up there to try the upper head wall. With no prior knowledge of the rock type, this seemed totally reasonable. In reality, it was not! No wonder there's a beautiful unclimbed wall less than two miles from a 12 month parking lot. Anyway, the route is one of my favorites I've done in the range. We even placed an ice screw! Gear Notes: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much. A run of cams, a few pins and a screw would have been plenty. Approach Notes: Armpit deep

We went up there yesterday (3/18). A few inches of snow had fallen the night before, leaving us with some powder plastered onto everything. There was lots of scratching around to find it, but the ice is still there, albeit a little on the thin side. I would strongly recommend either skis or snowshoes. But the approach and descent were a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge pain without any floatation.

So much discussion of risk is only "just-so stories". I survived because my risk decision making process and resultant acceptance of the risk of my activities was accurate, and somebody else died because they made a mistake. Except that that's horseshit. I got lucky many times. I fell off the north Apron 3rd class walk off ledge on a wet patch and caught myself on a tree at the lip of Voodoo Amour with my legs over the edge. I put a crampon through my gaiter on the approach ice to Cascade and slid for 100 m before self-arresting with a desperate overhand in the only patch of snow and turf on an otherwise entirely icy slab. I stopped for lunch or a snack twice only to have cornice collapses come down right where I would have been if I kept on going while climbing alpine routes. Any of those could have killed me. I wager everyone that's climbed has stories of close calls like that. Lucky isn't a learned behaviour. And it's nothing to moralize about.

Ryan Johnson was a good man. I met and climbed with him many years ago in the Utah desert, then we carpooled back to the NW after a bunch of climbing, racing back home in time for Thanksgiving in Washington. I remember we picked up another carpooler in Boise who we had found on Craigslist to split gas money, and the guy turned out to be an "adult model" photographer, with a variety of wild and crazy stories, though it was a relief when we dropped him off somewhere in Oregon... I remember how excited he was about the mountains around the Juneau Icefield and the Stikine area. It was because of his infectious psyche that I ended up making two trips to that region, and during one summer trip to the Mendenhall Towers, the weather was good enough for Ryan and a local friend to hire a helicopter ad come up and climb a route and camp alongside my partner and I. I saw and chatted a little with Ryan in the past few years, but last spring he bought a copy of my guidebook. My wife was searching via instagram and came across one of Ryan's posts which he had labelled #CascadesRock.I'm glad he got a kick out of the mailbox that day. I hope his collection of climbing guidebooks will go on to inspire someone else to great heights. I know the town and climber/skier community in Juneau will help nurture Ryan's young son Milo. Ryan also used to post to Cascade Climbers under the name AKIceBum, but he stayed above the fray and didn't post a ton.

If anyone needs a new shirt or wants a bumper sticker, some Alaska friends of Ryan's are making and selling them with the money to benefit Ryan's 2yr old son. https://www.facebook.com/Aurora-Projekt-111493205530459/

A Go-Fundme page for Ryan's family. He survived by a young boy. https://www.gofundme.com/ryanandmilo The Ryan and Milo GoFundMe was originally developed to support: (1) Getting other alpinists with experience in the Mendenhalls up to assist with potential ground search, (2) Assist with defraying costs of privately funded heli hours for search, (3) Assist with Care/Life/College fund for Ryan's 2.5 year old son Milo in a worst case scenario.As of Tuesday March 13th, this GoFundMe was updated to reflect the loss of Ryan and Marc, with priorities reflecting the original intention of the Ryan and Milo campaign in worst case scenario. Ryan was as equally passionate about family and fatherhood as he was about alpinism. Funds from this campaign will now go to: (1) Assist family and friends with closure and costs related to Ryan's passing, (2) Assist with Care/Life/College fund for Ryan's 2.5 year old son Milo who will be missing his father and father's emotional and financial support intensely.Thank you for helping in whatever way you can. Your caring and contributions will truly make a difference in this difficult time.Thanks again for your support and encouragement. Samuel H Johnson - Seward, Alaska A Friend and Alpine Climbing Partner of Ryan JohnsonThese funds will go to support costs related to closure for the family (service/funeral) and to a financial trust to be used for costs related care and education of Milo, Ryan's 2.5 year old son in the absence of financial support from his father Ryan.The administration of this campaign will be transferred to Ruth Johnson, Milo's grandmother who is working with attorneys and an investor to establish funds for Milo's care.

Page three of this thread has Ryan @akicebum and marc @marc_leclerc sharing bad partner stories back to back. Ryan's are pretty good.

came across this paper when looking up this info: http://mountainsandminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Taylor-Mapping-Adventure.pdf I started to read it but I have to get to work. not sure what the point of it was, but seemed like it could be interesting (to someone who was looking for a distraction at least)

Great pictures, thank you! Looks like a great time out in the hills.

Trip: Mt. Hood - Arachnophobia (Variation?) Black Spider Headwall Date: 1/6/2017 Trip Report: First trip report on here, please be kind. After looking at and talking for a long time about the Black Spider, my friend Tim and I took the cold and dry weather forecast and decided it seemed like a good conditions recipe to head up and check out in person. I picked Tim up about 1:15am and we were suited up and skinning by about 3:15am. The approach started fine, we decided to take the low way around the White River. Once we reached the Silcox hut we veered off. Neither of us having done this before we weren't exactly sure where we were going. Before we even reached the canyon, we had to ditch the skis and transition to crampons due to icy conditions, they were shouldered the rest of the day until the descent unfortunately. We got fairly confused and made for a long trip crossing the White River. Despite the slow going approach we found ourselves at the base of the snowfield below the Black Spider when the alpenglow hit. While harnessing up Tim realized his Platypus water bottle had popped and his harness and other gear was frozen solid, good start. After this was a mix of breakable crust, unconsolidated snow, and some decent neve. Getting up to the base of the wall added about 1.5-2 hours of wallowing to our approach we figured. Originally we planned on climbing the Center Drip, but from our approach angle it was hard to tell if it looked in or not, so we decided to go for Arachnophobia. The approach having taken longer than anticipated, we found ourselves on the headwall with direct sun and no wind, so we wanted to climb as fast as possible. Our plan was basically to simulclimb the route on our 40m skinny line. Despite warm temps on the wall, we experienced much less ice and rockfall than we planned for (though still some), comparable to mild days on the Reid. Now the good stuff. Tim led up the initial climbing and we simulclimbed until we reached the top of the 1st snowfield. Hero sticks the whole way with a tad bit of mixed in there made for very enjoyable and fun climbing, ear to ear smiles. From here we took what we believe to be a variation from the line in the Mt Hood book. Instead of heading right as it looks in the book, we moved straight up and climbed a thin ice line at the top left of the snowfield, essentially straightening up the line. This went somewhere around WI3 or 3+. I pounded in a small kb then a little heady but moderate mixed climbing that followed took us to the 2nd snowfield. Anyone know what this variation is called? Here again we varied from the line in the book, we both remembered that there was a right hand exit that took us to the summit snowfield, but we opted to follow the snowfield up and climbed alpine ice through what we believe to be the finish to the Elder/Russel route. From here we were pretty gassed and slowly climbed the final snowfield to the summit. We were worked and fully psyched to finally climb the Black Spider after a longer, more involved, and tiring day than we had planned. For gear, the route took solid screws the whole way and we pounded a few small kb's in some of the mixed climbing areas. Unfortunately Tim had some issue with his ice clipper and dropped 2 of our 6 screws making for some runout climbing, they should be at the base of the Black Spider if anyone feels ambitious. I can't figure out how to orient the pictures correctly, my apologies and I'll try to correct, if someone knows how, please let me know! Gear Notes: 6 screws, 5x13s and 1x10, dropped 2 (took great screws the whole way) Baby angle and kb's (used 2 kbs) Few cams and nuts (never used) Approach Notes: Low way around the White River, icy/wind blown conditions. Breakable crust, unconsolidated snow, and some decent neve to the base. Long and wallowing.

Im not gonna mention any names or what trip this was b/c I think some of the climbers on that trip may use this site. One time, I got invited to go with a group of people (one of which is a regular partner of mine and I have climbed with before) to do a grade IV alpine route. On the approach I listened to many stories of climbing long alpine routes... I eventually went up ahead and reached the bivi sites quickly. I then waited for an hour for my partners to arrive b/c a couple members decided to have a 1/2 hour 'decision making' time. They then persuaded the others to climb a different route to the bivi site up a long krumholtz slope insted of easy 3rd class rock. We bivied for the night and got up early for the climb. For some reason every small choice required a long 'decision making' time. It took forever to reach the base of the climb and I led the first pitch. It was fairly steep and you had to hang on your arms a bit but it was no more than 5.7. After spending 5 minutes on this short pitch I belayed the first person who tried it in mt boots, lowered off, changed to rock shoes, then re-climbed the pitch. Somehow the rope got put on the wrong side of some blocks and trees and the rope drag got terrible. After an hour of sorting out rope drag I just unclipped from the belay and started soloing up the next pitch (hauling a rope) and set up the next belay. I slept on my belay ledge for another hour while my team all changed shoes, repacked, sorted out the drag and climbed to me. I walked up the next easy (5.5) pitch without placing gear to save time and belayed another guy up, he told me how hard he was finding this climbing, then we belayed everyone else up. I soon realized that everyone was expecting me to lead everything and a couple members were not confident doing any leading or simul climbing one this long route... I suggested we go down after taking 10 hours (seriously!!) to get from camp to the top of Pitch 3.. after an hour 'decision making' time we started rapping down. I set up and found all the stations, went first and fixed the ropes ect.. Once off the rock I walked to camp... an hour later my partners show up by headlamp... These people were all really nice but were not prepared (except for a couple) to do this route, they asked me to go so I could ropegun (without being told).... I would climb with them again on easy routes but not on anything big again.

I had the following adventure last summer in the Bugs. I wrote this account to share with friends afterwards. I even took notes to make sure I woould be accurate as it was happening as it was all so bizarre. Preface: I'm just a normal guy that likes to climb when I get a chance. I have a wife, 2 kids, a house, a dog and a job. I don't get out a hell of a lot, but I'm thankful for the time I get. I usually get a one week trip per Summer along with other shorter outings. I think I get along fairly well with others and I've climbed with quite a few others and rarely if ever had had any "issues" with partners. I'm not any Super Alpinist by any means, but I like to think I move pretty quickly and safely in the mountains and have been fortunate enough to climb all over this continent as well as Europe and South America. My wife has kept me around for 18 years and I have a great time with the people I work with. When I'm out climbing I like to flip crap and expect to get it back. To me that's part of being out with the boys. The reason for this information will come clear when you read my story. Disclaimer: As my 6th grade art teacher would attest to, I have little if any creativity. I couldn't make this shit up if I tried. I like to tell a good story and on occasion have embellished a little, as I think most people do sometimes, but this story has NO exaggerations. I realize that this is just one side of the story. I'm sure my former partner has a different view. I do promise that all of the quotes are entirely accurate as I had time during this adventure to write them in my journal. The names of the key players (my former partner and his new friend) in this true-life story have been changed to protect their identities. Plus I don't want to discourage anyone from the pleasure of climbing with my former partner in the future. The Story I met Jethro about a year ago after looking for a partner on cc.com. We went cragging together a handful of times and we seemed to get along quite well. He climbs at about my level and we do similar work so had stuff to talk about. I mentioned in April that I wanted to get back to the Bugaboos as I hadn't been there in about 4 years. I would be my 5th trip to the Bugs, but I love that place and really wanted to try and climb the Becky/Chouinard route on South Howser. Jethro said he had wanted to get there as well. He had never been. We made tentative plans to go there in August. Jethro was going to Yosemite in June to try the Nose with 3 others. When he got back, I contacted him and he was still game to go to the Bugs the second week of August. He could only get 6 days off, but I said we could make it work. That would only leave 4 days of climbing when factoring in the 10 hour drive each way. The weather in the Bugaboos is extremely fickle, so I figured we might get 3 good days if we were lucky. Jethro picked me up at 10:30 instead of the agreed time of 9 am the morning of departure. Usually not a huge deal, but I knew that this would make it difficult to do the drive and hike in to the hut that same day. Still, I was just happy to be on the road and didn't even mention it. On the drive, Jethro mentioned that he hadn't been getting much sleep and wouldn't mind getting home a day early so he could rest before going back to work. I said that we would be limited on time as it is and I hoped to do some good climbs so we should play it by ear and see how the weather treats us. The drive goes good and we arrive at the trailhead at 9:30pm and slept in the car. I thought we could get up early and get to the hut and then climb McTech arête or something else with a short approach. When we get up I lay a tarp out and tell Jethro that he can lay his stuff out to pack as he just had all of his stuff in a HUGE haul bag in the back of the car. I was already packed and ready to go. Jethro said that he didn't feel like putting the effort in to packing so he was just going to take the haul bag up as he can just throw stuff in and go. I said that was a little strange. I've worn those things and they aren't the most comfortable things for packing and he had a regular big pack that he could use. He went on about how it really was a pretty comfortable pack and it wouldn't be a problem. Whatever dude, let's just go. He throws some more clothes in the Pig and we take off. He had asked how far it was to the hut and I said it has always taken me less than 2 hours to get there, but I didn't know how far. We take off on the trail to the strange looks of another 2 guys going up wondering what big walls we were going to be climbing with the Pig. I go at my usual pace and arrive at the hut in 1 hour 45 min. I wait for Jethro so we can go climbing. I wait. I wait. I worry that he might have fallen off of the trail so I start back down. I meet him a little way down. Jethro arrives at the hut in the record time of 4 hours and 30 min. Climbing for the day is out as it's almost 2pm. Jethro starts unpacking his Pig outside the hut. To my surprise he starts pulling out cans of food. I'm laughing as he continues to pull out canned food. He has big cans of tuna, chili, refried beans, and assorted other cans. He must have at least 10-15 big cans of food. Costco size flour tortilla bag and a few candy bars round out the food selection. He then pulls out a gri-gri, some swivels for hauling the pig and assorted other wall gear. It was quickly apparent that he had not unpacked his pig from the Yosemite trip a month earlier. I'm laughing and mention that maybe it took so long to get to the hut because his pack/pig weighed twice as much as it needed to. He really didn't say anything. The plan I made for climbing(Jethro didn't have any input, believe me I asked) was to go climb the west ridge of Pigeon Spire to acclimatize and then bivy at the base of the Becky/Chouinard route on Howser tower. The next day we would climb the Becky/Chouinard up and over. Jethro wondered about the water situation. I said we would not have water available until we dropped in for our bivy that night. He asked a couple of more times about the water and I again explained the situation, although I'm not sure he was getting it. We take off late for Pigeon as there was no reason to get going early as Pigeon is easy 5.4 and we would just get to the bivy spot early and begin getting cold. We were going light as we had to carry our gear up and over a 11,000ft mountain. I had a light 2 man bivy sack and some warm clothes and lots of Gu and a sandwich for dinner. We climbed up the Snowpatch/Bugaboo col and take a break at the top, which is about halfway to Pigeon spire. Jethro takes the moment to ask, "so is there water on the route?" I ask, "you didn't bring water?!" He says he brought a little but was just wondering if there was any on the route. I start laughing. Jethro then yells, "OK, that's 2 strikes. One more and I'm walking back down!" Huh?? He goes on to say that I flipped him shit about his food selection and now I was laughing at him about him not getting the water situation. I said that to me, flipping your partner shit and laughing about it was part of being in the mountains. He said he didn't play that game and wouldn't put up with it. OK Jethro. I apologized, explained the water situation again and we left the col for Pigeon. We climbed Pigeon. I led most of the way as Jethro was lagging on the rope. He was also very disorganized with the rack and his gear. As I'm climbing I'm thinking I'm not sure I want to be on a route as big as the Howser tower with his guy. What if I get the 3rd strike!?!? We can't back off of that route. Plus the weather looks a little iffy, but is forcast to get better the next day. We get to the summit of Pigeon and I ask Jethro what he thinks of Howser tomorrow. He says he's not sure he wants to do it. No problem. How about we go back to the hut and climb the Northeast ridge of Bugaboo tomorrow. It's a classic and I know the way since I've done it before. Sounds good. We get back to the hut by 7pm, eat and go to bed at 9 for a 4am wakeup and start up to Bugaboo Spire. The alarm goes off at 4am. I look out the window and not a cloud in the sky. Perfect weather! Jethro whispers, "hey Chris, I didn't get any sleep last night. I can't do any climbing today." It's Alpine climbing. Who sleeps!?!?!?!? I roll over and go back to sleep disgusted. I wake up at 7 and we are the only people in the hut, THE only. Everyone is out climbing or hiking. I'm not happy. Jethro gets up at 9am. I can't stand to look at him and go for a hike and scramble up Eastpost spire. I'm back by noon. He sits by me as I'm reading a magazine and wants to know what the plan is. I tell him I'm really disappointed with the trip as I get one climbing vacation in the summer and this is turning into a bust. I got the feeling that he had put nothing into the trip as I made all of the arrangements and did all of the planning. I didn't mind arranging, but it seemed as if he hadn't looked into the area at all and wanted me to plan everything as far as climbing and then bitch about the plan. Plus, the weather is perfect for climbing and these days are golden in the Bugaboos. He says between his work and girlfriend he hasn't been sleeping well and just wants to get home and get rest. He thinks he's having a hard time acclimatizing and tells me you must have acclimatized quicker because you were dragging me up Pigeon." I ask if he wants to climb tomorrow. He's not sure. I've had enough with this guy and tell him we should go tomorrow if he doesn't want to climb. He says he wants to leave and get home. Fine, we leave tomorrow morning. Maybe I can get home and salvage some climbing vacation somewhere else. About 7pm that night, Jethro comes up to me and says he is going down to the car to sleep as he can't sleep in the hut. See you in the morning when you come down. OK. He loads up the Pig and hikes down the trail. I get up in the morning and am out of the hut at 8am. Another perfect weather day wasted! The whole way down I'm thinking about who I can contact to go climbing with on short notice when I get home. I'm down the trail in an hour and wander into the parking lot. No Jethro or his car. Nowhere. I wander around the parking lot like a lost puppy with a huge pack, no Jethro. Two guys loading their packs getting ready to go up are looking at me and whispering to each other. I wonder if Jethro just drove down the road a bit to camp, so I walk about 1/2 mile down the ro... no Jethro. I come back to the parking lot and sit on my pack. What now? I sit there for about 20 minutes and all of a sudden Jethro drives in to the l...whew! He hops out of the car in a good mood and says, "this is fun, I want to stay another night." I just smile and start throwing all of my stuff in his car. I'm thinking the drive home will be hard. I'm changing my clothes by the car and Jethro say's "really, I want to stay another night. You can go back up to the hut and stay another night. It's not that far."(forgetting that it took him 4 1/2 hours to get there) I look at him and ask him if he is serious. Yep, he's serious. Me: "There's no freaking way I'm hiking back up to that hut. What's your deal?" Jethro: "When I came down last night I decided to go for a drive. I came across this trappers cabin with a campfire out front and I stopped and there was this gal there by herself and we hit it off and I spent the night and I want to stay there again tonight." Me: "are you serious?!" Jethro: "yep". Me : "I'm not hiking back up to that hut". Jethro: "I'm not driving home today". Jethro: (my favorite quote of the whole trip) "C'mon Chris, it doesn't always have to be about what you want to do". Me: (laughing my ass off) "are you serious?" I sit on my pack. It's 10am, nobody is coming out because the weather is perfect so I have no chance for a ride. All I could think to do was get my stuff out of this lunatic's car. I empty all of my stuff out. He jumps in the car and says he'll be back by 9 or 10 tomorrow morning. Away he goes. My brain is having a hard time keeping up with events as they are happening. What the hell am I going to do if he doesn't show up? We are 25 mile from pavement, and another 90 to anything more than a 2 horse town. I'm sitting in the parking lot with all of my stuff. The whole time the 2 dudes from California in the parking lot are watching this drama. I go over to them and explain my situation. They laugh. One of them is Bill Papas that owns a Crossfit franchise. I do Crossfit so I recognized his name. I fall in to the roll of official Bugaboo Parking Lot Greeter. People arrive in the lot and look at me and my stuff out of the corner of their eye. They ask what the deal is and I give the short version of my story. I talk to Bill and his partner Bill for quite a while. I talk to Rueben and Joe who arrive from Portland, who take pity on me and give me a beer and some fresh veggies from the garden. I talk to the guide Yorn from Canmore and his guest Richard from Pittsburgh. They gave me a huge bag of fresh cherries, which were very good. Scott Lee from North Conway, New Hampshire hiked down because of injury. He was going to the closest town for a few days while his partner climbed for a few more days with another guy up at the campground. We talked about world issues for over an hour. 4 kids from Golden, BC that came up for a hike. An older couple from Invermere up for a hike. All were great folks and I actually came to enjoy talking to all of the different people from all over the continent. I set up the tent in the parking lot at about 5 that evening as the bugs were starting to come out and I wanted someplace to escape. At about 7pm another car arrives in the parking lot. It's a new SUV and there's a gal in it by herself. Kinda strange, but I had seen stranger in the last few days. She pulls up and asks what I'm doing with a tent in the middle of the parking lot. I give her the short version of my story and she starts laughing. All of a sudden, Jethro jumps up from behind the back seat laughing. Again, my brain is shorting out and I call him a few choice words. They get out and Pocahontas opens the back of her SUV and starts putting my stuff in the back of her car. I ask her what the hell she is doing. She says she just learned from Jethro that I was in the parking lot and I should come back to her cabin and spend the night there instead of in the parking lot. All I could think of was that I needed to get close to Jethro's car, as that was my way out of here. Pocahontas loads all of my stuff, I take down the tent and throw it in and get in without saying a word. It quickly becomes apparent that these two are on a 2 day bender. They are both hammered and are swilling beer fast. She's cussing like a sailor and throwing her beer cans out the window as we are going 50+ miles per hour down a very rutted dirt road. She's what we would say in the south was rode hard and put away wet. Luckily, the ride is short as the cabin is only a few miles away from the trailhead. It's a very old 1 room trappers cabin on the river. There are hundreds of beer cans in the front yard along with lots of bottles of whiskey in the cabin. Pocahontas hands me a beer and tells me to relax and I can set up my tent in the yard. Jethro keeps his distance from me and continually wanders out for walks down the road. Pocahontas proceeds to tell me her life story on how she has "full status", which means she is registered as 1st nations so she and her family can trap all of the critters she wants. Pocahontas is as white as my Irish ass, but she says her grandfather was full blooded, so she gets "full status". She has a husband and 2 kids in Kolowna, has some problems but at least she's not as bad as her sister who's a hooker in Calgary hooked on opium (I thought opium went out of fashion in the 20's). I'm impressed with Jethro's selection of a girl as this one is definitely a keeper! As it starts to get dark, Jethro goes for one of his extended walks down the road. After 20 or 30 minutes, Pocahontas says she is going to look for Jethro. She jumps in her car and takes off down the road. I look at Jethro's car and think that it is now mine if I can find the keys. I run into the cabin and start going through all of his clothes looking for the keys to his car. No keys. I ransack the cabin looking. I look all through the car. No keys. My plan was to get the keys, get up in the middle of the night, throw my stuff in, flatten one of Pocahontas' tires and drive to Abbotsford and have my wife pick me up there. I would call Jethro's home and leave a message as to where his car was. I then get the idea to hotwire the car. I'm under the dash by headlamp after drinking 3 or 4 beers and think that this might not be a good idea. If I screw up the wiring job, then my way out is really in doubt. I give up and sit by the fire wondering what tomorrow will bring. Jethro and Pocahontas get back after being gone for over an hour in the woods. I sleep in the tent in the front yard. The next morning I wake to the sound of Jethro crushing beer cans. He fills up 2 trash bags full of cans and bottles and throws them in the back of the car. We both get in and drive 10 hours back Washington. Jethro drops me off at my house. I tell him it was an adventure and to get the hell off of my property. He seems ok with that and drives off. THE END