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Apparently NWAC and the TAY website either don't welcome or downgrade your opinions and or observations. NWAC is a joint effort between the USFS Avalanche Center and the non profit NWAC. While anyone can submit observations, NWAC forecasters get to make the call on the amount of information publicly provided. Sometimes that means making a judgement on when there is sufficient or too much information. If you feel they are ignoring vital information you can keep plugging or file a complaint. NWAC is a member of the American Avalanche Association and the National Avalanche Center. Those are the organizations you can contact. In addition NWAC files all governing documents and tax returns. These are available for public review. TAY is a private website. Public/member input is encouraged, but if enough site users dislike how you express yourself online, the site owner or moderators can ban or block you. The only alternative left is starting your own blog or going to a similar website and expressing your views there. Cascade Climbers is a good way to meet and talk to others who may have similar interests. On the other hand it isn't the best place if your primary interest is expressing complaints about other websites or organizations. You can post trip reports and add condition observations here...

forget the feds. pick an abandoned trail. hike it with a pair of loppers, a pruning saw, and an entrenching tool. convince acquaintances to do the same. poof! free trail.

Trip: Stuart Range - various Trip Date: 04/16/2016 Trip Report: 2016 was a sick spring in the Stuart range for skiing. After spending a good part of the last decade skiing around in the range I have witnessed many healthy snow packs in the Cascades and the Stuart range will remain a little bony in comparison. Just east enough from the crest to miss out on some of the storms I guess. I have had my eyes on a few unskied lines in the range and when I took a little recon ski up into mountaineers creek area I got pretty excited to see the little ribbons of white snow connecting faces like I have been dreaming about! It was on! The next three descents went down between the 16th and 30th of April: First up was Sherpa peak. I talked Sam Duke into checking out the NE Couloirs. As far as I know nobody has skied from near the summit along the ridge into the couloir. I always try to honor peaks I am skiing by visiting their summits, Sherpa's summit is guarded by some great low 5th class scrambling with an airy summit. When you think you are out of climbable rock, you peak around the north side and a sidewalk of snow in the sky allows passage to a overhanging chimney that is easily scrambled through-after removing your pack and sliding through back into the brilliant sun on the summit! It was a great day to be up high in the range!! Having watched this movie maybe a little too many times, we were excited to try some "dry ski" techniques on our home range! We connected some good skiing with some legitimate scrambling with our skis on. Sam starts our ski off a little ways under the summit after we made the last of our rappels back to the shred sticks: Looking down the ridge to the top of the Couloir, we were able to keep our skis on for all of this section: Here is Sam detuning his brand new skis: And back into the Couloir we enjoyed pow down to the apron and then fast perfect spring corn down to the valley. Next up was the NW face of Colchuck peak. On the Sherpa trip Sam didn't have a bike, so on this trip he decided to borrow a bmx bike from a neighbor kid. Neglecting to notice the lack of brakes he ended up burning through the sole of both his shoes on the way out by putting his foot on the back tire to slow down. Style pointz: We also had our good friend Tom Murphy along for this trip, never one to miss a good adventure! I have skied the upper NW face on a couple of occasions as its the standard route from the top of the NEB to the summit. The NEB is a nice little couloir, but the real fun is on the NW face, steep and exposed I have always felt the draw to keep skiing down the face when the traverse back to the NEB starts. We found our way under the face from Mountaineers creek through giant Larch trees. It was a neat corner of the Range none of us had visited before. Not having much info on the route we headed straight up and after a little bit of scrambling we were on the snowfield that I knew connected to the upper faces, it was in the bag! The climb was smooth and uneventful, we were bumping rap music on the summit before we knew it! We put our skis on and Sam went first, the top of the NW face rolls over steeply. Before we knew it Sam came flying back out into view, waaaayyyyy down the face, it was RIPPER!! We all made huge fast GS turns down the exposed face, so good that no pictures were taken. We regrouped where the traverse to the NBC starts, we were electric with stoke. Now for some new terrain. I got to go first and brought us down to the only section we did not ski, it was a short 15m rap off of a little bush. What we did not see on the way up was a hidden couloir that connected to the lower face, we would not have to rappel or downclimb the sections we had climbed earlier! Just a short hop into the chute and we were home free! Here is a crappy shot of the face on the way out: The beers and bikes made descending from a melted out parking lot and road to a locked gate painless... Last but not least: The mighty Mount Stuart. Skiing off the summit of Mt Stuart is one of the most rewarding descents in the range in my opinion. Its just a magical place to be putting your skis on, and Ulrichs is without a doubt the plumb line! I have skied it three times and have always been curious about some of the other lines on the south face. For this trip I was with my good friend Matt Bowen, we have shared some amazing descents in the cascades together. We had to visit the summit, so rather than climbing the line and dealing with climbing the ridge to the summit we opted for an ascent of the Cascadian and then up and over the summit, making a series of rappels and scrambles down into the West Ridge Couloir. The WRC winds its way down allowing for a continuous descent, interesting to note on this day there were two other parties skiing the cascadian, neither of which visited the true summit. The Cascadian this day was melted out around 700 vert from the valley floor, while the WRC had snow all the way down to were we put skins back on to slog back up Longs making for a great alternate descent to the Cascadian if it is melted out and you arent planning on visiting the summit. This thing really is a fun ski! We had a great time finding our way down the ridge: A final look back up at the summit ridge: The snow was so perfect and it was really neat to explore a new place top down: I really cant recommend this descent enough...its a good one! Here's to another spring in the Stuart range! Gear Notes: ski stuff Approach Notes: bikes and IPAs

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Triple Couloirs Trip Date: 04/30/2017 Trip Report: The start of the spring alpine season has me thinking back to last year when I climbed the Triple Couloirs route. I had a blast climbing this route, for sure the best day I had out that season. I thought others might enjoy hearing about my adventure and perhaps find some of the tactics I used to go fast on the approach and route helpful for their own adventures, should we see a repeat of those perfect conditions again this year. With a young family and 9-5 job, I don't have much time for alpine climbing, and not much tolerance for risk either. And so I find myself doing less and less climbing and doing more trail running. It is just easier to slip out at nap time or after the kids are asleep and run around in the mountains for a couple hours. But, still a climber at heart, I keep a tick list of dream routes and make it a habit to monitor conditions throughout the season, 'just in case'. And so it was that, on the train to work one rainy April morning, I came across a great TR about a team who had third-classed the Triple Couloirs. I figured it would be out of condition before I found time to climb it but nevertheless, started checking weather forecasts for Leavenworth and formulating a plan. The following Saturday I'd hoped to ski up Baker with a buddy but the weather was terrible so we decided to postpone the trip. Then at nap time I checked the forecast for Leavenworth again and, to my surprise, Sunday looked really good. With the blessing of my better half, I packed up some gear and, after dinner, headed south in the driving rain. The plan was simple: Bivy, run the approach with a light pack, climb the route, run the descent, get back to Vancouver in time for dinner. But would it work? The skies cleared as I descended down towards Leavenworth and I had a nice, albeit short, bivy in the car. Awake and brewing coffee by 3:00am, I left the car just after 3:30am with trail running shoes on my feet and a very light pack. My pack contained boots (the original and still awesome LaSportiva Trango Ice), Grivel G20 crampons, Nomic ice tools (not the best choice for a route like this but it's all I've got), helmet, extra clothes, food, water, and some emergency gear (including inreach). Going superlight allowed me to run most of the approach. Normally for winter soloing I like to carry a rope and light rack so that I can bail if an ice tool or crampon breaks. For this route I chose to leave this stuff behind because the route looked to be in easy condition, down-climbable should equipment issues arise. I promised myself I would abort the climb if I came across unexpectedly difficult terrain. The road section of the approach, from the gate at the highway to the summer trailhead, passed easily at a light jog. About halfway up the road I passed a cougar sitting beside the road. This was my first encounter with such a big cat and, alone in the pre-dawn darkness, I was a bit spooked. I walked a good ways until I was sure I wasn't being followed, looking over my shoulder every five seconds and wondering how quickly I could get my trusty Nomics off my pack should I need them for self-defence. From the summer trailhead, the route up to Colchuck Lake was well packed and easy to follow. I arrived at Colchuk Lake faster than expected, around 2:30 after leaving the highway. The route looked absolutely incredible! At the end of the lake I geared up for the climb and stashed my running shoes and poles under a tree. Traveling on firm snow, the climbing above the lake was fun and easy. At the first couloir I met a team of climbers who had put in a nice boot pack up to that point. I continued up to the narrows, which would be the 'go/no go' point of my climb. Conditions in the narrows were as expected - firm snow and bits of ice, just a joy to climb. And so I continued upward and on into the second and then third couloirs. I didn't climb particularly quickly, it was just too much fun to rush through, plus it's not a place you'd want to take a tumble. But with a light pack and no gear to place the terrain passed by quickly and all too soon I was climbing out of the third couloir and into the sun. I reached the summit just a hair under the five hour mark. I could have spent the rest of the day napping on the summit under the warm sun but the plan was to be home to help with dinner so after a few minutes it was time to get moving again. The descent looked straightforward and indeed it was. Thirty minutes after leaving the summit I was back at the lake, chatting with a fellow Canadian on his own solo adventure. Above us I could see two teams on the Triple Couloirs. We were all enjoying a perfect day in the mountains. I changed back into running shoes, added microspikes for the descent, and bid adieu to Dragontail Peak. The descent back to the car made for a fun trail run. I passed some skiers partway down who were slowed by the icy conditions on the trail. For sure trail runners and microspikes were the fastest (and most fun?) way to travel on that terrain. Below the summer trailhead hikers were heading up the road in shorts and t-shirts under the warm mid-morning sun. The alpine world I had just left already felt like a distant memory. Was it just a dream? I arrived back at the car at 11:00am for a round-trip time of 7 hours 26 minutes. It had been an incredible morning of trail running and climbing. No suffering, nothing particularly risky, just uninterrupted flow in the mountains. After a sandwich and espresso in town, I hit the road back up to Vancouver, arriving home just in time for dinner. Gear Notes: Small pack with just the essentials Approach Notes: Bare ground and packed snow. Trail runners ideal, better to carry the mtn boots in the pack.

Start world war three, end it with nuclear holocaust, no more crowding on the trails, and no more government that funds military instead of conservation! Seems flawless

More trails! If you look at old maps, there are hundreds of miles of trails that have been abandoned. Clear 'em out and publicize them!

Trout are voracious predators that disrupted the ecosystem of mountain lakes. It'd be like adding polar bears to pre-schools, but more gory. Hey, do you suppose we could arm those polar bears with AR-15s? Seriously, though, here's an article on trout in mountain lakes. NYTimes on trout in lakes