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I'm really surprised to read this bit and it's a pretty unfair version of history, although I'll be the first to admit that a lot of the trolls and general bad behavior likely caused a lot of lasting damage that will take time to fix. Yes, there was some really terrible behavior early on and those people were permanently banned. Should it happened quicker? I don't know, probably. Nobody handed us an owners manual when we started this; I was barely 24 when we went live. There are definitely people who I wish I had 86'ed earlier. But you of all people should have known how much we struggled with how to deal with these situtations, which is why I kind of find the "Ad impressions and the trolls won out" astonishing to read. We have never made a decision here for money. Did the trolls win? This site has been online for 18 years and has 8800+ TRs, so I'd argue no. Did they leave a lasting bruise, sure. I have however come to accept this world has changed, there was no iPhone, FB, IG, millions of apps vying for your attention when we first started. This was one of a handful of a small handful of climbing sites.

Trip: Mount Chaval - Standard Western Ramp Trip Date: 09/28/2018 Trip Report: Ahhhhhhhhhhh.....fall in the high country. Perhaps my favorite time of year. Crisp air, vibrant colors, no bugs, and long enough nights to actually get some sleep. Sure the glaciers are wrecked and the rock often damp, but it give you an excuse to head off the beaten path and do a bit of chossing! And chossing Kit and I did this past weekend on Chaval. We had the pleasure of zero trail between the car on the Illabot road and the peak, flavored by terrain that was always just a bit more rugged than the map would suggest. Given the modest altitude and barriers to admission, I was a little surprised that 2-3 parties a year climb Chaval. I guess its prominence from Darrington draws many potential suitors. At least one likely got more than they bargained for. We found a pair of Merrell boots neatly tied to each other and hung over a tree branch on the ridge leading to camp. Huh? We couldn't come up with a good reason to leave a pair of boots like that in the middle of such rugged terrain, or at least one that didn't involve a rescue. Just another Cascadian mystery that I probably will never find the answer to. And isn't mystery a big part of what draws us back to the hills time and time again? CHAVAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!! Mount Chaval, "It's like rehab for fat people" . Kit pauses at infinity fat camp. It doesn't get much better for fall colors on the west side: There she be, from camp. Kit had steel, I had aluminum. One was better than the other. Snowking: This wasn't mandatory, but it sort of was, just because it was there. Kit just below the summit: The view east from the top of Chaval: Dome: Snowking: Trying to beat the sunset: Time to get out the headlamps: The gloaming has begun: Yes, it looked like we attacked North Korea: My favorite: Dakobed: Sloan, Monte Cristo Peaks, and Pugh from camp: As we hiked out, the rain began to fall: Gear Notes: Helmet, ice axe, crampons Approach Notes: Park on Illabot road, on the western end of the old clear cut near the bridge over Illabot creek. Diagonal across lower part of unit, cross small stream to gain rib which is followed steeply upward to the top of the old unit. Angle up and left to ridge, topping out near small tarn on USGS quad. Follow ridge, generally, to 6100' col where good camps lie with year round water. You'll need to deviate here and there from ridge as it is craggy in sections. Past 6100' col you'll drop off north side to glacier via crappy gully (late season) or steep snow. Follow glacier up to ridge again and the prominent ramp which splits west face of Chaval. Take that ramp all the way to summit ridge and summit via some exposed class 3.

Once weed was legalized the potential for Muir on Saturday flamewars dropped way, way down. Also, some of the older trolls are now senile or mummified, which restricts their ability to post.

OK you old farts 💨 Time to throw down som more chit. first pic: Amphitheater Peak 1971? If you look closely, you can see Dave or Donn in the dihedral on the left side of the buttress. I had to scuttle back to camp for more hardware. We hadn’t really planned on climbing the whole thing that day so we hadn’t grabbed much gear. It actually only took a few hours to get to the top. second pic: Meat Grinder, Yosemite 1972 third pic: Steph Atwood on Breacfast of Champions 1976 fourth pic: Grand Wall December 1970 fifth pic: Town Crier UTW 1970 sixth pic: Green Drag-on 1972-73 maybe first ascent or first ascent attempt. I can’t remember which. seventh pic: remains of the original 2nd pitch of Town Crier after it peeled off eighth pic: Don Brooks Leaning Tower Yosemite 1973 ninth pic: Kit Lewis Midnight Rock mid 70’s last pic: Dawn Wall 1980

Nice bump. Here's one from 1978 as the inscription in the soft sandstone would indicate

does indeed look like manzanita

Yep @bellows will do!

Funny I should see this post after not being around for probably 10 years! I think it's a lot of things, but the young folks are going to gravitate toward social media. I was just talking out loud trying to remember my login here, mentioned it to the wife, and my 11-year old overhead and asked "What's a forum?" That probably sums it up pretty well. That, and many of us that *do* know what a forum is have drifted away due to family, work, etc. It's nice to log in after all this time, and still see familiar names. It really surprised me. Really *really* surprised me to still see the same folks running it that ran it last time I was here. Hats off guys! I've been on a lot of other hobby-centric forums, and I have to say that looking around here after all this time... there's a TON of life left in this place! Long live CascadeClimbers! -Kurt

Unfortunately I think most people post in the facebook group now. It's really too bad because whereas a forum like cc.com serves as a useful repository of information and trip reports for years/decades, on the Facebook group the posts that people make about their trips are essentially impossible to find after the first few days. I can't count the number of times I've found a key piece of information about some bit of navigation from some trip report here that is 5-10+ years old. Facebook is a terrible terrible medium for this kind of information, and yet people gravitate there because that's where they can get more "likes" on their reports. Sigh.