Leaderboard

Heads up y'all: There's been a bunch of rockfall from the side of Mt Parkes in the last few months, culminating in a large landslide (not quite Joffre sized), from right where the Crossover descent trail crosses the ledge under the summit of Parkes before beginning its descent through the meadows. Rockfall seems to be mostly to skiiers right as you descend the meadows but the top of the scar may or may not have taken out the descent ledge completely. Please be aware of this if planning to climb Slesse and be prepared to use alternate descents to avoid the rockfall hazard. The simplest descent is probably the west side Slesse Mountain Trail to Slesse Creek. You'll need a car shuttle or mountain bike to get back around from there to a vehicle in Nesakwatch Creek. Photo from Mike Garcia, taken from Slesse NEB

Trip: Snoqualmie Pass - Commonwealth Ultimate Ridge Linkup (CURL) Trip Date: 07/28/2019 Trip Report: Anthony and I did a fun enchainment of Guy Peak (south side), Snoqualmie, Lundin, Red, Katwalk Peak (north of the Katwalk), and Kendall. There was some exceptional scrambling, hours of exposed "Beckey 4th class". We tried to stay on the ridge proper as much as possible except for when it was simply too sketchy in trail runners or it was too vegetated. Here's some beta: - Guye Peak: approached from underneath the west face, we climbed a rib to the left of the South Gully, this offered some amazingly steep, hero juggy scrambling. - Snoqualmie to Lundin: There is an incredible knife edge just after Snoqualmie. West ridge of Lundin is cruiser, bypassed the impassable gaps on the left with some low 5th. - Lundin to Red: There is an optional gendarme (which we took) partway down the ridge which was probably the crux of the entire route for us. We left the Red Pass trail and the talus field and climbed a gully system to the summit. - Red to Katwalk Peak: The descent off Red was nowhere near as bad as people describe. Partway along the ridge, we ran into "The Cleft", a vertical impasse that splits the ridge. We had to descend a few hundred feet before finding a fourth class weakness through it, then climb back up to regain the ridge. - Katwalk Peak to Kendall Peak: mostly vegetated at first, but with some fun knife-edge right before the Katwalk. Kendall North Ridge is cruiser. It totaled 12 miles, 6.5k ft gain, and took us 8:23. Apparently it has been done in four hours . https://climberkyle.com/2019/07/28/commonwealth-ultimate-ridge-linkup-the-curl/ Scrambling steep terrain up the south face of Guye. More fun higher on Guye. Full view of the CURL. The middle summit of Guye. Awesome knife edge after Snoqualmie. West Ridge Lundin. Red mountain and the ridge. Crux gendarme. Some loose scrambling on Red. Fun slabs on the downclimb of Red. The 4th class weakness through the Cleft. \ Above the Kendall Katwalk. Red mountain with the Cleft visible on the right. Nearing summit of Kendall Peak. Gear Notes: Helmet, running vests, approach shoes. Approach Notes: Start up the neighborhoods beneath the west face of Guye, climb talus to the base, then curve right to the south face.

Trip: Echo Rock and Mount Fay - Smooty Smooters Trip Date: 06/30/2019 Trip Report: Seems as if the poor Mount Rainier forum is a bit neglected of late....which makes sense considering most routes in the park are best early in the year. Still, maybe you're looking for ideas for next spring? How about a double or triple Smoot day out of Mowich Lake? Echo and Observation Rocks plus Mount Fay are surely on your list so you might as well blast them out. There really isn't anything tricky about any of them so I'll just leave a few images to tease you in the coming months when you finally run out of ideas gleaned from Instagram. Sorry @BrettS, but you wore red. Gear Notes: Ice axe, and helmet Approach Notes: Spray Park from Mowich Lake then follow your nose back