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I got back last night from a four-day trip to the yurts (Wallowa Alpine Huts, WAH) in McCully Basin in the Wallowa Mountains in northeast Oregon. There wasn't a TON of information online about the area so I thought I could contribute a tiny bit to what's out there. Here's one useful report from Wildsnow that includes a link to a GPX with some ski runs. Apologies in advance for the weird photo sizing/formatting below. Best I could do without taking hours on it... You might be wondering where this area is. Wikipedia article here for your reading pleasure. I was lucky enough to be invited on the trip with nine other people, knowing only one of them going in. Thank you, @Hoo!!! We were so lucky with snow conditions and weather for this trip. I won't share my entire journal entry about the trip, but here are some highlights: The drive from Seattle to Joseph, Oregon included listening to a very interesting New Yorker podcast about "smoking toad" and then (seriously) almost running out of gas going over the Blue Mountains due to my misjudgment of the distance between towns with gas stations. WHEW. Finally in Joseph, we had dinner at this odd tiny cafe + pet store concept (The Dog Spot) but the food was EXCELLENT. Rotating menu every two weeks; we enjoyed some black mushroom dumplings and dandan noodles... 🤤 Joseph: We got to the house where we were all staying the night before heading into the yurts. After hanging out for awhile, I was poking around the house and I found that there was a door with stairs leading to a garage or basement? I walked down the stairs and... oh, hello, there's a human down here! It was Silas, a young guy working on guide certs, who would be with us for the trip in the next day. Meeting him there was the first surprise of many on this trip. The WAH owner, AKA the yurtmeister, is not known for his communication skills....but I hear he's a fun guy to be around! The next morning, we met the other two guides at a cafe down the street. The lead guide repeated: "It's a FOUR mile skin in! Make sure you bring enough water!" FOUR MILES!?!?!?! 1800' gain! We felt there was a 50/50 chance of us making it to the yurts. My giant backpack weighed 40-45 pounds, including a fifth of whiskey, almost an entire six-pack, about 2.5 pounds of peanut M&Ms, half of a quiche, a couple dozen cookies, a loaf of bread I made, lots of fresh vegetables, my touring pack ...etc etc.. Micah's pack job was beautiful and the bag of Juanita's survived the journey in quite well: We'd learned the day before that we would be getting a snowmobile tow in for about a mile! Packs in a tub behind the snowmachine, in ski mode, it was kind of like waterskiing. I won't name any names, but I don't think it's a coincidence that the two times we had to stop were because someone on split skis fell over... (couldn't help myself). For real, though, @Hooreally showed off his split skiing game this trip; I think his board spent significantly more time in split mode than together on the descents. And so, rising out of the crusty snow up to the consistent soft stuff, we arrived at the yurts (7540'). There were three: a kitchen yurt and two sleeping yurts. The advertised sauna yurt hadn't been constructed in years, it seemed. We were in Eagle Cap Wilderness and the yurts are taken down and put up each year. Yurts had cots, sleeping pads, stocked wood/stoves, the usual ski hut cooking supplies, propane lanterns and stoves, no bleach 🤨. Open creek hole nearby supplied the water; haven't come down with giardia yet. Kitchen/hangout yurt and really awesome lichen that I will try to identify soon: Due to the deep persistent slab problem and high winds everywhere, we kept the skiing pretty darn mellow. We went on two short tours the afternoon of our arrival, finding variable conditions and then better soft stuff; the next day we skied in somewhat stormy conditions all day with great fast snow and refills all day; and days three and four we lucked out with beautiful weather and poked around a little higher. Sunday, day three, we toured over a sandblasted saddle (8590') on the east side of the basin and down into Little Sheep Basin and skied a couple really fun, longer laps on a NW aspect before heading back over to McCully Basin: Monday, everyone else packed up and left right away, but Micah and I decided to check out things to the west: we toured low-angle slopes up to Bear Mountain (9170'), a very broad and wind-scoured rocky summit, and then after a bit of doubt on my part (we had no pons, axes, whippet) and a couple carries through rocks, we were able to pretty easily take the ridge up to the top of Aneroid Mountain (9700'). The views were STUNNING! I hadn't heard the word aneroid before, so I looked it up: adjective - 1. using no liquid 2. relating to or denoting a barometer that measures air pressure by the action of the air in deforming the elastic lid of an evacuated box or chamber. TMYK! We took a short bonus lap on the way down to the yurts and finally Micah said he was feeling a little worked! On the exit back down into civilization, we had a sometimes-exciting downhill skin out and then a fast ski down and out the snowmobile/ski track and icy road. The six hours back to Seattle went without incident. What a fantastic trip! So lucky. Although I don't describe the other yurt-mates here, it was a great time all around, even after the sun went down. Thank you, Micah!

First time back to the Snoqualmie environs since 2019. It was a Snoquality day. Great snow on all but direct S. aspects, which were about of 10" of powder on a stout crust.

I hope everyone realizes by now that @olyclimber is taking responsibility for supporting the site out of his own pocket. I had an idea to help out in this regard, namely to print and frame six of my images and auction them in support of the site. I have set the opening bid prices to give the site a decent donation, while still covering my material costs for printing and framing each image. I am not charging for my labor, nor delivery of these framed prints to anywhere along I-5, from Bellingham to Seattle. I'm totally biased, but they look really nice. It is a bit of a gamble. I hope this works to generate some income for running the site, but it is up to you all to see if it does! If you are interested in a particular image, please respond in the thread below and I will track them (I'll try and keep the bids below updated as the prices rise). I will keep the bidding open for about two weeks, closing at 23:59 on 1/23/23. Bids are closed! Image #1. Fire on the Mountain. Sunrise on the Inspiration Icecap. Image is 16"X24" (HxW), total framed size is 27"X33" (HxW). @Sir Crikalot wins with $200! Image #2. Eldorado from Primus. Note the climbers on the summit ridge. Image is 24"X16", total framed size is 31"X25". @bellows wins with $300! Image #3. High Summer in the Pickets. Image is 16"X24". Total Framed size is 25"X31". @Sir Crikalotwins with $360! Image #4. Sunrise of McMillan Spires. Image is 24"X16", total framed size is 31"X25". @Sir Crikalotwins with $360! Image #5. East Fury Sunrise. Image is 16"X24". Total Framed size is 25"X31". MY SISTER ( 😅) wins with $225! Image #6. Crowder from Pickell Pass. Image is 16"X24". Total Framed size is 25"X31". @Sir Crikalot wins with $175.

I snapped my tib/fib falling off a training wall at the UW. and before that had an infection that almost killed me that I got while climbing. these things happened in consecutive years and after the second incident I ended up just focusing on my son and raising him, and my climbing dropped off a cliff. Breaking my leg definitely had a psychological effect on me, and I can't say that I ever really recovered to where I was before that happened...so maybe I'm not the guy to talk to. But now that my son is raised I've been getting back into the hills again (just scrambles and planning a modest easy climb with a ropegun). I'd like to get out cragging again too, but my goals and aspirations are no where near what they were, but I'm ok with that. I just like getting outside and into the alpine and staying as fit as I can.

For those with a high clearance 4WD, you can currently drive to Pole Creek TH in the Sisters (OR) and a 2 hr ski gets you to numerous N facing flows off the E buttress of North Sister.

Tomorrow (the 14th) is Fred Beckey's 100th birthday. 🎂

Cassidy, @aaronohn, and I spent Saturday night at the Mountaineers Lodge. We skiied Saturday in very windy, low vis conditions, looking for the best snow and vis -- Swift Creek delivered OK but was somehow even more uninspiring than usual, TONS of people. Our last lap was a little farther down the ridge and no one else was there or had been there - way better! Wish we'd gone there first... We also enjoyed stomping all the wind lips and baby cornices we could find along the way around Austin Pass! Sorry for weird and inconsistent white balance/colors in these. I still haven't figured out how to best deal with low light and snow colors within the Google Photos editing options... (open to all advice there): Played the GAME OF EARTH Saturday night -- HIGHLY recommend. Created by an earth sciences teacher in the late 90s! Sunday, I sat in the lodge feeling a bit sorry for myself with a swollen foot thing while Aaron and Cassidy skiied the Stoneman couloir!

Fred was always looking ahead for his next adventure. He never wanted to re-hash his past accomplishments. He was a true explorer that did immaculate research and sacrificed the comforts of modern life to advance knowledge of the mountains and live a purpose driven life. I was lucky enough to call Fred a friend and see a side of him that was insightful, always curious about new technology and interested in what was going on in your life. He is still missed.

TODAY is your last day to bid on the images!

Denali via the West Buttress, May 14-June 2, 2021 (just now got around to making the TR video). Team 3:1 Advantage (3 person team originally, then 2 person). This was my husband's (Marlin Thorman) and my 50th state highpoint we accomplished together. Itinerary: May 14 - Flew onto Kahiltna Glacier. Trekked from the airstrip to 7800' camp. Starting weight was about 140lb food and fuel per person (prepared for 28 days). May 15 - 7800’ camp to 9900’ camp May 16 - 9900’ Camp to 11k camp May 17 - Rest day in 11k camp May 18 - Cache to 13,500’ May 19 - Rest/weather day May 20 - My husband trekked our 3rd teammate out to the airstrip and back by himself. (Teammate bailed due to inability to tolerate altitude and exertion with having had covid recently.) May 21 - Move from 11k camp to 14k camp (windy/snowy day, but worse weather approaching) May 22 - Establishing camp at 14k May 23 - Camp reinforcement & repair day due to broken tent pole from high winds overnight May 24 - Retrieve cache from 13,500’ and Edge of the World excursion May 25 - Cache to 16,800’ May 26 - Reconstructing the melting camp walls day, dug an underground bathroom May 27 - Weather day (lots of shoveling snow) May 28 - Rest day May 29 - Weather day (snowing & super windy again) May 30 - Move from 14k’ camp to 17k’ camp May 31 - Summit day, pack up 17k’ camp, back to 14k’ camp (bad weather approaching) June 1 - 14k’ camp to 7800’ camp. Tried to push to the airstrip but poor visibility and no broken trail on lower mountain made going slow and precarious with unknown crevasse locations. June 2 - 7800’ camp to airstrip and flew out to Talkeetna. Beautiful day! Trip report video: Detailed video of our snow castle camp at 14k'......

What a great write up, I haven't read anything that entertaining for a few years. As a former Sar responder I appreciate your views on the out doors and you are completely right. Such a great adventure, I hope you two look back and smile about this in 10 years. Keep having fun and climb safe!

Fred and I were strip-searched at the Canadian border in 1973 because of some suspicious looking powder he had in his car glove box. That was the first sign that the trip was headed off the rails. After watching Dirtbag, I realized that I wasn’t really a climber. I didn’t have the right to call myself a real climber even though I spent decades trying to be. Fred was a real deal climber. He sacrificed everything for climbing. He had the kind of focus that I could only admire. I saw this guy in Tahoe City a few years ago (after Fred had died). Made me wonder if he really was too tough to croak. “We never grow tired of each other, the mountains and I”, Li Po wrote 12 centuries ago. there will never be another Fred Beckey.

Love it! I love Eastern Oregon...want to do some exploration in the central eastern part on a bike! This looks like an awesome trip! In the realm of "smoking toads", I randomly came across this podcast about a particular (the strongest by far apparently) of magic mushroom...and was surprised to hear that it has it "roots" right here in Seattle and that people used to harvest shrooms out of the Arboretum by the UW 75 pounds at a time.