scot'teryx

If you have not signed up for this, please do so They do need to have you sign up to be able to participate: Contact Info: Suzanne Thornock suethornock@earthlink.net 425-514-5589 or Jack at 425-258-3431 ------------------------------------ Adopt-A-Crag Day Participants: As the day of the event nears we'd like to thank you for setting time aside to participate and inform you of the days agenda. We will be meeting at 8:15am in Monroe at the Monroe Park and Ride next to the Evergreen State Fairgrounds. We will leave the park and ride at 8:30am and Head to the Index climbing area. Carpooling arrangements will be finalized at the park and ride as necessary. If you need help with transportation and would like to participate contact Suzanne at -514-5589 or Jack at 425-258-3431. THINGS YOU NEED TO BRING: 1. Long pants are suggested 2. Rain gear (just in case) 3. Day pack to carry belongings in 4. Garden/work gloves if possible. We will provide latex gloves. 5. Water/something to drink 6. Sack lunch Members that have a release form on file will not need to fill out anything. Those that do not already have a completed release form must provide a completed release form before participating. We will have blank forms available. Those under 18 must have a form completed by their parent or guardian. THE PLAN: We will be cleaning up garbage and cutting the existing trails back at Index as our project. Jobs will be assigned when we arrive and have an exact head count of participants. Hopefully the weather will shine brightly on Saturday. Bring your sack lunch and have lunch by the river. Remember the golden climbing rule, pack out what you pack in. THE RAFFLE: As an incentive many of the vendors have donated items to our raffle. Each participant will receive one free raffle ticket for participating. Additional raffle tickets can be purchased for $2.00 each. You must sign in and participate to win any raffle items. The raffle is only for participants and all proceeds go to The Access Fund in the name of Cascade Crags Members. We will have two raffle drawings jugs, one for non-purchased raffle tickets and one for purchased raffle tickets. This will ensure a fair chance for all participants to win prizes. Items in the free ticket drawing: X Lowe Pack X Metolius Fingerboard X Bluewater Rope Items in the purchased ticket drawing: X Dana Pack X 5-10 shoes X Chaco Sandals X Other items THE PARTY: There will be pizza and refreshments provided at Cascade Crags following the cleanup. The raffle will be held during this time. Hang out with your friends at meet some other fellow climbers. Let's make Adopt-A-Crag Day a success together. See you on Saturday, September 7th. Climb on, Suzanne, Jack, Scott and Cascade Crags

This happened to me about 4 months ago. The police would not do anything as they said there was nothing stolen. My bank insured it, even though it was a debit card they used, but they used the cc numbers, and added their name on the fake CC. They went to home depot and charged $1000 and got a gift certificate. I was able to cancel the gift cert before they could use it, but they also got my amex and were able to spend a large hunk of change at liquor stores and such. I learned my lesson and always take my wallet with me, as this lesson cost me 2 weeks w/o cash and a total burden. Sorry if this has happened to anyone else, as I feel your pain. Those bastards need an ice screw through their ears!

Dru: Freakin hilarious! Big Time LOL! It seems I need to watch what I post on the wta website, as even admin's from CC's go there huh? What the hell are you climbers looking at that site for anyway? There's no beta for "Realization" or "Just Do It" there. Just countless posts of simple hikes, nothing that you would ever be interested in. I need to go whaling at the belay ledge on "Canary" - anyone want to come?

I was up on Vesper via the dog route yesterday and did note that in the log book a recent entry said that the moat was gnarly. Couldn't tell you though, but the N Face looks so sweeeet! Is it really that hard to protect?

#13 Stopper (almost had to leave it behind this weekend) #2 Camalot Metoulis adjustable daisy Not necessarily in that order

NOTE: This is an unorganized event, no sponsors, no nothing, fully supported by ourselves and friends Date: Saturday September 21st Teams: 3-4 Co-Ed Where: Mountain Loop Highway: Pilchuck, Dickerman, Vesper Very similar to the Eco-Challenge, as everyone in the group has to complete the race, and there is to be at least one woman for each team of 3-4. Flags will be placed on the route which will have to be retrieved by teams for each checkpoint. The challenge will start from the Mt Pilchuck trailhead (3100 feet) Teams will hit the summit (5324', 3 miles one way) and then scramble down to Frozen Lake beneath the lookout tower. From here they will scramble across the summit ridge towards Pinnacle Lake, and then take the Pinnacle Lake trail to the bottom where bikes will await them for the ride down to the Mountain Loop highway. Continuing on the Mountain Loop highway, teams will make their way to the Mt Dickerman trailhead (approx 9 miles, I will get exact figures) where they will either sleep or continue on. Trailhead is at 2000', and the summit is at 5723 after 4.3 miles of hiking one way. After bagging the summit of Mt Dickerman teams will then descend (if they wish, or camp) and get back on the bikes at the trailhead where they will then ride the Mountain Loop Highway towards the Sunshine Mine trail (4 miles or so) which will take them towards the summit of Vesper Peak. Trail is 4.0 miles to the summit with an elevation gain of 4100 feet. Summit is at 6214'. From there they will descend back to the trailhead, get on the bikes and head back to the finish line which will be the Verlot Ranger Station that is about 16.5 miles. All teams must complete at the same time, and they must stay together at all times. If one person needs to rest, then they all rest. This is an endurance climb/race, so don't underestimate it. I have climbed all these peaks, but never all in the same day, and never on a bike, so it is a true challenge. You would have to be crazy to want to do this. So are you ready? Here are the facts: Mileage hiking: Mileage biking: approx: 40 (7 miles are downhill from Mt Pilchuck) Elevation Gain: 10,100' We will need volunteers that will be at checkpoint throughout the race, such as the Mt Pilchuck Lookout Mt Pilchuck trailhead Verlot Ranger Station Dickerman Trailhead Dickerman Summit Sunshine Mine trailhead Vesper Summit register your teams ASAP! scott@nwog.org

the bear is still there from what I hear, so that is the only objective danger! Make sure to bring your cams

If anyone is interested, I am planning a totally unorganized type adventure race on Saturday Sept 21st. More info can be found at http://www.nwog.org/mac.htm It's kind of simple, but could be fun. And yes, there are cougars there, and there is going to be smoking in the Pilchuck Hut

They guard Cathedral Gap this time of year. What they really want are Camalots 2-3.5, since it is a misconception that cams work on cougars the same way they work on bears. I have found out that express ice screws work the best on cougars, you figure out the best way to use them though

Cougars! There were tons!!!! Watch your back on the route! ----------------------------- Dude, Your the Hand!

and the cleaver.....

Of course there is video! http://www.nwog.org/images/dc081802/summit.mpg & http://www.nwog.org/images/dc081802/sdug.mpg

I was up there this weekend and it was quite crowded. Here is my TR: Friday August 16 Headed up to Camp Muir Many of the folks we talked to on their way down mentioned turning around high up on the mountain due to bad snowbridges and crevasses. I did not like this news, as this was to be my wife's 3rd attempt on the mountain and I wanted success. We set up camp under gorgeous skies and no wind. Saturday August 17 John was to arrive today and bring the rope for our summit bid on Sunday morning. It was windy the entire day, even though there we clear skies, the wind made it unbearable to stand outside as it was quite cold. John arrived around 3pm and set up camp next to us. We got our plan for the summit, and got great beta from Glenn at the ranger station. He mentioned some junctions to watch for, and where to go on the cleaver, and where to move fast and such. Sunday August 18 (well, really saturday at 1130pm) The classic Suunto watch alarm whispered softly "beep beep" - the thing never works, but somehow we all wake up. We leave camp at 1230am and head out on the Cowlitz Glacier. There were about 2-3 small crevasse crossings which were small. We made our way up Cathedral Gap and continued on to Ingraham Flats. We meet some friends that had camped there but they were behind schedule so we continue on towards the dreaded "cleaver". We try to haul ass through the Ingraham Icefall, but the party in front of us is lost and cant get on the cleaver, and tension is high - we yell, but I don't think that helped. We finally get on the cleaver and make our way up what trail we think there is. RMI is 1.5 hours behind us, and we are almost in the pole position. After about on hour of scree hell we finally reach the top of the cleaver at 12,000 feet. It is real windy, and cold - we fuel up and continue on. We hit the junction and continue straight up. It's only 430 so we still have got an hour before full sunrise. We loose our position while on our break and get stuck in a bottleneck. The trail is ridiculously marked as it is a 6 inch to 2 foot trench at times, switchbacking back and forth. This continues on and on, and we have to wait for all the teams in front of us, and few let us pass by. After tedious switchbacks, we finally arrive at the summit at 7am. The wind has subsided. We turn around and begin the descent, we are the first ones to head down, and we have to cut switchbacks on crappy rime ice so that we can access the trail in between groups heading up. We finally get down to the cleaver and begin the descent. The other members decide that we descend another way than we came up, not too happy with this we head down the chossy pile of junk. We get lost several times, but find wands all over the place. It is real hot now so we were all a little cranky. We finally get off the cleaver and back on the Ingraham Glacier. We get back to Ingraham Flats and collapse for a few minutes. We head towards Cathedral Gap and traverse the Cowlitz back top Muir. We arrive at our camp at exactly 12 noon, 11.5 hours muir to muir. We rest for about 1/2 hour and pack up our camp and head down from Muir, getting a few glissades here and there we get back to the cars around 4pm. One small crevasse on the Muir snowfield at 9200 feet

While in the icicle today I got to watch this guy climb "Doin the Dishes 5.11D" at 8 mile rock. It is an awfully thin climb, and Kramar says, "Many try this technical tweaker, but few suceed" Whenever at 8 mile I always wished to see someone climb it, so it was like.......cool and stuff.

August 8, 2002 Hi Everyone, We are back down safely at base camp after an unsuccessful attempt on the summit of K2. On August 2 under clear skies we climbed to 6400 meters on the south face of K2. We found the snow conditions good with firm to knee deep snow. We found our stash of gear buried under a thick layer of ice and it took us a couple hours to recover our gear. The next day we climbed with heavy packs a delicate corniced snow and rock ridge. It took several hours. Due to the lateness of the day and the snow conditions we decided to camp at 6700 meters. Early morning on August 4, we traversed under a giant hanging serac. We were exposed to icefall for about 30 minutes before climbing slopes under the SSE ridge to gain the Cesen route (SSE Spur). The weather to the south looked bad with dark clouds forming over Chogolisa. We had a difficult time finding our way to the ridge and were moving slowly. With high winds coming off the summit and the uncertain weather we decided to turn around. We descended to the site of our 6700 meter camp. Due to poor snow conditions we decided to spend the night at here. On August 6, we descended to base camp. Our cook met us at the bottom with cold drinks and a warm greeting. We heard that the Mexican-Spanish team also came down on the 6th due to weather after making a carry to their 6900 meter camp. The weather fooled us, because the last two days it has been beautiful. We can't speculate on how high we would of climbed to if we would of continued. Unfortunately we will not have an opportunity for another try. We had lunch yesterday with the Japanese expedition. Wonderful folks with much climbing experience. Last night the Mexican - Spanish invited us for dinner. They plan to continue to climb on the SSE spur. We enjoyed our climbs on K2 and Broad Peak this season. We got a lot of climbing in with only a few additional rest days. We can't understand why everyone left base camp so early this season. Climbing in the Karakorum one must be patience and sometimes one must wait out the weather to be successful. The weather in August is looking good so far. We wish we could stay longer, but our porters are expected on the 9th of August. We look forward to our next climbing objective. There so many mountains to climb and many without permits or LOs to deal with. Christine

Are the 2 guys out there named Graham and ? out there? We saw you at the GNS yesterday before the thunderstorm Wanted to say thanks for letting us pass you.

quote: Is there a hut to smoke in on Vesper? [/QB]C'mon Greg, you've been up there before! Remember when you were up there with that cougar last month? You must have been really lonely that week or not getting any because the cougar seemed to like it [ 08-05-2002, 12:17 PM: Message edited by: scot'teryx ]

noticed lots of people hauling gear up to do the north face route, but not understandable as it was wet the whole day. We actually wound up bouldering down in the Weden Basin where Devin did a FA of "Wedenization" :: V0 Cool problems all over that basin, I really want to make sure to get up there on a dry day to do the NF route, and then play on the boulders on the way down

Did the walk up this Sunday on Vesper in wet conditions - it was snowing on top at 6214'

Posted on the wta.org site::: Aug 03, 2002 Three Fingers #641 Well, this is my second attempt to do Three Fingers. It's only been one month and I haven't come to my senses yet. This time my two sons and I decided we would go light and mountain bike the rode past the washout, and trail run it up to Goat Flats and knock that thing out. Crossing the road #41 washout was easy, even with mtn bikes - then the steady grind (10.3miles/2hrs) to the standard Goat Flats trail head. The thought of biking the trail crossed our mind and only lasted 200yds. That trail is the worst shape I have ever seen it - really needs work. Not only the standard root issue, but lots of windfall and winter erosion. So after parking the bikes we slogged up to the flats only losing the trail once on snow just before Saddle Lake. The Goat Flats were as beautiful as ever, and we could see the Three Fingers lookout - but could not get to it. With the heavy snow year, the glacier and snow have blocked the climbers path and it is very treachous. We couldn't even make Tin Can Gap, it would have taken some pickets and rope to make me feel better about it. Anyways, another failed attempt - and if they don't fix that road for a year or so, things will only get worse on that trail. Really to bad as it is an awesome place.

FYI - Forest Road #41 has been washed out since this winter, and they planned on reopening the road in September, but now it seems they are not going to bother with it at all this year. The wash out is at 7.5 miles out of the 16 miles or so to the TH. From what I have heard from eyewitness accounts, it is like the Grand Canyon where the wash out is. More info: http://66.155.42.150/advscripts/mbs_trl_rpt.asp?w=drd

All they have to know is enough that will get them into trouble. I think the media sometimes goes by what the parents say or friends, like; "Yeah they are experienced" and the media doesn't put down what else they say like ;"They go up Mt Pilchuck almost once a month!" I'm just gapping out at work

Rainier - Emmons 3rd times a charm I guess. Damn slushy and hot didn't see any cougars, but heard of one in the steam vents, unless that was Dru blowing out smoke?

7/2/02 The trail is snow free up to Weden Basin, then it is snow all the way to the base of headlee pass, then dirt 3/4 of the way up to the pass. There has been some serious avalanche action up there this year, as the snow you walk on in the basin is covered with tree debris http://www.nwog.org/images/headleepass070202/008.jpg[img/] Good snow all the way up to where the snow ends and the where the samll moat is It is just a short scramble up 3rd class dirt and heather with a little bit of exposure, and for some reason I could not find the sign at the top of the pass this time. Our dog would not get off the snow and jump the moat and do the dirt scramble So we had to stay at the pass and have lunch and then return down the pass, but got a nice view of Vesper on a perfect day The downclimb was alot of fun The traverse after headlee pass was still all snow, but could not tell if it was posthole hell or not on that talus slope or not. Have fun, let me know how it goes Are you going to do the north face?

quote: Originally posted by Greg W: