scot'teryx

Hit Bunny flats last Thursday (6/21/01) and left for Helen Lake base camp Friday am. 2 of our 6 climbers turned around abouve Horse Camp(1 was sick, and was married to the sick one) Hot as hell, hit the snowfields just before the 50/50 flats and ascended to Base Camp at 10,400 feet. Boiled water and took in the sun, as it was still 100 degrees up there, with a slight breeze. We all almost melted! Left Saturday morning around 315 am and ascended the avalanche gulch as almost all the other routes were melted out except for some of the North Side routes. Rangers told us it was going to be nutz, but there were only about 25 tents on Friday night. About 4 parties were ahead of us on Saturday morning, and we hit the main chimney by the Red Banks and ascended slowly. I was test driving Diamox and it did nothing to help me, but I did not puke, so maybe it did? At the top of the Red Banks at 12,900 feet, you could feel the altitude, and my wife gasped for air and drank a ton of water. 40 mph winds on Misery Hill, although it was only about 30 degrees out, made the wind chill quite cold. We hit the summit plateau which was a nice relief and then hit the summit pinnacle at about 8am. Good cell phone reception up there! Not much to see though except for the baren landscape of N. California. We had to hit the glissade route too early as there were so many idiots up there in shorts with no ice axes or crampons! Tons of cotton and sneakers! No wonder there are so many accidents up there. Many people sleeping and getting sick on the side of the route on the way down as they came up the chimneys like a large army of ants. Very rude folks, and many did not understand the yielding procedures. Ranger told us not to glissade as it was way too icy and dangerous, but it was too hard for me to deny! It was fast and took all I had to leverage my axe and push as hard as I could to brake. Halfway down I had to self arrest as I was going way too fast and was about to converge into the main glissade chute that was about 1.5 feet deep. After arresting with my pick dug deep into the ice, I slipped and started to slide down the chute with no axe until my leash caught me and saved my ass from sliding down uncontrollably to certain pain and agony. After figuring out my situation and unable to reach my axe (as the leash was 2 incehs too long) I dug steps with my boots in the side of the chute and climbed out on the icy route. Got my adrenaline pumping! We then let a few others pass us in the glissade path as they softened it up a little bit. We got down to the bottom rather fast and watched all the other climbers plunge step for hours to descend to the base camp. AFter packing up, the grueling heat and dusty trail made for the not so pleasant descent, but we did it, so all was good. Mt Adams, you're next (July 10/11)

The Mt Shasta rangers told us a ton of misleading information as well this past week, but our climb went well, with absolutely none of the problems they said were going to occur. I think it is best to listen to other climbers! Scott

Busy as a ski resort at the Paradise Parking Lot at 9am Saturday morning! We joined the huge crowd of onlookers and hikers to ascend up to Camp Muir for our third time this season. The crowds started to get real bad around pebble creek as there were many groups of skiiers that thought it was okay to stop in the middle of the trail as we switchbacked towards Panorama Point. Does anyone understand the basics of hiking? Get out of the Way! As we leaded out around numbers of skiiers, we would just find another group of 7 skiier in front of us! Pebble Creek at 7200 feet is starting to reveal alot of rocks and the trail is easy to follow at this point. Signs are even showing along the lower trail. We ran into many ground squirrels and a few Marmots (I got real close for one image). We finally got to Muir in 3hrs and some change and settled in for some sun, food, and WATER! It was incredible to see all the folks coming towards Muir, although I did not see as many make it up as I saw at Camp, so I assume they all skiied down. It seemed like the clouds hung out between 7-9K feet the rest of the day as it was like being in an airplane looking across the sea of clouds. Someday I will see the landscape from Muir, ...........someday. We jaunted over to the small peak (name?)just southeast of Muir to get a good look down on the Cowlitz Glacier and check out Little Tahoma. Cathedral Gap is looking pretty dry, with quite a few teams coming down from summit bids. The glissade down was just awful as many people thought that you were supposed to walk in that path. After having to stop numerous times to stop for people eating lunch and relaxing in the glissade route, we just gave up as we could not keep speed up to get going. Once around 7000 feet, the skies opened up for us, but the mountain was not visible for the rest of the day. I am so happy to know that I will not being going up the DC route for my first ascent of Rainier! Nor do I have the patience to put up with all those........people? Thanks for letting me vent.

Holy Shit! I am constantly amazed at the ridiculous bullshit and spray here. Listen kids, grow up! Larson is done with the mountaineers and wants a partner...........cool. Dwayner gave some sweet beta, which is something that is more valuable than you could ever ask for. Why doesn't someone call the freakin WAHmbulance! As far as egos go, we all got them! Who knows, many of the folks here could be damn armchair climbers, maybe I am? Screw that, I am not a climber, I actually just graduated from a Glacier Climbing Course, and gonna take it one step at a time. So I think if I EVER need beta, this is the place to come for sure. So why can't we all just get along? (this is problably an absolute waste of my time to write as many have already visited this topic, but oh well) Keep climbing mountains and don't slip! Scott ------------------ Scott Harder scott@nwog.org www.nwog.org

A few friends and I are heading down there to climb June 21-24th. We are going to attempt the highly traveled Avalanche Gulch Route as well, with no added difficulty. Any info would be very helpful! (we are climbing with someone from that area that has climbed it already) Scott Harder scott@nwog.org ------------------ Scott Harder scott@nwog.org www.nwog.org

May 29, 1953 First Ascent of Mt. Everest! Sir Edmund Hillary, Tenzing Norgay. Have a good one everyone! Scott

Nothing gets me up the mountain more than the following: PRIMUS MINISTRY SOUNDGARDEN FRANK SINATRA TOOL BLACK HAPPY LINCOLN PARK INCUBUS CHILI PEPPERS RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

So you took the Swift Ski Trail up to the Worm Flows Route? We tried this a month or so ago and ran into some bad avalanche conditions. Did you camp at Marblemount or camp higher up by chance? scott@nwog.org

Saturday, April 21st, 2001 So here we were, going to make our first attempt of Camp Muir on Mount Rainier with a small portion of our climbing group. Alison and I were nervous, and kept checking the weather for conditions ahead, hoping that we would be blessed with sun. After waking up at 415am after 4 hours sleep we got ready to get picked up by Rick to make our way out to Longmire to meet John. Arriving in Longmire at about 815am, we already felt the cold, as it was about 30 degrees. Tons of people were in the parking lot at this time collecting themselves and their gear, and what appeared to be an RMI group getting ready to hit the mountain as well. We headed up to the Paradise lot, and quite quickly as there was absolutely no snow or ice on the road. There were Cadillacs and such driving down so we knew it would be a cakewalk. Just like at Longmire, the Paradise lot was filled with activity and anxious climbers to get up on the mountain. It was so clear and blue that day, I can only hope our summit day will be this beautiful. As we got our gear out and ready, a few of the others started to show up, but we were almost done, and for us - well that is a rare scenario! By 930am we were ready to get a few pictures and get our strategy going. Bruce and Tracy were going to be our climb leaders, and briefed us on what the day was going to be like. By 945am we were on the trail. I only had my long sleeve base layer on and my Windstopper vest, but after 10 minutes I was ready to take that off. The sun was bright hot, and warmed me more than it had in the last year it seemed. We were so blessed to have such awesome conditions, and everyone was so set to get up to Camp Muir. Tracy was starting to feel sick as she was still recovering from a bug, and it wasn't getting any better. Then we got to the Panorama Point Hill at around 6300 feet. The climb up the hill was slow, but there were some great steps that were kicked from previous climbers, so it was quite easy. In my own opinion this was the steepest area of the whole climb to Muir. We then ascended over the next 2-3 humps and ridges to get into view of the Muir Snowfield. Bruce pointed out to me the location of Camp Muir just above Anvil Rock and I set my sights on it and locked in. I have been told by others about what a long and arduous climb it is, and how the snowfield seems to go on forever. All I know is that I stayed with the leaders, watched my steps and the steps in front of me, and got in a zone. It seemed like we were all doing so great! Right when we reached the Muir Snowfield we heard that Tracy was turning around, and that Carol was going to head down with her, Carol's husband Fred had turned around as well at the top of Panorama Point as he was not feeling to good either. This totally explains how we have good and bad days. So we pushed on and split up into three groups. Bruce, Alison and I were in the front, with Craig, John, Judy, Dick, and Mary in the middle group, and Rick and Wendy in the back. As we neared 8000 feet I started to get really excited, and we started to pass more people. The clouds really started to roll in and it started to snow. Visibility was okay, but we stayed in contact and sight of the other groups. Needless to say, we did not see the top of the mountain the rest of the trip as it had it's own weather going on.I learned the pressure breathing technique which really helped me. Once we reached around 9000 feet I started to get worried. Was I going to get AMS? HAPE? HACE? I had no idea and it was killing me inside, so I just thought positive and kept putting one foot in front of the other. We started to see all the dozens of snowboarders and skiiers head down the mountain at this time, and I really started to wish that I had brought my downhills, yet the corn snow might have been quite a fight! But where else can you get almost 5000 vertical feet of skiing on one run? When we reached 9500 feet I got pumped! My adrenaline was flowing, and my Chocolate Goo was flowing through my veins. We got our first site of the huts, and we began to boogie. Bruce had to rest so we pushed on ahead of him. I started to feel a splitting headache that I was not able to get rid of for quite awhile afterwords, but it did not affect my performance, but that last 100 yards were sure tough! We got up to the Camp, and the first thing I saw was a big flat table in front of me covered in sheet metal. There were a few others sitting around and I asked if that was where they did medical physicals and such. Everyone laughed, yet I still do not know what it was for?? Anyone know? We made it to the top at 145pm. Immediately we found a spot to rest and got sheltered from the wind and snow. I unpacked many things, especially my Tylenol and Down Jacket. 15 minutes later folks from our groups started showing up. It was a great feeling to make it up all together as we have all been training together so that we can do this exact sort of thing. It really payed off. The huts were totally covered and unaccessible, so we just got packed up and ready to turn around back down the mountain in minutes. I took as many pictures as I could and joined the group. By 230pm, we put on our snowshoes around 9200 feet and had a great time all the way down with a quick glissade down Panorama Point, and back to the cars! We got back down right around 6pm I think and enjoyed some greasy Mexican Food at a local eatery. Alison, Rick, Dick, and I are scheduled to go back up on May 5th, so I hope to get some pics up top on Muir with good weather. One can only hope! Pics are on my slowly constructed site at http://nwog.org/reports/042101muir.htm

Try emsonline.com They recently had a sale where I got a N. Face Summit Series Down jacket for $140. They had lots of other stuff as well. Good luck

I have quite a different pic of Rainier from the North side that I took last september. You can see a smaller version of it on my site: http://nwog.org/gallery.htm Just click on the archive collection and it is the only one up there. I have a high resolution version that I already blew up to 24" X 36" Not the most popular version of the mountain, but different. Thanks Scott Harder scott@starder.com

Just got a great deal on some of the Trezeta Evolution boots that were a few model lines ago I assume, but they are brand new, w/boot liners, etc. Does anyone know or have any experience with their mountaineering boots? Here is some more detail and a pic: http://www.sierratradingpost.com Click on search by keyword, type "Trezeta", and they are listed amongst a few others. Thanks for any input. Scott

How was it? We just went and I posted a trip report under your request. Would like to hear how your trip went. Wasn't the 17th when the weather was just crappy? I remember the wind and rain on Tiger Mtn that morning.

We stayed overnight at the Marblemount Sno-park just east of Cougar and camped out in the shelter that had a wood stove that was going from a few hours before so it was about 60 degrees inside! What better way to sleep we thought! We woke up at 5am and didn't get on the trail till 630 am due to fumbling around with packs and other stuff, even though we did that the night before. After finding everything we needed we headed up the lower flats of the trail. The Swift Ski Trail #244 connects you with the Worm Flows Climbing route which is the recommended route in the winter/spring. We had called the Ranger Station the day before and got all of the necessary info and plotted out route on our topos. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and there was only one party ahead of us and they were placing pickets every so often, even thought the X-country skiiers marked the trail quite well. It was icy at the bottom, but come 9am it was pretty good conditions. This route is 6 miles one way to the summit and goes from the Marblemount elevation of 2700' to the crater rim at about 8200' from there you can reach the true summit at 8365'. As we neared the mountain it looked quite difficult to traverse some of the ridges but we just kept putting one foot in front of the other. The grades were quite minimal at some times, and then steeper at some times, ranging from 20 to 40 degrees. Poles were the only option as self belay with our ice axes would have only slowed us down, but I would have felt more comfortable with my axe a few times where our steps we were kicking were just disappering in the slush on the higher grades. Towards the UW Seismograph station, I remember hearing Alison say, "This really sucks" as the steep grade was just slushy corn snow, and we were on the wrong portion of the route after following some previous steps. After scrambling up some rocks and the soft soil of the volcano, we found ourselves at the 6000 foot mark by the seismograph tower. We rested, had some goo and kept going. The summit seemed so far away, and we still had 2365' left to go. The grades started getting steeper, and the sun was brighter. The view was so unbelievable, with Mt Hood as bright as day, and Mt Adams pronouncing itself out loud. Mt Jefferson was viewable as well, which was a real treat! As we started getting closer we found ourselves traveling over snowfields that had small cracks that went from 100 feet on your left to 100-200 feet to our right. After my encounter with a snow raft on Granite Mountain, I started to get a little freaked out and more cautious. Alison was about 50 feet in front of me and Rick was about 50 feet behind me. We made sure that we were always in view of the other on the ascent, staying close together. The cracks started to get more frequent and our location under the summit got me worried. 3rd Spring day in a row, and slushy conditions. We were in a safe spot on the ridges from summit avalanches but something did not feel right. I caught up to Alison and asked here how she felt about our ascent. She had a cough that was burning and she had a small gut feeling as well that we did not belong here w/o the skills that we were going to learn in the next few seminars with the Climbing Course. The risk seemed to great at the time, and we were still 2000' below the summit, which could be another 1-2 hours. Given the spring conditions, we knew we could make it up, but coming down might have been a disaster waiting to happen. We made a group decision to have lunch at the best seat in the house that day, and head down. The mountain was not going anywhere, and I'm sure it will not be too hard to get others to go with us next time. We learned alot, got some great pictures, and got some great experiences on a snowfield. The most important thing that one could learn was from Rick's mistake: Always wear Sunscreen!!!!! We passed many people on their way up as we were heading down, mostly skiiers and boarders, and one guy didn't understand why we turned around. When I asked him if he was concerned about snow rafts and avalanches, etc, he said "That crap doesn't scare me!" He was a loaded gun talking in my opinion, and traveling alone at that! We had smiles almost all the way down until the last mile when it seemed like eternity on the flat ground in our full steel shank boots. Ouch! After signing out at the Climbers Register, we got lots of food and headed home. After all, we had to go up Mailbox Peak on Saturday with Team Tracy. Hmmm..... Scott Harder scott@starder.com

Thanks so much for the show Cece! It was awesome! You are such a great photographer! When and if you ever decide to sell prints, make sure that you let me know! Scott Harder scott@starder.com

What was your time up, and down? Of course I understand that you're probably conditioned above and beyond! Thanks

Has anyone climbed the Worm Flows Climbing Route on Helens in the past month or so? We are heading out this Wednesday night to camp at Marblemount and then ascend Thursday morning. Seems to be a simple route and well marked. Curious as to what conditions might be. Is it hiked often this time of year? Will we find many others out there? Or are we just going to find a bunch of snowmobilers making toxic fumes on the mountain? Would you consider this to be a good climb for some students in a Glacier Climbing Course? From what the ranger said this morning, there is only a small portion towards the top which can be somewhat steep (angle?) and requires snowshoes with cleats or crampons. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Scott Harder scott@nwog.org

I am so there! Cannot wait!

What is the overall opinion for OR Expedition shells? I just got these for basic Glacier Travel and maybe some tech stuff, but I'm such a rookie that it might be awhile till I join some folks out at Lilloet. I had been eyeing them on Rei-Outlet for $49 from $79, then they had them the other day for $29 so I picked up a pair for myself and my wife. Any bad experiences out there? What kind of liners should I be looking for? Just fleece or what? Any feedback is most appreciated.

Thank for the info Phil, sounds like a good idea! From the looks of those images on your page, that was damn icy and looks like crampons required huh? Those first few turns must have been freaky when dropping in. I know that feeling! Thanks again for all the input! ------------------ Scott Harder scott@nwog.org www.nwog.org

YES! I plan on taking a few other friends up there as I thought it was a great hike and good experience on some steeper slopes with such an awesome reward at the top. send me an email to scott@nwog.org and I'll replt with a summit pic if you wanna see. See you out there!

Hey there folks, - first post here on the site, and just wanted to say, "hey". I did Granite Mountain this last Saturday (1/27/01) with a friend and had a blast! Due to the lack of snow, it was quite icy at the bottom going up and on the way down. My first trip that needed an ice axe so I was stoaked to get there. We willingly passed up the gully trails up and started to traverse across the south side of the mountain heading East untill we got to a dead end and started heading nw towards the top breaking trail. At one point we measured a 43 degree angle as I got to use my axe for the first time, and had to rely on that puppy with my 50lb pack. What a blast it was to dig in, but not fun when it only went in 2 inches and hit ice or rocks. It was totally clear the whole day and the sites were beyond belief. Everyone was out that day: Rainier, Adams, Baker, Olympus, and Glacier Peak. How awesome it was! Coming down the gulley was kind of hairy as I had never glissaded before and the snow was as soft as spring snow. With little experience in self arresting, I got first hand experience in how to really dig that puppy in! My other friend is quite the expert so he was ahead of me the whole time. We had hot Top Ramen at the top with tea and just enjoyed the views! Plenty of pics were taken and I hope to post them on the current site i am developing, but it takes spare time that is so short these days, and I'd rather be on the slopes! When it is done I will make sure to let ya all know! ------------------ Scott Harder scott@nwog.org www.nwog.org