Alasdair

yes they are out there. I have seen 4 bear in one day, but how many bear and cougar attacks have we had in the last 10 years in Washington? I dont know the number here but I would bet the number is probably 0 and certainly below 10.

I think you are overly worried. As far as bears go, there are very few problem bears in washington. I have only seen bears in the North Cascades and truth is they dont appear to be very used to seeing people. A quick yell and waving of some arms has always got them running in the other direction. As far a cougars go, I have only seen them at the bars, never in the moutains, and the ones in the bars are much more dangerous.

Climb: Mt Stuart-circumnavigation Date of Climb: 7/28/2005 Trip Report: So after much thought and zero preparation, I decided to go and try the Stuart range traverse. The main reason I decided to do this is because I never got round to getting any maps together and wanted to go somewhere I was very familiar with. I left the Stuart Lake TH about 7am and started hiking. I have no idea what time any of the rest of the things in this TR happened because I saw no reason to bring a watch. I hiked up to Stuart Lake and then continued on the trail that goes past the lake until it started going the wrong way. Here I met ranger who was overly concerned that I was going to bivy in an area that I needed a overnight permit for. I left the trail and continued to the head of the cirque below the Stuart Glacier. I slogged up to the right of the Stuart glacier and decided that going over goat pass looked boring. Instead I headed up some snow filled gully on the other side of a prominent tower on the ridge to the east of goat pass. After getting to the top I promptly slipped on some gravel and tumbled down the other side of the pass, amazingly not fucking my self up too badly. After getting back on my feet and struggling down the rest of the gully and up the other side to where the trail to the west ridge of Stuart was I realized that I was really dehydrated, really beat up, and generally felt like shit. I never really thought about it at the time, but I have never done well in the heat, I hate it, and have lots of trouble doing physical exercise in it. All I knew about the weekend is that it was not going to rain, I did not think to look and see if it was going to be 95 degrees. Any way at this point I decided I needed to find some shade and get some more water. I hiked down to the longs pass trail sat down in the woods drank water and slept for a bunch of time (I dont know how long). After waking up I realized that I was not going to make it back to my car at Stuart Lake TH the next day unless I got my shit together and moved some more. In addition for some unknown reason I had ruled out going back the way I came. This left me two options: 1) hike out to Teanaway river road and hitch to Cle Elum where i could admit defeat and call my girlfriend to come pick me up. 2) Go up the Cascadian and put myself in a better spot to get back to the car the next day. I decided to go up the Cascadian. I bivied at the top of sherpa glacier, and was promptly visited by goats. They were cute at first, but as the became more and more interested in licking the salt off of me directly I got more and more pissed. First I yelled at them to go away. They did for a couple of min, and were back. Next I banged my ice axe on some rocks and again they were back in two mins. Finally I picked up some small rocks and through them at their rear ends and they got the idea. (Ok I know someone will get pissed at me here, but note the "small rocks" and that these goats at one point were less than two feet from me. I would never do anything to hurt any wildlife.) This morning was woken up by the same goats licking the salt of my pack that I was using as a pillow. I woke up feeling like I had been run over by a truck, and decided my only option was to attempt to get back to my car via the Sherpa gacier. I descended the Glacier (which I really did not enjoy) and then hiked back to the car ending what was basically a very painful weekend. I know someone will ask me this so here goes: The stuart glacier is obviously still a possible descent, although when the tiny little finger of snow crossing the schrund collapses (probably tomorrow) it will be much harder and will likely require a rap off a bollard to get down. The lower part of the glacier is fine, although a little scary if you are not roped to someone. Gear Notes: Bug repellant Goat repellant

Blake wins! What a fucking great idea. This is definatly one of my favorite areas. I have always wanted to climb logan, and there is no doubt that NEB of goode would be one of the best solos ever, considering I have had one of my most memorable climbs on that route with others.

Ive done the west ridge of stuart before, and have been to the n side of stuart numerous times, I just ahve not gone up the stuart glacier before. Anyone who has done the N. Ridge of stuart recently know if there is any ice left in the Gendarm bypass?

goatboy, this time of year? was reading the recent TR here and it looks a little involved on the gl for solo central alasdair, some good trips that come to mind are W Ridge Stuart, a "stuart range traverse" (not quite what Croft did but..) maybe W ridge Stuart, W ridge Sherpa, then just cross country over Argonaut to Colchuck and out? Ptarmigan would be great but there is so much high traversing in the Olympics and Cascades besides this one, Baily Range Traverse, or Challenger is a good solo. I nice 2 day trip would be just to head to Trapper Lake and go fishing. I like this idea. Anyone know how hard it is to get to the west ridge of stuart from the Stuart lake TH?

So over the last few years some of my favorite climbs have been solo (glacier peak, colchuck NBC, Luethold Coulior etc). This weekend looks like a good one to do something fun. This weekend I want to do something really memorable. The nice thing about soloing is you can cover very large distances very fast. I figure anything that might normally be considered 2-3 days is fair game, 4 days might even be considered. Anyone got any suggestions? Obviously I am trying to avoid large broken up glaciers, and any rock above about 5.6. My thoughts so far... Sucess cleaver on Rainier - but I dont have the solo permit, so without a little help from MikeG I think I am fucked here. Something in the Pickets - N buttress of Fury?? - Anyone got beta on how technical this actually is? Thanks in advance, ALasdair

Post deleted by jon

I could also be the gully about 100 yard to the left since I see the trees in the top of that one. It is one of the two.

Ok I cant tell for sure in your photo, but I think it is the gully that has two very small patches of snow in it. It bypasses to the left side of a small peak on the ridge, and it definatly has a red color to it.

You cross the barrier in a orange looking gully just below the glacier. If you look at the barrier from below the McMillan Spire it is an obvious left trending gully that splits throught the barrier. there are some trees at the top of it. If someone has some photos I will mark the gully on them. You do not have to loose much elevation, and the climbing is probably no more than class 2.

From BBC He had been under survelance for some time after the previous bombings. Another passenger on the train, Anthony Larkin, told BBC News the man appeared to be wearing a "bomb belt with wires coming out". Chances are it was an ipod. But if not, good. He wanted to die they just saved some other people in the process. Good ridance.

Sweet! This really is a pretty reasonable day climb. We did the loop last year leaving the car at 6am hiking up the trail and traversing below the pickets over the barrier and climbing the chopping block. From there we descended the barrier to terror creek and back to the car by dark. Great day out. This year I would like to do Terror in a day from the car.

Go to this web site http://www.grandcanyontreks.org/wa100.htm Highlight text Right click and choose copy Paste into excel.

As far as the raptors being pissed goes. (I am going to go out on a limb here and assume they are peregrines) Most climbers are very unlikely to know the difference between pissed off falcons and typical falcon behavior. In addition I would guess that many climbers would not know a falcon nest side if they toped out on it. Falcons do not make nests like many other birds. Any flat ledge is fair game. Usually if moma bird is not there the only obvious sign of a nest site would be some bird shit and some feathers. I am not saying anyone did anything wrong in this case, but it is very important that climbers keep a very wide berth of any raptors in the spring because it can be quite hard to tell where the nests are.

If you go in the next few weeks you will have no issues with water, and i cant see you needing a rope either. Aluminum crampons would also be fine if any at all. Also if you really want to minimize your impact you can do this route as a car to car fairly easily (if you are in shape) since the trail in there is not too bad. Here is my favorite photo from a few years ago.

From Komo: SEATTLE - We now know what triggered the rock fall that killed three climbers in the North Cascades. One of three survivors says the climbers used a boulder as an anchor, but that boulder gave way. Climb leader 61-year-old Jo Backus was hit by falling rock and badly injured and needed to be belayed down the mountain (anchored in) so she wouldn't fall. Survivor Janel Fox told her family and boyfriend that the climbers set up a belay - using a boulder for an anchor. They were helping to move injured climber leader Jo Backus down a steep gulley. But once weight was put on the rock anchor, it gave way. Survivor Janel Fox's boyfriend said Janel described the boulder as crumbling and crashing down. It released the anchor and the crumbled rocks headed straight for the climbers -- one boulder as big as a refrigerator.

Yea its still that way.

I just sent one letter in response. The more the better...

Although I have no current info. I will tell you that there was still snow on the route last year at this time. Just patches though. They were steep and exposed, and if icy crampons would have been nessasary. Have a look on the web and see if you can find a rogers pass web cam. Sorry no real usefull info.

All is good and great, until it gets cold and you have to melt a lot of snow at which point what forrest said is correct. I have heard that MSR once made a hanging set up for the XGK but for some reason it did not make it to the market.

Our very own Stuart O'Grady! Bullshit. If someone else endangers you by hooking bars or crossing wheels then you should protect yourself. The best way to do that is to make sure you dont crash with them. In most cases that involves speeding up the inevitable, which is having them crash.

Actually if there is someone drafting you dont worry too much about it. If they touch your wheel lean slightly in to them and they will crash. You will be fine. Dido if someone locks bars with you. Just push their bars out of your way. They will crash you wont.

You are probably correct in this change in temperature, and although I do not know for sure I would guess that this is because as you are hiking toward vesper headley pass is the highest point of the valley therefore not getting any colder alpine air moving down from above. And quite likely getting warmer air from lower in the valley moving up toward the pass. ONce you get to the other side of headley pass you have a large alpine area with a considerable amount of elevation above you. Any cold air will be funneled down from that alpine area toward headley pass. Does that make sense?

Yea I thought about Ingalls lake, but I strictly avoid the S. Face since the last time I got yelled at for cutting the death triangle off of two metolius rap bolts that the guy before me had just put on them.