Alasdair

Dude, NR of stuart would be a total fucking horror show right now. What are you thinking? It will rock covered by several inches of wet snow. There will be very little verglass. I recomend you take your full rack to the east side of the mountains and crag climb.

Top of asgard trees are just beginning, lower down there are no signs. Give it another two weeks.

It wasn't really that bad. Another few feet and boulder fields will be a pleasure to cross. Postholing was only in areas of wind blown snow. The rest was pretty nice.

Postholing between Little A and Dragontail.

"Dusted" is an interesting word to use for 3 feet of snow.

I traversed below the glacier a few weeks ago and then saw it again from black peak a week later. I think for many people the glacier would be considered a no go. This is not to say that you could not get accross it. It can be done by a party experienced in negociating broken up glaciers. If I were going to try it I would get on the glacier at the far left at the base of a large rib that intersects it. This could have some pretty steep and hard ice on it, but it will be short. Go high on the glacier very close to the base of the rock and traverse rightward toward the NE buttress (this looked relativly strait forward). There looked to be a very large shrund between the glacier and the NE buttress. You may have to rap off of a bollard into the shrund and then start climbing the rock. Stay on the very farleft side of the rock rib until you gain a few hundred feet and then climb directly up to the ridge. Take real crampons and a screw and you should be fine. Except as has already been stated the weather is going to suck so go recon it and bail.

I suggest you read Cascade alpine guides. Fred Clearly has a pretty good grasp on geology and those books have a lot of basic info in them. Ah and Granite is Granitorite but granitorite is not granite. Most granitic rocks in the northwest are not granite, but most climbers just assume they are. Granite has bigger ofter pink crystals.

Hate to touch the untouchable here, but for pure reading enjoyment I have to say that anything by Beckey is horrible. I will admit that I own most of the books, but they are boring to the point of unreadable. Unlike some of the other examples, Fred has done a great service to the historical and climbing communities by writing the books he has, and I do still read them. They are so detailed that they are very hard to read. Has anyone actually read Range of Glaciers? I tried, now I just use it as a reference book to read bits and peices about different areas.

There is a lot more to technical rescue than most climbers think there is . First off, is the loads involved in many rescue situations are much higher than typical climbing, and I would rather have a group of people who know EXACTLY what those loads are and what margin of error needs to be used picking me off a mountain than a bunch of my climbing buddies. Some SAR people are not in the best of shape, but many are, and they are the ones that will get to you first. Either way most SAR and Mountain Rescue folks are anal to the point of anoyance when it comes to making sure loads are not exceeded, your climbing buddies probably would not be. You tell me who you would want picking you off a route.

Yes, I cut rap anchors if all the slings are bad. I personally encorage people to remove bad, misplaced or otherwise useless rap anchors. If there are rap rings on them they they are added to my rack to be placed the next time I need them.

Start riding a bike. Start in very low gears and avoid hills. After a month or two continue with the low gears but hit a hill or two. YOu will be fine in the spring if you keep it up.

yes, it is still raining and the temps are warmer. There is still not any snow. Try looking at www.weather.com

but before you decide to do that go read a couple years of ANAM and decide for yourself weather that is really something you want to do.

Mine arrived in great shape only to be placed on my front doorstep in the rain. Now I have full color wet toilet paper.

FYI: With no rain gear your "good down jacket" would have been useless after about 10 minutes of any time in the weather up there.

I would agree with the challenger thing. It is a great peak in a great area. As far as goode goes, I would agree that that is a good objective, but if you are thinking on going there soon, I would caution you that getting on to the glacier could be a major obstical unless you are comfortable climbing vertical ice seracs that look like they are about to collapse.

It was snowing above 8,000 on Stuart yesterday. There wont be any accumulation in the Enchantments basin.

Conditions have changed greatly from last year. The whole mountain shattered over the winter and it is now a huge pile of loose crappy rock. I am sure it will be a lot of fun. Once on top find a large flat rock stand on it a surf down all the other loose rock back to camp.

Well I cant say bushies reaction impressed me. Bringing down the Taliban was good. Invading Iraq pissed off most of the arab world and increased membership of Al qaida and the hatred toward america. In addition bushies continued support of Israel at all costs will guarantee more 911 type attacks.

So he is exactly like bush. So what the hell do you care which one is elected.

BBC News

They are saving money. The white paint is cheaper.

She had fallen off of the tree when we got there so we taped her back on. I hope she was still there when you guys got back to her. Did you get up Terror?

Climb: Chopping Block-NE Buttress Date of Climb: 7/24/2004 Trip Report: Left the car at 5:45 and headed up the trail to the campsite at the east side of the pickets, below the Mcmillan spires. Traversed accross to the barrier and crossed the barrier in the obvious red rock gully. Once over the barrier continued directly to the ridge between Deganhardt and Chopping block took this ridge to the summit. Rapped off and headed back to the barrier. Followed the ridge of the barrier into the trees and conviniently ran in to Jim Nelson who marked the point on the ridge where we should drop down to Terror creek. Lost the trail immediatly upon dropping of the ridge and bushwhacked all the way to the old logging road where the trail we took up starts. Hiked back to the car. Got back to the car about 8:15. One question: does anyone know if there really is a trail of any sort that heads up the ridge on the west side of terror creek? If so where the fuck is it, and how do you get to it? Gear Notes: 8 mil rope no crampons no axe no extra cloths no nothing... Approach Notes: long

We do have a Washington Ice guide, but the majority of the routes in it dont come in and when they do they suck. If you want to go to the northwest and ice climb fly to seattle rent a car and drive to banff. Or better yet fly to Calgary.