Alasdair

A couple of years ago several Seattle climbers who climb hard in the gym (5.10-5.11) and also work there went up on the North Ridge of Stuart and got in over there head. The helecopter was in the air when they finnaly got their shit together and got themselves off. I dont know the details of this but I remember hearing the story.

Caveman said something I agree with! Well said caveman. I think you managed to write a post that didn't insult anyone and probably wont piss anyone off. Keep it up.

Who has tried to contact them? Who are they? I have a pretty good idea who is responsible for much of it, but I am not willing to post their names untill I know for sure. If they are not reading these threds then we are having a onesided discussion that does not help the situation. Can anyone help us identify who the bolters are? After we identify who they are we should disscuss the issues with them in a level headed way, and not confront them as bitter crusty old climbers.

I dont understand why the hell we can not sit down as a climbing community and talk about what our ethics should be. I dont agree with bolting existing lines. I also dont agree with the establishment of washington pass as a sport climbing area(which it is in danger of becomming if the Phantom Bolters continue to slap bolts up on every peice of clean rock up there). Would it be too much to ask to discuss these ethics with the people who are doing this bolting? Is this not what we have the Access Fund for? It seems to me that the Access fund should be an organisational tool so that the climbers of Washington can sit down and discuss whether we are realy looking at the big picture when we bolt everything. Several of us know who the people responsible for this bolting are, and I have not seen them reply to a single post here, therfore it is clearly nessessary for us to arrange a time that we can sit down and have a reasnable disscussion with these people and exchange ideas and opinions. I am very worried that people are slapping up bolted routes for the sole purpose of getting there name in a guide book, and I think this is wrong. Does anyone know how to contact these people so that we can have a reasoble discussion? Should we get the access fund involved in this dusscussion? If we do not start some kind of disscussion now we stand to loose our rights as climbers from agencys such as the Forrest service who realy dont understand the real issues involved.

I tried this several weeks ago and could not get to the base. I would not waste your time going up there now. There may be a way to go from the base of the N. ridge, or totraverse round from the colman demming route, but I would not count on it.

What shrund? What crevasses? The glacier is not much more than a walk right now. Go soon and you wont have any problem getting to the summit. Jennie, did you find a way home to P-land yet?

I was going to try it five or so weeks ago. Ended up on the west ridge. The N. Ridge had a fair amount of snow on it at that time but I would think most of it would be gone by now. I would give the route a go.

There was a helecopter over by Fugs wall on Sat. also. It looked like it was practicing. There was no accident that I could see. Most likely just Army Reserve out for the weekend. They do that stuff alot.

There is a mountain in New Zealand Named: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanataha No I am not making this up. This is an actual mountain name on the east coast. Dont ask me how to pronounce it.

Looked like a fairly easy climb from Boston Basin. There was a good amount of snow, but you will be postholing the entire way. Even early in the morning.

I used a single rope. I recomend taking two and leaving one at the base of the ridge. If you are comfortable on steep slushy snow you should have no problem with a single rope however. The east ridge desent route had snow covering many of the ledges on the north side and looked to be a fairly involved desent. We were originally going to climb the N ridge but were not able to due to lots of snow on the ridge still. I think the only feasable desent as of two weeks ago is the west ridge.

Climbed Forbidden two weekends ago. There is patchy snow up to the trees and then lots of soft crappy snow in the basin (postholing). I did the west ridge of forbidden. The gully has snow almost all the way to the top, and gets pretty steep near the top. No snow on any of the rock routes (Fobidden, Shark Fin, Boston) There is still snow on N Ridge of Forbidden.

To answer your question simply. You can not transport hazardous material on an aircraft. An empty fuel bottle is not hazardous! Let all the fuel evaporate and ship the bottle with no cap on it. Burried in luggage (that way they wont see it and ask stupid questions). I have shipped many interesting objects on aircraft including compressed air tanks, Which is no problem as long as there is no compressed air in them and the valve is left open. A stove is also not hazardous as long as it does not have any fuel left in it.

Don't count on any of the routes being in unless it is cold and stays that way! The routes this weekend were good until about 10:00am sun. when the saturated snow started comming down. Furher finger was is great shape until it warmed up. The upper layers of snow are very water saturated and very heavy. Get an early start.

No the Coast Guard do not charge for rescues. I had a conversation with a crusty old Coasty last year on this topic. He was outraged that we dont charge climbers on Rainier, and I asked him the question of Coast Guard rescues. To him it is somhow different?????? Not only are they more expensive, they are more often the case of total stupidity by the person getting rescued. I dont beleive for a second that we should be charging for Coast Guard rescues. Like wise we should not be charging for climbing rescues.

Ok, great. Now that we know we are all going to get ticks in our pubes at some point in our life, does anyone have any info on the existance of Lyme disease in Washington or Oregon. How common is it? I also had encounters with ticks two weekends ago at Tieton River.

Any one have any Beta on New York Gully other than what is in Selected II. What is the chance of it being in now? Any suggestions on some more chalenging routes that might be in right now? Any info would be helpfull. Alasdair