Bronco

March is historically difficult to line up stable weather windows in the Cascades as well.

From the news today: https://www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoors/federal-proposals-could-curtail-climbing-anchors-in-wa-wilderness/ I have to wonder how this would effect Darrington as most of that is in the Boulder River Wilderness area.

Incredible effort, holy cow!

Hoping this forecast pans out.

I'm surprised this fart guard hasn't become a standard feature in all tents.

Looks like great conditions, might have to put this back on my list for this fall after the rain clears out next week.

I have one season on the Dynafit Blacklight 95 skis and they're a great all around ski for PNW touring. I think the PDG might be a race ski and not real fun (terrible) to ski on anything firm.

Can you post a link to the photo?

Didn't know him but I understand he was also the oldest person to summit Everest at the time he climbed it and was attempting his 80th summit of Rainier in June.

Sounds like last night's public meeting was rowdy: https://www.opb.org/article/2023/11/03/omak-washington-public-comments-meeting-grizzly-bears/

Probably better than a cat, they're jerks.

Glad someone reported him, that's not an easy call to make.

Anyone else see this? This could be one of the worst American climbing tragedies in recent times. Sad for them and their Tibetan guides, it seems like the situation was unnecessarily worsened by the competition. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/08/two-die-in-avalanches-on-shishapangma-mountain-in-tibet More here from other climbers who were on the mountain: https://explorersweb.com/what-happened-shishapangma-climbers-speak/

Followed JayB up the Kone route yesterday. Beautiful weather and dry rock provided for an enjoyable day out. We received a tip at the trailhead from Jared(?) to take some small cams for the runout sections and were glad we had some. Updated rap route is down the Magic Bus anchors, all newish chains and bolts on climbers left side of the Great Arch. Also, there's been a bunch of bear activity along the base of 3 O'clock rock so consider maybe hanging anything left at the base off a bolt out of reach or take everything with you up the climb. PS, I fumbled my belay device at the top of the last rap so good reminder to practice your Munter.

I'm thinking that if the current population is such that we have the occasional grizzly near a town, we probably don't need to introduce more of them. I'm ok with the current growth of the population continuing as bears migrate from surrounding areas. No need to accelerate it. https://www.khq.com/news/grizzly-bear-captured-north-of-colville/article_03736338-5ef4-11ee-8f2f-ef7b408e478b.html?fbclid=IwAR0yX4qU4J3QHc-9QUvL46hNbUEvS8IOPWwZpQ8D5wyvak7DIalrlnZ9Uz0

I'm not sure why this is going through the NPS website as it will clearly impact a lot of area outside of the park. Here's a link to leave a comment on the reintroduction of Grizzly bears in the North Cascades. https://parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=132104

Not much detail but here's a link to the article for those who are interested. RIP https://methowvalleynews.com/2023/09/21/climbing-accident-claims-life-of-alabama-man/

I'm seeing the 2016 accident get bumped elsewhere on social media from folks looking for info on Sunday's accident.

I remember looking at this route from Easy Peak and wondering why more folks don't approach the Northern Pickets that way. Now I know!

HWY 20 is open with a pilot car between Rainy Pass and Blue Lake Trailhead. It looks like most NCNP and USFS is closed between Newhalem on the West and Silver Star Creek on the East. fseprd1132480.pdf

Washington State Department of Transportation Northwest Region – 1019 Andis Road – Burlington, WA 98233 – 360-757-5999 TRAVEL ADVISORY Aug. 16, 2023 Contact: RB McKeon, communications 360-399-9328 Lauren Loebsack, communications 509-860-0000 SR 20 North Cascades Highway now closed between Newhalem and Silver Star Campground due to Sourdough and Blue Lake wildfires NEWHALEM – The Washington State Department of Transportation in partnership with the Sourdough Fire Incident Northwest Management Team 10 and the U.S. Forest Service have extended the closure along State Route 20/North Cascades Highway from milepost 120 in Newhalem to milepost 171 at the Silver Creek gate, approximately 22 miles west of Winthrop due to the Sourdough Fire and Blue Lake Fire. The National Park Service has closed camping, trailheads, overlooks, pullouts and other recreation east of Newhalem due to fire activity. There is no access to North Cascades national Park and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area from the Bridge Creek trailhead or via Blue Lake, Maple Pass or Twisp Pass. There are no reroutes for the Pacific Crest Trail at this time. Additional details about trail, area and camp closures are available on the North Cascades National Park Service complex website and the U.S. Forest Service alerts website. During the closure of SR 20, people can use I-90, US 2 and 12 for east-west travel across the state. WSDOT crews will continue to partner with Incident Managment Teams responding to both fires. Road closure information is posted in the WSDOT real-time travel center and @wsdot_north and @wsdot_east on X/Twitter and updates will be provided as available. The Sourdough Fire started with a lightning strike on July 29 near Diablo in the steep and rugged terrain of Ross Lake National Recreation Area. The Blue Lake Fire began on Aug. 15, approximately 20 miles west of Winthrop on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. A cause has not determined at this time. Sections of SR 20 have been closed since Friday, Aug. 4. Hyperlinks within the release: Sourdough Fire: inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident-information/warlp-sourdough-fire Blue Lake Fire: www.facebook.com/OkaWenNF North Cascades National Park Service Complex website: www.nps.gov/noca/planyourvisit/fire-closures.htm U.S. Forest Service alerts website: www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/okawen/alerts-notices Real-time travel center: wsdot.com/Travel/Real-time/Map/ @wsdot_north: twitter.com/wsdot_north

USFS closed the Blue Lake trailhead and trails due to a new fire close by just this morning.

Agreed. Good news, HWY 20 is open (for now):

Those are some OG choss dawgs!