mattp

In all the excitement, there hasn't been enough mention of the fact that we had some of the best corn snow ever! It was nice meeting everybody, and yes, Harry, we were able to get along without you.

Jay, that evil communist CJF screwed up the thread, so you have to add line returns periodically or we can't read your post without using the scrollbar. I can't be bothered to read what you wrote but it seems to be something about how Mr. McCarthy did us all a great favor. I couldn't agree more. He really showed those communists. After all, those movie starts were all rooting for Stalin from the beginning. Really, though, communists are kind of lame. Let's talk about some good old facists. What we need is more centralized control over our government - a unitary president - and we sure as hell don't need those blame-America-first newspaper reporters leaking anything. No sir. Rather than respond to anybody's naive complaint about our mistreatment of our enemies or spying on criminals and terrorists, we gotta kick ass. That's for sure.

Meanwhile, you've answered the question of the person who was asking about "Dreamer" last week.

Thanks for the pictures. The second one shows Green Giant Buttress. 3:00 rock is about 30 degrees to the right. Better luck next time. You'll probably cruise it.

Thanks, Jay. But I won't need to take you up on the invitation. I learned in the '70's that presidents who flout the law and spy on American citizens are cool and that anybody who disagrees with them is an "enemy" who needs ratfucking. As they say: you're either for us or against us. Didn't McCarthy warn us about the dangers of allowing communists to live amongst us back in the '50's? How 'bout you set up an Internet forum where we can spew derisive things about anybody who criticizes our leaders? That's be more fun than your theme park, wouldn't it?

If you miss the ladder, you find yourself in the grotto next to a swimming pool, and there is a set of grassy ledges on the left that goes at about 5.0.

You can attach a picture to a post, by clicking on the appropriate button when you enter your post. There is a file size limit that is pretty restrictive - 100k or something - but which allows a large enough picture to show something for the purposes of conversation. To get the picture to display, you then have to go back, view your post, click the attachment, copy the URL for the JPG file, and then edit your post to insert the tags to show an image. It is clumsy, but it works.

Just below that waterfall, you climb a little tree to gain a bench on the left, then you follow along the left side of the "grotto" that the fall drops into, climbing up some slightly wet and grassy ledges to reach another short tree climb left, and then a trail cuts back right to reach the clean slabs above.

Yeah. Jay's right: anybody to the left of Adolph Hitler is still living in the '60's and probably wears Birkenstocks at least on the weekends. Anybody who criticizes BushCo's totalitarian tendencies stands for, above all, the proposition that we must "Blame America First" and they want the terrorists to win.

The second wash starts out with about 200 yards in a nearly level stream-bed, then you start up slabs that begin mossy and dry out within 100 feet or so, leading to a small pool with a water groove feeding it. I'm guessing you may have found a bit of moss where you step over the watercourse about 30 feet above that pool, and maybe that is where you bailed? Did you get past where there is a waterfall into a large pool and you have to travel on leges on the left?

We pretty much followed the couloir, but didn't stay exactly in it either on the ascent or descent because the avalanches had made it icy and full of debris. There are no significant routefinding problems, though; you can go just about anywhere but even though we had white-out at the top we had no doubt where to go.

I'm not sure exactly what your question is, Minx. We took Turnpike Creek for the approach, and found a dry campsight right below the Cascadian even though there was plenty of snow for touring over the pass and down Turnpike Creek. In the couloir itself, there was one spot where it was melted out and we took the skis off for that, and then higher up it was icy and we booted up to the false summit. The final climb to the actual summit, without axe or crampons, was "exhilarating." Skiing down, we found the rib just west of the couloir offered some good terrain outside of the avalanche debris that littered much of the actuall gully itself.

And don't forget: for those who don't ski, there are other things to do over there.

EAST SLOPES NORTHERN CASCADES- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...LEAVENWORTH...MAZAMA...TWISP...WINTHROP 817 AM PDT FRI MAY 12 2006 TONIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A 20 PERCENT CHANCE OF MOUNTAIN SNOW SHOWERS IN THE EVENING...THEN PARTLY CLOUDY OVERNIGHT. LOWS IN THE 30S. WEST WIND AROUND 20 MPH AND GUSTY IN THE EVENING... BECOMING LIGHT OVERNIGHT. SATURDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 60S. SATURDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLEAR. LOWS IN THE MID 30S TO LOWER 40S. SUNDAY...MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE MID 70S.

I can leave Seattle some time after 3:00 pm today if somebody wants to share a ride.

Start at the White Salmon day lodge. Walk up the ski run maybe 100 yards and follow a cat track exiting left. Walk a quarter mile, and reach top of old cut overlooking valley of heawaters of White Salmon creek. Drop down the old cut or proceed straight ahead, dropping slowly. If the snow is melted from the basin and the leaves are on the brush, do as Gary suggests and head into timber on the the other side of the creek. If there is still snow, follow the path of the creek, on massive piles of avalanche debris, toward the upper basin which is below the White Salmon Glacier, and continue to climb snow slopes leading to the base of the North Face. In May, I think there will still be plenty of snow to follow the standard spring approach. By late June, you might want to take the summer route. Make the call when you get there.

Right now, there is snow all over the place. Later in the summer you might have to ski on glaciers, but now you can drive up to just about any pass and start skinning up. Where do you live, and what area is interesting to you? Do you want to climb mountains and ski from the top? Camp out? Come to the ski campout this weekend and I bet we can find something you can ski.

Little Si. Did you send?

It was like a choir of angels. I'm telling you. Those birds know some respect.

Oh, and when I trimphantly reached the top I found to my HORROR that my "leader" had clipped one chain with a single draw, unlocked, and the other one had his cordelette wrapped around it in an odd fasion. There were two locking biners, not the rope feeding ones, linked together as chain links. I'm pretty sure it wasn't SRENE. What should I do about this?

Don't be dissing my effort. It was not effortless. It WAS cool, though, and when I reached the chains all the birds were singing.

I sent sick 5.9 on a toprope in proud style. Pretty cool, huh?

Foraker: flaming each other and gettin indignant when flamed on this site IS our hobby.