mattp

It is a fairly long way, but you can do it in three days without being an uber-athelete. The Forest Service plans to reopen the White Chuck Road, or at least part of it, but now is a good time to enjoy Glacier Peak as a more remote wilderness destination.

Yes, the trestle is good. Kids seem to like the trestle itself, apart from the crags there.

This is not what you asked about, but if you anticipate that there may be some objections, and particularly in an area where bolt-chopping has taken place before, I'd consider using Petzl 5-piece bolts or something else that can be removed without chopping. This may make it easier for someone who doesn't like your bolts to remove them, but I don't think you are going to end up with some general agreement that everyone else in the area will sign on to, and it will reduce the chances that you will end up with an unsightly and useless broken stud. It will also facilitate maintenance at some point years to come. You may have already thought about this, so forgive me if I state the obvious or if you have a different idea.

You could do a valley hike in the Olympics, though if you want to avoid snow it will be an "up and back" hike. The Duckabush is nice, the N. Fork Quinnault doesn't see much traffic, and Queets probably even less because you have to ford the river at the start.

I finding lots of uncrowded crags lately - in Leavenworth, Index, Erie, Darrington ... Even at Little Si last week we went to something other than the most popular crags there and there was nobody around.

I don't know where you are climbing, Zonk, but the last several times I climbed in the Icicle we had the crags either all to ourselves or nearly so. I didn't go to Bruce's Boulder or Condomorphamine or Givler's Crack, though. Even Castle Rock, the last several times I've been there, had been relatively casual. I have been to the Pearly Gates when it was busy, and I've seen line-ups on Outer Space, but if you are looking to get away from other climbers you should be able to do that even on a busy weekend.

I'm glad we figured that out.

Which one are you, Harry? Dirty Harry as A: Goat Roper or B: Pole Smoker.

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.