mrefranklin

As a matter of fact it was, Glen. You were there too. I think we had beers downtown afterwards and talked about what a rotten idea the BAT was. Good to hear from you. I hope things are going well.

Thanks for the help. I did try a google search before I posted here and found a Colorada phone number that had been disconnected. My guess is that the freaks are gone...

So the million dallar question is: Did you let your subscription run out or did the issues just stop arriving? Nekkid mountain chicks are fun. I went to a Warren Harding slide show where he kept inserting picture of nekkid hippie girls in between his slides of climbs in the valley. One of the best slide shows I ever attended.

A couple of years ago, back when I was doing a little work in the outdoor industry, I went to the Outdoor Retailer show and picked up one of the many free magazines that they always give away there. There was a magazine called Mountainfreak that I thought was pretty fun. I can't find any info on it now so I'm assuming that it must be defunct. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Hey Jim, I would heartily recommend taking your gear with you to Shasta. I've had some of the best backcountry days of my life there. Of course, part of that is probably because I grew up in that area and have spent more days there than anywhere else. It's pretty easy to get up the old ski highway to bunny flat. Just drive almost any road from the town of shasta towards the mountain and you're bound to stumble on it. Cruise all the way up until the road stops. You can either head up Green Butte, Avalanche Gulch, or skin up the snowed in road to reach the old ski bowl. All can be great skis... Personally, I like to head up Green Butte because it's the most direct way to gain elevation. I take it up until I can drop down into the old bowl and then I ride the road back down to the cars at Bunny. You can probably lap it a couple or three times no problem. Eric

Howdy climbers, A couple of friends and I took a look up at the North Face of Mt. Shuksan. I figure it might be of use to some you hearty ice climbers. We drove a beautiful Westfalia in to fire access road 5307 (below he lower lodge at Baker off of the Hwy about 1 mile before the gate). The road is "shrubby" as you get down lower We managed to put some nice little scrapes in the brown exterior of the car. "Merely flesh wounds" I tell you... From the lower end of that road, you bushwack straight down the valley, cross the creek (which is very passable right now), and head up the opposing ridge, veering right towards Mt. Shuksan as you ascend. Stick to the heavily forested areas as much as possible to avoid underbrush vegetation and the ever-popular devil's club. Be careful not to overturn too many completely hidden hornets (bees) nests as I took about 8 stings on the way in. Access the top crest of the hill and hike it to some nice bivy spots near the base of the North Face. Plenty of water opportunities in the form of snow patches still exist if you hike the ridge far enough. When you are ready to begin the ascent of the North Face, don't rush to put on your crampons (as we did). We traversed an ever-steeping snowfield until we reached the base of the climb. The snow was a step below water ice, but not by much. Much quicker travel can be had by skirting the lower rocky edge of the snow field until you get up to the hanging glacier on the actual North Face. It looks like it's about a 12-15 foot iceblock climb to get onto the route. We turned back here due to our unfamiliarity with the route higher up and the fact that retreat looked like it would be a royal pain if we got in over our heads. All of us have climbed on ice that steep, but never for that prolonged of a period of time. None of us felt comfortable leading all of the tough pitches. I think we'd planned on a little bit more neve conditions without quite as much broken near-vertical climbing. Oh well, we'll be back. For a good proficient ice crew, I think the route looks like a blast right now. A nice fellow who planned on soloing the route had bivvied below. On our way out we stopped to talk to him and found out that he was an alpine guide who turned around because the conditions looked a bit fierce for a solo effort. He had climbed the North Face two years ago in August and found a "fun" 30 ft bergschrund up the route. He was guessing that it might even be larger now. He hiked the ridge down with us for a ways but split off to reach his car at the Baker ski area since we were on the fire access road. You can check out some pics I took here: http://homepage.mac.com/cascadeboy/PhotoAlbum6.html I hope that this helps some of you ice folks out there. We didn't make it far enough to see what happens higher up the route but it looked like fun.

Heinrich, We were out taking a peek at the North Face this weekend. There is currently about a 12 ft ice block entry just to get onto the route. The "snow" was about as close to ice as you can get without being water ice and the schrund up higher looks pretty big (30+ feet). We felt we were in a bit over our heads considering our group's lack of ice lead experience. We'd all climbed ice that steep before, but never for that long. We met a fellow up ther looking to solo it. Nice guy who climbed it 2 years ago and worked as a guide. He backed off too. He probably would have gunned it if he had a partner, though. For a good ice crew it looks like heaven. Hope that that helps. Eric P.S. Watch for the hornets on the way up. We dislodged hornet nests about 4 or 5 times and I took about 8 stings. Yowzah!

Sorry for my misinfo on the Rainier climber report. Apparently the Mowich face info has not been updated in months. Thanks much to several private messages sent to me for my last post. Mea culpa.

Rainier report here states that some folks were doing Mowich Face a couple of weeks ago: http://www.nps.gov/mora/climb/climb_cd.htm Also, Gator's guide puts the standard in-shape times for the route as May, June, July, and October. With the weather we've been having, shouldn't it be closer to October conditions than September - or is it just too friggin' warm? I might just be having a spout of denial and really hoping to squeeze it on before the end of the year. How about this one: Has anyone in Cascade Climber land been up Mowich recently or during another melted out time in previous years? What does the route climb like in similar conditions (I assume much more scree to cross, rockfall, and circuitous glacier navigation).

Weekend of April 20th. Must have been very tired. Just thought I'd try...

Weather forecast looks pretty decent for the weekend. I think we'll be making a go of Gib tomorrow. I believe there are still no limit restrictions at Muir until June 1st. Can anyone else confirm that? I think we just self-register at Paradise and truck on up. Good lord am I gettin' excited... Climbing season here we come. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/getproduct.pl?SEASEARECSEA

"I'd rather be with you people than the finest people in the world!" - the mayor in "Roxanne" Sort of wraps up how you feel about any climbing partner...

While I don't have any specifics on permanent positions, I did see a post up on the board at the Mountaineers (in the hall outside of the bookshop) that a group is looking for somebody to take a couple of duffel bags full of stuff to Nepal to drop off for some charity efforts. I forget the specifics but the group was offering gear to anyone that would agree to make the delivery. It looked like a legitimate request and it may make you feel really good to do something for them while exploring your new home. Best of luck to you!

Just a word of warning, if you plan on hitting Cooper's on a Tuesday, you're in for a bar full of folks playing trivia. You don't have to play but it can be pretty distracting and noisy... Thought y'all might want to know.

Har dee frickin' har, danlo, For those of you who didn't hear, I left my parked car at 1 AM to head in. I bumped into a bear on the trail, in the dark, at about 2:15. The bear retreated up the trail. Since I didn't feel like chasing him up the trail while I was all by my lonesome, I hiked out to the trailhead, drove out to the rest area on Hwy 2, and slept in my car for a while. What a spooky dark experience that was... Obviously, I have no further beta to report on this outing... E

Thanks Blister! That's exactly what I have in mind. I think I might head out there tomorrow night and try and get to the base of the face early Sunday morning. Thanks for the beta. I'll post back with whatever I find.

Thanks for the info everyone! I think I may go sneak a peek at it and take the scramble if the N Face looks like it cannot be done...

Thanks a lot you guys! Kyagpa, I'm looking for something that's solo-able this weekend. What is the approach up the Entiat Icefall like? I would certainly like to do something that won't have tons of people on it, but I was looking at the North Face just because I can make it a day trip while my normal climbing partners are out of town. I'm fairly experienced so I feel comfortable with the steepness of the North Face, but I don't want to be anywhere that is heavily crevassed or that has more objective hazards (rockfall, etc.).

Just wondering if anyone has been on the North Face of Maude in the last few weeks? How is the traverse over from the Seven Finger Jack - Mt. Maude Col? Where does the snow start and how do the conditions look for climbing? Better yet, any ice up high? Thank you in advance for any information that can be provided.

Greetings everyone! Just wanted to put in the word that we went out and climbed Mt. Daniel last weekend via the Hyas -> Daniel Glacier and it was in great shape. The climb itself is very easy and non-committing coming out of Peggy's Pond, which is much less buggy than it was even several weeks ago. Heading into the Hyas Basin, just follow the little climbers' trails and cairns on up to the upper basin. We climbed directly up a snow finger on the right-hand (west) side of the valley that placed us directly beneath the spire below East Peak. Traversed below that spire onto the Daniel Glacier which is getting fairly crevassed. We had to cross a couple very solid snowbridges and step over a couple of crevasses but it was early morning and they were in great shape. You want to access the summit crest as far east at the top of the Daniel Glacier as you can get. There is actually a pretty decent trail on that side of the scree slope that willl allow you to climb the loose garbage without kicking stuff down onto the glacier. On the way out, you may want to just follow the scramblers trail out the backside of the east peak. The trail is in good shape and you won't have to use the glacier again to get out. Following the scrambler's trail will pop you out above the Hyas Basin, just to the east of the east peak. You can then follow the boot tracks down the East side of the valley and out. The snow is in great semi-firm shape if you get there early morn and Peggy's Pond is great swimming when it's hot outside.

Howdy Rob, After being up there last week, I am definitely of the opinion that the DC route is going to rotten and dangerous well before the end of summer. While being one of the easier routes on the mountain, it does not qualify as one of the safer ones. Emmonds will have a longer season and probably be safer, but the crevasse negotiation will be VERY circuitous by then. My two cents is that if you want to climb Rainier this season, the earlier the better. If you do decide to climb later in the season, get some beta from the climbing rangers before you go. They may be able to suggest alternatives to the two main sloggers you mention. Late season routes get a lot more dangerous with tons of folks on them - you're probably more likely to get a rock kicked down on your mellon while on DC, than to get injured while following the boot track late season.

Update: they're still there, and it IS the group I was thinking of. Definitely saw them heading up. We even wished 'em safe climbing. Wonder what the hell they were doing that high that late in the afternoon. Might be that late-rising got them in trouble. http://www.seattleinsider.com/partners/kirotv/news/2001/05/30/climbers.html Danielpatricksmith, were you the folks that dropped down onto the glacier below the route and were getting ready to go up? Where did you turn around? I can't wait to hit it next weekend and try it again.

Philfort, Ptarmigan is supposedly in Epic shape. Unfortunately, we had a visiting climber on our team that wasn't up to the task once we got to high camp (it was a mitake to take him). Seeing a lenticular being blown in, my buddy and I made the call to descend rather than climb with him. We're going back in two weeks to do it again. This time, only experienced tried and true folks that I've climbed with before. It killed us not to be able to go up when it looked soooo good - especially when the route out took almost as long as going over the top and down Emmonds. The entrance to the chute looks incredible with good solid conditions. Gotta try and get through there early though, so it doesn't become a "bowling alley." The snow is pretty soft down to 9,000 feet or so but there should be nice prints on the approach now. Our team and one other swapped leads breaking it this weekend. Love to hear if anyone has made it yet.

Freaky. Our group descended from Ptarmigan Ridge on Sunday morning and saw four folks heading out from Lower Carbon for Thumb Rock on Lib Ridge. May be these folks: http://www.seattleinsider.com/partners/kirotv/news/2001/05/29/climbers.html I hope everyone is safe. Regards, Eric [This message has been edited by mrefranklin (edited 05-29-2001).]

The gate on milepost 21 at Cascade Pass road was opened yesterday afternoon, although the road is not open quite all of the way to the parking lot (you're going to have to hike in for the last 3/4 mile to mile at this point). With the warm weather we've been having, it rained up there this morning. The snow is getting consolidated very quickly so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the more technical climbing routes in that area start becoming climbable (safely) in the next couple of weeks. As it was, my climbing partner and I made a quick trip up to the pass and snowboarded down the valley back to the road. Great corn snow and lots of sunshine! Just thought y'all might want the update so that you can get up there and get some turns in before they're gone. The place is melting faster than the Wicked Witch of the East!