Kyle

Sorry to say I haven't been up there yet, but I hope to get out there this season. If anyone's interested, I did find some more info on the route at http://www.tumtum.com/climbing/routes/97-08-02-Stuart.txt I'll post a TR when I do finally climb it. Thanks to all for the great info & encouragement!

I climbed onto the beach at Ocean Shores, & enjoyed a rare non-climbing weekend with my wife. Very relaxing... just gotta do it once in a while.

Good info, but I'm not sure how often this gets updated: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/wenatchee/icicle/

Yeah, I saw the Times article too- that's mostly what got me thinking about it again. The idea of a car swap is a good one- would save my wife a lot of driving I'm not competitive or fast at all- I can just keep pounding out miles forever. I know one other guy that's sort of interested... I agree it would be more fun & motivating to have more people along, not to mention safer. You could also share a few things (ie water filter) & go even lighter. Let's think about it... I'm looking at maybe 9/22-23 or 9/29-30, but I'm fairly flexible. I know the days are getting short, but hey, that's what my Tikka is for.

Beware of those sections where 'wet' and 'dry' conditions are interspersed. It was like that descending the Muir snowfield last weekend- firm icy ground, then soft snowy ground, all sort of mixed together. Aside from a few obvious open cracks, it appeared mostly safe, but I found a fairly deep crevasse that was hidden until I probed it out, quite low down on the snowfield. There was a fresh track of bootprints going across it both ways... scary. Also a few years ago, my partner punched into a deep crevasse in the Bugs. We'd been walking all day on dry glacial ice, and he stepped off into a softer snowy section, while I unconsciously detoured around it. His pack caught him, and we were able to get him out OK, but it could have been a lot worse. I think there are plenty of times that it's appropo to cross glaciers unroped, but you have to be all the more careful; there are always some crevasses that aren't open yet.

The Donini Alaska story was cool, but it's overall a pretty boring issue (but then the last one was too). I did get a kick out of the closing article about climbing in Korea. God forbid if our crags should ever get that crowded...

I read that they were just below the 9000' saddle, which sounds a lot like the C-D route. The "ice cliff" they mentioned is probably one of the steeper sections there below the saddle. I was there 2 weeks ago & didn't see any major ice in this area; it sounds like it's melted off & iced up a lot since then.

So true Dru... And sometimes, believe it or not, it's OK to back off from a climb in the face of icy conditions. Just because you're wearing crampons doesn't mean you're secure on ice, and high up on Baker isn't really where anyone should be taking their first steps. There's no shame in waiting until next year, to return & do the route in more pleasant and safer early-season conditions.

My party of 3 got lucky with a brief weather window & we summitted Sunday 9/2 via the DC route. It was windy and cold above 12k', with strong gusts and lots of spindrift, but clear & beautiful (it turned crappy Sunday night, and I doubt anyone summitted Monday). The route itself is not in great shape, with very little snow left on the cleaver and rotten snowbridges on the lower glaciers (we saw 2 guys climb most of the route unroped, which was scary to watch).

A few years ago on Lurking Fear, my partner was almost killed by a full 2L water bottle that missed his head by 3'. It had free-fallen at least 500' after being dropped without warning by a couple of Calgarians who were a day ahead of us on the route. Those goofballs also ditched their gigundous homemade portaledge on Thanksgiving ledge (I wonder if it's still there?). We never did catch up to them or see them again.

Looks like we all agree on the importance of the traditional grains of salt. But maybe salt's getting outdated- eg you could take beta with a grain of Ecstacy "your beta sucks... but I love you man!" Or a grain of Prozac- "it's all good". Or better yet a grain of volcanic grit, cause you're going to eat some of that no matter where you go anyway.

I think newbie's originally an internet term that's crossed over into internet climbing forums, but you don't really hear climbers in the outdoors referring to other climbers as newbies. Beginners, first-timers, suckers, or fresh meat are more commonly used terms.

Another Beckey classic- "good bivy", usually means a wet sloping stance that a buzzard couldn't roost on. I say don't believe anyone- take all beta you get with a big grain of salt. Gather up all the info you can on a route from guidebooks, websites, and friends, put together a general picture of the climb in your mind, and go give it your best shot. Then come back here & post a TR

One guy can definitely extricate someone by himself, given a good anchor and enough mechanical advantage. The real trick is avoiding the worst case scenario, where a falling climber pulls his partner into a crevasse. I think this happened a few years ago to 2 guys descending the Emmons after climbing Lib Ridge. Also read the first chapter of Jim Wickwire's depressing book ("Addicted to Danger") for another case of this. I'll still climb 2 on a rope, but I'm always aware of the added danger, & I prefer to have a 3rd person on the rope when I can.

On Rainier some years ago I punched into a huge crack on the Carbon, close to the toe of Liberty Ridge. It was early May, we were a party of 2, and were crossing a very jumbled & scary mess of intersecting cracks & seracs. I was in lead, & was at the end of a spooky little catwalk between cracks, said 'watch me here this seems funky...' & suddenly dropped up to my waist (my pack caught me). I carefully swung my feet around in all directions & couldn't touch the walls of the crevasse at all. My bud belayed me while I sunk my axe as far away as I could & grovelled out of there. We scurried away & didn't stop to ponder how close a call it was until we'd made the relative safety of the ridge. It shook me up good, & motivated me to learn more about glacier safety & rescue techniques etc. I also gained some appreciation for just how vulnerable a party of 2 can be- if I'd fallen all the way in, I could have yanked my partner in too & we'd have been screwed... a 3rd climber would have made it quite a bit safer I think.

Hiking down from Glacier Peak last Saturday we saw a critter that I'm fairly sure was a wolverine. It was about 80' away so it was hard to know for sure, but it was about the size of a huge marmot, had a small pointy head, & was dark brown except for a reddish band that wrapped around its hind legs & tail. It had that fast slinky gait you see in weasels & martins, and the way it rushed around hunting, you could tell it was no marmot. Pretty cool, never saw one in the wild before... the Cascades are just full of surprises.

I was thinking of doing this route, but now I'm not so sure...sounds like some serious work Nice going!

Climbed it in a day saturday, via the Sitkum Glacier route, had perfect weather, beautiful views, & saw only one other party. It was loads of fun, but I can't really recommend doing it this way; it was sort of an experimental training exercise for us & turned into a very long, almost grueling day. There's not much snow left up high, so we did a lot of pumice trudging in the sun, which bites. We carried a rope but never used it- the glacier's icy & crevasses obvious.

http://www.patagonia.com/culture/working_here.shtml Check out the picture they chose to illustrate their employment page... is that supposed to tell you something about the working conditions there?

No worries Matt, I didn't take your response that way at all.

So true...

I have climbed Baker, Rainier, & other peaks with minimal gear (meaning no pickets etc), and we saw similar parties "hiking" up Baker last weekend. As I learned more about what gear you need to mount even the most basic rescue, I've gotten more conservative in my approach. Sure carrying a picket or 2 might slow me down a bit, but it's like a first aid kit- you might never need to use it, but when you do you'll be glad to have it.

Awesome job- I think any ascent of this scary looking peak is highly respectable... you probably won't ever see my chicken ass up there

This climb was unusual for me, since we had a party of 5 (biggest group of guys I've ever climbed with), and 2 of them were beginners. Saturday I conducted a little glacier training session (which was actually a lot of fun), then 4 of us summitted Sunday. We carried a full complement of gear- 1 ice axe, crampons, prusiks, & one picket each (no screws or flukes), 2 ropes, plus a few pulleys, extra biners, slings, atc's etc. I always see climbers wearing helmets on that route, but there's not much rockfall hazard there to worry about, & we didn't use them. I'm planning to do Glacier peak in a day this weekend, then Rainier Labor day weekend. It's been a great season! [This message has been edited by Kyle (edited 08-23-2001).]

I love my long bed Nissan p/u. 2WD, V6, enough clearance & power to get up all but the worst roads, & gets ~ 26 mpg on hwy. I have a little sleeping platform I set up in the back for road trips, so you can stow gear underneath & have plenty of roll space (if not headroom) for sleeping 2 or 3 guys. 160k miles & still runs almost like new.