Tod

I've been up Depot Creek three times and have found the access very fun with a high clearance vehicle. If you try to guess which road to take, it becomes very confusing. But much like "W" said, if you just keep going left you will have no problem. The only difference I have done compared to what "W" stated is that instead of taking that road/trail that "heads up 90 degrees left, straight up the hill, then soon reaches a T intersection and old road grade", I just stayed left the whole time and ended up on the grade that you come up to and turn right on. Sound confusing? It really isn't, it just looks it when you get there. The only rule to the whole thing is getting on the Depot Creek road from the main road (Chilliwack Lake Road). There are two roads you come across just before the Chilliwack Lake Road crosses Depot Creek. The one closes to Depot Creek ends very quickly, the first one above Depot Creek is the correct one and will become rougher the farther you drive it. I have been able to drive all the way to the last left hand turn (fork in the road)and park. The last fork in the road is VERY hard to see because it is so washed out and overgrown. Keep an open mind and your eyes sharp and you will see it. This is where I have always parked and hike from (up the washed out overgrown trail). You will soon come across the "T intersection", but you are already on the road grade and you continue on. As far as the climb of Spickard. It is fairly straightforward. I was their one moderate snow year on 4th of July. Avalanche conditions were not a concern. The weather had been nice and stabilized the snow. Since it was hot while I was there, there was some blocks here and there sliding off of smooth rock faces above Silver Lake. But that was a couple of days prior to my visit. A rope is needed for the glacier and the moderate scrambling near the top. We ended up doing the climb in a whiteout one year and found it fairly easy with 20-30yd visibility. For all intense purpose, the only trouble you may run into is finding the climbers trail and figuring out how to get up the alongside the 900' waterfall at the end of Depot Creek. The trick to that is getting up in front of it as close as you can (literally as close as you can) and then heading up and left into the brush and up and up and up.... This place will absolutely blow your mind away. Not to many places like it in the Cascades. Tod [This message has been edited by Tod (edited 05-15-2001).]

I heard that there is some decent bouldering and leading on some cliffs on the beach. I didn't note where the locations was. I am heading down for a week on Sunday and bringing my shoes and chalk bag. I will try and let you know what's good when I get back on 5/12. Tod

Descending the Kautz is pretty straight forward. If whiteout is a problem then of course you want to take great care in making sure you go down the ice chute rather than the icefall. If exposure is not a problem and you don't mind a longer route then Kautz is pretty fun. Since Camp Hazard is one of Rainier's highest camps (11,400')and the route is generally pretty long, I would recomend doing it in 3 days. It's much more enjoyable that way. Also, often times you can get meltwater at Hazard off the rocks below the icefall, just make sure you keep your head safe since there is a lot of ice and rock coming down where the water is usually flowing. Tod

I would be cautious about going up the Kautz as your first route up Rainier, particular if it the first time for the whole group. I’ve done the route a few times, I don’t think it’s really all that steep in the ice chute, I’ve even boarded down it once, but when I took some people up the route that weren’t used to steep faces on big mountains they really were uncomfortable with the whole situation. The people that were uncomfortable had been up the Emmons route before so they weren’t completely green, it was just steeper and bigger than they bargained for. If you’re considering doing Liberty Ridge for your first route up Rainier (I wouldn’t recommend that), then the ice chute on the Kautz probably won’t be that big of deal. Check conditions before you go (find out how icy the chute is) and be flexible (a route change at the last minute might be necessary if it’s reported to be icy). I’ve been up the Emmons many times (I’ve lost count, 5?), I have never had to deal with crowds. The most number of people I’ve had climbing around my party was somewhere around 10-15. No lines, no aggravation, no traffic. They don’t issue enough permits for the Emmons/Winthrop camps to allow any crowds. DC on the other hand, you are guaranteed crowds. From my experience and every report I have heard, you will run into a lot of “climbers”. If I remember correctly, the NPS will issue up to 250 permits (including RMI) for Camp Muir. That doesn’t include Ingraham Flats or some the alpine zone camps below Camp Muir. Most reports are something of the nature “You’re pissed at the group in front of you because they are slow. The group behind you is pissed because you are slow. There is little to no room to pass groups on DC, and if you do pull over, you have to wait until there is a gap in the endless stream of headlamps before you can start up again.” Other peoples reports may not be so dramatic, but if your looking to climb without dealing with a 100+ people on the route, DC is not the place to be. I’ve even run into crowds in December on DC. My recommendation is for Emmons. It is beautiful not as beautiful as DC, but I personally like the hike in. It is fairly crowd free, particularly if you camp at Emmons Flats. I don’t know why people complain about Emmons being a long slog compared to DC, it’s only a half-mile longer and only a 1000’ more vertical than DC (and you do the extra vertical on trail). The trail actually makes it easier since you get to climb the first 2500’ on the trail. If you’re looking for more excitement, then wait till July or August before you go up. The open crevasses and bergschrund (there are quite a few big ones then) will give you plenty of excitement. Tod

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I was with Jerry on Sunday and there was actually 2-3" powder above 6000'. It was on hardpack and was only on north facing slopes. Enjoyable skiing or snowboarding once the temperatures warmed up in the afternoon. It looked as though there had been a party up there on Saturday (with somebody riding a Split-Decision). With the amount of snow that is up there right now, doing the Traverse over to Eldo would probably present some problems since the ridge would most likekly be corniced in places and some of the gullies that you have to descend, traverse under and ascend would be sketchy under moderate to considerable avalanche conditions (they are all south facing). Other than the approach is much longer, my experience on the traverse over to Eldo from Sibley Creek was of grand scenery without too much difficulty in route finding. In some cases we were following trail along the ridge and other cases we were descending and ascending gullies and slopes that had snow (in early summer). The ridge on the way over to the Triad was holding no snow at the time so the traveling was very quick. If you have an extra day it is worth it... Tod

Let's keep this post hot... Today is supposedly the last day to get the letter to Congress in time. Demo Fees need to go away... Here's my letter I sent out yesterday: Congressman Joe Skeen House Intererior Appropriations Subcommittee, B-308, Rayburn, Washington, DC 20515 Dear Congressman Joe Skeen, I am writing to you to voice my strong opposition to the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program (Fee Demo) that is currently charged in order to access public lands. I am also writing to you to voice my strong opposition of making this program a permanent fee. There are many reasons why I oppose the Fee Demo, most importantly I feel that it strips me and others of our basic right as a citizen to freely enjoy our beautiful publics in their natural state. In detail I oppose the Fee Demo for the following reason (but not limited to): -Our public lands are our heritage and our birthright. We own these lands. They are not a recreational commodity. -We already support the public lands agencies and our public lands through our federal taxes. Furthermore, hunters, fishermen and others pay licensing fees on top of access fees and taxes. This new fee amounts to nothing more than double - or even triple - taxation. -Fee Demo sets a precedent of “classism” where only those who can afford to recreate will be able to do so. Those who can't afford it will be barred from their own public lands. -The act of paying fundamentally alters the way one relates to the outdoors. People won't feel the responsibility of being on their own land. Rather, they will feel like they are visiting Disneyland where someone else is being paid to clean up after them. -Fee Demo has nothing to do with the stewardship of public lands. It is, in fact, the beginning of an attempt by corporate America to privatize and commercialize our public lands. -Businesses that sell passes are selling-off our freedoms. These vendors make a profit from the loss of one of our basic rights as American citizens: our right to access our public lands. -The Forest Service is basing the success of its fee projects on compliance. A $50.00 non-comliance fine is nothing less than extortion! -The Forest Service cannot justify sticking the public with a fee or a fine while it continues to lose millions of dollars a year due to its own mismanagement. -Making the public pay a fee to use its own public lands, while at the same time providing federal subsidies for timber, cattle, and mining interests on public lands, is not only illogical, but immoral. As a citizen of the United States and a frequent user of our precious public lands, it is alarming to me that many of our public lands continue to be sold, leased and managed to the point of destruction and are unusable except by government and commercial interests that value the land to make a profit. All the while this is happening, user fees are being assessed on the remaining land that people consider free and wild. This is a very frustrating, disgusting, and immoral mismanagement of our public lands. I request of you and the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee to drop the use of Recreational Fees on public lands. I also request that we look into the real reason why our public lands are under funded; the corporate interests that use our lands for commercial use are under charged or not charged at all for both government services on public lands and the actual use of public lands. This in itself is embarrassment and complete mismanagement of our public lands. If changing the ways the government manages our public lands does not lead to better fiscal management then I request we increase the public lands recreation budgets in order to maintain our public lands without visitor fees. Lastly, I ask that my letter be part of the record for Public Witness Testimony on April 16th. I assure you, I am of a large majority within the United States that share both my views and of the need to drop the use of Recreational Fees. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Tod Bloxham

Heinrich- The North Ridge/Buttress of Fury is an excellent climb. Very classic and for me rates up in the caliber of N Ridge of Forbidden and N Ridge of Stuart. It's about as long as N Ridge of Stuart and about as easy/hard as N Ridge of Forbidden. The actually technical difficulty of the route is not that hard. I would say the rock was mostly Class 4+ to low fifth with some mid 5th sprinkled in. The exposure is descent and the setting is intense. We spent quite a bit of time doing running belays. Lot's of potential for rockfall though. Overall the rock is not bad, but there are some loose sections lower on the route. We ended up breathing on this one rock and it dislodged itself and cut our rope by 25'. The top 500 feet are incredible. A very steep snow arete with a 2000' runout on either side. The hardest parts of the climb for us were the approach (of course), and the weight of carrying over ALL of our gear. If I were to do it again, I would probably try to either bring less rock gear, or cache our gear at Luna Lake and come back for it after doing the route. If you have the time, the route is definitely worth doing. You'll spend more time getting to and leaving the Central Pickets than you will actuallly on the route. There are not many (if any) places in the lower 48 that you can be so remote and have such a spectacular climb.... Tod

Sounds like this curt guy has only climbed or knows of the trophies in Washington and doesn't really know what the North Cascades looks like...

Great idea!! Thank you....!!

Expect to go light and push hard in order to get into the Southern Pickets. If you go with this expectation the approach is still a bit messy, but not that painful. Over a three-day weekend (4th of July) in 1992, a group of three of us climbed the West Ridge of Inspiration. Our approach was via the climbers trail just after "over n' up" creek (which I believe is the creek just before Terror Creek). You head east/NE out of Goodell Creek, then hit treeline and head north. The trail was a steep root-grabbing trail that faded away as we neared treeline. There was very little navigating through the glacier and no problems with the bergschrund or the moat at the access gully/chimney for the West Ridge. This year because of the low snow year I would expect that the glacier would be much more broken up by mid summer, but since it is not all that steep (or big), making your way through it may not be a too much of a problem (i.e. you’ll probably have more navigating and crevasse hopping, but not impassible). Late spring/early summer would probably be great conditions…. I can’t think of any other concerns other than the weather is VERY temperamental in the Pickets. It will change dramatically within an hour if it wants to (with very little to no warning). The gully/chimney up to the West Ridge of Inspiration can be a bit rocky if wet, but otherwise is a straightforward climb with some technical rock and some scrambling. We ended up taking the variation at the top of the ridge and went out onto the north face. It was a class IV variation but the view down the north face was very impressive. When we descended it was pouring down rain so all of the rain (and dislodged rocks) were sent directly down the gully. It was a very interesting (and hazardous) descent as we rappelled through waterfalls while dodging suitcase size boulders. Forrest: As for making your way to the north side of the Southern Pickets, it seems like an approach from the south (same approach as above) and then traversing your way to and over the ridge east of McMillan Spires is probably your best bet. This will gain you access to the north side without having to deal with the long hike and bush-whacking up through Access Creek. Dealing with traversing around from the north side of McMillan creek around to the south side looks like a climb on it’s own (pretty fun looking if you plan on it, but would take some time). Last year a buddy of mine and I traversed from Whatcom Pass, over Challenger and Fury and then headed out Access Creek. We were trying to do the full Picket traverse, but the weather didn’t help and we bailed after climbing the North Ridge/Buttress of Fury. The traverse from Fury to the north side of McMillan Spires (our intent) looked very broken up. Definitely looked easier coming from the south. Tod

I think the last few posts made a good point. Poor style vs. poor ethics... Everybody has there own style of climbing and "as long as you are not adversely affecting the environment" or others, who gives.... What is poor style versus good style should only be determined by what the climber was trying to get out of the climb. Everybody can flex their muscles on whether or not someone should be paid to help haul loads, able to pull on pro, hire a guide, etc., but it still is up to the climber to figure out what they are trying to get out of the climb.... Good ethics versus poor ethics is much harder to determine and everybody has an opinion. Personally, baiting a thread is a form of entrapment and it would be silly to think that people wouldn’t get pissed off... Tod

I was up the Cascade River Road last Thursday (3/22) doing some skiing up on Snowking Mountain. I was able to drive up to 2200' without hardly any difficulties and on north facing slopes, the snow starts in abundance at about 3400'. The Cascade River Road area probably has a lot more snow than the Washington Pass area, since it is farther west in more direct exposure to precipitation, but hopefullly that givees you an idea on snow levels and possibily conditions. Cyclone Lake (5350') was completely covered with snow. I was not able to find any water or slush after doing some minor digging with my pole... My post in the North Cascades forum has a full trip report on the ascent and snowboard descent down Snowking. Skiings great right now.... Tod

Question: Is anybody familiar with the Bullsnake Traverse? While reading about ski trips that originate from or include Cascade Pass I came across a reference to the "BullSnake Traverse". My only thought is that it originates at Cascade Pass and goes north passed Forbidden, Eldorado, onto the Klawatti Ice Cap, and continues north all the way to the Thunder Arm trail... Anybody now for sure....? Tod

Just got back from a day trip up Snowking Mountain. Here are some details to let people know how snow conditions are around the Cascade River Road: The road (FS Road 1570) was open all the way tot the end. The USGS maps mislabels it at about 2400' but it actually seems to be at about 2200'. There was one patch of snow at 2000' that 4x4 helped, but this will probably be gone in the next day or two. From the end of the road the climbers trail is visible and easily followed straight up until about 3400'. At 3400' the snow quickly takes over and I was able to start skinning up on skis at about 3800'. Snow in the trees was below 5000' was crusty (easily breakable and not too icy). Above 5000' had about 2"-3" of new DRY snow (some hoar frost had formed on the top). In places, the new snow was on top of semi-solid hardpack. On south facing slopes the new snow was not evident and harpack persisted, and higher up (above 5800') on northeast aspects there was little to no signs of any crust, just windpacked powder. Snow conditions up high will inevitably change daily, but it was surprising to see the snow level on north facing slopes all the way up to 3400'. As far as the route goes, gaining and following the ridge south to Cyclone Lake did not pose any problems. Some route descriptions say to go clockwise around/above Cyclone Lake, but it seems much less direct and more exposed to cornices above and cliffs below than the alternate route of going counter-clockwise. It's probably easier to go clockwise in the summer, but not right now. No difficulties gaining the summit (7433'). The icing on the cake was the snowboard back down (I ride a Split-Decision, ski up and snowboard down). From the summit down to Cyclone Lake (was the best ride this winter). Lightly windpacked 2" powder on top of pack-powder. The descend to the lake was about 2100' of bliss. Overall, ~10 miles and 10.5 hours (6 hours from Car to summit .5 on the summit and 4 hours back out). Wahoo! Tod