Tod

Sounds like you guys were on route. If you went up the big bedrock gulley with the 15-20' step of Class 4 partway up and then continued up to the South Ridge and the 5.3-5.6 crack that you pictured, then you were on route. From there guidebooks say to rap down to the belay ledge like you did and scramble out. We ended up scrambling down the otherside down the West Gulley instead. We did it in boots also. The 5.3 slab wasn't that great in boots, but fun with the exposure of the east face (wow!). The 5.6 exit move was great with boots; too bad that it was so short. Freaky on the running into the ex boss. Funny how that happens sometimes.

Isn't that cairn incredible?! Your picture doesn't give it just since you guys are in front of it, the perspective is off. It's about 7 ft tall and 3-4 feet at the base. You can see it from the PCT miles away... How did you guys get off route? Did you guys rope up for the bouldering on Golden Horn or just for the rapel?

Looks like Crystal Mountain is starting their snowmaking early this year... Also some other interesting news from Crystal Mountain: Current Update July 31, 2003 Dear Crystal Mountain Supporters: A major hurdle was passed today as the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries both received individually written copies of the Biological Assessment for the Crystal Mountain Master Development Plan Environmental Impact Statement. Now the USFWS and NOAA Fisheries have 60 days to respond. The Forest Service needs concurrence from both agencies prior to issuing a Record of Decision (ROD) for the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). The only other agency the Forest Service needs to hear back from is the Washington State Historical Preservation Office (SHPO) regarding the Heritage package. This document discusses issues from Native American Indians to the early mining days here. SHPO has had the document since the middle of July so their findings should be forth coming. Above, in two short paragraphs I have summarized many hours of diligent work put in by the Forest Service staff and their contractor (SE Group) preparing the documents in a timely manner. Theoretically, providing there are no obstacles a ROD could be issued by November 1, 2003. Keep the faith, the end may be near. Respectfully, Bill Steel Director of Planning

I'm pretty sure those are from winter avalanche fatalities from people heading down the Alpental backcountry many years ago. I'm not certain, but I seem to recall hearing about those plaques or the accident...

No snow on the scramble to Golden Horn or Tower from Snowy Lakes.

Very cool! Makes me want to go do it now. Tod

There are two summits to Golden Horn, they are about 10-20 yards from each other with the nw summit being the higher one (by about 2-4 feet?). The summits are really just two huge flakes of granite with the nw summit having two to three bouldering moves to get to the top. We climbed up the nw summit using the northern (left) most gulley. Once you reach the top of the gulley, go to the left side of the flake/summit and you are within 5-10 feet of the summit. It's a pretty easy scramble and traverse move with decent feet and hands. Two steps up from the starting stance and there is a long crack for your feet to traverse right across (5 feet of traversing). From there you can touch the summit ledge (or almost touch it) and pull yourself up with slopey feet and hands. It's pretty easy. The harder part is coming back down since it's slopey and the crack for your feet is hidden from above so you can't see where it starts or ends. Still pretty easy though. Tod

Did the SW Coulior/S Ridge of Tower. Pretty simple and straightforward and much better than the dangerously loose West Gulley. 2 hours from Snowy Lakes to the summit. The Coulior is Class 3-4 all the way up to the S Ridge. The S Ridge has a short (60-80ft) section of 5.3+ with an exit move of 5.6-. The 5.3 is a right facing open book crack that is mostly easy face climbing. No need for rock shoes on the route, but the exposure over the east face is enough that it warrants a rope for most. We could see thunder heads and dark stormy weather off over by the west slopes of the Cascades as we were climbing up. Even a few lightening strikes could be seen over by Eldorado or Colonial area. We descended the West Gulley which was completely rotten crap and not worth climbing. We also climbed Golden Horn from Snowy Lakes. Quick and easy and all easy scrambling except for one semi exposed move 5' below the summit. Snowy Lakes is pretty d*mn cool this time of year. A great place to hike into. We hiked in Saturday evening at 5:30pm and got there right at sunset (8:30pm). They are high alpine lakes/ponds right near treeline. The lakes are actually sort of warm since they are so shallow and the bottom of the lake is soft so it's easy to wade out into for a dip. Does anyone know why a helicoptor was hovering over the end of Straight Ridge for an hour or so on Sunday morning? Straght Ridge is the ridge due north of Tower where Tower Creek and the Methow River intersect. I didn't see any sign of Forest Fire and I don't think there is any logging in that area. Tod

Great info! I think this is at least the 2nd GAO report done on this (I remember one from the 2nd year of the Demo Program), and it STILL says the same thing. The cost to run the program negates the fees collected. My guess is that because the program is in place, there is less money in the Federal Budget for the Forest Service, and since the cost of the program negates the fees collected, the Forest Service has less money to operate than it ever has. That doesn't even include the loss of money from subsidizing the logging industry. Very backwards as usual. Pay/subsidize the commercial "users" of the National Forests and charge the recreational users, and then lose money doing it. Tod

Wow, the glacier coming off of Spickard seems to have receeded even further in the last few years. I remember heading down from the gap/pass to Silver Lake and having crevasses on both sides of me. Now it looks like the glacier is only above you on the right as you head down to Silver Lake. I've got some closeups of Devil's Tounge & Toothpick that I'll try to post for you Dru. Tod

What an incredible post! Thank you Harry for taking the time to post what I feel is very interesting, and to many, very important imformation. I've been up in that area many times and my interest in it never seems to end. Your presence is very welcome and I hope you are able to continue posting here at cc.com.

It's pretty ridiculous that it's part of the "Top 100" list. It's even a little odd that it's a named peak on the USGS maps since the peak seems to be more part of Ripsaw Ridge than a peak. My feeling though is that it was actually a pretty fun side trip after Buckner that doesn't take to much time...

Going around the toe of the ridge and up the drainage below the Sahale Glacier is not bad this time of year. When we went up that way on July 6th we had snow all the way. The route went up the middle left of the lower drainage and then cut left up a smaller gulley which avoided the cliffs/waterfalls of the upper drainage and put us practically on level with the moraine camps of Sahale. From what we could tell, this route would be very doable any time of year....

I was surprised at how easy the traverse was. Mostly Class 2-3 scrambling on loose rock. It only takes a few minutes to get from the base of Sahale to the Boston Glacier.

I don't know Canada law, but can't you file assault charges on all of those involved so many or all serve some jail time, fines or some sort of retribution is served? I would hope that RCMP took the names down of at least the 15 that were held and then released.

I've done the traverse around Whatcom and it's not too bad. There aren't really any hazards from rockfall or anything else, but it's a long ways around Whatcom. My thinking is if your trying to do Challenger in three days day one should be to Whatcom Pass, day two would be over or around Whatcom Peak (probably over) and back to Whatcom Pass, and day three would be back out.

Really, what were the choppers about? Curious minds want to know....

Very cool...

We started at the Cascade Pass trailhead (Cascade River Road). I don't think we are #6 to climb Horseshoe. The register on the peak was in poor shape (wet and faded) and from what I could read there were only six summits registered on it including ours. I would guess that Horseshoe has been climbed a lot more than 6 times, but because the peak blends in with Ripsaw Ridge it's also a peak that is not looked at very often. Buckner (a few hundred yards away and 600' higher) has probably seen more climbs this year than Horseshoe has in the last 5 years. I'm actually surprised that it's even a named peak....

What a beautiful day Sunday was! My buddy JB and I decided to make a marathon day out of yesterday and climb Sahale, Boston, Buckner and Horsehoe all in one day. It's really a great loop that hits all the peaks without having to go out of your way for any of them. Here's how the day went: -Left car 2:30am -Summited Sahale 6:30am? -Summited Boston 8:30am - In a twisted way, I enjoyed this climb. The rock is really sh*tty, everything, everything is falling apart. However, there is a nice traverse from the lower right east face up to the middle of the south ridge that will then get you up some 4th class climbing on the south ridge where the rock seems to be a bit more stable. My buddy ended up doing the east face, while I did the south ridge. The summit register is this cool book in one of the old aluminum Mazama register boxes. The book was placed in 1966 and is in great shape. It was fun reading through and seeing registers from the likes of John Roper, Gary Mellom, and some registers from the Skoogs in the mid 70's. According to the register, approx 6 groups a year climb Boston, we were the first this year. The descent is much easier, 3 raps. -45 minutes across to the NF of Buckner -Summit Buckner at 11:30 via the NF. As described by others, the routes in good shape. Firm neve snow, easy to get around the bergschrund, straightforward and only an ice axe is required. The NF Couliour bergschrund looks impassible right now though. From the top of the NF, we traversed over to the east peak and had lunch, summited the west peak and descended the SW face and traversed over to Horsehoe Peak. -Summited Horshoe at 1:30? Another seldom climbed peak. 3rd class climbing left from the top of the snow on the SE face and around a corner to a sandy gulley. From there it's a 4th class traverse left up to a notch in the summit ridge that has a single ~5.4 move that is semi exposed but because of bomber hands makes for a fun last move to summit when climbing solo. According to the register the summit sees very few climbers. The register has seen summits from only 6 groups since 1995 in the following order: 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003 (us). One rap down to the sandy gulley and a Class 3 around the corner to the snow. -1 hour 45min back to the Sahale moraine. -Back at car at 6:30 (16 hours car to car) -Good Food milkshake and fries by 7:30... Overall we weren't pushing ourselves and we had plenty of time to relax and spend about 30+mins on each summit and enjoy ourselves. A great day and a great way to get a bunch of climbing in without having to lug around overnight gear.

You are right. Access creek is between Luna Creek and McMillan Creek. On the map, it's the drainage due east of Luna. Here's a map. Have fun! Cool area. There is a decent spot to camp in the basin at the head of Access Creek.

So is this car to summit in 24hrs or car to car in 24hrs? Out of the most remote areas in Washington the northern Pasayten Wilderness and the Pickets seem to be the furthest from civilization. Pasayten- The Cathedral/Monk group you could definitely climb car to summit in a day. ~20-25 miles (10hrs hiking, 3+ hours climbing) Pickets- The SE Glacier of Fury I am certain can be climbed car to summit in a day also, particuarly if you had a boat ride to Big Beaver Creek. Challenger is a bit further in by trail if I remember right so I think it would be a longer day, but probably still could climbed in a day from Hannegan. With that, if you were climbing with 16-17 hours of light (now), started before dawn and ended at dusk you could probably climb the standard route of most any peak in WA as long as you are in great shape and have the ability to go all day without stopping. Just imagine leaving your car before dawn and setting up a bivy on top of Fury that evening. Sounds cool... Now car to car is a different story....

It's not about getting back any sooner, it's about seeing and doing more and the sense of accomplishment. For some people packing as many miles, peaks, sights and memories into one day can be just as enjoyable (physically and mentally) as hanging out in Leroy Basin and enjoying the downtime.

Nice Job! I'll have to look at the map and see how incredible that was. I am pretty certain that this can be done in a day. Two years ago I attempted this (not on purpose), but was unfamiliar with Fernow so I didn't get that peak in. In all I did N Face of Maude, descended down the NW gulley, 7FJ, traversed over to Fernow and peaked at it, Maude/Carne Traverse, Carne, car to car in 13 hours. If I knew Fernow any better and didn't spend the time traversing over to Carne I think there would have been enough time to summit Fernow in the same day. Here's the TR post.

The NE face of Forbidden isn't a bad descent, it's actually pretty easy. It's mostly steep heathered slopes between cliff bands that you can walk down and then two rappels to the glacier. From there, heading over to N Face of Buckner would be pretty easy.