Stefan

Don't know why this wasn't brought up earlier.... http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=bizbriefs14&date=20030314&query=mountain+equipment Portland sportswear company buys California apparel maker PORTLAND — Columbia Sportswear, a maker of ski clothing and other outerwear, agreed to buy Mountain Hardwear for about $36 million in cash and debt. The company will pay about $30 million in cash and assume $6 million in debt for the Richmond, Calif.-based maker of mountaineering apparel and equipment, Columbia said. The transaction is expected to close March 31. Columbia expects to boost sales of Mountain Hardware, which had $31.4 million in revenue last year, by as much as $100 million over five years, spokeswoman Sarah Stephan said. Columbia wants to expand sales of Mountain Hardwear's gear through high-end retailers and international distribution, as well as broaden the range of products the company makes.

Ron Gregg.......

Here is a trip report of a friend of mine. Completed around 6/30/2001. Buckindy. The group was five and we climbed the major peaks on the traverse. We were successful in accomplishing the goals. However I was very surprised how much effort it took to pull it off. We summited Misch, Buckindy and Mutchler plus I was able to get a couple of bumps enroute. I had hoped to get Chaval but slow travels prevented. After summited Buckindy we noticed the last entry in the register was 9/3/95, it pretty much told the story. During the trip we saw absolutely no sign of previous human travels. Few parties ever make it into this area. I am guessing most that set out following Beckey's route fail for various reasons (difficult terrain, routefinding problems, overall more difficult, under estimating the time, etc). I purposely led this trip early season hoping for good snow cover making travels much easier and that was the case. We had pretty much clear weather conditions but it was too hot for full day travels. The snows were pretty consolidated in the morning and very soft in the afternoon. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous and views were super except for the last coupe of hours when dropping to the car. Having such views made time pass so fast that 5 days seem much less. After the trip was over, I felt very relieved to have completed. A couple of us shuttled a car to the Slide Lake (Otter Cr.) on the illabot road Friday evening. It took us about 45 minutes to drive the illabot road the 20.5 miles each way. The road was in excellent condition. We reached the Green Mtn TH near 11pm where we quickly set up a tent and fell fast asleep. We awoke at 6:30am Saturday morning. The others arrived at ~7:30am. After distributing the group gear and going through the route, we hit the trail at 8am. One party member was not feeling well and within the first hour had fallen 15+ minutes behind. The rest and I were a little concern but that never happen again. We reached the shoulder of Green Mtn at 10:30am. We took a nice break and studied our route. The first leg has us getting to Lake 5371. The first and last 1/4 was snow covered. The other half was bare steep slopes which were slow traveling. The hellebore was just coming out and we did find some faint track to follow at times. Dropping to the lake was much steeper than I expected and treed. From the lake we dropped down to the trees (5200') before making the cut over the next rib. The trees are old growth and this went well. For the next leg we were not clear where to go. Nothing looked good. We had a couple of choices. Go around Pt 5890 on the north or south. We ended up going around to the south but it was very brushy go down to the basin at ~5000' and climbing an open slope back up to 5400'+. It may have been better to cut through the 5760'+ gap and going snow-covered ground to the 5360'+ col. However we managed to get to the 5360'+ col from the east. We reached this point at 5:30pm and decided we were too tired to continue to the 5200' camp (estimated it would take us 2+ hours to reach). We found a nice place to camp on snow. As we were turning in around 9pm, we got the only rain of the trip, which were a few drops. Thunderstorms just missed us. The second day brought us overcast skies in the morning. This made for nice traveling. We headed up the difficult looking north ridge from the 5360'+ col. There was a game track that were well and we quickly reached the point where we left the ridge (6400'). We scramble snowfree slope to the next rib. We dropped on a completely snow-covered slope to the 5200' basin reaching at 10:25am. This leg went fast and easy. Next we headed up to a high moraine below Misch peak and this was on mostly very soft snow-covered ground. Took a long lunch at the moraine and discussed what to do next. Upon first look the high snowfield looked too steep to traverse but once we reached it, we found it 45 degrees and okay to traverse. We crossed the rib and head up a very loose gully to the summit. The loose rock fall was BAD. We reached the summit at 2pm and spent 1.5 hours enjoying the views and registers. There were two registers and one was pretty much devoted to discussing the name of the peak. party (10/7/2000) was last entry and it was amazing that he did it in one day. set up camp on a fairly level snowfield below Buckindy while we summited Misch. We got into camp at ~5:30pm. We found running water on some nearby rocks where we cooked at a great spot. After dinner Matt scrambled Caradhras for sunset photos. I had hoped to join him but my energy level was low and I passed. The third day we awoke to clear skies and hard snow conditions. We got up around 6:30am and enjoyed breakfast in sunny conditions. We cramponed up to the ridge just below the summit of Buckindy. The route described indicated a Class 3 scramble to the summit. However we used the rope to climb a class 4 gully to the summit. Beckey's route is a bit under-rated. We spent 2+ hours on the summit of Buckindy and another highpoint. Views were so great it's hard to describe. The plan was to stay a long time on the summit hoping the decent would now have soft snow and were able to plunge step to camp. We quickly broke camp and headed out for Kindy-Buck pass at 1:30pm. I had hoped to have time to climb Dol Amroth, at cool look spire but I had to pass due to time. We followed Becky's route that had us going west of Pt 6495 but it would have been easier to go just east of the point. We had planned to camp at the 5975 tarn but the pass look more pleasant and it was a great place to camp. We reached camp at 4:15pm. After dinner Matt and I checked out the down route from the north Kindy-Buck pass. Much to our surprise we needed to rappel it but were not sure the ropes were long enough to reach. Matt went to get the ropes while I scrambled Pk 6680+. Matt rappelled to check out rope length and they were just able to reach with a few feet to spare (we had ~125' ropes). Tuesday we were awaked to Sun on the tents before 6am. We took are sweet time pack and enjoying breakfast. Left camp at 7:30am and it took the next 3 hours to complete two rappels on north Kindy-Buck pass. However I screwed up by leaving my Ice Axe at the top of the first rappel and it cost a little time to get it. We dropped to the basin ~5100' and traversed to the 5800' pass south of Mutchler Peak. From the pass we studied the route options. Nothing looked great but we took the lower option which was pretty much level with pass. At the pass we baked in the hot conditions. Temperatures must have been in the 80's. We left the pass around 12:30pm and reached the ridge at 6900' just west of Mutchler peak at 2:15pm. Here we cooked some more in the sun before heading to Mutchler peak. Below the summit, its best to head up on the snow/glacier but the glacier could have some crevasses later. We found no summit register (3:30pm). We were now running behind schedule and spent only 15 minutes on the summits. Snowking was just in front of us. We discussed camp options and decided to head for the pass north of Pk 6995. However as we headed there on the south side of the ridge the terrain looked like the drop to the basin at just under 6000' would not go. We decided stay on the south side to drop. This went pretty fast on mostly snow-covered sloped. The views of Chaval were outstanding. Upon reaching the 5900 basin, we were treated which a deep-scared glacier carved cirque. Pretty much polished rock everywhere and very beautiful. The glacier receded and has formed a couple of lakes that are not shown on the maps. We camped on snow-covered moraine 50' above the lake. Found running water nearby and made nice kitchen on the rocks. Our last day we headed out at 7:40am. The plan was to reach the car early afternoon. We had eyed a snow gully to gain the ridge west of Pk 7015. We dropped from the cirque on the NW end. There was some polished rock but found a route down and dropped a couple hundred feet. We traversed to the snow gully and then headed up to the ridge at ~6800' below Pk 7015. The north side was completely snow-covered and this leg went nicely. We were able to stay on snow pretty much to where the ridge turned north. We gained some to traverse open sloped below Pk 5897 (Ottabot). I managed to quickly scramble Pk 5897 but found the summit very block and tricky. We continued down the forested ridge crest to the car. Encountered some large boulders, brush, and old clearcuts during the drop. We reached the Slide Lk TH at 3:15pm. We quickly washed-up before heading back to Green Mtn TH. It was 6:40 went we reached Darrington. We decided to have dinner in Arrington at The Fountain. Home at ~9pm.

Um. I have done this route too. This route was my friend's idea. Many years ago. I have lost touch with that friend. That friend used to live in Shoreline. Your named initials aren't by chance M.L.?

sick climbing route = extremely hazardous sick climbing route = something I gape at sick climbing route = something beyond my capability or confidence level must meet all three criteria above

In my opinion they are hikes too. But the majority of other people would consider them climbs, and usually the majority rules. I know it is semantics but then why is the DC route on Mt. Rainier in "Selected CLIMBS" by Jim Nelson.

Hugh? I guess you have never laughed at a joke about Hitler, Hussein, Idi Amin, Stalin, Ted Bundy.......they are all in a class by themselves.....

Good thoughts. Hope it works out. I know the importance of touch when you are in pain. I strongly believe touch is a very important factor in first aid to someone who has been in an accident. I don't know if they encourage touch to EMTs though as part of their first aid.....

Why massage therapy? Just curious what leads you in that direction......

I have seen a lot of Drus posts. I really don't think Dru is Drew. I think the guy who poses as Dru is pig farmer who likes hookers and is currently in a BC jail. If you look at "Dru's" posts they increased significantly when a pig farmer was jailed for alledgedly killing hookers in BC. The BC government treats jailbirds nicely, so I think they gave the pig farmer a nice PC and walla, there you go. "Dru" in essence does work for the government--the corrections side of the government. I also suspect they are moving "Dru" to a different facility, and that is his explanation of being "laid off".

Go to this link: http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=335&start=30 Talk to Doug Schrenk at the North Bend ranger station. They are supposedly going to gate the Middle Fork Snoqualmie road at Dingford creek which a lot of people oppose. But the real truth isn't supposed to come out until the final document is done.

Under this system, ascending Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak under the traditional routes might be considered a hike. Maybe climbing is different than hiking becuase climbing has grades whereas hiking does not........

What would be the recommended stretching exercise for calf mulscles? I keep my feet flat, bend over, touch my hands to the floor, and try to pull my chest towards my kneecaps. (No, I do not touch my chest to my kneecaps.) I would like to know if this is the proper way to stretch the calfs or if there is a better way.

Now that's a good idea. I never would have thought of that. Thanks!

Necro. You made the best decision you could at that time with the information you had. Why would anyone WANT to make a bad decision? In the opinion of others, hindsight will always be 20/20. I think you made a good decision. Remember, the opinions of others are coming AFTER the incident, not when the decision had to be made.

Getting a key would always be problem for me due to early morning starts and only weekend potentiability.....so.... Do you know how far from the end the road is gated? Is this road too steep to be mountainbikeable with a pack on?

I can see a tiny satellite ridge on the USGS map. And the Beckey book. Wow. To go back UP after all that you went through to get down. UGH! I know that specific area as I have been at that notch--during the spring. The brush is truly classic bushwacking in spring. Truly a Cascade epic you went through.

Holy shit. Are you serious? I thought he was just tired. Fuck. That puts a whole new light on how he was off in time. That is epic.

You are REALLY tired. I can tell from your writing. You kept refering to the "south face" of Big Four. YOU were on the north and east faces on that mountain. I like the hole you dug through. I wouldn't want to be you taking that picture seeing my friend making a cornice weaker AND being underneath it. That takes balls....

I work for Pokemon........and Magic.......and D&D.......

Today I thought was going to be a normal day at work. Instead HR organized an event where we are to "kill" other departments with these nerf guns--throughout the day. I am getting paid for this.

Dwayner. Dwayner. Dwayner. Everybody loves you. Nobody hates you. Found any relics similar to Queen Hatchupson recently?

Okay, so you guys think he's a jerk for killing his son--probably from not able to control his anger. Yeah, I think so too. But I am sure he didn't mean to kill his son--that's why it was manslaughter. He has to live with the fact that he killed his own son with his own hands out of his own anger. That kind of thought would put me in a depression forever.

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=wdig12&date=20030212&query=Loretan Check the bottom of the page for the story on Erhard Loretan I felt sorry for Erhard Loretan when I heard about this....

Here is a picture taken from Trapper's Peak on Sunday towards the Pickets from a friend of mine. Inspiration is above and just to the right of the guy in the red jacket. You can see the west ridge. http://www.mtnmike.com/pics/trappers/cookies.jpg