Mike

We did about a month ago and it was in great shape - piece of cake. Most of the sulphide is low gradient and just doesn't breakup all that much.

Probably talking about the route in Nelson's book "Selected Climbs in the Cascades" - same route on which Potterfield had his epic.

Jason and I went pretty light - set of stoppers, four cams from 3/4" to 2", and a 9mm rope. We'd heard that we needed gear to 2". If we go back we'd probably take three or four more cams and my 9.8mm rope. The other guys had a huge rack, and they were finding good placements for larger cams up to 4". Good luck next weekend. The snow bridge we crossed may be gone by then. If so, you can continue another 1/2 to 1 mile up valley to another snowbridge which looked much more substantial. You might be able to angle up from there to the ridge on the right side of the Goode Glacier - at least it looked like it might go from above although there might be cliff bands we couldn't see.

We were really opting for the lazy descent - dropping down to Park Creek and the road is quick and easy and you can load up on grub at the Stehekin Bakery. Doing the route from Rainy Pass would be fine with a descent down Stormking Col. We'd probably go that way if we do this again.

We got spanked off Goode last year by weather, so we went back for a rematch last Friday. We boarded the Lady Express at Fields Pt. on Lake Chelan at 9:20am. It turns out that they only take cash at Fields Pt. - NO CREDIT CARDS - and the RT cost is $45. That radically cut in to the amount of money we had to spend at the Stehekin Bakery on our way out. Anyway, we were able to cross N Fork Bridge Creek via a snow bridge, but the snow bridge will be gone in less than two weeks - pretty spotty when we crossed it. We worked our way up through the left side of the cliff bands to reach camp at 5200' - space for four bivi's. We had good snow coverage over the glacier and were able to traverse left, up and back right to reach the toe of the buttress. After the initial 5th class pitches at the toe of the buttress, we did a lot of running belays on the low-angle, pleasant 3/4th class terrain, short roping with two pieces between us. After the 5th class middle section, the buttress remains steep 4th to low-5th class but you can switch back to running belays if you have enough gear. It's steep enough so that we wanted 4 to 6 pieces between climbers and you burn through a small rack pretty fast. We did this as a carry-over and it was fun bivi'ing on the summit, but it was a grunt lugging our overnight packs on the upper buttress. There's space for four bivi's on the summit. We had some snaffle-hound problems, but I'm sure that the park service would frown on packing in rat-traps (next time!) The descent down the SW Couloir to Park Creek and the road took only 5.5 hours, leaving the summit at 5:00 and arriving at the NPS shuttle stop at 10:30. The Stehekin Bakery has "chicken pockets" which really hit the spot.

Basically what everybody else has said - we car2car'ed it in early July two years ago, the gully was a piece of cake and running belays worked great. Be sure to climb it on Saturday so you miss all the overnighters who plan to climb on Sunday. Another variation that I've done - Drive to the trailhead on friday afternoon and eat as you drive. Arrive at the trail head around 6pm and then hike in as far as you can get before it gets dark. This should get you to the basin and you can bivi. Ridgerest/bag/bivi-sack don't add that much extra weight.

Thinker: I don't know if you can get it in Canada, but you could try checking. It would probably require a doctors prescription. Mexico would probably be better, because they probably have more contaminated water and you might be able to purchase over the counter from a pharmacist. Lummox: seriously explosive - lot's of gas. That's where the sulphur burbs come from too.

BTW, buy some Tinuba in Kathmandu if you ever go trekking in Nepal. You may be exposed to giardia, and then it's hit or miss whether you can get it while out trekking. Only costs a buck or two, so it's cheap insurance.

I've had giardia twice, so I'm not an expert but I am experienced. The symptoms kick in usually 7-10 days after exposure and included sulphur burbs (like heartburn kind of) and EXPLOSIVE diarhea (you'll spray the back of the john). I think both cases were from contaminated dishwashing water - once in India and once in Nepal. If you contract giardia overseas, look for a drug called Tinuba or Tinazedole (sp?). This is a drug which only cures giardia and has never been marketed in the US because there's no cost justification to conduct the FDA trials - not enough giardia here. Instead you'll get Flagyl which will make you sicker than a dog and eventually cure your giardia. Tinuba is cool because it cures your giardia in less than 24 hours with one dose, and I had no side effects either time. I buy some extra - just in case - everytime I can find it overseas.

The day-trip version is definitely nice. The boulder field is a lot more fun with a 15 or 20 lb pack. And it's fun to be on your way back down as people are just coming up during the heat of day. You can leave the cars when it's light enough to cross the river, and then you do that uphill section before it gets hot.

Amen!

Hi Stephen, That was us. We descended the S. Ridge to about 8100' and descended that snow slope toward Leroy Basin. You could see it from where we camped as the farthest slope to the right with tracks. Maybe we'll try the Entiat next time. We had fun, but it would have been cool if the upper N face was a lot longer.

Ice Lakes did look nice, although they were still frozen over. I think Ice Lakes would go fine as a two day trip in the early season. It would have taken another two hours on the approach day, and then an easier - but lower - traverse the next morning. Then up the N face and an easy slog back to camp. The descent route was glissadable, so 500' up from the lakes and you're coasting down to Leroy Basin. You could probably also just camp up on the S. ridge, although there'll be no water later in the season when the snow melts. We spent about two or so hours on the traverse which isn't that long if you're comfortable travelling on exposed, crummy third class terrain. We passed a couple who belayed the whole thing and I think they said that it took them five or more hours to do the traverse.

Let's see: I know that all those climbing students have to spend one day performing trail maintenance, so that's 200+ man-days of trail maintenance a year. I'm too lazy for that, so I just donate money to the WTA. I believe that two or three alpine look-outs are maintained by the Mountaineers. They organize and train groups of inexperienced hikers and climbers that might otherwise get into even more trouble on their own. All those Mountaineers have 30 hours of first aid training and those heavy packs are usually stuffed with first-aid gear. Also they lobby on behalf of hikers and climbers - we can use all the lobbying we can get with George W in office. It's true that the Mountaineers impact popular climbs, and many Mountaineers groups are slow and full of inexperienced people (nothing worse to an alpine climber than being stuck behind a slow group). I check their climb schedule at www.mountaineers.org to avoid their groups. Truthfully, the Mountaineers mostly climb easy stuff so you can avoid them by doing harder stuff. All that being said, what has AlpinFox done lately? People who chop bolts but don't set or re-bolt routes are lame. People who whine about the Mountaineers need to climb harder stuff and post good TR's.

We were originally going to do Chimney Rock on Fri-Sun, but the weather pushed us further east into a Sat/Sun climb of Maude/N Face - and it was perfect! We hiked in to Leroy Creek basin on Saturday afternoon under cobalt blue skies with cool breezes. We bivi'ed at that 6800' knoll below the Jack-Maude col, worked on our farmers tans and watched the clouds hanging over the cascade crest. I managed to read most of Robert E. Howard's "Conan the Buccaneer" while hanging out in camp - it seems like cheesy action books with lots of voluptuous babes make for good reading when on climbs. We got a lazy start at 5:30 on Sunday morning with crisp, cramponable snow up to the Jack-Maude col. When we popped out on the other side (6:20am) of the col, the snow conditions were sloppy soft. The traverse from the col to the N face was a pain in the butt - soft snow and Nelson's obvious traverse in "Selected Climbs" is not so obvious. The traverse was the crux of the trip. Once you get to the N Face, the snow turns to BEAUTIFUL neve and you just cruise right up - good coverage and great snow conditions. We did running belays for the last 400 feet, but it felt unnecessary given the conditions and a second tool. We topped out about 10:30am and then basked on the summit before descending via the scramble route.

I like summit registers. The summit registers on peaks like Fury and Buckindy are history and great reading. Other summit registers on popular, hiker-accessible peaks have less value but other people enjoy them just the same. AlpinFox just has a poor attitude - but that is his problem. While we're slamming the Mountie's, what has AlpinFox done lately to benefit the climbing community?

Luna will be far out of your way unless you're planning to do a traverse. A few years ago me and a friend started at the Hannegan Pass trailhead, went up Easy ridge and through Perfect Pass, climbed Challenger, dropped into Luna cirque and up to Luna Lake, up to Luna Pass (Luna Peak is easy from there), then did Fury from Luna Pass and then out via Access Creek to Ross Lake. It was a great trip which took six days. But you add a lot of work to reach Luna Peak (2 or more extra days - Luna Cirque is deep!) if all you're planning to do is Challenger.

Thanks for the update!

Some of the routes have also been bolted with glue-in titanium bolts. Don't let the people whining about how expensive it is in Ao-Nang or Railey throw you off. My wife and I stayed in a Studio apartment sized room with attached bath, AC, satellite TV and breakfast in Ao-Nang for $22/night two years ago. And there are the bamboo hut and ceiling fan places for the more hard-core travellers which are much cheaper yet. You can catch a direct flight from Bangkok to Krabi - might be worth arranging ahead of time. How long will you be in Thailand?

We did it in July a couple of years ago. Left the cars at 4:30am and that worked just fine. We were able to scramble the summit pyramid (no snow that late). On our way out we passed scores of people covered with black flies trudging slowly uphill with overnight packs in the heat of the day. Sulphide day-trip is the way to go.

Somebody asked my wife about static ropes - she's the family expert after living out of her car for months as she did walls in the valley. She like dynamic ropes for the following reasons that I can remember: (1) Your haul line can be a backup rope (2) If you accidently drop your haul bag after hauling it up to your new anchors, the bag may fall 50m which could generate enough force on a static line to tear out your anchors. There may be other reasons as well, but those seem pretty good. This assumes a one or two person party with minimum gear. Larger, better equipped groups may choose differently. As for canyoneering ropes, they sound partially dynamic so it would be hard to say. You might see if the equipment manufacturer has a recommendation or you could do your own tests.

As you're chopping bolts, will you also put up new routes and maybe rebolt the routes with bad bolt placement? It'll seem more constructive that way.

Boots work fine for Forbidden/W Ridge. One thing about the west ridge is that you climb along the crest; when you hit harder sections you can usually bypass on the left (north) side. However, there's snow on the left side in early season conditions so you're forced to do the 5.7 crux on the ridge; you can bypass this crux later in the season and then the climb is no harder than 5.3 or 5.4. The 5.7 crux goes just fine in boots, but only if you're used to rock climbing in boot.

The gully down to the Ruth-Icy saddle is full of loose rock later in the season. We did it that way in late September and it goes well enough, but you should probably wear a helmet and climb with friends who don't kick down rocks. I've heard the same story about descending the slope to the left of the gully. Good luck and have fun.

I can only echo the words of everybody else - Dave was the nicest guy and this is a tragic loss to us all. This will be a very hard time for the people involved in the accident, and I hope they can find solace and peace. Dave's funeral is this coming Saturday, June 7th at 2:30 at the Lake Burien Presbyterian Church, 15003 14th Ave SW in Burien.