Beck

... some people think Dru may need some help attempting to define scrambling, Karen!!!

... some people think Dru may need some help attempting to define scrambling, Karen!!!

Events, Pub Club, Techniques, Dru News, FRESHIEZ...Battle Cage WAS a popular theme a while back

There are recurring cases of this type of poisoning out in Darrington; may have something to do with that town's rather stilted nature. Good thing the state keeps the Darrington liquor store open or things could be a lot worse!

...WATCH OUT EVERYBODY, the appeal of golf is contagious, particularily in the aging demographic...

A Backcountry Boarding forum would be a worthwhile addition, you could call it, "FRESHIEZ"

That's okay, don't worry about us out here in cyberspace because this whole internet thing is just a fad, I don't think it's going to last. Maybe there's a better conduit for NW climbers to communicate thru but I certainly can't figure out what that would be- the bulletin board at Marmot, maybe? No, wait, there's a bulletin board at REI....

Links to NWAC.org or NOAA would be good. I think a seperate forum for skiing would make sense. Admittedly, skis make their way onto many approaches/descents, but there's a totally different style/focus between say, skiing the Ptarmigan Traverse vs. on foot, going to ski around the Kololo Peaks or climbing there, climbing Pinnacle or Castle vs. doing a ski tour there. I think it would make it easier to access ski-specific reports/beta, and a great forum addition for winter- if any posts give enough TR beta at the end of the season maybe they could be cross posted to the regional forums.

Martin 's shop in North Bend's got them, or the Scarpa version, for 40% off right now.

Oh , yeah, fine weather this weekend in the Enchantments. How did Prussik Peak go? Did you see many other parties? We must've seen you at the lot if it was the NW route Colchuck, there was nobody else up there.

The plan was hatched at last weeks' Pub Club- an overnight trip into Colchuck Peak from the west side. Treadtramp and I left Sat, morning, following a Friday night Bob Dylan concert that Treadtramp had been given some tickets to at the last minute, (one of the best trip kickoffs I've had, way to go, Treadtramp!) We pull into Leavenwurst at 10:30AM and, dutiful and law abiding climbers we, stopped into the ranger station in hopes of scoring an open permit for the Colchuck or Stuart zone. We were pleasently surprised to find that the area we intended to camp was out of any zone and did not require any permits. Hitting the Stuart Lake trail with a strict Mediterranean start time of noon, we hiked to past the Colchuck Lake junction about 15 minutes and found a likely spot to cross the bog. A couple minor stream crossings and then it's up in a traversing bushwack to some likely camping spots around 5600' Our navigation brought us up to a nice sheltered bench with water by 4 and we set camp. After dinner a little recon revealed an nice egress to the next day's route. Sunday morning showed with blue skies and we head out by 8. The north west route proved to be an enjoyable scramble. Head up into the basin S of point 6991 then up to remnant of a pocket glacier and up its' lateral moraine to entrance onto scree and broken rock 300', then traverse right along gravelly ramps to more solid rock for the last 500 feet or so to the summit. Just below the summit block you find a catwalk of rock on it's west side; here step around the NW ridge at a big chockstone and walk the last 20' on sand and heather to the summit rocks. An enjoyable climb, we hit the summit by 11:30. We had brought the rope but didn't need it. After lunch we retraced our ascent back to our bivy site and packed up. On the downhill bushwack Treadtramp had a run in with a hornets' nest but he came out of it luckily with only a half dozen or so stings. Otherwise stayed on course and dropped back to the bog crossing and arrived back at the trailhead by 6:30. It was on to an appointment with Doctor Hidelburger in Leavenworth before heading home. Summarizing, this is a wilderness route with some easy scrambling on fairly solid rock, very enjoyable, moderately strenous, 3,000 feet m/l from good camping in the basin(no permit required!), very managable Cascade Bushwack Grade II on the approach to a not often visited side of Colchuck Peak. [ 10-07-2002, 11:50 AM: Message edited by: Beck ]

I think this site is The #1 NW climbers site that continues to provide an invaluable cyberspace AND tangible meeting place and infospace for NW climbers, cheers to everyone for all the good stuff, especiallly the founders!!! When I post a Teddy R. trip report I'm trying to add some climbing themed, self effacing humor (of dubious quality)-I promise I'm not trying to detract from the site!!! I hope nobody mistook it for a real Trip report? Maybe I'll have to add some TRs of my own to add to the reality based quantity of my posts. "Teddy Ruxpin and the Twin Towers of Doom" will be posted in spray, that's for sure!

...so unfortunate to have the "well known" NW climbers don't like Cascadeclimbers.com anymore, maybe they have got their own little site called NWelitistclimbers.com, but I bet it's really lonely AND boring. this site has added remarkably cogent value to the NW climbers scene and probably provides the BIGGEST and MOST direct information/communication conduit for NW climbers to communicate in, if they choose to. If they don't I think it's their loss, not CC.commers. It's equalizing in its' democratization, this wacky internet phenomenon- I think it's just a fad It's certainely more direct for your average NW climber than hanging out at Feathered Friends or the rock gym, trying to get beta or whatever, or going to mounties' annual banquets (not that any of these are bad things!) I reccommend more crag parties and PubClubs, way less stuffy! It's true, too, that this site appears to have sparked more than a few climbing trips and climbing relationships. Dwyaner, it's okay. You can go look for BigLou. I'm still climbing with Teddy Ruxpin.

...so unfortunate to have the "well known" NW climbers don't like Cascadeclimbers.com anymore, maybe they have got their own little site called NWelitistclimbers.com, but I bet it's really lonely AND boring. this site has added remarkably cogent value to the NW climbers scene and probably provides the BIGGEST and MOST direct information/communication conduit for NW climbers to communicate in, if they choose to. If they don't I think it's their loss, not CC.commers. It's equalizing in its' democratization, this wacky internet phenomenon- I think it's just a fad It's certainely more direct for your average NW climber than hanging out at Feathered Friends or the rock gym, trying to get beta or whatever, or going to mounties' annual banquets (not that any of these are bad things!) I reccommend more crag parties and PubClubs, way less stuffy! It's true, too, that this site appears to have sparked more than a few climbing trips and climbing relationships. Dwyaner, it's okay. You can go look for BigLou. I'm still climbing with Teddy Ruxpin.

"...we were friggin' in the riggin', friggin' in the riggin' coz there's nothing else to do!"- Sid Vicious

...these two hunters charter a Talkeetna Air Taxi for a float plane drop on a moose hunt at a remote lake in Alaska. Upon dropping the hunters off, the pilot says, "Okay, I'll be back in a week. Stop hunting when ONE of you gets a moose, I've only flown out off here once before with two moose, and I don't want to do that again." "Okay, Okay" say the two hunters, but when the TAT pilot shows up a week later he finds the hunters on shore, grinning, with TWO moose. He tells the two hunters NO WAY he's going to fly out with two moose again, but the hunters plead with the pilot, offer more money and he finally relents. He has the hunters lash the moose to the plane, one to each pontoon, then , leaving all the rest of their gear behind, the hunters and pilot get in the float plane and head for take off. It seems to the hunters it's taking a long time for the plane to take off; this unnerves the hunters. The plane just clears the trees at the edge of the lake, clipping some off the top branches. The plane starts heading for a mountain pass but it's clear to the hunters the plane won't make it- they speak up to the pilot, "Hey, you said you'd taken off with two moose from here before!" and the pilot responds, "yeah, well, we've already gotten further than the last time I tried it!"

...your gear closet holds more than all the other closets in your house combined. ...you eat the bugs that fall into your cookpot, figuring they're more protein in the diet. ...you just can't understand why MORE people aren't out sleeping in a snow trench in a blizzard or curled up in the mud around a tree trunk in the rain like you ... on ultralite trips sans stove, have dranken enough cold instant coffee to find it a perfectly acceptly beverage... the same goes for warm beers from the car at the end of the climb.

Svea stove demonstrations TONITE at Teddy's tavern, 65th and Roosevelt- watch knickers wearing "conquistador of the low-class" Beck attempt to get a Svea 123 airborne in the parking lot- DON'T MISS IT

Yes, I've seen a SVEA blow up once (pretty impressive explosion, had us all running from two, then six foot flames shooting out of thedamn thing until a big WHOOMP launched that stove thirty feet in the air) but we had it put back togther and running in less than ten minutes

I think the pictures clinch the FA and Descent of FRESHIEZ this season, and some truly OUT THERE extreme alpine photos at that! I think Mark is just jealous of your eloquent telling of an harrowing ordeal!

quote: Originally posted by Goat Boy:

I've got a Whisperlite (did not spend any money on that P.O.S.) and it SUCKS. Works fine(I guess, if you take into consideration its' inherent crappy design )it's just a P.O.S.

Come on Dwayner we know you love the pow pow It's no excuse to not go drinkin'

Okay, I'll not mince words here- MSR stoves SUCK THE BIG HC and should be tossed off the nearest cliff. No offence to Larry P intended. Their white gas stoves are nefarious contraptions that require way too much of my time and intelligence fiddling and fussing with them at the end of a hard day or at 4AM- They suck fuel like a SUV driven by a oil exec and I'm sure they brought in Rube Goldburg on the design team. Put TWO fuel controls on one model to get it to simmer better, I can't even tell you how they were intending to fuck up the lowly fuel bottle- With a Svea, you just dump some white gas on the bastard, put the torch to it and, voila, happy cooker! You get like, two hours of simmering time its' 6oz. tank, leaving you plently of time after dinner for a couple rounds of hot toddys- Did I mention a Svea is virtually indestructible? Drop it 30 feet off a ledge and chances are it'll still be running when you climb down to retrieve it- I'm sorry to all you diehard MSR fans out there, it's just that...those stoves SUCK.

A harrowing and adrenaline packed retelling of a terrifing FRESHIEZ EPIC- way to go, guys, truly an inspiring tale for all!!