dkemp

Hiked up West Cady Ridge to Benchmark Mountain summit this weekend - good times! For those wishing to visit the peaks up in that neighborhood you might want to know about the road. There is a road closed sign below Troublesome Creek campground. We drove around the sign and encountered no problem for miles. At the junction of Road 65 and 63 we turned left on 63. At mile 16, just before Blanca Lake trailhead, the road is totally washed out in two places. The first is an exposed culvert (see attached) and the second is a creek running across the road itself. Both easily crossed on foot but not passable to cars. Hope this helps someone. Doxey

Ah, sadly no, I dont have direct info for ya. An aquaintance climbed Francis - he said it went fine but glad he had crampons. The weather crashed before we could attempt it. Last year we hiked around on the Kahiltna and managed Kahiltna Dome and Capps - worthy objectives both! Next year I'll go back for Francis, W Kahiltna Peak and Crosson - should be a good ol time. Here are some photos from our trip last year: Bushwhacker Kahiltna Dome outing

I have a buddy in Ohio. He says a popular slogan is "Keep Ohio FLAT!"

Yeah, I skiied Lower International yesterday, and we skiied all the way down to the road. Yee ha, great conditions yesterday . Too bad I cant ski very good.

Sounds good, thanks for your effort Matt. I've got this in my book. Dox

Okay, I'm back in town and updated the Newsletter with some photos from our trip. Steve and Seth are both incredible photographers, and Randy got in some good shots too. Enjoy! Bushwhacker Newsletter Ruth 2004

I think its the way it goes man. Hey, didja notice todays date is 4-20? Its 4-20 all day!

Checking in from my WFR class... (class is awesome) Pics available next week when I get back. Dox

Thought I'd let y'all know that the club is going well so far. Fifty-plus members, and the glacier climbing course is full! The applications looked really great - should be terrific people and we're going to have a good ol' time. The course starts May 11 and runs through the end of June. We havent yet acquired the club jet but when we do we're going to load everyone up and take her for a spin around Mt Rainier - we'll honk the horn and wave to the climbers on the summit - yeehaw!! Doxey

I've often wondered about this. So, are metal objects simply good conductors, or are they actually attractors? Seems to me that lightning rods attract lightning not because they are metal but because they are taller than other nearby objects. Once hit they conduct the current safely to ground. Trees get hit because they are tall, but get destroyed cause wood resists the current. I was in a thunderstorm on Mt Baker one time - we were hunkered in our tents enjoying the show. One of my team got out of the tent to move the pickets and ice axes away from the tent cause he didnt want them to attract lightning. I said I dont think it helps to move the metal objects away from the tent and he disagreed. But neither of us know jack shit about it either.

WFR (and dreaming of skiing)

Just returned from a week skiing in the Ruth Amphitheater. Boy I love visiting the Ruth. This was my second trip. My tele skills are improving and I learned a lot about touring around on skis. Plus we got some great snow while we were there. My friend Seth had his digital camera with him so I should have some pictures pretty soon. I actually came home two days before my friends 'cause so that I could attend WFR training - yikes, starts tomorrow! Doxey

Ah, Mt Brooks . We crashed and burned crossing the McK River - serious wipeout. You can read my submission in the 2004 Accidents in North American Mountaineering - my entry is signed under my first name Christopher. Well you can bet its on my list and I'll be going back there in a couple years. But no, except for the river crossing and some tips re logistics, I got nuthin' for ya on the climb itself. Doxey

R.I.P. Larry. BTW - no relation. Doxey Kemp

Thanks all! We got nearly 50 members now - yeeha! Plans are being developed not only for the course but for club outings. There's going to be 2 sections of 6 students each, for a total of 12 students, and we got 9 applications right now. Its looking like we'll fill both sections. The course will be a lot of fun. Yeah, we'll take pictures on the outings - I'm sure they will be just as bad as the Mounties pix - maybe worse! Maybe I'll have them wear their gaitors on their head and tell 'em its the Bushwhacker way!

Hi Fairweather. We didnt go to Flapjack Lks, but we did look down on them. We went on up the Skokomish to Black & White Lakes trail. Steep at the bottom part of the trail but not steep at all up where the snow is. Snow patches at 3, started considering snowshoes at 3.5, put on snowshoes at 4000'. Got some advice to go via Flapjack but I'm glad we went the way we did - worked great.

yeah, class 2 and 3. On the sharpest part of the ridge we took off the snowshoes but still used trekking poles. We did use ice axes a couple times, on the steepest sections. The attachment does not show the sharpest part of the ridge - it got much sharper - it was just a place where she took a photo. But still you can see we're just hiking with trekking poles and such. Too bad we didnt get a photo of the sharpest stuff, but its hard to photograph when things are dicey. Grand conditions for kickin' steps.

Announcing the creation of a new climbing club in the region. The Bushwhacker Climbing Club has been formally incorporated as a non-profit, to foster the Bushwhacker community. Bushwhacker Climbing Club Mission: To foster and educate an outdoors community that safely and conscientiously enjoys wilderness adventures. Initiated by yours truly, I invited six of my friends to be Board of Directors. We have achieved obtaining certificate of incorporation and adopted bylaws. The Board created a Curriculum committee that is developing a basic glacier climbing course to be held in May and June. We plan to have other courses also but we'll start with the basic glacier course. We'll have club climbs and other outings also, but no square dancing We had a KickOff Party last week, and 41 people signed on to the club that night - awesome! And we have 5 applications for the class so far. A new website will be forthcoming, but for now more information can be found at the old Bushwhacker Newsletter site . We might not be the fastest climbers, or the baddest, but we do have fun! I'll keep y'all posted as things develop. Doxey Kemp El Presidente'

Climb: Gladys Mtn, Henderson Mtn-from Black & White Lakes Date of Climb: 3/12/2004 Trip Report: On Saturday we hiked up Gladys Mtn, then continued to Henderson Mtn. Fantastic views from both. The sharp ridge to Henderson doesn't require ropes but it does get your attention. We spent Friday getting to B&W Lakes, Saturday climbing both peaks, and Sunday hiking out. Lots of exercise and totally safe - very fun! Good times! Doxey Here is a view of Mt Cruiser from Henderson, it was awesome: Gear Notes: snowshoes, ice axes

Yeah, my pal Seth took it there also. so I called them and AAI is no longer offering WFR - drat! But I've heard Rescue Specialists are really good so I'm looking forward to that. D

I'm doing WFR at Rescue Specialists in April. I'll let y'all know how it goes. Re Mounties MOFA, I know they are volunteers so I dont want to rip on them too much. And I did learn stuff so there was value. But I did have some bad experiences. Like when one student asked them about diabetes, the two instructors argued about the answer Dox

It would be funny to have a GaperGear tee shirt "I was banned from cc.com". Dox

Yeah, first one is Blum - impressive. Second one is Pickets, featuring Challenger Gl on the left there. Third is Pioneer Ridge I think. Makes sense with Baker River valley below. Yeah, I think Ruth has one of the biggest exersion-to-payoff ratios in the Cascades. I love name-that-peak threads. One of many things I love about cc.com. Dox

Seattle Times & PI & NYT. A couple years ago I learned of FAIR - its a left leaning organization that does retrospective of recent news offerings. That is, its not a newspaper but a media-watchdog. Its particularly good at pointing out how big stories get on front pages and the same stories retractions are buried. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting A great show is Now with Bill Moyers, Friday nights on PBS. Now Again, he talks not just about news events, but the way news is formatted, edited and delivered.