dkemp

Climb: fun Challenger Traverse!-Eiley/Wiley - Challenger Glacier - Easy Ridge Date of Climb: 6/21/2005 Trip Report: Yesterday we completed a fun Challenger Traverse. In via Eiley/Wiley Ridge, across the Challenger Glacier, and out Easy Ridge - yow! my feet are smokin'! The group was me, Carla, Laurie and Katie. Wow those women are stout hikers - couldn't ask for a stronger or more fun team. Day 1 - Hiked Big Beaver trail, got the tarp set up at Luna Camp just as the thunderstorm started Day 2 - Bushwhacked up onto Eiley/Wiley Ridge - camped at east end (near Point 5927) with views right down the Valley of the Big Beavers Day 3 - Hiked the length of Eiley/Wiley Ridge with sunshine and big views of Luna Cirque all day. A perfect day of alpine pedestrian activity. Camped at what I call Challenger Vista (Point 7374). This is surely one of the finest camps in the NCNP. Had to nip in the bud some premature food lust. Day 4 - Climbed nearly to Challenger summit - coulda hit it with a rock - but declined the summit due to sketched out leader (me) - maybe on another day. Traversed Challenger Glacier to camp at Perfect Pass, where food lust was now permitted. Day 5 - Went down and around the Imperfect Impasse. Mistakes were made. Here the needle on my Epic Potentiometer climbed into the red zone. Improvised a camp after successfully completing the crossing at 9:00pm. Day 6 - Climbed up onto then hiked the length of Easy Ridge, then down and waded the Chilliwack. Camped at Copper Creek site, enjoyed some tarp time. Day 7 - Hiked over Hannegan Pass with much cotton clothes on our mind. Chicken Parmesean at Milanos. Its difficult to express in words how much I love the North Cascades and travelling through that country with friends. What the heck, I'll try: Running away from an aggressive grouse, drops hanging from a rain-laden tiger lily, pondering the details of the grand Luna Cirque, the emotion of just missing a prized summit, navigating a crevassed glacier in near-whiteout, meeting a friendly party in the mountains, barely avoiding an uncomfortable night, long day of hiking with rain squishing in our boots, waking to the sounds of laughter from the other tent, and prolonging the hike out by examining paint brush and columbine and waterfalls and Ruth Creek. Sincerely, Doxey Gear Notes: rain tarp, trekking poles, ice axes, rope - didnt use crampons

I'll miss the Pub Club again - dang! But its for a good cause - by this time tomorrow I'll be deep in the North Cascades!

Yep we were just up there last weekend. We camped below Red Mtn, right at the last big bend in the trail, rather than the basin below. The basin is totally melted out and we like snow camping, so we tried higher. We sort of snow camped - we were so determined that we found snow patches barely big enough for the tents - it was absurd and funny. Avalanche lilies are everywhere and its very beautiful. FYI, there is a horse-camp up there. I was really enchanted by the area - didnt know I would like it so much. Views of peaks downvalley are awesome. From our camp we followed the trail until it petered out, then did the long snowy traverse to Chiwawa. In the storm we failed to find a way that would go for us on that day. Saturday June 11, just below our turn-around Until the week after July 4, expect some of this:

Well you're prolly right about the freeze dried. But when I visited the Kahiltna we learned quickly to watch out where we were setting up camp. We set up at about 10k to climb a nearby peak. We destroyed a, uh, bad latrine nearby. A few days later some guys arrived in a storm - as they were digging their tent platform was started creeping close to the pile. We hurried over and advised them not to expand their platform any further that direction. I dunno man - everybody is peeing everywhere, everybody is pooing everywhere - ya gotta be careful in that neighborhood.

And we'll just put a happy cloud in the sky here... Haaappy cloud....

Me too!

Exactly! Then we eat cookies

Got within a few hundred feet of Chiwawa's summit via Chiwawa River approach - snowing sideways, made it hard to find the route. Didnt summit. There's been lots of times that I didnt summit - dont know why it bothers me this time. I guess I thought it would give it up to us

I guess I'm just a busy guy weather lecture Next time?

Thanks man. I'd like to meet you there!

Well, I had to go WORK all afternoon - not real happy about that. Lessee here, pull up the ol' webbrowser... minnesotaclimbing.com, and click refresh . Oooo, dey dont wike you guys too much, do dey?

I climbed Eldorado with a little team that included a MN guy - real nice guy. Someone else in the team said that you have to offer something to a MN person 3 times before they'll take it - cause they're too nice to take it. Guy laughed, said it wasnt true. Half an hour later - I kid you not - I offered him some of my gatorade. he kindly refused twice and then accepted on my third offer. He didnt get it when we all laughed out loud - took him a sec - but then it dawned on him and he busted out

I dont want to upset the apple cart, but you guys could crash our party too. We're meeting at Pike Brewery for our pub night. Or maybe we could somehow mix it up next time. Ours is held every second-Wednesday-of-the-month. Anyway, yeah, I hope to make both -see y'all at Nickerson, hopefully.

I have Bushwhacker Club pub night that same evening. maybe I could do both??

Come to a Bushwhacker Climbing Club presentation - Pacific Northwest Mountain Weather - Tuesday night June 14 at 7:30pm. Find out why creating a forecast is a farce and how to create a forecast anyway. First we'll explore the atmosphere on the global scale to explain what weather is and what its trying to accomplish. Then we'll look at smaller scale events and define some terms. Finally we'll put it all together for the big take-home lessons in weather forecasting. This presentation is free and open to the public. It will be at Ballard High School in room S108. Doors open at 7:00pm - be there for cookies and socializing. The show starts at 7:30 sharp and should wrap at 9:30. It is impossible to do to this in two hours, but we're going to do it anyway! Expect a fun, fast-paced show. Let me know if you plan to attend - please PM or email. Yay, weather! My favorite! Doxey

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CBS, ya sure, good point. I'll post TR's more often. And yeah, R&D is a great learning experience, and great fun too. thelawgoddess, we were there Friday but thanks anyway.

Did it a few years ago - great route. Camped first night at Heart Lake - had breakfast with bears. Camped second night on snow just, er, dont have my map with me... just east of Carrie summit I think. Camped next night at a lake below Stephen Peak - beautiful there. After that Ferry Lake area I think, then Dodwell-Rixon, then Low Devide. We went in early September. We think we saw 13 different bears - cant say for sure as I'm a layperson about bears but we were trying and we think we saw 13 different individuals. Watched one bear climb the Fairchild Glacier, jumping little crevasses as he climbed. Got mixed up in whiteout at Dodwell-Rixon Pass area. Be good with map & compass skills or dont go on Bailey Range traverse. Coming down Elwha Snowfinger will get your full attention - all part of the fun. 'Nuff said about that. Have fun, take pictures!

Okay, in another thread, CBS exhorted lurkers, which for the most part I am, to post TR's after their climbs. Well, these days I aint got much but here's somethin'. Friday I climbed Icicle Buttress via R&D with my buddy Seth. Nice route, had fun. Led pitches 1 and 3, got some good nut placements. It now takes all fingers and toes to count the number of trad leads I've done. In fact I think I need a few of Seth's fingers to count them all up . Got schooled in rope drag effect while leading first pitch - almost didnt make it to the belay. Had both hands on the rope, reefing up as hard as I could, just to create enough slack to move. First time thats happened to me - yikes! We actually started up the Cocaine Connection, but once Seth got to the first bolt he saw that a fairly wide stream of water did cross the path. (Told 'ja Seth! Heh heh, I dont get to be right very often). Said stream was dried up by afternoon. At the top of R&D we found Bob's Cracks. Seth led the 5.7 - a real nice little climb - recommended! Planned on Tieton Sunday but weather forecast nixed it. Okay, thats all I got. Doxey

Planning a hike across the north unit of NCNP. Need a shuttle for me and my three friends and our overnight packs on Tuesday June 21 - preferrably early in the morning. Hmmm, as I write this it sounds pretty unlikely. Also need a car dropped at Hannegan trailhead on or by June 26. This one seems a bit more doable. Perhaps if someone is going hiking up the Hannegan area anyway that weekend you could leave my car up there? Doxey

I cant believe this has come up! its funny to me because this is one of my pet peeves - I hate round laces! I've ranted about it over the years and my friends, who have heard Doxey Rant #17 - the Round Laces Rant - just roll their eyes, like this ->

This one won a Purple Prose Award a few years ago. Its so bad I really like it. Google the first line to learn more. Rain, David Hersh, Seattle Rain violent torrents of it Rain like fetid water from a God sized pot of pasta Strained through a sky wide colander Rain as Noah knew it Flaying the shuddering trees Whipping the whitecapped waters Violating the sodden firmament Purging purity and filth alike from the land Rain without mercy, without surcease Incontinent rain Turning to intermittant showers overnight With partial clearing Tuesday

Yeah, nice goin',

ah man, thats just great