Freeman

Ryland I've done two trips across the border this month - the recommend id is either your passport or two pieces of id with picture (drivers license and birth certificate work well). All the normal cautions apply about carrying booze, firearms, fresh produce, etc (ie - don't). We find that when going up I5 it is much faster to use the Linden crossing above B'ham instead of Blaine - it is slower road but much faster crossing. Then pick up Trans Canada 1 into Vancouver. We just finished a week in the Broken Group at Barkley Sound - enjoy your trip

Some other hiking traverses include Mary's Peak to Earl Peak (views into the Nightmare Needles and Crystal Creek) and Longs Pass to Ingalls Pass . For a moderate climbing traverse I second doing all three Ingalls Peaks (altho I've only done the East and North from the notch). To make it easy just traverse the South Peak back towards Ingalls Pass and don't do the other two. One of my favorate high traverses is the Carne Mtn high route to Mt Maude - a reasonable but long day.

Yea, LZ = landing zones. Chelan County Mountain Rescue has some new helicopter pilots and some new members who don't know our mtns like the old one (he used to tell us "I'll pick you up at that little bench at 7200 on the north side by the big rock..."). So part of our training this summer is to fly to an area that has had (or may have) potential rescue activity, see where the new guys are comfortable landing, getting photos and GPS coordinates for our records, and generally having some fun, er, work, flying around the Cascades looking at the mountains. The upper Entiat/Spiders Meadows was scheduled for tonight and I'm scheduled to fly so I'll take a special look for Petitdru As to "what fer" - we hope we never have to use them. But I've been on two missions in this area already, and that was before the N Face became so popular. Gawd, it's even a ski route now....

We are going to fly over Maude/Jack etc tonight scouting LZ's. I'll try to take a few digital pics of the traverse. PM me you e-mail addy and I'll send them to you tomorrow.

When we lowered Peter it was two 300 foot lowers - from a huge nest of manky pins. Of course that's not the climbing route. The booty is still there.

Back when we were doing the rebolting project at XXXXXX we set up a Honda generator and borrowed as many batteries and chargers as we could from a couple of contractor buddies and just kept recycling them. Pretty efficient

I bought a couple of spare batteries and another charger for my Bosch in 2001 from Star Rental (509.663.0064) in Wenatchee (they sell/rent industrial equipment). They were $390 (!) for 2 batteries and the charger and as you know you don't get very many holes per battery. I would seriously look into converting to other batteries. Be sure to put a piece of tape over the battery terminals when you carry them in a pack so they won't short out on a carabiner or something.

Josh, I've done all three but never as a traverse. I don't see that it would be easy to descend from Maude to the Maude- Jack col and from Jack to Fernow - but maybe it would go. Fernow is a fair distance from Jack - we went in via Copper Creek when we climbed it. I have done the complete Entiat Ice Fall from Ice Lakes (as well as the complete N face from the bottom). We belayed sections of the broken glacier but the crux was climbing out of the overhanging 'scrund at the start. Because of the late hour we elected to not finish the ridge scramble to the summit but descended back to Ice Lakes from the top of the glacier - big mistake. We probably wasted more time on loose exposed slabby downclimbing than going on to the summit. My feeling about the Ice Fall is that it is one of the really fun late season alpine ice climbs and yes, I would solo it if I did it again. If you link them all let us know.

Last call for toasts or roasts for Chelan County helicopter pilot "Rsq" Pete Peterson. I would like to present Pete with as many notes of thanks from some of the people who he has helped at his retirement this Saturday. PM or email me freeman.keller@verizon.net with your comments for Pete or for my mailing address if you want to send a card. Or add your comments to this thread and I'll print the whole thing out for him at the end of the week.

I'd appreciate a first hand report on the Dike Chimney - might want to do that traverse some day too.

Rod, I've never done the Dike Chimney but I've been told its pretty grungy. However last year we did a fun outing of all three peaks by doing the West Ridge of the East Peak, then the East Ridge of the North Peak (both from the notch - when you get to the greasy steep part of the gully approaching the notch go left up a little face), then rapped the normal slab route and walked out over the South peak. Very nice day trip and you avoid the hords on the slab.

One more option is to approach from the N, camp in the upper Mountaineer Creek Basin, and descend the Sherpa Glacier. One time with a very slow party of three we camped in the Mountaineer Basin, reached the top at dark and did an unplanned bivi. My partners called for a car at the Teanaway and I hiked back around Stuart and Goat Passes to our camp where I found that a snafflehound had eaten our remaining food. They came back a week later to get their gear. Many years ago I went in thru Lk Stuart, crossed the Stuart Glacier, bivied at the notch between the upper and lower ridge and descended to my waiting wife (and cooler) on the south side. Requires two cars or a shuttle. Probably the worst part about climbing the N ridge is figuring out how you are going to do it.

I can build a simple 3:1 or 9:1, or a compound 6:1 pulley system real easily, but a 5:1?

CCMRA did a little mission last night with the County's helicopter and a contract pilot. County picks up the bill - volunteers give their time from work. When we call in the military its a training mission - your tax dollars cover it. When we call in an air ambulance the victim is billed, just as she would be with a ground ambulance. Thats the way its always been

You might also check with Scott Davis in Revelstoke http://www.alpineadventure.com/

I had been nearsighted all my life and that had not changed significantly in 55 years. In my latter years I have been wearing a reading prescription (bifocals). The Laser surgery corrected my nearsightedness but I still require mild reading glasses. I expect my close vision to continue to worsen and that I will require stronger diopter reading correction, but that my far vision will not change. However, you can have a second Lasik if you need more correction. One way to think of Lasik is that they are reshaping the lens of your eyes just as you would grind a lens. During the proceedure you smell burning hair or fingernail - and you think "thats my eyeball they are burning..." Some folks choose to have one eye done at a time but most just go for it. I do know one woman who has had radial keratotomy (RK) done at least 3 times - her vision had worsened a couple of years after the surgery and she required a repeat. Completely different proceedure from Lasik, of course.

Tim I'll echo mbcracken's comments about Dr Ford in Bellvue - he did mine 2 years ago for about $3000. I had been 20/200 and 20/250 and had worn glasses since I was 5 - I am now 20/15 and 20/20. I did have the night starburst that is fairly common but that has gone away unless I'm really tired. This is the most incredible thing you can do for yourself. I can now ski/climb/snorkle and hot tub and see everything clearly. I walked out of the surgery and went to the window in Dr Ford's 16th floor office and could see the Seattle skyline for the first time in my life. PM me if I can answer any questions or do anything else to convince you. Freeman

Some of the local sled heads brag about riding to Goat and Stuart Passes

We got a Huey - you got a pilot?

I share your concern, but for a different reason. As we enter the 2003 climbing (and falling season), the little rescue unit that covers the Colchuck area is undergoing some serious rebuilding. We have lost our mountain helicopter pilot of the last 25 years and are now in the process of "training" a couple of new pilots. We have lost the ability to fly high (above about 8K), to do one skid landings, long line and winch work, and to fly an injured person inside our helicopter. Altho we have lost some of the experienced members, we are bringing some new guys on board and they show a lot of promise. In short, we are stepping back about 15 years to when we flew a Bell 47 and did most of our missions on the ground. Please understand that we are committed to doing the best possible job with the tools given to us, but also remember that help may not be just a cell phone call away.

A few years ago we recovered a body from the base of the Lower N Ridge of Stuart. One of his boots is still up there. His foot is in it. It wasn't my size - I didn't go looking for it. Reminds me of Jim Donini's slides of Tonny Egger....

Toast, it sound like you and Catbirdseat took a pretty good course but most people would not call it "self rescue" if another party was there to assist. I think of the term in the context of Fasulo's book - how does your partner take care of you when you its just the two of you. Using only the equipment that you have with you (even more important - the equipment your partner has on her harness/pack/etc since you probably have the gear sling with you). Each of you needs to decide what you will carry with you for this kind of situation - are you each going to carry a tibloc, a couple of Purcell Prusiks, two pulleys, or are you going to improvise? All of the skills - excaping the loaded belay, raising or lowering your injured partner, stabilizing her injuries, passing knots, retriving the rope so you can go for help.... are part of the big picture, but so is thinking about what can go wrong on every climb and what will I do when it happens? Three real examples - 1- about 10 or 12 years ago, climber falls on the last pitch of Outer Space with more than half the rope out. Back injury. Partner has to get him to Library Ledge where they spend the night in tee shirts. The next day injured climber and a litter attendant were raised to the top and winched off. btw - for you 9:1 guys, we used a compound 6 :1 - a 2:1 working on a 3:1 with low stretch rope and as I recall two people did the raise with a couple more handing the belay and resetting the prusiks. 2 - about 5 years ago climber fell on the lower N Ridge of Stuart 2 or 3 pitches up. Don't remember the injuries - bad but not life threatening. One rope. Partner lower and rapped with injured climber on his back to glacier, stabilized hime and had him in pretty good condition when we got there. As I recall he was a guide from Canada and just sorta did everything right... 3 - last year, climber falls on second pitch of Razorback Ridge on Mt Stuart (some of you know these guys or remember it from cc.com) and shatters his foot. They had two 8 mil ropes and were able to tie them together to reach the glacier - passing the knot was easy because the injured party could stop at a ledge and unload it. Talking to the partner afterwards he admitted that he really didn't know what he was doing but everything just sort of worked. We airlifted them off the glacier after toeing the helicopter skids onto the snow and holding the hover. If they would have required a rescue team to hike in and lower them it would have taken 2 or 3 days. By doing everthing right the mission time for the rescue team was 38 minutes and they were off the day the accident occured. I firmly believe that everytime your partner is more than a half a rope lenght off the ground you should be thinking about how you will get her down when she falls. Get every kind of training you can and practice, practice, practice...

I posted a tr last fall on NWHikers http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1117&highlight=enchantments Time for this old man was 13 hours with a side trip up Little Annapurna and an exit thru the Rat Lakes and out Temple Canyon. We were in no big hurry - just enjoying the views.

Our rescue unit uses a satellite phone when nothing else will work - cell phones or radios. We have had no locations in the central cascades where the sat phone will not work - there are many places where we can't hit a repeater with our mobile radios. Its expensive - we pay $26 a month for the phone whether we use it or not and an exorbinate fee per minute (can't quote directly but a phone bill during a rescue is frequently $150 to $300). If its a long mission, we often will set up a mobile radio repeater so we don't have the high costs of the sat phone.

To Beck about Mt Adams; As I stated in my previous rant, in Washington it is up to each Sheriff to conduct his own rescues and to call in whatever resouces he feels necessary. We have worked with Kittitas (the summit of Stuart is the county line) and Okanogon (the summit of Liberty Bell is also the county line), as well as helping King (roughly Stevens Pass), but in general we've got about all we can do in Chelan and Douglas. The fact that we have helicopters and a mountain pilot means we are frequently asked by neighboring counties to help. We've never been called to Klickitat county however. by the way, thanks for all the positive comments from everybody - I was just seeing the negative. I know that there are a lot of problems with rescue but in general we're doing the best we can. If all we hear is criticism I promise that climbing volunteers will go away and you will be left with the fat out of shape deputies who can hardly climb onto a bar stool.