mountainguy01

Hey ClimbAndSki, Check your PMs, I've got your crampon. Climbed the route on 5/25, in great condition. Only saw two other parties in the area. ~6" fresh/spindrift on top firm snow. Steve

Climbed The Tooth on 4/29. The notch south of Pineapple Pass was passable on the lookers left - quickly melting out and may present problems until better melts out. Pitch 1 and 2 were wet from snow melt, Pitch 3 was still 90% snow, and snow still on summit. There is a ton of fixed gear on the route, it's almost a sport route! There was also tat everywhere and has since been cleaned up a bit. Steve

I was up there yesterday intent on climbing W Ridge - 30 mph winds. 0 visibility in the AM, and lots of snow on the route. With a little bit of a later start than we wanted time was not on our side.

Canon S95. Easily programable, great lens, easy controls, great in low light. It does tend to overexpose a bit in bright snow but much better than most point and shoots. Downside is the location of the flash.

Glad you guys had fun. I briefly spoke with you at Ingraham Flats (party of two along cow path). Looked like you had a long day. We did the D.C. on Sunday morning. Woke to clear and windless skies followed by high winds, sleet and snow. We summited in a whiteout from 13,000'+. Pretty miserable but always great to get out. It was amazing how few people were at Muir.

Congrats to Hannah... Glad to know it wasn't anything like the Delmar Fadden incident.

Try to find a copy of the Bellingham Rock Guide. It is out of print and probably is the only assistance for the area. The author is now in Arizona. Better places to climb... With all the new bouldering areas/problems and those areas that are becoming overgrown, it would be fun to have and/or make a "new" B'ham rock guide. Just a thought...

I hear Fairweather knows something about this and is planning something this summer. He has wanted to do it for a long time now...

No substantial ice on Pan Dome. The slope above has not slid either. It is really warm up there, it was 42 on Monday!

I enjoyed shinning the rocks with my skis. You could "ride " the entire mountain but coverage is minimal, and I mean minimal. Austin's was in "good" shape, upper Pan and North Face. The chair 8 side was packed with people, groomers "ok" but there are still rocks poppin' out with little warning. Was interesting trying to switch between upper and lower lodges on the "groomed" trail. Personal opinion: I am waiting until they hit 40" of base...hopefully soon.

Nice pics. We were the group of two day tripin' it (9.5 hours rt). Nice to put a face to NOLSe and Pandora. Sounds like you guys had a great trip.

Hopefully pics will follow in a few days. We did not protect the snow gully at all, but that depends on your comfort level. Ascending the gully most parties went straight up into some 3/4 class scrambling with snow and ice, we went left and bypassed it all on a snowslope. There are plenty of anchors on the route, mostly OLD slings. There is one pin at the "crux". The first rap off the west side of the gully (note: the rap starts at the top of the gully and traverses west across the main gully, I believe Becky notes this route as the chimney route(?))required down climbing a short snow arete in very soft snow with a some exposure. A 70m rope would reach it, but we only had a 60m, thus having to downclimb to the first rap station. Also note that the the forth rap goes straight down from the anchors and not down the chimney. There are anchors all the way down the route and many should be replaced. Overall, the downclimb/rappel was just slow and tedious.

Climb: Forbidden Peak-West Ridge Date of Climb: 6/16/2004 Trip Report: What a great climb! A friend and I left the parking lot (MP 22) at 4:30 am and headed up the road and up into Boston Basin. For the most part, the basin is still completely snow and nearby routes up Sahale look awesome. The gully going up to the west ridge was in great shape and we were fortunate to have two other in front of us kicking steps the entire way up. There is a hard layer of snow on top with a nice deep wet snow a foot below. Note: the gully is horrible when the snow is soft. Once on the ridge, the first "pitch" is completely snow and about 15% of the route is still snow, though someone might be able to argue with me. The picture in Selected Climbs V.1 of the summit is exactly what it looked like on Wednesday. We were planning on descending the East ledges, but most of the ledges were snow covered so we decided to down climb/rappel the west ridge (what a tedious task) and then rappel the chimneys west of the snow gully. Besides getting the rope stuck on the west ridge descent and rapping down a wrong gully, the trip was great with fantastic weather. There were two other parties on the route, one of which was a photographer. Overall, a great route, and easily doable in a day. Upon arriving back to the car there was a note from the NPS stating the road would be closed further down at ~MP 19.5, and it looks like they are beginning to fix the washouts. Gear Notes: Small rack 60m Rope (wish to have had a 70m) Approach Notes: Cascade River Road closed at MP 19.5

"This is getting funny--cc.com Mt. Baker takeover." Interesting you mention that...I, as well as another non-cc.com'er, were up there Sunday for a nice jaunt up to Helio and back. Figured since my plans were cancelled for climbing it this last weekend, I might as well see what the conditions were like, and...I think the right decision was made. Did anyone summit on Sunday? Steve R

Sounds like a great trip, I know it is on the list of some one you might know also. I just might be interested... PM me if you want a young kid to tag along...Hope you are doing well and if you have forgotten who I am then just remember the long slog/bush wack on Challenger.