Fairweather

Thanks for the link! I did that trip in early March of 1983, from Paradise as you did. No skis, we were on our fancy Sherpa snowshoes. I just remember it was very very cold, and the crevasses on the Cowlitz were huge and partially hidden as we were being forced too far down into the icefall. One of the few times I remember being extremely worried about the whole rope team going into the same hole. I went on to climb it three more times from Summerland and even threw in a climb of Ks Spire. Again, thanks for the memories!

Trip Report!

It's what happens when "public servants" forget who they work for, transcend multiple elected administrations, and begin to think they are our masters. Marblemount tends to be pretty anarchist/weird, and some of it might bleed into (or be driven by?) NPS staff. Just before Covid, I stopped to get gas there and someone had bashed in the windows of the station and painted a bunch of anti-oil company nonsense all over the rest. I've never visited their HQ in Sedro Wolley, don't know much about current Stehekin. I suspect the entire local unit suffers from group-think ala places like Port Townsend, Vashon Island, Fairhaven, Orcas. Fire and/or transfer everyone, maybe it can be saved.😎

USFS is more respectable than most--and light years better than NPS/Interior. They would manage the North Cascades wilds far better than they are managed under the current regime.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5180781ff7e142c1bf0d512e9fbae67d

As for USFS, well, I have issues with them too. Particularly regarding their partnership with the "Mt. St. Helen's Institute," and various permit and quota schemes. It's never funny when public agencies offer up a 'free-market solution' to an arbitrary quota they imposed. They provide the problem--and then sell us the solution. (Now available on recreation.gov!) That said, NPS often behaves in an utterly draconian manner couching institutional laziness in a green wrapper. The debacle along the road to Paradise this last winter was just the latest example. Back to NOCA, recall rangers frog-marching climbers and hikers out of the backcountry because they lacked a permit said ranger could have just issued on-site.

To whose "wilderness values" are you referring? I'm a conservative. And a conservationist. Sixty years of hiking, climbing, paddling, and yes, occasional mountain biking. One mistake urban liberals make is viewing wilderness as their inviolate playground, not realizing people of all political persuasions own it--and use it.

That might be the noble goal for park staff and urban elites--but the 1968 enabling legislation doesn't make it so. 93% of the park is now Stephen Mather Wilderness. The USFS can manage that just fine.

This is demonstrably untrue. Permits to climb? Lottery for the Wonderland Trail? Back country quota areas expanding every year at Olympic, and MORA--and NOCA? If there's no "loving nature to death" crisis in our NPs, then why all the restrictions?

Related. Sort of. https://www.wsj.com/articles/national-park-fees-booz-allen-68d4d6d8?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Let's do it!

Don't particularly like the guy, better choices are plenty. But this nonsense cannot stand. Russiagate, Ukraine, Peegate, tax returns nothingness, on and on. I wish liberals loved their country more than they hate Trump. Their mania is leading us to a very very bad place. They should have just let him fade away.

Parked at about 1300' where the snow starts. Snowshoes up the road to the Washington TH parking area. There is a S#!t ton of snow up there! Not likely to melt out for a while.

I'd say some civil disobedience is in order here.

Are you talking about that goofy "Volcano Pass?" I've never heard of any permit needed to climb Mt Adams.

I hear radon levels there are off the charts at the LaQuinta Inn!

Don't believe everything that you breathe You get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve

That's very weird, I don't remember eating any corn.

The Mountain Goats: Up the Wolves

There are already plenty of laws against littering. But occasionally stupid can be fixed. Not sure about lazy. Sheeesh, can't they just shake off those last few drops like the rest of us?😎

They've appeared just in the last few years. Single toilet paper squares alongside suburban and popular mountain trails. Not the brown-stain variety, rather, as if someone was "dabbing." Has anyone else noticed? If so, is this a phenomenon that is rising hand-in-hand with, how do I put this, REI's recent marketing push toward women? In any event, it's nasty and I wish people wouldn't do it. Crying Indian.

The Doves: Kingdom of Rust

Same story here. Back when the glacier and the Boy Scouts still existed.

USFS would be fine, but as screwed up as Washington State government is, they still seem to be managing their state parks fairly well. For now. I say let them have it.