klenke

Which taste better, the male pigeons or the female pigeons?

Re: cairn: for a six-foot man, you have to stretch to your maximum overhead reach just to touch the top rock. We all made the ritual touching of the fly on the top rock. It might have been a flying ant. We were off route because we went up the prominent SW Gully which ends at the South Ridge. Beckey's description from my older red CAG is to "climb upward (right) to the summit ridge which is followed south to the summit." Well since we followed the South Ridge northward (by way of the 5.6 slab/crack), we couldn't have been on the route he is describing above. In hindsight, we should have taken this really narrow gully that led up to the NW side of the summit tower. Since the main SW Gully makes for a feasible downclimb, that must be why Beckey says to take a rope for a rappel. You can easily rappel back off the summit tower that way (the picture of me dangling is that rappel). On Golden Horn we took my 30m rope along. Since we had hours to dissipate, we decided to do an ad-hoc belay for the final moves along that tiny ledge. We figured you might as well be 99.9% safe if you've got the time to kill and not yourself to kill. Eric hip-belayed me by throwing the rope around the left (SE) side of the horn to give me a sort of top-rope effect. But once I got out onto that ledge and found the one semi-bomber fingerhold for my left hand, I realized it was totally easy. Since Eric did not have his harness with him, he did a arm rappel while I did a standard rappel. Just killing time, mainly. Still got back to camp with too much time to spare. Boredom. Took like an hour-and-fifteen to get from the lower lake to below the summitblock of GH. Since we figured Tower was even closer to our lower lake bivy than GH, we set a goal to get to the summit in an hour-and-a-half. We would have made it if it weren't for that 5.6 pitch. Luckily, Chris of Seattle and Tom of Wenatchee (we didn't know them before) were coming up behind us and they had brought pro for the crack. They graciously agreed to belay us up once they got up. Otherwise... Another interesting coincidence: saw my ex-boss from two jobs back that day in the western talus basin. I hadn't seen him since 1999. He and his two partners were doing the West Gully Route. This was after I was earlier that trip telling Eric about my ex-boss' and my nighttime bushwhack adventure in Stetattle Creek in May 1999. What a coincidence that I should see that same ex-boss up there on our Tower trip!

You know, if we had had all day, I would have probably begun dimantling it (much to a lot of people's dismay, probably). You could see the damn cairn from Golden Horn some two miles away. From a distance, I don't like seeing some unnatural object on top of a natural one. It just doesn't seem right. It's like big crosses on summits in South America. But that is just me.

Did the SW Couloir/S Ridge Route of Tower on Sunday. A good photo of the 5.3 crack with 5.6 completion can be seen at Eric's Base Camp. 5.6 is what the guys ahead of us rated it at and they were wearing rock shoes. In our boots I would rate it a point or two harder. But it's only one or two moves (smearing on steep rock with boots is not a simple procedure). Even so, if you fall, you'd be apt to go off the East Face, whereupon you might not touch ground again until you've plummeted 1,500 feet. That East Face is frickin' stEEEEEEp!

You didn't see my name in the Redoubt register cuz I taint been up dere. Glad to hear you had a nice trip. You must have been on Redoubt the day we were hiking into Golden Horn. It was overcast until about 3 or 4PM Saturday over there by Rainy Pass. Sunday was picture-perfect though. The forest fire smoke stayed hidden until after we were done with the view-taking.

I've been in Skeleton Cave and Wind Cave down there by Bend (back in about 1989). Which one is the one with the hole in the roof where you could lower the beer down by a rope? I remember both those caves were way cool (my first lava tubes). One of them had some radical squeeze spaces.

Forrest, from what I can remember. You're not 6'2" and blond. I have my own very stupid mistake but mine involved almost killing someone else (accidentally, of course) and not myself. I will thus maintain the secrecy on this for my own sake. For those of you who think you know what I'm talking about, you don't. This is not that. To you people, I raise the middle one:

Squid, you never did tell me how you managed to climb out of that deep dark crevasse.

What was the year of their death(s)? That might help. There have been fatalities on Chair Peak (the most recent was in the last two years but I think that was just one person). Since Chair Peak is right above Source Lake, the plaque could very well be for climbers that biffed on Chair. I don't think anybody's ever biffed on The Tooth...but that will probably not last much longer as more gumbies keep heading up to it.

What's that about the 80th time you've climbed that peak? So close to Everett. So close to your home. If you should happen to die in the mountains, I promise to try and get that peak renamed after you. Won't go anywhere, I know, but it'd be the nice thing to do for you post mortem.

It's not a really big (stupid) mistake in my book if the ledge is 3 feet (wide). Stupid mistake would be to fall off (and possibly die). By reading your paragraph, I'm thinking you were not off repel for more than a few seconds. If you're there for a long time then you'll soon realize your not hooked in. If the ledge were 1 foot wide or something sketchy like that, then that's a different story. Three feet seems pretty big to me...but I wasn't there. Anyway, glad you're still able to up the experience.

Another question: any need for an ice-axe. I'm thinking "hell no" but I thought I'd inquire anyway. I spied Tower and Golden Horn yesterday from South Spectacle Butte (SW of Mt. Maude) and saw no snow at all in the Tower vicinity. However, there might be a bit of snow in a nook or couloir that would require an axe. I doubt it though.

I soloed Del Campo by way of the "notch" just east of the summit. I don't remember it being a problem but then I don't remember if I went straight up to the notch or on the rocks to the left as the Rastaman mentioned. I remember the snow finger being steep before getting to the rock. On the immediate other side and just below the notch there were a bunch of snow blocks resting on the slabs (see here). I did not have to go too near to them. While I was amusing myself on the summit I heard a thunderous crash and thought I felt something shaking. I got up in time to walk a few paces over to a North Slope overlook and saw a fierce avalanche obliterating the small trees at the base of the slope. Seems one or more of those huge snow blocks on the slab cut loose while I was up there. This was June 15, 1997.

Dude, wait till next year to climb Dragontail-Colchuck when the road to the Colchuck Lake trailhead will be open again (provided the Forest Circus doesn't have too many foremen on the job). Find something different to do. There's plenty out there. And, yes, you are right. 'Tis a heckuva long way from Snow Lakes Trailhead to Aasgard Pass.

May head up there soon to do these two peaks. Tell me more about that summit bouldering problem on Golden Horn. I've heard of a sling ladder being there in the past but that it is now gone. Did you do any of the summit boulder or approach with a rope or did you do it free? Thanks.

The pictures also highlight the changes in climbing fashion, gear, and safety: Wool sweater on the left, probably Gore-Tex on the right Canvas rope on the left, perlon or nylon rope on the right No helmet on the left, helmet on the right

That's a short walk then for you on Fridays.

I climbed Buck Mountain last year from the Buck Creek drainage. Our route went up to the 6,700+ ft saddle west of Buck. This saddle is where Louis Creek drains south from. While I don't know what the lower end of Louis Creek looks like near the Napeequa River, the upper portions are largely alpine open travel. The aforementioned saddle is one of the prettier places I've been to recently. There is a small, long lake up there that drains to the northeast in a precipitous canyon. On the north side of the saddle there is a little routefinding to be done to get over to High Pass but it won't be too difficult. From the saddle, drop down from the trees and contour around the left side of the basin over a boulderfield closely above the brush and small trees. Basically, you want to head directly for the lowest part of the East Buttress of Mt. Berge you can get to. You will need to plunge horizontally into the bigger trees next to the buttress for a hundred feet or so. Eventually, this plunging will lead to a steep climber's trail that winds down the south side of the buttress (woodsy) to about 5,900 ft. At this point, the "way" will go around the buttress to its north side by way of a small ramp. This ramp is easily missed going the other way but going north it shouldn't be a problem. Once past the ramp, follow the vertical wall of the north side of the buttress back east to High Pass some 1 mile away. This part of the travel is on open heather and talus. It's pretty there. I don't know anything about the other side of High Pass. If you go to www.summitpost.com (requires registration), you can see some pictures and a trip report for my climb of Buck. There are photos of the saddle area and the East Buttress of Berge.

I have added a photo to the gallery of the North Face of Maude from exactly 7 years ago this weekend. Click here. Take it for what it is: old conditions. It may or may not be representative of this year's conditions.

No witnesses. No GPS. And the really hard thing to do is not look north the whole time. We simply didn't want to lay eyes on...on...well, Canada! Anyway...more details for Smooth Black Volcanic Rock: The two of us left Ouzel Lake at 6:00AM. It took us roughly an hour to get to the saddle northwest of Spickard whereupon we dropped down toward Silver Lake. About halfway there Custer comes into view. We debated the necessity of bringing technical equipment up Rahm and Custer but ultimately decided against it. This turned out to be okay. The rock on Rahm and Custer is so loose it doesn't provide for good belayed climbing. After a break, I'd say we left our stash below the east side of the North Glacier around 8:00AM. We angled up and over to the hanging snowfield below Rahm. Ugly talus. All along I was worried about the cliffband below the snowfield. I couldn't see a viable way up it. Tom wanted to go up the canyon on the right side of the cliffband. I suppose this could have gone but it looked pretty steep and wet once we traversed above it. As we got closer and closer to Rahm we began to see a steep gully going up and left through the cliffband. See here. This turned out to be very feasible. We explored the left fork in the gully but it ended at a headwall where ALL the rock was loose. Since we didn't have a rope, etc., we went back to the right fork and ascended some class 4 (5.0?) for about 15 feet. Once above that, it's easy though a slog all the way to the summit. We were up on the summit of Rahm around 10:30AM. From the summit of Rahm it is obvious that the Rahm-Custer Ridge is the way to go to get over Custer. This ridge is class 3 with intermittent exposure along the crest. It's also loose, so one needs to pay attention. In fact, Tom slashed his wrist open pretty good whilst arresting a short sliding fall on this talus. We were guessing three hours to get to Custer's summit but it only took two hours. As we were approaching Custer an impasse up its NE side looked more and more real. We saw two staggered gullies that looked like they each allowed upward travel but it didn't look like it would be easy to get from the lower gully to the upper gully without doing some class 5 climbing. However, as we got closer, I noticed the 20-ft transition was not a face but a horn with a short class 4 access step behind it. So as it turned out, the transition was easy. See here. The rest of Custer went without incident but I will say that it was very crappy rock. We descended the loose and crappy talus of the south side of Custer to the South Ridge and continued on that (exposed class 3 for a few hundred feet) until we arrived at a talus field. We then descended directly toward Spickard, eventually arriving at steeper slabby terrain just east of the glacial remnant on this side of the valley. Large interesting crevasse on this glacier. The slabby terrain is easy to pick one's way down. We arrived back at our stash about 7 hours after we left it (~3:00PM). From the stash, we headed up the North Glacier of Spickard on its far east side. We first went up the snow right of the slabs but then finished on the low angle slabs to the snow at its top. Small to mid-size rocks kept sloughing off the glacier just above the slabs. Two grapefruit-sized ones barely missed Tom. Once on the snow (we did not rope up at all), we did end-arounds of a couple of crevasses until we met up with some older tracks in the snow (these tracks came up obliquely from the Spickard-Custer saddle. We then made one iffy snowbridge crossing high up (my probing ice axe met little resistance) before exiting the neve at the deep notch on Spickard's NE Ridge, whereupon we climbed on the other side of the ridge then intermittently on the ridge crest all the way to the summit. This was class 3 and 4. After what we had been through on Custer, we found it to be quite solid. We freeclimbed it. Note that it is not necessary to ascend the glacier all the way up to the schrund at its top. Take the aforementioned notch at left. By around 6:00PM we were signing the register and off to downclimb the South Route to get back to Ouzel Lake. One essentially descends the south side of the SW Ridge toward Mox Peaks. When you get to the deep notch in the ridge that allows access back to the WSW Basin of Spickard, get into this basin and then stay high above it to get over to the incline that goes up from Ouzel Lake to the Custer-Spickard saddle. If you descend too quickly toward the lake, you'll get cliffed out (you'll see this when you're at the lake earlier). We got back to the lake at 8:30PM (14.5 hours round trip). Rahm, Custer, and Spickard can all be done in a day if you travel expeditiously. If you want some extra excitement for another day, you could try the North Ridge Route of NW Twin Spire (Easy Mox). It doesn't look that hard. [There are more pictures in the photo gallery.]

There is actually a remnant of glacier on the Custer side of the glacis that leads down to Silver Lake. You can kind of see it in this picture: Spickard from Rahm. Look for the schrund (gaping crevasse actually) just right of center. You can get down to the lake without even having to walk on neve but you'd have to traverse down a moderately angled boulder/talus field (seen at center). We saw wands sticking high out of the moraine debris field below the North Glacier and about halfway up the glacier. We figured these were for glacial movement mensuration (akin to what the scientists are doing on the Middle Cascade Glacier).

Comments from someone who just was up there: 1. With a higher clearance vehicle or a car whose paint job you don't care about, you can drive an extra mile or so to a wide parking area (where the road wyes; right fork going over the creek). The trail follows the road for a few hundred yards. At a junction, go left along the road that goes into the forest. In about 200 yards the road will come to a T-junction. Go right. This is the start of the "trail." It follows a very old overgrown road all the way to the border. It is very muddy in places for the first mile so I advise not bringing approach shoes unless you don't mind getting them muddy. 2. The Depot Creek Trail is easy to follow all the way to above the headwall at which point it becomes indistinct but goes between the talus and the creek on the northeast side of the valley. There is a brushy section before the headwall (lots of salmonberry treats!), but you won't need shears. Someone's already done that. 3. The trail up the headwall is steep steep steep! 4. Eventually (about a mile before the lake) the trail will fade when the slide alder brush begins amidst talus. At this point, angle upward to the slabs at far left. Traverse these slabs high above the brush. DO NOT THINK you can find a way through the brush just because a possible passage appears for a short stretch. This is the mistake we made (going both ways). GO HIGH AS I SAID. You won't be sorry. 5. There is plenty of water at the lake 6. There is no snow going up to the saddle NW of Spickard. The talus blocks are lame for climbing on. 7. The North (Silver Lake) Glacier is in fine shape for climbing on. You can get on it right away from the saddle (some initial low angle ice sections to deal with) or descend toward Silver Lake to go up the left side of the glacier. This route avoids most of the crevasses but small rock fall could be a hazard (it was for us). 8. We did not rope up for the ascent. There were two of us. You do not need the standard three on that glacier if you go up the left side. 9. Don't worry about the bergschrund at the top of the glacier headwall. You don't have to go that high. You can exit the glacier at the deep notch on the NE Ridge and complete the climb on the other side of the ridge (solid class 3 and 4). Climbers who get sketched out easily in class 4 gullies may want a belay. 10. Descend the South Route of Spickard to get back to camp. Descend the south side of the ridge toward Mox Peaks to the notch that allows you to get back into the large basin WSW of Spickard. Go north across the basin back to the incline that leads up to the saddle northwest of Spickard and then descend back to the lake. If you don't do this, you may get cliffed out above the lake. 11. The Redoubt Glacier is in fine shape for climbing on. The ice sections at the low end can be bypassed or skirted. Above these it is almost completely neve all the way to the saddle southeast of Redoubt. 12. With heavy packs, it took us 4.5 hours to go from car to lake (we parked at the end of the road mentioned earlier) and 3.5 hours to go the other way back to the car. Use this for reference. You may take longer or you may not. I have put pictures in the gallery. Click here.

Pictures for this outing have been put in the gallery. Click here. Dru: I don't know if what you're wanting to see is represented. It's all I've got for Devils Tongue/Toothpick.

Wayne, it would be cool if you could annotate the photo (do you need permission for that?) then repost it so as to show us which spire is which. I know I could look in Beckey, but he may not mention them all (such as the Blob and the Blip). Otherwise, nice panorama. Here's a similar one from Snowfield Peak.

Geeky engineering solution: Yes, you are breathing in the same volume of "outside" air at 10,000 ft that you are at sea level. However, the air is less dense at altitude. Assuming perfect mixing of components (thus constant partial pressure fractions of elements such as oxygen, nitrogen, and argon), then you couldn't possibly be breathing in the same mass of oxygen at altitude than at sea level. Equationally: mass of O2 breathed in = Volume breathed in X density of O2 in atmosphere in kilograms per cubic meter. Symbolically: Mass, O2 = V (m^3) x rho (kg/m^3). In the rarified limit approaching space, you'd have to suck pretty hard. But if you could suck in indefinitely in the fringes of the atmosphere, you could eventually fill your lungs with the same volume of "air." The problem is your body processes (needs) the oxygen thus enhaled quicker than you can acquire it from your surroundings. You can try this by attempting to breathe in very very slowly. You will see that the slower you go the harder it is to maintain a slow pace. That is, your involuntary reflex would eventually be to speed up the process, to suck harder.