klenke

Hey, thanks Mr. I. I will store this information for future reference. I hoist a Glacier for ye. [ 11-13-2002, 10:53 AM: Message edited by: klenke ]

Dear God, Pub Club next Tuesday. Be there! Not that I've ever been to Pub Club myself. Sincerly, Ordinary Mortal

I went to my voting place today. All that coin flipping I was doing really began to annoy my booth neighbors. Then this baby started crying very loudly. She was apparently sad she couldn't vote for 17+ years. And by that time who knows what condition this state/country/world will be in.

Try this: http://www.washington.edu/cambots/cambot3.mpg (this shows the towers in a video). I'm thinking it would be more than a rope-length to rappel off of (60m rope divided by 2 to double for rappel). I'm sure the towers have got gratings on the top with which to set up an anchor. Sky: your story about the guy getting halfway up sounds familiar.

I believe it has been done. Or this may be a Seattle urban legend. It would require stemming up a four-foot wide (or thereabouts) chimney for that 100 feet. No chance for placing pro, though. Not something I would do, for certain. [ 11-04-2002, 08:30 PM: Message edited by: klenke ]

duplicate post deleted. [ 11-04-2002, 08:31 PM: Message edited by: klenke ]

You think you guys had it bad? But I actually went to the game! Gag me with a spoon and make me barf! And the loud obnoxious frat boys behind us just made it worse. One of their friends even barfed down the row from us. ...some pretty girls loitering about, though.

There's a movie out there that deals with what happens to child rapists in prison. It's called "Short Eyes" (1977). Great flick.

At the top of yet another "obvious gully" that requires only "minor scrambling", I had finally had enough and rappelled off of my Beckey Cascade Alpine Guide. [ 11-01-2002, 09:55 PM: Message edited by: klenke ]

I tried the punter route of Dragontail a few years back in late September. I did not bring crampons, so found the glacier too much to do with just an iceaxe. What I did: climbed up the extreme right side of the glacier/neve (no crevasses and if you slip you slide down to talus). As soon as I could get to it, I tried shimmying my way up the shallow right-side moat until the snow/icefield comes to a headwall where you have to go left to get around it. Now the moat had a drop off in it which meant I'd have to traverse on ~30-degree snow/ice (at circa 8,500 ft) for about 25 feet to get to the other side. Even this was too much for me w/o crampons, so I bailed. The top-most part of the glacier is the steepest. The bare ice parts, however, are mostly down at the bottom near the pass. Not to worry though about my failure, for the wind was houling and it was completely socked in. To come back another day would be much more enjoyable.

I'm curious about this little peak in the north end of the park (on Northern Loop Trail; SE of Windy Gap). Anyone out there seen it up close or climbed it? I might like to attempt Redstone Peak this fall or winter, but it's 6 miles of trail then 1 mile off-trail to get to it, so don't know if it's worth it this time of year.

I prefer routes that don't kill me. But that's just me.

That 3-D Topo thing is from the Delorme Topo USA software, which I have. In my opinion, that 3-D Topo capability is more a novelty than a necessity. It worked there for Tomdav on Mt. Baring, but in general I have found it's no substitute for a 2-D map (the detail just isn't there for navigational purposes). Still, the 3-D effect can have its viewing angle adjusted (something like 20 degrees up to 90 degrees [straight overhead]) and rotated around.

JJ, I was thinking about this... You might also want to purchase a Washington State Gazetteer mapbook since it will give you a good overall impression and reference for the general area around where you'd be going. There are two mapbooks of Washington. Each has got its benefits and detriments. These two mapbooks available are: "Washington Road & Recreation Atlas" by Benchmark Maps ( www.benchmarkmaps.com ). The cost through their website is $20. This mapbook is good in that it is in feet for elevations. It is bad in that that it has a number of incorrect peak elevations in it (but this is not a big problem). It is also not very robust in showing all the roads and trails really out there in the mountains. For this, the latter mapbook is good. This mapbook is: "Washington Atlas & Gazetteer" by Delorme Mapping Company ( http://www.delorme.com/atlasgaz/ ). Cost is $20 through website. This one is available for New Jersey, so you may have seen it. The bad thing is this mapbook is laid out in meters. The good thing is that it gives correct elevations and shows a lot more roads and trails. ===Paul

I looked at the list of participants. Well at least I can say I know Jerry Chang. Hmmmmm? Now I've got to wonder.

Yep. And here are some of my mugshots:

To be true to form with all these other reality-based TV shows (Survivor, Fear Factor, etc.), the contestants will have to be extremely good looking, chiseled-body types. For ratings, the women will have to wear tight sports bra tops and the men will have to wear tight tank tops and flex their biceps for the camera at every opportunity. They won't be allowed to have a brain in their heads either. None of the contestants will look like your ordinary everyday ugly hardman climber. You know, like us.

How many times a year do I hear or read about "the obvious gully". Beckey is such a hardman climber, his "obvious gully" could perfectly well be a vertical finger crack up a smooth wall for 500 vertical. Beware the obvious gully!

I can see for business use that the employer might supply the employee with a beacon to avoid spousal litigation after employee has died while doing his/her job (because no one rescued him/her). But then, seems to me, employees should not be going out into the bush alone. They should be partnered up. For personal use, it's a different story.

I wouldn't say it was "discussed" there in Gear Critic. It was only posted there. Your post there does not add anything to the discussion. On the front page I thought I'd get a better response. It's Friday, so we'll see.

Saw the news article about it yesterday. Wondering what your thought are on the device? This is a device that can put out a signal to a satellite that can aid in the location of an injured climber in times of rescue. It's a lot like an avalanche beacon but with a much greater range, obviously. Cost currently is ~$300. One concern is supposedly the inadvertant activation of the device and thus an "unwanted" rescue being incurred. Fines could ensue for misuse. [ 10-18-2002, 01:05 PM: Message edited by: klenke ]

JJ, A word about map reading versus being there as it pertains to PNW climbing. There is a lot of stuff that'll bog you down (literally and figuratively) that maps don't show. You can't just look at a map of Washington's North Cascades and say "that looks doable, let's go that way". You may luck out, but probably you'll be sorry. I again recommend Fred Beckey's Cascade Alpine Guide, Volume 2: Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass. You will find ample examples of eye-candy climbing possibilities in the general area of Eldorado Peak. The cost of this book is ~$25. Between the 10 of you, this'll cost less each than a Starbucks latte. If you send me an email (klenke@attbi.com) with your mailing address, I can (if I feel so inclined), send you photocopies of the relevent pages in Beckey so you can get an idea of what his books are like. The "100 Hikes in Washington" books are okay but don't really give a lot of pictures. The map sketches aren't always easy to figure out either. You say you may put up a base camp in the Dorado Needle area (this will probably mean camping on snow/firn/glacier). If you are willing to move your camp around within a 10 mile radius of that spot, your climbing opportunities skyrocket. Examples: Forbidden Peak (see www.summitpost.com), Mt. Goode, Mt. Formidable, and more. All these are in the aforementioned Beckey book. Beckey's "Volume 3: Rainy Pass to Fraser River" is also a book I would buy if I were you. Even if you don't go to any peaks listed therein, you can still enjoy the pictures as if it were a coffee-table book. [ 10-16-2002, 04:28 PM: Message edited by: klenke ]

Don't green things look blue when you've got yellow-lensed sunglasses on? Or wait, that's the other way around. Yellow and blue make green. Okay, who had on and who didn't?

What, Holly, waiting to read about a certain Grand Teton accident? Wasn't that last year?

In my estimation (now that I remember where it is), the McAllister Glacier is in the most trail-inaccessible area of Eldorado Peak--the north side. The definitive guide book used by all Northwest climbers is Fred Beckey's Cascade Alpine Guide (CAG). Actually, he has put out three volumes of the guide--each representing a certain section of the Washington Cascades. The one you would want is Volume 2: Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass. This is the green book, whose latest printing is 1996. There are other guide books out there. Some popular ones are those put out by twins Bob and Ira Spring (100 Hikes in Washington, et al.; not for technical climbing) and Harvey Manning (don't know much about his books). There is also a book out by Peggy Goldman. All of these are probably available on Amazon.Com. Search the web. Non-climbers also can and do make good use of CAG, as Fred has put a lot of effort into access descriptions (i.e., access trails). Fred does not say much about the McAllister Glacier, but here is what he says about McAllister Creek (which drains the glacier): "McAllister Creek valley has a passable but brushy trail that can currently [circa 1989] be followed about 1 mile into the valley. The valley is a wilderness jungle: unless the trail is cleared and extended, expect slow progress...The valley remains uniquely low to near the glacier tongue at about 4,000 ft." (1989 Printing; 2nd Edition) Note that the glacier is at least 8 miles up the creek valley, so this would mean a heck of a lot of heinous bushwhacking. There are some good photos of the McAllister Glacier and surrounding nunatak summits in CAG. The McAllister Glacier is in a pretty remote area. Perhaps this is what you want, but non-climbers (hikers) will probably find getting to that area quite an ugly chore--especially those who have never partaken in a notorious Northwest Buchwhack. Any foray into the boscage of a lowland valley on the wetter side of the Cascade Crest does not provide much in views except large trees towering above and around you. And sometimes the cage is so thick you can't even see the trees. The alternative of approaching the McAllister Glacier is from the Eldorado Peak Route on the south side of the peak, but it's no bargain either. This route is steep and even climbers tend to complain about it--starting from the periodically dangerous river crossing on a log at the bottom. The route later crosses the Inspiration Glacier. Then there is the Tepeh Towers serrated ridge crest that separates the glaciers. Some highly popular "trail" hikes in the vicinity of Eldorado Peak are: Hidden Lakes Peak (4 miles, 3,600 ft of gain), Cascade Pass/Sahale Arm (3.7 miles, 1,800 ft of gain/+ another 0.7 miles up to Sahale Arm), and Boston Basin (~3 miles and ~2,600 ft of gain). You might also try contacting the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest [http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs | Darrington office: (360) 436-1155] or North Cascades National Park [http://www.nps.gov/noca/ | Marblemount office: (360) 873-4500] for information. [ 10-19-2002, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: klenke ]