klenke

I heard he likes to blow his own horn too much.

Paul, I like your letter best. Too bad it wasn't used.

TLG: "well, the cool thing about jim is that he's a climber and he really puts a lot of thought into the utility of what he sells." Yeah, I'm still trying to find a good time to use that Frog he sold me back in 2001. That dirty rat bastard! {Okay, I have used it a few times at the local cragmarkets.}

Good job, Blake. Summit by 2:00PM. I guess no impromptu bivy for you. Where you crossed Bridge Creek it was still covered by an avy slide for us in August 2002. We walked across the snow bridge on the way back. On the way in we didn't go far enough up the trail to see the avy slide and instead crossed in the trees downstream.

Alasdair, can we read your letter here in case the P-I doesn't publish it?

Nice, Tricky. Just as long as your next column isn't a story about your marriage to that next snaffle...

Response from Johnny Jeans (7/11/05): "Yes, Ralph is correct. I climbed the west face many years ago. I have the date somewhere. I was doing a trip from Stevens to Snoqualmie & climbing all peaks along the way. It was in October, I believe 1988 - I can probably dig up my records (paper in those days) for the exact date if you like. I remember signing in the register which contained that Beckey page about only one route and the 'shirtcuff' note. After descending, I met a party who had summitted the standard route and called the leader by name since I had just signed in after him ! He was quite surprised and also by my route & I hung out with his group for a while. They were leaving and gave me their extra water etc. (Interesting addendum, years later he remembered me and we climbed many of the top 100 together). Thanks for the opportunity to think about that period. I'd love to be that strong & enthusiastic today !!"

I haven't stooped to the level of the Sloop since last time I was duped by that Betty Boop when she made me loop through all those hula hoops. Boy was I pooped. Okay, enough of that. If tomorrow (Tu) evening, I'm game. Else, no. What day?

Have you seen the new Oregon quarter? Came out this year. On the tails side it shows a pothead pumping gas for a WA resident. {That's my joke. I made it up. I'm bad. You know it. Uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh. Ha ha ha..uh...oh.}

The reason for the delay is the MEU (Mountaineering Editors Union) voted to go on strike. We wanted a better 401k company match and new desk chairs. How can we be expected to work under such conditions? We'll be sure to pass along the cost increases to our customers.

Thy end of RR as a landform is RM or 4oJP if you want to look at it that way... . But the end of RR as a toponym (what the map implies) is Ragged End (Cosho).

Maybe it's still going.

Those two names look familiar. Didn't they move down to Yosemite and put in big wall routes on El Capitan?

My Buck route page. You will note that I use approximations for my elevations. You could be right, you could be wrong. I could be right, I could be wrong. But thanks for the info.

Let me help out telemarker here:

It starts out paved for eight or nine miles then goes to good gravel with occassional potholes for a couple of miles until the trailhead for Basalt Peak. From there the road turns to more dirt and less gravel but with some gravel stretches. The dirt part is wobbly and rutted with some jutting rocks but should be okay for your car. There are also hidden bends and dips that sneak up on you. Later, the road goes back to gravel. The final two miles up to Phelps Creek TH is worse (more rutted and rocky) than the final mile to Trinity. You may not like the Phelps spur. Trinity should be okay (flatter).

Usually close to Fish Lake, I think--a long way from the end. It might depend on the time of winter and the conditions.

If the main tree were to pull out with a fall you'd have as much to worry about being clobbered by the tree as you would falling to your death or to serious injury--especially if you couldn't fall because the back up held. Hard to say. I'd have to see the set-up in person. But on the face of it it does seem peculiar.

Good one, Fred! Oh, and Kurt:

And yet, the brush is even worse in the B.C. coast area (so I hear) and also on Kauai (so I hear). Though in Kauai it's called a jungle. How's the bush at that CO college, though?

I am meeting a friend at Big Time Brewery for a beer at 7:30PM to get my small rack back that he left on Tupshin Peak and went back to retrieve last week. You'll know me as the geek with the pro slung around the shoulder. Feel free to show up and get your freak on if you want.

Kurt, you risk the weekly CBS Award for stupidest comment on cc.com. I think you're wrong and a little online research seems to confirm this. It's not just about energy costs to reuse materials, it is the cost (to the environment) to use up stuff and not reuse it. If your energy problem were the only problem there wouldn't be much point in recycling anything (paper, aluminum, metal in general, plastic).

There is a route page for the South(east) Buttress on summitpost. Check there. A fairly good route description.

Really, Kurt? I hadn't heard that. Can you point me to the research/evidence to confirm this? Curious.

Jake, your "current" pic is of the E. Face above King Lake. See my Buck Mountain page on summitpost for photos of the N. Face. And maybe ask Berdinka for some beta as he was researching an approach to it (with beta I supplied to him). But maybe it's his secret project so he won't.