klenke

Report on Buck Mountain Yesterday Jeff Rodgers and I visited the summit(s) of Buck Mountain (sattelite image of Buck's summit area). We first went to the north summit where I had been before in August 2002. My GPS settled out at 8535 feet on the highest rock. We then went to the middle summit where my GPS settled on 8559 ft. Visual observation also seemed to prove the middle summit is higher than the north summit. However, most intriguing was the south summit. It seems just as high as the middle summit when viewed from the middle summit. The map shows this summit as being 8360+ but I think it is higher, i.e., the map is in error. With limited time available, I made an attempt at the south summit via the SW Ridge. I climbed rather easily to the notch and was faced with a low-fifth rock step about 20 feet in height. I was still a good 100 feet below the top, or so it seemed. I backed off, not wanting to do the downclimb (with no special gear). At this notch and at a point farther southwest my GPS read 8420 ft, meaning the peak is probably around 8500-8520 ft. It might even be higher.

Jim: Yes, the two summit points of Raven Ridge are another two that need GPSifying. Another would be the middle and south summits of Cardinal. Then what about the two summits on Indian Head Peak? Or what is the height of the true summit of Spider Mountain (the summit isn't the 8286 point)? Or Big Chiwaukum (the summit is north of the 8081 point). Or Mt. Fury's two summits. Are they higher or lower than Luna? Which of the three points (W Fury, E Fury, or Luna) is the highest point in the Pickets? Yes sir, there are a lot of summit uncertainties out there that could use an accurate GPS assessment or, in a few decades, LIDAR. This weekend I'm going back up for Buck Mountain, having only done the north summit. The middle point is likely higher but I'll see what my GPS gives for a difference.

Trip: The north summit of Greenwood Mountain isn't Date: 8/5/2007 Trip Report: Background: This report is not intended to debate the name of this mountain. I call it Greenwood Mountain. You can call it what you want. Some (many?) call it NE Dumbell Mountain--a prosaic name if there ever was one. It isn't officially named on the map. According to Beckey, local miners called the peak "Greenwood Mountain" and that is where the name comes from (obviously, take your Beckeyisms with a grain of salt). Either way, this mountain is a Top 100 summit. There are two summits on Greenwood Mountain: a southern point triangulated at 8,415 ft and a northern point about 300 yards away triangulated at 8,400+ ft (meaning it could on casual consideration be as high as 8,439 ft, thus higher than the south summit). Most Top 100 pursuers, including the original Bulgers, were content on only doing the south summit. But if the north summit were actually higher, one could argue that those who only did the south summit were "cheating" the honor of completion. A photo from earlier this decade... Knowing just which of the two summit points is highest has fascinated me ever since I read Beckey's words regarding the peak "...but apparently higher at its northern tip." Further piquing my intrigue was Mike Torok after a return trip up there in 2004. He stated that the north summit is "higher by a couple of feet." (reference) But then Fay Pullen went up to the south summit with her fancy little clinometer and measured a downward angle to the north summit, meaning it is lower. However, she did not do a back bearing from the north to south summit. Furthermore, what effect would earth curvature have on her reading? I originally climbed to the south summit in August 2003 with Stefan Feller. Neither of us could say with certainty which summit was higher. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit the north summit too. Given all of the above, I knew I would need to return to Greenwood to make some sort of measurement or measurements of my own. Results: On the weekend of August 4-5, 2007 I traveled with my girlfriend Michelle up to Spider Meadow. While she stayed in camp and endured hungry black flies and mosquitos, I went on up to Greenwood. I was at the summit from Phelps Basin in a little under three hours. The weather was partly cloudy. {Excuse the poor quality. We realized we forgot the memory card in the camera and so rushed back to the nearest store at Lake Wenatchee to purchase a disposable camera.} I was carrying with me my old Casio altimeter with 20-ft increments, a new High Gear altimeter with 1-ft increments (though it's not that accurate), and a medium quality Magellan GPS. I was first surprised to see the GPS report exactly 8415 feet for the south summit with an accuracy of 13 feet. It fluctuated a little with a minimum reading of 8413 and a maximum of 8418. 11 satellites were used to acquire my position. I reset my Casio to the nearest setting of 8420 ft. I reset my High Gear to 8415 ft. After a short stay at the south summit I downclimbed its SE Ridge to get to the obvious, though somewhat inaccessible looking ramp that leads down to the glacier/snow on the east side of the peak. The ridge is mostly Class 3 but features two short Class 4 steps with good holds. After descending to about 8160 ft, I located a chossy 25-ft gully leading down to the finger of snow (with attendant moat) reaching up on the ramp. This gully is at a point on the ridge where continuing on it would be difficult (it's right before a small cannonhole). There were old boot tracks in the snow leading over to the north summit. After climbing down the gully and out of the moat, I more or less followed those tracks to the base of the south face of the north summit. The snow reaches up a bit and steepens. To make matters worse there was a double moat, one a bit back from the face (like a schrund) below the steepest snow (don't slide into it!) and one at the snow high point. I got off the snow rather easily across a two-foot chasm then sketched my way up ball-bearing-covered slabs. I worked rightward past/under where a big block of snow had slid off moments before then made my way up to the final SE Ridge. The ridge was Class 3--not difficult at all. For the return I would take a narrow ramp/gully that avoided the unpleasant slabs. It took me about an hour to get from the south summit to the north summit. At the north summit I again pulled out my instruments. The GPS now read 8410 feet with only minor fluctuations. The accuracy was +/-8 feet. 14 satellites were used to acquire my position. The High Gear altimeter also read lower by about 15 feet. My Casio read the same height (8420 ft). I returned to the south summit and the GPS again read 8415 ft (now settling out to 8418, actually). The High Gear altimeter was also again reading about 8415 ft. Conclusion: Two independent experiments (Fay's and mine) showed that the north summit is lower than the south summit. Two casual comments (Fred's and Mike's) intimated the north summit was higher than the south. I'm going to go with the quantitative data and aver that THE SOUTH SUMMIT OF GREENWOOD MOUNTAIN IS THE HIGHEST POINT. There is no need to go over to the north summit except for the better views it provides of Bonanza Peak, Martin Peak, and the Railroad Creek valley.

Question about the washed out road: I heard (a while back) that you had to hump through the brush to get past the big wash out. Is this not the case? Can you get all the way (to the Green Mtn Road junction) w/o having to do any 'schwacking? Perhaps an impromptu trail been blazed through the brush at the wash out. Thanks in advance.

The definitive presentation of this list is available HERE (shameless self promotion ). A special congratulations goes to Silas Wild after his successful completion of the Top 100 by 400 feet of prominence last Saturday on Sherman Peak (on Mt. Baker). He is only the second person to finish that particular version of the list (Dr. Roper in 1991 was the other). Here is the report of Silas' adventure on TAY and is Silas in his moment of glory.

The "card" was delivered today along with Alpinist 16 (thanks to pms [Jim]). Kurt has been moved from the Burn ICU to the Neurosciences Unit on the 3rd floor of the West Wing Hospital. He is (currently) in Room 380. According to the Burn ICU nurses he is doing much better. I think he sort of recognized me but didn't know my name. He is mildly coherent some of the time. One of his arborist buddies was there and said it would be cool if some of you were to visit him this weekend--even if just for a few minutes. Parking in the west garage is readily accessible and not too expensive ($3 for 1 hour or less). Here's to Kurt! Go Kurt! And here's to icegirl for suggesting a monetary fund be set up for him.

Harry mentioned that the fishing gear may have been stolen out of the Jeep recently. Essentially, there are way too many scenarios and what ifs to draw anything but speculative conclusions. Nonetheless, keep coming up with possibilities. It may help the search. I do have to return to climb the north summit of Greenwood. I can now see doing this sooner than later, with the added purpose of scanning the terrain for Roger. He could very well still be buried in snow at this time--especially if he fell down a gully. As for a fishing accident (at Phelps Creek), I would tend to want to discount this because there were already fish in the Jeep that he had caught. Without a cooler, they would spoil in short order. It seems like he would eat those before returning to catch more. Harry does say there are trout found in Phelps Creek. From the trailhead it is a ~200 feet down to the creek. Directly below the trailhead it is brushy and steep but just north of there across the tributary creek coming in from the east, he could have found an easy way down. Who knows. It's a large area to be covered. He will hopefully be found sooner than later, and hopefully this summer.

20 or so 'get well' messages in my PM inbox as of this morning. Keep them coming. The last one will be taken at 5:00pm. Thank you to all who have contributed one.

Per Harry Majors email today, a report from the Chelan Co. Sheriff's deputy: "Jeep is Roger's --- He signed the [Phelps Creek] trail register "in" & "out" on October 27th --- Indicated LeRoy Creek as his destination --- Sleeping Bag was in Jeep --- Freshly caught fish was in a plastic bag in the Jeep --- Found no fishing gear" Peaks accessible from that trailhead that Roger had not yet climbed (based on Harry's review of Roger's climb log): NE Dumbell (aka Greenwood) -- Class 2 to south summit, Class 3 or 3+ to north summit Point 7598 west of Dumbell -- Class 3 and/or 4 Genius Peak (Pk 8039) south fo Dumbell -- Class 3 but with slabby terrain above Spider Meadow Knowing Roger's speed, any one of these could be done by him in a day in late-October. There are other, lesser points Harry mentions but they don't seem like worthy trips to me (so maybe not to Roger either). These include two non-summits on Ice Creek Ridge.

For information regarding Roger's disappearance, go to this thread.

Bruce, that is perhaps true, at least in the time the call went out to search for his vehicle (late October/early November). Before that time people driving by would have assumed there was nothing out of the ordinary about a car parked there. Surely the gatekeeper would check to make sure no vehicles were inside the gate at time of closure. The damage to the car was likely the result of the weight of the winter's snows. The Phelps Creek trailhead is over 3,000 ft in elevation and it was a relatively heavy winter at those altitudes. I talked to Roger's sister Suzy. The Jung family is aware of the car (thanks Ty). Search and Rescue is organizing a search team. There are a lot of peaks up the Phelps Creek valley that Roger would have desired to climb, those he hadn't already done. Roger was quite a prolific mountaineer.

This sucks. And to think how many times I have conversed with Kurt about his job and its safety protocols. I was thinking it would be nice to send him flowers and a card but that would be hard to do in the cyber world. I have an idea. I will do my part with the card as such: Whoever wants, send me a PM with a short one-line get well message and I will hand-write those messages along with your name/avatar on an actual card. Click here to send me that PM (must be logged in to do so). I'll try and get the card sent by Friday (I may take it there myself). That is to say, the deadline for your message would be Friday around 5:00pm. If I get a lot of responses I may opt to put them on a poster instead. I will be out tomorrow (Thursday).

A friend clued me into this post and the Kurt post. Damn. Two pieces of bad news in one day. Here is the relevant Roger Jung thread. Thank you so much for reporting the jeep. Ty, did you happen to get the license plate? The number we're looking for is 421-PDV. I'll see about contacting Roger's father but would like to hold off until positive ID of the jeep. I'm sure the Sheriff's department will be way ahead of me on this.

What the hell? I summited everything I set out to summit this Saturday and Sunday. Okay, except this dumpster. Hugs for all!

I drove down Saturday with friend Jeff. The drive took longer than the climb. Made a Mediterranean start of 1:30pm. Cloudy/foggy weather had us doing the punter 1A route. Took us 2 hours! There was a group of newbies quaking in their boots at the headwall traverse. Leader among them asks, "do you have a rope because you'll need it?" "Yes, we do actually." "It's a steep traverse above a crevasse. It may not go." "Well, we don't like to fail..." and Jeff and I carried on...never roping up, never nothing, though we did get our ice axes out. Took us all of 10 minutes to get across this supposed crux of the climb. We got halfway across, saw the boot path in the snow, and I yelled back to the leader: "There's an easy path here." Jeff and I went on up and saw/heard them coming (clank clank clank with the pickets!). They never got past the headwall traverse. No views at the summit. But the beers made up for that. Register does need to go into a hermetic kind of box or canister. One hour down, slipping as necessary on the "root-clotted" lower trail. Jeff and I then dumpster dove two peaks south of there. I'll spare you the smelly underwear details.

The "standard" trailhead SW of the summit is at 5,500 ft so I imagine you can't drive all the way up to it yet. Contact the ranger station at Sullivan Lake for access details. Sullivan Lake District 12641 Sullivan Lake Road Metaline Falls, WA 99153 509-446-7500

The classic progressive The Return of the Giant Hogweed Genesis, 1971 Turn and run! Nothing can stop them, Around every river and canal their power is growing. Stamp them out! We must destroy them, They infiltrate each city with their thick dark warning odour. They are invincible, They seem immune to all our herbicidal battering. Long ago in the Russian hills, A Victorian explorer found the regal Hogweed by a marsh, He captured it and brought it home. Botanical creature stirs, seeking revenge. Royal beast did not forget. He came home to London, And made a present of the Hogweed to the Royal Gardens at Kew. Waste no time! They are approaching. Hurry now, we must protect ourselves and find some shelter Strike by night! They are defenceless. They all need the sun to photosensitize their venom. Still they're invincible, Still they're immune to all our herbicidal battering. Fashionable country gentlemen had some cultivated wild gardens, In which they innocently planted the Giant Hogweed throughout the land. Botanical creature stirs, seeking revenge. Royal beast did not forget. Soon they escaped, spreading their seed, Preparing for an onslaught, threatening the human race. Mighty Hogweed is avenged Human bodies soon will know anger Kill them with your Hogweed hairs

On the one hand this thread is appropriate for the Access Issues forum but it will have more visibility on the Climber's Board. If you go to any or all of these meetings, can you keep us apprised of the goings-on? There are a great many of us who would be interested and who dream of the day we can bypass the Sultan-Gold Bar-Start Up boondoggle in something other than zero miles per hour. If ever there was a syzygy of stupidity it would be this trio of towns.

Kind of like this? [Photo by Alex Krewarik]

Piggybacking photos Graybeard Peak from the WNW on May 29 Fisher Creek Valley from below Panther Peak (aka Mesahchie Peak) Fisher Peak from the NW Logan and traverse under Panther Peak (aka Mesahchie Peak)

On Saturday (at around 1:00pm) our tracks were the only ones going up to the pass. We didn't wander and went straight into our traverse to Mesahchie. On return we saw your tracks high on Graybeard then even more tracks (including dog tracks) "wandering around" the area of the pass. We saw your tracks going up the east side of Graybeard and we figured whoever it was was doing a up-and-over loop, which is what you did. Off: You wait 'til you see my shot of Fisher Peak! 10: The estimated number of posts before JoshK chimes in with snide "why in the name of god didn't you use skis?"

Guilty, as suggested. I felt my ascent was not worthy of a TR in and of itself (who wants to see pictures of gray?). However, I do have some good shots of the surrounding valley and mountains, including Graybeard, that I may present on this thread later this week.

Heyyyy! Hoooo! Heyyyy! Hoooo! Heyyyy! Hoooo!

Ah, so those were your tracks all over Graybeard. Perhaps you saw ours on the way out to Katsuk. I've annotated one of your shots showing our traverse and camp. Tom and I are probably in this photo somewhere. (I will remove this picture if you want me to.) Climbing Katsuk solo in near winter whiteout conditions (8 inches of fresh, soft snow on the mountain) on Monday morning was quite enjoyable, especially after spending all day Sunday in the tent. The traverse back to Easy Pass had melted out quite a bit by Monday and was damn near deleterious in two concavities (a smattering of snow clinging to slick heather and slabs!). That upper Fisher Creek valley has got to be one of the most beautiful in the Cascades!

There was a display board at the N. Fork Quinault Trailhead for this expedition. It took them six months to cross from the north to the southwest, going through Low Divide in the process. Now this same crossing can be done in under a week (because there are trails the whole way). And now I know where the name Lawson came from. "As a result of the Press Expedition, many peaks bear the names of prominent newspaper publishers and editors of the late 19th century, including Mt. Meany (named after Edmond Meany, an editor of the Seattle Press), Mt. Dana, Mt. Lawson, Mt. Noyes, Mt. Scott, and the Bailey Range." Source