klenke

I just want to comment on the entry concerning Dubya's setting the all-time record for time spent on vacation: Just what exactly is a vacation for the President of the United States? Sure, he can go to Camp David or his ranch in Texas or even Timbuktu, but, for the most part, I imagine he can undertake the duties of his office (those duties not necessarily being tied to the White House) anywhere at anytime. The man is connected, as they say. So, in short, concerning U.S. President vacation time, there's no such thing. It's not like he goes to a beach on one of the Cook Islands, sips pina coladas, and avoids all work at all costs. Heck, he can do that in the White House.

I scanned the data on the provided link. I didn't see any reference to spray lords Dru and Trask. Seems like those two ought to have their own personal bar graphs. Happy B-day to us, for we are this site.

Maybe it was back in January at my second pub club (Ballard Alehouse?). Four estimable Northwest climbers were seated in a row at the table. It was Paul (Klenke), Bill (TTT), Ray (Cavey), and Fred (Beckey). Never again in the long history of Northwest climbing will such a stellar syzygy [+ Fred] occur.

I agree with Paul K (no, he's not one of my avatars) about the Perry Creek Trail being vibrant (in the orange wavelengths). However, despite the colors, the scene isn't all that photo worthy. Mainly, the weed-like brush is what is turning color the most. Some trees changing color. This was early November last year when I was there. The upper slopes of Stillaguamish would probably be nice and red with the turning heather. I may head up that trail this weekend. I'll be sure to open my eyes to check the scene.

Tod: we did have to go across small parts of the glacier but not really those parts you can see in the photo. We definitely needed our aluminum crampons for the crossings. Most of the lower glacier crevasses are no more than 15 feet deep. You can see the slab at the base of the cracks, making the crevasses seem more like low angle schrunds or snow fissures. There aint much blue ice, that's for sure. The glacier is so thin where we crossed it that you could often hear thunks and bumps of the various blocks as they settled or moved slightly on the slabs. I doubt many of these were due to our weight. The thunks and bumps were disconcerting at times--especially on the return when I stopped right under a big block to put my crampons on. As we were on the NE Ridge, we could often hear a ruckus down on the glacier. It was so noisy, we were sure we'd easily spot the source of the commotion. Yet, as we would discover by squinting, the noise was emanating from very small ice block "avalanches," not some big serac tumbling. God only knows how loud it would have been had a big serac or ice block tumbled down the slabs.

Then the Greeks grew olives but Brutus came an took Olive Oil away. Then the Greeks grew democracy, and that didn't work either.

Here's my entry: Mt. Triumph

Motor Cross? I thought the golf course was bad enough.

Oly, From the desk of a former Mutanteer: there is an equivalency test that you can take to skip the Basic Class and go directly to the Intermediate, which it sounds like you're after (as Erik says). This equivalency test is rigorous. They make you demonstrate a lot of Basic stuff. You could conceivably read up on all that is necessary and "cram for the test." Regarding Cruiser and Constance, those climbs are not often lead by Mounty leaders, so you may wind up exasperated at this. Leaders trend toward proven climbs like Ingalls, the Toof, SEWS, Liberty Bell, etc. The best way to do intermediate climbs of your choosing is to get chummy with a leader who is willing to climb "outside the box", as it were. There are a lot of gumbies in the intermediate class (it should really be called the advanced basic class since a lot of the people in it aren't any good at doing the things demanded of them in the class). However, one can look at the class as a learning experience, and in this way it makes sense. I guess what I'm saying is that there are people who begin the intermediate class who are already 5 levels better than their mates but still have to do everything their mates do (which, when I was in the course, was 2 Intermediate Ice Climbs, 2 Intermediate Rock Climbs, 1 Intermediate climb of your choice, about six rope leads for basic climbs, and a couple other requirements I can't recall at the moment). The basic class is good to meet people--potential climbing partners or otherwise. If you are single, beware of the dating game, as they are more strict about this now than they used to be or need to be . The intermediate class also is good for meeting people. All in all, the Mountaineers can be a good organization or a bad organization. Like any organization that has been around for eons, it will have developed policies that don't fit every person's persona. The rest of my personal opinion of them is mine own. ===Paul

Conjecture: C1: If Will had not clipped either rope strand through his locking biner once he pushed it through his rappel device, then it seems more likely the rope would have stayed connected to (ran through) the rappel anchor. Both rope strands would have come out of his device when he leaned back, thus parting him with the rope. C2: If Will mistakenly only clipped one of the two strands through, then the rope would have gone with him as he fell. When he leaned back in such a way there was, in effect, no anchor since his weight was much greater than the other non-clipped strand of the rope. As he fell, the clipped strand would have gone down with him while the unclipped strand quickly ran through the anchor until out of rope. The friction of the unclipped strand going through the anchor could have pulled on the clipped strand as the distance between him and the anchor grew (double pulley mechanical system). Then, with aerodynamic drag on the rope as he fell, the remainder of the clipped strand could have pulled through his belay device/locking biner until, at some point farther down, the rope fully pulled out. C3: If he had not ran the rope through the anchor correctly but did manage to clip the rope through his locking biner correctly, then it is still conceivable that both strands of rope paid out of the biner/belay device as he fell. However, the simultaneous aero-drag on each strand of the rope would seem to make the rope not pay through but keep it about even. Unless, for example, something (on the wall) caught one strand of the rope for a moment to initiate the pull out. Again, the foregoing is just conjectural food for thought. My commiserations to Will's family and friends.

That's the North Face right now? Bleeeach! Now the peak on the left on the other hand... Hey, Ray, saw your name on the permit sheet (or whatever you call it) in the Marblemount N.P. Ranger Station. Hope it was a-okay for ya whatever you did. Three of us just did the NE Ridge of Triumph.

I think I clued this in to Stefan after he told me about Gee Point: I'm going to say the peak you're talking about is Round Mountain (5,320 ft). Its prominence is about 4,800 ft and the saddle in question is adjacent to the town of Darrington. This saddle (approx. 520 feet) separates the northward flowing Sauk River on east and the westward flowing North Fork Stillaguamish River on the west. If Round Mountain were only 200 feet higher it would be much more famous to prominence afficianados since 5,000+ foot prominence peaks are not that common in the U.S. Am I right, John? Is it Round Mountain?

Holy cow manure! I was just up there on the 12th of September. On the way up to McClellan from Ingalls Creek I was about two drainages east of Crystal Creek and one drainage east of the worst of the fire. I then came down Crystal Creek later. It looks like the worst part of the fire is in the drainage immediately east of the Nightmare Needles. Regarding camp fires and humanity's need to make them: I've never been able to figure this out. Why do people (a lot of my friends included) feel the need to make a fire for the sake of a fire? It's like it's some leftover instinct from the Ice Ages.

klar: no, didn't see the plastic bag. Where would it have been? We were sort of in a hurry as it was about an hour before total darkness. I took the previous photo after I had climbed (on belay) to the top of the footstool. On my tip-toes I could basically get my head at the same height and that was good enough for me. If we had had more time I probably would have given the final cheval moves or whatever it would take more consideration. We descended along the ridge to the east. This ridge turns left (north) then descends steeply to the stream that comes out of that lake and drains into Quartz Creek. Suzy and I fell on our arses many times on the wet ankle brush. Thank god for the green belays. Suzy literally irrupted out of the trees lining a stream at the base of the ridge and fell into the ankle-deep water...splash! (it was the most comic moment of them all). From there, we simply headed east across the many meadows and tree bands until we met the Curry Gap trail just about at dark. Decided to get the headlamps out on the trail when Suzy fell again. What do you think? Maybe one party every other year goes to Goblin Mountain?

Four of us got to the saddle on the extreme left edge of the picture linked to in my last post. It was basically cross-country ridge travel from Curry Gap to where we turned around (that's probably the part you remember). Not hard but difficult and dangerous at times on steep wet September heather. From that saddle it would be easy to get up the ridge toward the glacier by way of ramps and heather sections. But the terrain gets progressively steeper. There's a rock knob to the left of the upper glacier that looked like we could hike between and the glacier but we had no way to be sure. Since we hadn't brought crampons and it was getting late and we were unsure as to whether we could skirt the glacier (it bows out steeply there by that knob), we decided to turn around. Once around the knob, there is apparently a little bit of easy 5th to round the corner to the other side of the mountain. Instead, two of us went over and scrambled to Goblin Mountain. This is a good diversion if you turn around. To get up the final bouldering moves of Goblin, you better have a rope. Its damn exposed on every side. You can use an upper pedestal to get your head as high as the crest of the top rock, but you can't touch it without doing something more difficult. All in all, Goblin's one of the more interesting summit blocks I've seen. Here's a picture of it: Goblin Mountain.

How it looked about a month ago: view from Sloan

I will agree with you, CBS. Mountain identification is 7 parts pattern recognition and 3 parts location recognition. The former takes time to master, repeated viewings being necessary. The latter requires one to take an active interest in the way things are geographically located next to each other. Having a mapbook next to my computer helps. It also helps to have an analytical mind, which I do (much to my detriment at times). Colin, I've noticed, is also very good at name dropping peaks on first sighting. But anyway, back to the speedway...

Speaking of mountain backdrops for racing: About 10 years ago my housemate had a Nintendo street/road racing game that featured Mt. Shuksan "on the horizon" from that standard famous view of it from the northwest. The only thing was that the mountain was backward (reflected) on the screen. Seems like I see accidentally reflected photos of mountains a lot out there. Any serious PNW climber would instantly recognize a backward Shuksan.

Don't believe everything you READ guys. Often, the up-to-the-minute observations of a weather observer are more important than a numerical forecast based on models from earlier in the day. This is especially true here in the PNW. In this regard, Beck may not be incorrect. Corroborating what he is saying with the images obtained here, my guess is that there will be some minor disturbances brushing the area tonight and tomorrow. These will subside by the weekend. A light shower here or there in the foothills or on the west sid of the Cascades and Olympics crest could happen. Never count anything out in the Puget Sound. Blah blah blah blah.....

Interesting. Not written very well but interesting nonetheless. I never knew there were mines in Glacier Basin. By the way, can't you use Microsoft Paint to reduce the resolution, thus the file size to cc.com allowances? This is how it works for my Paint s/w. Example: a 400Kb jpeg usually gets downgraded to about 80Kb, which is well within cc.com's allowances, upon saving as a new jpeg. Granted, my Paint s/w may be older than most. Try it. It might work for you.

The answer to the obscure peak can be found here: From the northwest From the NNW A view of the North Ridge Some views from the summit: Whitehorse & Three Fingers Shuksan Eldorado Baker

Wow, now that is not a pleasant visual for me.

Jay: Necro: I basically never take anyone seriously who directs invectives at the very people they are at odds with. Invectives are the tool of the weak mind. So Necro! Ooops!

Cavey: Bullen --> nope (Bullen is not an easy climb and certainly not one I would take a non-climber on) However, here is a photo of the Bullen area from the summit of the mystery peak: Bullen hiding between Whitehorse & Three Fingers

Been watching a lot of TV lately have we, Scott'TVx?