Norman_Clyde

I'm sure glad you employed asterisks. Otherwise that last joke would have been disgusting.

I don't know if the Westside road is open, but it doesn't really matter open or closed, since the road is washed out at about 2 miles. You'll want to mountain bike it anyway, whether from the gate or the barricade-- won't change your time investment a whole lot. You could also consider an approach from Longmire via the Wonderland Trail, or from Christine Falls. There will be some snow but I'll bet it's very scant in the trees and won't slow you down. That being said, Success Cleaver looks like an absolute suffer-fest to me. I'm more inclined to consider Tahoma Glacier or Sunset Ridge or one of the more aesthetic west/northwest side ascents, maybe in April if the weather holds. I bet a lot of the glacier ascents won't last into summer this year.

It's going to be hard to surpass the accomplishment of your recent first ascent of Hood.

Wouldn't you know, I left for Alpental valley 45 minutes after your post. I punched enough post holes to put a fence all the way to Source Lake. Maybe next time

Where is the link, anyway? I can't find it.

That story was WAY creepy. It's amazing how effectively the web format and true story quality of the webpage drew me in. A story in a book or magazine could never have done that. I found that I was hooked without having had to suspend my disbelief first. Any of you ever read the horror tale "In a dim room" where the protagonist is being pursued by a tiger in a cave? It has a very similar feel to this story.

This is one of the first climbing fatalities in years that I have read first in the media, before I read of it on cc.com. Sorry to hear of it.

How can you be sure you never did?

How does the chute look for skiing potential?

I love being able to look right down from the Brothers summit to tidal waters in Hood Canal less than 20 miles away. Not quite the BC coast range, but pretty cool nonetheless.

I had the exact same band problem with my Nike altimeter watch. Sent it off and got it fixed for $75, took about 3 months, and within another 2 months had broken again. The housing is made of some kind of brittle plastic, the watchband pin holes break. I used it as an alarm until the battery wouldn't light it in the dark any more. Altimeter still works, but pretty difficult for practical use without a band. I'm pretty disgusted at the overpricing of the Casio and Suunto altiwatches. I've been waiting for the price to drop. But $49 for a Timex is low enough to make me suspect it'll be crummy. I may get one of those big bulky carabiner altimeters instead-- except that they have also gone to over $100. For now I'll stick to reading the topo extra carefully, plus memorizing compass headings and landmarks on McClure to Muir while the weather is good.

Whenever I see a board line in the sand at that spot, I think to myself, "That guy must have been truly desperate... but at least he got in a few turns."

I was a big HST fan in high school after reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -- I even went to a so-called lecture he gave at the local college campus. He was disappointing as a speaker, which didn't surprise me much even then (he spilled his drink on himself at one point). Though I enjoyed his writing, even at age seventeen I didn't want to emulate him. HOWEVER... as CBS has pointed out, like so many other writers of fiction or non-fiction, whose troubled lives they could never quite control, the truths in his better written words transcend the imperfections in his life. I'm glad I don't have the problems he had, I imagine he was a very unpleasant person to live with, but I'm thankful for what he has shared with the world. Regarding death by suicide: Most mental health professionals consider depression and suicidality to be a chronic disease, with remissions and relapses. Maybe it finally got him after he successfully fought it off for 50 or more years. Self-medicating with alcohol and illicit drugs is a bad idea only because it has toxic side effects and usually does not work. The impulse to do something to spare oneself pain is not intrinsically evil, though it may have evil consequences. (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas's epigraph, by Samuel Johnson, is "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.") One more thing: No one has yet said it better. HST, here's to you.

So, did your toe pieces bust? I'm curious because mine are currently acting up, won't open properly (they're not for sale, but you probably wouldn't want to buy them anyway).

Back to the original subject... A book called Death in Yellowstone (a mighty good read, including not only the more high profile grizzly devourings, but also a middle aged couple who backed their car over the edge of Yellowstone Canyon near the falls) opens with an anecdote of a guy wading into a 200 degree pool to "rescue" his dog. He was witnessed walking into the pool, gradually reaching full submersion. He changed his mind before reaching his dog and waded back to shore, then died about 30 seconds later. Witness accounts do not describe him complaining of any pain. I'm not sure what lesson this provides regarding the cooking of lobsters. But I thought inquiring minds would want to know.

Paid for the COBRA (medical insurance) so he wouldn't have been diverted to the shitty welfare hospital. Whatever hospital he went to tried to divert the ambulance, but without success. Diversion of incoming ambulances is a political issue. Insurance, or lack thereof, is often the unspoken subtext. The implications of the decision can be large, even when injuries are not life threatening, as Mike discovered. People have ended up with severe gaping wounds-- bedsores, basically-- from unremitting pressure of only a few hours' duration from a backboard on bony prominences. Five hours on a backboard is pretty inexcusable, because at that point the board has a very real potential to cause harm. I've heard that Las Vegas sucks as a place to practice medicine, because the population is so sue-happy. This leads to the hospitals being short of docs, especially trauma docs. Understandably, anyplace with a shortage of trauma care docs is also a bad place to get hurt. Dru: What they said.

Jim Nelson's book has the bearings and GPS readings. I copied this page and keep it in a chest pocket. Now I just have to make sure it doesn't blow away if I ever have to take it out.

That west wind has pushed a few unfortunates onto the Paradise Glaciers, with tragic results. Muir Snowfield is probably the one place in Washington where I find myself wanting a GPS. I went up there today with just a compass, but today's weather being what it was, I decided that compass bearings would be adequate. Only a few wands remain, all looking a little forlorn, none in a place to help with navigation. There is so little snow between the top of Pan Point and McClure Rock that I had to take the skis off several times. I'm not ultra-familiar with the path, but the spotty conditions make the topography a little more confusing. Many boot tracks exist but there is no obvious best path. I stopped about 400 yards short of the Muir huts when I could no longer skin up the water ice. Ironically, the hard alpine ice turned out to be better skiing than the variable wind crust. (At least the ice is predictable.) Pan Point probably has only one or two skiable days left, until (unless?) we get more snow.

Alas, I'm at work all day and night tomorrow. I went to Muir today, sans partner. Bluebird weather. Hope you can get out and enjoy it.

I was giving Royal Basin some serious thought today but went to Muir instead. Regarding difficulty, don't believe the Class 2 rating. Not more than 3, but people have fallen to their deaths attempting the NE face (or so the ranger told me). Avalanche danger would usually be a concern in the winter. Surprise Basin (just beneath the NE face) is a bit of a terrain trap, catching slides from Fricaba as well. However... the danger seems unlikely to be too high at this time of year. I'd join you but I've used up my days off, alas.

I'm going up to Alpental Valley, or maybe to Hwy 20 to run up some trail. Anybody wanna come? RSVP by 9:30 am. Time's up. I'm off to Granite Mountain. Tomorrow, off to Muir, but only if somebody can get free on a weekday to join me. Any takers?

Eldora is closest to Boulder. Mary Jane has a lot of steep runs, all trees as I recall,is not too far into the mts. on I-70 and probably a little cheaper than Vail, etc. but I bet still a load of cash. Arapahoe Basin maybe. But I haven't skied CO since the 80s so what do I know?

Jay, realism is admitting that the Iraq war was waged over WMD which did not exist. Realism is dumping the talk about freedom, which was never the cause for war until the primary cause was shown to be false. Realism is admitting that the war has proven to be a costly mistake that has destabilized the region further, drains the US economy in a way that makes Osama Bin Laden praise Allah, and has no end in sight because the Bush administration is congenitally incapable of realism.

Bush likes to say that he'll let history judge his presidency. History will judge whether the American people were foolish to elect W. I expect the historical record will be abundantly clear within 20 years, or probably 10. I'm willing to admit I am not always on the correct side. For instance, in 1990 I did not favor the first gulf war, but from this vantage point in history it looks like not only the correct action, but also an admirably restrained exercise of power. (Most of you have probably seen GHW Bush's quotes about why he didn't invade Iraq due to there being "No exit strategy".) I believe that almost any political platform contains a measure of cognitive dissonance. But the Bush policies and rhetoric are so far divorced from the facts that, IMO, it takes an unusually high degree of willful ignorance of the facts to support them; either that, or an extremely simplistic view of world affairs, human nature, etc. A big problem we human beings have is that, like pygmy chimpanzees (as opposed to bonobos, who smooth over their differences with lots of free sex), we have a deep need to follow a leader. Most of us feel a lot less anxious when we don't have to think for ourselves, but can simply do what we're told. One of the very hardest things about behaving in a civilized fashion-- indeed, for me the very definition of being civilized-- is to make oneself think about difficult and painful subjects, to avoid comfortable solutions, in favor of the use of reason. One way I'd like to see this done is to hear an administration spokesperson, say Alberto Gonzales, state for the record: "We renounce torture in all forms. We realize that by doing so, we may give up a small tactical advantage to terrorists. However, we do not feel that this small advantage could ever be justified, in the face of the obvious loss of our moral leadership in the area of human rights." This area of "controversy" IMO should be utterly cut and dried. If we stoop to torture tactics, we become the thing we despise. Yet 56 million Americans have signed on in support of U.S. sponsored torture, paradoxically in the name of "freedom" or "moral values", thereby rendering those terms relatively meaningless, except as signposts of hypocrisy. The temptation to fall back toward religious conviction is extreme, especially when people feel threatened. It's like water flowing downhill. It takes powerful leadership, Abraham Lincolnesque leadership, to carry an entire nation along the difficult path to a truly civilized solution in such threatening times. Kerry showed nothing like that kind of leadership, and so was intensely disappointing, because IMO it wouldn't have taken much to show Bush for the fool he is. Bush and the Republicans are appealing to the inner chimpanzee in all of us. It is to this country's shame that he has succeeded in any measure at all. I do not wish to single out the America of 2004 as uniquely blind. For example, look at the entire European continent in 1914, not only in the weeks leading up to World War I, but in the early months and even years of the war. Nations justified war on the basis of civilized principle, but also (more frighteningly) as a crucible in which the moral courage of a nation's youth would be forged. It took years for these countries to admit the awful mistake they had made-- years during which hundreds of thousands more died, so that their brothers killed before them "would not have died in vain". Even as thousands more were killed and maimed over mere yards of territory, it was psychologically EASIER for each nation involved to line up more boys for slaughter than it was to admit the magnitude of their error and figure out the least costly "exit strategy".

The usual location of the Ipsut Creek washout is not far from road end anyway. If you already plan to approach the high country from Ipsut, the washout will add only a mile or two of walking on a flat road.