Norman_Clyde

I was the one climbing in boots, but I actually led every pitch since Brad's not into leading. There were a few spots where better friction would have been handy, but I never felt the need to get the rock shoes out of my pack. Instead I carried rock shoes, picket, and axe to the summit for no good reason (except to use the picket to free up the rope stuck in a crack). On Saturday we were tempted to hike up to the shoulder of the E. ridge to camp on rock with nice views, mainly because there were no decent bivy spots on bare ground down below. But I decided not to explore that far, since none of the rock ribs below had any decent flat spots either. I noticed during the climb that the E. shoulder is broad but not flat, so it's probably not worth it to climb so high just for a scenic view from camp. [ 07-23-2002, 10:22 PM: Message edited by: Norman Clyde ]

That was me and Brad under the tarp. We actually put it up for shade in the afternoon. We should have taken it down at sunset, because it flapped noisily all night. Our spot was only semi-exposed, since we were behind a hump of snow that offered some protection. I left my big pack at camp, and a marmot chewed away part of the hip belt while we were on the summit. He was still casually hanging around when we got back, completely unintimidated by human beings. Maybe on summer weekends the people outnumber the marmots up there.

Some may prefer the alpine start, to give you solitude on the ascent. I've been honing my discipline and improving my skills at being part of the last party on the route, to give me solitude on the way down.

My buddy Brad and I climbed it yesterday. Boston Basin was as populated as I'd ever want to see it. Some of you may not agree, but I myself am glad that there's a permit system for this place, otherwise the magic of the place would diminish. The snowbridge to the gully is down to about a foot wide at its apex, as of Sunday. There's hardly room to plant boots and an axe on it at the same time-- actually, since it overhangs a little, our axes poked through to the other side a couple of times. Snow was very soft, but the boot tracks are well packed and solid. Some parties were setting up belays in the gully, since there's no break in the exposure down to the bergschrund, but it would depend on your comfort level. The pair we met at the summit, Gordy and Gus (Lowell, would that be your brother Gordy?) had come up the gully in footwear much closer to rock shoes than mountaineering boots-- slick rubber soles and all. I myself preferred the opposite approach on this mountain, i.e. to climb the rock in mountaineering boots. I unintentionally carried a picket to the summit, and felt silly for not leaving unnecessary gear at the gully top-- but the picket became unexpectedly useful, when it was the only item that could free our stuck rope after a loop slipped down a crack at one belay station. One more thing worth mentioning: there are two big seracs just East of the snow finger which are likely to calve in the next month or so, and when they do, the debris will probably carry all the way to the high camp. Brad and I were napping in the afternoon on Saturday when we heard the rapid approach of a falling object-- it was a very small ice block that flew down the main Eastern gully next to us, but stopped just short of the tents below. We couldn't figure where it had come from until a few hours later, when a small snowfield above and East of the glacier let some more blocks loose. We watched these pick up speed, headed right for us, until they mercifully followed the fall line just to our right and shattered impressively on a rock rib. The seracs are poised to fall in the very same direction. If you camp below the glacier, better to be on the Western side, I would say. [ 07-22-2002, 06:21 PM: Message edited by: Norman Clyde ]

You have piqued my morbid curiosity. How and where did this climber get hurt? "Entering" the chimneys-- would that be the crux of the climbing trail, so called "fat man's misery"? Very unfortunate, whatever the circumstances.

I was in Boston Basin all weekend, and I saw parties on the Quien Sabe glacier at all hours on both days. Weather was certainly not a limiting factor, unless you count the hazard of heat exhaustion. The moon was bright enough to obviate any need for headlamps. I talked to a couple of the groups going up, but didn't get their names-- they could be cc.comers for all I know.

I talked with one of the rangers when I was up there this weekend, and though I didn't ask him this question, I seem to remember his implying that the rangers were in fact working on it. His specific statement had to do with how the road had opened earlier than expected, so maybe I am just jumping to conclusions. At any rate, there were obvious changes to the path between Saturday morning and Sunday night this weekend, so someone is working pretty hard at it.

You'd have to perform a very long traverse across Nooksack Tower and the entire Price Glacier to climb the N. Face via Nooksack Glacier. Nooksack Glacier is on the other side. Judging from the postings, it looks like Keith and I are the only ones all season who bagged this route due to conditions, because we were unlucky enough to encounter 70 degree temperatures and wet snow slides at our late starting hour. Next time I plan to set out from Seattle before midnight for sure.

You guys passed the mountaineer's true test, which is to arrive home after an epic like that and to decide, after a good night's sleep, that it was a great climb after all. Way to go.

They say it's a couple of single rope rappels off the East side of the summit to a #rd class ledge system, which connects with the SE ridge and gives access to a snow gully back to the basin. But when I did it we downclimbed the W. Ridge, which was just as fun as climbing up.

All those TRs about the easy bushwack suckered me too, except by now I know not to take any Cascade bushwack approach for granted-- unless I take for granted that I will be scratched up in a thicket of thorn bushes. I don't know what species of bush we fought through in the valley-- the Devil's Club was higher up, on the far slope-- but the experience has made for all sorts of comments this week referring to my scratched hands: "Are you a gardener?" "Did you get in a fight with your cat?" etc. I guess I'm glad we decided not to posthole up the White Salmon and down again in the heat of the day.

Cool! I'd love to see the photos if you don't mind sending a few.

Check your PM's.

Hooray! My axe was lost, but now is found! Thanks again, Rusty, and thanks to gapertimmy et. al. for putting this page up.

Left Seattle 12:30 am June 23 with Keith Schultz to climb Shuksan N. Face. We had never been to this part of the mountain, but I felt well armed with info from the recent TR's. We did not summit, due to two primary factors: we left too late for a dawn start, and we did not stay high enough at the end of the cat track, descending instead into bushwhack purgatory where we consumed one and a half to two hours we could have avoided wasting had we stayed high up. Left the car at 3:30 AM. There was one other car at the gate. Weather was warm: the bulletin board at Glacier ranger station said freezing level was 11,000 feet. Easy walk to the end of the cat track, at which point it looked like a straight traverse was too high, and would expose us to risk from slides ahead. This would not have been the case. Anyone else trying this approach in the dark, remember: do not descend early, not even a little, after leaving the cat track. Stay on snow slopes (at least at this time of year) and you will eventually arrive at a gentle chute which brings you down to the valley. The place we descended brought us to an impasse between two creek waterfalls, necessitating a rappel as well as more bushwacking on the valley's East side. But routefinding was not problematic, at least, and by 8:30 AM we were at the col beneath the N. Face. The views were glorious. A party of 3 or 4 was topping out on the shoulder. Light wisps of cloud were forming crazy spirals as they blew past the summit. It was too warm at this hour even to be comfortable in a light jacket. We had some apprehension at the risk posed by our late start, and were just wondering what to do when a large slide came across the hanging glacier, fueled by some source high above, and cascaded in a huge arc off the 300 foot cliff at the glacier tongue. The area of exposure from this source is very small, but if it hit you there you would be done for. This made up our minds for us. It was difficult to turn away from this climb-- what a grand, glorious setting it is!-- but just to tour that side of the mountain is a pleasing alpine experience. We were not treated to any icefalls off the Hanging Glacier, but below the White Salmon ice cliff on our path we found big blocks of hard blue glacer ice, fallen almost to the valley floor. There were no visible descent tracks down the White Salmon, but tracks on Winnie's Slide suggested a few parties have now taken Fisher Chimneys. Hats off to the party ahead of us, who must have had a fine day of it. Joekania and Terry, if you all summited on Saturday, hats off to you as well.

Very cool. I have contemplated a one day loop up the Dose trail, right turn to Constance Pass, down toward Home Lake, then over the saddle S. of Warrior, up to Crystal and down Avalanche canyon to the road ( I know, long day, thinking of this in later season when the snow is firm and fast). I had wondered what the pass S. of Warrior was like, and now I know! Thanks.

The Northeastern Olympics have a couple of nice trails that aren't too steep-- until the road washed out, the Dosewallips went about 12 miles up without gaining too much altitude. I have run-walked up it to reach Mt Deception, and it's fairly gentle, wide enough, well maintained. Of course this is probably not true this year. Royal Basin is also good although it rises a little more as I recall-- only about 6 miles to the basin from the parking lot. I have put these trails on the back burner for solo runs because, though some of you may laugh at this, I think that running obliviously through miles of Olympic woods makes me prime cougar fodder. If anyone wants to get up really early to go for one of these on a weekend, I'm game-- send me a pm.

I am looking for a partner for the 23rd of June, which I hope to spend climbing something worthwhile in a one day push. Let me know if you're up for it.

What with N. Face Shuksan and N. Ridge Baker, you've hit some nice climbs in the northern part of the state recently. Nice work!

quote: There is no tidy answer to your question. quote: Exactly, which is what keeps the discussion going for 3 pages (that and some chest-beating one-upmanship).

Hey, I'm a CC grad from '84. How many others on this page?

There were no crevasses to be seen, none at all, just a hint of a bergschrund about 2 feet across and well filled with snow. The schrund was visible below the West Peak area, otherwise might as well have been one big snowfield. The slope was probably just above 45 degrees in two places, first E. of Burgundy Spire and second just below the summit col. If you're thinking of taking your dad up there, he should be fine if he's done any skiing and been on this kind of slope. But I would look for a similar climb with a less punishing approach-- or consider coming up Silver Star Creek, which is longer but more gentle (though I don't know if it has a trail).

There was no hard ice, but the base layer was sometimes too firm for easy step kicking. The top layer kept building up on Joe's crampons, but not on mine. We did not need them for most of the descent.

Climbed Silver Star mtn. this Sunday with Joe De Peter and Mike Dawson. Left Seattle about 6:15 am, got to the shoulder past the WA pass hairpin about 9:45. The cloud layer was low, and although Burgundy Col could be seen, the spires and Silver Star were mostly in the clouds. The stream crossing was a little tricky-- I had decided not to bring poles on this trip, and had cause to regret this immediately. There was only one decent log, but it had a few big branches sticking straight up from it, so we took our boots off and waded. Near the far bank, when the depth got to mid-thigh, I came as close as I ever have to taking the full plunge during a crossing. Only after getting to the far bank did I remember that my digital camera was around my neck, and would have been a total loss had I fallen in. The approach to the col, although scenic, qualifies as a punishing slog in my book. We had two ropes and a decent rack, hoping to climb Burgundy as well as Silver Star, and all of us felt the weight. Mike hauled up his alpine touring skis also. The weather worsened as we ascended. By the flat bench at 6500 feet, it was snowing steadily and windier. I was a ways ahead of Mike and Joe, and went straight up instead of rightward at the bench, which made for some difficult traversing up high to gain the right gully. There was 4 to 6 inches of new powder, which adhered pretty well to the wet base layer. By the time I reached the col, it was snowing hard and whiting out from time to time. I waited for Mike and Joe, but they did not appear-- as it turns out, they could not see me from the bottom of the gully, and decided to make camp on the bench, instead of the col as per our original plan. I had a nice opportunity to watch the N face of Burgundy become plastered with rime ice. When this became monotonous, I glissaded down and found my partners. There were three other parties at the bench by then.. Late in the day the clouds lifted somewhat, and we had a better view. We lazed about in the AM and were the last party to get going. Reached the col about 9:30, and began traversing beneath Burgundy,where the sun finally greeted us. Two minutes later, the wet snow slides began. We paused briefly at this, and descended to the basin bottom which seemed a little safer. Once over the next rise, the angle was lower and the slides didn't go as far (except for the place where a Volkswagen-sized block had fallen from Chianti Spire, and dug its own roadway across the glacier-- apparently several days earlier). Scrambled to the summit by 1:30 pm. Fine views all around. Mike's skis made themselves worth the haul at this point. It was truly ideal spring conditions, with 4 inches of fairly light powder, a bottom layer firm but not icy. The East faces of the spires were actually fairly clean by this time, but probably not quite ready for rock shoes-- maybe in a week if it doesn't snow any more. The trip down the trail was possibly more unpleasant than the ascent, except the stream crossing: one of the parties had chopped the branches from the big log, which was now a cruise. I stuffed the camera way into my pack anyway. In summary, this is a fine alpine ascent with great views, though a less than pleasant approach. The spires have great appeal but need a little more time to be ready this season. I'll post photos once I figure out how to do that directly from my files.

you might try Second Ascent in Ballard. They have a pretty good selection.