Moonbeam

Glad you got out of there okay and that our whiskey-induced beta worked out for you. I ended up signing you in to the Hike Haus register since the Forest Service was trying to account for everyone. At one point, you two "experienced Seattle Climbers" were the only non-Holden employees left. Since people like pictures, here are a few of the route on Aug. 14th 2004

Check out "Abseiling in Safety" http://www.planetmountain.com/English/Lab/techniques/abseiling/index.html I've used it in a few tenuous situations and it works well.

I faced the same dilemma two weekends ago and gained the root system of the tree bridge from the right side. I shimmied along the two small and submerged trees, leaned forward and grabbed onto roots/devils club and summitted the root system from there. Definitely the crux of the climb In hindsight, crampons would have made it "easier" to gain the root system from the log jutting out of the river bank. And less time consuming.

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe two were wearing tele gear and two on rando gear

I took a picture of Andrew, Martin and the other two in the party as they were leaving the parking lot at about 10am Friday morning. It wasn't until Andrew handed me his camera that I recognized him and I embarrassed the hell out of him by calling him famous. He replied that the others he was with were more worthy than him. As we ascended Eldorado, we referred to them as the CDT - Cascade Dream Team. They were noticeably coy about thier intentions at the trailhead -- would only commit to doing something around Forbidden. They had the same incredible weather we did - the conditions just couldn't have been better for the N. Cascades. Congrats to them all.

I'm thinking of skiing the Nisqually this weekend. Have it done it before from Camp Muir down to the bridge and it was a great ski. From your account, it sounds like it should be in great shape. Thanks for thie info Mike.