mr.radon

Sometimes RuMR you are the one that needs to be on a leash.

Awesome summit. I highly suggest a summit over night. We did a bivy at 13.5K during a meteor shower, one of life's highlights for me.

Got my camera back. Its great America still has lots of trustful and honest people. I wasn't able to pick it up before I left for a two week vacation. Called as soon as I got in and was able to pick up the camera that day! Awesome

I'm back in town, call me please, PM sent. Thanks.

To the party through hiking the Enchantments that picked up my Pentax K10D camera ------- Yeah I know I left it on the rock at the top of Assgaurd pass. I did haul my arse back up 750' as fast as I could but was told you guys had already picked it up. A fellow hiker who talked with you told me to post on CC.com to get in touch with you. There were through hiking in the opposite direction. Given the description given by the people who said you picked it up we passed you. i left a note at the trailhead you exited. Contact me as to how i can get it back. THANKS! J-Dog, keep an eye on this thread for me.

To the party through hiking the Enchantments that picked up my Pentax K10D camera ------- Yeah I know I left it on the rock at the top of Assgaurd pass. I did haul my arse back up 750' as fast as I could but was told you guys had already picked it up. A fellow hiker who talked with you told me to post on CC.com to get in touch with you. There were through hiking in the opposite direction. Given the description given by the people who said you picked it up we passed you. i left a note at the trailhead you exited. Contact me as to how i can get it back. THANKS! J-Dog, keep an eye on this thread for me.

Mark not to mention the inherent unfairness that the West "left" coast is the only NF that needs this dumb pass. How does CO maintain all those trailheads and camp grounds without a fee? Wait, thats right the volunteers. Nope, won;t find trash cans at CO trailheads, wait didn't I arrive in a car that can carry my trash out? How about the need for crappers, nope don't need those either. not to mention most trail maintenance is actually done by volunteers. Finally, wait, the big LUMER companies can make a profit off using the forest, but lonely old me has to pay a fee? I guess you are sold on the cry me a river by the government while they blow huge amounts of money to provide college educations (in state status) to illegal immigrants. keep drinking the cool aide. I don't mind if they cut the $$$ spent on the trailheads 95%, let volunteers do the upkeep. Most to the NF money collected is now spent on enforcement.

No sign problem solved...

Path of least resistance....my partner and I had a few moments to figure it out about every 20 minutes. We did it in late summer, not fun. (rock fall) However, you almost can't go wrong up there unless you end up in fog. Good visibility and you'll see where to go. Traveling on snow will go much faster then following the rock bands, we found the rock is crap up there.

Does this help? Note we didn't go to Success Point but dove off to the right again avoiding the false peak.

If you want to know what they look like: Jamie D. Spain, 39: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000244941961 Dawn Marie Gale, 44: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000660143214&sk=wa

Buckaroo is spot on. We dove far right before the cliff band and didn't hit Point Success, but further to the right.

Trip: Mount Olympus - West Peak - Crystal Pass, East Face Date: 8/19/2011 Trip Report: Mount Olympus - West Peak (will post pictures later) Well it’s been 13 years since I last summited this peak and about 6 years since I last tried. (climbing partner threw in the towel at Elk Lake) The first summit I was still newbie to the PNW, I wore my mountaineering boots for the approach, I didn't bring approach shoes. By the time we got back to the car I could not wait to pull my sore feet out of those heavy things. But we made the summit! So Matt and I left work Thursday the 18th, drove to the Hoh Ranger station. From the Hood Canal bridge to the Hoh we passed over a dozen cops. We commando camped at the Ranger station. 8-19-2011 Woke early, move the car, packed for the trip, ate, registered, left at 9AM. Made great time to the Olympic Ranger Station, averaged 3.7mph. Ate lunch, rested a bit. And continued to Elk Lake. We took another short break at Elk Lake to pump water and watch the ducks feed on water bugs. Off to Glacier Meadows. The weather was a bit warmer and humid, so lots of sweat got us to the land slide. We descended the cable ladder the rangers installed, scrambled up and were happy to find Glacier Meadows just a few minutes away. We found a few spots still covered with snow, but most were dry. Dropped the packs and rested for a few. Arrived around 4:45PM. Made dinner, talked with a guy who hiked to the Blue Glacier. 8-20-2011 Woke around 3AM. Made coffee and something to eat. Left camp at 4:20 for the summit. Hiked over a few snow fields, made the lateral moraine. Dropped onto the Blue Glacier, roped up. Slapped Al strap on crampons to our trail runners and headed across the glacier. First good view of West Peak was awesome. Decided to round the rocks to access the Snow Dome. At the top of the Snow Dome the trail was obvious. Headed to Crystal Pass, and rounded the back side of the false peak. A short steep section brought us to the false peak summit, down a steep scree gully to the East Peak/False Peak shoulder. Dropped one pack, grabbed the rock gear and ascended the steep snow to the start of the East Face rock pitch. The snow bridge to the rocks was slightly exposed, managed to get onto the rocks and removed the crampons. Two short 30M pitches placed us a few feet from the summit. Enjoyed the Blue Bird day! 10:15 we topped out and pulled out the beer we hauled up. Made ourselves comfortable, spent over an hour enjoying the views and forgetting about work. A short 30m rap off the West side to a horrible gully put us back onto snow. Strapped on the crampons and repacked for the hike out. Up the false summit gully was a lot easier than heading down it. Crossed the Snow Dome, glissaded down the face, saw a few people out day hiking the Snow Dome. Took a short cut on the Snow Dome descent, cut off a section by boot skiing the steep gullies between the rock bands. Had to jump to avoid a few crevasses. We didn't bother to rope up as the trail was pretty well defined and all the crevasses were more than obvious. Half way across the Blue Glacier we ran into a couple (1PM) heading across for the summit! We hit the Lateral Moraine (loose scree slope) and made it to Glacier Meadows. Flopped down on the bivy around 2:30PM, ate and pumped water. Packed up and left camp at 4:30PM. The cable ladder was much easier to go up then down. We didn't even bother to stop at Elk Lake for a swim. Hiked to Olympic Camp and spent the night there. Dropped our packs at 7:30. Once again made a good dinner and reflected on the great day we had. 8-21-2011 Next morning we woke well after sunrise. Started hiking out at 9AM. Made the car at 12:05. So car to car in 51 hours. Felt great considering I have a third of my back fused. One thing I did note was that the bolts holding the rods to my L2 and L1 vertebrae rubbed the muscles sore where the waist belt held the pack to my back. By far this is the longest hike I've done with weight and the rods in my back. Feels great to be able to walk. Super happy my climbing partner didn't poop out on me. Gear Notes: No boots, trail runner shoes with Al crampons Approach Notes: Trail runners, lots of water.

Runnled out, lots of rocks and dirty dust. Skiing was okay, last weekend it was much much better. Still great skiing for Aug.

Trip: Mount Rainier National Park - Paradise - Muir - Nisqually Chute - Paradise Date: 8/15/2011 Trip Report: Had a great day today. Woke up early to get out to Mount Rainier National Park to ski the Nisqually Chute. GPS Data Packed up the car: Drove to the Nisqually park entrance, headed to Longmire then the windy road to Paradise. Awesome drive, almost no traffic...enough said. The windy road to Paradise was a dream, I need to figure out how to keep the skis from banging into the shoulder on those hard right turns. Once at Paradise I pulled out the skis, had a few weird looks. Suited up and made it to Camp Muir in 3 hours flat (in tennis shoes too). More weird looks from the climbers with boots, ice axe and crampones on as I cruised past them in tennis shoes. Yes I got wet feet... My Alpine Touring skis were in the shop so I grabbed one of my good downhill ski/boots and hauled them up. At Muir I shared a couple of beers (see the others chill'in in the background) with the Mount Rainier Climbing Ranger. It was my friend's last day this year at the park as a Ranger, he's heading to some 'stan country to do "hard core" climbing. Hope he doesn't get kidnapped. I met him on Denali in 2002, we made the summit of Denali in a horrible storm, awesome climber. He was down below so I left the "on duty" Climbing Ranger the beers. After about an hour nap I got my 5,000' mid AUGUST ski descent, skiing the Nisqually Chute Was able to get within 250' of the lower parking lot. Its been a super cool summer and a heavy snow pack=SNOW EVERWHERE! Walking back to the car I saw another Z06 in the parking lot! I brewed up a cup of coffee with a portable stove behind the vette while I waited for the snow to dry on the gear. More weird looks and a few questions from people walking by like, "Is that really your car?", "Are you really going to put skis in that thing?", "Are you watching the car for the owner?" I packed up the car, finished the cup of joe and headed out. Well who pulls behind me? The Z06. He followed me for about an hour, till I pulled off to go North and home. The rest of the trip went great. Got about 9mpg driving to the park, 30.4 driving home.... Gear Notes: Downhill skis...wish I had my AT gear... Approach Notes: Tennis shoes...