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...

Went walking with the dogs and wife yesterday. To cool off we let the dogs play in a local lake, lots of cars parked at the boat launch, all needed this wonderful "Discovery Pass" to park there. Noticed a parking enforcement officer (Parks Department) ticketing cars so I engaged into conversation with him. I was able to confirm the following: 1) Yes he was writing tickets for NOT having the license plate number written on the pass 2) Yes he was writing tickets if the pass was curled up and he could not read the license number 3) Yes he was writing tickets for not having a pass 4) Yes he was making rounds at the boat ramp very 15 minutes 5) Yes he was hired part time JUST TO WRITE TICKETS AT ONE PARK. So I asked him why write tickets for a curled pass. (the heat was doing this to a lot of passes) Well he had a training session and they were enforcing a NO TOLERANCE policy. If the license plate info was hidden in anyway a ticket was to be issued. The person can send a copy of the pass in and have the ticket dismissed. I walked away pretty much disgusted that we as a community have let this happen to us. FYI - oh and he was doing a bang up job. By my count there were 12 tickets on windshields...figured he earned his pay. Not a jobs program LOL

You do if there is a map on top of it.

Wrong, at least at Beacon... There is no 'non-essential state staff' in the WSP - they've been running understaffed relative to their responsibilities for a decade. What employment numbers are you referring to? Staff levels going back 16 years: 2009, 662 employees 2007, 675 employees 2005, 666 employees 2003, 640 employees 2001, 616 employees 1999, 504 employees 1997, 473 employees 1995, 559 employees A decade, you mean when they went on a hiring binge of 100 people? Cry me a river that some state worker actually has to fill in a second position as collateral duty, welcome to the real world. The WSP is still staffed at an ALL TIME high. They laid hardly anyone off during the recession one of the reasons they are in this fix, they keep hoping the tax base comes back, its not. The WSP does no trail maintenance at Si, I don't even think they empty trash and the crappers. No reason from this fee. Democracy, my right to protest, I'm a big boy, if they catch me I can handle the punishment. I've read the auditor's report, lots left wanting in this department. I don't mind paying entrance fees for National or State Parks, but trail head fees, are not justified. http://www.sao.wa.gov/auditreports/auditreportfiles/ar1000351.pdf

E-Rock, in a state that doesn't even require SSN's to get driver's licenses you think they'll break a window to write a VIN number down? Daft I tell ya. Keep drinking the Liberal Taxaholic coolaid... And as bad as my sweaty seats smell, it'll take more then a cup of urine.

After what they break the window? Right. Read the posts, many years no fine.

Typical response from an unimaginative Liberal Progressive. Give us money or we block access. Why block access other then to extort funds out of the tax payers. There is nothing wrong with leaving access open, just stop the service, EXCEPT for the Government. Once people see how little they received by these bloated agencies they might actually demand reform. Remove the trash cans, hang a sign on the toilets, bolt the doors shut. Done with it. No, the state government wants to make a statement. Don't pay more taxes or we'll CLOSE the trail. Typical 3 year old behavior. Mailbox Peak, prefect example. No trash can, no toilet and no fee. I have yet to notice wildcat crap nor trash at the trailhead. Green Mountain trailhead, same thing. Mount Bessemer, same thing. How about the Cable trailhead up Tiger? Same thing - no trash no wild cat crap no fee. Go to just about any CO 14'er trailhead you will be hard pressed to find a toilet or trash can. Never seen anything other then the occasional wrapper at the trail head.

Volunteers do 95% of the work on these trails anyhow. I've done a bit of trail work, typically the park service is there to manage the volunteers not do the trail maintenance. So transfer more responsibility to the dedicated volunteers, lay off non-essential state staff. Heck I would sign up to haul the trash out of the Little Si trail head every other day. Or maybe ask a local to do it for a fraction of what it costs the state to send someone out there. Unlike a business the state has never lifted a finger to figure out how to do more with less, it has been all about protecting budgets. I've seen agencies spend money at the end of the year just to justify getting the same amount in their budget the next year. I looked at the pay scale posted earlier of the 600+ park workers, Rangers in WA make a good living wage, but they have like 5-6 support people for every ranger. Get real, the service has a bloated staff and budget. Add the time and $$$ they they now have to spend to equip, staff to enforce these fee systems, plus combat and prosecute the unaware neophytes and fee protesters... I bet if they stopped maintaining facilities at the trail heads things would not be any worse then they are now, they would certainly smell better getting rid of those toilets. Is it that hard to leave your trash in your pack or car till you can throw it away at home? NO... Is it that hard to pick up someone's trash, NO... Is it that bad to take a crap in the woods? NO... Once again the question remains, why can't WA figure out why other states with WAY more trails to maintain don't have a fee system?

Awesome skiing? We were out there a few years back and kept getting dumped on, made for fun skiing but ruined plans to climb the West Rib, ended up doing the West butt instead with a party that wanted to do the Cassin Ridge (also snowed out). Cool videos...

I'm curious as to how you think this is a jobs program? The main agency "benefiting" from this pass (parks) has already had to layoff staff due to projected decreased revenue. Um, clogging up the courts with bogus cases. Mr. Ticket writer checking all the cars. All the extra trips to trailheads every day doing nothing productive. Printing the passes, advertizing the passes, placing posts and signs at all the trail heads. Sounds a lot like a jobs program to me... How about WA take a fact finding mission to CO and see how they fund trailheads for free? Oh, wait that would mean not installing toilets and trash cans at every trailhead and making do with less state workers and less tax dollars.

I wonder about the person who previously owned the plates you're using. Wouldn't the authorities be chasing them now? Wasting resources that could be otherwise spent? If so, would you care? Don't care, don't loose sleep over it. Figuring I go to that parking lot twice a month they may get familiar with my car. I'll have to mix it up some. At least up in Squamish you can pay at a machine. You don't have to drive around an unfamiliar town looking for a place that sells passes. But I still wouldn't pay.