Bug

Hike to Lolo peak. Stay on the ridge or close to it and head south.

"The trip down was uneventful. My partners refused to let me jump in a crevasse for practice, and we all came home safely." Glad to hear you are still alive and that no one was injured.

In 93 I was sleeping at Thumb Rock on Liberty Ridge with a friend and two other parties. A huge chunk of the serac above the Willis Wall peeled off and scraped the wall clean down to our tracks across the Carbon. I slept through it. Everybody else was sure we were all about to die. The scale of the avalanche was difficult to comprehend.

Fun stuff. Thanks for posting.

I went to Bernard Clark's estate sale a few years ago. Got some ice screws, biners, pitons and other stuff from the 50's.

Nice! The climbing sounded good too.

Nice troll. It will cost more to put the new hardware up than it will to take it down. I feel pretty nuetral about this whole bolt-chopping thing at Index but it seems clear to me that the anchors being chopped are being selected carefully. That does not mean it is totally "OK" but to blast away with pure rhetoric makes the blaster look uninformed.

Yes, that was me (Montanan). I still like my lasik. Especially after Sun AM in blowing fog, snow, rain, sweat, and glissading spray. I saw your tracks over to main Daniel. Nice job!

Look at his first photo. It would be a cruise if the snow is firm. Have to leave the trailhead before 3:30. But even if it isn't firm, there are endless variations up there that would keep you off the snow.

Went up to East Daniel over the weekend. Packed up Friday about noon and left the trailhead about 3. A Subaru gave me a ride from Scatter Creek as I was not sure my car would make it through. I wandered slowly up to Peggy's pond and bivy'd about 9PM. The weather was overcast and I was right at snow level. The snow was still a few feet deep but melting quickly. The next morning I woke to partly cloudy skies and rolled out of bed. There were two guys below me by the tracks. After they left, I packed up and headed up too. It warmed up quickly as the clouds parted. The snow was still soft under a one inch crust and the crust was melted by 10AM. I followed some old tracks up the bottom and cut into the newer tracks at the top of the circ at the base of East Daniel. From there they cut up right and gained the ridge. They then cut back onto the face and continued up. I cut straight up without going to the ridge to avoid the bergschrund they negotiated. We met on top and they turned back soon after. Was it my breath? I was on my way to Marmot lake so I dropped off the west side. When I got down to where I could see the notch to Marmot it was clear that it was not an option. The snow was way too soft on steep slab. So I bivied and waited for the next day. The next day dawned grey and overcast. There was a dusting of snow. In spite of the colder weather, the crust was still only an inch and a half thick with 3 inches of slush below. Besides that it was often almost zero visibility. So I dropped off the east side in the circ north of Peggy's pond. There were some interesting route finding problems complete with waterfalls, a bear den, and the obvious wet cliff bands. Eventually, I ended up at Hyas Lake where I built a fire and dried out. My legs are tired and all my gear is wet. Success.

The road is now passable to most vehicles. There is still a slightly deep water crossing at Scatter Creek. I didn't try to cross it with my Toyota Paseo but a car similar to mine made it. The extra three miles along the lake is a nice stoll anyway.

Dads are aid.

Yes. Head up the road toward Persis but instead of zagging left to the Persis trailhead, go straight ahead and park in the head of the basin. Walk up the old road until it starts to turn left and then cut through the brush to the right to get in the creek bottom. Walk up the creek to the headwall and climb the slabs right of the waterfall (easy 3rd class). push through about 20 feet of brush and you break into the talus or open snow depending... Head up and left and skirt the base of the cliffs to gain the top of the ridge between Persis and Index.

Climbing is like sex. The rock and I share the experience and what "works" for me might not be useful to the observer. If you are watching someone climb for instructional purposes, try to find someone with a similar body, size, weight, shape, etc and same gender. For instance, I am kind of big-boned and stalky. If I climb with someone tall and thin, we are going to approach lots of problems differently.

I gave up on page 10. It seemed so much like page 9, 8, 7, 6,...., Bolting sucks. It is not natural. Neither are horses in North America. But it is the horse packers of America who are largely responsible for our wilderness areas being protected. I do not want to see Infinite Bliss repeated on another wall or proliferated on the existing wall. But it will happen. Sport climbers are people who get outside and get counted by the government etc. Some of them even vote. We need more people involved in climbing to be a force that can stand up with the snowmobile crowds and horse packers etc, and get OUR tax dollars spent on maintaining popular access roads and resources instead of bombing Arabs for wanting their fair shair of oil profits. When I said there should be "No bolts west of parking lot wall" in Blodgett canyon, I was dissed by many. "Not enough people get up there" I was told. But there are bolts beside cracks and chipped holds and all kinds of blasphemy up there now. Because not enough people called bullshit. So what the hell am I saying? Here it is; IB should stand but the debate should continue here and elswhere. IB is wrong just like the Compressor route in Patagonia. But people use it and count on it to be there. Meanwhile the world has shrunk and if you get caught bolting another line beside IB you should be trundled. Debates like this one keep the differing attitudes nearer the forefront of peoples' minds and tend to moderate the pace of destruction of places like that. The key is to try to work something out. It will take a long time for sure. But no matter who you are, your nemisis will always be there. All out war, or moderation and compromise?

Sorry. We are now locked in on who is coming. No more changes.

The party is on! It is not clear how many are going yet. At least 3 and maybe 5. If you are all physically ready for Rainier we can still use a third for the second rope. Reply here or PM me.

http://www.bushwhackerclimbingclub.org/

The Bushwhackers club.

I sent you a PM. Bring beer Sunday afternoon if you come. I live in an apt on Lake Sammamish so be ready to swim.

There have been many responders. I prefer to have only 3 on a rope and there are 3 of us now. But there are enough of you out there that are interested to start your own rope. If you want to get yourselves together and meet up at Muir, I will show you what I know about setting up a Z pulley extraction system and other important details for slogging up the DC. You can do this on this route fairly safely since there is a well beaten path to the summit. You do have to have all your own gear and have some reading done but that is probably a given for all of you already. I am not offering to guide you nor even stay with you on the route, just give you some useful tips for survivng on a glacier.

It looks easily passable. Just bring lots of aluminum ladders adn those springy things for your feet. Seriously, I see several routes throught there. But doesn't the route enter the chute below the glacier in the foreground anyway?

We could prop a big rock up with a stick over the car and yank it out when they are inside.

Totally cool and totally hot. You go girl. My daughters will be on your site soon.