Gary_Yngve

Was it a standard American English "whump," or was there any dialect?

Yeah, I guess that didn't come out well, though I was trying not to insinuate anything. Snow conditions up high sound weird right now. In a trip report here a few days ago on Glacier Peak, they were reporting whoomping.

The news rept said they were found on the south side of Vesper. It's rugged terrain, with lots of ravines, as well as brush down below.

Wow, 16 hours seems like a really long time to cross the Coleman and climb the North Ridge (I'd venture to guess that the average party would take 8 hours or less.) What do you think caused things to take so long? Bad snow conditions? A large group? Placing too many pickets? Did you ever feel concerned about objective hazards given the warmth and from being on the route for so long?

Let's hope that there's better visibility today.

Liberty Mtn is in the Mtn Loop Hwy area SSE of Three Fingers.

I was going to say yes, I was found not guilty, but Dechristo beat me to it. Current plan is to propose in Fall. I had planned on doing it in Spring but I was teaching for funding all year (got the dept's TA of the year award!), so I was slowed down. Then defend my thesis roughly a year later. But no, the suit was not school-related. As I said, wait for a TR.

Very cool!

Someone asked me today if I had lost weight. I blamed it on wearing a baggier shirt.

So does anyone know how to contact the courts to contest a ticket without being present? We got ticketed in Lworth (we had three passes in our car and accidently put the expired one on the dash) back in October and got sent to court in Spokane, so we just bent over and let the Feds have their fun. (It was only $25, I think.)

there better be a bloody good reason for that! Have patience, and a TR shall come!

Hmmm, now that I think about it, I might have seen her. In other news, I'll be wearing a suit and tie tomorrow. Can't remember the last time I've done that.

Anyone else go? Good times! Last one I had been to was 2001. Lots more naked bicyclists, less political propaganda this time. Sorry, no pics -- my camera was MIA at the time, but has since been found.

Hi Jonah, There are plenty of local PNW climbers who have been yelled at too for being too boastful (or being perceived as such) about their accomplishments. Wayne's post about the Pickets Traverse with Colin and Marko, for example. The original post did come across to me as either a little boastful or meant to chase after sponsorships/zines. Most in-a-day efforts here are done out of curiousity if it can be done or because one has only so much time to sneak away from work, the wife, or the bottle. There is no real sense of competition, aside from improving your own times, and no one really cares much about records. Most of us look at speed as not the ends but the means to the ends (i.e. you don't speedclimb in the Valley to set records (unless you're breaking your buddy's record) but to be able to go to Patagonia/Greenland/Baffin and rack up the FA/FFAs, or in Chad Kellogg's case, speedclimbs on Rainier and Denali to prepare him for the Himalaya). Hans Florine gave a show here a few years ago, and it did seem to have a slight flair of arrogance and contrivance to it. That's also why we're so pissed off at Dan fido. Making speed the end-all, and officiating it, is a bastardization of our sport, regardless of the fact that his pants are on fire.

I was disappointed when the article mentioned such Boston universities as Boston U and Northeastern. Why did they conveniently omit Hahvahd and MIT? Sure, they're in Cambridge, but that's like saying Fremont's not in Seattle. Sounds to me more like certain universities didn't want their reputations tarnished.

If they think that that is the prime benefit of running a university climbing club, they are really missing out.

The library thing was way cool. I especially liked the attitude they all had that they worked as team, and they all got satisfaction of putting someone on the summit, knowing that without everyone's individual help, the summit would not have happened. The photographer (Steve Marks?) is badass. Marie was a no-show at PC; Orianda and Eric showed up later (21:45?). Otherwise, the folks present were DaveS, DaveB, Emily, Pax, Klenke, Ralph, Kurt, and Porter.

I may stop by after the downtown shindig.

Shapp, you just answered your own question. The dog almost died during the rescue. Had the dog died, there could have been a lawsuit. Is SAR trained in animal rescue? No.

The burns are on the first half of the slope between Lil Eightmile Lake and Lake Caroline. Above are gorgeous meadows. Flowers are pretty.

Another issue is will the dog be cooperative. I was talking to a firefighter the other day who was telling me about a time when they went to rescue a kitten from a tree, and as he, riding in the bucket, got close to the kitten, the kitten JUMPED! Being a kitten, it bounded down the tree apparently unharmed.

Brian, do you know the full story on that? I heard something like they were initially told he was on some other peak instead, and somehow they figured/found out that he was actually on Pugh.

Scrambled Cashmere. Our car suffered a severe pulmonary embolism on the drive out there and a lesser one on the way back. Camped at Little Caroline Lake, five of us in a Megamid. Snowed/sleeted until about 11:00 AM, but then cleared up. Went up the north side of Cashmere (crampons would have been nice) and descended the west ridge.

It was dry last night. It's raining outside (at UW) right now. btw - some of the chains up there are looking sketchily thin!

Dunno about WSU, but for UW: Tom Hornbein was a prof at UW (anethesiology?) for many years. Tom, with Willi Unsoeld, did one of the most significant climbs of all time. Steve Swenson, a UW alum, has his share of first ascents in the Himalaya, and has climbed K2 and Everest (the latter solo and without supp O2). I'm sure you can find plenty of folks who have summited Denali or Aconcagua or Kilimanjaro, or maybe even folks who have been guided up Everest -- but there's nothing pioneering about going up these standard routes by the standard formulas. The folks I mentioned above are true explorers.