Alpinfox

Another definition for ya'll: Fascism - noun - A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism. Extreme right... Union of State/Business leadership... belligerent nationalism... Sounds like the Bush administration to me. Check out www.bushorchimp.com Here is a photo from GW's early political days, or "The Cocaine & Alcohol Years" as we liberals like to refer to them: p.s. Yup, that's me on the right.

No, I don't find it charming. I find it scary. Bush is "not the sharpest knife in the drawer" as his mother said of him once, and I don't sleep well knowing that a genuinely stupid, and incapable man is at the helm of the ship. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Idiot - noun, 1. A mentally deficient person ... incapable of learning connected speech. If you review the "poem" I posted above, I believe the evidence speaks for itself.

Carolyn, "IFC" means knowing exactly what you are doing while climbing; being very deliberate about every motion you make. Mental dialogoue would be something like this "I am placing the inside edge of my left foot on that little ruggosity there and once I place my foot there I am not going to wiggle my foot at all." "Now I am transferring weight over that foot". "My weight is now over that foot". "Now I am reaching up with my right hand and grabbing that -shaped hold...." etc. Practice climbing precisely, deliberately, staticly, and smoothly, and look at your feet when you place them. Don't let them wiggle as the rest of your body moves. Practice this on really easy climbs (4-5 steps below your max) so you won't be distracted by technical or physical challenges. Avoid lurching movements by repositioning, transfering weight, or using intermediate holds. Strive to keep your body in conservative positions while climbing. That is, with straight arms, not "locked off", and with your weight centered over your feet or "nose over toes". Congratulations on the first lead. Keep it up.

That website is lame, lame, lame. Some quotes: "Pete's been snowshoeing and hiking for over 20 years and has spent a bit of time playing on the local big boys such as Rainier, St Helens, Baker and Adams. It does take a few smaller ones before you get to the big ones... so you know that he has taken out a few of the little guys first". "I'm more into ... peak bagging ..." "I've been a few places, made a few mistakes and learned a few lessons... hopefully you can learn from some of them and enjoy life a little longer". I have to stop quoting now... I feel sick.

This is a poem made up entirely of actual quotes from George W. Bush, arranged by Washington Post writer Richard Thompson: MAKE THE PIE HIGHER by George W. Bush I think we all agree, the past is over. This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses. Rarely is the question asked, Is our children learning? Will the highways of the internet become more few? How many hands have I shaked? They misunderestimate me. I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity. I know that the human being and the fish can coexist. Families is where our nation finds hope, where are wings take dream. Put food on your family! Knock down the tollbooth! Vulcanize society! Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

Great! I think I know one person on that team. The camps are at 14K and 17K, not 16K and 18K. Some people occasionaly camp at the top of the Denali Headwall (16K), but that is rather unusual. Thanks for keeping us updated.

MattP, I think we did the approach about as well as it could be done on the way in and I wasn't surprised that it took us as long as it did. My exclamation, "It took us an obscene amount of time to cover that three mile approach" is in comparison to the standard trail-hiking approach, NOT in comparison to the admittedly small amount of bushwacking I've done. The brush on the high traverse was tough, but it was nothing compared to the brush on the clearcut/valley route on our way out. However, the stream crossings on the high route were challenging and one of them was dangerous. That was the reason we elected to try the valley to clearcut route on the way out. It worked out too, because the stream crossings were a piece of cake on the way out. I think in later season the high traverse would still be better than dropping down into the valley and contending with all that brush which is leafless now, but would be leafy in summer/fall. Not only would you not be able to see anything, but salmonberry leaves have spines! Ouch. However, I'm curious to try to plot out Dru's (or other's) preferred approaches.

RE: Approach We pretty much contoured around the side of Shuksan arm starting at the end of the road (3750ft) staying around 3500ft most of the way until we hit the snow at around 3300ft. It was smooth sailing from there. We stayed W of WS creek and didn't cross it until we were on snow and headed up toward the saddle. There was a lot of melting going on up there so we probably encountered larger and more streams than usual. Dru: Where are you suggesting one should "drop down" and cross White Salmon Creek? Do you go down the clearcut directly below the end of the road? I don't remember anywhere where you could drop down or cross the valley bottom without encountering lots of brush.

After reviewing some maps and photos in CAG, I'm pretty sure it was American Border Peak. It's pretty much directly North (very slightly west of North actually) of Shuksan, but I'm pretty sure that is the one I saw. My partner remembers the mystery peak as being "just left of a spined ridge running west to east" which jives with Mt. Larabee and the Pleiades. I don't know if he took any pictures that direction, but perhaps a review of those will clear this up. Southern aspect was steep! Cheers, -AF

Partner and I climbed the North Face of Shuksan this weekend. Things got off to a somewhat rocky start as the road was closed due to the "Ski to Sea" bike race and we had to wait about 30min. Fortunately we didn't get there earlier as the road was closed from 8AM to noon. At the gated road which serves as the trailhead for the North Face approach there was a very sunburned guy at his car. Mr. Son Bern informed us that he and his partner had climbed the North Face. Here is what we gathered of their story: They approached on Friday, complained mightily about the bushwacking. On Saturday they climbed steep, sloppy, sketchy snow, clouds on top obscured visibility so they couldn't find White Salmon descent. Therefore, they descended down the Sulfide glacier apparently doing an unprotected bivy (their tent/gear was still below the North Face) somewhere between the summit and the Sulfide glacier trailhead. At the TH, they met a mountain madness group that loaned them a van which they used to drop Mr. Bern off at the highway. He then hitchhiked to his car, and was planning to drive back to Sulfide glacier TH, pick up his buddy, drive back to our TH, hike in (repeating the heinous bushwack), retrieve their gear, and hike out (repreating heinous bushwack again). His parting advice, "bring lots of sunlotion!" So we were nervous. We headed in and the bushwacking was pretty bad. We stayed high, between 3500-3600ft. The hardest part were about 5-6 stream crossings, 2 of which were quite difficult. It took us an obscene amount of time to cover that three mile approach. Camped just below saddle below NF proper. A bit of rain during the night. Not much wind. Awoke to clear, blackbird (it was still dark) skies at 4am. We had decided to carryover to avoid any epics like Mr. Bern's, so we had to break down camp and pack up so we didn't get moving until shortly after 5am. Beautiful sunrise. Just below the start of the face, we stopped for a quick photo break and my partner dropped his food bag. We watched it slide off and disappear over the cliffs above Price Lake. We could almost hear the Snaffles thanking the heavens for the generous gift. After this setback, we quickly found nice kicked steps which led us up the NF. The steps were deep, obviously made in "soft, sketchy" snow, but our snow was pretty firm. Made fairly quick work of the 40-50 degree slope up to the N. shoulder. There was a short, exciting moment when we had to traverse immediately underneath some hanging ice, but everything stayed put and we breathed a sigh of relief. We had beautiful views of Baker (west), Border Peaks (North) and lots of peaks out to the east which I assume some of which were the Pickets. I wish I had brought along a large scale map to try to identify some of them. There is a really beautiful and dramaticly steep rocky peak to the NNE of Shuksan, not very far away. Anyone know what that one is? After gaining the N. shoulder, we traversed around E side of summit pyramid and started climbing up towards summit. Apparently this is a 3rd class gully in late season, but for us it was 55-60 degree slope covered with a six-inch crust of very firm neve. We got to within about about 300-400ft of the summit where the slope was slightly steeper and the snow slightly firmer and decided that we should have two tools for this sort of bidnez, so we bailed. We descended the White Salmon glacier with lots of fun crevasse/icefall wandering routefinding on increasingly soft and slushy snow. Descended down to snow field below White Salmon hanging glacier and decided to try the valley to clearcut method of bushwacking on the way out. This was not a good idea. After stumbling in/around/on/through slide alder, devil's club, and salmonberry bushes (thorny), and stomping across a few streams, we finally arrived at the base of the clearcut that leads up to the road to the trailhead. Up we went. We were pretty spent by this point and the going was so rough that we stopped for a rest about every couple hundred vertical feet. By contrast, we didn't take a single break on the North Face proper. Of course we eventually made it up to the road, but we were scratched/exhausted/soaking wet/tired/hungry/etc when we got there. I recommend staying high on the approach. The bushwacking isn't too bad compared to the valley/clearcut route although the stream crossings are spicy. The adventurous feel of this circumnavigation of Shuksan and the roughness of the approach gave my partner and I a newfound appreciation for the pioneering efforts of early Cascade climbers. Here's to you Fred:

Serial? What do you mean?

How far from trailhead did you park?

Biggest Snaffleophile

This is what happens when you get Iain and SpecialEd's pets together:

I did DNA testing.

No, I think he is losing fur because it is Spring time and he is shedding his winter coat. The ticks don't "eat" their fur out, but the goats do lose some fur by rubbing against rocks/trees and scratching to get rid of the ticks. It was definately the same goat. Maybe he downclimbed Outer Space? Maybe he is a space goat?

So the road is open to the trailhead now? Vrooom Vroooooom!

Climbed Orbit today. Only one goat on top. He was loosing a quite a bit of fur (I guess its the season, or maybe all the climber pee). He was one bad muthafucka though. After we descended back to our stashed pack, I turned around, and there he was, same goat. I didn't see him while we were descending, so I think he probably downclimbed our route, 5.9 variation and all. Cool goat. Oh yeah, nice climbing too.

What kind of boots do those bindings take?

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