Rick_Sharpless

RAdio needs battery, fragile, requires free hand to operate, may fail without notice. Does not sound like good alpine safety system equipment. Voice and rope tugs need no batteries, aren't fragile, generally work while the climber is still alive, need no extra hands. Seems like a simple one to me. The KISS rule wins every time.

We southern boys and girls know what tough is. Last time I as in the PNW and the temps hit 85 everyone was walking around bitching that this was somehow incompatible with life or something. Tonight here in piedmont NC 70 people showed up to hammer 30-40 road miles on bikes. 93 degrees, Code red ozone, mosquitos flying around full of west nile virus. And angry rednecks in pickups passing us. All we needed was a hurricane to make it a perfect late summer day in the southeast. Summer is too short.

Sounds like Robson is calling to you. Climb it for us and come backk with a full report, Enjoy!

Usual partners fell through and I'm looking for a partner for alpine climbing in the Canadian Rockies (Robson/Jasper/Lake Louise areas, peaks flexible) Sept 9-16. Maybe Robson if conditions are right, other things if not. Mostly snow and ice - maybe some moderate rock too. Email me at fks@sharpless-stavola.com if interested.

I was there June 25-27. The Winthrop and Carbon were not at that time a serious issue although they opened substantially while we were there, and I expect you will have to routefind on the Carbon well beyond following the boottrack. Liberty Ridge itself was completely melted out to Thumb Rock. There was a snowfield down to the Carbon from Thumb Rock on the west side of the ridge. Rockfall while we were there (a warm sunny day) occurred on 10 minute intervals and blanketed the snowfield. The party ahead of us (1 day ahead) had an injury from rockfall requiring a helo evac. We did not feel we could climb the 1500' of snowfiled in less than the 10 minute fall interval and judged the objective hazard of that option unacceptable. We looked at several routes in which we would access the ridge lower down, either east or west side, Every option we observed and considered had a significant rockfall event during the time we observed it. Weather was predicted to deteriorate in a day or 2 (and it later did) which clinched it for us and we backed off. As someone who has to travel I'm waiting for next year. The following day it was much cooler and the clouds were coming in (no sun). Rockfall was substantially diminished. Our judgment was that with an alpine start onto the ridge, in cooler weather, one might well be able to reach thumb rock without unacceptable rockfall hazard. Had weather not been predicted to go bad we probably would have camped on the upper carbon and listened and watched in the very early morning and made a judgment then. The ridge looked OK above Thumb Rock, albeit icy rather than in snow. For what it's worth, I was back in the park last week (with family, not climbing) and the ranger at White River said no one had got Lib Ridge since the events of late June. The weather was VERY warm. General conditions on the mountain, the effect of the winter, and the condition of the route are well-described on the park's website. Everyone has to judge for themselves how much hazard is acceptable. For us, a cold day and no sun, with good weather to follow, might have given an acceptable situation but we did not have this. I doubt it is any better now. Good luck if you head up there. Even if you bail out at the bottom, the upper carbon is a great trip. And on the return you can always peel off and climb the Emmons.

Criticizing the couple's decsionmaking (with benefit of a retrospectroscope) may be easy but ignores the extent of information that was available to those in the field at the time. We left White River Tuesday. The forecast as of Monday looked great through Thursday. How much value does any forecast have in mountains 3-4 days out? Certainly not much in Eastern mountains. Is Washington different? The Alabama couple presumably had this information, for what it was worth. If that information alone tells you to stay home you may never climb on Rainier. We camped Tues PM at Curtis Ridge. There were two others there and they had a NOAA radio. Wed AM the general area forecast was for 20% chance of occasional showers (not steady precip) beginning Thursday. No wind was forecast in the flatlands. An "uppper level disturbance," not a front was on the way. No mountain-specific information. The only current problem was, it was way too warm! We talked it over and decided to head up the Carbon but to keep an eye on things. (Seattle weather =/= Rainier weather) The group of 2 choose otherwise and headed out. Wednesday morning we were at the base of Liberty Ridge (with a crashed helicopter and Tyler ??? and one other ranger there). The obvious, almost constant rockfall and recent injury turned us around before we headed up the ridge. Again, the current problem was it was too warm and sunny and the mountain wa falling at a good clip. The weather forecast from the rangers (whiteout and precip possible-probable but not certain Thurs-Fri) was an additional factor. Would we have backed off absent the rockfall? Maybe but it's hard to say - we did not have to make that decision. We would not have gone above Thumb given conditions Thurs AM, but the Alabama couple was already bivied in a crevasse by then. Had we climbed to Thumb Wednesday we would have faced a long wait or an unappealing retreat Thursday from the same location. And had we been in the field on the same schedule as the Alabama couple, I am confident we would have headed up from Thumb Rock Wed. AM as they did. Would we have been fast enough to make it down before the weather hit? Apparently one group was, but for us, ask me after next year when we come back to take another try at Liberty Ridge, a little earlier and with a lot of respect for the route. Then I'll tell you how long it will take to go up and over, except the conditions won't be the same. The ONLY thing we did different from them "before" is we had a 2-3 days extra fuel. So we would have had plenty of tea while battling up on top of the mountain. Echoing what Mike said, I would not take potshots at decisions made by people who were in the field, (not at a desk), who had not the benefit of hindsight. A day or two earlier and it might have been the four of us taking a 3 day break in a crevasse in a storm. A thanks to those who are willing to bail us out when we guess wrong, as we all have more than once, is the only comment that need be made.

We were a day behind this group, and also behind the group in which a climber was injured by rockfall. The rockfall Wednesday on lower Liberty Ridge was horrendous, by midday all lines to Thumb Rock were being hammmered on about a 10 minute cycle. In the cirque as a whole the noise was impressive and continuous - something was falling somewhere at all times. With crashed helicopters on the upper Carbon, injured climbers, a dubious forecast, and falling rock we backed off. The couple that ended up in the crevasse was last seen by us just above the black pyramid, pitching it out. Another group that left Thumb at the same time that they did apparently simulclimbed and made it down to Schurmann late Wednesday night/Thurs AM. The couple must have bivied high. The clouds cam in Wednesday night and by Thursday there was more than a "cap" on the mountain. We walked out Thursday and 2 members of our group headed up the interglacier to make a run at Emmons. At Camp Curtis they hit stong wind and mixed precip, and came out Friday morning in more of the same. The flying by the Chinook on Tuesday PM and on Wednesday was impressive. A thanks to the pilot, crew, and climbing and wilderness rangers who helped the involved climbers. BTW -the Carbon and the Winthrop opened significantly while we were there. Do not consider the boot track on either a reliable guide for routefinding.