plumbbob

Dave Stutzman and I did the second assent of this route in 1977 as a training climb before we went to Alaska and climbed the North Face of Devils Thumb. We did it in a day and I remember it being realy loose with some 5.10. Bob Plumb

How about posting one of the pictures to see af anyone is recognized?

Here is a link to a report on another forum for a good effort on the Mendenhall Towers. http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1553487&msg=1554874#msg1554874 Enjoy

1974 on Remorse, Snow Creek Wall. In Petersburg 1977.

Looks like Ptarmigan Peak outside of Anchorage.

Nightmare Needles - Cruel Finger?

When are you going to be in Juneau? And, what type of trip are you loking for, day trips or multi day traverse of ice field? There is a lot of snow and the sking is great right now and should be realy good into July,depending on how far you are willing to hike. If you use a heli you can probably ski all summer.

Thanks for the pictures. PP is where I started climbing (a long time ago) and the skills learned there have been with me ever since. I wil have to stop in and boulder ofr climb something next time I am in Wenatchee.

Recently read "The Boys of Everest" and would recomend it!

Take a look at the Vokle Gotama. Big but light. Quick Turning yet stiff enought to hold an edge. These are sweet.

You should not use the F-2 as a safety item any more. The new beacon technology will spead up anyones search time. But don't throw out them out just yet. They work fine as an aid for practice. Take em out and have your partner hide them. You can do multiple beacon searches without having to by more than one new beacon.

This is something I started to write in the early 90's. The climbing took place in the summer of 1977. Bob Plumb North Face - Liberty Bell Mount Slesse Experience We had been climbing together since spring. Dave was to go to Alaska Range with Becky and party. Trip bombed and I was picking cherries. Finished and suggested Devils Thumb. So we planned a series of training climbs. Leavenworth - Home, plan, background. Travel to "Lady Of The Lake" to Lucerne. Rode a bus with a load of little kids to Holden Village. Left em' all behind. Hike to pass between North Star mountain and South West Buttress of Bonanza. Goats. Beautiful camp. Russian route: not what we expected. Much third class with a rotten difficult section. (Scared shitless!) Made the top at sun set. Decended talus to camp. Horrible hike out to Agness creek. Saw a "wild" black bear. Out Agness creek to shuttle to Stehekin. Daves' feet were in bad shape, so we passed up the hike to Goode. Took "Lady of the Lake" to Chelan, then hitch hiked to Washington Pass. Arrive late next day. Hike up and do a blitz on North Face. Started up as the sun was about to set in the west. Sun on the north face. Solo bottom half. Did two pitches to top. (5.8) Rappels on regular decent and back to camp before dark. Next morning we started for Belingham and Daves' friends from Stevens Pass. Dave left ice ax at Washington Pass. A couple days in Bellingham, then ? (Art?) drove us to Mount Slesse. Met (? Steinbock?). Camp below the east face after a thrash through logging slash. Across pocket glacier to ridge. Very warm. The crux was face Dave burnt out on and I finished the pitch. Dave seconded to major ledge and collapsed. Spent a warm night there. Party from Vancouver on North West Ridge. All met on summit next noon. We down climbed as they rapelled. Then a rap together. They continued down the regular route down the west side. We headed off along the high west slopes, looking for the gully that decended to camp. My boots were old. Shanks broken. We were decending steep hard snow in the first gully and my toes were killing me. So instead of facing in I decided to plunge step. Made two and blew out. Cartwheeled 300 feet down into moat on side. All I did was bite my tongue. Pretty shook up. Climbed down a short rock step and bent over for a drink from a pool. Pelvic bone shocked me. Started looking around. Bones and bits of metal everywhere. Not thirsty anymore. Wandered down a little further and gully ends and east face begins. Wrong gully. Back up, calling to Dave. Plane still hanging above the gully. I kicked steps. Got over the pain in my toes. Fear factor. Decended the right gully. Snow all the way. Camp infested with three bears. Drove em' off with ice axes. A lazy rest day. Hiking around. Memorial below east face. Pocket glacier. Smooth, polished slabs. Next day we took the food out to the middle of the slab, cached it, and continued around towards the North Face Lowe Route. Dash under North East Buttress Pocket Glacier between ice falls to toe of N. E. But.. Crampons on and mine broke just above. Gold Chouinard rigid. Back off. Spent time eating and watching avalanches from pocket glacier. Then headed to food cache. We were sitting there and both just got up and headed for camp. Just off the slab and up on the moraine. The entire glacier below the east face suicided. Huge blocks avalanched over our route. Shook up, we packed and headed home. A long walk out logging roads and hitch hiking back to Bellingham. Then Leavenworth. Sold my car and Dave and I headed to Devils Thumb.

I'm not sure when you will be here but the weather is great today (friday) and is suposed to be sunny and warm tommorow also. Sunday it is suposed to get back to a 40% chance of rain. If you have a vehicle you should take a look at False Outer Point near the end of the North Douglas Road. There is a beach access trail at the pull out where the road leaves the shore. Good sites about 100 yards from the car and great sunsets.

This took place last week. The folowing article is from the Petersburg Pilot. BP Historic climb and heroic rescue on Devil's Thumb Klas Stolpe March 16 , 2006. "Not so good,” came the last words at 10 am Tuesday morning from Zac Hoyt’s satellite radio phone on the frozen ice under the towering mountain known as Devil’s Thumb in southeast Alaska. He was responding to a question by his close friend Dieter Klose asking how things were going. Hoyt, 30, had just completed the first winter ascent of Devil’s Thumb. In the world of mountaineering that is one of the greatest feats, and he had done it solo. “Top of the world,” were the words Hoyt said to his dear friend Dieter Klose as he called from the summit of 9,500-foot tall Devil’s Thumb, a rock and ice encrusted mountain across Frederick Sound from Petersburg. The northwest face of the mountain has never been successfully summitted. Over 39 climbing parties have gone to Devil’s Thumb, 15 have summitted on routes other than the northwest face. There have been three fatalities on the northwest face and one on another route. Although he had pulled the climb off without a hitch, his words spoken before the sat-phone lost reception worried his best friend. “With that, knowing Zac as he’s one of my very best friends,” Klose stated. “He’s the master of understatement. I knew ‘not so good,’ meant ‘pretty darn bad.” Hoyt had eaten breakfast Saturday in Petersburg where he is employed by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game as a fisheries biologist and diver. His climb started at 7:00 AM and by noon Saturday he was on the summit of Devil’s Thumb where he made his first phone call to Klose. “He just called to check in, to just say, ‘hey, I’ve done it,” Klose stated. “We agreed he would call, that it would be pretty cool.” Hoyt followed what is known as the Krakauer Route, named after Jon Krakauer who climbed that path in 1977, the mountain’s first solo ascent. It’s a straightforward snow face followed by a traversing climb and lots of exposure, 2700 hundred feet of technical climbing without a rope, meaning a climber could look down a long ways. Hoyt did four rappels and the rest was down climbing on this southeast face of Devil’s Thumb. Hoyt called again from a ‘high camp’ at 4:00 PM where he spent the night on the upper ice cap above the Baird Glacier. Mid-day Monday he fell 100 feet into a crevasse, injuring his shoulder. He had minimal but essential gear, including just one ice axe to climb out. He spent the night in the crevasse, which was just wide enough for his one-man tent. This was when he made his last contact to Klose, stating he was in the middle of the icefall and things were not going well. At the time of the last phone contact, Klose took action. He called Foggy Mountain climbing shop in Juneau and reached Ryan Johnson and two friends, who had climbed Mt. McKinley. They were packed and ready in two hours and on the afternoon jet. “In the end I can’t say it was a life and death situation if we wouldn’t have gotten him,” Klose stated. “I suspected it may have been the case, seeing the conditions we had in town and knowing he was in a spot with harsh weather. Zac was totally prepared, completely experienced, the kind of person to be doing this with the knowledge and the equipment to pull this off. Zac Hoyt is an incredible athlete, this feat would be heralded in Europe, and will be in the climbing community. He wasn’t some bozo up there, he’s a really sharp climber… but the scales tipped.” Klose was on the Coast Guard helicopter to rescue Hoyt on Tuesday and first spotted his tent below. “It was a completely terrifying experience for me,” Klose said with misty eyes. “I was at the open door, strapped in and looking out because the window kept frosting. It was an incredibly heroic performance by those pilots. The next thing I knew he (Hoyt) was in and next to me.” “This is a one shot deal, if you can’t get your boots on forget them,” United States Coast Guard LCDR Bill Timmons said via VHF to Hoyt in the tent below the hovering H60 Coast Guard helicopter. “Get in the basket if you can, we only have one shot at this.” Winds were sustained at 40 knots and gusted to over 60 with reduced visibility and blowing snow. Moderate to severe turbulence was over Burkett Glacier. Temperatures outside the helicopter were minus 30 degrees Celsius. At 100 feet above the stranded climber and 5,400 feet above sea level, the hoist would be a daunting task. “We’ve never encountered anything like this before,” Timmons commented Wednesday by phone interview. “We were trying to maintain a stable hover… we had very little visual cues… our power required to stay safely in flight was right at our margins. From a pilot perspective, from an aircrew perspective, we pushed ourselves to our maximum limits… with respect to our training standardization. We operated at the edge of the operating envelope of our H60’s capabilities. There was very little margin of error, if any at all.” The chopper pulled away for better visibility and then radioed their final request. It was too risky even to lower the rescue team onto the ice. The chopper again hovered into position. After clambering into the basket, Hoyt was safe in the chopper in 30 seconds. “Dieter was instrumental in the rescue,” Timmons said. “His knowledge of the area was crucial… he was right on within a half-mile. It was the smartest thing we did taking him on the chopper. Trying to find a tiny tent in those conditions at that altitude was like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. We would have been jeopardizing the safety of anyone lowered onto that location… there was no guarantee the weather would improve.” Added Timmons, “I’ve never been any more proud, in my twelve years of flying, than at the end of yesterday’s rescue. Our crew and our helicopter operated to its maximum capabilities… we were at the edge of our envelope but we were able to get the mission done and save someone’s life. There was a lot of relief and a lot of joy when we got back to Petersburg. As Coast Guardsmen we craft our skills for rescue off the water… I’d never envisioned this type of rescue, on a high mountain, when I enlisted.” “I spent 45 minutes on the summit, enjoying everything,” Hoyt stated Wednesday from his hospital room at Petersburg Medical Center. With 15 years of experience and climbs in the Alaskan Range, New Zealand, Patagonia, and many mountains in the western United States, Hoyt is considered one of mountaineering’s better alpinists. “You could see town… Fairweather, Glacier Bay, the big mountains in Canada, Baranof… and to see everything in winter white was truly magical. It’s my life, it’s my passion, it’s what drives me forward… it’s what I love… it’s what I waste all my money on.” His hands bandaged because of frostbite, Hoyt spoke of the particulars of his ordeal. Leaving his base-camp at Devil’s Thumb, heading northeast toward Burkett Glacier, Hoyt was on an icefall that loses elevation between the two. Wearing skis and pulling a sled carrying his pack he fell through a snow bridge 100-feet into the ice crevasse. “Uh oh,” Hoyt said his first thoughts were as he lay amidst the ice and snow. The following hours would be incredibly daunting as he struggled against fatigue and falling snow. “I felt like I wasn’t going to make it through the night… I thought I was going to drown in snow. It was pouring in nearly as fast as I could shovel… my hands have paid for that.” In the morning he began to climb out of the crevasse using his single ice tool, trailing a rope, he made his last sat-phonecall, rappelled back in to retrieve some gear, climbed back out, each trip taking 45 minutes. “It was one of my most technical and toughest climbs,” he said. “Basically just two hands on one axe, heaving up, getting your feet locked… trying to grab onto something to reset the axe and then doing it all over again…” He pulled his gear to the surface and tried to reestablish himself, and began making plans of attempting to ski on. Weather conditions forced him into the tent. “When I first heard that helicopter I didn’t think there was any way I was actually leaving on that helicopter,” Hoyt said. “The conditions were too poor, a complete blizzard…” Unable to get his boots on and told of the final attempt by the chopper, Hoyt abandoned the tent and jumped into the basket, holding on as hard as he could. The struggle would not end just by getting into the basket. The winds slammed Hoyt into a serac once the hoist began. “I was pretty overwhelmed having Dieter, my best friend, right there,” Hoyt said of being inside the chopper. “The comfort of him and the helicopter and knowing I was safe.” Hoyt’s injuries include a possible torn rotator cuff and frostbite on his fingers and thumbs. “I just want people to know how thankful I am to everybody that was involved,” Hoyt stated.

Back to 1980. Dave and I traversed the ridge over Wildfire, Fire Spire, Ostrich Head, Nocturne Tower(this one had a nice OW pitch on the south side), Three Feathers(Dave basicly soloed these up and down), Windjamer Tower, Twins, Leaning Mares, and finished at Fantasia Tower. We had tried to do this the day before, but ran out of time. So got an earlyier start from our camp in Crystal Creek and did it in a long day. Sorry it took so long to get back, had to find the guide book for the tower names. BP

Dave Stutzman and I did a traverse of the Nightmare needles back in 1980. Some very good climbing. We thought it was one of the longer ridges to traverse but it doesn't have the commitment factor. You can escape off in many places. FYI we were climbing the ridge when Mt. St. Helens blew its top. Bob Plumb

Parks Canada is taking care of this. Info is that group is trapped above 18,000 feet. Bad weather, lost tent several days ago. Hypothermia and frostbite. Helo's can't fly due to weather and park service is trying to contact other groups in area to attempt locating group to assist.

Our State trooper dispatch in Juneau received a sat phone call a short time ago from someone named Barry Mason(?) The call was cut off before we got much information. He was requesting medical assistance for stranded climbers near Ania Peak. This appears to be just north of Mt. Logan. Anyone know who this might be? Please reply here or call AST Dispatch in Juneau @ 907 465-4000

Sorry about the spelling in the first post. Saddle Rock is just west of Wenatchee. I grew up there and played and hiked all over it. The rock is 'shit'. However it was something that stayed in the back of my mind over the years. The south summit was somethng I wanted to get to the top of and in the early 80s, while visiting, I tried soloing it a couple times. From the south up gullies. Got to an exposed spot and chickened out. Then got together with Jim Yoder and using a rope a bit of gear we did it. Easy 5th class, but on very loose rock. Placed a single bolt in on top and rappeled into the saddle.

The newspaper, once again, is calling hikers, climbers. Whish they would get it right. And if they are thinking of chaging for rescues this is one they should. Saddle Rock rescue — Stranded climbers unhurt By Sebastian Moraga, World staff writer Wednesday - May 25, 2005 WENATCHEE — Two men were rescued from Saddle Rock on Tuesday evening after they became stranded while climbing. After a three-hour rescue operation by the Wenatchee Fire Department and the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, Eli Ortiz, 19, and Bill Cleverly, 21, both from Wenatchee, were removed from the rock wall, 400 feet from the top, around 8 p.m. Other than a small scratch on Cleverly’s right hand, they were both injury-free and in good spirits after their ordeal. “We were looking for a challenge, and we got our challenge,” Cleverly said with a smile. Ortiz and Cleverly arrived at Saddle Rock around 2:30 p.m., wanting to climb to the top. Neither one was carrying any climbing gear. After about 2½ hours of climbing, they became stranded, not able to climb up or down from the rock wall. Ortiz said that at that point Cleverly started yelling for help. The yells attracted the attention of a man gardening at his nearby home, who called 911 on his cell phone. Aided by a helicopter that flew around the landmark several times, Wenatchee firefighters and the Chelan County Sheriff’s High Angle Rope Rescue Team arrived at the scene and began assessing the best rescue routes. Then, members of both agencies hiked to the top and set up their rescue equipment. Chelan County Sheriff’s Cpl. John Wisemore was lowered on a harness until he reached the two men. First, he rescued Ortiz, rappelling down with the teenager on a harness and with Ortiz’s legs wrapped around Wisemore’s midsection. After being brought down from the rock, Ortiz was in good spirits, cracking jokes, holding on to a cigarette and waiting for his friend, who had the lighter. Wisemore used the same rope to climb back up to where Cleverly was. After putting a helmet on him, Wisemore brought Cleverly down to safety, ending the rescue minutes before 8 p.m. “It was a nice day, we just didn’t want to sit around,” Ortiz said when asked about the reason for the climbing trip. He pledged never to do it again without the proper gear. Neither Ortiz nor Cleverly said they felt fear while stranded on the rock wall. “I don’t got no regrets,” Ortiz said. “It’s amazing we climbed up that far.” He was concerned about his friend’s well-being, given that he had two surgeries to remove a tumor from his brain, the latter one taking place a year ago. Ortiz said his friend is still recovering but doing OK after the surgeries, although he sometimes has trouble with his balance. “I almost fell off a couple of times,” Cleverly said. Wisemore said Cleverly hit his head on a rock during the rescue, known as a “pick-off rescue,” but the helmet saved him from serious injury. Firefighters at the scene described the surface of Saddle Rock as crumbly and unsafe for climbing. “(The two) would have fallen quite a ways,” Wisemore said. Doug Clark, a firefighter with the Wenatchee Fire Department, said it was the first time he had seen an incident of this sort in the 10 years he had been with the department. He predicted more incidents like these would happen in the future, especially if Saddle Rock is turned into a city park, with more access to the public. The two climbers will not be billed for the rescue, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Harum said. Estimated cost of the rescue was $5,000, he said. The Wenatchee World Online - http://www.wenworld.com 14 N Mission St., Wenatchee, WA 98801 * Phone: 509-663-5161, Fax: 509-662-5413 *This information is supplied as a service of The Wenatchee World. All rights reserved. Not to be photocopied, reprinted or broadcast in any form, including use on web sites, without prior written permission.

This was in the Juneau Empire Sunday Edition. Sad. Web posted November 7, 2004 Climber 'longed to be part of nature' Juneau mountaineer had cut back, concentrated on raising his children By TONY CARROLL JUNEAU EMPIRE Courtesy of the Kasselder Family Family times: Kenny Kasselder hikes with two of his children, Chloe (in the backpack) and Zachary, in a family photo. Kasselder died Thursday in a climbing accident on Oregon's Mount Hood. Brittany Kasselder says her husband, Kenny Kasselder, died in a climbing accident Thursday on Mount Hood doing what he loved. Kenny Kasselder, 37, who moved to Juneau with his wife in 1999, died Thursday after falling 1,500 feet from the face of Oregon's highest mountain and another 100 feet into a crevasse, authorities told Brittany Kasselder. "I'm very thankful that he was climbing, and that's how he died," she said. She is certain he knew what he was doing. He grew up climbing mountains in Glacier National Park in Montana, she said. He had climbed all of the 11,000-plus-foot peaks in the park and was part of the team that made the first successful winter ascent of Mount Cleveland, the park's highest point. Courtesy of the Kasselder Family Climbing in Oregon: Kenny Kasselder scales the Pioneer Route on Monkey Face at Smith Rock, Ore., in this undated photo. They were married in the park six years ago. Brittany said her husband's ashes will be scattered there. "I feel he's really part of nature, now," she said. "He longed to be in nature and in the mountain." He had talked about close calls, she said. There was a time he was climbing an 11,000-plus-foot mountain when a huge piece of rock fell and narrowly missed him. Kenny Kasselder hadn't climbed for four years because he wanted to concentrate on raising his children, his wife said. He was "an amazing father," she said. Their three children - Zachary, 5, Chloe, 3, and Garrett, 2 - were born in Juneau. Fund for the Kasselder family Friends of Brittany Kasselder have set up a fund to help the family left behind by mountain climber Kenny Kasselder, who died Thursday on Mount Hood in Oregon. Donations made out to Brittany Kasselder can be sent to the Alaska USA Federal Credit Union, P.O. Box 196613, Anchorage, AK 99519-6613. Kenny Kasselder is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. The oldest child is 5. Gordon Boiko, a Juneau climber who considered Kenny Kasselder his best friend, said Kasselder's children were getting old enough that he was looking forward to sharing climbing with them, just as he did growing up in the Whitefish, Mont., community that produced so many top-notch climbers. "He loved his kids," said George Reifenstein, general manager of the Mount Roberts Tramway. When Kasselder was managing the electrical and maintenance operations at the tramway, he was a skilled, self-confident, hard-working employee who was well-liked by his co-workers, Reifenstein said. The news of his death was particularly sad, "having known him and his young family," he said. "He was very passionate about what he wanted to do," Reifenstein said. "It was good to see him getting back into climbing." Kasselder spent five years as a professional mountain climber, seeking sponsorships and climbing competitively, his wife said. He was at his best when climbing. "He said he was never more focused and calm," she said. "As a climber, he was not interested in conquering a mountain," she said. "It was almost like yoga." The Associated Press reported that his climbing partner, Shaun Olcott, 37, of Portland, Ore., called for help from a cell phone, despite having to crawl with a broken arm and ribs to a place where the phone would work. A National Guard helicopter lowered a medical team to the 8,500-foot level of the mountain, but Kasselder was already dead. "They said he was in and out of consciousness for at least three hours," she said. Olcott told her, between surgeries, that help arrived six hours after the fall. Brittany Kasselder said her husband suffered a broken back and pelvis and internal injuries. "They said the hypothermia probably helped with the pain," she said. As for how the accident happened, she said she doesn't need to know. "They were very experienced climbers. They had the best gear and the best knowledge," she said. He had climbed all over the United States and in Peru, she added. He scaled El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in 1988. "If there was anybody I was going to be tied up to, he would be my first choice," Boiko said of his best friend. "Not only on a rope but in life." Kasselder was a very safe climber, Boiko said. The Mount Cleveland assent shows how accomplished Kasselder was, he added. In the late 1960s, five people were killed on a winter attempt to climb it, and Kasselder helped prove it could be done. An accident at the tramway in April 2003 at the top nearly killed Kasselder, his wife said. "A pipeline burst in his face," she said. He survived with his sight and hearing intact. He had hours of reconstructive surgery done to his face. "Part of his being in Portland was to heal from that accident," she said. He had left Juneau in September to work temporally at Climb Max Mountaineering, a shop that equipped climbers. Eventually he was going to provide climbing instruction. "He took more from the mountain than it took from him," Boiko said. "I believe to the core he would say that." Brittany Kasselder said the people she works with at the Juneau Family Birth Center have helped her deal with the loss. The midwives are good at dealing with agony that returns after it subsides. But she said she doesn't question her husband's climbing. "I think he considered (climbing) much more a state of mind than a sport because of the combination between body and mind. He said it was less than half physical skill and agility," she said. "More than half was mental perspective facing fear." This summer, returning to Glacier National Park, they hiked together for seven hours to the top of a mountain. There were no ropes or ledges, so it wasn't a climb. But she could feel her husband's enthusiasm for getting there. "I was so happy I got to stand on the top of a mountain with him."

Check out the fifth item down on this web site for a video on baking thermofit liners. http://www.telemarktips.com/DrTelemark.html

Thought I'd chime in. I do my PNW skiing in June and July with an occasional trip in the winter, so Volcanos are what I've been sking the most for the past few years. I do have my favorites around Juneau and Cordova, but thats not the PNW. NFNWR, Adams SW Chutes, Adams Snowdome to Round Mt trail, Mt Hood Colchuck Glacier, pass to the lake Anything on the N. Side of Mt Cashmere (Winter)

I used to live there until 2000. Weather and work kept me from doing much alpine climbing, but I did do the East ridge of Sheridan Mt. Tried it as a solo and chickened out because of the loose rock. Went back with a partner and we did three or four pitches from the notch to the summit. Maybe 5.4. If the snow is melted out of the normal assent gully on the west side it can be difficult to get anchors for rappelling. For some rock climbing after work check out the rock next to the road about 3 miles out the Power Creek Rd. Several climbs from 5.8 to .11 Valdez can form early depending on the weather. Be prepared and call or travel over to check it out before yuleave in November.

Mountaineer Creek Basin below north face of Mt. Stewart and the Edward Mesa were places that each time I visited them I felt I was getting feed by some energy source.