JoshK

hahah! In any event, I'm not sure it matters which approach is "best". They both get you there, and probably in similar amounts of time. I think what matters more is which one you like more or which one you are in the mood for. If I want to see the lower lakes I take snow lakes trail, if I want to see the high lakes, I take assmaster pass. I've done both and will certainly do both again. Sticking to one way is the best way to assure you'll begin to hate that way!

Klenke, whatever anybody's POV on the issue, I highly doubt any claim against the decice would stand up in court until an actual law change happened. With the various loopholes people use for real crimes, I can't imagine something like this would stick. The simple fact that the signally mechanism for the lights can be so easily fooled (at least according to this article) is just plain stupid to begin with. It's just asking people to fuck with them. My main point is to dispute erik's claim that the lights would simply change to red instantly or something. If this were the case you'd have accidents at intersections every time a fire truck approached.

What's different about the snowclearing on donner pass? is it extra fast or something? I'm actually fairly impressed that they can keep our passes open as much as they do. The volume of snow per storm makes it much harder than in the sierras or rockies.

This is true, but add winter winds and moisture and it can certainly feel worse than a warmer day in the summer on denali.

To assist with the devil's advocate's point of view emitting IR signals isn't technically tampering. In fact, you are affecting the device in a way it's designed to respond to. I also *highly* doubt it would instantly change the light to red. It would simply signal the traffic software to do it's normal yellow->red countdown. It would appear no differnt to another driver than a regular yellow light when they are approaching the intersection. This is much more likely to cause gridlock than accidents. I would love this thing if I could be guaranteed I was the only one that had it. As it is, every schmuck will get one and it'll just make matters worse.

it's not, but sometimes you have to check your priorities. School is definately not at the top of my priority list. hey, there's always summer school Summer school is definately NOT an option. I can be a shitty climber for another 4 years. ps, I need a pardner fer slipstream 'round xmass if it's in and the avy's not. Yeah, I'm sure they'll be folks lining up to partner up for slipstream with a self proclaimed shitty climber.

I'd definitely choose snow lakes for going into prusik. Hell, if you pack light enough you can trail run that approach. The same can't be said for aasgard. I'm not sure why everybody seems to make the aasgard pass approach sound so ominous, however. It's not some death trap or anything.

No, not at all. They would have been worthless. by "drifts" i just meant places where wind blown snow had accumulated in cracks between old snow and rock, etc. Up high it was enough that it could have possibly obscured a crevasse, but it didn't slow travel at all.

Wow, that's quite a coincidence...when I finally pulled up the car soaked and pissed off Jimmy Cliff's "Rivers of Babylon" was playing on my MP3 player.

I wanted to do this on sunday, but plans (ok, fine, laziness) kept me from that plan. With a chance to skip work on Monday my motivation was greater. This had always looked like a beautiful area and I'd always wanted to do this hike. The 1570 forest road is passable, albiet rough. I imagine it would be a challange with a standard clearance car. The book mentioned it may be possible to drive to the road end with a 4x4. I'm not sure how long ago that was true because about 2 miles from the end the road basically disppears into a washout. You *might* be able to get across with Gravedigger or Bigfoot, but even that might be pushing it. After that there are a few places where the road looks just fine and others where it's about as narrow and overgrown as a trial. It appears that the road hasn't been drivable here in some time. The climbers trail is easy to find and quite steep. I didn't have much trouble following it. At the 4800 foot saddle I made a navigation (or rather, lack thereof) error and started up the wrong high point. This was my first sign that not sleeping at all was affecting me. The scrambles book I found the route in described the way from the 4800 foot saddle to cyclone lake as 2 miles. Maybe it was because I was tired, but it certainly seemed a hellavu lot further than that. It also goes up and down and up and down so this probably has a lot to do with it. The views of snowking and multcher, or whatever it's called, from the high point above cyclone lake are really nice. This was about the last of the views I was going to get for the day. The cascade pass area to the north was quickly clouding over. I treated some water at cyclone lake and then headed around to get on the east ridge. My original plan wsa just to climb straight up the relatively straight forward glacier, but I decided to start out on the ridge first and check out the glacier first hand. By the time I reached the eastern toe of the glacier on the ridge, I decided I wsa staying the hell off the glacier. I had already punched through lightly snow covered holes enough just walking over the rock ridge. There were places where drifts were knee deep and because it was so variable, it was hard to tell what was solid. I figured whiel this was just annoying on the rock, it would be downright stupid to go experience this fun on the glacier. It started to rain mid-way up the ridge. The last of the fews disappeared and I could now see about 200 feet max. My distincly non-waterproof outfit and boots were now sponges. The last 1000 feet to the summit were hell. By not sleeping I had turned an easy scramble into what felt like the summit ridge of everest to me. Despite the fact that the summit was windy and wet, it seemed like a great place to take a nap. The way down was about a million times more exciting, because now the slabby ridge, the heather traverse, the brush and the steep ass, root covered climbers trail were all soaking wet. oh well, you can only get so wet before it doesn't matter anyway. At least I didn't feel the need to avoid all the muddy puddles in my way any more. Summary: this was a really cool area and I'm glad I finally hiked up this one. I'm sorry I missed what I've heard are some of the best views in the cascades. All and all, this would have been a very pleasent day trip with some sleep the night before and better weather. As it was, the trip had some extra character and certainly a great sense of solitude.

in my experience the sink liner just ended up being a huge pain in the ass. I didn't find it much warmer and I just ended up getting tangled in it. for the few minutes before I was tangled up, however, it was very comfy.

Damn, and here I thought this was a thread about the WSU cougars. Anyway, OSU sucks. Next week WSU vs. USC, sweet! Anyway, yeah, demi and ashton...

Seriously?? Wow, I must be blind or something. I guess the only times I have started out up that trail have been at the crack of dawn, so maybe i'm just asleep. Maybe I should have looked closer and saved myself 5 minutes of wandering around in the forest down by the river.

I agree, it ain't bad at all. I was just referring to the "trailhead" specifically since it's an unmarked path into the woods to an immediate log crossing and some tape

"trailhead" of course, being a very loose description

Anybody know if the S. cascade road is fucked up or not? I know it branches off the cascade river road then crosses the river, so I wonder if it got screwed up at all.

C'mon everybody, this is a serious thread that has veered off topic. Please vote!

I try...I really do.

I'm not the one that has too...

No, I dont think jerking off to pictures of your mother is any better than sleeping with your sister.

It only *kind of* pisses you off? You should take more of a stand. It's spray...I'll post whatever inane shit I want...piss off. Screw you.

It only *kind of* pisses you off? You should take more of a stand. It's spray...I'll post whatever inane shit I want...piss off.

Scot'teryx appears to be starting a guiding service. Is this...Really fucking scaryA natural next step for an experienced, proven climber to take

If you are set on a mini canister stove, I've found the snow peak is the best. I compared snow peak, MSR pocket rocket, brunton crux, and coleman F1 all side to side. Every one except for the snow peak could be blown out *really* easily. I found the snow peak to be the only stove that could reliably resist any sort of wind outside.