JoshK

Wow, that is crazy the lake is still mostly frozen... They aren't particularly high elevation and I would never expect that. If you happen to do that climb again, definitely do the 2-day option. That bivy is one of my favorites.

Sweet Jeebus. More evidence supporting my theory that the vast majority of people survive in the mountains mostly through blind luck. If you can't even determine what is a safe/unsafe spot to camp, save your family the heartbreak and the SAR team the trouble and pickup basket weaving or triathlons instead of mountain sports. We need a facepalm emote as well for things like this.

I heard this incredibly sad news this morning from my mom after being gone over the weekend. I don't feel comfortable sharing names (and I know no details of the accident outside of the news story), but I will say he was a family friend of ours...an incredibly warm man, and I always enjoyed his company during the holidays. Last Thanksgiving we discussed getting out to climb together, but never made it happen. :'(

This is a beautiful trail; I've been on it a few times. It's a bit longer than the Sauk approach, but overall it is more mellow and you do lots of hiking on higher, open terrain. I can't comment on whether it would be a better choice than the Sauk, but it's a worthy area in it's own right!

Nah, Andreas' pack was his own. He just copied my style. (who doesn't like lime green packs, anyway!) It was definitely a mighty showcase of nature's fury on steeper sun-effected slopes featuring exposed rock or with tendencies to rip to the ground. There is, however, a slight rib feature that allowed for travel up the ridge which I considered well within my fairly tame limits to risk taking. In other words, he made it sound worse than it was. On the way down, however, the ski-cutting was for more than show. It was some seriously slide-prone mush, but the benefit of being above it allowed for top-down clearing. It improved the skiing 10 fold as a bonus.

Yes, I realize that. Out of town climbers also hire guides, and thus why i mentioned 'guide commitments.' Perhaps it will turn out to be an entirely local group, but at first glance the decision to keep pushing up in marginal weather leads me in that direction. Though given the information so far, weather may be a red herring. Regardless, it goes without saying the point is moot and the end result sucks none the less.

Very sad indeed, and condolences to the families. It's been a bad year. Alas, we will likely find out it's another example of out of town climbers pushing climbs in marginal weather due to scheduled travel plans and guide commitments. Must we keep learning this same lesson every couple of years?

No sports science degree, and I can only speak for myself, but yes, it's helpful. On multi-day trips I portion out chocolate protein powder into small snack bags to have when I reach camp. I like that it balances out the relatively carb-heavy diet (compared to what I'd eat in town) that I have in the mountains. I find it great for recovery after a long day. When not in the mountains I do weight lift a lot, so I seem to always be craving protein and the powder is an easy way to satisfy that. There are some varieties that taste very good; just look through the ingredients and avoid anything awful and overly processed. Like I said, I take chocolate as I think it tastes much better on its own than a vanilla-like flavor. It also mixes awesome with peanut butter or coffee if that's your thing. As for Gatorade, yeah, it's pretty crappy processed stuff, but a bit over the top to think it's going to limit your performance in some significant way. Nobody is competing in the Olympics here, and the difference between success and failure is not going to be determined on whether or not you drank a gatorade. The bromine crap in it is pretty fucking nasty though, best I can tell, and probably a good thing to avoid. I like one of the sports drink bottles with me on a trip (very light, good for mixing stuff), so I'll generally buy something in one of those bottles and once it's gone just refill with water, and mix in Cytomax, or something similar, from that point on. Wash the bottle and it will last you many trips.

Smart decision making, and hanging by the river on the east side is always a good backup plan. Glad to hear you made the right call on the conditions and enjoyed a great alternative plan. FWIW, I did this route years ago and if you make another attempt, I'd recommend a much earlier start. Unless you get an unusually early highway opening (or an unusually cold day), the sun is so powerful in mid-late spring and the route gets first sun as I recall. I think we left the car at 4am, climbed fast and I was still glad to get out of there as early as we did.

Let's just say it is a pleasant trail walk until well over 4k feet. Really it's quite shocking how little snow there is, especially below 5k. Walking on bare dirt on that long traverse the trail makes in the forest, I remembered being on top of at least 5+ feet of snow there last year (or maybe it was the year before?)...

I lost a pair off 3-piece BD poles (blue with black tape around them) on the road to the Hidden Lake TH, off Cascade River Road about a week ago. I'd love to get them back if somebody happened to pick them up and will gladly reward. If you happened to grab them, reply here or email at joshkaplan AT h o t m a i l dot com. thanks!

After we reported the incident I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by the USFS making some sort of sensible change to avoid this sort of thing from happening again. In the end, however, my original assumption that the organization as a whole is little more than the forest cops was proven true. All of the rangers we had talked to previous to the outcome were sympathetic and appalled at what happened. But when all was said it done, it was the bureaucracy that trumped all. When I was in Pinedale retrieving the stolen goods, I spoke with an individual who had been a wilderness ranger the year before. I told her what happened and she replied "That is exactly why everybody hates the forest service around here." Not surprising. I find it completely pathetic they aren't able to sensibly differentiate between a long-term cache and some food hung in a tree for a few days. As long as the wilderness is respected, sensible measures are taken to make sure animals don't get to it, and it is removed at the end of the trip, common sense should prevail and they should leave it alone. This is what I would expect from a organization tasked with land stewardship, and that is where my reasoning failed. In the end, they are land stewards second, and law enforcement first. Big Sandy Lake is the sad, shining example of this. Rules are enforced, tickets are passed out, and the wilderness is what suffers. The lake is teeming with people, horse shit is everywhere, and large sprawling, disgusting campsites proliferate across the area. Way trails lead every which direction, an expected result from enforcing campsites based not in accordance with what impacts wilderness the least, but an easy-to-police "200 foot" rule. But I digress. Despite learning this disappointing lesson, the area is stunningly beautiful and I look forward to returning soon. When I do return I will compensate appropriately for what I've learned and treat the USFS as I would any law enforcement agency: something to avoid contact with whenever possible.

Thankfully (this was Wyoming, after all), the tobacco in question was actually just regular ol' tobacco. We actually had a fairly long discussion on whether or not the food bags contained any...extralegal...substances before I committed to showing up at a federal agency to claim them. Thankfully I had been smart enough to travel with my pharmacopoeia and child pr0n. What a trip; tons of fun and in the end, the lone ranger only adds to the story though at the time various forms of frontier justice were discussed. The Wind River range is just incredible. I've wanted to go there for over a decade, so I'm glad to have finally made it happen. The most memorable aspect was the lighting. The constant travel of clouds makes for all sorts of cool light effects, often dramatic and surreal. I think there was all of one day where we didn't have an incredible sunrise and sunset. If anybody is interested, I have some more pics posted at http://joshk.smugmug.com/WindRivers2013

Your photos are always awesome, Jason. Thanks for sharing!

Very cool! Looks like a great adventure!

Cool trip! , id like to do this. How do you measure slope angle? Seems a bit high to me. Descent route is standard D/C route,right? I don't remember Roman Wall being much more than 35 degrees.

Killer TR. This area is one of my absolute favorites for ski mountaineering in the Cascades. I cant believe its been almost 10 years since we did our own version of the Forbidden tour. This was a great trip down memory lane and has me stoked to return to this area. Thanks! That shot of the moon above jberg is stunning!

Way to get after it Scott! Spectacular trip and photos as always. And special thanks for the chainsaw work, which I hope to take advantage of soon. Nice to see somebody taking care of the job the park service is too lame, or broke, to do!

Nice job, guys! Beautiful pics. Snowfield is a great peak, and definitely worth a return visit with skis

Very nice trip, and a great looking couloir! Glad you guys decided against the second lap. Id love to get in some skiing in the Chiwaukum area. How late do you think will be too late this year? Have things begun to melt quick east of the crest, or is the snowpack looking good?

In the words of my dearly departed friend..."Jesus Tits, Moses Malone, and all twelve disciples!!!" You guys are f'in nuts...in the best way possible. A couple of the pics look to border on reasonable for us mortals, but then ones like #s 3,4,5 basically make me piss myself. Stay safe, and keep doing your thing, gentlemen!

Nothing cooler than using somebody else's TR to cross-post a link to your own. So amusingly self absorbed. F'in awesman Dan! Coleman was over today and we were discussing this latest foray of yours. As usual the very thought of it makes my nuts retract

The lookouts are cool. Camp Muir is just kind of gross.

Yes; because this thread was clearly a discussion on the relative meaning of the phrase "common sense." Perhaps "intelligent thought" would have been a more appropriate choice? For those of us who actually enjoy this wilderness and visit these historic structures, keeping the lookout is common sense. Wilderness Watch, I'm sure you do some good work, but you are in the wrong here. I hope this legislation passes and the lookout is saved.

This is an A+ TR all around; a worthy homage to the always incredible Picket range!