JoshK

How would the White Salmon be for ascending as well? I like the idea of skis on at car, skis off at car and no forests, booting, etc... :-) I'm sure it's slogarific but are there major isues with shrunds, bridges, etc?

Gorgeous. Thanks for sharing the picture, they are great. Looks like a pretty awesome trip.

Ahh Torreys. Such memories of the staggeringly boring Sawatch range. That long coulior on Mt. of the Holy Cross always looked cool. I found other random couloir that were fun too, but everything not a coulior would always melt out so early. P.S. That picture of Hood looks fuggin' glorious. Long live the PNW.

Coming back from the Teanaway yesterday we found a tick just kickin' it on the dash of the car. Wayne quickly dispatched of it and the three of us proceeded with the pseudo gay manshow tick inspection in the parking lot of the burger place outside of Cle Elum. Thankfully we found no more ticks, nor were we acosted by local rednecks. Be careful and check yourself out there!

Grats on the climb but climing w/ and around that many other people sounds aout as pleasent as the receiving end of prison sex.

A-Basin...bah... Yeah, they stay open late with a north facing bowl tucked up on the continental divide. Yesterday in the Teanaway we were skiing a full snow pack in one of the driest and quickest to melt out areas in the Cascades. PNW ftw, CO ftl!! Oh yeah, yesterday's turns ROCKED!!!

Oh wait, no, it's just June. 4k freezing levels and accumulation? WTF? Who is skiing and where? I know somebody must be!!! -josh

Great pictures, thank you for sharing.

I've had the WM highlight for years now and it's still going strong. i really like the bag overall and it's accompanied me a lot of places in a lot of different conditions. with that said it's a bit tight in the shoulders for me. whenever i end up destroying the wm i think i will take a serious look at those mont-bell bags. the stretch just seems like it would be very comfortable, esp. for a roller-sleeper like myself.

With regard to running rope over webbing w/o a biner - wouldn't this be a matter of common sense, for even a non-climber? Even before I had climbed, knowing the concept of friction would have been enough to make me think twice. The handful of times I've given advice it has been happily welcomed - probably because i'm a fellow noob. thankfully a noob that can tie knots...i think... : As for driving on public roads, ugh...my rule is trust nobody. actually scratch that. i trust that the housemom on the cell phone in the benz suv/minivan will swerve at me at any moment so i protect the traverse away from her and in to another lane.

it takes a sharp photographic skill-set like joshk's in order to render me palatable to the naked eye! I completely forgot about that picture...definitely captures the moment, with nothing being visible 500 feet away. Awesome epic descent 1 mile from the car...

Has anybody tried to acces the beverly or stafford creek trails? are the THs accessible or will there be roadwalkinbullshitiness do deal with? thanks!

Do they still keep the White River rd open to Tall timber ranch?

Hey folks, i was wondering what all the recent warming has done to the snowpack up near Snoq pass. i know there is a lot of snow, so i'm wondering much it's melted out at lower elevations. Has there been enough warming to expose brush, river crossings, etc?

"Alex always seems open to name changes out at Strobach when you get the FA." Didn't realize there was a name approval board for climbs anywhere, let alone a dinky little collection of ice in WA lol.

Very nice! More great North Cascades scenery and looks like a great adventure. What great timing with John flying over.

Wow, some really nice photography there. Great route, gorgeous conditions - way to capture it! :-)

TY for the replies. Yeah, i figured the more they discourage it, it'll cut down on a lot of the people that actually think it'll be a 7 hour drive. I am already popping xanax to withstand the the onslaught of patience-destroying logging trucks going 25mph on 7 and 12.

OK, so tomorrow I need to get to Portland. WSDot says only essential travel only, and damn right, our Tool concert is essential travel. These morons also tell me to go through Yakima and the Tri-cities to get there due to a tiny 20 mile closure of I-5 due to flooding. So...my question for all you brilliant people is what is the best way to bypass this MP 68->88 section of I-5, other than the "detours" the DOT is suggesting? A quick glance at the map shows me various options with SR7 and US12 and some other roads I don't recognize. Any help greatly appreciated... -j

IMHO, this would make a great winter route! I'm not sure what Alex is talking about, there are no exposed moves I can think of. In a few places the ridge becomes narrower but there were always easy places to tuck yourself in to an alcove or move to the left of the ridge where it's lower angle. For the most part the route is low angle scrambling. Getting down the other side should be a cake walk as long as you have some stable snow conditions. But I should mention, as somebody else did, that if you want an epic, leaving from the regular start location wouldn't fufill that goal. Get some 'nads and walk from the road closure!! Epic accomplished!

These discoveries will shake the very foundations of geological understanding of the PNW. All my life I have been raised in this area believing the north summit of greenwood mountain was not, in fact, taller. Sure, rumors existed this may have been the case, but we were taught it was merely heresay, spread by errant climbers arriving on the wrong summit. Now all I knew, all i had come to understand, turns out to be a lie. I'm not sure where I am going to go from here. With as much confusion I have in my head, i can't imagine what the geologic science community must be feeling right now...

Layton, best of luck in your new home! But I might ask - why would a normal (i.e. non mormon, booze drinking, woman touching person) ever move to SLC? No amount of weather can make up for shitty, water downed beer, girls who wont put out, and a generally cultureless environment. Us heathens will miss you! P.S. Corrupt who you can...save one mormon, save the world...

When I was at CU boulder it was well known that 5-years was the normal graduation, not 4. I knew people that had been going there even longer. You are not in a rush to leave college when you live in Boulder. As for Durango, etc. and the other Colorado towns, just understand that in terms of size they are all vastly smaller than Boulder, which is also very near denver. If large (for the mdiwest at least) city access is important, along with a much larger selection of hang-outs, than Boulder is the place to be. It all depends on what you are looking for. Out of state tuition is definitely over the top expensive, but living for a year in CO to get residency, as mentioned, isn't too hard and it saves assloads of money. Overall I would say if you can't have lots of fun in Boulder you are either a.) dead or b.) on your death bed. -josh

Hey Trog, how do you think the skiing would be up there the next couple of days?

Boulder was a great place to live. I won't even join the bandwagon and bash it's culture. It has hot college girls, nothing more you can ask for. Yeah, there is money there, but that certainly has it's plusses and by and large the people are great. For rock climbing access it's unreal. The weather was awesome. The only letdown were the Colorado rockies have nothing alpine. The "big mountains" are largely choss and sadly enough i did 30 or so 14ers after I finally just forced myself to think of it as going for a hike. And for skiing, PNW any day. Colorado skiing is as overhyped as it is overpriced. If you love groomers, on the other hand, it's heaven for that. I will throw in another nominee - Missoula, MT.