JoshK

Sweet climb guys. I am really hoping to get into that area soon. That looks like the climb to do. You say to go get it soon...think it will be shit on a stick in early August? Also, I don't see Ouzel lake on the map below the Depot glacier. Is it a new lake exposed from glacier melting or is it unnamed on the map? -josh

The first Civil Rights act was pushed and passed by the Republican party. Yes, I am fully aware of this. The "Republican" and "Democratic" parties have kept their names the same, but little else, in the past two hundred years. Remember the Democrats were once (not long ago) the party of the south and the Republicans the party of the Northeast. Sorry to say but the Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt would be Democrats today and hold about as much in common with today's republicans as a platapus does with an orange.

What is the best approach to use to this area? Beckey mentions using the Galene Lakes trail from B.C. but I have no idea if this still exists in any form. Are there approaches from the U.S. side that work better or are faster?

sweet, got what I need now! thanks, -josh

ok, i must be blind or dumb, but which one of these many fine mapping products do I want to view standard topo information? In other words, what is BC's closest equiv. to USGS 24k maps?

I am looking for TOPOS for the Canadian side of the Spickard/Redoubt/etc. group. Where is the best place to look? thanks, -josh

Question our emperor? How dare you, you unpatriotic rebel!!!

Insulting someone's intelligence or patriotism doesn't support an argument? hehe. it just occured to me - if questioning the intelligence of the president's actions (which, in this case, are retarted) makes you "unpatriotic" what does constnatly belittling the president for lying about getting a blowjob constitute? Sounds like treason to me!! Not to mention they harped on a president who inmproved the country across the board for EVERYBODY versus a select few, who, ironically, are actually quite a bit poorer than under Clinton. Fucking right wing idiots...they must thank god every day for discovering fear tactics and ideological brainwashing since their political policies have proven throughout the ages to be inferior. Hey, PP and co., what do you guys think about bringing back slavery and child labor? What about returning to no workers rights and the inability for a minority to get a fair trial? Your political brothers sure have left a positive legacy on this nation.

Very true, $ for $ the D70 is far superior to the digital rebels. Compare the two side by side and you'll find the rebel quite inferior, IMHO. FWIW, the D70 is basically a D100 with a plastic body instead of a magnesium. For climbing, it actually saves you several oz.

If last year is any indication of the typical schrund season on Buckner, then the NF coulior schrund will be a major pain in the ass. It was nearly all the way across (and deep) in late April / early May. YMMV. -josh

PP is the king of right wing propoganda dropping. He then dissapears and never really supports his argument after his initial turd-drop.

Yes, hmm, a blowjob by an intern or an illegal action by your top political advisor. I love it when you dumb fucks bring up Clinton every time Bush does something stupid. Get a new line jackass. Only a dumb fuck like you could defend parsing the word "is" and then act outraged over the semantics of "convicted". What the hell did I say about "convicted"? My point is you dipshits bring up Clinton every time Bush is attacked for genuienly bad things. "But yeah, Clinton lied about getting a blow job!" Shut the fuck up and get a new line. Peter Puget: Proving once again the conviction of an ingorant man when he thinks he knows what he is talking about. You and your unpatriotic homeboys are what is driving this country into the shitter.

Hahahha! Awesome man. A typically awesome TR. Don't worry, we'll hook up some equally stupid shit when we get together in August!

Yes, hmm, a blowjob by an intern or an illegal action by your top political advisor. I love it when you dumb fucks bring up Clinton every time Bush does something stupid. Get a new line jackass.

Two things... 1.) Hopefully he gets charged for his rescue. 2.) If the homeboy who had cut his own arm had been smart enough to give a "worry time" to a contact he would have an arm right now.

Nice job Eric! That is a great climb, I remember having a really good time on it despite freezing my ass off

Yeah, I've got some, unfortunately the areas where the views to the S pickets are best (on the E-W trending part of the ridge, between Luna, and the W Fury/Phantom area) was where we were climbing in what was basically a whiteout. I'm going through all of these pics and I'll see what I can find.

Yeah, as Wayne alluded to, it really makes a difference who you climb with, esp. if the anxiety index gets up there! It was damn fun, and I think we have a strange or funny name for practically everything we encountered along the way. -josh

Pro Mountain rules. I have been happy with everything I have bought and Jim always takes care of his fellow climbers, who just also happen to be his customers. He was willing to meet Wayne and I at the shop last week early morning so Wayne could get a piece of gear he needed before we left for the pickets. That was awesome and much appreciated! It is also just fun to check out all the neat new stuff that comes out that you wouldn't see shopping at the main stream places.

Do people ever do the entire traverse of the 11(?) peaks in one day or generally just the Pinnacle->Eagle group? If anybody has done all of them, do you have a trip report or something with info? thanks, -josh

In all fairness, in the end, Wayne and I were both equally wet That bivy was what we nick named "Ice Station Zebra". We built a rock "patio" inside the windlip of a glacier right below the ridge. The lip was very steep but the area we camped in was flat. It was a coooold bivy, hence the nickname. It did, however, turn out to be the right place to bivy. There was nothing remotely flat for a looong time after that.

The hard right in this country is the biggest collection of UNPATRIOTIC fucks in the entire populace. Never has a group of assholes been so selfish about pressing their own twisted beliefs and forcing them upon others and sacrificing what their country stands for to do it. You right wingers that sit here and argue that the conservative base of this country represents the "patriots" are so fucking blind it isn't even funny. I love this country more than anything, and that is why i want to save it from the assholes that want to ruin it! And those assholes aren't the liberals. They are the people that work to press their "ideals" on all of us, benifit their corporate backers at the expense of all of us and sell our fiscal future to the rest of the world to benifit their wealthy base. All of this crap goes directly against what this country stands for: a place where everybody's rights are proected, be it from minority or majority oppression. If you think that supporting people who believe that a powerful minority should hold a disproportionate amount of power over the majority is being a patriot, than fuck off and move to a totalitarian country where you can buy your way into the power structure and truly reign supreme over the rest of the people. On the other hand, I, and most of the others you think aren't patriotic, believe in making this country a better place for all. THAT IS A PATRIOT. You aren't.

Here are some pictures of our Northern Pickets traverse. I still have to go through them and figure out what pictures are from what parts of the ridge because without context they can pretty much be anywhere along there.

I'm working on the pics I can't find a damn card reader for SD cards at my parents house tho! The moral of the story, compared to last time, is that the ridge just "works" going East to West (as we did this time) sooooo much better than the other way. This time we were climbing UP the good terrain for climbing and rapping the crap, versus the other way. From Luna to East Fury is easy, as most all of the way is the same as the standard Fury high route approach. From East Fury to West Fury things got interesting. TONS of 3rd and 4th class, almost all of it loose, some super scary lose was to be had. There were also bits of low fifth scattered here at there. Getting off West Fury was probably the most interesting downward section of the trip. We ended up doing a double rope rappel down a nearly vertical wall. It was the most intimidating rappel I have ever done, and I think Wayne thought the same thing. Swiss is actually the easiest peak. It can be climbed via 2nd and 3rd class but there is still definitely exposure. The character of the ridge made distinctly changed from Ghost on. Ghost has several short pitches of mid fifth on very reasonable rock. We found the same on Crooked Thumb and Challenger from that direction was quite fun too. What made it interesting was doing the last two hours of Challenger, including several technical spots, in the rain, with some ice pellets mixed in for good measure. I will write up a full TR (I need to remind myself of all the lows and highs anyway.) when I get my pictures and some sleep. As for your question, Blake - we scrutinized every ounce since we had to haul the stuff over so much climbing. The rap rope actually saved like a pound and a half. We only wanted (needed, rather) one rope because we simul-climbed everything we didn't solo with the exception of maybe 4 belayed pitches and we guessed (correctly) we wouldn't need to make any full rope lead-follow pitches. BTW, great job on your climb too!

Climb: Northern Picket Range-Surviving the Fence (N Picket full ridge traverse) Date of Climb: 7/16/2005 Trip Report: FOR IMMEDIATE AND PREMATURE RELEASE Seattle, WA - On July 16, 2005 Wayne Wallace and Josh Kaplan completed the Northern Picket Range summit ridge traverse, also known as the "Cascade Nonfecta." Sponsering and recording the event was their chief sponsor, "Uncage the Bowels." UTB coordinated the timing effort, hiring experts from Mountaineering Inc. to make sure the effort was "official." The final time came in shortly less than 6 days. In the highest standard of UTB productions and mountainspeedclimbing.org records it must be disclosed that the two elite alpine mountain endurance speed climbers did not operate the speedboat used to travel ross lake. For additional information please contact Uncage the Bowels productions. Summits: Luna -> E Fury -> W Fury -> Swiss -> Spectre -> Phantom -> Ghost -> Crooked Thumb -> Challenger Gear Notes: Used: 60m 8.1mm half rope 50m 7mm perlon rap line BD firstlight tent ghetto-rigged with skipoles instead of real poles super light bivy gear 1 akpine hammer each medium alpine rack Should have had: I should have had rain gear like Wayne did. Approach Notes: Used Access Creek for approach and Eiely-Wiley Ridge for the deproach.