JoshK

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.

This is the top of the line Geko, the smallest GPS currently made. It has all the features of the others with additional memory (nice for sending lots of waypoints from your computer) and an actual barometric compass and magnetic compass. The utility of the actual sensors is huge. here is the product at REI's web site: Garmin Geko 301 @ REI Product is $230 retail. I am asking $190 and of course you save sales tax and/or shipping. Again the unit is brand new and in the box. -josh

a most awesome picture!!!

I was at a gas station on Mercer Island a few years back and there was this old VW bug there with a huuuuge cloud of nasty smoke pouring out the back. The entire gas station was clouded over with this crap. When I went in to pay I asked the guy at the desk what it was all about. The response: "Stupid bitch put deisel in it." HAHAHAHAHHAHA -josh

I heard Bin Laden submitted a paper on a new heuristic for the Travelling Salesman Problem. LOL

Yo...how broken is the Lyman glacier generally? Is this thing tame if you take an easy line up it? I am considering a solo of it but don't remember how slotted the thing is. thanks, -josh

Utah...pfffttt... That summer skiing Crystal opened up that huge snow year like 5 or 6 years back was pretty damn fun.

that's a hell of a lot better than choking on a pretzel... Or puking on a Japanese diplomat...

You even bothered to look into what he does with his time and money outside of music? If you don't like U2, fine, but I think insulting him as a person is pretty low. By the way, what was the last charitable work you did again?

The point was that it is at least something and maybe it got a few people thinking and more aware... After all, are we talking about it? Yup. I would say if it changed a couple of minds in the current and upcoming generation of young people it was worth it. But, hey, that is just my opinion.

Some of you people are complete idiots. A lot of the stars are awesome people that contribute a ton to causes. Bono from U2 has to be one of the best people in this world when it comes to getting a message out and doing what he can. Shut your pieholes if you don't know what you are talking about because I bet the majority of those performers will do more for the world than you ever will.

HAPE or HACE at 14k?? Uhh...ok. I can't really see that happening to anybody in climbing shape, but who knows. I would agree with the possible dehydration. I would just carry way more water and drink constantly. An extra 5 pounds of water will not make the difference between summiting or not. Here in CO i pretty much only climb peaks above 13,500 and no matter how used to the altitude you are, low water equals a nice solid headache. And there is nothing worse than bouncing down boulders or scree with a headache....ugh... -josh

I didn't bother reading this thread...but the reality is Alberto Gonzales is actually *good* compared to the list of schmucks he might choose from. The fact that a bunch of the neo-con bozos consider him "too moderate" is a very good sign. I did a research paper on the guy and I must say he isn't as bad as some liberals might be led to believe. We really could do worse. In particular check out some of his decisions he made regarding abortion when he was on the Texas supreme court. He is against it but upheld pro-choice laws on the base that he considered his job to merely rule on the laws as the existed, not how he might want them. The fact is we aren't going to get somebody I am thrilled with considering we have a bumbling neo-con president and a republican senate, so I've accepted that reality and will be pulling for Gonzales. It all hinges on the good Republicans stepping up to the jackasses on the hard right that will try to get somebody extremely hard-line nominated. As for renquist's possible reitrement (not likely) or passing, I consider it somewhat of a moot point. He is a down the line conservative vote on the court so replacing him is essentially little change from today's situation. Lets just pray the older "liberal" justices, who are all really good people I may add, hang on. John Paul Stevens in particular... It is going to be sad to see him go. Above all else, however, i am sad to see O'Connor go. In today's world of super partisan politics and judicial wars she was a good woman. The fact that you actually didn't know a lot of the time how she would vote was a great thing. -josh

There was a guy next door to me who was considering joining the army. He said to me "It's not going there to die for no reason and republican lies that scares me off, its just what the damn liberal media is saying about the war." Yes, I am being very sarcastic... Inhofe is an idiot.

Well, I'm sure Europe will be more than happy to NOT have you visit. Your loss...

Gotcha. The part about climbing the east ridge on rock, however, is definitely to avoid the inspiration glacier, as it's upper part comprises the NE face of Eldo...

Yes, but one can climb the east ridge direct (3rd/4th class rock scrambling) and avoid the steep glacial bits of the classic "east ridge route" (which is actually more like NE I think). The traverse of the glacier to get to the base of the east ridge involves some hopping of small crevasses, but I've done it unroped, so it ain't that bad. I was referring to the Eldo glacier, not the Inspiration glacier. The Eldo glacier is the one you have to climb to get out of the Roush creek drainage. Once you are on to the inspiration it is indeed trivial from that point forward.

He nails it dead-on. *THIS* is my problem with the Republican party of today, not the differing views of what government should be of the previous 50 years. That was GOOD for the country as debate generally is. Today's politics is garbage. Like he said, we fight about junk issues like Terry Shaivo and Gay Marriage while the role of our country gets more and more twisted.

Just a note...I've done all the suggestions people have thrown out there (sahale, snowking, ruth, eldorado, silver star) and I honestly think the Eldorado glacier is a tad more serious than the others. Granted, it is pretty simple but if your goal is super simple glacier travel then it is a slight step above the others. -josh

Would you be so bitter if we all chipped in some $ to get you a BJ? HAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHAA Best post I have seen in a while.

Man, the crap they consider "bushwhacking" or "brush" here is nothing!!! This stuff can't even touch the east of crest Cascades brush, let alone the low elevation megabrush on the west side of the crest!! With this said, I dont think Klenke would find enough challenge here.