JoshK

I would rate them nearly the same. The ptarmigan traverse is pretty straightforward if you have very basic glacier travel skills and route finding skills. Getting into Luna cirque is more difficult in my opinion, but it would be easier to get out of if the weather turned to total shit. Marylou, I know you were concerned with getting across imperfect impass. If you simply want to get into the pickets, have you considered approaching via big beaver and access creek and climbing luna? access creek is a schwak, but if you can put up with that and a river crossing, the rest is straight-forward but strenuous.

forrest, I just looked at your pics again, and it seems on the one pic that you are traversing the ridge, you are opposite of where we were. The most nasty spot was between crooked thumb and challenger, but closer to challenger as I recall. It was just a shade left (going our way) from the crest. Perhaps we missed a more solid way. All and all, however, I would agree...it certainly wasn't constant death rock or anything. I would agree about more people this weekend than the entire rest of the year. My guess is because most people spend several days getting in and out of challenger, it's easiest for them to do it on a 3-day weekend. I guess we missed seeing the majority of the people (save Iain's party) since we were a couple of days earlier. BTW, right on! looks like a great climb!

I would worry less about the number and more about the people you get along with and climb well with...

Yeah, skis amplify unpleasent approaches. As much as I bitch about access creek we probably on spent 2 hours in there. I just hate slow travel, that's all. I remember the differnce between bachelor creek (a fairly mild schwak) with skis and without as being very large.

Wow, of all the places in the cascades to have two parties poking around in... Did you actually see the two parties, or was it just prior tracks you were following? If the latter, it was perhaps Wayne and I. It's amazing we climbed right over the summit of your object on our way. You may have seen some of the webbing we left... I am surprised the rock was decent on the face itself. The ridges in the area left quite a bit to desire... To (not) answer your question, the best approach into Challenger was unresolved for me as well. The way you went is a tad longer in milage than little beaver. I think little beaver would probably be a shade easier if the way was clear, but the numerous brushy sections, washouts, etc. probably makes it the harder approach at this point. I think I would consider a car shuttle at this point so I could enter through hannegan and leave through big beaver myself. Just a thought...

Glad to hear you guys ended up getting in the trip and summiting! I wouldn't be ashamed one bit, 7 hrs to 4:10 with you guys carrying overnight gear is within the same time ballpark, IMHO!

Damn smart scientist people types Nice job on the degenhardt too! I'm glad ya got some revenge. I have a profound respect on what you crazy people are willing to drag skis through after my battle with access creek!

You mean the fact that scamazon.com sells climbing gear??

After a particularly feet-screwing journey does anybody else get numb big toes? The outsides of mine are numb, I would assume from constant pounding on the boots? Am I dying or is this normal?

Believe it or not, those were shot with a Canon Powershot SD110, which is Canon's ultra mini fixed length snapshot digicam. I didn't bring my SLR since we were trying to go as light as possible. I was *really* impressed with the pics such a tiny camera took.

I think this is Beckey's route to millions. Let's sue on his behalf!

Lars, how you get your jollies in your free time isn't really the business of the rest of us. Please keep it in the bedroom.

Mount Challenger and Whatcom Glacier in foreground

Hi Mike, check your PMs. I had a few random suggestions.

supar sekrit first ascents of variations of variations of established routes!

OK, here are some pics for y'all! Mount Challanger, Whatcom Peak and Upper Little Beaver Valley http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5702&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503 Whatcom Peak from 1st Night's Bivy http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5710&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503 Wayne Climbing Up Whatcom's North Ridge http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5709&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503 Mount Challenger From Whatcom Peak's North Ridge http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5700&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503 Wayne on Sketchy Traverse. This was the mentioned loose rock and dirt section. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5707&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503 Climbing on the Ridge http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5706&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503 Wayne on the Summit of Crooked Thumb Peak http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5708&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503 Baker and Shuksan from our Night 2 Bivy on Ghost Peak. The Weather became completely fogged in shortly after this was taken. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5704&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503 Luna Cirque Glacier from Below Glacier. All these nasty slabs and talus beneath the glacier were quite tedious to navigate. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5701&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503 Luna Lake and Cirque from Climb to Luna Col. If you look beneath the lowest section of fog, near the center of the picture you'll see two very very thin lines of snow. The gully on the left also has a second smaller snow line. This was our bail gully. http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5703&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503 The Sound of Music http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=5705&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=503

Climb: Northern Pickets-The "Savage" Traverse (Whatcom -> Ghost) Date of Climb: 6/30/2004 Trip Report: Let me start by warning you of the ridiculously lengthy trip report you are about to (or not) read. If you don't feel like wading through my mental dribble, feel free to skip to the bottom where I'll give a brief summary. If you want the full version, read on, and hopefully enjoy the story! The long story made long: A month or so ago Wayne approached me with an idea for an extended trip up in to the Northern Pickets. We had chatted before, but had never climbed together. Apparently my reputation for doing stupid shit was enough to convince him that I might be interested in little exploration of this amazing area. We both figured that it's good for new partners to do a "trial" climb together, and what better place to do that then the most remote wilderness in the lower 48? After mouth gaping at the awesome pictures from the southern pickets traverse last year, I was sold. I had never been into the Pickets, north or south, and I was about as excited as a 17 year old with dad's car and a box of condoms on prom night. Early last week the weather reports were calling for a rather extended high pressure system and some scattered clouds. It sounded like it was time to make this thing happen. The plan was to enter the Northern Pickets via the Little Beaver Drainage and start traversing from Whatcom Peak and to get as far as we could, exiting via Access Creek and Big Beaver Trail. We headed in with no beta aside from the map. Leaving Tuesday night we arrived at the Ross Lake Resort parking lot and car camped. I reminisced the days of my mom rocking me to sleep as I drifted off to the sweet lullaby of rednecks in big trucks and retirees in RVs struggling to make it up the grade of SR20. After a leisurely packing session and breakfast we made our way down the trail to the Ross Lake Resort boat dock. Despite my veins surging with enthusiasm, I couldn’t quite shake the thought of exactly how much goat ass walking back up this trail was going to suck. Right on time Brett, the friendly neighborhood boat driver showed up to shuttle us off to the glory, sin, exotic women and designer drugs of the Little Beaver Trailhead. Thirty minutes later we arrived at the boat dock, disappointed to find out that the National Park Service lied and, in fact, there would be no drugs, women, sin or glory. Despite my disappointment we headed off on the Little Beaver Trail. Of course, it wasn’t that simple. The sign pointed towards a general area where we just *might* find the trail but wasn’t kind enough to let us know which one of the thirty winding trails would actually take us up the drainage rather than to another campsite, a shitter, or a bear box. I think it was literally thirty minutes before we finally started heading the correct direction. Yes, the Mounties would be proud of our elite navigation and route finding skills. Seventeen and a half miles laid between us and Whatcom Pass. To pass the time Wayne and I discussed the fact that unlike normal approach distances, seventeen and a half miles was so ridiculous that we couldn’t actually comprehend how far it was. Normally you can think to yourself “ok, six miles, that’s just like doing the Colchuck lake approach and then walking around the lake.” I didn’t quite have anything to compare this approach to, so I simply decided to compare it to something that sucked a lot. Turns out, I was pretty much right on. The Little beaver trail is quite overgrown in places and would make a most excellent place to get mauled by a bear as you are pushing through the easy but head high brush. It’s also a really great place to practice your advanced river crossing techniques, which I believe the 8th edition of “Freedom of the Hills” will cover. If I remember, there were a bunch of your standard stone hops, a nice several hundred foot long boots off, near ball soaking wader and finally, my personal favorite, a several hundred foot BW4 schwack to altogether avoid a giant washout created when the mighty rains of October gave the big “fuck off and get out of here” to the Little Beaver Trail. I was feeling altogether great until the last 500 or 1000 vertical feet of the climb to Whatcom pass. It was at that point when all seventeen and a half miles and the last mile of super steep trail hit me all at once. Low on sugar and water I crashed when I hit the first bivy spot a few feet above the pass. Fifteen minutes later Wayne shows up, scaring the hell out of me since I had managed to fall asleep on the ground already. Apparently he hit the same wall and decided forward progress needed to be halted all of a hundred feet below me. A bivy spot was selected, water was collected, food was eaten and bugs were swatted. It was just another day in the mountains. After a leisurely start we made our way up from the pass towards Whatcom Arm. As I said, it was my first time in the area, and I was blown away. The climb up the north ridge of Whatcom is classic, in my opinion. It starts as a beautiful snow ridge, turning into a steepish snow climb and finishing with a short scramble. It is certainly nothing technical or difficult, but a natural line on a great looking mountain in an amazing place. After summiting Whatcom, we made our way down to the Challenger glacier and roped up for the mega-bake oven crossing. The Challenger Glacier, and Mount Challenger itself again blew me away. The brief (and cool!) 5.7 summit finish found us at the top, with me mouth gaping once more. It was here that we got our first link at the insanity that was about to take place – traversing the alpine ridge of the Luna Creek cirque. The cirque certainly looks big on the map, but I think we were both pretty stunned at just *how* big this place was. Crooked Thumb, the next summit on the agenda looked quite a ways away. Getting off Challenger was the first obstacle and that proved to be troublesome enough. This was where we encountered the nastiest climbing of the trip; a scary traverse over some of the loosest and most exposed ground I have seen. The footing was nothing better than god awful, consisting of shattered small rocks and high angle loose dirt. Hand holds were provided by loose rocks on the right, and to the left was your consolation prize for fucking up: a big ass fall. Hours and hours of traversing, rappelling and more traversing got us to the summit of Crooked Thumb peak. It’s hard to explain just *why* the climbing is so difficult, but we think it centers around the fact that there is nothing that actually resembles easy ground on that ridge. Most of it is certainly non technical, consisting of 3rd, 4th or low 5th class, but it makes you always stay on edge. You can’t screw up anywhere. The second issue is that the ridge is just gendarme after gendarme. It’s much more involved than what you can see from a distance, or even lower in the valley. While some of the gendarmes might only be a few feet, it’s simply the fact that there are so damn many of them. More often than not, the choices for getting down were either extremely exposed down climbing or a rappel. At some point just before the summit of Crooked Thumb we hit our first interesting gear issue; we had no more rap webbing. This wasn’t because we didn’t bring enough either. We just found so much ground that had to be rappelled we were burning through webbing like weed at a Jamaican family reunion. It was at this point that we realized exactly how committed we were. There are virtually *no* bail points from this ridge. It drops steeply off both sides the number of rappels to get off in most locations would make bailing impossible. We figured the first legitimate place we could bail would be the Phantom-Fury Col, and that was a long way off at this point. We certainly weren’t thinking we would bail at this point, but the reality of the situation began to enter our mind. The ground between beyond us, particularly up and over Phantom peak looked very time consuming. Given the rate we had traveled all day, which we both believe was quite respectable, it was reasonable to assume it would take another solid day to get over Phantom. Given the fact that we would have to start bailing off slings, gear, etc. at some point, this prospects looked rather grim. Hours of more of the same climbing finally found us over Ghost peak and a few hundred feet below its summit with fog blowing in and the light fading. Wayne and I were both wasted. A full day of mentally tiring climbing, four summits and not enough water had taken their toll. In addition the weather looked like it could definitely go downhill at any point at which point the situation was going to get a hell of a lot more interesting. We decided it would be in our best interest to bivy before we made a tired mistake, so we got to work clearing a small ledge and making the best site we could given the location. We had no snow, so we would have to go without cooking and split the last 20 ounces or so of water we had. With the thoughts of deteriorating weather, a completely isolated and remote setting and the seriousness of the situation, sleep was not easy to come by. At 5:30 we climbed out of our bags to slightly better weather but the presence of plenty of clouds. We knew the weather was a crapshoot at this point. We could get lucky, or we could get rained on. Getting rained on would mean pushing our situation to a whole new level. Moderate ground would become very time consuming and difficult ground way well become impossible. It was time to bail. Several hundred more feet beneath Ghost peak we reached a very narrow and nasty looking snow gully. It didn’t look like a very reasonable bail out option, but I started to consider it. Wayne was about 50 feet ahead of me leading up the other side of the gully when we commented that it was impassable and we’d have to find another way. I reeled him back in and told him I thought we should consider trying the gully. He wasn’t optimistic it would go and, frankly, neither was I. For some reason, however, I held a glimmer of hope and thought we could make it work. The reality was that I thought the option of going up and over Phantom to the Fury-Phantom Col bailout looked even more improbable given the circumstances. With that we decided to give the gully a go. The gully featured the steepest snow down climbing I have ever experienced. It was narrow, unforgiving and frankly quite nerve racking for me. Our one saving grace was that the gully seemed to experience very little rock fall despite looking like a perfect bowling alley. At the bottom of the first snow finger we encountered a crux to get off the snow and onto a rock ledge which we would rap off. The only way to the rock was by down climbing off the side of the snow finger which was literally overhanging, due to melt out from the surround rock. Thankfully the moves were easily accomplished due to our advanced snow/ice tools: a light axe and a ski pole with the basket removed each. A rappel down the rock step and another long section of snow found us at the top of the glacier. The glacier itself proved to be another obstacle despite the fact that we thought we were now home free. No less than two wondrous bergshrunds separated us from easier ground. We first rapped off the only picket we had then were forced to rap twice down a rock wall to get around the second bergschrund, burning a pin and a stopper. The glacier was a fairly broken mess, requiring some weaving and retracing of its own. Getting off the damn thing and onto the moraine was even more excitement as slabby bedrock, much of it running with water, was interspersed with small sections of talus. The key was connecting the talus sections by traversing across low angle or flat sections of slabby bedrock. I believe Beckey mentions this part of the cirque as possibly “impassable” and it’s pretty damn close. The real nerve racking experience of the trip was finally over. It was only physical pain from here on out. We made the climb to Luna Lake where we enjoyed a few hours of sleeping in the sun, a hot lunch, gear drying and endless amounts of water. Luna Lake was a beautiful oasis as far as I am concerned. After our rest we made the climb to Luna Col, which I actually found quite a bit easier than I expected. I think the ability for me to get my mind “off edge” made things seem a lot better. We ran into a party of seven camped at Luna Col, including Wayne’s friend (Marty, I believe?) and our very own Iain. It was cool to put some faces to names. We of coursed laid the whole sappy story on them, hopefully providing some pre-dinner entertainment. We were both dedicated to running up and down Luna since it’s a selected climb and neither one of us had an desire whatsoever to return to the area for a while to climb it. Thankfully it’s a quick summit from Luna Col, especially without packs. As Marty, Iain and crew prepared to make burritos for dinner we quickly departed to find a camp lower in the valley to enjoy some deluxe freeze dried goodness. We ended up making a bivy on a stunningly beautiful knoll overlooking the lower part of the Access Creek drainage. Luna towered impressively above the valley until the clouds came in and obscured it. We then settled in under the ‘mid for some sleep. I, for one, enjoyed one of the best nights of sleep I have had in a while, a sharp contrast to the night before. We awoke with only one goal for the day: make it to the Big Beaver boat landing before 6pm, when our boat was schedule to arrive to take us back to the land of beer, cars and TVs. Of course, before we could think of that, we had Access Creek to attend to. I’ve had several people describe it as “not that bad” so I’m thinking we screwed it up. It was pretty bad. After the events of the past three days, neither one of us were in the mood to schwak, but schwak we did. The sight of the Big Beaver Creek was a welcome one. Of course, the Northern Pickets just don’t like to make anything easy so a ford of the very fast moving creek was required, followed by another twenty to thirty minutes of schwacking to find the actual trail. The trail was a blessed site, at least for a mile or two, before I began to curse the trail just like the ridge, the snowy gully, the glacier, the moraine and the schwak before it. The damn think went on forever. I received some joy from the amazing trees along the trail but I mostly just wanted to see Ross lake and the boat dock. We finally caught sight of the dock after what seemed like a day of walking. In reality we were hiking quite fast given our tired legs simply for the fact that we wanted out ASAP. Jumping into the lake (falling in my case) finished off the trip and was a welcome reward. The Big Beaver dock is quite a busy place, and we enjoyed telling our tales to the various families and couples that came and went. A kind couple gifted us a couple of welcomed beers. Bless their kind hearts! Right on time our ride back to civilization arrived, complete with the beer and chips care package we had left with Brett three days prior. It was good to be going home. Oh, and yes, the walk up the hill really sucked. In summary, the trip kicked ass. In four days we summated five peaks in the Northern Pickets, two of which I am sure hardly ever get climbed. All five were new summits for me, and all but Challenger were new for Wayne. I can hardly call this a failure. More than anything, however, the experience was worth it. The situation was intense and quite nerve racking at times, but we did what we had to do and we did it well. The Northern Pickets, in my opinion, are just brutally amazing. I have been plenty of remote places in the cascades, and plenty of places where travel is difficult, but nothing like the unexplored parts of the Luna Creek cirque. She doesn’t give you anything easy, and that is just the way it should be. The long story made short: Wayne and I traverse the Northern Pickets from Whatcom Peak to Ghost Peak. We entered on the Little Beaver trail and Whatcom Pass and left through Big Beaver, via Access creek and the Luna creek cirque. We got off the ridge and down to the Luna Cirque glaciers via a steep and nasty snow gully. We climbed Luna peak on the way out. Peaks summited were Whatcome, Challenger, Crooked Thumb, Ghost and Luna. Da' Numbers: 43+ miles 17,500+ feet 5 summits 4 sore legs 2 scratched up bodies and god knows how many rappels. Gear Notes: Small alpine rack, a bunch of webbing, a picket, super light bivy gear. One particularly useful piece of gear was a #2 trango ballnut. I felt that the traverse should be more difficult so I dropped this into oblivion shortly before ghost peak. Approach Notes: *The Little Beaver trail is really fucking long and washed out in a bunch of places. It also is quite overgrown (but passable) in many places. *The Big Beaver trail is also really fucking long, esp. when you are tired. *The guys driving the boats for Ross Lake Resort are awesome. *Beer is a wonderful thing.

peeps, get yourself a map and get creative. there are many ways into glacier peak and many are still passable. Here are some ideas: 1.) over buck creek pass from trinity. Yes, it's long, but totally reasonable. You'll also get the benifit of a normally crowded "wilderness" volcano all to yourselves. Treat yourself and climb one of the eastside routes that very rarely sees traffic. It'll be a much better experience than shitcum or frostbite, IMHO. 2.) take a mountain bike. When the FS says something is "impassable" what they really mean (generally) is "a one legged blind spider monkey on crack could find a way around". In other words, my guess is you can find a way to haul a mountain bike around a washout and make your trip a fun biathalon.

He got about the same grades as Kerry at Yale. By all accounts Kerry was a good student. Your confusing Kerry with Gore, who got the same Grades as Bush, but at Harvard. And, just for kicks, I should point out that Gore got something like 200 points higher on the SATs.

One does have to question how you can get into Yale with a 1206 on your SATs.

Well, considering they tell you to do anything BUT run, I would probably have not ran. Back slowly away, keep eye contact...all that shiz...

As opposed to BushCo?

What a fucking idiot, you are. Yeah, tv is reality to young punks like you, isn't it? Shut the fuck up and go back to mowing lawns for slurpee money. WTF was that for?! Where the hell did I say I thought it was reality? It's a show based on the premise that it just may be possible to get a decent guy in office that can actually do some good for the country.

A-fucking-men to this. It certainly is fair to say that "lead by example" seems to be dead. Obviously Arnold was a pretty good example of this crap. My favorite thing is people saying bush is good cause he comes across as a regular guy rather than a well-educated fancy man. If being a regular guy entails not being able to deliver a speech well, than I'd rather have the fancy guy! I am watching the West Wing right now. Damn, I wish I could vote for President Bartlet. He makes you realize what a bunch of shitpiles we have now.

I didn't know you had a youngin'. How old?