Buckaroo

the weather network has specific reports for National and Provincial parks. Here's the 5 day forecast for Manning Prov Park which is about 20 miles east of Slesse LINK

Assiniboine in the 1800's Assiniboine now

Trip: Canada Alpine - Road Trip, Castle Mtn. Eisenhower Tower, Canada Date: 8/5/2008 Trip Report: Photo TR of 2 week Canada Car Camping Road Trip. Summit on Castle Mountain, Eisenhower Tower via normal route. (for some reason Firefox won't see half of this post on my PC, so try MS Explorer if you have the same problem.) Big sky country at dawn at a rest stop just west of Spokane Lake Columbia near the source of the Columbia River on hwy 93 in Canada. Peaks on the Radium hwy north of Radium Hot Springs with some scattered thundershowers. A bridge at Castle Junction between Lake Louise and Banff. This Osprey nest has been here for several years. Castle Mtn in a rainstorm, Eisenhower Tower on the right Black Bear in a roadside berry patch. Whenever you see several cars randomly parked by and on the road you can expect tourists with cameras and wildlife. Castle Mountain in the sun. The hut is at the far left center edge of the photo, it's a little white/tan speck on the edge of the ledge at mid height of the mountain. Eisenhower Tower on the right with the Dragon's Back on the far right lower skyline. Brewers Buttress is at center on sun/shade line. Bass Buttress at left skyline of square topped tower on left. Crux 5.4 25M pitch (diagonal left to right) at the start of the 1,000'(vert) climbers trail to the hut. Exposed climbers trail to the hut, short technical sections, steep scree trails and rock gulleys, pretty well marked with cairns but would be hard in the dark. Hanging evergreen gardens and sheer rock cliffs. You can see the trail at the upper left in the photo at the top of a small scree/talus band. Looking down the hut trail with the Bow Valley below. You can see the trail faintly at center right of the photo. After gaining the ledge on the traverse to the hut. 6 person ACC hut 10 ft from the edge of a 1,000 ft cliff. Better not be drunk and wandering around outside in the dark to pee. A shale stone 2 person love seat 3 ft from the edge of the cliff. A freight train is passing by in the Bow Valley below. Looking back at the hut from the steep scree ledge trail that goes to the base of the routes. It's more than a 1/4 mile to the base of Eisenhower Tower from the hut. A light rain started about this time, about 10am. This scree ledge was about 50 to 100 ft wide and about 45 deg and the faint trail followed near the base of the cliffs above. Looking back near the end of the ledge approach as the rain increases. This may have been on the way back from the first early morning attempt which reached the top of the Dragons Back bypass gulley which is the normal descent of Eisenhower Tower. This was a 2 pitch 5.6 gulley with a nice little handcrack and some decoy and real rappel stations. The next day was better weather and I attempted the route again and got to within 2 pitches of the top on the right hand route version. Sustained 5.6 and a couple moves of 5.7. I got gripped when the rap anchors ran out and rain was on the horizon. That and not being sure of the descent made me turn around, in retrospect I should have gone because it never rained that day. Back down the climbers trail from the hut, beautiful hanging evergreen banzai gardens. This was the best weather day of a 5 day forecast so I bailed back to the car to regroup. A little wildlife(elk) civilization interaction in the town of Banff. Went to the hotsprings to recoup and planned on trying Castle again on the next good weather day about 2 days later. Some deer in town by the bus station, they were late to catch the bus to Jasper so didn't want to hold still for the photo. Goat on the road to the ski valley (secret almost legal car camp) above Banff. He was really concerned about humans and only let me get within 2 ft of him to take his photo. Banff from the ski valley road at night. Climbed back up to the hut with better weather. Mt Temple at dawn. Eisenhower tower from the base. Dragons Back in the foreground. The regular route goes to the scree bowl at half height and then follows the left skyline. The right side variation follows the ridge up the right side of the scree bowl. The Dragons Back was a fairyland affair, very exposed with only one route and very circuituitous. It had one place with a mandatory ascent of a 12 ft spire and down the other side and across a 5 ft rock bridge over the abyss. Above the Dragons Back, the 5.6-5.7 85deg sustained full pitch to the base of the scree bowl. Right hand route straight above. This photo was on the rap descent. A 50 ft rock spire to the left of the pitch above the Dragons Back. Radium hwy and Castle Junction below. Looking up the regular route from the base of the scree bowl, roughly follows the skyline. A bit easier than the right hand route with some 5.5 on the top 2 pitches. Since I'd already done most of the harder right hand variation decided to do the regular route. One of the summit cairns (about 6 ft high) with Assiniboine(?) behind. Rockbound Lake from the summit. A still mountain lake viewed from above is a portal to another sky. Brewers Buttress from above. Looking down the righthand route, Dragons Back below. Looking down the regular route from the top. Looking up the 2 pitch bypass gulley. Normal descent from the top of the Dragons Back. Going back down the hut trail after a successful summit. Emailed Raphael and he said that Mt Alberta was full of snow and wet. So the Japanese route will have to wait until another season. A side trip to Moraine Lake and Ten Peaks. Rented a canoe and paddled around the lake, pretty interesting soloing with a wind. This place was very crowded compared to 14 years ago. Mt Temple East Ridge (50 classics) from Moraine Lake. Big step and Black Towers clearly visible. The base is hella close to the road. WARNING Snaffle blood and guts ALERT. DO NOT VIEW IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH!!! This is not a crow it's a HUGE RAVEN and he's about 18 in long. North face of Temple in evening storm light. Mt Louis by Banff was next on the tick list. The Kain route looks like a good solo so copied the guide book pages and signed in with the rangers and went to the base and recond a mile or so up the trail. It looked like a go with a partly cloudy day, no rain for the next day. Woke up in the morning and it was raining so headed back home. Three Sisters at dawn above Canmore on the detour way home. Gear Notes: Trango S Evo's one 50M Twin rope, raps fixed ring bolts at 25M (10 raps + downclimbing) HB carbonfiber helmet ultra lite alpine harness, bugette rap device rain gear, puff jacket, ultralite bivy sack, go-lite day pack. 14 packs GU 2 qts water Approach Notes: 13 hour drive Seattle to Castle Junction of Hwy 1 between Lake Louise and Banff. 2-3 hrs trailhead to hut on steep 5.4 climbers trail. 45 min hut to base of route on steep scree traverse. 2 hrs climb(solo) base to summit on Eisenhower Tower regular route.

"I am uncertain about navigating the Crossover descent route in the dark." It would be tough in the dark. The key is a tree canopied rock gulley that goes down from the bench below crossover peak. You follow an indistinct stream/water course(seasonal) down through the forest on the bench until it dumps out into the rock gulley that empties into the basin below the NE Buttress. If you don't hit this key gulley it's bushwack central for a 1/4 mile. I recon'd it the week before we did it and marked it with cairns but it would have been really hard to find in the dark because after a week had gone by the stream had dried up. I highly recommend the crossover descent, as a better descent and as a worthy alpine ridge traverse in and of itself but it does take some routefinding. If you want I can draw a map with landmarks and elevations because we went a little different(easier) way from the Becky description and he doesn't tell about the bushwack bypass gulley. This is an old TR with some pics of the Crossover descent. Slesse NE Buttress TR

Have to agree with JosephH. Eight years of bush repug rape and pillage has underfunded our forests and parks. Who knows how much of the fee money is spent on recreational stuff but for sure there's a money shortage, just ask any ranger.

""it looked like either start was possible without crossing any ice"" You usually don't have to cross the glacier, the danger is you have to cross under the glacier(ice fall) on either approach. ""there really wasn't much left of it. Compared to how it looked a few weeks back it's tame."" Was up there one time when the very last section slid off. Believe me you do not want to be under it when it goes. If there's any ice/snow there at all it's still dangerous. But being an isolated patch that's not being loaded with new snow the biggest factor is probably warmth. So the best time is probably early in the AM, colder temps.

dohh, I stand corrected, sorry

"Buckaroo, Have you been up K2 or something like it?" when I was younger and thought I might end up climbing in the Karakorum or Himalaya (never did, never will) I studied the 8,000ders, K2 in particular. the 1986 tragedy is a pretty good read and gives some perspective on alpine climbing in general. hope I don't come across as a know it all,(really just a weekend warrior recently) just throwing some thoughts out there, maybe someone with more experience up high can comment. "No Shortcuts Too the Top" was pretty good. Apparently Viesturs had really good control of his willpower, to turn around several times when things got too dangerous. To know he could always come back later.

RIP in the mountains, fellow travelers. I wonder what the numbers are percentage wise compared to here? I have had the impression (true or not) that the euros are a bit more blase about death. To the point where some of them don't really care when they kick down rocks on parties below. The AAC should publish their Accidents book online instead of forcing people to buy a printed(waste of trees) book every year. That way the vital info about staying alive could be more widely distributed.

What kind of boots/shoes did you climb with?

""All this sounds like is a rock climber trying to sound tough. Alpine is above treeline. (<---that's a period) "" That might be true in general, but there are some notable exceptions. This is the west face, of one of the Cascade ALPINE Hardman Trifecta peaks. The EDM(winter) and the West Face(Claunch/Schoening) start at the lower left snow spot. We're talking crampons for the 60deg pine needles. NE Buttress of Slesse, the first 8 pitches have trees, the 6th pitch goes through a forest.

Yes, but it's a form of alpine Russian roulette. More than one climber has lost that bet on this route in the past.

BWAH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!! ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!! ---------------------- *uck treeline Alpine is "no walk up" summits and the art of suffering. If your legs and arms are all scratched up from devils club and 4 other species of stickers, if you are at least a day behind on sleep, if you have hiked 5 miles past where you wanted the trail to end, in the dark, with a fading headlamp if you've frozen your a** off because you went light on the bag if you ran out of water the day before and still aren't half way if a smashed bagel tastes like a 5 star gourmet meal that's alpine.

Blanket generalizations there Moses. Probably true for some of the mounties but not all. I've seen some messed up guiding to so that's not a 100% route either. The worse thing the mounties do I'll admit is encourage people with no natural talent on the assumption you can mold anyone into a climber. I think you are a born climber or not. If you don't have the necessary talent then all the training is useless and even dangerous. The main problem I've seen with guides is hogging the best pitches. I'm not sure if they were certified but one of them had his client jugging almost the entire Liberty Crack carrying both their gear in a heavy backpack.(too much gear). When the client passed us he was cussing up a storm. The other was on City Park. It was an aid class and the guide aided the first gravy aid pitch and sent the client on the second pitch toward Slow Children. This is not a good aid pitch because the upper section has some mandatory free. The client went off route looking for aid and got into some loose rock. You can't see the leader from the belay here so no one knew he was off route. When the guide jumared that 2nd pitch he knocked off a couple of pretty large rocks because the rope was running through them. The rocks smashed on the ledge at the top of the first pitch and luckily went a little wide of the base into the trees. A couple of climbers were at the base, that guide sure looked foolish on that day.

Feeling weak in the present company Seven of them. Mt Alberta, Japanese route, 4 solo attempts, 4 DNS(weather/conditions). Sir Donald, 1 attempt solo, DNS, chased by Grizzly and 2 cubs East ridge Bugaboo Spire, intended but never attempted (weather), (have done descent) Devils Thumb, was part of a Yoder expedition that never left town because the boat backed out. Edith Cavell, did the East ridge in prep for the descent from the N Face. Mount Temple, East Ridge, got a good look(photo) at it 3 weeks ago. Forbidden Peak, West Ridge, solo Mount Shuksan, Price Glacier, soloed Shuksan N face, Fischer Chimmneys, never Price Gl. Slesse Mountain, NE Buttress, twice complete from toe. Mount Stuart, N Ridge, once complete from toe. Liberty Bell, Liberty Crack, 4 times, once in 2 days, 3 times in 1 day The Royal Arches, once Middle Cathedral, East Butress, 4 times El Cap, Salathe, once, 5 days, led the hollow flake. El Cap, The Nose, first 4 pitches only. Sentinel Rock, Steck-Salathe, 2 pitches only

Read Books, F.O.T.H. and "Alpine Climbing: Techniques To Take You Higher" are 2 good ones. Get some rock shoes and go to the UW rock (Husky stadium), it's free. Or whatever is closer, Spire in Spanaway or the training rock at Marymoore park. You can sometimes get people to teach, and find partners at these places. There are climbing gyms also but cost $ and better for when it's raining. Hike Tiger mountain, the trails are convoluted it will hone route-finding skills. Little Si and Big Si likewise, with a pack for strength/aerobics. You can do crevasse rescue training from a tree in the back yard if you're careful. The Mounties are very structured which some may find inhibiting, and as already mentioned more long term. Guides are expensive and more recommended for those with unlimited money but limited time (ie CEO's). It depends where you want to end up. Most with natural talent (learn more on your own) can end up with good partners doing it on their own. And of course CascadeClimbers.com. Read some TR's, lots of good pics and info. And if you ever have questions all the answers are here. Eldorado TR Eldorado TR Eldorado TR

""At 18:00 hours Wiessner reached what he later reported to be 8382 meters. Only 15 meters would have brought him access to the summit ridge, which he did not expect to present any serious climbing difficulties."" ""They later down climbed the gully ..."" They went down because of Pasang Sawa Lama's superstitions about evil mountain spirits that show up after dark. "The Sherpas and the high-altitude porters can't be expected to play the role of fixing the ropes and camps on higher ground on K2." It might not be aesthetic but they can if they're paid enough, capable and willing. It's up to the leaders to make sure of these parameters. "Van Rooijen was dismayed to find, when he arrived at the Bottleneck, that the ropes had been incorrectly placed." The highest skilled porter had gone down sick. They lost time re-setting the ropes, putting their return time into the dark. AND "It was also becoming clear that not everyone was as skilled at mountaineering as they had made out. Confortola said: “At the beginning, everyone seemed to be experts, but they couldn’t do or didn’t do what they are supposed to.”" The single biggest factor, the objective hazard of the icefall taking away the fixed ropes. It's very likely all the climbers could have made it down the fixed ropes or similar (unfixed) terrain at lower altitude and without the high winds. How do you prepare for K2? Do you look at the fixed ropes as you go up and say, "could I make it down if these got swept away?" Maybe, maybe not. Do you give up because you don't have enough of a safety cushion? Some do, some don't. "There were too many who weren’t capable in the summit party." The altitude dulls the senses. Maybe like El Cap, you can climb 5.10 at the crags but get up on the big wall and 5.9 is hard. Maybe they were all competent until you took away the cushion of the fixed ropes? How do you prepare for K2 without getting on K2? "As he lay in his hospital bed last week, van Rooijen, 40, said the lesson he had learnt from the climb is that on K2 you can rely only on small groups of trusted friends." At these altitudes even your close friends can't help you. You are on your own, if you don't feel comfortable solo, you shouldn't be up there. And forget about the bodies. Everyone almost died bringing Gilky's body back and now this time the Pakistani climber Jehan Baig was trying to help recover a body and died himself. What's the sense of risking life for someone who's already dead especially in these conditions? The K2 death scenario has happened more than once. You've paid $1,000's to get to base camp, you've waited years in your climbing career and weeks at the base for the weather. You know the chances of coming back again may be slim. The season is near it's end, there's a weather window and you go for it. Who cares if there's a bunch of other climbers as long as you realize there's not necessarily safety in numbers in this situation (as has been proven in the past). You push yourself to the edge even when the fog of altitude and conditions makes it unclear where that edge is. You climb up past the fixed ropes thinking they'll be there on the way back. It's a little late too but your thinking is dulled from the altitude, you put yourself closer to the edge because you may not get this chance again. The edge is moved even closer when the ice falls and the result is predictable at that point. One thing that could be taken from the 1986 disaster is you should never go up without stove/fuel to melt water. The thing that might be taken from this year's tragedy is maybe a couple climbers in the group should have a 120M tech rap cord and a long ice screw for a V-thread just in case the fixed lines get taken out.

Colin, Mark, and Wayne's, Southern Pickets Traverse Josh and Wayne, Northern Picket Traverse Colin, Fast N Face of Robson Solo Wayne's Mongo Ridge

Congrats on your summit. I climbed the Hotlum-Wintun ridge back in 2002. Nice mountain, nice weather. After being used to the thick brush on Mt Rainier it was nice to climb more open slopes down low on Mt Shasta. More sunny days per year also.

I soloed NW Buttress variation from Goat pass. pg 278-279 in Becky guide. There was only one place where it was technical, about 5.2-5.4.(just a couple of moves) After it joins the West ridge there's one other tech crux (5.6-5.7). Don't remember that much looseness on the route. I had intended to do the West ridge but mistakenly started at Goat Pass. I followed the crest most of the way, not sure where I went in the Becky photo. The upper crux on the West ridge had 2 ways to go, one 50' slab in a left facing corner (5.6-5.7), or one short steep step, about 2 or 3 moves (5/7?) Neither very exposed.

"all I can think of when I see that crap hanging off that precariously perched rock is "sharkfin accident"" Actually someone has already died rappelling off the N ridge of Stuart. The large anchor bolder pulled off and fell down with the guy into the moat.

for the 14ers like Rainier you need double plastics. IMHO it's better to get a middle of the line and add some expensive heat formed liners for better fit lighter weight. I used the Koflach Degrees and added the liners for a boot that's lighter than anything available off the shelf. You can climb smaller stuff but they are a little clunky. for minimum snow conditions, lower peaks, you need something like the Sportiva Trango S. Nothing comes close for performance/weight, but it's not as waterproof as a plastic boot.

After I went over the hill I was looking for an edge to try to come closer to keeping up. Energy gel, specifically GU. It has the highest content to weight ratio of all the gels. A good energy drink mix also works, like Citomax. When on a hard approach/climb I don't eat ANY food until dinner, it conflicts with the instant digestion of the GU. That's why it works so good, it's near to pre-digested. If you eat hard food it diverts blood to the digestive system. I feel like a 20% increase in energy this way. food for dinner is dried cup-o-soups, taken out of the cardboard cup and put in a zip-lock(way cheaper than the freeze dried meal packs), bagels/baugettes or any other hard bread, dried instant potato can thicken soups to a stew. Olive oil for fat. I'm a vegan so for protein it's soy or almond cheese, an alternative is canned fish like herring or sardines. Salmon, beef, deer jerky is also good. For longer trips you have to up the volume. More than 3 days you start to eat more, your body demands it, up amount by about 1/3. On the 10 day ptarmigan traverse we had one old timer with us who brought 1 pound of butter. We were all laughing at him at the trailhead but near the end we were all begging for some of his butter.

It's all about keeping the gene pool at the razor's edge. Somebody has to do it, otherwise we would descend... So it's okay to die of heart disease because you don't exercise, or diabetes caused by coca-cola, or from pharmacuticals cuz you can't handle reality, or in a car accident because you don't know how to drive in your "safe" rollover SUV? 11 is a pretty small number actually from the total population of climbers.

Hi all ""How accessible is the sport or trad climbing around Seattle? Can it be an afternoon outing or a weekend?"" yes to both ""And the ice routes? Ok, I don't expect these to be 30 mins or so away from the city."" WA ice comes in for a few DAYS per year on average. Lilloett usually comes in, it's 5 hrs away. Banff is 13 hrs away, ice climber paradise The rain is not as bad as they say, it's WORSE. Probably why we were the first to have an indoor climbing gym. actually it's the short winter days combined with overcast skies for sometimes 2 months in a row during winter that can cause S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder) The sun lamp companies do good business here. but it's a climbing mecca. Rainier is good training for the bigger ranges and we're central to the Canadian rockies and Yosemite.