Jump to content

Toast

Members
  • Posts

    1437
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Toast

  1. Thanks for sharing Bill. My uncle was also in I Company, and he was probably friends with your Father in law. I didn’t really learn to appreciate the sheer heroics of who my uncle was until after he passed. The few 442nd veterans who remain today are now in their late eighties and falling away like flies each month.

     

    While my uncle was alive, he just my uncle Shiro. Since he passed away, I started helping with the NVC Foundation. Their purpose is to preserve the legacy of the Nisei war veterans. I began to hear firsthand accounts of what these guys went thru during and after the war. I Company was among the most legendary. After the rescue of the Texas Lost Battalion, a dimwitted Coronel called for an assembly of troops to recognize their accomplishment. When I Company passed by, all eight of them, he got upset at the laggards who were too lazy to get out of bed. Truth was, that was all that remained of them. The rest were casualties.

     

    When the war passed, a handful returned to Seattle. Racism was prevalent. There were No Jap Allowed signs posted on some of the businesses their families once ran. In 1942 they had a week or two to liquidate all possessions and were ushered into horse stalls at the Puyallup Fair Grounds and eventually onto remote internment camps in the interior.

     

    Anyway, Seattle wasn’t quite friendly to the returning Nisei war heros. Some of the veteran organizations like the VFW wouldn’t admit them as members. As a result, the local Seattle boys formed their own veterans club, the Nisei Veterans Committee, Inc. The NVC Foundation was formed to remember and honor these guys. Guys who paved the way as citizens, who took it in the gut without a sound, so that me, my generation and kids could go to college and have a better life. I have the highest respect for these guys, and I really appreciate you posting this.

     

    More information on the NVC Foundation can be found at

    http://www.seattlenvc.org

  2. Yep, the road to the normal dirtbag campgrounds (across the river and between the gwo bridges) is gated right at the turn off at the top of the hill (just past the cattle guard.)

     

    Regarding Rimrock Lake, it's been a while, but there are several camp spots near the outlet. There is a stream that drains into the lake just on the other side of the highway. The first road past the Dam crosses the river. Follow for ~ a mile then there will be a road off to the left that follows this creek. There is a pay campground with toilets on the right, but a nice dirtbag campspot along the sand next to the creek.

  3. I’m with Matt, keep it simple with one signal. You can anticipate what’s going on when the bulk of the rope is out (lead reaches the belay ledge.) Progress suddenly stops for several minutes (lead is building an anchor.) Rope suddenly feeds until you come tight (lead is taking up all the slack and putting you on belay.) Signal comes… and as you progress slack is taken in as you move forward (you’re on belay.)

  4. The prominent gulley up the summit pyramid will be melted out and a choss pile of loose and near falling rock. It’s best to avoid that if you can. If you like rock climbing, there is a really fun low 5th class route up the east ridge you can simul. You’ll only need a minimal rack – a set of nuts, a few cams to 2” and a lot of slings. If it’s not crowded, you can down lead and retreat the way you came. If you descend the gully, be sure to bring tied webbing to set up rap anchors.

     

    That said, late season is not a good time to dabble on glaciers for the first time. There’s a reason rock climbing and alpine mountaineering are on two different ends of the actuary schedule. If you insist on pressing on, read up on glacier travel and take a class on crevasse rescue.

     

  5. I was there on Saturday, and yes we occupied five of the easy routes centered around the Western Front. Generally, if you ask to climb a route, we will yield and pull our top ropes if we don’t have climbers on it. The gear left up top was bad on our part. That won’t happen again.

     

    As far as impact, we run the Royal Columns trip once a year. We purposely shrunk our class size in half a few years ago to reduce impact. We choose different crags for the four outings that comprise this class so we’re not tying up the same routes over four weekends. We do our best to try to coordinate with other programs so we don’t have multiple large parties at the same crag on the same weekends.

     

    Yes, we do impact the crag with our presence. There isn’t a good way around that. Our objective is to introduce lead climbing skills and anchor fundamentals to 8 – 10 students per year. Beyond this class, we don’t really encourage large groups. Most of our Intermediate climbs will be in pairs or parties up to four.

     

    For all the nuisance we cause, I still think we run a quality program.

     

    Tony Tsuboi

    Everett Mountaineers

    Intermediate Climbing Programs

  6. the schwack isn't that bad. I've been in both ways, and both were super enjoyable with amazing views. If I were to go in again, I'd try going over Watcom Peak. As far as the route being chopped up later in the season, I don't know. That was pure speculation. That shrund is big though. You can climb around to the left from what I hear.

  7. The removal of the toilets is a good thing. Nobody used them for the last six months due to their state. Overflowing with terds and garbage. Now we just need to figure out how to get permanent pit toilets installed.

     

    If you think about it, on any given weekend from May thru October there's 50 - 100 people camped out there. Sometimes probably more. Two permanent pit toilets would make sense.

×
×
  • Create New...