AlpinistAndrew

I just got back from class and I didn't know what the hell was going on. I was with friends last night celebrating 4/20 to the end. When we wern't smoking we, we were eating brownies with weed. Fortunately no more class today. Cheers

I went telemark skiing with one of my friends (masternate32) and my friends dad, plus two of his friends. We skiied from Narada Falls to Reflection Lakes. Set up basecamp at the lakes, then skiied up to just below the ridge, to the left of The Castle. We then skiied back down to Reflection Lakes. Snow conditions were pretty good. This was my first time telemark skiing too and I really enjoyed it, it . We then camped at Reflection lakes and skiied out the next day. Weird weather though, it rained a lot for a while, then it was very clear Saturday night, until we were woken up by thunder and lightning (very close to us). We woke up to 6-8 inches of new snow. All and all it was a great trip, though we got a little more wet than we would have liked. .

I'm sure there has already been a thread on it, but, I don't remember seeing it, so I'll just start my own to vent my anger at this. I went to Larabee State Park the other day to do some bouldering, and saw all these signs saying "parking fee area" and that i had to pay $5 to park. Now, I understand the purpose of the fee, but really. $5 to park for a couple hours at a state park, thats pretty pricey. So, then I was going to see if I could get an annual permit, and it costs $50. I don't go to that many state parks, just larabee, maybe a few others, so that's kinda pricey for me. An annual pass for Mt. Rainier Nat. Park doesn't even cost that much. I just don't like the whole thing. .

going to smith rocks for a couple days to do some rock climbing and just hanging out. .

The cracks were already there.

sorry for any confusion on the "cracks". i am not an avalanche expert. my partner and i just knew that whatever it was, it probably wasn't good.

It was definilty slush, very high water content. lots-o-rain.

Yeah, we were definilty concerneed about the shooting cracks, but it looked alright, plus we tryed to stay in the trees. also the forecast said most of the stuff in the lower elevations had already slid, so we weren't overly concerned, but we didn't waste our time in the avy prone areas.

My climbing partner (masternate32) and myself, wanted to get away from school today and do some climbing, but the weather and avalanche outlook wasn't looking good at all. So, we decided to head to Guye Peak. Our plan was to do the South Rib. We got there and began postholing through snow up through the trees, then to some mildly open slopes in which we saw some shooting cracks in the snow. Oh, I should mention that it is raining fairly hard too. So we head up to the south side of the mountain and start going up, we were on snow for most of the ways, until higher. there was one rock section we did lower down, it was more like climbing a waterfall. We made it to this one rock section, just to the left of the south gully about half way up the ridge. I don't think we were on the rib proper, probably on the spur or something; we just went upwards. Well, it was raining and hailing and the rock was soaking, not very enjoyable and we couldn't friction on the rock, so we descended. We learned why you don't climb when it is raining hard. Still had a good time though, glad to get away for a short day. , definitly will be going back this spring/summer on a nice day.

We couldn't see anything actually, it was a complete white out up there. The slopes we were on at the time wern't the most prone slopes, but considering the unstableness of the slopes, and since we knew we would have to go up slopes we felt it unsafe.

hell yah feta cheez and beer mix, honestly what doesn't mix with beer, hell ya. .

from bellingham eh?, good town. you got to school here or something (at this point in time i am , oh yeah). belling ham is good, lots of climbing here , definiitly. good access to lots of areas: squamish, mt. erie, mt. baker hyway 20 and souther brit. columbia for alpine stuff, great location.

the funny thing about the whole trip was that there were a whole bunch of jacked up pickup trucks and all sorts of SUV things and all wheel drive cars and they sucked. It took us two hours to drive fromt he trailhead to the main road, because the guys ahead of us (there was a line of cars) kept getting stuck and sliding everywhere, while my little, low, camry didn't slip a bit, yet Mr. Expedition couldn't handle it. . again, my car rocks

How might I go about getting a copy of West Coast Ice, i've looked at ebay and a few other used book store places. Any ideas/hints.

My friend and I attempted Mt. Pilchuck today. We stopped about a mile or so from the top, we were concerned of the avalanche conditions and we did a reuthschblock test and confirmed our worry, the conditions were in fact very unstable, plus we knew that the avalanche danger for the day was "considerable". So we bagged it. However, driving was the most fun. My '86 toyota camry kicks ass. there was a lot of snow up there and my friend and i slapped some chains on the front and off we went. the snow in the middle of the road was high enough that my car was acting like a plow and you could feel the snow pushing up underneath. we did a bit of rallying in the parking lot as well. we were very impressed with my car's performance. my car rocks.

Yeah, I was there when that guy took the fall on Icy BC. I was to the left waiting for my friend to drop a rope down for a toprope, when I saw the guy fall, but from my vantage point I couldn't tell whether he hit the ground or not, until I walked over and saw what was going on and that he didn't hit the deck. Still scary to witness though (and really scary for the person it happened to).

I went ice climbing with a friend up at Lillooet this weekend. It was my first time ice climbing ever and it was a lot of fun; it was awesome. We climbed at Marble Canyon, at Icy BC, then on Sunday we climbed at the Rambles. It was great, what an awesome area and an awesome type of climbing. Icy BC was in and most of the flows were fairly thick. The rambles was in for the most part, but wet. Overall a great trip. Also we met some guys from this site as well. I had fun.

I was looking at the King5 website, www.king5.com, and I saw that there are two hikers missing since yesterday near Big Four Mountain. Hopefully they find them and they are okay. It said they have been missing since yesterday and they weren't prepared for staying overnight.

Most of the companies that claim they don't import from Middle Eastern countries, we don't even have around here and/or I've never even heard of. Citgo is the one that is part of the 7-11 chain. There are Conocos in WA, but I have only seen them on the eastside of the state.

I saw it when I was skiing not this past saturday, but the previous saturday (presidents day weekend), I was also up there on presidents day, the day it got dumped on. The lower section was very thin, probably not climable, however the uppper section was much thicker and looked climable, there were also some small flows to the right of pan dome, but they are for sure covered by snow now.

I went on that duck ride in Seattle. The ride where they re-outfitted the world war II amphibeous craft. They first tour seattle, then they drive into Lake Union, it was neat. Space Needle is cool too. Pike Place Market.

Well, I have to say I like the view from Sahale, definitly cool, probably my favorite. However, I also enjoy the view from Pinnacle Peak (Mt. Rainier NP). You have a great view, actaully an awesome view of rainier, you can see lots of other peaks in MRNP, and you can see, Hood, Adams, St. Helens, and sometimes Jefferson, plus Goat Rocks.

Yeah, I have come to know many of the roads in the area well, considering it took me several attempts last year to even get to the base of the ridge (those damn roads). There was a thread about how to get to the base of the west ridge of n. twin, so you can read that on how to get to Daily prairie, the jumping off point for routes on n and s twin. There are several ways to get to south twin, I'll tell you the way we tried. You hike along the daily prairie road, but instead of taking the second spur road on the left that goes to west ridge of north twin, you keep hiking to the next spur road. You follow this road for a ways, staying on the main road (its easy to follow), unitl you are in the middle of an old clear cut. The main road continues to the right, crossing a creek immediatly (Don't go that way). Take a left off the main road that head directly for a bowl between the two peaks. There is a piece of tinfoil and some surveryers tape here. Follow the road as far as you can, then just hug the side of N. Twin and go through the trees until you reach the bowl between the two peaks. You can see the W. Rdige of S. Twin and just walk across to it. This is a long approach and like i said, would be a good overnighter.

Saturday, two of my friends and I decided to attempt the West Ridge of South Twin. We started at the gate by the middle fork of the Nooksack. We had hike maybe a mile up the trail, when a pickup rolled up. They asked us if we wanted a ride and of course we said yes, so we jumped in the back and they drove us until you could drive no further. They were three guys from WWU, the were going to ski the North Slope of North Twin. So we plodded on, we finally reached a point where we were deciding which logging road to take to get to the North-South Twin basin, so we could access south twins west ridge. we finally found the right road (there is some flagging and a piece of tin foil there). We did a bit of bushwacking, until we caught view of the west ridge. We saw we wouldn't have enough time to do the west ridge of s. twin, so we scramble up to the ridge crest of n. twin's west ridge. We climbed up, but the farthest anyone got was the steep headwall, just below the false summit. So, we descened the west ridge. It didn't really matter to me, since I have climbed the route before. Also we didn't bring a rope or anything. Then we made the grueling hike out of there. Overall it was fun of course, awesome views and perfect weather. The snow on the north slope area was perfect for skiing/snowboarding. I plan to go back and do the west ridge of s. twin, but as an overnight, its such a long somewhat complicated approach.

What's the word on this mountain? Has it been getting much snow? Has anybody seen it lately? I haven't had time to check out the conditions of mountains lately.