AlpinistAndrew

The parking lot is plowed and has tons of spaces to park, for both overnight and day parking. The road up to Narada Falls parking area is plowed as well. Both times I have been up there in the last week or so the road was bone dry.

Climb: Tatoosh Range-7 days later-Castle Saddle Date of Climb: 3/27/2006 Trip Report: Well, last Monday I snowshoed up to Castle Saddle and was kicking myself for not having skis. So to redeem myself, I went back up (mainly because I love that area), but this time I was armed with AT skis. I quickly skinned up the road and began skinning up to the saddle. I locked my heels down and carved through the huge bowl below Castle Peak. Then I found a sweet steep gully and bombed down that. It was fucking sweet. Amazing day out. Nice snow. Posted some pics in gallery. Apparently my pictures are too big to post here. Gear Notes: Too bad there wasnt' a chairlift from Reflection Lakes to Castle Saddle Approach Notes: boot pack

Climb: Tatoosh Range-Castle Saddle Date of Climb: 3/20/2006 Trip Report: I had a one day off from work, but I wasn't feeling motivated and didn't have partners lined up so I went for an easy snowshoe hike in MRNP. Started hiking from Narada falls parking lot at about 9:30am and quickly arrived at Reflection Lakes. Trail was nicely packed. Great weather, but some clouds from the east were rolling in pretty quick. I was debating whether to hike up Mazama Ridge or go up to Castle Saddle. I saw a trail leading up that towards the ridge so I headed up there. Great trail all the way pretty much. Nice snow up in the bowls beneath Pinnacle and Castle. Little bit of ice on Castle Peak not much though. All and all a nice day out. Back at the car by 12:30. Pictures in gallery. Gear Notes: Snowshoes, shoulda had my skis Approach Notes: Packed trail almost all the way to Castle Saddle

Climb: Attempt-Chair Peak-N.E. Buttress/N. Face Date of Climb: 2/10/2006 Trip Report: It's always something. Perfectly clear, beautiful weather, reasonably firm snow conditions and a bootpath all theway to the base of the route. Only one problem. WIND. On thursday two friends of mine from Bellingham climbed the North Face of Chair and had a great time. I met my buddy Ian at the Alpental parking lot on Thursday afternoon. Several other parties had done the North Face ad N.E. Buttress that day, so we were stoked for some good conditions the next morning. How wrong we were. We started at about 4am and hiked the boot pack easily all the way to the jumping off point for routes up Chair. It was dark, cold and windy as fuck. We waited a bit for the sun to come up and to see if the wind would die down. It didnt. First we began ascending towards the N. Face. We could see the wind whipping about on the peak, throwing chunks of ice through the air like a damn tornado. Sharp crystals of ice careened through the air and pelted our faces as we approached the face. We turned around to some wind protection and made another go, but once again were forced to return to some protection due to high winds and snow/ice flying everywhere. We hunkered down for a bit and opted for the N.E. Buttress. We tried going up but literally couldnt. Winds were excess of 60mph, probably higher. At one point in time I raised my left arm to plant one of my tools and I was blown off balance a foot or two. We couldn't move. If you tried to ascend it took all your effort to not get air born. We tried several times, but the winds were crazy. We aborted, a little annoyed since avy conditins, snow conditions and weather conditions were so nice. Oh well, still had fun. Gear Notes: Maybe a few screws for the N.E. Buttress, my friend who did the N. Face said he only used pickets Approach Notes: Highway all the way to the mountain.

I am the one who thermofit your boots. It was the first one I had ever done. I have only worked there now for about three weeks. I had watched several done before and thought I had it down, but I was wrong. I apologize sincerely for my mistake. I was only trying to do my job, but I overstepped my bounds with what I knew. The employees at Backpackers Supply are very knowledgable and extremely helpful. That is why I have been shopping there for over ten years (even before they were located on S. Tacoma Way). It is a great store and that is why I applied and now work there. I am sorry I made this mistake and made Backpackers Supply look bad. I just wasn't fully knowledgable with the process of thermofitting boots. Again, my apologies to Shaun.

When you are hiking up the Hannegan Trail, it is the first mountain on your right across the valley. It is on the Nooksack Ridge. You can see it from Baker Ski area. The upper ridge is supposed to be pretty fun rock scrambling, but I've only dealt with the steep brushy slopes on the flanks of the mountain.

It wasn't a "perfect" climbing day or route, but I got out of Bellingham and into the elements. Any day in the mountains, regardless of a summit is a good day for me. I had a blast, and so did everyone else I was with. It's just nice to be in the alpine, even if it isn't the best conditions.

Climb: Mt. Sefrit-Attempt-Northeast Face Date of Climb: 10/29/2005 Trip Report: Wanted to get a mountain in before the snows came, but they've already come. Followed one of the routes in the Beckey guide. Dropped down the creekbed fromthe Hannegan Trail, crossed Ruth Creek and began ascending a boulder field on the lower flanks of Sefrit. Aimed for the steep walled gully. The gully was easy, but sometimes we had to climb up next to the creek and a few times waterfalls had to be negotiated (which meant getting wet). We arrived at the class 4 chimney/gully. Seemed harder than class 4. Wore crampons to climb it. It was wet, muddy and awkward. continued ascending easy slopes. By now we were in about a foot or more of snow. It was snowing pretty hard on and off. Made it to the mini glacier just below the summit ridge. By now it was 3pm and we knew we still had a fair bit of ridge climbing to do. We turned around. We didn't descend the gully becouse we only had a 30m rope. We descended snow covered rock slabs, and steep forested hillsides. We were forced to do a few rappels as well. We then proceeded to down climb/rappel by hanging on to slide alder. It was muddy, brushy and wet. Crossed Ruth Ck. in the dark. Back in B'ham by 9.

Not a problem, everything was fine, all bridges in, trail clear

Nope, not a problem at all. Hiking at night was sometimes better because the sleep deprivatin really gets to you and you don't know what the hell is going on. We had Tikkas and Ions (Ions are great for reading but not for hiking)

Yes, the 44 includes the power nap and all breaks.

Climb: Wonderland Trail-One Push Date of Climb: 9/9/2005 Trip Report: Myself, Masternate32 and two other friends hiked the Wonderland Trail on Sept. 7-8. We started at 4am from Sunrise on Wednesday and hiked counterclockwise. We carried only day packs. We took minimal breaks and one nap break. We made it to Longmire around 2:30am and "slept" 3 hours (which sucked, it was so cold). We marched forward. Our goal was 40 hours, but we slowed down a lot near Indian Bar. We picked up again afterward. We made it back to Sunrise a little after midnight. Time: 44:24. Fucking hard. I'll never do it again. I wanted a mental and physical challenge and to see if I could do it, which I did. I don't want to eat a GU or anything in bar form for a while. We engorged ourselves at the nearest Sheri's (Biscuits and gravy, 3 pancakes, and a skillet of eggs, meat and other goodness), the waitress was so impressed with our gluttony that we received free cinamon rolls. Now I'm going to go lay down for 2 days. Gear Notes: Not much Approach Notes: All bridges in

Climb: Liberty Bell Group-Easy Routes Date of Climb: 9/1/2005 Trip Report: Masternate32 and I went to WA Pass for 2 days. The weather forecast for the west side looked a bit unpredictable (though it turned out nice). I hadn't climbed in a while so I was in sore need of doing some climbing and lots of it. So we headed for where the weather was good. Nice weather (though damn cold in the shade). Climbed Liberty Bell, Concord and N. Early Winters on Wed. Thrusday left the parking lot at 10 (yeah we slept in). Climbed Lexington and to finish off the day soloed the S. Arete of S. Early Winters Spire. We started late in the day both days, but we moved pretty quick and were back at the car in he early evening. We met two dudes at the WA Pass overlook who gave us beers, whoever that was if you post on here, thanks a lot, that was fucking awesome. Overall good times. I cant wait to get on some more mountains before the snows come here in Fall Gear Notes: Rock gear, rock shoes Approach Notes: Those gulleys to access Liberty Bell/Concord and Lexington are so chossy it blows my mind, I ascended/descended too many trundle gullys for my liking, oh well.

Climb: MixUp Peak -East Ridge (Attempt) Date of Climb: 8/4/2005 Trip Report: Again, no partner. Got up early. Set the alarm for 4:30am, but that never happened. I woke at 6 instead. HIked up the Cascade Pass trail in 1 hour 15 min, but wiht a delay when bambi wouldn't move off the trail. Hiked up mixup arm onto the Cache Glacier, whichi is showing a bit of glacial ice in places. Got up to Gunsight Notch to discover a gigantic fucking moat. I suppose I could of rappelled into it off of a bollard or something, but I'm lazy. So I just hiked back to the car. A good five hours in the mountains. Lots of helo traffic over the pass going to the Shady fire

Climb: Black Peak-South Ridge Date of Climb: 8/3/2005 Trip Report: Sunday saw the collapse of my Pickets climbing plans. So, being with only 2 days (instead of 4) days off, I had to make do. Due to lack of partners (i.e. none) my choices were limited, so I opted for Black Peak, which had been on my list for a while. The trip itself was cake. There's a bloody trail to the base of the "climb". I did it in 7.5 hours round trip (car-car). The mountain is a choss pile. The last 50 feet or so was good. Amazing views however. The views really were worth the effort. Overall a good day out in the mountains. As I descened Hwy 20 towards Diablo lake on the return drive I saw a ton of smoke. After I crossed the Diablo Bridge paralleling Gorge Lake this huge fucking helicopter skyrockets upwards in rock throwing distance from the road, wiht a bucket attatched. Then I round a corner and theres like 20 cars along the road with rangers and fire crews. Apparently there's a fire there. Then as I enter Marblemount I see a dual prop plane circling low overhead. Then parachuters start bailing out of the things. Tons of action in the foothills of "The American Alps" (or so the sign says in Marblemount) Gear Notes: Helmet (for gods sake that rock is loose) Approach Notes: easy

Boston Basin route is not an official trail, it is just really heavily used, so they will not do any trail work there because its not a actual trail. it is in the wilderness, but that doesn't really matter, most of the trails in the park are in wilderness and they do trail work on them, but just the "official" trails

Does anyone have more info on the Barrier crossing into Terror Basin, I'm headed up that way in a few days and am wondering what I should look fro going in that way

Yeah, 2007 at the earliest. I personally don't like the idea. I don't know about the rest of you, but I generally don't plan ahead usually. More spur of the moment trips dependent on weather. I like the current system, though in some situations the reservations might be nice.

That's a great route. I've climbed it twice now, and may climb it again sometime. You really feel like you've accomplished something getting to the top of that thing. The 10 pitches of Ultimate Everything are pretty sweet, especially that last pitch.

hmm, no. i remeber the bolt but not the tunnel, where bouts was it?

Yeah, the gully on S. Early Winters spire is a choss pile, its a fun spring snow climb though. The gully on E. Wilmans Spire is awful. I climbed it a few years ago and almost died from a huge rock fall when descending the gully, fortunately the pile of choss nearly missed me. That gully sucks when dry.

Climb: S. Early Winters Spire-Southwest Buttress Date of Climb: 7/20/2005 Trip Report: I have climbed S. Early Winters many times before, but never up this route. I really enjoyed it. The 5.8 crack was a bit awkward, but sweet. There were some runout easy slabby pitches that made me sweat a bit. Overall an excellent climb on good rock. It was a great day out. Saw some paragliders up there which was rad.

can meet in Mt. Vernon Wed. morning. A day climb on Hwy 20. Black Peak, S. early winter spire (south buttress), cutthroat (s. buttress), or whatever. will pay for gas. call (360) 927-4285. cant waist this amazing weather.

Climb: Eldorado-East Ridge Date of Climb: 7/18/2005 Trip Report: Climbed Eldorado in a day via the East Ridge. 9.5 hours round trip. The approach was steep, but not as bad as I had originally thought. We didn't rope up until the flat part of the Eldorado Glacier. There were only a few crevasses showing and the glacier travel was cake. The summit arete was everything I had hoped for. The views were amazing and that walk on the summit ridge will surely be remembered. I would not want to do this climb as an overnight, it would be a real bitch to have to haul overnight shit up that trail, but w/ day packs it was fine. Approach Notes: Steep, but not bad

My partner situation is looking iffy right now. I am looking for a partner to do some alpine starting Sunday and going to Wednesday. Something in the Cascade Pass area or Triumph or Pickets or something else, all weather dependent of course . I'm in Marblemount. Got gear.