cluck

You were addressing Cluck, Chuck. Get your birds straight. Confusing Cluck with Chirp. Honestly Also, don't forget the deproach sandals:

Of course it depends on what I'm setting out to climb. For cragging, I've always got a chalk bag with me (powdered courage!) but I never drag that into the alpine.

Apparently the first rule of Beacon Club is you DO NOT talk about Beacon Club...

This is more a resource for my buddies heading up that way next week than an actual trip report, but judging from the 2500+ hits on the Stuart West Ridge Beta Request thread I figure there are some lurkers out there craving route beta. Prepare to be overwhelmed… Anyway - here's the scoop from our trip over Labor Day weekend 2006. Timeline: 4:30 am - left camp in Headlight Basin 6:15 am - started up couloir 10:30 am - reached W Ridge Notch 1:30 pm - summit 5:00 pm - arrived at Ingalls Creek trail via Cascadian couloir 8:00 pm - back in camp We printed & followed the Smoot route description which proved very helpful. I’ll refer to features mentioned in this description so read it before you read my novel here. Note that Smoot’s description differs somewhat from Becky’s description between Long John Tower and the West Ridge notch. Becky’s route goes up to the West Ridge Horn and then follows the ridge crest somewhat to the notch. Smoot’s route traverses below the ridge crest from LJT to the West Ridge notch. I’m not saying Smoot’s is better, it’s just the one we chose to follow. Here's what we learned: Approach: Passing Ingalls lake via the right side is more difficult (3rd class scrambling) but seems quicker if you know the secret way. Alternatively, you could walk around via the left shoreline and lose a few minutes. In either case, find the trail at the NE end of the lake and follow it toward the saddle. After a few minutes, the trail turns and dives down toward the valley. Not wanting to lose that much elevation, we traversed left from the trail and immediately spotted cairns and shortly thereafter a climbers trail emerged. We followed that just right of the ridge crest all the way up to the point where the North ridge trail drops down toward Goat Pass. Here we followed the trail up a short ways before splitting off left through some scrub brush to the large talus field. I'm not sure exactly where the trail continues to, but it started getting thinner and I suspect it continued up the ridge crest. Traverse upward across the talus field and crest a very small ridge to the base of the next gulley. This is the start of the route. The path from Ingalls Lake to the base of the gulley is not technical but can be a bit difficult to follow and would definitely be slower in the dark. You may want to time it so you have at least a little useable light to find your way. Up the gulley: Scramble excellent 3rd class granite straight up this gulley all the way to the top. There are some minor branches & forks but just stay in the main gulley or take whichever branch looks like it will go further. Several times we were tempted to exit the gully right but we stuck to the route description and kept climbing to the headwall at the very top of the gulley. We passed many bivy sites which confirmed we were on route. You’ll know you’re at the very top of the gulley because the white granite ends in a darker headwall. Left appears to lead to the ridge crest and to your right you’ll see a steep chimney. Climb up this chimney (4th class) to easy ground from where you can see the next gully and Long John Tower. Getting past Long John Tower: LJT looks very imposing from here but it’s much easier than it looks. The route finding is a little difficult here so it’s worth taking the time to do it right. We chose a line up the center of the gulley along a large, dark, left facing flake. This turned out to be a little harder than we expected and we broke the rope out for two 30-meter pitches which wasted about a half hour. We should have gone further right which turned out to be a much easier (and quicker) 4th class scramble. In either case, the goal is to go through the saddle BETWEEN LJT and the main ridge. This picture shows both route options: LJT to West Ridge Notch: From the saddle between LJT and the main ridge, follow a sandy path across and down a gulley for about 100 feet and then traverse left on a ledge around a rock buttress. Scramble back up the next gulley about 75 feet and look for the “dark flake” mentioned in Smoot’s description on your right. Traversing left around the rock buttress: The dark flake is actually a fairly large feature (50 feet or so) separating the gulley you’re currently in from the next. You’ll know you’re in the right place because the way to go behind this dark flake is through the “tunnel underfoot” also mentioned in Smoot’s description. Again, it’s worth taking the time to find this tunnel as it’s the key to unlocking the next section. Tunnel underfoot: The tunnel leads to an obvious trail on a ledge. Follow this ledge past a narrow, downward sloping slab (butt scootching may be required) and up an easier-than-it-looks chimney to another ridge crest. Butt-scootch Slab: Easier-than-it-looks Chimney: At this point you’re really close to the west ridge notch. Look up toward the West Ridge notch and find a crazy balanced boulder on top of a tower dubbed ‘God’s Cairn’ on this website. From here, traverse slightly downward across another gulley or two passing below God’s Cairn. Then turn left and walk up an obvious gulley that leads to the West Ridge notch. West Ridge Notch to Summit: Don’t bother roping up at the notch. Instead, scramble right of the ridge crest about a rope-length to a flat spot where the traverse over to the north side begins. Here is a good spot to rope up. Traverse out onto the North side of the ridge for about 30 feet on easy but exposed 4th class ledges and then take the first obvious path back up to the ridge crest. This pitch is almost exactly 30 meters. Starting out onto the north side of the ridge: Scramble a bit right and then up blocky 3rd/4th class for about another rope length or maybe a little more until you regain the ridge crest at a very sharp feature. From here, you can see a large, sandy ledge below and to your right. Climb along the knife-edge ridge and then down a ramp to the ledge. Knife-edge ridge and ramp: From here you’re only about 2 or 3 pitches below the summit but there are a million variations. (BTW, we were climbing 3 people on a 60-meter rope, so a “pitch” for us was 30 meters) The general idea here is to climb up and right toward the SW rib and then scramble up the rib to the summit. If you go all the way to the right on the large, sandy ledge I think you’ll find the 5.6 layback crack variation. However, we followed the first blocky stuff we found up and right (3rd class) to a smaller but equally flat sandy ledge directly above the first. From here, we took a short ~5.5 chimney at the far right end of the ledge that involved thutching, grunting, and bear-hugging a large chalkstone that we felt would certainly dislodge and kill us all but thankfully didn’t. Above the chimney we scrambled about 30 meters up blocky ground directly toward the summit. The last pitch for us went up a steep and fairly burly dihedral with a fixed pin half way up which deposited us atop the SW rib a short scramble from the summit. Descent: To descend, find and follow a well-cairned path just below the ridge crest from the summit down across the basin (top of Ulrich’s couloir) and around the right side of the false summit. Don’t get suckered down the basin. You need to traverse all the way across the basin (staying as high as you can), continue up over the ridge, and then descend into the basin on the south side of the false summit. Getting from the ridge down into the basin involves some aggravating sandy 4th class scrambling. It’s tedious, but not overly exposed. Once in the basin, stick to the right side just under the headwall and descend about 1000 feet due south. At about 8000 feet, a broad ridge materializes and splits the basin into 2 gulleys. We found a highway down the left gulley, but talked to some folks who reported the right gulley was just as easy and quite a bit faster. Highway in lower part of left gulley: In either case, you’re in for a little jungle-thrashing but will inevitably wander out onto the Ingalls Creek trail exhausted and thirsty. The good news is you now have about 4 miles of trail and 1500 feet of elevation gain back to camp. Descent options: There you have it. Now I don’t want to hear any more whining about off-route overnight epics.

Don't want to sound like a tool, but suggest you do a bit more research on this route before giving it a go. With the kind of questions you are asking, this feels like an epic looking for a place to happen. Maybe you should consider doing the West Ridge. Still fun but far more mellow and much less difficult/committing. Food for thought

A buddy of mine was up there 2 weeks ago and said the traverse is all melted out.

Reasonable beta here: http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150455/south-sister.html It's super easy to navigate. Just get on the dirt highway at Devil's Lake TH and follow the crowds north. For car camping - Devil's Lake (right at the TH) or Sparks Lake (couple miles East) are good bets. You can also backcountry camp (I like Green Lakes area) but I forget how much red tape is involved. You could always call the ranger station and ask.

I'll toss my wild-assed-guess $.02 in. I'd say snow & ice in early September is unlikely. In fact, I'm banking on it as I'll be heading up there this weekend. Hopefully this little low-pressure system doesn't prove me wrong. Spotly - when you were up there, did you need ice axes to get down the snow field in the Cascadian? Do you think it's likely to have melted out in the last month? I'd hate to haul an unnecessary axe up the West Ridge.

Sweet. I guess I got a FA on Little Annapurna last summer. I think I'll call it NE Trundlefield (Grade I Class 1+)

Damn - 2.5 hours from the parking lot to the summit of Forbidden Peak. That IS off the hook. Quite the day hike! Spectacular pics BTW. My fav has to be the panorama of Boston Glacier, Boston Peak, and Sahale. How many shots did you stitch together to make that masterpiece?

I figured that was you, Kyle. Nice chatting with you. What a wonderful day to be in the alpine!

Climb: Forbidden-West Ridge (Late Season Route) Date of Climb: 8/13/2006 Trip Report: After years of drooling, I finally got up the nerve to have a go at Forbidden's West Ridge. I knew it was late season, but what the hell - an epic is better than staying home on a summer weekend. What a spectacular (and exhausting) climb! Three of us left PDX at 6:00 AM on Saturday to drive up to Marblemount to be denied a permit for Boston Basin. Instead we settled on a dirt bivy on the edge of the permit zone. Not quite as scenic as the basin, but better than the parking lot, I guess: Sunday we got an early start and made it to the glacier just as it was getting light. Roping up seemed unnecessary so we just cramponed up to the infamous couloir. After some very serious consideration we decided to forego the nearly snow-free couloir in favor of an alternate approach to the ridge via a fabled 4th class gulley just west of the standard couloir. While I'm certain we made the right choice, the gulley was no picnic. After 60 meters of loose, horrifying, and nearly unprotectable 4th/5th-class climbing the gulley eased back a little for another 80 meters of sandy 3rd class scrambling until we met up with the standard (but now dry) snow couloir. Sandy (and grassy) 3rd class gulley: Another party was struggling on loose choss in the gulley and didn't look to be enjoying themselves: From here it was a simple scramble up to the notch where the fun climbing began. The West Ridge route was spectacular. Solid rock and fairly simple routefinding allowed us to simul climb nearly the whole route. We pitched out the crux section and eventually made it to the summit. Not wanting to risk an unfamiliar descent down the East Ledges, we decided to downclimb the West Ridge. This was tedious and time consuming, but at least we knew where we were going. Eventually we made it back to the notch and rappelled down to the glacier via 2 double-60-meter-rope rappels and a single-60-meter-rope rappel. The hanging snowfield was shedding huge ice boulders while we rapped so we sprinted accross the glacier as fast as possible. Once back on the granite slabs, it was cruise control back to the car. One hellova long day, but it totally ed! Gear Notes: Had pickets but didn't use em since we skipped the snow couloir.

Last July I was up there with a fly rod and did fairly well with mosquitoes and wooley-buggers. However, my buddy was slaying them using spinners. He must have caught about 50. The fishing really is fantastic.

Sorry, you got the wrong guy. cLuck not chucK

Have added some pics. I thought the route was enjoyable... some scrambling, some snow & a little easy rock cherry on top.... but must admit that the chimneys themselves were a bit tedious on the way down.

Nice work. Think I spoke to you on your way down the Sulphide.... something about "crappy day huh?". We came up Fisher Chimneys and saw your footprints on the way down Hell's Highway and over on the Upper Curtis. Since we hadn't seen anyone else on our route, we wondered where you guys came from and where you were going. Looks like you had a great climb.

Climb: Shuksan-Fisher Chimneys Date of Climb: 7/16/2006 Trip Report: A very, very long day. A few notes on route conditions. Big snow year had Lake Ann still frozen and a fair amount of snow on approach. Chimneys dry but considerable problem solving for entrances/exits via large moats. Winnie's hard snow and steep enough to warrant a rope and pickets. Pitch up to Upper Curtis had some ice (we placed a couple screws) but wasn't super steep. Upper Curtis glacier still closed up. Highway to Hell was easier than other earlier two snow obstacles. Sulphide cracks covered/filled with snow. We climbed SE ridge, downclimbed central South gulley (dry). Did I mention it was a long day? CLICK ON PHOTOS BELOW FOR LARGER PIC VIEW Mountain view from camp Approach/entrance to 1st Chimney Lake Ann from the top of the chims... still frozen and looking more like Spring than mid July View North from just below W's Slide Just getting on Upper Curtis Highway to Hell Pot hole on Highway to Hell? Looking back across Upper Curtis from HTH

I dug the pic up from my computer and posted it here: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=18744&size=big&sort=1&cat=500 Don't sweat the routefinding too much. Basically I just lined up under the piton & just headed up toward it taking the path of least resistance. Good luck - it's a super fun climb. High payoff with little suffering plus fantastic views of Rainier the whole way!

The corner all the way right is definitely the easiest way up, but the 5.6 route you describe is nice line. There's an old pin part way up that may still have a blue runner on it. If you can find that, just start somewhere below it and head up by whichever way looks best. It protects well with small to midsize nuts & cams. Don't bother bringing any large gear. Set up your top belay by slinging the large rocks at the top rather than the shrub. If you get spooked leading it, you can always bail & climb the easy way. Then drop a rope and climb it on top rope (provided you're not in anyone else's way of course). There's a pic of the routes on SummitPost but the site's down right now so I can't post a link. Just go to www.summitpost.com and search for Unicorn Peak. The picture is on the route page.

There are no "cool" spots in Cougar Rock. It is a standard car camping kind of place, which can be very convenient but not really cool. Only advise is steer clear of the spots directly adjacent to the bathrooms. Sure it is common sense, but if you are close by you have to deal with your neighbors walking through your camp and listening to toilets flushing all the time. I'd say that would be not cool.

Ha - great story! It's good to learn from others' mistakes, especially if they're still around to tell the story. I appreciate the candid analysis. Looks like the snow bridge is about 2-3 feet thick where it collapsed. Had I been probing that with my axe, I'd probably have deemed it safe to cross. Interesting.... Glad your still with us!

Thanks for the update! I was up there yesterday and came down a few hours before that dude punched through. The bergie isn't fully open yet, instead it's covered by a thin snow bridge . The bergschrund is very sketchy right now and I was shocked at the amount of people stomping accross it unroped so late in the afternoon. Report from inside the crevasse was that the downhill lip is overhung by about 4 feed and the crack extends at least 20 feet in both directions under the snow bridge. BE CAREFUL UP THERE THIS WEEKEND! Rope up and climb early!

Hmmm, just got off the mountain and I think the route is in fine shape. The Pearly Gates (at least the traditional chute to climber's right) certainly is steeper and icier than years past. However, chute on the left is in great shape so that's the way everyone is going right now. I didn't think there was anything sketchy about it. The bergie, however is a different story. The snow bridge was solid enough this morning, but it won't last long. Be careful. Overall, conditions are great. Go get it!

Nice work speedy. Is the bergie still closed up? Looks like conditions are pristine at the moment.