Rad

Way to get after it!

Looks like a lovely outing. Cool to see bears. A while back, my wife and I did a day hike that involved hiking up the S ridge of Rainbow Mtn, traversing the ridge toward McGregor, dropping over to Rainbow Lakes, and returning on the endless trail back around. Twas a lovely outing and a very long day. The only grizzlies I've seen have been in Yellowstone or the Canadian Rockies. Lots of black bears of all different hues around the upper Stehekin valley. I'm not going to challenge you saying you saw a Grizzly. You might let the NPS rangers know about your sighting as they get up there and would be very interested to see one.

I'm out next week, but feel free to carry the torch. I have fond memories of hanging w Fred, Wayne, and many other luminaries and mortals at past events.

Holy Mossy Choss Buckets! Nice one! I love that in the Cascades there are a significant number of new lines where I think, "I'm NEVER doing THAT!" - but so glad you did. Thanks for posting. You've got the spirit. Keep going!

Yeah, like when I was 25. That ship has sailed

Sweet! I've never been on that trail you took from Defiance back to the TH. How was it?

One of the nice things about this ridge is that you have cell service the whole way and can jump off at many points. Ideally, you can get a spouse or friend to pick you up and shuttle you back to the Mailbox TH as we did. SO much better and more flexible than stashing a bike or car at a specific point.

Can't speak for Joshua, but I've made luggage tags from sections of old rope. Slide out the core and the sheath can be pretty flat and works in water knots and other flat knots generally used for webbing.

You captured several elements of the Pickets experience nicely in your TR. Thanks for posting. I also agree that it's an early season game wrt glaciers. On every Pickets trip, I have found myself having to move over sketchy 3rd/4th class terrain = loose/slippery w high consequences. The rock is generally either choss or compact and difficult to protect. Good cracks are so noteworthy they get names. That said, it is a wild, rugged and beautiful mountain wilderness that touches the soul in a memorable way. Maybe the hazards are part of the whole mystique. At some point, I may decide that the risk reward ratio isn't right for me any more. Then, I'll be delighted to read reports like yours and recall my own meager adventures. Thanks again for posting.

I can't comment on that glacier, but based on observations of glaciers in the Forbidden/Sahale/Eldorado zome a bit further South - and phtos from the Pickets a bit further East, I would say you should expect seasonal snow is almost all gone and there will be bare glacial ice to contend with. FWIW, the Price glacier is one that most people stay away from due to the objective hazards of falling seracs. That's not my cup of tea, so perhaps others will have comments to add.

An incredible report of an incredible adventure!!! Thanks for posting. Going without oxygen or backup oxygen is super impressive and seems very clear cut. Being truly "Unsupported" on such a popular peak seems basically impossible given how much gear and effort from other teams is used. Congratulations! Can't wait to see what you do next! Please stay safe in the mountains, and thanks again for posting here.

Sweet! In my experience, the Pickets offers plenty of type 2 fun interspersed with some type 3 fun. Almost no type 1 fun, but it sure looks like you had a good outing. Thanks for posting! That seal is an unbelieveable find!

I'm down. Also strongly prefer outdoor venue. FWIW, Lower Woodlawn Park (near Greenlake) has lots of picnic tables that are first come first served at the moment (homeless camps removed). Alcohol probably not allowed in park, but no one is going to care as long as you don't light the forest on fire. Most spots are quite nice.

Lovely

I want to circle back and say that I really appreciated your TR - good story and photos. Thanks for posting!

Just read your longer report. Nice job! FWIW, in the spring when there is snow on the upper ridges and N slopes (we went mid-May 2021) you'll avoid bugs, loose talus, steep pine needles, and most of the brush bashing. Sidehilling along steep S slopes of Pratt was the most annoying part for us. Next time I'll try to go up and over and down that instead. We dropped down to the N from Dirtybox rather than run that crest all the way there as it's quite brushy and has some slow-you-down rock tower features. Getting from there to the DH ramp was easy from that spot.

Sweet! It's a pretty special traverse. I did that for the first time last year. We placed and left that fixed line. How did it look? Bandera would add some nice ridge, but it kind of puts you in the wrong spot on the E end of it. We went much earlier in the season when there was a lot of snow. I imagine a lot more brush this time of year. The next step would be to add Low Mtn and cross over at the Tooth and finish at Alpental. We ran out of daylight and decided we didn't want to do it by headlamp. Nice job!

I did Goode last year and have done that stretch of PCT a few other times. It goes fast and you get to talk to PCT thru hikers, which is interesting. General comment is that longer trail is almost always faster than x-country. Half a mile of dense alder could take many hours to travel and sap your energy and damage your sanity. That said, the E side of the range around Stehekin offers some great x-country travel opportunities if you find the right line. If.... If I were contemplating this, I would look carefully at the satellite imagery. Open alpine > mature forest > short forest >>> brush. On the satellite, brush will be lighter green w few or no trees. An example is the green where you ascend from the N Fork Bridge Creek to Goode. There is a climber's trail through the alder that makes life bearable. Without that trail, that segment would probably be impassable. So if you see a segment that looks similar on the satellite imagery stay away from it. Final comment: this late in the season you may not find snow to melt on top of Goode. That could be a significant hazard/inconvenience in its own right. Good luck! Bring your light saber.

Nice! Glad you enjoyed the route. Compared to most Cascade mountain routes, BR is quite solid and should hold up well over time. Time will tell. I really appreciated Trevor's support to get the gear in place for me and Kurt to complete BR in 2020. The approach valley was all snow that day, and Trevor scampered up all of it in his tennis shoes and shorts. All I cared about was that it wasn't raining on the ascent. Rain at any other point wouldn't stop us. If I told Trevor it might rain would he have kept going? Now I know the answer is probably yes. I was in the Olympics last week. Sorry to miss you at the crags. Hope to climb with you guys sometime soon. Keep on sending!

Like certain people at the bar, Thompson looks better from a distance than up close...

Thanks for posting!!!! You said, "The belay ledge had a detatched block I threw two cams in and tried not to weight .." Quick comment from a crusty veteran: feel free to use detached blocks for protection, but it's far safer to sling them as low as possible than put a cam behind them. Cams generate very large outward forces that can lever off a block and cause the anchor to fail and/or dislodge the block onto you and/or your partner. You can use the rope to sling larger blocks and you can also use your body sometimes. You might do some experiments in a steep talus field so you have more knowledge of what works and what does and doesn't work when you get into the alpine. Be creative, consider leaving at least some of the heavy cams at home if you don't expect a lot of clean cracks, and keep climbing and sling more blocks! And thanks for posting!

It's easy to look at glacier images and think area is what counts, but as @dberdinka points out thinning is super important, and often a more reliable indicator. The total mass/volume of a glacier is probably the best measure of its size, so both thickness and coverage area are important. As glaciers melt away area and thickness will change. This may be most obvious at the terminus, but the glacier can be much smaller even if the terminus hasn't shifted much. Seasonal snow variations and melt patterns can make it hard to see the size of the glacier, so it's important to keep that in mind - focus on the ice portions to see the true differences. This past week I finally got to the Bailey traverse in the Olympics, which we did Hoh TH to Hoh TH counter-clockwise. Spectacular. We crossed three glaciers. We did not rope up on either the Blue or Humes glaciers because they are quite thin and crevasses are small and obvious. We did rope up on the Hoh glacier, though even that seemed optional. Hope to get out on other glaciers this summer if I can get the time. Cheers, Rad

Right on! Great to see that you're keeping the fire burning brightly. Rock looks better than some of your past missions. I imagine Fred peppering you with questions so he can write it up for the next CAG, and I imagine you having to shout louder and louder for him to hear it. RIP Fred.

Last year, we had a kerfuffle in the same area - off the glacier but not around onto the ridge crest. Spent almost two hours going up and down choss, looking for a reasonable line. I finally committed to a footless mantle, but a tricam on the rack I was carrying lodged into a crack at my shin and prevented me from pressing it out. I had to reverse, clean the damn cowbell, and do it again. Grrrr. My partner started slightly dehydrated and deteriorated when we went up and over the top. There was only one small snow sliver to melt on the upper mountain - and it was full of worms. We melted, filtered through a shirt, and drank it anyway. Almost tossed it back up again. The next day, my partner was stumbling from dehydration/heat exhaustion in the burn zone as we approached the Park Creek trail. So we loaded all of our gear on my back for the final miles down to the Park Creek campground. Of course, it was littered with deadfall that hadn't been cut yet. Good times! Sounds like you had an excellent Cascades experience.

I hear you, but they are using your tax dollars to repair the road to Cascade Pass TH.