Rad

Marc's passing sparked one of the most thoughtful threads I've seen on cc.com. It's full of deeply personal and thoughtful posts from many of the luminaries in our community.

I always loved this trailer and hoped a longer film would emerge. Never met MA, but it was easy to see he was an original, someone with vision, talent, and drive, an alpine artist, using his body to paint exoerience on the canvas of nature.

Fabulous! Will be good beta for those who are inspired to follow in your footsteps. It's awesome that so much Cascades climbing 'history' was made within the past 20 years by people we know. Perhaps this is part of what inspires each new generation to get after it and add to the pantheon of new routes.

Choss-tastic! Better you than me, I say, better you than me. Can't wait to read the next chapter.

Glacier was trivlal, moat not an issue. We botched the chossy section from glacier to ridge crest down low. Once on the crest everything flowed quickly - or as quickly as an old body can move with overnight gear on board.

RIP Chuck. Wish I had known him. The mountains giveth, the mountains taketh.

Sweet! Glad you had snow at your bivy. This has been on my list for longer than I care to admit. Hope you had a delicious swim in the lake before your final descent on the trail.

Climbed this the other day and wanted to quickly pass on the following conditions update: 1 - N Fork river xing was trivial - knee deep. 2 - We melted and consumed the last snow at the 3/4 bivy ledge. No water there now. 3 - A previous report suggested snow access from the summit at a notch to the West. We found this was dry. Bottom line: no snow or water on the route from the glacier until camp 7400 on the S side. Plan appropriately.

A looseness grade for cascades would be a great system. Maybe you can be the one to pioneer it!

Holy wow! Love how you provide so much beta so others might follow in your footsteps. What's hard for many to appreciate who haven't climbed in the Pickets is that the rock quality is often questionable, at least the parts I've seen. If we found a section of totally solid rock with a nice crack (e.g. E Ridge Inspiration) it was cause for celebration. More often, it's compact, with relatively few opportunities for pro, or shattered and full of questionable holds. How was the rock on this line?

Stehekin river gaugeStehekin river gauge via Chelan PUD

Sounds like good decisions. Did the creek levels drop substantially in the early morning hours? In high melt situations river levels lag snow melt by hours, depending on how close the creek is to the snow in question. Often, rivers will be lowest at dawn and highest in the evening. did you see a difference between 7PM and the next morning?

I've only seen deer and elk below treeline.

Do goats wear bodices? Who knew?

Blake sashaying across the snow with a murse? Layton jubilantly dancing across the meadows, arms raised in a V? Maybe these two star crossed lovers finally united. Do tell.

Trying to contact the FA team is good. Replacing exising bad hardware is fine. Adding new bolts where none existed before wo FA permission is a no no in my book. I appreciate your honesty, work ethic, and eye to bringing new attention to obscurities. Without your work this likely wouldn't get climbed at all and hardware would just get worse and worse. Cheers, Rad

Best scree skiing I've ever done was descending back to the lake. It would be hard to fall off the finger traverse unless it's wet. Can't imagine carrying a heavy pack to the lake. The giant boulder below the lake is etched in my mind.

Words of wisdom here. Big evergreen trees (dark green on sat images) generally means pine needles and ferns on the forest floor instead of brush. The last thing you want is the light green on satellite images that is slide alder or prickers or other shrubbery where yu can't see your feet, are swimming through a tangle of branches, need leather gloves, and will be exhausted from covering even half a mile. Welcome to the Wet side!

As Gene says, enjoy these times together. So precious. Thanks for posting

For food/drink on big outings where I need to go light, move fast, and not stop to offload solids, I consume a mix of water, Nuun, and protein powder to keep energized and hydrated. Swallow caffeine or ibuprofen pills as needed and I'm able to tap into my super powers. It's not the tastiest mix, but it keeps me going. Nuts, cheese, chocolate for the summit. Notice I didn't mention invisalign. I've never had them. Experiment to figure out what works best for you. And have fun!

Nice. Why did you decide on Baring instead of Gunn? Wondering because I've never been up to Gunn and thought it might be a worthy outing if the conditions were right. Thx

I think I saw your daughter's cup, as well as her bottle of Jack Daniels, just above the 50 foot booter where she was doing the double backflips. Maybe the camera crew picked it up?

PM sent

I agree with the comments above. I've also only descended the Cascadian but recall that there is a section below the false summit that is quite steep, exposed, and wil likely be snow covered for a while. Travel on snow can definitely be faster than on talus or scree, but steep snow can be very hazardous if you don't know what you're doing. You need to be solid moving over snow that can be anywhere from mush to firm to solid ice. You should also be proficient at using an ax to self arrest on soft snow and know when and how to use a rope when self arrest won't be possible. Just because other people solo steep snow doesn't mean you should blindly do so. All that said, if you're going to get out into the mountains of Washington you're going to encounter a lot of snow, so becoming proficient at dealing with it will serve you well far beyond an ascent of Stuart.

Check Turns all year.