Rad

Echo the find a partner suggestion. Adventures are more fun if you've got great company. For the budget and time you have you could go to Spain, France, Italy, Swizzy. Drink some good wine, get sunburned, climb a ton of limestone and granite. Ski.

Fantastic adventure and TR. Thanks for posting. Some of those photos are unreal. You're a glutton for punishment. Pickets traverse next?

The OP's website is an interesting read...

They must have obtained a permit to build this structure on this site, and it was approved. Whoever approved the permit is the one who should be liable here.

I can just see the VRBO now: 2 BR ultra modern ski-in/ski/out winter retreat w/ panoramic views and ultra modern amenities, including bulletproof glass to keep disgruntled neighbors at bay.

Yeah buddy. Choss monkeys rule!

Nico Favresse and Sean Villanueva go big in Baffin and Greenland

And Andreas Fransson. Brave souls all. RIP.

Thanks for showing us a part of the range that is rarely visited. Lovely photos and tale.

Nice. I'm sad but not surprised to hear the rock on W Challenger is crap. By taking a 75 pound pack into the Pickets you must surely win the masochist of the year award. Congrats! And don't beat yourself up over the rescue. I've yet to hear of a Pickets trip that went entirely according to plan. BTW, what's your preferred source for alpine weather forecasts? The NWS mountain forecast I'd been using had a page with freezing levels but it doesn't seem active now. Thx.

Awesome! Maybe Blake can add this into his ultimate linkup on that wall.

So who's got beta on all the new routes at Index? I know there are a lot. Maybe y'all can use this thread as a place to tell others what gems have been uncovered so they can be climbed to keep the moss at bay. I have to admit the regular break-ins and window smashings affect my willingness to park in the main lot. Are there any thoughtful strategies for how to address this? Cameras? Don't say hide in the bushes with a baseball bat - that's unoriginal and going after an armed meth head on your own is just plain stupid.

Nice job. You mention there was only one "technical" pitch, which maybe means you broke out the rope and belayed, but it sounds like there were lots of other spicy moments that underscore that mountain routes can be harder than their technical ratings would suggest.

Dick Check your messages. Rad

Great TR Lisa. Kudos for persevering through many obstacles.

I agree that it's an atrocity that looks like it was stolen from the Yeti's lair in the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland, but it reminds you that you're driving through a National Park, which might not even occur to most people as there is no gate to collect high entrance fees (don't give them any ideas!).

I'll echo others: making it faster and easier to insert photos into TRs and other posts would be helpful to users (many have said as much). I don't ever go to the gallery other than to upload my own photos to put them in TRs. I suspect many others do the same. Edit to add that some of the older TRs have no images because they display as boxes with question marks, presumably due to some technical error in retrieving them from the gallery. It would be nice if this were fixed.

Tragic. I'm so sorry for the loss of the many people who loved this your man. Climbing is an activity that is mostly quite safe but a mistake at the wrong place at the wrong time can kill or seriously injure you. Any time you connect and disconnect yourself from anchors off the deck is a particularly critical time. Check. Check. And check again.

Jason, I've encountered a number of bears, but probably not nearly as many as people who are around them for work. The natural ecosystem has already been so messed up by human involvement (through habitat and wildlife corridor destruction, for example) the reintroduction of a tangential species to the ecosystem seems pretty arbitrary. Efforts would be better spent improving salmon habitat or taking out dams, or something. We already spend way more $$$ on salmon than almost any other endangered species. Removing dams would be good, but Kit has some good ideas.

as long as you weren't between her and the liquor!

Grizzlies are mostly opportunistic scavengers like other bears. If you don't get between mama and her cubs you should be fine. I read the Alaskan Bear Tales book years ago while traveling in AK and came away with the understanding that black bears are more likely to hunt you for food than grizzlies, then only if the bear is starving or deranged. Either one can kill you if they want to do so. They just aren't interested. Cougars are carnivorous hunters that are more dangerous than bears, more likely to go after a small child than a bear, and they're already here. Still, I would feel honored to see one in the wild in WA. The most dangerous animal out there is surely homo sapiens.

Bump. I've finally started putting routes on Mountain Project. Feel free to to comment and/or rate them so a consensus can be achieved. Come see these routes during the work party at the Far Side Saturday August 30th - meet at the parking lot at 9am.

Bump. Is there a topo floating around here? Thx

For those of us in the walled garden of iOS: "Some iOS devices have a GPS chip and some do not. A device with a GPS chip can identify your location (usually within 10 or 20 meters) even when it has no WIFI or Cellular signal. A device without a GPS chip can identify your approximate location only when it has a WIFI signal; these devices are still useful tools for looking at maps but will not show your location on the map while you are hiking. All iPhone models (4, 4S, 5, 5C, 5S) include a GPS chip. The 4S and all 5 models also support GLONASS which in some locations should improve accuracy and time to first fix. No iPod-Touch model has a GPS chip. All iPad models (iPad with Retina display, iPad2, iPad mini) that have 3G or Cellular also have GPS chip and therefore behave like an iPhone for mapping purposes. (The iPad with Retina display and iPad mini also support GLONASS; the iPad2 does not.) The WIFI-only iPads do not have a GPS chip and therefore behave like an iPod Touch for mapping purposes."

This is probably a stupid question, but don't phone-based GPS systems work off cell tower signals, thus limiting utility to areas that have cell signals (i.e. not in the backcountry)?