Rad
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Posts posted by Rad
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I recall the rock above the Imperfect Impasse getting progressively steeper and wet and looking loose when we there there a decade ago. We descended all the way to bottom of it, crossed, and ascended the other side to Perfect Pass. After climbing Challenger, we returned to Hannegan Pass by traversing the slopes of Whatcom, picking up the trail and Whatcom pass, and heading down from there. It was nice to make a loop and the trolley over the river was super fun. You could come in that way, but it may be a good bit further. When we did this, the traverse under Whatcom was an endless, misty, sidehilling snow walk. I understand it's nasty downsloping slabs and debris when melted.
Bottom line: things are very conditions dependent in the Pickets. Terrain that might be trival in early season snow, or when dry, like slabs or steep heather, can be hair-raising when snow-free and wet or icy. It's a good idea to do as much research as you can beforehand about different options for approach/deproach/ascent/descent/escape and be prepared to adapt your plan to the conditions you find on the ground.
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Sweet! Remember these days.
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You guys are the Doorish and Cudkowicz of our time, quietly plucking the finest lines on the wildest peaks of the range.
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9 hours ago, Summit_Rolos said:
Great work Eric and Rolf! way to make it happen. that step across sounds spicy. or smoky?
glad you got this ridge done! ;-) we made two attempts on it over the years. In 2011, with this as our objective, Mario, Keith, and I hiked in with a solid weather forecast, only to get hammered at Perfect Pass big time. we called Sandy on the sat phone for a weather update, and he said "wow you must be enjoying the sunshine up there" ... that was about when i was trying to keep my tent from collapsing. we had no extra days and so that was that.
in 2015, Matt, Sandy, and I went for it again, and made it to the base of the Phantom West Ridge, but we just didn't have the gumption to tackle it once we got there. we ended up doing the standard route on Phantom instead. writeup on that trip here:
I met Mario (and you?) for the first time at Perfect Pass in 2011. That place certainly makes its own weather.
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Holy smokes! Another classic from the dynamic duo! Y'all are impressive.
Guess I'll have to cross NB Bear off my list.
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Thanks for sharing. Despite your suffering, I see a lot of things you should be proud of here: no serious injuries, a classic summit via a classic route, and lots of learning and growth.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Choss-tastic!
Better you than me, I say, better you than me.
Can't wait to read the next chapter.
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On 7/19/2021 at 4:30 PM, Wes thornton said:
how was the moat getting onto the NE buttress
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.
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3 hours ago, Otto said:
You had a lot more snow on the descent than we did, so you had much more to contend with after an arduous trip. Congratulations on a successful ascent of a great route!
At the bottom of the difficulties, just above Lake Serene, there are tarns with lovely slabs and boulders to play on. In the relief from being down from such a route, my friend Chuck and I did some easy bouldering in July, 2005.
RIP Chuck. Wish I had known him. The mountains giveth, the mountains taketh.
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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.
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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.
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On 7/11/2021 at 12:14 AM, Priti said:
This is so true! The rock varied from place to place. Some spots were compact with little pro (getting on to ridge proper) some were loose (tower 1/2) some were solid but covered in lichen and gritty disintegrating rock (tower3) and some was good and blocky but still questionable in places! Definitely need to have experience with Rock Quality to be a good judge. I think if there was a rating for looseness this would get a L3/4 out of L5
A looseness grade for cascades would be a great system. Maybe you can be the one to pioneer it!
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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?
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1 hour ago, Rad said:
Speaking of which, isn't there a gauge of the water levels of the river?
Stehekin river gaugeStehekin river gauge via Chelan PUD
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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?
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I've only seen deer and elk below treeline.
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3 minutes ago, olyclimber said:
Rad it was all about that hunk Jake Porter. His rough, strong hands ripping bodices.
Do goats wear bodices? Who knew?
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11 hours ago, olyclimber said:
For some reason I find my self, Tues at 10pm looking through my neglected climbing books for a Harlequin Romance. Let me tell you kids about when a romance writer came on Cascadeclimbers.com and collected material for romance novels.
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.
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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
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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.
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3 hours ago, kurthicks said:
..... into the big trees.... Look at the satellite image for big trees, then the meadows once you gain the ridge. It's not that bad by Cascade standards.
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!
mountain/outdoor photography forum
in Spray
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I would read it. Don't have much knowledge to contribute