tanstaafl

After asking 15+ people to go climbing with me and getting no takers (best excuse: "I'm having a heart procedure on Monday"—whoa), I soloed this over Tues/Wed since the Olympics were just about the only place in the state not on fire/right next to something on fire and with a decent forecast. I used Kuato's excellent trip report above for beta along with the guidebook description and was astounded to discover my times were more or less in line with his. I assume that's because he took lots of breaks and I took almost none. High points: 1. On the ferry I parked next to a NOAA vessel with this stupendous name: 2. They played December 1963 on the radio on the way in and Brick House on the way out, allowing me to indulge in dancing while driving. 3. Chilling out and reading Luis Sagsti's Fireflies at the 4300' bivy was stellar. Though if you haven't read Sagasti yet, I recommend starting with A Musical Offering. So good. 4. I found a fun 4th class way up the last bit to the ridge. 5. I saw lots of sooty grouse, though never could get a decent photo of one. I did get one of my bivy companion however. Low points: 1. South Brother is a choss pile—it would be way better earlier in the year when snow covers all that scree. 2. I failed to stop in Kingston for food, resulting in a breakfast that consisted of a moderately disgusting gas station bear claw. 3. I realized somewhere between 3600' and 4300' that I also failed to pack a pot, which meant no hot water, which meant a few handfuls of trail mix and an envelope of "lemon pepper tuna" for dinner. I thought I had grabbed an envelope of "zesty lemon pepper" chicken, so doubly disappointing. Don't pack and talk on the phone at the same time. Useless: Medium point: 1. Summitting is always nice, but the views pretty much sucked: Highest point of all: 1. Coming home to my sweetie who made garlic & olive oil pasta for dinner. yum.

well thanks for this! I have all next week off and am suddenly partnerless, so definitely filing this away as an option...

Ha! I can so envision this scene. Nice report Darin; if Eric was willing to repeat it, it must be good.

Thanks for the reply. I was guessing you probably were going off the UN member states or something close to that. That's fascinating about the termite mounds, and I applaud your choice to exclude them. So in that case I assume Mawson Peak is not included? What's the highest point after that? Ball's Pyramid seems like the coolest thing you could climb that is Aussie, but it's not that tall and getting a permit sounds extremely challenging.

Gorgeous pics. Thanks for the update on the state of things re. Mustard Glacier/O-H col, etc. Maybe it's because I have no ability to climb hard anymore, if I ever did, but at least these days I definitely see the draw of the Pickets more as just being there than in the difficulty of the route. Also, Adrien Costa is badass.

Thanks. It was easily the smoothest outing I've had except for maybe doing Inspiration in 2008. The first two times I tried to do anything in the Pickets I never even set foot on rock. Of course the first time I tried it was Memorial Day weekend and snowing sideways. I wasn't very smart back then.

Great report and killer photos. Congratulations on your summit! I'm curious about your country list. It seems like an odd question, but how do you decide what counts as a country? For example, do you count the UK as one country or do you count England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as separate countries? What about disputed or unrecognized countries like Northern Cyprus or Tibet or Taiwan or Palestine? What about dependencies and territories like the British Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico or Greenland? It seems like there are many different criteria you could use, so I'm curious about yours. When we were in Tenerife a few years ago, I was surprised to find that it was the home of Spain's tallest mountain, which I would not have guessed was in the Canary Islands.

Hey look, I got curious and found that Gordy's Alaska trip was actually recorded here as well.

Trip: The Pickets for the Old and Slow - McMillan Spires Trip Date: 08/19/2022 Trip Report: Reading the internet makes it seem like everyone who goes into the Pickets is a total badass doing FAs or enchaining the whole damn range in record time, so here’s a TR for the AARP-eligible among us who perhaps were never all that fast or talented to begin with. Don't expect any useful information. I harangued my friend Gordy into committing to a Pickets trip this summer but he was too busy to go until late season, so mid-August it was. We made a leisurely approach on Wednesday, sweating buckets as we slogged up the hill in the high 80s. Terror Basin was gorgeous in the sunshine. (Note nearly all the photos in this are Gordy’s; he has an iPhone and I have a digital camera from 2009, so his pics are way better.) After a ridiculously civilized wake-up time of 6:30 the next day, we wandered up the slabs to start our day’s objective: East and West McMillan Spires by their SE Faces. This was made more interesting by the necessity of making a free hanging rappel off a snow bollard to access the rock on East Mac. Quoth Gordy, who has at least one FA in Alaska to his name: "I've rapped off a snow bollard twice in my life, and both were in the Pickets." The climbing went quickly as the majority of it was unroped fourth class, and soon we were snacking on the summit looking over at West Mac. We can’t climb enough peaks in a day to make it even remotely necessary to count our summits, so I held up fingers for letters instead. E is for East Mac. We saw a rap sling at the gendarme between East and West Mac, suggesting we should rap down the moat between the snow and gendarme and traverse low, but explored higher and it was easy climbing to get around the gendarme and arrive at Beckey’s “200 feet of fourth class” up the corner, then as I was pulling around the “5.7 bulge” up onto the ridge proper, I looked up and saw this gorgeous local denizen. I didn’t have my camera accessible but he was still hanging around when I brought Gordy up, who snapped this shot. Gordy made me pose for this shot: “Now turn your hips a little that way….” W is for West Mac. The next day we woke to intermittent light sprinkles, which turned to flat-out rain a little before noon. Before it started raining in earnest, we roamed around the basin a bit and spotted the elusive seal of the Pickets. The wildlife there is truly not to be believed. (My photo, you can tell by the crappy quality.) After all the rain on Friday, we decided to just go for Little Mac on our last day as neither of us had done it before and we already had the approach dialed. We made it more interesting by (1) not having any descent beta other than “rap to the col and continue traversing East McMillan spire” and (2) convincing ourselves that the lower vegetated ramp was probably just as good as the higher one and soloing increasing sketchy fourth class until a bit past the point where we should have roped up. I scored the money pitch, which was the nice crack straight up from the ramp. It even had a good spot for a rap anchor, which eased our minds a bit about how we were going to get back down. Gordy following the crack: Gordy led up the final pitch to the top, where we took our last summit shot. L is for Little Mac. At least in this case. We made our way down, adding two rap anchors in the process, packed up and got the crap gully up to the notch behind us before dark, in order to make the last day a tiny bit shorter and so we wouldn’t be above or below anyone else on Sunday when we assumed the other parties would be leaving. A nice camp by a waterfall up in the meadows gave us a stellar view of the Chopping Block in the sunset and rounded out the trip nicely. Gear Notes: Should have taken alcohol. Did take a book (a slender volume), which was nice for the rain day. Approach Notes: The trail to Terror Basin is a highway now, it would take serious effort to lose it.

Nice report; thanks. First time I ever heard of Doug's Direct was this fabulous report and I still laugh every time I hear the name. Also nice to get the history of the name from Juan Sharp. "Doug will tell you a good way to get to Seattle from Portland is through Los Angeles!"

As Michal Stipe has taught us, "Silence means security, silence means approval." Nice job making it home you two.

oh, nooo. Poor Elisif. Condolences indeed. I was actually just thinking about those two when I was in Idaho at the end of July, remembering all those TRs from John F. and that crew blazing over to Idaho on three day weekends to run up stuff in the Sawtooths.

Did the Chuck Spiekerman Memorial Ascent of Summit Chief yesterday with another buddy of Chuck's, and followed (sort of) his beta here -- in that we went in and out via Escondido Ridge and mostly made sure to find the trail along the ridge. We did make the ascent more interesting by selecting the wrong notch and climbing a false summit first before traversing to the correct one. Tons of people camped at the first of the Vista Tarns right off the PCT but not a soul at the second which was maybe 5 minutes more walking. So nice. Good day out and it was only 12 hours tarn-to-summit-to-trailhead but those last two mosquito-infested miles to the trailhead were INTERMINABLE. Fortunately fish n chips at The Brick dulled the memory.

Emilio, check this out:

That's a heck of a place to wear crampons for the first time and do your first rappel. Congratulations on a successful trip, by any reasonable measure. As a former farm girl myself, laughed at and identified with the hay bale story. I've very much enjoyed Emilio's posts on this board, nice to hear your perspective as well. Come back and visit us another time!

Nice work Eric! Looks stellar!

Rolf and I just hit two of these routes on our summer vacation; super fun and not a soul to be seen once you left the roads with the ORV crowds. If you like solitude on your routes, the Pioneer Range delivers. Thanks Pat McGrane for the beta! NE Ridge Devil's Bedstead West "Rails to Heaven" pitch, Sky Pilot on Rearing Stallion Peak

Stuart, your TR was what initially turned me on to the idea, though I didn't see it until years after you posted it! Oly: I actually love them. They were on clearance so they cost the same as La Sportivas not on sale, and more to the point they happen to fit my feet perfectly. First time out of the box was to approach and descend Guye Peak, seond time was this trip. No hot spots or blisters or discomfort and no pain from my normal sesamoiditis issues. I'm a fan.

Nice! Reminds me of those great corgi TRs of yesteryear. That's a happy dog.

Up into Crystal Creek basin is an impressive amount of distance to carry bouldering pads! (Though I could have used one when I stepped on that one rocker and pitched into a hole in the talus.) Were you one of the guys chilling out under the tarp camped along Ingalls Creek trail that we passed by on the hike out?

That list must be a million miles long by now, huh? Thanks Otto for agreeing to this objective at the last minute and for a great trip; rarely have I had an alpine trip go so smoothly. Also solitude on the Fourth of July weekend is a precious commodity. Note we did actually see another party near Crystal Lake who had come up through Crystal Creek Basin; that was a bit of a surprise but only two other people on a holiday weekend in the Enchantments is near miraculous. Here's to more of the same in the future!

white chuck????

Ha! Reminds me of the time I was climbing something or other in Boulder Canyon and we passed the party in front of us, who turned out to be Mia Axon and her father, who seemed ~70. I told him that I wished my dad would climb with me, and he said, "You might not want to have him talk to me right away."

Inside back cover shot for Rolf's new business venture: BOB magazine (Bold Old Biddies: For the Mature Female Climber). It's going to fly off the shelves.

Hey man, Russ and I left the TH at seven and we actually got back at 11:30; don't be messing with our split times! Nice "geezer chicks of mountaineering" shot. Thanks for letting us tag along on your conditioning hike. No comment on the condition I'm actually in.