John_Roper

Harry- Thanks for the kind words. I may have poked around these hills a bit, but what these guys are pulling off in this generation is a quantum leap above. If you have an extra copy of your NWD of Custer's journal down the Upper Skagit, I'd sure like to complete the collection, please. Same address as last.

It is good to see Harry Majors back with his encyclopedic knowledge and analysis of the history of mountaineering in Washington. What Harry did in meticulously analyzing Henry Custer's cryptic 1859 journals of the Northwest Boundary Survey in his "Northwest Discovery" series in the 1980's, is beyond belief, and the post here on Mox is very enlightening. As far as the origin of the name "Twin Spires," a piece of this historic name puzzle was found on the top of one of the minor summits along the Ridge of Gendarmes when I climbed it on 7/4/85 (while Russ Kroeker stayed in camp, Shoe-Gooing his delaminated boot sole back on). Inside of a white, red, and blue Johnson & Johnson Waterproof Band-Aid (Borated Pad) metal box was a piece of crumpled paper that read, Sept 20, 1939 S.W. peak of south peak, Twin Needles (own name) We aren't very ashamed to turn back on this baby. It's got everything Will Thompson Calder Bressler Ptarmigan Club, Seattle We'll be back! So it looks like Thompson and Bressler (not Bill Cox, as CAG, p.128 reads) came up with the "Twin" idea. Since there were already "Twin Needles" in the Southern Pickets, named by Strandberg, Degenhardt, and Martin in 1932, perhaps Beckey made the alteration to "Spires."

Spectre (7840+, it was 7920+ on the 15' Challenger quad) T's off a little south of the ridge connecting Phantom and Swiss. It is just north of "Pickell Pass" (6038' Picket-Goodell Pass) . There's a short class 5 move required to climb it from the NE (Swiss) side. FA 7/29/80 by Reed Tindall, Stuart Ferguson, Peter Jewitt, and John Roper. Spectre's SW face is the most spectacular south-facing wall in the Northern Pickets, and is as yet undone, as far as I know, as is the nearly 4000'-vertical, full SW Ridge of West Fury rising out of Goodell Creek which goes over the "Pole of Remoteness," the most out-of-the-way place in the Cascades.