Blake

Was your soul out of its cage for any period of time?

Thanks for the compliments all, maybe someone should climb the N. Face now. Klenke, there is a third free option for getting over to Weaver Point from Stehekin, other than boat or bridge, if anyone is interested, let me know.

Climb: Tupshin Peak-East Ridge F.A. (III+ 5.7) Date of Climb: 8/9/2005 Trip Report: Living in Stehekin, I am frequently confronted with views to the summit of Tupshin Peak, which rises 7,200 from my front yard. The most distinguishing feature of this highly distinguished peak (Washington's 99th tallest!) is its enormous East ridge. Tim Halder (TheRunningDog) and I met up on Sunday, planning on attempting a first climb of this route to the summit. We took the Devore Creek trail south from Stehekin for one mile, before cutting off cross-country at 2,000' toward our planned bivy. Five hours after leaving our canoe on the Stehekin River, we had reached a camp spot at 6,300' just below the East end of the Ridge. This morning we headed off at 5AM with lots of water, and more than a little apprehension of what types of nastiness might lay ahead on the ridge. Tim had mentioned to me that one of the aerial photos I'd sent him nearly persuaded him not to join in on the trip, so I attempted to hide my personal misgiving beneath a healthy veneer of overconfidence. We were able to simulclimb roughly the first 2/3 of the ridge, up and down gendarmes and around exposed pinnacles. The rock quality varied widely from loose blocks, to nice cracks and corners. The route has a lot of downclimbing, so following does not mean that your moves will be protected. Multiple gendarmes to downclimbwith a couple thousand feet of exposure became a memorable part of the route, and nearly drove Tim insane with frustration. After about 6 hours on the ridge, we had reached the base of the final summit pinnacle, and were pleased to start multiple pitches with nothing to climb back down. Four pitches with pleasant rock up to mid 5th class brought us to the base of a 4th class ramp/chimney whish is part of the more standard route to the summit. This final pitch saw us on the top, at 1:45 this afternoon, 8 hours after roping up. The register dates back to the peak's initial climb by the Darr party of Portland, in 1940. We enjoyed a carefully saved cinnamon roll for lunch, and savored the views before heading down at 3PM. With two ropes, it's possible to descend the East Face in two rappels, beginning 150' below the summit. From this Eastern Basin, we booked it back to Stehekin in a couple hours by descending straight to the Devore Creek trail, and hiking to our canoe stashed across the river from dinner and Gear Notes: Twin ropes, small alpine rack, Hiking Boots, copious amounts of baked goods. Approach Notes: Hot and Dry. 5 hrs from Stehekin Bakery to Base of Route. 3 hrs from end of route back again.

wow, sounds like you put up a FAWER (First Ascent While Enjoying the Route).. nice job!

not very

Stehekin Valley is currently experiencing a small (~150 acre) wildfire between high bridge and bridge creek. Travel between the two points along the trail is not allowed. I doubt this closure will last long, it's not particularly smoky or anything. Fire Started last sunday morning near Shady Camp.

Will Gadd was also in Chelan the other day, at the National Championships of Paragliding.

Alasdair.. where did you go? Back on topic here.. so Peter Croft Soloed NEB Goode?

I'm looking for someone who can climb next mon/tues on a long, prominently exposed, but moderate alpine rock route. Must be able to meet me in Stehekin, but can stay with me here. Alpine experience is more important than ability to climb hard rock grades. PM or Email if interested. The line would be a FA almost for sure.

Cinnamon Rolls

Haley/Paul?

HA! go get it, I did both of them in consecutive weeks, with Storm king in there somewhere as well, but all at once solo is definitely another level. Now that I think about it, I'd ammend the itinerary a little: Unless you really felt the need to come in from the head of N. Fork Bridge creek, I would do the trip this way: Drive to rainy pass, hike to the start of Goode NEB climb the route, decend blacktooth notch/SW gulley thingy descend to park creek trail by using climbers trail, which is on the up-valley ridge of major creek flowing off of Goode hike to park creek pass Go climb logan-fremont Then, either descend to north fork bridge creek and go back to rainy pass, or descend to thunder creek and hitchhike up hwy 20 to your car. Logan's main summit doesn't drain to BRidge Creek directly, but while I was sketching out on the middle peak, I noticed a very direct line down to the N. Fork Bridge creek, so you might need to be somewhere along the ridge other than the top of Logan before you descend to Bridge creek. If you are feeling more ambitious, also climb Thunder peak, Storm King, Logan Middle peak, Buckner, Everest, etc. Anyone heard of Goode NEB being Soloed before?

go to hwy 20 and aproach up thunder creek. climb Logan, Thunder peak or any high points there, before dropping down the Banded? (or might be douglas) glacier to N. fork bridge creek. then solo Goode NEB (5.6 only for a couple pitches) and descend to park creek, hike to park creek pass, and out thunder creek.

Pine martens are like foxes that climb trees and eat squirrels. Brown on the back, red on the belly. Did you find a neutrino up there as well?

I used my Stubai's on a few sections of ice greater than 50 degrees on the Goode Glacier, and they performed better than I had thought they might.

reddish on the belly? - Pine Martin

IT might be easier to go to Bannock lakes. Getting from Canyon to Bannock is a direct a short route, and getting from Bannock to the Agnes Creek TRail is also easy and direct. This puts you about 5 miles downvalley of Cloudy/Suiattle pass.

The best start for this route if from the prominent twin-topped tamarack tree at the base. Head left along an obvious ledge/ramp until you get to a good spot to start pitching it out. One airy and easy pitch gets you to the base of the prominent wide crack seen from below. This is much nicer than traversing in from above and left in the chockstone gulley.

The current plan is that you will pay for the mandatory overnight permits, $10 for each person, whether it's one night or 5 nights. Instead of only getting permits the day of, or the day before you start camping, you will be able to reserve them before in some capacity. As I understand, it wont matter whether you get your permit reserved, or "day of" you still pay the fee.

It looks like next year the NCNP will be going to a reservation-with-fee system for overnight stays. The current plan is for the costs to be $10 per person per Permit, and I'm not sure on the maximum time for the permits. I expect enforcement and ticketing to increase as well, now that there is a monetary incentive. NPS employess with whom I've talked are not happy, but the decision was made at a higher level.

Jeez Klenke, what's wrong? You didn't try to use Devil's Club for T.P. again I hope....

Nice job guys, is East Ridge in a day a significntly longer/harder climb than W. Ridge in a day, or do you think the percentage of car-to-car trips would be about the same? P.S. what kind of Helmet is that Paul? It looks light.

I really like how you made those panorama style shots.. it makes me want to drop the $$ for a nice camera. Nice climbing.

Scott Johnston and I had a discussion about that, and his thinking, which i thought was pretty valid, is that at the time of the FA (or whenever it was placed) that bolt protected moves that other gear of the time couldn't have protected. Although now a cam will do the job nearby, that bolt has become part of WA Pass history.

OK, i'm not just stealing the thing! It was totally full and the backs of pages were being used, and folks had singed in on scraps of maps and all that. I'll mail it back to the mounties.