MisterMo

Wellll... I'm pretty certain it was a grizzly bear. Of course it could have been a brown colored, hunchbacked brown bear. The guy with me, coming off of 19 years core drilling in AK with plenty of looks at bears of all flavors, was certain it was a grizzly. But maybe not... We are both reasonably certain it wasn't your ass. Mine wasn't the only griz comment, but I didn't mean to offer it as support..or...opposition to the Wild Sky proposal. I'm in the latter camp but when I go off on that tirade I tend to start raving and only succeed in convincing people that I'm a twit.

Bear Mtn (Skykomish) Isolation Peak above McAllister Creek & Old Brownie (Mt. Crowder)

I saw a grizzly up the North Fork Sky around 1987. Haven't seen one since. There are shitloads of black bears in the proposed Wild Sky. That, along with the wild & lonely character of the area will change once the land managers & journalists get their mitts on it.

Don't have a clue about how the FA party did it but the 1965 Becky/Bjornstad guide describes going right to the bottom of the chimney as the normal route and the other possibilities as variations. I've always thought the funnest way to do P2 is to go more or less straight up to the big ledge, but I'm a bit of a fat boy & don't do well in tight places.

Right on. Some of the most devoted tourers I ever went out with were, at best, stem turn skiers...with a lot of kick turns thrown in when it got nasty. I could leave them in the dust on the run down but I doubt I enjoyed it any more than they did. It ain't necessarily about being a hot flash; it's how it feels.

No TV. No, that doesn't interfere with my drinking. More to the point NDT methods cause flaws invisible to the eye to leap right out. Probably not worth it for a biner unless one has free access to the stuff. Come to think of it we have a 10K dyno. Maybe I'll bust a few of my antiques and learn a bit about the toll of age and abuse.

Oh-Oh I have a whole boatload of old(30 years or so)biners that I trust my hide to. SMC's, REI's, Alpine Hut, Bedayn, Chouinard & some odds & ends. Can't magnaflux them, of course. Does anyone here have an inkling if dye penetrant would be an appropriate check?

Thanks. I too recall the skiing as excellent; not very steep but a very on top of the world feeling to it. I'll try to get to it about mid April

Thanks. It'll be fun trying to find familiar sights what with thirty years of tree growth and thirty years of brain cell loss

No, the beavers have been busy. They've got a pretty cool chain of dams in that little system. My back yard now goes under water much more than in the past as well. Watch for the wood ducks

I want to go back and ski the Sulphide this spring. When I last did it in 1971 the Shannon Creek road could be driven to the highest clearcut fairly near timberline. I am most curious how much of this road exists anymore and how much might be passable.