KaskadskyjKozak

The person/people leaving the cards are the Choss Dog Millionaires, IIRC

Lick sack.

Trip: Mount Whitney - East Buttress Date: 9/7/2016 Trip Report: Ever since I had to turnaround on the East Face of Whitney two years ago I've been jonesing to return for another shot. Get back on that horse and what not. This year I tried really hard to secure Labor Day Weekend (proper) reservation for the N Fork... but damn it was tough. I ended up with an entry date of 9/5 and opted for 3 nights. The idea was flexibility: altitude issues, weather, etc. The hope was to climb both the E Face and the E Buttress. Last time I camped at Upper Boy Scout Lake and used diamox. That worked okay, but I vowed to camp at Iceberg for the next time around (foreshadowing). I flew into Vegas on Sunday to meet Gaucho Argentino, who flew in from Atlanta. We then drove into Lone Pine and opted for a good meal, a hot shower and a good night's sleep (read, hotel). The next day we drove up to Whitney Portal early and hiked in. Both of us had packs that were WAY too heavy. It took 7 hours from TH to Iceberg. I arrived first and encountered an incoherent woman yelling for help. At first I heard her voice but did not see her. After 20 min of searching and walking uphill toward her voice I finally spotted her on the E side of Iceberg Lake. She was obviously suffering from lack of food, water, altitude and God knows what else. She had no pack, food, or gear (she left a fanny pack and trekking poles about half way down towards UBS Lake). I led her to camp, got her water and flagged down two summiters coming down the Mountaineers route. I convinced these reluctant climbers to help said victim down at least 1000', and gave them 1.5 liters of water and a pack of Gu for her. They left together. Hopefully she is OK. Fading light at camp: I was worried about the altitude and AMS but so far, so good. We made camp, and dinner. I had trouble eating (no appetite) but got through my Mountain House. Then my head began to ache. The pain increased. Think about the worst hangover you have ever had. I took two advil. Nothing. I waited for three more hours. I took three more advil. Nothing. Fuck. I tried to go to bed at 8:30 pm. I could not lay down - the pain was worse. So I stood outside and hung out until it got too cold (subzero). I tried to make myself puke but could not. I finally laid down, exhausted, but could not sleep. I told Gaucho it would be unlikely I would be up for a technical rock climb with an alpine start. Finally at around 2 or 3 am my mouth got suddenly watery. I recalled those glorious days of my youth and mass tequila consumption in Tijuana and got out of the tent mighty quick and proceeded to paint the rock wall at our tent site chili mac red. I immediately felt much relief, and, full of hope, laid down, still with a head that felt like it had been pierced by a nine inch nail from ear to ear. Eventually, at about 4:30 am I fell asleep. At 7:30 am, I awoke to the frozen inner tent condensation melting and dripping on my face. I wiped down the tent with a towel and noticed the lack of a headache. I then thought about how much it would suck to lie around all day and even worse - go home empty handed. So I drank a miso soup. It stayed down. I packed my shit and headed up the Mountaineers gully for a consolation prize at 9:00 am. Gaucho remained in camp to rest. Pano from the notch: The ascent went quickly (2:15) and I enjoyed the summit for an hour before descending to camp. KK: Summit p0rn: Gaucho at camp taken on descent: Sunset at camp: Guess what? Game on. I told Gaucho I was healthy, acclimated and ready to hate fuck the E buttress the next day. Another party of 4 arrived at camp, also planning this same route. I figured 6 was not terrible and it proved correct. We got an alpine start on Wednesday and ended up just behind said party. This caused a one hour delay in starting but they were quick and never impeded us after that. Alpine start: We cleared P1 to P6 in good form. Gaucho, leading: The crux: Gaucho at an anchor somewhere mid-route: Gaucho topping out. P6? And, again: We had trouble with P7 though - I think we went too far to the right. The consequence was some time spent with shenanigans getting back on route. And, not knowing when that would happen, we pitched out what should have been simulclimbed or just solo'd. I led 4 pitches up top where I placed one piece of pro combined. Gaucho topping out: AMS can't beat the Devil: The descend went smoothly (shit, I sussed it out just one day before). Fucking rad reflection in Iceberg Lake: View from above Lower Boy Scout Lake on the way out. Portal indeed! I really enjoyed the IPA and calzone in town. The drive back to Vegas kind of sucked though. Gear Notes: Helmet. Set of nuts, cams .5 to #3. A couple small cams. Approach Notes: Snow free.

I still think the Crapcadian is the worst descent route ever. Then again, it's been a few years.

The gully on GH is short and not bad. Totally fine for beginners. You might want to just lower them from the top to avoid the awkward rappel though Tower's gully was fun for me on the ascent and tedious on the descent. It stressed out my partners (beginners) and they went a lot slower than I would have

So THAT'S why you decided to bat for the other team (you see what I did there? LOL)

Trip: Golden Slam - Standards Date: 8/27/2016 Trip Report: My quest to bag another 9K peak (Fernow) was cockblocked by fire closures so I moved up a larch-season hike, making it a not-so-larch-season hike. C'est la vie. And it don't matter much, as a great time was had and two more Bulgers were tapped. FYMF! We approached on Saturday via the PCT and camped at Snowy Lakes: We set up tents and headed up to Golden Horn that afternoon. Gully below the summit of Golden Horn. Chossy but short and mostly fun: Golden Horn mountain p0rn: Rappelling from the summit of Golden Horn: We got back to camp at 7. Next day we headed up to climb Tower. Rather than posthole in scree around climber's left of the cliff band below the cave, we opted for a clean but exposed class 3 ledge: The chossy ledge between the cave and the main gully of Tower: The main gully of Tower Mountain. Just clean enough and steep enough to be exhilirating and fun: Summit stoke: Golden Horn from the summit of Tower: Downclimbing the main gully: Gear Notes: Helmet. 30m rope to rappel from GH. C4 #1 suffices for pro. Approach Notes: PCT is easy on the knees and eyes. Snow free.

Thank God Mondo exists and "Good Food" has given up the ghost!

Fun scramble. I enjoyed it as well. TFPU!!

it's all Bush's fault

Love Jack Mountain. Such a cool scramble!

that's funny 800 feet of shit. that's the price of admission. Storm King wasn't gonna spread her legs for free.

I need to bag this fucker. Gawd the Nordwand looks fun!!!!!!

Only the talus up through the gully - about 800 feet of it. Other than that it was quite enjoyable!

Trip: Storm King - Californication Date: 8/14/2016 Trip Report: NH, TBV and I climbed Storm King this past weekend. Due to late time route planning changes we fell a bit short of trying to add in Goode, but that's OK. I still want to climb the NE buttress and who knows, maybe 6th times a charm... or 7th... or 20th. We arrived in Stehekin on the morning express, loaded up at the bakery with gut bombs, and stashed beers at High Bridge. Systems Go! The forecast was for 95 degrees in Stehekin, but it felt a bit cooler. We made it up to Bridge Creek in under 2 hours and made quick progress to Park Creek. However, the hill side switchbacks up to Two Mile camp proved a bit more oppressive and hellacious... and arrived at the log bridge at 5:20. Back of the envelope computations yielded an unsatisfactory result: should we stop for 20-30 minutes to refill on water and continue on up to the 7400' camp, it would require at least 4 hours and that would be both unpleasant and possibly pointless - some rest would be required to tag both summits in a day and move camp. so we opted for a more relaxing single peak summit. Sunday involved headlamps in the cool morning. Time to 7400' was 4 hours with fresh legs and light packs, so we called it right. The "cairn" marking the climber's "trail" was blackened and not much of a marker. The Goode fire has done a number on the section of trail where you head uphill and stays that way until well over 5000' foot elevation. There's a lot of ash and blackened dead fall. Not sure how well this will hold upf or the next few years. But for now it's OK and you can walk wherever you want - it's fucking Mordor up there. At 7400' we refilled on water and rested. It was getting warmer at this point. Then it was on up to the summit and back to camp, taking our time, and using up all the daylight hours. Leaving the trail: Scorched earth above the Park Creek Pass trail: TBVisitor scrambling just below the 7400' basin: Traverse from 7400' basin to the Hall of the Mountain King: Embrace the choss: Storm King summit blocks: \m/ KK \m/ So satisfying to look over at this peak and finally say "I was there": Opposite sentiment from above: TangyBV rappels the summit block: Paradise: Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, helmet, rope and harness to rappel the summit. Approach Notes: Mordor.

One of my favorite "surprise" Bulgers. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Congrats!

For custer you follow the least shitty line in a pile of dog-shit-choss

are permits self-register? We did it once - registered at sedro wooley and they forwarded it to marblemount for some obscure reason. a week later I get a call from Marblemount asking if I got off the mountain or not. WTF? I asked why the permit was in marblemount and they said that's the jurisdiction for the area. Other time I was there... did not bother with a permit.

I'm on board with Hunter S on this one. 'Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow!"'

LOL. Love the vintage pic though. I've seen it here before. Getting old(er) sucks.

Having been through the cirque headwall a couple times, I'd steer you towards the brushy ramp on the far right. It's by far the easiest penetration of the cliff band, and while we found a happy scrambling route up I think we did one rappel on the way down. The brush is deep but neither thorny nor recalcitrant slide alder, so it's pretty straight forward. This puts you up on the right side of Thunder Peak, just contour around the toe of the NE Buttress on that peak to access the Douglas Glacier. I think there is a far left alternative too, though I've never been that way. As an aside, that NE Buttress on Thunder is a good objective. The FA actually went to Lowell Skoog, but we made two forays onto it. First time around with light rack and mountain boots, we got to the first tower rap and realized we weren't equipped. Second time we got to the next rap and shattered rock ahead dissuaded us, so we bailed to the Douglas and retreated. Lowell says the upper wall isn't so bad, and the whole route is probably IV 5.8 or 5.9. Totally misreported in the Green Beckey as the SW Buttress with no info. I doubt the route has seen a second ascent, anyone who wants more beta should PM me and I'm sure I can get you up the thing, it's a pretty great objective. Ignore the man smoking while playing air guitar on his ice axe wearing an inflatable dinosaur, the NE Buttress of Thunder Peak is the left hand skyline. FYI, we called it the Bolo Buttress since we wore Bolo Ties for the entire time on both outings. glory days

any moat issues getting from snow to rock on easy mox?

I was disappointed. I had hoped Choss Dog Millionaires had left one of their playing cards up there. After that 3 day sausage party even a tiny pic of female flesh would have been most welcome!

it's such a beautiful area. I may need to repeat by a different route (douglas or banded)

Yep, that's what we climbed and called the summit. There's a cairn on top There's no register that we could find. I was surprised that some call this last bit class 4. It seemed like regular old class 3 to me