KaskadskyjKozak

How much bushwhacking is involved in the correct, flagged trail? Up high we found one talus field with a single cairn, and lower down we ran into a boot path going up on what looked like cross-country terrain. We only hit a "real" trail at about 3100 foot elevation.

Trip: Torment - South Ridge Date: 7/25/2010 Trip Report: I've been wanting to climb Forbidden really badly this year, and was all set for the trip. I checked with the Marblemount Ranger Station maybe Wednesday and they said there were still four open slots for Boston Basin. I figured if I drove up on Friday after work (leave 4 pm), I'd be good. Not. Some gnarly traffic kept me from getting there until 7:15, but, in the end it was to no avail. All six slots were gone, and four slots were taken up by guided groups, who, apparently can register in advance of a day, not as walk-ins. So, on to plan B, Torment. I know there are many ways up Torment, but thought either the S ridge or the SE face would be best for my skills and my first run up there. However the melting/moating snow, and risk of accident up on the Taboo glacier, especially now, swung me towards the S ridge (both to ascend and descend). So, permit-less, I contacted my climbing partners about the change of venue and agreed to meet them at the Eldorado TH at 9 am on Sat. One of my partners seemed to prefer the idea of the steep, "unaesthetic" trail up Torment Basin, so we parked at the turnout, found what appeared to be the start of the trail and headed up. The "trail" disappeared almost immediately. We searched for about 30 minutes, zig-zagging uphill until I called this out as stupid, and we went back to the cars and drove up to the Boston Basin TH instead. Good call! Within two hours we were in the full alpine glory that is the Boston Basin! We chatted with some friends who were descending from Forbidden, and began our long, beautiful traverse - highly recommended! We mostly traversed snow, with a brief scramble along a waterfall, and, another section of scrambling to the ridge separating the Boston and Torment basins. As we passed the Taboo glacier, we thought that it did indeed look gnarly - a bit broken up around the rock, with a moat. The S ridge it would be. We also briefly entertained the idea of camping here and climbing Forbidden, but opted to continue on. We expected to see a tent city up under Forbidden. Despite the fact that it was 2pm, we saw nobody there at all. Where are these guided groups? The weather was perfect - well maybe a bit too hot in the 5 pm sun, but we set up a tarp for cover. Great views, and they were there at night too, with a full moon. We had the place all to ourselves. We got up at 5 am and were moving by 6. The snow leading up to the notch in the S ridge was quite hard and icy, and thin around the rock to boot, with a deep moat awaiting a punch-through fall. We carefully gained the rock in crampons and scrambled the gnarly gully to an anchor and roped up. It was about 7:30 and already warming. The first pitch was quite fun, then we started traversing left. Despite reading a warning about not climbing too high while traversing, we ended up doing it anyways. The "mistake" might have cost us some time, but in the end we ended up climbing some fun 5.6-ish stuff, and then just having to do a 50 foot rappel into the final, wide gully that leads to the "prominent notch" in the S ridge. This consumed a total of 5-6 pitches with the last one being more like class 4. KK on belay: It was all worth it, however. That summit is absolutely wonderful. The views of the Inspiration Glacier, as well as Forbidden, and the TFT route are spectacular! From the notch we simulclimbed some exposed sections over the SE face, then unroped and scrambled to the summit. It was 3 pm when my partner and I summited and maybe 3:30 when the other two guys got there. Crazy Nelson on the summit: We reversed our steps, which, unfortunately was not too fast. We had to mix downclimbing pitches while placing pro with rappels. One rappel took me to an anchor that was too shaky for my taste - old tat notwithstanding. I ended up going a full 200 feet on my single strand, bending around a corner to get to a nice station. Everyone rappelled to here (setting up the second rope), and we belayed one guy out a bit to do the rope pull with a better angle. The first rope cleared but the second stuck. So, we untied the first rope and set up another rappel, while our partner upclimbed, placing pro, and moving a prusik to clear the other rope. That burned some time. We did another single rope rap, downclimbed a half-pitch, then did two more single rope rappels to the base of the climb. By now it was 8:30 pm and when we got to camp we either could hike out in the dark and then drive home until the wee hours of the morning, or we could just crash for an extra night. We chose the latter, despite one partner really wanting to bushwhack and forest crash the Torment Basin by headlamp. Fortunately, he did not hold it against us and shared his 1 lb can of SPAM with us. I have not eaten SPAM since I was about 12, and it sure tasted better than I remembered it. Today we got up, packed up, and headed down around 6. We opted to go straight down the unaesthetic Torment Basin since it would be nice to compare it to the other approach. Well, it sucks. I guess we can have wanna-be-hardman points for bushwhacking through slide alder and devil's club, as well as sidehilling shit that pushed my tolerance threshold. Eventually - and I mean at about 3100 foot elevation - we actually found, and stuck to, a climber's trail. Near the bottom it hit a log that we obviously had missed 2 days earlier. Over this log was the end of the trail, the one we had previously "explored". Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, helmet. Small alpine rack, lots of double slings, climbing boots suffice. Approach Notes: Boston Basin Traverse = spectacular! Torment Basin = brutal and unnecessary!

Elk lake and Glacier Meadows have quotas. You can reserve a spot up to a month in advance (and are not charged until you actually show up). Just call the wilderness information center in Port Angeles to find out if there are spots open.

More real that Mountain House and nuts and twigs. :-)

the summit shot is looking "easterly"... you can see the false summit below as well as the middle peak.

Nice work Pete! I am extremely jealous!

It's sunny. Go climb something.

Trip: Olympus - Blue Glacier Date: 7/17/2010 Trip Report: Olympus has been on my tick list for a number of years, but I have had trouble getting a combination of the time off and a good weather window. This year all worked in my favor. I went up with a largish group (6) for a four day trip. On Thursday we caught an early ferry to Kingston, picked up our permits, had brunch in Forks, and did a 5 hour approach to Lewis Meadows. On the second day, we slept in and did a very relaxing five hour hike in to Glacier Meadows. On both days we had beautiful weather. The trail is dry and snow free all the way to camp. There is currently a rope ladder set up just before Glacier Meadows and warnings to avoid a gnarly, melting-out avalanche gully. Camp itself has lots of snow-free sites and plenteous running water right by camp. Getting some elevation gain finally: The rope ladder: Glacier Meadows: Since we got to camp early we hiked up to the moraine to admire our objective. Great, great views. Later in the evening we saw bears right in the camp site. Needless to say, we hung our food very carefully and by the book. The ranger advised a very early start so we headed out of camp at 3 am on Saturday. It was cool and clear. The route was completely straightforward. We took the moraine to the far left and descended a climber's trail to the remaining snow/avy debris and dropped to the Blue Glacier to rope up. Very few crevasses are opening up, but we roped up anyways. We took a moderate slope up the Snow Dome, traversed to Crystal Pass, and then rounded the corner and proceeded to a notch below the false summit. Cramponing was decently firm until we rounded Crystal Pass, then got sloppy. Views from the slope up to the Snow Dome: Examining a gaper near Crystal Pass: We descended a steepish, very icy slope to the col between the false and true summits, and then ascended a steeper, sun-exposed, snow slope to just below the summit block. The icy slope down from the false summit: The summit block - reward for 6 hours of hard work: I had brought a very small alpine rack with me and proceeded to the right slightly where easy scrambling led to a belay ledge half-way up. I then led a short pitch of 5.easy to the rappel anchor and set a fixed line for my followers. At this point another party of 2 caught up to us and also led the pitch. We ran into nobody else on the route that day. KK summit stoke: Summit pron: We rappeled the climbing pitch and downclimbed the class 3 bit, then proceeded to reverse our steps back. The descent was straightforward and took about 3 hours. We had a great rest at camp, washing up, eating, etc, and opted to do the full deproach on Sunday. We headed out on Sunday at 6:30am. The hike out went great until about 5 mile island. Then it became more and more painful and mind-numbing. We got to the cars at 2 and proceeded directly to Forks for some real food. Pleasant views on the hike out: We got caught in bad traffic near Sequim and dealt with the normal ferry backup, getting back to Edmonds around 10 pm. This part of the climb may have been the most painful part. :-) Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, helmet, small alpine rack.

"minorities"? STFU

Nice work! I really need to get up this route...

The sling looked newer. I'm not sure if the cam I saw was a TCU or something else. It had a white sewn runner. I didn't even try to clean it... figured it was stuck for good based on the apparent age/weather wear. Five years sounds about right though. There was also a rope hanging over the shelf, which was tied around a boulder at the top of the first pitch. The other party we saw pulled the rope up and I think they may have carried it out (something about making it into a rug).

I am responding to the bullshit assertion that gov't has nothing to do with religious marriage ceremonies in the US If you and TTK want to tie the knot somewhere that'll take you, go for it!

Right back at you.

WRONG. In WA state if you are married in a church, the church is required to see your marriage license before performing the ceremony. Exactly! The civil aspect comes first. The "religious" aspect is the optional part. The civil contract is the requirement. Exactly. The state forces rules on the religious organizations. Of course, they'd never do that regarding same-sex partners. Never. Nope.

WRONG. In WA state if you are married in a church, the church is required to see your marriage license before performing the ceremony.

Yes! Also a small sling pinched off in a crack just to the right of it.

Who discriminated against the whites?

GEE! THANKS FOR THESE VERY INTERESTING LATE-BREAKING DEVELOPMENTS!

Nice! This is/was one of my favorite climbs!

Trip: East Wilman's Spire - Beckey-Staley Date: 7/11/2010 Trip Report: Ever since I saw this route in one of the Nelson's books I thought it would be fun to try and roped in three friends (aclark20, LB, and SS) to come-with. Coming off a trip to Europe, it seemed to fit the bill for this past weekend as a moderately-strenuous, fairly non-technical one-day trip. We biked in to Monte Cristo, and approached via the Glacier Basin trail, rather than other alternatives. Lots of snow and melt-off on the surrounding mountainsides. Only downside - it was quite hot until late afternoon, which slowed us down a bit. The talus field up to the snow ramp was mostly continuous snow with one or two sections of obligatory nastiness to overcome. The gully itself had good coverage up to 20 feet below the notch. The scramble from the W notch to the E notch was dry, as was the climbing route itself. We climbed the steep snow to the notch unroped. We all had crampons (optional, but recommended) and a second tool (also optional) which made for easier going. We roped up at the E notch, which involved two pitches of 5.fun, two rappels, and a downclimb on lead, and we were done with the best fun. Two of our party were a little nervous about the downclimbing on the snow (it was around 6 pm and cooling) so we tied our two 60 m ropes together and lowered one (LB), and let the second rappel (SS) on the joined ropes (and pass the knot). My other partner, aclark20, downclimbed. I went last, dropped the ropes and downclimbed (I opted for crampons). We almost had the route to ourselves; we ran into one other party (of 2). As we were about to descend the snow gully we witnessed several huge blocks of snow slough off of the peak next to E Wilman's. It was an awesome sight to behold! The hike and bike out went well. Lots of waterfalls to look at, nice temps, cool breezes. Now for the pics. Approaching Glacier Basin: Ascending snow-covered talus: Ascending the steepest part of the snow-gully: Aclark20 downclimbing the first pitch on lead: View up talus and snow approach (taken on descent): Gear Notes: Small alpine rack, crampons and ice axe, 2nd tool optional. Approach Notes: Snow-free until glacier basin; at least 50% coverage on the talus field below the spire; approach gully snow-filled.

The execs of BP could care less that they're tanking -- they already have fat wallets, and the notion of the corporation protects them from personal liability. The people who will suffer are the BP employees and the folks who have invested in BP. No doubt the BP execs will find jobs at other corporations -- these other corps are looking to take advantage of a short-term profit at expense of the common good. Not saying that it's right or wrong -- just that it's reality. Is this supposed to be some sort of revelation or a half-assed rant? Familiar with the Ford Pinot? Mmmm Pinot...

I thought that that old fart turned 60 *last* year.

Linky

Putain de merde!

Je suis retourné