KaskadskyjKozak

I carry out TP in a plastic ziploc. But I must hate the planet. Plastic is evil.

When I first heard about this accident, I only knew it was on Colchuck and not which route. It did strike me as an odd objective choice for this time of year - even if it was just the Colchuck Glacier route. Now, knowing the actual route, I'm still a bit perplexed. Maybe I haven't studied it enough, but I would expect this route more in the spring time. I'm not making a judgment - am just perplexed. In my experience N Buttress Couloir seems more popular (also has serious objective risk, especially in winter), and of course there's TC on D-Tail (great after some thaw and melt to fill in the runnels). Anyways, it's always said to hear about an accident like this. Life is short and fragile.

Is there a way to edit a TR after you post it and add the team members? I did notice this field as I created my most recent TR, but didn't know how it worked until I saw this thread. Now when I click edit, I don't see a way to add the "team"

This was my primary gym for years (up until COVID). Such a bummer that it's closing. I do hope they open at a new locatioin somewhere on the E side.

I guess it's just a matter of pick your poison. I do like the idea of an obvious handline, and option to retreat with minimal risk/effort. It's definitely bold of you to try for the ascent into unchartered territory (solo!). I remember even the trail has a tricky section around a cliffy area a ways up (4000'?)

I know, right? and it looks so tiny, but it takes more than a little effort to get up it as well

Trip: Mount Rainier - Disappointment Cleaver Trip Date: 08/16/2022 Team: @Stefan B @Thomas G @KaskadskyjKozak Trip Report: It goes without saying that Rainier is a rite of passage for many alpinists in the PNW. I myself attempted the Emmons route in 2004 with the Mounties, when I first got into climbing, and got AMS at 12500' and turned around. I headed back to the Emmons the next year (private party of 4) and bagged it. I returned a couple more times (2008, Fuhrer Finger, turned around at 13000+, 2011, summitted via the Kautz in late season conditions). Soon after I had moved on to bigger, better, and well, just different objectives and priorities. I vowed I'd only go back to Rainier to climb Liberty Ridge or the Tahoma Glacier routes, or maybe do a spring jaunt up the Gib Ledges. None of those ever transpired. It seemed every year they never worked out for one reason or another. The years flew by and I ticked off a long list of other peaks. My son had been itching for his own Rainier experience. Last year we went up the S spur of Adams - a good altitude trial. He crushed it. This year, I said I'd climb Rainier with him, but only if we could get up the Tahoma glacier. Once again the weather did not cooperate in June. And soon enough, the window had passed. Then my conscience kicked in. Who was it that had stuck with me for thick and thin, year after year, one shitty Bulger choss pile after another? Who suffered in the heat, smoke, wasp-infested bushwhack approaches, year after year? So, before my son had to leave for school, transferring to Boulder, CO, I committed. And fuck it, why not make it fun and relaxing. I pulled in a third, and planned a day off work and we set the date for a three day ascent via the good ole DC (which I had never climbed, but had descended back in September 2011 after climbing the Kautz). We had a perfect weather window, and conditions were reportedly still excellent on the route. We arrived noon-ish, with the multitude of tour-ons and a full parking lot at Paradise on 8/14. I dropped off my son and partner at the ranger station, then drove around and found a spot in the overnight lot and we registered for the climb. The ranger didn't seem thrilled about us for some reason, until I filled out my prior experience on Rainier. Then her mood changed ("nice" was what she said). We headed up around 1 and found a flattish spot at about 9000' on the Muir snow field in a few hours. We slept in and hiked to Muir early-ish (well after sunrise). I felt a bit nauseas and lethargic for the first hour or so, but perked up with a second wind at Muir. We continued on to Ingraham Flats, arriving mid-day. There was one other independent party at Ingraham from the East Coast who had made several annual attempts on Rainier with no success. The rest of the people there were guides and clients. We crashed early (6 pm) and set alarms for 1 am. However i woke up at 12:15 hearing the crunch crunch of the first party from Muir and the stoves from our neighbors. Time to roll, motherfuckers! I woke up my son and other partner, and we determined to get a move on. We were boots on the trail, roped up just after 1:30. The conditions were mild until the top of the DC, where it got windy and cold, but tolerable. The route was in good shape, with an obvious trail, and only a little sketchiness. Higher up (13000 and up) it got progressively colder and windier. It was in this area where we navigated some crevasses and used two ladders set by the guides, protected by pickets. As the slope mellowed, the sun came out, and the guided party in front of us stopped twice in a short amount of time for breaks, once for photos. I cursed them loudly and repeatedly, as well as the cold fucking wind, with half my face freezing from the prevailing wind. Overhead by a guide, he radio'd the party to step off the trail, and we passed on by. Moving faster, I got warm quickly and we soon were at the crater rim. My son and friend wanted a rest stop so we unroped and I continued ahead for the summit. They joined me within a few minutes. It was 6:40 am. We took pics, then dropped to the register and split a bottle of Rainier that my son had carried. I had more than my 1/3 share. It was so fucking refreshing. After copious time on the summit we knew it was time to go. The descent was smooth and without incident or problems. We got some cool shots of the crevasses, ladders, and views. My old body started to feel it after we got to camp Muir and I slowed down. I knew I'd be sore the next day, but it was more than worth it. What a way to end a season and send my son off to school! Gear Notes: Standard glacier travel gear Approach Notes: Mostly snow free until Pebble Creek

Start them young. Keep to reasonable (for them) objectives, but they can do more than you might think. My progression with the kids from age 3 on up started out with easy stuff like Lake 22 trail, Rattlesnake Ledge and Little Si, or Mount Scott (Crater Lake) and progressed up from there in steps year by year. Good luck and enjoy!

Yeah PNW Peakbaggers on FB does this. Tell you what, give me a stack and I'd leave some in the Mailbox on said peak, or some cool summit register and we could post for peeps to go pick 'em up

The grim reaper keeps following me around. I just move faster and tell him "not today, motherfucker!"

The Tahoma Glacier has been on my tick list for some time. But every year the trip seems to fall through. Last year I did do an unexpected run up the DC with my son, and I did hike up to Tokaloo Rock on an unseasonably warm day in October to check out the route (broken up AF late season). Father Time is not going to give me many more shots to get this....

Sell them for a small profit to help fund the site?

I'd like to see them improve their reservation system and permitting processes, and for some rangers to behave differently towards climbers. I would also like to see better trail maintenance (even allow WTA to do work on trails like the Boston Basin trail), and some repairs done (rebuild a bridge across Thunder Creek near McAllister camp)

Hey, awesome TR Kuato! I had the luxury of using a real bridge when I climbed Primus from this approach a few years back. I'd like to go back there and either do the Inspiration traverse, or just bag Tricouni. I was wondering if you considered backtracking N along the opposite side of Thunder Creek after crossing it? Other than backtracking a mile or so, was there a reason not to do that?

can't wait to see them!

Congrats on the Smoots dude!!

He texted me a couple of times. He wanted to go to Squamish to climb, and also was looking for info on the approach to the DC/Cool Glacier route on Glacier Peak. I met him at a Pub Club once somewhere in Ballard I think. I also saw him "in the wild" a couple of other times. One time he was headed up to climb something in the Liberty Bell group and my climbing partner lent Fred his helmet (we were headed out) because Fred had forgotten his. My favorite memories were him at the Bulger Party talking out loud during the presentations (he was hard of hearing and was speaking super loud). Such a legend!

Bulgers are a nasty obsession - good on you for keeping it at bay. But the Smoots... don't you have just one left?

That's the plan. Cracks are already showing in this old, broken body, but I'll keep getting out as long as possible.

Trip: Colonial Basin: Snowfield Peak, Colonial Peak, Neve, Paul Bunyan's Stump - Standards Trip Date: 07/08/2022 Trip Report: What to do after finishing the Bulger List - was I done? Actually, in addition to a handful of Smoots, I have a long list of adventures I'd like to do, most notably some high alpine traverses and trips to the pickets. For July I had planned to do the Isolation Traverse with my son and 1-2 others. Unfortunately partners had to bail shortly before the trip leaving just two of us. My son has limited glacier experience and I felt a little anxious about a remote alpine traverse with just us two. So we opted for a less committing trip up to the beautiful Colonial Basin area where we could do some peak bagging. We figured we would probably have some company too, which ups the safety factor a bit - and we were right. I had been to this area once before as part of a two-day trip up Snowfield Peak back when I was in the Mountaineers and just starting to climb. That trip went less than ideal - and although we had summited I really wanted to return and have a better experience. As you'll see, I made a great choice! So, we headed up to Marblemount early-ish on a Friday, got a permit and drove to the Pyramid Lake TH where we ran into a familiar face from a separate party of three. We headed up in the warming temps and grunted out 6000' gain in just under 9.5 hours, all the way to the col below Neve Peak and overlooking the Neve glacier. The approach between Pyramid Lake and the bumps below Pyramid Peak were as heinous as I remembered, however with many other unsavory approaches under my belt in the intervening 15+ years, it seemed more run of the mill heinous, than extreme (ahem Silver Creek ahem). Unfortunately, the party we had met at the parking turnout hours before had beat us to the one primo spot at the col, and a second party (who had passed us) took the next optimal spot about 50-100' below on the N side. So we dug a platform in a semi-exposed area just N of the ridge. There was a nice stream of running water in the nearby rocks which made getting dinner and water much quicker. The night was colder than expected, windy and a bit miserable in a 30 degree bag. Between that and the long day before, we slept in a bit. We headed onto the Neve Glacier towards Snowfield well after sunrise. Glacier travel was straightforward with minimal crevasses. It took 3 hours from high camp at the saddle to summit. No issues with routefinding. The little class 3 step/moves above the gully seemed way more tame than when I did this climb years ago. We enjoyed the summit then headed back to camp. It took about 2+ hours. At camp we were a bit tired - more from the day before than today's efforts, and chilled a bit. It was still early and we opted to tag Neve Peak. This went way faster than expected (25 min up, 15 down, and we lounged on the summit for at least an hour, enjoying the views). We decided to go for Colonial Peak the next day, though we had done minimal route research. We had another cold and windy night, and slept in again and set off at 7:30 or so. We ended up having a long day climbing both Colonial and Paul Bunyan's stump. We (I) second guessed the obvious snow gulley and tried the direct snow slopes on the left side first. Those led to scary runout on hard snow, so we backtracked and tried to go up the ridge on the right of the snow gully by looping around to the saddle between Colonial and Neve. We dead ended on class 4 terrain before the false summit, and finally just dropped to the upper snowfield and led out with pickets across the exposed slope we had attempted earlier from below. All in all I believe it took us 6 hours up with 3 hours wasted on shenanigans. We were pretty tired and tempted to just head to camp. But there was still daylight left, so we went for Paul Bunyan's stump, continuing straight up the higher traverse above cliff bands to the saddle below Paul Bunyan's. We then went up as quickly as we could (40 min from saddle to summit), probably going farther left than we should have on the upper slopes. After enjoying the summit we descended efficiently and got back to camp before dark. We followed a better path down, especially on the upper slopes (still took a similar time to the saddle - maybe 40 min?). All in all 12:20 and 4750' elevation gain on the day. By this time (Sunday night) the other parties were gone so we moved to the nice spot at the col. The last night was much warmer and quite pleasant and we slept well. We had considered tagging Pyramid during this trip but just wanted to get home at this point. We retraced our steps from the first day, with the exception of needing to go over the rocks to get around the lake. The lake was that much more melted out along the shore! Total time down, including rest stops and refilling water: 6:53. For once we got to eat a proper dinner and drive home in daylight. Another great trip with my boy! Gear Notes: Glacier travel gear, helmets Approach Notes: Strenuous, steep, hateful.

I have a cyclocross. I use it as my street bike, and occasionally on gravel - most frequently that would be when doing the Lake Sammamish loop ride (the gravel part has been closed recently). I've taken it on the Cedar River trail all the way to Landsburg Park. Are you on Strava? that's a great app to see what people are up to for rides

Nice work! Back in May we actually intended to do both Anderson and W Anderson and even brought a small rack all the way in there for W Anderson (due to TRs we read, some of it is exposed and worth pitching out). But Anderson early season gave us enough excitement and took long enough so we settled for the single summit. W Anderson definitely is the trickier of the two- impressed you did all that with almost no snow and solo to boot!