KaskadskyjKozak

Beats shorts over polypro any day.

13 and 11. The 11-year-old is a natural and will be crushing me soon enough

Thanks for sharing... I hope the boys appreciate these experiences for years to come!

Trip: Seven Fingered Jack (7FJ) - SW Slope Date: 8/18/2013 Trip Report: I took my two younger sons backpacking this weekend to Leroy Basin. My youngest also accompanied me up to tag the summit of 7FJ via the standard talus/scree-slog. My friend PG met us at camp separately and joined us for the climb and descent before motoring out early for home. The hike in: The boys before the hike out. Nice view of the objective (and snow melt): Scrambling talus and scree in the early morning: The infamous, ominous 7FJ-Maude col: Close-up of the N side traverse from the col: Summit shots: N Face of Maude: My boy scrambling down talus. Warms the heart! Glacier Peak still looking snowy from the E: The contrasting colors were awesome this weekend. Shot down to Leroy Basin from high on 7FJ: Glacier Peak and surrounding environs: Gear Notes: Helmet. Approach Notes: Lots of black flies.

Cool! And glad to see you enjoyed the gully and felt it was not so bad :-)

Some ice is exposed on the Redoubt gl already below Redoubt and at the nose by the slabs where you first gain the glacier. You can easily walk up these sections with crampons. I would guess you'd be OK in a few weeks and say the trip is worth a go.

A shit-ton-of-class 4 and no helicopter calls. Props! :-)

There's a balance between "going for it" and trying to expand what you have done, and being conservative and developing more slowly. NE ridge of Black is a pretty logical step up from something like Liberty/Beckey or E ridge of Ingalls.

The thunderstorms in the area most likely caused the one party to descend rather than wait on the summit. Probably didn't know anything was really wrong (other than a slow moving team) until it was late and getting dark. They may have been too tired and didn't want to take on further risk by climbing in the night. Personally, I wouldn't really want to be climbing a loose-ish route in the dark if I was tired and relatively new to alpine climbing. Easy to armchair quarterback though. At least nobody was hurt and valuable lessons learned, I'm sure. I didn't mean to suggest to go up in the dark, but the next morning. I don't agree about the armchair quarterback comment. I think it's worth talking/thinking about alternatives to handling a situation. Next time you, I or someone are in one, maybe that prior thought/discussion might trigger a memory and a good response to the situation. One theme in ANAM reports are rescues involving parties that separate. It's easy to separate when two rope teams are on a route for sure, and worth trying not to let that happen.

I wonder why the party that summitted did not go back up themselves to see what was up? Maybe borrowing some food from folks at Wing Lake so they'd have the energy they needed to get up there???

I'm really motivated to climb J-berg now... :-/

Yeah you're right, better safe than sorry. a 30m will suffice for up to 4 on the glacier. pretty light rope to carry up. I'd ditch it at the base of the summit pyramid though

As opposed to going up the central gully? I think I would feel more comfortable staying in the gully, but I guess we can take a look when we get up there. How did you finish the pyramid, DPS? And did you bring a rope to rap off, or just downclimb? Thanks everyone, good beta here. I climbed the summit pyramid twice via the gully and I did it unroped up and down. The biggest risk in there is rockfall from other people.

Sounds like we shouldn't have any problems. We'll have some daylight by the time we get up to that point, like you say. Do you recall how many hours your climb was? We did it in two days. If you plan C2C you probably could do it in 12, maybe a bit more.

Well that is good to know, thanks. I mapped it out best I could and it seems like it would only be about 12-13 miles roundtrip, but a trip report over at summit posts mentioned it was 15 miles and took them 16 hours...maybe they were just slow. (http://www.summitpost.org/shuksan-in-a-day/734236) the first few miles of trail follows an old forest road. that will probably burn an hour then there is a pretty good trail up to the ridge that you break out on. This part gets muddy and eroded with roots, but I don't remember it being hard at all to follow, but we did it in daylight. Unless you are starting before 4 am, I think you'd be in some amount of daylight by the time you are on this part of the approach

Call the Marblemount RS. I talked to them and they indicated you'd be able to get to the Eldorado TH by today. If that's the case, it is a 2.5 mile hike to the Boston Basin TH from there, and a little farther to Cascade Pass.

No idea. Maybe a return to epic form?

I'll bet you could easily entice Nastia to head up there... and there will be no border probs.

Indeed. I've had two trips back there already, and I do plan to return.

Sweet! Thanks!

Nice job and report! We also had a long day on Hard Mox: 4:15 am to 12:15 pm (camp to summit) and 1 pm to 6:30 pm (summit to camp).

Thanks! Nice register entry, BTW :-)

Thanks, Eric! But to clarify - Andy finished the Bulger. I am at a measly 24 right now...

True - you should not *rely* on help either. But... odds are in your favor (and if you end up totally alone and are spooked, you can bail)

If you do it on a weekend you are not likely to be really "alone". Something to weigh against your cautiousness - help is likely nearby. The route is really mellow (and fun). Enjoy!