KaskadskyjKozak

we almost went for it on Saturday but did Big C instead. The snow was super hard and icy Sunday morning, so I have no regrets. Not worth a risk of a fall when a reasonable alternative exists

Did you happen to get a pic of Buckner and Horseshoe Basin area while traversing over to Cache Col?

According to this TR, in a similar time of year and with a similar looking amount of snow on the face it is 40-45 degrees in places:

Trip: Big Chiwaukum and Snowgrass Mountain - Standards Trip Date: 07/04/2020 Trip Report: With some forecasts looking meh on the observed Friday holiday my son and I opted for a more certain forecast in the Chiwaukums and a 2-day trip. Smoots are always a great Plan B. We car camped at the White Pine TH Friday night and headed up at dawn. We cut off the trail in the meadows below Big C at the standard spot just past the stream and headed up to about 6000'. We then sussed out the lowest feasible spot to get around the spur ridge (6400') and contoured over and around to lower Lake Grace. At this point Big C's summit was socked in and Snowgrass was going in and out of clouds. We set up camp and deliberated on options but as things started to clear on both summit tops went for the closer Big C. It took about 2:20 to summit from camp. Route-finding was relatively straightforward with cairns marking the "key ledge". It was clear but windy. Great views. Campsite: Lake Grace from ridge leading to Big C's summit Key Ledge: Snowgrass from Big C. Snowfield looks steep! We got down early for dinner and had plenty of down time. The next morning we got up at dawn. It was a cold night and the snow patches around camp were rock hard. We opted to contour around towards Frosty Pass (but not *to* it) and pick up the S ridge route rather than try the steep NE face route which had a bad rounout. Later we met a climber on the summit of Snowgrass who had also passed on that option and scrambled the rocks adjacent to the snow instead. We followed the S ridge directly up Snowgrass towards what looked like the summit but ended up at a flat spot before a notch with an exposed section to get to a false summit. From here it was not clear how to get around some rocky spots on the ridge. After about 30 min of looking around (and even contemplating going back the way we came to drop down on the easier snow field on the S face, we found a short, loose, exposed downclimb to a ledge system that skirted the snow and worked towards the summit block. All in all this prolonged our day, but we still got back to the cars by 6:30 that evening. Snow field leading to the S ridge of Snowgrass. Flat S ridge below the false summit area: False summit: Big C and Lake Grace: Smoot summit stoke: Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons Approach Notes: Snow-free until 6000'

I hear you on "boys never really took to it". I have three boys and only my youngest (he's 18) loves this shit. So far we are 2 for 3 this summer, with a turnaround 10' from the top of Whitehorse and a successful summit of the Tooth. Glad you enjoyed the TR!

Trip: Monte Cristo - Standard Trip Date: 06/22/2020 Trip Report: After another disappointing weekend weather forecast my son and I opted for a one day trip up Monte Cristo on Monday. We had previously been in the area last September on a one day trip up Columbia Peak. From the latter summit we had discussed a return visit for either Monte Cristo or Cadet, and it's the right time of year now for either. We drove up to Barlow Pass Sunday night, arriving at dusk and setting our alarms for 4 am. We had our bikes with us to speed up our approach. We biked into town at dawn, locked our bikes at the rack and headed up the trail to Glacier Basin. The trail was in mostly good shape and snow free until you approach the basin above 4000'. We took a quick rest break just beyond and above Ray's Knoll, opting to put on crampons then. We ascended continuous snow from there to the v notch. The snow conditions were great - not icy but not too soft either. View up Monte Cristo in the morning: Ascending good snow From the col we roped up knowing there could be moat issues and that we needed to do one technical pitch anyways. As I approached the snow to rock transition, I could see it was already non-trivial. I downclimbed about 4 feet onto a snowy block and then tried to work my feet up to a higher snow block, but slid down and crushed the snow below me. I then tried to get into the moat higher up the slope, but it was worse there. I returned to my original spot and made several attempts to climb up 8 feet or so before finally succeeding, then made a low 5th move past a piton onto a belay ledge and brought up my son. We then got out the rock pro and I took a try at the short technical pitch. There was snow melting from above right into the crack I wanted to use. The pre-placed sling above was soaking wet and when I grabbed it water ran down my arm. Footing was not good with boots in the wet crack. I backed down and put on rock shoes so I could try to stay on dry holds on the right side of the crack, got up a few feet, then grabbed the wet sling to pull the lip. from there one more 5th class move got me to the rappel anchor. From this spot, we could see the source of the running water - a large snow patch right on top of the slabs. Fortunately the left side was dry and we were able to scramble past the snow on dry rock. Above that we also avoided snow by staying on blocky 3rd class terrain on ribs and eventually got to the finale- breccia rock on the summit block. Factoring in the moat shenanigans and wet crack for the rock pitch, we were satisified with our 8.5 hour time from cars to summit. Blocky class 3 scrambling below the summit: Kyes Peak from the summit: We downclimbed to the rappel anchor, rapped first to the belay ledge to retrieve gear, then into the moat. From there we roped up again (just to protect the moat exit) and returned to the v notch. From here we unroped and downclimbed the steep snow slopes face-in, using an ice axe and picket each for more security. The snow conditions were still good with not much more softening up since we had climbed. Once slopes moderated the hike out was cruiser. Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, small rack. Approach Notes: Snow in glacier basin up to base of route.

yeah, that block just sitting there was "interesting". I've been there though where the upper snow ramp is mostly melted with a bad runout to climber's right. At the moment that's not there at all (as you know)

Trip: The Tooth - Standard Trip Date: 06/04/2020 Trip Report: I've been teaching my kid technical rock climbing skills this spring, and he has been itching to hit an alpine route. With two back-to-back "meh" weekend forecasts we opted for the Tooth midweek on a day advertised as "mostly sunny" on weather.gov. The TH lot has been open for business for over a week now, and we parked at the Alpental/Snow Lake TH lot. Much of lower alpental is melted out and rather than risk some possible schwacking we took the standard trail up to Source Lake. We hit patchy snow a few hundred feet below the turnoff and almost 100% snow from there to the based of the climb. The route itself is completely snow-free. We opted for a leisurely start leaving the parking lot around 7:40. We could see a party on the summit as we rounded Source Lake, and another in the basin. As we ascended, a party of two (also father and son) passed us by. So much for nobody on the Tooth (as turned out 4 more parties followed us that day). And of course it started drizzling rain after the second pitch. I opted for the Catwalk nevertheless as it is ledgy. There were some delays rappeling, but it was not too bad. It's the Tooth, after all. "Mostly Sunny" approach to basin: Yours truly below Pineapple Pass: Summit views with my son: Classic view up P1 on rappel: Victory toast. Now onto bigger and better trips.... Gear Notes: Standard small alpine rack Approach Notes: Patchy snow from 3500'; continuous from Source Lake turnoff; minimal moat issue at notch S of Pineapple Pass

Soboooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

it was meant as a rhetorical question it will interesting to see when travel restrictions are lifted and for what purpose(s). tourism brings in money and in the coming recession that should drive lifting restrictions at some point

To keep us out or Canucks in?

Shhhhh no AR-14s allowed!

we will all need fences to ward off the zombie apocalypse

sorry. my old eyes, addled by the lack of any rejunevating green exposure saw "northwest". peace.

No dayhiking either: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mbs/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD717080 All trails closed until 9/30 unless rescinded earlier. DNR lands are closed to hiking too.

Glory days....

it looked thin by mid June already from the summit of Fernow...

Nice! My son and I bagged Big Jim a few weeks ago C2C, roundtripping it up side from Badlands and down to Augusta (17 mi, 6K gain, 12 hours). We were eyeballing Chiwaukum and Snowgrass as a future visit!

suffering is good for you. it makes you appreciate leisure time better

good tip on 4th of July pass! There were a couple of recent TRs on nwhikers for the area plus Bulger hunting is getting more popular so it may account for the traffic.

Trip: Ragged Ridge - Mesahchie, Katsuk, Kimtah, Cosho - Standards Trip Date: 07/27/2019 Trip Report: It seems that this year every one of my trip plans has gone south for one reason or another and this was no exception. Initially hoping to get Challenger a weather blip got worse and worse as the week prior to the climb progressed. Not wishing to fuck around in a white out on Eiley-Wiley ridge and uncertain about Bergschrund conditions in this weird snow/snowmelt summer, we converted our four-day Pickets adventure into a three day Ragged Ridge consolation prize. Saturday still had a weather blip when we settled on the Chinook Slam and sure enough there was some rain and overcast skies as we drove to Marblemount and then Easy Pass TH early Saturday morning. The ranger station was the typical clusterfuck even at 8:30 am when we arrived and took a number. With permit secured we continued to the TH where it briefly dumped rain on us. With the next sucker window we headed up. As forecast the weather got better and better as we hiked in. Two parties of two with lighter packs and footwear passed us and we were concerned about choss bottlenecks and limited camping options. We made quick work of the hike to Easy Pass, then traversed around 6700' to the basin under Mesahchie and Pt 7430. To our surprise only a single tent was setup there and we threw down bivy sacks away from it on a decently flat spot. Later we spied folks descending from Mesachchie and Katsuk and chatted them up for beta. They were a party of three (so now there are 10 people up there total in four parties) who had arrived a day earlier and planned a 4 day climb with two separate twin-peak-bagging forays rather than a carryover traverse. Views back towards Easy Pass from the traverse towards Mesahchie: The basin we camped in on the first night. Running water right by camp: We set alarms for 4:30 am and got a great night's rest under clear skies. In the morning we broke camp and hauled heavy packs up to 7400' then stashed the overnight gear just above a cornice on the ridge and climbed Mesahchie, then Katsuk. The routes were as espected - loose rock, class 3-4. Great views on both summits. The "crux" section of gully up Mesahchie Peak: We then dropped back to our packs and began traversing the multitude of ribs and gullies on our way towards (we hoped) the E side of Thieves Peak, with a third summit on the way (Kimtah). Alas, this was not to be. About an hour along the traverse we ran into one of the parties of two we had seen a day earlier who were headed back home and reported they were "chasmed out". We soon got to said "chasm" and struggled to commit to the crossing ourselves. Basically there is an exposed 30' traverse with one horrible step on loose eroding dirt and no handholds. After scoping it out with no full packs for a long time and vacillating on what to do, I finally got out my small rack and we build a fixed line. All in all that cost us about 2 hours. It's funny how mental fatigue (this was 8 or more hours into the day already with a lot of exposed scrambling and traversing) can affect decision-making. The "chasm" crossing" Once past this crux we crossed one chossy rib and gully after another and wondered when the hell we'd ever see the Grotesque Gendarmes. At this point we ran into the party of three from camp returning from their summits of Kimtah and Cosho. They told us we had a ways to go and might consider bivying. They were right. We ended up arriving at the final gully before said gendarmes at 7:30 and set up a gorgeous bivy with spectacular views. Also, we had time to eat and get enough sleep to start early again. Our awesome bivy site: Alarms went off at 4:30 on the third day and we again broke camp and headed out. Despite all our beta and some cairns we still took some time to get through the gendarmes and find the upper red ledge. It took longer than we would have liked - that is for sure. We then crossed another seemingly endless series of ribs and gullies until we were finally directly below Kimtah. We dropped packs completely and headed up this short (800') scramble. We were surprised about how blocky this was and it took more than we would have liked but there was nothing super challenging about route-finding - just sniff your way up. From GPS tracks we had studied we knew most people would go up one gully and head down another. We saw why - pretty obvious from above how to go on easier terrain down. View from camp of the Grotesque Gendarmes and Kimtah: View back to the Grotesque Gendarmes and Katsuk: Ascending Kimtah: Once back at the packs we continue on another series of gullies and ribs (does this shite every fucking end?) to the final gully below the E side of Thieves Peak. We lost whatever bootpath we were following and ended up sniffing out a route to the col. From chatting with the team of three we knew the glacier was easily accessible. We roped up (30 m rope) and crossed to the col on the other side of Thieves peak, then dropped backs and scrambled up Cosho. there was a nice snow field giving access to a gully on Cosho making for easy travel. Accessing the glacier from the col E of Thieves Peak: Kimtah from Cosho: View W of Cosho summit: After five minutes on the summit of Cosho we headed back to our packs. We had a nice food and water break, then noted the time: 3:30pm. We were in for a long hike out. The gully below Cosho is honestly the worst place I have ever been. I'd rather be castrated with a dull butterknife than be there again. We methodically descended bullet proof dirt covered in loose rocks, polished slabs covered in loose rocks, waterfalls (some over and some around). We repeatedly fell on our asses and dealt with exposed face-in downclimbing or dirt/veggie bypasses with bad runout. Nearing dusk we finally got to the bottom and schwacked down a dry stream bed towards Fisher Creek. Finally at 9 we found the bridge crossing. After watering up we headed out - the wrong way. After 5 minutes, we realized our error and went the other way. Then we got confused because the trail on both sides of the bridge headed W and we wanted E. Finally after consultation of a map we determined the trail on the N side of the bridge is correct and must just start W and then turn N and E. That proved correct. One of many waterfalls that could be face-in downclimbed: View up the central gully to Cosho: We covered 6 miles in 3 hours arriving at the switchbacks up. Then we took 4 more to ascend to Easy Pass and down to the cars. Time? 4:30 am. A 24 hour day. Why do I do this shit? I dunno, but it did not prevent me from making it to a Slipknot concert that night and drinking copious amounts of beer. Gear Notes: Ice Axe, Crampons, 30m rope, Minimal rack Approach Notes: Very few bugs