iluka

Beer is a hypotonic solution and quite good at dropping your sodium if consumed in excess

A few thoughts: - His history of AMS in the past means he is susceptible to the problem and likely but not guaranteed to get it on other trips to high altitude. He would be a person, as CBS suggests, that would benefit from using acetazolamide (diamox) on future trips for prevention and he should definitely have it along for treatment. - With his history of AMS, ascending to the summit of Shasta in only two days is likely too fast and another night or two at lower elevation would be of benefit - Being hydrated doesn't prevent AMS. All it does is prevent dehydration which is easy to develop at high altitude and feels and looks a lot like AMS - Avoiding overexertion is thought to be important in preventing altitude illness. Going slow and steady as you did helps... 60 pounds for that trip sounds like a lot of gear, however. - Continuing to move higher when he had a headache on the first day was probably not the best idea. Would have been best to stay put if the terrain allowed it, treat and acclimatize there - Getting him down rather than going higher on Day 2 was a good idea but I probably would not have sent him down alone. Had he been showing signs of HACE, rather than just AMS, he could get into some real difficulty - In regard to whoiswillhockett's comment: diamox does not "hide" the symptoms of AMS. It actually helps the body acclimatize to high altitude so if you're feeling good on the medication, your body is doing well.

Tomtom.... with your altitude tolerance, or lack thereof, O's would definitely qualify as aid...

We did it this past weekend (7/2-7/5) and here's an update: - Trail is snowfree all the way to the Blue Glacier morraine - We found some nice snow free camp spots with running water on the Cal Tech Morraine - Minimal to no crevasse issues on the Snow Dome - The direct route to the summit block was still passable as of our summit day (we descended this way) but a large crevasse is opening up and it will likely not be passable in a week or so - The route through Skyline Pass has a crevasse opening up as well but it was small and easily surmounted - The moat that opened up last year, preventing access from the last snow slope to the summit block has not opened up yet and it is still easy to get from the snow to the summit scramble and climb. - We had one person lead up to the summit then set a line for the rest of us. Some used it as a hand line while others were belayed up the final bit. We then did a short rappel off the east side of the summit block. Some photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/iluka1968/MountOlympus727509#

The story with Diamox and HAPE is a bit more involved than what's come across in some of the previous posts. Diamox was never thought to play a role in HAPE prevention or treatment. In the past several years, however, there have been some studies in animals showing that diamox can block the rise in pulmonary artery pressures that occurs with exposure to hypoxia. Since it is a marked rise in pulmonary artery pressure that leads to HAPE in susceptible individuals, one possible conclusion from these studies was that it might be useful for preventing HAPE in humans. The studies done in humans looking at this question have not provided any good support for the hypothesis yet. One study showed a small effect on pulmonary artery pressure at altitude but the clinical significance of that change is unclear. Another study from Nepal showed no benefit in preventing HAPE but it was such a poorly designed study that it is basically of no use at all on this question. Interesting, there is a phenomenon known as "reentry HAPE" in which some people (often kids) who live at high altitude in Colorado travel to a lower altitude for a bit then develop HAPE following a rapid trip back to their home town. Anecdotally, some physicians have used diamox in these kids during their reascent to home and it has prevented further occurrences of the problem. This has never been formally studied. In the end, the jury is still out on whether Diamox has a role in HAPE prevention Nifedipine remains the standard preventive medication for use in people with a prior history of the problem who are going back up to high altitude. Tadalafil (cialis) and sildenafil (viagra) are probably effective as well (but may have other unintended effects on intra-team dynamics in basecamp... )

A few bits on information regarding information/points made in this thread: 1) Diamox is not an "osmotic" diuretic. It is a diuretic but it is not working by affecting osmotic forces. It causes bicarbonate diuresis in the kidney. It's diuretic effects are not as powerful as lasix but staying hydrated while taking it is important. 2) Don't rely on Ginkgo Biloba. While a few studies have shown it may work vs. AMS, several other studies have shown it is no better than placebo for this purpose. There is no consensus in the research literature. The likely problem is that, not being an FDA-regulated product, when you buy Ginkgo at the store, you have no idea if you're getting the real deal or junk 3) Standard prophylactic doses for diamox: 125 mg or 250 mg twice a day 4) Rather than relying on acetazolamide (diamox) to go to 14K in a day, perhaps not unreasonable to change the ascent plans, going with a slower ascent profile. Even if you take diamox, you can still get sick from the altitude if you go too high, too fast.

The kidneys do a pretty good job of regulating your sodium and potassium balance. If you bump up your intake of salt then the kidneys will often increase sodium excretion via the urine and you also see more sodium excretion in sweat via the skin. If you retain salt, you will retain water but that water has a habit of not staying in the vascular space and, instead, tends to build up in the tissues (eg. lower extremity edema). That being said, maintaining salt intake is important and it should be part of what you consume during the day, particularly when dehydrated. If all you do is guzzle water when you're dehydrated without any sodium or electrolyte repletion, it's possible to develop hyponatremia. This has been described in marathon runners for example. There are things out there in the literature with recommendations for hydration and sodium intake. The problem is that much of these recommendations don't have much in the way of research/data to support them.

Trip: Appleton-Everett-Boulder Peaks-Plus Traverse - Date: 6/13-6/14/2009 Trip Report: While scanning the weather forecasts last week Peter (Plaigar), Susan (leadmade) and I noticed the potential for showers and thunderstorms in the Cascades but better forecasts for the Olympic Range. So... we decided to hop on the ferry for a trip over there. Our plan was to do the Boulder-Everett-Appleton Traverse described in Peggy Goldman's 75 Scrambles in Washington. The route is typically done as a two-day trip and usually starts by going to Boulder Lake, climbing Boulder Peak and then camping the night at the lake before finishing the route the next day. Finding crystal clear skies as we started the day and not knowing what Sunday might bring, we thought we'd do things differently and decided to head up towards Appleton Pass, knock off Appleton and Everett on the first day and leave a short trip up Boulder for on the second day. The hike up towards Appleton Pass was uneventful. We ran into continuous snow around 3700-3800 feet. By the time we lost the trail, the route to the pass was obvious. Had we wanted to just climb Appleton we could have ascended the snow covered southeast slopes starting before the pass but we figured we would also tag what Peggy Goldman calls Cotleton (Peak 6100 on the topo) and headed towards the pass, planning to run the ridge from there to the summit. Once at the saddle, we started along the ridge. What seemed from the map like it would be a simple ridge run, took a bit more time as we scooted around various obstacles, spending some time on the ridge proper and other times, traversing snow slopes to its east side. After getting to the top of Cottleton and enjoying the first of 5 sets of summit treats, we followed a moderately steep snow slope down to the saddle with Appleton. To avoid a big obstacle on the ridge, we dropped down to the east of the ridge traversing below it before climbing again to the summit ridge that led to the top of Appleton where we enjoyed summit treat #2. From there, it was time to head towards Everett. We worked back a short way (southwest) along the ridge and found a nice snow slope that took us down to the basin north of Appleton where there appears to be a lake not on our topo map. From there, we traversed some snow slopes around to the basin with Blue Lake and saw the route up to Everett. We followed the snow slope (left side of the photo, to the left of the lake) up to the saddle between Everett (on the right) and the more prominent, unnamed peak on the left. Once on the ridge, we climbed both the unnamed peak and Everett, enjoying summit treats on each. The unnamed peak was more interesting than Everett. Since the day was getting late and we still had a ways to go before Boulder Lake, we opted to camp near Everett Peak. We found a small dry spot on the saddle just south west of the peak big enough for our two tents that afforded great views to the east and west. The day ended with nary a rain drop. Things had clouded up but most of the weather stayed to our east and we had partly cloudy skies the entire day. The next morning, we woke up to more blue bird skies. The standard route to-from Boulder is to go down to Three Horse Lake and then climb to a saddle at 4,800 feet before dropping into the Boulder Lake basin and then climbing the peak. From our camp, however, it looked like you could possibly run a ridge starting from a flat prominence at 5,200 feet west of our camp and decided to give that a shot. We traversed across the basin from our camp to the prominence (at the end of the snow finger leading to the top of the ridge). Nothing had frozen the previous night. Once on that prominence, we had to drop down a few hundred feet on snow and small talus before going back and gaining the ridge. From our vantage point on the prominence, we could see several potential crux sections that might block the way along the ridge. At each point, however, we were able to find our way around the obstacle and keep moving. The last obstacle looked to be the worst, particularly with the foreshortening of the slope from our vantage point, but Peter poked around and found moderate a class 3 scramble that got us to the last knob on the ridge before the summit. From there, it took a little brush bashing along the ridge (pollen flying everywhere as we moved through) and then some downclimbing in the trees for a short 15 foot section before we got to the base of the last section to the Boulder Peak summit. It was easy the rest of the way to the top. Once there, it was time for summit treat #5 (Peter, finally ran out) and some rest. Great views of Olympus and lots of great wildflowers up there as well. From there, we descended the standard route to Boulder Lake, finding a little bit of trouble with some snow bridges that gave way in a small creek but otherwise, no problems. We picked up the trail from there and headed on our way home. Some more photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/plaigar/090612AppletonBoulderTraverse# Gear Notes: Axe, crampons Approach Notes: Appleton Pass trail snow free until 3,800 feet

I lost a pair of Stubai aluminum crampons on the Whitman Glacier below Little Tahoma today. They fell off my pack in a fall while skiing, I think. If anyone happens to stumble upon them, please PM me or send an email to andrew_luks@yahoo.com Thanks!

I have used nickel metal hydride rechargeables for several years now in my equipment and they seem to do well even in cooler weather. For 1-2 night trips, they do just fine. I recently switched my camera batteries (AA) to the new Rayovac Hybrid Rechargeable and got well over 400 photos out of them on their initial use out of the package with cold day time temps and the opportunity to store them inside a lodge at night. On my most recent ski tour in the Sierra we had five days with warm day time temps but cold night time temps and I got at least 350 photos out of one set of batteries on their second charge.

For those who can't make this date at the Mountaineers, the lecture is being given again at the Seattle REI on Thursday February 12 at 7:00PM. It is also free to the public.

Judging from what we found, early season would be much better. The key question is how early is early, as once the creek gets going, the travel in the gully gets more challenging. What month did you guys do it?

Trip: Merchant Peak - South Gully Date: 10/25/2008 Trip Report: Allan, DC and I went to climb Merchant Peak before the days got too short to get this one in. Now that we've climbed it, I can't say any of us are itching to go back and do it again. We left the trailhead around 9AM following the trail to Barclay Lake. A few hundred meters after crossing the bridge over Barclay Creek, we came to a rocky streambed/wash on the left and turned off there. We followed the streambed up, finding easy travel on rocks and boulders for several hundred feet before arriving at the first of the three waterfalls that need to be circumnavigated. The first one was easily passed using a climbers trail that goes up to the left of the waterfall. From there we moved up the gully to the second waterfall. We got around this by scrambling the slopes on the right side, working our way up using a crack in the rock and some timely vegetable belays. Once above this, we continued up the gully to the third waterfall which we got around by making some Class 4 moves to get up the slabs on the right in the photo below. The travel in the gully was pretty tricky most of the way as a lot of the rock is very lose and the slabs were pretty damp from the mist and the rain overnight. Don't waste your time looking for cairns in here... there's too much rock fall and they likely all get knocked over. The water level in the creek was pretty low, allowing easier travel in there than the last time I attempted this peak in June several years ago. Once above the third waterfall, we continued up. The next key landmark is a stream that comes down from the right, next to which is a short (20-feet or so) tower. You continue up about 50 meters past the tower to about 3900-4000 feet and then look up and to the right to find a large cave at the bottom of the cliff face. We headed towards the cave where we picked up the climbers trail that goes up into the drainage on the right and leads up to the upper basin on the mountain and the summit. Once in this area, we caught some great views of the north face of Baring in the parting clouds: The going on the climbers trail was easier than in the gully but still steep and with lots of loose rock in places. A few cairns came in handy to mark the route. We had to keep our eyes out for spots where the trail moved off faintly through some brush in a few places. After about 1000 feet of climbing, we finally got out into the open heather slopes on the upper mountain. The slopes were still steep but travel was much easier than anything we had travelled since entering the gully down below. We never found a good climbers trail in here but managed to find our way up without much problem, heading up the left side of the basin. There was a small amount of snow but nothing that impeded travel. Once near the top of the basin, we angled left up the rocky slopes towards the summit finding anything from Class 2 to Class 3 scrambling, with perhaps 1-2 Class 4 moves. There was a bit more snow up here and some scattered areas of verglass but we found the travel pretty straightfoward. We arrived on the summit 5.25 hours after starting out and spent a few minutes eating, drying off and taking in some views as the clouds moved in and out Allan arriving on the summit Gunn Peak from the Merchant summit Clouds to the west, clear to the west DC and Allan Anticipating a long trip down, we got going pretty quickly with the descent. It was slow going down the moist heather slopes. Once out of the upper basin, the travel down the lower slopes was quite unpleasant. It was all very steep and loose and didn't take much to send rocks (often large ones) careening down the slopes below us. After picking our way down the side drainage we finally got down to the main gully where we found more very unpleasant descending. Lots and lots of rock fall in there as well. Fortunately, things had dried out considerably since the morning and we were able to downclimb all of the tricky sections we had ascended earlier in the day. We fortunately made it down around the last waterfall and most of the way back to the Barclay Lake Trail before darkness came. We arrived back at the car at 7PM, 4.5 hours after starting down from the summit. The gully on this peak was not fun. The rock fall was some of the worst I've seen on any scramble I've done. It was ridiculously easy to get stuff moving down hill and because it was so steep it got going pretty fast. I personally would not do this route if there were other parties either above or below me. It might be more straightforward in the early season when snow covers the gully but many reports I read referred to problems with weak bridges over the creek, faster water in the creek and moats. Someone also mentioned a new chockstone, which we saw, that blocked part of the route earlier in the season. I tried it once before and navigating around certain obstacles was hard due to how high the water was. Car to summit: 5.25 hours Summit to car: 4.5 hours Gear: Helmet!!! Axe and crampons if planning an early season ascent when there's more snow We had a rope in case we needed to belay in certain spots in the gully but didn't need to use it.

Trip: Columbia Peak - WestRidge Date: 9/27/2008 Trip Report: With the forecasts for Saturday improving, Jack, Scott and I headed out to climb Columbia Peak as an overnight trip. We opted to take our bikes for the ride to Monte Cristo and it was well worth it even with the road washouts and other spots we had to get off the bike. There's a big washout about 3/4 mile from Barlow Pass but there is both a detour up and through the woods as well as an easily followed path through the washout. The bridge at the crossing of the South Fork of the Sauk is still gone but two large logs cross the river and are easily crossed even with bikes on the shoulder. There is a pink-flagged route to one of the logs but either one is fine to cross. Beyond the washed out bridge, there a few short rocky sections where the riding was hard and we got off the bikes but each was less than 20-30 meters and the last two miles into Monte Cristo was smooth sailing. Once in Monte Cristo, we locked up our bikes (there's actually a rack) and headed up the Silver Lake Trail. The trail all the way up to Poodle Dog Pass and then onto the saddle above Twin Lakes is in good condition with no route finding issues. About a 1/4 or so from the saddle above Twin lakes, you can drop down into and then traverse a rocky basin and then gain the start of the west ridge. We opted to bypass that and continue onto the saddle because we were planning to camp at Twin Lakes for the night and wanted to cache our gear. We arrived at the saddle about 3 hours after leaving Monte Cristo with a few good breaks thrown in. After lunch, we went right up the ridge from the saddle on an easily followed climbers trail. In the initial section, it gets lost here and there in some trees and bushes but is easy to pick up again. We largely stuck to the ridge proper. Whether you take our route or broke off and cut across the basin on the north side of the ridge earlier, you aim for a steeper heather-filled slope and take that up on an easily followed boot path (yellow-line in the photo below). Once at the top of that, you drop off to the right of the ridge a bit and then traverse those slopes for a few tenths of a mile before regaining the ridge (the bottom yellow line in the photo below). Once back up on the ridge, you eventually come to a dark buttress at around 6300 feet. We headed left around here (yellow arrow in photo below), across some snow (no crampons or axe needed), then got onto talus and climbed that back up to the ridge. Other than the snow in here, the route was entirely snow free. Back on the ridge, we headed up another few hundred feet and encountered the biggest obstacle of the route, a bit of a shelf that marks the entrance to the first of the two gullies you climb. We found a spot to get on top of this that required a few Class 3-4 moves but no significant exposure. Once above that, we climbed up the first gully, staying largely to the left side. Lots of good foot and handholds but also plenty of loose rocks and lots of small rocks on top of slabs that were easy to slip on. At the top of this gully, there is a rock band that appears to block the way to the upper gully but there is a gap in the band (a short, gully that angles up to the right behind a large block) that puts you up in the upper gulley. Once in this gully, it was straightforward movement up to the base of the summit block. There is a rock finger in the gully that we stayed to the right of on the way up, but it was easier going on the other side when we came down. Neither of these gulllies looked like they would be much fun if there was snow still covering them and both would be best avoided if wet. From the base of the summit block, we headed around to the left on a narrow shelf to the east side of the peak where we scrambled a short, loose Class 3 section up to the top. The narrow shelf was snow free but would be something to avoid if there was snow or ice as there is a lot of exposure. We arrived on the summit 2 hours after leaving the saddle above Twin Lakes. We spent an hour on top taking in the great views all around and waiting for a pair of other climbers to clear out of the gullies below us (the second photo below). We then headed down ourselves, going slowly through the gullies. The only real problem on the descent was downclimbing the shelves we had to surmount on the way up but this didn't prove too difficult with spotting from Scott. We were back at the saddle a little under 2 hours after leaving the summit and then headed down to a great camp spot on a grassy bench overlooking the lake. After a lazy start, we headed out the next morning, arriving back at Monte Cristo about 2.5 hours after leaving the lake. This trip is doable in a day with light packs and bikes for the road to and from Monte Cristo but was quite nice as an overnighter Gear Notes: Helmet Axe and crampons were not needed on this trip but might be useful earlier in the season with more snow on the route Approach Notes: Taking bikes is well worth it even with the road washouts

I disagree in part with Kennedy's tactics. I beleive we need a safety net but we also need a culture of work. To give millions of people food stamps and rent in exchange for nothing is worse than a taxpayer rip-off, it teaches their children that they do not need to work either. Kennedy is the figurehead for hard left adherance to the welfare program and will be glad to see him depart from the political scene so that PERHAPS more moderate people can lead a change in the structure of welfare and thereby set up a more trustworthy program for health care. YOU CAN'T GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. Everyone should work unless they are clearly incapacitated. There should be levels of support, both in welfare and health, depending on how much a person (adult) contributes. I'm not talking about withholding health care to emergency or traumatic needs. But there should be levels of support in terms of 1 on 1 care, number of people per room, etc. We need to reinstil a work ethic across the board. If you get assistance, you work for it. If you don't work, you barely get by and your kids can go to group kitchens to get fed. Harsh? Definately. But not as harsh imo as TEACHING generations to not work and to not have any self respect. Talk about riots. I know. The transition is the most problematic. And what about all those people who do work hard and don't get insurance coverage through their employers or do receive coverage but have substantial financial obligations (eg. copays, deductibles) themselves or work for themselves and struggle to afford insurance?

Trip: Snowking Mountain - Kindy Ridge Date: 8/24/2008 Trip Report: Laurie, Heather, Dave, Brian and I headed off to climb Snowking this weekend hoping to get the summit in before the rains came on Sunday. The walk from the parking area to where the trail climbs to the ridge took about one hour. There is some brush in spots but it is easy travel. The guide books describe finding the trail at a clearcut around 2350 feet in elevation. The clearcut hillside is no longer obvious but theres an obvious clearing in the road with a bench made of logs and a fire ring in the road. Several pieces of flagging mark the entry point for the trail to Kindy Ridge. The trail was snow-free to Cyclone Lake and pretty easy to follow the entire way. Very steep for the first 1800 feet or so as advertised but pretty moderate after that. There are currently a few unappealing looking water collections but otherwise no water between the road and the area around Cyclone Lake. We made good time to the ridge above a small tarn between Lake 5442 and Cyclone Lake. With plenty of daylight left, sunny skies above us and the threat of rain for Sunday, we opted to make camp and head for the summit on Saturday. We came over Pt. 5860 and then gained the ridge that runs up and to the left of Cyclone Lake finding easy climbing on heather and rock-filled slopes. Up higher, the travel remained easy on the large granite slabs with scattered snow in spots. There are enough snow patches and seaps up here right now to make for some prime bivy spots with great views. After traveling along the ridge proper a bit, we jumped onto the snowfield that leads up to the summit block where we found straightforward Class 2 climbing (one or two areas of easy Class 3) on the way to the summit which afforded great views of El Dorado and Forbidden, the entire Ptarmigan Traverse and loads of other peaks. From the summit, we retraced our route and headed back to camp where we found loads of mosquitoes waiting for us. We awoke to a pretty sunrise on Sunday after which time the clouds rolled in. We then headed down the trail, arriving back at the cars in about 4.5 hours, just as the rains started. Car to Camp: 4.75 hours Camp to Summit: 2 hours Summit to Camp: Just under 2 hours Camp to Car: 4.5 hours Gear Notes: Axe Crampons (not needed) Approach Notes: Snow-free from the forest service road to Cyclone Lake. Straightforward navigation on easy-to-follow trail

The air quality in Kathmandu remains awful with not much change in my impressions of it in several trips over an 8 year period. Two other issues to keep in mind regarding the duration necessary to do trips: 1) The altitude: the peaks are all very high so you need to add in time to acclimatize unless you are one of the fortunate fast acclimatizers 2) Travel can often be delayed by weather issues. Flights to Lukla dramatically shorten the time needed to get to the Khumbu from Kathmandu but the air strip in Lukla is not infrequently shut down by bad weather during certain times of the year and you can get caught waiting for a bit

The fact that they signed off on the project doesn't mean the NPS is necessarily pushing an agenda. You need to get MRNP approval for all research projects being conducted on the mountain whether it's a survey of climbers or a trial of medication effects, for example.

If someone can climb from Everest Base Camp (~17,500 feet) to the summit (just over 29,000 feet) in 8 hours, car to car on Rainier in 4 seems plausible. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3120/is_200412/ai_n13137003

Trip: Clark Mountain - Luahna Peak Date: 7/11-7/13/2008 Trip Report: Brian, Laurie and I headed out for a three day trip to the Dakobed Range to do Clark Mountain via the Walrus Glacier and, time permitting, Luahna Peak as well. Friday was spent getting to camp near Boulder Pass. The trail is in good shape with minimal blow-down to deal with but lots of vegetation crowding the trails in spots. The lower crossing of Boulder Creek on the White River Trail was easily done on some big downed trees. Loads of mosquitoes on the White River Trail but none once we started the ascent to Boulder Pass. The ascent was easy and very un-MailBox Peak-like as the trail has some of the mellowest switchbacks I've walked in a while. The creek crossing at 4100 feet required taking off the boots and putting on sandals as the water is just below the knee at its deepest and the creek cannot be rock-hopped at the crossing at the current water levels. From there the trip up was easy. There is discontinous snow on the ascent out of the basin to the pass but it is easy to pick up the trail. We arrived in a basin just west of Boulder Pass, finding mostly snow but one nice dry patch for camp as well as running water and few bugs. A warm, pretty night with a nice moon. Car to camp: about 6 hours with breaks. The next morning we awoke to bluebird skies and I was reminded of the famous Ernie Banks quote from his days with the Cubs, "It's a beautiful day for a ballgame... lets play two!" We left camp at 6:20. The east side of Boulder Pass was largely snow covered and quite firm at that time so we put on crampons and down-climbed into the basin just east of the pass. From there we traversed across the basin ascending an easy snowslope (the rightmost slope in the photo below), taking that up onto the shoulder where we roped up and accessed the Walrus Glacier. We picked up what we thought were tracks from an earlier party but, instead, found were mountain goat tracks. The goats were above us on the Walrus... they weren't roped. We traversed without losing elevation and then ascended the left side of the glacier to below the rock pinnacles seen in the photo and then cut right across the top. This route may not be open long as there were some growing crevasses up there. It looked possible to go up the center of the glacier as well. After moving across the top of the glacier to an elevation of 8,000 feet at the foot of the ridge running east from the summit of Clark, we found a notch that we used to pop over and access the southeast flanks of Clark. This required about 50-75 feet of downclimbing on loose scree and slabs. Once down the slope, we found the snow on this side was firmer than expected. Since some of us had left our crampons on the other side of the notch with the rope, we opted not to climb the snow to the summit and, instead, traversed straight across the snow and accessed a scree slope which easily ascended to the summit from where we had great views of Luahna and Glacier. Camp to summit of Clark: 4 hours. After a break on the summit, we downclimbed the ascent route and were back at the notch within about one-half hour and set out for Luahna at 11:30AM. We originally planned to traverse around to the north side of Clark without losing elevation from the notch but found the slopes a bit steep for our liking. We dropped about 100 feet or so and found a better spot to traverse around. In the soft snow, it was straightforward. Had it been firmer, a lower traverse would have been better. Once on the north slide of Clark, we descended to about 7800 feet and headed over to the ridge that separated Clark from Point 7970. It is not possible to get down from where we were to the lowest point on this ridge between those two points, as there are some very steep dropoffs on the glacier. After a bit of poking around, we found an access point that allowed us to cross over onto those southwest facing slopes between Clark and Point 7970. We dropped off about 200 feet and then traversed over on loose scree to about the 7600 foot level on the ridge running down (southwest) from Point 7970. This afforded good views of the route to Luahna shown in the photo below. We decided to do the scramble route up the southwest slope rather than taking the Richardson Glacier route. Rather than then ascending to the col just north of Point 7970 as called for in the guidebooks, we dropped off the ridge a bit and opted to follow the snow up to the summit. Here is where we made our one route-finding error of the day. As you get up higher, the rock formation on the ridgeline in front of the summit starts to look like the summit. (This is marked in the photo above with the blue arrow). We headed for that, found what looked like the gulley described in the guidebooks and headed up. After a series of Class 4 moves (the summit is listed as a Class 3 scramble in the books... this should have been our first clue to our error) we popped out at an opening only to have a great view of the actual summit and a realization that we had erred. We downclimbed our faulty route, dropped back down about 100 feet then came further northwest around the mountain to the proper spot where we found the leftward trending gulley that ran right up to the true summit (The red line in the photo above shows the correct route to the summit gulley). As you move around to the correct area for the ascent to the summit, there is a big blocky formation on the ridge above you. Climbing up and to the left of this, the gulley becomes apparent (red line in the photo below). The gulley to the summit straightforward Class 3 scrambling on mostly steep lose scree with one Class 4 move required at the top of the gulley. Apparently this peak is not visited often as there were only 3 summit register entries from each of the previous two years (including one from Lowell Skoog and another from Brian Bongiovanni). Time from Clark to Luahna: 3.5 hours including the route finding error which cost us about 30-40 minutes. From there, we retraced our route over to the glacier on the northside of Clark. Heading from there to the northeastern slopes of the Walrus, we took a lower traverse than we did on the way over to Luahna, finding a mellower slope with less of a drop-off below. A few crevasses in spots, but they were all easy to navigate around. We caught some nice views in the softening late afternoon light and eventually arrived back in camp at about 8:00PM, 13.5 hours after our morning departure. Time from Luahna to camp: 4.5 hours The only surprise upon arriving was that the trekking poles I had left in camp had disappeared. I quickly found one but didn't find the other until the next morning, some 50 meters away from camp in a clump of trees. Seems the marmots in that area like them quite a bit as they chewed up the handles on both poles pretty good. A relaxed start the next morning, had us back at the car in about 4.5-5 hours Gear Notes: Axe, helmet, crampons, pickets (2), rope, harness, sandals Approach Notes: Trail is in good shape. Creek crossing at 4100 feet requires sandles or the like right now.

Found the left sandal. Merrell Continuum. Found on the trail leading up out of the basin to Boulder Pass. Replete with a few Marmot nibbles out of the base. Send a PM if it's yours

Does anyone know which route they were descending when this happened?

This article is a probably a better assessment of the man's ugly legacy... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/06/AR2008070602321.html?nav=hcmodule

On Ruth glacier in Oct 2004: I stand corrected regarding the Ruth glacier... early season it's likely not an issue but clearly --- from the looks of that photo -- late season may be a different story.

We didn't see or hear about any bear... Black of brown?