Casey_Ruff

Nice Darin. Very inspiring. Can't wait to check out the desert in the future. Since I am just about to embark on the joys of early fatherhood (any day now), perhaps I can enroll in the DBerdinka school of "how to be a good/responsible /loving parent and husband whilst being a rock crusher (or crusher at anything for that matter)".

5 star trip Jason. Hope you are having a good summer. Maybe see you at AFS next week?

Nice work Eric and Dan!!!

Sweet trip you guys. I enjoyed your pictures.

Trip: Sahale West Face, Buckner N. Face/Couloir - Date: 5/11/2007 Trip Report: I know people are still enjoying the alpine rock as of late, but I thought I'd post a few pictures from a trip Lars and I did last spring. Cheers to a fun upcoming winter. Hope you are all having a good September. Summit of Sahale Buckner N Face Skiing the W Face of Sahale Views of Forbidden, Eldorado, and Baker from the bivy on Boston Climbing up and over Boston Peak to access the Boston Glacier Lars en route to the North Face of Buckner Climbing the North Face of Buckner Summit views of Storm King, Goode and Booker Lars, Scott and Gary from the East summit Skiing the the N. Couloir of Buckner Shortly after these photos were taken, Lars lost and edge on some hidden ice. While he was able to arrest quickly, he dislocated his shoulder in the process. We reduced his shoulder midway through the descent. While Lars was generally ok with his shoulder now back in place, we both felt it would be better and safer to downclimb from there. Hence, we weren't able to make a complete descent of the North Couloir. Things went smoothly until we were safely back at the car later that evening. This was overall an incredible trip with a great friend. Rapping the Gully off of Boston back to the Quien Sabe glacier Lars ready for a cold beer

Trip: Chiwaukum Range traverse - Point 7534 to Snowgrass Peak Date: 9/14/2007 Trip Report: After being apart for the entire summer, Morgan and I decided to get reacquainted by spending a few days cruising in the Chiwaukum range this past weekend. We approached via Whitepine and Wildhorse Creek trails and then made our way up to Deadhorse Pass. We tagged Point 7534 and enjoyed nice views before dropping down to Larch Lake for the evening. Casey approaches Deadhorse pass Morgan climbing the ridge of Point 7534 Morgan approaches camp at Larch Lake The next morning we gained east ridge of Big Chiwaukum by scrambling up a NE facing rib dividing Cup and Larch Lakes. We dropped down onto the east facing cirque of Big Chiwaukum and continued up some interesting solid rock features. Nice views of Lake Charles and the Glacier Creek drainage were had. Morgan hikes towards the ramp we climbed to gain the summit ridge of Big Chiwaukum We decided to gain the summit ridge of Big Chiwaukum via a chossy ramp through the cliffs on the east side rather than crossing the entire cirque over to the south side near Snowgrass thus having to backtrack to gain the summit of Big Chiwaukum. Morgan did a great job dealing with the junky rock and a bit of exposure. Once we gained the ridge, it was just a short jaunt to one of the false summits. Morgan relaxed on the false summit while I scrambled over to the true summit for a bit. The views of Sloan, Daniel, the Stuart range etc. were amazing. Morgan on the Junk en route to the summit ridge Casey on the true summit Nice view of the Stuart Range After relaxing in the sun for a while we made our way down to upper Grace Lake via the west shoulder and set up camp for the night. I wanted to give Snowgrass a shot via a crumbly ramp up to a saddle between the subsidiary E summit and the true summit of Snowgrass. Once I topped out on the ridge I decided I was done with the junk and took in the views of the Stuart Range before descending back to camp. Upper Grace Lake Camp with Sloan in the background Climbing the ramp towards Snowgrass and view from the ridge We had a nice evening enjoying the sunset and watching the approaching weather engulf the distant mountains. We awoke to thick clouds and had an uneventful but nice hike out. We saw quite a few horse packing deer hunters on the trail out. Sunset view from Camp Thank you to Morgan for such a fun and memorable trip. Approach Notes: White Pine and Wildhorse Creek trails

PAR1, There have obviously been some interesting points made here. However, being the one of the party on this trip i feel like I should make a few comments about your comment in particular. While I was feeling the effects of the altitude and the large day at hand, I was nowhere near passing out or frothing at the mouth like some have suggested. I was tired and made the conscious decision to rest and prepare for big descent at hand after our first attempt to mount the liberty cap. Skykilo asked me how i was doing and if I would be ok with him running up to the summit. I did not see a problem with this so I promptly replied that I was fine. We both made this decision together and we were perfectly fine with it. After this trip and giving it some thought, I am perfectly comfortable with how this trip went and the decisions we made. And no this trip does not seem herculean in retrospect. Sure it was big. However, given that we were traveling fast and light on the route more than compensates safety-wise for carrying a shit-ton of weight as is needed for a five day attempt.

Yeah Martin!! I'd be interested in hearing more about the trip or checking out some more photos if you have any. C