OldManRock

Back in the middle 50's when I started climbing, the dulfersitz was the only method around on steep rock - And it was hard on personal parts of the body - So around 1965 I played around with coat hanger wire and string and came up with what is called the figure 8 - My friend was craftsman with metal, and he changed the design a bit, which became the KirNoz descender - There were only two made, and a bit heavy, but they worked well, and you could lock it off easy - Both of them are now in museums - Mine is in Gary Storrick museum (Google KirNoz) and the other is in the Mazama climbing museum - While the same design was done in Europe, I had no way of knowing that - It served me well for a lot of years.

There is a excellent picture of Chuck in the book The Challenge of Rainier by Dee Molenaar - Its on page 307, maybe Dee has a copy of it - Why do you need it?

I will second that Tyler - Miss seeing Jim coming up out of the woods covered in brush stuff, after looking for that damn rock, that he had seen from some other rock.

The owners of the area have in the past been very open to letting people use the area - But the 10% of all groups did their normal thing, like have beer party's, breaking the bottles on the rocks, starting fires, some of which went out of control, Having dogs with no leash chasing the cattle, with some injured, and litter - And just basic lack of respect for others people's property - So it was shut down to access - Also now the area is managed by Nature Conservancy and they are not open to access either. Again a few, mess it up for everybody.

Had to dig my Trapper Nelson out of storage - I got it back about 1950 - It was made by Trager Mfg. Co. They made a lot of stuff for REI in the past - The label says "Trapper Nelson's Indian Pack Boards - Patent no. 1905 661 - Typical brown pack sack held on frame with two wires through eyelets.

Yes I remember the time Tom decided to cross using just the cable and an aluminum carabiner - He was half way across commenting on the salmon in the river he could see, when he got real quiet - He was down to half the thickness of the biner - I think 99% of his weight was on his arms the rest of the way - If he had asked I would have loaned him some of my steel biners - I also coming back to cable crossing after Tom, Jerry Calbaum, and I had done both Old Man and Old Woman, and saw Smoky Bear ranger across the river by his official forest service pickup - He looked at us, and we looked at him - He didn't leave, so what the hell, we crossed over, locked the cart up, and came down - His first question was "Where did you get the key ?" - Tom had a good story that covered that, so then he said "I'm here because some people told us you climbers were molesting the eagles" - We told him its the last thing in the world we would molest, and so he had done his duty, and left us without saying anything else.

Goldfinger - When I started backpacking in 1950, when I joined my dad to do some prospecting, I had no choice - I could have carried a suitcase I guess - In 1960 or so REI did come out with with the Cruiser pack - I have REI catalogs from 1958 to 1967 except for 1960, and Trapper Nelson's only in 1959, both both in 1961 - That's when I got my Cruiser, later a Kelty.

When I started back packing, that was the only thing that you could buy - War surplus mountain ski packs were not built for trails, because you could hardly stand upright - Still have mine, to remind me of how things have changed.

I'm sorry to report, Dale lost his battle with cancer - He won so many battles, but not this one.

You said you will be tagging all three of the Sisters, I decided to mention this was almost done back in Feb of 1969 - Three friends and I started at Dutchmans Flat, skied above Todd Lake and then around the South ridge of Broken Top down to Green Lakes on the first day, 75 pound packs - Don't make a kick turn and fall downhill, its a bitch to get back up - Camped at lakes, and next morning off to climb Broken Top - It was a nice romp, with only the knife edge ridge to summit troubling - One eye down one side and the other eye on other side - Back to camp with a nice ski down - Next day was South Sister, and It was a nice long up hill ski - Three of us left skies at Red Ridge, while Gary Grimm skied to summit and back down - He did a nice forward flip, landed it, but it was not on purpose - He was the only one with cross country skies - They came from Norway which was the only place to get them then - We had army mountain skies, mutter - Three day, was travel to Chambers Lake, which was the only time we had bad weather, and it was a hard wind which made putting up the two tents a problem - The next day was a "rest day" to fix some equipment and get in some fun sking in the open areas - Its the 6th day, and we head up to the col between Middle and North - Set up camp and the young bucks, full of energy decided to climb Middle - I offered to start cooking evening meal - They zipped up and down - We are camped in the area where Willi Unsoeld once told me, they were hit with the worst weather he ever was in - Next day The other three are heading to climb the North, but I wanted to do the Middle - It was one of the best days I ever had in the mountains, no wind, only the sound of the crampons crunching into the snow - The summit was reached with no problems and I hated to leave - When I got back to tents, I started to pack up things - Soon Gary Grimm wandered in - He had turned back as his feet were starting to worry him, and he was concerned about frostbite - We continued to pack up, and eventually Dale Moon and Steve Schafers returned, with the news they got to the traverse, and the snow and ice conditions were too marginal with the tools of that time - Knowing thier abilities, it was a smart decision to make, though hard - Soon things were packed up and we had the ski of our life down to White Branch Creek - Decided to follow the creek down to where we we were able to just walk up a little ridge and we we on the Dead House Grade of McKenzie Pass Road - Its was all downhill to White Branch Youth Camp where a friend waited for us - While others had skied though the Sisters before, nobody had ever tried to also climb them - While missing out on the North, and real attempt had been made - Wish you best of luck with the weather, and success on your journey.

The scrap of paper is from the first ascent - Though I did not sign it, somebody said they did for me, and got both names spelled wrong - The name is Gary Kirk, and the climb is Old Man Rock done Feb 17 1963 - Now Greg, tell me about the R Brittsan item on the next post.

Its too late I guess to add more, but what the hell: Four Against Everest - Woodrow Sayre The Last Blue Mountain - Ralph Barker Five Miles High - Robert Bates And thanks to somebody who included Rum Doodle.

If you can find one (try Google) as they don't make them any more is the Canon A710 IS or Canon A720 IS - They are lightweight 7-1/2 pixels, 6 optical telephoto, image stabilzer, easy to use, and I dropped it into a moat at the start of the East Buttress route on Mt Washington, and it stills works fine.

Sobo - Based on your post on a different thread, it might not have mattered what kind of ball-buster it was it was in the past - Been there, done that.....

One of the reasons I think a lot of mushroom hunters get lost, is they are looking for mushrooms, and never look up to get thier bearings - They bump thier head on a low tree branch, stagger back, look up and wonder "Where the hell am I and how did I get here"