Chris_Moorehead

Scarpa Escape Mountaineering Boots size 48euro/14us. These were used for a few seasons of climbing until my foot widened and I could not longer use them. Some wear, but they still have lots of life in them. Crampon compatible. Burien, WA

I briefly met Criag Saturday morning in the Marblemount Ranger Station parking lot. He was sorting his gear and I asked him where he was headed, he said Forbidden. One of my friends who headed out with me this weekend had been thinking about doing the TFT, but decided to come with me instead (Elephant Butte sufferfest). I have a young daughter just like Craig and this hits me really close to home. I don't climb routes as hard or dangerous and the TFT, but regardless this really bothers me. I've already had one friend who had to be rescued off Hood earlier this summer, and basically bushing by someone who died a short time later, ....

I lost a bag that contained a Garmin GPS, Silva Compass and a Swiss Army Knife on the South Basin route up Clark Mountain in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. It is located between 5000' and 5400' on the west ridge of basin. The bag is blue and has a snap button closure for its strap. It should be in a rocky easy 2nd class area.

Any updates on conditions? I'm looking to go up this the last weekend in July. Thanks.

I have a Garmin eTrex Vista Hcx and I can get a decent signal (~20ft) inside my house. Tree coverage is not a problem at all for this unit.

I took the 'complete mountaineering' course from Canada West Mountaineering School last summer and really liked it. They do 2 days in Squamish on rock then 5 days in the backcountry doing route finding, glacier travel, etc... What ever class you do I recommend doing a bit of reading before hand. You'll get much more out of the course if you have already read about it first.

Actually as disgusting as the used condoms are, it was really the glass that concerns me. Climbing rope and glass just don't seem to go well together.

Sorry I didn't bring my biohazard gloves for picking up condoms & broken glass.

I went down to Rocky Butte for the first time this past weekend and was very disappointed. The place is a pig sty. Broken glass, condoms, general trash and graffiti everywhere (bunch of white power stuff, real classy). I was going with two beginners and was planning on using easy street. I brought a few diagrams/maps with me but I could not find it. It seems to have been completely overgrown with black berries (to my best guess). So I tried setting up a in a few other spots, then rappelling down only to find the routes too difficult for beginners and no suitable ways back up to the top. I ended up just teaching them rappelling and setting up basic anchors on the 80' face near the gopher hole to get back up. It seems like such a shame, having what should be a great climbing location right there in the city. I don't plan on ever going back there.

We went up the south spur route. It was our first trip up and we were starting out at night so I wanted to play it safe. Also it was my wife's first trip with an ice axe and crampons, so I did not feel comfortable taking a harder route.

My legs were shot by the time I got to the top of pikers peak, but had they been in better shape it would have been a blast. The snow is a bit wet and heavy right now, but the 3000' down for pikers peak should be a great run.

Putting crampons on at about 7800'. I took them off again a ways past the lunch counter. The snow up the face to pikers peak was soft enough that fallling was not a concern.

Adams is in kick your ass condition. The trail is 99% covered with snow from the intersection with the round the mountain trail upwards. It took us 8.5 hours to reach pikers peak, at which point we were exausted and called it a day there. We made it back to the trail head in 3.5 hours. I highly recommend a very early start, we started at 5am and I wish now we had started by no later than 4am. We moved fast for the first two hours over the iced snow, making it to about 7900'. But as the sun came up and started softening the snow things got much harder. Above the lunch counter there is at least a foot of new snow which I was sinking about 6" inches into with each step. Once you crest pikers peak, that seemed to go up to about 12"-16". The only two guys I know that made the peak that day (they left the trailhead at 4am), said it was another 2 hours to the peak. If you don't have steps to follow it will be very rough. It was an absolute blue bird day and no wind. The sun was just beating us down on the Suksdorf ridge up to pikers peak. We both got wicked sunburns on this section. Post holing was very bad in the afternoon on the bottom half of the mountain (lunch counter) and down to about 6600'. I'm 6'7" 215lbs. and was going into my thigh. All that said we had a great time and at least I now have a good excuse to go up again. I'll post some pics soon.

I'm a bit of an amateur photographer so, yes, I will be hauling my camera up the mountain.

First time up, so we are going the south spur. This will be my wife's first trip with crampons and Ice axe in hand, so we are looking to keep it easy (technically). Hopefully this late in the season there won't be too many folks up there. I'll let you know how it looks.