John_Scurlock

hmmm... there's a chance he saw that face from a small aircraft several yr ago...

That is 100 pct the truth Darin.

Hey thxs. Been by that many times & always been impressed. The only clue I ever thought about it was the lack of obvious rockfall on the glacier below but so hard to know from the air. Seems to me it is one of the larger steep faces in the range. It may have the worst access of any part of Dome... It's on the R partly shaded here: http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/70104375 The upper part to me is slightly reminiscent of the diamond on Bear but not as steep or as smooth looking. I called it "SE" based only on the fact that you look to the NW to view it.

He specifically mentioned winter views that showed Yocum Ridge, when I talked to him several months ago. My guess is a 'perspective' view that showed YR in good relief is what he would like.

I was around there early Saturday, no sign of any human activity anywhere along the CD/Roman Wall. No ski tracks or climbers, basically no evidence that anyone had been up there. No big ice avys off Colfax. Did see some smaller slides of seemingly limited depth over on Shuksan. The Coleman gl is quite smooth & heavily snowed, few open crevasses. I was looking specifically for people on the CD & Roman Wall, out of curiosity mainly, when I was there. It was 0640 to 0700 hrs. I am sure the weather up there today would have been beyond vicious for flying. I did speak on the phone to MM at NCI about all this btw.

Here is the applicable Advisory Circular AC-91-36D: http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/districts/admiralty/packcreek/AC91-36d.pdf The FAA does not currently have restrictive flight rules for NCNP such as one might find in Grand Canyon National Park. That could certainly change if park airspace is abused by aviators. I have a long history of cooperation with NCNP/NPS, USGS, & USFS on a number of projects, involving flight over national parks, wilderness areas, and other federal lands in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, & Wyoming; on that basis, I think it's probably best if you let me tend to the regulatory side of what I do, on my own. That's something I'm very familiar with and have discussed with my federal friends on a number of occasions.

As I understand it, topozone was sold to another website which I won't mention here. The switch-over occurred about a week ago, with no particular warning to topozone users. It is an unfortunate situation; now, there is no Canadian coverage, no placement of the cursor at a particular locale, no switching between the various lat/long/utc formats, and of course you have to pay to get the much reduced utility. I sent them an email asking about some of this stuff & didn't get a reply. Speaking only for myself, I won't be subscribing, and I'm in the process of removing topozone links I previously placed in some of my images & galleries. I have heard that bivouac is removing their topozone links as well.. Topozone was a great website...

u r welcome Porter, that was a good flight. glad we were finally able to pull it off. your description of the landing reminded me of a couple of things; I remember the first few times I flew in and out of there, fifteen or twenty yr ago, and how intimidating it was. Also, what is familiar to me now, can seem a bit crazy to those who haven't had the experience. Coming in and out of there so much has provided the skills I've used to land in all sorts of wild places, from Montana & Idaho up into BC. You'd love my friend's private strip over at Duncan, about 1500 ft long, one way in, off the shore of a lake between cottonwood trees, uphill about 200 ft slope. & don't land in the first 300 ft because it's muddy... you stop pretty quick going up hill like that. Makes Concrete look like SeaTac. That track is disjointed because the gps recorder only picks up a point every 15 sec. I notice it even shows our taxiing back to the hangar though...

hmmm... would you be there???

Here's the summary of my process that I posted in the PBase forums (first post at the top of the page): http://forum.pbase.com/viewtopic.php?t=36651&start=30 The basic deal would be the same whether walking, climbing, driving, etc. Many variations on the theme. I will say that I've had poor luck trying to do it with track log files brought in from my Lowrance aviation gps. The problem stems from the track log file format issue. To be honest, PK, I've received more back from that site than I could've possibly imagined, way back when, & I've never considered doing any sort of pay deal on it. No second thoughts or regrets whatsoever.

Yep, I think for the geo-cachers, this stuff is their entire gig. Pbase has also enabled batch-upload mapping support as of yesterday. I just uploaded a bunch of stuff here - http://www.pbase.com/nolock/lillooet - not named yet, but easily located in the GE satellite view ('view map' link). And in the galleries where all the images are geotagged, there's an option to look at the locations of ALL the images in that gallery, such as this: http://maps.pbase.com/nolock/lillooet It's really a tremendous development. I've been playing around a little with the manual tagging, it's actually not too difficult so I'll start picking away at the non-tagged galleries as time permits.

Pbase has just released their beta version of geotag support. It's a terrific development, something I had hoped & lobbied for, for quite a while. They have used a number of my images in the testing of it, & here is an example: http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/92590501 - click on the 'view map' link below the image, and this will take you into a version of the satellite view of Google Earth. I have only played around a little with it, but I have noticed that tags are present on the sat view for quite a number of my images. It's important to note that the marker on the map reflects the location the photograph was taken, not the location of what is shown in the photograph. I was not geotagging prior to May of 2007, so I'll have to manually tag any photographs taken prior to that. It's an extremely tedious project that will involve perhaps 3000+ images. My guess is that it will take months, at least, for significant progress to made on that, especially considering my expertise at procrastination... Note that the lat/long/altitude data from the EXIF file is only carried into Pbase in the 'original' version of the image, if you are looking at downloaded images in an image browser. It could be seen using Irfanview or Breezebrowser, for example.

What's the lowdown - when's the new book coming out? Any cool "new" areas? That show was fascinating & mind-boggling & unbelievable in scope. Let's face it, most of us in here are "obsessed" to one degree or another, but he has set a high standard... in the best possible way. Somebody asked that last question, his reply (to a lot of laughter) - "Buy the book!" He's still writing, pretty near the end, two chapters left I believe, and is saying early '09 hopefully? It will include northern BC, Stikine & Juneau IFs & more, that is slowing him down a bit.

I have not been by there. I may be in Prince George in May which would mean going right by it & would get it then. I'd been thinking about being up there later this month but that's not looking good right now.

Good God Almighty that was APRIL???

These guys - http://www.bellacoolaair.com/ - might be able to put you somewhere close to the N end of Monarch. They are flying a beautiful amphib 185. PCA goes into Bella Coola as well.

Out for an innocent sunset joy ride, run up to Baker for the hell of it, good lord there's a PERSON down there!! Wind howling, summit frozen beyond comprehension... wonderful. Your TR only increases my sense of amazement. & here you are: http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/93119389 http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/93119391 JS

Hope you know where you stand with me... If you ever need a hand, give a shout...

http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/88583140 - from late afternoon on the 1st. It's going to look a lot snowier soon...

I gotta stick up just a little for my friends at NCNP - yes, there is a bureaucracy, yes they are part of it, but yes, also, they are generally ordinary, good-intentioned folks like everyone else. They have been extraordinarily kind and helpful to me, even to the point of watching out for me when I was doing my thing HUNDREDS of miles from NCNP, in other parks, states, and even in another country, for that matter. And, at NO cost to me, I might add, but purely out of the goodness of their hearts. I know, from my many conversations with them, that they have fought hard to make the permit process easy, including making it possible to 'self permit' after hours, in direct support to climbers. Is that possible in Grand Canyon, for example? I kinda don't think so. And they have fought hard to keep the permits free; just two years ago, they overcame efforts to impose a permit fee. This is a climber's park, for all practical purposes - the rangers know it, and they really do make a sincere effort to support it and keep it that way. And most importantly, remember, no matter who you are, whether you support the permit process or not, whether you have a permit or not - if you get in trouble up there, wherever you are, even outside the park, they will spare NO effort to find you, to help you, to rescue you. I have seen it many times, believe me. That's why it's easy for me to support them in what they do, and not get too worked up about the bureaucratic side of things. I once saw Kelly Bush carried around the flight traffic pattern at Concrete's airport on the end of a 150' cable suspended below a US Navy Chinook helicopter - several times. That's the kind of risk she would take to get to you to help you - and that was just for training.

yeah from what you describe, I'd say cut your loss now. But hey, I'll contribute to the 'Free Blake' fund... that's the least I could do, my friend. I'll send ya an email. Look on the bright side. Think how bad it would have been if you had taken up Mike on his offer to be your "attorney"!!! We'd be looking at your pic on the sides of milk cartons. 'Have you seen this man?'

here is a more straight-on view of it: http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/85045778

I am only as good as my last landing. There is this - http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/84776490 - from Thursday afternoon but I don't think it is far enough to the L? I don't have access to the other shots until I get home tomorrow. They will show it a lot better.

Really says something about the magnitude of the problem when the "approach" is seemingly as difficult & hazardous as other big climbs in the range. The talent & determination was certainly there... just my .02 cts worth on that. Like OW, I ultimately look forward to the tr. I will then be out in the yard doing a primal scream, just as I did after Mike's phone call on SEM. btw, thxs, CB, & everyone else, I appreciate the kind thoughts.

Zorro has TOTAL SCORN for puny Colorado climbers!!! (& probably the same for even punier aerial photographers...) Hey, I would be nothing without you, my many friends in this forum, & my sincere thanks to all. JS