tazz

recent beta...http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7967024

just noticed it. Glad it is here.

Yeeeeeaaahhhh!! nice!

SWEET! I missed this one...DOH! Great tr and images. Thanks

Sweet images! even sweeter climb! good work and thanks for sharing.

Wow! scary shiat!!!glad you are all ok. Good work keeping your cool and getting out of there! Again glad you are all safe! great report!

Very nice!! great images too!! thanks!

Toast that is a great shot!!

hell yeah...sweet! thanks!

This is exactly why I forced myself to go. I did learn a lot about myself and my abilities on a solo. I am already thinking of another solo. Thanks Jason!

You bet Kat! Lets do it! I will let ya know when we are planning on it. Thanks!

Not sure if this has been posted before. crazy folks in Siberia

Ha! thats the same log we used, alpenho. I bet it is no longer there after the floods. Good stuff you guys! Thanks for the report.

very nice pics as usual Gary!

friggen hilarious!!! You are the Hippie! Characterized by a strong sense of extroversion, irrationality, gentleness, humility, and a faint scent of marijuana, you no doubt frolic through fields preaching peace and free love! Immediately following that, you then frolic to the hospital with herpes! You are probably either very spiritual or needlessly paranoid about "the man", like most hippies, as a result of your focus on intuition and feelings over cold, brutal logic. You probably enjoy poetry, especially beatnik ultra-liberal crap about how horrible fascism is, even though your suburbanized, sheltered idea of "fascism" is having to pay two dollars per gallon at the gas pump. You are also very, very social. And like any hippie who would have no qualms about hitchiking across the country just to meet some interesting people, you also love to interact with others, even complete strangers. Though I highly doubt they love to interact with you! Because we know most any hippie is peace-loving and humble, it stands to reason that you, as well, are terribly gentle and humble, almost to the point of revulsion. Your carefree attitude of peace and harmony is probably very, very sickening to realists or cynics or anyone who isn't a hippie, to tell the truth. In short, your personality is defective because you are overly emotional, extroverted, gentle, and humble--thus making you an annoying hippie. Now go do your drugs and have sex with filthy bearded men in tye dye shirts. To put it less negatively: 1. You are more INTUITIVE than rational. 2. You are more EXTROVERTED than introverted. 3. You are more GENTLE than brutal. 4. You are more HUMBLE than arrogant. Compatibility: Your exact opposite is the Sociopath. Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Hand-Raiser, the Televangelist, and the Robot.

great report and great work you two!! Don is awesome!! Great guy! nice images too! thanks

Thanks all! yeah that bushwhack to the ridge is a bitch! On the ridge it is much easier going. telemarker...That is the route I was on. The crux of the entire climb would have been getting around the E buttress of Berge on an exposed ramp. That would have been the sketchiest part, if at all. It is a good strait forward route. Goatboy... Not sure about the rock. It does look good and I have been told it is. But then I have also read it is loose on certain routes. Jordan...Hi! Hey how was the King Lake route (other than the bees...heh)? Isn't that C4-5. It looks like a fun route. Toast...Ahhh your sweet! db...That is exactly it. I would second guess myself the whole time. I was comfortable with my route finding but it is so much better when ya got a partner to share it with. I will get back up there for this puppy! The area is incredible. Larch season it will be spectacular!!

great report!!! I did this one last year. It was defiantly a trip to never forget!! Nice pics too!!!

Good stuff !! what a dream trip. I hope I have the chance to do it before I get too OLD! Great images and report thanks for sharing!

Trip: Buck mountain Failure...Buck Creek Basin shwack Date: 7/18/2007 Trip Report: My plans were to climb Buck Mountain. It is a great trip for me to try solo. I got some great beta and was completely comfortable doing the trip solo. I failed! No, not due to skill level or physical level. It was a bit of stupidity, no drive and no enthusiasm for a solo climb. This is my first solo off trail scramble. I have no trouble posting trs about my failures (I learn from it), so I figured I would share it here cause I got some OK images. Here is the report... Solo sucks! I loose all motivation to climb. Solo is just no fun for me. I will hike solo but will never again do a climb/scramble solo. It is so boring and lonely. I always have partners but my partners where either busy with other climbs, life , or sick as hell. Starting Friday night I was seriously thinking about not going solo. Sat morning I had the same thoughts. My heart was just not in doing a solo climb. I sat around and dilly dallied trying to decide. . I kept telling myself “it will be good for ya to do a challenging solo.” Finally decided to leave the house. WAY to late for this trip but I figured hey even if I get the route finding and bushwhack done then that will be a good accomplishment. I didn’t start down the trail till after Noon!! I hoofed It up the flat ass Buck creek trail listening to my ipod. Around 4300-4400' it is time to cross the creek. I was a bit worried about how I would do this as I had no beta on a log or a jam and it was full and moving fast. I trashed down to the river and spent a bit of time looking for a safe place. Headed down stream then back up stream till I found an friendly old log jam. Crossed it easily and then the fun begins! Some class 3 root, duff and rock scramble to get up over the small cliff/embankment. At the top of I turned to get a look at where I need to come back down to find the logs again. As I turned to head out I run smack dab into flagging. Sweet, that will help on my way back! Now the shwack begins. Heading South I work my way to the East ridge of Cleator. The brush and downfall got worse and worse the closer to the ridge. It took me a good amount of time picking and thrashing my way through it. Then once on the ridge proper the going gets a bit better. I headed west strait up the ridge. Reaching it at 4700'. The going was not bad but it was steep and slow with the pack and weaving through the forest. At around 5800' There is a way off the ridge from an old camp to access the basin. This involves brush. I missed the camp at first, mainly cause I was going to explore higher. I had beta the there is some class 3 gullies to gain access to the basin up higher. This avoids the brush. I figured I would head up to see what the gullies look like. As I reached 6000' it opened up in to meadows with great views. Around 6200' I found a gully and then another and another. Some are very sketch but a couple of the others looked to be not that bad. The only problem I had was I could not see the bottom. I didn’t want to scramble down with a full pack and then get cliffed out and have to climb back up. Not! I took a long break here. The views of the North face of Buck are incredible! I did notice the place that I was headed for camp still had a lot of snow. I was hoping it would be thawed. I checked out the route. I could see the ramp I needed to get around the E. Buttress of Berge. Sweet! The hard part was over now. I was bored as shit! Nothing like being truly ALONE in the middle of the mountains. Yuck! I sat for a while trying to decide which way I was going to take. I decided not to push my luck. I packed up and started to descend to find the camp. After some thrashing in steep forest and brush. (Next time stay to the left not the right!) I found the old camp at around 5775. I reached for my camera to take a pic of the tarps. WHAT THE FUCK! No camera! Good time to be solo! I think I called myself every name in the book! This idiot left her camera sitting 400' up on a rock . I was pissed and it was getting later. At this time I had plenty of time to make it to camp but If I retrieve my camera I might be pushing it with time. So I figured I would climb back up the ridge get my camera and camp up there. I really liked the views and that way I can get up early and do a light and faster accent from here. I liked idea of not having the heavy pack for the ramp. So it was decided. I would camp on this ridge. This camera deal is what burst my climbing bubble. I set up my bivy and took my dinner and scrambled up a few more hundred feet to a great spot. This is a really nice ridge with some incredible views all around. Sunset was fizzling due to too many clouds. I decided to head back down to camp. The ipod and whiskey made this solo crap a bit easier... I hit the sac a t 10:30pm. I was still planning on climbing but my heart was still not all in it. It was hard to shake that feeling. I woke up around 5:00 and watch a great sunrise display over Seven Finger Jack. I was tired and I decided to lay down for maybe another 30-60 minutes. I never sleep past 6-7 anyways. This was a huge mistake. I woke up at 10am ! I NEVER sleep that late. Not since friggen high school. I am huge morning person. I was pissed and baffled that I slept that long. Good thing I was solo at the moment the F bombs where flying! I still had to make breakfast, break camp and head back down the ridge to the 5800' camp and unload my pack. Dammit this completely took the wind out of my sails. If I pushed hard I might be able to pull it off but I really didn’t want to rush and push it in the terrain I was in. That is when I would make a mistake and get hurt. Again my heart was not all in it. I had no problem canning it. Yup I said screw it....SAD! I did want to at least get into the basin to explore the route more. I ate breakfast and headed down to the old camp. There is a tiny path that does a descending traverse along the ridge. It is hard to keep the path. I had no problem running into it again and again though. The brush is not bad at all. After going through a swath of alder you are deposited in an incredible basin Waterfalls and flowers everywhere! I climbed up to 6300' where one would start to traverse the basin to the E buttress of Berge. I filled my water and took a very long break. What a beautiful place. It was time to go! I headed back the way I came and found my overnight gear where I left it at the camp. Packed up and was on my way. The ridge for some reason seemed harder to navigate on the way down. Especially down where it starts to broaden. I had no troubles but it was time consuming. I had no trouble dumping myself right back at the log crossing. Took a break and took the damn boot off and wore my keens to the TH! Although disappointed in myself for not finding the drive or enthusiasm. It was a really great trip out. I learned a lot about myself this weekend so maybe it is good I went solo. I learned to NEVER go solo again. It sucks and loose all motivation and drive that I normally have. Set my friggen alarm! I am able to navigate off trail in the mountains quite well. This was my first solo bushwhack/ off trail trip. I am happy that I had no trouble staying on route at all. I admire those who can go out there solo and not go crazy from boredom! I like solitude but climbing is where I have to have partners around. I want to Thank Tom Sjolseth for the idea and beta. I will be going back in sept or oct for the larch display. With partners ! I saw not ONE person on this trip...not even on the 4.5 miles of trail.

here is a trip report from 2 weeks ago. Not a whole lot of beta in it, not sure it will help ya. Trip report here

I agree about the bike shorts! Good stuff thanks for the report.

here is a tr from last year. the log jam is further down stream than the log we crossed. The log we crossed is probably not there anymore. There is beta on the gully for ya. Luna Tr

Ahh Now I see what you did. It is very steep in the standard gully. I would have not wanted to be in the gully you guys chose! I would have done the same as you Dustin! Insist on Rapping it! Good stuff guys!

enjoyable report and pics! Thanks