matopis

Hang in there Jason! Hopefully Mt Rescue refilled your flask before leaving you up there.

ok Jason, I'm taking 10 days off next summer no matter what! Let's set a date now for some Hot North Cascade Action! MAtt

Steph, Any way to look at all of those pictures from your website in a slide-show format? I'm Jealous I missed the trip. Jason strategically planned this so I couldn't go.

nice TR! How was that summit pinnacle? Did you place any gear? Did you rap down?

we did luthold's on sunday. the route was still reasonably solid. ice was coming down constantly, but no rocks! The snow was consolidated and we didn't find any ice. the crevasses were easy to negotiate. the 'shrund on reid's was open wall to wall - see the pic. above the hourglass, looking down on the sunshine we were shocked at the crowds coming up the south. we were alone on the luthold's though 3 others climbed it a few hours behind us. reid's glacier

ok, if you don't actually know the conditions feel free to speculate as well!

Good Job everyone! We left from the car on Friday at noon to climb Liberty Ridge. There was a Russian team of 4 and our team of 3. The temps were high and the snow was soft. We could see the footprints from the party that climbed the route in early May, but there was no boot track to ease the approach. We leap-frogged with the Russians all the way to the base of the ridge. The trail breaking was exhausting since we were the first ones out. The Russians climbed to Thumb Rock and turned around on Sunday due to very soft snow,rock-fall, and nasty looking lenticulars (which cleared!) Our party got off route and mislead a Portland team. We didn't have enough time budgeted to make a second shot at it - which is killing me since this trip report makes it sound like the conditions were great the next day!

Thanks for breaking trail guys! Also, that approach on a bike is no small feat!

Must be nice climbing in the sun. I prefer going up in the rain and then nearly bivying in the trees!

I agree with both of you guys.

Thanks G-spotter. I can already tell we are going to need some translators for these resumes. What's that funny European way of rating climbs all about?! Just kidding. Matt

Here's a late night thought. What if there was an area on the cascade climbers website where you could post your climbing resume. That way when you get lost on mount doom and we read about you in the newspaper, we can make bets as to whether or not you are going to make it out alive. You could include things like "I usually carry my MLU" or "I subscribe to the self-rescue quaterly". This could also help reduce some of the smack talk on the forum, since one could easily look up and determine that posers rule supreme in most forums. ok, there are disadvatages and clearly people will lie, but hey, whadaya tink? Matt BS

Wow, I'm planning a trip now for the North Cascades after seeing those pictures of mount terror! Great Job.

There have been a number of references to bad weather in this thread. Thanks to those that posted links to weather forcasts. I disagree a bit with people who state you shouldn't go into the mountains in bad weather. I have found that getting hammered by storms is some of the best training you can do! The vital skills that you learn while on the lower summits help shape you as a mountaineer. If you just wait for perfect weather to climb you won't know how to deal with the challenges that the mountain sends you unexpectadly. Instead of relying on backcountry skills we start relying on gadgets. I'm not saying we should be summiting regardless of weather, but I don't think we should chastise people for at least getting up there and seeing what the conditions are like. Maybe this party needed more winter travel practice in the lower Cascades?

sparverious - what mischief are you planing with your pole in the winter creek?

jlag - I think the belay device you are looking at is a lonely ice screw. Wish we had brought about a half dozen.

I guess you could get to the Sandy from the Cooper Spur side of the mountain, but I don't think that is much of a gain? Starting from Timberline was nice since that enables you to down climb the south side.

Nice TR Jason. I used to claim that I never took pictures on climbs since my camera was too big and heavy. I later purchased a small digital camera that I could carry on mountain adventures. Although I carried this camera with me on the Sandy Headwall I was so terrified most of the climb that I couldn't muster the nerve to pull it out and snap some photos! matt

sparverius, So how much did this trip run you guys? Yurt, cat ride etc? How did you find out about the yurt network up there? I want some details man. matt

Gov. Kulongoski came out directly last week and said he didn't believe in charging people for rescue operations.

Without a doubt my top 5 toughest and scariest climbs all involved the descent and not the climb itself! Most times you can french free through some dodgey ascents, but it's often harder to descend death slabs on marbles in the dark sleet! Matt BS

This is all I could find - Sad Business. I haven't seen any firm confirmation that it is actually Vern though. http://www.democratherald.com/articles/2006/12/10/news/local/1loc_07briefs.txt In brief: Corvallis man found dead near Smith Rock SMITH ROCK — Oregon State Police on Saturday found the body of a 45-year-old man from Corvallis near Smith Rock in Central Oregon. The police were searching the area after being told by Corvallis police that the man was suicidal and had been headed for the Smith Rock area. Police did not identify the man and said they had no more information to release.