SFDukie

Fantastic pics, great story. Thanks! Don

Whitney permits are NOT all gone-it depends on the date. June permits are mostly gone, but as of 5/23, there were overnight permits available for the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th. Sometimes there are cancellations last minute as well. When I went up Whitney a few years back (it was early in the season-April), I spent the night in the interagency parking lot in my car to be first in line to pick up a permit. Get on the horn to the wilderness permit office 760-873-2483 Inyo NF Whitney Permit

Yea, verily. Shasta river basin snowpack was 57% of normal in early April, and I imagine end of season measurements were even worse.

Wow! Too bad the weather didn't cooperate How did you set up the tyrolean? Don

Nice pics. It was a beautiful weekend on Shasta! Don

Trip: Mt Shasta - Hidden Valley/West Face Date: 5/26/2007 Trip Report: The folks at fifth season in Mt Shasta City were busy with the memorial day weekend hordes, but provided good beta. Drove to Bunny Flat (6900')-only isolated snow patches until Horse Camp (7900'). Parking Lot was a zoo-luckily most headed up Avy Gulch. Weather was flawless. A bit of snow between Horse Camp and lower Hidden Valley. Didn't see any parties headed for Casaval Ridge. Lower Hidden Valley snow was fairly soft by early afternoon. About 15 tents spread about, a few folks skiing down. 9100' or so. There was some meltwater at the lower end of the valley if one didn't want to melt snow. The line up and down the gully was obvious. Sunday, snow was firm for climbing the upper headwall of West Face gully even at 1pm. The lower part of the gully was mildly steep initially, then eases, then steepens for the last 1000' or so of the headwall at 13,100'. I only put on crampons for that last bit, as below that there were kicked steps for the most part. Above that, Misery Hill and the summit appeared in view, along with the many folks ascending via avalanche gulch. Misery Hill wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated. Most of it was fairly firm snow, with a few short patches of scree. The sulfur vents near the summit were interesting. Very windy above 13,000', sheltered on west face. Great views of Lassen, McLoughlin and the Trinities/Castle crags to the west. Ski/board down was great-4000 feet of vertical limited only by breath! Top of West Face was icy until 1 pm or so. Bottom was soft for the skiers, but still very fun for me on a snowboard at 4 pm. There may have been a "window" of better conditions both top and bottom between 2 and 3, but I didn't talk with anyone who descended then. We rode all the way to our tent. Gear Notes: Helmet, crampons, ice axe. One scary rock came hurtling down in the afernoon. Approach Notes: Snow melting fast at lower elevations.

'99 Seattle PI article on Chris Boskoff

Between a rock and a hard place-Aron Ralston Ok, so its about canyoneering, rather than mountaineering or climbing-but the guy's a climber-and he writes pretty well. Also on the written by, but not about list-rick ridgeway's "The Shadow of Kilimanjaro" and Krakauer's "Into the Wild"

Ever hear of Larry the Tool! Go into the Enchantments without a proper permit, you'll get a ticket every time. Sometimes when you do have a proper permit. Whitney portal anytime after May 1 without a permit and you'll have a pretty high probability of getting tagged as well.

FWIW-PMR credited an MLU with shortening the time of a "difficult" rescue in 1/03. The climbers were with Mazamas,and the PMR release referred to them as "experienced mountaineers." "Additionally, the fact that they had a cell phone to communicate with the authorities and two means of locating their whereabouts - a GPS receiver and a MLU transmitter - significantly shortened the time needed to complete this difficult rescue. " Iain Morris and Nick Pope were part of the 4 man rescue team, so perhaps they can shed more light on this if they choose... PMR release Don Edited to add: KGW has a poll up online asking"Do you think Mt Hood should be closed to climbers during severe weather?" KGW poll KATU has a story up "fight over mandatory beacons renews" Report seems to confabuate PLBs with MLUs. KATU story

I'm new here. I certainly don't want to interject myself into a debate about MLUs as I have no Hood experience. However PMR credits MLUs with aiding in at least one rescue: PMRU 1/12/03 The strong storm, which blew in Saturday afternoon, had deposited 1-2 feet of new snow over a sun-melted and rain-glazed base, making the upper mountain a recipe for avalanche. The 4-person PMR team, consisting of Rescue Leader Marty Johnson, Iain Morris, Mike Ochsner and Nick Pope, carefully assessed the snow conditions of the upper mountain and chose a safe route to the Hogsback ridge within Mount Hood's crater. From the Hogsback, the PMR team used the climbers' GPS coordinates and the audible signal of their MLU transmitter to quickly locate the snow cave. The rescuers ascended through the Pearly Gates, near the summit, and West to the subjects' shelter. Fortunately, the 5 stranded climbers were ambulatory and able to descend the standard climbing route with the help of the PMR hasty team. From there, the group carefully navigated the Hogsback Ridge to just East of Crater Rock and the waiting PMR support team. After energizing with some much needed food and liquids, the entire group of 15 people descended the 2,500 vertical feet to the Palmer lift house and a waiting Sno-Cat bound for the safety of Timberline Lodge. Edited to correct misspelling...