trumpetsailor

Immediately following NWAC's announcement of the news, several obituaries (one linked above) appeared. As those seemed to conflate the NWAC announcement and some other unrelated sources, it seems like they may have been automatically generated. Now that it has been confirmed by multiple news sources that the cause was a climbing accident and not a crash, I'm reasonably certain that this is the case. Why someone would use an LLM to generate an obituary is unclear to me, but it is definitely the case that a lot of people (myself included) will click through on everything when there's a news-vacuum. Updated news from authoritative sources: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/avalanche-forecaster-dies-in-climbing-fall-near-leavenworth/ https://www.ncwlife.com/news/nwac-forecaster-killed-in-rock-climbing-accident/article_8c814908-e093-11ee-b496-e3abfdd9d0f8.html Finally, here's the link to the family's GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/supporting-stella-and-milo Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and everyone at NWAC.

A partner and I followed on skis the approach of one of his vision-quest winter routes a few years after he led the way, solo on snowshoes. That trip was among the high points of my life; it felt like we were stealing something just by completing the approach. Never met the man, but given the places he chose to go, he must have been a remarkable person to have known.

On reviewing my photos from Skyline Divide yesterday, a party of two climbed it yesterday. The climbers are visible in the photo below as a dark dot above the NR cliff. If you were in that team of two, please get in touch for a few more photos: charlie@charliehagedorn.com

So good.

A great read. Thanks for sharing!

I never thought I'd see the day that a GitHub repo was linked on CC. Thank you for sharing the software, psathyrella!

I'm half self-taught, half class-taught. I'm glad I did both. I'll put in a plug for taking a good class. If the class is a good one, you'll learn more much more quickly and safely than by yourself. A good instructor/guide/course-leader will have decade-scale experience and can give you a taste of the perspective one gets from being in the mountains for a lifetime. That perspective is hard-earned and better gotten the easy way. I think you'll find that the WAC and the Mountaineer-branch courses require comparable time commitment. Many guide services offer shorter-duration courses. To get the most out of the guided courses, extensively practice what you can ahead of time, and come to the class prepared to soak in knowledge. I took the Seattle Mountaineers basic-course in 2006, and am active with the WAC's backcountry travel course. The WAC is somewhat less-regimented than the Mountaineers of '06 (things may be more flexible now, I hear), but you should enjoy working with and learning from other people. TL;DR: Find common-sense comparable-skill climbing partners and seek good mentors. Play the long game. A good class can help. Also, this.

What a fun gig for the right person!

We headed to HLP in winter a couple of years ago. Just before we reached the ridge, the visibility shut down to less than ten feet. The spacious snow cave we built to pass the time until clearing became our home for the night, as the visibility didn't improve until early morning. The following morning, we found that we wanted no part of the required traverse on icy trap crust. Bringing other options on that route is a good idea. We had fun because we were prepared. Hope we'll have the chance to make a winter visit to the hut in the future and pay it forward. Thanks again to all involved.

You're awesome. Thank you.

Awesome. The photos, esp #16, are winners. Thanks!

Heal well, Josh!

Top-notch TR from a superlative climb. Zeb's arm recover okay?

Beautiful photos, as always. Congratulations on ticking the niners!

Three names released, second guide, two climbers (one Seattlite): http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/06/wife-climber-died-doing-what-he-loved/