JBo6

Awesome photos and nice work carrying someone else's shit out of the woods. I once found an empty bottle of 12 year scotch with the tube that I carried out of Nooksack Cirque. Talk about a let down when I figured out it was empty.

Be aware that there currently is a fire in Pine creek, one drainage north from Cutthroat Lake/Creek. If the Wine Spires area is not currently closed, it is possible that it will be soon. Okanogan-Wenatchee NF's Facebook page seems to have the most up to date information from them. There is currently nothing on their website. Here is a link to the Inciweb report for the Cutthroat Fire. https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6054/ This will likely be kept up to date.

I saw a post on the Turns All Year facebook page about found crampons. Hopefully they are yours.

Driving down 20 coming into Mazama I did not see any on the main body of Goat, a smidge on the hill to the north of Goat Peak.

Thanks Jon.

Holy shit. CC.com has a photo viewer now! Whoever added that nice work!

Great, more conspiracy BS. Also included in your list were grants focused on other parts of the wilderness area, 250K for trail maintenance, 150K for campground maintenance, 100K for mountain bike trails. Maybe the headline should have been "Grant money to build trails and reduce human impacts" or maybe that wouldn't have the same ring to it.

Looks like a great family adventure. Congrats.

As usual it depends. If the south side is super firm then skinning up to Pikers can be challenging, let alone without practice with skinning technique. I'd say you'd be much better served with some practice before. Many AT boots/bindings can be difficult to figure out without experience with them, plus the potential issues of poorly maintained rental gear and boots that do not fit well. All in all I don't think I'd recommend it. Adams in a day is pretty big day for a lot of people(myself included) and if you guys are planning on breaking it up with a night at the Lunch Counter then you're committed to carrying up and over to the SW chutes. Skiing with a large overnight pack is also a lot different than at the resort with no pack or a tiny day pack.

I'd take them if you're willing to ship them. I'll shoot you a message.

PM'd for the NW Alpine hoody.

I may have been one of the bikers that passed you. Did the loop on Sunday. What a cool area and your photos do it justice!

ONe of a kind guy. I was lucky enough to fly with him for 3-4 years when I worked for the NPS. He truly had an amazing amount of knowledge and life experiences.

What did you end up paying for it? Those are super cool and I've been intrigued by them for a while.

How was the temperature on Saturday night? Myself and some friends rode mountain bikes up to the pass and back to the TH Saturday evening and it seemed pretty chilly when we hopped into the car. It looked like a decent amount of people camping up there that night.

I'm in Winthrop, shoot me a PM with your email address and feel free to pester me for a conditions update in later Novemeber. I'm a skier, not a climber so all I'll really be able to tell you is snow amounts and temps. Usually WSDOT is looking for 2-3 feet of snow in the avalanche paths that threaten the road to close it. Good resources would be the NWAC weather station at WA Pass if it's working and also sign up for the WSDOT North Cascades emails. They usually do a good job of sending out status reports on what's happening up there. edit: Alternatively if there is enough snow you might be able to snag a snowmobile tow up with me or others.

Sent PM. Don't have the pack, but I could take a look for it.

Sounds like 20 is now unmaintained past Early Winters. Hope you got your ski in.

DOT has been plowing to Silver Star this winter so the standard approach would not require road skinning or a snow machine.

Questions/issues for me for mountaineering/snow camping would be: Windproof/resistance Capabilities of snow melting Able to deal with sitting onto of a shovel or hanging for snow melting Backpacking questions: Heat control(simmering?) Size/shape I'll be curious to see what you come up with.

Check out skimo.co they sometimes have spare Vertical parts.

Scarpa Maestrale series boots may be worth a look for you. They seem to have a lower calf height. They are decent for width but it's a relatively simple process to get the boot shells punched out for width. Or stop walking for a month or two before ski season to shrink your big ass calf muscles.

I'm much more on the hiking/scambling side of things but Ive been pretty happy with a midtop version Salewa Mountain Trainer. Mine are an older version and have the suede and GoreTex upper which is not that waterproof. That was from postholing around in slush vs morning hardpack.

Is the old trail from the border swath south to Bear creek no longer in existence? It wouldn't surprise me if it was a victim of Homeland Insecurity.

If you can make it to anywhere in the Methow I'll give you a ride the rest of the way.