Noodle

So would the left group be Redoubt/Spickard and the right group be Whatcom/Challenger, or would it be Whatcom/Challenger and Terror?

Trip: Ruth Mountain - Date: 8/30/2007 Trip Report: With Thursday off of work and a golden weather forecast, I convinced my buddy John to abandon his house painting project for a day and climb Ruth Mountain. We left Kirkland at 6:30 and arrived at the Hannegan Pass trailhead at about 9:00 after a short stop at the Glacier ranger station. By 9:30 we were moving easily up the valley, almost imperceptively gaining elevation, and slowing only enough to avoid the large piles of horse poo. We reached Hannegan Pass at 11:15, and consulted the route description. Things got slightly confusing due to the spider web of paths, but the key here is to drop down, heading towards the large knob (pt 5930) in the ridge southeast of the pass and the large gash heading straight up it towards the hourglass-shaped rubble pile. This gully is a rutty, muddy, slick mess. Not especially difficult, but entirely unpleasant; and coming back down it was definitely the crux of the entire trip. We were glad we didn't have overnight packs! After huffing up the gully, we rounded the knob on the east side and crossed the very pleasant saddle which lead us up the rocky lower portion of Ruth. We only had two liters of water each, and it was pretty hot; so we filled our bottles with snow when we stopped to rope up (1:10 PM, 5950 feet). The remainder of the route we just followed the path of least resistance to the summit on mildly soft snow, with crampons on. Just downhill of the large rock outcropping there are some crevasses running perpendicular, but we just stayed under them and headed off to the right to continue up the ridge to the summit, which we reached at about 2 PM. I have to say that the views on this climb are probably the most spectacular I've yet seen. Both John and I were totally in awe at the summit view, especially Shuksan. Every direction offered vast views to lofty, rugged, snow and glacier-clad mountains. I'll let the photos speak for themselves... Looking east from Ruth Mountain. Can someone ID these peaks for me? Panoramic looking north Ruth Creek valley Summit Icy peak from the summit The return trip was largely uneventful. I refilled my bottles with snow, and John opted to fill his bottles with water from a snowmelt pool next to the trail on the northeast side of Pt 5930, topping it off with some iodine tablets for good measure. John took a nasty spill in the gully, bruising his hand but otherwise escaping unscathed from the unauthorized trail dance. Let's just say that the walk back down the valley is the longest 3 miles ever. Kirkland to Trailhead: 2 hrs 30 min Trailhead to Hannegan Pass: 1 hr 45 min Hannegan Pass to Glacier: 1 hr 35 min Glacier to Summit: 40 min Gear Notes: Gear – Crampons, ax, rope, pooper scooper, etc Approach Notes: Plenty of water opportunities

Heh, that's a possibility. I really like the area though. I took a day recently to just do some laid back hiking, chose Stillaguamish and had a great time!

Come on, I know someone out there has done this!

Has anyone here attempted this? I'm looking for any info on difficulties encountered, time taken, gear, etc. I tried this last year and didn't get very far. We stayed too high on the ridge off of Dickerman, and by then getting lower involved some rock bands that took a lot of time to navigate. So we realized there was no way we'd make it that day, and had to climb back up to Dickerman through nasty down-sloping slide alder. I'd like to try again, maybe bring a rope along and try to stay on the ridge as much as possible. Descending way down towards Buck Creek feels like cheating.

Death moon!

My heels have been ripped to shreds in less than a mile in new, otherwise very comfortable boots, until I picked up this trick. Take a gallon zip lock back and use scissors to cut off the top of it where the seal is. Now slide that bag into your boot with the open end on top. Put your foot in the boot, and you'll have two sheets of slippery plastic bag between your heel and the boot. This in combination with not lacing up too hard works wonders for my heels. The guy I learned this trick from had gotten some heavier duty bags from somewhere, but I find that ziplocks work well.

Climbed Mt. Baker (Coleman/Deming) in sweet weather! Photos here

Planning on climbing the Coleman/Deming route this weekend, and one of the guys going has a plane so we flew over the mountain to have a look. Pictures relevant to the Coleman/Deming route are here. The whole set of pictures, including some shots of Pilchuck, Three Fingers, and Whitehorse, are here .