shinsain

I guess you should break out your environmental science, geology, civil engineering, range management, ecology, and fire ecology degrees that you've got hiding in your back pocket...hop in your car and start rolling. Oh, and remember to hit up the hundreds of miles of trail maintenance while you're at it (Time to dig out that 'ol pulaski hiding in your garage!). I guess if you must look at a ticket as a government tax you can look at it as a tax on doing something dumb. No one ever forced another person to do something dumb, so maybe that person deserves it. When did people start maintaining game trails? Oh now you're just being silly. Silly boy.

As an FS employee all I'm going to say is that the upkeep of "your" (our) public land is expensive. I don't like it any more than the next person, and I get no free passes (believe me, I wish I did), but the reality is that nice trailheads, shitters, fire crews/management, range management, wilderness communication, law enforcement (for those truly abusing our land), and many other things are sorely underfunded from the government budget unfortunately. So...we all do our part and enjoy our land that we have to work and pay for. Left unkempt and unregulated, it would be much worse. If you pay the fees, you don't get nasty tickets in the end. Probably time to suck it up and fall in line. It sucks, I know.

I saw your post on that and gave a thought about PMing you to see if you'd take me on; however, I work for the Forest Service up here in Wenatchee and have something scheduled in Tonasket tomorrow I'm mostly free on weekends though. My job is fairly unpredictable throughout the week. Thank you for asking, it makes me feel good!!

I know that's not specifically descriptive; however, the subject line doesn't permit very wordy titles. I am a moderately experienced rock/alpine climber who would simply like a partner with more experience (and time) than my best friend who is much (much) more experienced to go out with and add to my skill set. Here's a little bit of what I have done and know: I've summitted St. Helens, Rainer, (almost) Hood last year (long story), been to the Himalayas (altitude experience, not climbing), Antarctica, sport climbing including belay, rappelling, leading (a bit), and my first alpine trad climb was last weekend which I obviously did not lead but got some education on protection placement. And of course large helpings of top roping at the gym (I know, but I take what I can get). So I'm no pro by any means, but I'm hungry. The outdoors have been my life for many years and I've backpacked, skied, and various other outdoor sports for years. If you're willing to teach I'm willing to learn. If you need a partner and you're willing to take on someone like me I really need more folks to get out with. My best friend has been my partner through all of this but he's very tied up with school at this point and I just can't sit at home any longer or go backpacking alone...it's simply not climbing...and dayhiking is driving me insane. My name's Aaron, shoot me a PM and we can talk, meet each other, see how we work together and go from there if we decide we'd be a good, safe team. Aaron

Looks like we're going. We're going to be at the gate to the the national park @ about 9. NWAC says go. http://www.nwac.us/forecast/avalanche/current/zone/7/ We'll be skinning up...

North Gulley looks pretty good...like goatboy said though this snowpack isn't great. Anyone driven by lately? http://www.summitpost.org/route/223684/north-gulley.html Hmm. That looks fun, and easy to get to.

You mean FS Road 41?

NWAC.

My friend and I only have Saturday to bag something and get out. We were going to try and hit The Castle/Pinnacle in the Tatoosh down by Rainier but we are assuming 7 hours won't be enough. I say 7 hours due to the road's open/closing time. Anything else open (snow-wise...which I'm sure isn't much of a problem right now), within range of Seattle/Everett and doable within a day? Aaron

If you're sure it's patellae tendinitis that's one thing, but keep in mind that Osgood-Schlatter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osgood-Schlatter_disease disease can masquerade as something like patellae tendinitis. I have it and for a long time thought I just had really painful tendinitis. At any rate, for the pain: RICE, rest, ice, compression, elevation. I run a lot with a full pack and some days the general area down there just *kills.* I've found that strengthening the quads/legs in general helps a ton. Also, you can do reverse calf extensions to strengthen that muscle on the front of your calves...the one on front of the tibia (forget what it's called). That has helped me as well. Also, a patella brace or compressor such as this: http://supports4less.com/alex/patella_knee-support.htm You can also get the band mentioned above that simply compresses the patella below the knee.

Ivan: I was thinking that plus that gear the downhill mountain bikers wear as well. Maybe some spikes on the shoulder pads Mad Max style. I'd also like to know when conditions will improve...late Jan/Feb? Sometime after new snow settles and it's still cold?

+2 I use a Keffiyeh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keffiyeh) and sun screen personally as the baseball cap usually bugs me...something with my field of view and the fit of my glasses. But the above quoted is certainly standard issue.

What good is a month and a half old report for a climber? Are you actually trying to say that I needed to notify you that a trip report should be "recent?" Now you're just being silly.

Wow. Nate, elitist much? I didn't hear myself blaming anything or anyone except my lack of missing a sentence in a guide book and not finding a recent trip report. That's my fault, no one else's. At any rate, I'm a no harm no foul type of folk, so now I can pass on what I've learned. We had fun doing it and most importantly of all: we all got down safe. I think for the select few (two) of you who are a bit rough you should probably turn the lens on yourselves -- and keep it there. If you're a senior climber, younger ones will tend to listen to you more if you teach them rather than chide them. Some folks aren't capable of that, however...and I understand. Justnip: I saw that report before but looked more at the date of 26 July and probably should have done a better job of parsing the data. We'd still have gone, but it would have aided in picking a better route. Edit: Nate, also as for asking Matt, he originally brought this up as a good climb and after seeing my pictures and reading the trip report apologized because he wasn't aware it got this bad in late season. Things like this do happen (although apparently not in your world).

Shinsain obviously found out the hard way that you don’t climb hood at this time of year. No reason to bag on the guy joe.... Had we known we'd have simply picked another route. Oh well. I'll be back soon to try another way to the top.

Meh. Find one on that route for me that's recent. When you don't, I won't be mad.

Bump for this shirt. Myself and my best friend use it and we absolutely can't be without it. My favorite piece of gear, hands down.

Slitting my wrists didn't work last time. Figured I'd try something more novel. We're parachuting in next weekend.

Man it's nice up there. Was up there in '96. Didn't see anyone tightroping though.

Trip: Mt. Hood - South Side/Hogsback Date: 9/13/2009 Trip Report: Well...so, this is my first post on CC, but I figured I'd give a trip report because we certainly couldn't find one [a recent one... ] before we went and I wish we had so we'd have known not to go on the SS/HB route. Quick Cliff Notes: it sucked, go another route. All the noted about rockfall are true, it's horrible this time of year. There's no snow, the chute above HB is completely snow free but the lower half is caked in ice. Long version: On the 12-13 myself, my best friend Bryon and our friend Jeff had planned to hustle up Hood for our first time. I am with a charity called Climb for Kids and had set up one (possibly last) climb for the season to try and raise some cash after Rainier last month. Upon recommendations from Matt, the director of the charity, I decided on Hood instead of Baker or Adams The Boring. We started out at about 1am on the morning of the 13th and had a beautiful moon-lit and headlamp-less trek past the Timberline chairlifts and up to Crater Rock. When we reached Crater Rock where we were going to cross onto the hogsback we noticed two things: one, that it wasn't going to be easy to get on to the hogsback (had we been up there more than once we could have taken a much easier route) and two, there was a huge gap from the hogsback to the chute one is supposed to take up to the top. From what we'd read and what folks had told us this was supposed to be fairly straightforward. We'd brought a 30m rope, picket, various slings and other things just in case, but figured we wouldn't need it. It was a good thing we had them. We crossed a small snow bridge to the lower right of the huge gap from the high side to the upper part of the hogsback and decided to split up to reach the summit. I kept my crampons and went directly up the chute while Bryon and Jeff took theirs off and thought it would be more comfortable for them up the rocks to the right. Short of the long: I eventually climbed to a place about 150 feet (?) from the summit where I simply couldn't go any higher and they got stopped on the rocks to the right. We rejoined at the upper part of the chute and had to downclimb. We would have had a much easier time using a 60m rope but instead we had to improvise with the 30m taking turns on anchors and belays that were arguably against our common sense but the only choices for protection we could find. All in all we toiled in the chute for 5 hours between trying to ascend and then descend safely, never actually reaching the summit. If you are up there, grab our prusik attached to the totally sketchy rope above the icy part of the chute, and our sling...both of which we couldn't retrieve. *hangs head in shame* We finally reached the bottom of the chute, took a rest, and continued down at about noon when we saw two guys just coming up towards us (late summit attempt much?). They tried to ascend a completely impassable part directly above the upper part of the hogsback (why??? it was obviously not the right way) and eventually turned back. We walked down watching bicycle-size rocks falling and hearing other slides and rockfall, eventually reaching Timberline. When we got back to Seattle, I took a look at one of our guides, the "100 Climbs in the Cascades" and saw the ONE sentence noting that late season was crap and that the chute could become "dangerously icy," etc, etc. So, it's probably common knowledge that the route's garbage this time of year but at least someone can learn from our mistakes. We didn't happen to find any trip reports since around the 1st of August. Maybe we didn't look hard enough. Pictures can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shinsain/collections/72157622378264284/ Aaron Gear Notes: Could use a 60m rope for possible downclimbing issues, but a 30m and some ingenuity "worked." Crampons/ice ax. Not sure how you'd protect the upper part of the chute. No avvy transceiver needed. Helmet (force field would be nice) for extreme rockfall hazard. Approach Notes: It's Hood. Drive up to Timberline.