climbzemountains

Seems to me like a good way to remind people to be careful out there. It's a good reminder for me, anyway. And because he's never posted it here, maybe some never saw it. Thanks, Josh, for reposting this.

High Schoolers rock. I'm 16, go to White River High School. I'm not experienced or trained in technical climbing (yet), but if any of you head south for hiking or scrambling or something, hit me up. I don't have a car, but my dad's will do. Peace, Shane

Might be a good idea if you just be straight up with "Blanco". Tell him he needs to shape up if he wants to have successful, safe, and fun trips. Let him know that he can put himself and others in danger if he continues the way he's doing things. Tell him he's lucky you all didn't leave him to fend for himself, and helped him how you did. Let him know that in the future, partners might not be as forgiving, and an un-fun, or even potentially disasterous, situation would occur, for everyone. I can't comment on whether to let the community know of this guy. But I'd say letting Blanco know that his actions will not fly is a good idea.

On the route I'm taking I'm not really gonna be travelling under any tree-free terrain, so I think I'll be OK on the avalanche issue. Yeah, Florence Peak is a cool scramble. I've been up to the top during summer, but never during winter. As far as I can remember, that last couple feet is pretty exposed, and I have limited snow scrambling experience. So if I have time maybe mosey'ing on over and checking out the last section would be a good idea, and deciding from there. We'll see. Thanks for the replies!

Theres just something about winter that brings me out there this time of year. Thanks for the tip!

disclaimer: This topic is not summit-oriented. Stop reading now if you are obsessed with summits. I've been hiking a bunch in the area around the Carbon River Ranger Station to train for an RMI 2-day summit climb (don't hate), and always wondered about this lake on the map. It's labelled as lake "4665", and pretty good in size (about 1/10th mile across looks like). It's just downslope from Alki Crest, and south of Sweet Peak. The ranger there has never heard of anyone heading up that way, other than to tag Sweet Peak or Florence Peak. Has anyone been up there, or heard about people making their way up to the lake? If you have, I'd love to talk to you about route info and the such. Here is my planned route: thin red is on trail, thick is off I tried a few weeks ago, but got turned around early due to time restrictions and incoming weather. Looks like it will be a steep snow scramble (the stuff I was on seemed to be up to about 45 degrees) but seems do-able. Again, I'd love to hear from you if you've been up there before! I'm also concerned with avy danger. No matter where I search, I can't find any info on whether you are completely safe in the trees. I'd assume the danger would be greatly decreased below tree line, is this true? Looks like the best weather day will be Thursday, so I'll be headed up then to try again. I'll be back with how it goes! (and maybe my first Trip Report EVER?) Thanks in advance for any response.

yay, part of the 11% club. Mandatory locators would be stupid.

I discovered the sport. Good year for me.

That looks sweeeet, I haven't yet climbed much but from what I can tell that looks like an awesome route.

Sad day. Best wishes to you and your family and friends Scottgg. My prayers go out to the other two still up there.

Looks like fun! Someday, I hope to be climbing routes like that Good luck with the surgery and recovery!

Yeah, I'm guessing the fresh snow and high winds worked together to take it down while I was around. If it is very uncommon to see a large branch fall I guess I can stop being paranoid Most of the travel I do in wooded areas is among the old growth forests of the area. I'm guessing old growth forests are relatively free of trees and branches falling, compared to other places. Thanks for the help!!

I was out hiking/scrambling in Mt. Rainier National Park last weekend, on a breezy day, after a good amount of snow had fallen, when suddenly a fatal-sized-looking tree limb fell not 10 feet in front of me. Hearing about the road worker killed by a falling tree branch in the news recently kind of got me freaked out, yet I don't think I've ever heard of a hiker being killed by a branch. Should I be taking any precautions to avoid falling tree branches, like avoiding windy days, or was this just a super rare occurance? ...Or is this a stupid question?