Stollen

48° 32' N; 120° 48' W

Trip: North Cascades - Mustache Mountain Date: 6/27/2015 Trip Report: Victor, Brian and I had the brilliant idea of climbing Mustache Mountain on the one of the hottest days of the year. Looked intriguing enough and we couldn't find another trip report anywhere. It ended up being a 14 hour day with lots of schwacking. Awesome to be on a summit alone. What's an adventure without a little blood: The view of Mustache Mountain and Blackbeard: Climbing the flower fields of Mustache Mountain: Celebrating our manliness: Gear Notes: Gloves and navigation equipment. Approach Notes: Like you are going to Black and then head to the notch at 6400'. Drop down the notch and traverse East and go down the boulder field (we did not go this way, but should have). Cross the valley and go straight up the trees to the flower fields. Keep climbing until the summit. Traverse to the flanks of Blackbeard and the flat notch (would be a great campsite). Head down the gulley. Once you get above the waterfall, start traversing East and down through the trees until you hit the creek. Follow the creek on the South side until 4500'. Go due east to cross the river (lots of log crossings). Keep heading East until you hit HWY 20. Hitch a ride back to the car.

Trip: Chair Peak - West Ridge Date: 5/24/2014 Trip Report: The climb took us 14 hours car to car because we had trouble with route finding on the rock. The pitches were short and so took some time. We are hoping this will be some more beta for everyone. There is definitely some fun climbing on this route before the rock gets very loose at the end. Pitch one: The gully was covered in snow so we had to start to climber's left of the gully and make a couple moves that were hard to protect. The climbing was 5.7 to 5.8 up to a couple fixed nuts and a pin. About half the rope. Pitch two: Up out of the gully and to the other side of the notch. 5.8 climbing with a tree on the other side for an anchor. Pitch three: Head climber's left across a simul-climb traverse with some protection and loose rock. The traverse continues up a ravine to below an obvious chock stone over a notch. Maybe one 5.6 move with ample protection at the top for an anchor. Pitch four: This is where the climbing started to get fun for several pitches. Follow the crack up climber's right about 15 feet to a ledge to the base of some flakes and cracks. 5.7 climbing. Pitch five: Climb up the flakes and cracks to the bottom of a 10 foot slab below an obvious 10 foot headwall. This is not much for anchor possibilities, but enough to keep you from falling off the mountain. 5.7 climbing. Pitch six: Climb up the slab to the bench and headwall. The head wall can be poorly protected with two small pieces. There are two fixed pins at the top of the head wall. Keep climbing up the ridge to the top. There are some spots for an anchor. Climb down the 10' section of rock to some trees. The hardest move is 5.7. Pitch seven: Traverse broken but fun rock with ample protection to a class 4 gully to climber's left. There are some trees for an anchor. (From here we kept going up the class 4 gully to climber's left to the false summit. We found lots of loose rock and minimal protection on the north face. There might be possibilities going to the climber's right of the false summit.) Rappel: We rappelled down the gully from the ridge instead of climbing the knife ridge. There was loose rock all over the false summit with minimal possibilities for an anchor. We rappelled down the gully to where it met another gully which lead to the notch below the summit. Pitch eight: Head up the gully to climbers right that connects to the notch below the summit. There is one 5.7 move at some rocks, but otherwise the gully is class 4 to a notch just below the summit. Pitch nine: Loose but climbable rock to the top with some spots for an anchor. We came down the standard descent. Two 60s would have been nice here, but one 60 worked. Some of the climbing is really fun, but the end has lots of loose rock and high consequence terrain. We might be able to do the route faster now that we know the route. Gear Notes: Medium alpine rack, 60m rope, picket, sacrificial gear, should have brought climbing shoes. Approach Notes: Conditions were good for the approach. Lots of snow to get us to the base of the climb. The start is the far gully on the north side of the west ridge.

I wanted to see if anyone is interested in skiing Rainier during the dates of July 4-7. The trip could be any combination of these dates, but these are days that I have free. I was thinking of the Emmons/Winthrop route, but would be open to others. I have glacier travel gear and skills, mostly fit and solid skier. Let me know if you want to go! Chris

Hey Ian, I am looking for climbing partners too. I have been mostly skiing in the cascades for the past several years, but over the last year I have been doing much more glacier and snow travel. I don't know everything but I feel like I know a good bit. I will be focusing mostly on skiing this winter, but there is still some time for some climbs. I am also interested in learning more about trad rock climbing as this can be an important piece to finishing many climbs in the cascades. Maybe a little knowledge swap on a mountain sometime? I thought that I would also bring your attention to the UW climbing club. I went to UW myself and this club is very active. http://students.washington.edu/climb/home/ Chris

Trip: Sahale Mountain - Quien Sabe Date: 9/8/2012 Trip Report: Christa and I had heard good things about the Sahale Arm/Cascade Pass area and wanted to spend a weekend up there. We also decided to climb Sahale Mountain, but when all the Sahale Glacier camps were reserved, we decided to approach from Boston Basin via the Quien Sabe. We followed the climbers trail (just below the hiker's trail head) to the lower camps. We then scrambled up to the nose of the glacier. Crevasses were prevelant, but we took the steeper route up looker's right and were able to avoid them. We saw one group come down looker's left after traversing and that looked like a much different climb. Looker's right (our route) was more direct and steep with harder snow being it was late season. The looker's left route was much more gradual with fewer crevasses. We then followed the common route on the upper part of the glacier to the rock ridge to the summit. The ridge was exposed, but easy to negotiate. The top pitch was class 4/5 for about 30 feet. The summit had amazing views, but a nearby forest fire had just started and the smoke started to haze the view. We decided to take the Sahale glacier route down and traverse the Sahale arm above the moraines back to camp. As we were coming down, we saw a helicopter performing a rescue in the basin. The travese had some class 4 down climbing, but we got a marvelous sunset to go with our scrambling. We made it back to camp just as it was getting very dark. A few pictures: Nose of the Quien Sabe Christa Leading the Glacier Route Final Rock Ridge Success! Rescue Helicopter Sunset Gear Notes: Single rope Ice Axe Crampons Prusiks, picket, pulley 4 Cams 4 Alpine draws ATC Approach Notes: Climber's trail was dusty but easy to follow. The cut off for the lower camp is hard to spot, but it is just before the next creek after the large creek crossing once you get out of the trees. Sorry, I don't remember the name of the large creek.

I forgot a pair of Black Diamond carbon probe poles in the Mt. Baker parking lot on Sunday, May 2nd, 2010. They have spray painted red stripes near the baskets. I live in Seattle and if anyone picked them up that lives close, I will give you a case of beer in return. Send me an e-mail at stoll_thesystem5@comcast.net. Thanks in advance!