kascadia

Recent pictures of the Skyladder are depressing. I climbed it 1982. The thing was solid ice without even a hint melting in July of that year. That's one of many signs of what kind of influence Climate Change is having. We did it in ~1991 and the quality was memorable. No problems getting to it and the schrund was just starting to open up. Getting out was an adventure through that maze of crevasses, and getting down to them was rather nasty, too. I distinctly remember gingerly crawling across one or two that were about a crumbling inch wide. . . Yeah, don't have to be a weatherman to see which way the wind's blowing. . .

We climbed Skyladder in August one year and another year through there at same time it was melted out (although not as badly as that, that's pretty bare). Too bad, it was amazing alpine ice when we got it. Really nice shots, the Canadian Rockies are amazing, if not entirely glued together very well. . . .

Some really nice shots - I remember that black face pitch well. We had the benefit of sun (a lot of it) in August, you've got a great story. . .

I don't recall having expectations about what awaited at the top of Devil's Tower, but an acre of prairie was definitely a surprise.

When we did this route quite some time ago, after reaching the point where the road trailed off in the woods, we dropped down to the left, crossed the drainage and made an angling ascent up the opposite side. It was mostly open forest, albeit quite steep. There was still a bit of bushwhacking, but I think this may lessen it to some degree. We came back down the White Salmon proper, and I still have the scars to prove it.

Just read their description, that sounds right. Cool! Looks like it's in much better condition now than when they did their FA! "partner" = JayB, used to be a mod here, don't know if he's still around.

What a great weekend. Quite a few years ago, we did the Leuthold and traversed on to the Reid closely above that schrund (I believe it is the same one). It was a bit of an eye popper. Going up the Leuthold, there was ice/rock fall spilling down it like a stream, really kinda odd to be able to step back and forth across it. Looks like you guys didn't have much of a snow/rockfall issue (?). Nice shots, but not enough of them!

Did this back in ~90 (pre-Gu), we'd gone down to climb Success Cleaver on Rainier, it was terribly melted out and out of nowhere someone came up with this kind of idea. . . . . similar time, although we took an hour nap at the Blue Glacier "high camp", carried too much gear also. And those smiling pictures on the summit. . . half way there. . . . We easily wolfed down a lumberjack breakfast in Forks the next morning and later stopped in Sequim and ate an entire chocolate pie! Congratulations, it takes some crazy ambition to do this! And some really nice pictures. How far did you get after you got back to your car??

We went back to do Burgundy Spire a 2nd time, led on somewhat by a guidebook comment to the effect of those in the know do it more than once. Had the same reaction you had the second time. There's some good rock on it and it's a spectacular setting, but I'm not sure I'd call it a **** climb. Speaking of choss, we talked to a friend who had done it before we did it the first time and he mentioned a loose chockstone in the 3rd pitch. When I asked him how big it was, he replied, "About the size of a tombstone". Is it still there? This would be the 3rd pitch from Burgandy Col, so you may have missed this gem. Certainly glad to have done the route, no need to go back and do it a third time! Nice pictures, excellent ambitions and effort!

I went back and dusted off the few slides we have from the trip, and one taken of 2 of the party ascending to the south peak clearly shows our route in the area of the gendarme/notch problem. We stayed on the ridge to that area (not dropping and traversing low on the west side as shown in the attached route description/picture posted above). In the area of the gendarme, we dropped on the the east side of the large squarish rock block in the center of your traverse picture and clustered above it on a small ledge, a rappel debate ensued. We ultimately were able to traverse back 100 feet or so on the west side of the ridge and then found a place to drop down and access the notch. We then crossed over to the east side and took the beautiful snow to the south summit. We had hard frozen snow (excellent cramponing)across the Great Eastern Basin and up the steepish ascent to the north peak. It had softened by the time we began climbing out of the notch. I will get the slide scanned and posted here for comparison (only slightly more snow than what your pictures show - we did it in June also). I mentioned the time of the traverse because at the time, there had been a recent horror story of a group that dropped too far down on the west side to try to cross the notch and had ended up benighted before being able to finish the route the next day! The reputation was the route finding. For us, it was a day when the mountain gods smiled upon us, the doors opened, and we had "flow". Oh happy day. http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=97481&title=approaching-the-south-brother&cat=504

Did this traverse north to south in the early 90s with Richard Jackson, Tom Kirschner, Don Goodman, Rich Fitzgerald, and Scott. Beckey describes this traverse as "sporty" and indeed it is. We forgot to rope up and made amazing time, going from the north to south peak in a little over 2 hours. My memory is of a little more snow than you show, quite a bit of the route from the north peak to just before the notch was on a knife edge ridge. When we got to the notch and were all busy studying our shoe laces under the unrelenting gaze of that imposing snow face up to the south peak, Don intrepidly jumped on it and away we went. What a fabulous memory of a classic alpine climb, thanks!

Hello Tom - I do believe we are referring to different topographical features. Kindy Buck Pass is due south of your pre-Mutchler camp on the ridge, just northwest of the little tarn at 5975. We approached the range from the south and this dropped us over into the Kindy basin for a traverse over to Mutchler. The pass was pretty steep, and Tom couldn't resist the old climber's joke of turning to me as we worked our way down, saying as he held out a grapefruit size rock, "Now isn't this is a nice hold. . . . . . .oh, don't worry, I'll put it back for you". Just a bunch of steep dirt/gravel/heather and big loose rock for several hundred feet. Beckey calls it a series of rappels, we descended several hundred feet before finding a rock solid enough to anchor from about 40 feet above terra firma. It sounds like you found some fun too going over to Misch! Dirt ponning! I remember pulling out the ice axe on the traverse above Horse Lake and having at it. We finally got to a relatively level spot and I snapped a pic of Tom and Dick as they sat on a log. When Tom saw the picture he said, "Now that's the look of committment - we realized then there was no way we were going back where we came from". The unknown unknowns were looking pretty darn good. And so they were!!

What a pleasant surprise to see this trip report as I no longer come here regularly. Dick J, Tom K, and I did this traverse in 1991. Like Jason G., we came in via the Suittle River Rd (Green Mtn) after shuttling a car to the Snow King Trailhead up the Cascade River Rd. We did it in 3 days, camping the first day at a small lake after the "succulent hellebore traverse" (it was indeed) that Beckey describes. That evening we saw a lightning strike across the valley start a small fire (which extinguished overnight). The next day we traversed across hell and dale to reach the Buckindy area and had a magical evening on the ridge looking down at a fog bank pulsating up and down the north side of Buckindy. We climbed Buckindy the next morning. We were the 25th party on the summit, the previous summiteers being the Skoog Bros. I believe this was during the time they were sewing up the local traverses (Buckindy, Thunder, etc). According to the summit register, I would have the first female ascent. We then had the eye popping experience of descending Kindy-Buck pass (something you might have missed, Tom, on the north side, but I suspect Jason might have enjoyed). On to Mutchler (it started raining mid-day, but luckily cleared) and Snow King and a camp at Cyclone Lake. The next day, July 22, we feasted on the melon we'd left in the creek at the trailhead and a cold one. It was rugged, painful, desolate, and uncaringly beautiful, everything we'd hoped for and more. Thanks for the trip through the memories, nice pictures - and a doff of the hat to an ambitious undertaking and impressive to solo.