AZRockRat

Klenke, On my best day ever I could follow an easy 5.10. For this project, I would be unlikely to want to tackle anything more than a 5.5 to 5.6 on a lead basis, and from what I hear of the rock quality in the area, it might be wiser to cap it at an even lower number. But I would rap the space needle if I had a long enough rope, no personal worries on the long rap front other than the anchors. Me not a lawyer, but I married one, so the writing style is perhaps transmittable like some kind of crazy infection! Makes me want to start a fresh course of antibiotics right away. And John was a friend of mine from way back, yes, so I am trying to be super careful in the planning phase here. That said, some stuff you never know till you get there, but I am trying as best I can to get really smart before any ropes get uncoiled. - WACHRR

Paul, Thank you for the excellent insight. If I were a wiser man, then I would just say forget-this-creative-route-finding-cr*p and stick with the Park Creek standard route, which perhaps in the end may be the thing to do. My main interest at this time is the summit of SK, so got nothing I want to tag on the way there or back. But being less perfectly wise on some matters, and like Jake and Elwood did, finding myself on a bit of an unexpected mission from a penguin of sorts, and still looking to understand the pluses and minuses of the N. Buttress route of Storm King itself, if it is OK, let me follow-up your excellent guidance with a few questions. First for the “I really am listening to what you said earlier” part of the post. Let's suppose first for the moment that I am dumb enough to put up with all the known approaches hassles that remote N. Cascades peaks entail, and the our team comes come up with a fair access solution, at least as far as Grizzly Creek Camp goes, nettles and technical pine and all. Further, let suppose that we make the adjustment near the top as you suggest to chase the true summit as shown here (8520+ ft) and not the "Storm Throne" which sounds like a chair I have no desire today to sit upon anytime soon. And continuing to listen carefully to your comments above, and to also note the nastiness of the stone-round-the-throne, that my pride is not above dropping off the crest to easier terrain on the south side, and trying that left-slanting bail/shortcut from the upper N. Butt to the notch east of Pt. 8515, and thus leveraging the standard south side route ledges as the finish. Further assume that as part of decent, I do not mind a series of raps down the south col, as long as it does not get too much more crazy than a long series of raps with secure anchors, as long as the objective rock fall hazard is not too extreme, which it sounds like from what Heinrich writes perhaps, given the nature of rock in the area. That still leaves me with the standard ignorant questions: * I remain in the dark about the practicality of the N. Buttress route of Storm King itself. Any suggestions as to who might be in the know about that dimension to the problem? * Ignore the approach the Grizzly Creek itself -- How bad would one expect the access to be from a Grizzly Creek camp base to the beginning of a practical route on the N. Buttress (see below pic)? The photos make that valley appear to be not so awful while one stays near the stream bed, but photos have fooled me before. * Taking into account the appropriate level of approach badness from Grizzly Creek, whatever that is, and the nature of the N. Buttress route, whatever that turns out to be, where would you guess such a route would start. I did a blow up of one of the pictures of the area, and drew a proposed approach, which Murphy’s law says is likely to be terrible, do you think the optimal route would be to the left or right or somewhere else entirely from what I have shown here (this only covers getting onto the NW Buttress, not the whole route, of course, if I have drawn it right): Any additional ideas or pointers you or anyone else may have on this N. Buttress side of things are hugely appreciated. I am trying to limit risk my ignorance-driven risk with lots of good planning and research, which hopefully can be of use to others in the community down the road sometime, too. Thanks, WAChossRat-wanna-be

July 2011 I hope to find myself and some climbing buddies in North Cascades National Park, in the North Fork Meadows area southwest of Mt. Logan. For a whole bunch of reasons, but in part to honor an old friend, I’d like to find a clean and interesting way to do Storm King (SK) from that side (I know the standard approach is from the Park Creek side, I am looking for something different, if it makes sense and is safe). Hence this post. There are two apparently known routes on which I’ve been able to get a little SK information on from that side. The first is combining Goode with Storm King climb using the SK Col, and the second, somewhat of a variation on the first from what I can tell, is combining a Goode with a decent towards the nearest Northridge of Storm King. The first I see here, http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=705541, the second I see in Beckey as “Storm King: North Face”. But there is a more direct ridge to the right of what I think Beckey is talking about, and if I want to skip Goode and just do SK in a long day, I want to see if it might be practical to give it a try. So what I want to figure out is this: does anyone have information, experience, ideas, or suggestions, about this more direct attack on the north – northwest ridge of Storm King such as that proposed and shown in the pics below? I have not been to North Fork Meadows before (though I have done NCNP climbs before) but as far as this valley goes, all I have are maps and pictures. ANY ideas input or pointers are greatly appreciated. I have drawn what seems to be a rational one below from the North Fork Meadows area to the summit of Storm King, tell me I’m crazy, the least on paper if this looks fairly reasonable. I guess my questions are as follows, to the extent I know what to ask: [*] Does anyone know of any previous attempts on this particular route on Storm King, and if so by whom and when? [*] I’ve heard that the approach to the base of this proposed route from, say, Grizzly Creek Camp area, could be a real nightmare, but anyone with firsthand experience traverse experience in North Fork Meadows area, it would be great to hear what that terrain is really like, especially in late July. [*] Are there any clear objective or other hazards on this ridge that would be different from other similar ridges in the NCNP area, which we have done a few of before? What I mean by that is, is my route just plain crazy for some reason I am missing (such as impossible decent)? [*] If anyone has climbed on or near this ridge at all, or for that matter anywhere on the north side of Storm King, and can offer any suggestions about I appropriate and fun route like this or better, such input would be graciously appreciated. Here is the same route, with more a topo spin to it: Thanks for any in sight you can offer! Cheers, - Michael Grollman (mgrollman at g-male dot com)