mvs

It's a nice little peak, climbable (hikable) year round. A leisurely half-day trip is to hike up a steep trail that starts a few yards right of the Snow Lake trailhead. This trail reaches Cave Ridge (it is a nice ramble to traverse that), then goes rightward up to the summit. There is a little bit of exposure at a step about 200 feet below the summit, may provide a nervous session when icy or under fresh snow. Note that you reach a sub-summit this way, the true summit probably requires a rope. If you are taking a rope and know how to use it, there are other routes. The South Rib is a good scramble route with one pitch of 5.5 and room for variations. There is a West Face route, of a similar difficulty but much more scree. There are also harder routes on the West Face, consult a guidebook for those. The South Gully is good in winter, but I wouldn't climb it now. All of those routes go to the true summit, then you can make one rappel and scramble to the trail leading down from Cave Ridge. :-)

I second Highlander's comments. Although we rapped the buttress in less than 2 hours, good stations all the way. That might be different if it is crowded, but I'll bet you'd have the route to yourself now. It's not worth camping overnight unless you really want to hang out in the basin.

Nice Plexus! I echo your sentiments about the cold. Chris K. and I went on Sunday with hopes of climbing the Direct East Buttress on South Early Winter. It wasn't as cold as Saturday, but the little ice cliffs along the highway and hard shivering spells at the hairpin humbled us quickly. We settled on the Southwest Rib of the Spire, hoping to find more sun and less hard climbing. I made the mistake of trying to wear socks in my already-too-tight rock shoes, and had to massage my big toes at every belay to pay for it. (Later, while snacking, I realized I was eating my toe!! ) We came down the Arete. Lured by warmth and lack of wind in the sunny basin, we unwisely went up to the Cave Route on Concord Tower. "Here we go again", I thought, as wind screamed through the notch and I blew on my fingers from occasional stances. We followed the upper part of the "Marginal Mystery" route, going straight up from the cave entrance rather than through the cave. This was a fun, exposed 5.6 chimney and hand crack. Finally in the sun again, we got about 7 minutes of pleasure before the wind got to us. Beckey Route climbers had sun the whole way, but I stubbornly couldn't bear repeating a route! Still, I envied the pair wondering how to retrieve their stuck rope. I guess I'll leave the Pass to the insideous ice cystals now.

I was "climbing" on a via ferrata route in Italy a few weeks ago. This guy behind us (very crowded) actually received three cell phone calls, and jabbered away during the entire climb. By the third call it was getting irritating. I'm not saying he doesn't have a right to use his phone, but man, it sure would have been funny if he dropped it! The whole conga line would have laughed...

<nevermind, I figured it out> [ 08-14-2002, 03:33 PM: Message edited by: mvs ]

Alasdair is right about bears, we saw one, and lots of scat too.

Nelly, it was nice to meet you in Boston Basin on Sunday. I hope you all had a good climb of Sharkfin. Thanks for the advice on the snowfinger as an alternative to Sharkfin Col. --Michael

Nice work, Dox! Too bad about the bergschrund. The route looks inviting from Artist's Point.

danielpatricksmith and I climbed the ridge in a long day yesterday. We followed the entire ridge, rather than dropping onto the Forbidden Glacier and climbing back up on snow and ice. This ridge is long! 0.7 mile of rock climbing, with three snowridges that roughly divide it into thirds. The last snowridge is where the variation climbs up from the glacier. We descended the West Ridge, running into "a few problems" with rappels in the couloir. We also lost the trail up into the basin in pre-dawn darkness due to the avalanche debries. We bashed straight up to slabs under Sahale Peak. We elected to follow a snow finger (40 degrees) up and right from Sharkfin Col that led to a rap station to the Boston Glacier. A single rope rappel worked fine at this variation (several information sources mentioned a double rope rappel from the Col). We felt the rock was very solid on the lower ridge. There was at least one unavoidable 5.6 pitch and a lot of enjoyable scrambling on solid rock. The east ledges descent from the mountain looked scary from our vantage point! (foreshortening?) It was a really fun day. Thanks again for the info

Again, great advice all. Going tomorrow...

Thanks very much guys! That is some excellent info to aid in my foggy decision-making process. I'll write on return...

I noticed that in Selected Climbs, a variation where you drop onto the Forbidden Glacier then climb snow back to the ridge is advertised as the route. But the CAG describes going right up the ridge once you gain it from the Boston Glacier. Which way is more fun? I'm not inclined to lose the elevation (a single rope rap is mentioned) just to climb back up. But if it avoids some kind of unpleasant crumbly section of the ridge I'm all for it. Thanks!

As of Sunday 7/28, 1) the Goode Glacier is still easy to get across and get onto the rock without ice climbing. We went far to the left below ice cliffs, then traversed snow back to the NE Buttress toe. 2) The descent via Goode/Storm King col is in fine shape. There is a bergschrund, and pretty huge ice cliffs on this section of the glacier. But good routefinding finds snow all the way, just 3(?) snowbridge crossings. 3) Get back to your camp before dark! We reached the slabs at 5600 ft on a cloudy evening, and finally ended up sitting on a ledge until light (after scrambling around until 2 am looking for camp ) 4) The snowbridge across N Fork Bridge Creek is still okay, but becoming dangerously thin. I wouldn't even count on that for next weekend. We crossed on a log on the way in, following Beckey's directions without trouble. We used the snowbridge on the way out, but crawled across and dragged our packs after. We saw David Parker's summit register entry, also Colin's from 7/15. David, thanks for the inspiration to get in there! I wish we'd had the views you did...mostly clouded in. --Michael

Climbed NE Butt. of Goode in a light rain. We were _sure_ it would burn off with such a good forecast...

quote: Originally posted by wayne1112: I have to spray here for Colins and Barts sake. After leaving the trailhead at the stop at the end of the Stehekin road,The 2 of them did Goode in a day !! Has anyone heard of that happenning before? Right, I should have mentioned that in more detail. Their register entry said "7 hours shuttle to summit". It took us 9.5 hours from bivy at 5100 ft. to summit, so we were really impressed.

That was awesome ChucK, thanks for the laugh! It's true, I'm a grinning idiot. Overly happy and boring as dirt, --Michael

Here's how not to do it: Gumby Trip Report

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: So what. No peace. You insulted me numerous times. I dont have to line them up with numbers or justify. I'll just kick your face in next time I see you. How's that? If I didn't have reason to "talk trash" about you behind your back before, I do now. Ray, you're going to have to be less high strung. I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you. We work in the same place. We climb in the same places. We'll see each other, I can promise you that. Your empty threats don't concern me. Put it away and climb down. Ray, why don't you take the last word, I'm done with this.

Okay. I just expressed my opinion and what did you do? Lessee: 1) Created a new "autosig" with my name 2) Vandalized my web site guestbook 3) sent me those rude PMs (and yes, I did reply in kind) 4) started at least 2 new threads trying to bait me If there is anybody on a "high horse", it's gotta be you. As I said in a PM, lighten up, learn to cope when somebody's opinion is different from your own. Look at how many times I've posted here...not many. When I do have something to say, I think I shouldn't have to stop and think "will this offend the Cavey?" Peace, --M ps - just to clarify, as I understand it, my grievious offense consists of: commenting that Smoot won't care if Cavey withholds all his valuable beta. I agree this could be interpreted as "snide". So what?

I'm very sorry to hear that. I hope it isn't true...

It's not you Jon, I made a comment Cavey took offense at and got his panties all bunched... He just sent me a flurry of PMs and then added me to his ignore list so I couldn't reply! Cavey, are you some kind of internet wizard?

Yes, it usually is a more rewarding climb when you didn't read about it, found the way on your own.

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: Yeah I am pretty sure his alpine experience is limited and there is no way I will ever contribute to a plagiaristic guy that does not really climb. That said I would like to see him climb some real routes and write about them I don't think he'll care if you withhold your information, Cavey.

Regarding Jeff's alpine guide, he climbed the Monte Cristo area peaks, the Gunn/Merchant/Baring set, the peaks around Mt. Rainier, Sahale, Hidden Lakes, Big Chiwaukum [sp], Cashmere. Those are the ones I know off the top of my head. I think it's a good book (but I did contribute to it so I'm biased). There are certainly mistakes somewhere, but I got the impression he paid great attention to detail. Jeff also has a website where corrections are posted(climbingwashington.com). --Michael

I used the yellow alien in the "Lithuanian Lip", as my piece of gear between the bolt and the titanium piton at the crest of the roof. The yellow alien is the key piece of gear so often, I'm no longer surprised! --Michael