forrest_m

looks like they've been found nw cable news

actually, i prefer hard cheeses like parmesan or assagio - soft cheeses don't do so well in your pack what with the sweating and melting. of the cheese.

i often take powdered hummus (buy it in bulk at natural food stores) in a ziplock bag. add water to the bag, shake, tear off one corner and squeeze out onto crackers/bread (like putting frosting on a cake). no mess, no cleanup. usually wouldn't go to this much trouble on a climb, but on hiking approach days, it's nice to have something to look forward to when you take a break.

[insert obvious sexual reference here]

the group futurewise (formerly known as 1000 friends of washington) is an environmental group active in land use issues. i worked with them a few years ago in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to force a developer in buckley to make some sustainability improvements, they are good people

they must have been tired of waiting 3 hours for someone to take their order.

ice axe ale at the west rib pub is worth of a trip report in its own right.

y que tal espana? has podido ver las escuelas cerca de madrid? imagino que ya sabes de esta pagina de web con su mini-guia?

how about the 4th pitch of centerfold for 11a? I'd go for the 2nd pitch of davis-holland for 10a. while i'd second slow children for 10d, those no hands rests might make it problematic as "benchmark". how about zoom instead? or the second pitch of centerfold? that's nice and sustained at the grade.

i also suspect that a lot of expedition illness is unfairly blamed on the environment when in reality, it stems from climbers who don't wash their hands with soap after they do their business, and then return to the tent to cook. the quality of dishwashing in the alpine is often poor, also.

i spent two nights on the summit a few (well more than a few, now) years ago, one of which was the 4th of july. we spent the whole night running around the crest looking at fireworks in seattle, tacoma, portland, yakima, and every town in between. definately a cool experience. the weather was perfectly clear. on a sunny & windless day, the crater itself can get quite warm because of the parabolic reflector effect. we measured it at over 100 deg., though since it was one of those zipper-pull thermometers, i wouldn't swear to that in court. pretty damn hot, anyway. i don't think i'd care to be camped up there in a storm, but if you were actually in a good spot in the crater, i suppose it wouldn't be any worse than the 14 camp on denali. anyone remember that dude who camped on the summit of mt. baker for over a month back in the mid-90s?

clean aid is no more detrimental to the route than placing pro, so you're ok on that score. placing pitons on a route that goes clean (much less free on gear) is a BIG NO-NO. i would say that you have every right to clog up a popular route for aid practice if that's what floats your boat, but you'll probably enjoy it more if you don't have the pressure of angry people waiting for you to finish. i don't know about other places in OR, but there are plenty of gear routes in the gorge at smith that a) accept gear for practicing and b) don't see that much traffic. a few other notes: if you've never done aid, do your first pitch or two as a mock lead with a top rope. just in case. regarding aid on alpine routes, remember that A0 and in many cases A1 or even A2 can go as "french free", i.e. place gear, pull on it, maybe throw your foot in the sling, whatever just to get past a 10-15' section. this is ugly, but usually a lot faster than breaking out the aiders (assuming you are even carrying them) have fun. learning some basic aid skills opens up a lot of possibilities and will also improve your pro-placing skills. it also may come in handy on easier routes when that unexpected thunderstorm turns 5.7 into wet A1.

i hate ticks. they're really gross. who cares about incipient drought, the worst thing about the dry winter is the unprecedented onslaught of 8-legged blood sucking lyme disease carriers. i've seen more ticks this year than the last ten combined. on a side note, i've heard that because of the risk of lyme disease, it is now recommended that if you get one attached to you, you should just yank it out instead of persuading it to pull its head out first. as i understand it, the thinking is that the lyme disease virus mostly lives in the tick's stomach. when disturbed, the tick vomits. therefore, you are (statistically) better off just risking a simple infection when their head pops off under your skin rather than disturbing the tick, letting it vomit under your skin, and risking a life-long illness. anyone have more info on this?

my t-mobile coverage is great in urban areas, but it bites in the mountains. no coverage anywhere on rainier, none to 17k on denali. continuous from seattle to bellingham, but none in darrington, concrete, etc. (although decent at snoq. pass and environs.)

wow. can't wait for pictures. is "first british ascent" a real category?

nice tr. that's one of my favorite trips in the north cascades. just one detail: in fact, it is not necessary to drop all the way below the impasse - there are at least 2 routes through just below the shoulder of whatcom peak. however, they are both exposed class 4/low class 5, so dropping down is a good choice for some parties.

there is a lovely bivy site on the summit of mt goode. some people might choose to use it as part of a traverse or something, but i'll bet it sees a fair amount of unexpected occupancy...

um, the pct south trailhead off of sr-20 IS at bridge creek. i assume that the only people who use the trail from bridge creek to rainy pass are PCT through hikers who don't want to walk on the highway shoulder

just a heads up, seattle mountain rescue will be doing a training exercise on infinite bliss on mt. garfield this coming sunday, june 5. not trying to tell anyone what to do, just saying we'll be there, there's a lot of us and we're not real focussed on moving fast. on the other hand, if we do drop a rock on you, the response time for a rescue might set a record. on saturday the 4th, we'll be doing an exercise at the dry tooling cliff at exit 38, but i doubt we'll be in anyone's way there.

these days i leave town with a driver's license, a credit card and a $20 bill in a ziplock and carry it with me, at least to high camp. my keyring has a house key and a car key on a separate ring, so i can pop them off. the big ring with the other keys stays home with the rest of my wallet. it's a minor inconvenience, but i know too many people who have had their car's tossed. in alaska, i leave my wallet in the safe at TAT. a big problem is what do you do in, say, peru? you've got your passport and a wad of cash, basecamp is an easy hike from town for acclimatized locals, it's a recurring nightmare of mine to end up stranded in the third world with no id and no $. even in the cascades, high camp isn't necessarily safe. i have a friend who watched with binoculars from high up in monte cristo basin as some bastard packed up his sleeping bag and tent into his own backpack and hightailed it downhill. i think about that story in popular places like boston basin.

i agree with gary that the "training" for eating crap food by eating crap food when it's not necessary is a dumb idea. take advantage of that base camp to load up with fat and tasty treats! if you need a climbing-related rationalizaion, remember that good food is a major factor in keeping your psyche on during long trips. as they say in catalunya, "mengi bé, caga fort i riure davant de mort" (eat well, shit hard and laugh in the face of death!)

i used to 100% agree that the mapping function seems like an unnecessary bell and/or whistle with such a tiny screen - if you have enough detail showing to be useful, i said to myself, you can't see enough terrain to know where you want to go. but then, last spring, i went on a trip with a guy who had a color mapping gps, and guess what, it was really helpful. of course you still need a paper map for large scale decision making, but the map on the screen really simplified locating your position from the gps onto the map. assuming, of course, that you need a gps at all. i don't personally own one, and for the cascades i seldom feel like it is worth the weight, but there are certainly times and places for the technology. BTW, for waypointing software, i highly recommend USA Photo Maps, a free download that stitches USGS topo maps and aerial photos, lets you input routes & waypoints, etc., available as freeware.

my pattern seems to be that i will often give things a second chance, but if i fail twice on a route (particularly one with a long and tedious approach), that's usually it for me. it's not so much that i lose interest, i just get more interested in somthing else. i can't off the top of my head think of a route that i've failed on more than two times. not stubborn enough, i guess. not enough free time, either, to beat my head against the same wall weekend after weekend. it often seems MUCH easier the second time attempting something because you have the approach dialed, the timetable determined, the logistics figured out, but the curve seems to plateau after that. i'm also patient enough that i *usually* will change objectives beforehand or even at the trailhead rather than go for something hard in obviously marginal conditions.

skied it over memorial day a few years ago. see trip report