philfort

I've been meaning to remove the straps on my skis due to the whole avalanche issue, but haven't gotten around to it. If I had, my ski would have taken a 2000ft ride last wknd... thank god for safety straps.

Classic!

Eric Hoffman & co were there on Saturday - they could probably tell you conditions: http://www.ericsbasecamp.net/trips/SilverStar/SilverStar.htm We were hitchiking on the highway and they picked us up. thanks!

Last weekend it was easily walkable w/o flotation (hardpacked snow) to the where the trail starts heading uphill to Colchuck Lake. We put skins on there, so I dunno how bad it would be after - probably kind of bad. The lake would have definitely been crappy w/o flotation.

I thought we would be safe bivying next to the car at the snowline on Mountaineer Creek road last wknd... I slept in the middle of the road, far from the grass, but we found one in the car later, crawling up the wire for CD-adapter for the tape player. Must have hitched a ride on my sleeping bag or something, then hung out in the car for the day while we were out. eewwww!

Hmm... I'd have to disagree with your correction. We went in there in April a few years back. From my TR: "Swamp Creek really really sucks. We encountered some of the densest forest I've seen in these parts, considering there was supposed to be snow on the ground covering the brush. I can't imagine anyone going in here in summer." It took us 6 hours to get to Snowy Lakes from the highway (with winter overnight gear), and it sounds like we took a similar route. We followed the south side of the creek until the valley got less gorgey, then we were able to ski on the creekbed to make things quicker. From there on it was easy travel, but man those first few miles were bad. I think it would have been easier to climb over Mt Hardy. We came out the north side of the creek, and I think it was a little better. In any case, it was good compared to a typical west-side valley, but definitely the worst bushwhacking I've done in the washington pass area.

No one's talking about removing flagging that is used for environmental work. But why would someone use biodegradable flagging if they are trying to permanently mark a bushwhack? Doesn't that kind of defeat the point? I see tons of flagging in the wilderness. I don't know if its biodegradable, but it's bright, orange, and doesn't belong.

I removed a bunch of flagging while hiking in along the south ridge of Kyes Pk (um, it's a ridge, good tread). On the way out, we suddenly ended up at a spot with cliffs all around and no way down - we probed around, but didn't see a way down. So eventually we backtracked and found where we had gone wrong. Turns out we had missed a hard-to-see 90 degree turn in the path, which, until that morning, had been marked with flagging No, I didn't learn anything from this.

I'd buy it if I didn't have one already. C'mon, someone buy it! That's a pretty good deal.

fyi, the Mtn Loop is gated at Deer Ck (about 2 miles before Big 4).

Actually the yellow snow thing was pretty funny... as was the separation from doughnuts remark... The only annoying thing was he was applying European French stereotypes (obnoxious, stinky, surrendering, etc...) to Quebecois. Typical British ignorance ... uh, I mean American ignorance.

Hmm... I didn't think it was that insulting. I'm embarrassed those canadian govt officials are so uptight! It wasn't very funny compared to other Triumph segments though.

this sucks... I used to be a member of TMRU, and knew two of the victims - really nice guys.

I use an older sled, an '88 yamaha exciter 570, .75 inch track depth. It's noisy and belches lots of smoke, but it's been reliable so far, of course I only put 100 miles or so on it per winter. I was worried that it would get bogged down and useless in deep snow, but that's never been an issue as all the logging roads I've been on have been somewhat packed. Maybe this weekend will be the first time It is kind of a hassle though, and I find myself not wanting to use it that often. Just adds complexity to a trip. I will be looking to sell it at the end of this season, as I'm probably being an idiot and upgrading to a more enviro-friendly 4-stroke for next season.

We're planning to maybe snowmobile into White River CG and head in to glacier basin this weekend for some freshies sat-sun. I called the forest service and they said the old sno-park just a few feet up the crystal mtn road is no longer maintained, but that I could park there if I could get in. Does anyone know how feasible that is - is there a huge amount of snow there that would have to be moved, or have people been "self maintaining" it? Surely there are some folks here who drive to crystal regularly and may have seen its condition? They told me I would get towed if I parked on the highway. Also if anyone else with a sled is interested, you're welcome to come along (my skier towing capacity may be maxed out).

Logging roads from Lake Wenatchee go fairly high on the north slope. Long way, but with a snowmobile it would be reasonable day trip.

That is the best use of flash I have ever seen lol!

This is what I did: Assuming you're using IE, right click on the link for the 14mb file, and choose "Save Target As", then type in a name for the file that ends in .mp4, like "foo.mp4". Then change the "Save as Type" box to "All Files". Then hit save. Then that should work (it'll give you a foo.mp4 file whereever you saved it), assuming you've got the latest quicktime. I think this is the first video on Baker's website that I've ever figured out how to watch - they certainly have issues with the way they host them.

Download the highres version, save it as a .mp4 file, quicktime will play it.

On the Baker website: http://www.mtbaker.us/gallery0304/video_fs.html

The rain/freezing rain is putting a nice glaze on things up there... looks like an "interesting" weather forecast for the coming days, so conditions will surely change.

Anyway, the story referred to it as "the rugged backcountry west of Alpental". Which pretty much describes it exactly.

Sure it does.

The october storms washed away part of the road at Varden ck: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/regions/northcentral/Maint/Area3/nc2004/

actually the guy in blue pants is top roping it, the anchor is already set up. But the "20 degree slope" looks vertical!