pc22

Hey - i heard from an Alpental 'security' guy today that they proposed to ban all upvalley travel from Alpental in the Source Lake direction, most especially the normal winter route that gets packed down and used as the downhill return from the Edelweiss run.this would affect access to Chair Pk, The Tooth, etc. Supposedly, this will take effect next week. This guy claimed they had some 'special agreement two days ago' with the USFS to do this. presumably the North Bend District Ranger. I'd need to see more evidence before i accept the legality of this, e.g. has the ski area paid additional monies for leasing more area than is has in the past? Such leases must be public i should think. I know USFS exempts backcountry ski access to windy pass for instance from the ski area retrictions; i.e. they specifically allow you and i access over the logging roads (not the groomed trails on mt catherine) to get to windy pass, because of historic prior use. Even should such a lease for the Alpental valley be forthcoming, i would expect a century of backcountry use be sufficient precedent for us to get continued access. Otherwise, this seems to be a private 'taking' from the public! Anyone else ticked off about all this privitization of public lands?!

Beckey is revising text for the 3rd edition of Cascade Alpine Guide vol2, and he's looking for updates on routes described there, or even new routes that are not in there, but should be.you know the drill, peaks between highway 2, and highway 20 are fair game. I said i'd pass the word around to all you folk who've actually been climbing mtns recently, rather than helping a 1 year old climb stairs. I'll be happy to collate updates, or you can send them directly to him.

>The descent was more problematic.... >We thought about going up to sahale arm again There is in fact a climber's trail that goes up the buttress to the right of the bad looking slabs with waterfalls. It begins just to the right of the buttress, and climbs through a notch in the lower part it, then back up to the crest... Much more fun than Horseshoe Basin.