JasonG

I love the visual of the can arcing into space behind Jim, Eldorado in the background. I should have remembered that the name had Sharp written all over it.

Beta overload! There is no excuse to miss it now.

Ivan's right, the key is to not do any scrambling until you cross to the other side of the ridge. It is just meadow hiking to that point. I made this for my brother in law awhile ago:

Sounds like it. When I get some time I will post up a jpg of the best line.

Was it over class 3? You basically traverse southeast until you can roll over the ridge north of mix-up at about 7300'. Easy scrambling takes you down a ramp to the toe of the Cache glacier and the climber's path back to Cascade Pass. Works really well I thought, if a bit long.

Ha! Mr. Walker would laugh pretty hard if he heard you thought he was being serious about the directness of the route. It certainly is better than rolling the dice on the C-J though. Way to gut it out, some great images in there!

Oh man, now you're going to make them feel bad. Darin speaks the truth for next time!

You often have to get really aggressive, like hitting them with a good amount of force in the head. They're quite good at dodging rocks, naturally. And they've got hard heads. But maybe a gun is the only way with those particular bastards. Impressive effort!

Did you try throwing rocks at the goats? I've noticed that goats have become more brazen over the past several decades as goat hunting has declined. I try and practice negative conditioning whenever possible.

Very cool blog, love the step by step transformation of the van. Be sure to bump this as a reminder every now and again!

I sent that around the office, amazing!

Exactly, we named it the "Succ Hell" traverse as in lots of succulent Hellebore to traverse. Crampons! Surprisingly rugged in there, thanks for the report!

And ladies, these aren't your average choss dawgs, they're more alpha Chippendawgs. Get ready for the calendar later this year.

Thanks for the timely report! Any snow at the notch itself? Or, do you think the snow in the approach gully will still be there this weekend?

Nice work boys, and a great write up Jason! That is an impressive couple weekends you pulled off, especially considering that approach up to the head of Crescent Creek. Not Bear mountain bad maybe, but pretty brutal.

Most certainly is! You really need to ski the Boulder Gl., it's fantastic and is the fall line you see facing the camera. Ski right off the summit and down, no need to traverse across the summit pyramid.

That picture of your partner on the knife edge is stunning!

Too bad about the wedder, but kudos for sticking it out! That is one of my favorite short scrambles, you can't beat the access and the route is pretty airy for being third class.

Trip: Mount Blum - North Ridge Date: 6/28/2015 Trip Report: If you climb in the Cascades long enough, and aren't super talented, eventually you start to run out of "select" routes to climb. This can be a blessing, since the majority go to the more well known peaks and routes, while choss dawgs like myself 'schwack our way to solitude on lesser known peaks like Blum. At least that is what I keep telling myself when the approaches are as long and hot as Blum lakes was a couple weeks ago. Tim and I both had had the NR of Blum on our lists for some time, and even a forecast for extensive lightning on Sunday wasn't enough to turn us to alternate objectives (we'll start early and move fast!). So, on a day that was supposed to be 99 in Marblemount we began the steep climb up Blum lakes, sweating in the jungle-like heat and humidity. There is actually a trail a lot of the way up the ridge, but you need to find it and stay on it. This is key. It starts near the bridge over Blum Creek, gradually becoming more defined as the angle increases. Where you begin the sidehill traverse to the lakes, however, it disappears. If you've done everything right, it should only take about 4 hours to get to the lakes, maybe less if you are chasing someone like Tim. The lakes don't see much use so there aren't numerous or very established campsites, but you can find adequate sites near the middle lake outlet and the lower lake inlet. The NPS has killed off the fish in the lakes over the past several years, so leave the fishing gear behind. We were up and away from camp around 5am thrashing in the dark and mosquitos to the upper lakes, again in jungle-like heat and humidity. I think it took us about two hours to wind around the mountain to the base of the route where we rounded the toe of the buttress and gained a couple hundred feet looking for the easiest line to gain the crest. Dodging crevasses, we found some rampy looking lines opposite an icefall and delicately worked our way onto the rock above a gaping moat. A few minutes after getting on the rock we heard a roar as a dump truck load of snow and ice chunks came rocketing down the glacier from a gully we couldn't quite see, just around the corner. It obliterated the area of the glacier we had just ascended. Tim and I looked at each other and shook our heads. This is not dad friendly terrain, I thought to myself. Tim graciously offered to take the first couple run out and cruxy pitches (5.8+?) to get us to easy terrain near the crest where we unroped and scrambled for quite some time. This ridge is long! We simuled a few mid-fifth knife edge sections and then unroped for more scrambling (but still very exposed 4th and low fifth) the rest of the way to the final bit of steep snow below the summit. We changed into boots and kicked steps up to the summit, about 7 hours after leaving camp. It was blazing hot on the summit and we could see the thunderheads and rain coming our way. Taking a few quick pictures, we ate our lunches and perused the summit register (which looks to have been struck by ligtning). Unfortunately it had been replaced recently; Tim and I were looking forward to the old register that had the complete ascent record of the peak (was still up there in 2008). We still had a lot of vertical to descend that day, so before we would have liked we began down. A couple hours to camp, some whiskey, a quick swim, some packing, and another three painful hours down found us at the beer stash in Blum Creek, about 14 hours after leaving camp that morning. My quads hurt for the better part of the next week. Gear Notes: Medium rack to 2". In a normal snow year and temps, ice axe and crampons. Approach Notes: Blum Lakes route. No water until the lakes

One time I criticized the NPS expansion proposal on this board and a ranger showed up at a Skagit Alpine Club meeting to take me and my opinions to task. It wasn't funny then (more creepy), but with time, it's somewhat hilarious. I guess my point is, sometimes anonymity is a good thing.

Impressive trip! Thanks for the beta on the Sir Donald descent, it is on my list for sure. May as well add Uto as well.

That is some climate change I can get behind.

I agree Tom/Rad, and I think it points to how bears behave differently across the west (sometimes its related to species, sometimes not). I've often been struck by how easy we have it in the Cascades compared to AK, MT, WY, CA, BC, AB, etc. And it isn't because we don't have many bears about.

There are pretty big behavior differences between Black bears and Grizzly/Brown bears, at least in my experience.

Oh yeah! I was waiting for this. Nice work keeping it together on a stupidly hot day. The "Terror Pitch" is sure to keep the crowds at bay.