JasonG

That's a long looking route @kukuzka1! I've climbed the West face and that looks almost double. Cool!

Sweet, sounds like now is the time. Going to post a TR @ccox42?

That IS totally unreasonable. I've spent many weeks in the Enchantments over the years and still haven't climbed all those!

Full disclosure @JonParker, you can probably avoid the toe pictured above by rapping in from the west ridge notch (we came around the mountain and carried over, but a full spanning crack denied us entry to the buttress higher up). There is a ramp that comes in above where this photo was taken. Still, you will likely need two ropes and potentially an extra picket to get over the 'schrund from the pin anchor that @Blake and @Dannible reference in this TR. It is a tricky approach from the WRN, even in good conditions.

done @kukuzka1! Thanks for the report!

Here's the story @bobinc.....

Yeah boyz!! Very sorry that I couldn't have run the gauntlet with you....but glad that it all worked out!

I'm not so sure about this.....the NPS has low enough permit numbers in these zones that I can easily see them filling up on July and August weekends in a few years. Will that mean that they're "overloaded"? I would say if you can't get a permit for when you want to go.....yes. Does that mean that they'll be "crowded"? Probably not....

Should be better than this to access the toe of the route (late August 2012).... I would definitely expect shenanigans though.

Trip: Ragged Ridge - Mesahchie, Kimtah, Cosho....south side Trip Date: 07/06/2018 Trip Report: The yin and yang of the North Cascades in one trip, a collection of experiences that seems much longer than could fit in three days...... A classic trail to an impressive pass, followed by a footsore traverse to a first camp with airplane wing views across the valley where the last of the grizzlies was shot in 1967. Choss, choss, and more choss, in all its varied forms on the south side of the ridge, including a winding gully up the imposing Mesahchie, highest of the ragged peaks on Ragged Ridge, climbed in the late after noon of day 1. A wind whipped night in a tent not as guyed as it should have been, an early start to another footsore traverse across endless gullies and ledges to easy snow and talus slopes leading to Kimtah (I had climbed Katsuk on a prior trip and Josh wasn't that interested). Storm clouds gathering to the west as we close in on Cosho, finding a register with the scrap from the FA in 1970, along with a photo of a friend who never made it to Cosho since he died on Luahna in his quest for the 100 highest. Traversing again, this time too high, running the ragged tippy top, praying to not meet the same fate as T.J. and Dallas and so many others, sans rope. Finding a second camp on an old moraine just as the thunder roars and the rain falls, diving into the tent to wait it out. Emerging to cook dinner during a lull, shortly after the rain starts up again and continues all through the night. Packing the wet tent, how did my battery go to 14%?, embarking on a snowy side hill in the rain. Punching my leg into a deep hole, my heavy pack dragging my body below my knee, so painful!, sheepishly and desperately calling to Josh to rescue me. Limping down a steepening ridge in the rain, brush soaking everything, getting off route despite checking the phone and making corrections. Battery is at 9%. This is a lot steeper than it looks on the map. OK, it's mellowing out now. Where's that trail? The trail! Lunch! German tourists sitting too close at our 4th of July pass lunch spot, drying gear in the hot sun, so many clean looking people on the trail, Chinese tourist clogging the bridge over Thunder Creek, are the North Cascades going the way of I-90? A full campground and busy highway but nobody wants to pick up a slightly battered hiker trying to look harmless. Suddenly a guy whips a u-turn and Josh and I are saved. He's a shop teacher with a house in Winthrop, and obviously a very good man. Too nice, even, to take any of the beer we pulled from the creek, exactly where we left it two days before. Camp 1: Forbidden from Mesahchie: Kimtah: Summit of Mesahchie.....4th of July pass looks so very far away: Forbidden: Katsuk, Snowfield and Baker all lined up: The Inspiration Icecap Stormking, Sinister, Dome, and Glacier: Be honest, you haven't given Arches enough credit, have you? This, for a long ways: Looking back at Mesahchie and Katsuk: Summit of Kimtah: How many pictures are you going to take on this trip?? Careful out there people: Kimtah and thieves peaks: Running a little too high west of Cosho.... Time to decompress: Uh oh: Why can't the weather be coming from the east? Clearing after the first round: Heading down between rain squalls: Don't rush the transition, yo: Gear Notes: Helmet, ice axe, crampons Approach Notes: Easy Pass to 4th of July Pass. ~6800' contour to camp below Mesahchie, and thereafter 7400-7800' to traverse the south side of the ridge, dropping stuff and going up from the traverse.

Did you camp at that spot in Thunder Basin? One of my favorites. How is the brush tunnel out of there? When we were there many years ago some hunters had done some hacking so it wasn't so bad....The White River trail was super brushy though. Still is? That is a great and lonesome corner of the range, nice work!

That spring never runs dry, even late into the fall.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmauldin/2018/05/09/7-smart-market-thinkers-predict-when-the-next-recession-will-start/#643db05244e1

So, so true.

It can change pretty quickly so that's why most wait until it slides, since one person's experience one day doesn't often mean anything for someone else the next. I know of many that have hiked up to turn around. It is pretty sketchy until most of it goes. Which is why August weekends are so busy on it!

It really depends on how much is still there and how actively it is shedding blocks. And how bold you are!

Ha! That's classic @tanstaafl....actually this is a TR from 2014 that was dug up. @Russinthemountains...that camp is on the ridge west of 7FJ

That's quite a lot of effort to go to to get content for your first TR! And, strangely enough, I've never gotten any sort of immersion foot in all my years of climbing, despite having lot of trips like your Logan one sounded like. I have gotten the "screaming barfies" when my feet froze in the winter a time or two though.

The "well known local climber" sounded like he actually broke the law (and was surly when confronted about it), quite unlike the instances we're talking about.. There really isn't a gray area when it comes to a permit in NOCA. Spending the night in the park (or the Ross Lake NRA)? You need a permit.

https://www.aclu-wa.org/what-do-if-youre-stopped-police I'm sure you can exercise your rights, but I imagine that it could get sticky. As annoying as it is, I typically try to answer their accusatory questions. But I might, just for the fun of it, take it to the extreme one day just to see what happens. Who knows, maybe I get a windfall settlement from the gov't for police brutality? Just gotta make sure someone is filming the debacle. It's all pretty amusing. I NEVER have these sorts of interactions with State Patrol or my local city and county police officers (I am a white guy, after all). They have more important things on their minds....

No. I climbed up this ridge to the summit from Park Creek pass in 1999. It was a full on choss-fest with lots of very, very loose 4th class. It is also quite long and took most of a day. We had a couple close calls with rockfall and counted ourselves lucky to have survived unscathed (we descended SW into Horseshoe basin and ultimately the Stehekin valley). Check out page 333 in the green CAG for a photo of the ridge from the south. "Much of the (east) ridge is knife-edge with very loose rock, and may be dangerous without a rope". I would add that it is still dangerous WITH a rope. You're not going to find descending to the SE any better....

Yeah @Albuquerque Fred, more TRs!

This was my exact exchange with a ranger at Cascade Pass several years ago, while I was taking a rest before heading up to Cache Col. A bit of a geography lesson for the LEOs might be more appropriate than the training for those tasers that they carry. You know, for when I get drunk and belligerent miles from the car.

For something like Adams I think comfortable boots will be fine, with strapped on crampons. Lots of hiking up not so steep ground, likely with an established boot pack. I think you could probably use the Rainier forecast to get a good idea of the best day.... good estimates of winds/temps at altitude. https://www.atmos.washington.edu/data/rainier_report.html Good luck, and post a TR regardless!

Thanks everyone! @sepultura, I do now that you mention it! Legendary. It was never a dull moment around that place. I also remember Wade would never eat there, being that he was a Skagit Co. health dept. inspector and knew their record of food safety violations..... And @cfire is right, total FarSide each and every time. @Phil K, I think you'd really enjoy Jacob's Ladder!