Alex

Ryland, there are lots of different ways to notch to summit it but I have found the following 3 work best, depending on your skill and fitness: option 1: camp at Stuart Pass (no water) and do it in a long day camp to camp. You will need very good fitness, and be reasonably fast, but wont need overnight gear. If you are going real light, however, your overnight gear will only be an additional 5 pounds. option 2: From Esmerelda Basin, leave very early day 1 to avoid the sun in Esmerelda Basin, and go as far as you can. Your mileage may vary, but approach time will be between 5 and 7 hours or so to the notch. There is a lot of daylight left, go climb! There are bivy sites all over, but the best one is on the summit. If you are comfortable simulclimbing parts of the route, the route itself will take between 3 and 8 hours to the top. Day 2, finish climbing and descend. You will need good fitness to get high up on day 1, but day 2 is easier compared to option 3... option 3: Camp at the notch. This makes for a half day to approach, which works for some and works well when approaching from Stuart Lake. I thought the mosquitos at the Notch sucked, though. There are some more (I wouldnt say better) bivy sites here than up higher, which makes it more likley that you will get one, but makes for a very long summit day and out. Its a great route, well worth the logistical challenges it throws at you! Alex

Ryland, if you are talking about Notch to summit with rap fr Gendarme, NRS would be a fine solo for the most part. There are only a few "cruxy" feeling sections from a technical standpoint, most notably a short steep 5.7 sequence beginning at about 100 m from the notch, and then up a bit higher a polished slab with a wide crack near the ridge crest. As far as exposure, the entire route is exposed and some of it has crazy ass exposure. If you have any doubts, I suggest you climb the route first with a partner, then go back and solo it for style points at some later time. You are young, don't become a statistic Alex

I cant drink at noon, but I can drink in the evening. Sounds like ... Fiddler's?

YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY BE THE REAL JERRY SANCHEZ!

fun!

The lack of activity speaks volumes. NOCA is pretty far from Yosemite. the closest thing to free camping moderately close would likely be Early Winters campground E of Washington Pass. Not free, but fairly cheap. As for hitching, if you want to run the risk of not getting picked up one or both ways and blowing a day of climbing and/or dinner and sleep, then there might be enough traffic on the weekends on 20 to try this, but during the week its probably best to use your own car and stack the odds in your favor. Alex

Hi, due to a remodel I am mired in, I am not climbing. I was wondering if any of you are electricians and willing to take on a small electrical job. Give me a buzz on email or send me a PM if interested and I will give you the details. Thanks!

I tried this with overnight gear in 1998(?? I dont remember actually) and it wasnt a good experience...too long of an approach for too short a climb for overnight gear. Campsites are not that easy to find and the whole thing just turns into a grind Do it in a day. The approach is long but casual from Esmerelda Basin. The approach is longer and not casual, but more rewarding, via Sherpa or Ice Cliff Glacier. There is still snow in Cascadian, providing water up high and sometimes hastening the trip down. Cheers, Alex

I found Crooked Thumb in the Pickets to be a tottering pile of choss. I have heard other bad things about the Pickets in general, but dont know first-hand. I found Challenger to be OK, but not condidence inspiring really.

Pictures of this year's Victoria, B.C. to Maui yacht race (http://www.mountainwerks.org/alexk/sail/vicmaui02.htm) [ 07-16-2002, 05:32 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]

go for it!

you might try and search the site for "Thin Red Line"...? Alex

[ 06-18-2002, 10:34 AM: Message edited by: Alex ]

Jens, yes the rock in the lower cirque seems to be real nice. This and a few other places in the Cascades (Challenger, West and Middle from the South) inspire me to hump in a big load, base camp it for a week, and just do new routes. If you broke up the approach and return by a few days, even the boulderfields on the way would be comletely tolerable. And what a great place to camp! As to GP, man, it looks like a chosspile. Dan and I have both though about it in a day car to car, but to be honest it looks pretty uninspiring.

still lots of snow at the base and on the route proper. I was surprised to read the TR of N Ridge just now, it seems like this would be pretty darn early to go in for this route, right on!

John, yeah like III AI2 bro, like two trains passing in the night!

Ice Cliff Glacier With a rare 2 days off to play on the weekend, I started asking the usual suspects what the plan was. Consensus was that Forbidden, Little Tahoma, skiing the Sulphide, or something of that nature would be interesting; then people started backing out of anything that might require 2 days. So Ice Cliff Glacier in a day car-to-car it was to be. Of course, for an ice route with hazard like this we didnt want to be particularly late on the route, and with the approach we figured that a 3am start from the trailhead was in order..which meant a midnight start from Seattle. It had been 95 degrees in Chelan the day before, and we all agreed that if it was hot and there was activity on the route, we would opt for Sherpa Glacier - West Ridge of Sherpa instead. We left the car at 3 and made good time. Only one of us had been on this approach before, but we found the bushwacking mild and made it to the base of the route in 3 hours. The route looked to be in fine shape, with no significant bergschrund problem or cornice guarding the exit. We didn't wait around, and climbed through the lower ice cliff on an AI2 weakness on the left. We were all climbing very slowly at this point, starting to feel the effects of the approach and altitude. The seracwall started coming alive about an hour after we passed it, but by then we were tackling the schrund on the left and started motoring up the final couloir with perfect step-kicking conditions. Dan showed us where he had fallen and almost died 4 years earlier. His gear was all still there, and he climbed up a short ways and retrieved the lowest piece, a #3 camalot. We were climbing faster again, unroped up the couloir, and we topped out at 10:30. A cold wind was blowing, and hordes trudged up the steeper slopes at the top of Cascadian Couloir without ice axes. We had all been to the summit of Stuart, and our plan was to climb the West Ridge of Sherpa. But the weather looked unsettled, and we were all pretty pooped. So we abandoned all that and headed down. The decent route was found after traversing rotten oatmeal snowslopes for 10 min to an obvious col. Looking down looked a little intimdating, and I briefly argued that it wasnt the right one for some reason, but thankfully no one listened to me very much. Once in the couloir, the downclimbing was very casual and quick. We decended to the flatter glacier and roped up for a short time, to where the rock slabs began. From there it was plunge stepping to the base of the glaciers. The long return to the car found us bonking through the boulderfields back towards Stuart Lake trail. Between the mosquitos and the fatigue, the beauty of the route and environs was dulled a bit. We got back to the trail in 2 hours or so, and motored back down to the trailhead. Surprisingly few people on the trail! We reached the car at around 4:30; me, slower due to some swollen feet, at 5:00. Plenty of time to head over to Gustavs and eat some fatty calories before the sleepy drive home.

quote: Originally posted by gapertimmy: We both chewed her ass better than her chewing yours I guess. Munch!

wow 151 from a camelback....speechless....

I suggest, since the honorable (and despicable) members of this board have taken it upon themselves to form a social wing (Pub Club), that we take it one step further ####################### ANNUAL OUTING!!!! ####################### The Annual Outing is our chance for a new tradition in the Pacific Northwest. Its an opportunity to bag a local peak/climb a local route in the finest style, using the finest ethics There should probably be some guidelines to how we decide what the common climbing obvective should be: * We should get as large a group as possible, so we can completely limit ourselves for destinations * It should coincide with a Mountaineers Outing. I would be very interested to see the facial expressions when an even larger herd of climbers, drinkin', tokin' and smokin' goes marching past on the sacred trail, not wearing their helmets. * Everyone needs to bring one of the 10 non-essentials, to be shared with the group * Everyone gets to take a turn at the table going head-to-head with Capt Caveman Suggestions on locations? Muir Hut? Da Toof? Monte Cristo townsite? [ 06-13-2002, 10:44 AM: Message edited by: Alex ]

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: mvs, Alex, marek, Peter Pubic, and you internet police chill. No idea what you are talking about or what this thread is referring to... Alex

Its super important that when you wash head to toe after being exposed, you DONT use hot/warm water. Close your pores with cold water, otherwise you'll be very unhappy. Alex

hey nice to see you tried to get out anyway! this route is usually easiest a little later in the summer, July-ish in a normal year currently the snow levels would dictate bids on Sulphide, NF Shuksan or White Salmon Glacier for this peak

N Face of Luna Alex

barf WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? This thread started off great, with cocksuckers and hoodstahs from Cali and HATE HATE HATE Now I am feeling the love - Steamer actually congratulaing Anna, people saying hoostahs are welcome in Washington, people making up, civil tone, apologies, making friends, meeting for pub clubs! Ug! This is Spray dammit, I log on here to be entertained, not to make friends!