Alex

I think Lions Jaw is soft for 5.8, I've led it in Tevas. *thump* *thump*. I don't think Canary and Castle Rock in general are overrated at all, either. Canary is "thoughtprovoking" 5.8, but its not particularly hard, while I think other routes on Castle like Fault-Catapult-Bone, MF Overhang, are spot on.

RE: Finidng the E Ledges...yes, a little bit of trouble. The first 3 single rope raps are obvious from above. But the 4th anchor is hidden until you are right on top of it at the very end of your 30m rap, so look carefully. Do about 5 raps, not just 3. One or two of these anchors (especially the very top) could use some sling-cleaning/replacing. There currently is no cairn marking where to go initially after the 5th rap, but just head over 40 feet to the first rib where there is another rap station with a red sling. From here, downclimb slightly and then traverse straight across the face. The route becomes more obvious after the first two ribs you cross. It ends up being pretty casual. Not a place to be when wet/snowy, however.

bivies are aid

Incredible. I was there last Aug, and that glacial-remnant was still there (though part of the traverse was rock slabs as in the pic) there were ice sections that were complicated enough to traverse...now its really and truly gone!

The corner on the far right side of the Fin is junky. Stay on "Fin Direct", its easy enough climbing and keeps you away from the stacked death blocks futher right....until you hit the "4th class" crest of the fin where you have to weave in and out of some more death blocks, though the climbing turns out to be pretty fun and reasonably solid

Approach is around 1 hour on good trail (used to suck, not anymore), then 20 min up a faint trail climber's right up the obvious and large rocky water drainage, then at an indistinct cairn and some flagging the trail picks up through the woods again to treeline another 20 min. From treeline its another 40 min or so to the base of whatever route you want to climb: NW Buttress a la Bunker-Preiss, West Face, or new route potential however hard you are feeling.

Its taken me like 5 or 6 years to finally come back and climb this side of Sloan after an exploratory hike with Dennis Goll many years ago. This face deserves way more attention than it gets. While the regular "West Face" route (i.e. path of least resistance) is nothing particularly sustained or difficult - the hard bits can be mostly curcumvented with artful ledge scrambling - there is so much potential for high quality, solid, and hard alpine rock routes everywhere! Walking along the base of the SW face was like walking along the base of the Upper Town Wall at Index...line after line of really awesome steep granite rising directly from the steep slope vertically for many pitches! Add to that the available water, and the amazing work to the approach trail up Bedal basin the USFS has done the last two years making the approach a complete breeze, you've got a great recipe for alpine-style craggin' with a relatively short drive and approach. I think one of the reason it doesnt get traffic is the sheer size of the face and potentially difficult route finding; I'll post a detailed topo later of the route we took, which was a variation of the line Stanton and Welch took in 2003 and looked to be much better climbing than what Beckey describes as his 1958 route, and should ease some route-finding concerns.

scott had been just ahead of me when you saw me, he was go-go-grinding me into dust the entire time

Climb: Dragontail-Backbone Ridge Date of Climb: 7/29/2006 Trip Report: I climbed Backbone Ridge with scott on Saturday. We left the vehicle at 3:40am and reached the lake before sunup. No bugs! At all! Scott decided to go stash the extra 3 and 4 camalot, so I headed up the moraine to the base of the route. After some brief confusion, scott came up the moraine about 30 min later. While waiting for him I decided there was enough light and broke out the camera for some pictures - ah dammit no battery juice AGAIN! My camera is a little old but its getting older changing out 4 AA batteries every damn trip. Scott came up and we scrambled to the base of the first pitch. Crampons useful here! The first pitch is a casual affair. At the top step around a tree to the right, around a corner, and the obvious offwidth looms above. From the ledge its a 60m pitch to the top of the offwidth, though the crack itself is only about 100 ft long. Everything that everyone has said about this crack is true: strenuous, physical, a bit insecure, really great climbing, push a 4 and a 5 Camalot. Thats pretty much how it goes down. Great shot of the face http://www.ericandlucie.com/Cascades%20Rock%20Climbs/Dragontail%20Peak/IMG_0490W.jpg The next two pitches take you up 5.8 ground using a number of options. We recognized the roof above from Ania's TR, and took the crack system just left of it to a tree just below and left of the roof. From there another 5.8ish pitch up and just left of the roof (2 older fixed pieces here) takes good gear and has some nice liebacking to a belay right on the crest. Another pitch over quickly easing ground but more difficult routefinding trending left now away from the crest, and then one more super mellow roped pitch with routefinding leads to some true simulclimbing to the base of the Fin. On the Fin we busted out the instruction manual beta, but in the end it didn't help us find the "correct" route, nor did it matter all that much: the Fin is completely blank smooth slab split by some crack systems and it seems like you can weave together any number of options to get up and off it. Far below us now we could hear another party on Serpentine, and the sun had just begun to peak over the Fin, effectively blinding us from seeing what lay ahead. Oh well. It was nice to be in the sun, after the cold belays on the lower ridge. I took the rope (a 70m) for an 85m pitch up along the major ramp system. This is a bit run-out moderate 5th, has some loose sand and blocks. Eventually after a short simul I found an adequate belay on a ledge below and right of some creaking flakes leaning out from the face. Scott came up and tackled a 30m pitch face climbing out left just under the creaking flakes, some face holds, then up into the next major ramp system above, up another diehedral to a ledge and up into "the Twin Cracks". Well, a set of twin cracks anyway. But unsure of how far he could get, he brought me quickly up mid-pitch to another belay spot and continued. From here he completed the twin cracks right to the top of a pedestal over some 5.7 to 5.9ish ground. (In retrospect we were one crack system right of where we should have been.) From here the blocky gendarme is just above and left of us, and it was one crack pitch to the top. The crack system is good 5.8ish climbing, but ends blankly 6 feet from the top (!!!) so scott pendulumed left 6 feet into the correct crack system and did the final moves to the crest of the Fin and a belay. We were pretty tired when we topped out here, so we took a short break. The instruction manual said follow the crest on blocky loose 4th, while I remember Gary and Ania had gone into the TC gully. That looked really ugly, so we stayed on the crest which worked out very well and after about 100m we were changing out of our shoes. Neither of us had a watch but we had the feeling we were doing ok and that we would still get out by dark by the number of idle wanderers roaming around the Enchantment Lakes plateau and Aasgard Pass. We descended the snowfield off the back of Dragontail with crampons on, down the difficult pounding grind that is Aassblaster Pass and out. Met Alpinfox and friend at the lake but otherwise it was pretty deserted. No bugs! Eric and Lucie's Bus Trip TR http://www.ericandlucie.com/Cascades%20Rock%20Climbs/Dragontail%20Peak/Dragontail.htm Gary and Ania's TR http://www.ofb.net/~ania/life/Dragontail_Jul05/ Gear Notes: Doubles to 2, single 3,4,and 5. No nuts. Approach Notes: Its all good.

ty, the gate was open. The road is open all the way to Trinity, and also to Phelps Creek TH. Scott, actually no. That's the North ridge. Ironically you cannot (easily) get a view of the North face, let alone get to the base if it, using any easy route. Its difficult enough getting to the base of the North ridge from the lake. I did take a shot of the face looking straight down from the overhanging tower at its very summit, which we climbed when we didnt quite know which the true summit was, and it was pretty gut-wrenching. I can show you the rest of the shots offline.

Climb: Buck-Southeast Route Date of Climb: 7/15/2006 Trip Report: Firstly, you will notice that this is not a trip report of the North ridge of Buck. But it was an attempt, nonetheless. Gene Pires and I left Seattle Friday morning with 3 days for an attempt at this prominent line on Buck, that neither of us had seen up close in person. The approach for any bid to the North ridge begins with an approach to King Lake. I had bushwacked around the Entiat range last year a little, so was not particularly frightened by the Beckey Guide description of the approach to King Lake - a bushwack straight up a hillside for 3000 feet! Somehow I convinced Gene that it wouldn't be so bad. We left Trinity at a reasonable hour and the first miles of trail go by quickly, despite the bloodthirsty bugs. After the footbridge, you leave the trail, ford the Chiwawa river, and begin the ...march...up...hill. The Northeast basin of Buck from King Lake, with the East ridge on the left, prominent North ridge on the right, and true summit in the center. Many hours later we emerged at King Lake, which was still frozen, and the alpine spectacle of the Northeast face of Buck. The true summit and the Buck Horn tower high above. Gene took a nap and I took a walk. When we first saw the North ridge we had already decided it looked a bit too burley for soft old farts like us, but I wanted a much closer look. I spent the next hour lounging below the ridge, more happy about our decision not to engage the mountain on its terms. The Northeast Face looks fairly burly as well, with a long steep snow approach to some pitches on junky looking rock. The next morning we decided to make the best of it and try the "East Ridge", which is (accurlately) decribed as the Southeast route in Beckey Guide. At the time we didn't have any of the guidebook descriptions with us, so it seemed like just like the right thing to do. We approached up the central gully between two "Tooth"-like towers at the base of the East ridge. At the top of this gully are 30 feet of fourth class climbing, to gain the ridge. The route begins up the central gully that splits "the Buck Teeth". From the notch, you traverse very steep heather, hugging the base of the cliff around the south Bucktooth. The south notch of the south tower is gained, and the terrain opens up rapidly into the steep and open terrain that defines the upper reaches of Alpine creek. The route traverses below the crest of the East ridge, along steep heather. The route traverses along the south side of the East ridge. From camp we had thought that we might actually be able to do a long ridge run, climbing the East ridge directly. But from the South side the ridge is not well defined until a prominent tower higher up, which ascends to a col between the West summit and main summits. But the ridge is very long, contrived as a route, and the rock pretty manky: the day is also short so we decided to continue on to the summit via the alpine plateau. Gene Pires traverses towards the summit plateau. After more traversing a 45 degree snow slope leads to a notch at the South side of the West summit. In earlier season one could also perhaps go to the North side, but it was not continuous snow. Here, a short fourth or low fifth class downclimb leads to the summit plateau. From here its a short saunter to the true summit, however at first we were confused as to which summit was the true summit so we walked across the plateau to a prominent point atop the great North face. From there we could see that the area we had just left was indeed the summit, so after gaping at the jaw-dropping North face and the disgusting looking top out to the North ridge, we backtracked and hiked to the top. From the South notch below the West summit, the route gains the summit plateau. Iced over King Lake is ice free for only a few months a year. Back at camp we decided to stay another night, as the accomodations were really pretty nice (and no bugs!!) and we were not looking forward to reversing the bushwack anytime soon. In the morning we busted a move back down the hill, this time staying a bit closer to the drainage and finding the going on the way down MUCH easier than on the way up. We left the North ridge for another time. The North Ridge of Buck from King Lake. Gear Notes: crampons, axe Approach Notes: not exactly the most easy approach

Climb: Mt Olympus-Blue Glacier Date of Climb: 7/3/2006 Trip Report: Some people had 4th of July town plans, some were off on other adventures, and I couldnt convince anyone including myself to go suffer up Goode; Gene had said something about Anderson River group, but my wife wasn't buying it despite Berdinka's rave reviews of Chamois, so looking around for the trip to do with my wife we settled on either the Buck Creek pass loop (40+ miles) or Mt Olympus (40+ miles) and for some reason I am always drawn back to "the list"...hmmm...says here Olympus is on "the list". Summer agreed to try it out. We caught the first ferry Sunday morning and hoofed it through Forks to the Hoh River valley. It took a while to drive around, and dink around to find parking and get the permit, so we were only on the trail at 10:45 or so. I'd never been there before so was really grooving on the old growth rainforest, the lovely medows, and the flat trail. Its really pretty casual! We were moving right along too, making good time. At 13.1 miles, where the trail starts uphill, our progress abruptly slowed - Summer is pregnant so she gets short of breath really easily now, and since she can't really use her hip belt on her pack (even as light as we were going it makes an incredible difference!) she was going alot slower up the hill. We reached Elk Lake after a slow grind up the trail and the trip was not looking good; I already started going into supportive-husband mode where I made up all kinds of positive spins on the situation. But Summer motivated for the last 2.3 miles to Glacier Medows, trying to help me out by at least getting us to base camp so I could solo the route the next day if she felt like she wasnt up to it. So we rolled into Glacier medows at 7:45 pm. We didn't have a tent, just sleeping bags, and found a small clear spot. Ate some food and went to bed as it got dark. Got up a bit refreshed at 4-ish, and quickly forced down some oatmeal before heading out. Glacier Medows at night is kind of a dark and dingy place, but several hundred feet above the camp sites the forest opens up into medows proper, with some snow still, on the way to the moraine. Summer was keeping up without much trouble, so I was getting more excited that we might get up this after all. At 5:15 we got our first look at Olympus, which is situated in a very dramatic alpine setting that rivals any in the Cascades, and descended to the Blue Glacier. Full Size http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=19192&size=big&sort=1&cat=500 The trudge across the lower Blue was long and really flat, with seasonal snow on top of blue ice making it relatively featureless going. We saw a group of 7 heading up Snow Dome just as dawn was breaking, and then a short while later a party of three traversing towards Crystal Pass. We reached the bottom of the long uphill to the top of Snow Dome and just ground it out. Full Size http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=19194&size=big&sort=1&cat=500 You get most of your el by getting up Snow Dome, so when Summer kicked up it in just over an hour, I knew we were in good shape. The traverse to Crystal Pass from Snow Dome is long and flat (long and flat is definitely the theme of this trip!) with just a few cracks here and there. We didn't rope up for this section, though many other parties did. The views are spectacular, with the Pacific spread out on one side, Full Size http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=19193&size=big&sort=1&cat=500 From Crystal Pass you cross to the NE side of the mountain, which has been baking in the sun since sunrise, and slog up the long, pretty low angle slopes of the upper Blue to the base of the false summit and summit pyramids. Then you move up around the false summit, down a short gravel slope, up a short steep snow slope to the base of the true summit. This is where we caught all the parties ahead of us. It was still early, and the group of 7 was very nice and taking a different (more solid) rock pitch to the summit block, so Summer and I quickly climbed up the "scramble route" on the SW side of the pinnacle, which wouldn't be "3rd class" even at Index - its a good though short moderate 5th pitch with loose rock on the top-out, something you wouldnt really want to downclimb. Despite the many people on the summit, it was very well organized and people were able to enjoy it without getting too crowded. Great views everywhere. Full Size http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=19195&size=big&sort=1&cat=500 As Summer and I bailed off the summit snowfield, MCash and his party came sauntering up! Funny how you can meet your cragging partners so far into the mountains! Anyway, the decent is alot of flat walking interspersed with glissading. It was baking hot on the mountain by 10:30 or so, bluebird day. We zoomed down and got back to camp at 2:30 or thereabouts, along with the parties of 3 and of 7. We were eager to get some miles in back towards the car, so broke camp reluctantly after a short break. We were hoping to spend the night at 13.1, but knew our feet and the bugs would actually dictate where we would stay: while there had been no bugs at Glacier Medows, 4000 ft down in the valley we were not expecting to be so lucky. We got to 13.1 and not only were there bugs, but there was no easy running water. So despite sore feet we busted out another mile to 12.4, where we found a fantastic campsite on a gravel bar out on the river: windswept, bug free, cool, comfortable. The next morning we made it back to the car by noon, and back to town in time for fireworks! Gear Notes: Trekking poles, AL crampons (not used), 60m skinny rope for rap off summit. For summit pinnacle "scramble" bring 3 or 4 medium cams to 1". Approach Notes: Spotty snow at Glacier medows, route in very easy, fast, fine shape.

Deception crags / trestle...

There are alot of guidebook ideas floating around, but we probably don't need another Select Guide for Cascades alpine climbs. No author is making money off these books at any rate, the audience is just so small. The Select Guides - I've always found their usefulness more in introducing one to new areas and new types/genres of climbing than just more "classic" climbs - Jim and Alan's books have been good for this, better than Beckey, primarily because of the pictures. There are some ideas for guidebooks * Pacific Northwest Aid Routes - wilderness wall routes and the stuff at Index and Squamish * High Alpine Traverses: I think the Ptarmigan and Bailey Range routes are very well covered on the Internet. This type of trip is very appealing and approachable by a large® user group (you can sure imagine alot more East Coasters would come to try the Ptarmigan if they knew it was here) but so far these trips have remained low-key mostly "local knowledge" things judging from the people I've met out there. There are doubtless other great alpine rambles that are not crowded that might warrant some type of book. The Isolation Traverse, the Snowking Buckindy Group traverse, and so on. Alot of these things are already covered in some forms, such as Ira Spring/Harvey Manning books, Lowell's online trip log, Martin's ski tours book, etc. but having one person do all these trips and piecing it together in book form complete with maps and pics might be very compelling.

I would recommend you climb something else entirely if you are really travelling all the way from Boulder to climb in WA (or BC). There are many many other high quality climbs - both trad and sport - that anyone could recommend that are much better representations of the climbing to be had around here than that route. Exit 38 and Exit 32 are good sport climbing areas close to Seattle.

I got this same type of injury when pulling too hard on two-finger pockets in the gym 2 years ago; I typically used my middle and ring fingers in these pockets. The tendon-muscle injury was in my right forearm, to where I couldn't really "pull" with either my ring or pinky fingers, but any other motion was ok. I was deluded as to how long it would take to heal completely, and promptly re-injured it after 3-4 weeks again in the gym, after "taking it easy". I got better by 1) not pulling down hard with the fingers at all for about 4 months, and just bouldering easier, more tendon friendly stuff 2) learning to use my index and middle fingers in pockets, rather than middle and ring. Also 3) taping the ring and other fingers religously helped in making me realize better when I was approaching the "pulling too hard" limit on the injured hand. I think tendon injuries (unlike muscle or even bone injuries) take a long long time to heal, and are particularly susceptible to re-injury especially if you are very strong (like you are) and can easily over-crank. But re-injury only makes it worse in the long run, so despite how frustrating it is to take it easy for 3 months or so, its better than being out for real for 6.

No, its been skiied at times in the last 30 years. Lowell has the first decent as 1980 May 12 Chris Landry Liberty Ridge Ski descent

The road was blocked with a 200 yard streach of snow that required a 4x4 hc vehicle sunday morning, after that it is completely bare and a complete slog for 2 gentle uphill miles until an enormous double log blocks all possible progress and will for quite some time. A tricked out real-man's jeep made it to this point Sun morning, but we hiked it in running shoes. After that its another 2 miles of snow covered road, mostly skinning now but by weeks' end I guarantee it will be the perfect mixture of sloppy goppy "wish i had my skis on for this" and bare road "wish i wasnt hiking this shit in tele boots" type of deal. The trailhead is under about 3 ft of snow. The trail up the valley has seen some traffic but not alot. I remember that thing being more steep for some reason, but its flatter than a pancake for miles up valley. Some neat looking ice lines had formed up there, though now "out". We didnt even get to Hannegan Pass before the slogging through mush and heat took its motivational toll. I'd say ideal conditions to get Ruth in a day are still 2 weeks out.

check yer pm's

We "failed" because we didnt get a long enough weather window, just like anyone else "fails" on Rainier in the winter. Besides the weather there was no other difficultly. Have you done the route? I mean, in early season its just a stroll. I'll always remember how we just walked across the completely crackless and smooth Carbon. It was actually one of the most fun trips I've ever done, though

ChucKles, I don't get it.. ? Are you trying to tell me what I did in 1995 was a big deal after all?? Man, I shoulda known!

Alright. In April 1995 I did this same thing with Radical Radford and some friends. We got to Thumb but didnt summit. There was no media attention. At the time doing this kind of trip was no big deal. If anything, Lib Ridge in early season is easier technically than later, so if you get a weather window and you have lots of free time, might as well go for it. That said, I think what Neal and buds did was great! Its especially significant if you are from the East coast of Midwest, where climbing Rainier anytime is viewed as a significant accomplishment - they don't have glaciers out East, let alone anything much above treeline. Taking the time to come in from out-of-state in early season when you know you'll likely fail due to weather anyway takes guts.

I doubt most of the people that post here remember that once upon a time there actually WAS a real climbing gym in Bellingham; it was built by myself and one other member of this board who lived in Bellingham at the time, and was run by Carlos H and a cadre of all our climbing friends. From that experience I can tell you that it is possible to make the business work, but only if you realize that your revenue will be coming from birthday parties, day-care climbing events, and other such income and you milk that stuff for all its worth - the income base is not there in Bellingham like it is in Magnolia or Redmond, and the summer months are very very slow for business. On top of that you will be working there full time for a long time, as hired help costs money you probably wont want to part with especially during the Summer months when its slow anyway. Magic Mountain lasted all of what, a year and a half maybe? and not for lack of trying.

Thats a nice picture. I'd say conditions on Big Four right now are only OK, certainly worse than I expected given the snow pack and temps; they werent inspiring enough for us to summit from the Central Rib. The first 3000 ft was super cake with frosting, then the snow turned to complete ass. The party on Spindrift was moving very very slowly, I didn't envy their postition, and we didnt think they would top out by dark at their slow rate of climb.

1) very cold with lots of snow 2) From Ipsut Creek CG, its roughly 9000 ft verticle gain to the Ptarmigan High camp. I've done the approach once from Ipsut to Liberty Ridge in winter conditions and it took us a day and a half or so, I don't really remember - it was a long way. 3) personal perference. Snowshoes will be more portable and unless you are planning on climbing in an AT setup, won't require double packing boots 4) shouldnt need to...the amount of distance you might gain on the road the the campground is really insignificant compared the the amount of distance you are going to be putting in on foot round trip, whats an extra mile or two? And remember, its a rental car.