Lowell_Skoog

After climbing this route a few days ago based on the Snoqualmie Rock book, I thought to look here for info. We should have done that before heading out for the climb. We found the climb to be much as described in the book, with long runouts and sparse protection. The rock on the slabby section has few cracks, and those you encounter are sometimes associated with fractured rock and don't inspire confidence. The guidebook suggests carrying doubles to 3" but I don't think we ever found enough placements to use up even a single set of cams during a pitch. (Ok, maybe in the initial cleft. My memory of it is vague.) The thing that confused us most was the book's description of the descent. It begins: "Make four double-rope rappels to the south, starting from a large tree in a gully and continuing down clean granite slabs. Descend the gully below the face, making rappels as necessary." Having looked at Rad's pictures here, it seems that the first ascent party began their rappels to the SOUTHEAST, not the south. If you descend to the south, you can scramble down a forested gully to the saddle south of the summit. (We started rappelling from a tree shortly above the saddle, but I think you could probably scramble down to it.) Because we went south (as suggested by the guidebook), not southeast, we never encountered the "clean granite slabs" described in the book (and shown in Rad's photos here). We found relatively low-angle terrain with lots of brush and trees. Based on Rad's photos, it looks like the clean granite slabs are steeper and more exposed than what we descended. After four or five full-length rappels down a highly vegetated gully, we switched to single rappels as the light began to fade. In darkness, I lost count of the number of rappels we made, but the total must have been over a dozen, and the gully was steep enough that I would not have wanted to down-climb. Initially our anchors were all trees and bushes, but lower we found a few old anchors made of cord. We didn't leave the gully until we were quite low. So, if you go for this route, take note of the descent. If you get benighted like we did, it takes a long time and, if you stay in the gully, a lot of rappels.

Doesn't seem like I'm able to edit my original post here, so I'm adding a note with the revised location of the films mentioned above. The 1922 Mt Rainier winter ascent film can be found here (on my website): http://alpenglow.org/mountaineers-history/notes/movie/perryman-mt-rainier.html The Perryman newsreel collection can be browsed here (on the Mountaineer Archives wiki): https://mountaineers.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ARCH/pages/525057/MTR.2011.2+Mountaineers+Film+Collection+Charles+Perryman+Newsreels I'm currently writing about this stuff for my long-delayed ski history book, so it's back on my radar for the moment.

Thanks JasonG and G-spotter for letting me know about these addition routes. I've added them to the NWMJ inbox: Slesse Mtn, Navigator Wall, winter ascent Labour Day Horn, Labour Day Buttress, winter ascent Station D Peak, East Ridge, winter ascent Mt Prophet, SW Rib ("Jacob's Ladder"), new route Station D Peak, NE Face ("Jupiter Shift"), new route South Illusion Peak, Chinese Puzzle Wall, two new routes (2016, 2018) http://alpenglow.org/nwmj/inbox.html

This is the time of year when I review notes I've collected during the past 12 months and update the chronologies on my ski history website: http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/ I'm also continuing to update the Northwest Mountaineering Journal new route "inbox" on the following page: http://www.alpenglow.org/nwmj/inbox.html The NWMJ inbox now has 244 candidate routes awaiting publication in a future issue of the journal. The routes have not been fully vetted by editors, so the list may change eventually. Most of the new routes I've posted were completed in 2018. But a previously unreported ski traverse from the Canadian border to near Lake Wenatchee was completed by Peter Dale and Aaron Mainer in April-May 2016. If you find errors or know of unreported routes that are missing from the list, feel free to drop me a line (lowell.skoog@alpenglow.org) or post something here. Thanks!

I came back to CC.com after months away and found this great story.... Congrats on completing your dream. But yikes about the car! Your story stirred memories of my climb of the same route in 1985 with Mark Bebie. We also climbed the couloir to access the upper buttress and we did Beckey's rappel to avoid the final difficulties. According to my journal, we replaced the original Beckey/Fielding piton with one of mine, then did a couple rappels to broken ledges. Three more pitches led to the summit ridge. I still have the Beckey/Fielding piton (or at least, that's what we assumed it was at the time). Here's a picture of it. It has a diamond C stamped on it (but not really visible here).

This is the time of year when I review notes I've collected during the past 12 months and update the chronologies on my ski history website: http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/ I'm also continuing to update the Northwest Mountaineering Journal new route "inbox" on the following page: http://www.alpenglow.org/nwmj/inbox.html The NWMJ inbox now has 236 candidate routes awaiting publication in a future issue of the journal. The routes have not been fully vetted by editors, so the list may change eventually. Most of the new routes I've posted were completed in 2017. But a few earlier routes have come to light. These include: 2016, Supercave (aka M&M) Wall, "Golden Age" 2016, Supercave (aka M&M) Wall, "Maple Glazed" If you find errors or know of unreported routes that are missing from the list, feel free to drop me a line (lowell.skoog@alpenglow.org) or post something here. Thanks!

Thanks for chasing down a fix for old links, Jon. I am able now to browse to all the old trip reports referenced in the NWMJ new route inbox: http://alpenglow.org/nwmj/inbox.html

Too bad the site redesign broke all the old URLs. A lot of FAs were once accessible through the links on this page: http://alpenglow.org/nwmj/inbox.html

Video presentation from the memorial: http://www.alpenglow.org/people/fred-beckey-devoted-to-mountains/index.html

Here's a question for the CC.com admins.... Would it be possible to provide some sort of tool to translate old CC.com thread/post URLs to a URL that accesses the same thread/post through the new bulletin board software? You may recall that I've been capturing links to new route information since NWMJ went dormant in 2010. Here's the NWMJ Inbox page again: http://alpenglow.org/nwmj/inbox.html With the change to the CC.com software, all my old links to CC.com trip reports are now invalid. It would be great to have an online tool, or something, to translate old CC.com URLs to the new forum structure. It does appear that all the old threads are still around, but the old links are broken. Is there any way to help with this? Thanks for any help.... --Lowell Skoog

A public celebration of the life of Fred Beckey is scheduled for Sunday, December 3, 2017 at The Mountaineers in Seattle. Doors open at 1pm. Admission is free, but space may be limited. For tickets, visit this site: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/remembering-fred-beckey-a-celebration-of-life-tickets-39879444492

Climbed MHC with a couple friends yesterday and enjoyed it greatly. We were amazed by the friction offered by this unusual rock. The stance at the top of P5 (the money dihedral) felt pretty darn airy with three people there. The intermediate rap anchor on P3 had a loose nut on the left bolt. Lacking any tools, we just finger tightened it. Probably a good idea to carry a small wrench on this climb. The exposure of this climb reminded me of the SW ridge of Delago Tower in the Dolomites, a route I did many years ago with my wife. MHC was more technical, but not quite as scenic. Thanks Rad and Darin!

Thanks Wayne and Mikey for this information. I've added "Slave to Liberty" to the inbox. Regarding "The Circumvention," I'm less inclined to add this because of the guideline we used for climbing routes in NWMJ. We called it The Beckey Rule. The basic thinking was, "Would Fred include this route in his Cascade Alpine Guide?" If so, we'd run it in NWMJ. If not, we wouldn't. It appears that "The Circumvention" is an ice route that goes partway up Bryant Buttress but isn't a complete route on the peak. Seems like it's not the sort of thing that Fred would put in his books. More like something that would appear in a guidebook specific to winter ice climbs. I'm open to your thoughts on this.

This is the time of year when I review notes I've collected during the past 12 months and update the chronologies on my ski history website: http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/ I'm also continuing to update the Northwest Mountaineering Journal new route "inbox" on the following page: http://www.alpenglow.org/nwmj/inbox.html The NWMJ inbox now has 204 candidate routes awaiting publication in a future issue of the journal. The routes have not been fully vetted by editors, so the list may change eventually. Hopefully we'll find a way to publish short reports of these routes in NWMJ when someone has more time to devote to it. For now, the raw list is a handy reference. Most of the new routes I've posted were completed in 2016. But a few earlier routes have come to light. These include: 2006, "Black Widow" (Peak 7440+ east of Spider Mtn), First ascent 2014, Kitling Peak, North Face ski descent If you find errors or know of unreported routes that are missing from the list, feel free to drop me a line (lowell.skoog@alpenglow.org) or post something here. Thanks!

My brother Gordy and I climbed the 1963 NE Face route in August 1983. Took about 12 hours round trip. No brush, but my notes record some steep brittle rock high on the face before we reached the crest of the NE Rib. That part was a bit nervous but most of the climb was not too bad. The C-J couloir was probably in much better shape back then than it is now. We backed down the couloir in a couple hours. I think getting onto the rock during the ascent would probably also be harder now than it was then.