Lowell_Skoog

I'll be giving a slideshow on backcountry skiing for the Washington Ski Touring Club at their November 2 meeting at Seattle REI, 7 pm. Topics will include: Early season Hunting for powder Coping with dry spells Canadian hut trips Spring flow days Ptarmigan with a ptwist Lowell Skoog lowell.skoog@alpenglow.org

You can drive year-round to the Ross Dam parking lot and see the north buttress of Pyramid. The N Cascades highway has been gated there the past few winters. The right (west) side of the buttress is at an angle conducive to mixed conditions (i.e. steep, but not too steep). I remember reading Bob Cotter's report of the first ascent somewhere, probably in the AAJ. Look in Beckey's guide to see if there is a reference. Nobody has mentioned the north face of Big Four yet. It's accessible, has been climbed several times in the winter, and has gobs of potential. (I haven't done it.) --Lowell Skoog lowell.skoog@alpenglow.org

There are three phases of tourism: discovery, promotion, and crowd control. These phases also apply to climbing areas. Beckey's guide has documented the discovery phase in the Cascades. For climbers interested in new routes, Beckey's guide remains essential. It's also a good idea to browse the American Alpine Journal for routes put up since Beckey's last edition was published (although Journal entries for the Cascades have been pretty scarce the past few years). Nelson's and Potterfield's guides are a sign that phase two has arrived in the Cascades--promotion. In a big range like this, climbers want to do the classics, and selected-route books lead them right there (or, at least, to one person's list). As Forrest said, explorers aren't hampered by selected-route books. New climbers love them. My concern (as you've probably guessed) is what happens when we enter phase three--crowd control. In some places in the North Cascades like Boston Basin we're already there. One solution is to try and spread the climbers out. Voila! More selected route books! I don't know where this will all lead. I'm sure that Nelson, Potterfield and The Mountaineers Books are at least aware of these issues. Notice how routes in "Fifty Classic Climbs" have been omitted from both their volumes. This is partly just a marketing decision, but also an acknowledgement that some classics don't need more attention. Lowell Skoog lowell.skoog@alpenglow.org

I enjoyed your trip report. Gary Brill and I climbed the Early Winters Couloir in May 1978. We finished our climb by summiting North Early Winters spire via the rock above the N-S col. The cornice was definitely the crux. It reminded me of a photo I once saw of Hamish MacInnes digging his way through a cornice somewhere in Scotland. Good old messy alpinism! Lowell Skoog lowell.skoog@alpenglow.org