Lowell_Skoog

Thanks for those. I'll give the red CAG another look when I get home from family visits. (I'm in Minneapolis now.) I'm disappointed to have missed those but I'll say that the chronology was initially just a research aid for the essay. The decision to publish it as an appendix came later in the project. But, had I caught those routes, it would not have changed what I wrote in the essay. I'll go through the red CAG again and make sure I've got everything north of the border in the online chronology. Thanks.

Certainly possible. I relied on the Beckey guides for that section (and NWMJ for more recent climbs). Where would you recommend looking for more information on winter climbs between the border and the Fraser River? Or can you provide more information directly?

I was honored to be able to contribute to John's book by writing a historical essay on winter climbing and ski mountaineering in the North Cascades. Now that the book is out, I've posted an online version of the essay on my website. You can find it here: http://alpenglow.org/themes/ncascade-winter/index.html This version includes digital "woodcuts" by artist Don Smith which were omitted from the book. It also includes the complete chronology of Cascade winter climbs (including climbs outside the North Cascades) that I used in my research and writing. If anyone finds errors or omissions from the chronology, let me know and I can correct the online version.

Strength. And friends.

The state of exploration in the Alps was way ahead, but when you look at what people were doing locally, it seems that about 10 years elapsed before they were doing stuff similar to the 1922 Rainier winter ascent. Examples: 1928 - Giese/Strizek/Best ski-climb of Rainier 1930 - Loners/Sperlin ski ascent of Baker 1932 - Giese/Strizek/Grage/Mosauer/Lyons ski descent of Adams 1933 - Giese/Strizek ski descent of St Helens

Blynne Olivieri at UW Special Collections sent me a copy of a couple of Landry's letters to Dee Molenaar after I told her about the film. Landry was living in Ketchum, Idaho in 1963 and he had anglicized his first name to "John". It seems that he settled in this country permanently, but I don't know when. I'm sure Dee Molenaar would know. Having researched both skiing and winter mountaineering in the Cascades, it's clear to me that the 1922 winter ascent of Rainier was some years ahead of its time. Wolf Bauer (who was born in Germany) told me that skiing in the Alps was a decade ahead of the U.S. in the early days. I think that's a pretty good estimate of how far Landry and his friends were ahead of local skiers and mountaineers in 1922.

They spent their nights at the old Anvil Rock lookout (which was removed sometime after WWII) rather than Camp Muir. They left their skis at or below the lookout due to hard snow conditions. (Watching the movie you can see that their boots were not adequate for skiing very icy snow.) They climbed the Gibraltar Ledges route to the summit.

Yes. Dee Molenaar has donated some of his papers to UW Special Collections and they include letters from Jean Landry to Dee in the 1960s, when Dee was working on the first edition of his Rainier book. Landry said that much of their equipment was made locally. The skins were made from sealskin rather hastily by a local furrier. They stretched badly so the climbers reinforced them with canvas robbed from a water hose. Yes, the Gib Ledges. Molenaar's book says this as well. num1mc's answer is accurate. I think the films you're referring to were episodes of KOMO-TV's "Exploration Northwest." These episodes are now being sold on DVD by Linda McCune, widow of the show's host Don McCune. I have copies of them but I won't post them out of respect for her copyright. I've written short stories about the making of these programs here: http://alpenglow.org/climbing/golden-horn-1980/index.html http://alpenglow.org/skiing/nc-highway-1978/index.html

L-R: Jacques Bergues, Jean Landry and Jacques Landry prepare to climb Mount Rainier in 1922. In November 2003, I received an email from Steve Turner of Sacramento, California. Steve is the grandson of Charles R. Perryman, the Selznick newsreel cameraman who accompanied European alpinists Jean and Jacques Landry and Jacques Bergues to the summit of Mount Rainier to make the first winter ascent in February 1922. If you're not familiar with this climb, you may enjoy the account in Dee Molenaar's Challenge of Rainier (google books link). Steve contacted me after finding notes about his grandfather's climb on my ski history website here. He wrote that he had his grandfather's newsreel footage from the climb. After several emails, Steve offered to donate the film to The Mountaineers in exchange for a DVD copy. This began an eight year game of email tag. Long gaps ensued. Finally, two months ago he sent me the film. It has been digitized and I've posted a digital copy on the Mountaineers website here: http://mountaineers.org/history/notes/movie/perryman-mt-rainier.html The Mount Rainier newsreel was accompanied by several other interesting and unusual films. You can see the whole collection here: http://mountaineers.org/history/findaids/perryman-newsreels.html This is a truly historic film. It was the first motion picture ever taken on the summit of Mount Rainier. It shows the first winter ascent of any significant peak in Washington, and the biggest one at that. It is the oldest climbing or skiing film I know of in this state. Since the film was made in 1922, almost 90 years have elapsed since it has been seen in public. This Thanksgiving Day, I'm thankful to Steve Turner for this one-of-a-kind gift to the Northwest mountaineering community.

Yeah, that Anchors Away article in Climbing magazine was the scariest thing I've read in a while. I've been using dyneema runners to clip in to rappel anchors and the article describes all sorts of nasty consequences if you fall on one of those things without a dynamic link in the chain. I need to change my habits. It seems like a soloing system should definitely use dynamic components. A via ferrata rig would be ideal, maybe.

http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=13536.0 http://www.greatoutdoors.com/blogs/gordys/20090615/skiing-the-dakobed-traverse-tools-or-toys

I don't even try to waterproof my pack. Instead I line my pack with a garbage bag. The white "trash compactor" bags are the best, because they're the strongest. Everything that needs to stay dry goes in the trash bag. Usually I put my water bag outside the trash bag in case it leaks. I carry a second trash compactor bag for camping. As stuff comes out of the pack it goes into the second trash bag. Helps keep things together and dry.

In light of the noteworthy ski season on Mt Rainier this year, I've created topo diagrams of all major ski routes on the mountain that I know about. This page complements the previous one I created for Mt Shuksan, which was announced in this thread: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1017921/Mt_Shuksan_Who_skied_that#Post1017921 Here's a link to the new Mt Rainier page: http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/topos/mt-rainier.html And here's a teaser: These diagrams are intended as a historical record not a guidebook. Please send additions and corrections.

With reasonable snow cover (likely this year) the 1938 south route is quite reasonable. It's mostly a snow gully.

Sorry, I meant "when looking at the mountain from a distance" (opposite of skier's right). So I guess that would be the 1938 route.

The route to Cache Col is skiable at present: http://skisickness.com/post/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=251&p=1356#p1356 Best to descend one of the south side gullies on Spider and return via the Ptarmigan Traverse route. There is a major rock rib on the SW face of Spider. You want the gully on the looker's right of the rib, not the one on the looker's left. They both go, but the one on the left is a lot crappier. The 1972 route is enjoyable. I climbed it in June 1979 and we had to do a little rock climbing (on the right) to pass the bergshrund at the bottom of the gully. Don't know what it's like now. In dry summers the north side routes on Spider are melting out pretty badly these days.

With all the interesting routes being skied on Mt Shuksan lately, I decided to start something new in my ski history project. I've created topo diagrams of ski routes on Shuksan to clarify written descriptions and seek corrections. I suspect that more diagrams will eventually be needed for other major peaks. Here's the link: http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/topos/mt-shuksan.html And here's a teaser: These diagrams are intended as a historical record not a guidebook. Please send corrections. That's what it's for!

I believe it is the second rib to the right of the couloir. I haven't climbed it.

I emailed Rene Crawshaw and he confirmed that he skied this line "back in I believe 1997." I need to pick his brain to figure out what else has been skied on this side of the mountain.

Yeah, they'll be working up there every weekday from now until the highway opens. Here's a story about their work: http://mountaineers.org/NWMJ/10/101_Chinook.html and another: http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=13394.0

Wahoo! Great video. Thanks.

A paid notice for Tom Miller is in today's Seattle Times: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=thomas-w-miller&pid=149768188 I had no idea Tom was involved in such prominent projects at Boeing. Boeing jetfoil: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_929 Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-86_ALCM Peacekeeper (MX): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-118_Peacekeeper Airborne Optical Adjunct (AOA): http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/aoa.htm Short-Range Attack Missile (SRAM): http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-69.html According to the obituary, Tom was executive editor for the first 100 Hikes book published by the Mountaineers. So he played a key role in starting that series. Of course, he never mentioned any of this.

My experience with the Mountaineers is fairly minimal. The only thing I've really been involved with is the history committee. But in my experience you won't get the Mountaineers (or any volunteer organization) to do something by asking them to do it, or even by TELLING them to do it. You get it done by volunteering, becoming the champion for the cause you care about, and DOING IT YOURSELF. Once you get things moving, being associated with a larger organization helps tackle bigger projects.

Mac Bates wrote a nice sketch of Tom Miller for his interview in Cascade Voices. When I started climbing after I graduated from high school in the mid-1970s, my friend Gary Brill had a copy of The North Cascades that I coveted endlessly. When my wife and I married in the early 1980s, two friends gave us a copy of Tom Miller's book as a wedding present. To this day, it's the only wedding present that I can still remember (and find at a moment's notice). Together with Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, Tom's book (and his work with Harvey Manning on the Mountaineers Literary Committee) gave birth to The Mountaineers Books. About a decade ago I had the privilege of getting to know Tom Miller when I joined the Mountaineers History Committee. Tom was secretary of committee at that time. Having the opportunity to chat with Tom every other month at the History Committee's meetings was a huge incentive for me to become involved with the committee. Eventually I got up the nerve to ask him to sign my book. In 2003, I got the idea of commemorating the 50th anniversary of Tom's 1953 Ptarmigan Traverse. (Tom's trip and photos, reproduced in The North Cascades, were without a doubt what put the Ptarmigan Traverse on the world mountaineering map.) Tom introduced me to his son Brian and I invited Brian on the trip, documented in the following story: http://alpenglow.org/climbing/ptarmigan-1953/index.html Brian later had a serious accident on Forbidden Peak which he wrote about in the Seattle Weekly, where he was a staff writer. Brian's story pays wonderful tribute to his parents, Tom and Nancy: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2005-02-02/news/down-from-the-mountain/ In recent years, Tom stepped down from the History Committee due to health problems. We kept in touch occasionally, but I missed those regular chats. I knew he was dealing with serious health issues, so I guess I wasn't too surprised at the news of his death. But I'm very saddened. He was one of those people that personified Northwest mountaineering for me when I was younger. Competent, unassuming, with tremendous accomplishments in his outdoor life, family life, and work life, he's the kind of mountaineer I've always looked up to. My condolences to his family and his many friends.

This article may be interesting: http://mountaineers.org/NWMJ/09/091_ThreeSisters.html