AlpineK

One of the most inspiring climbs in the list for me was the NE Arete on Sir Donald. First off you can see it right from the transcanada and my dad climbed it in the 50s. At the time they roped out every pitch and as a result spent the night on a ledge while descending. He has a funny story about one of his partners fighting with a snafflehound who ended up taking some of his stuff.

Interesting trip. Most of it looks like a lot of fun. I've had the experience of suddenly having my hair stand on end and feeling current flowing through my body, but I've never suffered the full on strike. On experiencing that kind of electricity getting the fuck off the mountain became the high priority activity.

Interesting. I thought it was just my old cranky computer.

I'm a Mounties Basic grad from '78 or 9 and an Intermediate drop out from '82 or 3 At the time the goal of the class was to provide a general course on mountaineering. They did some rock climbing, but it wasn't a good environment to work on your rock climbing skills or ice climbing for that matter. If you really wanted to learn that stuff you needed to go out on your own. Today I'm not sure what the best route to climbing/mountaineering is. It seems to me if your interest is cragging or mountaineering you should take some kind of general outdoor skills class to choose appropriate gear, evaluate conditions for risk, weather, etc. Past that reading textbooks helps some, but going out and actually climbing helps a lot more. As you progress an occasional class may help to improve your skills, but climbing a lot helps the most. You do have to pay attention to your actual skills as you progress. Take your time and try to avoid getting in over your head on every trip. Don't be afraid to be honest with yourself and walk away from your goal if you realize you need more practice.

Trip: Mystery Ridge - Traverse of Ridge Date: 8/14/2008 Trip Report: [font:Arial Black]A Traverse of Some Cool Alpine Terrain [/font] [font:Times New Roman]Back early last week I got a message from JN asking me if I was interested in checking out an area west of the Picket Range. Having looked at the region from the Pickets a few times the trip sounded interesting. We didn't count on doing much climbing. We just talked about exploring an area that not that many people get to. After some more talk JN his friend Mark and I set off. The area isn't too far from Seattle. You just head up Highway 20 to just west of Newhalem and then turn north on Bacon Creek road. The road heads up into the mountains till it dead ends. At this point some pictures and a map are required tools since there are no signs or trails. We put 4 days worth of gear on our back and scrambled down to a river where a bridge once stood. from there we crossed Jumbo Creek and scrambled up the far side. Once we got above the creek we found signs of an old road continuing up the valley. There was a trail hidden there by salmon berries beat in by some previous folks. We then walked up the road, which parallels Bacon Creek, for about a mile till through the trees we saw a geographic feature we'd been looking for. Our description told us that Bacon Creek divides into a west and east fork. Just past the divide you cross the east fork and head up the feature we were looking for called Porkbelly Ridge. On the far side of Bacon Creek we loaded up all the water we could and began a steep brushwack up the ridge. [/font] [font:Arial]Here are a couple photos of the terrain [/font] [font:Arial]Signs of some old school cedar loggers [/font] [font:Times New Roman]The goal at this point is to gain about 4000 feet of elevation. There's lots of brush to travel through and some cliff bands where one needs skills for climbing crags covered with trees and brush. The 90 degree temperatures inspired us to take lots of breaks. Also finding the best spots to gain upward progress was exciting. Eventually we did make it to the upper part of Porkbelly Ridge. It was late, and we were tired. We found water, thank god, and set up a tarp. [/font] [font:Arial]View of the terrain along upper Porkbelly Ridge [/font] [font:Times New Roman]On Friday we traversed the ridge and scrambled down to a tarn below Berdeen Peak. After a rest at the tarn we continued scrambling and traversing up to a pass. During this time the heat triggered an exciting avalanche in a very small pocket glacier. We were near the debris, but out of any danger zone. At the Pass we got our first view down to Berdeen lake and northwest to Bacon Peak.[/font] [font:Arial]Berdeen Lake and Bacon Peak [/font] [font:Times New Roman] Saturday we left our heavy gear and hiked down to Berdeen Lake then up onto Mystery Ridge. We were just there to check things out, so I don't have any rad climbs to report. The area is beautiful and well worth visiting. [/font] [font:Arial]Mount Blum [/font] [font:Arial]Mount Triumph [/font] [font:Arial]Despair [/font] [font:Arial]Northern Pickets [/font] [font:Times New Roman]Sunday it rained a little. We were planning on scrambling up another peak, but instead we ended up scrambling back on our approach route to another camp spot. Monday we descended Porkbelly Ridge and got back to the car. This region of the Cascades is well worth visiting, but it isn't an easy approach. There's even some rad climbing available. If you have the time it's worth visiting[/font] Gear Notes: To travel there bring ice axes and possibly crampons. Approach Notes: Study a map before you go in here! There are two cliff bands above Bacon Creek that are tricky to get through. If it's hot bring lots of water.

For all practical purposes the Northcutt-Carter bit the dust. Culp-Bossier is a good one I liked the Kor-Van Trongren as well, but that's just me.

Let's see Alaska Denali, Cassin Ridge Western Canada Mount Sir Donald, NW Arete (2 solo climbs) Bugaboo Spire, E Ridge S Howser Tower, W Buttress Mount Robson, Wishbone Arete Mount Edith Cavell, N Face Lotus Flower Tower Pacific NW Mount Rainier, Liberty Ridge (2 times, Once as a Mounty ) Forbidden Peak, (2 times, one solo) Slesse Mtn, NE Buttress Mount Stuart, N Ridge (2 times, one complete ridge) Liberty Bell, Liberty Crack (2 times) Wyoming Devil's Tower, Durrance Grand Teton, N Ridge Grand Teton, Direct Exum Grand Teton, N Face Pingora, NE Face Wolf's Head, E Ridge Colorado Creston Needle, Ellingwood Ledges Hallett Peak, Northcutt-Carter Petit Grepon, S Face Longs Peak, The Diamond ( D1 ) Southwest Castleton Tower. Kor-Ingalls California Royal Arches Middle Cathedral Rock, E Buttress Half Dome, NW Face Fairview Dome, N Face Lover's Leap, Travelers Buttress I absolutely refuse to ever climb the Hummingbird Ridge. Middle Triple and Devil's Thumb are very very low on my desire list too. I could see doing 10 more from the list, but ski traverses are a lot more exciting in my book. 50 Classic

I'm not surprised nolse has such a bad attitude about the book. Is it the best guidebook ever... no What it does do is provide some information and a little history about climbing in North America. I've found it good as a starting point any time I go into a new region. It helps you get to know an area and inspires you to look around when you get there for other cool routes. I've done a bunch of em, and then I return to do other climbs I see while doing those in the book. Looking at my book I've done 28 out of the list.

I thought this thread was about the upcoming Seahawks season. As for Bush and his crew

Best ever. Now running for President.

Once again I need to point out that you can be a rabid tree hater and want to kill trees. In an urban environment ya still gotta hug trees to kill the big ones.

Yes you can. I believe if you play with the web site you can find a contact to set things up with. I got a ride as a birthday present a number of years ago. They use the device to study characteristics of the upper canopy and habitat zones for different animals and birds. Lichen and moss have their habitat zones up high. It is really cool

Sorry dude, I've got a climbing trip of my own, but the boat leaves on Thursday. Have fun!

SF of the Clearwater. Damn man it's been years. I'd love to, but I can't. I summited one route there a long time ago. As I topped out I came upon a herd of about 40 deer. They had their back to me since the didn't expect predators sneaking up the cliff. They all bolted when they heard or saw me. Bring a gun on your climbs.

I didn't get those results. I did try mountain and mouse. Obama is your man McCain didn't once use the word mouse.

Knowing when or how much a word was used doesn't tell you much. With all public speaking context is a lot more important. Saying, "that's a nice black colored horse," has a different meaning than, "Black people have been oppressed." This counter thingy doesn't differentiate it just counts. I did type in butter and hog. I didn't get either word being used.

That injured fellow is lucky and his partners are totally irresponsible. I can see cases in a 2 person team where the uninjured partner might have to make the injured climber comfortable and then leave for help, but a 4 person team should not abandon their partner.

Athabasca does look quite a bit better,but neither face looks very good to me. The Skyladder used to be all ice/snow and no rock in the middle of it.

California strawberries packed for shipping to Washington Washington Strawberries :tup: Of course there's probably good local strawberries available on spot in CA

Thanks for posting that. At least I haven't seen that one before. Trees are really cool structures. This video shows some of the best modern techniques for climbing them. I find myself continually having to explain to people that spurs are tools for killing trees and if you want to climb one either for pruning or recreation it's completely irresponsible and unethical to spike up a tree. I was just looking at a book last week on champion trees of Washington. It's a cool book, but I believe out of print. Back a few years ago I saw a presentation on climbing Sequoias in California. Some of the trees were really old (thousands of years). You could climb to the top and rappel hundreds of feet into a large column of decay then crawl out some lateral limbs. That was some cool stuff. You have to be on the lookout for the man, but back a number of years ago some friends and I climbed a 250' or so fir tree in Saint Edwards Park. We hung out on top drank a beer then rapped to the ground. Tons of fun. BTW if you don't know proper tree climbing techniques either take the time to learn, or you can get a ride in a crane down at the Wind River area south of Mount Adams. Canopy crane I took a ride in this thing back a few years ago. It's cool, and you can see a lot of features of the upper tree canopy.

The only thing I've learned out of this event is Edwards ain't going to appear in the VP debate this fall.

I'd be there too, but I already made other plans. That's a crazy trip you were on even if you didn't reach your intended destination.

Climbing isn't heroism it's only a human pursuit that both males and females have engaged in since the dawn of time. We've done it to find food and just out of curiosity about what's up there. It doesn't take much experience to know that climbing involves risk, but so does driving a car. I recently looked at statistics from England. From their records you have roughly a 1 in 10,000 chance of dying in a car wreck. It's a lot safer not to leave the house. This woman is an idiot, and she fails to take a long look at human activity. Perhaps she is in a man hating club.

I had a beer this evening. I know so what. For me it's kind of a big deal though. Most of you probably wouldn't understand. That's ok.

I think Maggie Gallagher should definitely come to Rope Up to edumacate us idjuts.