AlpineK

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Cool Route It's even better you did the Crossover descent. That's way cooler than walking off the west side trail.

Terrible Band

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Go climb the Direct NE Buttress of Slesse and tell me about trees in the alpine. NE buttress of Johannesburg would be another one to check out too. Try and climb those without using tree holds.

Right on [img:center]http://www.danbbs.dk/~rep/pictures/animation/skianim.gif[/img]

Shouldn't that be Bozo de Clown? Nice pictures!

The tree is a natural feature unlike hanging on either placed protection or bolts. You're climbing on part of the cliff/mountain. Of course if you fell a tree onto a crag so you can bypass hard moves then that would be aid climbing. Past that it's either a local ethics, or style points thing.

[font:Arial Black] Go Skiing [/font] [img:center]http://www.danbbs.dk/~rep/pictures/animation/skianim.gif[/img]

Radness

Skiing on North Gardner

Trip: North Gardner - NW Couloir Date: 5/17/2009 Trip Report: Way back in the 70s I heard about ski area plans for Big Sandy over in the Methow. After hearing about the plans I decided that someday I was going to build my own ski area there. The obvious way to plan a ski area, for me, was to start looking in my dad's Beckey books and find a place much cooler that Big Sandy. I Settled on Gardner Mountain as the site and managed to talk my folks into a backcountry ski trip over there to check it out. The end result was a cool weekend overnight ski with some funny backcountry ski gear (skins and downhill ski gear). We all skied up to Cedar Creek below Gardner but not much further. In The end I ditched my ski area plans a lot faster than Aspen Corporation did. Being a young teenager I quickly moved on to the next thing without loosing sleep. I still wanted to ski Gardner though. Recently at the 2009 Ski In I got some good views of Gardner from the Big Kangaroo area. It was time to actually ski up the peak. North Gardner looked to be the most convenient section of the Gardner area for a weekend trip. With some recruiting I managed to get tanstaafl psyched to ski in there. Early on May 16th we left the Cedar Creek parking lot and started hiking with our ski gear on our back. Cedar Creek is pretty cool, but the first big challenge was to cross the creek. Crossing took a bit of scouting to finally settle on the least sketchy spot to wade. Creek crossing location After crossing we changed into ski boots and started step kicking through the remaining snow. At about 4500 feet we found enough snow to take the skis off our packs and start skiing. Looking towards our objective down low After skiing more and debating the best route we reached our camp site. After a rest I skied up a ways to check out the best ski line. This is what I came up with The next morning early we started skinning up. Everything went smoothly. View west to Silverstar Our ski line gave out a ways before the summit. Here's a view above our ski line to the summit. After scrambling we reached the top of North Gardner. Here are two photos. Towards Glacier Peak Big Kangaroo and the Washington Pass Area. After hanging out on the summit it was time to ski! We scrambled back to the skis and got psyched. View down the mountain. Cedar Creek is in the distance. Turns at the top of the ski line. Looking back at the route. Back at the tent we were pretty happy, but then the crazy skiing started. After packing we skied down the creek constantly plotting the best line. This was too nutty for photos. Of course eventually we had to pack our skis to get back to the creek and find our approach shoes. The water was higher this time across, but we made it back to the trail. Heavy packs sucked, but it all ended at the car. Finally it was party time! It's quite a slog to get into North Gardner, but I'm happy I finally got to ski there on a nice sunny weekend! Gear Notes: Bring snow sliding stuff. Approach Notes: Crossing Cedar Creek was a tricky part. We did a bit of scouting before picking the point to cross. Try to find flat water. When you head up the creek we found better schwacking on the climbers right side.

I only kayaked (on super easy things) a couple times while living in that region. I did know quite a few really good kayakers who did all kinds of rad things around there. Of course that was the 80s. Times sure have changed. That's a pretty incredible thing to launch off of. Party time in Moscow.

If anybody is interested in skiing east of the crest off HWY 20 send me a PM. I'd like to do an overnight trip this weekend. I have Friday to Monday available. 5/15 to 5/18.

That ain't no yak

Trash, ladders, old ropes, and dead guys That was ok. Bolts on Everest are clearly over the line!

Cool! I've looked at those peaks from Crystal. They look even better close up.

Don't forget this one [img:center]http://img.ukclimbing.com/i/115093.jpg[/img]

Back a couple weeks ago I was interested in upcoming weather patterns. The NOAA 30 day prediction called for normal precipitation and below normal temperatures. Between that and watching the rate at which trees in the lowlands are leafing out at I figure the transition period between winter and spring is longer and or later this year than other years. To me that implies avy conditions in the mountains are still more winter like. You make the call, but I wouldn't just look at the calendar and decide that avy potential is low now.

I could have climbed Mt. Saint Helens to the old summit back a long time ago. I figured, "the mountain will always be there," so I climbed something else. Eventually I climbed Saint Helens, but it wasn't quite what I had originally imagined.

Your location?? 509 area code as in Spokane?

I haven't heard the name Eddie Rabbitt for a long time

bump

Even the Colonel hated what KFC turned into. Are you going to go for a multinational chicken company or a company run by local boys. Don't piss Lenny off [img:center]http://hoopedia.nba.com/images/2/26/Wilkens1.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://www.basketusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/lenny-wilkens.jpg[/img] And don't even mess with Oprah [img:center]http://traceyricksfoster.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/oprah-winfrey-b.jpg[/img]