Alpine_Tom

Ah, here it is. http://www.dramaticwriter.com/beginneralpine.html I don't know who this guy is, so I can't really vouch for him, but these lists of beginning climbs seem pretty solid.

Another good "beginner" route is the NE buttress of Chair Peak. It's likely to be a lot less busy than the tooth, and probably no more time from the trailhead. But stay away from the SE gully (or whatever it's called.) It's supposed to be the easiest way up Chair peak, but it's chock full of loose rock. I chopped a rope rapelling down there. Someone used to have a list of "starter" climbs on glaciers, rock, and scrambles on a website locally, but I haven't seen it for a while.

I was up there on 7/2 with Alex Mineev. It's a nice hike, the wildflowers are in bloom and it's awfully pretty up there, and the views to the Stuart range are pretty awesome. But aside from some fun scrambling at the summit, it's not really a "climb." As Alex said, "it's Mt. Si on steroids." But much better views, and much less crowded. Someone mountainbiked all the way up the west ridge; that must have been fun! If you go, let me know if the old ice screw I left is still there.

We took our dog thru customs last year. We were told to have have proof of rabies vaccination, but were never asked for it.

Must be Mt. Si. The haystack is clearly visible on the left.

Did you summit Rainier if, when looking at your summit "team photo" you realize that you were standing about ten feet away from the high point of Columbia Crest? Or does the crater rim count, as Mike Gautier says? Does summitting Rainer require starting from Paradise? Why not Longmire? Why not the park entrance? Does summiting Hood count if you ride a cat or ski lift part of the way? If not, then is it cheating to take a snowmobile up to the trailhead of Baker in a winter climb when the road is closed? It's all arbitrary, and up to your own personal values. People who stress over what the rules should be should spend more time climbing and less time worrying about others' climbs.

This story hits uncomfortably close to home. I can certainly envision what those guys went through, I did it myself there, last fall. I went out to hike up Vesper Peak, figuring it'd be an easy, safe, predictable outing. My plan was that I'd hike up Vesper, then follow the trail around up to Sperry. No problem, it's trails all the way, who needs a map? Or a compass? Or a partner? Well, it was overcast, and by the time I got up to the tarn, the mountains were shrouded in fog. My first clue that I was making a mistake was that, intending to go straight across the bowl (north) and get onto the Sperry peak trail, I inadvertently went all the way around the tarn. I had a hard time convincing myself that I'd actually done it; I was so sure I'd been travelling in a more or less straight line. Back at the entry to the bowl, I had no problem getting to the top of Vesper, and headed down, eastward, as best I could in the fog, towards Sperry, following the occasional cairn and looking for a trail. Eventually, a good hour later, I figured out that I'd descended too far north and had managed to get down over the ridge that connects Vesper and Sperry, and eventually, trying to find my bearings, returned all the way to the summit of Vesper. By now I'm thinking I'm just going to beat a safe retreat, and followed the cairns through the fog. Things didn't look quite right, but then they usually don't in the fog. Further and further down I went, through trees that I didn't think should be there... and eventually figured out that I was indeed heading down the west side of the mountain, into the Sultan river basin. Back up to the summit, a third time, and I finally managed to find my way down to the trail, the lake, and back to the car. There but for the grace of God, was me. Except I didn't have someone waiting for me at the car to call S&R.

One of the big drawbacks to soloing is the lack of a sanity check – often I’ll wimp out when I’m by myself, but sometimes I’ll make a stupid decision and keep going when a prudent partner might say “are you sure you want to be doing this?” There have been a couple of really irresponsible decisions I’ve made that really I had no business surviving. But I suspect the biggest reason that solo hikers die more frequently is that there’s no one to go for help, provide first aid, or help the injured hiker out. After all, you may be no more likely to fall into a crevasse unroped than roped up, but the consequences are much greater.

I was up there in late July two years ago, and the "pearly gates" were horribly scary -- chunks of rocks the size of engine blocks were crashing down there, with virtually no warning; there was bare water ice you had to cross. Chose Adams -- you'll be happier.

You mean they did Hood without a guide? That makes all the difference!

When were were up there last weekend (Paradise) the ranger told me that AT&T sucks on Rainier, but Verizon has good service. That's been my experience as well (with AT&T, anyhow.) I've given up bringing the cell phone; it's just dead weight. I used to get fine service in the analog days -- on the Muir snowfield, on Stuart, on Glacier Peak... Digital just doesn't have the distance, I guess.

It's been decided that my family and some friends are going to Leavenworth for the July 4 weekend. Can anyone recommend a decent place to stay, for like 5 adults, 2 kids, non-climbers (except for me.) Hopefully I can get at least a few hours on some rock someplace out there while they're wandering thru the wineries and the deluxe shopping...

When were were up at Muir last weekend, I was impressed by how roomy the bathroom was, much nicer than I'd remembered. Then I remembered the spray on here about the "handicapped accessible" bathroom at Muir, and sure enough, that's what it was! So, if you can get your wheelchair up the trail and rock stairsteps, and across the muir snowfield, and you can get up over the bottom half of the dutch door and down the steps into the bathroom, there's plenty of room to turn your wheelchair around, as well has handrails to make it easier for you.

I remember that traverse! I solo'd FC a few years ago, and misnavigated the descent, and came to that traverse. In my leather boots, tired and strung out, I remember thinking "Okay, here's where I die. I wonder when they'll find my body."

Well, when I did it last year with Alex Mineev and Aaron Bailey, we traversed under the rock, on a safe-feeling shelf. This time we went all the way up to the very top of the snowfield that you ascend, on the SE side of Gibraltar Rock, and went onto a very dicey, steep-sloping snow and ice ledge that at the start was only about 4-5 feet wide. Mike, who's done the route several times in the past, assured me that THIS was the actual ledges route, and the one I did last year (and it sounds like you may have done) is not. I had a camera with me, but since we got to the ledges around 12:30 or so, there was no way to take a picture, so I can't provide any better description than that.

Both Mike and I are, in fact he's a member in longer standing than me.

Climb: Mt Rainier-Gib Ledges Date of Climb: 5/29/2005 Trip Report: The climb was organized by Dan Larson, and originally included him, Lu Lui, Mike Bell, and myself. The plan was to hike up to Muir, hang out until dark, and then do the Nisqually Ice Fall. We met at Dan’s on Saturday and drove down in two cars, getting to an extremely full Paradise parking lot around 1:00. Where we dithered and ultimately decided to bag the Ice Fall and do Gib Ledges instead. On the hike up to Muir – man, it was hot! I was wishing I’d brought a small umbrella – Lu was lagging behind, and Dan slowed down to hike with him. Eventually, Mike and I got to the newly refurbished Muir hut around 6:00. Dan and Lu never showed up – we found out the next day that Lu had twisted his ankle, so the two of them turned around. The hut is much more spacious than it was, but only holds about half the numbers of sleepers, it seems. Anyhow, we set up our stove and melted snow, drinking water and resting. Around 10:30, we headed up to the ledges. The snow was an okay consistency, and there was enough starlight that you could see the basic shapes of the rock. We followed a boot track up the ridge, which proved to be a skiers track when it petered out above the beehive. The ledges were pretty sketchy. It was right around freezing, and water was dripping off the rocks onto the snow, where it froze into a hard water ice and rock mix, pretty dicey to hang onto with crampons or ice axe. The snow was nearly as bad, a hard crust over sugar snow, so that when you punched through (I weigh a lot more than Mike so I fell through a lot more) you’d wallow thigh or hip deep. The ledges may not be done for the season, but if you want to get the route this year, be prepared. Last year in April I did what I thought was the Gib Ledges, and was a bit surprised at how easy it was. We’d actually done the ramp BELOW the ledges. That route (I don’t know if it has a name) seems to be still in, and less dicey than the actual ledges. Eventually we got through and up onto the exit chute. From here it was a routine long hike up to the summit, which we reached around 6:30. We hung out on the crater rim for a while (I got my kite up into the summit wind for a bit) and headed down behind two strings of RMI folks, down the ID route. Conditions were generally quite good, aside from the actual ledges. Cathedral Gap is currently all snow, none of that nasty stumbling and sliding on choss, though it probably won’t be much longer. The Ingraham Direct route is in fine shape, pretty direct. Gear Notes: Crampons, ice axe, 30m rope. Approach Notes: There's a LOT less snow than there was a couple weeks ago -- you're mostly on dry trail up past Pan Point.

Without Hillary, Tenzing would have never gotten up there -- the expedition provided both the resources and the motivation, as well as the technical climbing training. Without Tenzing's strength, Hillary wouldn't have got up there. imho, this is a perfect armchair climber question -- ultimately meaningless but full of potential for disagreement, nitpicking, and difference-splitting. To me, a bigger issue is what Hillary did AFTER Everest. Instead of going home to rest on his laurels, or continuing to forge a reputation as a hard-man climber, he went back to Nepal and dedicated his life to bettering the lives of the Sherpas, building schools, hospitals, and so on.

I'd agree -- especially about the community service part -- but it gets completely subjective. What if these guys had been able to get down, or get themselves to safety otherwise -- would that prove that they had business up there? If you're equipped and trained, but don't get a current weather report and end up needing rescue, do you have to pay? The most valid reason for not charging, though, is that it would encourage people to endanger themselves (and others) by taking big risks to save the $$, which in this case was dauntingly big for such a comparatively straightforward rescue. (I've never had to call for a rescue, and I can't remember the last time I was in a place where I was wimpering for my mommy, where I could have even GOTTEN cell phone reception, but knowing that I'd be on the hook for several months' mortage payments would certainly encourage me to tough it out.) But anyone who says “I don’t got no regrets” after requiring others to risk their lives and spend a bunch of money to rescue them, OUGHT to be forced to pay!

FYI -- Seattle PI article advertising the slideshow: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/224428_rainier16.html "...one time these guys called and they were climbing a really technical route called Ptarmigan Ridge, and basically they called in from above base camp and they wanted us to give them the route conditions and directions. "This one struck me as particularly absurd because, generally speaking, you'd like to think that people on those routes had done a significant amount of planning.... They left their name and number and they were like, 'Call us back right away.' "

If you call them 'climbers' in your news story, you can add amunition to the movement to charge climbers for rescues.

Depends how comfortable they are with the exposure. IMHO, it's an awfully long hike up thru the trees for a hundred yards of scrambling. I tried doing it about this time of year a couple years back, and got turned back with terrible post-holing before gothic basin. It's a different year of course. For a kid that age, I'd try taking them up Pugh first.

When I did it a couple of years ago, instead of camping at thumb rock, we climbed to about 12,000' and dug bivvy platforms in the snow. Made for a very easy final day, no crowds, no rockfall danger up there.

If you live in a reasonably populated area, I bet a you can plug a wireless NIC into your PC and scam off someone's wireless network. In residential Shoreline, there are four wireless networks besides our within reach of our house, and none (but ours) are secured. I'm not advocating theft, particularly, but unless you're downloading movies, no one would notice.