Alpine_Tom

I second Del Campo and N. Twin. North Twin is a Really Fun Climb, although route-finding to the trailhead can be a challenge. Tomyhoi is okay, but there's a lot of driving and hiking for about 100 feet of actual climbing. It's awfully pretty up there this time of year, though. Forgot about the S rib of Guye Peak. Another fun class-4 scramble, if you don't mind some moderately loose rock. Has the added benefit of a pretty short hike.

The NE Buttress of Chair Peak is a fun solo. Pair it with der toof, and that'd be a reasonable day outing.

Thanks for those photos. That was the first alpine rock climb I did, and I was also wishing we'd arranged to camp in that little meadow. Truly a shangri-la spot.

Pichers, if ya want 'em: http://home.comcast.net/~tbreit/monte.htm

Last time I was up there (a couple of years ago) the forest service had said they weren't going to maintain the trail because it was wilderness, or some such. But, they STILL required a Forest Pass, to help pay for all the maintenance they weren't going to do. Is there still a forest pass sign at the BB trailhead?

Yeah, I ran into a couple of guys in Glacier Basin who were heading up to Cadet Peak, and that had apparently spent a lot of time poking around in mine adits and exploring old mining artifacts.

Trip: Monte Cristo - std route Date: 9/6/2008 Trip Report: Reduced to doing a solo outing, I thought this might be a reasonably interesting feasible outing for a day with iffy visibility. I was up in Glacier Basin two weeks ago with Alex M, climbing Cadet Peak (not really worth it but for the scenery) and so it was a known quantity. The bike ride in to the townsite, about 4 miles, has been damaged badly by floods. There are a couple of bike-over-your-shoulder portages in the first part (unless you're far more of a single-tracker than me) but the rest of the road is okay. The trail up to Glacier Basin is in fine shape. I was surprised by how much lower the water was than just two weeks ago. I followed the route description in Jeff Smoot's book, heading up the 'obvious' scree slope up between the cliff band, and from there bearing left up to the V notch. The visibility sucked; I kept hoping it would clear, which the weather report said it was supposed to, but it didn't really get very clear until mid-afternoon, so I was navigating mostly by hunch. I stayed off the snow heading up, and hiked up the dirt-scree-rock hogsback, and then scrambled up a couple of crappy gullys, aiming for what I hoped was the v-notch. Once you're at the v-notch, you traverse behind the mountain for a bit, like Silver Star peak, to a gully that you follow up to the summit. Here I was out of luck: the moat was ten feet wide and hopelessly deep. I did find another spot I could get across the moat, and tried to claw my way up the rock, but it got to be mid-fifth class climbing, and I didn't feel comfortable doing (or reversing) it in hiking shoes and no pro. So, I headed down. The book suggests that you can scramble up to the summit from the north side, and if the visibility had been better, I might have tried that. But for now, the 'standard' route is pretty well out. As a whole, the climb is much more enjoyable than the bushwhacking and heather slogging on Cadet Peak. The rock is kind of interesting in that there is two distinct varieties, an absolutely crappy crumbly red rock, and very nice granite (I think.) It looks like the north face scramble route would go up the granite, as the summit block is generally. I took some photos, but they're on my PC at home. I might post them if anyone's interested, or they'll show up on my website eventually. Gear Notes: crampons (needed them on the back side.) hiking poles. coulda maybe used rock shoes. Approach Notes: The road is in okay condition. Apparently the 'trail pass' money isn't being used to actually work on access any more. The trail was fine, if muddy in places.

Beautiful photos, if a little small... Is that Buckner, the first photo on the second post? Looks like the n face routes are a bit past their prime.

The Mountain Westie has more competition than she knew about... Also on Yellow Astor Butte.

"The victim was identified as Oded Schramm, of Sammamish, according to the Medical Examiner's Office. He was reported missing about 8:45 p.m. Monday by his wife. Deputies found his car later Monday at the Snow Lake Trailhead at Alpental, near Snoqualmie Pass, the Sheriff's Office reported." My deepest condolences to his family and friends. I've scrambled around on Guye Peak myself. These tragedies are getting a bit too close to home.

I for one would rather that unknowledgeable news people didn't decide for themselves which information should be withheld (aside from obvious ones like names, etc.) Would you prefer an article that said "an undisclosed number of people are stranded on an undisclosed location on an undisclosed route, with undisclosed gear." I too hope they come out of this with nothing worse than a great epic tale. "No shit, there we were..."

That's "the sweeter the pushin'"

And, if you didn't read the bio, Maggie Gallager is a former editor of National Review. If you needed any hints about what a knee-jerk unthinking opinionated 'commentator' she might be, that should lay it out for you. (That's the same august publication with suggested, after 9/11, that we should "invade their countries, kill their leaders, and force them to convert to Christianity.")

Not to get back on track, but it seems like an important point here is that there were 17 people up there at the same time. If there's an equipment failure or avalanche and someone, or a climbing party of two or three is killed, that's tragic. But if there's so many folks up there, tromping (or trudging) up to tag the summit than come down again, then the odds are magnified and the chance for a "small" disaster to turn into a really big one.

I usually make a couple of bagel sandwiches: cream cheese and a big wad of lunchmeat. They hold their shape, and you get the chewiness and a bit of moisture. They seem to last 2-3 days without any problems. The hard part is finding decent bagels these days: Bagel Oasis has the best. If you're bringing a helmet along, you can pack your food inside the helmet in your pack on the approach, for some protection. Also, apples: juicy, sweet, no packaging to feel guilty about.

What a classy way to finish out the list, with Rainier!

Last time I was up there, July 28 of 2002, was maybe the most scared I've ever been in the mountains. Rocks were coming down the not-so-pearly gates, including one the size of an engine block. Definitely, condolences to the family and friends. This is a dangerous time of year to be up there.

It's that time of year again! I'll be riding it, for the first time since 2001. We'll see what seven years have done to the aging legs. Who else is going? Dwainer, are you going to be doing CAMROD?

Did you get a look at NF Buckner? I imagine it's in pretty good shape?

Current conditions (according to http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/conditions/road_conditions_report.shtml) Open to MP 20 (Eldorado Trailhead gate), 2.3 miles from Cascade Pass Trailhead. Downed trees, patchy snow, and avalanche chutes beyond. Road crews hope to open road to Cascade Pass Trailhead sometime in July (as of 6/19/08). Sounds like easy access for mountain bikes. Anyone have more recent information? I was hoping to get up there this weekend.

Trip: Chair Peak - NE buttress Date: 5/19/2008 Trip Report: I went out Sunday for the first time in months, and figured due to the high avalanche warnings and uncertainly over what the snow conditions would be, I'd do a close, predictable outing. Several years ago I'd solo'd the NE Buttress of Chair Peak, so I figured that would be a good way to break out the rock shoes. My Lord, there's a lot of snow up there! After a 90-degree day in Seattle, I'd envisioned the Snow Lake trail bare and dry, full of families in shorts and flipflops. Instead, it looks pretty much like you'd expect, say, in March. So, I ended up slogging around above the Snow Lake trail, getting cliffed out several times, and got to the base of Chair Peak about two hours later than I'd intended. The snow wasn't too soft -- I ran into a party who said that two weeks ago they were sinking to their thighs, but it was much firmer than that now. The rock was untenable, at least for a solo attempt. A lot of that green lichen was slick from the melt water, so what had been a stimulating solo in August a few years ago, was unacceptably risky to me. I got about 50 feet up before I gave up, downclimbed and headed out. I was surprised to see the ski lifts still running -- I got the impression that this might have been their last day. I heard people over on The Tooth; I'm guessing the south-facing rock would have been a much more pleasant place to be. Gear Notes: rock shooz Approach Notes: No avalanching observed; apparently what could avalanche already has. LOTS of snow; Source Lake is invisible. Ski poles would have been useful.

You can order it from Amazon, or Netflix.

I was kind of disappointed by it. There was nothing added to the blizzard of coverage ten years ago, except seeing the quality of Beck Weathers' plastic surgery. I think of Frontline as addressing current issues, not retrospectives of a small tragedy that happened twelve years ago (perhaps I'm a bit cynical because I'm in the middle of David Halberstam's book about the Korean war, where thousands of US soldiers died in similar temperatures, fighting for their country and not for their own egos...) I suppose a part of it is that Brashears is limited by the sorts of projects he can get funding for, and this event "changed climbing forever," so it's something everyone knows about. Heck, there was a person on the mountain who was only the second Japanese woman to climb the seven summits!

Bump - Tonight on KCTS9, at 9:00 PM, Frontline is showing David Breashears' film, "Storm Over Everest" Just a reminder. And don't forget to email ViewerServices@kcts.org or call 206-728-6463 to tell them to show more of this sort of thing.

My fantasy "easy north cascades overnight outing" is to camp near the base of Pyramid Peak. From there there are several class 2-3 climbs including Pyramid and Paul Bunyan's stump (I don't have my resources here at work.)