CascadeClimber

My friend and partner Mizuki Takahashi. Can't remember her avatar here. Died on Denali with her partner in a fall. We were supposed to try for Liberty Ridge again when she got back. Must be ten years at least now. I still haven't tried LR again.

Damnit. Just seeing this and can't make it tonight. Someone DM me about the next one.

Does anyone know if Alex is still around the area? I saw him a few times with Summer on the Cable Line maybe 4-5 years ago, but nothing since.

The ephemeral Exit 38 ice has to be in right now. Photo from 2008 when Dave Burdick and I nabbed what we think is the FA of the lower section.

Bummed I missed this. Hopefully can make it in January!

I may have misremembered that quote, as I have a chapter on bullshitting. Close enough?

(double post)

Do as many of the following as you are willing: 1. Sign the change. org petition https://www.change.org/p/restore-mount-rainier-weekday-winter-access/ 2. Call or email your senators and house rep. 3. Call your local newspaper and ask when they will report on this. 4. Email the park and voice your concern and ask what they are doing about the situation. I'll post the super's email here when I find it.

I get the write the chapter "How to Stay Married 30 Years when your Wife didn't Marry a Climber or Racer". We can co-author "I'll Sleep and Rest When I'm Dead" The Sprite race car has problematic under hood air flow issues: Behind the left headlight are the dual carbs. Behind the right is the oil cooler. We want lots of fresh, cool air on both. However, the only way for air to get out from under the bonnet (hood) is under the car, which we dislike a lot because it is the very opposite of the downforce that creates traction. It's like someone pulling on your leg as you try to smear up On Line at Static Point (I wonder if this gets climbed anymore with the road closed). Bonnet vents are not legal. Some racers run with both headlights open, some both closed, some right, some left. This was my first season and I ran left open. Oil temps were fine, so I'm sticking with that setup for now.

LOL, no. Fiero club that night. We also have a three Austin Healey Sprites and a Saturn Sky. Read all about it in my forthcoming book "Mountaineering and Automobiles: How to Choose Expensive Hobbies that Ensure You'll Never be Able to Retire."

I have a car club meeting that night that I don't think I can skip. Too bad, would be fun to reminisce about the glory days of this site...and some of its inglorious former denizens. Plus I want to heat @Juan Sharp recite "Twas' the Night Spent on Jberg" live.

I don't see it posted here, so here it is. The current mis-managers of the park are shutting down public access to Paradise except Sat and Sun through the winter. Overnight camping will be allowed on on Saturday nights. https://www.nps.gov/mora/learn/news/mount-rainier-national-park-announces-winter-2022-23-recreational-access-changes.htm This has me wondering if there will be a repeat of the 2006 scenario where the commercial guide services were allowed in when the public was not. Ugh.

Pub Club resurrected? What next, the Fall Sausage/Spray Fest?

"My Kingdom for a Cell Phone" is classic Cascades reading. I pull it out for a laugh about once a year. Bob's regard for J-berg and what he'd rather have done to him than ever go back up on is is utterly classic and, frankly, part of the allure of this mountain for me.

Okay, I went back to my photos. I can see where some rock is missing up above the ramp, but the traverse part looks intact from what I remember...

Wow. Too bad, as that was a fun route with one tough pitch and a boatload of class 4ish type stuff. But the increasing access issues kinda sucked. When we climbed it we parked at the top of the road in the talus fan (edit to add: right where that giant boulder of death stopped), hiked up, and went at it. Then hitched back to the car from the main parking lot at Alpental. Where's Burdo when we need a truckload of thankless cleaning done? I heard about a Leland sighting recently...

Props to Dru(l) for dredging up a 15 year old reference from the glory days. Word has it that JensK's "Sweet Granite in Renton" has yet to see an ascent. Or be seen.

Michael Chessler might be able to help identify.

Glad to see Skookum get some action. Been a few years since Dave B and I played around on that side of the river.

Canada bore the brunt of the Pineapple Express. Highway 1 is washed out south of Lytton (overhead photo) and 99 is out east of Whistler. Lots more, and these tell the tale: Not simple fixes.

If you aren't on top, you aren't on top. You might have completed the technical portion of a route, but if you do a Twight and throw your stove out on the Football Field and go down, you didn't summit or complete the route. I think any other interpretation leads to rapid erosion of the term "summit". And yes, I have at least one Rainier climb where we got to the crater rim, on the Emmons side, but it was so windy we couldn't get to Columbia Crest. I do not count this as a summit.

Thank you for posting. There was a lot in the write up about Helmy that I didn't know. I'd heard third-hand that Fred referred to him as the smart one for going back to Germany and having a family. Don't know if that true, maybe Megan is around and will chime in. Helmy, Fred, Dee, et al were real trailblazers and true adventurers in the Cascades. Having completed new routes on Johannnesberg, Formidable, and Little Tahoma, I can say that going where no one has been before, where there is no description or cairn or tat, etc. is a very different experience. And in those cases we followed an established route down. What they did in terms of first summits with far less road access...man, that's an order of magnitude more commitment. Cheers to them all, and thank you for blazing those trails and routes that so many have joyfully followed.

This morning it's 33F at Snoqualmie Pass and 35F at Paradise. Muir is offline again. The good news is that this helps consolidate the snowpack so it's more stable and lasts longer in the spring.

High temp at Muir over the last seven days is 17F, and 36F at Paradise. So it doesn't seem to be a thick isothermal layer, though it's also not quite at raw adiabatic levels, either. I saw a report of bad crust at Snow Lake Divide, but the passes tend to be anomalous. https://www.nwac.us/weatherdata/paradise/now/ https://www.nwac.us/weatherdata/campmuir/now/

Godspeed and heavenly first ascents with Fred to Dee Molenaar, who has departed the Cascades at 101. Dee and Fred may have known more about the Cascades than everyone alive combined. I feel fortunate to have lived while they did, and was inspired by their adventures, writings, and antics. https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Dee-Molenaar-RIP-at-101-and-The-Brotherhood-of-14993166.php