CascadeClimber

Any Stuart south-side experts out there? I'm looking for some beta on which of the myriad of climber's trails coming down to the Ingalls trail is Cascadian. Planning to camp where the Long's Pass trail crosses Ingalls and scramble up Cascadian from there. Thanks in advance-

Nope, no sleeping in the gravel for me. I'm apparently both too old and not old enough for that shit. The picture isn't Jberg, though I see the resemblence. The C-J couloir doesn't get that broken up. Say, that wasn't you that bashed my car, was it? [ 07-25-2002, 11:47 AM: Message edited by: CascadeClimber ]

I'll play...

There is still a good bit of snow in the gully system above C-J Col. With the current warm weather the rock would be wet and the snow mushy. Would make for a scintillating ascent/descent. Got a good look at the alternate descent route from C-J Col to Cache Col. Getting past Mixup looks like a PITA. Has anyone here ever gone that way?? Someone ran into my car at the Cascade Pass lot over the weekend. They were kind enough to leave insurance info. I also had a nice flat tire that we got to change yesterday evening. Many thanks to Ranger Kelly Bush who took pity on me and left a nice note instead of a parking ticket on my windshield.

I second the vote for Little T. The top of that thing is nothing but a loose rubble-heap.

I made it all the way up the gully to the start of the East Ridge a week ago in my tennis shoes. YMMV

Great route. Climbed it last year in late May. Is the road open yet? Might want to call the Detroit (Oregon) Ranger station for some beta.

Hee hee. Yeah, it was battle stations in that gully. Here is a pic I took while Book of the Dead (circled in red) was yelling down to us: Was that ice pitch really a 'full rope length' like the book says? Sure didn't look that way from below. You guys survived that, I think that's worth two more of those stickers on your helmet Necro. More here: Cutthroat and SEWS [ 05-12-2002, 08:34 PM: Message edited by: CascadeClimber ]

Hey, thanks, Mike. I'm glad you appreciate it.

"Toooooo Sofffftt!!!!" That's what we heard as they crested onto the col. Still, we ventured up the couloir to the base of the slush, er, ice. Damn. A couple hours too late. Fearing for our lives in the cornice-threatened death-gully, and getting pummeled frequently by falling ice, we agreed that they were right and retreated. Damn. Nice go guys, I wish we'd been just a bit earlier. Which way did you descend?

The big "Spring 2002: Gear up for *any* adventure" catalog showed up at my house today. It is 104 pages including the front and back covers. The first piece of real gear (backpacks and trekking poles) appears on page 74. Notably missing: - Any kind of rope- Boots (other than light hikers)- Crampons- Axes- Cams, nuts, hexes, tri-cams, etc.- Rock shoes- Harnesses (there is a picture of two people hiking in their harnesses, though!)- Four season tents I guess when they say "any adventure" they mean your next trip to Bellevue Square. Jules, I'd say REI's priorities are pretty clear and you friend may be in for a very frustrating experience trying to make any change. But all the power to him!

quote: Originally posted by jules: OK, another question: Do you think that the assortment is good in ANY of the categories (check out rei.com)? Yes. They have an excellent selection of casual wear, especially over-priced imported fleece of all shape and color. I also like the holiday candles and the collapsable dog dishes, which are, of course, the 11th and 12th essentials on any serious climb. Please don't confuse selection with availability. Over and over in recent years I've heard, "Oh, yeah, we don't have any of those in the store, but we have, lessee, 9436 in the Kent warehouse." Once I went in to buy a Trango Pyramid only to discover that the FLAGSHIP STORE had not a single belay device of any kind! Stock the gear in the stores!!! Will said it best: Get back to being a source of a full selection of high quality climbing equipment at excellent prices. If they do that I don't care how much fleece they carry. The current leadership seems to have confused "biggering" with "bettering".

quote: Originally posted by chucK (snipped): Loren, Nice post. I appreciate your restrained tone respecting the way this thread was started. Once you have to do it yourself, you see it is not as easy to be perfect. Like kids, the mountie students and leaders are not telepathically connected to one brain. Unless you actually deny them the right to go out into the mountains, I think you have to give a big untrained group a bit more slack/leeway than smaller teams who have been climbing together for a long time. I display proof, digital proof, that those installations are a product of the WAC I have done some guiding myself. I know it is not easy, or maybe possible to make a group of six or more with mixed experience move efficiently. I always go out of my way to be gracious, humble, and as polite as possbile when I'm out with a big group. I guess my biggest beef has been their marked unwillingness to hear feedback from the rest of the "climbing community"; that their role power and "everything they've done" for climbing in the Northwest somehow exclude them from being accountable for their impact on climbers who are not in the club. Steve's post, his non-defensive follow-up, and his thoughtful email reply to my post seem to indicate that things are changing at Mountaineers HQ. Lundin: I think you'll find that there is another memorial placard there now. Thanks for the thoughtful discussion.

Steve- I appreciate the nature of your post and see it as somewhat of a departure from the usual high-horse Mountaineers attitude. So I'll share with you some thoughts and observations, many of which I shared with Sue Weckerly after I was kicked out. As you may or may not know, I was asked to "no longer participate" in the climbing outings after my patella was severly dislocated on the snow 1 course. This injury happened the day after an instrutor led us into Edelweiss Bowl in very high avalanche conditions, despite the advice of *many* students, and about six weeks before I was nearly killed at the snow II course when an instructor set us up under the rocky cliffs along the Nisqually glacier. When we pointed out that it seemed to be an extraordinarily unsafe place to spend a hot, sunny, early-summer day, he responded by informing me that, "we've been watching for days and nothing has fallen, so we know nothing will." 15 minutes later a rock the size of a small car fell off the cliff and slid down the slope, passing within 15 feet of two separate "rope teams". People get killed in your club because of things like this. You call them accidents. I call them incidents. They result from negligence and arrogance. The avalanche deaths on Red a few years ago happened after leaders poopooed the warnings of students, as I recall. When I shared this thought with Sue she told me that the Mountaineers have an accident rate that is comparable to other similar organizations: She was resigned to and accepting of the current rate of injury and death at your outings. That didn't seem good enough to me, how about you? Though you may not agree, suggesting that this community encourage the repair of Schurman Rock is also arrogant: We should help you get your fake-crag fixed so that you won't swarm all over some real crag where we might actually want to climb? I think that part of the problem is the conscription of the Climbing II students as Climbing I instructors (at least it used to be this way). If they don't want to teach they should not be forced to. Among other reasons, most people don't do well something they dislike but are required to do, especially on their free time. Example: I had an instructor and the knots night tell me that I should never tie a bowline, that it was an obsolete knot, but that he had to teach it because it was required. Ultimately, I think the size of a group exponentially impacts solitude: A group of six is nine times more impactful than a group of two. But it seems like many Mountaineers parties cut an even bigger swath through the solitude. Though I've encountered some that were polite and thoughtful, I've experienced and witnessed many incidents where your climb leaders were intrusive and offensive to other groups. While they may simply intend to help other parties or protect the experience of their students, it frequently comes across as arrogant and righteous. I personally disagree with the installations on Lundin Peak. I understand the reasoning and I disagree. I feel the same way about the bolts and giant rap anchors on Ingalls, though I don't know who put them there. Lastly, I am horrified that your organization has come out in support of the Trail Park permit system. It, and your support of it, is a travesty. I am glad that you have capped the climbing course size and I appreciate you for soliciting feedback and offering an "Olive Branch" here. I hope that you will read and consider the feedback you get and resist the urge to quickly write it off for one of the many tempting reasons.

True, but then we miss out on the that lovely and scenic country road from Lytton to Lillooet. And what about the incessant drizzle, and bevy of tractor-trailer rigs screaming out of the fog on Canada 1? Squamish may be fun, but the drive to Lillooet is an adventure unto itself.

[ 03-28-2002: Message edited by: CascadeClimber ]

Great story, well told. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who has misadventures like that.

Right on! Give him our best and let him know he is in our thoughts and prayers.

That is the chute you drop down from Camp Hazard, right? It has changed since I was there in 95. We camped at Hazard, which was bad enough, but a crew came through, dropped into the chute, and set up camp just below where you make the U-turn to head back up. Yikes.

March 18, 2002, 11:02 AM. It is snowing and sticking at my house in Issaquah, and has been all morning. I'm at 480 feet. This is bizarre. Don't put those ice tools away yet...

I've twice had Neutrinos come unclipped from the rope: Once extended with a single, once with a double. Neither of us saw it happen, but we agreed that it had essentially unclipped itself. I've since switched over to using the Omega JC. Anyone else have this happen?

Someone please help Trask. He appears to be partly lodged in a temporal rift.

quote: Originally posted by greenfork: Neutrinos unclipping: Perhaps you didn't completely clip them? Seems a possibility considering how small they are... Not. In one case I saw my partner clip the rope and saw the rope in the biner. The second time was the same, 'cept I was climbing and he was belaying. I think they have an issue with the spring constant of the gate.

Dru- Did you see the Nat. Geo. special on those monks? Each year in Feb they trek from their monastary at 16,000 up to 18k and sleep outside all night with nothing more than their robes. Many make the trek barefoot. No frostbite, no shivering. Now there is a mountaineering skill to have.