CascadeClimber

Trip: McClellan Butte - North Couloir Date: 5/10/2011 Trip Report: Slogged up the North Couloir on McClellan after work today. It's in good shape for this time of year and the big slides have come down, so it's not a death-trap. The avy debris made the ski down suckful and an inconveniently located cornice made the usual 3rd class scramble onto the summit ridge significantly more spicy. Flotation recommended for the lower sections, just above the woods. I was postholing to my knees near the top and there should be some steps left, though some were buried during the slushtacular skiing up high. Good workout, fun route in a nice position. Gear Notes: Skis, skins, crampons, axe. Used them all. Approach Notes: Trail is dry to the first clearing.

Me too. Sounds like a bad fall.

It's not me. I'm working in Bellevue...

Looking at a one-day or 1.5 day on the Nisqually Icefall for Sat/Sun. Ski descent. Willing solo, but would be nice to have some help putting in the route. Not a newbie route or a good choice if you're not in good shape (2.5-3 hours to Muir kind of shape). email me: loren(at)cascadeclimber.com

HAL9000, CaptCaveman, TRS80...

Yeah, "Muir on Saturday" has to be in there. As does Layton's TR told from the perspective of his Own Personal Mr. Hankey. On the serious side, Fern put up a compelling bit of prose about getting caught in an avalanche.

There are many classics that I've yet to do, but from the list of what I've done, this is my favorite: Perfect weather, awesome partner, required good all-around skills, and was a true adventure (by my definition).

Glad you got a response. That's more than I can say for the last six or so emails I've sent him. I wonder why that info didn't just get posted to the blog, since that would have taken the same amount of time?

That doesn't really work, as many of us did join and advocate years ago to deaf, stubborn ears. It's the club's turn to show us that it's an advocate for us. Fool me (and nearly kill me) once... FYI, there was a long thread on this subject in 2002, 5-6 years after my dust-up with the club. At that time Steve Firebaugh said many of the same same things: We've changed, we're safe now, we want your input, we will advocate, the board has a new outlook, etc. So some of us that are now rolling our eyes are doing so because we've heard this before.

"We're different now and we have a dry-tool wall almost, so you should join." isn't very compelling. Climbers aren't typically joiners, in my experience, so you have to offer something pretty attractive to encourage herd behavior from people who tend to travel in groups of one to three. For my part, I would have liked to see the club take much more aggressive, outspoken roles on policy issues that affect our hobby. The State Park fees, the Northwest Forest Pass/Fee Demo, the recent climbing fee increase at Rainier, the general morass of red tape and permits required for St. Helens and Adams, and the annual uproar over rescue costs are a few examples of situations that the club could have strongly and publicly advocated for us, but didn't.

I don't get this. Why would you expect injuries for any teaching courses? Are you saying that they are not prepared for injuries or that injuries are required for learning? It was a typo, which I've corrected. What I am saying is that they will have more members die and get injured if that is the expectation. Indeed, they had two people die the year I was involved, and in both cases students has expressed misgivings about the trip continuing but were overruled by leaders. In my brief experience, students were twice overruled by leaders when expressing concerns about safety. In one case it nearly resulted in severe injuries. This sort of thing isn't an "accident", it's negligence.

I urge you to email Stefan and Dave directly and ask them where the blog updates are now that they got their 40% climbing fee increase.

I was "Invited to No Longer Participate" in the basic climbing course in the mid-90s. And I wear that like a Medal of Honor. Back then the executive director told me, "With the number of courses we run it's inevitable that some people are going to die." And if they are still conscripting Intermediate students to teach Basic students, then they still have at least one serious safety issue. Aggressive, small courses or huge, McClimbing courses, if they don't have zero injuries as the expectation, they are still the same old Mountaineers.

Sweet granite in Renton.

"Muir on Sunday"

Was 183.5 on Jan 1. 168 this morning after slacking off last weeking due to house guests. My goal is to be at or under 165 on April 1 every year. It isn't all about weight, but that tends to go down when the other variables are addressed.

What a load of sh1t. As Stefan said during the meeting, accidentally, he didn't want to have to go through that process (public comment). In the end they wasted the time, energy, money, and goodwill of those who bothered to comment and otherwise participate. My take from the meeting and followup communication from the park (Dave and Stefan in particular): We want to do whatever we want without the public sticking their nose into it. I wonder what boondoggle project they'll use the climbing concession revenue for next. Roof of National Park Inn? Done. Electical repair at Paradise Inn? Done. Build new visitor center and tear down old one? Done. Hey, maybe they can build some lifts for the winter snow-play area or put up some new buildings at Sunrise. Those things are about as relevant to the mountaineering program as the what they've already done. I'm disgusted.

I'll chime back in here and point out that doing nothing to any natural setting is the epitome of conservation. Replacing old/worn out fixed gear and bolts is about maintenance, not conservation. I agree with those that said this is an important conversation, and I'll also point out that absolutism and name-calling are usually tactics employed by those who don't believe in the objective merits of their position. That said, to bring some levity back to this conversation, I "conserved" this rap station I found on the Haystack last weekend: Clothesline, a utility biner, and a knot that looked like something my kids made when they were learning to tie their shoes. :-)

Good route, much fun. The first 2/3 of the pitch from the tree belay never seems to have any gear, at least not much that I've found.

It depends on the mission of the organization and the reason for the restoration. In this case you have a very small audience not known for having deep pockets. I think you'd be better off recruiting some help to get the word out (do you have a Facebook site for this project???) and procure donations from this community instead of trying to extract cash from its members. Just my opinion, though.

It would be great if you could post them in a way that doesn't require accepting an unsigned Java applet; Java is a large source of remote code exectution exploits and running unsigned code is asking for infections.

Thinking about heading down from Issaquah in the AM for a climb/ski. Looking for a partner and/or carpool. Email lorencascadeclimber.com if interested.

Muir had an hourly average of 132MPH between 2:00 and 3:00 yesterday. That's the same as a Category 4 hurricane: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/sshws_table.shtml?large I wouldn't have wanted to ride that one out in the shelter; waiting for the roof to come off.

I'm not an old-timer yet (I hope), but here are two in which I had a hand: http://www.cascadeclimber.com/theckroute.htm http://www.cascadeclimber.com/mt__formidable.htm Not a first ascent, but we climbed Willis Wall in 2006 on the first ascent route...I need to finish that TR.

Any else notice the telemetry from Muir today? Max wind speed in the last hour: 135MPH Min wind speed in the last hour: 96MPH http://www.nwac.us/weatherdata/campmuir/now/ I've never seen the numbers that high.