dberdinka

Having had just climbed some truly great routes on Little Sister and Skookum I was disappointed. That said the bad 4th class scrambling is still much better than most 4th class terrain in the cascades and it definitely is big, surprisingly big I thought. Moving fast I still think it took me almost 2 hours to climb. Agree with the Grade III. So probably a good route to do if you like the Twin Sisters. What I find interesting is how the structure of the dunite that the Twins are composed of dictates where good alpine rock is found. Along the Crest of the range from Skookum to Cinderella there is a strong planar structure oriented north to south (tilted up to the south). Such that great climbing is found on NW to NE exposures formed by the slab surface. South faces are choss as you quickly cut down across these stacked slabs. W and E facing exposures (like the ridge line in question). Are blocky and slightly loose as you cut into them. Why this sort of bedding plane type structure even exists is beyond me as the rock us plutonic. Maybe it has something to do with when the rock was thrust upward through the crust? Interesting this structure seems totally missing on the S Twin and definitely less prevalent on the N Twin. where the rock is generally a bit worse. Maybe a geology grad student do a project mapping and explaining what's going on here.

Amazing the trust you guys can put into highly tensioned 1" webbing. Clearly it works but I could never do it.

That is a hell of an 8 days well spent! Amazing photos.

To much heartfelt analysis. Need more facepalm.

Pulled this off the North Cascades National Park Facebook page. Helicopter rescue, no injuries. Seems to be exactly what everyones been predicting for a long time. "Taking a quick break from the coverage of the landslides, this recent SAR indicates the importance of preparedness when mountaineering in unfamiliar conditions: On July 28, 2013 a party of four mountaineers from the Seattle area attempted the Northeast Ridge of 8,970’ Black Peak. The party split into two rope teams and quickly found that the first rope team was ascending at a faster pace. Along the Northeast Ridge the rope teams became separated, with one summiting the peak, and then descending the south face route back to their camp, having lost contact with the other two climbers. The party that summited could see their friends about midway up the ascent route, and observed them stationary for hours, well into the night. The two stranded climbers began flashing headlamps, presumably to alert their friends. The climbers at camp asked other visitors who were leaving the area to call 911 when they got into cell phone range and request assistance. NPS rangers received this call for assistance at 2:00 am on July 29, 2013 with it unclear if the party was injured or not. Early on July 29, 2013 rangers made a recon flight to Black Peak, making visual contact with the stranded climbers but unable to rule out injuries to these climbers who had been stranded at the same location for almost 24 hours, just before a steep pitch on the most technical part of the route. A ranger team, using the Park’s contracted HiLine Helicopters MD500D, evacuated both 30 year old climbers individually by short-haul to their basecamp. The rescued climbers appeared to be shaken up by the experience but not injured. All parties agreed that steep technical mountaineering routes with thousands of feet of exposure above massive glaciers are much more difficult than the same level of climbing difficulty in a gym which they were more accustomed to."

Copied from nwhikers.net Message from WSDOT 2pm Monday (check out some of the photos in the flickr link - that's a lot of mud) The North Cascades Highway closed Saturday night (officially) at 9:30 p.m. (even though, it was probably closed an hour or so earlier - it just took that long for news of 2 mud slides to get from the drivers to the WSP to us from that area that has no cell phone coverage). The slides happened a few miles west of Rainy Pass. Yes, there were a couple vehicles trapped between the slides, but no one got hurt and both parties got out safely, (sorry, I don't have the details yet about the VW or the pickup and camper they were driving.) Anyway, by mid day on Sunday, instead of two slides, We were dealing with 8 of them. The largest (at the time was a quarter mile long and 25 feet deep- could be bigger, now.) It's going to take days, if not longer to reopen. We know that we're going to have to have help in the form of private contractors with the larger equipment and the people it's going to take to get this job done. Despite the difficulties in communication (even a satellite phone doesn't work in a lightning storm up there), and the distances involved, The maintenance supervisor (Don Becker who also oversees the spring reopenings) took some pictures that we now have posted on FlickR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157635037166187/with/9496492120/ Until the hillsides stabilize and our environmental, geotechnical and maintenance experts can put together a clean up plan (They're working to do that right now), don't plan on using the North Cascades to get between the Skagit and Methow Valleys. I guess if there's any good news, it's that we put in those extra closure gates two years ago, so from the east side, you can drive all the way to Rainy Pass, accessing any of the campgrounds, trailheads, etc. before encountering a barricade across the roadway. Pass this along to whomever you'd like, so any help you can provide to get the word to folks who planned to use SR 20 is appreciated. Thanks!"

Whoa! Ken4ord. Thats a blast from the CC.com past.

Fortunately this isn't the federally run forest service. And your state government is still functional enough to actually meet some of the minimum requirements a citizenry might have of it, like fixing roads. Give it a couple days....

J$s%s you had to watch that? I'm so sorry. The sound a falling body makes is definitive and hard to ever forget.

Personally as long as I'm alive I never want my kids getting anywhere near Nooksack Tower. Backpacking, backpacking is nice.

The Winds really are as perfect as alpine (with a little a) rock climbing gets. Can't wait to find the time to make another trip back there. Nice photos...how did you get so close to that Pika?

Don't be so hard on yourself. That's not exactly daddy climbing up there. Amazing pics as usual.

Yes that would be the standard rap route off North Early. So nice point

The continued comfortization of Washington Pass is weak sauce. Bolts added to 4th class climbs, top-down power-drilled sport climbs on the east faces of Liberty Bell and South Early. Now convenience rap stations where 1000's managed without. Yeah sure it's next to a highway blah-blah-blah. But they are still some of our more outstanding mountains and the continual need to keep dumbing down the climbing experience in the alpine is sad. All the more so in that it's being done for a profit motive (So what Sol said!). So y'all have fun with their handy work! I'm super glad you're all going to be able to get home now 5 minutes quicker.

I stopped by the top of Sauk Mountain this morning on the way to work and noticed that both the Northern and Southern Pickets were perfectly lined up on the horizon. Apologies for the low-quality image from my phone. Main Summit of Challenger is the 4th prominent bump from the left I believe. Mcmillans on the right flanked by Triumph. Fury just left of center.

Good eye Sol. I was curious if someone would notice those circleheads in the photo. So yes we had big plans but a completely unreasonable itinerary in which to complete it. Basically the energy reserves one needs to push a wall were burned up in the fourteen hours of travel it took to get to the base of it. As Fred Beckey wrote "The approach problems seemed too formidable with heavy loads." We climbed a couple pitches to the start of the real difficulties before pulling the plug. I can completely understand why Doorish took as long as he did to pull off that route. A lot was learned. Whether we ever return or not is highly questionable.

Difference between great climbers and the rest of us is they can stick to plan on committing routes even when the inevitable little hickups and unforeseen events start cropping up. If shit isn't going 100% perfect I always find myself back in the parking lot. Nice work!

Good to know. I've always struggled to hitchhike out there as well. Maybe the correctional center (prison) based out there freaks people out.

To climb the summit block by the ridgeline alongside the north face is class 4. However we downclimbed a south facing ridgeline that was exposed class 3. Skip the weight if you can. Even by a scramble route this mountain will be a wickedly good wilderness experience.

Trip: Bear Mountain - Beckey/Fielding North Buttress Date: 7/18/2013 Trip Report: I had the opportunity to spend four magnificent days climbing Bear Mountain with my good friend Owen. We ended up climbing the original Beckey/Fielding North Buttress Route in a very relaxed style over two days with a long enjoyable bivouac high on the mountain. Due to its scale, position, wilderness setting, history and high quality climbing the route stood out as an absolute classic even with the dangerous and loose approach gulley and ledges. Certainly the Direct North Buttress must be as a good a route as you will find in the range. The approach up the Chilliwack Valley is at least as bad as reputation holds. On either side of the border the trail is rapidly disintegrating back into brush and blow downs. Yet it has its rewards offering up some of the most extensive and massive old growth forest I’ve experienced. With heavy packs and several route finding mistakes it took us over six hours to reach Bear Camp. From here we blasted straight up into the alpine gaining over 4000’ through steep forest, more thick brush and finally heather meadows reaching a beautiful high camp eleven hours from the car. Based on the summit register the mountain receives only one or two ascents a year. The last entry via a north side route was by Steph Abegg and Aaron Clifford in 2010. The last entry for the DNB was by Mark Pratt and Robert Meschew in 2007! Fred Beckey’s trip report in the 1968 AAJ is a classic tale of climbing in the North Cascades and captures the essence of mountain perfectly. Steph Abeggs blog post from 2010 offers all the modern beta one might need. Various misdirections about the approach can be found here. The Approach Plenty of this But lots of this as well The Climb Approaching the DNB Upper North Buttress The Diamond Heart of the Gulley We got to climb through all that Phenomenal Position high on the ridge Sunset on Redoubt The offwidth corner Take what the world offers you

The last 5.10 crack pitch in the Beckey Guide topo is all of 10' long. You didn't miss much. To bad they don't make those helmets in a color other than day-glo orange.

I don't remember the Twin Sisters looking that amazing! It's like you have a Xanax powered camera or maybe it's your male model friend and his plethora of well practiced facial expressions. Nice trip. Pretty different from the road slog to get to the West Ridge of the North Twin isn't it? I've found that staying on the south side of Green Creek is far more pleasant that crossing early and traveling on the north side even if you reach talus earlier. The south side is open forest with huckleberry where as the north side turns into dense small fir trees. That said when water volume is high I'd be concerned about finding an adequate crossing higher up, however Ben (Dr.Go) apparently found that to not be an issue. Sounds like a surprising number of people are headed in there. Time to arrange an informal trail crew?

Just got back from Bear Mtn. With heavy loads and a couple poor route finding decisions it took 11 hours into high camp. It was hard. The summit register sees very little traffic. Only 1-2 ascents a year. No ones climbed and signed from the north side since Steph did in 2010. Last summit registry for DNB was in 2007. Steph might have the best advice in that hers is nondescript and simple. Trying to piece together someones description to the landscape might get you into all kinds of trouble. Steph's Bear NB report But I'll do it anyway. Canadian Side: Starts at a prominent "Ecological Reserve" Sign. Unfortunately the trail is no longer maintained. Only marginally better now than the U.S. side in many places. Plenty of brush, some blowdowns and a few places where the trail seems to have altogether disappeared. Fortunately it's well marked with reflectors on trees. When in doubt head to the river as it generally parallels the river. U.S. Side: This is a very special experience. The truth is the trail is there to follow probably 80% of the time but can be very easy to loose and is frequently buried in thick brush. There are definitely places where the river has fully blown out the trail and things can get real nasty. The first mile is by far the worst, after that the trail can be followed almost entirely to Bear Camp. The trail is accurately mapped on USGS topomaps and we found a GPS invaluable for reestablishing ourselves after loosing it. A little detail. Upon crossing the border the trail starts out quite good. Eventually the brush thickens up and you'll have to cross three small side channels or streams on fallen logs. After the third crossing it is imperative to head left into forest rather than right back towards the river. Go left into the woods then double back to the river maybe a quarter-mile upstream where you can pick up the trail again. For the next mile or so when in doubt always head towards the river. Eventually you hit a nice gravel bar with a view of Bear Mountain. Shortly after this you should find an old bridge across a stream/swamp after which the trail generally becomes much easier to follow as it ascends into old growth and stays away from the river for the rest of the way. About a half-mile from Bear Camp the trail passes though a slide alder path. The trail is a bit uphill and hard to find but worth it. It still exists under all that slide alder even if you have to crawl on all fours in places. At the Bear Camp sign take the left fork hike a couple hundred yards the cast off uphill for 3000' to the alpine. Good times. If I had to do it again I would 1) take a couple days to brush out the trail. Another informal trail crew this fall? 2) Take two days to hike in. Stay the night at bear camp but camp out on the gravel bars. Next day hike into the alpine early in the morning and rest all afternoon. Maybe I'm just old.....

How is it that no ones commented on this all day long? That might must be the singularly most impressive ascent ever pulled off in the Cascades. So Huzzah! to you two. Is there a more committing and technical traverse in the 48 states? In North America (well probably somewhere in AK right)? Imagine hitting a bunch of loose technical junk somewhere out in the Northern Pickets after 3?, 5?, 7? days on the go with next to nothing to bail you out of trouble. So SO So IMPRESSIVE. Would love to hear the details along with a gear-junkies explanation of what you did and did not bring. 10 essentials? No essentials?

That is fully bad-ass.