dberdinka

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 Unfortunately the trail is no longer maintained.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.

Those avi photos are very cool. Nice work. Doesn't look like your jacket was doing you much good.....

Nice work Tom. I imagine even photos don't do that experience justice. Would you care to comment on the technical difficulty? Would you solo it? I know the Beckey guide calls Jagged Ridge 4th or even possibly 3rd class but that never sounded particularly realistic to me. FWIW Les MCDonald is my hero.

If you're comfortable simulclimbing on 4th or low-5th class terrain a single 8mm x 30m rope would be great with the exception of the rap off of Jaw's Tooth which is probably 60'-65'? Ben downclimbed it as well and found it sketchy like I did. Basically you have to ooze around this tall, seemingly detached, pillar on a sloping ledge with a 1000' of air down the east face. So bring the double 8s or a skinnier pull cord if you got one. Or better yet just bring the single 30m rope and belay the downclimb....

Hey Ben. It cool to hear some confirmation on the quality of climbing on Little Sister. In the rest of the Cascades 4th class or low-5th class climbing might typically be.....meh. But in the Sisters it means aesthetic lines with fun, exposed, steep climbing on awesome rock. Basically the type of terrain you might find on say 5.7ish routes elsewhere, just more jugs! Pretty incredible that there existed an unclimbed 800' wall of great rock on a real mountain only 30 miles from town. What else is waiting out there? Darin's Indirect in red. My guestimate of Ben's Direct in Green.

Yer thinking that I'm lite for driving the car out there I'm sure.

Hey Ben. No photos that really show anything. Those lower peaks were swamped in clouds most of the day. I reimported all the images with much better quality. First time the export process I used seemed to do the reverse of sharpening. Maybe I'm biased but I still can't believe how good so much of the climbing was and how much more possibility there is. Definitely struck me as another classic outing in the Nooksack watershed.

Trip: Twin Sisters Range - Green Creek Circuit Date: 6/22/2013 Trip Report: You could travel thousands of miles further and you could hike days on end but I’m not sure you would find a place really anymore wild than the Green Creek Valley. After a long hiatus I finally returned to this unique environment and found it little changed. No trails, no flagging, no signs of passage of any sort, just the whispering wind, the roar of the river and the clatter of stone fall. After approaching on the evening of the solstice I spent the following day linking up a half-dozen summits that more or less ring the Green Creek Glacier. I found this to be an absolutely classic traverse with super fun climbing on sold rock, multiple glacier crossing and steep snow climbing. If traveling unencumbered across exposed, moderately-technical terrain feeds your soul I highly recommend it. Access to the area has only gotten more wild with the recent debris flows off the toe of the Deming Glacier that scoured the riverbed and took out almost every tree crossing except one located slightly upstream from the parking lot. The trail is in excellent shape and wanders through some of the most pristine and beautiful old growth you can find. After leaving the trail the bushwhack is still full-on with continuous brush, slippery log crossings over a raging Green Creek and a final shwack through dense thickets of fir trees. If you just keep motoring you’ll only have an hour or two of suffering. If you pussyfoot around you’ll never make it. Detailed Approach Notes Here. Middle Fork post debris flow On the go by 4:30 am Saturday where I ascended the enjoyable 4th and low-5th class rock of the Green Creek Arete to reach the headwaters of the Sisters creek. Slogging upwards through cloud I passed over the Sisters Glacier and ascended the Northeast Ridge of the South Twin. Via the Green Creek this linkup is a classic and supremely scenic way to climb the peak. Green Creek Arete in foreground Views from Northeast Ridge of South Twin I scrambled down snow and rock into the basin under the north side of Skookum Peak. The Northeast ridge of Skookum has a reputation as an excellent, albeit short route that starts from a notch with a small but slender pinnacle named Jaw’s Tooth. Rather than making the short scramble to the notch I extended the climb significantly by following clean 5th class slabs and splitter cracks on the Northwest Face of Jaw’s Tooth before dropping into the notch and finishing on the Northeast Ridge. This is by all means the best technical climb in the range with adequate length, really excellent rock, good exposure, sustained difficulty and two great summits. Jaw's Tooth (5.6) and Skookum (5.4) with route marked Slabs on the northwest face of Jaw's Tooth The impeccable north ridge of Skookum Looking out to Cinderella, Little Sister and Hayden From Skookum I scrambled down the chossy south ridge before dropping into the basin below the north side of Hayden Peak. Some nice looking rock around here but instead I booted up the steep and snowy north face to the summit. Loose rock and sketchy shrunds led directly down the SE face (would have been better to descend at least halfway down the E Ridge). Northeast arete of Hayden looked nice, north face to right The Northwest Face of Little Sister is an impressive looming wall about 800’ tall sitting at the head of a narrow valley ringed by steep walls. Up close it appeared to consist of much better rock than I had expected. Two curving ribs define the left-hand side of the face. I followed the left-most rib and once again found generally great 4th class climbing on highly featured slabs. The rib topped out near a col where one could easily drop down onto the Green Creek Glacier. I continued up the best 3rd class climbing you’ll ever find to the summit. In retrospect the right-hand rib was steeper, more direct and looked to be great climbing. A quick and loose descent down the south face led to a col and the Green Creek Glacier. From here Cinderella would be a short scramble but I was intent on climbing the mysterious and supposedly “classic” East Ridge. This is one of the biggest features in the range, over half-a-mile long and gaining almost 2000’ of elevation. After a long glissade I found the climbing to be not entirely classic with lots of blocky scrambling separated by a few steep, exposed and looser-than-I-liked 5th class faces. Enjoyable at times but I wouldn’t repeat it. Ten-and-a-half hours after leaving camp I stumbled back to it feeling pretty worked. Looking back across the Green Creek Glacier from Cinderella East Face of Skookum and Jaw's Tooth with S Twin in Background GPS track using Gaia App before battery died From mid/late-June until late-July the rock climbing should be snow free while the extensive talus between peaks is still covered. Numerous variations could be made and the climbing is easy enough that bivi gear could be carried over. Next time I’ll probably skip Hayden Peak and the East Ridge of Cinderella and stick to the really classic climbing. The Twin Sisters Range was formed by a slab of mantle rock pushing up through the crust of the earth. The rock is Dunite and consists primarily of the mineral Olivine. Olivine is a beautiful crystal green and it is only the outer surface of the rock that weathers to the gritty reddish-tan color so predominate in the range. If you could just sandblast off a couple millimeters of rock you’d be left with an entire mountain range that looked like it was made of Kryptonite. Split boulder of Olivine The Green Creek Valley is the habitat of the last remaining herd of Pacific Northwest Forest Octopi. Their camouflaging skills are equal to that of their ocean brethren. Generally docile and content to feed on smaller mammals they should still be given a wide berth. Random photo of some other untrodden summit Gear Notes: 40-50m rope 10'-12’ of webbing for Jaws Tooth rappel point Some nuts and a handful of cams to 2” crampons and ice axe Approach Notes: From parking lot walk up road ~100' then move to river. Log crossing should be obvious. Follow trail ~ 2 miles and leave at 2700' switchback. In early-season consider crossing raging Green Creek before running out of forest and potential safe log crossings.

I'm your huckleberry. I have one sitting in the "To Sell" box. I could stick it in the mail tomorrow morning. Will work WAY better than your shitty stuff sacks. $50 plus shipping.

I hear Chad Kellogg only has to breathe once a minute when climbing in the Cascades. Is that true? Great photos! Nice trip.

Trip: Mount Baker - Post-Apocalyptic Ascent Date: 6/2/2013 Trip Report: With the I-5 bridge in the Skagit River and the Glacier Creek Road joining the ever growing list of washed out and indefinitely closed Forest Service Roads it seemed obvious that cars would soon be an antiquated method for reaching the mountains. Clearly the future of wilderness recreation must be a mix of rail and self-propelled transportation. With that in mind Matt left his house near Green Lake sometime on the morning of Sunday May 2nd and biked 10 miles to Edmonds where he caught the Amtrak to Bellingham. By 11 am we had met up at Boulevard Park where we collected a flask of sea water to bring as an offering for Komo Kulshan. About 40 miles of riding brought us to Glacier and a stop at the local watering hole before tackling the final steep 8-miles to the Heliotrope trailhead where we arrived in the late afternoon. On Monday morning we experienced complete solitude on a relatively non-eventful ascent of the Coleman-Deming route. We abandoned our skis on Pumice Ridge in a complete whiteout with strong winds only to have the weather blow over just before reaching the summit. Post holing back down the Roman Wall was followed by relatively good skiing to the flats around 7000’ at which point the snow transitioned to slop. We were back on the bikes by 1 pm for a tiring ride into a stiff headwind. I was home in time for dinner. Matt killed a couple hours at the Kulshan brewpub before catching an evening train back to Seattle. A very doable and fun trip. Biking from your front door to the mountains creates a very profound sense of interconnectedness among all the various facets of ones existence. Better get with it because before long you won’t have much choice. Skiing photos are all Matts - posted without his permission. A plug for Matts blog... http://frontdooradventures.blogspot.com/ And another one for his wifes delicious energy bars Luscious Light Bars Gear Notes: Long Haul Truckers Approach Notes: Amtrak to Bellingham (good schedule times for two day trip) Could take a bus (route 72X) to Kendal cutting off 1/2 the biking. ~47 miles from downtown to trailhead.

A very good point. My bike is geared pretty low and I live near the top of a big steep hill so my perspective is a little skewed.

95+% of the Glacier Creek Road is good pavement. It's steep though. Better be in good biking shape and if you're just carrying your gear in a pack plan on walking. A road bike is fine in fact better than a mountain bike. Closed at ~1 mile in. Washout ~3 miles in. Last mile or 1/2 mile of the road is still blocked by snow but that will be gone in a few days with this weather. Both the closure and washout would easily be passable by vehicle but I guess that would be illegal. Considering that Canyon Creek Road has yet to be repaired and the amount of work it looks like it would take to build a stable bypass around the Glacier Creek washout (along with the complete lack of federal $$$) I would not anticipate this road opening anytime soon if ever. My friend and I agreed that the FS would appear to be decommissioning any and all roads as fast as mother nature can give them a reason too.

It's an Olympus XZ-1. Which is basically a higher end Point&Shoot. More importantly I shoot in RAW format and post process using LightRoom 4. This allows a number of things. 1) Much better noise reduction than you get shooting jpegs. 2) Improved contrast with better shadow detail. Basically the "pop" in a photo. 3) And yes I sometimes up the saturation to get more of the desert color in there. It's really the second point that I think makes for good internet pics. What you'll see in the photos of really good photographers is a perfect distribution from bright white to very dark without any blown out highlights. While this takes good control of the actual camera when shooting it also requires skill with Schooping. See JasonG's images or the cascadescrusades guy.

Supposedly no one dead and everyone rescued. While there maybe several detour routes to get you over the river this is going to be one massive headache for a good long while.

So.....you'll drop into the Triple Couloirs, in the dark, in a blizzard but you're scared of the Nose. This does not compute.

Boxtop looked great. #6 Camalots might be the largest piece you really need as it goes from about that size to chimney with no real intermediate width. Wish we had done it as well...another trip I suppose. Just got the Desert Towers Book by Steve Bartlett. Amazing piece of work well worth the $50.00 for anyone interested in towers.

Fuck yeah! Nice work dude.

Trip: Canyonlands - Towers Date: 5/1/2013 Trip Report: I had the fortune of spending six days climbing in and around Canyonlands National Park with a long time friend and climbing partner. After two days in Indian Creek we retreated to the vast, lonely, impossibly quiet and and oh so beautiful White Rim Trail where some of the biggest and best Windgate Towers reside. No one but us with the occasional scorpion, red ants or bat to keep us company. After being harassed by brief squalls and thunderstorms we managed one more spectacular route just north of the park in an area called Mills Canyon before a really massive storm chased us back across I-70 bringing an end to the tour. The Impeccable Indian Creek Lighting Bolt Cracks - North Six Shooter - Start on the R finish on the L Incredible Hand Crack White Rim Trail Musselman Arch Basecamp below Washer Woman and Monster Towers Starting up the North Ridge of Monster. Burly climbing left the camera neglected in the bag. White Rim from the summit Morning Approach Islet in the Sky Loose and burly 5.10... ...Leads to hanging belays and C3 pin scars Foreshortening exists 450' x 15' x 20' Quality Anchors abound The amazing In Search of Suds climbs the foreground dihedral Compulsory Ridgeline Shot Echo Pinnacle in Mills Canyon - Window Route - One of the very best routes out there. Absolutely beautiful tower and stunning landscape with high quality and varied climbing. Kicking loose rock and sand on your partner is a common desert pastime. The Window in the route Amazing 5.10+ jamming The bizarre and wonderful window/squeeze/bolt ladder/OW Endless Towers Gear Notes: tape, #5 C4, BYOB Approach Notes: bumpy

Looking for size 11-ish rock shoes for my 4 (and a half!) year old daughter. Mad Monkeys and so forth. Shoot me a PM or email at dberdinka AT gmail DOT com if you have some to unload. Thanks.

False Flag! FALSE FLAG!!