nolanr

I did the walkup of the South Sister recently. The North Sis looks pretty burly from that vantage. The full traverse has to be quite daunting for someone who is more of a hiker than a climber.

Not exactly what you asked about, but I'm pretty sure I saw one along the side of a highway in the Canadian Okanogan. Can't remember exactly where, it's been close to 10 years ago. I was heading west from Nelson towards Vancouver.

Another book not entirely about climbing but relevant and interesting is "Below Another Sky" but Rick Ridgeway. He takes the daughter of a former climbing partner to the Himalaya to try to understand why her dad liked to climb there, and eventually to find the site where he died in an avalanche. Ridgeway was on the expedition when the accident occurred.

It's been years since I've been up there. The first time I definitely got into 4th and low 5th class following the ridgeline more or less after climbing up from Surprise Basin. I didn't summit. My second attempt I did summit. I'm not positive I was on the described route, but I followed the path of least resistance on a series of ledges/ramps working my way up and climbers right after ascending an easy gully above Surprise Basin. I remember much of it being closer to class 2 than 3. I was somewhat disappointed, didn't seem like such a classic to me. There was a bit of steep snow in places, needed an axe. I was attempting to do route 1 in the guide book (not Smoot, the other one), I'm guessing that was your goal. Anyway that's what I remember. Again I may have not been on the route described in the book, but it sorta seemed to jive w/ the the description.

I was just at Spider Meadow/Gap this weekend. Trail is melted out most of the way up to the Gap on either side.

I've heard many mentions of Beyond Malibu over the years, but never seen any pictures. The terrain looks more intense than I would have guessed. Nice pics.

Definitely 4th class, rope not needed if you feel comfortable w/ some exposure.

Hey, thanks for asking. Sadly I don't climb hardly at all anymore, but still ramble around in the mountains. I still lurk on this site to get info but haven't had much to post. I love Del Campo. I've ascended it various different routes, just completely making stuff up half the time, no idea if it would go or not.

Trail is mostly snow free at least until the river crossing. I didn't go any further up the trail, headed up the valley before crossing the river. Ran into snow quickly once I started heading up.

Sunrise Mine Road was driveable to the TH on Sunday (29th). Awesome picture!

Summerland from just before the White River CG. Anything around Sunrise area, numerous options, some of which can be combined into loops.

There are some fun scrambles in the Echo Rocks. One of my best days ever, although no technical climbing, was in that area. My bro and I were camped about 8 miles down the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. We hiked back to the road, repacked a little, drove down the road a bit, then hiked in to upper Cathedral Lake. It was still early afternoon, so I headed up to the plateau above the lake. I had no idea what I was doing but ended up scrambling up the descent route for Cathedral, descended, crossed the plateau to the Echo Rocks, then scrambled up 3 of the summits (class 3 and 4, maybe a little low 5th). Finally back down to the lake w/ plenty of daylight left. One full, fun day. Went back up Cathedral the next morning w/ my bro before heading out of the Park.

Holy crap, that's melted out a lot in the last couple weeks. Is the lake partially snow free now? Nothing like grubbin' at El Caporal after a day/weekend playing in the mountains.

My bad. Like I said it's been a long time since I was there. The only time I did go the river was low and I was able to cross back and forth across it easily several times.

Haven't seen anyone else suggest it. Not sure about conditions this time of year (river might be too high), but Nooksack Cirque is a low elevation, nice ramble up a river valley. If you get to the head of the valley you are right below the north side of Shuksan w/ hanging glaciers above you and lots of avalanche debris at the base of the cliffs. Pretty cool, primal looking place. I haven't been there in years though. If I remember correctly the trail starts out thru the woods, eventually dumps you out along the river (NF Nooksack) and the trail all but disappears, you just pick your way along up the valley.

I've been digging Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, good CD.

Saw one disappearing into the brush along the side of the Mt. Loop Hwy east of Verlot Ranger Station several years ago. There were people car camped all over. It was early morning and I don't think anybody but me had any idea it was prowling around. I had the same initial reaction as one of the other posters. About the color of a deer, but not tall enough and moving differently than a deer. The long tail was the clincher. I've seen bobcats along roads a couple times. One was heading out to the TH for Ingalls Lake, the other was in the Olympics near Pt. Angeles. He sat on his haunches and looked at me for a while I was beaming him w/ my headlights.

I've been up to Royal/Surprise basins several times, always enjoyable. One of the coolest climbs I've ever done, although completely non-technical, was a moonlit ascent of Fricaba in early November one year. Everything about the experiene was enchanting. Particularly looking across at Mt. Mystery and the lake at it's base, it was gorgeous.

What a difference a couple days makes. I did a day trip up to the Robin Lakes on Sunday the 30th. Rained off and on, occasional glimpses of the sun but only briefly. Up by the lakes it was really blustery w/ a bit of rain/hail. I could see the shoulder of Daniel off and on but never glimpsed the summit. Also I must've passed several dozen people who were camped either at Tuck or Robin Lakes Saturday night. I seemed to be the only person heading in that day. Apparently the weather got really nasty overnight and everybody just wanted to get out of there. I did encounter several goats by the Robins, that seems to be a constant. Anyway great pics, sounds like a nice trip.

Don't know about the Enchantments, but just next door Horshoe Lake is completely melted out, only a few patches of snow around the basin. The mosquitoes are infuriating.

I think there's a tourist info office in Nelson that has little pamphlet's about the local Provincial Parks w/ maps and directions to trailheads. Gimli is out there in the middle of nowhere but not too hard to find.

3 people per route? Good luck w/ that.

Jackson Hole is to be avoided if possible during the height of tourist season. Definitely hit the Winds in addition to the Tetons, if the roads are passable. May be out of the way, but the drive up to Beartooth Pass is spectacular. Not sure if it would be open yet, either, it goes up to around 11,000' I think.

PCT North TH at Santiam Pass is snow free. Don't know about trail conditions, the weather was crappy and some of our group didn't want to get cold and wet. You can drive to the TH for Canyon Creek Meadow. Trail is snow covered just beyond Jack Lake. Snow is well consolidated, I didn't bother w/ snowshoes and there were only a couple of places they would've been marginally useful. We got to the upper meadow area. Jack was hiding in the clouds the whole time. The Sisters Ranger Station is worthless, they were closed all weekend and only had a few TH condition postings on the message board outside, no doubt several weeks outdated already.

Thanks for the replies. Duly noted, will bring flotation and an open mind on where we can go hiking.