David_Parker

Funny thing is, the whole thing is a blur. I don't remember what cool pitch went with what pinnacle! I'll be sharing the photos soon, so stand by. Ok, here's my brief TR: Sharpen the Saw Last weekend, Wayne Wallace and I made the first ascent full traverse of the rugged Sawtooth Range in the Olympic Mountains. Well known for it relatively good rock (as far as volcanic goes), the ridge is comprised of 13 named peaks (some more like pinnacles) from Mt. Alpha to Mt. Lincoln. In all we figure we climbed about 20 doing our best to stay as close as possible to the ridge and climbing NE ridges or faces and rappeling SW ridges and faces, as that is the general direction of the Sawtooth Range. The most popular is the the highest and prominant Mt. Cruiser which graces the cover of the Olympic Mountains climbing guidebook and is generally the only and very worthy objective in the area. While we believe every summit had been touched, we are quite certain nobody has ever made the complete traverse in one single push. We approached 10 miles on a very wet Saturday and ended up at the base of Alpha with zero visibility. We bivied and hoped the skies would clear that night as forecast. Indeed they did, so we were up early and off. Alpha actually had 2 peaks, Cruiser was next, an un-named summit, some more ridge and then the Needle. After that came Castle Spires with 3 peaks. We ended the day by doing both the Fin and the Horn and then had to drop back down almost 1,000 feet to get water as there were no snow patches left to melt snow. We found a small pond and slept well in spite of relentless mosquitos and got back on the ridge where we left off early the next day. The second day (of climbing) was lower elevation and there was considerable vegatation (mostly pine trees) to get through in between pinnacles such as Cleaver, Slab Tower, Rectagon, Picture, Trylon and North Lincoln. We were then able to drop our packs and scramble over to the true summit of Lincoln and return where we finally dropped of the ridge around 2:00. The extremely steep chute of dirt was puckering, but mellowed to scree, then talus and boulders before we entered the forest to bushwack around a ridge and back to Flapjack Lakes. A few doses of slide alder and devils club reminded us we weren't done yet and the 500 ft. descent in the forest to the lake was more of a controled fall by hanging on to bushes and tree limbs until we almost splashed into the crystal clear water. A swim in the lake cooled and cleaned us for the 7.8 mile hike out to lukewarm beer and chips in the car. Fish and Chips and 6 Hood Canal oysters on the half shell fueled us for the drive home. Here are the photos! http://share.shutterfly.com/action/share/view?i=EeAM3DRq3bOGbCuA&open=1&sm=1 Enjoy! David Parker

As a climber, I don't mind the washout going unrepaired for another year or so. It makes for more of an adventure to climb Mt. Constance. It is much less crowded up there. I can understand why the average hiker is upset...there is a ranger station, campground and a trailhead to one of the more popular areas in the Olympics up there. Bring a mountain bike and enjoy the serenity it now offers. There is a silver lining to this cloud! http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB6&Number=222859&Forum=,,,,f6,,,,&Words=Constance%20ridge&Searchpage=4&Limit=25&Main=207935&Search=true&where=bodysub&Name=&daterange=0&newerval=&newertype=&olderval=&oldertype=&bodyprev=#Post222859

That second Tr would be much easier to read if it had indents or a space for the paragraphs. It kinda baffles me that these guys didn't do research on the approach since I know it has been posted multiple times on this web site. Anyone who takes the boulder field is obviously lost and why they would go back the same way is even funnier. The lovely path through the forest next to the stream is much better imo! Good job though and congrats!

Mt. Constance in the Olympics. It gives you a little bit of everything and will challenge your route finding skills.

I have to deliver a boat from Bellingham to Seattle this weekend. I will be coming up on Saturday. If there is any one who could drive my rig back to Seattle it would save me a second trip. Call 206-714-4300. It might be worth a or so!! (After your drive) If anyone (2 or more) from Seattle is heading that way over the weekend, the car doesn't need to be back until monday eve. It will be down at the marina in Bellingham. Thanks

Friends of mine were on Mt. Adams when it blew. They got some nice photos while being plummeted with pumice and larger than desired debris. If you've never taken the tour up the new road up to Johnstone Ridge, it's worth it. The movie they run at the top is cool! "The only thing the government has done right recently" was my Dad's quote! I found a big bag of all the newspaper articles from Seattle Times and Yakima whatever done in previous and following months at a thrift store for $5.00. Fabulous reading!

I have a quiver of crampons and the first pair I ever bought work best for my tele boots.....old school SMC's! I wish I had the scottish style straps though. Hard to thread the posts with cold hands.

I don't think one mountain is necessarily any more "dangerous" than another. What is dangerous is how PEOPLE act on them. Mt Washington could possibly have more deaths than Rainier; I'll bet it is close. Therefore statistically it is more dangerous. What makes it more dangerous is that so many people underestimate it's conditions. It looks like a mere bump, but it has all the conditions of much larger mountains. People head up on sunny august days never thinking it can be severe weather(high winds, freezing temps, whiteout) above timberline at a mere 4200 ft. Ironically, Mt. Washington has more posted warning signs than most mountains. People just don't take them seriously. Most deaths are not to climbers, but to hikers. Climber deaths are probably mostly in avalanches. On the east coast, avalanche awareness is not as prevalent. Many deaths in the mountains are more from of a calvacade of bad decisions than a single incident. Those kinds of deaths can not be attributed to the mountain being dangerous, but people being dangerous.

But a hard route isn't neccessarily "classic" either. I think some routes in "classic" books are more dangling carrots!

I do attribute the higher accident rate to it being in 50 Classic Clinbs. But I'd like to compare the number of out of state climber accidents to the PNW climber accidents. I'd be willing to say that conditions are as not as carefully considered when climbers fly in for a week to do the route. Hummingbird Ridge is hardly a "classic" climb. Impressive, yes. I don't know why that is in the 50CC book. Same way EDM on index is not "classic". Public perception changes when a route sees a lot of successful traffic. That is unfortunate. I'll bet some people think Everest is easy now.

here's the more specific info. The folks in Maine are extremely touched by our concern and say thank you! I made them aware of this thread, so I'm sure some are reading it. Peter Cooley Mission & Outreach Fund St. Alban's Episcopal Church 885 Shore Road Cape Elizabeth ME 04107 or Cape Elizabeth Land Trust 299 Ocean House Road Cape Elizabeth ME 04107

Go climb the original Dorsal Fin in LCC. Think about George Lowe doing the crux in Mt. Boots! Great climb!

I can find out all details for sending cards/money. My sister in Maine has friends that were close to the family and she can find out for me. I grew up two towns from Cape Elizebeth and Maine isn't that big! This has been headline news in Maine. Ironically, The Portland Press Herald is owned by the Seattle Times.

June 5/6 doesn't work for me. But if you want to proceed anyway, that cool. Maybe one in the fall too!

Why anyone would want to be IN Luna Cirque other than to climb Fury, Swiss or Crooked Thumb is beyond me. To get to Challanger Arm from Hannigan you are basically following the route to climb Challenger via easy ridge, imperfect impasse and Perfect pass, across Challenger glacier to Challenger Arm which includes Wiley and Eiley lakes, etc. Beyond that, not much glacial travel on the actual Arm as compared to wilderness bushwacking. From the Challanger Arm, you are looking across Luna Cirque at N. Face of Fury. If you want to sunbathe at Luna pond, go in via Access Creek. Beckey did N. rib of Fury by dropping into Luna Cirque from Challanger Arm, but the glacier has receded significantly and you're still always under shit calving off Swiss and Crooked Thumb. If I were to go to Perfect Pass again from Hannagan, I would go over Whatcom Peak. It's easy to descend to PP from there. If Challanger Arm is the only Real Objective, probably better to come up from Ross Lake on Big Beaver trail or just stay on the trail from Hannagan over Whatcom Pass and find your way from the Big Beaver trail shortly after. The best way to Luna Pass is up Access creek. Just don't think about going up or down Luna Cirque unless you are into S&M!

Squamish sounds cool, but I am afraid that it is too far for a lot of folks who otherwise might come. I want to keep this an event for kids, not the adults. That means easy to get to as well as having more to do than rock climb. Last year was a great success and just like the ski-in, I expect it will be bigger this year! I hope to see some moms with kids too. I thought something on east side would guarantee better weather since we have to pick a weekend without knowing a forecast. 11-worth is pretty damn central. Methow Valley is nice too. This doesn't have to wait until school is over, it's on the weekend! Last year's fall event was after school started again. Early July can be nice, but if nobody likes that idea, we can defer back to a fall event. So who's in???

Wayne and Lane just called me from the summit of the Mooses Tooth. They report it has been hot, but conditions were excellent today. Good job guys!

anyone want to place a bet on how many pages this thread will be by September!!!

Now that I'm done with the ski-in, I'm thinking we shouldn't wait until next fall for Kid's rope up. Possibly two are in order for this year. So I'm thinking shortly after school ends, we should do one. I think renting a campground in 11-worth works great, but the cabin in Mazama and Fun-rocks works equally as well. So lets talk about dates and location and who has kids. Last year was a great success!

I made a photo gallery for the Spring Ski in. Click here to view... http://www.windermere.com/tid75138&showBrand=1 A few other highlights: On sunday driving up to Wa Pass we came around a turn and there were two wrecked motorcycles in the ditch and a couple of guys dragging a dead deer off the road. We stopped to assist and learned the guy in front hit the deer and then his buddy behind ran into him. They were both extremely lucky to not be hurt although I'm sure their adreneline was running high. We helped them drag one bike out of the ditch but the other one was totalled. Sport driving down the North Cascades highway hitting 95 mph at times was fun too! It was a great time and I'm glad to see that the event is gaining in popularity. Maybe some snowboarders will actually show up next year! Although they wouldn't have been able to hang with us skiiers unless they had split boards, that was for sure!

If everyone or at least a few of us stops along the pass on the way over and puts a bunch of snow in their cooler or a garbage bag, we can put the keg in a tub or garbage can and keep snow around it. We just get more the next day when we go back up for skiing.

Minx, I brought my son last year but am not this year, although it was my ex-wife that put the kabosh on it, not me. You can bring him if you want and I'll say it's open to anyone who wants to bring a kid at their own discretion. I hope you can make it. You can do smith anytime! If people show up Thursday night or before I do Friday and someone comes over (from Rocking Horse ranch) to see what's going on, let them know it is a climbers/skiiers weekend event and "Lloyd" knows all about it. (He's the owner of the property.) Just be courteous as they watch over the place and are just doing their job! There are 2 coleman lanterns in the cabin, but we should use our own gas. We don't need garbage cans, just bags. See Kurts list for more stuff. A stereo would be cool, but there is no electricity. So large boom box might work. See ya soon! Dave

DIRECTIONS TO CABIN IN SEPARATE POST in climbers board unless a mod moves it.

events-ML-337688-ML-

I'm starting a new thread for the 2nd Annual Spring Ski In. Please post all spray in original thread. Heading east from Wa pass, from the turn off to Mazama it is approx 4.5 miles to the gate on the left(north) side. It is just before Rocking Horse Ranch and about 3/4 miles before Weeman bridge where Hwy 20 crosses the Methow river. There is a PVC arch and a metal gate which will be open as soon as the first person arrives. The driveway winds across a field a short ways and takes a few minor turns in the open trees. All campers take a left at the porta potty, to find the camping area. Be conscious of vehicle parking so there is plenty of room for tents. You can have a fire there as well, but the main party is at the cabin. If it gets crowded, we may have to put cars out in the field at the entrance and walk in. Straight ahead from the porta potty is a pan abode cabin with a large deck. Behind the cabin is a loop trail that will take you to the river after crossing a few overflow streams that will probably be flowing at this time of year. I have ordered and paid for the porta potty. Please use it for #2 only. Piss in the woods. It would be great if a few of us could bring firewood. I will bring a chain saw for cutting up dead fall and may recruit people to help get some in the wood shed. I always try to do that for the owners. (I do not own this place, but have permission and so I always try to leave it better than I found it!) Any questions, put them here. Chime in with something you can contribute. There are a few Weber grills and we'll need briquetts, paper plates, garbage bags, etc. There is a hand pump well, but the water is kinda rusty. Bring your own drinking water. You can also get it from the river, but it's a little bit of a hike. I do not have a co-pilot yet, but will be heading over on Friday and leaving Sunday after skiing. There will be a snowboard burning party at the end! Dave