Colin

I agree with Cavey. I will give my soul to anyone who can climb the Central Pillar of Swiss Peak in a day car-to-car.

The new Trango B-52 looks very promising, and I've heard that Petzl will be making a new Reverso that is better for skinny ropes.

In September 2001, I climbed the South Route with friends Andreas, Greg, and Sean. We climbed fairly fast, and managed 5:20 car-to-car. I believe that it was 2:45 car-to-summit, but it might have been 3:00. Andreas, Greg, and Sean all had approach shoes, but I was in Makalu's, so no need to toss out your hikers! When we were looking in the summit register, we noticed a guy who had soloed the South Route several times (I believe it was Steve something), and had mentioned that he had done some of the flagging (thank him if you find him!). If I remember correctly, his car-to-summit time was 3:15 or 3:30. While driving away, we saw some guys standing on the side of the road, looking up at Garfield, and we stopped to talk. When I asked if they were checking out one of the Doorish routes, one of them said, "Well, actually I am Pete Doorish." Upon hearing this, one of his younger companions said, "Dude, you're famous!?" I went back the next weekend, with friend Mark, to try one of the South face routes. This time we got veritably spanked. We got about 2/3 of the way up the Central Gully (not even to the "base" of the climb), before giving up and making several rappels on the way down. The Central Gully was characterized by flat sections interspersed with fifth class steps. I've since wondered if there was any snow in it when Doorish did his routes (possibly burying some of the steep steps).

If you go and climb the C-J Couloir and decide not to descend it, I would reccomend taking the Gunsight Notch descent route. I wrote this up in late August: From the Cascade-Johannesberg col, we made a descending traverse on scree below the buttresses of Cascade and the Triplets. From the base of the South buttress on the Triplets, you make a LONG and slightly rising traverse across the alp slope (tall, alpine grass). When you start traversing around the South side of Mixup, you notice a tread in places (a very, very faint trail). There are a few rock gullies to cross, but they are very easy 3rd class at the hardest. Eventually, you get into the narrow, grassy basin below Gunsight Notch, and hike up to it. Even though it is late august, getting on to the snow was only 40 ft. of easy downclimbing (and a rappel would have been easy too - there were already slings). From Gunsight Notch, make a descending traverse to the left, to the Western edge of the Cache Glacier, where one can find a climber's trail leading all the way to Cascade Pass.

Dru said: "Back to the topic, isnt the East Face of East McMillan Spire still unclimbed?" I think you mean the NE face. I climbed the S face / E ridge about a month ago, and there wasn't any real E face, just an E ridge. However, it does look like there is a large section of face (NE facing) just to climber's left of the N buttress. However, I wouldn't be suprised if the N buttress has never seen a second ascent, so it'd probably be just as much of an adventure.

The best bivy ledge is about halfway between Torment and Forbidden, on the north side of the crest, with snow to melt water. Don't underestimate the snow/ice diffuculties on this route - I would reccomend steel crampons rather than aluminum ones, and a real axe/hammer (there are two icefield's that one traverses on the north side of the ridge, which are fairly steep).

Highlander, I've done both approaches a few times, and I'd reccomend the Ingalls Lake way for this trip. I think that the Mountaineer Creek approach is only preferable for winter/spring/early-summer. This late in the year, Ingalls will probably be faster - even for the complete. When I did it a couple weeks ago, we took both crampons and ice axes, but never used the crampons - something to consider.

Anti-Twight, "Ah, Steins Pillar, a sight that provoked Layton Kor to drive all the way from Colorado for the second ascent." Is this true? Where'd you hear it? In the old brown Beckey guide (it's not included in the new one), Beckey writes: "On the second ascent by Fred Beckey, Steve Marts, Dave Beckstead, and Eric Bjornstad, it was found that..." Was there some sort of controversy here? By the way, Stein's Pillar doesn't belong in the Beckey guide at all - I think he just threw it in because he was really proud of his second ascent. Nice job, that thing looks awesome.

Mark and I did this route last summer, and never made any rappels (on the climb). When it was time to leave the crest and drop to the right, we just made a traverse instead. I'm not sure if we left the crest prematurely or not, but I don't think we did. Beware the notch at which the route tops out - it is by far the worst rock on the route and is quite loose. From the notch we made one single-rope rappel, before scrambling down to the snowfield.

As mentioned by Wayne, Bart and I climbed Goode in a day. Approached from Stehekin, it is actually not very long (7.5 miles from shuttle to creek crossing). Also, by not taking bivy gear we were able to climb with very lightweight packs. We took a single 7.5 mm twin rope, planning to double it over on the climb, but make 30 m rappels possible on the descent. Also, by carrying over the route, one can descend to Park Creek and hike out that way (5 miles from hitting the trail to the shuttle), rather than go back over the Goode-Stormking col.

Just to avoid confusion, krazy 1: It sounds like you are talking about free-soloing, and not merely free climbing. Probably all of the climbing that you do is free climbing (without the use of aid).

Klenke, Were those boat fares and shuttle bus fares that you gave for one person or two people? -Colin

Went up and retrieved my two tri-cams from the North ridge of Stuart yesterday. I was surprised at how little melting had taken place, given the recent high temperatures. Most astonishing of all was that the huge cornice still looms over the NW face. If you want to do the route soon, then definitely do the gendarme rather than the bypass. If you want to do the bypass, I would wait atleast two weeks. The Stuart Glacier Couloir and Ice Cliff Glacier still look to be "in," but are melting fast. If you do either, I would not reccomend trying them in a day, as you should get a ridiculously early start on the climb itself (camp on the moraine below the Ice Cliff Glacier).

I was on Stuart today, and saw the exact same thing. I didn't see them anywhere else, but the summit was covered in thousands of ladybugs, in big, red clumps. Weird.

Anyone know if iodine tablets can go bad? I wouldn't think so, but the very visible difference that has taken place on them made me think that I might as well ask. I have three partially-used "jars." In one newish-looking jar, the tablets are a uniform gray (which is what I remember them looking like new). However, in the second jar the tablets have turned orange and brown speckled, and they have turned red and brown speckled in the third jar. Perhaps this is caused from accidently getting water in the jars at some point. My guess is that they are fine, but maybe someone knows for sure.

Any of you guys done this route? Is there any useful beta I should know other than what the Beckey guide tells?

Crevasse risk is an issue on the North face, but I think that it is fairly minimal. Certainly much less significant than soloing any route on Rainier. There are two main crevassed sections on the North face: one at the bottom, and one right below the final "headwall." Skirt the lower section on the left, and the upper section on the right. Be aware that after you skirt the lower section on the left, you must traverse back right (below a small serac - hurry) to the "hidden couloir." It is really easy to go way right of the upper crevasses - You'll feel a bit more exposed, but it isn't any steeper and is totally devoid of crevasses. From the top of the face, you will certainly expose yourself to less crevasse danger if you descend immediately to Winnie's Slide (But remember to first traverse to descender's left across the Hanging Glacier - don't confuse it with the Upper Curtis Glacier that you want to descend!), rather than traverse around the Crystal Glacier to the easy side of the summit pyramid. In any event, a big factor in minimizing crevasse danger while soloing is to get a really early start on a clear night.

My plans to try the Price Glacier were changed this morning when I slept through my alarm an hour and a half. I settled to try a speed-ascent of the North Face instead. This early in the season, one definitely doesn't need to drop down to the creek on the approach, like later in the summer. Instead, hike along the road (ski area catrack) that leads East from the White Salmon Lodge, and where it ends begin a long, slightly descending, traverse to the base of the White Salmon Glacier. The rest is obvious, but run where appropriate (below the hanging glacier). There were tracks on the face that looked like they had been left on Saturday, and conditions were generally good and firm. The final "headwall," in particular, was absolutely fabulous neve. As long as the nights stay clear, the face should stay in particularly enjoyable condition (assuming you get an early start). Like the tracks before me, I opted out of the summit pyramid, and descended from the top of the face (However, the summit pyramid looked really cool in its still-winter conditions, and had some steep ice on it). I descended the White Salmon Glacier, which had an awkward crust in places, and then ran back to the car. No need to bring skis or snowshoes as long as you start early.

Has anyone ever had much luck traversing straight to the base of the White Salmon Glacier (the one on Shuksan, that is) from the base of the ski area? I know that one can drop down in the valley somewhat, and then climb back up, but perhaps this early in the season it wouldn't be too bad to traverse straight over. Anyone done it this way?

It's getting down to the wire, and I still haven't found anyone who can climb all three days this weekend. I'm looking for someone who is experienced, has climbing (randonee) approach skis of their own, and has done a lot of alpine and ice climbing. I was thinking of doing a 3-day trip to the North side of Mount Goode (accessed via Highway 20, rather than Lake Chelan), given it's Eastern location and high elevation. E-mail or call me ASAP: colinhaley@attbi.com, 206-232-1798

Cavey, I don't think so, I'm a weenie sketched-out rock climber. Lowell, I was wondering that myself. Nelson writes, "The record snow year of 1998-99 created perfect conditions: sufficient snow cover, but with most of the loose stuff sluffed off." I'm not sure if this means that someone climbed it and reported good conditions, or if it was merely speculation.

"I think what fell last year was the huge chunk of ice/snow that filled the gully approaching the notch." I don't know about a rock ledge on the route - that probably happened as well, but I witnessed the collapse of the approach gully ice. I have several slides of bus-sized chunks ripping down the gully. That was one of the closest calls I've ever had, but we luckily had a safe ledge on the side of the gully.

Unfortunately, it was quite warm for ice climbing. I climbed as fast as I could and was fine, but by the time I had descended and hiked around to below the face, lots of stuff was falling down. While I was climbing, I think that the temperature was around 33 degrees. On a side note: I've been using my Cobra's all winter, but yesterday used my straight-shafted Shrikes. Both of my wrists are quite sore today, and I am wondering if it is because of the lack of the lower bend in the shaft. Has this happened to any of you?

Oh yeah, I also think that the Skoog's gave it a very modest rating. You will be very unpleasantly suprised if you only expect ice up to 65 degrees. There were a couple bulges to 80/85 degrees, and several at 70 degrees. The mixed step was quite hard, and the face has a good deal of vertical elevation gain. If Triple Couloirs is given a seriousness rating of III/IV, then I think Graybeard is definitely IV.

There was a good deal of ice, it just wasn't all very good. The ice was rotten in places, but atleast it seemed to get better whenever you really needed it to. Like the Skoogs, I didn't take the directissima finish, but still had to deal with cornices a little bit. Hehe, I sure hope not, Pope.