Howdy Ade, that was cool to meet you and Rob at Whitesaddle. Glad to hear you guys got a bunch of pitches in!
After the traverse and during a few hut-bound storm days we devolved into a world of dark insanity interrupted by wandering whiteout forays onto the various peaks surrounding the Upper Tellot, and of course eating dried food product.
That lasted for a week before we became seriously concerned with possible permanent behavioral damage. So we flew out and drank beer.
We took a Wadd load of pictures but they'll take developing and then scanning to post them. Have you got any digital shots from your climbs?
Cheers
Any old slippers laying around you don't want? Going to use them with socks in the mountains so they definitely don't have to be top-notch shape.
(And hopefully I can pick them up by Sat. night...)
-Mark
Cracked say: "Ramen. In the styrofoam cups."
Must go Ramenless. Ramen is not food. Ramen bad. Ate too much Ramen in distant past. Past not distant enough. Ramen bad.
Actually the steep bits are pretty good. You'd have a lot more options for foot holds with rock shoes on, too. The lower angle stuff that's usually covered in snow could get pretty manky though.
I've done the route twice and have actually considered doing it or some variation in summer. Hell, it's so close and such a blast I'd do it again in winter!
I've heard the same thing about that descent. A few years ago a friend of mine soloed (some self-belaying) the face and went down the back side. He spoke of big drops, steep bushwacking, and used the word 'nightmare' a few times.
I've beaten the hell out of my 3 year old Gust, hauling even, and it is still in pretty good shape. Definitely a light, quality pack. And comparatively cheap.
20 oz, hoodless, Epic fabric, 800 fill upgrade, 3 oz. overfill, proven down to 30°F without a parka. Stuffs down to the size of a microbe. Very low miles, no tears or scrapes.
150 bones
-Mark
The Becky route's got decent rock, not great but decent. It is amazing how shitty the summit area is though. My hat's off to the 2 parties (any others?) that have done the Nooksack-Shuksan traverse! We had planned to the traverse but looked at what we'd be rapping off into and chickened out.
So Skykilo that was you guys who left those great tracks! My partner and I started up there on the 29th and used your tracks all the way up to where you turned around. The approach was cake because of your tracks!
We ended up getting shat on a couple days later so it was all for naught. Thanks anyway!
Mark
Y'know for what it's worth, I'd be pretty surprised if Serpentine hadn't gotten done in the 70's or 80's.