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Rainy epics this weekend?


Charlie

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No epics just Cascade punishment. Left Saturday morning for the N Ridge of Stuart. Saturday evening had an awesome bivy on the rock outcrop between Goat Pass and the N Ridge. Because we were going "light" we carries no sleeping bags just a bivy sack and some extra cloths. My partner remarked before hitting the sack, "What nice weather, it'll never rain tomorrow", as I was stuffing my pack as I always do before bivies. Call it Cascade paranoia. About that time a party passed through our camp heading up to bivy at the notch in the N. Ridge. We let them know of the 1 party already up there but I guess turbo dude and his chick wanted to get a head start on us in the morning. Whatever, we'll pass them in the morning I thought. Right about then a cold when started from the NW and clouds started to emerge on the Cascade Crest. Quite odd, but the weatherman said Sunday would be a perfect day. As the sun set I had a feeling it was going to be a cold night. Throughout bouts of shivering and getting up to go and watching my pee shoot horizontally out onto the glacier I knew our chances for climbing the next day were diminishing. It seemed like forever before 5 came but as I poked my head out the bivy sack I noticed the Great Gendarme was cloud covered. Thirty minutes latter we were in a total white out. Being the optimist that I am, we shivered in our bivy sacs another 2 hours waiting for the weather to break. At 7:30 when horizontal rain started pelting us, we threw in the towel and started though the whiteout toward the car. After a couple near misses with small rockfall on the glacier we humped up to Goat pass, dropped onto the rock glacier where I almost got hit by another falling rock, trudged up Stuart Pass then walked the long path out to the car. Although we didn't climb anything, I'd say it was a good Cascade character building experience. The upper N. Ridge looks really fun and easy. The Gendarme didn't even look bad from the glacier. I can totally see how this would be an easy day route for a fast party. Maybe next time.

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Spent 4 days down at Sunriver, saw the fire near Black Butte start to flare up on Friday from a saddle just below east face of 3 Fingered Jack (no climbing, just hiking and scrambling on little pinnacles). Perfect weather down there. Mostly sunny driving back thru Yakima/E-burg on Sunday, windy as hell all the way from Bend, then approaching Snoq. Pass clouds up, wet stuff starts falling from the sky. Good to be back in the Puget Sound area.

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I was the guy who mistakenly decideded to bivy in the talus field on eldorado. Never do that again! The little guys were bold too, inches from our faces knawing on all our stuff. Our first instinct was to KILL THEM ALL, and a hail of rocks and swings from the ice ax ensued. After swinging and cursing for about fifteen minutes, we came to our senses, fired up the stove to keep them away, and hiked down. Never bivy in a talus field. Ever.

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