first ascent [TR] South East Mox Peak- The Devil's Club, First Ascent of the East Face 9/1/2005

[Mos_Chillin]

Looks like our boys are going to make the Sunday Bellingham Herald this week.

 

And rumour has it Alpinist is interested in 500.

[Gary_Yngve]

Finally, when an entire tree was pulled through our crotches, we’d call it "Arbor Birthing."

 

when your crotch wants some bush and there are no ladies around...

[setnei]

Sweet. Great reading on a cloudy Saturday afternoon...

 

Nice work!

[Mos_Chillin]

Bellingham Herald Link

 

[whirlwind]

fucking sick

[thatguy]

The feat was mentioned and quotes were repeated on KPLU at 6:10 this morning

[EWolfe]

Found this response when I linked the story to another climbing website:

 

I have a big problem with these climbers. The climb took place in a sacred and very remote valley in North Cascades National Park that demands respect. The problem is these climbers have no respect for the north cascades. This is evident by the bag of garbage they left at the top of the wall. They even had the audacity to send a picture of their bag of garbage to the local Bellingham Herald Newspaper!!! Their non-biodegradable plastic bag with a joker card inside was left on the top of the wall! Littering in a national park is not only illegal but totally immoral!! Once again the climbing community in Bellingham has shown its true colors. These climbers are apparently like many climbers in our area who care about nothing more than their egos. They had to make 8 rapels to get off the wall, which means they left 8 more pieces of garbage(webbing) behind them. They also reported finding garbage left by Fred Beckey and another party who previously tried the route. Did they pick up this garbage?? Heck no! Why......because they were to busy thinking about the articles they could write once they retreated back to Bellingham! Until these guys get some humility I hope they have a long time to think about their actions while dangling limply from the end of their climbing rope after taking a really long hard fall! When Eric are you going to return to this site to clean up your garbage????

 

What a tool, I guess he would downclimb the whole thing.

 

Nice armchair analysis.

[Ponzini]

"The problem is these climbers have no respect for the north cascades".......

 

Anyone who does a climb of that magnitude in such superb style has a huge amount of respect for the North Cascades! Whoever wrote this is a dick who should devote more energy to climbing mountains and less to nazi-enviro rants.

 

Excellent climb, boys. A new milestone.

[ivan]

"u dix!!!!" spicolo-the-non-climbing-fuck-face cries...

 

maybe he's just trying to goad you into also making the second ascent, senor e?

 

i wasn't aware the n cascades were sacred? is it like devil's tower now? i can't much imagine the local fish-eater's wandering too close by or too far up it.

 

shoulda left the joker inside one of dem old-fashioned non-biodegradable big mac styrofoam containers!

[Dru]

Thats pretty damn rad, like I will buy you drinks cool. But I betcha it still won't get you laid Mike cause only nerdy alpine geeks like us will think its .

[JoshK]

Damn, what climber wishes for another climber to hang limply on his rope after a long fall?? What a jackass.

[layton]

i had non consental anal sex with the earth goddess and peed in her but up there too. i also salted the earth on the hike out. finally, i planted a shit-ton of non-indiginous aggressive plants along the way. should take over the local flora in about 3 years.

 

HOWEVER! to counter-act all the enviro hate i, Erik took EVERY FREAKING ROCK and oriented the whole alpine cirque into a perfect Feng-Shui harmonious, joyous, healing mecca. He also turned the towers a bit more to the south, as Mars was certainly in its dominant house. of course, that now makes our climb the SE face.

[olyclimber]

Total BS! My sign is Taurus, and the non-indegious plants are actually rising with my sign. But the alignment of the rocks completely throws my shakra into a tailspin. You best get your ass down here and stabalize my aura, or the planets are coming after you. But thanks for coming clean about the anal sex with the earth goddess. Who was bottoms again?

[layton]

earth goddess is ALWAYS bottoms. always.

[magellan]

From the Bellingham Herald

 

Michael Layton's report of his and Erik Wolfe's ascent of the big wall on Southeast Mox Peak is online at www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Number/496593.

 

Some language in the report is not suitable for children.

 

[Dru]

Is that children as in mental, or physical age?

[magellan]

Should have said

Some language not suited for anyone

[layton]

i also offer no appologies for the enromous blue and red lines we spray painted along the way to mark our route.

 

yeah, most folks would call that uncalled for. not me. if i can't see it from space, i dont care anymore. that's what i say.

[olyclimber]

Thanks for taking it to the next level Mike. Its what we all need right now, with this crazy world happening all around us and stuff. As along as you felt good while doing it.

[John_Scurlock]

Found this response when I linked the story to another climbing website:

 

I have a big problem with these climbers... blah blah blah...

 

Wonder if this is the same uninformed quite-holier-than-thou 'gentleman' that accused me of committing a crime by flying over the Pasayten Wilderness - in a comment posted on my site a few months ago... anonymously of course... a tactic which doesn't sit so well with me...

Edited September 14, 2005 by John_Scurlock

[JayB]

Found this response when I linked the story to another climbing website:

 

I have a big problem with these climbers. The climb took place in a sacred and very remote valley in North Cascades National Park that demands respect. The problem is these climbers have no respect for the north cascades. This is evident by the bag of garbage they left at the top of the wall. They even had the audacity to send a picture of their bag of garbage to the local Bellingham Herald Newspaper!!! Their non-biodegradable plastic bag with a joker card inside was left on the top of the wall! Littering in a national park is not only illegal but totally immoral!! Once again the climbing community in Bellingham has shown its true colors. These climbers are apparently like many climbers in our area who care about nothing more than their egos. They had to make 8 rapels to get off the wall, which means they left 8 more pieces of garbage(webbing) behind them. They also reported finding garbage left by Fred Beckey and another party who previously tried the route. Did they pick up this garbage?? Heck no! Why......because they were to busy thinking about the articles they could write once they retreated back to Bellingham! Until these guys get some humility I hope they have a long time to think about their actions while dangling limply from the end of their climbing rope after taking a really long hard fall! When Eric are you going to return to this site to clean up your garbage????

 

What a tool, I guess he would downclimb the whole thing.

 

Nice armchair analysis.

 

 

Give us the link, E.

[Choada_Boy]

I don't know about leaving garbage in the hills but if you re-arrange the letters in "MisterE" it spells "Media Whore". Did you get your skills from Uncage the Soul?

 

Shockingly, the Herald didn't totally blow it this time, although they didn't pick the best available pictures, and "history" should have had a capital "H". Mike's shot of the wall pales in comparison to Scurlock's aerial madness, and the shot of Mike 2nding pales in comparison to him leading the overhangs. Pretty cool, though, that they gave you so much exposure, no pun intended.

[mattp]

What's wrong with that, Choada? Are you jealous maybe?

 

Sure, Erik went out and got himself some attention but I think it is pretty cool for there to be a big newspaper article portraying mountain climbing as an exciting and worthy endeavor rather than an irresponsible drain upon society and theirs was a worthy climb.

 

Way to go, guys.

[Off_White]

Give us the link, E.

 

here

[ncascadesranger]

Quote:

i wasn't aware the n cascades were sacred?

 

What?... Who’s not aware…? OK that’s it…now we definitely have to post....

 

But first, while Michael Layton and Erik Wolfe hardly need more accolades after the Bham Herald article, radio stories, etc, let us say anyway that we are all super impressed with the SE Mox climb. The vast majority of climbs undertaken in this park are now found in one, if not several, guidebooks, or have info available with a quick cc.com search. But this – this is true wilderness adventure. Congrats to Michael and Erik.

 

In fact, the part of this range that made it into the North Cascades National Park, surely the wildest, most remote and dramatically rugged, most ecologically-intact landscape in the lower United States – IS some variety of “sacred” to many people. It is sacred to our mountaineering / conservation elders who a generation ago fought tooth and nail to preserve this great wilderness as a national park before the timber and mining interests gobbled it up. That belief in sacred places resulted in the Mox Peaks remaining as wild and mysterious places today and not exposed at the end of some trashed logging road. For many, that concept of sacred places includes simple wilderness travel ethics that include no flagging, no trash left intentionally marking your presence, no bonfires and no machetes hacking your way through un-trailed wilderness. Some of this may seem trivial, some of these impacts are aesthetic and not ecological (that devil’s club will grow back and be brutal for the next Perry Creek hikers too). But seeing these tremendous photos of the FA of the remote Mox wall paired up with the machete approach is disappointing.

 

This could be all be said bureaucratically too – these high impact practices are all violations of NPS regs. (you are right Jon “Protect yourself on cc.com” – the government computers do indeed lurk all the time.) But you know that.

 

Moving on to the red flare / yellow plane part of this wilderness adventure. We know Scurlock is always in search of an excuse to fly, but generally we encourage climbers to steer clear of the ol’ flare-gun distress signal method of initiating rescue. Seriously, the (optional) climbing register offered at ranger stations may work out better. There are a host of climbers who will attest that these registers saved their bacon when their climb went sideways. This is easily filled out when obtaining the (required!) backcountry permit.

 

Permits - yes - some climbers this season have been surprised to learn from rangers in the Pickets and other remote places, that the permit is required in all areas of the park. The NCNP is trying hard to keep this permit FREE for all and simple to get, (not an easy thing in this fee-crazed era and it may change by 07 despite our best efforts), but it is required and your cooperation will help.

 

Thanks for reading our somewhat divergent post. We mean no disrespect for the climbing achievement – we just wish those setting the bar higher for amazing ascents such as this were also setting an example for low impact wilderness climbing style.

 

North Cascades NP Wilderness and Climbing Rangers:

Kelly Bush, Alex Brun, Kevork Arackellian, Lin Skavdahl, Michele Blank