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

[archenemy]

I bring my machete to work with me.

 

what's the big deal?

[Gary_Yngve]

I thought Kelly's letter was a good response too. I'm guessing the newspaper amped it by adding the title "mountaineers mar wilderness."

 

I'm really surprised Kelly's getting so much flak. She wants to make sure that folks respect the wilderness. She may have had to say something to silence an econazi (such as the dude on Gripped) who had pressured her to do something.

[John_Roper]

The North Cascades are as sacred a place to some of us as Jerusalem and Mecca are to others. This is a place probably most of us come to for peace of mind and restoration of soul.

 

The NCNP trail crews have built no significant trails since its inception in 1968. (Thunder Knob is the only one I can think of off the top of my head, and that’s in the NRA, outside the Park.) It is not the NOCA rangers that are destroying our once pristine wilderness. Look around. The Park is not to blame. It is the plastic flaggers and those that follow that are building the new trails, simplifying the difficult, and turning once-wild approaches into no-brainers.

 

Since 1968, the joy of discovery is now gone from what once were wilderness mysteries into the Southern Pickets, Pyramid-Colonial, Eldorado, Primus, Goode, Depot Creek, and Blum, to name a few. Trails have replaced the need for route-finding savvy. Next will be Eiley-Wiley, Axes (Access) Creek, maybe even Baker River, or Jasper Pass. Who knows?

 

Why? Flags. The graffiti on the walls of our sacred shrine. Don’t put ‘em up. Tear ‘em down. Thanks for leaving the wilderness wild.

 

Mike and Erik were lucky to have had the opportunity to experience Perry Creek in its original state. Kelly is right, machetes should stay home, but who amongst us hasn’t taken an ice ax to a devils club after a poke in the eye?

[catbirdseat]

They may not have considered themselves lucky at the time, but I'm sure they do now.

[gosolo]

obviously based upon the "litter" left on top, you dudes aint playin with a full deck. Now, your detractors, are forced to take a full deck to the top, one more item to carry, aside from actually gettin of their ass and climbin...You coulda left a full deck man....

 

BTW, nice send. Ever climb in the Black? Just wonderin if choss quality is similar...

[Blake]

The NCNP trail crews have built no significant trails since its inception in 1968.

 

John, what about the trail to Goode Ridge?

[John_Roper]

The Goode Ridge name and trail shows on the 1937 Chelan National Forest map (but not on the 1931 Mt. Baker NF map). It led to an L-4 cab (14’x14’) lookout. These are the familiar structures still in use atop Park Butte, Copper, Desolation, Sourdough, Hidden Lake Peaks, Three Fingers, etc. Ray Kresek notes in his classic “Fire Lookouts of Oregon and Washington” that the cab placed here in 1937 blew off the cliff in 1938, was replaced in 1939, and destroyed in 1950.

[Blake]

yes, but it didn't exist for a long time, then it was rebuilt. After the lookout was burned, the trail stopped being maintained and became woods. The old route used to be ~8 miles, and the new one is ~5. New trail built sometime in the 1980s, probably some bored trail crew in Stehekin looking for a project. Not that this trail is particularly significant (although i know gusy who've used it to descend Goode). Maybe this extreme thread drift belongs on the NOCA trivia thread. You are of course right though, that trail mileage has declined, not increased, recently and since the park's inception.

[mattp]

I don't think they are building many if any trails in the surrounding National Forest either. In Mount Baker Snoqualmie, I believe, they hava a no new trails in wilderness policy and on both sides of the crest, from Snoqualmie Pass to the Canadian border they have a grizzly bear management policy that stipulates that if they do build a mile of trail somewhere they must remove a mile of trail nearby. These stated policies, of course, are probably not nearly as important as the fact that they simply don't have money for trail building -- they can't even maintain what they have.

[Blake]

The Wenatchee National forest adjacent to the NCNP has also allowed many miles of trails to be reclaimed by nature since the park's inception.

[mattp]

On both sides, some trails have been reclaimed by Nature while others have been gobbled up by logging operations. I don't think they've built many miles of new trail over the last 20 years but there have been a few places where they've been compelled by user-numbers to "adopt" trails that had been developed by fishermen.

[layton]

obviously based upon the "litter" left on top, you dudes aint playin with a full deck. Now, your detractors, are forced to take a full deck to the top, one more item to carry, aside from actually gettin of their ass and climbin...You coulda left a full deck man....

 

BTW, nice send. Ever climb in the Black? Just wonderin if choss quality is similar...

 

That didn't make any sense!

Please re-word with less double-entandres (sp?)

[catbirdseat]

That didn't make any sense!

Please re-word with less double-entandres (sp?)

I doubt he remembers what it was he was trying to say. It's spelled "entendre", by the way. Interestingly, "entender" is a word too.

[wayne]

Looking again at the Perry Creek approach would it had been an easier to go up the ridge to the south to get up the valley? Its not that tall and the timbered ridges would have been less shwaky?

[layton]

We found the fastest way on the way out (took 10 hours down) was to stay high to the south about 500' above the valley hugging the edges of talus slopes then to drop back down into the creek at about 3400' elev, 1.5 miles from the trail. The fist 1.5 miles is mega bush even up top, and the ridgeline is a few 1,000 above the valley so you'd be wasting a lot of time going up hill then back down way before the trail.

 

I heard going up Indian creek may be quicker, dunno?

[olyclimber]

Congrats mike on your big climb.

[layton]

Congrats mike on your big climb.

 

[bobbyperu]

yeah mike!!! so now yer probably up to your ears in box...tho i was wondering do the ladies get freaked out when they rip your pants off to see a gang of cc.commers hanging off your nutsac..? or run the other way when they see the raw spots caused by too much strokin by the hoards of calloused man-fans that line up for "just one more tugg..? anyway heres to ya

[layton]

Now that it's all over for some time, and this thread has seen more views that it should have, i can now reflect.

 

1st...where are the willing girls? Seriously, no one has dropped trow and spread it while i've been walking down the street or shopping or anything.

 

2nd...there is still war and hate and disaster. bad things still happen to good people. WTF???? I thought this would end that.

 

3rd...the free beer and climbing gear hookups. still waiting.... do you need my address????

 

4th...unsolicited sexual favors. yeah, same as the 1st, but come on!

 

5th. Most important climb in 50 years in the casacades. Nope. not even close. that's just plain silly. E face of Slesse? 5.12's on Baring? Colonial peak's NF is 4000 feet tall, not a measly 2500. Too many to name to pale in comparison.

 

6th. Upping the bar. Only if the bar serves whiskey did we up that.

 

7th. The whole wilderness ethics debate. My debate can be summed up in two words. Fuck You.

 

8th. It's friday night. I'm bored. I can barely remember few, if any detail of the climb. Someone could have photoshopped me in and written a TR and I wouldn't be any different as i am right now...bored to tears, slightly drunk, and wishing i was somewhere else right now.

 

9th, and finally. please lock this thread. it's soooo over. caput. finished. R.I.P.

[highclimb]

7th. The whole wilderness ethics debate. My debate can be summed up in two words. Fuck You.

 

 

hahahahaha

 

that made my day