I know some of you are familiar with Patty Rambert, so I am forwarding
this message from the SPS. I am deeply saddened.
Harry

The following report was received from Kurt Wedberg at 3:00 pm on
Thursday, June 1, 2006 and is posted as a service to the SPS membership.
I am sure we will all miss Patty.

Larry Hoak, SPS Webmaster

From Kurt: "I spoke with the Sheriff in Bishop this morning. Tina Bowm
an and Patty were climbing a route on the east side of Mt. Mendel.
They ran into icy snow conditions that made them decide to turn around
short of the summit. On the way down they were stopped and in the
middle of scoping out their descent and Patty slipped on the snow. The
snow conditions were described as being good and Patty yelled at least
once but for some unknown reason she wasn't able to self arrest. She
slid about 200 feet before launching over a cliff for another 100
feet. By the time Tina got to her Patty showed no signs of life.

Mt. Mendel is in the national park boundary so the search and rescue
here in Bishop won't be involved unless they call for assistance. They
will most likely bring a helicopter in with a crew who will need to
move Patty to a better location to get picked up. I'm standing by in
case we get called in to help but it doesn't look like they'll need it.

It's a sad day in the mountaineering world. She was a good friend and
a lot of fun to be around. I am fortunate to say I was able to do a
couple trips with her including an ascent of the North Couloir of
North Peak.

Please keep her family and friends in your prayers. Ask for comfort
and strength during this sad time. May the rescue workers remain safe
and may her soul rest in peace. Her enthusiasm was always contagious
and anyone fortunate enough to have known her will carry Patty with
them wherever they go."

Kurt Wedberg

Sierra Mountaineering International

I'm tentatively planning a day climb of Goat Mountain (out of Kings
Canyon at Roads End) on Sunday June 4th.  It looks quite feasible as a
longish outing (< 20 miles, ~7000 feet), but I've not seen any reports
from people making a day of it.  Has anybody been up this peak? Thanks
to anybody that has a comment.

Steve

P.S.  If anybody wants to join up, let me know.

Hi Stephen,
It is a technical climb and how far is it from Oakland?

Thanks,
Parisa

----Original Message Follows----
From: stephen_w_hiebert <no_reply@yahoogroups.com>
Reply-To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Sierra Scrambles] Goat Mountain Dayhike
Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 17:55:28 -0000

I'm tentatively planning a day climb of Goat Mountain (out of Kings
Canyon at Roads End) on Sunday June 4th.  It looks quite feasible as a
longish outing (< 20 miles, ~7000 feet), but I've not seen any reports
from people making a day of it.  Has anybody been up this peak? Thanks
to anybody that has a comment.

Steve

P.S.  If anybody wants to join up, let me know.

Parisa,

It's not a technical climb - more of a scramble after a long
approach to .  It seems like there is a south ridge that is class
2/3 (reported to have a bit of class 3) and a northwest ridge that
is class 2.  Both are reached via the same Grouse Lake starting
point.

Oakland would be a bit further than San Jose where I'd be coming
from.  Mapquest says 4 hours from Oakland (3:45 from San Jose) to
the junction of 198 & 180 in KCNP.  To Roads End, if I recall, it's
another 45 min or so.

Steve

--- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "Parisa Muller"
<parisa_m@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Stephen,
> It is a technical climb and how far is it from Oakland?
>
> Thanks,
> Parisa
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: stephen_w_hiebert <no_reply@yahoogroups.com>
> Reply-To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
> To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Sierra Scrambles] Goat Mountain Dayhike
> Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 17:55:28 -0000
>
> I'm tentatively planning a day climb of Goat Mountain (out of Kings
> Canyon at Roads End) on Sunday June 4th.  It looks quite feasible
as a
> longish outing (< 20 miles, ~7000 feet), but I've not seen any
reports
> from people making a day of it.  Has anybody been up this peak?
Thanks
> to anybody that has a comment.
>
> Steve
>
> P.S.  If anybody wants to join up, let me know.
>

Thanks, Steve.  Sounds like fun but a bit too far of a drive for me,
unfortunately.  Have a great time.

-- Parisa

----Original Message Follows----
From: stephen_w_hiebert <no_reply@yahoogroups.com>
Reply-To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Sierra Scrambles] Goat Mountain Dayhike
Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 19:52:11 -0000

Parisa,

It's not a technical climb - more of a scramble after a long
approach to .  It seems like there is a south ridge that is class
2/3 (reported to have a bit of class 3) and a northwest ridge that
is class 2.  Both are reached via the same Grouse Lake starting
point.

Oakland would be a bit further than San Jose where I'd be coming
from.  Mapquest says 4 hours from Oakland (3:45 from San Jose) to
the junction of 198 & 180 in KCNP.  To Roads End, if I recall, it's
another 45 min or so.

Steve

--- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "Parisa Muller"
<parisa_m@...> wrote:
  >
  > Hi Stephen,
  > It is a technical climb and how far is it from Oakland?
  >
  > Thanks,
  > Parisa
  >
  > ----Original Message Follows----
  > From: stephen_w_hiebert <no_reply@yahoogroups.com>
  > Reply-To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
  > To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
  > Subject: [Sierra Scrambles] Goat Mountain Dayhike
  > Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 17:55:28 -0000
  >
  > I'm tentatively planning a day climb of Goat Mountain (out of Kings
  > Canyon at Roads End) on Sunday June 4th.  It looks quite feasible
as a
  > longish outing (< 20 miles, ~7000 feet), but I've not seen any
reports
  > from people making a day of it.  Has anybody been up this peak?
Thanks
  > to anybody that has a comment.
  >
  > Steve
  >
  > P.S.  If anybody wants to join up, let me know.
  >

First, let me comment that Rick, Matthew, and I were all pretty
shocked to hear about Matthew. He had all enjoyed our brief random
encounters with her in the backcountry of the Sierra and So. Cal over
the past few years. She always had a warm greeting, and it was the
only backcountry hug I've ever gotten. We will miss her smile and
enthusiasm for sport she loved. Our prayers go out to her family.

We drove up to Oregon starting shortly after midnight. Not long after
passing Redding, it began to drizzle. Clouds enveloped the mountains
down to about 6-7,000ft. We passed on Mt. Eddy and continued north.
Rain was almost continuous since crossing the Oregon border. We drove
to the Thielsen trailhead and sat there for 20 minutes watching it
rain and deciding what to do. The guidebook pointed out that Thielsen
is an easy hike and scramble, only dangerous when it is stormy
outside, as the peak is known as the lightning rod of Oregon. We
passed a second time.

A state trooper saw us sitting alongside the road and stopped to
offer assistance. She saw we were a bit discouraged by the rain. She
suggested that Bend had some good shopping. Instead, we stopped to
check out the lava tube along US97. It is quite long, a bit more than
a mile, and pretty cool. I turned my ankle in the process and will
have to nurse it with ice tonight. Next we stopped at the High Desert
Museum just south of Bend. At $12 a head, we were curious what an
Oregonian desert looked like. Apparently, it has a running stream
with rainbow trout, a pond/marsh with geese, and forest for as far as
one could see. The desert exhibits in the museum were strangly out of
place with the locale. Maybe if you're from Portland, these forests
on the east side of the divide (that look like the southern Sierra)
seem like desert. We're now in Bend and there is a 20% chance of
precipitation tomorrow. That seems like clear skies by Oregon
standards. We're hoping to do South Sister and Broken Top tomorrow.
Unless it rains, it which case we will start crawling the walls for
exercise.

This is definitely feasible.  I climbed Kennedy/Goat as a dayhike
last year, heading up via the Kennedy Pass trail, returning via the
Copper Creek trail.  It was a somewhat tiring day--quite a bit longer
than I'd anticipated, and a good deal longer than I would have
preferred for a warm-up for Eagle Scout/Stewart.  (Kennedy/Goat was
the first warm-up day of two I had planned for the long outing, and I
ended up doing virtually nothing on the second "warm-up" day just to
try and recover).  The toughest part was a long (7-mile?) hike along
Hwy 180 to get back to my car at the end of the day--that part seemed
like it went on forever, and would have been better done with either
a bike or car shuttle.  Obviously, if you do only Goat, you could
avoid this.

The peaks themselves were straightforward.  The main comments that
come to mind are that I encountered some annoyingly time-consuming
3rd class while traversing the crest of the Monarch Divide between
Kennedy and Goat, and I ended up bailing down to Volcanic Lakes and
back up to Granite Pass as that seemed like it would be quicker (and
more scenic) than continuing to follow the divide.  Also, the NW
ridge of Goat is better than I was expecting--not a classic by any
stretch of the imagination, but if you follow the ridge fairly
religiously I recall it's 3rd class in places, and really not too bad
a scramble.


> I'm tentatively planning a day climb of Goat Mountain (out of Kings
> Canyon at Roads End) on Sunday June 4th.  It looks quite feasible
as a
> longish outing (< 20 miles, ~7000 feet), but I've not seen any
reports
> from people making a day of it.  Has anybody been up this peak?

Yes, we should have warned you about our Rose Festival in Portland,
which traditionally is "always" accompanied by low pressure and
dampness.  Should improve after the Sat/Sun storm though, if you're
still sane.  Head about 20 minutes east of Bend and you'll find our
deserts - juniper and sage everywhere!  It was a wet year here as
well, hope the crampons & axes came along..


--- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Burd" <snwbord@...>
wrote:
>
.. We're now in Bend and there is a 20% chance of
> precipitation tomorrow. That seems like clear skies by Oregon
> standards. We're hoping to do South Sister and Broken Top tomorrow.
> Unless it rains, it which case we will start crawling the walls for
> exercise.
>

Hmmm, the weather here is rather interesting. We noticing a pattern
in the weather report: "40% chance of rain tonight and in the
morning, partly cloudy in the afternoon, then clearing." Next day,
same forcast. Anyway, we managed to do South Sister today in 6 1/2hrs
via the "dog route". That's PNW-speak for the wuss route, in this
case the South Ridge. There was even a dog among the handful of other
parties we came across on the way. We traveled on snow from the TH to
the summit, whiteout conditions for the upper third. It seemed more
like a winter outing than June. Only one other party was heading to
the summit, others were just there to ski the south side of the
mountain. Along with snowshoes, axe, and crampons (none of which were
actually needed, but we used them anyway), we carried a boat load of
climbing gear because we going to do Broken Top on the way back. We
didn't read the map very well beforehand, and when we did we realized
it was an additional 3,000ft of gain after already doing 5,000ft. We
carried it all back, unused, and the other parties that saw our cache
of gear on the South Ridge probably thought we were morons. And they
would be right. :-)

Tomorrow we're heading to Mt. Washington since the weather report
again is pretty crummy. The easiest route there is class 4-low 5 and
report to have much loose rock. But then just about all the harder
peaks around here have rotten rock. I guess that's what makes them
hard. We're curious to see what they will be like with a layer of
wind-blown rime like that we saw on South Sister.


--- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "Jim R" <jimr_pdx@...> wrote:
>
> Yes, we should have warned you about our Rose Festival in Portland,
> which traditionally is "always" accompanied by low pressure and
> dampness.  Should improve after the Sat/Sun storm though, if you're
> still sane.  Head about 20 minutes east of Bend and you'll find our
> deserts - juniper and sage everywhere!  It was a wet year here as
> well, hope the crampons & axes came along..
>

Here is a link I use a lot to understand the storms systems that are headed to
the PNW:

http://www.weather.com/weather/map/97202?name=westcoastussatellite_large_animate\
d&day=1

And another:

http://www.weather.com/weather/map/97202?name=index_large_animated&day=1.

If you watch it a over a few days, you will see that storms can hit in a fairly
regular pattern.


While I am on weather links, for Hood look here:
http://skitimberlinelodge.com/conditions/forecast_national.shtml

Everything Rainier here: http://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/

If you didn't get enough peaks in while visiting the PNW, give this 10 peak
traverse in Rainier National Park a go:

http://ericsbasecamp.net/trips/Tatoosh1/Tatoosh1.htm
http://ericsbasecamp.net/trips/Tatoosh2/Tatoosh2.htm

Sans Stevenson, I linked all 10 together as a day trip a couple of years ago.

Cheers!

Bob


   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Bob Burd
   To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 5:01 PM
   Subject: [Sierra Scrambles] Re: Hello from Oregon


   Hmmm, the weather here is rather interesting. We noticing a pattern
   in the weather report: "40% chance of rain tonight and in the
   morning, partly cloudy in the afternoon, then clearing." Next day,
   same forcast. Anyway, we managed to do South Sister today in 6 1/2hrs
   via the "dog route". That's PNW-speak for the wuss route, in this
   case the South Ridge. There was even a dog among the handful of other
   parties we came across on the way. We traveled on snow from the TH to
   the summit, whiteout conditions for the upper third. It seemed more
   like a winter outing than June. Only one other party was heading to
   the summit, others were just there to ski the south side of the
   mountain. Along with snowshoes, axe, and crampons (none of which were
   actually needed, but we used them anyway), we carried a boat load of
   climbing gear because we going to do Broken Top on the way back. We
   didn't read the map very well beforehand, and when we did we realized
   it was an additional 3,000ft of gain after already doing 5,000ft. We
   carried it all back, unused, and the other parties that saw our cache
   of gear on the South Ridge probably thought we were morons. And they
   would be right. :-)

   Tomorrow we're heading to Mt. Washington since the weather report
   again is pretty crummy. The easiest route there is class 4-low 5 and
   report to have much loose rock. But then just about all the harder
   peaks around here have rotten rock. I guess that's what makes them
   hard. We're curious to see what they will be like with a layer of
   wind-blown rime like that we saw on South Sister.


   --- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "Jim R" <jimr_pdx@...> wrote:
   >
   > Yes, we should have warned you about our Rose Festival in Portland,
   > which traditionally is "always" accompanied by low pressure and
   > dampness.  Should improve after the Sat/Sun storm though, if you're
   > still sane.  Head about 20 minutes east of Bend and you'll find our
   > deserts - juniper and sage everywhere!  It was a wet year here as
   > well, hope the crampons & axes came along..
   >






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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bob,

Thanks for the links. It would appear the weather is indeed to
improve in the beginning of the week. Then again, this may be just
how the PNWers like to mess with those of us from down south. :-)

Today was a bust, but better than Friday. We got to the BIg Lake TH
for a go at Mt. Washington. It was raining when we got there before
6a, so we decided to sleep some more and see if it improved. At 8:30a
it was still raining on and off, and looked pretty miserable outside.
We decided to wait it out some more, watching "Clerks" on the van's
DVD player. At 10:30a it was no longer raining, but it was heavily
overcast. We decided to give it a go. Using a compass, we headed out
on a roughly straight course for the measured point on the North
Ridge at 6,300ft. This went pretty well, and within an hour and a
half we had made our way (over mostly snow) to the point on the
ridge. Intermittent rain, winds, and poor visibility did not help
once we got to the ridge. We continued another 1/2hr to about
6,800ft, which was about 1,000ft still below the summit and before
any of the difficult sections. We'd hoped it might improve, but it
was not to be. Down we went.

Tomorrow is looking so good (relatively) that we are planning on a
visit to Jefferson. That should be about the hardest one on our list
outside Rainier. I'll give us a 50% chance. We're going to do a
little non-rain dance before we turn in tonight. Probably won't help,
but it might offer some amusement.

Not only is the Rose Festival traditionally rainy, it is well known here on
the west side of the Cascades that summer begins on July 5. If you must plan
ahead and travel far, the best way to get good weather is to climb from
mid-July until early October. We who live here can take advantage of any
good weather on much shorter notice.

-----Original Message-----
From: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jim R
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2006 7:46 PM
To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Sierra Scrambles] Re: Hello from Oregon


Yes, we should have warned you about our Rose Festival in Portland,
which traditionally is "always" accompanied by low pressure and
dampness.  Should improve after the Sat/Sun storm though, if you're
still sane.  Head about 20 minutes east of Bend and you'll find our
deserts - juniper and sage everywhere!  It was a wet year here as
well, hope the crampons & axes came along..



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Well, Rose Festival or not, we're goin' climbin'!

Today the weather was beautiful. We climbed Mt. Jefferson via the
Pamela Lake Trail & the PCT. When we hit snow on the PCT we headed
uphill and shortcutted the usual route via Shale Lake. The summit
pinnacle was plastered in icy rime (from the previous bad weather, no
doubt). Undeterred, we took three hours RT from Red Saddle to get the
summit block, using axes and crampons, and then a rope for a short
section that spooked us about 30 feet below the summit. It was a long
day, 14hrs car to car. Tomorrow we *think* the weather is going to
cooperate again, so we're going to try Mt. Washington.

Another good weather day here in Central Oregon. We climbed Three
Fingered Jack in about 9hrs. We had dreams of climbing Washington as
well, but that wasn't too realistic, it turns out. TFJ was pretty fun,
lots of snow (we had maybe a mile and a half of trail before the snow
pretty much covered everything. Unlike Jefferson, TFJ is low enough
(~7,800ft) that there was very little snow around the large summit
pinnacle, and none of it caused us any worry. We used a rope to belay
the lower class 4 section and then the low class 5 face section at the
top. The whole mountain is one of the loosest in the cascades, and it
seems a miracle that the thing doesn't crumble down. Looks like we
might have half a day tomorrow before the next low pressure comes in in
the afternoon. We're going to try to get up Washington again, this time
starting very early. What we do after that it up in the air. Still
hoping to get up to Rainier, but we'll need some nice weather at the
end of the week.

Rebuffed 3 days ago, we went out to climb Mt. Washington. We thought it
would be easier than TFJ or Mt. Jefferson, but the combination of icy
crampon traverses and the rotten chimney at the base of the summit
pinnacle really challenged us. The weather cooperated nicely, and
though we were under, in, and above the cloud layer much of the
morning, it made for a fine outing, just under 8hrs, car to car. The
weather forcast for the Rainier area is calling for 20% chance of
precip for the next four days. We're going to have to pow-wow and come
up with a plan for tomorrow and Friday. Now that we've had three
successful days in a row, Oregon in June isn't looking as dismal as it
was earlier in the week. :-)

Here's a couple of unsolicitated suggestions from an Oregonian:

Even though there is a 20 pop on Rainer, a lot of times you can climb
above the clouds and storms.  The route to Muir is flagged (atleast it
was 2 weeks ago) and with good navgiation you can find your way down
in a white out.  I wouldn't recommend this for everyone, but you guys
certainly don't fall in that category!   You can check current clouds
levels at weatherunderground.com type in Mt Rainier, and get an iea of
current clods levels as reported by pilots.  Easy link:
http://www.wunderground.com/US/WA/Mount_Rainier_National_Park.html

Not a forecast of cloud levels, but an idea of what to expect.

Today for instance it read:
Clouds:   Few   4500 ft  / 1371 m
Scattered Clouds 8000 ft / 2438 m
(Above Ground Level)

Usually this means you are above the clouds at 8000 ft.

I climbed Hood yesterday with a midnight start.  Even though the
freezing level was at 12000 and Hood is only 11 and change, we had
firm snow all the way from Timberline parking lot.  There is a
convection current that sets up pulling cold air out of the atmosphere
and into the valleys/  The snow will turn to mush, though, by 11a so
you will want to be off the South Side by then, so an early start is
critical.   If I hadn't been with newbies, the snow conditons would
have been excellent for Leuthold Coulour.  It is 2000 of snow/ice up
to 45 degrees on the West face.  Chances are, with the current
forecast, the conditions will be the same for Friday night.  You can
camp in your van in the parking lot at Timberline or get a hotel in
Government Camp.

Also, if you brought rock gear, your nearly next door to Smith Rock!
There are some classic 5.6 and .7 multi pitch classics at the park:
Super Slab, Moscow, Superman to name a few.  You can get a guide book
at Red Point Cilmbing shop in Terrebonne.

Despite summer not starting here until afer the 4th of July, if you're
flexible, climbing can be had!


--- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "Bob Burd" <snwbord@...> wrote:
>
> Rebuffed 3 days ago, we went out to climb Mt. Washington. We thought it
> would be easier than TFJ or Mt. Jefferson, but the combination of icy
> crampon traverses and the rotten chimney at the base of the summit
> pinnacle really challenged us. The weather cooperated nicely, and
> though we were under, in, and above the cloud layer much of the
> morning, it made for a fine outing, just under 8hrs, car to car. The
> weather forcast for the Rainier area is calling for 20% chance of
> precip for the next four days. We're going to have to pow-wow and come
> up with a plan for tomorrow and Friday. Now that we've had three
> successful days in a row, Oregon in June isn't looking as dismal as it
> was earlier in the week. :-)
>

--- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "murphypdx05"
<bob_murphy@...> wrote:
>
> Here's a couple of unsolicitated suggestions from an Oregonian:

Bob - thanks again for more beta. We found the cloud conditions
exactly like you described when we climbed Hood this morning. The
cloud layer topped out at Timberline Lodge and never went any higher.
We had windy and cold condtions, but firm snow, good for crampons.
Too firm actually - it never softened up and we had no glissading. We
started at 3a per the usual recommendations, but it was still icy
hard at the lodge when we returned to the lodge at 8a. There were
three other parties at the summit with us shortly after 6a - much
less crowded than the first time I was up there on a Saturday many
years ago. Matthew developed a knee problem on Washington yesterday
and had to turn back after the first few hundred yards. Compared to
the last three days, the route was rather tame and the outing much
too short, so even with 4hrs of driving from Bend and back, we had
time to climb Mt. Bachelor around noon. Matthew was able to join us
for that one. It was even tamer than Hood, but the 3hrs it took us
was just about right to round out the day.

Because of the uncertainty about Matthew knee, we decided to forgo
the drive to Washington for our attempt at Rainier. We're going to
wait until he's 100% and try again next year. But with extra time we
have, we're going to do some more peaks around Bend. Broken Top,
maybe North Sister - we're not sure just yet and need to pow-wow.
Looks like good weather is going to continue... yay!

Bob, I was on Mt. Rainier over Memorial Day weekend and attempted the
summit on May 29. several days of consistent snow before that day had
deposited much new soft snow on the upper mountain (DC Route) so
everyone turned around at 12,600 that day above the cleaver due to
high avalanche danger. There was no visible tracks above that point at
that time. If it hasn't snowed much since then, then chances are the
snow has consolidated and people have gone higher on the route. The
rangers should know the conditions if you call the Paradise Ranger
Station.

Paul Garry

This is another Cascade volcano, located SE of South Sister and North
of Mt. Bachelor. It took us 6.5hrs to do the RT from the Green Lakes
TH. Our beta suggested several class 4 sections, one of them possibly
low class 5. But we found nothing harder than class 3. It was only a
minor letdown, because we had brought rope, harnesses, pro, axes, and
crampons, and used none of it. It has great views though, and we
could see all the peaks we'd climbed in the state with the exception
of Mt. Hood - cloud cover to the north kept that one hidden. We've
got two days left before we return to CA. Tomorrow we're looking at
North/Middle Sisters. N. Sister looks a bit scary from the beta, so
we'll have to see how it looks when we get there.

For the CA crowd who haven't been up here to climb, here's the
executive summary:
Unlike the Sierra, there are only a couple handful of high peaks in
the state, and they are almost all remnants of volcanos. The access
is generally very good, including some with a drive up approach
(Bachelor/Hood). The most remote is Mt. Jefferson, but even that is
only about 9mi from the nearest trailhead. Elevation gain ranges from
2,000ft (Bachelor) to 7,000ft (Jefferson). All of them have  good
trails to the summit pinnacles, though right now they are almost all
covered in snow. About half of the peaks are walk ups, the other half
have summit pinnacles. The summit pinnacles are the only tricky
sections, as they are composed of fairly rotten rock, held together
somewhat tenuously. The climbing by the easiest routes never exceeds
easy class 5 and are usually no more than a rope pitch of climbing,
but the crappy rock makes you think twice, and then a third time
before climbing it.

While Matthew rested his knee, Rick and I headed out to climb North
and Middle Sisters. Coming from the west side, the usual route
utilizes the Obsidian TH off route 242. The road was closed 5mi from
the TH, so we had an extra 10 miles of hiking along the road. That
part wasn't so fun. I was ready to throw in the towel when we reached
the TH after 2hrs because the weather was overcast and the snow was
too soft for so early in the morning (it had been warm the night
before). Rick suggested we give it a go, so I sucked it up and off we
went. It wasn't so bad afterall. It took another 4hrs to reach the
saddle between North and Middle Sisters. We chickened out on North
Sister. The Terrible Traverse looked quite terrible, and the Bowling
Alley wasn't full of snow as we'd hoped. So we dropped our packs and
headed to the easier Middle Sister, essentially a walkup. We came
across two others on the way down, having come up from the east side
and the Pole Creek TH. There climb was only 6mi one way compared to
our 13mi. Doh! With a bit more research we could have saved all that
driving as well as all those extra miles! When we returned to our
packs, I found my milk pints scattered out in the snow. The top
zipper was undone and my granola bar and GU packets were missing.
Footprints around the pack told the story - ravens had opened the
zipper, tossed out the milk pints they couldn't open, and made off
with the other goods. Coincidently, Rick had just read a trip report
the night before of ravens doing the same thing to someone else in
the Sisters. Those birds are smart! It took us almost 12hrs for the
RT, the second hardest day we had after Jefferson. Tomorrow we have
to drive home, but plan on tagging Thielsen on the way.

is anyone climbing in the sierra?

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "rarebird16@..."
<rarebird16@...> wrote:
>
> is anyone climbing in the sierra?

It would appear not. :-)

We're done with Oregon now, after tagging Thielsen this morning. Time
to let our wounds heal and get ready for the Sierra summer season. I'll
return this message board to its regularly scheduled programming. If
anyone has been up climbing there recently, we'd love to hear about it.

-bob

I'm looking at finally going up the Baxter Pass Trail this coming
weekend.  I probably won't go to the pass but will try to get to Mary
Austin or Black Mountain.  If anyone has been up there in the last
week could you please post on conditions in that area.  I'm thinking
of camping at about 10,000 feet elevation if possible on Saturday and
then hike higher on Sunday.

I wouldn't say chickened out, but exercising good sound judgment!


   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Bob Burd
   To: sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 10:10 PM
   Subject: [Sierra Scrambles] Middle Sister

   We chickened out on North Sister. The Terrible Traverse looked quite terrible,
and the Bowling
   Alley wasn't full of snow as we'd hoped.




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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Well, I haven't had a chance to climb in the Sierras in a while, but I did
run an Ultramarathon out of Mills Pond near Bishop and climb/ski Mt Shasta
this past weekend. Both were extraordinary trips, so I guess I'll write up a
report.

First, on May 20th, 2006 I competed in the Bishop High Sierra Ultramarathon.
This is a 50mile trail run that starts at Mill Pond(4700) and climbs up
through the Buttermilks toward South Lake and Lake Sabrina. Some truly
beautiful country for sure. I trained for nearly 5 months, running
30-60miles a week that whole time, lots of hills and some elevation training
mixed it. I'ld have to say that I was in the best shape of my life a month
ago. Headed to Bishop for some bouldering on Friday before the race, nice
warm up. Saturday the race began at 6am, it was a trying event, having many
physical and mental ups and downs, but I was able to push through those. I
finished in a very respectable 10:28, 20th place. Not bad for my first race,
but almost 3h behind the winner, yikes. Snow was patchy on the upper
sections of the course at 9000ft, at 10K there was full coverage then. Mt
Humphreys, Basin Mt, and Mt Tom were an absolutely amazing back drop for the
race. My photos are the first link, second link is to the race
photographer's page.

http://community.webshots.com/album/550685088AfovAX
http://community.webshots.com/album/550584188VRidRM


    This past Thursday and Friday(June 8-9) I made a trip up to Shasta in
between visiting family in the Bay Area. I arrived at Shasta at 11a on
Thursday with the idea of doing some afternoon skiing and scouting out the
approaches to the West Face Gulley and Avalanche Gulch. I first headed
toward West Face Gulley, which requires one to traverse around the base of
Casaval Ridge, no easy task on skis. Oh, and snowline was around 6500ft so I
was on my skis the entire time(except when crampons were necessary). Anyways
when I finally reached Cascade Gulch there was a nice rocky chute leading
toward Hidden Valley and the West Face route. The route had a couple old wet
slides in the way and looked less than ideal for someone on skis. I decided
this would not be fun in the dark, alone, so Avy Gulch would be the route
for Friday. So I turned around, climbing up one of Casaval's spur ridges as
to give myself a longer ski back down to the trailhead. By this time(2p) the
snow was getting a little soft and sticky, but not bad for one on skis. I
was back at Bunny Flat around 3p for a nice relaxing afternoon of reading in
the sun. After eating dinner back in Mt Shasta City I headed back to the TH
to settle in for the night. I enjoyed a nice sunset around 830p and waited
for it to get dark so I could sleep, since the plan was to rise at 3am. It
finally got dark enough to sleep around 915pm, so I laided down in the back
of my car and actually slept pretty well.
    My alarm sounded at 3am, the nearly full moon made it almost look like
twillight outside. The temp was 34F, chilly, but not unbearable. I quickly
threw on my clothes, finished packing my bag, and downed a couple poptarts
and an apple(breakfast of champs). Grabbed the skis and I was off, on the
trail to Horse Camp then up Avalanche Gulch. The snow was very firm at 330a
skis weren't necessary, but it's always better to skin than carry one's
skis. I skinned up toward Helen Lake meeting a few nice people from the Bay
Area along the way(also on skis). The morning was very uneventful except for
one scare I had where my skins didn't bite into the hard snow, causing me to
slide about 15ft downhill before catching myself. Never fun when you can't
stop or control yourself. Anyways, I reached Helen Lake just before 7am, it
was a chilly 25F and the sun had not yet hit the Gulch. Helen Lake camps
were mostly deserted as people had long ago headed for the summit. After a
quick snack break I headed up toward the Red Banks. I was only able to stay
on skis/skins til 11500ft, where the pitch steepened and I threw on
crampons, having to lug my skis all the way to Thumb Rock. During this
section the Red Banks had just come into the sun, and rhime/snow were being
hurled down the gulch, very stupidly I had forgotten my helmet. That climb
to Thumb rock was brutal, finally reaching it at 1030a. The snow was still
firm, but not icey, great for the crampons. I decided to drop my skis at the
Red Banks and hump the rest of the way on crampons. By now the sun was in
full blaze, frying me all day with no shelter except my spf30(which failed
me in the end). I made slow but steady progress up Misery Hill(aptly named),
and when the summit pinnalce came into view, great relief poured over me. I
picked up the pace finally topping out just before 1p on Friday June 9th
alongside a new friend named Chris from SF. It was a beautiful day on top,
gentle breezy, a few lingering clouds surrounding the Mt, but nothing near
us.
    After quickly signing the summit register and snapping a few pictures it
was time to head back down to find my skis and let the fun begin. I made
great progress down to Thumb Rock, taking less than an hour for what
previously took 2. By then the snow was shaping up to be perfect corn and my
excitemet was building. Misery Hill was actually in great condition to be
skied as I came down, which bummed me out because I left my skis down lower.
I clicked into my bindings, tightened the boots and made my first turns
through the Red Banks, absolutely perfect snow conditions. I spent the next
50min making my way down 5800ft of beautiful open bowl corn. The snow
started to get a little sticky around 8500ft, but after that run it didn't
matter. I returned to Bunny Flat at 240p, elated at the wonderful day of
skiing and climbing I had. After a quick change and stretch it was back to
the Bay Area to visit family, then Saturday back to San Diego. A wonderful
weekend in the mountains, eventhough it wasn't the Sierras. Pictures in the
album below.

http://community.webshots.com/album/551284257VsoGBP
Happy climbing to all.
Eric

Went up Diamond Peak's east couloir on Memorial Day weekend.  A full
report can be found on climber.org.

The next weekend I went up to Red Lake with a certain bay area ice
climber to see what was left in the East couloir of Split
Mountain ... lots of running water and soft snow, as it turned out.

There was a bit of ice at the schrund which I got to lead, and we
simuled up 40-50 degree snow to the chimney.  Rock pro was difficult
to find in the walls of the couloir, and we had no pickets.  Screws
were useless in the soft snow.  The chimney pitch was choked with
snow and soft ice, with a big gap near the bottom.  The right side
(which in colder conditions is WI3) was a flowing waterfall.  Partner
decided to lead a rock route to the left, but decided to back off and
rapped on a knifeblade piton.

We downclimbed back to the schrund, stepped right to a rock buttress
and found a rappel sling which got us down to the glacier.
Conditions were quite warm - by only 9 or 10am we downclimbed and /
or postholed the 1500-2000' back down to the lake.

There was a wet slide at the entrance to St. Jeans couloir, and we
heard rockfall several times coming down that thing after sunrise.
It was pretty much what I expected having looked at the forecast ...
this time of year the east-facing couloir gets direct sun right after
sunrise.  The forecast for Bishop was in the mid-90's, and at 10500'
or so at the lake the temps never dropped below the 40's.

Ah, alpine suffering :)  It was good exercise, anyway.

Last weekend I went up Casaval Ridge on Shasta.  Conditions were
actually quite good, partly because of 2 feet of new snow a couple of
weeks ago.  The catwalk was in good shape - lots of rime ice.  Only a
month ago when I went up West Face Gully some folks said the catwalk
was close to being melted out.

--- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "rarebird16@..."
<rarebird16@...> wrote:
>
> is anyone climbing in the sierra?

Hi Group

New user Mitch Miller here.  Has anyone hiked the loop past Jennie
Lake and Weaver Lake lately, and be willing to share recent trail
conditions?

Thanks.
Mitch

thanks for the info rob_yang.  If snow was about 10,000 feet level
on the Baxter Pass Trail a couple of weeks ago I'd expect it to be
higher now, but the creeks are also probably higher.  I guess I'll
head out and see how far I get - even if I don't make a peak it'll
be good to get my first Sierra trip of the year in.



--- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "rob_yang2001" <yahoo@...>
wrote:
>
> Went up Diamond Peak's east couloir on Memorial Day weekend.  A
full
> report can be found on climber.org.
>
> The next weekend I went up to Red Lake with a certain bay area ice
> climber to see what was left in the East couloir of Split
> Mountain ... lots of running water and soft snow, as it turned
out.
>
> There was a bit of ice at the schrund which I got to lead, and we
> simuled up 40-50 degree snow to the chimney.  Rock pro was
difficult
> to find in the walls of the couloir, and we had no pickets.
Screws
> were useless in the soft snow.  The chimney pitch was choked with
> snow and soft ice, with a big gap near the bottom.  The right side
> (which in colder conditions is WI3) was a flowing waterfall.
Partner
> decided to lead a rock route to the left, but decided to back off
and
> rapped on a knifeblade piton.
>
> We downclimbed back to the schrund, stepped right to a rock
buttress
> and found a rappel sling which got us down to the glacier.
> Conditions were quite warm - by only 9 or 10am we downclimbed
and /
> or postholed the 1500-2000' back down to the lake.
>
> There was a wet slide at the entrance to St. Jeans couloir, and we
> heard rockfall several times coming down that thing after
sunrise.
> It was pretty much what I expected having looked at the
forecast ...
> this time of year the east-facing couloir gets direct sun right
after
> sunrise.  The forecast for Bishop was in the mid-90's, and at
10500'
> or so at the lake the temps never dropped below the 40's.
>
> Ah, alpine suffering :)  It was good exercise, anyway.
>
> Last weekend I went up Casaval Ridge on Shasta.  Conditions were
> actually quite good, partly because of 2 feet of new snow a couple
of
> weeks ago.  The catwalk was in good shape - lots of rime ice.
Only a
> month ago when I went up West Face Gully some folks said the
catwalk
> was close to being melted out.
>
> --- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "rarebird16@"
> <rarebird16@> wrote:
> >
> > is anyone climbing in the sierra?
>

I don't know that the creek crossings will be appreciably higher.  It
was colder over memorial day weekend, so maybe ... but there were
logs (sticks ?) over them that made things a bit easier.  If you are
planning to camp then the area marked on the USGS quad "campground"
at around 10000' or just below ought to work without the need to snow-
camp.  I would start early both days though - temps are likely to be
warm, the Baxter Pass trailhead is at only 6000', and the snow is
probably not going to be firm for very long after the sun comes up.
Should be excellent scenery in any case, and it would be great to
hear how things go.

--- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "Kathy" <wingding@...> wrote:
>
> thanks for the info rob_yang.  If snow was about 10,000 feet level
> on the Baxter Pass Trail a couple of weeks ago I'd expect it to be
> higher now, but the creeks are also probably higher.  I guess I'll
> head out and see how far I get - even if I don't make a peak it'll
> be good to get my first Sierra trip of the year in.
>
>
>
> --- In sierrascrambles@yahoogroups.com, "rob_yang2001" <yahoo@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Went up Diamond Peak's east couloir on Memorial Day weekend.  A
> full
> > report can be found on climber.org.
>[...]

Tioga Road is still closed which is no surprise, but there is no
projected opening date because of repairs to the road that have to be
carried out once the road is fully plowed.  In the past since 1980, the
road has been closed as late as June 30th but they may beat that record
this time.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/now/tioga.htm


Looks like it's I-5 to get to Whitney this time - bummer.