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Skagit Alpine July 2003 Vol 41 Issue 7 Email Edition July Club Picnic Washington Park - Anacortes Wednesday July 2nd The annual club picnic on Wednesday, July 2 at 6pm at lovely Washington Park in Anacortes. Efforts will be made to claim a site near the boat ramp. If your last name starts with: A-H – bring a main dish I-P – bring a side R-Z – bring some beverages Take the Highway 20 spur west of Anacortes toward the ferry terminal. Stay left onto Sunset Ave instead going down to the terminal. Continue past Skyline and down to the park. Veer left and head down to the day parking by the boat ramp -or- veer right and park by the playground and walk down to the picnic area. See you there! Secretary’s Report June 4, 2003 meeting No old business to report so we quickly moved on to the New Business. Eric Sandbo is interested in compiling a roster of SAC member’s outdoor preferences to aide in the search and selection of partners. To that end, he passed around an information sheet for those present to indicate their interests and skill levels. Levels are as follows: Newbie: new to climbing, backpacking, biking, hiking, kayaking Follower: as it implies, you can follow a leader Leader: Lead in any of the categories Pioneer: Willing to waste time exploring something found on a map or just like to suffer. Sadly, there was only one “Pioneering” karaoke singer with the initials “RR”. The information has been passed on to Mr. Sandbo and interested members will be able to add their names to the roster if they so wish. Look for a questionnaire to complete at your leisure. Discussion was had on publishing the names and/or phone numbers of SAC members and it was determined that we should publish the names of the members but leave their contact information as unpublished. Rick Rogers discussed the opportunity that is available for SAC to assist with the backpacking class that he taught this past quarter at Skagit Community College. He felt that involvement from the club could result in the ability to recruit more members and to share some of the expertise of various SAC members with class attendees. If the Club is interested, it’s possible that some tuition fees would be remitted to SAC. When queried as to whether he would teach the class again, Mr. Rogers stated that he would consider it if no one stepped forward. Kathy Monrad announced that the Mountaineering Class was successful as whole, despite the weather. Mrs. Monrad noted that there were fewer students this past year than before. Also, special thanks to Allen Grenz and all of the volunteer instructors for their efforts in organizing and leading the class. The topic of trail maintenance was raised and Ryan Budnick queried as to whether the Club would continue its annual maintenance of the Easy Pass trail. It appears at this point that SAC will continue this work party. Stay tuned for further details as this usually occurs in the fall. Also, for those that are interested, a standing work party with the Pacific Northwest Trail meets all summer long. For more information call 360-424-0407 for their schedule. Ryan Budnick reported that the Wild Sky Wilderness Area, 106,000 acres of prime wildness has passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Sub-Committee on Public Lands and Forests. This is an early victory towards creating the first Wilderness Area in Washington State since 1988. It’s never too late to contact your legislators. Harold Meade brought up the fact that as a 501(c)(3) corporation, SAC is charged with having an educational component to complete the mission of the Club. The teaching of the Mountaineering Class certainly falls within the scope of the Club and perhaps the Club should consider what other opportunities are available as increased participation would be beneficial to the Club. Kathy Monrad noted that broader offerings may have an increased appeal to increase participation in the Club and that better advertisement of the Mountaineering Class and what it entails would help with those efforts. Doug McKeever then gave an impressive presentation on his light packing philosophy and all of the wonderful gear that is associated with going fast and light. His hand-out is very succinct and if you missed it, I can make a copy for you. Contact me at mtkulshan@yahoo.com if you like a copy. Suffice to say, everyone I know carries too much, myself included, and this presentation was an eye-opener to achieving more with less. I would like to add that any omissions or errors are my responsibility. If an item was wrongly attributed or incomplete, please let me know so that a correction can be made. Respectfully submitted, Brian Heinrich Mountaineering Class 2003 The Mountaineering Class of 2003 has now come to an end. The class seemed to fly by this year. The weather didn't co-operate this year for summits'. The weather was actually to "nice" to summit Mt. Baker. The leadership that weekend opted for Black Peak instead, which turned out to be an awesome weekend of climbing. Thank you to all the students who took the class this year. For those who stuck with it, keep up the climbing and learning. Think about returning next year to assist the leaders with next years course. Special thanks to all the additional help that I received this year. Due to my work schedule, I had to be gone more than I thought I was going to be. Without all you, it wouldn't have been such a good class! I know the students learned a lot from everyone who helped and offered their input. -Allen Grenz Congratulations to this years Graduating Mountaineering Students: Tasha Ahlquist Laura Bedford Clayton Bliss James Fegel Paal Haddal Kathie Hansen Kerry Herman Thaddeus Hink Dawn Lambert Lorlie Medina Mariah Raftree Colin Wahl April Hustead Jim Lapp Backpacking Class 2003 Congratulations to this years Backpacking class, we look forward to seeing you at the club meetings and events. John Boisen Ellen Broome Carmen Bruner Jim Duffield Liz Galer Kathleen Grimbly Roki Gumataotao Cheryl Hutchings Kim Kelly Kathy Nansel Vern Nansel Strand, Karla Carol Torset Ryan Tribble Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. -John Muir I do not deny, that what happened to us has its comical aspects; but it is best not to tell the story, for not everyone is wise enough to see the point of the thing. -Don Quixote Outings Backpacking trip There will be a loop backpacking trip July 12-13 led by Jim Duffield. Destination to be announced. Please contact Rick Rogers for more info. 360-856-4517 or ricknbeth@valleyint.com Mountain Biking Trip to the Four Corners I am looking for people to go mountain biking from June 30-July 6th, 2004 (7days, 6 nights) in Colorado and Utah. We would follow the Colorado Hut System. Check out their web site at: www.sanjuanhuts.com Please contact Don Jenkins at 360-679-4410 or email at don.jenkins3@gte.net if interested. These trips are already filling up for 2004 so the sooner the better. Trail Maintenance The Pacific Northwest Trail Association is sponsoring work parties in the Skagit county area this summer. Check their website for dates and times at www.pnt.org. We had a great time with Sancho on one of these outings last month. Everyone worked hard on the Anderson Mountain trail and we felt like we got a LOT accomplished! Lookout Update Talked to John Erbstoeszer about the Park Butte Lookout. He said Fred had decided that a new roof was not needed on the Lookout this summer. There will still be a work party later this summer to do some painting and minor repairs. They will let the Alpine Club know when they have picked dates for the work if anyone is interested in helping. Lost Creek Ridge July 19th. Hike to Lost Creek Ridge. Round trip to Round Lake viewpoint, 10 mi.. elevation 5600 ft. Views of Glacier and Sloan Peaks and neighboring mountains. If you are interested, contact Glen at 360 724 5261 or gmcmurry@valleyint.com Rope Destruction Outing (in the planning stage) Was talking to Carl Vandersar re class ropes. There are a lot of heavy old ropes with lots of life in them and a number of new light ropes that haven't been used. Carl's old-country morals will not allow him to toss out the old ropes, even though everyone hates using them. However he is willing to hold an outdoor training session where club members get together and test the old ropes to destruction for our education and entertainment. We'll set a date & time and solicit ideas from SAC members for torturing those old heavy ropes. -rsr Special Thanks Thanks to June’s Special Guest, Doug McKeever. Doug gave a great eye opening presentation of what gear will suffice for fast and light trips. Doug can be found at Base Camp in Bellingham on Fridays from 11am-7pm through the summer. Stop by and get the low down on light gear and travel. Doug’s website is: http://faculty.whatcom.ctc.edu/dmckeeve/leisure%20times/leisure.htm Also a big Thank-you to Ryan Budnick for his service as BOTH secretary and newsletter editor. Good luck to you and Tasha. Keep us posted on your adventures to new lands and far away places. From the Editor Well, I have assumed the responsibility for the SAC monthly newsletter. My name is Thaddeus Hink and I just finished the mountaineering class last month. We’ll ask for submissions by the 15th of each month with the goal to publish by the 20th and mail thereafter. Please email your submissions to: sacnews@thinkstudios.net or call me at 770-4528. If your name appears incorrect on your mailing label please drop me a note to correct it. I’m sure there will be a few bumps along the way while I get up to speed with this. I would like to publicly thank Allen Grenz and all the instructors who volunteered with the mountaineering class. The organization of such a class is a huge undertaking and they selflessly volunteered their time away from their families and their own climbing endeavours to teach us students. Thanks again. Maggie lent me her three year collection of Skagit Alpine newsletters to look through as far as content and style. I found great trip reports and pertinent articles on climbing and other activities. If you climb, bike or kayak please consider submitting a trip report on one of your adventures. Whether serious and instructional or humourous and antidotal we’d love to read them. We are also looking for examples of previous logo marks or logo types for the club. If you have been involved in the club a while and have examples of logos from years past on old newsletters or other materials please let me know so I might get a copy of them. -Thaddeus Hink sacnews@thinkstudios.net Addressing Wilderness Climbing Impacts from: http://www.nps.gov/noca/climbing-2002.htm Rangers of the North Cascades National Park Wilderness District have measured and inventoried human impacts in "trailless" areas of the park since its establishment. Methods have varied and progressed with recent efforts including the use of GPS mapping and measuring miles of access routes with digital cameras and measuring tape. This documentation of climbing trails and camps is done in accordance with the Park's Wilderness Management Plan, which has a goal to limit and even rehabilitate the human impacts. The plan was approved in 1989 after much of North Cascades National Park was designated by as Wilderness. During the summer of 2001, patrols were conducted in areas such as the Picket Range, Inspiration Traverse, the Sulphide Glacier approach to Mount Shuksan, and Triumph Col in order to update previous years' inventories. In addition to the anticipated bivy sites and climbers trails, a surprising number of firerings were noted, and subsequently removed. Fires in subalpine areas leave long-term scars and are only allowed in designated low elevation camps. The firerings were found in very remote areas, such as the headwaters of Access Creek, the margins of the Challenger Glacier and Triumph Col. The North Cascades Wilderness Committee continually reviews and discusses options to address human impacts in off-trail areas. Topics of discussion in 2002 include: Further restrict use. A permit system that limits the numbers of parties allowed in each cross-country zone has been in effect for many years. One consideration for preventing impacts is to lower the number of parties allowed in areas where statistics show a correlation between amount of use and impact. Restoration of cross-country impacts. Parts of the seriously gutted climber's trails into Boston and Eldorado Basins have been rerouted and restoration attempts are in progress. If funding and policy challenges are met, this type of effort might be expanded to other cross-country areas. Expand efforts to promote Leave No Trace principles. Not just the amount of use but also the type of use plays a dramatic role in wilderness impact. The key LNT considerations for climbers are camping on rock or snow, not trampling fragile vegetation, limiting party size, managing waste and using a stove. Liberty Bell Group Trip Report by Brad Monrad The weekend of June 7th and 8th was the final class outing. It was the students choice of where to go and they chose to return to the Liberty Bell Group, as we were weathered out of the original trip up there. We were scheduled to meet in the parking lot sat. morning at 7am. Rick Rogers and I arrived at 6:45. It was just a short drive from Lone Fir campground, where Rick and Beth and Kathy and I had camped the night before. The parking lot was real active with climbers and skiers getting ready, we suspected some of the people were part of our group, but there was no one that we knew there yet. Exactly at 7 Dawn Lambert pulled in, she made it on time. A few minutes later Thad Hink pulled in with Jim Lapp. Then came Paal Haddal, this made up our group. Some of the other people planning to come had things come up and that messed up the car-pool plan. We made some decisions on who was going to spend the night and who would carry what. Up onto the snow and away we go heading up to the base of these great rocks. We did the approximately 1600 feet of elevation then stopped to lighten our loads and bury our gear then prepare for the climb. Rick had a hole dug in the snow before the rest of us even had our day packs organized. He is definitely a good example of climbing efficiency. After we got everything buried in plastic bags to keep the ravens from raiding our stuff, we broke down into groups and the students chose the routes they wanted to do. Rick, Thad and Jim headed for the arete on South Early Winter Spire. Thad and Jim were both interested in practicing some leading and the arete is good for that and also a lot of rope management practice. They also had in mind that maybe they could do that route and one other if things went well. Brad, Dawn and Paal headed for the Beckey Route on Liberty Bell. All three of us were interested in doing this route and I was to lead the route because no other more experienced leaders showed up. I have done that route a number of times and have led it but I definitely felt a higher degree of responsibility this time. We left the camp area and headed up the couliour. We were able to stay ahead of the group coming from below us and arrived near the top of the couliour where you change you shoes, put harnesses on and flake ropes. There were two guys starting the route ahead of us, we moved in behind them and started the route. I was using all the correct climbing skills I could think of like always being on belay or anchored. Up we went, the first two pitches went real well, with a few challenging moves. I led on two half ropes and belayed Paal and Dawn at the same time about 20 feet apart, which worked really good on the first two pitches but on the third pitch the lead went fine but I picked up a lot of rope drag before getting to the bomber belay anchor, the nice solid pine tree, and I had incredible rope drag in belaying them up. We made it even though the ropes had crossed and fallen in a crack, no wonder it was so hard! Lesson learned, belay the third pitch one climber at a time. From there we coiled one rope, left the rack and scrambled to the summit. It was good weather on top and real warm. We enjoyed the summit for over 1/2 hour. I could see down to our camp where Kathy and Beth had arrived and found the buried gear marked with wands and Rick's skis. They had dug platforms and pitched the tents and made camp. We could also see four yellow dogs running around down there, our two Golden Retrievers and Rick and Beth's two yellow labs. We had beautiful views of the mountains with just a few scattered clouds. Looking south we could the other group waving and hollering on the summit of South Early Winter Spire. We started our decent by doing a short rap partway down, then down the friction slab, down climbing to where we left the pro and other rope. Continuing to down climb on some snow with our rock shoes on we were now looking across to where the rappel anchors are. Organizing ropes and protecting the short traverse to the anchor bolts. We were all anchored in and at the rappel bolts. Ropes flaked and thrown we did the last rap and arrived back down to the top of the couliour. We even pulled the rope without getting it hung. Paal and Dawn commented that they had felt safe and that the climb had gone real good. Hooray! Hooray! About an hour later we were back at camp. Rick and his group arrived a few minutes ahead of us. Their climb up South Early Winter Spire had gone well with Jim and Thad leading most of it. They had time to get off of their first climb and head for the Concord/Lexington couliour. They considered climbing but ran out of time and headed back to camp. Part of the group headed down and the rest of us, Rick, Beth, Brad, Kathy and Paal spent the night at snow camp. We were excited to spot and watch a goat up toward the base of South Early Winter Spire that evening then a couple more goats up on the ridge. It was the perfect end to a great day in the mountains. The next morning Rick was feeling pretty bad because of a cold and they decided to leave. Rick practiced skiing on the way down with the first load, he survived and came back up for another load from camp because there was extra STUFF to carry. Paal and I climbed the arete on South Early Winter Spire on Sunday, while Kathy stayed back at camp with the dogs and her book. We had a good trip up the rock and were back down in no time to load up and head for the parking lot and home. On to our next adventure! -Brad Monrad Ignorance Was Bliss by Thad Hink Last September a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to try ice climbing. He was the same person who introduced me to rock climbing and I had enjoyed that so I was game. He came over a few days before our weekend outing with an extra set of crampons to fit to my boots and we made plans to find a place to climb on Easton glacier. On Fri afternoon MaryAnn and I dropped the kids off and headed up to the RR grade to camp, Geoff and Kris would meet us in the morning. Our plan was to go to high camp but decided to take one of the lower camping spots as the weather deteriorating and I wanted to get the camp set up before it started raining, which it did. After dinner we settled in. Geoff and Kris were at the camp by 7am the next morning and we had a bit of breakfast and headed up the trail to find a place to get on the glacier. We found a safe place about half way between the lower camps and the higher camps which put us on the lower part of Easton glacier. MaryAnn and Kris climbed down to edge and took a few photos and then headed back to camp to curl up in the sleeping bags. The weather was just shy of foul and we were be-clouded every once in a while with periodic rain and a little snow mixed in. Now keep in mind this was the first time a had been on a glacier, the first time I had ever worn crampons, and the first time I had used an ice axe for more that just a walking stick. All the snow had melted off the lower part of the glacier and the surface was hard ice all the way across. There was no need to rope up, there was no way one could hold a fall without anchors. We worked our way up the center, weaving our way through the crevasses. We didn’t find anything we could safely climb. We headed back down to the lower angle part of the glacier are walked off to the east side. We decided to get off and work our way up the morain to more promising looking ice. Getting back on we found lots of steep ice, but none of it look very safe or stable. We ended up settling for a little 40 foot wall that we could get on top of from the side and set up an anchor for a top rope. With four screws in and equalized we rapped down and each climbed three times. The climb started at about 60-70 degrees and finished with a small bulge to get over. I quickly learned not plant the tools in to hard because it took so much effort to get them back out. I also was glad that I was wearing my helmet when one of the tools came out while I was pulling down on it and the hammer smacked me on the head (a helmeted head that is). Satisfied we pulled the gear and headed back across the glacier, occasionally stopping to peer into the forever blue labyrinth of long deep crevasses. Shortly we were back to camp, had a bite to eat, broke camp, and headed down the hill. At the time I didn’t understand all the dangers that surrounded me that day. I didn’t think about things like rock/ice fall and runout or what I would do if Geoff fell in a crevass, much less if I fell in one. But nothing went wrong, and for that I’m thankful. We had a good time and it was one of several experiences that paved the way for me to seek out the mountaineering class and to do something about that blissful ignorance. -Thad Hink PO Box 513, Mount Vernon, WA 98273 President: Kathy Monrad 853-8901 Vice President: Sylvia Trask 856-4050 Secretary: Brian Heinrich 756-6950 mtkulshan@yahoo.com Treasurer: George Reeves 293-3417 Climbingfool2000@yahoo.com Directors Keith Kraft 428-8568 Eric Sandbo 755-0746 Committees Conservation: Fred Darvill 424-5854 Lookout: Fred & Ginny Darvill 424-5854 John & Marie Erbstoeszer 336-5896 Programs: Maggie Sullivan 724-3158 Outings: Lynn Postler 428-4237 lypo@Itis.com Website: Allen Grenz 422-7593 ryan@gotooasys.com Newsletter: Thad Hink 770-4528 sacnews@thinkstudios.net |
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