October

We're meeting October 3 in T-39 (Walter Roberts Hall) at Skagit Valley College. It is in the same building but a new room number. Roberts Hall is in the north-central area of the campus. The following shortcut is to a campus map http://www.skagit.edu/images/color_mvCampus.pdf.

1.) President Paul received a letter asking for the SAC’s feedback on how we feel Wilderness Land should be used. Contact Paul with your feedback.

1.) Paul Sherman presented a thank you gift (a very nice jacket picked out by Brian Heinrich) to Rick Rogers for all of his work leading the SAC Mountaineering Course throughout the years.

2.) Jason Griffith is the new Program Director. Thank you to John Seahorn for your service in this role throughout the past year (or so).

3.) All members are encouraged to write outing reports and/or send photos for the website (and newsletters) to Steve Trent, skagitalpineclub@comcast.net

1.) Blanchard Mountain: SAC received a packet of Blanchard Mountain comments. She will review and post a summary in the newsletter.

2.) Western Outdoor Federation of Clubs: Maggie was not able to go to the annual meeting as was talked about, but perhaps a SAC representative can join in future years.

1.) Lynn passed around a sign up sheet for volunteers for an Easy Pass trail work party on September 29^th.

2.) Lynn thanked all who attended the Park Butte work party. Marie returned to do more painting since the weather was so bad on the work party day and much of the paint washed off. Lynn will also make another trip up soon. To volunteer, contact Lynn Postler, sancho999@comcast.

Will Patrick from Conservation Northwest gave a brief report on the state of Grizzlies in the North Cascades and asked for SAC to consider sending a letter in support of federal funding for a program that would introduce a few bears into the area to help the population grow.

Thanks to Jason and Kim Griffith for their excellent slide show on three outings, the Dakobed Traverse, their trip to the Snowfield Group, and their trip to Mount Olympus.

"Climbing past the Pole of Remoteness-Mongo Ridge on West Fury"

Please join us at this month's alpine club meeting to hear tales of Wayne Wallace's 2006 solo first ascent of a serious route on West Fury in the Picket Range. Clocking in at grade VI, 5.10-, his climb of Mongo Ridge is one of the most significant ascents the Cascades has seen in a very long time. No stranger to committing climbing, Wayne has over 500 first ascents to his name and has climbed extensively in Washington, and the greater ranges of Canada and Alaska. In 2004, Wayne was the first
recipient of the Fred Becky Award from the American Alpine Club. He has also written feature articles for both the American Alpine and Northwest Mountain Journals. Don't miss Wayne's riveting stories and images!

Want to do some trail work? No matter where you work, wear long pants, have work gloves, have plenty of fluids to drink, and bring a lunch. Each person working will have to sign a liability release form. Parents or guardians of those under 18 must sign for the minor.

For information call 360-424-0407 anytime up until 8 a.m. the morning of the work party. Tools will be provided--hazel hoes, loppers, McLeods, Pulaskis, chain saws, brush cutters. You may bring your own tools if you wish.

If you can only work until noon, please call ahead to see if the work site will be conducive to your leaving early. Sometimes we will be working behind locked gates or far up logging roads and it would not be convenient for people to leave early.

Meeting place is the Cook Road Park-n-Ride, exit 232 from I-5 north of Burlington. Exit the freeway, turn right and then immediately turn right onto Old Highway 99. We meet across the street from the 76 gas station. Meeting time is 8:15 a.m.

GENERAL TRAIL WORK

2007 Skagit Trail work schedule for April through October

Trail work will be done on the FIRST and THIRD Saturday of each month

October 6 and 20

At our last SAC meeting, Will Patric talked about grizzly bear recovery in the North Cascades. Also in this newsletter is a news brief from Will describing the grizzly situation (see section below on Special Articles/Announcements/Events – Ed. note). Jason, Paul, Angie and Maggie got together to draft a letter which the SAC might send to Rep. Rick Larsen. This is just a draft and will be open for discussion at our October meeting. If you wish to share other opinions, please contact Paul directly by October 31, 2007 (Ed. Note).

Please ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to initiate an Environmental Impact Statement to address the plight of North Cascades grizzly bears and to implement management measures toward saving and recovering this population.

The Skagit Alpine Club would like you to know that we support this effort, and encourage the US Fish and Wildlife Service and other state and federal agencies to begin this process.

The Skagit Alpine Club is a non-profit organization, incorporated in July of 1960. Between '60 and '68, we were instrumental in convincing Congress and the President to declare the North Cascades to be a National Park. For 40 years we have maintained Park Butte lookout and have served on various other conservation projects.

For the past 24 years, each spring, we have conducted a mountaineering class, teaching 25 to 30 students per year how to travel safely through the North Cascades. Our instructors and lecturers are volunteers; most who, at one time, were students in the SAC class themselves.

We meet once a month, have an executive board, officers, and 7 committees. We all hike, backpack, climb and ski extensively in the North Cascades.

The Friends of Blanchard Mt. have requested that Harold Mead be their representative to the Blanchard Advisory Committee.

If you want a copy of the Blanchard Strategies Group Draft or the DNR responses to public SEPA comments, please call Maggie at 724-3158. To view the SEPA responses, go to www.dnr.wa.gov, scroll down, click on SEPA, then click on Proposed Management Strategies for Blanchard State Forest.

After the recent June gloom, I was looking forward to getting out into the alpine during some good weather. As it happened, an old friend, Digger, had some time off from his busy schedule and wanted to get out also. After some discussion, we decided to head up Depot Creek to the Redoubt area to see what it was all about. Digger, as you might surmise, is not his given name. During his first tour in the Navy, his squadron mates had found out that during his younger formative years, he had a side job as a gravedigger to earn extra money. So the moniker stuck.

Digger flew into town on Saturday, so we decided that an early start on Sunday for the drive up to Canada and the approach hike in would be in order. The border crossing went quickly (no passports required until next year), and soon we found ourselves driving toward Lake Chilliwack trying to decipher my copied route descriptions. When I had copied them, I had inadvertently cut the margin off, which, of course, contained some critical information. After asking the local Park Ranger for directions we soon were driving around the northeast side of Chilliwack Lake. Be advised, this road is pothole hell. The final seven miles took us forty minutes. We then found the Depot Creek road and drove these three miles to the Depot Creek trailhead. This road is passable only to high clearance 4WD vehicles.

After packing up, we started up the trail, which is an old roadbed that has converted into a stream. We missed the critical turn left uphill, and ended up following some flagging into a bog of devils club. After some consultation, we thrashed uphill fighting slide alder until we intercepted the real trail, which led us to the border.

After the easiest border crossing ever (along with the one on north Ross Lake), the abandoned trail follows Depot Creek through some very enjoyable old growth. Except for the occasional blow down morass, the worst one occurring directly after the border crossing, the trail was in good shape and easy to follow. This all ended with the waterfall. The Depot Creek waterfall is one of the most scenic and amazing waterfalls in the state. If this waterfall had easy access, it would be a major attraction. Some people actually make the hike in just to see this waterfall. The steep and brushy trail now follows the waterfall directly up to a hanging valley underneath the North Face of Redoubt. There are a few sections that have a fixed line due to the steepness of the rock and the constant mist coming off of the waterfall.

We then hiked up the scenic valley, admiring the excellent views of Redoubt to its head at Lake Ouzel. This lake is in a cirque ringed by Mts Redoubt, the Northwest Mox Spire, and Spickard. That night Digger produced a food bag that must have weighed in at twenty pounds. Digger’s last long backcountry foray was the Ptarmigan Traverse a couple of years ago. On that trip he had neglected to pack enough food, and by the end of the trip was going hungry. He was not about to make the same mistake on this trip.

The next day we got a leisurely start for the South Face of Mount Redoubt. The route took us up and across the Redoubt Glacier, across a loose rib underneath the Flying Buttress on Redoubts south side, and up a gully to a wide hanging snowfield on the South Face. From the top of the snowfield we took the leftmost exit, which required a fourth class scramble around a small headwall to a series of gullies which took us to the summit ridge. A short scramble brought us to the summit and excellent views back down Depot Creek. After a summit lunch, some easy down climbing and two raps with an excellent glissade brought us back to the glacier. That night we dined well on Digger’s food stash and planned tomorrow’s activities. The original idea was to climb both of the Mox Spires in a day, then have a restful hike out on day four. However, we decided that the Mox Spires were too ambitious of a plan, so we decided to nab Spickard instead.

We got another leisurely start the next morning for what we thought would be an easy summit. We had decided on the Silver Glacier route instead of the looser but more direct South Slope. The initial climb up the glacier was straightforward and fun. Instead of getting on the NE ridge as described in Beckey, we elected to end run a big bergschrund on the right and climb snow to the summit. Due to our late start, the snow became very slushy and soft below the bergschrund, and steep above it. After some very tiring vertical slogging, we exited onto the West Ridge and scrambled that to the summit. After some lunch, we belayed each other past the bergschrund and slogged the glacier back to camp. Some pickets would have made life easier for us here.

The next day we reluctantly broke camp and started the uneventful hike out past the waterfall, which, due to the warm weather, was now really raging. During the hike out, we met three other parties going in, the only people we saw the entire trip. After the teeth rattling drive out and another uneventful border crossing, we settled in for refreshments at Bob’s Burgers and Brew.

Overall, this was an enjoyable trip into an unique and beautiful area. Some considerations: We forgot to get a backcountry permit for the National Park. I have heard that the Park Service will issue these in advance over the phone if you explain the circumstances. I would recommend planning at least five days, preferably six for this trip. I wished we had an extra day or two for some more climbing and exploration. The hike in from the end of the road to Lake Ouzul took us six hours at a leisurely pace. Leave another hour if parking lower on the Depot Creek road. We were on snow all the way to the summit on Spickard, and wished we had some pickets for the steep snow. Later season, this variation might not be possible, and some third or fourth class scrambling might be required. The North Face route on Redoubt looked to be in excellent condition.

Two hundred years ago, grizzly bears ranged throughout the western half of North America in great abundance. But decades of hunting, trapping, and habitat loss caused their population to plummet to an estimated one percent of the former number in the contiguous United States. The last grizzly bear killed by legal hunting in Washington was shot in 1967.

Today’s remnant lower 48 grizzly population, perhaps 1100 animals, is almost entirely in the northern Rockies, centered around Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. Almost.

A handful of grizzly bears – maybe a dozen – still reside in the North Cascades. Though this population enjoys big, wild, and remote habitat very well suited to the species, development activities around the North Cascades have cut off contact with grizzlies in the Rockies and further to the north in British Columbia. Being isolated and so few in number, the North Cascades population needs new genetic blood. Lacking that, it is doomed.

Grizzly bears are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. As such, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is mandated to identify suitable recovery zones – big blocks of wild public land capable of supporting grizzlies – and if there are bears in those zones, implement measures to save and recover the animals. The North Cascades, including the National Park and adjacent National Forest land, is one of six recovery zones. It has grizzly bears. Barely. But beyond numerous studies and considerable talk, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has yet to initiate management measures to actually help the North Cascades grizzlies.

The bears need what biologists call augmentation. This process of periodically bringing in a few healthy bears from outside the system to introduce some new blood has proven successful elsewhere. What’s lacking for the North Cascades is money for the Fish and Wildlife Service to do it, and that’s of course ultimately about political will.

Because grizzly bears have exceptionally low reproductive rates, and because the present North Cascades population is so desperately small, recovery of the species in Washington is not something that can happen in years, or even decades. Probably more than a century would be required to attain a grizzly population of perhaps a few hundred that could be considered biologically self sustaining. But if we want to give grizzly bears a chance, if we want future generations to even have the possibility of knowing a North Cascades with grizzlies, we have to act now.

Our elected officials need to hear that grizzly bears are important to conservationists, hikers, climbers, outdoor enthusiasts of all sorts, anyone who cares about the North Cascades. Obviously bears are controversial, and can be dangerous too, as are many things wild, so there will be plenty of vocal opponents to any recovery effort. But hopefully, as we look deep in ourselves to our values, and then gaze upon that mountain wilderness we love so much, we can surely muster the will to accommodate a few more grizzlies in that magnificent Washington landscape.

Skagit Alpine Club members can most effectively voice their support for saving North Cascades grizzly bears by writing a letter to Representative Rick Larsen at the following address: U.S. House of Representatives

Please ask him to ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do its job and help the Great Bear.

To learn more about the grizzly bear issue, check out www.conservation nw.org or www.bearinfo.org. On behalf of Conservation Northwest, thank you for supporting Washington’s grizzly bears.

October Newsletter