“A mountain is the best medicine for a troubled mind. Seldom does man ponder his own insignificance.” – Finis Mitchell
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: I just got back from an amazing trip to the Wind River Range, and summer is in full swing in the PNW. I’m excited to see the Skagit 60 getting ticked! Hope to see you guys a the Park Butte BBQ/Work party! Stay safe in the mountains and from Covid.
Cheers!
August Meeting:
There will be no meeting in August, but, it’s not because of Covid-19! We usually skip the August meeting as everyone is busy enjoying summer and this year is no different.
Skagit Alpine Club Meeting Notes: Jul 2020
Since the meeting was canceled last month, I do not have any notes to share with out, except that this virus still sucks.
New Business:
Annual Park Butte BBQ and Work Party
The annual Park Butte Lookout work party is fast approaching! This year it will be held August 8th-9th (or 15th-16th in case of bad weather). To liven things up we're going to try something a little different this year: a full-blown alpine BBQ!
We will be meeting at the Schreibers Meadows Trailhead at 8 AM Saturday.
We mostly need help hauling paint, glass and small boards to the lookout. Work tasks may include painting, calking, window replacement and cleaning.
The plan is to make this a fun (socially distanced) party this year. We will have an actual grill to BBQ some grub. BYO grilling food! Please RSVP to JFro and Alex ( jfrostad@gmail.com and alexkortuem@gmail.com) so we can get an idea of how much charcoal to bring ;)
Club members are invited to stay Saturday evening in the lookout or tent camp just below. It may be the last chance to get a glimpse of comet Neowise before it disappears for 7000 years!
End of year silent auction
Do you have a special skill in art, photography, or other amazing crafts that could potentially be a good fit for a silent auction donation? Perhaps you doodle amazing artwork in your spare time, weave climbing rope rugs, do amazing wood working, or have some absolutely stunning photographs that could be great for this! Consider donating some time or art for our silent auction! Who knows, you may even have a few extra minutes (or weeks, depending on your current situation) where you can start to play with this now!
Juliet Holznecht is leading a small committee to help collect items for the silent auction. Please contact her at juliet.holzknecht@gmail.com if you want to help.
Note: We don’t know if the Club will be able to meet as a group again in 2020 but this silent auction can be done online, if necessary.
Old Business:
Basic Mountaineering Course 2021
We are starting the planning now and will be pulling together the steering committee in September. If anyone wants to be part of the committee they can
email Juliet Holzknecht at juliet.holzknecht@gmail.com.
SAC 60th Anniversary!
Help us celebrate 60 years of SAC by climbing mountains! The club is attempting to summit all the Skagit 60 peaks in 2020 to commemorate the 60th anniversary. The website used to track our progress is skagit60.com.
Please go to skagit60.com and sign up with the email you are receiving this newsletter with. After you sign up for an account you will be able to the following:
· Tick peaks
· Add interest in climbing peaks so others can contact you when they go to climb the peak
· Submit trip reports
We’ve ticked 32 peaks so far! Don’t forget to write up those Trip Reports!
Thank you very much to everyone who paid their membership dues recently. Also, a very special thank you to those who gave more than membership dues. We received some generous donations, which kept us out of the red and will help us start up the BMC for next year. Thank you, everyone!!!
SAC Leadership:
Officers
President – Andrea Bachman
Vice President: Phil Wilson
Treasurer – Jenna Price
Secretary – Leslie Parks
Committees
Lookout – Alex Kortuem & Jonathan Frostad
Climbing - Juliet Holzknecht
Program – Jonathan Frostad
Newsletter – John Parks
Social - Karen Howard
Conservation - Miyabi Gladstein
Webmaster - Raymond DeVries
Trip Report:
Trip Report: Mt. Baker
Date: July 18, 2020
Elevation gain: Approx. 7,100 feet
Car to car: 10 hours
Well, summited Mt Baker yesterday morning July 19th around 545am - 6am along the
Coleman Demming route. Car to car.
Left Heliotrope ridge trailhead at 9pm July 1 8th. Hit the first snow at Hogsback basecamp and constant snow from the Hogsback headwall up. Found a few crevasses opened up in the football field so stayed on the steady boot pack that went to black buttes and then cuts left, following up the glacier, weaving through a few crevasses and ceracs. Near colfax Peak, 2 open and deep crevasses have unveiled themselves. Boot back goes over a very weak snow bridge on the first one but found a better snow bridge climbers left that has more life to it. The second crevasse was open and it seemed people were jumping the 4 or 5 foot gap. Not advised. Climbers left there is a snow bridge that seemed only skiiers used but it also has plenty of life. Pumice ridge still has plenty of snow too on the way up to the base of the roman wall. The snow closer to the exposed rock and pumice was more solid then the snow further from it. The warm temperatures have turned a majority of the snow on the ridge soft and slushy.
The roman wall was pretty solid with early morning temperatures keeping the snow pack pretty firm and hard. The summit Plateau had excellent snow, nice and firm, some soft spots but a majority hard.
The coleman demming route will be open for sometime but probably not after the end of the month. The second crevasse on the route spans from the Roman Mustache to the colfax icefall and is very very wide and deep. After this one opens up the rest of the way, I wouldn't advise going climbers left or right to get around it due to the icefall risks this time of year with warm temps during the day and night.
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