Info on New Ski Routes in the Cascades

Savegondor's Mt. Pugh - for easier browsing
-or-
Teleskichica's recon of Pyramid

Here are my thoughts on the matter--and I got lots of time for thinking lately--and plotting, and scheming and planning . . .
But I suggest you create your own resource.
First of all, every outing is a recon mission. At least 5% of the time more depending on the season of course is spent on spying out new terrain and discussing potential tours. Write it down. On your map, when you get home, w/ pictures, etc.
Second, read the TRs, browse the maps, find the waypoints posted, etc. etc. from this and other sites and then save them in your bookmarks browser. But don't just save them generically w/ lengthy meaningless urlls etc. but categorize them and give them names that you will remember. Then you have your own personal wiki-TR guide coded in a format that is most useful to you.

Remember, back in the sixties, when folks thought they could get enlightenment with a pill and avoid all those years of pesky meditation and discipline?  Didn't work!

Worked for me!!!

-Burns

I have to admit that I do enjoy the guidebooks that are available and I do use them. However, for me the exploration is much or more fun when I venture into areas that are not listed. Some of the trips I do, I have noted through summer hikes and then I go back and see how they are in snow.

If every route was eventually wikified, I think that I would have a hard time avoiding taking a peek at it. I might even get addicted to it, maybe even at risk of turning to stone. But I likely would feel guilty. With willpower I think that I would prefer to not use it.

It might be a good resource for people new to the area, but then there are current guides and in my opinion that suffice as introductions by hitting highlights to the key areas. If one were to go up any route, then many others become obvious.

I disagree with the notion that the Cascades are a large area. In fact they are quite limited with only the dramatic relief adding dimensionally to the possibilities. During summer recreation it is rare to find a trailhead without other cars, even those considered unpopular or "out there". While winter rec reduces the number of people, that stands only for today. With the increase in popularity of backcountry and sidecountry skiing it is likely that things will change.

Even a guide such as Burgdorfer clearly limits what is disseminated and this seems premeditated. There are any number of people who post here and ones that I probably don't even know about that could assemble a much more complete guide of the region. My guess is that Burgdorfer could have and chose to not do so for a good reason.

Finally, there are now much better mapping resources available to help us explore in a virtual environment. It might be that if every route were eventually posted in a wiki, it might be that I find it of little value. As an example, I could take one of the nice relief maps, use it in conjunction with WorldWind and view satellite photos and then I could probably predict with greater than 90% success, all the routes available in the Cascades. I could also probably list them by difficulty with the same incremental resolution that Burgdorfer does. While it would be missing experienced route descriptions..., well I generally do not take the guidebooks with me anyway to a known route, so they don't matter.

Within this forum, at some point just about everything could potentially end up being posted, but as was stated before, many will become so buried that for future mountain users, they can experience a "first route" experience all on their own.

Alan

I've started collecting some of my old favorites and few routes I hope to do using the "Map my Ride" tool   I found this to be an  interesting tool -- it's a bit slow at times, but seems to work OK with enough patience.  Feel free to join the group and add your own routes to the collection.

Worked for me!!!

-Burns

Ah ... and if so, then who is this "me" character?