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Climbing in the Cascades in 1974
After climbing for around a week in the Wind River Mountains of
Wyoming (see other web show), several of us drove to Washington state
to sample the Cascades. There were two main segments of the trip.
During the first, we climbed Spire Point and Dome Peak in the Glacier
Peak Wilderness. The people were Paul Ledoux, Lou Metzger, Bob
Dangel, John Hollerbach, Geoff Kelly (A friend of Bob's from Seattle)
and myself (Craig Walker - known as Bob by the MITOC crowd - long
story) The second part of the trip was a climb of Mt. Rainier by the
Tahoma Glacier, which is on the opposite side of the mountain from the
usual route. Bob had business to deal with in Seattle before the climb so
the rest of us decided to spend the extra days on the mountain
checking out the route and acclimatizing. Hence we spent something like 5
days on a climb that would normally take 2. The people on the Rainier
climb were the same as those on Dome Peak, although I'm a bit confused
because there is a group photo below with 7 people. Did someone come
up with Bob?
There are two interesting historical aspects to this trip. The
first is that Mt. St. Helens shows as a nice symmetrical cone in the
distance in some of the photos. That has not been what it has looked
like since May 1980 when it blew its top. The second is that when we
left civilization for the Mt. Rainier climb, Watergate was burbling
along. After we came out, and after attending some ranger talks with
no hint of what had happened, we heard on the radio that president
Ford had cut the ribbon for some project somewhere. We all looked at
each other and said 'President Ford!'. We had completely missed the
climax of the end of Nixon's presidency.
I'm pretty sure these photos were taken with my Konica Autoreflex T3 on
Kodachrome II. A few of the photos are marked "Duplicate". Those were
taken by others in the party who provided duplicate slides shortly after
the trip. The photos were digitized in Sept. 2025 using a homemade setup
involving a Pentax K-5 DSLR, a 100mm macro lens, and a slide holder from an
old film-era slide duplicator, all mounted on a piece of slotted angle iron.
Postprocessing, mainly removing tilt, cropping, and making minor adjustments
to the exposure and white balance, was done in the Gimp.
SPIRE POINT AND DOME PEAK
Click on the image for a screen size version.
The "2000" and "full size" versions are larger (not available in web versions).
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MT RAINIER
The following photos are of the Mt. Rainier. We camped on the Puyallup
Cleaver if I've got my memory and map reading right. On the first wait
day, we went higher on the ridge and, as I recall, tangled with some very
unpleasant climbing on very rotten rock. On the second, we went part way
up the ridge, then out on the glacier to check the route. Finally Bob arrived
and we did the full climb.
Click on the image for a screen size version.
The "2000" and "full size" versions are larger (not available in web versions).
Mt. Rainier in the distance as we approach. Duplicate.
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The approach to the Tahoma Glacier with considerable snow still around
in early August.
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Near tree line on the way to camp.
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Mt. Adams from Rainier. There appears to be a forest fire between the
mountains.
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The Tahoma Glacier to the right (left of summit) with the Puyallup Cleaver
stretching away from the camera.
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Duplicate.
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Our camp is just hidden to the right of the person.
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The lighting got quite spectacular. This is Paul near camp. These
photos have had essentially no color adjustments. This is how the slides
look.
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Duplicate. So it wasn't just my camera getting these colors.
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Our camp.
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This is one of three framed prints I have had hanging on the wall at my
workstation at home for something like 20 years. I now realize how much
the print has faded.
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Climbing the Cleaver. As I recall the rock was really rotten. Snow and ice
were much to be preferred.
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Looking at the Tahoma Glacier from the Puyallup Cleaver. The route on the
glacier went right of center and included one pitch of mild ice climbing.
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The Tahoma Glacier with Adams and Hoot in the background.
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This photo was taken high on the Puyallup Cleaver, perhaps from St. Andrews
Rock. The mountains in the background are Mt. Adams on the left,
Mt. Hood in the far distance, and Mt. St. Helens, pre-eruption, above and
to the right of Lou.
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I'm pretty sure this is the next day when we explored the route on the
glacier. Our tracks can be seen between the crevasses heading for the
ridge.
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Getting through this section was fun.
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Somehow photography took a back seat. This is likely the next, summit,
day. This is Lou and Paul on top. Looking at Paul's rope, Lou's lean,
and the wrist strap on the far right ice axe, I'd guess it was rather
windy. I vaguely recall sheltering in an ice cave somewhere in the summit
crater.
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A summit photo of Paul and Lou, with Adams, Hood (barely visible),
and pre-eruption St Helens in the background.
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A cropped version of the group photo above on Mt. Rainier. The presence
of a 7th person suggests someone came with Bob. There aren't many photos
from the summit bid, so maybe he was just missed. The people are, left to
right in the back row, Lou Metzger, Paul Ledoux, Bob Dangel, unknown,
unknown, then below is John Hollerbach with myself in front on the
bottom. One of the unknowns is presumably Geoff, perhaps the second from
the right.
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Farewell Mt. Rainier.
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This looks like a high pass in Colorado, but I'm not sure which one
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This and the following photos are of climbing on the Flatirons at
Boulder Colorado. They were all taken by another member of the party.
Thismay show a route we did. There are several climbers (at least 4)
that can be picked out on the full size version of the photo. Duplicate
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If you look very closely, there are climbers on this feature. I believe
we did a route here. Duplicate
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John (I think) leading a classic crack. Duplicate
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Me belaying. Duplicate
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John following a corner. Duplicate
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Me on top. Duplicate.
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A fitting end photo, but I have no idea where. Maybe back home in
Massachusetts.
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