(If all goes well) My 2 next trips are Oregon/Washington, and Colorado. Oregon/Washington will be in April of 2012 centered around Olympic National Park's rainforests and beaches, and then Colorado will be near the end of May- mountains, snow climbing, and a little touch of desert danger. Then my big trip for the year is for 3 weeks of July and 2 of August: North Cascades National Park, Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and the Mission Mountains, most of which lie in Montana (Cascades are in Washington). I have put Glacier off for 2 years to get into shape for it. Most people would find that strange to hear, as I hiked 20 miles in a day 3 or 4 times last year, which included high elevation and mountain terrain, and near to 100 miles in a week, but I plan to cover a lot of turf in Glacier, and much of it pretty darn difficult climbing. I also believe in the proper order of things. If one is going to climb Mount McKinnley, for example, the tallest peak on North America, one ought to climb several hundred other mountains first. I find it vulgar when people start on Mount Everest and just keep going back. They have not earned it. Mount Everest, in a just world (and the Nepalese would agree in principle and theory, though hey, they need to bring money into their economy and what else is going to do it?) would be open not to those who could pay a lot of money but those who could prove they deserved it- with evidence of previous climbs and travels. Showing the most beautiful girl in the world to a drunken frat boy would be a waste. And I do not believe the people climbing Mount Everest even know if what they are viewing is spectacular or not. They would be equally floored by a puny mountain near their home which was free to climb. Only they do not know that.
Well, then if I am still alive and well and walking after that, I am going to finally get to the Tetons in mid September, where I will fulfill my destiny of climbing up and down Grand Teton without rope, helmet, or aid, and without rapelling down, to the delight of many weenies who do not deserve to be there. I will try to make it look extra dangerous for their benefit. And then the Wind Rivers on the same trip. That should be about it for the year. Possibly I will try solo climbing Pilot Peak in the Beartooths- the deadliest mountain in the world, or it would be, if death-defying mountain boy types could get there. That one is truly special. I am not aware of anyone ever climbing it without rope, though anyone who would try probably would not brag. Hey, if I weren't trying to sell posters so I could have more time to hike and write and enjoy making late 1930s pop and jazz montage CDs and snobbishly enjoying classical music, then trust me, I would not be on a computer at all. But as General U.S. Grant (and President, though he preferred the title General, and why not- he is hardly rivaled there for success and as a president, there was scandal all over- though I find it hard to blame him. There must have been a real vacuum of morality in late 19th Century America. As the North and South were largely volunteer-driven armies, the most noble, selfless, and idealistic young men, not to mention the fastest, fittest, bravest, and so on, were most likely to enlist early, charge in hard, fight furiously, and thus, die, leaving the field for the cowards who lurked in the back, played dead for much of the battle, or simply, faked a limp or deafness to avoid duty in a uniform; this was after all the last great war where randomness had not yet taken over. In World War 1, the machine gun made sure that Achilles and a clutz were equally likely to die quickly. But much of the fighting in the Civil War was bayonets and hand to hand though cannon was used. I am off topic, and it is your fault, dear reader. Won't I make a great teacher though? Oh the diversions!), though as I was saying, as U.S. Grant introduced his memoirs (I paraphrase): I never planned to write memoirs, I find them tacky, and the writing of them uninteresting and vain, but, due to the rapscality (his phrase- a common word in that era also applied to Doc Durant of the Union Pacific Railroad) of a business partner, he needed cash, and thus, had changed his mind completely. What a way to sell a book right? Well his memoirs are wonderfully and refreshingly honest. I do not question a single word he put forth on any matter and would take his word over anyone else's. Pilot Peak (if you are still with me) in Montana is located deep within a dense grizzly infested forest, 3 miles from the end of a 3 mile trail. So first one has to survive a bushwhack through the backyard of nature and history's most pissed-off and surliest animal. Then climb to a little mountain tarn (lake) up boulders and some broken cliffs. There I would camp, for a summit try the next morning. The peak is a lightning rod, is supremely steep, is made of the same crumbly rotten rock Montana is said to fester with due to the cold hard rapid freezes and quick thaws of a temperamental climate, the cliffs that are practicable to climb are not aligned, so one cannot simply zip up the mountain, but has to weave about the cone. Any slight fall means a grizzly death, probably. But on the bright side, there is another peak that shares a saddle with the same tarn, so I could do 2 deadly mountains for the price of one. Then I would have to get down too, remember. I've been putting that peak off 2 years too, and it may have to wait until next year. The climbing season for it is very short.
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