Normal route by Luke Casaday

img:251455:alignright:small: April 17, 2004
Trip Report by Luke Casady

I think the date of this trip was the 17th, but it may have been the 10th. School has been crazy the last few weeks, consequently I've forgotten everything except for how to do math--and my professors may even argue that that is debatable. Anyhow...

Tim Sharp, Rob Smith, and Richard Smith came by my house at about 7:00 AM and picked me up. Then we met up with Brook Russel and Sam Schabacker at the Park-N-Ride in Victor.

We then drove up the Bitterroot Valley to Lavene Creek Road and drove in as far as we could plus a bit (see above). We met up with Mark and Frank once we hit snow line. They had gone up the night before and camped out. Mark kept trying to pawn his breakfast stir-fry off on us.
img:251447:alignright:small:Where is the snow??
The snow cover was a bit disappointing down low because it was too thick to drive through, but not thick enough to ski on, so we ended up carrying our gear for a bit. We finally got to skinable snow at about 7,500 ft. From there the ascent we well until Frank's skins started to ball up so bad that he had to take them off and walk.

We arrived at the summit sometime early afternoon--around 1:00 and took a length lunch while we soaked up the beautiful splendor of the Bitterroot mountains.

The ski descent was awesome. The snow on the upper bowl was fabulous corn. As we got lower the snow slowly got harder, but not considerably. The riding got a little tight, but nothing that we couldn't navigate--for a while.

Eventually the timber got too thick and the slope angle too mellow that those of us who were snowboarding had to take our boards off and hike the rest of the way down to the road.
img:251446:alignleft:medium:Mark works on his camera]
img:251454:alignright:medium:Tim Sharp skinning up the trail. ] img:251445:alignleft:medium:Party on the summit] img:251449:alignright:medium:Tim and Brook on the summit]

Who is Luke?

Luke Casady, and Ansel Viscaya were caught in an avalanche high on the Liberty Ridge of Mt. Rainier, that swept them to their deaths on June 12. 2004.


Luke and Tim Sharp (T Sharp) co-founded the Alpine Club of Missoula [ACOM]in the late fall of 2003. In a division of labor, Luke did the publishing, promotion, and was the web master of the ACOM web site. Tim did the necessary filing of legal documentation which officialy established the ACOM as a non profit 503c {club}. This allowed them to legaly handle money, and insulated us from liability. At the time of Luke and Ansels` death there were 18 dues paying members of the club, and it was a growing community of adventure minded alpinists. The ACOM still exists, with 2 fewer members, we hope to someday find our way [in the fog], and begin the climb again.