This image shows my Uncle's last written words before he died in the lower Coalpit Gulch area September 11th, 1995. I consider it a privilege to have this photo, thanks much in part to SP member mtn runr, Grizz, and Summitpost.org. Without either I would not have ever had the opportunity to see Jim's register entry on that day in September. I originally joined Summitpost after searching for route information in early September of 2008 on Coalpit Gulch and North Thunder Mountain. After seeing the wealth of information, I joined immediately.

My brother in law, Ryan and I attempted North Thunder via Coalpit on September 12th, 2008 to try and get an idea of the route conditions Jim experienced. Progress up the Gulch was incredibly slow, we made it to the Hogum/Coalpit ridge, less than half a mile and 900 vertical feet below the summit and turned around to lack of time. The trip report can be seen here.

After learning that the current summit register on North Thunder had been placed around 1997, I lost hope that any other information regarding whether Jim made the summit or not until last week, when I spotted Grizz's climber's log entry. He mentioned that around 1997 the old register was as risk of being lost, he replaced it with the current one and took the old one down with him. I regained hope that there might be some info. Grizz let me know that Jim did summit, and provided this photo and several others. I can't thank you enough for this Grizz, the whole perspective on Jim's final day have changed for both myself and my extended family.

One word, Jim's final word he wrote, has stuck with me all day since reading the entry. Awesome!!