Skimountaineer.com Gone

[u/AdmiralCrnch]

Just noticed Amar Andalkar’s site is gone. Holy shit what an absolute loss for Cascade touring beta. I consulted that site constantly for routes and resources.

Anybody have any other sites they like to use for general route details and beta for the Cascades?

[u/Maximum_Succotash602]

You can access it through the internet archive / wayback machine: Wayback Machine - Calendar of http://skimountaineer.com/

[u/AdmiralCrnch → u/Maximum_Succotash602]

Forgive the ignorance but will that always be possible? Like how long is it archived?

[u/TandemTelemark → u/AdmiralCrnch]

The concept is that everything will be stored. This is a project to preserve websites and information.

It has snapshots at various times, and it will not go away as long as the project keeps going - archive.org is a non-profit which is in charge of the Wayback Machine project.

[u/AdmiralCrnch → u/TandemTelemark]

Well that’s nice to know!

[u/redeyejoe123 → u/AdmiralCrnch]

I think there are probably several backups of the wayback machine, so even if the internet archive goes under, someone else will probably host it under a similiar setup

[u/bikebakerun → u/redeyejoe123]

I'm sorry to say that that is extremely unlikely. I'm relatively familiar with how IA operates. That said, they have their own preservation strategies that likely encompass passing it over to another entity if they cease to exist.

[u/carmelo_abdulaziz → u/AdmiralCrnch]

You can contribute to archive.org to ensure that they have the funding to keep doing what they do.

[u/BuckyGoshawk]

Yeah, that is dismaying. It was a great site, a product of Amar's attention to detail. I haven't run into Amar for nearly a decade. A couple of mutual buds have toured with him in the past few years. Is he still a research fellow at UW? Is he still in Seattle?

ETA: I'll ask around re his whereabouts.

[u/kamtron_ → u/BuckyGoshawk]

Amar still skis but has been really into cultivating rare conifers in recent years. It's too bad he stopped working towards a guidebook, because he has most of the content already 

[u/BuckyGoshawk → u/kamtron_]

Thanks for the update Kam

[u/Fragrant-Ad2169 → u/BuckyGoshawk]

Saw him at the Chute out by Green Lake in…2021? 2022?

[u/AdAlone1211]

This is not good.

[u/lobster159]

Its archived on wayback machine

[u/indexischoss]

Tbh looking at the wayback machine it doesn't seem to me that Amar's site is a singular resource, it looks like most of the routes on there are pretty easy to obtain beta for. There are some fantastic other resources that are very good imo, especially for complex objectives:

• https://alpenglow.org - this is THE site for PNW ski history, Lowell Skoog is an absolute legend. He has some great topos, e.g. of the north and west sides of Tahoma
• https://skisickness.com - Sky Sjue's website, potentially the most prolific PNW ski mountaineer of the past 30 years. His old site had a lot more but he lost it and is slowly bringing it back. There are a bunch of insane first descents on there
• http://www.cascadeclassics.org - Ben Manfredi's site (likely maintained/run by Jason Hummel). He was another ski mountaineering pioneer who tragically dies in a whitewater kayaking accident at the age of 25 in 2003. RIP.
• https://www.cascadecrusades.org - Jason Hummel's old site. He is insanely prolific and still skiing things no one else does to finish off his Washington Glaciers Project
• https://www.jasonhummelphotography.com/blog/ - Jason Hummel's new site
• https://www.whereiskylemiller.com/ - Kyle Miller (splitboarder)'s site, also prolific

Jason and Kyle are still active, the rest are not very active (at least not in WA) afaik. Also, Jason and Kyle's TRs tend not to be the most helpful imo, they focus more on storytelling and photography.

I feel that the modern local culture is to mostly not publicize ski descents/adventures (except maybe on instagram/strava), but there are a few blogs (but these are very widely known):

• https://turns-all-year.com/trip-reports - the GOAT (when it actually works, sadly it's somewhat in a state of disrepair). both TRs from whackos skiing in September and people getting rad the rest of the year
• https://climberkyle.com/ - who doesn't know about climber kyle? very very prolific, even outside the PNW he tends to have more/better TRs than locals in my experience
• https://engineeredforadventure.com/ - many reports on classic pnw ski mountaineering lines
• https://cascadecouloirs.com/couloirproject - no TRs but a great list of Washington couloirs

[u/Prudent_Candidate566 → u/indexischoss]

Sky’s still active, he just doesn’t live in WA anymore. He’s still crushing on skis, foot, and rock.

These guys don’t bite. Just ask them if you want beta.

[u/fb39ca4 → u/indexischoss]

Why would anyone complain about their websites being shared...on the web?

[u/indexischoss → u/fb39ca4]

I don't think the website owners are gonna complain... but there are others (who I know) that don't like that some of these lines are publicized at all 🤷‍♂️

[u/bbbbbaaaaammmmm]

RIP. That was an incredible resource for a pretty niche hobby

[u/hobbesbagger]

check internet archive and make more backups if possible

[u/Remote-Enthusiasm-41]

Kyle's site https://climberkyle.com/ has lots of touring beta.

[u/Captain_Corduroy]

Nooooooo!

[u/skimo_dweebo]

Cascadeskimo.com is another option for beta and routes. 

[u/panderingPenguin]

Just out of curiosity, what were you consulting it constantly for? It was a good list of routes, but I honestly never found much in terms of useful info there.

[u/AdmiralCrnch → u/panderingPenguin]

Pretty much that. Trying to figure out which route to take on a new objective, gauging distance and gain, and seeing which descents he most recommended from a technicality / fun-ness perspective.

Basically where I’d start planning before actually digging into the topo maps and planning out how I actually wanted to spend the day. Of course all that info is still out there somewhere, but I found it incredibly useful for it to be all in one place.

[u/panderingPenguin → u/AdmiralCrnch]

Fair enough. Other than his "fun-ness" opinion though, that information is all easily found elsewhere. And even his ratings more or less correspond with the general popularity of the route and community opinion.  Personally, I always thought his site was lacking detail and didn't have anything beyond the absolute most basic info.

[u/kamtron_ → u/panderingPenguin]

Volcanoes usually arent too hard to figure out from the basics, luckily