Ingrid's work friend Brooke got married out in West Linn at a really nice site with perfect weather. They had a photo booth and props that was lots of fun.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Day ride out to Wasco and back via Grass Valley.

Panoramic Photos

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Pics from Terry's camera.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

In

Terry and I went up to the North Cascades to do East Wilman's Spire. We brought mountain bikes to take care of the first four miles which are on an abandoned road leading to Monte Cristo - itself an abandoned mining town. We carried in all the water we'd need for the trip as there are reports of arsenic from the mines.

The ride in was pretty fun, inluding a log walk over the clearest water I've ever seen. We got a nice campsite just outside of the 'town' itself and made dinner and a fire, well, Terry boiled water and made the fire - I ate a candy bar in support.
We aimed for a leisurely start and got moving around 6:30. The hike into the basin was fairly tame except for sections of some scrambling over large steps. There were lots of relics from the old mines and trams - hundreds of feet of cabling and sluice pipes. I can't imagine hauling all of that equipment up, it was hard enough to carry in my 2 granola bars.
At the route of the gully leading to the spire we helmeted up and started up one of two snow fields. Inbetween the two fields was a crappy section of scree, which took a long time to scratch up. Perhaps a few weeks earlier in the year would be better as one could go up the whole way on snow. The snow field was fairly steep and we roped up in case the bridge was thin.

Climb

After some more scree fields we made it to the proper start of the climb and put away our boots in favor of climbing shoes. Terry was nice enough to do all of the leading. As someone else has stated for similar situations - I forgot my man pants at home.
Terry made short work of the two chossy pitches and we were presently on the top slab. The views were awesome and we hung out for a bit admiring it all. I didn't want to break up the pattern so Terry headed down on rappel. We had to be uber careful to not knock down any of the choss during our rappels and down climbing. Once back safely at the base of the climb we put away the tight shoes and laced up our boots for the hike down.

Way out

While normally one would think of the climb as being the most perilous part of the trip; we found that the scree field is the part to worry about. Terry discovered the field's angle of repose the hard way by triggering a small slide that contained a very large boulder. As with most scary events, everything kind of blurs and doesn't seem real. It looked like Terry got pushed over by the boulder (about the size of a fridge), got rolled over by the boulder and then started cartwheeling down the slope. Luckily there was a beginning of a snow field that stopped his fall and he was able to stabilize himself.

I stood for a few moments while he slid down the slope trying to hit as many rocks as possible. After we determined he wasn't dead I scooted down on my ass until I could traverse over to him without making things worse - the theme of the rest of the day. When I got to him, he had already figured his legs weren't broken. His shirt was ripped and he had large scrapes on his chest and shoulder so we did a check to make sure nothing was out of place and no obvious bleeding. I found his elbow was bleeding a fair amount - in reality not bleeding much, but compared to a ripped hangnail it looked like something. I cleaned it up with tiny iodine wipes and then slapping a Tegaderm patch on top.
After giving him a handful of Advil and some Chomps, we walked over to the top of the snow field to sort things out. We thought about trying to rappel down the snow field but it didn't look too positive so we planned on downclimbing. I put all of the gear into my pack so Terry would just carry his lightened pack. I went first to kick big steps to help him get down with minimal fuss. We took our time so that we wouldn't make any mistakes.

By the time we reached the trail proper, Terry's arm and shoulder felt better and he was able to cruise along down the smooth path. I cleaned his elbow again, put some bandages on his head cuts and we shared a chocolate bar that had hidden itself in my pack. Once back at camp we guzzled the rest of our water, ate some advil, then loaded up the packs for the ride out. It was super nice to be able to coast downhill on our bikes. At the car we quickly got our gear in so we could book it to a hospital to have a professional clean his elbow.
We got into an urgent care facility in Everett where Terry's elbow got irrigated and stitched up with 3 sutures, but nothing broken and no concussion. After that and a detour to an Olive Garden for endless breadsticks, we took the long drive home.

Times

Camp to basin: 1:30
Basin to notch: 2:00
Notch to summit: 1:00
Summit to basin: 3:00
Basin to camp: 2:00
Camp to car: :35

Panoramic Photos

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Up

Marc has been wanting to go up Mt. Adams for a while and we were able to find a free day for both of us and headed up. It was a little cooler than last weeks climb but I was cognisant of the slushfest so I had us get up at 2:30 for an early start. As it was dark when we left I accidentily took the summer route - as opposed to the winter route from last year. Enough snow had melted that I couldn't recognize last weeks route. No matter, we made good time to the bottom of the snow with perfect weather.

Marc got to try out some crampon and axe work as we found a few alternative ways to get up a few of the hills. We stopped for some grub and water at Lunch Counter before heading up more.

Just below Pikers Peak Marc realized he reached his fun limit and called it. This is good as he was still enjoying it but pushing through would've probably made it a shitty experience. He told me I should go to the summit and he could just hang out. As we were close to Pikers Peak I just ran up to that so I could get in a full glissade down.

Down

I got back down to where Marc was and showed him ways to keep the speed under control for the tube ride. The snow was still fairly hard but didn't have much speed to it so there was no worry of going too fast. As always it was much nicer to slide down than to hoof it up.

Marc got the hang of the sliding and was able to bust out our plastic sleds for us to make good time down to the dirt. On the way out he decided we should try again next year, maybe after a few Gorge hikes.

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Up

Another annual pilgrimage to Mt. Adams. The area had a large fire last summer and all of the trees have lost most of their needles. You can see the mountain during the drive and hike up which is a nice side effect.

The climb up started nicely and I was able to make Lunch Counter in around 2 hours. The snow then got fairly mushy and it was postholing most of the remaining climb. It normally takes around an hour to get from there to Pikers Peak but I trudged up in over 2.

Down

While slushy snow is frustrating going up, it makes for an easy slide down. There weren't any tubes yet this year, only a few faint slide trails. I was able to cruise down without any speed worries and got back to car in a little over 2 hours - making for a 7:30 round trip.

Profile

Profile of climb

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Terry, Kyle, Paul and I got together last Thursday to make a decision about the Rainier trip. The weather looked pretty crummy and none of us wanted to bike for three days and end up sitting in a hotel or tent in the rain. Kyle had always wanted to ride out to the Bridge Of The Gods (and back). So a consolation prize was a long ride Saturday. We will hopefully get a weather and vacation window that lines up properly for a Rainier ascent in July.

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Keevin was back in town and had a few days before he had to work so I suggested we get in a Mt. Hood climb. Paul from the upcoming Mt. Rainier trip was interested so the three of us packed up our grub and blue bags and headed up to Timberline. It was fairly windy and cloudy so we put on our big boy pants and headed up.
At about 8200' we got above the clouds and were able to see the stars framing Mt. Hood. Keevin pulled up and said he was done as he had just flown from Italy and was beat. It was still uber windy and I asked Paul what he thought and he said something along the lines of 'meh', so we took off the man pants, turned around and stomped down through the fog back to the car. I split our summit cookies between the three of us and we drove back to town through the persistent rain.

• 

Up

I went up Mt. Hood on my own to get in some climbing before the Mt. Rainier trip. Conditions looked perfect and I figured I was ready to solo the climb. If it got sketch I could always bail and get waffles.

The way up felt fairly slow and I got off track a few times with all of the snowcat trails zig zagging. I didn't break any records getting to the top of the palmer but from there to the Hogsback went really fast. I set up a camera at the South side of the Hogsback to get a timelapse of me climbing up. No one else was up top so I had the mountain all to myself.
The climbing was in perfect snow, really good for cramponing and super solid. There seemed to be more snow than last time and the old chute felt less steep and I was able to upright walk portions of it until the summit rim. I got to the proper summit in about 3:40, which is by far the fastest for me. With that it was still over an hour to sunrise and it was very cold so I spilled water everywhere, called it good and headed back down.

Down

Downclimbing was just as solid as going up, but less time spent gasping for Os. I ran into the first parties just above the Hogsback which was in line with my plan of getting off the steeps before people could rain ice down on me. I took my time going back down - spending time taking photos and chatting with folks as they climbed upwards.

Panoramic Photos

Panoramic Photos

Profile of climb

Profile
(GPS doohickey got a little confused on my way down, thus the bump up of altitude on the descent)

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Ski in

I went down to Bend to ski into and climb South Sister. I had thoughts of camping on the summit but camping at the base and going up lighter sounded more appealing. The road from Mt. Bachelor wasn't open yet so I brought my old cross country skis and tried remembering how to ski again.

The way in was half cleared so there was a fair amount of hiking on pavement but the skiing sections went really fast. I see why people skin instead of hike. I definitely need to get some good skis and practice. From the trailhead it was a fairly quick hike up to the flats and over to camp. I got misdirected a few times but made good time.

Climb

I woke up at 2am so I could get to the top by sunrise. It was uber cold, a little below 20, and all of my breath froze on the inside of the tent. I set up my camera to take some shots of the climb while I was going up to hopefully make a nice timelapse, then headed up at 3am. I got to the rim by 5am and over to the summit proper at 5:15. It was cold enough that my thermometer stopped displaying numbers properly, but the last number was 16. I stomped around waiting for the sun to creep up and once it hit the horizon I went back to camp as I was too cold.

Way out

After skiing the flats towards the trailhead it was mainly by hoof until I was in sight of Mt. Bachelor where I was able to ski a few miles to the car.

Panoramic Photos

Profile

Profile of climb

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•