I took a day ride over to Condon via backroads and got in great rides.

Panoramic Photos

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Ingrid's 2nd cross race (I've since retired again) out in the Gorge in the heat.

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

Sara and I spent a long weekend camping in the Enchanted Valley up in the Olympics. It was a beautiful 13 mile hike up a gradual slope into the valley itself.

Before heading in we chatted with the campground host and were introduced to a new mosquito repellant - immitation vanilla extract. He's been using it for years and works for him. It was nice to use something other than DEET that made us smeel nice. I escaped the bugs with only a few bits, which is on par with the chemicals.

We spent two nights in the Valley with a day trip up to Anderson Pass (4500'). The hike went through a few avalanche debris fields that were awesome to see. We booked out early on Sunday to avoid the heat and make it back to the lodge for grub and grass sitting.

Panoramic Photos

Photos

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

Ingrid and I went down to Monmouth Oregon to partake in the MS Ride. We were invited onto the Point B team, which was very cool. Everyone on our team and in the whole ride was super friendly and genuine. The first day was the "longer" day, with 30, 60, 90 and 100 mile courses. We did our own hybrid 30/60 mile ride ending with 40 miles. The course was really nice, great markings showing you turns and excellent roads with very little traffic. That night we were pretty tired and went to bed as soon as the finish line music ended. The second day was the "shorter" day with 35 and 50 mile courses. We did the 35 mile ride with Ingrid's friend Heidi and her man. The course was great again, though with a headwind for the first half. Which meant we had a tail wind for the second half of the ride, allowing us to get in consistent speeds of 24mph. We banged the 35 miles out in just over 2 hours. It was a fun weekend, meeting new people and getting in good rides. I think we'll head back next year.

Photos

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

Ascent

The day after my solo up Mt. Adams I went back up with Trey, as he wanted to get in a one day climb of Adams. We left a little after 5am so we could hit the snow right and skip carrying a headlamp (5oz in weight makes a difference you know.)

There were at least a hundred people on the mountain, most of which I'm sure we passed on the way up. Trey blitzed the last few hundred feet to the top of Pikers Peak and got up there a few minutes before me, hopefully getting awesome photos of me sucking Os. A few people were close to keeping up with us on the way up, so I knocked them down with my axe and trudged on.
We got great views of Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson and some of the Three Sisters. No more clouds and thick haze!

Descent

The conditions were perfect for glissading and we started from the top and slid down anything that wasn't flat. Time back to car was just around 7 hours, pretty good considering my pace slowing us down.

Thoughts

Another succesful climb of Mt. Adams with perfect weather and snow conditions.

Profile

Photos

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

Ascent

A few days after Mt. Jefferson I headed up to Mt. Adams to try and get in a quick lap up the mountain. I wasn't expecting miracles as I felt drained from the Jefferson trip. I thought I was OK until I found myself out of breath mowing the lawn, with a gas mower, not even a push mower for an excuse.

Last year I got to the summit too early for optimal glissading conditions, so this year I left at 5am to try and hit the freeze and slush time just right. I wore light mountaineering boots and aluminum crampons instead of trail runners, hoping I could get in better glissades with boots and a faster overall time.
On the summit it was still unfortunately cloudy and hazy, so only Mt. Rainier poked its head above the clouds to be seen.

Descent

I hiked back down a few hundred feet below Piker Peak before taking off the crampons and getting into glissade mode. The snow softened up enough by this time to provide fast (and not too scary) glissades down the mountain. I was back at the car at just under 7 hours.

Thoughts

My time up last year was 4:15, with a roundtrip time of just under 8 hours including an hour on summit. This year it was 3:45 up with a roundtrip of 6:50 including half hour on summit. I think with proper rest a time of just over 3 hours to summit is doable.

Profile

Panoramic Photos

Photos

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

Approach

I went on a bike tour mountaineering trip with my new friends Terry and Kyle to Mt. Jefferson. I've been itching to climb something more technical and this fit the bill, along with the added adventure/coolness of biking there & back. I spent at least half a day going over food lists, packing and repacking gear and food. Perhaps it was training for Denali in two years. The rules stated we had to carry everything for the climb with us, no using outside help for schelping food or supplies. [This rule was slightly bent when we accepted cheese, water and maybe a spare 16" tire from Terry and Kyle's ladies].

We delayed our start by 12 hours to avoid the un-Oregon-like thunder and lightning, so instead of a 6pm shoveoff Thursday, we got a 4am stumbleoff on Friday. We stopped for a while on the Springwater to wait as the storms passed us to the North. We then booked it the ~90 miles to the trailhead. The route was quite pretty, going along the Clackamas (and over a few more passes than we liked), ending up at a 8 mile downhill to the turnoff for the trailhead.

After hiding our food and bikes out in the forest (away from gnomes and yeti), we shouldered our 50 pound packs and hustled up into the forest for base camp. The plan was to make it to the lakes at Jeff Park, but we fell a few miles short when it got dark and we had lost the trail under six feet of snow.

On Saturday we slept in and moseyed our way over to the lakes to make a proper camp. We had time to eat our tasty dehydrated meals, trading Trader Joes carmel corn for cheese. Kyle, having ridden on his tricksy 16" folding bike, decided to not climb as he was spent from the bike ride, which left Terry being stuck with me for the climb. Luckily he was a good sport and was game.

Climb

We got up at 2am to ensure we got to the bergshrunds before it was too warm and the bridges melted out. There were a few routefinding issues and we went through extra scree fields but we got to the main glacier right in time for the sky to lighten up so we could avoid the crevasses. It was perfect timing.

The snow was in great condition and we breezed up through both of the bergshrunds, lining up with what we thought were climbers tracks but were really yeti steps. Each step was at least twice as long in stride as ours, which logic dictates is the illusive Northwest Bigfoot. No joke, we took two steps for each of these footprints, clove print and all, perhaps they yeti was wearing cloven hoof shoes to throw people off.

After the glacier we hit the Knife Edge Ridge, which was a low fifth class rock climb. Terry let me lead this and we simul-climbed until we got to the next snowfields. It was exciting climbing in mountaineering boots at 10,000 feet with decent exposure. Luckily no one saw me use the hands and knees technique to get across the two foot wide sections.

We hustled over to the pinnacle to finish off the climb properly. This was more fifth class climbing, which the book says is 5.1 and really felt like 5.8, with suprisingly good rock and stances. Terry signed us into the register and we shared a german chocolate candy while gazing at the other mountains around us. We rapped down to our packs and heading back to the North. We ran into a friend of Terry's, who told us the Red Saddle was a safer bet for the descent. Though the fields below us to the East looked OK, we took him at his word and headed back South to the saddle to do some downclimbing.

We lucked out to have gotten the beta as the route we intended on rapping and downclimbing was horrendous. We probably would've ended up rapping off of pickets and leaving some gear and the rope behind. But we went the smart route and trudged across a few glaciers over to our descent chute back to camp. We got awesome clouds swooping by as we got closer to camp.

We got back to camp at 4pm, 14 hours after leaving the toasty warm tents and sleeping bags for the snow. Kyle was whooping as we came into camp, providing us with some whiskey to help offset dehydration. As the clouds were coming in and the temperature was dropping, we quickly ate some food, packed up and headed down to the bikes at the trailhead.

Ride Home

After a good nights sleep at the trail head we took our time drying out gear, repacking it, fixing bike issues and eating. As there are only so many alpine starts in a person, we left camp around 10 to head for home.

After the initial climb from Hades, the majority of our ride home was slightly downhill, allowing us to average almost 14 miles and hour. At the ranger station a local was intrigued by Kyle's funky bike and started chatting with im, in the process telling us of a road that went around our last major hill, saving us a thousand feet of climbing. We definetely owe him a beer!

Once we hit the Springwater Corridor, Terry bought a can of beer for us to share, which anesthetized some of our pains.

Profile

Profile of bike and climb

Panoramic Photos

Bike & Hike in

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

Climb

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

Hike & Bike home

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

I lucked out and snagged the Bolan Fire Tower in Southern Oregon for two nights. I took a few days to enjoy a drive down the coast before my reservation.

I missed out on both the Crazy Norwegian's fish & chips and the Redwoods, both of which shouldn't be missed when one is in Southern Oregon. I attempted to make up for it by purchasing cheezy-poofs and root beer in Cave Junction.
I made it up the rocky road to the fire tower in time to see the clouds foaming around the Cascade foothills. Mt. Shasta showed itself the first day, before going into hiding behind the clouds.

Both days were spent eating sandwiches, reading books concerning vampires taking over the world or space operas. Time well spent.

Panoramic Photos

Oregon Coast

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

Fire Tower

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

We put in french doors in the other room and then I put up a deck so we wouldn't fall to the ground. The pooches got a new dog ramp too.

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

I went down to Bend to go camp on summit of South Sister like last year. I ended up turning around at 7500 feet as the snow had me concerned. The weather turned for a while also, but mainly the snow making small cracks around my postholes were unsettling on my own. I spent a few hours at the flats taking photos before going back down through the trees back to the car.

Panoramic Photos

Timelapse

South Sister Clouds from Sam Jackson.

Photos

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