Redemption Pictures

Redemption 3-19-06

For the three day Presidents Day weekend plans changed quite a bit. The initial plan was to head to Shasta but a front was moving through the area. Next was to climb Rainier. The weather was perfectly clear for our climbing period but an arctic front came down from the north and temperatures including windchill would have be around -30 degrees. Needless to say was not happy about the cold but crystal clear conditions since I did not have the gear for anything remotely that cold. The plan changed to climbing Middle Sister, and Thayer Headwall on North. At this point really did not want to carry all the heavy cold weather gear for an over nighter, ok I was getting lazy. Fortunately my climbing partner Josh was on the same page, thank god. I found out two days before the weekend that my buddy Chuck was going to go back and climb Leuthold after we had figured out what gully not go up in our previous attempt. Since the artic front was in full effect bringing high winds on Friday night/Saturday the climb was set for Sunday. The team of 6 (3 skiers, and 3 booters) left Timberline at the late hour of 7 am (cold temps + no wind = no ice fall). I decided to boot up since the slops had received no new snow for many days and the slopes were very icy. We made great time to illumination Saddle, 2.5 hours. Conditions were perfect for cramponing. Rested and geared up Josh and I left the saddle first followed shortly by the rest of the climbers. Heading up the slope to the Hour Glass the snow was perfect Styrofoam. These were dream climbing conditions. The Hour Glass was about two pitches of about 40 degree snow that went fast. Now we were on route for sure. Josh and I headed up to Queens Chair for a break to let the rest of the climbing party catch up. Josh and I reached the Chair and were greeted with a spectacular view of St. Hellens, Mt Adams, and Rainier. From here you can look over the upper portion of Sandy Headwall and that looks like a lot of fun. That climb would be a very long day but a lot of fun. After Chuck and Larry joined us at the Chair the four of us left for the summit. The last two in the party were roped up and placing pro most of the way for practice on steeper climbs, so they were taking a lot longer to climb the route. The rest of the climb went fairly quickly as we trudged up. At this point I was getting a headache from the altitude. The traverse of the North Ridge was easy and safe. We made the summit in about 3 hours from illumination saddle. A good time considering the long brakes we took. Booting down to the car was torture to say the least, a good reminder of why I like to skin up and ski down. My knees and ankles were killing me by the time I made it to the car. What a great trip!!! It was cold all day very little wind and perfect snow. I was happy to do the full route and will be happy to never do it again if I can avoid it. Great route with some steepness, but nothing that interesting. However I would love to do this route again if I can get some good ski conditions for a ski decent!!!!! The next climb on hood will be steel cliffs to help prepare for an attempt on the North Face. Will hope to post some pics as soon as chuck gets them on the web. What a great day!!! Hope to have more of these soon.

2006-02-12

Cort and I headed up to climb Leuthold. Yes the day after the "epic route finding problems." Thought I could redeam myself now that I knew the way, or at least the way not to go..lol. I was so slow and tired. What did I expect. Cort was kicking my ass all the way to illumination. When we got there the sun was out, slight breaze and we had a great spot for lunch. Other than me being really tired (was prepaired to suffer through that) my right foot was starting to hurt. After a little pow-wow, Cort and I deciede we had went far enough. Cort headed out since she was on foot and I was on skis. Headed to the highest part of the saddle against Illumination Rock geared up and skied off on to hard snow/ice. I discovered how steep I was willing to go on that suface and I was on that slope angle. Very pleasent ski back to the car even if I had to stop several times to give my screaming legs a rest. Lower down the snow was just starting to get soft and made for nice turns. Was very exhausted and glad to be back at the car. Time for a nap.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48176128@N00/sets/72057594064909281/

Leuthold attempt 2006-11-02

The plan was to head up Leuthold coulior. Josh, Chuck and I made good time to Illumination saddle. Josh and Chuck decided to stash their snowboard and skis while I decided I wanted to ski down leuthold. The first opportunity was to ski off leuthold onto the Reid Glacier to the base of what we thought was the route. Had about 4 good fun turns before had to traverse. Packed up the skis and got out the axe for the start. It was a bit steeper than I had anticipated then it go steeper and transitioned from hard snow to water ice. After getting out the rope, tools, and pickets Josh headed up for a pich of skechyness heading up what I think was WI3-4. Was not too happy that I decided we did not need ice screws. Chuck was the man, I forgot to bring the second ice axe for him so he did the pich with one light weight axe. We went up another pitch still thinking we were on route (some people were starting to question our route choice, Chuck). After Josh headed up a little further unroped we decided we were on Yocum ridge, DAMN!!! And HOLLY SH&T!!!!! Now we have to get down. After some talking to make sure we had enough gear to get down we rapped off two pickets than one to get to the start of the ice pitch which thank god had a nice anchor already set up. Rapping off the pickets was the hardest part for me. I had never rapped off the pickets and was not sure they would hold. But there was only one way out of there. Needless to say we left 4 pickets on that route, bootie for anybody dumb enough to go up that gully. The last rap consisted of one nut and two old slings that we hoped were around solid rock. After sending Josh down first we deemed the anchor solid. The rest of the trip was rather mundane after that. Was glad to get back to the car safe!!! and in one piece. All in all it was a really good trip, learned a ton. I almost don't regret going up Leutholds :)

Here are the photos, http://www.flickr.com/photos/48176128@N00/sets/72057594064877211/

Crater Rock Skin

The weather was too tempting to pass up. Got off work early and headed to the mountain for a quick trip to Crater Rock and a nice long ski down. The surface was a bit on the icy side but was still able to make it most of the way up. Packed the skis the rest of the way and started my way down just as the sun was setting. Man what a great trip.
Check out the pics, http://www.flickr.com/photos/48176128@N00/sets/72057594064869787/

Crystal Mt.

Went to crystal a couple of weekends ago and it is a great place to ski. The snow was better higher up the on the mountain. Unfortunetly the backcountry was closed all day due to high winds and poor visiblity. The place was a bit busy even in the poor weather, that place must get crazy on good weather days. Can't wait to go back and get into the back country.

Well I have started a blog. Some pics from the first trip outdoors this season. Some time in December. There was a ton of snow. A great start to what could be a great mountaineering season.