Olympic Hot Springs

To start off the month of December, 5 of us hiked to Olympic Hot Springs. We thought the hike was going to be about 5.5 miles, but the road was gated off about 3 miles lower than we had anticipated, so it became a bit longer than we had planned. Snow began to fall as we hiked in. By the time we got to camp, it was coming down very hard. We set up our tents on the snow, then walked to the uppermost pool of the hot springs. I have no idea how long we soaked, but it was for hours. As we sat in the pool, it POURED snow. Every once in awhile, a glory hole in the clouds would open up and we could see stars. Then, the snow would start again. We soaked, we ate, we drank.

Finally, we extricated ourselves from the wamth and headed back down the hill to the tents. Wow, we had gotten a ton of snow. At this point, more than a foot had fallen since we started. Throughout the night, snow continued to fall. By morning, we had accumulations of between 18 and 24 inches of fresh snow, and the snow continued.

The hike out was something else. We alternated breaking trail with out one pair of snowshoes. About 1.5 miles into our hike out, the snow switched over to rain. The trail got harder to break and we got quieter. After about 4.5 hours of hiking, we finally made it to the cars. All of us were soaked, but we still had a great time. And, due to the bad weather, we were the only people at the hot springs that weekend!

Ingalls Lake

In October, I visited Ingalls Lake. The weather was spectacular, and I assumed that it would probably be the last chance in 2007 to visit the high country before it became snowbound. No camping around the lake, so we set up our spot and then visited the lake. Ingalls lake is an amazing spot. It is set just below craggy Mt. Stuart in a basin of larches. We just missed the larches, which are conifers that turn bright yellow and lose their needles in the fall.

The lake was partially frozen over and it was quite an expedition to scramble over rocks and snow to get to the far end of the lake. On the way back, the sky clouded over and it got a bit colder. Just before sunset, the clouds lifted and Stuart began to glow. All around us, the mountains reflected the last rays of sun. When the alpenglow receeded, the clouds lit up. Later that night, the almost full moon on the surrounding snow and peaks rendered headlamps totally unnecessary. Sunrise was an unearthly orange glow.

Eagle Cap Wilderness

In mid September, Sue, my friend from my Alaska trip, flew out from Georgia to join Gina, John George, Sherell, Chris and myself on a weeklong backpacking trip in Oregon's Eagle Cap Wilderness. JG had been to the area when he was a boy scout, but none of the rest of us had heard of it.

What an amazing place. The elevation was mostly about 6000 feet, and it was filled with beautiful lakes and valleys. Much of the landscape was granite. It reminded me of the Sierra Nevada. Our favorite lakes were Moccasin Lake, because of the amazing clarity of the water and the great drop offs, and Glacier Lake, because of it's incredible beauty.

Mt. Adams climb

In the beginnig of August, a big group of us headed south to Mt. Adams to attempt to climb the second highest peak in Washington. Adams can be a technical climb, but the route we took was not technical. It was steep. We camped the first night at Lunch Counter, then got up before dawn to head up. Sunrise was beautiful -- great mountain shadows on the clouds and landscape. We had amazing views of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood from our perch. As we started climbing, the winds picked up and the clouds came in. I had one glimpse of the true summit from the top of the false summit, then everything became totally white. We made it to the top, but our visibility was reduced to about 10 feet of solid white, and the winds were probably blowing a sustained 40 mph. It was an interesting trip down. Once we made it back to the false summit, we glissaded in the luge-like trough down to our camp. What took us about 3 hours to climb took about 5 minutes to go down.

Next year, we will return for the view from the top!

Success on Mt. Rainier

Early Monday morning, July 2, I left Seattle for Mt. Rainier, specifically the White River Campground where I began my bid to climb the mountain. The campground is on the east side of Rainier at an elevation of 4400 feet. It is the jump-off point for those taking the Emmons Glacier route to the summit, elevation 14,410. This climb was a four day climb guided by Alpine Ascents International. There were 7 climbers and 4 guides on the trip.

For the first part of the climb, we hiked through forest and along the white river, picking our way through a trail that had been devastated in parts by the November, 2006 flooding. Significant work had been done on the trail, and it was in better shape than I expected. After about 3.5 miles and an elevation gain of 1600 feet, the vista opened up into Glacier Basin, which had great views of the Emmons route and a beautiful meadow filled with avalanche lilies. This would be a great place to camp.

After we passed through Glacier Basin, the real uphill began. Then, we hit snow, and eventually, glacier. We practiced our snow skills at the bottom of the Interglacier, then roped up and headed up the 2000 foot climb to our first camp, Camp Curtis, elevation 8500 feet.

On Day 2, we took it easy. We climbed another 1000 feet to Camp Schurman, where we set up our tents on the Emmons glacier and then relaxed in preparation for the next day's climb. We went to bed around 6:00 pm to be ready for our Alpine start. The weather was great, and the forecast for summit day was also spectacular.

We arose at about 11:15 pm on July 3, ate our oatmeal and drank coffee, then headed up at about 1:00 am on July 4. The wind was blowing, but it wasn't very cold. The stars and moon were out, the snow was hard, and all was good. We had four rope teams, 3 with 3 people, 1 with 2. The summit was 5000 feet above us, and we were expecting to reach it anywhere from 6-8 hours in the future.

At first, the grade was pretty mellow. We used our headlamps and walked in the tracks of others. Then, the real climbing began. The slope after about 11,200 feet becomes anywhere from 30-40 degrees. You can't walk straight. Climbers either duck walk with their feet splayed, or walk sideways, one foot crossing over the other, perpendicular to the fall line. Great workout for your it band and also for your quads. I opted for the latter. For much of the climb, the concentration is on putting one foot in front of the other. It was dark until probably somewhere around 4:30, and the wind prevented me from hearing anyone else's voices. When the sun finally started to rise, there still was not much opportunity to look around. I was too concerned with making sure I knew where I was stepping. At times, the crossover steps were actually carved into the trail where it was really steep. Some of these steps were about one foot above the other. Much fun for someone with short legs above 12,000 feet.

At around sunrise, the last person on my rope decided that he did not want to climb anymore. The combination of a lack of sleep, altitude sickness, and a weakening drive spelled the end of his summit bid. He changed places with the person on the two person rope, and a guide took him back down. The timing was great, however. I was able to take several sunrise photos during the unexpected break. You can see Camp Schurman's location far below at the base of the prow shaped rock to the right of the climber below me. We were at about 12,500 feet.

My rope team finally arrived at the crater rim at 7:30 am. There, we met up with Dave, another AAI guide who had come up from the Camp Muir side. We chatted with him for several minutes, then headed up the final 200 or so yards to the true summit. The views were amazing -- Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak. All around us were mountains, the Puget Sound, and the crater below. We signed the summit register then sat down to wait for the rest of the crew.

The remaining two teams arrived at the top about an hour or so behind us. We took a nice photo at the top, complete with the Climb to Fight Breast Cancer banner and our prayer flags. Then, we headed back down at about 9:30.

The 5000 foot descent was even more difficult than the climb. By the time we headed down, the snow had softened up substantially, and snow was balling up under our crampons causing us to lose traction. On a steep slope, we took off our crampons so that we could plunge step down just using our heels as traction. On my first or second plunge step, I started to slide. Thankfully, the guide had my back. I slid many times on my way down. Nothing serious, but I did get lots of self arrest practice. It was not good for my confidence, however. The snow was variable. Sometimes it was deep and the plunge stepping was easy. Other times, however, there was a thick layer of ice just below the surface snow, and I could not dig my heel in. My feet slid out, and down I would go. Not something you want to do on a steep slope with yawning crevasses. Oh, did I mention how hot it got in the full sun? And, my splitting headache? We could see Camp Schurman for most of the way down, and boy, did it seem far away.

We finally made it down at 1:30. We were exhausted, but happy. The rest of the teams showed up about an hour or so later. Some of them had fallen into crevasses, but only up to their waists. They, too, were exhausted. One of our teammates was too exhausted to eat any dinner.

Later that night, the three of us in my tent woke up and watched the fireworks in Seattle and Tacoma. Not a bad ending to a good day. The next morning, we woke up early and headed back to the White River Campground. The 2000 foot Interglacier climb that took us 2 hour to get up took us about 10 minutes of glissading on our butts on the way down. We were back at the van by noon. Beers and watermelon at the van, then lunch in Enumclaw on the way home. Friday, I stayed home and did nothing. What an amazing trip!!

Arctic Adventure

On June 8, I headed north to the land of the midnight sun, the arctic circle. Flew into Kotzebue, which is a small native community set in the middle of nowhere. The only access to Kotzebue is by plane or boat, though everyone in the town seems to have a car. Not quite sure why, as the town is about a mile long and maybe 1/4 mile wide, but I guess in the winter, you might freeze if you walk 2 blocks.

We were supposed to head out to our landing strip and the start of our backpacking trip on Sunday, June 10. Unfortunately, we had a few glitches in the initial plans, so the trip did not actually start until Tuesday evening. Our group of 16 quickly ran out of things to do in Kotzebue after we visited the library, the crafts shop, the supermarket, and the 2 chinese restaurants in town. I would not recommend Kotzebue as a destination, unless you are truly desperate. Did I mention that Kotzebue is a damp town, meaning they don't sell alcohol? We did use the time to get to know each other, however, and we started the trip with a solid foundation for our blossoming friedships.

We finally headed off into the tundra on Tuesday evening. Hiking until late at night is no problem when you can't tell the difference between 12 noon and 12 midnight. We traveled up snow filled drainages, across knee deep creeks, over broad swales, and through fields of flowers. No trails, just caribou tracks to follow. Our total mileage was somewhere around 60 miles for the entire trip. The scenery was amazing, as was the camraderie between the group members. Along the way, we endured hordes of mosquitoes, a helicopter evacuation of one of our teammates, and several days of rain. For the most part, however, the weather was quite nice. Lots of sun and warm weather.

We did not see much wildlife. Several moose from far away, some caribou from Kotzebue, and a musk ox on the bush flight back to Kotzebue. We saw lots of signs from bear, but did not have any grizzly encounters. The best part of the trip was the people. Despite the initial delay in getting out of Kotzebue, despite the evacuation, we really bonded together and made the trip great. I'm sure that the DeLong mountains have never seen the likes of our last night's variety show, nor the tour of tents at Camp Eternity. This trip will forever be cached in my soul. Thank you all for the memories.

Arctic Backpack

On June 8, I fly from Seattle to Kotzebue, Alaska for a two week backpacking trip in the National Petroleum Reserve with a group from the Sierra Club. From Kotzebue, 15 other participants and two guides will take bush flights to a landing strip in the arctic circle. No need for headlamps around the summer solstice. We will have 24 hours of daylight.

http://www.sierraclub.org/outings/national/brochure/07014A.asp

I have been told that the temperatures will range from 20 to 80 degrees. Also, that it WILL rain. I've upgraded my raingear. Expensive, but considering the alternative, worth it. I am not looking forward to the fact that my feet will be permantly wet on the trail. Not only is the tundra boggy, but in Alaska, there are no briges over the rivers and streams. You just go in with your boots on and get used to the wet.

The road to the top

Climbed to Camp Muir on Saturday with a large group of fellow climb to fight breast cancer folks. We had nice weather to start -- high clouds, but good visibility. As we climbed higher, the clouds began to come in below us, eventually covering Paradise and the Tatoosh range. Eventually, even the highest peak of that range looked like an island in the sky. Got to Camp Muir (10,188) at a bit before 3 pm after more than 5 hours of climbing. The climb was 4 1/2 miles, 4600 feet of elevation gain, entirely over snow and glacier. Spent over an hour at the camp, enjoying fierce winds, snow, sun, and everything else you can imagine. Mt. Rainier makes its own weather, and this was the perfect example of it. Headed down around 4:00 with a fellow climber. We hit the clouds at maybe around 8500 or 9000 feet, and it was something else. We could see only about 10 feet, and everything was white. You couldn't tell where the snow began and the clouds ended. Thankfully, the park service has put wands on the route, so we were able to get down by following the wands, each one about 20 yards from the next one. No reference points other than footprints, ski tracks, and wands. We could not hear anything or see anything. We really had no idea where on the mountain we were. Now I can see how people get lost. We were fine, but it made for quite and adventure. Got back down to Paradise at about 6:30. The last of the group finished at 9:00.

Mt. Rainier

I took this picture of Mt. Rainier just after sunrise from the flanks of Mt. Baker. Didn't know then that in less than year, I would be attempting to summit Rainier for the same cause as my Baker climb. Hope the weather is as amazing on Rainier as it was on Baker.

March 28, 2007

Had a great trip to Big Sur. We stayed in some fantastic yurts right on the coast with a great view of the ocean. If you visit Big Sur, I highly recommend them. http://www.treebonesresort.com/ We watched the whales from our deck, from the hot tub, and from a bench on a ridge about 40 feet from our yurt. The highlight of the trip was watching one gray wale breach 7 times in a row!

This weekend, I will be hiking Tiger Mountain 3. Climb is not terribly strenuous, but it is a nice hike to great views. Meet in the upper parking lot at 9:00 AM.

March 21, 2007

This weekend, I am heading to Big Sur, California for a long weekend with my boyfriend. Hopefully, we will take in some short hikes at various state parks in the area. We really want to see the waterfall at Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park. We are also looking forward to seeing the gray whales migrating north with their calves.

I am hoping to hike Tiger Mountain next weekend. Please let me know if you want to join me. I did my first post surgery training hike on March 18. Bob Reorda and I climbed Mt. Si. 8 miles RT, 3100 feet of elevation gain. Took me 2 1/2 hour to get up with 30 pounds on my back.