Mt. Adams 8/24/14 - 8/25/14

I had for sure wanted to attempt another mountain climb during the summer.  A friend from work, Anthony, was also into climbing, so we decided to give Mt. Adams a try.  Our route was up the south side, so pretty non-technical.  It was just a slog up a snowy and icy mountain.  Jason couldn't join us, unfortunately.

Anthony and I packed up our gear, and then flew to Portland early on the morning of the 24.  We arrived, and picked up a rental car to drive to the trailhead for Mt. Adams south side.  This was not without, however, a delay to find some butane fuel for my stove.

From the moment we started hiking up through the forest the weather was sketchy.  For about the next two hours we had on and off rain, and thunder and lightening overhead.  We kept going, however, passing lots of people heading back to their vehicles.

As we gained altitude, and left the tree line behind the storms began to get worse, in the distance.  We even came across a ranger who was trying to locate somebody injured on the slopes.  Still, we decided to press upward.  We were already exposed, so going down wouldn't help out our situation much.

We reached the base of the permanent snowfield, near Crescent Glacier.  It was hear that the weather began to take a turn for the worse.  We stood around watching people come off from high on the mountain, and then we decided last second to set up the tent and throw our gear inside.  We couldn't have made a better decision.  When we jumped inside it was raining and dumping ice pellets pretty hard.  So we hunkered down for a good 2 hours waiting for it to blow over.

The storm lifted thereafter, and we slowly crawled out of our sleeping bags.  The cold wind was still blowing, but I got some water boiling to prepare meals.  It was clear we weren't going to climb another 1,000 feet or so to our original high camp, so we were stuck here.  There were a couple other climbing groups near us that said they received weather reports calling for more storms overnight, and high winds on the summit.  Some of them even headed down.

Anthony and I decided to stick it out.  We had already set up camp.  Worse case, if it was bad weather at 4 am, we would turn around and go home.  So we enjoyed our freeze dried meals.  As the evening wore on it began to clear up and we had a beautiful sunset.

                         (Sunset with Mt. St. Helens to the left)
Anthony tried on his crampons and went a ways up the snowbank.  The rest of the time we spent packing up our gear for the climb in the morning, and buckling the tent down for the storm we thought was coming.  Then we went to bed.

4 am arrived and we pulled ourselves out of our sleeping bags.  Peeking my head out of the tent I saw clear skies.  Stars, and the lights of Hood River, OR, to the south in the Columbia River Gorge.  No storm ever came through.  It was a perfect morning.  So the two of us excitedly moved about to warm up, eat some breakfast, get geared up, and we started off up the slope.

The snow was pretty hard from the freezing overnight.  This was my first time actually getting to use my crampons and practice my technique.

As the sun began poking up we neared the "Lunch Counter".  It was the typical high camp spot where most climbers spend the night.  We cross a large exposed rocky area, and then found ourselves at the base of Piker's Peak.  It's the hardest part of the entire climb.  It's almost 2,000 feet of snow.  Numerous false summits along the way keep teasing you.  Reaching the top you are discouraged to see "summit after summit" ahead of you.

(Base of Piker's Peak)

The slog up the 2,000 foot wall was made more demanding by fresh powder that had fallen the day before.  Powder filled in all the "sun cups" melted into the snow and ice.  It resulted in irregular stepping patterns.  One step you kick into the snow and get a good grip.  The next kick, your leg plunges down 4 inches.

Two other climbers were setting a faster pace, but we finally reached Piker's Peak.  It was a pleasant victory.  As we breathed in occasional whiffs of sulfur, we admired the view of the summit, ahead.

We had a semi-downhill stroll across a broad open area before we reached the base of the final summit climb.  Through this area we could see cracks in the ice as it slid off the mountain.  It looked like the head of one of Adam's many glaciers.

The summit couldn't come soon enough.  We each arrived around 09:53: It took us about 5 hours or so to climb about 4,000+ feet to the top.  The view was amazing.  Adams is known for its panoramic view.  Rainier to the north, Helens to the south-west, Hood to the South, and we could barely make out Jefferson still farther South, past Hood.  There is even an old mining shack on the summit from the sulfur mining era.

We rested, ate food, and got the two climbers that passed us to take a photo for us.  Then it was time to head down.  When we arrived back at the top of Piker's Peak we glissaded down as far as we could.

The weather began to deteriorate as we left.  Lots of mist and clouds filled our view and we couldn't see much until we neared our campsite again.  We let a few things dry out as we packed up, and started back down the mountain.  Anthony was ahead of me most of the time.  My mountain boots weren't fitting properly and my feet were in a lot of pain.  So I lagged behind, all the way back down the mountain.

But we did eventually make it back in the afternoon.  We had time to return the rental car in Portland, stagger in Wendy's to grab some food, and catch the last flight back to Boise that night.  It was an amazing trip and it was nice to summit on such a gorgeous day!

Mt. St. Helens 5/20/14

Jason and I arrived at the parking for the Marble Mountain Sno Park route up the south side of Helens, late.  We set up camp in the woods, and it probably took us an hour to get a campfire going so that we could make dinner and finish getting set up.  We got to bed late, and subsequently got a late start in the morning.

The first portion of the trail wound its way up in elevation through the forest.  Periodically we glimpsed the mountain through the trees.

When the trees started thinning out and we began scrambling over more rock, we did stop to take off some our insulating clothes, lather up with sunscreen, and then continued on.

We got to a location called "Chocolate Falls".  It's the remains of an old lava falls.  We lost the trail and struggled to locate it around this landmark.  After about an hour of wasting time trying to get back on track, we finally gave up and began blazing our own trail up the mountain.  It didn't take us long going up the mountain until we hit the deep snow.  The hard exterior gave way with each step and in a lot of instances we plunged up to our knees.  It was tough going.  The next few hours was simply spent "post holing" our own path up the mountain.  We each took turns leading the way in order to give the other guy a break.

We could see other climbers already on their descent, but we plunged on.  We were exhausted from blazing our own trail and we made slow going, requiring more breaks.

We had one final push to the crater rim.  We could see the last was over, and it was still before our mutual agreed upon turn around time.  However, the weather had slowly began deteriorating.  By this time a large cloud mass had began enveloping the summit, and was moving down the slopes toward us, obscuring the visibility.  After much debating we finally realized we had to be safe and make the call to turn around.  It would have been unwise to push upward in the poor visibility and risk not being able to see cornices (which could result in plummeting down inside the crater).

Our descent down was much quicker.  We learned to glissade and all our exhaustion seemed to disappear as we enjoyed the much quicker method of descent.  As we climbed down, we skirted over to the route the other climbers had came up.

The storm continued chasing us down the mountain and we made haste to get off the exposed sides of the mountain.  When we did finally reach the tree line, and "Chocolate Falls" again, we discovered the trail crossed it.  We had been right there!  Had it not been for this misdirection and poor marking of the trail, we could have summited!

Needless to say, we were glad to be back at the car.  4 days of roughing it and climbing had made us ready for a hot shower and something besides freeze dried meals.

Until we return for another attempt!

RMI Classes

Back in May of 2014 I started to get my first taste of mountaineering.  Jason and I had signed up for 2 days of classes on the lower slopes of Mt. Rainier, with Rainier Mountaineering Inc.  The first day would be basic skills such as self arrest, roped travel, crampon use, etc.  The second day was a crevasse rescue school.

Jason and I drove up early and found a place outside Ashford to camp.  We were lucky with one day of good weather to explore, so we did a lot of hiking along a river, and explored the ash coated river banks.

The next morning it was cold, wet, rainy, and miserable.  But that is the Cascades, for you.  Jason and I packed up our gear and drove into Ashford to meet at the RMI base camp.  After introductions we piled into a van with our gear and drove up the mountain to Paradise.  The next few hours consisted of roped travel, self arrest, and other skills.  I didn't get any pictures as it was wet and didn't really get a chance to.

That evening we managed to get a campfire going with dry wood we had collected.  While other climbers enjoyed a nice warm hut to stay in, we worked on hanging our gear and clothing under a tarp in an attempt to dry it out some.

The weather the next day was cloudy and foggy and damp, but it wasn't bad.  We ended up staying around the RMI base for a while practicing building EARNEST Anchors, and practicing knots, before we actually headed back up to Paradise.

As we practiced building snow picket anchors all day, and practiced mock crevasse rescue, by lowering each other over a snow bank, the weather began to clear and we saw how gorgeous Mt. Rainier was!

We were done by late afternoon so we packed up and went back down to Ashford.  We then each practiced ascending and descending a rope using prussik ropes.  It was cake for me though as I knew how to do it from my caving adventures.  After that quick lesson Jason and I loaded up and drove like mad to get down to the south side of Mt. St. Helens.