Christmas Comes Early - 2013 Ice in the Gorge

Tim Holscher on Ainsworth Left

Santa delivered an early present this year - a cold Arctic air mass and record low temperatures.  The temps started dropping last Sunday night, and over the course of the last week they stayed consistently below freezing with overnight lows in the Gorge dropping down to 10-15 deg. F.  It's been a few years since we've had a good, solid freeze in the area, and people were stoked to go check out the ice conditions!

Rumors started to trickle in during Thursday and Friday, and it didn't sound overly promising.  Despite the cold temps, most routes in the Gorge either hadn't come in at all or were super thin.  Many of the lines depend on seeps and spray, which is kicked up by the strong east winds that prevail when a powerful low pressure system moves onshore.  But we've had a relatively dry fall and for some reason this system didn't bring those traditional mean winds.  Still, it's not too often that we get temps that are this cold, so out we went in search of the elusive Columbia River Gorge ice climbing.

Fall sun at Beacon Rock

Kristin topping out pitch 2 of Young Warriors

Our bomber fall weather pattern continues!  Kristin and I enjoyed Beacon Rock on Saturday in perfect conditions in the Columbia River Gorge - crispy clean air, calm winds, and a warm sun. 

After an early October system dumped lots of snow in the mountains, I was tempted to break out the planks, but resisted the urge and have enjoyed some amazing climbing conditions.  It looks like we'll have at least one more week of cool, sunny weather.  Get out and enjoy our fall bounty!

St. Helens Easter Day Corn Harvest

The "new" lava dome and the Mt. Margaret Backcountry from the crater rim

Last weekend saw unseasonably warm weather with a ridge of high pressure locked in over the region. Fresh off an incredible week of powder skiing, I figured it was time to go harvest some spring corn.  After climbing at Ozone in perfect weather on Saturday, I drove up to Marble Mount trailhead with some friends and crashed out in the parking lot.  Up at 3:30 and on the trail by 4:15 or so, we topped out around 9 am to clear skies, calm winds and the promise of a buttery corn cycle on the descent.  Enjoy the pics.

The Junuary Inversion

Marcel Gesmundo eyeing thousands of feet of corn on Mt. St. Helens

With sunny weather in Central Oregon and a persistent inversion in the mountains, I couldn't decide whether to climb or ski this past weekend.  Luckily, with a three day break, I could do both!  The Pacific Northwest delivered again with two days of sunny climbing at Smith Rock and a stellar day of skiing corn on Mt. St. Helens.

Acid Baby --> SW Chutes

Saturday - Acid Baby

Sunday - Mt Adams SW Chutes

 
Last weekend, Jaime and I pulled off an alpine 2fer - PDX Weekend Warrioring.  We left Portland late on Friday after work, and we got back into town on Sunday evening almost exactly 48 hours later.  Saturday, we climbed Acid Baby in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness above Colchuk Lake and then drove down to Mt. Adams.  Sunday, we skied the SW Chutes and were home by 8-ish after beers in White Salmon.  Alpine rock climbing and volcano skiing - summer in the Cascades.  

Sometimes I get frustrated living in Portland, having to drive so far to get to the mountains, but then I remember what it was like growing up in Pittsburgh, where hills were called mountains and a long drive meant hours of torture on the PA turnpike.  When I start to get down on living in this city, I have to stop and remind myself of the big picture.  The Pacific Northwest is pretty much as good as it gets - at least for me.  The Cascades are wild and beautiful, and despite a few hours drive, they're basically in our backyard.  Oh yeah, and the food here in Portland is WAY better than Seattle!  Washington suckers.             

Back to the Tieton

Melanie McMahon on Lava Sundae, 5.10a, Dream Wall

The mountains keep pulling at my gut, but the lowland rock climbing has been really good over the last few weeks.  With questionable weather threatening many of the usual climbing destinations from Idaho to BC, a bunch of us "settled" on some of our old stomping grounds in the Tieton Valley.  We found perfect weather, sublime light and a big 'ole party complete with a posse from Portland and a bunch of tree climbing.

Spring Cragging in the Tieton Valley

Spring in the Tieton

Spring has settled over the Tieton River valley, and the climbing conditions are excellent!  Last weekend, Kristin and I spent two more beautiful days camped along the river by night, climbing by day.

Sin or Salvation? Skiing Mt. Rainier National Park - The Nisqually and the Tatoosh

The Mighty Mt. Rainier

Home from Bhutan just over a week, I drove down Interstate 5 on Friday morning after a mid-week meeting in Seattle.  Following a month of constant travel, I silently debated whether I should go skiing or simply stay at home and tend to the every day details that had fallen by the wayside.  Laundry, unpacking, work, even processing the 5,000 photos from my trip - I had plenty of excuses to remain in town and slow down.

For a few minutes, the classic debate between the angel and devil, both perched on opposing shoulders, played out in my mind.  But then I turned a corner on the highway and saw the mighty Mt. Rainier rising up off the horizon in clear, morning skies.  The mountain was covered in a deep blanket of snow that had fallen almost constantly since I left for Asia in March.  I couldn't deny the strong temptation presented by a weekend of chores, the lure of yard work and organizing the basement.  But having assumed the form of a majestic mountain temple, the angel on my shoulder reminded me that these sinful pleasures just lead to further moral degradation.  In a split second, she squashed that puny devil and illuminated the path.  Let's go skiing!

Wilderness Peak Turkey Hike

Over the holiday weekend, Kristin and I made our annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to Seattle for a very indulgent and sedentary celebration with my family.  Each year, we dream up cool adventures in the nearby mountains, but we almost always end up falling into a delicious pattern of beer, football and turkey with the family, topped off with the best apply pie EVER (thanks Mom!).  If we're lucky, we manage to sneak in a hike or two to stretch the legs and force some blood through our otherwise clogged arteries.

Reflections on the Gunsight Range

Climbing trips often take on new meaning a few days or weeks after the return to civilization.  Sometimes the most successful trips paradoxically elicit a bout of depression, a casting about in the drudgery of every day life.  On the other hand, the failures, and even the semi-successes, if coupled with the right amount of sheer suffering, can somehow seem in retrospect like a good time – maybe even a good idea!  A few days and a few hundred miles can change the perceptions of an intense experience. 

So it is with my recent trip into the Gunsight Range of the North Cascades, a remote ridge of granite in a wild and committing setting.  36 hours after getting back to Portland, I pulled off my socks in a hotel room in Detroit on the 45th floor of the Marriot Renaissance.  I looked down and saw swollen ankles bulging over the tops of my shoes.  As I peeled away my black dress socks, I revealed track marks in my skin, where my legs had swelled around the confining mesh of the material.

Mt. Adams - SW Chutes

The best medicine for withdrawal is a quick fix.  After returning from 10 days of climbing in California, I was still jonesing for more mountain time, knowing that the deep Pacific NW snowpack was making for some amazing summer ski conditions. 

Jaime had planted a seed a few weeks ago, suggesting the SW Chutes on Mt. Adams for the weekend after my CA trip.   Zach jumped on board, and by Saturday evening, we were driving through Trout Lake on the way to Mt. Adams. 

The Tieton Valley

Onie on The Western Front, Tieton River Valley

Lane Peak - The Zipper Ski Descent

Improvisation . . . on the fly.  A washed out climb/ski of Mt. Rainier turned into a soggy descent of Lane Peak in the Tatoosh.

The original plan had Jaime and I climbing in Tieton on Saturday, meeting Doug and Alex in the parking lot of Paradise on Saturday night, and then climbing/skiing Rainier on Sunday.  Things didn't exactly go as planned.  On Saturday, we got in one pitch of climbing at the Bend before getting rained on and retreating to the car.

Beacon Rock is Open for Business

Guy Pinjuv on Blownout, 5.10a

Prusik Peak - Solid Gold

Weeks and weeks of crappy weather delayed the start of the alpine climbing season this year. I waited patiently for much of that time, hanging out at the crags, in the gym, at the bar, on my bike, hoping for a stable weather window and some dry rock in the high country. Earlier this month, a weekend of lowland rock climbing in Squamish was again thwarted by mother nature. We retreated to Tieton on the east side of the Cascade crest and promptly got dowsed by yet another rain storm. I climbed in a downpour in Hells Canyon. I greased my way up wet basalt at the Ozone. My patience was wearing thin.

A high pressure system finally started to move on shore over the past week, and the stars looked like they might align. Nate scored a hard-to-come by permit for the Enchantments and was looking for a couple of tag alongs. The moon was going to be full. All I needed was an objective and a partner.

The permit was for the Snow Lakes region, home to the fabled Prusik Peak. Here's a shot from a 2006 trip to the area.

Mushrooms, Cracks and Bolts

Skipping out early on Friday afternoon, Kristin and I picked up Moira and headed east on I84 towards Leavenworth looking forward to a couple of days of climbing. This was our first trip of the year to Der Bavarian Crackville, and we were definitely feeling the anticipation of climbing on granite for the first time in several months.

We woke up on Saturday morning at about 5 am and left for Snow Creek Wall. Kristin had never climbed Outer Space, so that was the main objective for the weekend. The last time we hung out with Doug and Moira, we tried the same route and got a late start, getting stuck behind several slow parties at Two Tree Ledge. After rapping off, we started up Champagne, only to get lost high up on the wall wondering where the hell the route went. That led to a late night of rappelling in the dark, which we were hoping to avoid this time around.

The early start helped, and we were racking up around 8-ish.
Snow Creek Wall was looking good on the hike in.

From Leavenworth May 2010

Tieton Temptations

I was lucky enough to spend my weekend in the lovely Tieton River valley with Nate, Stephanie and Melanie. The flowers are just starting to bloom as spring creeps up from the shrub steppe into the forest. We spent Saturday at The Bend, shivering through a cool morning and then basking in the afternoon light. We climbed several of the cracks on the West Side, including Salmon Song, Treatment Bound, Sugar Kicks and Ambient Domain.

The highlight was definitely shooting Stephanie on lead on Hallowed Ground, 5.9.

From Tieton - April 2010

Vesper Peak - North Face

Vesper Peak - North Face
July 19, 2009

Drew Hansen and I climbed the North Face of Vesper Peak over the weekend. On Thursday morning, I flew up to Fairanks, AK to meet with clients. By Friday afternoon, I was back on the plane to PTown, touching down at about 11 pm after getting bumped from my original shuttle from Seattle. By 8 am, I was up and packing for a weekend of climbing in the North Cascades. We got in a few pitches at Index before crashing at the trailhead for an early start on Sunday.

Drew and I were looking for an alpine day trip with an interesting objective, and Vesper fit the bill perfectly. Situated off the Mountain Loop Highway in the North Cascades, the peak offers spectacular views of the range, a short glacier crossing, an incredible north facing slab and excellent positions. Here's an overview of the route:

From Vesper Peak - July 09

We gained the rock from the snow finger in the middle of the glacier. We found pretty much the only spot we could see where the moat looked reasonably safe to cross. Even there, a fall would have been real ugly, and we focused hard as we stepped across the gaping slot and onto the rock with our aluminum crampons.

From there, we headed up low angle slabs for about half a pitch looking for a way to cut into the next gully to the left. The gully straight up above us looked unpleasant, but we didn't really see many other options. We ended up climbing a mid-fifth class, right facing corner that splits the two gullies. It basically heads straight up through the shadows from the top of the snow finger in the photo above. I managed to lead up on fairly sound rock that was coated in lichen and moss. Luckily it was dry, so we got pretty bomber hand jams and cam placements in moss covered cracks - a good alternative to tape!

From the top of that pitch, we pretty much simul-climbed the rest of the route with one or two stops for navigation and re-racking. The final corner was definitely the highlight, with fun moves on bomber rock. Stepping out of the corner, I topped out to a field of alpine wildflowers just under the summit block with not a soul in sight. Ahhhhhh.

Here are some more pics:

Sperry in morning light.

From Vesper Peak - July 09

From Vesper Peak - July 09

Looking up at the switchbacks towards Headlee Pass

From Vesper Peak - July 09

Drew on the way up the pass

From Vesper Peak - July 09

The cool tarn in the basin under the SE side of Vesper Peak.

From Vesper Peak - July 09

Vesper Lake under the N side of the peak.

From Vesper Peak - July 09

Drew crossing the glacier in the morning light.

From Vesper Peak - July 09

Looking back down towards the glacier.

From Vesper Peak - July 09

From Vesper Peak - July 09

Looking up the final corner. We simul climbed through this section, which is maybe 300-400 feet long.

From Vesper Peak - July 09

Looking back down the corner - this is maybe mid-fifth class but really very easy.

From Vesper Peak - July 09

Summit flowers

From Vesper Peak - July 09

From Vesper Peak - July 09

Sperry Peak

From Vesper Peak - July 09

Gratuitous summit shot

From Vesper Peak - July 09

On the way back out

From Vesper Peak - July 09

From Vesper Peak - July 09

All in all, the climb took us 9 hours car-to-car, but it could be done much quicker than that. We took a wrong turn in the basin by the tarn and ended up spending an extra 30-45 minutes finding the notch. We ate a leisurely lunch on the summit and generally took it easy enjoying the fantastic weather and peaceful setting. The descent to the glacier looks kind of intimidating, but it was fairly straight forward on 3rd class ledges that dumped you out onto lower angle snow. The moat was definitely the crux followed by tricky routefinding to get out of the gullies. From there, its a romp up low angle slabs and corners to the summit followed by an easy walk off. Great day in the hills!

Mt. Rainier Weekend - Paradise Glacier and the Golden Gate Bowls

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

Has it really been since October since I updated this blog? A lot has happened since the trip to Blodgett Canyon. I fully committed myself to the annual indulgence of the holidays (no pain no gain) and put on almost ten pounds. I watched hours on end of playoff football, culminating in one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time (that's a topic for another post - but I just can't help throwing in at least one photo).

From Super Bowl XLIII Baby!

And - oh yeah - I watched in disbelief as the American electorate shook off the cobwebs of the past eight years and changed the course of our national history.

Despite all that, I seem to find inspiration only from the mountains. So in keeping with the original intent of this digital rag, I'll return to documenting our mini-adventures from our Portland home base.

Kristin and I spent the last weekend in Mt. Rainier National Park looking for buttery turns and majestic views. Over the next month, I'll be out of town for both Valentine's Day and Kristin's birthday in addition to one or two other weekends. Nice huh? She asked for a weekend getaway, and I kindly obliged by planning a romantic weekend in the Tower Suite at Alexander's.

Alexander's is a turn of the century lodge only minutes from the entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park in Ashford, Washington. The Tower Suite occupies the top two floors of the castle-style turret and offers beautiful views of surrounding hills and Douglas Fir forests. The friendly waitstaff serves complimentary breakfast in a warm dining room with the juncos and jays eating a breakfast of their own at the feeders outside. The Inn provided a very luxurious and relatively affordable getaway for the weekend - highly recommended.

The snow gods must be living an unbalanced lifestyle lately, because they binged in December and since then have dried up and been back on the wagon. I'd heard rumors of mid-winter spring-like conditions in the mountains, and the weather looked stable, so we went hunting for corn.

The first day we planned a trip to the Paradise Glacier, which is about 3-4 miles from Paradise Inn towards the Cowlitz Rocks.

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

Rainier looked great on a stable, sunny morning.

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

We started skinning up Mazama Ridge, and the views got better and better.

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

From near the top of the ridge, we got great views of Little Tahoma.

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

From there, we headed onto the Paradise snowfield and glacier in search of the turns.

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

We found sweet, spring-like turns with beautiful views and relative solitude. A great day!

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

We've been kind of sedentary lately, so we were whooped after Day 1 and decided on a slightly shorter Day 2. We planned on the Golden Gate Bowls, which offered 4-500 vertical feet of goodness only a mile or so from Paradise.

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

We were treated to more amazing views of the Tatoosh on the approach.

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

And the promise of nice lines kept us moving.

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

The conditions weren't nearly as good on Sunday. The temperatures never warmed up as much, and the snow stayed fairly firm. Weather started to move in during the afternoon and prevented the corn from sweetening up, but we still got in some fast turns on hard snow - well worth the trip.

More inspiration from the weekend.

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend

From Rainier - B/C Skiing Weekend