Stevens Pass Backcountry

It appears my recent public bitching in the blog world about the bad snow in the Pacific Northwest was worth it. Ava and I went out yesterday with her parents, Rick and Nancy, to the Stevens Pass backcountry and experienced the best snow I've seen all year. With about a foot of new a week ago and 3 recent inches on top of that, I was reminded of what skiing in Oregon and Washington is supposed to be like.

On top of the great conditions, we found a new and wonderful place to make backcountry turns - complete with lots of fun terrain features. And on top of that we were lucky enough to be accompanied by Ava's parents, who rented snowshoes and did a wonderful job following us up and over hill and dale. Special thanks to Nancy for doing an excellent job as designated photographer.

Lots of fun bumps to hop off of on this northwest aspect

Happy Hollidays!

Forced Update

So, the skiing sucks in the Pacific Northwest this year, so I haven't been out as much as I was hoping. What have I been doing, you ask? I suppose the short answer is reading. With substantial time off these days and a library card for the Seattle Public Library, this turns out to be an exceptional way for a bum like me to entertain and educate themselves for the price of free. More for myself than anything else, I'll try to recall the books I've read in the last month or so.

Poisonwood Bible

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Toward the Mystery

Annapurna, A Woman's Place

The Da Vinci Code

Angels and Demons

The Audacity of Hope

Mandela - An Illustrated Autobiography

Gang Leader for a Day

Born to Run

I did make a short trip down to Eugene to visit Jake. During the visit, in addition to playing copious amounts of cards, we went to shoot bows at a couple of the bow hunting shops in town. Prior to this trip, I'd never shot a bow but was nonetheless smitten by the stealthiness and skills required to "harvest" an animal with one. After shooting a few times, it began to feel less awkward and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to hit a small target from 20 yards. I understand this becomes much more difficult in the woods, on uneven terrain, in the presence of a wary bull elk, etc.

I ended up getting an incredible deal on a 2008 compound bow from Bow-Tech (designed and produced in Eugene), and Jake bought a new one as well. Now I'm hoping to have some free time in September to see how lucky I can get, or rather how unlucky an elk and/or deer can get.

Okay, so I have done some skiing. Since there's not much snow down lower, I've gone up higher on Mt. Hood to get some forced turns in, albeit on crustapalooza.

Illumination Rock

Yocum Ridge and Mt. Saint Helens from Illumination Saddle

Skiing, Holidays, etc.

I can't believe I haven't posted anything in almost a month! I've been skiing a bit and attending the standard holiday parties. I'm even trying to teach myself to fix simple things on my car, like replacing the spark plugs.

Back in mid December, Ava, Jake, and I had a planned 7-day ski trip in the Three Sisters Wilderness turn into a soggy 2-day epic followed by a trip to Cougar Hot Springs. Then there were a few ski trips to Hood: some with Dad (who recently got an AT setup!), some with Ava, and some with Keith and Jake. The one day I couldn't find anyone to go with me I skinned up to the Hogsback on Mt. Hood and skied down from there.

Jake and Keith skinning up for a second lap in the vicinity of Barlow Pass on Mt. Hood.

Mt. Hood the day I went up to the Hogsback

Keith and I on the edge of White River Canyon

I spent New Years Eve in Portland with Keith, Jake, Phil, Molly, Ava, and Becca. We had an awesome pasta feed and got drunk at Molly's house prior to going out somewhere on Burnside.

Happy 2010!

Ice on Snoqualmie Pass

The first half of Alpental 1

I've been feeling the desire to take advantage of the recent cold snap for several days now, and I finally found a partner to go exploring with. Deverton and I drove up to Snoqualmie Pass to locate the Alpental Ice that we'd read about.

After arriving at the parking area, Deverton realized he forgot his boots. Luckily, I had my house with me which contained my telemark boots. These fit Dev well enough and he managed the day with them just fine.

Nearing the top of the first pitch

We found the ice about 5 minutes from the parking area and it was in (albeit a bit funky with soft areas, thin areas, brittle areas, hollow areas, etc.). We ended up climbing Alpental 1, which was a long 2-pitch ice climb. Aside for an interesting belay stance right below the crux, the climb was super fun and went very smoothly. The sound of running water below the ice was a new experience for me after climbing in Colorado.

We also scouted potential future climbs in the same area. I've decided there's a lot of ice in Washington when it gets cold.

Alpental 3 (saved for another day)

Alpental 4 (saved for perhaps the same day as Alpental 3)

Thanksgiving Roadtrip

Ava and I drove down to Berkeley for Thanksgiving with her family, with plans to stop and ski in Tahoe on the way down and back. Unfortunately, Tahoe didn't have much snow, so we stopped in Bend to visit Ogie. We made a couple quick laps on Tumalo before the 8-hour drive to the Bay.

The weather was great, and the snow in the back bowl was surprisingly powdery considering the escalating temperatures and time since the last snowfall.

We made it to Berkeley without incident and had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We failed to ski on the return trip as conditions were too poor to provide the necessary motivation. After an unusually great start to the ski season in the northwest, we seem to be in a lull. Hopefully the Beavers beating the Ducks tomorrow will put the universe back in balance and keep the snow stacking up in the mountains!

Elk Huntin'

After 15 years of applying for a branch antlered bull elk tag in Oregon's Wenaha unit, Dad finally drew the opportunity to hunt in this unique and rugged region. I had drawn the tag 14 years ago while in high school, but failed to take advantage of it as I regrettably prioritized football and school ahead of this tremendous opportunity. At any rate, we both viewed this tag as extra special because it would allow us to, at least partially, redeem my prior botched opportunity. Due to the fact that I wasn't required to be in a cubicle, I was able to accompany Dad for the entirety of the hunt.

Nephew Jake and cousin Dan joined the team to provide a combination of local knowledge and general hunting expertise. The hunting efforts actually started before the 11-day-long hunting season, with a combination of Jake, Dan, and Dad spending several days in the area scouting for large bull elk over the previous three weeks. The scouting efforts paid off with multiple large bulls spotted and their general locations known.

We saw several bulls during the first four days of hunting, but the giant ones (370+ for those elk hunters out there) remained elusive. On the fifth day, Dad and Dan spotted a real nice bull that they guessed would score about 330. They only managed to catch glimpses of the bull before it went back into hiding in the trees. They looked and waited for the bull to show itself again for about 6 hours, at which point it got dark and they had to hike back out of the canyon they had chased the bull into. During all this time, Jake and I were glassing adjacent canyons for additional bulls, hoping to find "the big one".

That night, we decided that our time to kill a bull was running out, so we should combine our efforts in attempt to shoot the biggest bull we had seen, which was the one Dad and Dan waited on that day. The next day we awoke at the typical 4:30 am and promptly headed to the canyon where the bull was last seen the previous day. Jake and I stood post at two locations at the top of the canyon to look for the bull from above. Dad and Dan hiked quietly down into the canyon in effort to be within shooting range when (and if) the bull showed himself again.

My view into the canyon from my glassing location

Almost immediately, Jake spotted a glimpse of a large, blond colored body, indicative of a large bull. The body disappeared before he could further identify the bull. A few minutes later, the fog sitting lower in the valley rose to obscure the area where Jake saw the bull. He radioed Dad and Dan to tell them what he had seen and where he had seen it, at which point they moved through the fog to a position where they would hopefully have a shot at the bull once the fog disappeared. Over 4 hours later, just after 11:00 on 11/11, the fog layer dropped back down just far enough to reveal the last seen location of the bull. A minute later, Dan spotted the bull 285 yards away, bedded down under a tree.

After confirming this was the large bull seen the previous day, Dad adjusted his position to get a clear shot at the bull through the numerous trees. With a great rest for his rifle, Dad shot at the bedded down bull. After shooting, the startled bull jumped up and stood broadside. Dan was watching intently this whole time and determined the bullet hit a small branch and was deflected away from the bull. He calmly told Dad to go ahead and shoot again, and within seconds of his first shot, shot a second time. The bull then walked off into the trees and was out of sight. With the great rest and reasonable distance, Dad couldn't believe he missed the bull twice, but the bull trotted off as if it was unharmed. Fifteen minutes later, Dad and Dan reached the location where the bull was bedded down. Looking for blood, they found none. Disheartened, they walked in the direction the bull had sauntered off in. After walking about three yards, they spotted the bull 30 yards away, dead and lying in the brush. The second shot went through both front shoulders and the vital heart/lung region between them.

Dad and me with the bull, unofficially named the "GrizBull" in honor of the late Steve "Grizzly" Adams

The 6x7 bull ended up being pretty old by elk standards at about 10 or 11 years. In terms of the antlers, this means that each point is a little shorter and little thicker than they were when the bull was at its biggest (around 6 or 7 years old). The seventh point on the bull is a short (about 2-inch) point sticking out of its skull, separate from its two main antlers and precisely mimicking a devil's horn.

The four of us packed one load out that night, including the antlers and about 90 pounds of meat. We returned the following day to pack out the rest of the meat, which totaled about 200 additional pounds. All of this needed to be carried about 1000 vertical feet out of the steep canyon.

Dad carrying out the antlers

I haven't been hunting since I was about 15 years old. Since that time, my opinions, thoughts, and feelings about life and how hunting fits into it have changed immensely. This experience helped further shape my perception of hunting. Before this hunt, I felt strongly that anyone willing to eat meat should also be willing to kill for it. This experience only helped to reinforce that opinion while making it stronger by being so intimately involved with taking the life of such a magnificent creature. Sharing this experience with family and close friends made it all the more amazing.

These days, animal death is all but completely removed from most people's lives. We eat meat without acknowledging the origin of it or the steps necessary to turn something like a cow into the steak that you order at a restaurant. Being part of the killing, processing, and eating of this bull was a powerful experience indeed. It's easy to see why many past cultures revered and honored the animals responsible for their subsistence after the first hand experience provided by this hunt. I'm now tempted to get back into hunting as I'm not willing to turn vegetarian - we'll see how that goes.

Tahoe

Ava and I just got back from a long and great weekend in the Lake Tahoe vicinity. We flew into Oakland on Wednesday night, spent a day with her parents (who were awesome!) in Berkeley, and drove to Truckee on Friday morning.

We spent the rest of the day climbing at Donner Pass on a couple of wonderful granite crack routes (Insidious Crack and Jellyroll Arch), both two pitches long. We didn't have a camera, so the pictures here are all courtesy of Mountain Project.

Jellyroll Arch (Insidious Crack is just to the right of the start of this climb)

The following day we drive to Lover's Leap, which turns out to be an incredible 400 foot almost perfectly vertical wall of granite with frequent horizontal dikes. We first tried to climb Corrugated Corner, which had several parties lined up waiting at the bottom. Next, we tried to get on Haystack and encountered the same issue. Option C was to climb East Crack, which ended up being quite a dandy climb indeed. The first two pitches were long and consisted of sustained 5.7/5.8 climbing with an occasional small roof. The final pitch (5.4) began where multiple routes converged and was a complete cluster with about 4 separate climbing parties waiting for a single crack. If it wasn't for this final pitch, this would have been one of my favorite routes ever!

Some random dude on East Crack at Lover's Leap (courtesy of Mountain Project)

After this we drove to Incline Village and met up with Louis, Jasmine, and a bunch of their friends from Santa Cruz for some Halloween shenanigans. Games were played and wine was drank into the wee hours of the morning. Thanks a bunch to the Frauers as well as Don and Pam for a great time!

On Sunday we all went back to Donner Summit and climbed on some more granite (Composure, Rapid Transit, and Molar Concentration on the Snowshed Wall). It was super fun hanging out with Lou and Jas again and climbing in a new area!

General Climbing Impressions/Opinions:

• The rock around Lake Tahoe is pretty damn awesome!
• Lover's Leap is the most spectacular area we found in this vicinity with many 3 and 4 pitch moderate climbs.
• The guide book for the area, Rock Climbing Lake Tahoe by Mike Carville, is almost worthless. With a few exceptions, all it provides is the route name and grade. For trivial details such as route length, route quality, protection beta, and descent beta, I suggest researching these routes online.

Sunday evening we drove back to Berkeley before flying to Seattle early Monday morning. I can't wait to climb more in the Sierra!

Course #3 - Smith Rock

I just returned from instructing my third NOLS course, which happened to be a 2.5-week climbing camp at Smith Rock State Park in Oregon! Better yet, I got to work with Dane! Along with a third instructor, Todd, we had a great time tromping around the area where we both learned to climb but hadn't been back to in several years (about 6 for me). The 10 students we had were at various experience levels prior to the course, and it was fun to watch all of them improve as the course progressed.

Annie climbing Lion's Jaw

Jesse on the final pitch of Round River Direct

Kris on a 5.9 near Asterisk Pass

The last time I was at Smith, I had not yet begun trad climbing. Now that I do, the place seems even bigger than it did before, with way more routes than I can shake a stick at. I got to climb many of the routes I remembered from the past as well as several new ones. I can't wait to go back for a personal trip and climb a bunch of new routes without having to worry about catering to students! And yes, I still love my new job/lifestyle.

Kone Route - Three O'Clock Rock - Darrington

I'd heard about a climbing area in Washington called Exit 38 and always wondered where it was (i.e., which freeway it was off of, assuming it was very near an "Exit 38"). Turns out it's about 9 miles off of Highway 530, which doesn't even have exits. However, the trailhead to our climb was nearly exactly 38 miles from I-5, so that's my guess as to why it is named so.

At any rate, Ava and I selected a route out of the guidebook and went today to climb a 5-pitch 5.9 named the Kone Route on Three O'Clock Rock. I found the story of how this route was named quite interesting, so I will paraphrase it here. At the time this route was first put up, a young climber was planning a solo attempt of a new route on the notoriously dangerous Willis Wall on Mt. Rainier. His friends suggested he wear a Kone shaped helmet reminiscent of the then popular SNL Kone Heads to protect against the wall's ever-present rock fall, deflecting the rocks that were sure to strike him from above. Convinced the young climber would meet his demise on Mt. Rainier's Willis Wall later that year, his friends named this new route after him as sort of a pre-memorial. Said young climber never attempted the aforementioned Willis Wall climb.

I digress. We had a spectacular climb on wonderful rock, most of which was friction climbing with the occasional small jug. We were frequently forced to pretend we were Spiderman and simply stick to the rock as holds became nonexistent.

Ava on the second pitch

Spiderwoman styling the crux traverse move on the 4th pitch

The crux of the climb came on the descent. Following the guidebook recommendation and the only real option, we rappelled the route. The difficulty lie in the fact that the rappel stations were spaced about 32 meters apart. Our climbing rope, typical in length, was 60 meters long. When doubled over for rappelling, one can abseil up to 30 meters. Some creative shenanigans allowed us to safely get back to solid ground. I recommend using a 70-meter rope on this climb.

Ingalls Peak, North Peak

On Wednesday night, Ava and I drove just over Snowqualmie Pass to camp at a trailhead near Ingalls Peak. The following day we got up early, and began the longer-than-anticipated approach to the East Ridge of Ingalls Peak, North Peak (not sure why it's not called North Ingalls Peak). After a scrambly approach we got to the gully that lead to the ridge proper. Ascending the gully involved one long pitch of moderate 5th class climbing on variable rock of often questionable quality. The following pitch was easier and on much better rock - one of the highlights of the climb.

Ava after reaching the summit ridge

After a couple more pitches of exposed 4th to easy 5th class climbing, we arrived at the summit step. This step was a short (15-20 foot) sufficiently awkward leaning 5.7 crack on good rock, which we both found quite enjoyable.

Our route ascended the large gully between the two peaks in this picture, then up the ridge to the left. For the descent, we rappelled the left skyline

The summit was beautiful with views of nearby Mt. Stuart as well as Mt. Adams and Rainier to the south and Glacier Peak and Mt. Baker to the north.

We had originally hoped to rappel the South Ridge, reascend the 5.4 route on that same ridge, and then descend back to the car. However, due to the length of the approach, we didn't have time for this second ascent. After 5 rappels on the south ridge, we hiked back to the car to complete a solid 11 hour day.

Rappelling the South Ridge

Summary: There were two short pitches of great climbing on our ascent route, which made the climb worth doing. Most of the rest of the route was covered in loose rock. Rappelling down the South Ridge made it apparent that this route would have involved much more continuous good climbing at the 5.Fun level.