Squamish, BC - Calculus Crack etc.

A quick mid-week trip with James put us in Squamish to climb some moderates including Calculus Crack a sweet 5.9 moderate multi-pitch route on the Apron and another link-up in the Bullet Heads. The weather was great but just not enough time to stay and play.

Lower Apron - Calculus Crack 5.9

Government Camp, OR - Mt Hood, Palmer Glacier

"...yeah but I would prefer to be down before the semi-final World Cup between Uruguay and the Netherlands, will that work for you?" is how we set the schedule for this climb. Pope had a brief break from putting out fires and wanted to clip another hill in the Cascades that we have purposely ignored for the fact of crowds. However being the day after a holiday weekend we figured it might be quiet enough and would provide us with more training. I picked Chris up at his Mom's house Monday afternoon and we jollied our way down to Sandy where we stopped for some good eats at the Thai House and then on to Timberline Lodge. I was very impressed with the construction of the lodge and although its $220/nt price is a bit steep you definitely get a stay like no other.

After registration we packed up our gear and crawled into the Westy for about 3 hours of rest. Unfortunately those weren't to be had since the wind picked up and howled with 30mph gusts the whole evening. 12:45am came soon and we suited up and began our climb in about 15 minutes. It was quite warm but still windy and forecasts had the freezing level at around 13,000'. We could see the groomers working the ski hills and slowly made our way up to the top of the ski lifts fighting the wind the whole way. The gusts up higher could literally knock you over and we had to lean into the hill to keep from rolling backwards. We did haul a rope and pickets but never pulled them out - training weight I suppose. The fumaroles at the base of the Hogsback made this the stinkiest mountain I have ever climbed. A short steep section was fairly mundane and we met 2 others on their way off the summit here. We made the summit in about 5.5 hrs of climbing.

Once on top we enjoyed the views briefly, took some photos and set off on our way down. The summit was fairly narrow and not like the tops of the WA volcanoes which tend to have large broad summit plateaus. The top was the one place that it actually stopped blowing. The descent took about 3 more hours and found us back at the Westy and packing to go watch the game. Uruguay 2 Netherlands 3

Mt Hood South Side with the approximate route

Mt Hood sunrise shadow forming

Truck'in up around Crator Rock

Team C2 taking in a smelly Mt Hood at the base of the Hogsback

The last steep step to the Pearly Gates

Mr.Summit

Ms.Summit ?!?

Descent on the step - tracks around Crator Rock are visible below

On a side note this is my 14th individual Cascade Volcano mountain - some I have been on multiple times - with a goal to climb them all.

Leavenworth, WA - Iconoclast

Having not completely finished this route and coming up short on partners I checked out the climbing board to see who might be free. Net result was James and I meeting up with a poster for a run at Icconoclast on Snow Creek Wall. Unfortunately on the approach I snapped a branch off of a fallen log while stepping over, sprained my thumb and put a hole in my leg that kept pumping blood. It took a while for the blood to finally stop but the sprain didn't go away so easily. I led a couple of pitches and swung leads with Charles. The 4th and 5th pitches were spectacular if not challenging with a semi-useless appendage. Its all good beta for the Hyperspace run coming in the near future.

James moving up the 2nd pitch

The notorious hard corner pitch 3, tricky small gear and a bit dirty


Pitch 4 belay duty

Also mossy but a sweet traverse begins here and eventually leads to...


..this chicken-head covered face!

The next generation of pee licking climber's friends in training.

Time to go babes these guys are too dehydrated.

Diamond Lake, OR - Mount Thielsen, West Ridge

Mt.Thielsen from the East with high winds whipping up snow on the ridge

As a continuation of the "Cascade Volcano Quest" this easy summer summit turned out to be an all out winter conditions festival in May. We had the mountain to ourselves but with 30+ mph winds, lots of fresh snow and a mid-week ascent I should think so. The climb took us about 8 hours round trip with about 10+ miles and 4000 feet covered for a great training day. We finally broke through the clouds after navigating in cloudy and foggy conditions up to the 8000' mark. We took the MSR Lightening snowshoes and they worked great for the whole trek. They are lightweight and have a secure "cookie cutter" vertical frame rail that provides amazing traction for alpine climbing, hard pack and steep terrain without the need for us to have to use crampons.

Westy has a few more days of snow before summer

Weather looks like crap but let's just see how far we can go...

Lots of white stuff but still having fun

Winds pick up and the ninja suit comes on

Getting serious 30mph plus gusts that almost knock us over

Still makin tracks

She finally shows herself

Hard pack and wind scoured

Time and alti check

Very sweet ridge line to trot up

Cool rime snow ghost formations on the conifers

Heading to the summit block

Sisters, OR - North Sister Mountain

North Sister Mountain

(CLICK IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW)

Returning from Mnt. Thielsen Chris and I stopped in again at the infamous Tumalo packing site. Warm showers and a quiet park allowed us to sort and pack gear for our overnight into the Sisters mountains. After wrapping up we grabbed some lunch and made our way to the town of Sisters. On the way there we noticed a fairly large forest fire near the Pole Creek area. We were hoping this wouldn't prevent us from driving to the trail head and fortunately it did not. It was surprising to see how much snow had melted in just a few days as the road was easily passable all the way to the Pole Creek Springs trail head. Just days earlier we were driving the same road in a blizzard and found snow patches most of the way up to a road blockage about 1 1/4 mile from the trail head.

Once we arrived we had planned to hike in about 2-3 miles, camp and use that as a base for our next two days. But for some reason Pope (CP) was feeling the pull of a comfy bed in the Westy and so we discussed blowing off the late evening approach and just doing the North and Middle Sister in a days push. I'm always keen on fast and light and with my need to train for longer days it all sounded great to me.

We ended up snow shoeing for most of the climb and CP let me know it was his birthday while we were on route. I don't have a good memory for that stuff so I had wished he warned me earlier and I could have prepared a little better with a summit cake and candles. The day was long and to be safe we ended up hauling in on the SE Ridge since the faces were showing avalanche activity. CP was somewhat tuckered out after getting close to the N summit - the result of too many house projects and a lack of mountain projects would be my guess. Making considerations for Middle Sis he offered to let me go solo and that we could reconvene later in the day. I was thinking as good as I felt it would probably be best to stay together and that there was always next time.

The way out seemed longer than the way in and in the last 1.5 miles I left CP for the Westy as I was out of water and wanted to brew up some tea and food for us. CP arrived almost an hour behind and not looking too well. I don't recall ever seeing him this messed up and was a bit concerned. Good thing he's a fire fighter and EMT as he knew what to do and how I could help him. The trip was fun, the views were stunning and happy B-day big guy! Next time you'll be just that much better in shape for the next hill.

Enjoy the scenery!!

State Park packing zone

Snow shoeing the snow field approach

CP trucking ahead towards the SE Ridge

Steep snow plodding

Steeper snow plodding

CP following up the steeper step

A good view of the east face

Pinnacle and time to lose the snow shoes

Crunchier conditions a little higher up

Looking back at Middle & South Sister as well as Broken Top and Bachelor in the distance

Summit man or birthday boy?? ...only he knows...

North Sister sauna and rest stop - what a place to nap!

Banks Lake, WA - Northrup Canyon

Sarah and I spent a few days up in the Canadian Okanagan climbing at Skaha. Mostly single pitch cragging we were too lazy to pull out a camera and take pictures. On our return we had a bit more time and decided to make an early stop at Banks Lake for breakfast and then some climbing in Northrup Canyon. With Sarah wanting to get some more time on lead and placing gear she decided to do the SW Arete of Gibraltar rock. It is a bit grungy to start but she stuck with it and took us up in 3 pitches. Nice leads Babs!

Gibraltar Rock - SW Arete goes up the left skyline

First pitch

Second pitch - a little mossy needs more traffic

Working thru the roof

Good rock on the south side of the parking area