OSAT Mt. Baker Climb 6/27-6/28 2010

Polly Penguin and I at the summit

Lenticular cloud forming

I came into this climb feeling confident that I had prepared as much as was possible and I was prepared to meet the challenges ahead. I had previously summited Mt. Baker two times and this was my second time climbing the Easton Glacier route. I was part of a strong, well equipped party that had been training and practicing for the last 6 months. It is funny how the challenges you face on mountain climbs may not always be the ones you were expecting.


Mt. Baker is well known for it's record snowfall in the winter and I have a theory that has proven true in my experience. If there is a chance of rain in Western Washington it will rain at Mount Baker. The forecast for this climb was for a chance of showers on Sunday night. Not the worst forecast in the world. We might get hit by a little rain on our way out Sunday afternoon or we might miss it altogether.

We had a great hike to our base camp on Saturday and there was an overall feeling of optimism within the group. We even had a small group of Sherpas from the club that hiked up to our base camp with us and carried our ropes and some of our group gear. Even so packs on a climb like this are heavy and it was a tiring hike. We spent the afternoon resting, eating, hydrating and basking in the alpine glory. Plans were made for an alpine start. Up at 10:30 P.M. and climbing by Midnight

We got up and started close to our planned time and began ascending on a beautiful night. This is the part of climbing big mountains that I love. The cool brisk air filling my lungs,the sound of crampons and ice axe's as they penetrate the firm Styrofoam like snow and the sight of headlamps flickering as they slowly move up the mountain. I was feeling great, even euphoric.

As we continued to climb our party began to go slow and slower. When climbing it is frustrating when you have to continuously stop and can't get into a rhythm of breathing and stepping. Something was wrong but what I could not tell. Because of our slow pace we began to be overtaken by faster moving parties. I started getting pushed out of the line of steps kicked in the snow and into deep soft snow. This was exhausting and even more frustrating. I was miles from anywhere on the slope of a beautiful mountain being mosh pitted by a crowd! Eventually our party stopped and it was decided that one of our party who was struggling would have to return to camp. As it is unsafe to a travel on glacier alone two other members of our team were selected to descend back to camp with them. A tough break for them.

We resumed climbing at a more acceptable pace, however we were still in the middle of a huge crowd of people crawling to the top. The result of this was many stops and starts. Eventually we reached the summit crater still over 1000 feet from the top but getting much nearer. This is when the weather began to quickly deteriorate. The wind picked up making it instantly feel much colder and as it had started getting light by this point you could see groups of clouds moving rapidly overhead. It was getting windy but still manageable and as we were committed to making it to the summit we continued to climb.

As we continued our slow upward trudge conditions continued to deteriorate. When we finally reached the summit it was a full whiteout with high winds. We didn't stay and celebrate for too long. It was very cold and we knew it was going to be a long trip back. Just as we were leaving the summit the mountain decided to give us one more goodbye present. It began to hail and sleet sideways. It was very painful hitting on your face and I tried as best as I could to cover my skin with my balaclava and hood.

It was a long and luckily uneventful trip back to camp. My hands got cold from removing my gloves and taking photos at the summit and stayed that way for most of the descent. I also had to remove my glasses to be able to see where I was stepping due to them fogging up and getting saturated with rain on the way down. When we finally made it back to our camp it was a much welcomed sight.

Back at camp I was exhausted, hungry and still hadn't completely warmed up yet. I tried to prioritize what to do first. When my tent mate asked me to remove my gear from the tent so he could start breaking it down I got irritated and started tossing my stuff out onto the snow. I wasn't really mad at him, just physically and emotionally exhausted.

We packed up and started the long march back to the trail head. We were treated to almost continuous rain all the way back. On our way out we were met by more friendly Sherpas who greeted us with fresh fruit and cookies. Shout out all the awesome Sherpas! To our surprise the trail head had been moved two miles farther away from where we had started. Or so it seemed.

Mountaineers Scramble Snoqualmie Mountain 5/26/10

My second trip as a mountaineers scramble leader was up Snoqualmie mountain. I prefer smaller groups especially as I am just gaining experience as a leader and set the limit at 8. After several late notice cancellations I ended up with a group of 5 including myself.

We met at the Snow Lake trail head at 8:15 in a steady rain. I told the group we could give it a go but if it got to the point where the rain became too miserable we could call it quits.

We started out and the summer tread that I remembered being so easy to follow was soon lost in the snow and avalanche debris. Luckily one of out group had been on a Guye peak scramble 4 days prior and remembered that we needed to go left to get on the standard climbers route. Well I was definitely not too proud to take his advice and soon we were on terrain that I remembered from prior ascents of Guye, Lundeen and a winter ascent of Snoqualmie back in 2004.

The going was pretty straight forward but not too easy. We hit fairly steep snow early on and had to bust out our ice axes for safe travel. We also encountered a lot of slide alder partially covered with snow that was fun to get through. As we climbed we made our way to an open area where the route trends toward Guye peak and one of our party punched through a snow bridge and had a but of a struggle getting out of his predicament.

The rain continued the entire ascent until about the 5000 foot level where it changed to snow. Visibility was pretty good however and at one point we were able to get a good look at the final 1800 feet of the route and figure out which way to go.

One of our team was having some knee issues on the climb and at about 1000 feet below the summit they wanted to wait for us on the route while we continued on to the summit. I made it clear that I did not intend to split the party up.We were all soaking wet and if the wind picked up one could get hypodermic quickly. If for some reason we lost the route on the way down and missed them it could become a very bad situation. Eventually it was decided that we would all continue on towards the summit.

Our team took turns kicking steps up snow that was pretty deep and heavy and we reached the summit at 12:30. It was snowing hard but and we were all soaking wet, but luckily it was not
windy or too cold. We spent a few minutes at the summit eating and layering up. The party was
in good spirits having succesfully reaced a summit.

The descent did not lend itself well to glissading so other than a few short glissades it was plunge step city. For a brief period it actually stopped raining and I contemplated sunglasses. However they were soaking wet and i didn't have a dry piece of anything to clean them up with. Just as well we got hit by another downpour moments later.

We followed our tracks back down the mountain and carefully descended the steep areas of snow. There were sections where it was steep and the snow was quite firm. It was in an area with many trees and it was apparent that a slip would most likely end in a quick and painful collision. Thankfully we didn't get to test my theory!

At 4:15 5 very wet and tired scramblers made it back to the trail head. It was truly a group effort that had led to our success. I was amazed and elated that we had made our summit on what was one of the rainiest days I had ever spent in the mountains.

OSAT Hike Camp Muir 5/23/10

Had a great hike up to Camp Muir with my friends from OSAT yesterday. I honestly didn't have high hopes for success because of the predicted weather but 8 out of the 12 that started out make it to Muir. Two in our party weren't felling up to it and 2 stayed with them to keep an eye on them. It took us about 5 hours for the hike up and it was warm and calm when we arrived. The worst weather we hit was on the way down at about 8,000 feet. We had to stop and layer up and we just made sure to follow the wanded route on the way down as visibility was quite limited. Finished the day off with Mexican food in Eatonville on the way home. A great day with good people!

Tiger Style! 4/11/10

Piper and I had a nice hike up West Tiger 3 on Sunday morning. She is definitly getting heavier! It didn't make it any easier that I hiked up Mt. Si on Saturday with a 30 pound pack. We got to the OSAT meeting a little late but it was still great to be there and get to visit with friends. After the meeting we hiked over to Tiger 2 summit with Rick and Dave for a little added leg burn. There was quite a bit of snow on the trail over to Tiger 2. As you can see in the photo riding in a backpack is exhausting !

Mount Dickerman 3/27/10

Big Four Mountain

Polly Penguins first Ascent!

I don't know why I hadn't climbed this mountain before but I am sure glad that I did now. This was a conditioning "hike" for the OSAT glacier climbing course. We had a mostly clear day with wonderful views. I am already an experienced climber and I am taking the course as an opportunity to meet new people and make friends. Mission acomplished! A great day with a very fun group. If I don't do another thing with the course it was worth it for this hike. Although I would not recommend it for everyone. It is about 4 miles one way and gains over 4000 feet of elevation to make the summit. Also if you are not experienced with snow travel and ice ax use I would wait until later in the season to attempt it.

Ascent of Squak Mountain 3/21/10

The obsessive nature of one who loves to climb up mountains sometimes has drawbacks. Instead of hiking what are I am sure very pretty trails we decided to hike up the road because it was the most direct way to the summit. This is made even funnier by the fact that the summit has a road to the top, a large communications tower and no views to speak of. We still had fun catching up with an old friend Ninja John who hiked up with us. Hopefully next time his son Olliver will not be napping and will get to come hiking too!

Little Si 1,576 ft

I remember when February meant cold, clouds and rain! It was a beautiful day for a hike and Piper and I had a great time.