Rose City Road Trip

When my wife Julie's parents moved to Camas a suburb of Portland a few months ago it left Amelia without a Grandma nearby and us without a devoted babysitter nearby. It was just a matter of time before we went down to visit. The plan was for me to drive down early Saturday morning while Julie and Amelia slept in the car and arrive just in time for a breakfast of Dave's famous sourdough waffles. Then Julie and I would run off the city and spend some time together in Portland.
The drive down was pretty smooth and finding the new place not too difficult. After breakfast and some visiting it was time for Julie and I to go play. That was about the time that we noticed a flat tire. I was anxious to get going, so the trip to get a flat fixed that lasted an hour and a half was frustrating to say the least.
Portland is notorious for bad freeway traffic and because of construction projects this day promised to be worse than usual. We decided to get some lunch before facing the madness. Dave suggested we try Five Guys, a burger joint nearby. It was pretty busy when we arrived but not terribly so. The overall ambiance was very plain, simple and to the point. They are known for their fries which are hand cut and extra greasy. You will not leave there hungry which I guess is the point. The food was pretty good but almost instantly made me feel bloated and lazy. Perfect condition for someone about to go sit in a car.
Traffic wasn't too horrible and we made it to downtown fairly easy. Our first stop was the Portland Saturday market. This is a great place to shop for handmade items, listen to street performers, get your fortune read or just people watch. Every hipster, hippy and homeless teenager is here and I felt right at home even though I am none of the above. Julie picked up a beautiful necklace and I got a pretty cool new t-shirt.
Our accommodations were at the Benson Hotel. It was a nice place to stay and I enjoyed the view from our room on the 9^th floor. There must have been a white trash wedding discount that weekend as the place was crawling with brides, grooms and drunken wedding attendees. After a bit we decided to go venture around the neighborhood a little. On our way back to our room we noticed that we had another flat tire!
Good thing that Portland has such a great public transportation system that we didn't really need to drive anyway. We took the streetcar to the Nob Hill neighborhood and had a nice dinner at 23 Hoyt. The appetizer of flatbread with goat cheese caramelized onions and mushrooms was delicious but a little too crispy. Our salads had great flavors especially the romaine heart with bacon, fennel, onions and buttermilk blue cheese dressing. For our entrees I had a wild sockeye salmon steak that was simple but tasty and Julie had the special rib eye steak with béarnaise sauce that was exceptional. I sometimes suspect that when I eat out with Julie and my entree isn't very large she feints that she is full so that I will finish her plate. What an awesome wife!
After dinner we visited Powell's bookstore. This is the biggest bookstore I have ever seen. If there is a heaven for a book lover this is it! Julie and I could spend hours in a place like this but as it was starting to get late and I was worried that the gelato place across the street would close we cut our visit short. Luckily it was open and as I was eating my favorite sweet cream gelato I thought to myself Portland is alright.
After a great night's sleep we woke to a beautiful sunny morning, checked out and headed down to Kerr bicycle rentals and got outfitted with some wheels. Portland is such a great bicycle city that this is an easy way to get around and get to know the city better. We rode around exploring the bicycle trails along the Williamette river and over to the south end of town in the Hawthorne neighborhood. Here we looked at cute little shops and had lunch at the Mai Thai Bistro. The décor was beautiful and the presentation was exceptional. The coconut soup and shrimp soup were both quite good. I ordered the phad thai and it was below average. It came with red sauce and peppers on the side which was good as it had absolutely no flavor without them. The service was adequate but bizarre. When Julie requested water without a lemon she was asked if she had a lemon allergy or if she just didn't like lemon. Our server then asked if we had any food allergies she should be aware of. Weird. When Julie's diet coke arrived with a cherry in it we realized that we were in the land of unrequested fruit in beverages.
I was very proud of Julie as our bike ride included riding on some fairly busy city streets and up some hills. We made it back just in time as a nice rain squall hit after we had returned our bikes and were on our way out of the city. Other than perhaps a sore butt we were no worse for the wear.
Portland is a fun place to visit. Even though I had been there before for some brief visits and even proposed to Julie at the Portland International l Rose and test garden I had always just kind of ignored it. It always seemed too close in location and character to Seattle to pique my interest. Now that we have a base of operations, a babysitter and a good reason to visit I am sure we will be getting to know the area much better. I look forward to it.

Big Tahoma Emmons Glacier 7/17-7/19 2010

Big Tahoma or Mt. Rainier is the largest and best known mountain in the Cascade range. Climbers come from around the world and spend thousands of dollars on guide services, gear and travel expenses for a chance to stand on it's lofty summit. For those who make it to the top it is an experience that they will never forget.

Success on Mt. Rainier requires three important elements. Training, conditioning and luck.

Training may mean taking a climbing course through an outdoor club such as I did this year with OSAT, hiring a guide service for a crash course on glacier travel and leading you to the top, or just by years of climbing mountains and learning from experienced friends. If your party lacks training and experience Mt. Rainier is a very dangerous mountain to climb.

It should go without saying that you need to be in great physical condition to climb Mt. Rainier but I will say it anyway. You need to be in great shape to climb Mt. Rainier! I won't attempt to explain exactly how good of shape you need to get into or how to do it as there are entire books written on this subject. But I will say that lack of proper conditioning is one of the top reasons why people fail to make the summit.

Good luck.You will need it! You will need good weather to make it to the top safely and even during the best months of the year the weather can turn ugly and stop climbers in their tracks. Storms hit the upper parts of the mountain hard creating white outs where it is impossible to see more than five feet in front of you, driving snow and hail, and winds that will literally knock you over.

This was one of the most enjoyable climbs I have ever been on. Climbing with a great group of friends, agreeable weather and a fun route. I let go of my fears and anxiety and accepted that I had prepared myself and my gear as best I could and that success now depended on gods will and not mine. Also I believe having already summited before made it easier to focus on the experience and not be as concerned with the result. Not to say that the trip was without difficulties, just that I had a sense of serenity in dealing with them.

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.