Hog Loppet
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Mt. Amabalis xc ski
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Click on the above image to launch the slide show
My friend Hadi had the day off today and coincidences of coincidences so did I. We took advantage of the good weather to ski Mt. Amabalis. Unfortunately, none of the road had been groomed yet. No matter, it would just make the trip more adventurous. Forty-five minutes and a lot of sweat later we reached the split and decided to call it a day. Click the picture above to see the rest of the story.
Shoulda stayed home and organized the gear room
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Every time I think about our trip to Guye Peak yesterday, I scratch my head and wonder did it really take THREE signs of major avalanche danger to send us home? Here’s a quick video of our turn-around point and a look at the snow pack layers.
Sloan Peak
Friday, December 11, 2009
Hmmm...It’s three months after I climbed Sloan Peak, and I’m just now getting around to posting pictures. Seems like I’m a little behind!
Eileen led an awesome climb at the end of the season. We took the “old” route that is no longer recommended by the Mountaineers. (I can’t figure out why. It was awesome!) The trail was in good shape; flagged where it was important. We made such good time to camp that we had HOURS to pick blueberries. Yum! We decided it was in our best interest to eat as many as possible to discourage the bears from joining us in the middle of the night.
While we were relaxing, two tired climbers passed us on the way down. Curious about the condition of the glacier, we asked how their climb went. They warned us about the scramble that we could see above camp and told us tales of near-vertical ice on the mostly melted out glacier - only passable by really experienced climbers with two tools. After they left, we stewed about it a little, since we had some novice climbers with us, but decided in the end we’d go check it out.
I’m glad we did too! The beta on the route was completely wrong (or those climbers went the REALLY wrong way on the glacier). We made the summit without anything special to talk about - except how gorgeous everything was.
If you have a few minutes, click on the image at the top of this post to see all of the pictures from our adventure.
Happy Turkey Day, Turkeys
Thursday, November 26, 2009
L to R: Karen, Mark, Dave, Rod, Jenn, Nick, Nicole, Carry
Not pictured: Mark, Laura & Kaylee (dog)
Turkey Dogs: Thor, Bailey, Banjo
It isn’t every day that 10 people decide it’s a good idea to go hiking in the rain. Turkey day traditions are important, though, so several hearty souls gathered for a walk. This year we went on a tour of Cougar Mountain. One wrong turn (we were talking too much) didn’t phase us. It did cause us to lose two people about a 1/3 of the way into the hike. (Not to worry; we found them about an hour later.)
Our tour provided 3 waterfalls, one 100-year-old baseball field, and an old mine. How are we going to top that next year?!
Mark and Karen cleared a clogged water bar in the hopes that the water would run off the trail, not on the trail. Nice work!
Studying the information about Cougar’s mining history