Death Hike!

I was looking forward to a great couple of day's in the Boston Basin area! We had some ambitous plans of climbing multiple peaks during our short two day adventure. We slept in the back of Marks truck on Sunday night with a full parking lot at the Eldorado Trailhead with hopes of an early start. I figured it would be fairly quick to get into Boston Basin as I had done it in less than 3 hours before! Boy was I wrong! Most of the hike ended up being up random gullies and scree fields partially covered in snow. I quickly started post holing in the wet sun baked snow. As we were following the most obvious route up it ended up kicking us way East of the lower Boston Basin camps. We started a long traverse on slippery snow that if we weren't post holing up to our knees in than one leg was slipping down the steep slope as we struggled to stay up right! AARRGHHH! I was getting so frustrated!


Mark on the traverse to the lower Boston Basin camp.

We took a much needed rest at the camp and enjoyed the scenery. We also decided we did not have time to post hole all the way to Forbidden and the avalanche activity concerned us. Our best chanced of climbing something would be to head up to the Quien Sabe Glacier and try to get on Sharkfin Tower. We started the long snow slog up through the snow covered slabs.

Mark hiking to the Quien Sabe Glacier.

I was already tired from crashing through to my waist to get into the basin now we had to climb another 2,000 vertical through wet oatmeal snow to get to the glacier! I was not looking forward to it. But we pushed on.

Me post holing to the knees.

After about 7 hours of hiking we were on the flat camp area of the Quien Sabe Glacier. We could see the route on Sharkfin Tower and we couldn't wait to start climbing! After a long rest and lots of food we dropped our bivy sacks and sleeping bags and headed toward the gully. I was immediately swimming in loose avalanche debris. I made it up to the bergschrund and started poking around with my ice axe looking for a safe place to cross. I immediately poked through to my waist with 20 feet of beautiful blue glacier ice glimmering through the hole my foot made! I backed off and called it a day. Mark still poked around for a bit hoping to find a place to cross but eventually came down.

After a couple minutes of discussion we decided to turn around and head home. Why? I'm not really sure. I think we were both so disappointed with the snow conditions that we decided they would not improve.

Turning around.

On the way down I had this horrible idea of just cutting down the avalanche path down to the road. It worked great for a couple thousand feet but eventually ended up in a mess of thorn bushes, twisted trees, cliffs, rivers, waterfalls, moss, and steep loose slabs! It was horrible! Don't ever do it!

Moments before hell!

We could of stayed the night on the glacier and made an early morning climb of Sahale Peak. Morning conditions could have solidified the snow a bit? Right?

An unfortunate change.

In April, I was attempting to climb Mt. Hood when I was struck by misfortune. I had a set a goal to climb the Leuthold Coulior by the end of March. Weather and avalanche conditions kept me out of the backcountry and in the ski resorts (Wow what an awesome late season we had!). I finally found someone who wanted to climb Hood and a nice weather window opened up for us in mid April! I know, it's a little late for the goal I set. In the process of climbing the mountain I was injured about 500 feet from the summit! Climbers from above cut loose a bunch of ice which all came hurling down at my partner and I! Spencer was fortunate and was only hit bit small chunks of ice, I on the other hand took a soccer ball size of ice to the right leg! The vulgarities that came out of my mouth at that instant are to graphic, even for the internet, to repeat! I had my ice tool's in self-belay position to help with the impact which luckily kept me on the steep slope. I immediately tried to weight my leg to make sure nothing was broken and although I was in intense pain I knew I would be able to make it back down to the car. I limped and grimaced about 5,000 feet back down the mountain.

Down climbing after the ice attack!


As you may have guessed, this injury has put a damper on my 2009 goals. I wasn't able to climb for a good two weeks at all and I still haven't tried alpine since. My leg still feels a bit stiff but the bruising and welts have all subsided. I'm trying to build my strength back up and am now completely back on the rock and am feeling strong and will hopefully still be able to reach my rock climbing goals for the summer! The alpine goals are different though. I have already failed at Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier and will most likely not even attempt Mt. Baker which I had scheduled for this May. I was denied my permits for the enchantments which could possibly ruin my Prussik Peak climb, although I may have a connection that can get me permits!

I will hopefully be doing my first alpine climb since the accident on this coming Monday and Tuesday! I'm a little nervous as I don't know if I will experience pain or not. Hopefully my leg is back to somewhat normal by now and my alpine season will finally kick off!

My hard drive failed on my computer about a month or so ago and I still have not installed the software that I use for my trip reports. I am way behind but hope to catch up soon!

It's never to late... Right?

I have been pondering what kind of goals that I want to set up for myself for 2009. I know, I'm a couple months late...

Here is my list of climbing goals that I hope to accomplish in the next 10 months. Some are year long goals and others I want to be able to accomplish them by the end of a certain month. Let's see how many I can keep up with.

• Mt. Hood - Leuthold Coulior, Grade II - by the end of March
• Mt. Rainier - Gibalter Ledges, Grade II - by the end of April
• Mt. Baker - North Ridge, Grade III - by the end of May
• Mt. Adams - Adams Glacier, Grade III - by the end of June
• Snow Creek Wall - Orbit, Grade III 5.8+ - by the end of August
• Snow Creek Wall - Outerspace, Grade III 5.9 - by the end of August
• Anything in the Bugaboos! - by the end of August
• Mt. Rainier - Sunset Ridge, Grade III - by the end of September
• Mt. Stuart - North Ridge, Grade IV 5.9 - by the end of September
• Prusik Peak - South Face, Stanley-Burgner, Grade III 5.9+ - by the end of September
• Forbidden Peak - West Ridge, Grad III 5.6 - by the end of October



Rock climbing goals to be completed before the end of December 2009
• Lead 5.10c sport
• Lead 5.10 trad
• Godzilla, 5.9 - Index trad
• Libra, 5.10 - Index trad
• George and Martha, 5.10a - Frenchman Coulee trad
• Bo Derik, 5.10b - Leavenworth
• Angel Crack, 5.10b - Leavenworth

Well, that's about it for now. I'm sure as time goes by I will add more routes that I become obsessed with throughout the summer. Now if I could only get myself into the training mode!
What goals are you pushing for this year?

meager attempt...

Well, I have a couple of trip reports that I need to update on alpinerack.com but I ended up moving again. My living situation was not working well and I was fortunate enough to be able to get out of it and am now living with my good friend Carolyn in Magnolia. Because of the move I have not had internet in my home for a good month or so! It has basically been torture but I think I can pull through. We should have internet in about a week and hopefully I will be able to get my last couple of trips online! In the meantime I will give you a quick overview.
My first trip of the year was a day hike of Mt. Saint Helens! It has been on my list for years to hike this volcano in the winter and snowboard down! The thought of a 5+ mile and 5,500 vertical ride back to the car has always been intriguing!
Mark, Eric and I left Seattle at 4 in the morning so we could do the climb in a day. None of us have ever been there before so of course we got lost and somehow didn't end up at the correct sno-park until after 10 a.m.! How did we get so lost?! Regardless of the time constraints we packed up under blue skies and headed into the forest. The trail hikes through the forest for a little over 2 miles and maybe 1,000 vertical before you break out of the tree's and have a perfect view of the mountain and your route. We were following a well worn path up the mountain as it has not snowed for a couple weeks. I kept snowshoes on the whole time but Eric and Mark would hike up the rocky ridges when they could.

Mark hiking along the rocky ridge with Mt. Adams in the distance.

The day was warm and beautiful and the snow was soft and wet. We kept cruising up the slopes only stopping to watch those who started well ahead of us cruise down the mountain on their ski's or snowboard. We were very jealous of their early start.

Near the 7,000 foot level the snow conditions started to change. It was also getting late and the temperature was cooling dramatically! The slopes were getting icy and we had no crampons. My snow shoes couldn't penetrate the hard ice after awhile and considering I carried a snowboard all the way up here I was not going to walk back down this mountain! Mark and I decided to turn around while we could still get some soft snow. We were at about 7,400 feet when we turned.

The first couple hundred feet were horrible as it was solid ice! We basically just dug in our edges as hard as we could until we reached the softer snow. Once we hit decent snow we just let it go and cruised down the open slopes. It was a great ride and the sun was starting to descend with us.

Me riding St. Helens.

The last 2 miles through the trees was the hardest part. It was like riding a very long border cross track all the way to the car! It was actually pretty fun until I would catch up to others who for some reason would not let me pass them as they slowly coasted down the track with their extended appendages attached to their gloved hands. I eventually lost speed and had to walk for a ways. Regardless, it was a great day in the mountains!

On February 10th Mark and I were on a mission for some ice in Leavenworth. We weren't sure what we would find since the drive up to Leavenworth on the 9th had a high of 47 degrees! Not the best ice climbing weather. We drove up Icicle Creek Canyon to check out the conditions and were surprised at what we had found! The north slopes were just littered with ice! We drove to the end of the plowed road too see Hubba Hubba in what looked like prime condition!




The next day we woke up and hiked about 2 miles up the Snow Lakes Trail to the Millennium Walls. The Millennium Walls consist of three different walls with easily top-roped ice climbs. It looked like a great place for us to spend a day playing around and getting used to waterfall ice. Everything looked pretty thin on the hike up and we were both getting concerned that we wouldn't find anything climbable. Boy were we mistaken!

We climbed the first thing that we found which was about a 20-25 foot WI3 flow. We hiked around to set an anchor on an old blackened tree and started swinging. The temp was cold and the sun was hidden behind the clouds all day to make for some good ice climbing.



We then moved on to the right and up above to another wall that was full of short WI2-3 flows. These were all much more mellow of an angle and made for some fun practice. The highlight was a little bit further up the trail. A waterfall that was about 70 feet high and 50 feet wide! Tree's were perfectly positioned at the top for anchors! We played on this until the sun hid behind snowcreek wall. It snowed for most of the day which made it feel more like winter!



The hike down was uneventful, minus a couple slips on the icy trail. I can't wait to go back and climb some of that ice!

This has been my meager attempt to get outside in 2009. In my opinion I am failing miserably! Hopefully I can pick up the pace and get out more. I have some fairly big plans lined up for 2009 and if I plan on succeeding than I need to get out of the city and into the hills!

On a second note... My tattoo is finally finished! Well, for awhile anyways. Eventually I will be going all the way around my arm but for now I am tired of taking so much time off of climbing and not being able to wear backpacks comfortably. I had my last appointment on February 11th so I wont be back in the gym until next week probably.
Here is a pix of the final result! My vision of Prusik Peak and the Enchantments of Washington! Speaking of the Enchantments! We can send out for 2009 permits starting on February 21. Get your application in by March 1st to be in the first batch so you can get your proper dates! They have also raised the prices for permits this year, it is now $5 per person per day. It's a bit pricey but still worth it! Get your applications here.

Thanks for listening!