Mt. Hood Summit Attempt

My girlfriend booked a business trip to Portland and suggested that we spend the weekend together on the Columbia River. So, after realizing that I could get a shot at Mt. Hood, I agreed! Not to give anything away, but the photo to the right demonstrates my unique ability to attract storms at high altitude.

This was my favorite trip of the summer. I had never been to Mt. Hood (only heard stories) and wanted to experience it for myself. Of course, my plan was to summit. People tend to avoid Mt. Hood in the summer because of the danger of rock fall. So, I planned to take advantage of a cooler than average weather and an early start to make it.

Day 1: I arrived at Timberline Lodge and registered. Leaving my car in the overnight parking lot, I departed at 2:10pm for the Silcox Hut. From here I followed the ski runs up until visibility fell and I moved toward the ski lift towers. By 4:00, I topped out at the Panther Express chair lift and, finding no trail, moved upward straight along the line from the ski lift towers. Finally, at 9,153 ft., I found a good campsite. Here, I made dinner and was in my bivy sack by 6:30pm. The weather was cloudy, but other wise favorable at 38 degrees with calm winds.

Day 2: I slept so well that I took no notice of the storm that moved in overnight. I woke to find my bivy sack coated in thick ice. The cooler temps were expected but the precipitation in the form of driving ice was not! I changed into heavy weather gear (difficult in a bivy sack) and started hiking at 5:30am. The trail was clear and easy to follow (despite the low visibility) until about 10,000 ft. at which point it disappeared onto the glacier just above an area called Triangle Moraine. I put on my crampons and continued upward along the glacier. After about 200 ft of vertical, I noticed a single wand on a pile of rocks. This signal put me back on the trail towards Hogsback Ridge.

Hiking in near zero visibility and wind-driven rhime ice, I was excited to find this ridge, which I knew would lead directly to the summit. Unfortunately, at 10,700 ft, I encountered a giant bergschrund perfectly perpendicular to the Hogsback Ridge and approximately 300 yards wide. it was too wide and too deep to cross, so I traversed to climber's left until I passed the bergschrund and could turn straight up.

Here I stood on a 45 degree slope made of loose ash and small rocks, coated with mixed snow and ice, hardly the favorite situation for a climber to face. Wearing 12-point crampons and carrying an ice axe, I climbed on all fours for 300 ft. This chute is named either "Old Chute" or "Mazama Chute" (impossible to tell which one I was climbing given the lack of visibility). At 11,000 ft, the chute turned into rocks thickly coated with ice. It was too risky to continue. I abandoned the attempt and downclimbed until the bergschrund came into view.

Back on Hogsback Ridge, I rested and began the descent, which was relatively easy. The snow cushioned each step and the cooler weather prevented rockfall. I reached the parking lot by 1:00pm and found several climbers registering. The weather was improving, but I had already taken my shot. I'll save the summit for another day.

Backpacking Yosemite - Tuolumne Meadows to the Valley

This trip started as an idea for a Half-Dome day hike, and turned into a three day trip from Tuolumne Meadows to the Valley Floor via the Cathedral Lakes Trail (the Cathedral lake pictured below).Day 1: My good friends, Dave and Larry, caught the hiker's bus in the valley for the quick trip to Tuolumne Meadows and the Cathedral Lakes trailhead. We started at 10:30am with the goal of reaching the Sunrise High Sierra Camp (H.S.C.), 7.3 miles and 2,000 feet away, by the evening. With a 45# packs, we moved quickly and made the H.S.C by 5:30pm. A spring water spigot and latrines made this camp a near luxury experience.

Day 2: We were all up before dawn and had breakfast just as the sun crested the mountains and lit up the valley. We hit the trail at 8:30am for the 9.4 mile hike to the next stop, a small camp just to the north of Half Dome. The trail wound through alpine lakes which provided us with a nice place to swim during breaks. four miles into the hike, the trail turns sharply higher, leading us to Cloud's Rest peak at 9,900 ft. This peak offered amazing views of Yosemite, from Half Dome and the Valley to Tuolumne Meadows. This experience was far better than simply climbing Half Dome for a day.
The 3,000 ft. descent from Cloud's Rest was painful on the knees, but were arrived at our new camp by 6:00pm. The camp's resources were limited to a small stream, from which we filtered over ten liters of water for drinking and cooking. Building a fire was easy - a single match ignited the wood, which was done dry after a long hot summer.

Day 3: We left at 8:00am to reach Half Dome before the crowds, but soon realized that we were about 4 hours too late. The cables to the top of Half Dome were packed solid with hikers of all levels of ability. Some people found that going up the cables was far easier than descending. These folks froze in place, creating a massive traffic jam. It took us 45 minutes to climb the cables. The views were great, as they always are from here, but I was happy to descend and be off the cables. (Below: Larry and Dave descend the cables).
We packed up camp and headed back to the Valley floor and the car. This was out longest hiking day with over 11.5 miles of trail. We dropped 5,000 ft in elevation, which also helped make this the most difficult day. But, we arrived at the car before nightfall and in good spirits. Looking back on this experience, I would highly recommend the Cloud's Rest peak to any and all hikers. It was one of the best experiences I've had in Yosemite.

Skiing Mt. Shasta

Mt Shasta offers some of the greatest vertical in the Sierras. From Red Banks at 12,000ft, the mountain slopes down to Bunny Flats over five thousand feet below. Most of this ski run has a higher elevation than any of the peaks of Lake Tahoe ski resorts. This is why skiing Mt. Shasta has been a dream of mine for some time.

I drove up from San Francisco with a good friend of mine (despite the fact that he's a snowboarder) to make a two day attempt at the summit and descend on skis/snowboard. We planned to camp at Lake Helen and make for the summit in the early hours of the following day. It's the standard climbing profile for this mountain.

On the drive up north, the weather was perfect. Temps in the central valley were in the 90's and the skis were clear. The forecast showed a storm about three days out; but, with our schedule, we would complete the trip just as the storm arrived. Arriving at Shasta City, we chose a hotel and went to sleep early.

The next morning, we woke to find heavy clouds surrounding the mountain. Unfortunately, the weather system had a schedule of its own. We set a fast pace from Bunny Flats in hopes of beating the storm. Throughout the day, the situation steadily worsened. I changed from shorts into heavy weather gear. As we approached Lake Helen, the heaviest part of the storm hit with high winds and complete whiteout. Despite the fact that my pack weighed 60#, the wind tossed me around like a rag doll. We were both unable to advance in the storm.

We made an emergency bivy at 9,500 ft on a relatively level section. I shivered in my sleeping bag as I tried to warm up my hands, which had become numb. The wind thrashed at the tent. Ironically, this was almost an exact reply of an attempt my brother and I made in March of 2002.

After two hours, the storm calmed down a bit and we decided to retreat back to the car. Although I was looking forward to skiing down, I quickly found that skiing with a 60# pack was extremely difficult. It took all my strength just to stay stable. I drew from my childhood ski lessons and descended by alternating my skis between pizza pies and french fries. I took the photo at right as we descended at a moment when the weather broke. It didn't last long though.

After an hour of had skiing, I made it back to the car completely exhausted. We did not plan to hike and ski down in the same day. But doing so made for a 13 hour hike/ski in heavy packs and inclement weather.

We enjoyed a good nights' sleep and went back the next day, where, under clear blue skies, we hiked to Lake Helen, and enjoyed a fun ski run in the shadow of Mt. Shasta.