Friday, April 6, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
"Hey guy, what'd you hear about the weather today?"...
I asked the British man ski touring past us.
"Well mate, it's not supposed to be that bad. Not supposed to be that good, either," he said, the thick ascent spitting through his gnarly British teeth.
Yesterday Cody and I attempted Mt. Rainier for the first time. Our goal was Camp Muir. Like most of our adventures this year, sometimes we don't know what we're doing because we're novice to this thing called mountaineering. Sometimes we're just idiots. Yesterday was a bit of both.
The adventure began at Paradise, 5400 ft in altitude. I had assigned myself the task of navigator, credentialed by reading the Navigation chapter from The Freedom of the Hills. Good thing I found that NPS bearings pdf because it was a complete white out the whole time, save for 10 minutes when the sun came out to illuminate the fact that we were self-belaying up a 60 degree slope of soft snow in snowshoes.
But that's getting ahead. First I led us to Alta Vista West, following a compass bearing of 330.5 degrees mag. Through a break in the trees we found a shoot toward Marmot Hill there encountering a group of three ski touring up toward Muir. We followed their tracks for awhile toward Panorama point. They decided to go right up the face, taking off their skis and hoofing it. We stayed left, following a small ridge out of the deep powder onto some firmer ground. Up ahead there was a patch of trees piercing through the snow just below the tree line.
"Left or right?" I asked Cody, whose look of bewilderment shouted I don't know but screamed Fuck off.
"Left."
Thus our adventure up the previously mentioned west slope of Panorama Point began.
There we met back up with the skiers, and again followed their tracks bearing 12.5 degrees toward McClure Rock. To our left we briefly saw the steep rocks jetting through the snow as they lined the east side of the Nisqually. Climbing up toward Sugar Rock the snow started to get firmer; we decided to throw on the crampons and stayed right of the snow field, leaving a ridge between ourselves and the Paradise Glacier. It was good to finally get some crampon / ice ax work in.
Our excitement was short-lived, however, as the white out returned - luckily after we had hustled across a small avalanche shoot. With the white out came the deep powder. Envious of the skiers and frustrated with the heavy snowshoes, we stomped through the snow, only occasionally glimpsing long "ridges" in the hues of white that ended up being nothing more than a large mound of snow, probably sitting on some natural variation in the mountain face.
From there Cody scaled a snow wall in crampons, cutting through the snow down four or five feet. I made it left, coming up the side of the snow mound to meet Cody's tired body at the top.
That's when the wind started.
We walked for awhile, keeping the rocks on our right. Again we came upon the skiers, skiing down towards us and making way for "hot chocolate" in the car. After six hours of hiking, white out conditions and nobody else on that area of the mountain, it was time to eat lunch and head back. Thank goodness I had paid extra for 2 day shipping for my down coat ordered from SteepandCheap - oh wait, it took 4 days and was waiting on the doorstep after returning from our day at Rainier.
The return trip wasn't without memorable moments. Getting down the face of Panorama Point proved the most exciting. Since there was no way I was going to navigate us back down the same slope we came up, I figured we'd try to get down the same way the skiers got up. I found their path, but it ended and so I decided to work on glissading and self arrest skills. Everything was going well until the snow turned to ice and the small snowballs being kicked off my snowshoes started diving over a ledge like lemmings. It was quickly time to descend, being quite careful with the ice ax to get a solid self-belay.
As I suspected, we found our snowshoe tracks at the bottom, were earlier in the day we'd turned west and found our slope. The trek down the hill became easy at that point. Of course, it was still snowing and visibility was poor. Not to mention my beard contained a combination of ice, snot and tomato sauce from my pasta lunch.
Regardless, 3000 feet of gain up to 8400 feet (estimated). A successful first trip to Mt. Rainier, even if we're a bit stupid at times.
-Patrick
"Well mate, it's not supposed to be that bad. Not supposed to be that good, either," he said, the thick ascent spitting through his gnarly British teeth.
Yesterday Cody and I attempted Mt. Rainier for the first time. Our goal was Camp Muir. Like most of our adventures this year, sometimes we don't know what we're doing because we're novice to this thing called mountaineering. Sometimes we're just idiots. Yesterday was a bit of both.
The adventure began at Paradise, 5400 ft in altitude. I had assigned myself the task of navigator, credentialed by reading the Navigation chapter from The Freedom of the Hills. Good thing I found that NPS bearings pdf because it was a complete white out the whole time, save for 10 minutes when the sun came out to illuminate the fact that we were self-belaying up a 60 degree slope of soft snow in snowshoes.
 |
| Map before the trip |
 |
| Map after the trip (yeah, I had to pull in out a few times). |
But that's getting ahead. First I led us to Alta Vista West, following a compass bearing of 330.5 degrees mag. Through a break in the trees we found a shoot toward Marmot Hill there encountering a group of three ski touring up toward Muir. We followed their tracks for awhile toward Panorama point. They decided to go right up the face, taking off their skis and hoofing it. We stayed left, following a small ridge out of the deep powder onto some firmer ground. Up ahead there was a patch of trees piercing through the snow just below the tree line.
"Left or right?" I asked Cody, whose look of bewilderment shouted I don't know but screamed Fuck off.
"Left."
Thus our adventure up the previously mentioned west slope of Panorama Point began.
 |
| Cody trekking like a boss. |
 |
| The best view of the day, before his face got sunburned (a picture of that to come!). |
There we met back up with the skiers, and again followed their tracks bearing 12.5 degrees toward McClure Rock. To our left we briefly saw the steep rocks jetting through the snow as they lined the east side of the Nisqually. Climbing up toward Sugar Rock the snow started to get firmer; we decided to throw on the crampons and stayed right of the snow field, leaving a ridge between ourselves and the Paradise Glacier. It was good to finally get some crampon / ice ax work in.
Our excitement was short-lived, however, as the white out returned - luckily after we had hustled across a small avalanche shoot. With the white out came the deep powder. Envious of the skiers and frustrated with the heavy snowshoes, we stomped through the snow, only occasionally glimpsing long "ridges" in the hues of white that ended up being nothing more than a large mound of snow, probably sitting on some natural variation in the mountain face.
From there Cody scaled a snow wall in crampons, cutting through the snow down four or five feet. I made it left, coming up the side of the snow mound to meet Cody's tired body at the top.
That's when the wind started.
We walked for awhile, keeping the rocks on our right. Again we came upon the skiers, skiing down towards us and making way for "hot chocolate" in the car. After six hours of hiking, white out conditions and nobody else on that area of the mountain, it was time to eat lunch and head back. Thank goodness I had paid extra for 2 day shipping for my down coat ordered from SteepandCheap - oh wait, it took 4 days and was waiting on the doorstep after returning from our day at Rainier.
The return trip wasn't without memorable moments. Getting down the face of Panorama Point proved the most exciting. Since there was no way I was going to navigate us back down the same slope we came up, I figured we'd try to get down the same way the skiers got up. I found their path, but it ended and so I decided to work on glissading and self arrest skills. Everything was going well until the snow turned to ice and the small snowballs being kicked off my snowshoes started diving over a ledge like lemmings. It was quickly time to descend, being quite careful with the ice ax to get a solid self-belay.
 |
West of Panorama point with Nisqually Glacier on right
|
 |
MSR ice ax, given to me by my dad
|
 |
| Who said surgeon shouldn't have beards. I don't play for the Yankees. |
 |
| I call this one the "Freddy Mercury" |
Regardless, 3000 feet of gain up to 8400 feet (estimated). A successful first trip to Mt. Rainier, even if we're a bit stupid at times.
-Patrick
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Muir tomorrow
A mix of nervous excitement and mild terror best describes how I'm feeling. On the one hand, tomorrow brings 4,680 ft of gain from Paradise to Camp Muir. On the other, as Cody's post reports, it currently snowing at Camp Muir.
Plus I'm pissed. On Sunday I picked up a sweet down parks from SteepandCheap, even sprung extra for the 2-day shipping. Stupid thing won't be here till the end of Wednesday... right after our little 9-mild jaunt up the mountain in freezing conditions. FML.
At least I can take solace in the fact that Cody remembered to grab the GPS from his folks' place. Wait, no I can't. He "didn't have time."
Lame.
Looks like we finally have to learn how to use those sweet Brunton compasses we picked up.
F yeah.
Also found well done pdf with the bearings from Paradise to Camp Muir:
http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/upload/camp-muir-route-with-get-your-bearings-map-oct11.pdf
-Patrick
Plus I'm pissed. On Sunday I picked up a sweet down parks from SteepandCheap, even sprung extra for the 2-day shipping. Stupid thing won't be here till the end of Wednesday... right after our little 9-mild jaunt up the mountain in freezing conditions. FML.
At least I can take solace in the fact that Cody remembered to grab the GPS from his folks' place. Wait, no I can't. He "didn't have time."
Lame.
Looks like we finally have to learn how to use those sweet Brunton compasses we picked up.
F yeah.
Also found well done pdf with the bearings from Paradise to Camp Muir:
http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/upload/camp-muir-route-with-get-your-bearings-map-oct11.pdf
-Patrick
77 Days Left
Just a friendly reminder that in 77 days we will be climbing Rainier! I
want the excitement levels back up boys! (Cyrus get your dick back to
the PNW so we can climb shit more often.)
Here is the link to Mt Rainier National Park web cams. It's pretty cool to look at the different views throughout the season and see what's going on down there compared to Lake Stevens. Pat and I are planning on getting to Camp Muir tomorrow and the web cam I just checked for Muir is snowed over... a promising view.
http://www.nps.gov/mora/
Here is the link to Mt Rainier National Park web cams. It's pretty cool to look at the different views throughout the season and see what's going on down there compared to Lake Stevens. Pat and I are planning on getting to Camp Muir tomorrow and the web cam I just checked for Muir is snowed over... a promising view.
http://www.nps.gov/mora/
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