Bird Ridge, Chugach State Park, AK

The UW School of Medicine graciously decided to send me to Anchorage for my OB/Gyn rotation so that I could train for climbing Mt. Rainer. Killer.

Over the first weekend of the rotation, I ventured south of Anchorage with my classmate, Travis Pecha, to climb Bird Ridge, a hike that I'm told is a favorite among the locals.

The 2.5 mile one-way hike starts at sea level and peaks at about 3400 feet (aka, straight the f*** up).

In lieu of my boot debacle at Lake 22 (see earlier post) and the fact that I've been pumping money into alpine gear, I regret to write that I was ill-prepared in regards to footwear for this adventure. Although I considered a few pairs of hiking boots from REI, Craigslist and even the local Sportsman Warehouse, I still hadn't found the right set up (basically looking for something waterproof, mid to high top, with a heel welt for my crampons just in case and not too expensive).

So, on the morning of the hike I had a choice to make.

Behind door number one were my old running shoes: sure, they took me across the finish line of my first (and only) marathon, but that was nearly 2 years ago. Plus they're about as impervious to water as cotton socks.

Behind door number two were my Koflach plastics alpines boots. Did I really feel like lugging 10 pound boots up the gravel hill? Rhetorical question, don't answer. I didn't. Plus they're built much more for snow and ice.

Behind door number three were my Romeos. Ah, my trusty Where-For-Art-Thou's. They're comfortable, they're leather and waterproof, they've got a bit of a toe lip that I was sure could handle my semi-auto crampons. Oh yeah, and they're completely flat soled and without any sole grips.

Easy decision, right?

Tossing on my Romeos and strapping up my alpine back filled with all my gear (most of it), I set out to summit our esteemed Bird Ridge.

View to the south looking up Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet

Things actually weren't too bad initially - other than the fact that snowshoeing all winter does not prepare one for vertical trial hikes. Travis - in his light weight Sportiva trail-running shoes and small backpack - was kicking my butt up the hill. But that's ok, the tortuous and the hair, right?

Wrong.

Snow! I'm used to this!

There were a few patches of snow - bigger than the one above - that I attempted to cross. With the slick-bottom Romeos - which held about as much traction as cast-iron pan cooking bacon - I felt flat on my face twice before deciding to put on the crampons. 

Perfect, the heels are too wide. Like 40% of Americans, my Romeos were too fat in the rear - the crampons wouldn't fit.  

Looking south into the Bird Valley 

Looking across Turnagain Arm at the Kenai Mountain Range

The false summit of Bird Peak

Instead, with each step I was forced to kick deep into the snow to prevent falling on my ass while attempting to refrain from shouting vulgarities at the passing trail runners who sped by me in Nikes, eyeing my 40-pound alpine pack with looks of frank bewilderment. Shuddup, I'm training! 

Looking north toward Powerline Pass and Suicide Peak

At that point, Travis had already made it up past the false summit to the true summit at 3400 feet. I estimate that my ascent brought me to about 3000 feet - not bad for wearing my Montagues and sliding all over the place.

Penguin Peak, south of Bird Ridge

-Patrick

Link to Bird Ridge details from Alaska State Trails Program: http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/aktrails/mapguides.htm 

Todays Forecast: Questionable, with a chance of shitty

"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.

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

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.

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

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

Crampons

I've been trying to find crampons on Craigslist for weeks now. I almost found the right pair, a set of Black Diamond Cyborgs, but thankfully the seller altruistically told me that they wouldn't be the best for Rainier. The frontpoints were modular and he said they tend to cut into snow/glacier ice.

Woah! Speaking like a mountaineer. How'd I figure some of this stuff out? A sweet site put out by the folks down at REI. Thanks!

http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/crampons+snow+ice+climbing.html

The seller said the Black Diamond Sabretooth crampons would be better. Don't think I'll shell out the $170 needed for new ones so back to CL for me...

Really, Mt. Pilchuck?

Having climbed Mt. Pilchuck numerous times, albeit always during summer months, both Cody and I decided it was time to ascend our hometown peak during the winter. Right.

Employing the patented McCarty start, which is similar to the alpine start but instead of trekking out at midnight we left Lake Stevens at 10am, we arrived at the Heather Lake unscathed - our under-britches only slightly streaked after avoiding a cluster F caused by a Pontiac TransAm trying to do donuts on the road to the trailhead. Not really, but some dude in a Jeep Cherokee almost opened his door into the radiator of Cody's rig. Snow makes people in the PNW demented, I swear.

The forest road up to the MP trailhead was blocked at Heather Lake. It can't be THAT far up to Pilchuck, right? Wrong.

"How far's this hike again?" - Cody Brooke

Especially on snow shoes.

Our spirits remained high for the first 4 miles until demoralization sank in at the sight of a cross-country skier (who siddled up behind and scared the living feces out of me, I might add) who benefited from our tracks nearly the entire way up. Although, making fresh prints in the 4-foot-deep snow made me feel like one hell of an American.

Fresh tracks up to the MP trailhead

A little higher up the demoralization turned to unbridled exhaustion based on a) the fact after 4 hours we hadn't even reached the MP trailhead yet and b) the damn skier was on his way down, coasting past us.

About that time, Cody died. Cause of death: left abductor muscle strain.

Cody dying

I, on the other hand, did not die.

Pat not dying

In the end, 10+ miles in 7 hours... capped off by our ubiquitous trip to Ixtapa!

Ixtapa being awesome

Delay of Game due to Rain

Pat and I came ready to snow shoe 10 miles up to Lake Kelcema from the bottom of Deer Creek Rd. While making a quick stop at the Verlot Ranger Station, we were enlightened on the fact that there were numerous avalanche spots all along the highway; including the trail we were planning on going up.

We decided to still head that way and just do a shorter length of the trail and turn around right before the avalanche shoots about 2.5 miles (which also was one of the better views along the hike). After we pulled in, geared up and started to walk up to the trail it started (or maybe we finally noticed) that it was raining very hard. A quick conversation led us both to believe that we should probably bag it on the grounds of rain, possible death due to avalanches and the fact that our destination/turn around point was the most dangerous part of the hike.

We still wanted to make what we could out of the day so after a quick recharge once getting home, I pulled out all my ropes, prussiks cords, caribeaners and anything else I had in the world of technical rescue. We started to go over and practice figure 8 type knots, basic belay systems and a few other things that would be essential to know before ascending Rainier. Why waste a good Washington winter day?

successful knots

Pat ready to climb something

Basic rope stuff from Rescue Tech I manual (copyrighted material)

Thanks USAF

Almost three months into this adventure, we have all realized that the costs are really more than what we expected. Obviously there was the money that we dropped on the actual guide service for the climb itself, which was probably the most anticipated. Once that was paid for we all figured there would be a few hundred dollars each person would have to spend on gear. How wrong we were.

There really is no set amount or even estimate that each person is going to spend on gear. It all depends on how much stuff one wants and how fancy that stuff has to be. There is also the possibility of renting items as well to keep cost down.

After going through my gear a few times, I realized that I really had hit the jackpot. It took me several times perusing through my garage and man cave to actually realize what I have. Each time I went through my stuff I came across a new item that I had somehow acquired in the past. Ive even found extra items that I was able to loan out!

Once I started gathering all this stuff up I realized that I really made off well when I got out of the military. All of the items (with a couple exceptions) on the gear list for Mt Rainier that I already have and don't have to purchase, came from the USAF. I left there with easily over a thousand dollars of gear. It took a few trips to REI and frequent surfing on backcountry.com to realize that I am saving a lot of money thanks to the military.

Some items I wont be purchasing because of the Air Force: Gortex jacket and pants (2 sets of each, desert and woodland: Ill be rocking the desert), fleece jacket and full zip fleece pants, down sleeping back with compression sack (rated to -50), gortex boots (still need mountaineering boots), summit bag, glacier glasses, basic climbing hardware to include webbing, prussiks, rope, beaner, long underwear, a couple MRE's and my backpack (although I wont be using my military issued pack).

I've always told people when asked about the military, that it was the best decision I have ever made; this is just one more reason why it is. A big thanks to the United States Air Force.

Down sleeping system with configurations for temps from 30 to -50

Boots

Waterproof pants and jacket

Gear list

Slowly but surely I'm checking items off the Mt. Rainier gear list. One of my first orders of business was to find some insulated pants, just as much for zipping up as an outer layer during breaks and while in camp on Rainier as for lounging around my cozy Ballard apartment.

The decision between down and synthetic was an easy one because 1) down costs like $200 more than synthetic and 2) my roommate Travis, an avid climber, said I'd be find with synthetic. In his experience, there's no way I'd actually be hiking in them, synthetic does better in somewhat wetter environments and they'll keep me plenty warm especially with a layer or two underneath.

Thus, I went with the Patagonia Micro Puff Insulated Pant size large. At nearly 5'10'', the large is a perfect size and will easily slip on over other layers and the full-length zip will make it so I don't have to take off my crampons on the mountain to get warm. Plus, the price was right, ordered off of BackCountryUSA.com.

Best of all, they arrived the night before Seattle Snowstorm 2012 and I got to wear them in to work today. :-)

Probably my favorite part about ordering things online is the UPS delivery guys. Nobody else knocks on a front door like those guys, like they've got two sets of balls.


-Patrick

Link to Patagonia pants I bought: http://www.backcountry.com/patagonia-micro-puff-insulated-pant-mens