A few weekends ago, I climbed Mt. Rainier, the highest point in Washington.

 

We arrived at Paradise first thing Friday morning, so that we could get some of the first-come, first-serve climbing permits when the ranger station opened at 6. We got our permits, packed up our stuff, and headed up to Muir snowfield to setup camp for the first night. We took our time along the way, chatting with folks that were hiking and taking in the scenery. We got to camp in the middle of afternoon, choosing to camp around 9,000 feet. We melted water, made dinner, did some reading, and then headed to bed.

 

We woke up Saturday morning, packed up our stuff, and headed to Camp Muir. We made it up there pretty quickly and got camp setup again. There were quite a few platforms already setup, so we just pitched our tents. The other people in our party arrived in the middle of afternoon, but had to camp on the Muir snowfield since there were no more spots at Camp Muir. We practiced z-pulley and hung out in camp. We went to bed pretty early, so that we could get plenty of sleep for our summit climb.

 

We woke up Sunday at 12:30 am, made breakfast, and set out for the summit. We had planned on leaving at 1 am, but did not make it out of camp until 1:30 or so. When we arrived at Ingraham Flats at a little over 11K, a few of the people in the group were not feeling well and headed back down to camp, leaving 6 of the 12 of us to continue on. None of us left had ever climbed Rainier before, making the rest of the trip a bit more interesting. We hopped on the DC and stopped again at a little over 12K for another break. When we arrived, another person on the climb started to feel pretty sick as well, so his rope team turned back, leaving just three of us to continue on. We uncoiled our ropes since we short-roped the whole way up and headed back onto the glacier. We kept plugigng away until we reached the summit crater. Given the delays down bottom with folks turning around and me not feeling so well above 13K, we arrived at the summit much later than we had hoped, getting there around 10 am. We had some food, rehydrated, took some photos, and then headed back down again. The snow got pretty soft on the way down, and it was incredibly hot the whole way down. We made it down to camp around 2:30 pm. We rested up for a bit and headed back to the car around 6 pm. The trip down to the car took quite a while as I was still not feeling well (the altitude, cold air, and dust really got to my lungs) and was spent from the long day of climbing. We ended up making it back to the parking lot around 11 pm. 

 

Overall, the trip was a blast, and I am happy that I finally tagged Rainier. When I tell people I climb, the first thing they always ask me is if I have climbed Rainier, and I can finally say yes!  

 

The pictures are in the Mt. Rainier photo album.

 

 

This past weekend, I headed up Liberty Bell in the North Cascades. The climb is about 5 miles roundtrip with 2,500 feet elevation gain and a 3 pitch rock climb to get to the summit.

 

We started off at the Blue Lake trailhead and followed it for a bit, until we reached the gully to the base of the climb. It was amazing to see some of the wreckage caused by avalanches along the way; there were massive trees just snapped in half along the trail. The gully was not too bad in terms of steepness, but there was a ton of loose rock. On the way down, we ran into issues with people kicking down rocks on top of us, so helmets are definitely recommended. We reached the base of the climb, and only one party was in front of us. AFter they got started, we hopped on the climb. I led the first pitch, and then Jeff led the next two pitches. After reaching the top of the third pitch, it was a short scramble to the top with a short section of 5.6 friction climbing that is unprotectable. The views from the top were amazing with mountains in all directions. We scrambled back down to a set of rappel rings and headed down. Several parties (including ourselves) got our rope stuck when tossing it, so be careful tossing the ropes. As we headed back down the gully to the trail, we passed a few mountain goats on the way.

 

The pictures are in the Liberty Bell photo album.

I climbed McClellan's Butte a couple weekends ago, which is on the south side of the I90 corridor. The climb is about 8 miles roundtrip with approximately 3,600 feet elevation gain. The trail was in good condition most of the way with only a few spots of snow. An ice axe was not required, but some folks felt more comfortable with it. The scramble to the summit was pretty straight-forward, although some people did not feel comfortable with the exposure. 

In the middle of June, I climbed Mt. Hood in Oregon. We headed down first thing Saturday morning and started climbing about lunchtime. We climbed alongside of the ski lifts to get to camp at approximately 8,600 feet. We melted water, cooked dinner, and then headed to bed. We woke up at midnight, had a quick bite to eat, and then started the climb. The conditions were great with firm snow and little wind. The bergshrund was pretty open, so the normal route through the Pearly Gates was not open. Instead, we headed up the old summit route through another gully to climber's left. We made it to the summit as the sun was rising.

 

The pictures are in the Mt. Baker photo album.

The first week of June, we took the Washington Alpine Club's Basic Climbing class up Mt. Baker. We split the group up, with one group heading up the Easton Glacier and another up the Squok Glacier. My group headed up the Squok Glacier.

 

The pictures are in the Mt. Baker 06.06.09 photo album.