tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82169743790379956532024-02-21T08:20:03.559-08:00an upward progressiontoddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.comBlogger213125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-3639678093810112062017-10-03T22:11:00.000-07:002017-10-29T00:30:37.737-07:00mt. rainier success couloir ski<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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brendan on the upper kautz headwall</div>
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mt. rainier is a fantastic place. this past june, brendan smith and i got a chance to ski a route i've had my eye on for years. the success couloir is a striking feature on the sw side of the mountain that descends from the lowest summit of the mountain, 14,164' point success. the upper portion of the line shares the same exposed position as the kautz headwall, but the lower 3k resemble a steeper version of the sw chutes on mt. adams.<br />
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brendan and i planned on skiing the line in a day starting from the comet falls parking lot.<br />
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the day began with a promising start, brendan realizing he forgot his shoes and starting up a muddy trail in chacos. 900' above the parking lot we were already behind schedule and kicking steps up a mix of mud, pine needles and snow, far from the normal trail. we eventually gained an open ridge and a view of the mountain, just a silhouette against a starry backdrop, capped with a massive lenticular.<br />
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2:00ish am</div>
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a picket... for rappeling we said!</div>
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tired, feeling horrible, that lenticular</div>
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brendan and i have shared many early morning starts and we both seem to approach them differently. i deal with them by getting my heart rate up and pushing the pace, brendan generally takes a few hours to wake up and turns on the afterburners right as i'm starting to feel sleepy. we have a routine, and things usually work out ok. this trip, however, was starting to look gloomy. for whatever reason (maybe it was the 1.5 hours of sleep or the last min plan or the incoming weather or too much beer or the ominous lenticular or all of the above) brendan was hurting worse than i've seen him hurt during the first few hours of a trip.<br />
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eventually reaching a critical point where we were supposed to traverse to the west over a few glaciers to gain our objective, i looked over and brenda's face said it all, there was no way we were going to climb the success couloir today. a quick discussion of options and we decided to continue up toward the turtle and the kautz ice chute at a slow pace. we figured we would go as high as we would go and ski down when we wanted to, no pressure to get rad.<br />
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after 6k of hiking mud, bootpacking pine needles and skinning tenuous refrozen corn, the sun rose and the ominous feeling of the day seemed to lighten (though the lenticular remained).<br />
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please go away lenticular</div>
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running water!</div>
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sun!</div>
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a welcome relief to the skinning muscles came as brendan and i started cramponing at the base of the turtle. about 3/4 of the way up the turtle i turned around to see a speed suit cruising up behind brendan. as the speed suit passed brendan, i noticed brendan's pace doubled and his posture shot upright. as the two came closer i realized that the guy in the speed suit was colin haley... no excuses of "i'm too tired" around a world class alpinist!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEWFHuuZXa7NpKsbDOkNGyR5pNROLyYvwFSN9feRQdSRt4bR_JbvNZdrdOpC0BFezO8O5LKpeNLHuLjRVOo4VX7ZOjOyyfofc6QckaBcLfG1vdflr3oiBHyXIklg2ggUryTW5GFvjE08CC/s1600/IMG_1532.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEWFHuuZXa7NpKsbDOkNGyR5pNROLyYvwFSN9feRQdSRt4bR_JbvNZdrdOpC0BFezO8O5LKpeNLHuLjRVOo4VX7ZOjOyyfofc6QckaBcLfG1vdflr3oiBHyXIklg2ggUryTW5GFvjE08CC/s640/IMG_1532.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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brendan and colin</div>
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brendan, colin, andy wyatt (who was with colin) and i all met up right were the kautz glacier route leaves the turtle and crosses to the kautz ice chute. after chatting a while we all sped off up the the ice chute. 2k after leaving the turtle brendan and i stopped for a break and let colin and andy speed off up to the summit. sometime between the base of the turtle and 12.5k the lenticular disappeared. once again, the weight of the day lightened a little bit more.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGyPLVlhIs-7OOtyxav78MXZqDLtRkItEWE8A_j0c9yiz_9VtH5txsyMv5uL46EbA89Cu1GzE6Cj77yYOTD4m_KhYVzCI-rEyzL85Dlf3YgKEMXOT9ttCYut79aXcVQ13OWNZMZSw_759k/s1600/IMG_1536.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGyPLVlhIs-7OOtyxav78MXZqDLtRkItEWE8A_j0c9yiz_9VtH5txsyMv5uL46EbA89Cu1GzE6Cj77yYOTD4m_KhYVzCI-rEyzL85Dlf3YgKEMXOT9ttCYut79aXcVQ13OWNZMZSw_759k/s640/IMG_1536.jpg" width="640" /></a>brendan transitions to the kautz</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3jn3hztJz-AdFJcUh6PafQP6sdaZoWH_U_qzGWmIU9BkhvK9hbON6YJkUPjxfJiMU4nL5cf8SkBA6NKjxpZuIh-FsWIDYNb0IsXqLqQ4IFuCcwAYK9Ev3-xM6QBqSyVKwCNgwxGADUW8y/s1600/IMG_1540.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3jn3hztJz-AdFJcUh6PafQP6sdaZoWH_U_qzGWmIU9BkhvK9hbON6YJkUPjxfJiMU4nL5cf8SkBA6NKjxpZuIh-FsWIDYNb0IsXqLqQ4IFuCcwAYK9Ev3-xM6QBqSyVKwCNgwxGADUW8y/s640/IMG_1540.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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brendan just above the ice cute</div>
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with only a little over a thousand feet to the top of point success and brendan's newly discovered bottomless energy, we decided we would check out our original objective, top down. before we knew it, we were melting some water on top of point success, stripping skins and running away from a new lenticular, thankfully toward the upper kautz headwall.<br />
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can you feel the stoke?</div>
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point success (brendan photo)</div>
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the upper kautz headwall holds one major crux for skiers. there is a rock band around 13.5k that separates moderate slopes above from 50 degree exposed steeps below. there are a few weaknesses in the cliff that are generally climbed through on 4th class choss or crappy rime ice. somehow we blindly found a weakness that looked like it would go with "just a touch of dry skiing." after downclimbing 15-20' with my skis on i realized our "sick weakness" had a 15' vertical step at the bottom. no go.<br />
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brendan just above to upper cliff band</div>
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because you might as well try</div>
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turns out we weren't far off and a few awkward rime straddling moves and some simple traversing 30' to the west, there was a 60 degree rime chute leading all the way to skiable terrain.<br />
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traverse!</div>
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traverse! (brendan photo)</div>
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mandatory pee before ya ski break</div>
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below the cliff band the upper kautz headwall held one last surprise, pentitente covered with weird airy mashed potato snow. what looked to be rippable hero snow was actually 4-6" snow spikes covered in really weird snow. oh the quality!<br />
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the pentitente lasted through all the business skiing but disappeared along with the steep exposure. as soon as we hit the lower two thirds of the route (the couloir of the success couloir) it was high speed big turns on perfect corn! a hop of the bergshrund then more high speed corn. then more corn and more corn and more corn. eventually the corn became a bit more ripe than ideal but that was 7k of skiing into our descent.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj5jn7PO8anVJukMnhHUAsOpi2QIW1ushiwKlRXLrT9LKs9okxxyutUjje2jDRa2JRwK67B5fhcrnHvsOz6rIj5seHqF2Pn4uhUKRV1G_GnylXLZY6zFt9JuGsddlmm7bfOymnstDga5jF/s1600/IMG_1570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj5jn7PO8anVJukMnhHUAsOpi2QIW1ushiwKlRXLrT9LKs9okxxyutUjje2jDRa2JRwK67B5fhcrnHvsOz6rIj5seHqF2Pn4uhUKRV1G_GnylXLZY6zFt9JuGsddlmm7bfOymnstDga5jF/s640/IMG_1570.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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the pentitente harvest</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6WZZseh-_2GoZ5SPodYzSgKz-5YtwycoZGp9vsccd84LD1Ab7YpwMNuYpFVb-CWXAd0Zh3K7_4BMEhFi5jxf7rTVvB1LhyphenhyphenPx7_LfByJjrCl_H29lAuJeR0XtJk1en7IbBlkLxKriRQtc6/s1600/IMG_1593.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6WZZseh-_2GoZ5SPodYzSgKz-5YtwycoZGp9vsccd84LD1Ab7YpwMNuYpFVb-CWXAd0Zh3K7_4BMEhFi5jxf7rTVvB1LhyphenhyphenPx7_LfByJjrCl_H29lAuJeR0XtJk1en7IbBlkLxKriRQtc6/s640/IMG_1593.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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shrund sendage</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnx4WeyZIMoiApGowtMuX5QY1lsC3uoj2z6bZiuvApEBJ8wBtfO_qUYYSpsLcqD8Ma_GXAcoN4GTU4Qde8Y8Ps9Vs6Ww2DM9f_6v3GoQf7Cm7xVXw9X08OETol58f35Mc8q46tGL6uyFpR/s1600/IMG_5880.m4v" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnx4WeyZIMoiApGowtMuX5QY1lsC3uoj2z6bZiuvApEBJ8wBtfO_qUYYSpsLcqD8Ma_GXAcoN4GTU4Qde8Y8Ps9Vs6Ww2DM9f_6v3GoQf7Cm7xVXw9X08OETol58f35Mc8q46tGL6uyFpR/s640/IMG_5880.m4v" width="640" /></a></div>
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post shrund (brendan vid)</div>
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we were able to ski to within 800 vertical feet of the car and none of the snow was truly awful. after hastily packing stuff into brendan's car, we dove to the kautz creek pullout and i took a nap in the shade next to the car. after a bit of sleep, we took some beers down to the creek and enjoyed the view of our route.<br />
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snow is still good! the upper kautz headwall and point success look like the summit from here</div>
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the snow is still good, where there is snow</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2UG-zX_Y58AhHa5ha88TNbZzDlqz3jf7qWyDgJj0jyWqA8hEi6QB-DmYY4A0WIKG5nb6v3i-qxgrxILUzxFQEedYbeNg05kHszjW4HBlfSAMDvT2kW3lck7Z26vOV0qEEVyRpLnXErDhf/s1600/IMG_1626.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2UG-zX_Y58AhHa5ha88TNbZzDlqz3jf7qWyDgJj0jyWqA8hEi6QB-DmYY4A0WIKG5nb6v3i-qxgrxILUzxFQEedYbeNg05kHszjW4HBlfSAMDvT2kW3lck7Z26vOV0qEEVyRpLnXErDhf/s640/IMG_1626.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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our route, basically top to bottom</div>
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it had been a while since i skied a new (for me) line on rainier. it felt good to explore some new terrain. for brendan, this was his first rainier ski and not a bad one at that. although, he didn't actually ski from the true summit, so...toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-60407669315169186392016-08-21T21:38:00.002-07:002016-08-27T00:10:20.357-07:00running glacier peak<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBSOC6Jx9tZLNB3clNpOak-5purY0xP5uJVAcBUu_6KTFPJPFJixSWSMR9s9c17CB2eD9rpLT2xKEwXZWRGF4xOJTQCymxgCqZhfTOdKaKSFYTcR9TrWLFn5bWvkG6XG09uNlRVr4lMxbb/s1600/IMG_8366.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBSOC6Jx9tZLNB3clNpOak-5purY0xP5uJVAcBUu_6KTFPJPFJixSWSMR9s9c17CB2eD9rpLT2xKEwXZWRGF4xOJTQCymxgCqZhfTOdKaKSFYTcR9TrWLFn5bWvkG6XG09uNlRVr4lMxbb/s640/IMG_8366.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">john and jeremy telling themselves that it's not hot, over and over agian </td></tr>
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earlier this year, as i was running out from glacier peak with skis and boots on my back, my mind drifted back and forth between two things. one, how much my toes hurt from kicking a rock, and two, how much faster it would be without skis and boots. that <a href="http://toddkilcup.blogspot.com/2016/05/glacier-peak-in-day.html" target="_blank">day</a>, i managed to make it back to the car in 16.5 hours without really rushing until the last few miles. it was pretty much a perfect day in the mountains in my book; we skied a remote volcano in a fast and light style and got about 9,500' of amazing skiing with 13,500' of vertical elevation gained. but ever since that trip there has been a little voice in the back of my mind telling me to go back and try harder, move faster.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">...</span></b></div>
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the forecast looked great, that is, unless you actually thought to pay attention to the excessive heat warning. but if you're delusional enough, it's easy to tell yourself the alpine will be cool when it's <i>only</i> 90 degrees in seattle. i am delusional. </div>
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jeremy, john and myself decided we would leave seattle the night before, camp at the north fork of the sauk trailhead and get a semi-early start the next morning. since the day "wasn't going to be too hot", we figured we'd leave the trailhead around 8 am, giving the higher elevation snow plenty of time to soften.</div>
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before leaving the city, i obsessed over what gear not to bring. i packed and repacked my vest with different kits before finally settling on something that felt right. i didn't want to pack an ice axe or aluminum crampons, but my delusional mind kept telling me it was going to be cool up high so i rigged a way to carry both and packed them just in case.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkgyz7B4VW4zxeFd672mzD2mXIX4tINFmrG6zFdzvhLhZq_kWTP_A8HMgNm52Jlfto-4ILTC8MEQJz9S9vicMY0MdyIBrd6Q0qlmbmiua5GTd-D-09Rkh_hZdfFVEW8H2F8RSionX09IzE/s1600/IMG_8276.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkgyz7B4VW4zxeFd672mzD2mXIX4tINFmrG6zFdzvhLhZq_kWTP_A8HMgNm52Jlfto-4ILTC8MEQJz9S9vicMY0MdyIBrd6Q0qlmbmiua5GTd-D-09Rkh_hZdfFVEW8H2F8RSionX09IzE/s640/IMG_8276.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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the three of us were surprised to arrive at the trailhead to a full parking lot, but found a great camp site where we immediately set up tents and ate a whole bag of frozen ravioli. as we sat around eating, we thought back to the last time we were at this trailhead and about how we "slept" for an hour before starting the long hike with skis. before too long, we were in bed and asleep, except for jeremy who ended up peeing 14 times, or so.</div>
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somehow i slept through the alarm but managed to wake up after a half an hour. since we had decided the excessive heat warning wasn't going to affect us, we ate breakfast, drank some tea, got our gear ready and took our time. the three of us started down the trail at 8:41 am. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg617ZMCFmYWyl-7gnDlK8o2aVXgFLds2Z-0iiXStspc3BOveGaMRsOECI1lJhnuaOFK_1mCNwILBNNL8ci771ae3A7BTVsFVu6QHU6hPgf5XedfNZudXQOM1zISXN5sjcOJ7nbx8Lq0Sa2/s1600/IMG_8279.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg617ZMCFmYWyl-7gnDlK8o2aVXgFLds2Z-0iiXStspc3BOveGaMRsOECI1lJhnuaOFK_1mCNwILBNNL8ci771ae3A7BTVsFVu6QHU6hPgf5XedfNZudXQOM1zISXN5sjcOJ7nbx8Lq0Sa2/s640/IMG_8279.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ready to send!</td></tr>
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the first five miles of trail gently rolled through old growth forest next to the north fork of the sauk river. just after leaving the car we realized that it was warmer than expected, but we brushed the thought aside since it would be a lot cooler up high, right? we each took .5 liters of water for the first part of the trail then refilled and added another .5 liters at the mackinaw shelter. the climb up to white pass was quite hot in the morning sun but we persevered knowing it would be cooler up high. i arrived at white pass about 7 minutes before jeremy and john so i took the time to eat some foot and sit down on a nice log. immediately after i stopped moving, the sweat began to pour down my head and i realized the truth of our day, it was going to be very hot, some might even say excessively hot. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDN2yHDxP0EbEd6IxxnGfhU4_o88i_T34m1xQR50MiP7XAEsJLYyCDjFRZlda-1x_uMo4j74eDlI3wQDghrGyZzhAPBysmID8_cKvX3RkGx1wLKuiFapbdVqULugywXeJ5AhuYJQY8kyP/s1600/IMG_8280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDN2yHDxP0EbEd6IxxnGfhU4_o88i_T34m1xQR50MiP7XAEsJLYyCDjFRZlda-1x_uMo4j74eDlI3wQDghrGyZzhAPBysmID8_cKvX3RkGx1wLKuiFapbdVqULugywXeJ5AhuYJQY8kyP/s640/IMG_8280.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">this is where i live, i live it</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2brApSZ53Fc4ezhmpN7jJ8QVZLxQpCdGCR5HnkUuHzyEtJbjEHFFw88INTyaO3oJWr3F-rX6dg0UlePk0wC66FecCDi2Jg1EIMgubXb2pESKQ1VdDaayT6wKLXf4HiZuUkTYYiiBm5y8j/s1600/IMG_8282.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2brApSZ53Fc4ezhmpN7jJ8QVZLxQpCdGCR5HnkUuHzyEtJbjEHFFw88INTyaO3oJWr3F-rX6dg0UlePk0wC66FecCDi2Jg1EIMgubXb2pESKQ1VdDaayT6wKLXf4HiZuUkTYYiiBm5y8j/s640/IMG_8282.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking back on the junction with the pct</td></tr>
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<div>
regrouping at white pass, we took the turn onto the foam creek trail and marveled in the open grassy slopes, expansive views and wildflowers. we made pretty good time all the way into glacier meadows where we stopped to fill up water and chat with a couple of backpackers hoping to make it to glacier gap before nightfall. continuing on due to my incessant nagging to keep moving, we passed under the whitechuck glacier and poked up to glacier gap, then up and over the notch to the base of gerdine glacier. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK71Ty6OPLqL3OzlPA6H8JIuX1Gw9bsuuzNa9ZOMvISB-byr0YYKLySZd5DGGM43rSaIuGEsvt0IwPOjLRiHwKXU1JXgfTgQH5YMx6dtkJqN9seLzc0FtOAwbVVXyfescpmsW9ZshL9Pzw/s1600/IMG_8285.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK71Ty6OPLqL3OzlPA6H8JIuX1Gw9bsuuzNa9ZOMvISB-byr0YYKLySZd5DGGM43rSaIuGEsvt0IwPOjLRiHwKXU1JXgfTgQH5YMx6dtkJqN9seLzc0FtOAwbVVXyfescpmsW9ZshL9Pzw/s640/IMG_8285.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">foam creek trail</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzLURFCDeolWHztJTGNWpKNtWlL1NQC3o8mE7ZeeRQgGTqlrNx233xwQvzBLVe9aU1ujerqV48c9_jtQfp8scM1PQdLOqlT8_Y7EBtNbvOmr47QO_hpE92FDgMDWjD_KMs6UC616hjPV-5/s1600/IMG_8286.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzLURFCDeolWHztJTGNWpKNtWlL1NQC3o8mE7ZeeRQgGTqlrNx233xwQvzBLVe9aU1ujerqV48c9_jtQfp8scM1PQdLOqlT8_Y7EBtNbvOmr47QO_hpE92FDgMDWjD_KMs6UC616hjPV-5/s640/IMG_8286.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">wildflowers on along the foam creek trail</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8zw7CGIE0LWFwKz2aJ14Tn1IYYWoGJngTxUz_6cDI93wPcCxCIKc1cwk9QkXkNxHJ_rZ_ezbR6nzR6A8WNm6_KCcUe62CrMtL9m9FAupz_ljTXAsmxEcPc2rm-8AcUgFFuTwYuzYZarmE/s1600/IMG_8288.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8zw7CGIE0LWFwKz2aJ14Tn1IYYWoGJngTxUz_6cDI93wPcCxCIKc1cwk9QkXkNxHJ_rZ_ezbR6nzR6A8WNm6_KCcUe62CrMtL9m9FAupz_ljTXAsmxEcPc2rm-8AcUgFFuTwYuzYZarmE/s640/IMG_8288.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">jeremy and john baking in the morning sun on the foam creek trail</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQEyTMhLGdn-olre2AyJ4rhs1dKeRGg32MAb9MuQDoPgk2VUM5VekwncL1ACVieZNC-qPfGQ0428wSPE4xGDqIxNo7h5dFy9NanQP4hng8cSbJwfU-SRP7X3zuW54gdbUmgu3wJfx7pFIF/s1600/IMG_8290.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQEyTMhLGdn-olre2AyJ4rhs1dKeRGg32MAb9MuQDoPgk2VUM5VekwncL1ACVieZNC-qPfGQ0428wSPE4xGDqIxNo7h5dFy9NanQP4hng8cSbJwfU-SRP7X3zuW54gdbUmgu3wJfx7pFIF/s640/IMG_8290.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pano from white pass to glacier peak</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKtzcmyoefYMMRFDb1K5feNMdcmXheAe9f7anMMGcqLMWJdfcz3lsltDyPekyvKo5ei4ToQR9Q86uxjA7mxRxv-z3NXYiL_j3w3cL1f__wu3Qot8cGiHi2DzaFkYoFNf8kXgvh1EtXc-_1/s1600/IMG_8293.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKtzcmyoefYMMRFDb1K5feNMdcmXheAe9f7anMMGcqLMWJdfcz3lsltDyPekyvKo5ei4ToQR9Q86uxjA7mxRxv-z3NXYiL_j3w3cL1f__wu3Qot8cGiHi2DzaFkYoFNf8kXgvh1EtXc-_1/s640/IMG_8293.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">tarn just before the whitechuck glacier</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WMhI6JJeP0GnW9div_MzViJwetRNehsmg3IDmVGhwII1Yb-CMFTG2rYPpenwWhxJRyTylwSXhhG5MdLO2KzqrL8HGMz4g4Y7nwmpr0Lo5joDeA0rIT36Cye_uNnjGXa4f48PT9M4aFo5/s1600/IMG_8298.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0WMhI6JJeP0GnW9div_MzViJwetRNehsmg3IDmVGhwII1Yb-CMFTG2rYPpenwWhxJRyTylwSXhhG5MdLO2KzqrL8HGMz4g4Y7nwmpr0Lo5joDeA0rIT36Cye_uNnjGXa4f48PT9M4aFo5/s640/IMG_8298.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">john runs across a river of mud</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf_kKrWoO0gVg8JNVRglJRy_KOs6zmNvy1Vj2kLo3_5N1cIQw2kcgJ1mGcJ__5cXfKxV6Bo5ueQHURASUGFsX-RTBGeWvNe8VWPvkl32xx1yS8S6a2iT-aR7LvYdrGwYc1AQCuZlOePMnL/s1600/IMG_8301.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf_kKrWoO0gVg8JNVRglJRy_KOs6zmNvy1Vj2kLo3_5N1cIQw2kcgJ1mGcJ__5cXfKxV6Bo5ueQHURASUGFsX-RTBGeWvNe8VWPvkl32xx1yS8S6a2iT-aR7LvYdrGwYc1AQCuZlOePMnL/s640/IMG_8301.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">snowfield just before glacier gap</td></tr>
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<div>
i had run past the spring at glacier gap without even thinking about it but thankfully there was running water just before the gerdine glacier. refilling one liter of water each, we started up the ridge toward disappointment peak. we rode the ridge as long as we could as we didn't bring much sunscreen and wanted to avoid the sunburn punishment from short shorts and a glacier. we even considered going up and over disappointment peak but decided against it since we hauled crampons and ice axe all the way out there! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD8osq3PpFKx5qWmyorn5IixWU1q6_eVIBD7H1cLFtYcBCaZpINqK6eRLhKUIiFRTzvA5GpIWbavnMWicWITVVNV-0-yQGs4JZJY2ML_ExanLattrrG6Or0azZSy5FLnJBo0vCVPyizShI/s1600/IMG_8309.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD8osq3PpFKx5qWmyorn5IixWU1q6_eVIBD7H1cLFtYcBCaZpINqK6eRLhKUIiFRTzvA5GpIWbavnMWicWITVVNV-0-yQGs4JZJY2ML_ExanLattrrG6Or0azZSy5FLnJBo0vCVPyizShI/s640/IMG_8309.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking back just before the base of disappointment peak</td></tr>
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<div>
making our way onto the glacier we found sun softened snow that definitely didn't require crampons but we kept them on for the transition to the cool glacier. the transition was very strait forward and consisted of about 30' of soft dirty bare glacial ice. above that, the cool glacier was more soft snow and strait forward travel. at the end of the cool glacier we took off our crampons, hopped onto the dusty ridge and started upward. we decided to bring the crampons up the ridge just in case the snow on the final headwall was still hard (because apparently i think snow stays hard when it's SUPER hot out) so we carried them in our hands to save some time.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVvLdVvb-5HVqEG28lwGBLieltuqPx3wBD4GktxKRxdrR5OpDD_h2Oiaj9MxJjs3rDC-i9TxWUv3udONhqgMFqxt3sSMWhzP5zRXiq7butP2xi0NHm6UQqMwG8sc3wDA9zbLMOqA2MbMU/s1600/IMG_8320.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVvLdVvb-5HVqEG28lwGBLieltuqPx3wBD4GktxKRxdrR5OpDD_h2Oiaj9MxJjs3rDC-i9TxWUv3udONhqgMFqxt3sSMWhzP5zRXiq7butP2xi0NHm6UQqMwG8sc3wDA9zbLMOqA2MbMU/s640/IMG_8320.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">jeremy crosses onto the cool glacier</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lWEGQ2KZEXkRg2V1QYbtZbXSOuqdZXlN-QqA7XNJjjv1Lucs64uZMnPpogDAIT04kWOEzghMG70J3dPmlIqDGTXRTDXTc1KJC2ouifmWBzne-DaezLzAtld9BKwLPex4jnpJFxIsv-0c/s1600/IMG_8324.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lWEGQ2KZEXkRg2V1QYbtZbXSOuqdZXlN-QqA7XNJjjv1Lucs64uZMnPpogDAIT04kWOEzghMG70J3dPmlIqDGTXRTDXTc1KJC2ouifmWBzne-DaezLzAtld9BKwLPex4jnpJFxIsv-0c/s640/IMG_8324.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">dusty summit ridge, more fun to run down</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnYRaHlP1koqiKcfDQQobZ5-DJ4UepsCGEkXOgpM6LVqdhlepIPHK_PaI3C5DWkjNit9mcHF0gWDnptqnZRozwZ4U-w2sD7ZSH97k4Oddo4KlKoYKlr06tz6b_ZuGC6JKkQT5kXAwYc0iE/s1600/IMG_8326.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnYRaHlP1koqiKcfDQQobZ5-DJ4UepsCGEkXOgpM6LVqdhlepIPHK_PaI3C5DWkjNit9mcHF0gWDnptqnZRozwZ4U-w2sD7ZSH97k4Oddo4KlKoYKlr06tz6b_ZuGC6JKkQT5kXAwYc0iE/s640/IMG_8326.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking back at jeremy in the pain cave just above disappointment peak</td></tr>
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<div>
the snow on the upper headwall was baked to oblivion, allowing 6" of shoe penetration. we dropped our crampons and started up the final few hundred feet to the top. the last few steps to the top greeted us with a nice breeze of warm air and after 6 hours and 18 minutes of travel, we stood on top of glacier peak for the second time this year. this time around we were in short shorts and a t-shirt, and still too warm. i had promised jeremy we would take a real break on the summit so we sat around for almost a half an hour before starting the 17 mile journey back to the car.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQE9vhEXkLHO06HhTzkaBpzaaF5DqDEzXlVyYMhn_DRri1RA9vmfXnoqkkycsYg3cID1-0iC1p6mRK2i0RCMvwVoH-JRZwP3nIV1ueo5L5-cZ0-QigNsfCTnYeOhu3lCxsVa7gZKwLp46/s1600/IMG_8330.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPQE9vhEXkLHO06HhTzkaBpzaaF5DqDEzXlVyYMhn_DRri1RA9vmfXnoqkkycsYg3cID1-0iC1p6mRK2i0RCMvwVoH-JRZwP3nIV1ueo5L5-cZ0-QigNsfCTnYeOhu3lCxsVa7gZKwLp46/s640/IMG_8330.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">jeremy just below the summit</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwkOV0gYrm817BHIXKhkoP4Z7zPf0Ofg7VFKRLsx6RYl26soV3EfOJAZFoePDucYXCC_75AacIMKGmdnLRVU1skSXo2kIrlSyeMwzrpS9Ph_hTKKeQpIWxFG71j5o38ENDO5rwBoDmT5js/s1600/IMG_8333.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwkOV0gYrm817BHIXKhkoP4Z7zPf0Ofg7VFKRLsx6RYl26soV3EfOJAZFoePDucYXCC_75AacIMKGmdnLRVU1skSXo2kIrlSyeMwzrpS9Ph_hTKKeQpIWxFG71j5o38ENDO5rwBoDmT5js/s640/IMG_8333.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the usgs marker on the summit</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSU3aI0FRQzHbWn3IT76gO3OIosj7Ta_WtHggO2FjyUi3g774tl61g9y-a8udJzJV0rpaGN3hSO76JUy0Y-pU6F0OCu3v2f5GjrNL6ERt8hYsNEfcGObs2zB3C9jpPp0rfnvAn5_1G2E39/s1600/IMG_8335.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSU3aI0FRQzHbWn3IT76gO3OIosj7Ta_WtHggO2FjyUi3g774tl61g9y-a8udJzJV0rpaGN3hSO76JUy0Y-pU6F0OCu3v2f5GjrNL6ERt8hYsNEfcGObs2zB3C9jpPp0rfnvAn5_1G2E39/s640/IMG_8335.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO6jjr9YcfwMnX_GPKyQ2FvcvOKSDSesbQWXqHLiV294nZLt7oiGXjETSHYFp46A7MRaZPv2asGoNi0v2vJeOsFH3DQ2eSUc7OcW310YyYdaqDzIV3hLWA1ym2uJm6Yhyphenhyphen2EayRzJQag13c/s1600/IMG_8338.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO6jjr9YcfwMnX_GPKyQ2FvcvOKSDSesbQWXqHLiV294nZLt7oiGXjETSHYFp46A7MRaZPv2asGoNi0v2vJeOsFH3DQ2eSUc7OcW310YyYdaqDzIV3hLWA1ym2uJm6Yhyphenhyphen2EayRzJQag13c/s640/IMG_8338.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking w where the olympics looked like an island in the ski</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigrGmREIMHXX19HE7ku0jMU8Eu6JVTKssTesYdvu7qwaTZNPo6Mq4zkAChyphenhyphenvxNUElPcYvsZ7edD10um4V6MM5WvsYHODlD1_eOAsHGwQn0tBNJ9XF5L8sFfk9S8st-MD_ulXY2X-CUVd1D/s1600/IMG_8341.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigrGmREIMHXX19HE7ku0jMU8Eu6JVTKssTesYdvu7qwaTZNPo6Mq4zkAChyphenhyphenvxNUElPcYvsZ7edD10um4V6MM5WvsYHODlD1_eOAsHGwQn0tBNJ9XF5L8sFfk9S8st-MD_ulXY2X-CUVd1D/s640/IMG_8341.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pretending like we don't have 17 miles left</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJd7zHbLbHhifrYTmQoeWbMW0drALoQUfN5TyJ4jWRWcFGCnvj857YcZW7x91j9o2ZwGzJ3D-e9NZKk1LILRiHWP8nYJR3koCWwEBzj4XudBBr2fcRYn6OTQ5Lcmk2kO3nhz_dC1lAMGB/s1600/IMG_8343.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidJd7zHbLbHhifrYTmQoeWbMW0drALoQUfN5TyJ4jWRWcFGCnvj857YcZW7x91j9o2ZwGzJ3D-e9NZKk1LILRiHWP8nYJR3koCWwEBzj4XudBBr2fcRYn6OTQ5Lcmk2kO3nhz_dC1lAMGB/s640/IMG_8343.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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we were able to boot ski the top 300' of steeper terrain and run with abandon down the soft slopes back to the cool glacier. we stopped at the top of the glacier to empty our shoes of dirt and rock but kept the crampons on our backs for the descent. even the exposed glacial ice between the cool and gerdine glaciers was easily navigated without metal. much more boot skiing ensued on the steeper rolls of the gerdine glacier before we bumped back onto the ridge for the scenic single track leading toward glacier gap. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCh0m4Z4grZikao3Udrz727gSsBpYrV34Bx-83726RpKZPr1cse6jDxGYevdcnLILuJN-DInBuDyJValWB7tVHA1bXGfU-pT2cO3fDh0ukaxafI7nOrJcB7a0dwYDuqa6GWAmqIK7yFcK/s1600/IMG_8346.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCh0m4Z4grZikao3Udrz727gSsBpYrV34Bx-83726RpKZPr1cse6jDxGYevdcnLILuJN-DInBuDyJValWB7tVHA1bXGfU-pT2cO3fDh0ukaxafI7nOrJcB7a0dwYDuqa6GWAmqIK7yFcK/s640/IMG_8346.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">let the fun begin</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV596bwm0Lrr6FHkXSqr2t6bvAYUVhbq65qjmgFp4w5ihUbEaJP4DCPjxq-FEHkMOCE-L6e2sRpjlugeS8qcKa86lRkRc8_OY4daqC8SC_ho-7xCjJ5sM-ZrRbji6n_GJXRYEdVyIgFA_L/s1600/IMG_8347.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV596bwm0Lrr6FHkXSqr2t6bvAYUVhbq65qjmgFp4w5ihUbEaJP4DCPjxq-FEHkMOCE-L6e2sRpjlugeS8qcKa86lRkRc8_OY4daqC8SC_ho-7xCjJ5sM-ZrRbji6n_GJXRYEdVyIgFA_L/s640/IMG_8347.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">john crushing down on the soft volcanic soil</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnIDi9KVjw-lnZ2AilC902ym92gl33eyGUVI30FaavZLnl-8hfS2Pa08fSYWp2AcUUh2EqkWcdPEzWlu3cBuKHhOU8Wak1okNBAiqEpsc9mgusUqOWoNLrGlmTbIQrn62Kwl60CLDUFXS/s1600/IMG_8356.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnIDi9KVjw-lnZ2AilC902ym92gl33eyGUVI30FaavZLnl-8hfS2Pa08fSYWp2AcUUh2EqkWcdPEzWlu3cBuKHhOU8Wak1okNBAiqEpsc9mgusUqOWoNLrGlmTbIQrn62Kwl60CLDUFXS/s640/IMG_8356.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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by the time we made it back to the whitechuck glacier, we were all moving at different paces. since i had the only water filter, we decided to stop and regroup every few miles to refill water. we figured more water would ease our trip through the heat, back to the car. then the cramps started. about 20 vertical feet before the foam creek trail jeremy had a terrible adductor cramp. hobbling up to the ridge, we took a minute to shake out the cramp then kept moving toward the car. we regrouped one last time at a stream just before white pass where jeremy asked for 1.5 liters of water and said, "see ya at the car, i'm going slow from here". </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKuxwRtvmIDh2hLRdG6kX7kdCzscWHgcu70CzAMuvdm-GvkrVBkkFBFfhjDnr4egCy_l378hM3onjMUfYsYIOv_g2HtTXmxati97tM1D5b81DWi-vQ1j6y69jXtAWU14XMnzBA9KQCXnK3/s1600/IMG_8361.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKuxwRtvmIDh2hLRdG6kX7kdCzscWHgcu70CzAMuvdm-GvkrVBkkFBFfhjDnr4egCy_l378hM3onjMUfYsYIOv_g2HtTXmxati97tM1D5b81DWi-vQ1j6y69jXtAWU14XMnzBA9KQCXnK3/s640/IMG_8361.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking up at what's left of the whitechuck glacier</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3HCIX7BvnH5ASlsiGLpqyzb6sZC7BJ6jd_kbhzP5AKye0X4FAEJo4umPnHvXGlxCxZW1-ZW_FukmMp0djiBPN4ZuU6ljnEgFXAmQodfQoQ3897sjmknEpq_GENyhUXGwyNmJHShpis2ny/s1600/IMG_8363.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3HCIX7BvnH5ASlsiGLpqyzb6sZC7BJ6jd_kbhzP5AKye0X4FAEJo4umPnHvXGlxCxZW1-ZW_FukmMp0djiBPN4ZuU6ljnEgFXAmQodfQoQ3897sjmknEpq_GENyhUXGwyNmJHShpis2ny/s640/IMG_8363.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEc2l9e0HQPDAnMJiHbWGmg8Nl2mnYVa4DAjrC3n-GtIdJypTkYUiBt9tIxhmqnV94_68PrLzLsSmEbQcbAr1Ot9mQZh2yfU2DmabA7l1Qcou1CrNa5HtF-HwGmdWTbMM6ADy_CMklA3NZ/s1600/IMG_8377.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEc2l9e0HQPDAnMJiHbWGmg8Nl2mnYVa4DAjrC3n-GtIdJypTkYUiBt9tIxhmqnV94_68PrLzLsSmEbQcbAr1Ot9mQZh2yfU2DmabA7l1Qcou1CrNa5HtF-HwGmdWTbMM6ADy_CMklA3NZ/s640/IMG_8377.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">so close to white pass!</td></tr>
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<div>
leaving jeremy with his new best friend mr. cramps, john and i started down the trail at a brisk pace. eventually john said he wanted to take the switchbacks a little slower so he dropped back as i let gravity do the work. hoping the flatish trail though the woods would be cool and shaded, i made great time down the switchbacks to find high humidity and heat in the lowland forest. the heat was oppressive enough that i filled up water multiple times in the last 5.5 miles. up until those last few miles my body had been quite well but the heat was bad enough it really started taking it's toll. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOyorvK2aOBRx2-LT8-WEB79bpiYzUBiTrUCtNdthvqR_njf5_3F5ILKQRqOkVWe9EakJy_AvRJPGzC_TJcMTa4VdhcbK5kLY2xo0-CtuUfikt3Rz0JKgnFqeMYqDl83k9c2iVnSQNPPh6/s1600/IMG_8380.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOyorvK2aOBRx2-LT8-WEB79bpiYzUBiTrUCtNdthvqR_njf5_3F5ILKQRqOkVWe9EakJy_AvRJPGzC_TJcMTa4VdhcbK5kLY2xo0-CtuUfikt3Rz0JKgnFqeMYqDl83k9c2iVnSQNPPh6/s640/IMG_8380.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">back down to the valley we go</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
quickly stumbling down the trail i kept waiting for john to explode past me full of energy. all the while i started to battle cramps myself. by the time i reached the trailhead i couldn't stride out too far or pull my leg back behind myself without cramping. i was hearing things all around me in the woods and couldn't drink water without feeling like i was about to throw up. i arrived at the car 10 hours and 45 minutes after leaving. i just paced back and forth in the parking lot hoping my body would calm down. eventually things settled enough to drink some water, but it took a while before i could even sit in a chair without cramping! </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
at 10 hours and 59 minutes john came stumbling into the parking lot with a completely spent look on his face and answered a question i didn't even ask, "yeah, i'm feeling pretty good too, but my feet don't hurt." i just smiled, gave him a high five and let him take his turn at pacing around the parking lot fighting the cramps, slowly becoming more coherent. eventually, john and i were able to change into clean clothes, eat some cheez-its and wait for jeremy while relaxing in chairs a few feet down the trail. right at the 12 hour mark jeremy came limping into view. what ensued for jeremy was less pacing and more cramping. in fact, i've never seen anyone cramp so badly. at some points it was bad enough it wasn't even funny, while other times it was hard not to laugh.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj65SMK7p4Z9DMm8huqfWYzbllsXKx-GnlARjXcM-CQpXeTbPO2HiXNookX55ijMUbWQr3axF-0gmSw8Nsd-tEOdxArDrprQ0qLGPfIAcvHCK2chOO6hiqJEs7d9HXSPt9ZBUvv2E8UL3t5/s1600/IMG_8388.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj65SMK7p4Z9DMm8huqfWYzbllsXKx-GnlARjXcM-CQpXeTbPO2HiXNookX55ijMUbWQr3axF-0gmSw8Nsd-tEOdxArDrprQ0qLGPfIAcvHCK2chOO6hiqJEs7d9HXSPt9ZBUvv2E8UL3t5/s640/IMG_8388.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">this one was a bit strong for this 125 lb dehydrated/famished lightweight, but oh so good</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8AundueUSEg8vzo20tIq395hPIgrnysKFlTozirU47YA9ua4YnO4eCHSPYm3iWkNsNJnKogV_9wTtx7SKwDb9TdWjP-e839pY57yc2MLZy6-3yWEf-EPsUni60tH_Er2QsDnvHRZlfoDL/s1600/IMG_8390.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8AundueUSEg8vzo20tIq395hPIgrnysKFlTozirU47YA9ua4YnO4eCHSPYm3iWkNsNJnKogV_9wTtx7SKwDb9TdWjP-e839pY57yc2MLZy6-3yWEf-EPsUni60tH_Er2QsDnvHRZlfoDL/s640/IMG_8390.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the crampmaster jeremy prins</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjbnmXROT_Qv6YdklNQ2s3HxxggFQWyGwiT6KvJ2wE1guFCOapLMgLoz1WNR58JF6DfcTWvG4sdihne3lngESvssEJoPG7urajYaR4VI6rIhIGCaABTZF3NlH7oHzcjz0dBu0zqriu4Nh/s1600/IMG_8394.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjbnmXROT_Qv6YdklNQ2s3HxxggFQWyGwiT6KvJ2wE1guFCOapLMgLoz1WNR58JF6DfcTWvG4sdihne3lngESvssEJoPG7urajYaR4VI6rIhIGCaABTZF3NlH7oHzcjz0dBu0zqriu4Nh/s640/IMG_8394.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">roadside deluxe cramps just before darrington, living like a king with that pillow</td></tr>
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<div>
although my incessant nagging of the group to transition quicker, eat while moving and stop less only partially worked, we still managed to come away with a pretty decent car to car time. i even felt like i got a lot of opportunity to enjoy the environment and take in the views. in fact, i'd have to say i thoroughly enjoyed the trip! </div>
<div>
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<div>
this trip feels important to me. i've been working toward larger goals that require moving quickly over ultra-marathon distances through complex and remote terrain. this feels like an important step toward achieving some of those goals. combining trail running and mountaineering feels right to me. the simplicity of stripping the gear down to just a few essentials adds so much depth to the mountain experience; the lack of clutter and abundance of commitment.<br />
<br />
but, being the type who needs to constantly refine things, here's what i would do differently next time.<br />
<ul>
<li>i'd leave the 700 grams of crampons and ice axe that were dead weight. i understand that i could get out there on another trip and realize i need spikes, therefore ruining the trip, but thats the risk you take with the light and fast game... sometime you win, sometimes you lose. </li>
<li>i'd hope to streamline transitions so the amount of time not moving would go from almost 2 hours to a matter of minutes</li>
<li>i'd take about half as much food as i ended the trip with over 1000 calories still in my vest</li>
<li>i'd probably take a pair of super light poles to speed up the steeps and snow travel. </li>
<li>i'd go when it was warm (soft snow) but not quite as excessively hot!</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>stats for the trip:</b> 34.6 miles, 10,600' of vertical elevation gained over 10:45:49</div>
<div>
<b>gear carried:</b> salomon s-lab adv skin 12 vest, katadyn befree filter, grivel air tech lite crapons, camp corsa nanotech ice axe, patagonia houdini winshirt, zensah calf compression sleeves, outdoor research liner gloves, black diamond ion headlamp, body glide, sunscreen<span style="text-align: center;">, iphone, food and water.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><b>gear not used:</b> crampons, ice axe, headlamp, windshirt, gloves, half of the food </span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"> </span></div>
</div>
toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-40234578977905074442016-08-16T18:53:00.002-07:002016-08-21T18:33:48.957-07:00running the loowit trail<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgADPDrzBYCeNoIiRd65OZPT9-o4QTJX12C5mwlVZq1WCOUbW4RVqtFpvlTr0GvV1RDM9iFLqKb9pXZiJQZS63yTp2YQo_to3wL-3vffyOX1hF95GiYWHX43Vmt7hG8jXEMWJYUF0GxstLz/s1600/IMG_7402.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgADPDrzBYCeNoIiRd65OZPT9-o4QTJX12C5mwlVZq1WCOUbW4RVqtFpvlTr0GvV1RDM9iFLqKb9pXZiJQZS63yTp2YQo_to3wL-3vffyOX1hF95GiYWHX43Vmt7hG8jXEMWJYUF0GxstLz/s640/IMG_7402.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pat just above the climb out of the toutle river</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
due to a super busy past few months, i've completely neglected posting about any recent trips. thankfully, the past two months have been full ofadventure. from a two week road trip with ellen to many fun running adventures and lots of family in town, i've barely had any time to rest until just recently! but enough complaining about having too many good things happening at once, let's rewind back to july 13th...<br />
<br />
i've wanted to run the loowit trail for a few years now but haven't gotten around to it for one reason or another. so with endless good weather forecasted i convinced pat to join me on the trip around mt. st. helens. up until this point i had been doing a lot of long ski mountaineering trips with high mileage, but the longest i had run in a day for the year was around 17 miles. i was a little concerned with essentially doubling that mileage but figured i'd just walk most of the trip if needed. besides, pat hadn't run in a month so out of the two of us, i definitely had no excuse.<br />
<br />
unfortunately i closed at work the night before so after clocking out at 9:40 pm i drove north to pick up pat where we immediately backtracked south for the 4 hour drive to the mountain. after arriving at the climbers bivouac parking lot, we set up camp in the back of the car and set the alarm for 8:00 am.<br />
<br />
as normal, the alarm went off much too soon but 6 hours of sleep at a trailhead is a luxury in my book. we packed some food, a windshell, headlamps, sunscreen, and 1 liter of water each. we brought one mini water filter between the two of us to fill up water throughout the trip.<br />
<br />
starting up the trail we set a slow pace for the first few miles of uphill travel. after 1k of climbing, we hit the loowit trail and took a left. fairly quickly the trail went from amazing singletrack to boulder hopping unstable pumice. thankfully large wooden poles stuck up every now and then marking the way.<br />
<br />
once out of the pumice boulder field, the brilliant singletrack resumed and the views started to open up. for miles 3-7 i continually scared elk off the trail and stopped counting after the first 25! about a mile before the descent into the toutle river drainage, i stopped to wait for pat to catch up when a burst of howling echoed through the surrounding trees... wolves! eventually pat caught up just in time to hear the tail end of their song before we continued on.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO55h6wAyH5kru5UTNhBL52MlFB1Iyw4m00ypnmvTclg4Ik95_pNIGn3IoMsXfMxHo0VK-RwZuRxq7XnCEQLKg8SZrjXehe3k8brWp1M2ufx9i7Jkaavq2bpLZ-W20Xm5lgxqs8mPCz7UX/s1600/IMG_7376.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO55h6wAyH5kru5UTNhBL52MlFB1Iyw4m00ypnmvTclg4Ik95_pNIGn3IoMsXfMxHo0VK-RwZuRxq7XnCEQLKg8SZrjXehe3k8brWp1M2ufx9i7Jkaavq2bpLZ-W20Xm5lgxqs8mPCz7UX/s640/IMG_7376.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">just after the first pumice fields</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSQ4r1IwHItrQ3L0DGv5rfE2rNYMJxPKENdU-L6WBogMDk6JYr_TIrdGjohqKhbmLU0cPcpCCUlFdV2ztKsAqtg4dDBw3lBVcNAU84fdlovA_nfcoVCHgZVuDQHyvXb4z5DuENfmHSFTCy/s1600/IMG_7378.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSQ4r1IwHItrQ3L0DGv5rfE2rNYMJxPKENdU-L6WBogMDk6JYr_TIrdGjohqKhbmLU0cPcpCCUlFdV2ztKsAqtg4dDBw3lBVcNAU84fdlovA_nfcoVCHgZVuDQHyvXb4z5DuENfmHSFTCy/s640/IMG_7378.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">here comes the p-patch</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
arriving at the top of the descent to the toutle, we were able to look down to the crossing and across to the climb back out the other side. it looked huge! trying not to think about it, we started downhill and lost elevation for what seemed to be a long time. eventually we popped out at the river, crossed on some rocks then filled up water for the upcoming climb.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGk5CNqXIPN4gaIkBMGS8JpGvEha-5oS9k3v6VzUxsnZPkcxH9KGn9YAG4Fl5pssQY6-HRBsnRBobLM9HLMSPSmehFeksSUUERGs1jY2dTzpDWvb9yhAWilGPe4ixFs_HrUeRZ0TsZiDZ/s1600/IMG_7383.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGk5CNqXIPN4gaIkBMGS8JpGvEha-5oS9k3v6VzUxsnZPkcxH9KGn9YAG4Fl5pssQY6-HRBsnRBobLM9HLMSPSmehFeksSUUERGs1jY2dTzpDWvb9yhAWilGPe4ixFs_HrUeRZ0TsZiDZ/s640/IMG_7383.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking up tot he headwaters of the toutle river</td></tr>
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after a short scramble up the steep riverbank we were met with a perfectly graded trail for running. what had looked to be a heinous climb from above was actually a perfectly efficient trail that made the 1k climb feel fun. not only was the trail a joy to run, the higher we went, the more the views opened up. it was as if the toutle river divided the mountain into two parts, one with trees and one without.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqTWKy_t041qhzqujHYmY0p9AI4mIgclP_h3XViEtnFKvdf5pJFrdWrhYvFV5ZbjdaKHWzaUh6bxzYRfkV_AIJPO2tzGA98Sf0hQ7a_1oY9wUZiNYF_afLWBdjpYDKPTOmcjBA67uRCO9y/s1600/IMG_7387.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqTWKy_t041qhzqujHYmY0p9AI4mIgclP_h3XViEtnFKvdf5pJFrdWrhYvFV5ZbjdaKHWzaUh6bxzYRfkV_AIJPO2tzGA98Sf0hQ7a_1oY9wUZiNYF_afLWBdjpYDKPTOmcjBA67uRCO9y/s640/IMG_7387.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pat climbing out of the toutle</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG6UXfSJaMZom9O6jKJWS1q_3ScNyoFC8MNN_8GK9eiSLPN2KJibsy6Bg24acTfSmrdCk3y801JpAPAnh5ML8kUpKCUpjN3cNYuZFKQiCOL3-jOMCxqlun72Poj0_GA9KlsvJp7uCe42pb/s1600/IMG_7391.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG6UXfSJaMZom9O6jKJWS1q_3ScNyoFC8MNN_8GK9eiSLPN2KJibsy6Bg24acTfSmrdCk3y801JpAPAnh5ML8kUpKCUpjN3cNYuZFKQiCOL3-jOMCxqlun72Poj0_GA9KlsvJp7uCe42pb/s640/IMG_7391.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking back at perfect trail</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbTO2QhhcFtesKmp1m8yxj2rALohozl5DAXVhx1MpqeXcJAp54GFtgNuIk8ldNa2W2N2kc2e4LXrimGLfng376RiXBSL_Ii93pJ1yaVEY4mUPoUsamz8k2k3GeSu4gqV81TxZ3-59Pc1hL/s1600/IMG_7396.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbTO2QhhcFtesKmp1m8yxj2rALohozl5DAXVhx1MpqeXcJAp54GFtgNuIk8ldNa2W2N2kc2e4LXrimGLfng376RiXBSL_Ii93pJ1yaVEY4mUPoUsamz8k2k3GeSu4gqV81TxZ3-59Pc1hL/s640/IMG_7396.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">nearing the top of the climb</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHsYcrCOYlQ7VLr1i8eLin6-LoX9k61i1Z_gat_Ysmjhm7NQDFwI9AjALG3SoFBxLfEmj2cdDnFllFzzTlvqt1cxBTte93ELtz16A_gsNMBVThOES8mUieWkQnh-P312i1Cis8DKCI-d4_/s1600/IMG_7454.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHsYcrCOYlQ7VLr1i8eLin6-LoX9k61i1Z_gat_Ysmjhm7NQDFwI9AjALG3SoFBxLfEmj2cdDnFllFzzTlvqt1cxBTte93ELtz16A_gsNMBVThOES8mUieWkQnh-P312i1Cis8DKCI-d4_/s640/IMG_7454.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">yes, this is in washington</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
once out of the toutle river drainage, the trail meandered through open meadows of wildflowers and the views continued to become more expansive. as the miles passed and the trail started wrapping around to the n side of the mountain, the wildflowers and grass started thin out, eventually disappearing all together.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvmoHkftWf6qK7DuVyzkaBIjjqurCXnqbCDKblcDaVDQWC5w7s0AK7Ioz8dF-IWSTyL9TYcWGbhyphenhyphenQ1YXEnwb-tOS8U7AzemAMC3-impgeWDW3uYhFYiketT_nkv0jGWkeuivBOzIXo1oU/s1600/IMG_7401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvmoHkftWf6qK7DuVyzkaBIjjqurCXnqbCDKblcDaVDQWC5w7s0AK7Ioz8dF-IWSTyL9TYcWGbhyphenhyphenQ1YXEnwb-tOS8U7AzemAMC3-impgeWDW3uYhFYiketT_nkv0jGWkeuivBOzIXo1oU/s640/IMG_7401.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">yes!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsk7OsmQ-9qzwdQlbvpDgMDczodFUKJzZZ_A-q9NcijGbgIekLL4EHWQcRzJzonu99nONUNiTIfQxi3rXK7ZyeKFpP26TXGZZeFk7CvShyphenhyphennXBllqKRBCquTr1k42o9QmxhVOYY17FhT5Wx/s1600/IMG_7402.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsk7OsmQ-9qzwdQlbvpDgMDczodFUKJzZZ_A-q9NcijGbgIekLL4EHWQcRzJzonu99nONUNiTIfQxi3rXK7ZyeKFpP26TXGZZeFk7CvShyphenhyphennXBllqKRBCquTr1k42o9QmxhVOYY17FhT5Wx/s640/IMG_7402.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWZ0Nrr5m-q7ZSaQZBGNEGVcQQanz_4wntmtgB3YHP1xIL8sqjpRJXzNrlnR9pN5kKoFkApXiLf4UfgJP5B1aKxNEkLuXlRFCUcwrci0qd5TYqZlyP9QvJhJnYjeeHy7isCrx6W13t3x2/s1600/IMG_7404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWZ0Nrr5m-q7ZSaQZBGNEGVcQQanz_4wntmtgB3YHP1xIL8sqjpRJXzNrlnR9pN5kKoFkApXiLf4UfgJP5B1aKxNEkLuXlRFCUcwrci0qd5TYqZlyP9QvJhJnYjeeHy7isCrx6W13t3x2/s640/IMG_7404.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">flowers!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGByVDSlbJVTsqEBA4b-7m2V8hj4jT9mn_dAsSktbckgqGp-x423usTIJ6TqjTIlSARigCCu8PRpRrke0eoDEvbx7vUOTxjIaUcCfekPgtdPNxj69wZEaX57jGVpZ-5ct6Zp2i45tf-K0/s1600/IMG_7409.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGByVDSlbJVTsqEBA4b-7m2V8hj4jT9mn_dAsSktbckgqGp-x423usTIJ6TqjTIlSARigCCu8PRpRrke0eoDEvbx7vUOTxjIaUcCfekPgtdPNxj69wZEaX57jGVpZ-5ct6Zp2i45tf-K0/s640/IMG_7409.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking out over wildflowers toward spirit lake </td></tr>
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the north side of mt. st. helens is a barren land scarred from the destructive 1980 eruption, which was so powerful it blew the top 3,000' of the mountain away and sent a column of ash over 15 miles into the air. it was humbling to run across an area that had witnessed a force so powerful that even 36 years later, only a few small plants a some mountain goats are the only visible life. as i sat in the very middle of the blast zone waiting for pat to catch up i tried to wrap my mind around the magnitude of the eruption, but my tiny little brain couldn't scratch the surface.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRBTtsK-Sb6NfeI5iukYTBMc9Y9ituTRod73t8DQOUmNTVzq8oQAkt1XQQF2ts0BDXYixb23P7rYu_wyK1JUrLBrlR7RTlC_NrGACV0SVEsGyeRSXdlyKWCSnEZQn7ty8YNmLjNOh76bXS/s1600/IMG_7415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRBTtsK-Sb6NfeI5iukYTBMc9Y9ituTRod73t8DQOUmNTVzq8oQAkt1XQQF2ts0BDXYixb23P7rYu_wyK1JUrLBrlR7RTlC_NrGACV0SVEsGyeRSXdlyKWCSnEZQn7ty8YNmLjNOh76bXS/s640/IMG_7415.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the blast zone </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyif8PoyyBZCUJC4tA6bSum0grnmkWA_xsTGcEn0VIcvyZXNm2L3MbHWp_6AhlD0ALJrVR7q4mF2b2SX7eH6fqi3V0d2vaOkXpMzNvMHJwpn9M3UXECJzmAcJLO6uePvQb0e8eFU9oF96I/s1600/IMG_7417.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyif8PoyyBZCUJC4tA6bSum0grnmkWA_xsTGcEn0VIcvyZXNm2L3MbHWp_6AhlD0ALJrVR7q4mF2b2SX7eH6fqi3V0d2vaOkXpMzNvMHJwpn9M3UXECJzmAcJLO6uePvQb0e8eFU9oF96I/s640/IMG_7417.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pat pulling out all the tricks to climb the pumice rubble</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
after regrouping, we started off toward windy pass. at one of the few trail junctions, i turned a trail sign so it was pointing in the right direction and kept running thinking that pat wouldn't miss the trail. but just as i was about to run out of view of the junction, i decided to stop and wait to make sure pat went the right way. thankfully i stopped as a few minutes after stopping pat came into view, ran up to the junction and continued past the loowit trail without missing a stride, haha! i yelled and yelled but a breeze knocked my voice down before it could reach him. hoping he wouldn't continue too far down the wrong trail i watched until he disappeared out of sight, then stood up and started sprinting back down the trail toward pat. thankfully he realized his mistake before too long and i only ended up running a half mile in the wrong direction... bonus miles!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX4JPTp5JwoNv6nAlJoWEJ2qmF3xzScuwd-2rumqSiDROQdscidb7csFaT2lPur9u9cpH2Cq14K4L5Cvts6foIuY-nO6IbiBtEulofpsGIpHq3HNMlV0EB4taN-6V-HnykJ7wYe3e7bbOS/s1600/IMG_7418.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX4JPTp5JwoNv6nAlJoWEJ2qmF3xzScuwd-2rumqSiDROQdscidb7csFaT2lPur9u9cpH2Cq14K4L5Cvts6foIuY-nO6IbiBtEulofpsGIpHq3HNMlV0EB4taN-6V-HnykJ7wYe3e7bbOS/s640/IMG_7418.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pat running toward the falls turnoff</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtCisg8MoX2rFyhVBVikd8mZuKWHti2e-l2w_jIWzuB2TdAd3NS3s5Z-MFZxb-6uarunW6M_s2lR60oRpmvjwlU5m2RowIx-bXd6AYuyi1RCzTzXIypxlu5Fl1NK5n-O-AlxYdRLiIIetJ/s1600/IMG_7420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtCisg8MoX2rFyhVBVikd8mZuKWHti2e-l2w_jIWzuB2TdAd3NS3s5Z-MFZxb-6uarunW6M_s2lR60oRpmvjwlU5m2RowIx-bXd6AYuyi1RCzTzXIypxlu5Fl1NK5n-O-AlxYdRLiIIetJ/s640/IMG_7420.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking back at spirit lake</td></tr>
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from our slight detour we took the correct turn, ran past my last stopping point and continued on to windy pass. the pass lived up to its name and was the only time on the trip i even thought about pulling out the houdini to block the wind. but pat arrived soon enough for me to start running before becoming too cold. the back side of windy pass was steep and loose but felt fun as the rest of the trail had been 99% perfect. dropping down onto the plains of abraham i was able to pick up the pace and put a fair distance between pat and i and eventually stopped to regroup at the creek below shoestring glacier. i refilled water, ate some food and snuck a quick nap before pat came running into the drainage.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ0XvWxgIyJ1MoPntQYEy-8I5WdbCb1xJdLZTg60PCLI9b9LdEX9ptfOVPx0VYgjBTheSwUPmO4lXiDMVbgIEHbR_wyyrO5PrJ54j9C32GUT8tEAPO6mNI63kKCm-mZHOGhZLogyY0O1Gh/s1600/IMG_7423.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ0XvWxgIyJ1MoPntQYEy-8I5WdbCb1xJdLZTg60PCLI9b9LdEX9ptfOVPx0VYgjBTheSwUPmO4lXiDMVbgIEHbR_wyyrO5PrJ54j9C32GUT8tEAPO6mNI63kKCm-mZHOGhZLogyY0O1Gh/s640/IMG_7423.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">windy pass</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdjOMDJIJJ6EK4uOJxrzD4iTn0g0ZIP2Hb7e2J-ShIGrmzQlE-rAl0FV06o8CilIzA9L_dQZ9daXc-HBUnyCwHkee14ugTqV6siMhRQHBg16-r1tdXyho59akFcf57mDxe5dGHiRF5yUE-/s1600/IMG_7433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdjOMDJIJJ6EK4uOJxrzD4iTn0g0ZIP2Hb7e2J-ShIGrmzQlE-rAl0FV06o8CilIzA9L_dQZ9daXc-HBUnyCwHkee14ugTqV6siMhRQHBg16-r1tdXyho59akFcf57mDxe5dGHiRF5yUE-/s640/IMG_7433.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the plains of abraham!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW0UjSuFMHpS4_aHegAZLuKxP0aY_DHBfcVp7U2fvXFp5G3R2Q-NTD5ulUtUCNUJOcGIJT3gHlPD-kvi0zFLbRZPzTDhKSm5z2KL1Fs3rL9Ifa-yN6JDHb6pdJBubCC-orQ-nCWsCGBer8/s1600/IMG_7439.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW0UjSuFMHpS4_aHegAZLuKxP0aY_DHBfcVp7U2fvXFp5G3R2Q-NTD5ulUtUCNUJOcGIJT3gHlPD-kvi0zFLbRZPzTDhKSm5z2KL1Fs3rL9Ifa-yN6JDHb6pdJBubCC-orQ-nCWsCGBer8/s640/IMG_7439.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">water refill below the shoestring glacier</td></tr>
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from the shoestring i didn't know what to expect of the trail but quickly found out that it's full of many small climbs and descents over a fairly rocky trail. i had thought the trail was going to gradually descend throughout this whole section but it didn't start really going downhill until about 2 miles from the june lake turnoff. reaching the turnoff i decided to wait for pat one last time before running back to the car. i waited for long enough that i almost started running back to look for him but thankfully he came cruising around the corner just before i was about to leave. the look on his face was classic as he jogged up, completely spent yet having a great time.<br />
<br />
from the june lake trail junction, it's about 1.2k of climbing back to the climbers bivouac trail. up to this point, i had run every portion of the trail that was runnable so i decided that i would continue running all the way back to the car. after falling in the last pumice field a couple times, i switched to quick hiking the pumice but ran the rest of the climb... and yes, it got pretty pathetic as the 80 degree heat really started getting to my dehydrated body. at times i could have quick hiked faster with less effort, but things we no longer about efficiency and much more about pride!<br />
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rounding the top of the climb and turning onto the climbers bivouac trail i knew there was only 2 miles of downhill between myself and the car. a renewed energy emerged and i started bombing down the trail only slowing down for traffic jams of climbers limping from their days battle. popping out of the trail and onto the pavement of the parking lot felt fast and effortless as i ran back to the car.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5e0Ajfb4PjQHPSHSSx3sAGzZOoPxUg-gZDhJYbVSl_NsYXQQ89-9wbdu21LfIaFVY_mgDolApJGKFcEx_-N7Pr5kDkR0TNfPC2E3NhSRwX-yInhRJkC-JewD8djmfyUGps5LSEL_jU248/s1600/IMG_7445.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5e0Ajfb4PjQHPSHSSx3sAGzZOoPxUg-gZDhJYbVSl_NsYXQQ89-9wbdu21LfIaFVY_mgDolApJGKFcEx_-N7Pr5kDkR0TNfPC2E3NhSRwX-yInhRJkC-JewD8djmfyUGps5LSEL_jU248/s640/IMG_7445.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">so damn close to the end of the last climb! soooo thirsty. </td></tr>
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as i was using a water bottle to effectively shower off before changing into clean clothes, i heard some people talking about how their group had gotten split up and one of their members was missing. an exasperated gentleman (who turned out to be their guide!) took my phone number and said he'd call if he needed help before heading back up the trail. as he left, i talked to a woman from the group who was asking me about my run and though it was odd that i didn't know exactly where my partner was. i laughed inside as i pictured pat, dehydrated, tired and sore, hiking along the trail in his own pain cave. it's nice knowing that your partner is the type of person who could take the wrong turn (did take the wrong turn... twice), be super tired and dehydrated and still be completely ok.<br />
<br />
eventually pat came jogging into the parking lot looking happy to be done but not too exhausted. we each enjoyed the warm beer we had kept in the car and waited for the missing climber to be found. thankfully the guide found his missing client and we immediately drove off to find food. we found mexican food. it was good.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhLjsht6hc2MsVxXC7GS62xJBCo8vePEXNYMu2Y-WPS-iHFZvPISo_-6a5cr4jeQCuMA5rg_BmiXayeMew72o8Qa5QVyQwLH5pFKCoGebgwEzNSqwAiYC5eSzcD8n0EmV5l4pm7JoDXlLp/s1600/IMG_7453.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhLjsht6hc2MsVxXC7GS62xJBCo8vePEXNYMu2Y-WPS-iHFZvPISo_-6a5cr4jeQCuMA5rg_BmiXayeMew72o8Qa5QVyQwLH5pFKCoGebgwEzNSqwAiYC5eSzcD8n0EmV5l4pm7JoDXlLp/s640/IMG_7453.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">yes</td></tr>
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all in all the loowit trail was about 33 miles car to car with 7.5k of elevation gain. i spent just under 6.5 hours running and about an hour and a half hanging out while pat grunted through the longest run he had ever done... off the couch!toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-13766453937958250862016-06-14T17:59:00.000-07:002016-06-15T15:01:00.994-07:00mt. baker easton glacier ski<div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicbkSHrMnIh5MEvjIOlRRQnHCjvJn2cinsZj-0VCT2_ZsOOuXXyJQIcpBRb4f08sgWXNYvrbOzEXuUZC3Av0jameW5CYgU2fhu8ArGP0ejtLty4bg2J5BYOFdGIamJiE7yMAJFCvQQYm04/s1600/IMG_6837.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicbkSHrMnIh5MEvjIOlRRQnHCjvJn2cinsZj-0VCT2_ZsOOuXXyJQIcpBRb4f08sgWXNYvrbOzEXuUZC3Av0jameW5CYgU2fhu8ArGP0ejtLty4bg2J5BYOFdGIamJiE7yMAJFCvQQYm04/s640/IMG_6837.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">sunrise starting over the easton glacier</td></tr>
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</div>
a little over a week ago i shared the summit of mt. baker with my good friend <a href="https://patricknygren.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">patrick nygren</a>, who is just starting his journey into the world of alpine climbing and ski mountaineering. being a small part of patrick's first actual glacier climb brought back a lot of memories and gave me a great chance to look back on where i've come from and forward to where i'm going.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">...</span></b></div>
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i finally arrive at the schriebers meadow trailhead at 12:25 am. getting off work late and a bad accident had turned my leisurely drive into stressful thoughts about sleeping... if you're only going to sleep 2.5 hours, then show up an hour late, you just lost 40% of your sleep! i've skied mt. baker lots of times, but never have i contemplated leaving the trailhead as early as 2:00 am. but when temps aren't going to drop below 50 degress at 9k at night, a super early start makes the most sense. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNW6LQTob9I5P4Wjx1vtOM7EVKrtA7ZB_lpJ5K4GuPGyRdqzTGduL-v_beZ45jkh-vPmBmU5cg3fMtXbHaW4m8b0xgwGwnLAqNJfoGXLJ_ALG50WRZlbnUyy7WDXdKNurTjP0nBo4oU6cv/s1600/IMG_6826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNW6LQTob9I5P4Wjx1vtOM7EVKrtA7ZB_lpJ5K4GuPGyRdqzTGduL-v_beZ45jkh-vPmBmU5cg3fMtXbHaW4m8b0xgwGwnLAqNJfoGXLJ_ALG50WRZlbnUyy7WDXdKNurTjP0nBo4oU6cv/s640/IMG_6826.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">i was originally planning on getting up at 1:30...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
crawling into the bed in the back of my car, i set the alarm for 2:30 (so i fudged on my departure time a little...) and try to sleep real hard. sleep doesn't really come, if it did it was poor at best, and my alarm signals "breakfast". with the hardest part of the trip behind me, i shove a chocolate-chocolate chip muffin down my throat, drink some water and put my skis and boots on my back. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHp1r55MDKtWIRRweiV2bbWwvbe7b2zSVTOPMbYbdKXHuoRHOgMZrow5qD_T2cR2Tp-N2115bzNWXBIjGIbXvz3yco_1PTovrqkbTx4x2cFhHv-wKcqAbv_s88THHCwlp0pnu5SVjNyHSg/s1600/IMG_6828.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHp1r55MDKtWIRRweiV2bbWwvbe7b2zSVTOPMbYbdKXHuoRHOgMZrow5qD_T2cR2Tp-N2115bzNWXBIjGIbXvz3yco_1PTovrqkbTx4x2cFhHv-wKcqAbv_s88THHCwlp0pnu5SVjNyHSg/s640/IMG_6828.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">home for the night</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
starting from the car with a slow jog, i'm surprised by the drafts of very warm air flowing from higher on the mountain. at the first clearing of the meadow, i look up at baker and see headlamps making their way up the mountain, some just out of camp, some on the roman wall. i think about my friend patrick who is climbing the same route today and imagine one of the headlamps is probably his. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuiG9_ET4HhWiAQooee9P-pP2NnBRbKWfjO4R-DvOBRMp0-9TlV_ODV45WDXhV8gAfWRregLqxxZ7VGjf5A4YsnVdU01bT-TujPQPm4GxhKKqKucIvYEPtHSrXRQgb49GTeoycXjfUyEyA/s1600/IMG_6829.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuiG9_ET4HhWiAQooee9P-pP2NnBRbKWfjO4R-DvOBRMp0-9TlV_ODV45WDXhV8gAfWRregLqxxZ7VGjf5A4YsnVdU01bT-TujPQPm4GxhKKqKucIvYEPtHSrXRQgb49GTeoycXjfUyEyA/s640/IMG_6829.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">during the good morning run</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
crossing the main stream in the dark proves a bit difficult as the normal bridge hasn't yet been put in place. after searching for a dry way across, i finally settle on getting my feet wet and just walk across. with wet feet, just starting my trip and at 3:15 in the morning, i am in my happy place.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
the trail through the trees quickly disappears into the dark and soon enough i'm stashing shoes just before the railroad grade. the sun hasn't risen yet, but it's light is brightening the snow enough that i stash my headlamp and start upward. i choose to hike the railroad grade in my boots rather than skin below and enjoy the views toward the terminus of the easton glacier. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
eventually the dirt hiking ends and the skinning begins. i wind a path through a surprising number of tents at different locations just west of the glacier, most of these people still asleep and probably not climbing until the next day. leaving the clutter of the camps, i poke onto the easton glacier to find complete solitude, not even a footprint. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijWYL_PinSmctqMSTgExCeooZsKRKCNoRbUvuzEt77w44e7lqndD6PhEjBejWAA6VYH5JB8Oha2QmYDvwgukHqJ7fEYtcOycjgmcLHWXPJyng85DhLcGsYw0H_3gAHLJduPq9-4ghor7L6/s1600/IMG_6833.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijWYL_PinSmctqMSTgExCeooZsKRKCNoRbUvuzEt77w44e7lqndD6PhEjBejWAA6VYH5JB8Oha2QmYDvwgukHqJ7fEYtcOycjgmcLHWXPJyng85DhLcGsYw0H_3gAHLJduPq9-4ghor7L6/s640/IMG_6833.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">tents and tents</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
but my solitude definitely ends quickly as i come to the main cattle path blazing a route up the mountain. shortly after finding the main bootpack, i pass the first group of climbers which consist of fully gortex and puffy jacket clad men and women all sporting blackout lenses on their ski googles with superbright headlamps at full blast. i must have been a spectacle in nothing but a t-shirt and alone on the glacier. i received both confused and angry looks from the rope teams as i say a quick good morning, then pass by. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJiylhB7BLnBn1SCX2nkz6V5oKgX2UNvwXDDOcdxWJ0X3BObhqZvHZdMksBdmW6ZXWg9VWxFHaq_Zky1Q13a_jMnNTJW8vwuZ8MPL4Dl7WV8q19pokPfRZRXULkjFcucNXIYrGcVvZuJrY/s1600/IMG_6841.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJiylhB7BLnBn1SCX2nkz6V5oKgX2UNvwXDDOcdxWJ0X3BObhqZvHZdMksBdmW6ZXWg9VWxFHaq_Zky1Q13a_jMnNTJW8vwuZ8MPL4Dl7WV8q19pokPfRZRXULkjFcucNXIYrGcVvZuJrY/s640/IMG_6841.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">catching some rope teams</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
i passed more and more rope teams making their way up the mountain, each one seemed to have their own type of glare or "helpful comment" they felt necessary to send my way. one angry rope leader even said, "take a climbing class or go home your fool" as he literally pulled on his rope to try to get his team to move faster, scolding them for their incompetence, all the while. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
arriving at the base of the roman wall, i noticed everyone was crammed onto one bootpack. both teams going up and down were struggling to stick to the same thin line on an expansive open face. the theme song for this moment sounded something like, "stop! climbing! no no! wait! rock! climbing!" as 20 or so people tried to negotiate each other. thankfully, perfect cramponing conditions existed everywhere outside bootpack. taking advantage of this, i stepped to the side and walked to the top. but there is no free lunch so i had to listen to lots of good reasons why what i was doing was dangerous and how people weren't going to pull me out of the crevasse (that was apparently about to open beneath my feet) as a punishment for not using their bootpack or doing things their way. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9f5UyuVkiTuFm2Wt6I6UVo-PcB37Hsb51VmnOpbe-A6w3JeAyyAYUljTRpv9ySJSgW7fgIA8tp4jbxri9yMijVIe0MQCGCISByNbdWg5LbEwQ7259rQ2U3vSlyzTU78CiVTefxWRUGuJ/s1600/IMG_6850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9f5UyuVkiTuFm2Wt6I6UVo-PcB37Hsb51VmnOpbe-A6w3JeAyyAYUljTRpv9ySJSgW7fgIA8tp4jbxri9yMijVIe0MQCGCISByNbdWg5LbEwQ7259rQ2U3vSlyzTU78CiVTefxWRUGuJ/s640/IMG_6850.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the view from the crater rim</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
finally rounding the rollover at the top of the roman wall, a pleasant stroll with about 50 other people was all the separated me from the true summit. a couple hundred feet away from the summit i heard patrick call out my name, and was happy that timing worked out well.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
we share laughs about how busy the mountain is and recount our respective experiences, but more importantly take some pictures and enjoy the fresh air. this is patrick's first time standing on the summit of mt. baker and i feel honored to be a part of the experience. i think back to what seems like forever ago when i first climbed mt. baker via the easton glacier. then i think forward to all that has happened since. as patrick and his rope team leave the true summit, i sit a little while longer and briefly reflect, this is my 20th time sitting on the top of this mountain. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp-o1pEib99DF1H-gy80bmBCw3lS7GlGGwhsfOEAi7hbb6UHf-kW4RG5_MSxFdLG_vBLuYirmc0633k_xF1wj-HimcA40hm0lopau4u0cJc7YmjQGBWOybzC7BuzEK7ATalOaELJ2p-OGU/s1600/IMG_6852.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp-o1pEib99DF1H-gy80bmBCw3lS7GlGGwhsfOEAi7hbb6UHf-kW4RG5_MSxFdLG_vBLuYirmc0633k_xF1wj-HimcA40hm0lopau4u0cJc7YmjQGBWOybzC7BuzEK7ATalOaELJ2p-OGU/s640/IMG_6852.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">summit!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
after saying our goodbyes and congratulations, i strip skins, flip my boots to ski mode, step into the tiny piece of metal holding me to my skis and start skating back to the roman wall. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Vqv9eZXRXcvIyqQPjJVRFZO7e5uEZEZD7vyD4fKyxchiPgO1LlWuYuhDhh_ol4edf8b2y_AKb3cJumvV6giDWnwukDseEDUdqT_r9gYJr_DKplg9xOTVWH65-ByPD1ui6XO1ZkqG81zK/s1600/IMG_6854.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Vqv9eZXRXcvIyqQPjJVRFZO7e5uEZEZD7vyD4fKyxchiPgO1LlWuYuhDhh_ol4edf8b2y_AKb3cJumvV6giDWnwukDseEDUdqT_r9gYJr_DKplg9xOTVWH65-ByPD1ui6XO1ZkqG81zK/s640/IMG_6854.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">looking back on the summit from the false summit during a lull in the crowds</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
the next 6,000' of skiing goes by in a matter of minutes but i cherish the feel of the frozen corn on my ski edges of the roman wall, or the breakable crust that makes me feel like i don't know how to ski. it's all a pat of the journey and i eat it up, all of it. i don't think i had one good turn of corn during the entire descent. it went from bulletproof to breakable to grabby mank with nothing in between.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivwVPwNG1-p5RWwMcsRwSlWuW59qn2qUppAsusf_lRk6AM8GA7FW6_ZL1055a83o4kBpTuIESKscgygCIXtTIka3moUOMVbLhErBJsvx6sBD4OOhi_e9877z52CD2Kqk8EOQ54CH4OqLz_/s1600/IMG_6856.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivwVPwNG1-p5RWwMcsRwSlWuW59qn2qUppAsusf_lRk6AM8GA7FW6_ZL1055a83o4kBpTuIESKscgygCIXtTIka3moUOMVbLhErBJsvx6sBD4OOhi_e9877z52CD2Kqk8EOQ54CH4OqLz_/s640/IMG_6856.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">one of the guys in the rope team visible jumped out of the line waving his arms at me wildly yelling, "slow down,!crevasse! crevasse!" i'm guessing he thought i was blind. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
i overshoot my shoes and have to hike a few hundred vertical feet to retrieve them before i combat ski through the trees to the last patch of snow before the muddy trail begins. i fall over trying to pry the "sock liner" of my ski boot off my wet feet and laugh at the absurdity of the situation... i laugh at the blackout goggle wearing folk with super bright headlamps and puffy jackets and the mountains laughs at the idiot who can't take his boot off without falling in the mud. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
spurred on by the thought that the beer in the car isn't getting any colder in the sun, i run back to the car making short work of the final trail miles. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUC2LgLEaZgKdqi382s65yMNfCnWYvj-_dfN3PpBL661kcZRY0jmJUhnifwf3PhbXlMzJiXWCun7paTNwRqk5aTKzCAKeldBxs94NA70cTFc6AOVZu5s1SbPLuvuBt_ioqmv12gzvwWm-/s1600/IMG_6863.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaUC2LgLEaZgKdqi382s65yMNfCnWYvj-_dfN3PpBL661kcZRY0jmJUhnifwf3PhbXlMzJiXWCun7paTNwRqk5aTKzCAKeldBxs94NA70cTFc6AOVZu5s1SbPLuvuBt_ioqmv12gzvwWm-/s640/IMG_6863.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">watch back at the car... 5:41:23 of movement, not including time spent on the summit or transitions</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
arriving at the car i crack open my beer, set everything out to dry and sit down. a few minutes later, a family walks by eating some donuts as their little boy screams, "donuts for breakfast! my favorite!" looking at the beer in my hand, i examine my watch to find out it's not quite 9:30 am... oops. it had taken me 4 hours and 5 minutes to climb the mountain, and 6 hours and 15 minutes car to car. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmWp_RpMK0YmLN6pUV_DRqMtdIVs1v8aJVcw2BzIU91dTHoiQ1J0vT9hH8EkDC01g6XAOJ-1zXgFW5HZg3bSEY09Afo1B4P88NxLZXZj6vHRFIGZm0PZz4k7eUsE7fSepcPTX716v9inbd/s1600/IMG_6866.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmWp_RpMK0YmLN6pUV_DRqMtdIVs1v8aJVcw2BzIU91dTHoiQ1J0vT9hH8EkDC01g6XAOJ-1zXgFW5HZg3bSEY09Afo1B4P88NxLZXZj6vHRFIGZm0PZz4k7eUsE7fSepcPTX716v9inbd/s640/IMG_6866.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">9:30 am beer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">...</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div>
every now and then we have an experience that sheds light on how we experience mountains. this trip, in particular, has changed the way i see the mountains here in the cascades. the past few years of working hard to build a strong aerobic base seems to be paying off. progress is real. progress is slow. everything just got a little bit smaller. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
i'm definitely intrigued by what would happen if i stripped my kit down to the bare minimum and went for a speed attempt on mt. baker, working as hard as i could rather than enjoying the day. i could easily shed 7 lbs of gear from what i took (about 40% of the total weight i brought up) and keep my heart rate about 20 bpm higher. but more importantly, i am starting to understand that being confident in my body's ability to move quickly and confidently is just the tip of the iceberg. the adventure i started on my first alpine climb years and years ago has truly just begun. </div>
toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-54588266529426229332016-06-02T19:48:00.000-07:002016-06-04T11:01:36.145-07:00mount hinman ski<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDh1OxmsMj-1UsGPTuY46lNYRD8KUUacDTH8X_K34ercBpxGbn7h5_JyyZagGyKC146v88Nu24L_7pxrgOy4LqZgKfb5pfe6Vc0PV7uPDJtU_GguIFLxHNeOAMqhl_p5y4XsKXxNlrXV2_/s1600/IMG_6453.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDh1OxmsMj-1UsGPTuY46lNYRD8KUUacDTH8X_K34ercBpxGbn7h5_JyyZagGyKC146v88Nu24L_7pxrgOy4LqZgKfb5pfe6Vc0PV7uPDJtU_GguIFLxHNeOAMqhl_p5y4XsKXxNlrXV2_/s640/IMG_6453.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">starting the descent from la bohn gap<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
its been a few weeks since pat and i skied twice from the summit of mount hinman and for whatever reason, this trip has stuck with me more than i expected. we set out with skis and some food but didn't take any route descriptions or maps. this trip was more about exploring somewhere new and less about accomplishing an objective.<br />
<br />
having just skied glacier peak four days prior, i knew my body most likely wasn't ready for another long day of the same proportion so i convinced pat to join me exploring the necklace valley/mount hinman area. we camped at the east fork of the foss river trailhead and got a 4:15 am start the next day.<br />
<br />
we left the car with thick clouds covering the valley limiting visibility to around 50' down the trail. trees seemed to come out of nowhere, drift past silently and disappear into the void. the eerie silence of thick cloud in a deep valley was accentuated by the calls of 3 or 4 owls perched high in the trees off the trail.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo-BLvwhBX2bajVQLRUQw5r07jYFaucUgY3N74VmRVMnuklre26I9kPOYlckDBz0nvV7mSRrwhpw4sgc1X5Mr7vjdgulmd3wO9s3rCJDDVDESL3gvSViXi5I7JeEaD_YspaBRbKqlQXA0l/s1600/IMG_6388.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo-BLvwhBX2bajVQLRUQw5r07jYFaucUgY3N74VmRVMnuklre26I9kPOYlckDBz0nvV7mSRrwhpw4sgc1X5Mr7vjdgulmd3wO9s3rCJDDVDESL3gvSViXi5I7JeEaD_YspaBRbKqlQXA0l/s640/IMG_6388.jpg" title="another early start" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">another early start<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
as the sun pushed the darkness away, it also took with it the clouds. soon enough, our headlamps were off and we were getting glimpses of high peaks further down the valley. we wound our way through the brushy trail and eventually arrived at the river crossing. until this point, the trail had been quite flat, but as soon as we crossed the river, the nature of the trail changed dramatically.<br />
<br />
our low valley stroll was replaced with the usual march upward as a rocky trail traced a path toward the alpine. before long, we even got views back down the valley toward the trailhead. eventually the trail started to pass through small snow patches and disappeared right as we reached the outlet of jade lake.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxTRYEG7wJSswCb7IY7kCzkZR8QW8JOOysZPLxPCdi3XGs823Tll2yGCzT9z7KOBUvvVrbgEZV74YpQBAPUitOeZJG6lBxYh-XK__18rSPihVVI-nQb5spvsQ0I8snho5MUmggeYDGuuaJ/s1600/IMG_2767.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxTRYEG7wJSswCb7IY7kCzkZR8QW8JOOysZPLxPCdi3XGs823Tll2yGCzT9z7KOBUvvVrbgEZV74YpQBAPUitOeZJG6lBxYh-XK__18rSPihVVI-nQb5spvsQ0I8snho5MUmggeYDGuuaJ/s640/IMG_2767.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">morning light while emerging from the low valley<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDHYCO4wrJaVv86RxJjyODUsLHXhjlTabTEZUAGiCz4Kerpok1EWRVM5jrq4HkCT0ydk2_GJGPLBlRQgrjbU-YEm1uXdtDb7Mjz8O8CBDbv4H6jOUWVFUieaza9z1cHUFjzMOgVptGjMtl/s1600/IMG_6398.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDHYCO4wrJaVv86RxJjyODUsLHXhjlTabTEZUAGiCz4Kerpok1EWRVM5jrq4HkCT0ydk2_GJGPLBlRQgrjbU-YEm1uXdtDb7Mjz8O8CBDbv4H6jOUWVFUieaza9z1cHUFjzMOgVptGjMtl/s640/IMG_6398.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">blowdown<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ8Vv5Aw1niGxvf8hkzsiqed-NAp1omzsElV90nmONfRSFysSdauxEOM9gzVRbm7sVk9IGNkErlEkMh8PZcWjh8s_HkaMnjmjXmgr-4hqVuEbbZjYAlaByVBKRFNmatw9TsptoH5X99xTn/s1600/IMG_6405.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ8Vv5Aw1niGxvf8hkzsiqed-NAp1omzsElV90nmONfRSFysSdauxEOM9gzVRbm7sVk9IGNkErlEkMh8PZcWjh8s_HkaMnjmjXmgr-4hqVuEbbZjYAlaByVBKRFNmatw9TsptoH5X99xTn/s640/IMG_6405.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">unique bridge<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3MBh24h7rHJUoJPFwuot1QW4taJXnioZYAO_fttmZm8KWUmek8TboIQf0bZQLENG-o0KFMkczhYdccyrkyQstuScmAWdG4QnD8rTKZ4D0Gi6_OOBtgTl-lMHqCV3sELVCRewd4xFlmBX1/s1600/IMG_6407.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3MBh24h7rHJUoJPFwuot1QW4taJXnioZYAO_fttmZm8KWUmek8TboIQf0bZQLENG-o0KFMkczhYdccyrkyQstuScmAWdG4QnD8rTKZ4D0Gi6_OOBtgTl-lMHqCV3sELVCRewd4xFlmBX1/s640/IMG_6407.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">jade lake<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
from jade lake we lost the trail but thankfully everything was covered with snow so travel was easy enough. keeping shoes on, we followed the stream up, past an old abandoned cabin, past emerald lake, past opal and cloudy lake and eventually wandered into a large open cirque at the end of the valley. we decided to go up a broad steep slope to what we hoped was la bohn gap rather than following the waterfalls to the left, which we figured were coming from la bohn lakes.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4AMpQPWAIu4y6Hs7lNIpAV6pJjSJ84TrT7jtnU7-OLCAhHQKSyXEK9euJG-1n2Kn0Xqmej-4dDKI7EulmxWr7c_6buHy4CSjP6OoX4xdEHsJb43g9iC6liTBCO0nXUPjDx_8khH90aALs/s1600/IMG_2779.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="451" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4AMpQPWAIu4y6Hs7lNIpAV6pJjSJ84TrT7jtnU7-OLCAhHQKSyXEK9euJG-1n2Kn0Xqmej-4dDKI7EulmxWr7c_6buHy4CSjP6OoX4xdEHsJb43g9iC6liTBCO0nXUPjDx_8khH90aALs/s640/IMG_2779.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ice growing on the edge of jade lake<br />
<br /></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLYXGyvWkGDQK_ZcM2nXLdpqorNUoJ0-D20rs6rsd6m68y6wBqS3s5lRj26aLBuNQL16-EjO7_0Azc7zzSkaWDmXFM-NmLmwVRcOSa-yi47gB6KYzmOQgOBNBeSvnFUUQjyfg3GiMllelr/s1600/IMG_2782.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLYXGyvWkGDQK_ZcM2nXLdpqorNUoJ0-D20rs6rsd6m68y6wBqS3s5lRj26aLBuNQL16-EjO7_0Azc7zzSkaWDmXFM-NmLmwVRcOSa-yi47gB6KYzmOQgOBNBeSvnFUUQjyfg3GiMllelr/s640/IMG_2782.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">hiking above opal lake<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNSJzRR1ABMJf00lNzyw9YsNkG0UrYuqS3AzW5qdmyyG_qcw3pHdu_JbPl86qfVOm1yMuc36OmiPzJqfBy42ymHsmG7qLRRRWeH0gFkty98xVnRE8XeFaQ1RPwNwyuPEPqvTlJTZwKpZr/s1600/IMG_6414.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNSJzRR1ABMJf00lNzyw9YsNkG0UrYuqS3AzW5qdmyyG_qcw3pHdu_JbPl86qfVOm1yMuc36OmiPzJqfBy42ymHsmG7qLRRRWeH0gFkty98xVnRE8XeFaQ1RPwNwyuPEPqvTlJTZwKpZr/s640/IMG_6414.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">alpine dodgeball<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
switching to crampons partway up the steep slope, i dropped a stuff sack which started sliding down. pat lunged after it and managed to stop it but not without bumping one of his own skis downhill. feeling mostly responsible, i told pat to keep working up the slope while i got a bonus lap of firm suncups to rattle my brain and retrieve the ski.<br />
<br />
after climbing the slope a second time, i found pat lounging in the sun at what turned out to be la bohn gap. the view of bears breast, summit chief, chimney rock and overcoat dominated the skyline. now armed with both skis, pat and i skinned up the ridge above la bohn lakes gaining the ridge leading to the summit of mount hinman.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizHYf6bshLNOKVg09SM92_bO2rIMGkcCp5tdhXrsHlJH9aNc-Kd6ms3DoYC7xR6slQHM3UQt9LaietACvnYzi01gyHMrIG8lG252kNcyWIgQ7iVbtuLNbFTRjL3I_h2OlNc9_2rhrlWeO2/s1600/IMG_6419.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizHYf6bshLNOKVg09SM92_bO2rIMGkcCp5tdhXrsHlJH9aNc-Kd6ms3DoYC7xR6slQHM3UQt9LaietACvnYzi01gyHMrIG8lG252kNcyWIgQ7iVbtuLNbFTRjL3I_h2OlNc9_2rhrlWeO2/s640/IMG_6419.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">above la bohn gap<br />
if you look closely you can see a jet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0aQHVztpz2DwC7ddg8Ak4OHQFhkc37bniKP6oWKToYsxSNWnJMBods_Qlhr3lenROiAEIJ70Guanl0ll4hPp0qq_TST9pbyfTKTosQjOtyPIcoL-q5Kfg8QUjZBil9CkOrndocJSCfZLB/s1600/IMG_2791.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0aQHVztpz2DwC7ddg8Ak4OHQFhkc37bniKP6oWKToYsxSNWnJMBods_Qlhr3lenROiAEIJ70Guanl0ll4hPp0qq_TST9pbyfTKTosQjOtyPIcoL-q5Kfg8QUjZBil9CkOrndocJSCfZLB/s640/IMG_2791.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">n face of summit chief... mmm...<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8rwF5HjC6-Vv8i9lReft21hEsFn13A29dRZrbw7AJcUo1xN3XZfCG3vcfNlRpswFBaokl0Jieefq9klTrgo8BUZ0Wa9JXQlC6xmd6tuscSfQhMJuZPn4-h5PkJiJpruM-pAOk-nIwjenp/s1600/IMG_6430.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8rwF5HjC6-Vv8i9lReft21hEsFn13A29dRZrbw7AJcUo1xN3XZfCG3vcfNlRpswFBaokl0Jieefq9klTrgo8BUZ0Wa9JXQlC6xmd6tuscSfQhMJuZPn4-h5PkJiJpruM-pAOk-nIwjenp/s640/IMG_6430.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
the ridge seemed to go on and on but it's low angled nature well above treeline offered nothing to complain about. scooting around the first rocky prominence we could see what is the true summit a few hundred feet away. a quick skin across the gentle ridge and we were standing on top of a mountain i've looked at from mount daniel many times.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDTek083O3ufsUgDl6suh0i3kSRNNUvrpsGj_EQpvN_rjd6-kyfuwNBdlOnA7sNfIVdA-uvHFYIKEgjdafiMkiTn2tcOCL977Osk7z-Gt-plQuXAgzKJMGY6EbLPkdXyW8gfBF6kr2gLqg/s1600/IMG_6431.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDTek083O3ufsUgDl6suh0i3kSRNNUvrpsGj_EQpvN_rjd6-kyfuwNBdlOnA7sNfIVdA-uvHFYIKEgjdafiMkiTn2tcOCL977Osk7z-Gt-plQuXAgzKJMGY6EbLPkdXyW8gfBF6kr2gLqg/s640/IMG_6431.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pat on the summit of hinman<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6gJ8ety-XZRtmZ-QpKNAP0iu87jwDXYmiphB8IB89Z7PVSzkHOjK2-nXjEJXnYfEAhFk2y9j_9_ZXN35oKvYXyLfYNsBC00wjCKzN3EgjgHcy_DopBQ3onQ6ImugA5vHYhgaBAGZjA33/s1600/IMG_6433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP6gJ8ety-XZRtmZ-QpKNAP0iu87jwDXYmiphB8IB89Z7PVSzkHOjK2-nXjEJXnYfEAhFk2y9j_9_ZXN35oKvYXyLfYNsBC00wjCKzN3EgjgHcy_DopBQ3onQ6ImugA5vHYhgaBAGZjA33/s640/IMG_6433.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pano of the summit view<br />
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</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69r1zlcCbjFKOdLAJdTAhGLiCIxSqNx_Zhl7n1DptJi7lDg4FeRD_1px36BVCq7pb9UgM-UYhyphenhyphen9U0xpfQpPRY8_4sJejhdaBBPv-PRM_sj8c5vaFNCTR7owUonQyoxGuE-BX5l8jWVUVz/s1600/IMG_6436.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg69r1zlcCbjFKOdLAJdTAhGLiCIxSqNx_Zhl7n1DptJi7lDg4FeRD_1px36BVCq7pb9UgM-UYhyphenhyphen9U0xpfQpPRY8_4sJejhdaBBPv-PRM_sj8c5vaFNCTR7owUonQyoxGuE-BX5l8jWVUVz/s640/IMG_6436.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">i forgot my sunglasses so i got to use pat's free pair we found in his car<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
the summit was quite windy so we didn't stay long. we stripped skins and pointed our skis down the ne side of the mountain. excellent corn slid under our skis for 1,500' of bliss before we stopped above cliffs just short of a lake below the glacier. out of the wind and in a solar oven, we took our time enjoying the warmth while eating lunch.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3bT8scf11JSXOYXSf02Pp2JGzqVEJV2jhvIsH-T6xw9s7AKGt7l7smJLLavX2iwAZ8EjzHCRwYyK3ANFgFxBWL49sBqougs-Thd6HF9hHM3couPz_BZ4tT6St6ti3zEDrO-TGZ7W0_aO/s1600/IMG_6441.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3bT8scf11JSXOYXSf02Pp2JGzqVEJV2jhvIsH-T6xw9s7AKGt7l7smJLLavX2iwAZ8EjzHCRwYyK3ANFgFxBWL49sBqougs-Thd6HF9hHM3couPz_BZ4tT6St6ti3zEDrO-TGZ7W0_aO/s640/IMG_6441.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">skiing down to the lakes ne of the summit<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
skinning back up the glacier was simple and quick, if not a touch too hot. i hurried to the summit one more time and got in an extra partial lap as pat took his time climbing back up. reaching the summit a third time we both stripped our skins ready for the ski back to the trail. rounding the corner on the long summit ridge i found even better corn snow on the nw aspect and convinced pat to take another lap.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqKyrYhl0K8gbaaxQqRvnnVNISMoN8QVAMc3w1dz5CZ6KZLI-L1irkmrJbEXchxf-Y-LMvuZyPpyZvGGlAcQFg_0fUYFKSU9Y1MXypUwoMrgh2uQLpAGGAq5JYS1KlXpB5yApkfhCAp1Jp/s1600/IMG_6450.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqKyrYhl0K8gbaaxQqRvnnVNISMoN8QVAMc3w1dz5CZ6KZLI-L1irkmrJbEXchxf-Y-LMvuZyPpyZvGGlAcQFg_0fUYFKSU9Y1MXypUwoMrgh2uQLpAGGAq5JYS1KlXpB5yApkfhCAp1Jp/s640/IMG_6450.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">skiing down the hinman glacier to the nw<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
making high speed big turns, we laughed as the skiing just kept on going and going. we almost skied all the way to the narrow slot drainage below the hinman glacier but stopped a few hundred feet above as deep piles of recent slide debris kept us from entering the terrain trap. the skin back to the ridge above la bohn lakes was hot but rewarded by a cool breeze once high enough.<br />
<br />
we retraced our ascent path down toward la bohn gap but veered north to ski a steep w facing slope down to the biggest of the la bohn lakes. i had spied this slope earlier in the day and put it in the back of my head just in case things softened enough. 800' of 45 degree skiing passed by in a couple of seconds and the snow stayed excellent the whole time. we laughed as we skated across the lake knowing we still had another big steep descent waiting below the lakes.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxZjuzSPaXVxCmVwFPfG0qxdg3FGIBnmHHxy9kt5BALUZHW8uOtyM_zJ-UDWjCsTfKbEwJxUsRsn-w7gLM3oMgV0yrKAxptOaFovRSilSITDSBJIoXqtpetLNsu6be0rP6mOLNSFg7tqx/s1600/IMG_6452.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxZjuzSPaXVxCmVwFPfG0qxdg3FGIBnmHHxy9kt5BALUZHW8uOtyM_zJ-UDWjCsTfKbEwJxUsRsn-w7gLM3oMgV0yrKAxptOaFovRSilSITDSBJIoXqtpetLNsu6be0rP6mOLNSFg7tqx/s640/IMG_6452.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">steeps above the biggest la bohn lake<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV6t6p5zXJvzfGo6_N90PU27mFYfNvjCbDK5wneDY6fpZJD9K2zrMSSqgvXteT8-I02xwF8JYI_EBVRmU8RYA0W7iZxcG7CU9uuSw_gC1s1ypUg-F0am6OIsyJIPMTzLAVeWK0Q32vbZew/s1600/IMG_6456.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV6t6p5zXJvzfGo6_N90PU27mFYfNvjCbDK5wneDY6fpZJD9K2zrMSSqgvXteT8-I02xwF8JYI_EBVRmU8RYA0W7iZxcG7CU9uuSw_gC1s1ypUg-F0am6OIsyJIPMTzLAVeWK0Q32vbZew/s640/IMG_6456.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">back at the gap<br />
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after a short boot out of the lake, we clicked into skis one more time and descended the slope pat had dropped his ski down earlier. what was teeth rattling suncups earlier in the morning had now become shredable corn. another 700' of steep skiing disappeared above us. below the face, we carved in and out of large avy debris before stopping to get water at a stream.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_czWsUYa34UUbFEHyrZVsO8meCGbdt3aqYztXdTyWTuKAsCMi0j1cZ27Eh8Vz1kavcF-AKYpnx9DVVp5Hzft6VXLxAJljYqhNxFGk4vm8pIdK3vV06JYl39MgMgiL9KULFEvk2j3J116j/s1600/IMG_6459.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_czWsUYa34UUbFEHyrZVsO8meCGbdt3aqYztXdTyWTuKAsCMi0j1cZ27Eh8Vz1kavcF-AKYpnx9DVVp5Hzft6VXLxAJljYqhNxFGk4vm8pIdK3vV06JYl39MgMgiL9KULFEvk2j3J116j/s640/IMG_6459.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">corn!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2SoxCM7FpZGQ8UDo8MZiBj1P_UpfmInACkqdi5vhBdQW7B5jeTWkqwtFynAyh-EzinQFQcPSemeakvUsWZDSAVSpTOkhq5l5T1dDhirQRC_1VNGeWS2OPecyzC1Hi78jcdUGzgcWEay4B/s1600/IMG_6462.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2SoxCM7FpZGQ8UDo8MZiBj1P_UpfmInACkqdi5vhBdQW7B5jeTWkqwtFynAyh-EzinQFQcPSemeakvUsWZDSAVSpTOkhq5l5T1dDhirQRC_1VNGeWS2OPecyzC1Hi78jcdUGzgcWEay4B/s640/IMG_6462.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">more steeps back to opal lake<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB4t7FDWqttKqco55oW756vOeefwQ7lVYbx0e-mqCRC0Wi9hzQpmNh2LpH38shdca9IzOgX9GzVfBACtIlnqXNmJRitDPiVz7d9s9teYr31zSzwOXOsQ4uiwXmp8wU3aEL_O_iEUikPX_u/s1600/IMG_6472.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB4t7FDWqttKqco55oW756vOeefwQ7lVYbx0e-mqCRC0Wi9hzQpmNh2LpH38shdca9IzOgX9GzVfBACtIlnqXNmJRitDPiVz7d9s9teYr31zSzwOXOsQ4uiwXmp8wU3aEL_O_iEUikPX_u/s640/IMG_6472.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">natural shower<br />
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with skins on, we glided back to our stashed shoes and found a small clear pool in a stream to jump into. although high clouds had cooled the day off a bit, i felt a dip in the snowmelt was mandatory. stopping to swim on a long day trip like this forces me to take in the whole experience rather than just rushing though it. as i shivered and dried in the breeze, i couldn't help but look around and imagine the adventures yet to come in the area surrounding the necklace valley.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fOhTvaKjs0gF2SmNVj6Zky3gGAat2x7TJ2-wgE1Iskhpcq1u_HMeoXGd4P5jBfWIL3ZkPuHNZsNfVkLexnix2Gn72YDWfeNb23xMPCM65qMyE1veB4lgwv0C7ke7cDcLxzSjek92Muzk/s1600/IMG_6475.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fOhTvaKjs0gF2SmNVj6Zky3gGAat2x7TJ2-wgE1Iskhpcq1u_HMeoXGd4P5jBfWIL3ZkPuHNZsNfVkLexnix2Gn72YDWfeNb23xMPCM65qMyE1veB4lgwv0C7ke7cDcLxzSjek92Muzk/s640/IMG_6475.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">trying to embrace my inner andreas fransson who never seemed afraid of jumping in cold water<br />
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from our swimming hole we skinned and glided back to jade lake where we switched to trail runners, shouldered our skis and boots and started down the trail we had hiked earlier in the morning. the long flat valley hike held a new beauty as sunlight streamed through the trees illuminating the forest floor with stripes of bright color. the owls had long since gone but were replaced with hundreds of birds chirping. of course no good trip is without some form of suffering so we ran the last mile and a half back to the car. arriving at the car, we found the parking lot just as we had left it, just pat's car and some bugs.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi5AobfeDMYbhHwwFs221rtQdF7IkV3N5vryr-xRxFe2LtEz88W1hJy1wZLJJ-bNailEbr3JkuuJayL9GG9NnpW5tRIARWb5Txr6Z1bPxNSQOo7z90II2bWaWQJeDqRrCNN8tTyyxLdBD6/s1600/IMG_6479.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi5AobfeDMYbhHwwFs221rtQdF7IkV3N5vryr-xRxFe2LtEz88W1hJy1wZLJJ-bNailEbr3JkuuJayL9GG9NnpW5tRIARWb5Txr6Z1bPxNSQOo7z90II2bWaWQJeDqRrCNN8tTyyxLdBD6/s640/IMG_6479.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">skinng talus<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCS3ngkvczuSEOemKWHHUOW5d0m90IGS4gZOQcEQRkn73Tvri4QphiOatyPFYqzPMdajlgMDTz-FC67YsmtaUn9cNq7jGGmWHtVFW3WXNQQyMDMuYaW0pS7JgEIHsEU-e5zACwtDsaXkP/s1600/IMG_6484.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCS3ngkvczuSEOemKWHHUOW5d0m90IGS4gZOQcEQRkn73Tvri4QphiOatyPFYqzPMdajlgMDTz-FC67YsmtaUn9cNq7jGGmWHtVFW3WXNQQyMDMuYaW0pS7JgEIHsEU-e5zACwtDsaXkP/s640/IMG_6484.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">skinng logs<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH3gJXn_5mecrz4esP8J9XKrG9m_5iEtARs5INaKNpXCz_fveAXEYXxl4UXdMyKRvk7DlHlm2Lc1bWdZI7IM69fXOVk1AX87-_KS313pEe9zYe3glX8cy1MN3YgvAyiWRB3Ks2SD9YCdaE/s1600/IMG_6487.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH3gJXn_5mecrz4esP8J9XKrG9m_5iEtARs5INaKNpXCz_fveAXEYXxl4UXdMyKRvk7DlHlm2Lc1bWdZI7IM69fXOVk1AX87-_KS313pEe9zYe3glX8cy1MN3YgvAyiWRB3Ks2SD9YCdaE/s640/IMG_6487.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">skinning across water<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA6EeCyqN4Z61bGlNScI1B4x9iZ0kT1mgSnRnuvA9eeCpD1g_nJ12DtgNlDV29J2rXOcmdvLzuG2CgO5a52oupc1R1tQp1jXOMA0Adz7mKVZF4nzqTvy0RVDYJ-blC3ec7-4J4tLJCRF8y/s1600/IMG_6489.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA6EeCyqN4Z61bGlNScI1B4x9iZ0kT1mgSnRnuvA9eeCpD1g_nJ12DtgNlDV29J2rXOcmdvLzuG2CgO5a52oupc1R1tQp1jXOMA0Adz7mKVZF4nzqTvy0RVDYJ-blC3ec7-4J4tLJCRF8y/s640/IMG_6489.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pat's "solid path to the shore"<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRfSHALcPc8-H1jQ7pbpDVoKr4GMYP2SRu134DzNk3HkC3vX_5an7tuSuLzOdfXZwaoYS4x0lZevZopCG0Oczy48JV6INlw-76GheeukWkkaAhedZ4zVgraaVgxvnMEiropvn_KMP5FajO/s1600/IMG_6492.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRfSHALcPc8-H1jQ7pbpDVoKr4GMYP2SRu134DzNk3HkC3vX_5an7tuSuLzOdfXZwaoYS4x0lZevZopCG0Oczy48JV6INlw-76GheeukWkkaAhedZ4zVgraaVgxvnMEiropvn_KMP5FajO/s640/IMG_6492.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">crossing the east for of the foss on the way back<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgru4d1WoOqr2me80_1enBw1_w_Ff5xeb7L1UTk2YguUKD_K3n5zeijqRPpzuYUvSLVj805d1jueuNUvQ-OOhXTT-i-sPff1qoWZ6sodY35cdUumNL7jm7i0OmDV-Xvi5LvoD3lf5resAXi/s1600/IMG_6495.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgru4d1WoOqr2me80_1enBw1_w_Ff5xeb7L1UTk2YguUKD_K3n5zeijqRPpzuYUvSLVj805d1jueuNUvQ-OOhXTT-i-sPff1qoWZ6sodY35cdUumNL7jm7i0OmDV-Xvi5LvoD3lf5resAXi/s640/IMG_6495.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">30 miles and 9.6k after leaving the car<br />
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after 30 miles of travel and 9.6k of vert gained i can easily say i want to go back soon. skiing season is drawing to a close for me (i'll still ski, but probably not for specific objectives anymore) as the past two weeks have been filled with trail runs to the top of mountains and scrambles to often overlooked areas. the desire to explore new places in my home mountains was rekindled with this trip. with the base level of fitness to move quickly for longer distances, i am excited for the dry season just around the corner.toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-9871994764039270172016-05-16T13:46:00.000-07:002016-05-18T11:53:43.714-07:00glacier peak: in a day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc2FAkv1kJ1pGVlLAwbmDrch1_sm15Xnb7hwAXbSFcgIYxO2eH0Ll0HK9WNObzBjb0o_h1z36GQjMhXf0l0-WwHN3QCabTU2cZB5vexBFRz-PXwi1nAYeqWBUgVmItIJb34zGXRg0bEkFb/s1600/IMG_2660.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc2FAkv1kJ1pGVlLAwbmDrch1_sm15Xnb7hwAXbSFcgIYxO2eH0Ll0HK9WNObzBjb0o_h1z36GQjMhXf0l0-WwHN3QCabTU2cZB5vexBFRz-PXwi1nAYeqWBUgVmItIJb34zGXRg0bEkFb/s640/IMG_2660.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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early morning light on glacier peak</div>
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as my past work week started drawing to a close i began to get excited about some steep skiing on mt. rainier. a sunny thursday with high freezing levels had me hopeful for a ski of the success couloir off point success (the shortest of three rainier summits). then the weather predictions became less exciting; sunny with a 9.5k fl and 50 mph sw winds. the sunny part was great but the lower freezing level and high winds gave me nightmares of super steep ice skating over big cliffs. the question quickly became, "what to do that will equal the suffering of a single push rainier ski but that is more manageable with windy cooler weather?"<br />
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glacier peak in a day, of course!<br />
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so jeremy, brendan, john, kyle and i all found ourselves "sleeping" at a washout a quarter mile from the north fork of the sauk trailhead. i might have actually gotten an hour of sleep between the mosquitos and spiders crawling over my face, but the beautiful part of walking up at 11:30 pm to start a trip is that it doesn't feel like you've missed out on sleep and simultaneously doesn't feel like you wish you were in bed. at least thats what i told myself.<br />
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"feeling good... i hope"</div>
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with skis and boots on our backs we started toward the trail ready for a long day. i was surprised at the leisurely pace we took right out of the gate. i had joked back at the car that we should jog the first 5.5 flat miles but it looked like 20+ minute miles would be the name of the game this early morning. thankfully slow miles have their upside, a very low heart rate.<br />
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after a few hours of hiking we passed the mackinaw shelter and started up the switchbacks counting them out loud in as many languages as we could muster. i figured the pace would come to a screeching halt as the angle increased but to my surprise john took over the lead and kept up a smimilar pace. it felt good to get the heart beating.<br />
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eventually we passed 20 some odd switchbacks and found patchy snow. then we lost the trail and had an "east of the crest style bushwack" through almost no underbrush, strait into the clearing below the ridge separating red and white passes. after a quick break to change into ski boots we skinned firm supportable snow until we bootpacked strait up the steep slope.<br />
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we spaced out as we made steady progress up the mountainside, each person finding his own rhythm and pace. i ended up a ways out in front, arriving at the notch described in the volken book. with time to spare, i set my eyes to the summit of white mountain. it looked close enough that i could get up there to scope any options and retreat back to the notch before the group arrived, just in case. and then i kept going and going and going until i realized it was actually a lot further than i had thought, oops! arriving at the top of white, i could see a great way to save some elevation by traversing before skiing down.<br />
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blurry photo of kyle, john, jeremy and brendan approaching white mountain</div>
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thankfully the other guys followed my headlamp bypassing the normal notch and traversing lower slopes to the summit of white. a quick discussion found us dropping into the northeast side of white mountain 45 minutes before sunrise. a scratchy yet strangely fun ski took us down the steep slopes and deposited us right at the base of the "shortcut" gully leading toward the terminus of the whitechuck glacier.<br />
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group discussion on skiing off white mountain</div>
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"does it go, guys?"</div>
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brendan prepares to rip it up</div>
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skinning under the whitechuck glacier</div>
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we found running water before the whitechuck and stopped to refill and discuss how sleep is most likely completely overrated. a firm side hilling traverse eventually landed us at glacier gap where my ankles and knees thanked the earth for some flat ground. rather than going through glacier gap, we ascended one last slope where we enjoyed three high speed big turns down to the dried out ridge leading up to disappointment peak.<br />
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looking back on white mountain</div>
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two skiers who camped just under white mountain</div>
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almost to glacier gap</div>
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i cringed as i walked through loose rock in my aliens 1.0's (i've never cared about other boots before, but these boots feel sacred). as soon as i could, i jumped off the gravel and started skinning. entering the gerdine glacier our group ran into two others who were also on their way to the top. they were on day four of the dakobed traverse. up until this point, we had perfect bluebird weather. but the closer we drew to the summit it seemed the mountain was trying to hide. first a lenticular formed over the summit, then high clouds formed over the general area, then the clouds lowered, engulfing the top 600' of the mountain.<br />
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onto the gerdine glacier...</div>
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...and up to the clouds</div>
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there was no way a few clouds were going to stop us so we pushed on ahead enjoying the sunny views we could still see from under the clouds. eventually we made it up the cool glacier and entered the cloud right as we crossed the ridge between dissapointment peak and the true summit. here is where we hit the wind.<br />
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the wind blowing over the ridge was strong enough to be annoying, but the warm air temps kept things manageable. my decision to pack only a vest and houdini seemed a bit ridiculous but i figured the summit was close enough that i'd hardly even have to suffer. the higher we climbed, the less windy and cold things became. i think there might have even been a few minutes of completely still weather where we looked around only able to see a whiteout broken by faint outlines of each other.<br />
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much more quickly than i thought it would happen, we all found ourselves on the summit after traveling for 10.25 hours, 17 miles and 10,570' of elevation gained. we shared the summit with the dakobed team and neither rushed nor lazed around. it was kind of funny to see 7 of us all stripping skins within a few feet of each other in a dense cloud on top of a remote peak in such an expansive wilderness.<br />
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look at the views!</div>
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the ski off the summit was a bit of a gong-show. with almost zero visibility, we stuck close to each other all simultaneously skiing. if you can't tell which way is up or down, you might as well use other people to get some sense of direction! quickly we lost altitude and gained visibility. as soon as we could see, all bets were off and high speed big turns with hoots and hollers became the name of the game.<br />
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looks like pow to me</div>
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down to disappointment peak, down the cool glacier, down the gerdine gacier, back up to glacier gap, down to a lake below the whitechuck; all big fast turns in amazing snow. well, maybe the up to glacier gap part wasn't big fast turns. as we reskinned to the base of the whitchuck glacier we discussed how bad the snow would probably be from there on out, but said that it didn't really matter as the trip had already exceeded our expectations.<br />
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brendan and jeremy ascending to the ridge above glacier gap</div>
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we continued our descent expecting grabby deep snow but found more fast corn as long as we stuck to more westerly facing aspects. the good turns just kept coming. in fact, we had amazing snow all the way to our last transition to skin back up to the ridge just west of white mountain. <br />
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now she comes out of the clouds</div>
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corn!</div>
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the skin back to the ridge was in direct sunlight and most of the climb lacked any type of breeze. the 1,200' were hot but passed quickly as we knew we didn't have to skin uphill after this climb. at the top of the climb i was far enough ahead to take a 300' lap back to the rest of the group in what was the best snow of the day. buttery perfet corn made it hard to stop as i'm sure the snow would have been amazing for another 700'.<br />
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at the ridge we traversed to the west until we found a continuous snow patch down to our shoes. before dropping it we joked about how the snow was probably still perfect even though it had been sitting in the sun all day and prepared for the mank. the first few turns were cautious but we quickly realized that another gift of perfect corn was awaiting the shred. more high speed steep turns led down and down. all the way back to our shoes the snow stayed skiable even though it got slightly heavy for the last 100'. picking up our shoes, we skied a narrow luge track for another couple hundred feet which landed us a short bushwack back to the trail. i still can't believe i only had three grabby turns for over 9,000' of skiing!<br />
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as we leisurely changed into shorts and trail runners i noticed my watch read exactly 13,000' of vert for the day. i also noticed that it had been 15 hours and 8 minutes since we left the car. the week before, a team of three had finished the the trip in 16:30 and i had secretly wanted to at least match that time, but a "slower" pace throughout the day had put us behind schedule to beat that time... unless we ran the 7.5 miles back to the car!<br />
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no one seemed interested in running out with skis and boots on their back so after grabbing a bit of water i said, "see ya at the car" and took off down the trail. i don't really remember seeing much of the trail. i wasn't tired before i started running but a mile in i realized the 900 calories i had consumed during the day were definitely not enough for this type of output. most of the run out hurt but stubbornness won, just because it always seems to. i arrived at the car with the watch reading 33.8 miles, a number not worthy of stopping on so i continued past the car for a tenth of a mile turning around and arriving at the car right at 34 miles.<br />
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looking at my stopped watch i was happy to read 16:26! i felt horrible from dehydration and hunger, but elated to slide in just under 16:30. flopping down in the front seat of the car i drank water, ate a whole bag of sun chips and waited. a while later jeremy showed up with a smile, then brendan and eventually john and kyle.<br />
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stoked</div>
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somehow i caught this picture while lying in the front seat of my car</div>
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the best part is brendan didn't look one bit tired when he arrived, haha!</div>
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kyle and john elated to be done</div>
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what a day!<br />
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total stats for the day...<br />
34 miles<br />
16:26<br />
13,400' of vert<br />
1 hour of sleep <br />
<br />toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-50159582965487595462016-05-13T16:33:00.001-07:002016-05-13T17:18:59.222-07:00mt. baker wind tunnel <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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jeremy battles the wind and clouds</div>
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took a trip up mt. baker with jeremy, suz and travis. unsettled weather had us changing plans on the way to the trailhead where we switched from the boulder glacier route to the coleman deming route. having been up the cd a lot of times, i figured we'd still be able to blindly force our way to the top.</div>
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we left the car around 5:30 and started hiking up the trail with partial cloud cover. by the time we made it to the alpine, most of the sky was clearing except for clouds stuck blowing over the top of the mountain.<br />
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a touch of new snow aided in what would have otherwise been horribly icy skinning</div>
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a leisurely pace took us into the clouds and up the coleman glacier to the ridge at the base of the roman wall. we battled strong winds from the ridge to the summit wearing puffy jackets the whole time. at the top, we found a small wind sheltered area about 5' below the summit and holed up in the sun waiting for suz and travis.<br />
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travis, suz and jeremy ascend the coleman</div>
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jeremy higher on the coleman</div>
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jeremy negotiates car sized debris from recent icefall</div>
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off the coleman and into the wind</div>
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both jeremy and i almost got blown over multiple times</div>
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still windy</div>
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looking down at jeremy from the top of the roman wall</div>
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summit!</div>
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still very windy</div>
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as we sat, clouds blow over the summit but mainly kept away from where we were. after about 35 minutes, the winds shifted and weather started moving in. we watched as the lower valleys all became obscured and our nice wind sheltered alcove became a wind tunnel once again.<br />
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we packed our stuff quickly and started skinning back to the false summit to find suz and travis to let them know we'd meet them lower on the mountain where it was more comfortable. we found them at the top of the roman wall then enjoyed a brutal chicken head ski back down to the ridge.<br />
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believe me, the snow is much worse than it looks</div>
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from the ridge, jeremy and i took a slightly different line than we ascended and found good carvable snow all the way down, almost to the end of the coleman. a quick snack and skin back up to the normal high camp got us more turns before suz and travis arrived. one more lap off heliotrope ridge sealed the deal and we enjoyed surprisingly good snow back to the shoes.<br />
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the nicely graded trail on the way our is always appreciated after a touch over 9000' of travel.<br />
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congrats to suz for her 4th washington state volcano summit! rainier is up next! toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-36848489006522172632016-04-21T16:43:00.001-07:002016-04-22T11:57:01.368-07:00mt. thomson east ridge "ski"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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pat negotiates the katwalk scramble</div>
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these past few weeks have been unseasonably warm. daytime highs have reached into the 60's high in the alpine and nighttime lows have failed to freeze the snowpack. even some of the north faces of the stuart range have avoided a strong melt/freeze cycle. with all this knowledge, ryan, pat and i rallied for a 4:30 am trailhead departure up at snoqualmie pass. we figured that if everything was going to be unconsolidated mank, we might as well drive less and find some solitude at the one place no one else would think to go skiing.<br />
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we left ryan's house just after 4:30 and made our way up commonwealth basin taking the direct approach to the kendall katwalk. we were able to skin directly into the dry catwalk just as the sun rose over the four brothers. </div>
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ultimate 78 twins</div>
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finally out of the trees</div>
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dry katwalk</div>
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we were literally able to skin onto the katwalk</div>
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sunrise over the four brothers</div>
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katwalk sunrise pano</div>
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the katwalk was dry for a few hundred feet but we were eventually forced back into snow via some awkward scrambling and steep unconsolidated mush climbing. a long descending traverse and a quick skin put us at the ridge looking down over ridge and gravel lakes. we decided to ski down to gravel lake and climb to the ridge directly rather than messing with bumblebee pass. from the lake, some skinning and a 250' bootpack earned us another ski descent down to below the gully leading to the east face of thomson. another quick skin and we were staring at a rather sad looking east ridge. </div>
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sketchy scramble to exit the katwalk</div>
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ryan booting above gravel lake</div>
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up</div>
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mt. thomson and bumblebee basin</div>
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on the ridge above bumblebee</div>
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ryan shredding the mank on super short skinny skis</div>
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pat and ryan almost to the east ridge</div>
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ugh, we came to ski this</div>
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with discontinuous snow leading up the east ridge we discussed options but eventually decided to buck up and go take a look since we put in all the work getting out there. snow was continuous for the bottom half of the broad ridge but became patchy once the true scrambling began. </div>
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putting the skis on my back i started up about 5 minutes before ryan or pat, who chose to sit in the sun and forego all the fun scrambling ahead. easy but wet scrambling took me up, through a good sized patch of snow and back onto rock. all was going quite smoothly until i hit a section of trees. steep rock on the right and super steep hollow snow over rock on the left forced me strait up the trees. at one point i literally chimneyed up between two trees, bent the top of one of the trees, stood on it, dug out a "bollard" at head level, hugged the bollard and mantled up onto it. realizing how fun that was going to be to reverse, i tried to forget about it and continued up. </div>
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more rock, more snow, one more band of rock and i finally made it to the last steep bit of snow. after trenching upward in deep wet snow, i finally reached the 4th class chimney just below the summit. the chimney still held snow in the back but was easy enough to climb. at the top of the 4th class step, i was greeted with a cracked and leaving cornice guarding the summit.</div>
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time to go back down</div>
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there was no way i was touching the cornice so i reversed the chimney, and put my skis on at the top of the last snow patch. a few very steep turns in bad snow took me down to the first bit of downclimbing. then more steep turns in bad snow and more wet downclimbing. finally i made it back to the vertical bushwack section where i put my skis on my pack and just slid down into the tangle of trees grabbing at whatever i could to stop me from falling off the mountain. it wasn't elegant but it sure worked well, much more efficient than on the way up. below the trees, there were a few more turns and a bunch more wet downclimbing, and eventually ryan and pat sitting in the sun, relaxed. </div>
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truly a classic ski in these conditions...</div>
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slow but smooth skiing led us down off the ridge and back into bumblebee basin. we skinned out the w end of the basin hoping to find some good turns back down to gravel lake. the turns down to the lake were probably the best of the day and we were able to ski fast with big turns. </div>
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the snow might have been bad, but the setting is far from that</div>
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pat ripping back to gravel lake</div>
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skinning out of gravel lake, we made our way to the high point between the kendall katwalk and the lakes hoping to be able to glide back to the katwalk. unfortunately our plan didn't work, but we got some great views and a few extra turns in heavy slow snow. </div>
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getting back onto the katwalk was an adventure as we traversed some super steep bad snow over a runout that was unfavorable to say the least. the turns from the katwalk back into commonwealth basin were still shaded fun snow but as soon as we hit the bottom of the basin, things slowed way down. </div>
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yikes!</div>
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back into commonwealth</div>
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by the time we got back to ryan's house, the sun was just starting to hit his back deck, so we relaxed, had a beer and enjoyed the nice 2:30 afternoon warmth. unless you're only looking for perfect skiing, snoqualmie pass always delivers in one way or another! </div>
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tried out the movement vertex x ski for the first time on this trip. it weights the same as the ultimate 78 but is 6mm wider and 5 cm longer, much stiffer throughout and has a very low rise tip. these things rip. i'm super excited to push this ski harder in good conditions with a real ski boot rather than a race boot. </div>
toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-60808695484118860862016-04-12T19:48:00.001-07:002016-04-12T19:51:00.195-07:00chiwaukum traverse: in a day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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ethan traversing to the summit of snowgrass mountain</div>
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located west of stevens pass and north of the mighty stuart range (enchantments), the chiwaukum mountains are an often overlooked group of scenic and high peaks. the range runs north-south between the icicle road and highway 2. one interesting feature of these mountains is the abundance of open "alpine" terrain that is non-glaciated. close to civilization, access is strangely easy, but due to it's location near the enchantments, the chiwaukums are a wonderful place to find solitude. <br />
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i do have a problem. barely sleeping, hiking mile after mile of road in the dark with skis and boots on my back and skiing breakable crust is starting to actually feel fun. legitimately fun.<br />
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it's been a day and a half since i skied argonaut peak and i can tell i haven't truly recovered. my shoulders ache from a heavier backpack and my legs feel sluggish. yet i find myself driving up the icicle to camp and get an early start once again. two days ago we noticed the icicle was open further than the 8 mile road so we drive past with hopes of making it to the chatter creek trailhead... if it's melted out at 8 mile it has to be melted out to chatter creek, right?<br />
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wrong. </div>
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1.5 miles past the 8 mile road we run into a "road closed" sign, feel our hearts sink, hold back the tears and unleash a slough of equipment and bivy gear to camp next to the blockade. at least it's 9:40 pm rather than our usual arrival time between 11:45 pm and 1:00 am. there are four of us on this trip which works our perfectly for arranging a car shuttle. we plan on traversing the range as two teams; ethan and i on race gear should be able to move quite a bit faster than pat and john who are on "heavy" (read pretty damn light) gear.<br />
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my alarm goes off and i wake up to find pat and john just heading out at 3:05. ethan and i watch them start down the road as we shove food and water down our throats because "breakfast is important" even at 3:00 am. it takes a couple of tries to actually start down the road (forgotten socks, leaving a glove on the car while getting the socks etc.) but we eventually start the watches at 3:55 am.<br />
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here's ethan's stuff, where is he? oh yeah, running back to the car a third time</div>
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i am a fake when it comes to true endurance activities, but ethan is not. ethan has a pretty strong list of solid races an accomplishments under his belt as a runner, which scares me as he starts jogging down the road. i might be a fake, but i'm a damn stubborn one so i suck up the lactic acid like it's beer and follow suit.<br />
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a mile in we find pretty continuous patches of snow and ethan makes the decision to don skis and skate. i've hiked too many roads in the cascades to believe the snow will last long so i keep jogging ahead, alone, in the dark, when i should be sleeping.<br />
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it turns out the snow on the road doesn't last long and where there was snow, i find dry ground to run. arriving at the chatter creek trailhead 5 miles from the car, i look at the watch, it's been 44 minutes and i haven't seen ethan since he started skating. i'm already tired. about 7 minutes later ethan comes running up to the trailhead, a big grin on his face with skis and boots back on his pack once again.<br />
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starting up the trail my body thanks me as we switch from running to a normal brisk hiking pace. i have never hiked the chatter creek trail before but thoroughly enjoy the soft ground and nicely graded switchbacks. then the trail kicks it up and notch and climbs steeply into the basin above. ethan and i keep expecting to catch up to pat and john, but they seem to be making excellent time so far.<br />
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the chatter creek trail is in great condition right now</div>
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eventually the trail enters the upper basin and bends toward the west. it's here the snow begins and we immediately lose the trail. punchy snow over boulders is always a welcomed experience before 6:00 am. thankfully we see headlamps a few hundred feet away and press on through the snow, wetting our minimalist trail runner covered feet. catching up with pat and john we find a crossing to the n side of chatter creek and take a quick break to change into ski boots.<br />
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pat and his "heavy" skis crossing chatter creek</div>
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the punchy snow continues for about a quarter mile when things open up just enough to start skinning. getting the skis and boots off the back feels amazing along with the glide of race skins, which always is a delight. but good things never last forever. as we climb higher into the basin the snow turns to slippery breakable crust and stomping becomes the norm. once out of the trees and onto open slopes, you might think our pace would explode with lightning speed, but you would be wrong. the crust continues and becomes worse. so does our pace.<br />
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we stomp our way slowly to the first col below grindstone mountain and i can feel the calories burning away much faster than i had anticipated. there seems to be no way to keep the heart rate down other than stopping, so we just continue on. dropping into our first descent we are somehow caught off guard by horrible snow. breakable windcrust guards soft chalk and the survival skiing begins.<br />
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ethan crossing one of many smaller creeks</div>
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almost out of the chatter creek drainage</div>
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ethan arriving at the notch with cashmere mountain as the skyline</div>
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the first half of the traverse is visible from the first notch</div>
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oh the quality</div>
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quality snow makes for quality "turns"</div>
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we traverse all sorts of crust and avy debris as far as we can before starting the skin up to the next notch just ne of cape horn. the snow here is still breakable or icy but it seems that the high alpine might be a little less heinous. quickly we find ourselves at the notch in the next ridge, stripping skins to make a long descending traverse under ladies pass and as far as we can make it last. we are able to traverse two open bowls and transition one more time around 6.500' for a long ascent to the summit of snowgrass mountain.<br />
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ethan just below cape horn</div>
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the long traverse up to snowgrass</div>
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ethan traversing under ladies passs</div>
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i have no clue what time it is by now and honestly i don't care. the sun is getting higher and the east slopes are starting to bake. we transition quickly and start our long ascending traverse. sun softened snow seems like it should be extra efficient skinning but we break through the crust just under. it feels like a joke as are skis either slide out on the slick warmed snow or punch through the crust below. but we continue on because in the end, although it feels good to whine about it, that gets you nowhere.<br />
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one thing i love about activities that involve repetitive motions is how easily a laborious task can turn into a soothing rhythm. one foot in front of the other becomes the task at hand and ethan and i finally find a rhythm through the bad trail breaking. soon enough enthan powers through the final steep kick turns to the summit of snowgrass. as we eat some food on the summit and take in the amazing 360 degree views, we notice pat and john making great time up the traverse to snowgrass. we laugh at how we have stupid light gear and yet we are barely moving any faster.<br />
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traversing on a traverse</div>
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almost to snowgrass</div>
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i think you can see pat and john in there somewhere</div>
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the stuart range dominates to skyline</div>
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easy scrambling to gain the summit of snowgrass</div>
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i already used this picture but don't feel the need to remove it</div>
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ethan on the summit of snowgrass</div>
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skiing off the summit of snowgrass we find a few turns of corn before we drop into the n side. the descent into the n side of snowgrass is steeper than we expect and holds more perfect breakable crust. we ski down only as far as we have to before traversing to the small chute we must climb next. the snow is rock solid so we feel justified in our decision to bring crampons, which allow quick travel back to the east side of the ridge.<br />
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ethan dropping into the n slopes of snowgrass</div>
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look close and you can probably see out turns in the breakable crust</div>
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even this small chute held some breakable crust</div>
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ethan at the notch just above the small chute</div>
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from the notch above the chute, we do a descending traverse through softening yet punchy snow before skinning up for another long ascending traverse across the back side of big chiwaukum. halfway though this traverse we run into a large runneled slidepath from cornice failure. looking to the massive pile of debris in valley below, the sun seems to get much hotter. looking up at the sagging and cracked cornices above, we get that sinking feeling in our gut, strip skins and loose elevation in another descending traverse. this traverse puts us on isothermal snow sitting on steep rolling terrain above cliffs, yet feels much safer than the cornice shooting range we just passed though.<br />
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slightly unnerving traverse under cracked and sagging cornices</div>
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thankfully the snow hasn't quite warmed up too much (very similar to my body) and we quickly gained more moderate slopes above. more punchy breakable sun warming snow leads to the notch just above the nw couloir of big chiwaukum, and a much needed water break.<br />
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from our break, we strip skins and descend along the ridge eventually wrapping our way around the to our next descent down to cup lake. the descent to cup lake is a beautiful ski run. long open slopes of the perfect angle fall strait down to the lake over 1,000' below. dropping in, it is no surprise we find all the variety of breakable crust one would hope for. lucky us, the breakable crust even lasted to below cup lake!<br />
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breakable corn</div>
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amazing terrain down to cup lake</div>
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amazing terrain pairs well with amazing breakable crust</div>
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now those are some quality turns</div>
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just below the lake we find a 200' section of sun warmed snow that actually skis well. i savor the nice round turns and the feeling of actually skiing but all too soon the crust begins again. we take a long gliding traverse down and across the valley on the e side of the creek before crossing to the west side to gain our final big climb of the day.<br />
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actually good turns below, rando wiggle above</div>
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as cornices fail high off the ridge to the west, we look up at the slope we must ascend. it is steep, has been baking in the sun all day and has no good looking spot to exit onto the ridge above. the low point on the ridge is a notch guarded by fresh wet slides, very steep snow and glide cracks. the face just to the right seems like the best option even though it gets steep below the top. we decide to power to a bench halfway up, reassess, then power up to the ridge in a quick push.<br />
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as ethan breaks trail to the bench i celebrate inwardly that we aren't skinning on breakable crust and try to ignore the fact that we're getting 6" of ski penetration in deep mank. i take over trail breaking at the bench and start working up the upper slope. it turns out the upper slope is facing ssw and isn't quite as ripened by the sun. fears of big wet slides start to drift away and energy becomes focused on slippery skinning. we work our way through the steep roll and eventually gain the ridge, escaping the solar oven.<br />
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lots of fresh slides as we exit the chiwaukum lake drainage</div>
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poking over the ridge we see people skinning up though a meadow to a prominent high point. these are the first people we've seen since we started. we ski more breakable crust down into the high meadow and as i transition back to skins i laugh at how the last slope truly felt fun! mellow skinning leads across open meadow to the ridge i'm hoping will turn into the swath. the snow on this sections feels amazing. it is extremely efficient to skin and i start to remember what the word glide means, even uphill!<br />
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ethan tearing it up</div>
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the only good skinning of the day</div>
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we didn't really study maps or spend too much time looking at the route description before we started. the end of the traverse was a bit of a question mark in my mind. putting those questions aside, ethan and i enjoy the efficient travel and continue across the ridge looking for the swath. we make one mistake and head to a knoll to the east and quickly find out we don't want to be there. a slight backtrack leads us to a fairly narrow ridge that seems to just keep going and going. right as i'm starting to question where i am, i see some old skin tracks coming from the other direction... this has to be the swath!<br />
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the ridge ends and we look down on top of a feature i've stared at from the highway since i can remember. we strip skins, drink the last of our water and laugh about how all that separates us from a car (complete with beer and water) is 4,000' of breakable crust! we ski down the ridge to an entrance that is obviously not corniced and i drop in to find surprisingly firm snow. a few cautious turns with tired legs on concrete and i realized a strip of snow to the right is slightly less firm. we ski a few hundred feet of stiff snow before the angle relents offering up the familiar breakable crust we are starting to know all too well.<br />
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"i'll do a dramatic skin rip for you!"</div>
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photo: ethan linck</div>
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amazingly, a few hundred feet later the snow softens and the crust goes away. like children, we giddily link turn down the mountain, truly finding a rhythm. tired legs are the only thing that stop us from continuous skiing but the "good" skiing seemingly gives us a second wind. the lower we ski the better the snow becomes. just before we leave the swath and start down the road i think we find some snow that would actually fall into the positive side of the snow quality spectrum. we are elated.<br />
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ethan demonstrating what actual skiing looks like</div>
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with just a quick ski down a simple road to beer, we let our guard down and start the celebration. then we hit the first creek. then a dry patch. then another creek. then we realize how the road never seems to go downhill. shit.<br />
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we are having fun, we are having fun...</div>
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eventually i get sick of taking my skis on and off so i put them on my back and start running downhill. i figure i'm probably a quarter mile away from the car so i keep my boots on and run. and run. and run.<br />
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dehydrated, annoyed and hungry i finally see the car after 2 miles of running through snow, mud and rock. boots off, socks off, a liter of water down, sit down, drink beer. it's 3:17 pm, 11 hours and 22 minutes after we started earlier in the morning.<br />
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about 20 minutes later ethan comes walking up to the car with that classic look of "i'm over it". there is no logical reason why we should have expected anything different from the road back down to the car, but there is also no logical explanation as to why we do this stuff to begin with.<br />
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ethan's final steps to the car</div>
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we waste no time in drinking water and beer, then quickly throw the gear into john's car and drive off to retrieve my car up the icicle. after gathering cars, we find pat and john relaxing with beers and water and quickly sort gear and repack the cars. john has a flight to catch a 9:00 pm, it's 5:00 now.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">...</span></b></div>
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i can't remember a time where i worked so hard to move so slowly all day long. not even my fancy lycra onesie tipped the advantage our way. but this is what fundamentally brings me back to the mountains; the uncertainty of what is going to happen every moment, the true adventure of hoping, finding out and dealing with it.<br />
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11:22 car to car<br />
10:25 trailhead to car<br />
9,650' gained (mostly breakable crust)<br />
9,600' lost (about 7k' of breakable crust)<br />
27 miles car to car<br />
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rested and with anything but heinous travel conditions, 3.5 hours could easily be knocked off our time. going n-s with a consolidated snowpack, i'm positive the traverse would go, with a big effort, under 6 hours.<br />
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i have to say that i'm strangely proud of our slow time. good memories were forged in the relentless breakable crust and we ate every bit of what we were served. i am humbled by the mountains once again. thank you ethan for a memorable day moving through the mountains. i'm sure there will be more to come.<br />
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toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-31527815034834262092016-04-11T11:59:00.002-07:002016-09-22T18:04:36.975-07:00argonaut peak ne couloir ski<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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brendan and pat about halfway down argonaut's ne couloir</div>
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Lots of words ahead... or just watch the video!<br />
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camping up the icicle (again) i realize that i might have a problem... another dirt road walk with skis on my back, another 4:00 am wakeup, another 3.5 hour night sleep if i'm lucky, another 20+ mile day. this time, however, i don't have minimal gear on my back. it's been a while since i've carried an ice tool, steel crampons, and rock climbing gear on top of skis and boots, and my backpack feel terrible. thankfully, as the early morning passes and my world grows from a single spot of earth exposed by headlamp to steep valley walls illuminated by the sun that is still an hour from the horizon, my heavy pack settles into my body like it's finally home. <br />
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brendan, pat and i keep shoes on and walk across mostly supportable snow in hopes that moving quickly will pay off as the sun is supposed to warm the air to unseasonably high temperatures. the route we are trying to ski is a short(ish) and steep couloir threatened by cornices looming on the left and a large hanging snowfield that drains mostly into the chute on the right. getting up high as quickly as possible is important in minimizing objective hazard.<br />
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trying the "superlight" program in the steeps</div>
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we switch to skinning a quarter mile past the colchuk lake turnoff and find easy travel strait to the basin below argonaut peak. stiff refrozen snow becomes awkward to skin so we don crampons, start upward and quickly realize that a few hundred feet above our transition, the snow is soft again. stubbornness wins out and we continue booting up to the route.<br />
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our first view of the route</div>
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sherpa peak in the morning sun... next week?</div>
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pat (aka "put" or "mustache")</div>
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nothing too exciting happens in the chute. we move quickly to minimize exposure and try not to think about cornices baking in the sun. thankfully the bottom choke of the couloir is filled in enough that we won't have to downclimb on the way out.<br />
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up the debris fan</div>
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brendan and pat just below the choke in the lower couloir</div>
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brendan guns it though the choke</div>
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finally finding sun at the top of the couloir</div>
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arriving at the top of the chute, we poke around for the easiest mixed step to the upper snowfield. this small rock band is the reason we carry ropes and rock climbing gear. moving out of the chute and onto the east face i find a ramp that looks like it'll not only go through to the upper snowfield but also possibly go with a touch of dry skiing. unfortunately my dreams of a no rappel/downclimb descent from the top of the upper snowfield are foiled as we climb about 12 meters of steep rotten snow in a trough surrounded by rock. vivian bruchez would dryski it.<br />
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above the rock band we punch up and across the upper snowfield and scramble across a fun 3rd class ridge to the summit block. by now the sun is fairly high in the sky and our minds turn to the descent. thoughts of those sagging cornices urge a quick summit snack before we start on our way down.<br />
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almost across the upper snowfield</div>
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top of the hanging snowfield</div>
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short exposed down climb on the summit ridge</div>
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final step to the top</div>
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cumbre!</div>
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this was an attempt at a group shot... good work brendan</div>
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"do the steve house pose!"</div>
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a quick scramble back across the ridge to the upper snowfield and we finally get to click into ski bindings. the upper snowfield, which earlier in the day had us worried about too much exposure to the sun, has remained cold and soft thanks to it's oblique position to the sun. soft chalky turns go by all too quickly and before we know it, we're rigging a rappel back into the top of the couloir. we could have easily down climbed the 12 meter choke but since we brought the gear, we figured we might as well use it. besides, a descent without taking skis off is best!<br />
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stuart dominates the range</div>
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to the skiing!</div>
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pat on the hanging snowfield</div>
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brendan and pat at our rappel with colchuck and dragontail in the back</div>
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from the top of the couloir we enjoy edgable snow down to the rollover where the business begins. as soon as the angle increases, the snow texture changes. the snow wasn't too firm, or too rotten, or too breakable or too good. our mindset transitions from fluid skiing to one turn at a time. i don't think i've ever skied suck funky soft snow before.<br />
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brendan making the short rappel</div>
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looking back up at the rappel</div>
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super fun soft turns at the top of the chute</div>
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we took turns skiing safe point to safe point, trying to hide from exposure to the cornices. it is slow going with the challenging snow conditions and none of us want to be in the gut any longer than needed. it's in these moments where you want to rush, but can't, that the world slows down and you focus on the single task at hand. one turn at a time we make our way to the bottom choke. horrible snow in the choke requires a few meters of side slipping before we can poke out to the left, out from under the cornices.<br />
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myself in the thick of it</div>
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pat at the skiing crux, the choke</div>
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steep!</div>
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breakable crust and wet snow lead a few thousand feet back down to the valley where we dry out some gear and look back up at the mountain while getting sunburnt. no cornices fell, no one pinballed violently out the chute. today was a good day.<br />
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finally less variable turns out the bottom of the couloir</div>
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the 10 miles back to the car were fairly painless. except for the time when i lost a skin, monoskinned it back a half mile without finding anything (as if i wouldn't notice loosing a skin for a half mile) and returned to the spot i realized i lost the skin to find it lying in the snow.<br />
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thank you stuart range for another great adventure.<br />
<br />toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-89960280076810681592016-04-07T12:44:00.000-07:002016-04-07T12:44:02.829-07:00cashmere mountain: south couloir ski<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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brendan a few turns in on the nw face</div>
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it's always hard to decided what to do when the beginning of spring comes around. good weather often coincides with high temperatures, an unconsolidated snowpack and natural avalanche cycles. with no obvious plans, brendan, john and i settled on heading east of the crest to try to get up in the alpine before the temps climbed too high. our plan saw us camping at the end of the drivable icicle road ready to climb and ski cashmere mountain.<br />
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we left the car around 4:45 and started the walk up the road toward the eightmile lake trailhead. we were able to start skinning where the road flattens but continued walking in trail runners on the frozen snow. from the trailhead we followed the trail until the first creek crossing then started skinning and booting strait up the shortcut burn slope. there may have been some mud climbing mixed in with the snow. above the burn slope we skinned up to below the prominent south couloir of cashmere mountain.<br />
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this sign is starting to read "good morning todd, welcome back!"</div>
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moon over dtail</div>
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the burn slope still head a bit of snow</div>
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until it held no snow</div>
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brendan and john working their way across barely boot supportable crust</div>
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brendan just below the s couloir</div>
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by the time we reached the base of the couloir, the sun was already heating things up to a "more than comfortable" level but the couloir itself was still shaded by the south central buttress. the couloir offered mostly breakable crust bootpacking but every now and then we'd find patches of firm boot supportable snow. thankfully,, the breakable crust seemed as though it would easily support skis.<br />
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first small constriction in the chute</div>
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the couloir has a couple options to branch off to the right. we chose to keep going strait at the first junction and took a right at the second. thankfully the second right led strait to the short mixed step to gain the summit. the last 100' of the couloir before the summit weren't completely filled in for skiing so we took note of the best dryski options.<br />
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brendan just past the first chance to branch off to the right</div>
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john mid couloir</div>
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"it's skiable!"</div>
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emerging on the breezy summit ridge, the warmth of the sun was a welcome feeling. we took turns scrambling to the very top then had a meeting to decided what to do while the couloir softened over the next few hours. a look over the ne face at all the wet slide debris coming out the bottom and that idea was immediately crossed that off the list. the <a href="http://toddkilcup.blogspot.com/2013/04/cashmere-mountain-nw-face-ski.html" target="_blank">nw face of cashmere</a> however was quite oblique to the sun and seemed to still be holding soft preserved snow. 1,000' of moderately steep turns on good snow seemed like the perfect way to pass the time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPu5V_845DsaEnayUqhIKCeEDz2UP_UR9WHSYJ-9N1tF1v_lFdRUuRxXW0P6abolx8GSbyue-Nu9AI-P_U9sfpRv4wLeXntjEQUE7SNWrgaBrwNyvB9V14raJEoHwFyJdY9kpU3dScecmo/s1600/IMG_1973.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPu5V_845DsaEnayUqhIKCeEDz2UP_UR9WHSYJ-9N1tF1v_lFdRUuRxXW0P6abolx8GSbyue-Nu9AI-P_U9sfpRv4wLeXntjEQUE7SNWrgaBrwNyvB9V14raJEoHwFyJdY9kpU3dScecmo/s640/IMG_1973.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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brendan chose the exposed and direct mantle</div>
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john takes the sensible option, still exposed</div>
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dropping into the nw face we found soft chalky snow for most of the face. i think i sidestepped a 10' choke where a small and shallow windslab uncovered steep white ice. below the choke, the face offered up super fun skiing all the way to the moraine below. while sitting and snacking on the rocks below the face, we all laughed about how we'd already had over a 1,000' of good skiing and hadn't even skied our objective!<br />
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brendan's first turn on the nw face</div>
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john waiting to drop in</div>
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berude</div>
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big turns out the bottom of the face</div>
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we bootpacked the shin deep snow halfway back up the face to gain the n ridge, which we took back to the summit. it was fun to look down both sides of the ridge, our tracks cutting through rock outcroppings on one side, and the blind rollover to the ne face on the other. regaining the ridge a few feet short of the summit we found the s couloir fully in the sun. we didn't rush the transition but also wasted no time knowing the snow on all south facing aspects would go from fun to "fun" in a short period of time. <br />
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up!</div>
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the n ridge a few hundred feet from the summit</div>
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dropping into the couloir entrance we found a few scratchy but edgable turns above the rocky choke, then the fun began. we were mostly able to step over and jump turn around the sharks, but eventually we resorted to dryskiing. the last small step before unhindered turns could be had turned out to be the most awkward as we had to pass a 3' downsloping rock at a 45 degree choke.<br />
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obviously this skied amazingly</div>
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awkward dryski</div>
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once past this crux, a hundred feet of tight turns took us to the main couloir. it turned out that we timed things perfectly and found a few inches of shreddable corn until the very bottom of the chute where things become a bit deep (though still quite skiable!).<br />
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brendan almost to the main couloir</div>
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800' of pure bliss</div>
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at this point only 5,000' of deep mank, mud and road separated us and the car. every bit of mank, mud and road was thoroughly enjoyed as we picked our way back to the 8 mile trailhead hitting as few rocks as possible. walking out the 8 mile road is starting to feel like home this spring.<br />
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john and the stuart range</div>
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get rad brendan</div>
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steep mud</div>
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and some of this</div>
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and of course some of this</div>
toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-91761676594212867142016-03-28T13:15:00.000-07:002016-03-28T13:25:59.702-07:00enchantments traverse (loop) ski<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijHTYIemCv3C1ptHFP6P-CfngCdqBFP34n6ktmNbJw84QypbE026mLnVLX8gmKPv3CY5zkbOrKJboTAbWqWqkLSLAJ73cRj5O_IlKyyi-8aycSlQdlPfGMrFo0zCL0ma1lMVZTlz-wJtTM/s1600/IMG_5779.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijHTYIemCv3C1ptHFP6P-CfngCdqBFP34n6ktmNbJw84QypbE026mLnVLX8gmKPv3CY5zkbOrKJboTAbWqWqkLSLAJ73cRj5O_IlKyyi-8aycSlQdlPfGMrFo0zCL0ma1lMVZTlz-wJtTM/s640/IMG_5779.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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pat arriving at the summit of little annapurna</div>
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i've been though the enchantments a countless number of times, but until this past week i never finished the entire loop human powered. in the past i've always had a car shuttle or just hitched a ride between the stuart lake and snow lake trailheads. winter can be a great time to finish the complete loop as the 8 mile road is often mostly skiable, saving the knees upwards of 4 miles of downhill road pounding.<br />
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another late start had will, pat and i leaving seattle after 10:00 pm to camp at the snow lake trailhead. after a medium effort to get a bike rack mounted, we ditched the idea of riding the road to retrieve the car and decided to just suck it up and walk. i slept most of the drive to the trailhead, which apparently consisted of blizzard conditions at the pass with little to no visibility. i'm sure there were doubts about skiing through the enchantments when powder skiing was right there!<br />
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we napped at the snow lake trailhead and left the car around 6:40 in the morning. dry ground forced us to bring trail runners but allowed for extremely efficient travel for the first 3.5 miles. we found 99% continuous snow about 1.5 miles in but kept shoes on as the snow was supportable and very easy to walk on.<br />
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dry trail and light kit = efficient travel</div>
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until you hit some not so efficient sections</div>
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after switching to skis and boots, we made our way up the valley encountering nearly perfect skinning conditions. the snow was supportable but with a skiff of preserved powder on top that yielded extremely good glide. soon enough we found ourselves skinning across nada lake, then upper snow lake, then vivian. climbing to the upper enchantments was fairly strait forward and only involved booting 50' of wind scoured steeps. all under sunny skies with almost zero wind.<br />
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will skinning across nada lake</div>
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pat got a face shot skinning through the woods before upper snow lake</div>
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probably should have gone powder skiing, it's too nice out here</div>
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yeah, this happened</div>
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pat and will skinning across snow lake</div>
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as we traveled through the upper enchantments, we slowed our pace to enjoy the sun and calm weather. pat and i took a lap up little annapurna while will decided to nap on the rock below. i expected stiff winds on the summit but found more sun and a slight breeze. skiing down little annapurna was possibly the highlight of the trip. pat and i skied down the mellow ridge on windblasted crust to gain the lee side of a broad ridge that looked like it would hold good snow. sure enough, we found excellent windbuffed powder all the way back to the basin below.<br />
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pat high above snow lakes</div>
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skinning above inspiration lake with prusik behind</div>
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pat half way up little annapurna</div>
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little a summit pano</div>
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myself on little a</div>
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little annapurna and our turns </div>
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from will's napping spot, we took a quick jaunt up to aasgard pass, made a scratchy traverse to the skier's left and looked down 2,000' of fall line skiing. the upper 400' consisted of a stiff chalk but eventually turned into more amazing wind buffed powder almost all the way down to the lake. about 30' above the lake the snow became breakable crust and my confident, fast and big turns became much less confident as i crashed.<br />
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skinning to aasgard pass</div>
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will ripping preserved powder above colchuck lake</div>
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at the outlet of the lake we stripped skins and prepared for the worst. skiing out from colchuck lake is often horrible. i prepared for a battle of deep mank, breakable crust and high speed frozen bootpack, all on 3lb skis. thankfully the ski out was quite manageable, even on race gear. after the requisite 5 short uphill sections on the way out to the stuart lake trailhead, we were able to glide down the road to the bridge just before the 8 mile trailhead. a quick skin, then another mile and a half of gliding and skating brought us to the end of continuous snow.<br />
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fat climbing conditions on the n faces</div>
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will and pat careen out of the woods on a section of icy bootpack</div>
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at this point i had made my mind up that i was going to run the rest of the way back to the snow lake trailhead. with skis and boots on back, we started jogging down the road, soaking our feet in the intermittent isothermal snow patched still covering the road.<br />
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once back at the icicle i got the car keys from pat and started down the road to the car. up until now, we weren't trying to go especially fast, the goal was to move efficiently and enjoy a splitter day outside. but if i made it back to the car within 43 minutes, i would finish under 11 hours... obviously that became the goal.<br />
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a slow and sustainable pace started the last 4 miles of road but eventually turned into what felt like race pace. i got a lot of weird looks and cheers from climbers as i ran down the icicle in a full black and yellow lycra suit with skis and boots on my pack. one couple even cracked a beer and handed it to me out the window of their moving car! the last half mile was essentially a sprint back to the car trying not to spill the beer.<br />
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just before being handed a beer</div>
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i arrived at the snow lake trailhead 10 hours, 42 minutes and 13 seconds after leaving the car earlier that morning. pat showed up about 20 minutes later and will was smart and walked the whole way. </div>
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pat "having fun" as he arrives at the snow lake trailhead</div>
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with "race effort" and skipping little annapurna, i'm sure at least 3 hours could easily be knocked off that time. and it would also probably knock off pretty much all the enjoyment... i'm in! toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-14029204640862953662016-03-20T14:40:00.003-07:002016-03-21T17:06:30.904-07:00mt. shuksan: north face ski<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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brendan skis mellower terrain after the initial headwall</div>
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this past week has been a fun week for ellen and i. two saturdays ago we got on a plane and flew to austin texas to visit ellen's dad and step mom. after a few hours of plane time we stepped out into 80 degree weather, an unsubtle difference from the 40 degree rain we left back in seattle. the following week was spent in 90 degree high humidity with much swimming and relaxing. as we enjoyed the sun and warmth, i kept my eye on weather back at home since freezing levels lowered and snow fell heavily. but what got me most excited was a short high pressure system at the end of the week. thursday and friday were supposed to be sunny!<br />
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after a week of relaxation, family and eating more food than i'm used to, ellen and i flew back to seattle thursday night where i immediately dumped traveling clothes out of my backpack and filled it with ski gear, packed up the car and drove north with ryan and brendan to meet will and jonathan at the white salmon parking lot just under our objective, mount shuksan. we arrived just before 1:00 am and settled in for a quick nap.<br />
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texas to home to mt shuksan in a matter of hours</div>
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45 minutes after arriving at home</div>
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we slept in till 5:30, packed our gear and took the slow descending traverse to the base of the white salmon glacier. every other time i've skied mt shuksan from this side the traverse approach has been much more efficient, but dippin' dots avy debris gave way to quite slow and tedious travel. even with slow travel i guess we made pretty good time catching another team of skiers, who left hours before us, a third of the way up the white salmon.<br />
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I don't remember such amazing colors from the sunrise but apparently it happened!</div>
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pockets of slightly sensitive wind affected snow was the norm though whinnie's slide but things seemed to mellow out on the upper curtis glacier. we poked our heads into the hanging glacier headwall to find blue ice and fear. looking across at the entrance to the nw couloir we saw more blue ice with pockets of windslab. as our options for descents dwindled we figured we'd at least go to the north shoulder to enjoy the expansive views of the north cascades. we ended up pulling the rope out to cross a few sketchy cracks but eventually made it to the notch between the north summit and the true summit.<br />
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brendan just below whinnie's slide</div>
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upper curtis glacier</div>
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the group ascending the beginning of the upper curtis glacier </div>
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sun rainbows above the summit pyramid</div>
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traversing across the top of the hanging glacier</div>
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traverse across the hanging glacier</div>
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a fairly long break in the sun while looking out over the cascades was a welcomed rest and i discovered my soft bottle finally broke (after 4 years of abuse) and leaked into my puffy jacket. thankfully it was warm in the sun and my soaking wet jacket worked well enough.<br />
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relaxing with a view (ryan white photo)</div>
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around 1:00 in the afternoon we packed or gear and skied our way over to the north face to see if it was more skiable than the other lines. as we got closer to the main rollover at the top of the face i could see the anticipation building in the rest of the group. being the only person to have skied the line, i knew the initial roller would quickly give way to seeing the rest of the route below. as i cautiously made turns, on an inch or two of well bonded chalk, it probably looked as though we were going to ski off the end of the earth. finding excellent snow for steep skiing, i talked everyone into coming down a ways so that "i'm going to ski off a cliff" feeling would hopefully be put to rest.<br />
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shralpentime!</div>
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eventually everyone relaxed into the steep angle of the slope as brendan picked his way cautiously down the steepest section, probing the snow before each turn for any hidden blue ice. 400' later brendan called up for the next person to ski. a few turns for each person and all that anticipation settled out into the slow rhythm of steep skiing, one turn at a time. the lower face felt more relaxed although it is still 45 degrees over big cliffs and icefalls. we took turns leapfrogging down the mountain to the traverse and eventually the ridge at the base of the north face.<br />
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here we go!</div>
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looking back up as jonathan skis</div>
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ryan just before the traverse into the lower portion of the face</div>
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2" of chalk looking deep</div>
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back in the sun, we enjoyed a variety of snow conditions for the first 500' before things became much more consistent. fun skiing over bumps and rolls brought us to the valley floor where were tested our cascadian ski mountaineering skills against creeks and rocks, airing off as many obstacles as possible. the skin back out of the valley continued our pnw skimo test, where half the group half-assed it and booted through steep dirt, moss and roots. i'm pretty sure i farted in their general direction as i smugly unleashed an arsenal of "combat-skinning" techniques without the thought of ever removing my skis.<br />
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looking up the debris ridden nw couloir</div>
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will shreds the creek</div>
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jonathan about to throw down some creek twister action</div>
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thank you for giving us passage today, mt shuksan</div>
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with the group split into "those who know how to skin" and "those who wish they had such skill", we made one final transition to skate the cat track back to the car. after changing into normal clothes, we set our skinning elitism aside and enjoyed a beer in the sun looking out over mt shuksan.<br />
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after my accident on ruth mountain last year, it's been a long psychological recovery. i finally feel as though my steep skiing head is combing back as this was the first trip in a year and a half where exposure and firm steeps felt like home. as the weather is unsettled for then next week i will rest well knowing we snuck one in just in time!<br />
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thanks to brendan, will, ryan and jonathan for a great adventure on one of my all time favorite ski runs in washington state. toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-79182146293670934422016-02-29T00:10:00.002-08:002016-02-29T11:59:38.966-08:00canada: keith flavelle hut and blackcomb bc<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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travis low in the aussie couloir</div>
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oh canada.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">day 1- pack </span></b><br />
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i wake up having three things to accomplish for the day, wax skis, buy food and pack for the coming week in canada. as i prepare to wax my skis, i think back to earlier in the season when i broke a pair of dynafit denalis on the muir snowfield. i start to get nervous about skiing the warrantied pair for a whole week, possibly in some dicy situations. thoughts of a ruined trip flood my mind as i picture travis and jeff having a ton of fun as i watch with a pair of broken skis. ugh. quickly i shoot out a few texts seeing, if by chance, anyone wanted to buy a pair of denalis for a cheap price. almost instantly i get back an "overstoked" text that a check will be waiting for me at work when i get back. (disclaimer... i don't think the denali is a bad ski at all. in fact, i love the way it skis. i just don't think it's the best ski to push hard in variable conditions as you would a much heavier and burlier ski. but in normal ski mountaineering conditions it might be one of the best lightweight skimo tools around)<br />
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i didn't plan on buying new skis (again), but quickly found myself mounting a pair of salmon mtn explore 95's. i was a little worried about skiing a new ski on a ski mountaineering vacation but i knew it was a good decision as i stopped thinking about whether or not my ski would make it though the trip.<br />
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buys skis, mount skis, buy food, wax skis, cut old skins, make a mess at home, pack the mess, drink beer, sleep.<br />
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here we go again!</div>
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an organized mess</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>day 2 - keith flavelle hut</b></span><br />
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waking up early i go through my checklist one more time to make sure i haven't forgotten anything, then take all my gear downstairs to my car where jeff is already waiting. shortly after, travis arrives and we pack the car and start north.<br />
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our drive through washington and up into canada ends up being quite leisurely. this year we have no trouble finding the correct parking lot. an icy skin track allows us the pleasure of feeling like we don't know how to skin, but the three miles go by with relatively light backpacks and improving snow conditions the higher we go.<br />
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we arrive to a fairly full hut and quickly claim some of the last sleeping spots available. with an hour of daylight left, we take light packs and head up toward joffre and the anniversary glacier. dropping in at last light, i take my first turns on the new skis. wind affected snow led to powder and the skis cut through it all as if i'd been skiing them for years. i don't remember a time when a new ski has ever felt so natural and effortless. eventually we find ourselves back at the skin track to the hut and start uphill, satisfied to get a few turns in after driving for 7.5 hours.<br />
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jeff about to drop in on our first night at the hut</div>
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back at the hut, we cook food and enjoy a relaxing evening before turning in around 9:00. i sleep very well this night despite the hut feeling like a furnace.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">day 3 - joffre aussie couloir and matier nw face </span></b><br />
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waking up at 6:00 am, jeff travis and i cook breakfast, pack our bags and head out for our first actual day of skiing. we arm ourselves with ice axe, crampons, harness, glacier kit and rope. traveling back up to our highpoint of the past evening, we continue up the anniversary glacier in beautiful morning light. quickly, we find ourselves sitting at the col between joffree and matier accompanied by a gentle but chilling breeze.<br />
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jeff skinning away from the hut as the sun rises</div>
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the top of the anniversary glacier</div>
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travis traverses to the glacier</div>
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the snow from the col down to the base of the aussie couloir skis amazingly well and sets our hopes high for the skiing to come. a leisurely transition at the base of the couloir leaves me anxiously excited to ski, so i head out ahead of the crew and start skinning and bootpacking up the chute.<br />
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the aussie couloir</div>
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travis skiing down the matier glacier </div>
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the transition to bootpacking</div>
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the next hour or so i find myself alone. my mind is able to wander within itself as i enjoy the rhythm of kicking steps methodically up the couloir. the snow starts out as hero windbuffed powder then alternates between breakable crust and firm packed snow from constant sluffing. the conditions are tiring but allow a much needed escape from the hustle of normal life.<br />
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at the top of the first couloir i go to what looks like the true summit to find it's only a false summit. after few tense traverse moves and cornice negotiations, i relax at the summit on my backpack and take in the view. i love sitting on top of mountains where everything in sight is wearing it's winter coat. cornices, glacier, steep walls, rock and sky sit with me for 15 minutes of solitude before travis and jeff arrive.<br />
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looking down halfway up the aussie couloir </div>
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jeff and travis in the aussie couloir</div>
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slalok... it's n face drops for thousands and thousands of feet to joffre lakes</div>
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travis and jeff coming to the crux of the aussie couloir, a steep bit just before the top</div>
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jeff walks the largely corniced ridge to the summit of joffre</div>
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a few steps before the summit</div>
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quickly the mood changes from contemplative to stoke as we prepare for the descent. we know the snow isn't going to be blower pow but we're pretty sure the crust will be ski supportable and add a bit of spice to the line. dropping in off the summit we find edgable but generally firm contitions with only a few turns of funky breakable crust. the chute slides by under our skis and before long, we are all standing on the matier glacier hooting and hollering at what had just happened.<br />
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travis drops into the crux of the route</div>
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travis shred-bott</div>
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jeff dropping a knee through the icy crux</div>
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damn fun!</div>
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a quick look at the watch shows it is still early. another quick transition and i am off breaking trail to the base of the nw face of matier. again, travis and jeff take their time transitioning, which allows me to move back into my head and enjoy the timeless rhythm of mountain travel. as i approach the face i notice a team of two we had been watching from joffre, one waiting at the bottom while the other bootpacking upward. excited to have a bootpack for the climb i quicken my skinning pace.<br />
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looking back on joffre while skiining toward the nw face of matier</div>
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looking down on travis from the base of the nw face</div>
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transitioning at the base of the face i realize that even though there is already a bootpack, it's still going to be hard work as i sink deeper into each step. gaining the main face, to my dismay, i find out the wind has blown in the steps of the guy in front of me and i completely re-break trail upward, only stopping to don crampons and ice axe just in case. <br />
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i try to pace myself for the 1500' of steep powder and eventually find a heart-rate i can sustain. the face is bigger and steeper than i thought it would be. i look down to see jeff and travis starting up; they're just tiny dots a thousand feet below. near the top of the face i traverse right to avoid obvious windloading. the face is over 50 degrees here but ice axe and crampons make the traverse secure and easy. eventually i hit a bootpack from the past day and cruise to the top on firm steps.<br />
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not wanting to miss the summit and with time before jeff and travis arrive, i start up the rime covered ridge. tenuous steep and exposed climbing leads me to a narrow section of the ridge. as i mount a large rime ball, half of it breaks off leaving my feet dangling over the face i had just climbed. lowering myself back down i realize most of the ridge is overhanging rime, downclimb, and decide 1500' of perfect powder on a steep face is consolation enough to forego the summit.<br />
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travis and jeff 1000' below just starting up the face</div>
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view s from my highpoint</div>
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sitting at the top of the face, i take a short nap, snap some pictures then watch jeff top out. downclimbing to see how travis is doing i notice he's kicking steps as hard as he can at the traverse. as he finishes the traverse and starts up the final steep section i realize he doesn't have on crampons and isn't using his ice axe. he looks up at me and says, "this is fucking scary, i'm totally spent".<br />
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travis almost to the top of the bootpack</div>
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worked</div>
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don't step on the pee</div>
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looking past matier's summit ridge to the aussie couloir</div>
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a 15 minute break at the top and its time to ski. i click into my bindings, slide out onto the face, make one turn to cut the slope, another turn to see how quickly the sluff is running then drop in. i can't do justice trying to describe the feeling of skiing steep powder at high speeds on a big face but it's good. real good. seconds after i start skiing, i find myself rocketing out the bottom of the face almost loosing it across old avy debris. travis drops in second, and still regaining his wits from the climb, skis pretty conservatively until he realizes it's much more fun to ski fast. jeff drops in third and skis the face in one shot arcing big turns down the fall line, easily outrunning his sluff.<br />
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travis</div>
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jeff</div>
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there were many pole taps and exclamations of joy.<br />
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the skiing from the bottom of the face back to the base of joffre is hero wind buffed snow. many more pole taps and exclamations of joy ring from the matier glacier. the skin back to the top of the anniversary glacier is quick and painless and the ski down the glacier is even less painless as we cut tracks down perfect snow through the gut of the glacier where no one has skied.<br />
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dinner tastes so good after a solid day's effort. i turn in before 8:30 and sleep like a rock.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">day 4 - n side of joffre and vantage</span></b><br />
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sleeping in to 7:00 am jeff, travis and i eat a leisurely breakfast then head back up the skintrack toward joffre. before hitting the anniversary glacier we cut right and aim for a small but aesthetic chute leading to the n side of joffre; under the joffre and central couloirs. a small drop off a chopped cornice allows entrance and a few big and fast turns later we all stand below the n face of joffre in awe of it's size and steepness.<br />
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looking down the small chute</div>
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photo by travis</div>
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the turns below the n face pass under my skis with little to no effort as the sheltered aspect holds cold dry powder for the next 1500' of low angled skiing. at the bottom of our ski we realize we should have packed ice axe and crampons for the n side of vantage so we make a quick decision to skin back up to the hut to grab the gear. a horrible skin track takes us back up the hut along the summer trail where we quickly enjoy some food and water to wash down such a contrived route back.<br />
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as we skin up vantage peak we are treated with amazing views of joffre, matier and howard. but the ture size and depth of matier and howard are revealed as we gain the w ridge of vantage. glaciers flow from up high to a thousand feet below us in a churning mess of snow and ice. thankfully the view west is amazing because the skin track to just below the top of vantage is extremely tedious. i think we traverse left and right, through horizontal rock bands, 10 times more than we go up.<br />
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matier from just below the w ridge of vantage</div>
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matier</div>
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river of snow and ice</div>
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sun rainbow</div>
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photo by travis</div>
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arriving just below the summit of vantage we see two tracks entering the n face, both of which go around an obvious convexity. "hey jeff, you should jump off this rock and center punch that windloaded section." jeff laughs at skiing over the convexity but agrees to jump off the rock. as jeff flies off the rock, he gracefully lands in deep snow then makes a turn right through the windloaded convexity. a slide breaks loose and propagates 25' to the left but jeff keeps his cool and is able to ski off it as we watch the debris funnel down a chute to far below where it started.<br />
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just before center-punching the obviously windloaded section </div>
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after recovering for a few minutes we enjoy many more turns of lower angled powder to a low spot in a bowl that would eventually drain back to the skintrack to the hut. rather than skiing out the bowl, we put skins back on and start making our way to a subpeak just n of vantage.<br />
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high speed pow!</div>
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photo by travis</div>
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skiing off the subpeak, my skis find all sorts of wind and sun effected snow on the w aspects, but the shaded slopes hold more magical perfect powder. another 1000'+ shot of perfect snow passes under our skis before we skin back up to the hut to pack up and ski out for our next stop, the whistler blackcomb backcountry.<br />
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skiing out to the car is horrible as most of the trail is a skating rink of strangely banked turns. travis even catches a ski on a small branch, ringing his bell pretty good. thankfully no one ends up too badly hurt, except for jeff's beers which had somehow gone flat sitting in the trunk of my car.<br />
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at first we though the beer expired over a year ago... then we realized that wasn't true</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">day 5 - blackcomb backcountry: nw face of pattison, decker main chute and doa</span></b><br />
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we sleep well in a hotel in squamish but wakeup feeling fatigued. jeff has no food so we go from store to store trying to find a place open at 7:30 am. eventually we resort to a gas station mini mart and tim hortons before we point the car back north toward whistler blackcomb.<br />
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arriving at the ski area we decide to ski out of blackcomb as the backcountry just outside the resort holds more skiing with less work. as i ask for a one way lift ticket, the lady at the counter looks at me like i'm crazy, says they don't have such a thing, then offers me a backcountry ticket which is, "only good for a one way trip." huh?<br />
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loading the lift, the warm sun shines in our eyes and we laugh at the thousands of feet that disappear below our tired legs. i'm not usually one to use a lift to ski in the backcountry, but this day it seems like a fun and novel decision.<br />
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at the top of the resort, we traverse above the blackcomb glacier then skin up to a notch looking out over decker and the rest of the peaks of the spearhead traverse. most of the terrain close to the resort has been skied in the past few days but its obvious there is still plenty of snow left so we point our skis downhill and make our way to a lake just below the north side of decker.<br />
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jeff skiing to the lake below decker</div>
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this glacier flows directly into the lake</div>
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a great skin track leads up to a notch south of decker where we ski a fun but short chute and some hero sun softened powder to the middle of a long mellow glacier. another mellow skin track puts us just below the nw pace of pattison, the obvious objective for the amount of energy and time we have this day.<br />
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jeff in the chute we used to access the glacier below pattison</div>
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looking up at pattison's nw face, my eyes drift to the right and start piecing together an improbable line splitting the steepest face. i ask jeff what he thinks about that line and he just says, "i'm in." but as we come around a bit closer to the face, we notice that one of the hanging snowfields looks like its a rock slab barely covered with snow. it would probably go, but it would require climbing the route to find out, something we just don't have time for. i guess we'll just have to settle for another 1000' of steep perfect powder.<br />
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it would totally go!</div>
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a cool wind feature takes us to the sw ridge of pattison where we can easily skin to the top. i arrive just before another group of 4 shows up from a different approach. they graciously tell me that since we arrived first, we could drop in first. i quickly transitioned, rushing travis, as i didn't want the other group to change their mind!<br />
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travis gaining the sw ridge of pattison</div>
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a few exposed turns over big cliffs on wind hammered snow granted access to the main face. once again, my skis accelerated downward and the feeling of perfect snow brushing agains my legs became my universe... until i was just about at the bottom of the face where i had to cross old but soft avy debris. not wanted to crash, i try to power through the debris but end up finding the limit of the 6 lbs skis and violently crash. somehow i manage to get back on my feet and ski out the bottom laughing.<br />
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watching from far out on the glacier, travis drops in and arcs big fast turns down the face until he eats it at the same place i did, but more violently! thankfully he gets back on his feet and skis up to me with snow all over his face, which is both happy and confused. seconds later, jeff drops in and crashes high on the face, eventually recovering he skis powerfully out the bottom and across the glacier, also covered in snow.<br />
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travis about to eat it</div>
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we laugh at how absurd it is to all crash on the same face, then don skins and start working our way back to pizza and beer. but between us and pizza lies multiple mountains which we can't just let pass by without skiing, so we decide to ski a route on decker and exit via the doa couloir.<br />
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skiing off decker is fun as we ski a more west facing aspect in evening light. the snow isn't as blower as everything else we've been skiing but it still yields excellent turns in an amazing setting. putting skins on for one last time, my legs start to feel the fatigue from the past week. the skin up to the doa seems to go on forever in the fading evening light but we eventually make it and ski the worst snow of the whole trip. totally worth it.<br />
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looking back on pattison from decker... tremor dominated the skyline</div>
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looking down the mainline on decker</div>
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some soft snow still survived in the shade</div>
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the view west above bodybag bowl</div>
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doa</div>
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an endless cat-track back through the resort is a welcome change from the chopped up refreezing sun affected mank below the doa. we eat pizza, get coffee and drive back to seattle arriving before midnight. ski vacations are the best. somewhere around 21000' of human powered skiing, most of it perfect powder should make this work week painful, yet doable.toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-36280821806039724192016-02-27T21:14:00.000-08:002016-02-27T21:32:40.303-08:00alpental vertfest 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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the front of the pack</div>
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photo by <a href="http://www.brnathan.com/" target="_blank">nathan hadley</a></div>
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<i>most photos taken from nwac's facebook page</i><br />
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moving quickly through the mountains is my form of mountain travel. i can enjoy a relaxing day of skiing or climbing, though, it just doesn't bring me to life like a 2 or 3 day trip crammed comfortably into a matter of hours. not being a highly competitive person, i've never done any racing even though i love both mountain running and ski mountaineering (quickly). for whatever reason, i've kept my mountain activities as shared experiences between a few friends and use the mountains to shed light on my physical and mental fitness.<br />
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last year i took the plunge and purchased a pair of skimo race boots, race bindings and a very lightweight skis. my idea was to use ultralight gear to "get after it" in the mountains and figured i'd race in vertfest just because. then vertfest was canceled, I ended up skiing heavier gear for the bulk of the season and our summer ski season was horrible. thankfully i got enough time on my gear to learn that with a touch of adjustment in skiing style, super light gear was more than just capable. </div>
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fast forward to earlier this fall and the idea of vertfest started bouncing around in my mind again. i knew i didn't have a true race setup but figured it would be a good time with some friends and, worse case scenario, participating would urge me to throw down for a true set of race skis and that magical lycra suit. sometime in january i went ahead and bought race skis, carbon boots and a lycra suit, oops! thankfully everything arrived, allowing me 4 times out on the skis and two times out on the boots, before i had to race. </div>
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i rallied as many friends as possible to join the race but as the forecast started showing a good chance of rain, most dropped out. the night before, noaa was calling for temps in the 40's and 1-2" of rain, mostly during the hours of the race. somehow 6 of us pulled together and went anyway. </div>
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never having raced before i had no clue what to expect. i figured only a small crowd would show up so i went in hoping to be decently competitive. by the time the pre race meeting started there were well over 100 people registered and ready to run uphill! as it was dumping rain outside, i sat in the meeting honored to be in a room with so many good "glass-half-full" attitudes. it was raining hard enough before the race i didn't warm up well, just skinned a few hundred feet up the hill and "skied" back down with skin on in tour mode for fear of my one pair of skins not sticking again. toeing the start line i went over my transitions in my head, thought about my strategy, then realized i had no idea what i was doing! then martin volken yelled, "3, 2, 1, GO!"<br />
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100+ of the best attitudes ready to run uphill in the pouring rain</div>
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photo by rick meade</div>
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instinct said to sprint so i did. after a hundred feet or so i was surprised and terrified to be out in front. not wanting to set the pace, i backed off and let the next closest person pull ahead. with no clue how to pace for what is essentially a 4000' uphill sprint, i figured i'd let someone else do the work for me. there was a group of 5 or 6 of us that quickly started pulling away after we all got funneled through a narrow stream crossing and we all took the pace of the leader <a href="http://toomanyboots.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">matt reid</a>. after the stream crossing the course started uphill again and our pace started slowing a touch. still unable to determine how hard i could push, i allowed matt to pace until <a href="http://mountainlessons.com/" target="_blank">patrick fink</a> started urging us to go faster, eventually passing us both. since my strategy seemed to be follow the leader, i followed patrick and passed matt as well.<br />
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off we go!</div>
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photo by <a href="http://www.brnathan.com/" target="_blank">nathan hadley</a></div>
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by the time we got halfway up the first climb patrick, matt and i had pulled ahead a decent amount and comfortably transitioned together for the first bootpack. by the time we hit the second bootpack, patrick and i had gained a short lead on matt. at the top of the first climb we had about 30 seconds.</div>
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skiing downhill was amazing. amazing if you like skiing a 6lb ski setup (skis, boots and bindings) through avy debris, rain soaked powder, icy moguls and knee deep mank. out of the transition i kept patrick in my sights and even aired the entrance to nash, thankfully clearing the rocks and not exploding into a pile of broken bones and skis. it became quickly apparent that patrick is much more comfortable on race gear than i am and that even my kamikaze ski technique wasn't going to allow me to keep up without getting hurt. therefore, i relegated myself to only skiing completely out of control while not thinking about the health of my knees. </div>
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i pulled into the next transition about 30 seconds behind patrick, matt not in sight and had one of my faster skins on transitons (38 seconds! i know, stop timing and start racing!). needing to make up time, i kept my heart rate manageable and one an eye on patrick, making sure to slowly close the distance without burning out. the skin track for the second lap was set by a volunteer crew in a torrential downpour so i don't fault them, but geez, it was horrible! after much sliding backward and even a few falls, i managed to catch up with patrick a couple hundred vertical below the last transition. </div>
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after ripping skins i started out about 15' behind patrick and knew i'd have to push hard to keep up. about 150' out of the last transition we were in horrible rain soaked unskied "powder" when i got a bit too aggro, sunk both tips of my skis and was hurled into a violent summersault. somehow i landed back on my skis but i was off balanced enough that i cratered with my skis uphill and had to literally dig myself out. knowing patrick was going to have to blow it big time for me to win, i quickly excavated myself and resumed my completely out of control ski technique all the way to the finish line. even though i broke 60 mph straitlining the botton of snake dance and out sessel, patrick had been waiting for a minute or so. too much fun! </div>
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finishing second well exceeded my expectations for my first race, but more importantly i was learning every second of it. also, my amazing wife who hasn't ski toured in months (and who has only skied a handful of times) sucked it up and raced on her brand new heavy skis on valentines day! in fact, this race was her birthday present! she may have finished last, but she did it with a smile and i can't even express how proud of her i am. congrats to patrick for winning the race and matt for sliding in third. and, thanks to travis, jeff, emily, ryan, will and everyone else for choosing to suffer in the rain together.<br />
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excited to be on the podium!</div>
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photo by will howerton</div>
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things i learned...</div>
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<ul>
<li>skinning with normal technique at race pace on uneven ground is tough as i am too light to decamber my ski quickly enough. new technique being worked on!</li>
<li>don't ski uphill 20,000' the week of a race, even if its a lot of fun.</li>
<li>training for more than 2 and a half weeks is a good idea.</li>
<li>push harder than you think. i didn't feel sore the next day which means i could have given a lot more.</li>
<li>if you have a chance to pass on the up take it</li>
<li>know your gear well. it helps to have skied your gear in as many conditions as possibly, as much as possible. </li>
<li>warming up is worth it, even if its raining.</li>
<li>kick turns are a bitch with a high heart rate.</li>
<li>the best skier on the mountain is the skier having the most fun! </li>
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toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-80402146495740806372016-02-18T00:31:00.001-08:002016-02-19T15:41:14.050-08:00cannon mountain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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believe me, the snow looks much better than it is</div>
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i've gotten the chance to ski the cannon mountain couloir a few times in the past, but the skinning conditions to access the chute have always been so horrible i've foregone the true summit and decided to just drop the chute. the true summit of cannon mountain is about 1 mile line of sight from the entrance of the couloir and involves dropping down 700' and climbing back up 1200', then reversing that route to return to the couloir... that makes an extra 1900' (on top of the 6000' it took to get to the chute!) of vert to tag the true summit!<br />
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Last week there was a brief respite from the horrible rainy feburary we've had so far. a few days of sun prompted me to "get after it" as much a feasible without wrecking myself before vertfest. on monday i recieved the pair of scarpa alien 1.0 boots i had ordered from telemark pyranees (amazing company btw) and spent the evening getting them set for the next couple days of testing. tuesday dawned bright and sunny, without any partners i got a crack of 11 am start and drove up to the closed summit west for some test laps on the new gear. i was expecting horrible skiing with 45 degree temps but surprisingly found perfect corn on the groomed runs and managable mank just off the groomers. long story short, i ended up skiing 6500' at almost race pace because it was so much fun (not the best idea a few days before a race).<br />
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new boots!</div>
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geez do they ski well</div>
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the s side of guye peak roasting in the spring like heat</div>
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back at home, i repacked for the next day and left shortly after. I drove out to leavenworth to camp with will and brendan for an alpine start to beat a weather system moving in the next afternoon. thankfully there was snow all the way down to the icicle which meant no hiking with skis and boots on out backs, therefore skinning from the car!<br />
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we left the car around 4:45 in the morning and started up the 1000' vertical of road at a leisurely but quick pace. just as it was time to remove headlamps we found the correct log crossing and looked up at the 5000' of steep skinning ahead. as in the past, cannon mountain's w side did not disappoint and dished up horrible skinning; 3-4" of rain soaked mank which slid easily over firm crust.<br />
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we took a steady pace and made reasonably efficient time arriving at the entrance of the couloir about 4.5 hours after leaving the car. mostly sunny skies had accompanied us thus far along the trip, but topping out we could see the incoming storm approaching from the w. the timer was ticking and we knew it so we ate some food at the entrance to the chute, stripped skins and skied in the opposite direction... there was no way i was going to skip the true summit today!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGJBH5I-Le8y0g2ju-fQGQpaM9A_xKcv06e9JTKjMjpGa6DD9oJpvZvcdqLNmN33UxV9VvjD0uJTUNUxIC0S4m1JUuYn9ZMB5EOIVIq8LUn2slC4O6Nfw-d7E54C5yEKOkNbk_6-tFRNVX/s1600/IMG_5104.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGJBH5I-Le8y0g2ju-fQGQpaM9A_xKcv06e9JTKjMjpGa6DD9oJpvZvcdqLNmN33UxV9VvjD0uJTUNUxIC0S4m1JUuYn9ZMB5EOIVIq8LUn2slC4O6Nfw-d7E54C5yEKOkNbk_6-tFRNVX/s640/IMG_5104.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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brendan and will just above the cannon mountain couloir entrance...</div>
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cannon mountain's true is the main peak middle left</div>
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we had to poke around to find a good route into the big alpine bowl below the true summit but eventually found an easy path and were able to glide and skate most of the way across a frozen lake. at the end of the lake, we skinned and booted up a broad chute to the summit plateau and skinned the long flatish distance to the true summit. i arrived at the summit just in time to watch mt. stuart go from being completely visible to entirely engulfed in the storm. within 5 min of being on the summit the storm had move all the way over to us and it started blowing and snowing!<br />
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brendan just above the lake with the wide chute in the background</div>
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will crushing it up the chute</div>
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looking back from where we came</div>
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cannon mountain couloir drops the back side of the ridge in the background just left of center</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDXDN3bm_J2kxFgyu-MKz1Ync05IgJYUWTSkca6z2DMeMlQv5ZZcvBFytdrxczejGT5XNfMJW0y0lmpFKc6Kr-h16Bc-UY0L2ukwmC56kmBeYeAc8NEgTprOrz8nBcuWx3YGVJazGEhRqA/s1600/IMG_5129.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDXDN3bm_J2kxFgyu-MKz1Ync05IgJYUWTSkca6z2DMeMlQv5ZZcvBFytdrxczejGT5XNfMJW0y0lmpFKc6Kr-h16Bc-UY0L2ukwmC56kmBeYeAc8NEgTprOrz8nBcuWx3YGVJazGEhRqA/s640/IMG_5129.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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ultimate 78's just yearning to ski the steep and complex w face of cannon</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOKz6XdH166_rT-CeMrbUF0eRwJn__3K-5eYT8d7x_PhM-ttIjbUGDddGt1MKRcIjDHZ89vVrsM-O-Dy8q2IXzVr80LjqtTrpTQPW2Us5z4m52Ux0OtjgKow4nmGJ2VBmrybb4aNYSibpW/s1600/IMG_5164.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOKz6XdH166_rT-CeMrbUF0eRwJn__3K-5eYT8d7x_PhM-ttIjbUGDddGt1MKRcIjDHZ89vVrsM-O-Dy8q2IXzVr80LjqtTrpTQPW2Us5z4m52Ux0OtjgKow4nmGJ2VBmrybb4aNYSibpW/s640/IMG_5164.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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here comes the storm! stuart engulfed in the dark mass of wind and snow</div>
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a quick break at the summit and we stripped skins once again and started back the way we came. the chute we used to access the summit plateau was some fun "firm alpine" conditions. the chute ranged from just over 45 degrees on the left side to just over 40 in the middle. it felt good to ski some steepish firm snow as i feel like its been a while for me. also, i can now officially say the atomic ultimate 78 is excellent in steep firm snow. too soon the chute was over and we were putting skins back on partway across the lake. the skin back to the cannon mountain couloir felt a bit tiring and i could feel the 6500' from the past day starting to catch up. but eventually we made it and skied a bunch more 40 degree alpine variable which inevitably ended up turing into mank.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirAQKF5vgs9nNo5viw2yyhLH9rK0KExEKR46S2zLmCJiab0eLnvPIjChL-rGU21wMHgfNIPLKFSr4aabGdd3ZfnaZQCJTn-tWLBrGN_9xG1Nclb7LRyfpzMC5PyRjJxPr9okhHYQyo1-s9/s1600/IMG_5132.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirAQKF5vgs9nNo5viw2yyhLH9rK0KExEKR46S2zLmCJiab0eLnvPIjChL-rGU21wMHgfNIPLKFSr4aabGdd3ZfnaZQCJTn-tWLBrGN_9xG1Nclb7LRyfpzMC5PyRjJxPr9okhHYQyo1-s9/s640/IMG_5132.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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will testing the limit of race gear on 45 degree firm</div>
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brendan shows us that "heavy" skis still have a place in life... maybe</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTRdQRlNtyurprmBhXMF1U6yoaSzEOqic9fsiSLycrt4oqajzRH_XSqSLDx1s_VuM6V7N16lQOYsQV08JXqrDQRLtqntObHmHYZzvU7h6_VkImORF3rEH1BrpgI7XjoX34r6nZ8eqQQ8gD/s1600/IMG_5145.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTRdQRlNtyurprmBhXMF1U6yoaSzEOqic9fsiSLycrt4oqajzRH_XSqSLDx1s_VuM6V7N16lQOYsQV08JXqrDQRLtqntObHmHYZzvU7h6_VkImORF3rEH1BrpgI7XjoX34r6nZ8eqQQ8gD/s640/IMG_5145.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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looking down the cmc from the entrance</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidGkqZR3unNZaNuyG3wtFkMRKg8jVNggYEvMXIIksbIR8HtiXIp9U9nNNsIZVh05el-lGa8ZdfQ4g-gOVBq0YzC_89H6DG1iMRIWjO0sqg0emywKEdYOsi5VZLY5W-G_MRgwGNVNh5r1MX/s1600/IMG_5146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidGkqZR3unNZaNuyG3wtFkMRKg8jVNggYEvMXIIksbIR8HtiXIp9U9nNNsIZVh05el-lGa8ZdfQ4g-gOVBq0YzC_89H6DG1iMRIWjO0sqg0emywKEdYOsi5VZLY5W-G_MRgwGNVNh5r1MX/s640/IMG_5146.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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brendan halfway down the couloir</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwNsX3hBtfaXQ8xCJXtyh4DzOBEP_PAerPbbY8PS8_vr7iqEk2qp8UnV7fTAYvbvIGpKVVRqj4pG-_lDKgQHKOWPkv3ooJF2DetNycp3l1e3WzKO4mH8aq4SGpv1KB1Fqcj90v4Nbgfoi/s1600/IMG_5151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkwNsX3hBtfaXQ8xCJXtyh4DzOBEP_PAerPbbY8PS8_vr7iqEk2qp8UnV7fTAYvbvIGpKVVRqj4pG-_lDKgQHKOWPkv3ooJF2DetNycp3l1e3WzKO4mH8aq4SGpv1KB1Fqcj90v4Nbgfoi/s640/IMG_5151.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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it's getting sloppy!</div>
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skiing out to the road from the cannon mountain couloir is always an adventure and this trip was no different. much downhill ski bushwacking, jumping off small cliffs, falling in holes, skiing over trees etc. insued and will even broke one of his fancy carbon fiber rando race poles (as he cursed race gear in the backcountry... i'm sure he'll be back on the race gear next trip). eventually we made it back to the creek, found an epic log to cross and had a quick ski back down the road to the car.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDtx7I7z_k7TJUKQ3Pi_F-9MlVqJsori9qTwZPH_2M7d4NRdpwTGJWaXbmJWcNNvF1LwRXJqNPJSP1dV0qoasYgaOzxkHHW_msL6gnCk5BzOxRxDLyc232ql03uzSQq0RNACZFfErmvh8c/s1600/IMG_5156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDtx7I7z_k7TJUKQ3Pi_F-9MlVqJsori9qTwZPH_2M7d4NRdpwTGJWaXbmJWcNNvF1LwRXJqNPJSP1dV0qoasYgaOzxkHHW_msL6gnCk5BzOxRxDLyc232ql03uzSQq0RNACZFfErmvh8c/s640/IMG_5156.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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normal cannon mountain shenanigans</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9h3vSVzv6HHkgIGqq8yEaXORIbCrn7fFs_u4_QikkE9fVC9-PO3U4mK8nwikWWiYDZ3GtFRDkOO2YfOYVbSm_jR7oHrEZkQ0f-54xYPdgLxAnwLzbZEW4x_iGDFKMX3LatdNXI603DUOY/s1600/IMG_5159.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9h3vSVzv6HHkgIGqq8yEaXORIbCrn7fFs_u4_QikkE9fVC9-PO3U4mK8nwikWWiYDZ3GtFRDkOO2YfOYVbSm_jR7oHrEZkQ0f-54xYPdgLxAnwLzbZEW4x_iGDFKMX3LatdNXI603DUOY/s640/IMG_5159.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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broken fancy pole "fixed" with skis straps and a twig, haha</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEZ3ylG4WrbRBix9UuMqiL5bW9vavrko82hl78h0QUUcEARUvoCy1Wr46XatpYlYK1iuV-T5A5WJCFpt7sQHY3Vpd_lSbfaKVr9eSz-hQzDzwKqNt68XDbjzR5v07VJgaRnBkhhNdUgJAI/s1600/IMG_5160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEZ3ylG4WrbRBix9UuMqiL5bW9vavrko82hl78h0QUUcEARUvoCy1Wr46XatpYlYK1iuV-T5A5WJCFpt7sQHY3Vpd_lSbfaKVr9eSz-hQzDzwKqNt68XDbjzR5v07VJgaRnBkhhNdUgJAI/s640/IMG_5160.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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sweet log crossing on the way back</div>
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it's amazing how stoked i get after a trip to the stuart range, even if it turned stormy on us. i thing the stuart rage is a magical place that just gives and gives and gives. also, seeing the main range from an angle i'm not used to just gives me more and more ideas for future trips. and, i'll admit it, i'm quite fond of skinning or walking up the road to the stuart lake trailhead. i hate it but secretly love it.<br />
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stats for the day:<br />
14.6 miles traveled<br />
8300' vert gained/loss<br />
9:23toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-61636697483625061022016-01-03T23:02:00.005-08:002016-01-03T23:02:50.491-08:00catch up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRNBIwi1daPXs324oPMWY558BzwBJLTf2U7Q7xXUsuI6W3_MO2LSlSpwfeksDJLq_LtTp0aeARzsAZJKM7nfz4lCmUp5Y9JRPnVbnjq69DvoYpVR_9aHgRabQvdSEQ7Zv2AYuAruGNn6we/s1600/IMG_4895.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRNBIwi1daPXs324oPMWY558BzwBJLTf2U7Q7xXUsuI6W3_MO2LSlSpwfeksDJLq_LtTp0aeARzsAZJKM7nfz4lCmUp5Y9JRPnVbnjq69DvoYpVR_9aHgRabQvdSEQ7Zv2AYuAruGNn6we/s640/IMG_4895.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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slot</div>
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a lot has happened since i last put anything on here so here is a photo spew of a few things i found buried on my phone. by no means is this a comprehensive account of the past few months but at least i can feel like i'm sharing some of my past adventures.<br />
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a few standout adventures i've had in the past couple months would be...<br />
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running: thunder mt. lakes, mt. daniel and kyes peak. also a link up of guye and kendall peaks in "fun" conditions and the tooth and lundin in icy conditions.<br />
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skiing: lots of powder, breaking two pairs of skis, lots of new skis and actual dawn patrols (unlike last year).<br />
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anyway, these pictures are in no particular order, just how the phone popped them out onto the computer.<br />
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larson getting rad below pan point</div>
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third day on the new skis</div>
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got to the same place on larrabee again this year, haha</div>
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will's cho oyu broke on the way out of larrabee</div>
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i have good feelings about skiing this mountain again this year</div>
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hopefully many many times</div>
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red mountain from below the first the false summit of lundin</div>
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panorama from the first false summit of lundin</div>
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just below the catwalk on the tooth before is started nuking snow</div>
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"trail running" kit</div>
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brendan and tucker above thunder mountain lakes</div>
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tucker takes the leap off the summit of nimbus mountain</div>
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jeremy running around the east summit of mt. daniel</div>
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looking down at pea soup lake from the summit of mt. daniel</div>
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running down to circle lake</div>
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air carving technique on muir snowfield</div>
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on top of kyes peak with brian</div>
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there is a reason the guidebook says to go around point 5800 on the way to kyes and brian and il learned the hard way</div>
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pat arriving at the summit of guye peak </div>
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from guye we made our way to kendall</div>
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where knee deep breakable crust killed the skin on our shins</div>
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pow at paradise</div>
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TALL-BOTT 14 error... error.</div>
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muir</div>
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well shit</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6R81AzM3MIaA-rPZ7_CWv13FUzZT3SVFWKvqmoMyNDwKwiaM_tt27NWsu9KpR6vtq5QDtgj_nnLyMSSji_caGtw_dltY4YsQ6YqS7bWyNdvVFPjMTpPV7NHwp_FuukDeVkSy8Goj253T1/s1600/IMG_4716.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6R81AzM3MIaA-rPZ7_CWv13FUzZT3SVFWKvqmoMyNDwKwiaM_tt27NWsu9KpR6vtq5QDtgj_nnLyMSSji_caGtw_dltY4YsQ6YqS7bWyNdvVFPjMTpPV7NHwp_FuukDeVkSy8Goj253T1/s640/IMG_4716.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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and again</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPnOZWnPJVf5P6Q6qiSDM088IG8BvVXRcvLS94T0L14InDQWwoOQqQaemd6pCjfCI9tqeSEOlxlq0v4QFiPIlQx5wJ80v_tjzVHlitFx8cwQr_hq7uVWNCts49uJyjvKpMgMM2CxmlSIVp/s1600/IMG_4718.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPnOZWnPJVf5P6Q6qiSDM088IG8BvVXRcvLS94T0L14InDQWwoOQqQaemd6pCjfCI9tqeSEOlxlq0v4QFiPIlQx5wJ80v_tjzVHlitFx8cwQr_hq7uVWNCts49uJyjvKpMgMM2CxmlSIVp/s640/IMG_4718.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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TALL-BOTT shred hard</div>
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spooky snow high on the phontom</div>
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so we skied deep pow instead of trying to get to the slot</div>
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63cm in 16 hours!</div>
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waist deep and way steep</div>
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invasive ski surgery to correct my incompetence... doesn't look bad but believe me, it was a tense 45 minutes and thankfully everything turned out ok. that would have been ski #3 i've ruined this year</div>
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howerton booting up mcclellan butte's n couloir</div>
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at the top of the couloir</div>
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looking down the fun entrance to the snot couloir</div>
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howerton getting rad</div>
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breakable crust on race skis</div>
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wallowing</div>
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circus couloir before my phone died</div>
<br />toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-24407715314431497882015-08-11T18:32:00.000-07:002015-08-11T18:32:54.767-07:00snow lake to melakwa lakes run<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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climbing from chair peak lake to melakwa pass</div>
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its been a month since i last went out on a trip. on the way down thorp mountain a while back i was jumping over a creek and my leg punched through a big rotten log. in the moment i thought, "wow, that was a big step!" but didn't feel any pain so i continued the run as normal. the next day i felt great so i continued on my training schedule and even finished out the rest of the week. but as the week started coming to an end, a small tightness in my right adductor started to turn into a nagging ache. not wanting to cause any damage i immediately cut off running to hopefully stop the pain before it got any worse.<br />
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well, it got worse. within a week full rest, the ache turned into a limp and all sorts of pain through my adductor, quad and hip muscles on my right leg. i'm pretty sure my rotten log experience combined with a fatigued body from hard training all came together to gift me a strain to my adductor mangus!<br />
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so here i am now, sitting at the computer wishing i was outside high in the alpine enjoying the nice weather. since that isn't really an option i'll let living in the past suffice. he's the last thing i got to do before resting for a month...<br />
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will, travis, ryan, pat and myself took a small break in the weather to run a fun route from the snow lake trailhead to the denny creek trailhead. we started by running up the snow lake trail past source lake to snow lake. from snow lake we continued along the trail to gem lake. from gem lake we followed the ridge toward roosevelt mountain but bypassed the summit and took a low traverse to chair peak lake. from chair peak lake we went up and over melakwa pass to melakwa lakes. all in all we saw 6 lakes and covered about 13 miles of terrain on and off trail with a wonderful mix of everything between buffed singletrack below treeline to heinous loose talus high in the alpine.<br />
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travis and will crossing the outlet of snow lake</div>
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thumbs up dude!</div>
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looking down on snow lake from the ridge to roosevelt</div>
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on the ridge to roosevelt</div>
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travis on the traverse to chair peak lake</div>
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chair peak lake... such an underrated place!</div>
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will, ryan and pat going around chair peak lake</div>
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ascending to melakwa pass</div>
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pat arriving at melakwa lakes</div>
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nothing like a good post-run dunk in the swimming hole</div>
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jumping in chair peak lake was possibly the highlight of the trip even though it was windy, 55 degrees and cloudy. unfortunately running the rocky trail between melakwa lakes and the denny creek trailhead i could feel my right leg starting to become quite weak. about 2 miles from the car i promised myself that from that night until i felt better there would be no running.<br />
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anyway, two days ago i was able to run some trails on cougar mountain with zero pain. my leg still feels a bit weak and slow but no pain was a big relief. getting out of bed the next day i was greeted with that great feeling of dusting the cob webs off, mostly a good soreness. it's hard to not fully jump back in but i know i need to take it slow and get strength back well (which apparently isn't the same as quickly). as i type this, friends are headed out to climb forbidden peak... i just keep telling myself, "it's fine, you've already climbed that route..."toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-9637769826983323262015-07-17T20:19:00.001-07:002015-07-17T20:19:39.563-07:00evening runs, taking the plunge and thorp mountain redux! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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pat just below point 5,700 on his way to up kaleetan peak</div>
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with all the hot weather as of late it's been hard to be motivated to run during the day... unless running includes arriving at a high alpine lake and swimming! it's funny how working hard and sweating like crazy for a few hours seems pretty reasonable if drinking a beer and swimming is thrown into the mix.<br />
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not only are alpine lakes the best relief on a hot day, you also get to learn all sorts of great things along the way... like how salomon running vests not only hold the included soft bottles, but also bottles and cans of beer! or if you're really lucky, brian or brendan might give you a lesson on how to harvest rock gardens with their bodies (aka tripping and falling into rocks). oooh, another important lesson learned; pat can't open a bottle with his skin. <br />
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brian needs no trail!</div>
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bottle openers work better than skin</div>
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brendan commits</div>
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yeah, life is tough on a hot day</div>
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brian harvested a rock garden</div>
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a week and a half later he is finally able to run again</div>
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malakwa lake</div>
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pat talking on his phone?</div>
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kaleetan lake from the summit</div>
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who wants a mustache ride?</div>
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almost home</div>
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so all this running was originally for the purpose of completing high alpine traverses in a day but it's hard to stay motivated when goals are years from being completed (at least for me). to help me stay on target, i just took the plunge and signed up for a race... yes, i just paid money to go for a run. i signed up for the angels staircase 35k race which is a part of the us sky running series this year. ascending 6,000 vertical feet in 10.5miles. the race is an out and back course which is literally uphill the whole way to the turnaround then likewise downhill all the way back. ouch.<br />
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i had no idea what something like that would feel like so this week i went on a trial run to log the same amount of vert over the same distance. since i'm a glutton for punishment, i chose to go back to thorp mountain, which is 18 miles and 6,100 feet of vert and run three miles of forest service road at the end. last time i did thorp was two months ago, brian and i got lost, i completely got my ass kicked, had to quick hike most of the up and we did 21 miles with 7k vert in 5:48.<br />
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this time around i made sure to start at a comfortable pace trying to run well rather than fast. the first 6.5 miles went quite well until i realized my comfortable pace was a bit too fast with all the steep ups. i ended up quick hiking some of the steeps but made it to the lookout at mile 9 at 2 hours even. a 20 minute break to enjoy the views and i started back to the car. again, i quick hiked a couple steep uphill sections and bombed the downhills as fast as i felt would be sustainable. i made it back to the car after 3:32:59 on the move and ran a comfortable 8:15 pace for the last three miles of road. all in all, i finish the run at 3:57:21. it felt really good to finish the trip almost 2 hours faster than the first time!<br />
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view north from thorp mountain lookout</div>
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looking back at kachess lake</div>
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i'm excited for the race where i can carry less water, food, gear and run on a well rested body! am i really excited to pay money to run? i think i might be! toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-28062956631813672412015-07-16T17:18:00.000-07:002015-07-16T21:53:13.660-07:00ptarmigan ridge run<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWYim41r9fKNdUrl4f4TDfBGlezDQX9wipcIofaeTwssM2QOVM74CYtnYX3Mt8oZr-h-0ctyN-hIN8O7d4DQwnH4D1yUWdzK7oI1JtU5nimrwtmYReNytKXfynka4GpCsaU4cHYRlRYk7E/s1600/IMG_3053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWYim41r9fKNdUrl4f4TDfBGlezDQX9wipcIofaeTwssM2QOVM74CYtnYX3Mt8oZr-h-0ctyN-hIN8O7d4DQwnH4D1yUWdzK7oI1JtU5nimrwtmYReNytKXfynka4GpCsaU4cHYRlRYk7E/s640/IMG_3053.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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i already want to go back</div>
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this has to be one of the best bang-for-the-buck runs i know of in this state. aside from the long drive, i can't think if anywhere that offers a well graded trail and high alpine views with such little effort!<br />
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brian, pat and i left seattle at a leisurely 6:30 am and started the long drive to the north side of mt. baker. rather than driving all the way to artist point, we decided to park at the bagley lakes trailhead and start by running up the chain lakes trail. </div>
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double thumbs up for peter chapman</div>
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it was fun to run through terrain i often tour through in the winter months. this time around the normal white blanket, draped over everything, was replaced by browns, greens and vibrant blues all mixed together below the mighty mt. shuksan. the run up to the pass above iceberg lake was a solid warm-up for the rest of the day.</div>
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brian leaving bagley lakes below, with shuksan towering above</div>
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dropping down to iceberg lake we took some time to grab some pictures and soak up the environment. as soon as we left the lakes and started toward the south side of table mountain, the trees and lakes all disappeared andwere slowly replaces with grand views of the high alpine. </div>
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run pat, run!</div>
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hitting the junction for the climbers trail headed out toward ptarmigan ridge, we could see the trail going ahead of us for miles. what followed was a spectacular ridge run with amazing views the whole time. the trail was graded perfectly for enjoyable running which allowed us to make good time to an abandoned camp kiser. until we hit the short scramble up the east portal we hadn't encountered a trail too steep to run. </div>
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starting down the ptarmigan ridge trail</div>
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moonscape</div>
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mount baker with the rainbow glacier</div>
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we took a long break at the top of the east portal with spectacular 360ยบ views. it was fun to think back on skiing the park headwall in a foot of perfect alpine windbuff (and easy to forget the miles of breakable crust trail breaking it took to get to there). after many pictures were taken, we packed up and started on our way back to the car.</div>
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panorama from the top of the east portal</div>
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the gentle grade of the trail on the out allowed very efficient travel and brian and i took a quick detour to a small pile of choss just of the trail. but before we knew it, the barren desert landscape of the high alpine was behind us and we were traversing the south side of table mountain toward artist point. </div>
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brian and pat probably complaining about the awful views</div>
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at artist point we ran through the busy parking lot and started down the wild goose trail. after being spoiled with such nicely graded trails all day, the wild goose trail was a shock to the system. large basalt stairs, tight switchbacks and steep rocky trail led to a lower parking lot and a maze of trails back to the car. </div>
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pat arrives at the artist point parking area</div>
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just before reaching the car, brian went to pass me and tripped, slamming his body into some nicely placed basalt stairs... right in front of two hikers. thankfully no damage was done and laughs and beers were had by all. roughly 20 miles with 4300' of vertical elevation gain. we were on the move for 3:15. </div>
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to cap off the day, we got chinese takeout from hagan and went to pat's families cabin on the sound where we soaked our legs in the cool water and got sunburnt. what a day. </div>
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uh, yes please</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu8pwCRBeS3MkfGZdCUDZg3z0PpE5HVyJSWKPTtaFklJDqCfZwNrrKJNPuBdwFQ9RhVFYNEjgXcxLAJ3r4FpG3qOUkeosQ23SmCEGbVf8Ho8p_7PZvVAKVpS6MCJnr4zffpXzuT2zPc3eO/s1600/IMG_3058.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu8pwCRBeS3MkfGZdCUDZg3z0PpE5HVyJSWKPTtaFklJDqCfZwNrrKJNPuBdwFQ9RhVFYNEjgXcxLAJ3r4FpG3qOUkeosQ23SmCEGbVf8Ho8p_7PZvVAKVpS6MCJnr4zffpXzuT2zPc3eO/s640/IMG_3058.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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relief from the heat!</div>
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toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-83825910358863459962015-07-03T17:29:00.000-07:002015-07-03T17:29:48.204-07:00trail runningthis past month has been awesome.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcDbyTLNlVlnTuVixDuVDdiO3jKNGSpHPyWW4lJm5MzHrh1OpvEYlCVUtqTMDx4cPCDpFLOqk0vhutajJWiwToW5cpcyG071s_2ZQyIo2VQxVtqU6b4LPMtn6L3jbB4zjeuBak-gKSJKFo/s1600/IMG_2946.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcDbyTLNlVlnTuVixDuVDdiO3jKNGSpHPyWW4lJm5MzHrh1OpvEYlCVUtqTMDx4cPCDpFLOqk0vhutajJWiwToW5cpcyG071s_2ZQyIo2VQxVtqU6b4LPMtn6L3jbB4zjeuBak-gKSJKFo/s640/IMG_2946.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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it doesn't have to be all suffering... </div>
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normally, june consists of hiking around the mountains with skis and boots strapped to my pack looking for snow. but this year our dismal snowpack has been dominated by the abnormally high temps which, in turn, have crushed my motivation to haul ski gear high into the mountains. i know this sounds like a horrible june, but when one door slams shut, there is always another open and waiting to be walked though.<br />
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i have a few long term goals that involve moving long distances through the mountains in a single push, unsupported. but accomplishing any of these goals requires constant movement for much longer than i am capable of at this moment. thankfully, the recent weather has allowed me to escape into the mountains to start building a base level of fitness to begin growing from.<br />
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the past month i've made an effort to get into the mountains at least three times a week to run up, much of the time with no specific objective or goal other than to suffer and grow stronger. flatter runs through the city have been a welcome supplement to the quad and calf destroying ups.<br />
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the best part of this past month has been visiting places i used to hike to before i got into alpine climbing. many simple hikes translate into fairly strenuous runs when your body isn't acclimated to running uphill. the hike that is "too easy to be worth spending a day on" becomes an evening ass kicking. it's been a pleasure to run to so many of the lakes and peaks around the snoqualmie pass group which i havent been to for years and years.<br />
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here are some runs i've snuck in this past month...<br />
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cougar mountain (most trails on it)<br />
tiger mountain (various trails)<br />
bandera mountain<br />
lake annette<br />
silver peak<br />
tinkham peak<br />
snow lake/gem lake<br />
melakwak lakes<br />
kendall katwalk<br />
alta mountain<br />
w ridge of the n twin sister<br />
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thankfully all this running uphill in hot weather does yield some return. over the past month i've seen myself go from having to quick hike significant sections of trail to feeling comfortable running mile after mile of uphill trail with no breaks. dare i even say that running uphill is truly becoming fun, and not just type two fun but real bonafide fun.<br />
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anyway, thanks to everyone who has spent some trail time with me this past month. suffering alone is healthy and necessary, but going into the mountains to share the experience is what keeps me going back. now for pictures.<br />
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brendan and i on top of silver peak</div>
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biran with the n twin in the background</div>
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baker and the s twin from the summit of the n twin</div>
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n twin</div>
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south twin</div>
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brian scrambling the w ridge of the n twin</div>
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brian and ryan closish to the summit of the n twin</div>
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top of alta</div>
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travis in his own little pain cave</div>
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evening run around snow lake</div>
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at the outflow of snow lake</div>
<br />toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-44074843179226446382015-06-05T13:55:00.000-07:002015-06-05T14:07:49.475-07:00thorp mountain <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXISminFaGldc8XRtUa34899dDGui9_oJUUkjZXU_QKEmIWXs1LuPMQLiNM6AIxTRzRFo8Vqc5PtPDkb2cjn3fnqDrETYT-8UKo8-Ydmmoufr8I3OPHB-w4XSlqeysyevom7lS5P7BQOr1/s1600/IMG_2845.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXISminFaGldc8XRtUa34899dDGui9_oJUUkjZXU_QKEmIWXs1LuPMQLiNM6AIxTRzRFo8Vqc5PtPDkb2cjn3fnqDrETYT-8UKo8-Ydmmoufr8I3OPHB-w4XSlqeysyevom7lS5P7BQOr1/s640/IMG_2845.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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not the kachess ridge trail</div>
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after recovering from the pounding my legs took running back to the car from aasgard pass with a climbing pack, brian asked if i wanted to go on a "3 hour" run with him up thorp mountain. of course i said yes and proceeded to warm up the evening before with 9 miles on cougar mountain.</div>
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we left seattle at a leisurely 10:30 and took our time finding the correct road to the trailhead. once located, we had a quick discussion about hydration and nutrition that went something like this...<br />
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me - so what are you bringin for food and water?<br />
brian - 1 liter of water and a pro bar.<br />
me - are you serious?<br />
brian - thats all i have. <br />
me - ok.<br />
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i proceeded to dump out my food bag, which was quite full of delicious nutrition, and pack two gu's and a 150 calorie protein bar. a last minute decision to also bring a fruit roll-up each put us somewhere around 400 calories per person. so we started up the trail.<br />
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for anyone thinking of running thorp mountain via the kachess ridge trail, know the first 1.5 miles mean business. at 1.5 miles we hit a turnoff in the trail and pulled out the route description to make sure we go the correct way. the description mentions the beacon ridge trail so we take a left and keep grinding upward steeply. as lactic acid burns my legs to ashes, i pop out onto the ridge to find brian climbing up a tower.<br />
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brian on the beacon ridge tower</div>
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view from the tower se-nw</div>
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after a quick break we down climb the tower and start off running the obvious trail along the ridge. quickly the trail goes from well worn to barely visible but we keep moving with sections of annoying brush and downed logs until we pop out onto a rolling high alpine ridge. as we make our way along the ridge i look at my watch which says we've gained almost 3k in 5 mile, which doesn't really match the route description. then the ridge ends in steep scrambling.<br />
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"this looks like the trail right here"</div>
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a quick discussion and we realize that although the route mentions the beacon ridge trail and talked about the history of the beacon, and although the description never says which way to go, we weren't supposed to climb up to the beacon tower. or run along the ridge. 2 hours, 5.25 miles and 3.2k of vert in and we're in the wrong place.<br />
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so naturally brian thinks things over and says, "let's just go strait down into the valley, we'll find a trail somewhere down there!" and we plunge down and off the ridge into the brush below. thankfully being east of the crest means mellow underbrush but we still take the time to complain about how our shins are taking a beating as we drag them through sticks and branches and bushes etc. amazingly, after .75 miles we cross a stream and land on the trail. not only did we find the trail, it's a perfect trail that is a pleasure to run on and look at. no more brush.<br />
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"trail running"</div>
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with the adventure portion of the day behind us we continue running up the trail through a picture perfect sub alpine meadow, through a notch, past a logging road. up and over a false summit, around another one, around another one, and eventually up up up to the thorp mountain lookout 12 miles after we started. and lets be honest here, brian ran through most of this terrain while i did something that resembled a grandma running uphill. every step up i though about how smart it was to go running up a mountain 12 hours before running up a mountain.<br />
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brian still chipper</div>
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looking north through east from the lookout</div>
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a quick a chilly break at the thorp mountain lookout, where we consumed the majority of our calories, led to the inevitable 9 miles of trail back to the car. my body definitely hit a wall with the uphill sections where i had to dig deep to just keep moving upward. but downhill was a refreshing change of muscle usage and although i couldn't move as quickly as brian, was able to continue at a decent pace.<br />
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looking back on thorp (middle of picture) with all the up and down inbetween... 6.75 miles left</div>
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the last two miles of steep downhill went extremely quickly as we were able to open things up a bit and coast (it really feels like coasting if you ignore the pain) back to the car after 5:48 of moving through all sorts of terrain.<br />
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after a quick stretch we went to the closest burger place we could find. i almost threw up after taking my first bite but got the whole thing down 30 minutes later. back at home i immediately had second and third dinner. oh, the joys of the mountains.<br />
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5 hours 48 minutes, 20.75 miles and 7,200' of vertical elevation gained.<br />
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toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-75398944357934741102015-06-05T13:03:00.002-07:002015-06-05T13:03:53.244-07:00a quick jaunt up prusik<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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brian making his way up prusik</div>
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brendan, brian and i took a quick jaunt back into the enchantments last saturday... with everyone else in the world. we quick hiked/ran back into prusik peak via colchuck lake in 4:25. we weren't the first group on the west ridge which meant slow going, but once we caught up to the party ahead of us, we quickly passed them. there were two groups on the summit when we arrived and a conga line of 5-6 parties working up the stanley-burgner. after drinking a beer on the summit and relaxing a bit we rappeled the normal descent route and froze our hands down climbing steep snow. back at the base of the west ridge we took our time packing up and sharing another beer before making pretty good time back to aasgard pass. we ran out from the pass arriving at the car 11:14 min after we left.<br />
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it's amazing how little snow there is at the 6-7k level east of the crest. besides chopping a few steps into ice, aasgard pass was extremely easy to navigate both up and down.<br />
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yeah, that's how i feel about sleeping for 2 hours as well</div>
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never get sick of this place</div>
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brian and brendan just below the top of aasgard</div>
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brendan waits for the party ahead to finish the slab crux</div>
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brian rounds the corner after the slab</div>
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looking down at the conga line of the stanley-burgner</div>
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annoying isothermal snow back to the base of the w ridge</div>
<br />toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-69836063921692231532015-05-29T13:59:00.000-07:002015-05-29T14:11:07.538-07:00commonwealth rim adventure <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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looking down at jeremy, brendan and gabe after the crux step on lundin</div>
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every spring when the snow starts to really melt out, i make an annual trip up to snoqualmie pass to see if my legs still work without skis and boots attached. this year jeremy, brendan, brian, gabe and i met up to log some vert and explore the area. "running" the snoqualmie-lundin traverse is my normal objective to wake up the hiking legs, but why do just that when you could tack on three extra summits and a bunch more mileage? the plan was simple, park at alpental, tag guye peak, snoqualmie mountain, lundin peak, red mountain and kendall mountain then run out the pct back to our car. the best part of this route is how easy it is to stay on or close to the ridges between each peak. until one reaches the pct the route is never too easy and yet never exceeds a bunch of third and fourth class scrambling. by the way, it doesn't count unless you hit the true summit of guye... no stopping at the first false summit!<br />
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perfect weather and temps allowed efficient travel without overheating or getting too cold. throughout the day we each moved at our own pace, meeting up at the next summit. this strategy was the perfect combination of working hard and enjoying the mountains as a group. this also allowed us to navigate the trickier sections together and space out the easy parts. thank you brian for setting a fast (for these ski touring legs) pace on the run out, that felt awesome... until it didn't, which was perfect!<br />
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in the end we logged about 7k of vert over 15.5 miles. my quads hurt from running downhill but i'm really encouraged that my knees, calfs, ankles and feet feel no ill effect! it's time for me to start running more vert rather than just distance to keep my muscles going between ski tours.<br />
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brian just before the summit of guye</div>
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snoqualmie summit register with our group from last year... dongbags, haha</div>
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brian and jeremy on the back of snoqualmie avoiding a steep snow traverse</div>
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brian starting up the w ridge of lundin</div>
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brendan and gabe negotiate the crux of lundin</div>
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brendan negotiates the true crux on top of lundin</div>
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descending the east ridge of lundin</div>
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brendan, jeremy and gabe just below the summit of red</div>
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brendan starting down the east ridge of red</div>
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descending red</div>
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more fun on red</div>
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almost to the kendall katwalk</div>
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brian run the ridge to the true summit of kendall</div>
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last summit of the day</div>
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gabe is puking somewhere below</div>
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probably should have scrambled the s ridge of guye to make the red line look better</div>
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toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216974379037995653.post-12220617227013851602015-05-05T23:55:00.000-07:002015-05-05T23:59:53.365-07:00magic s loop<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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travis just below the summit of hurry up</div>
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video for those word challenged</div>
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brendan, travis and i got a leisurely start sunday afternoon. we left the car at the eldorado parking lot at 2:00 pm where cascade river road was gated for construction. three miles of road later we ditched shoes at the cascade pass trailhead and fought alder for a few hundred meters before finding easy skinning to cascade pass.<br />
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bottomless mushy snow on the traverse to the cache glacier made the decision to ski into pelton basin easy. traversing over big cliffs through isothermal snow just isn't our cup of tea. from the bottom of pelton, we climbed the couloir up to the cache glacier which was much firmer and turned out to be quite efficient. i got ahead and decided to take a short lap on the cache glacier as i waited for brendan and travis. funky refreezing snow didn't make for the best turns but it felt great to use different muscles and let's be honest, it's a great place to ski.<br />
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travis skinning up the cache glacier</div>
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from cache col we descended mushy but skiable snow down to kool-aid lake and decided to keep going to make camp at arts knoll. from the notch at the knoll we dug out a place to sleep and melted snow as the sun set over the twin sister range to the west. a spectacular sunset was followed by an almost full moon, which would keep us company throughout the rest of the night.<br />
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looking south from cache col</div>
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high-five!</div>
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brendan skinning above kool-aid lake</div>
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not a bad place to spend the night</div>
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cozy camp</div>
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getting up around 6 in the morning we packed camp and skied down to the base of the plan-b couloir. the n face of spider mountain provided a perfect background for the mornings activities. plan-b was firm from the clear cold night and allowed quick and efficient climbing to the flat ridge above. from the top of the couloir we walked nw to the summit of hurry up peak and took in the 360ยบ views.<br />
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morning light on spider</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzk3eq8CXn02LEPHsT7lvWdpoy9aNVJWSet81WSPVfcNS4NQJCOp8YkvEytWYJ3xkglDG_HfVeVhO3gSMie-eKn80LC6GMytrYRkl9cd7DAFo3Ca78E1v4JL9Uzb9zKSEsWY4Wg9mYHNj4/s1600/IMG_1275.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzk3eq8CXn02LEPHsT7lvWdpoy9aNVJWSet81WSPVfcNS4NQJCOp8YkvEytWYJ3xkglDG_HfVeVhO3gSMie-eKn80LC6GMytrYRkl9cd7DAFo3Ca78E1v4JL9Uzb9zKSEsWY4Wg9mYHNj4/s1600/IMG_1275.jpg" height="298" width="640" /></a></div>
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s glacier from top of hurry up</div>
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a nap was in order for the s glacier to soften in the morning sun so we descended off the summit of hurry up to a flat spot with good views and added to the past nights short sleep. around 10:00 am we clicked into skis and dropped into the s glacier. the glacier skied quite well until we were lower into the basin where things got a big manky.<br />
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ski down to travis's head</div>
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rather than skiing down to trapper lake in terrible snow, we donned skins as soon as was feasible and skinned up a solar oven to magic-pelton col. a quick break atop the yawning glacier and it was fun and fast turns down to running water in pelton basin.<br />
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a quick skin back to cascade pass led to a manky adventurous ski back toward the trailhead where a bear was meandering. bushwacking downhill with skis in diagonal carry (going the way of the alder) is almost too easy to count. comfy shoes and three miles of trail later we were treated to brendan stuffing his face with spaghetti.<br />
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pelton from cascade pass</div>
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the cascades deliver once again! toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06079354750569174240noreply@blogger.com0