Bombadil
Active member
Baker (10,781), Hood (11,249), Adams (12,276)
My bday falls on Memorial Day weekend (where I usually do a 3 or 4 day peakbagging blitz to celebrate) but this year I was turning the dreaded 3-0 so I decided sometime this spring that I ought to step up my game a bit and set my goals higher. So I decided to do 2 week trip comprised of a mountaineering course and dabble into OR/WA peakbagging, as best as one can when the peaks are over 10k feet and the weather is usually fairly lousy.
The first 6 days were spent on Baker where despite reading Freedom of the Hills and other texts cover to cover, I finally got immersed in enough anchors and knots that it clicked. After the course I actually had dreams about setting up simple 3:1 pulleys on a 2 man team! Anyways the weather sucked for the better part of the trip, it rained or snowed every day on Baker. On summit day, my 30th bday, we climbed in the rain from 6k to about 10k up the Easton Glacier where we finally got above the clouds and were treated to some limited views of the peaks that poked up above the clouds. However on the way down the clouds continued to recede which made for a much more enjoyable descent. The route was in great shape, obviously tons of snow with only a couple of small 'crackers' for crevasses and navigation was pretty straightforward since its still considered early season.
After Baker I made the ill-advised decision to go from Baker to Hood in a day and start up Hood at 2 am in the pouring rain. Poor decision, the lack of sleep and large amount of travel caught up to me. We were sluggish but still may have been able to summit but conditions deteriorated in the mid morning up high and the freezing rain turned to snow. Worse, all zippers were caked in ice so were couldn't get into our packs to eat/drink and we decided to call it wisely at 10.2k just a 1000 (but a hard 1000) feet below the summit. After 2 days of "R&R" (which for me entailed coffee shop reading and catching up on some long runs before my upcoming marathon) in Portland I was charged and ready to head back to the mountains.
...So we started up Adams(south spur) at 9 pm in a snow squall and went from as far up as we could park the car (~4k, about 3 miles give or take from the trailhead) to ~6.2k. We wisely camped out in huge treewell just below the open snowfields where the wind was howling. Summit day obviously was a big day going from 6 to 12 and was pretty smooth sailing until just below the top of Pikers Peak (the false summit) where we began to encounter knee deep powder...without the aid of snowshoes. The last 800 or so feet probably took a good 90 minutes in lousy deep powder, desperately searching for some hard ice that was so plentiful down lower. But the silver lining was the even though the wind kicked up and it was a slog we were under a beautiful sunny sky start to finish, a rare day out there.
2 days later I opted to try to make a 2nd run at Hood (hogsback again) in the midst of a minor snowstorm. Fully rested, we made great time, going from 6k to 10k in about 2.5 hrs. If anything I was trying to pace myself which was a good thing b/c right at 10k we went from nice hard crust snow to steep knee+ powder in a full-on whiteout. We made it up the hogsback without too much trouble and eventually stumbled on the bergschrund. We traversed left a few hundred feet until we couldn't detect any crevasse features and headed up. Despite going 2nd I very nearly plunged into a crevasse that was well covered in the deep powder, though I don't think it would have been more than a rather unpleasant inconvenience from what I could see from above. We meandered up and found the old ice chute and did some proper climbing with axes up there in the unstable snow. At the ridge I was less than pleased to see how corniced the summit ridge was but with no rope or protection slowly and carefully made my way along the knife edge, fully aware of the gamble I was taking. Hood was an odd mountain, despite being incredibly easy up to 10.5k the most technical stuff I did the whole trip was the last 700 feet to the summit where we were caught off guard without rope or protection which I'll fully admit was due to overlooking Hood as being an easy mountain. Lesson learned. We snapped a few less than flattering pictures and proceeded to downclimb in the horrible conditions which turned out to be at least as nerve racking as the summit ridge due to the <10 ft visibility and our acute awareness that we were surrounded by cliffs that one wouldn't want to downclimb off of. It was pretty sobering to hear that a rather accomplished climber died 7 days after we were up there on the same ice chute in much better conditions.
On the last leg it was looking like the weather wasn't going to cooperate for any big climbs so I opted to go to Rainier NP and see if I got a break in the weather to wander around and get some views. It rained all night long down a few thousand feet below the paradise trailhead and we drove up to the trailhead almost just as if to say OK we drove by and it looked lousy before heading back to Seattle. But when we drove up there we could see a silhouette of the mountain and it looked like we were in an undercast so we gave it a shot and sure enough within 15 min we were out on the snowfields under a blue sky! It was a perfect 10 kind of day, calm with a slight breeze and abundant sunshine so plenty of people were out! Even with the many photo breaks we still made the 5k hike up to Muir in 2.5h; including an obligatory 30 min stay at Muir we hiked the route in 4.5h RT. It was a pretty incredible trip even with the poor weather and I definitely learned a ton and felt physically stronger than I ever have, even at the ripe old age of 30! But while confidence is building I'm looking forward to the next trip with even greater challenges. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the photos!
Pat, pcushing21 at yahoo.com
below the Easton Glacier on Baker
our lower playground on Baker
Sherman sub-peak of Baker
Dusk on Baker
Adams
Piker's Peak on Adams from about 9k
Me and Rainier, alone above the clouds
My bday falls on Memorial Day weekend (where I usually do a 3 or 4 day peakbagging blitz to celebrate) but this year I was turning the dreaded 3-0 so I decided sometime this spring that I ought to step up my game a bit and set my goals higher. So I decided to do 2 week trip comprised of a mountaineering course and dabble into OR/WA peakbagging, as best as one can when the peaks are over 10k feet and the weather is usually fairly lousy.
The first 6 days were spent on Baker where despite reading Freedom of the Hills and other texts cover to cover, I finally got immersed in enough anchors and knots that it clicked. After the course I actually had dreams about setting up simple 3:1 pulleys on a 2 man team! Anyways the weather sucked for the better part of the trip, it rained or snowed every day on Baker. On summit day, my 30th bday, we climbed in the rain from 6k to about 10k up the Easton Glacier where we finally got above the clouds and were treated to some limited views of the peaks that poked up above the clouds. However on the way down the clouds continued to recede which made for a much more enjoyable descent. The route was in great shape, obviously tons of snow with only a couple of small 'crackers' for crevasses and navigation was pretty straightforward since its still considered early season.
After Baker I made the ill-advised decision to go from Baker to Hood in a day and start up Hood at 2 am in the pouring rain. Poor decision, the lack of sleep and large amount of travel caught up to me. We were sluggish but still may have been able to summit but conditions deteriorated in the mid morning up high and the freezing rain turned to snow. Worse, all zippers were caked in ice so were couldn't get into our packs to eat/drink and we decided to call it wisely at 10.2k just a 1000 (but a hard 1000) feet below the summit. After 2 days of "R&R" (which for me entailed coffee shop reading and catching up on some long runs before my upcoming marathon) in Portland I was charged and ready to head back to the mountains.
...So we started up Adams(south spur) at 9 pm in a snow squall and went from as far up as we could park the car (~4k, about 3 miles give or take from the trailhead) to ~6.2k. We wisely camped out in huge treewell just below the open snowfields where the wind was howling. Summit day obviously was a big day going from 6 to 12 and was pretty smooth sailing until just below the top of Pikers Peak (the false summit) where we began to encounter knee deep powder...without the aid of snowshoes. The last 800 or so feet probably took a good 90 minutes in lousy deep powder, desperately searching for some hard ice that was so plentiful down lower. But the silver lining was the even though the wind kicked up and it was a slog we were under a beautiful sunny sky start to finish, a rare day out there.
2 days later I opted to try to make a 2nd run at Hood (hogsback again) in the midst of a minor snowstorm. Fully rested, we made great time, going from 6k to 10k in about 2.5 hrs. If anything I was trying to pace myself which was a good thing b/c right at 10k we went from nice hard crust snow to steep knee+ powder in a full-on whiteout. We made it up the hogsback without too much trouble and eventually stumbled on the bergschrund. We traversed left a few hundred feet until we couldn't detect any crevasse features and headed up. Despite going 2nd I very nearly plunged into a crevasse that was well covered in the deep powder, though I don't think it would have been more than a rather unpleasant inconvenience from what I could see from above. We meandered up and found the old ice chute and did some proper climbing with axes up there in the unstable snow. At the ridge I was less than pleased to see how corniced the summit ridge was but with no rope or protection slowly and carefully made my way along the knife edge, fully aware of the gamble I was taking. Hood was an odd mountain, despite being incredibly easy up to 10.5k the most technical stuff I did the whole trip was the last 700 feet to the summit where we were caught off guard without rope or protection which I'll fully admit was due to overlooking Hood as being an easy mountain. Lesson learned. We snapped a few less than flattering pictures and proceeded to downclimb in the horrible conditions which turned out to be at least as nerve racking as the summit ridge due to the <10 ft visibility and our acute awareness that we were surrounded by cliffs that one wouldn't want to downclimb off of. It was pretty sobering to hear that a rather accomplished climber died 7 days after we were up there on the same ice chute in much better conditions.
On the last leg it was looking like the weather wasn't going to cooperate for any big climbs so I opted to go to Rainier NP and see if I got a break in the weather to wander around and get some views. It rained all night long down a few thousand feet below the paradise trailhead and we drove up to the trailhead almost just as if to say OK we drove by and it looked lousy before heading back to Seattle. But when we drove up there we could see a silhouette of the mountain and it looked like we were in an undercast so we gave it a shot and sure enough within 15 min we were out on the snowfields under a blue sky! It was a perfect 10 kind of day, calm with a slight breeze and abundant sunshine so plenty of people were out! Even with the many photo breaks we still made the 5k hike up to Muir in 2.5h; including an obligatory 30 min stay at Muir we hiked the route in 4.5h RT. It was a pretty incredible trip even with the poor weather and I definitely learned a ton and felt physically stronger than I ever have, even at the ripe old age of 30! But while confidence is building I'm looking forward to the next trip with even greater challenges. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the photos!
Pat, pcushing21 at yahoo.com
below the Easton Glacier on Baker
our lower playground on Baker
Sherman sub-peak of Baker
Dusk on Baker
Adams
Piker's Peak on Adams from about 9k
Me and Rainier, alone above the clouds
