Past Featured Trip Reports

The Oracle is one of the major Fisher Towers, along with Echo Tower, King Fisher, Cottontail Tower, The Titan, and Ancient Art. The first ascent in 1970 by Harvey Carter and Steve Kentz produced the route Fantasia (5.10- C2 R). Since then there have been two other routes put up on the formation, Beaking in Tongues, and Beak to the Future, both of which involve very hard aid. Though Fantasia is the easiest route up The Oracle, it is not a route for the faint of heart, and as of spring 2013, had only seen approximately 11 ascents since 1970. The Oracle was to be Noah and Brian's fourth major Fisher Tower to be climbed. I was invited to come join in on the fun as the third member of the party.

The original plan was for all of us (Kim, Kessler, Shaylee and me) to go and do the Little Death Hollow Loop, but Kim had to stay home since one of our guinea pigs needed some medicine. I had been through much of Little Death Hollow several years ago, but it was full of water and we stopped short of much of the best parts, so it was time to complete the loop. Rather than doing the entire loop in one day, which is what most people do, we were to take two days in order to explore all the side canyons and to hike all the way down to the Escalante River. This is a beautiful area and the photographs will tell most of the story.

After three successful climbs in San Pedro de Atacama, back in april 2009, I manage a bus from the city to Arica, the northernmost city of the country. From Arica, city I already knew, another five hours if I recall correctly, and I was at La Paz. Once in town, found a taxi and asked him to let me anywhere I could find a hostel, so he drove me to a small street that goes from Sagarnaga av, and there I found a shitty hostel I called home for a week more. With the same taxi driver, after a small conversation, I arranged the ride to Cerro Chacaltaya, the highest tourist spot in a huge city such La Paz in the Andes. In fact, I don’t know if there is any touristic spot as high as Chacaltaya.

A trifecta you say? Well that means three peaks but not just any three, these peaks are among the biggest in Washington and actually form a huge triangle in the southern part of the state. Can you guess which ones they are? If you said rainier, Adams and Saint Helens you are correct. I did these peaks on different climbs over a three year period (power in threes!) and the growth I have sustained as a mountaineer is clearly seen in these three different trips. I went from a follower clueless as to what to do in the mountains to someone who can lead and organize a safe Rainier climb. Read on to see my progression and hear the stories on three of the five Washington volcanoes.

Over Labor Day weekend I climbed Moon Goddess Arete (MGA) & Venusian Blind Arete (VBA) over two days with Chris Terry. The second day was "Labor Day Weekend" rush hour on Temple Crag, with 3 teams on VBA, 1 on MGA, & 3 teams on Sun Ribbon Arete (SRA). Since we could all see and hear each other between the aretes (in fact even better than we could see our rope mate on the ridge!), it was quite a social outing up these long alpine climbs.

I was supposed to do a different long climbing weekend with my friend Mario, but the weekend before he took a fall on a 5.9R at Tuolumne Meadows, and the resulting stitches left him out of action for the weekend. Fortunately my friend Brian was re-planning his group trip at the last minute and invited me along to Temple Crag. With some last-minute hectic e-mailing, plans were made where Chris & I would head up early to get permits Friday and climb MGA Saturday while the others hiked in, then she & I would climb VBA Sunday while Brian & Peter climbed MBA and Howard & Dominique climbed VGA. Bryan and I planned on climbing SRA together for my third day out.

Fraser Canyon sits in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix Arizona. It starts near J.F. Ranch and heads southwest. A portion of Trail #108 (Coffee Flat Trail) travels the length of Fraser Canyon. Trail #108 is accessible from the west (after hiking 2.75 miles on Trail #104) or from the east via Woodbury Trailhead (after hiking 1.6 miles on Trails #106 & #114). Reaching Woodbury Trailhead requires a 13 mile drive on dirt roads. I had no good information about the roughness on the dirt roads. They actually turned out to be not too bad.

This is the story of our weekend in the San Rafael Swell during early April. It was a beautiful weekend with lots of variety since we did much hiking, scrambling, canyoneering and climbed the highest peak in the Swell. Participants were Fred Genske, Justin Kuhn, Kessler, and me.
The photos will tell most of the story.

In early March I was on my feet most of the day working in Half Moon Bay about 30 miles south of where I live north of the Golden Gate. When I was about to leave to drive back I noticed my right knee was getting a little stiff. By the time I got across the Golden Gate Bridge it had swollen up considerably. A short while later I could hardly lift my foot from the gas pedal to the break pedal. When I got home I could barely walk and my knee was as big as a grapefruit! This all took place without warning in an hour and a half. I couldn't believe it! This was my "good knee" not the one I couldn't straighten out for 2 weeks a year ago.

I went through the ritual of the ibuprofen and ice and raising it up, staying off of it and not working the next day. The swelling gradually went down over the next week and I was able to work with a brace but obviously no hiking.

About 10 days on I was out hiking again but not pushing it and had an appointment with my chiropractor. When he checked me out one leg was a half inch longer than the other! He knew exactly what was going on. My orthotics were old and worn out and my pelvis was out and muscles in the back were tweeked etc. The poor knees were taking the brunt of the stress. He adjusted me, got the legs evened out, gave me some exersises, taped my arch and I was on my way for an afternoon hike with plans to get new orthotics in a week or 2.

Frisky and I are so glad to be out and about again. We've had a long winter shut up indoors, (never mind what we were doing!), but this gorgeous April morning is beckoning. We decided to climb Harry Daly in Yosemite. I am especially limber from all those positions I've been getting into.

This climbing trip was—as the Scottish say—PURE DEAD BRILLIANT. It was a rich experience of physical exhaustion, mental fortitude, family bonding, tasty food, cultural festivals, and mountain top triumphs!

Less significant climbing successes in the summer of 2000 on Cotapaxi Ecuador and Chichani near Ariquipa, Peru left me itching to return to South America for greater adventure. When my brother Chris—14 years my senior—invited me to join him and his super-fit teenaged sons for a Peruvian adventure, I leapt at the chance to return.

We selected the Cordillera Blanca due to enthusiastic recommendations here on SummitPost and our desire to move beyond climbing volcanoes. Tocllaraju and the Ishinca Valley were a natural choice due to their proximity to Huaraz and intermediate difficulty. We chose wisely. These climbs allowed us to have an epic mountain adventure without overly neglecting our businesses or families waiting for us back in the USA.