Past Featured Trip Reports

Two of my friends and I headed out of Seattle at 5am and reached Cascade River Rd. around 8am. The snow plow had stopped plowing about 2 miles before the Sibley Creek trail at 1200 ft. We attempted to drive through the snow, but we got stuck and decided to turn back and park. A half a mile down the road, two cars had gotten stuck. Glad we didn't drive further!

We walked the 2 miles to the trail and then put on our snowshoes. There were ski tracks leading up that looked a day old. They made it much easier to hike, rather than breaking trail.

At 3000 ft. we headed up the west ridge following the ski tracks. It was grueling work, with 50 lb. packs on 40-50 degree slopes covered in snow. Progress was slow, with about 600-800 ft. vertical gain an hour.

Around 1pm the snow was melting and our snowshoes were sinking in. We heard a loud avalanche several miles away. Glad we were in the trees on the west ridge! The avalanche danger was more likely on the south-east faces according to the avalanche forecast.

The glaciers of Glacier National Park are melting. This is no secret. In fact, the glaciers have been melting for about 150 years. In the past few decades, though, the melting rate has increased remarkably.

In Glacier National Park, there are three criteria for calling a mass of snow and ice a glacier:

• It must be moving downhill.
• It must be at least 100 feet thick.
• It must be at least 25 acres in area

• Today's glaciers formed a few thousand years ago during a colder period in our planet's history.
• The glaciers were at their apex in number and size at the end of the Little Ice Age, which scientists generally agree ended about 1850.
• At the end of the Little Ice Age, what is now Glacier National Park had about 150 glaciers. Today, there are about 25 left.
• The glaciers have been in a melting trend ever since 1850, though there have been periods up until 1980 during which they did expand. Since 1980, they have been receding more rapidly than they had in the past.
• For several years now, scientists have predicted that the park will cease to have glaciers by 2030, but trends in recent years have some revising that estimate to 2015-2020.
• Even if the 2030 guess turns out to be the best one, it is unlikely that every single glacier in Glacier will be gone by then; some of the largest ones are not melting as rapidly as many of the others are (Blackfoot Glacier, for example). However, there can be little doubt that if not all of the glaciers are gone by then, the remaining ones will be substantially smaller than they are today.

This is the story of a return to my favorite place in the world; the Himalaya. It was good to be back, even if it wasn’t my first choice for the year end trip.

I always dream of climbing the big peaks in the Himalaya, but as for now I have to be contented with just looking at them.

My first trip to the Himalaya was from late November 2001 to early January 2002. On that trip my beautiful wife and I were planning on climbing Naya Kanga in the Langtang. Just after we got our (non-refundable) plane tickets, it was found out that she was pregnant. In the end we decided to go anyway, but stuck to strictly trekking. We did a modified version of the Annapurna Circuit, taking in the Annapurna Basecamp south as well. We completed 216 miles/348 kilometers over a 22 day trek, but we never could go that high. The journey was great though and the mountains absolutely spectacular.

I had been saving for another trip to the Himalaya to do one of my dream climbs; Ama Dablam, which I hoped to climb in the next year or two. When my son (10 year old Kessler) heard that I wanted to go back to the Himalaya, he begged and begged for me to take him with me to the Himalaya. I actually wanted to do Ama Dablam and alas, he was too young, but I told him that if he did really well in school, I would allow him to pick one of our trips.

The following is two summaries of two different trips I made inside Arkansas & Oklahoma. The most significant contrast between these vacations lies with me. In the first, centered in Arkansas, I was a novice who was more comfortable in a hotel than a tent. I entered the trip habitually confined to the indoors and left it wanting even more of the wilderness. Three years later, on travels centered in Oklahoma, the outdoors were much more within my element. I was comfortable doing anything and I was not intimidated even by a brutal summer heat wave. However, I left this wilderness in bad shape. In the following weeks, my only desire was the indoors and a cool place to rest.

It’s hard to know where to begin when an outing is as exciting as this was. Big plans sometimes change--the best laid routes thwarted by things one can’t consider ahead of time. Occasionally, this leads to an even better outcome. This was one of those times. Our itinerary was ambitious, but subjectively realistic: a bushwhack of Saddleback and Basin Mountains via the NE Catastrophic Chaos tributary of the old Back in the Saddle Slide and Basin's East Face. Gothics West Face would eventually replace Basin as the second climb, but this was for the best. It was also something that NP had been discussing for months. Gothics West Face is the series of open faces to the right of the cable route on Gothics western shoulder. Its true exposure is actually southwest rather than due west. The combination of both slides and good company led to a spectacular day.

The walk from the Garden was more challenging than usual since the recent warm weather had swollen even the smallest runoff streams. Two days of near zero temperatures hadn't thickened the ice enough to support me. Conditions are what they are, and you make the best of them. They didn't surprise me or concern me, but I contemplated the logistics as I plodded along. I’d been doing the same for a week.

Third anniversary climb of the West Pawnee Butte?? Noah and Stewart and I had been plotting another ascent by putting up a new route, but unfortunately had not yet been able to arrange a time to head out east. I had posted on CC.org to see if anybody else was interested and came up with a smattering of interest. With Noah still in Patagonia and facing a beautiful forecast, I thought it would be an excellent idea to head out to the Buttes to scope out possible lines and potentially climb. Mike was easily convinced and Jen, Teresa and Sue wanted to come along for the show and climb the East Butte. Not wanting to deal with ladder shenanigans again, I chose to go for the old pin route that Noah and I had climbed two years prior. The route had been a frightening ordeal, but I figured I had gained lots of aid experience and thought that if armed with a few nails, the route would go easier than last time.

Pulling into the Buttes was a surprise, as the trailhead had been extensively developed and improved. A new fence and gate were built as well as a new parking lot, restroom and picnic benches. We quickly sorted through my mountain of gear and began making a straight line for the West Butte. The approach went very quickly and we soon stood at the base of the route and began racking up. Mike put me on belay and I slowly began moving up the choss. Using my ice tool to provide some extra traction, I fearfully moved upward while simultaneously raining mud down on Mike below. The first piece came but provided little comfort, as it was nail barely attached to the wall. Each piece only added to my adrenaline, and I felt like I was standing on a teetering house of cards about to collapse. The 6th piece along with a frightful mantel put me on a tiny, yet familiar ledge. My only solace was that I knew the "anchor" was hiding just above me. Unfortunately, the final piece was the worst of all, and I stood and eyed it cautiously. I wiggled it by hand, tied it off, and watched as it noticeably moved under my weight. Taking a deep breath, I stepped onto it and quickly mantled onto the ledge above. I left my aiders attached to it, and carefully traversed left to the "anchor".

On June 19, 2011, my friend Gimpilator and I attempted to summit Mount Index (5991') as a single-day trip. We had hoped to take advantage of snow consolidation known locally as "Cascade Concrete" but we had not anticipated several other factors which would ultimately delay our ascent.

The first delay came as we were hoping for partly sunny skies which ended up actually being complete drizzle. This made the approach very slick sloppy in many locations, slowing our progress.

The second delay came as we passed through a long section of an old logging road that was full of slide alder and shrubbery. We were repeatedly being whipped in our faces by branches, had to constantly pull back branches, and had to hop over branches. Gimpilator made an excellent video to capture the experience.

From a vanished trail on Chopiqualqui to a freeway on Pisco - Four months in Peru, Part VII.

In a few days, Lyngve would join me in Huaraz. He was on a long trip around the world, and on his South American leg he wanted to bag the high points of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. He had sent me a message in response to my post in SP's Plan & Partners section and we agreed to try Huascarán together. But before he would arrive, I had a few days to kill. Thinking I would go hiking or go on a solo climb, but without knowing where just yet, I went shopping. I had already bought all the supplies I needed when I started talking about my options with Edward.

I mentioned Copa, but he said the glacier was very crevasses, so that ruled it out for a solo attempt. Somehow we started discussing Chopicalqui. It had been on my mind earlier, and I would like to climb it, but from what I heard and read earlier, it wasn't suitable for soloing either. I was hoping to find someone later to climb it with, but now I started thinking...

Months away from the summer desert heat, I pictured myself thoroughly enjoying a pleasant week of hiking and climbing the cool and arid mountains of West Texas, on a drifting course across the state to the ocean shores. I nearly departed over winter break, and then I postponed, and then I hastily embarked over the last week of January. My expectations were optimistic for this border-to-border crossing of Texas, but the lofty conditions in my imagination would differ mightily from those on the actual ground.

First, I was going to spend a day in New Mexico en route to the western tip of Texas. My tendency of getting a head start on the eve was in play again here, although on this trip, I took it to another level. I was slowed by a Missouri weather front of freezing rain and ice, and I compensated by powering through an Oklahoma highway system devoid of open rest areas. In the Texas panhandle, I finally relented for a short break, but the frozen plains were not accommodating. When the skies were glowing an hour after I parked, I was ready to warm up with the heater. So after just that hour, I carried on into New Mexico. The drive through these high plains was relatively featureless until I reached the Lincoln National Forest. Within the Smokey Bear Ranger District, the spruce forests of the Sacramento Mountains stretched high above the surrounding scrubland. I did have some interest in spontaneous activity here, but without a relevant map, I carried on to my destination within White Sands National Monument.

It is October and I am just about to book a rental car for our Christmas vacation to Madeira. Before I do so I browse my Pad and happen to come across a brand new news message: “Dengue Fever Outbreak on Madeira – more than 1300 cases”. It looks like the Dengue Mosquito has been introduced to the island and now ravages the inhabitants. All cases so far have been mild ones and almost all affected locals. But about 40 cases have been reported in different countries, tourists who returned with the disease in their bodies.

Wonderful!

This comes on top of the news that during the ultra hot and dry summer of 2012 forest fires raged on the island barely to be kept under control. This comes on top of serious landslides in 2009. And this comes on top of the old news of huge forest fires in Madeira’s mountain region dating back to summer 2003. Right after we visited Madeira in May of the same year.

Great!