Craig, it was a great weekend! Thanks again.

Wow - What a weekend! I had a 3 part weekend that started with a trip to Shasta with Eileen, Abe, Daniel, and Dirk. This is probably my first trip with all SP members and we had a great time on the mountain even though we didn't summit. We did, however, make it up to First Window for one of my most memorable camping experiences ever. Under what was reported to be ~90mph winds, our tents were nearly blown flat. The fly was nearly ripped off the tent I shared with Daniel and Eileen as snow started to blow inside. In the morning we reluctantly decided to come off the ridge but made up for it by having lunch and margaritas at Cafe Ramos.

Afterwards Abe and Dirk headed back to the Bay Area while the rest of us drove to Craig and Alice's for Craig's 47th birthday celebration. We joined Alois, Penelope, and David for food and wine that was simply out of this world. Everything was simply perfect - I'm not sure what else to say! We finished the night off enjoying Craig's DVD climbing movies over a glass of port! The next morning we pondered Alois' travel light in winter philosophy (~25 lbs per person!) and tried out Craig's climbing wall. I got to use aiders for the first time which was cool as Craig gave us a couch belay! Thanks for an awesome time Craig! I can't wait to start doing some filming for our next adventures!

Daniel had tickets to Cirque du Soleil so Eileen, Daniel, and I headed back to the Bay Area shortly thereafter. After sorting our gear, we bid farewell to Daniel before Eileen and I headed off to SF for some sightseeing which included a visit to Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard St., Sausalito, the Marin highlands, the Palace of Fine Arts, and the Haight. We finished off the night with some good conversation over tea and dessert with Eileen's friend Heather and her husband John. Overall, an excellent weekend with many new friends from SP!

.....Sat. night returned from an overseas trip with a violent intestinal disorder. Did manage to hike up Hamilton mtn. outside of Portland, OR on Sunday though.

I spent last week on Lanzarote (island in the Atlantic ocean). We climbed some small extinct volcanoes (Hacha Grande, etc.) and finished the day with swimming on the Papagayo beach near Playa Blanca. Heavy wind in the mountains and high waves on the beach.

I spent the sunny weekend in the Muotatal valley in northern Switzerland (quite close to alpenkalb's home!) where we made two long daytrips with ski. Of course some dozens swiss locals had the same idea...

Good to see that alpenkalb have gone to Lanzarote, Canary Islands. I've already not visited them but my favourite island is Tenerife because of Teide, the highest mountain in Spain (3.718 m / 12,198 ft).

Craig,It was a rare and special weekend for Pen and me. Alice and you made the evening the most beautiful experience we have had, in a long while. We apreciate your hospitality and marvel at your seamless ways of managing the food, drinks and conversation, all at the same time. We owe you big time. Tahquitz anytime your schedule allows, Idyllwild during the Jazz Festival in August, or the wine Tasting days, or The Idyllwild Master Chorale Christmas Concert in December. We would love to have you visit us and do that "Sahara Terror", and/or what ever else you would like to revisit on the rock.Thank you brother, Alois.

Ditto to what John said!

Shasta was an absolute blast with a great buch of people.

Craig, you and Alice put on the most amazing spread!!! Thank you so much for your hospitality & for bringing such a great group of people together. I really enjoyed meeting everyone.

John, thanks for the sightseeing yesterday.

SummitPost Rocks!

Yesterday, when I was driving to Hayedo (beechwood) de Montejo it started to rain. So I had started the day with bad feelings but I knew that the weather forecast had said that it would be nice, even the pressures had raised a lot. So I arrived at the beechwood and parked the car (1.250 m), there were only 4 others. I started the hike at 13:55 following a path that goes up the waters of Río Jarama at the other side of the beechwood. BTW, it's one of the most southern beechwoods of Europe together with those of Sicily. Soon I took a muddy forest trail plain first, it started to rain again but I didn't care about it, there were only a layer of high clouds in the sky. I had taken some pics of the beechwood and the snowed mountains above it. I wanted to take others of the mountain that I were going to climb but the clouds of the upper part kept me from taken them. Then I reached the snow line at 1.450 m but it didn't bother a lot til 1.600 m when I took a short cut to avoid a big zig-zag of the trail. The snow sliped a lot on the steep slope of the short cut. It had stoped to rain and I reached the trail again just on Loma del Ravinate. At 1.730 m I took a rest having lunch on the unique chink of meadow that rested. Then I put my gaiters on and started the ascent again into deep springtime snow. The wind started to blow a little when I reached Loma de la Calahorra. I descended some meters to take another trail on the west side of the hill after having crossed a fence. Then it was an even section where I suffered a lot trying to take my boots out of the snow, it covered almost to the knees but was not powder. I could see the summit ridge of Cerrón in front of me while I looked at the time in my watch. It was late, 16:45, but I wanted to summit. On Collado del Agua Fría (1.996 m) I could see the top of Cerrón full of snow until it desappeared into the fog temporarily. I decided to climb straightly to the summit, wich finally was not the top, it was behind. The rocky ridge was icy (something similar to the photos of Mount Hood that I've seen here) so it did help me to walk. At 17:30 I trod the summit of Cerrón (2.197 m), one of the highest mountains in Sierra de Ayllón, Macizo Central. The fog had involved me, the peak and the summit ridge and the temperature had lowed to -1 ºC, so I put my clothes on and started to descend following my footprints, I couldn't see further than 10 meters. Soon I reached the col again and took some photos when the clouds had left the peak behind. Then I had to traverse the flat section surroundig the west face of Loma del Picaño, I noticed strong muscular aches at the back of my tighs. So I had to stop, eat and drink all the water that rested at took 2 aspirines. I had to stop another time to take another aspirine because my legs blocked and did some stretching too. All those medicines did their effect in half an hour so I could restart the descent. I passed Loma de la Calahorra and did a quick descent taking the short cut again. When I arrived to the first spring at about 1.460 m I took a rest and drank a lot of water. I put my headlamp on to follow the long trail that descended to the the entry of the beechwood, where I parked the car. At 20:05 I was drinking hot tea and taking my plastic boots off. They were more than 6 hours hiking without seeing any people. I only had seen some cows, birds and partridges.

To start, my weekend was really mid-week as we had a 4 day port period in Guam. I'm sorry but this island is more like a poor man's Hawaii than a serious vacation spot. I was able to enjoy a rugged 5 mile hike up Mt LamLam, the highest point on the island and apparently considering the elevation gain from ocean floor to top, it's higher than Mt Everest....so can I post a summit log for that?
Unfortunately there is no page for Mt LamLam and I am at a disadvantage for gaining info to create a page. Anyway, it was hot, humid but extremely windy. Fighting through 8' sword grass and avoiding wild pigs and wild fires was the name of the game! I got several history briefs along the way as we passed delapidated WWII equipment in the jungle.
At frequent points, we had to scramble over jagged limestone with gloved hands; I tried to play tough rock climber, but I could only take so many slashes and gashes. We peaked at 1300' and viewed the entire tiny island while discovering that a fire was threatening the regular descent path. In light of the fire situation, we just headed straight down sliding and skating very steep embankments, saving ourselves only by hanging onto the thick stalks of swordgrass.
Overall, it was an interesting hike in a new land, and now I have a few new scabs to prove how much fun I had!

Soloed the Southwest Face on Scotchman Peak near the Montana border in Idaho on Sunday. The road was plowed except the last 2 miles of logging roads. I love that moutain! This section of Idaho is very steep and rugged. The climb had 3,200 feet sustained at 35 to 45 degrees with good snow conditions. Cloudy at the top, but good views lower down. Can't believe I forgot to charge the batteries in my camera.

The West and East Faces are 2,000 feet at 75 to 85 degrees, and according to every source I can find, there have been no ascents on either, summer or winter. I'm just drooling over the possibilities. .<img src=/message_board/images/laugh.gif>

I was planning on climbing the Donner Norwand with some friends but iffy conditions meant everyone else decided to pull out. Craig and I looked at the peak Sat morning and even I had to admit it didn't look very impressive. Although the Norwand had been climbed 3 days prior, new snow meant much different conditions. While Craig went off for some x-country skiing, the peakbagger in me took over and I headed up the peak.

I found a small 15 foot smear of WI2 which I cruised up before traversing a 30-50 degree snowfield to a tree. Two feet of powder over hard pack meant I was clearning a path as I went with my axes - I wasn't about to trust my tools or crampons on that much unconsolidated snow. I got up to a tree and then headed up over to a rise where the snow reached 60+ degrees with windblown snow everywhere. Then I encountered a rock under the snow which I couldn't climb over (snow on top of the rock meant my picks couldn't even hold body weight). I ended up kicking steps sideways into the snow beside the rock hoping the entire thing wouldn't give way (90 degrees against the rock?). When I got over it, I was still clearing about 2 feet of powder which got interesting when it was basically over my head, the snow would come crashing down on my helmet and face each time - yes, my face was pretty cold! I kept wondering if I would set off an avalanche above me which would not be good as there were two dropoffs below me where I could be buried I finally made it on top of the little ridge before putting on my snowshoes and cruising up to the summit. Got to see 7 backcountry snowboarders and 1 skier that day. I went the north side of the summit block instead of the south which mean some interesting class 3 instead of the usual class 1. Easy snowshoeing down the north side non-extreme ski route (easy black diamond) led me back to my car.

I had my skis with me and I was SO tempted to head back up Sunday and ski the upper West Slope and cross over to the lower North side but reluctantly I headed home as I had other obligations for the weekend. I spent Sunday morning on Mission Peak learning how to use a GPS finally. I did some off-trail hiking there for the first time to check out the waypoint finding feature which was fun.

I'll put up a Donner Peak page sometime but if someone else wants to do it, that'd be great

my weekend sucked. I got a cold and couldn't go climbing.

On the plus side, i have the next week off and if all goes well will get quite a bit in...

My wife and I enjoyed a Saturday of easy rock climbing in great sunny/windless weather at Smith. Made a "trip" to a relatively remote area of the park called Marsupial Crags and bagged two mini-summits (Brogan Spire and Koala rock) via 3-pitch routes. Spectacular views of the park and the Cascade giants.

I painted my mom's whole freakin' house,so I got to climb what felt like 20,000 meters of ladder. The upshot is that I saved her nearly 8500 buckaroos. Maybe next weekend.