Monday, October 27, 2014

Climbing Mount St. Helens

Our scheduled Mount Rainier climb (as usual, links to earlier posts are in blue) was only a few weeks away. The plans for Mount Rainier last month ultimately did fall apart at the last minute. But Mount St. Helens was a fun addition to the string of easier conditioning hikes and climbs intended to train for climbing Rainier in August.

A catch-up post from July:



Photo from Sam's camera






I've climbed Mount St. Helens countless times.  But this latest Mount St. Helens climb was posted by NW Wilderness months in advance, and booked to capacity.  I was part of a very long wait list.  To my surprise, a climbing permit was freed up a couple weeks before the climb. Long story short: I was in!

Suffering from a painful, off-trail hiking foot injury (see my Fear of the Unknown: Hiking Wahkeena Falls to Larch Mountain post) and adjusting to new orthotic inserts, I was ready to put my recovering foot to the test.



3:15 a.m. on July 5 was the moment when I limped that injured foot out the door to meet up with the group in Portland.  My earlier post, Lil' Buckaroos at the Buckaroo Rodeo, shares the story and photos from our Hamilton family's Fourth of July celebration the evening before.


We picked up our climbing permits in Cougar just after the register opened. Less than an hour later, prior to 7 a.m., we had geared up at Climbers' Bivouac and were already heading up the trail to timberline. It would be a glorious day, with the perfect group of friends.


Trip stats (from Craig's GPS/ altimeter)

Distance: 10.5 miles
Elapsed time: 8:03:05
Moving time: 5:17:16
Stopped time: 2:45:49
Avg overall speed: 1.3 mph
Avg moving speed: 2.0 mph
Min elevation: 3743 ft (trailhead)
Max elevation: 8330 ft (near true summit)
Ascent: 4968 ft

Craig's trip report is here.



Setting out from Climbers' Bivouac:  Janice, Tongbay, Craig, Sam, Barbara, Jurgen, and me
(Photo from Sam's camera) 





The ascent






Reaching timberline
(Photo from Craig's GPS unit)



Beginning the boulder fields (no good pictures of the fun stuff, as it was tricky for me to free up a camera hand while scrambling)


Climbing over the top of the ridge




Photo by Sam


Barbara and Janice choose a route over the ridges


Craig and I sidestep over to the snow fields for a steeper, but more direct, approach


The most HILARIOUS photo bomb that I've ever fell victim too--  Thanks, Craig!!
Craig's alternate photo bomb on this slope was randomly featured in my post, Twin Lakes Hike.



The final stretch



A quick break near the Monitor Ridge station



Think you're keeping pace with Sam, but then you stop for just a moment to snap a photo?  Be prepared for this view, up in the distance (Read: Sam is fast).



The rest of the gang reaches the rim



But where's Janice?  Oh that's right... she reportedly tagged the rim after us and then scurried back down to the car to flee the biting winds and cold.   Poor thing.

The rest of us couldn't stop laughing.  We all still love you, Janice!




The rim, the crater, and views from the top


The lava dome, Spirit Lake, and Mount Rainier


Looking back at the Monitor Ridge route


Tongbay and I wait for the group to reach the rim, while Sam gets a head start over to the true summit and back


We boys traverse over to the true summit

Photo by Sam:  He must have snapped this while running back over to join us


Photo by Sam


Mount Rainier seemed like the perfect backdrop, assuming that I would climb it a few weeks later


Photo by Sam


Only Sam (blue jacket) is visible on the rocks above, as we all climb back over the true summit to join the girls across the rim for lunch.




The descent



Glissading down from the rim


Vine video:  Slowing down, but still nearly mowing down Tongbay during my glissade



Running, jumping, and sliding:  Jurgen and I do whatever it takes to race down the mountain
(Photo from Craig's GPS unit)


Barbara leads a final charge down to timberline, beginning our woodsy hike back to Climber's Bivouac
(Photo from Craig's GPS unit)




I've climbed Mount St. Helens nearly a dozen times, and the glissading or backcountry skiing down is always the highlight. But I've NEVER glissaded quite as many snow fields or had more hilarious fun with anyone than on this descent!

I blame the people.



On our next climb a couple weeks later, though, we would have a dramatically more terrifying ride. In two weeks, we'd be using our glissading skills to negotiate our descent of the icy slopes of Mount Adams.

Very rapidly!


But before our Mount Adams climb drops on Garth's Blog...




A guest post by Kathy about our family's hiking, the wildlife safari, and visiting friends in Southern Oregon!


Friday, October 17, 2014

A quick trip to the Hong Kong protests

The flights to both Italy and Switzerland are too full this weekend to visit friends in that region.  Yet our most recent European get-togethers have gone so smoothly... and photos are still too come from those trips!  Another weekend, guys.  That was Plan B.

Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution #umbrellarevolution #umbrellamovement #gm1 #lumix #occupyhk
Photo by Pasu Au Yeung on Flickr


Plan C is now to drop in on the political unrest in Hong Kong for the day.  It will be exciting to check out what remains of the protests for democracy in that country.  A buddy will either join me en route or meet me in Hong Kong, depending on the flight options.

For anyone curious, Plan A was to crash Kathy's wonderful family's 1/2 week in Central Oregon.  That didn't work out this time, either.  The usual culprits: Short staffing at Delta on Thursday (Kathy and the kids left on Wednesday night), a friend in Bend who was unavailable, and the insane ease and simplicity of flying overseas for trips like this.  I get a ton of work done on these long international flights.


Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution #umbrellarevolution
Photo by Pasu Au Yeung on Flickr



Our flight for Tokyo leaves this afternoon, with a short connection later on to Hong Kong.  If the flights don’t work out, I can always fly to Bend and fall back on a drastically modified version of Plan A.

Whatever happens, I'll upload photos from wherever I end up in a later post.  This weekend is gonna be interesting!