How to make 5.1 "fun," an attempt on Mt. Washington

Edward and I set out to climb the North Ridge on Mt. Washington Wednesday. The weather was supposed to be awful and it was. We went anyway because, in our own twisted minds, "we had nothing better to do." I was going to write an essay about it entitled "how to make 5.1 climbing fun" since I saw somewhere that that was the rating. The thesis was that if you pick a chossy, exposed route, and try to climb it in a white-out with 50mph winds, it would be more "fun." Unfortunately that white-out led to us ascending the wrong ridge and then being faced with a steep ice traverse in the 50mph winds. We hadn't really planned on climbing ice and only had one axe each, not to mention we couldn't really see anything. Thus we retreated and my thesis went untested.

As we descended our tracks had already filled in with snow and soon we were simply following a vague compass bearing. An hour and a half later we were in tangles of fir saplings and realized we must have crossed the PCT without realizing it. We started bushwhacking north and a couple hours later we entered an old burn. Soon after we stumbled upon the PCT. We thought we were really close to the car at this point but apparently we had been moving very slowly. The trail wound on forever and we started to suspect that we were caught in a time-space vortex: THE MOUNT WASHINGTON TRIANGLE (cue Twilight Zone theme music). Would we ever reach the end of the trail? I sure as heck didn't remember half of the trees we passed, but then again every tree looked exactly the same. We eventually hit the car and made jokes about projecting 5.1. We've almost got the beta down, now the only question is whether or not we wait for another blizzard.

This doesn't look bad at all. We are still on the PCT right?

Coming up the West Ridge which we still think is the North Ridge. My mountain sense is tingling!

The weather is getting more and more "funner" by the minute.

Brew stop. Stomp those feet.

It's a mountain mother clucker! Do you see it?!

Retreat! Reatreat! Oh that's what it looked like? I couldn't tell through my iced up goggles.

Shasta Revisited: Casaval Ridge w/ Avy Gulch ski descent

After a six day backcountry ski trip and a day of rock climbing I was... how do you say? Bushed? Wei, I sink so! But you know, like, when in Rome and all that good shit. So since I had to drive right by Mt. Shasta with all my ski gear and because I could... really just because I could, I mean there was absolutely no enjoyment in it at this point, just pure ego. But regardless of why, all that matters now is that I did, and it was actually mildly enjoyable. I even had fun for a few minutes. And all it really takes is a few minutes plus your ego reveling in your ability to crush and "ta-da!" All I remember now is how awesome it was. "Yeah, I am awesome. So cool. Everyone probably wants to be me. Rock and Ice or Powder Magazine should do a feature on me because I'm so great..." I'm off in dream land while my body slowly processes mitochondrial waste products from its thorough thrashing and tries to figure out how to rebuild all that atrophied muscle. Anyway, Rock and Ice isn't going to interview me because it actually wasn't very cool and I'm really pretty pathetic so I'm going to write it up myself... you know, keep stroking that ego!

Mount Shasta from Mount Shasta. Casaval Ridge descends towards the viewer.

So I arrived at the Bunny Flat Trailhead the day before, just after soloing Cosmic Wall and having grabbed some food in Mt. Shasta (the town). I didn't have much water because I only had two liter bottles. They were less than a liter each actually. I planned to melt some snow at the trailhead but naively underestimated the traffic this place gets, even in winter. I set up my tent on the asphault next to the car and started digging in the snow bank for clean snow. I got down to some good looking stuff and fired up the stove. After an hour of work melting about 3 liters of water I was at a loss. Everything tasted nasty, like ski wax, road salt and squirrel pee. I threw the water out and was trying to figure out what to do when a car pulls up. No one gets out. It just sits there facing the mountain which is alight with alpenglow from the already-set sun. Then this weird new-age trance music starts to play. This seems somewhat normal. Mt. Shasta (the town) is full of mystical crystal shops and new-age meditation centers. Some people believe the mountain is one of the seven shakras which is... well I'm not really sure. Anyway, I'm trying to decide whether to melt more snow or drive all the way down to town to buy more water. The last light fades on the mountain, I really need to get to bed if I'm going to do this. The new-age car pulls out and turns around. I raise my hand half-heartedly to get their attention. The car stops and the window rolls down, an older couple occupies the front seats.

"You guys don't happen to have any water do you? I'm almost out and the snow has this awful chemical taste."

"Sure we do!" says the guy. While he rummages in the trunk the lady asks me what I'm doing. "Climbing the Mountain? Wow!" Then the man hands me a full 1.5L bottle and refuses anything in exchange. If he was looking for good karma he can have all he wants. Sending good vibes your way man! You are awesome!

Approaching Casaval Ridge that morning.

On the lower section of the Casaval.

I slept like a baby and left the car at 6:30am. Skinned over to Casaval Ridge and started the actual climbing. At first I was a little disappointed. The ridge is a line of decaying rock towers (typical of the Cascade volcanoes) and there is no way to climb them so I was just traversing the snow field next to them. Then things started to get steeper, more exposed. Every time I thought it was going to cliff out there was a notch letting you traverse to the other side of the ridge. Two short sections of 50ish degree snow even made it feel like climbing. Where the terrain section ended (~12,500ft?) I started to bonk. I would take two steps and feel completely exhausted. I forced myself to find a manageable pace and keep moving, but it didn't last for long. The last eight days were finally catching up to me. I bonked numerous times before the bottom of Misery Hill. When I got there the hill was completely exposed scree. Realizing that I would not be able to ski from the summit, I ditched my skis there.

Heading up...

Looking down...

I got to the summit at 1pm and thought I would be the only one there that day, but I turned around to see two telemarkers from Bozeman coming up from the Hotlum-Wintun. We chatted briefly and I snapped some pictures before cruising back down to my skis. I had planned to ski the West Face but it looked so bare I just headed straight down Avalanche Gulch. The ski run was less than exceptional, thick mashed potatoes. I arrived at the car just before 3pm. By 3:30 I was in Mt. Shasta getting a snack for the drive home.

The uber-deluxe Shasta summit registry.

Summit shot, courtesy of the Bozeman boys.

Time to ski!

Casaval Ridge on the left and Avy Gulch straight ahead, from the car.

Castle Crags - Cosmic Wall

Castle Crags is a little known wilderness area with granite rock climbing right off off I-5 in Northern California. Its pretty hard to find beta on the climbing there, but there are some bolts and rap anchors on the more popular routes. It's a 2.7 mile hike with 2,200ft of elevation gain to reach the end of the trail at the base of Castle Dome. The rest of the rock spires and domes lie west, further along the ridge. Bushwhacking through manzanita is necessary to reach most of the climbs. There is a lot of potential but most of the walls are pretty far back and would require an overnight stay to properly explore. It's also hard to find water and shade which doesn't help.

Castle Dome with Shasta behind it.

I had visited the Crags as a kid and heard about some of the good climbing latterly so I stopped on my way back from the Trinity Alps. The main route I had recommended to me was Cosmic Wall (5.6, 800ft), which ascends the east face of Mt. Hubris (aka The Ogre). It would have been nice to explore more but I was pretty tired from 6 days of backcountry skiing and wanted to try Shasta the next day so I limited myself to this climb and a scramble up Castle Dome.

Shasta and a view of the crags from Mt. Hubris.

Castle Dome from the summit of Mt. Hubris

Both routes were pretty easy, honestly the bushwhacking to Mt. Hubris was the hardest part. I was able to skip the crux on Cosmic because it is a traverse over to a belay ledge. Since I was soloing I could just go straight up. Protection looked potentially finicky but I didn't really consider it much. The holds were large jugs and sculpted granite fins and there were a ton of them. It was nice to climb on such solid rock as supposed to Smith Tuff. On the last pitch I did the arete variation which offers some nice exposure to the summit. Two raps brought me to a snow lump melting in the shade of the north col. From here some easy scrambling down the manzanita got me back to Castle Dome. After tagging the top of CD I headed back to the car and drove to Mt. Shasta.

On the summit of the Ogre.

Mt. Hubris aka the Ogre. Cosmic Wall starts at the bottom left and traverses up and right to the summit.

Mt. Hubris on the left, and the rest of the Crags from Castle Dome.

Some of the Crags west of Hubris... lots of stuff to climb.

Self-photo on top of Castle Dome, Shasta in the background.

Trinity Alps pt. 2

So besides avoiding eating spam (see pt. 1) you are probably wondering what I did for six days, right? Well here is a general schedule:

Day1: hike in (yay so much fun!)
Day2: Slay to the East (epic!)
Day3: Slay to the West (epic!)
Day4: Slay to the North (epic!)
Day5: Slay to the South (epic!)
Day6: Slay to the East again, because we just didn't slay enough the first time (also epic!)

So you are probably going to be like, "give us the beta Sam! Give us the beta! Show us where all the awesome lines are!" But I can't. I took a solemn oath to not reveal exact locations or share photos of the most awesome Coulis. "Why would you do such a thing Sam?" Because I can. And because myself, Joe, Brian, Ryan and Ryan want those first descents to ourselves, because we are selfish. But hold on folks, before you get your panties in a bunch, stop and think: does it really matter? I mean let's be honest here, you probably don't have what it takes. Ten mile hike in with all your gear just to get to the end of the trail, then the adventure is only beginning. Approaching, climbing and descending... do you really have the cahones to rail that pencil-thin line that drops 3,000 feet at 50 degress? Nope, probably not. "Well, you are probably just lying Sam, you dirty little liar!" And you are right I probably am lying: the Trinity Alps don't get that much snow, the terrain isn't that good, the lines all suck. You should keep telling yourself that. In fact, tell your friends too. "Never go to those dinky little mountains in California, there is a reason that no one goes there, they suck, totally worthless!" Besides, its such a long hike in that its not even worth checking out. You wouldn't want to waste your precious time, so why gamble?

Now that you realize how much better we are than you, watch this fun video...

Oh, and just because I'm a peak bagging braggart I'll show you these selected awesome photos of sending and summit top outs. Yes, you should feel honored...

Brian and Matz...

Sending...

...still sending.

Summit of Thompson with Shasta in the background.

Relaxing on Thompson... its easier to rock climb barefoot than in snow boots.

Boot pack up the ridge on Hilton.

The headwall we skied off the summit of Hilton.

Wedding Cake... rock climbing potential?

A nice lunch spot.

Trinity Alps Ski Trip pt. 1

On April 15th four other guys and I hiked into the Trinity Alps with back country ski gear and food for seven days. The Trinities are the highest sub-range of the the California coast range. These mountains get so much snow that they have permanent snow fields, and even some glacial action, despite never reaching 9,000ft. I could talk a lot about all the sweet couliors, perfect blue skies and corn snow. But instead I'm going to share some real deep campfire wisdom from the back country. When you are skinning up every run there is only so much skiing you can do in a day. Thus you spend a large portion of time sitting around a camp stove waiting for that dehydrated bean powder to rehydrate. It is during this mouth watering lull in activity, surrounded by boundless vistas of alpine glory, that we "shoot the shit." These conversations are so deep and profound that I feel the need to share them here.

L-R Matz, Ghelfi, Joe and Brian survey potential lines during day 3.

First some terminology:
Pow- powder, light fluffy snow, the stuff of dreams, non-existent during the spring ski season
Corn- hard snow that is made soft by solar radiation, the best you can get in the spring ski season
Mashed Potatoes- snow that is made too soft by the sun, heavy and wet, it sticks to everything
Slay- to ski awesomely, usually used in conjunction with pow, "slaying pow"
Shralp- like slay, but more agressive (I always think of scalping, only putting tracks on a ski line instead of knifing a dead guys head), "Lets shralp this shit!"
Shred- again, like slay or shralp
Rip (ripping)- another term for awesome skiing, like shred/slay/shralp, "Watch me rip this shit!"
Charging- like ripping, "charging hard"
Huck- to go off a jump or cliff drop
Huck your meat- to huck big, putting your meat or physical body in jeopardy for the sake of the huck
Rad (radical)- something cool or awesome
Gnar- Gaffney's Numerical Assesment of Raddness, watch this video for further explanation: http://unofficialnetworks.com/gnar/
Gnarly- something having the characteristic of gnar
Stoked- excited to something
Psyched- see stoked
Next level maneuver- doing something like a pro, really well, so well that its an innovation and a revelation, borderline genius
Jengis- failing to do or doing something badly, inefficiently or ineffectively, usually in the backcountry, this is usually visually obvious, the opposite of a next level maneuver
Couli (pronounced cool-E)- short for coulior, a snow filled gully, idealy steep and narrow, the gnarlier the better
Death Cookie- balls of hard snow and ice that have rolled down into the middle of a slope, oft hidden under nice snow
Spam!- a cry in favor of eating spam for dinner, this is always a bad idea, more on this later
Winco- a large discount supermarket chain with awesome bulk foods sections
Winco veggies- dehydrated carrots, onions, celery, and tomato mix from the aforementioned Winco bulk section
Personal cheese- we each had a 2lbs block of cheddar cheese with us on the trip, except for Ghelfi who had a 2lbs block of cheddar AND an 8oz block of pepper jack

That was probably pointless but anyway...

Stream crossing on the hike in. L-R Brian, Matz, Ghelfi and Joe.

Convo #1:
We have hiked in 8 miles with 70lbs packs while it started to snow. We pitched our tents and got inside. It is kind of windy and hard to hear each other talk since our tents are flapping and if we open the door we get a face-full of snow blown in.
Dude #1- Dudes, it is coming down!
Dude #2- I know man! Pow day tomorrow!
Dude #3- I don't know guys, I don't think it will dump that much.
Dude #1- But bro think about the potential for windblown pockets!
Dude #2- Yo guys, how much snow do you think is going to fall by tomorrow morning?
Dude #3- Dude, bro, no way will it be more that 2 inches.
Dude #1- No way man, at least 4-6 inches.
Dude #2- Hey, you guys up the hill... how much snow do you think is going to fall?
Dude #4- I can't hear what you guys are saying!?
Me- I'm betting on 10 inches!
Dude #1- NOOOOO! Don't jinx it!
Dude #3- No way.
Dude #2- Hey what do you guys want to do about dinner.
Dude #1- Personal cheese!
Dude #3- Yeah I vote we stay in our tents.
Dude #2-Anyone, want to cook dinner and bring it to me?
Dudes- silence....
Me- Personal cheese!
Dude #1- Spam!
Me- What!?
Dude #1- I'm eating spam!
Me- Yo, I can barely hear you. What are you saying about dinner?
Dudes #2&3- laugh
Dude #1- I love Spam!
Me- I love you too bro, but I don't understand what you are saying!
Dude #1- Spam! Spam! SPAM!
Me- DUDE!
Dude #2- We are going to slay tomorrow!
Dudes- F*$% YEAH!

Yeah! Inspirational! But it gets better, really.

Wind and snow blast our tent village at Lower Canyon Lake on day 1.

Dinner of champions on night 1. Sourdough bread with cheese and sausage plus wasabi peas.

Convo #2
A couple days later under sunny skies and after ripping some gnarly lines.
Dude #1- What do you guys want to have for dinner?
Dude #2- Spam!
Dude #3- Spam is made out of pork ass-hole... and it tastes like cat food.
Dude #2- No way. It is not made out of pork ass-hole.
Dude #3- Read the ingredients.
Dude #2- Ingredients are... pork, water, salt, dehydrated potato starch, sodium chloride. That's it!
Dude #3- Yeah, pork. That means pig ass-hole.
Dude #2- No way!
Dude #3- Think about it. They take the best part of the pig and make pork chops. The next best part goes into ham, and then bacon. After that they make sausage and then hotdogs, pepperoni and salami. At the end the only thing left is pig ass-hole and that's what they make spam out of.
Dudes- Whoooooa! That makes sense!
Dude #2- I still don't believe you but I am less tempted to eat it right now.
Dude #1- We should make those dehydrated hash browns on the last day and fry the spam to go with that for breakfast. I bet it will taste okay then and we don't want to pack any food out.

Ghelfi and Matz double team the ravioli with powdered cheese sauce as Joe day dreams about beautiful women.

First ski run of the trip... awesome!

Convo #3
The last day after decidng to hike out that afternoon instead of spending the night at camp. We have still not had any spam and have just gotten back to camp and started to take our tents down.
Dude #1- Spam!
Dude #2- Are you actually going to eat that now?!
Dude #1- Yeah! Do you want some?
Dude #2- Uh, sure. I might as well try it.
Dude #1 opens can and an overwhelming smell of cat food wafts across the pristine alpine valley
Dude #3- I told you it tastes like cat food.
Dude #2 (gagging)- Oh god! That is awful! I take it back! I take it back!
Dude #3- That is so jengis.
Dude #1 starts eating spam out of the can with his pocket knife- Ugh, this may have been a mistake!
Dudes- You think!?
Dude #1 (gagging)- I can't do it!
Dudes (chanting)- Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!
Dude #1 shamefully wraps opened spam can in a plastic bag and sticks it in his pack

Wow, aren't you glad you read that? See what you missed out on? Anyway, I should probably become a playwright, but in the meantime here are some more skiing photos...

Epic shralping.

Waiting for Matz and Brian to slay the Couli on Thompson.

Shasta rises behind granite buttresses.

Zebra Zion

Plans get made, changed and cancelled. Life is busy but at least I can go rock climb. Caitlin and I are stoked for June. We're going to Alaska for three weeks but first we're stopping in B.C. to visit family and climb in Squamish. Caitlin's climbing has been improving by leaps and bounds but we want to be ready to take advantage of world class granite when we get there. With that in mind I took her up what many people (Fred Beckey included) call the best multi-pitch route at Smith Rock... Zebra to Zion. This is a 4 pitch, 5.10 trad climb up the biggest wall in the main area. It starts with an easy traverse across large huecos to a hanging belay. From here you climb the crux pitch up a dihedral with small overhangs and roofs to a tiny ledge. Pitch 3 continues up the crack and then traverses face holds to another crack system, which lead up easy slab to another hanging belay. The final pitch traverses over 300ft of air and ascends a flake to ledges that lead to the top of the wall. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were actually worried about sunburn for once. It took us 3 hours from tying-in to topping-out which, while not fast, isn't really slow either.

Morning Glory Wall, Zion follows the crack systems up the middle.

Belaying at the top of pitch 1.

Looking up the route.

Caitlin relieved/happy to be done.

Sunset

Next week I'll be in the Trinity Alps of Northern California's coast ranges for a week of ski touring. Until then...

The Colchuck F#&% Up

On Thursday night I got a last minute invitation to try climb Triple Couloirs on Dragontail Peak that weekend. I really wanted to do this route and check out the Enchantment/Mt. Stuart region, having never been there before. I packed my stuff up that night, got up early and drove to Leavenworth the next morning. My partner arrived shortly after I did from Seattle. He had been up until 4am the night before at a concert and wasn't packed yet. Several hours later he was ready and we left the trailhead at 5:15pm. Our plan was to ski the 8.5 mile approach in and camp at Colchuck Lake. The terrain was rough and my partner, due to lack of sleep, lack of experience with his skis, and presence of a very unwieldy pack on his back, made slow progress. Seven hours later we were still not at the lake and stopped to set up camp. It was after midnight.

Looking up Mountaineer Creek from our campsite beneath Colchuck Lake.

 Needless to say, we did not get the alpine start that would have been necessary for climbing such a long alpine north face route on a sunny March day. We slept in to 11am. I was determined to go up and do something, anything, to salvage some of the time and gas money I had spent to get out there. My partner said he still needed to adjust his crampons for his boots so I went up to Colchuck Lake to wait for him.

Dragontail on the left and Colchuck on the right from Colchuck Lake.

Colchuck Lake is right beneath the north faces of Dragontail Peak and Colchuck Peak. These mountains rise more than 3,000ft above the lake in steep granite buttresses and spires. It is spectacular.

Closeup of the north face of Dragontail with the Triple Couloirs route marked.

Once the misbegotten partner showed up we crossed the frozen lake and began skiing up the slopes under the granite faces in time to see a party of four descending from the Triple Couloirs route. They said the route was not in shape, merely sugar snow on bare rock, making it impossible to climb. This made us feel somewhat better about fact that we had completely blown any chance we had at attempting it.

Under the north face of Dragontail, watching climbers retreat from the first couloir of the route (in the oval).

Close up of the four climbers down-climbing from the first couloir.

From the base of Dragontail we skinned up the Colchuck Glacier. My partner, tired and hungry, opted to stop halfway up. I continued to the col between Colchuck and Dragontail where I was greeted with an amazing view of Rainier to the south. I stashed my skis at the col and ran up to the summit of Colchuck Peak where I had an awesome view of Adams, Rainier, Stuart, and Glacier Peak, as well as almost every other craggy and glaciated summit in the Washington Cascades.

Looking south at Rainier from the Colchuck-Dragontail col.

Dragontail from the summit of Colchuck Peak.

The big north face of Mt. Stuart from Colchuck.

Glacier Peak from Colchuck.

I descended back to my skis and then skied the 2,500 vertical feet of sustained steep slopes back down the glacier to Colchuck Lake. Almost all of this run had 4-6 inches of dry powder on it. It was by far the best back country ski run I've ever had and almost made up for the past 24 hours.

Looking down the Colchuck Glacier to Colchuck Lake... getting ready to shred some gnars!

Looking back up at the col and the awesome ski descent I just had.

Once back at camp we settled in for an early night. I had not anticipated staying two nights but the ski out was not something we wished to repeat in the dark. I had little food but my partner offered to share his. We got up early the next morning. The 7.5-8 mile ski out to the car took a little less time on the way down, only six hours.

Skiing over bridges when the snow is higher than the hand railings is scary... this totally counts as 4th class right?

The partner crosses bridge #2... slowly.

Waiting is not my strong point. I'm a skinny guy and if I can't avoid a heavy pack altogether I like to go fast so I can get it off before it permanently alters my puny skeletal structure. I took off once we reached the last downhill section of road to the car. Here I unpacked, stretched and re-hydrated for half an hour before my partner arrived. I'm not sure what the trouble was on that last section but having watched him struggle for the past 3 days, I'd wager he fell over at least five times in that half hour.

The mountains from the Bavarian wonderland that is Leavenworth, WA.

We drove out to Leavenworth. From there I drove home to Bend, stopping in Yakima to pig out on tacos and ungodly amounts of pastry from a Mexican bakery. In the future I will be asking a lot more questions and spend more time on minor objectives before committing to a long alpine route with someone.