Mt. Shavano and Tabeguache Peak via Brown Creek Trailhead

Cary and me on top of Tabeguache

One needs to cross a steam some how

Katie climbing up

2 pics I shot near our camp

Katie and Sis on top of Tabeguache

Brad, Kris and me climbing up Tabeguache

Me rocking my new hat

Cary climbing up the snow shoot

Climbing up the snow shoot

Over the fourth of July weekend me and some of my buddies did some climbing in the Sawatch mountain range in Colorado. I had previously never even been to Colorado none the less the Rockies so I was pretty excited to get out there and climb! On Friday the 3rd, Cary, Katie and I met up with Brad, Kris and Kelsy on route to Brown Creek Trailhead. We got to the trailhead around 12:45 and started the 6 mile hike up to Brown Creek Lake were we set up our camp for the next two nights. The hike was gorgeous, it followed a well flowing creek with aspen trees littered all around. About 3 miles from the trailhead we stopped at the "falls" for lunch.

Around 4:15 we arrived at the lake and set up our tents just north of there. Cary and I were bunking together as usual, Katie was with her sis and Brad and Kris were together. Cary and I have camped so many times together I feel we are a well oiled machine, very proficient at setting up camp. That night we set up a camp fire and relaxed. I tried capturing water blur photographs near the creek near by but nothing really turned out to my liking.

The next morning we woke up around 5:30 and got ready for our climb. We headed out of our camp (11,300 ft) by 6, just as the sun was painting the mountains a nice shade of pink. We climbed up a gully filled with scree and loose rock for the first hour and a half. Around 12,500 we started climbing up a ridge, luckily climbers above us showed us which route "not" to take. While climbing up the ridge a climber above knocked down a bowling ball size boulder down the shoot and went whizzing past us. It wasn't close enough to hit us but it was heading towards where we were before we started climbing the ridge. None the less it definitely got our attention. After climbing up the ridge we traversed to a snow shoot in a gully and climbed straight up until we hit the saddle (13,800 ft), which connects Shavano and Tebeguache. Brad and Kris did a terrific job kicking in steps up the hard pack snow! Once at the saddle we climbed up to Tabeguache (14,155 ft). There was a small cornice that we climbed over to reach the summit (roughly around 10:30). Once on the summit we relaxed for about 20 minutes with the 5 of people who were already there. Katie also brought chocolate for all of us as well. Thanks Katie, you rock!

We soon headed back down to the saddle and left some gear there as we hiked along the Mt. Shavano ridge to Shavano's summit. It took us about 30 minutes to reach Shavano's summit (14,229 ft). Once there we met a guy who put an American flag on the summit. After a picture I headed back down to the saddle where I ate my salami, cheese and cracker lunch. Kris hung back a little and sang the star-spangled banner with the patriotic climber:-)

On our decent, going down the snow shoot was a little tougher that I expected. I had hoped the snow would be punchy and easy to heal step down. It was definitely manageable but not as soft as I would have liked, so the last 40 feet I got on my butt and glissaded down. We arrived back at our camp around 1:30. The rest of the day we relaxed around the camp site. I took some photos, took a nice nap and then sat around the campfire and discussed important topics like swamp @$$ and the town of Rifle.

The next morning Cary, Kelsy and I headed back down to our cars. Cary and I needed to start our drive back to California. Brad, Kris and Katie stayed and climbed Mt. Antero, good job guys!

Weather:

The weather was great the whole weekend. We did encounter a thunderstorm in the middle of the night one night but that's about it. It was cloudy on and off throughout the weekend.

Stats:

• Brown Creek Trailhead: 8,950 feet
  
• Brown Creek Lake (Camp): 11,300 feet / 6 miles from trailhead
  
• Saddle: 13,800 feet
  
• Tabeguache : Peak: 14,155 feet / about 1.5 miles from Brown Creek Lake (our camp)
  
• Mt. Shavano : 14,229 feet / about .5 miles from saddle
  

Lessons learned:

• Subways in Colorado don't offer avocados
• The town of Rifle has the best Starbucks ever (ask Cary)
• You must drive a Subaru to live in Colorado
• Mini tripods take terrible water blur photos, too low to the ground.
• Mel and I should move to Colorado

** Thanks to Kelsy, Katy and Cary for contributing their photographs to the blog.

** Thanks to Brad and Katie for planning such an awesome trip!!!

View Brown Creek, Co in a larger map

Lassen Volcanic National Park

On June 20th my brother Erik, our buddy Nic and I went backpacking in Lassen Volcanic National Park. This is about 4 hours north east of San Francisco. We arrived at the park around 12 and stopped at the Lassen Peak parking lot to climb the mountain. The trailhead was at 8,400 ft and the climb was a well worn, mellow trail the led up 2,ooo feet to the summit (10,462 ft). There was still a little snow of the trail which we climbed through. After an hour and a half we reached the summit to take in beautiful views of the park. We got back down to the trailhead around 4 and headed to the summit ranger station where we hiked in 5 miles to Rainbow lake where we set up our camp for 2 nights. Rainbow lake was a great place to camp. We had the place all to ourselves.

The next morning we headed to cinder cone peak, painted sand dunes and the fantastic lava beds. It was an absolutely beautiful hike there, unlike any terrain I have seen in my life. My pictures don't do justice to what it looked like in person. The dunes were a grey color with yellow and red sand strewn across them. In the background there was a large section of black lava beds that starkly contrasted the dunes. We hiked up half way up Cinder Cone ( which is an odd, 600 foot mound of volcanic sand and rocks, see pic below) and had lunch. Nic (our swiss friend) brought salami, avocado, cheese and bread for lunch. That was definitely a nice change of pace compared to my normal back country lunch of luna bars and trail mix. Thanks Nic! After lunch we headed up to the top of the Cinder Cone. We took alot of pictures and admired the view of Mt. Lassen which was peaking through the clouds. On our way back down we hiked near Snag lake on our way back to our campsite. We hardly saw anyone that day. I was blown away by how many downed trees there were due to lightning strikes.

The next morning we packed up and headed back to our car. We drove through the national park and stopped at Bumpess Hell trailhead where we hiked to this fumarole/hot spring phenomenon. This was an easy 3 mile round trip stroll. There was still a little snow on the ground but nothing to deter us from going. When we got there we snapped some photos and toured the place via the wood slat trail. After an hour or so we headed back to the car and left the national park.

All in all the backpacking trip was great. I could easily have spent another 3 or 4 days photographing the original landscape of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The park has something for everyone, fumaroles/hotsprings, 10k fooot peak, lakes, sand dunes, lava beds and much more. And a special thanks to Erik and Nic for scouting and planning such an awesome trip. I had a fabulous time.

Stats:

Mt. Lassen (10,462 ft): 4.4 mi round trip. 2K elevation gain.

Bumpess Hell: 3 mi round trip

Backpacking: 19 mi round trip (5 mi to rainbow lake & 3.5 mi to cinder cone)

*** Thanks to Nic for "donating" the 2 pictures above with Erik/Me and the three of us in front of the lake

My Google Map for Lassen is not working right now. Below is a screen shot of the map for now.

Mt. Rainier via Ingraham Glacier

June 4th I flew out to Seattle to meet up with my climbing buddies; Brad, Brian, Cary, Dave, Katie and Jeff. We all met up at the airport and rolled out to Ashford. We signed up with RMI to climb Rainier, the most glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states. We happened to get rooms for Thursday, Friday and Sunday nights at the Whittacker Bunkhouse, which is on the grounds of the RMI compound. Thursday afternoon we rolled into Ashford and checked into the Bunkhouse, a very minimal motel. Thursday afternoon we had a 3 hour meeting with our guides. We went over our gear and the plan for the next 3 days. After that we ate burgers at the RMI bar and grill and called it a night.

Friday we drove up to Paradise (40min) where we had our skills training. From 9-3 we practiced self arresting, walking roped up, along with other techniques. We were inside a"pingpong ball" the whole time. That means we were in the clouds and the visibility was no more than 40 feet. After the training skills class we all took the RMI bus back to the compound. We walked down the road to some local diner and ate dinner. I had an opened face chili burger which was pretty good. The salmon was less than favorable according to Brad and Katie. That night everyone retreated to their rooms to pack for our climb.

Saturday morning we met up near the RMI bus at 8am. We headed up to the Paradise area where we found ourselves in a light mist and once again inside a "pingpong ball". We scurried off the bus and headed into the bathroom hallway where lots of climbers were getting ready to start their climb. We made any last layer adjustments and met up with our RMI guides outside. We climbed up the Muir snow field for 5 hours and reached Camp Muir, our basecamp, around 3:30. Camp Muir is the most popular basecamp on Mt. Rainier. There is an outhouse along with various huts. We stayed in a hut Saturday night. We ate dinner around 5 and were in bed by 6:15. Yes, it was very light out. It really didn't get dark out until 10, which is when I really fell asleep. I had a dream that I was running a marathon in crampons. I was stressed out and woke myself up at 12:20am, the exact time when our guides were going to wake us up to climb. I thought that was a little creepy.

Soon after waking up from my marathon crampon race Gary our lead guide came in with the wake up call. We shuffled around and took an hour to eat breakfast (smores pop tarts ....yummy!) and get ready. 1:40am, I was rocking my crampons and helmet with my head lamp on. We were split up into 3 teams, 1 for each guide. My team was me, Katie and Brad and our guide was Eric. We roped up and headed out. The first leg of our route was crossing the Cowlits glacier and Cathedral Gap to Ingraham Flats. This took us a little over an hour. We braked for 10 min. We then climbed Ingraham Direct, basically climbing straight up the glacier. This was the hardest and steepest part of the climb. We crossed 4 or 5 crevasses and had no time to stop due to the avalanche danger. We also climbed a ladder and crossed a few snow bridges. This section of climbing was by far and away the most intense. I had never experienced anything like this. The deep crevasses were breath taking. At one point we got on all fours and had to scurry across (using our axes) a narrow snow bridge, while looking down a 50 foot crevasse. Crazy, but also very exciting! In addition to climbing around many obstacles, we were directly below giant blocks of snow. These blocks were huge, one section had broken off 10 days prior. Needless to say we hauled through this section. No time for stopping. We climbed for 80 minutes and took another break. By this time the sun was starting to slowly rise over the clouds. We were just above little Tahoma peak which was jetting through the clouds. From Ingraham Direct we climbed to "high break", this took another 70 minutes. During this section the sun was peaking through the clouds making for a spectacular view. We were now well above the clouds. I started to feel a little sick and light headed. I have felt this way before on steep climbs, it's an indicator my blood sugar is too low. I hurriedly ripped open a pack of frozen jelly bellys and ate them by the mouthful. Since they were frozen I let them warm up under my tongue for awhile. The tricky part about climbing is that my appetite goes away completely so I have to force myself to eat. During the climb I tried to consume as many calories as possible. Above 13,000 feet I love to eat jelly bellys. Feeling a little better though still exhausted we made our way up to the crater. Finally, around 7:30 we made it to the crater rim. From there we made our way into the crater and set down our packs to congratulate each other. After 5 minutes, Brian, Brad, Katie and I hiked across the crater for 20 minutes and climbed about 200 feet to reach Columbia Crest, the highest point on the mountain. It was about 15 degrees with sunny skies. We were very fortunate to have great weather. Once on Columbia's Crest we hugged and took a few pictures. I was relieved and overtaken with a sense of accomplishment. I trained for months leading up to the climb, lost 10 pounds and invested a lot of money in it. We soon headed back and met up with our group. On our way down I recorded a video expressing my thoughts. I called Columbia Crest "Clouds Rest", which is in Yosemite. I was not all there mentally, below is the video.

Around 8:30 we started our descent down the mountain. On our way down we could clearly see the route we climbed up now that is was sunny out. Wow, the Ingraham Direct route with the crevasses and giant snow walls looked even more daunting yet beautiful at the same time. We made two stops on the way down. One just above Ingraham Direct and the second at the Flats. We finally arrived back at Camp Muir around 12:30. From there we packed up our belongings, took off our crampons and headed back down to Paradise. The hike down to Paradise from Camp Muir was super mellow. We made it to Paradise around 3:30. Upon arriving at the RMI compound we ordered pitchers of beer and celebrated with our group, including our guides. After enjoying some beer and a burger we showered up and went into the spa where we continued to debrief and talk/joke about the climb. On Monday we packed up and returned to our residences with a new sense of appreciation for glaciated mountains.

3 days after the climb I am still trying to process my "Rainier" experience. All I can say about it is "incredible". All my climbing I have done doesn't compare to this experience. I was blown away by the beauty and danger of Rainier. What comes next? Maybe a climb out of the states. I know that the gang had a blast. I hope in 2 years we can get another climb organized. Everyone in the group was awesome! Thanks Brad, Brian, Cary, Dave, Katie and Jeff. I couldn't have asked for better people to climb with. I also want to thank my family for all their support and encouragement!

Below is a link to some of our photos:

My Pictures

Dave's Pictures

Paradise: 5,400 ft (5 hrs to Muir)

Camp Muir: 10,100 ft (6 hrs to crater rim )

Crater Rim: 14,200 ft (20 min to Columbia Crest)

Columbia Crest: 14,411 ft

View Rainier in a larger map

Mt. Langley

Last weekend Cary and I set out to climb Mt. Langley, the southern most 14er. I had previously attempted Langley with a Sierra Club trip, however, we got to 13,100 feet then had to turn around due to the leaders slow pace and late start time.

On Friday night, Cary and I drove up to Horseshoe Meadow campground and slept in the back of his truck. Saturday morning we packed up our packs, decided to leave the snow shoes behind and hiked the 7 miles of Cottonwood pass and the PCT to the unnamed lake ( 2 miles past chicken spring lake). It was a beautiful day with looming thunder clouds that never materialized into rain. I was surprised by the extreme temperature difference between being in the sun compared to the shade. Saturday afternoon we took it easy, set up camp and ate some awesome pasta primavera. We were lucky to have the unnamed lake all to ourselves, we only saw a few people on the trail all day.

Sunday morning we got up at 3:45 am and got ready to climb Langley. By 4:30 am we were off and climbing. I really prefer climbing this early because I still feel half asleep. After about 20 minutes on the PCT we headed cross country up toward Cirque peak ridge. We skirted around the ridge gaining about 400 feet elevation. After traversing the ridge and watching the sunrise cast a beautiful pink and blue tint over the Sequoia mountain range we finally saw Langley. We then crossed a few snow patches with sun cups and descended down to New Army Pass, which marked the base of Langley.

We made it to New Army Pass around 7:30. We stopped for a short break to eat some food and we happened to meet a guy (Jeff) coming up from the New Army Pass trail. As most climbers do he stopped by and we chatted it up for a little while. It turns out he is friends with 2 of my buddies from Pasadena. One of them being Katie, who I am climbing Rainier with next week. He was going to climb Langley as well so we decided to all climb together. Jeff, Cary and I headed up Langley and found Jeff to be a super cool guy and a good climber as well. The conversation distracted us from the long hike up Langley. Once we got to about 13,300 feet we decided to take a more direct route up which involved 3rd class rock scramble. This was much more entertaining than scrambling around the side of Langley. After a few hundred feet of climbing the last part was a walk up to the summit. Once on the summit we took in the spectacular views, ate and signed the register. There was only 3 other people on the summit and not that many people coming up on the trail. We summited around 10:30, before the dark afternoon thunder clouds rolled in.  After descending Langley to New Army Pass we said goodbye to Jeff and hoped to climb with him in the future. After a short break we headed back to camp the same route we came. We got back to camp around 2:30 pm. When we arrived I went to the little snow patch near our tent to uncover the pizza I had stashed and ate it for lunch. After lunch we packed up our camp and hiked back to the trailhead, arriving at 7pm. It was a great climb and also one of the longest days I've had. We covered almost 17 miles while climbing about 3,000 feet.

Overall it was a great trip. I am happy to have climbed another 14er. My goal is to climb all 15 14ers in California and so far I have climbed 3: Shasta, Whitney and Langley. The trip was also great training for Rainier next week.

Trip Stats:

Trailhead to Camp: 7 miles

Camp to Langley: 5 miles

Camp Elevation: 11,300 ft

Summit: 14,027 ft

Weather: Cloudy/Sunny with no rain.

Trail: Very little snow, just a few sun cupped patches. No crampons, axes or snowshoes required :-(

Here is a link to more pictures of the climb. Sorry there are also graduation photos that were on the memory card. It is a pain to try to move them to another album.

View Mt. Langley in a larger map

San Jacinto & Newton Drury via Marion Mtn TH

It's crunch time. 2.5 weeks until Rainier!

In continuation for training for Rainier Cary, Katie and I climbed San Jacinto on Saturday. Katie, who lives in Colorado was in town for work and was able to climb with us. She is part of our Rainier team and is an exceptional climber. The 3 of us have climbed together before and we always have a blast. This climb was no different.

We got to Marion Mountain trailhead (near Idyllwild) around 8am. We wanted to get an earlier start but the trailhead is a good 2.5 hours from my place in Pasadena. As we started up the trail we encountered a ton of cut down trees along with a sign labeled "hard hat area". we are unsure what they were doing but we had to go around or climb over many trees. It took us about 4.5 hours to climb the 5 mile trail with 4,500 ft of elevation gain. The trail had just a few patches of snow, just enough for me to periodically hurl snowballs at my climbing partners. There was also enough snow to make the streams flow (enough to filter water at least).

We reached the summit around 12:30 along with a plethora of other people. I think most of them came from the Tram. We only saw a handful of people on our trail. Once on top we ate our pizza and talked with a guy hiking the Pacific Coast Trail. On our way down we decided to climb a neighboring peak, Newton Drury. There was no direct trail so we used our compasses to help navigate our cross country trek. This peak was more enjoyable to climb because there was bouldering and cross country navigation required. After a short time on top we headed back down and met up with the trail 20 minutes later.

Going back down was long and somewhat boring. It was getting pretty warm out so we dunked our hats in one of the running streams. To help us keep our minds from succumbing to boredom we gave each other trail names. Some long distance hikers (not ourselves) give themselves hiking names so we thought it would be fun to give each other names. Some names we gave each other I decline to share, however, here are some of them:

Cary = Sunshine

Katie = sooshka (Russian for pine cone)

Me = Fish (I drink and carry more water than needed)

We finally returned to our car at 5 pm. Then headed to In-n-Out, which is a tradition of ours after each climb.

*Thanks to Cary for taking the photos

Stats:

• Elevation start: 6,300 ft
  
• San Jacinto Pk: 10,800 ft
  
• Newton Drury Pk: 10,160ft
  
• Total Elevation Gain: 4,600 ft
  
• Start: 8am
  
• End: 5 pm
  
• Permit: Self assigned at the ranger station.
  

Weather: Sunny and warm 70's to 80's, cool and windy on top.

Trail conditions: Mostly dirt switch back trails, few snow patches (no snow gear necessary) and a few small running springs. Plenty of shade relief for most of the trail up. Bare on the summit.

Food I Consumed:

• 1 luna bar
  
• 1 Odwalla Bar
  
• 1 Power triple threat bar
  
• 1 bag of peanut m&m's
  
• 6 red vines (thanks Cary!)
  
• Handful of trail mix (with reese's pieces! good call Cary)
  
• Dijerno Pizza
  

View San Jacinto via Marion Mtn 5 16 09 in a larger map

San Gorgonio via Vivian Creek

Last Saturday Cary and I set out to climb San Gorgonio, the highest peak in So Cal at 11,499 feet.  Cary and I rolled up at the trailhead parking lot around 11:30pm  on Friday night.  The plan was to sleep in the bed of his truck and get an early start on our climb the next morning.  Unfortunately, we got little sleep that night.  Around 12:30 a few cars rolled up into the parking lot.  The people proceeded to do an ample amount of drugs and blast bass thumping techno crap.  They played the same song over and over again and then proceeded to wave glow sticks around.  Apparently they took a wrong turn and mistakenly thought the empty trialhead parking lot was a rave.  I thought for sure cops or rangers would show up, nope, nothing.  Around 3am we moved to another parking lot, which turns out to be the parking lot we should have been at in the first place.  We got 1.5 hours of sleep in before waking up at 4:30am to start our climb.  

At 5:15 we hit the trail, it was light enough were we didn't need our headlamps on.  The first 1.2 miles had 1,100 feet of elevation gain.  Luckily I was still half asleep!  Cary and I pushed on and met up with a fellow hiker.  It turns out that he attempted to climb Rainier last year with RMI, the same guiding company we are using.  Have gave them high praise which was a relief to both Cary and myself.  As we carried on up the long switch backs we hit a few patches of snow but nothing serious.  The light hiking boots I was wearing were more than sufficient.  After gaining 4,000 feet I started to feel the altitude.  After climbing some other high peaks I am familiar with the woozy feeling.  At 10,000 feet we could almost see the summit.  Seeing the summit usually makes me feel better, but it wasn't working this time.  So I ripped open a bag of peanut butter m&m's and finished the bag in 2 giant handfuls.  The m&m's helped me feel better as we pushed on to the summit.  Finally after 6.5 hours, 8 miles and 5,500 feet of elevation gain we reached the summit.  We signed the registry and took some photos before eating some pizza.  Cary and I love eating pizza for lunch.  One of us will buy a frozen pizza and cook it the night before our hike.  My favorite is Dejorno..........No Cary it is not delivery!

After 40 minutes on top we headed back down.  Going down was extremely boring.  8 miles of long drawn out switch backs.  And it was pretty warm.  We made it back to the trail head around 4:30.  I am glad I climbed Gorgonio but I don't think I am going to do it again for awhile.  I'm sure it would be  a blast in the snow though. 

Stats:

Elevation Start: 6,000 ft

Summit: 11,500ft (gain: 5,500 feet)

Start time: 5:15

Summit: 11:40

Return: 4:30

Miles: 16 round trip

Food I consumed:

1 pack of poptarts

1 pack of skittles

a little trail mix

half a bbq pizza

1 babyruth bar

1 pack of peanut butter m&m's

1 luna bar

1 power/energy bar

5 liters of water

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Mt. Baldy via Ski Hut

On Saturday, Cary and I climbed Mt. Baldy via the ski hut trail.  We hit the trail around 8 and summited around 11.  We ate some cold pizza I made the night before.  After a long break we headed back down to the trailhead.  We returned around 2.  There were a few patches of snow but nothing serious.  

So the count down to Rainier is on.  The climb is only a month away, I am starting to eat healthier and really pushing myself in work outs.  I joined a gym for a month to build my core muscles.  On Saturday Cary and I are going to climb Gorgonio (if we can get the permit in time).  This will be a good test to see were I am fitness wise.  It is about 16 miles with 5600 feet of elevation gain.  The plan is to sleep near the trailhead the night before and start hiking around 5am.

Good times!

Thanks to Cary for taking the photos.

Trip stats:

• Elevation start: 6,100 ft
• Summit: 10,000 ft
• 3 hours up
• 2.5 hours down

View Mt. Baldy ski hut MAY-09.kmz in a larger map