Semicolin's Blog

Once again, I was fortunate to take an extended vacation this summer. The purpose of this trip was to assist "Dahlia" in her quest to be the first inflatable doll to summit Mount Olympus... OK, actually the impetus was to be Best Man at Phil's wedding and after half jokingly mentioning whether he wanted to climb Mount Bachelor for his bachelor party, he decided to set our sights on something more monumental: Mount Olympus. And, of course, since this was to be a bachelor party, there needed to be an inflatable doll. Since I was going to be up in the Pacific Northwest, I thought I may as well get in touch with Mark again and he was jazzed about climbing in the Bugaboos. I got in touch with Willie, too, and he had been wanting to climb the "Arm" of Sahale Peak, so I said "why not?" Thus, a 3-week trip was born.

Click on play icon to view the video below (11min) or continue reading for details (in four parts).

Part I: Mount Olympus, Olympic National Park, Olympic Mountains

This is an epic mountain that I've been looking forward to for a couple years not because of the technical challenges, but because of the variety of environments it travels through. An 18 mile approach through temperate rainforest and then sub-alpine fir forest is required before reaching the alpine zone and getting access to the Blue Glacier. And besides steep glacier and snow climbing, a final rock pitch (5.4) tops the mountain. We accomplished all this and on our hike-out day, we drove a short distance to Rialto Beach for a 3-mile stroll. This trip had it all- from rainforest, to glacier, to beach!

We took a fairly leisurely 5 days to complete the trip, which made it more enjoyable while carrying the extra weight of both climbing and backpacking gear (and an inflatable doll in the spirit of Phil's bachelor party). This also allowed flexibility to make a second summit bid if the weather didn't cooperate. We took a 60m rope since getting off the top requires either 4th class travel on what sounded like loose rock or a 30m rappel. Gear recommendation: Books say gear to 2", but if you're comfortable climbing 5.4, a handful of nuts and some slings will do (I placed 5 pieces of gear, all <1"). Access to the 4th class ascent/descent off the summit block was in sketchy conditions because of a large "moat" that melted out around the base of the rock in those sections, so it was good we had planned to climb the 5th-class route to the top. I'm fairly certain we assisted in what was the first ascent of Mount Olympus by an inflatable doll.

Brief trip report:* From Glacier camp, we ascended a well-used trail for 1 mile, crossing a couple snow fields and exposed scree sections on the way. We chose to not put on crampons during this section, but with the alpine start, snow was hard & slickery! This took us to the top of and along the eastern lateral moraine. Toward the far (southern) end of the moraine, an eroded trail went almost straight down to the Blue Glacier at approx 5,000' elevation. We roped up here for glacier travel. A climbing traverse southwest toward the right side of the ice falls took us to a gap in the rock outcrops with a moderately steep slope and an already beaten path that zig-zagged northwest-ish to the top of Snow Dome. The entrance to this "gap" was at approx. 5,600' elevation. From there, we stayed on the ridge and then contoured around crevasses to a col at about 7,220' (I think this is called Crystal Pass). Through this pass, we continued along the south side of a couple "false summit" blocks, then across about 100m of loose scree and gravel toward the real summit block, traversed under the eastern face of Mount Olympus's West Peak, up a steep (60+ degree?) snow slope to the base of the North Face. There was a thin (3" thick) snow bridge at the top of the snow slope that a climber had warned me about the previous day. That was good beta. I led 28m of climbing up and slightly left, through a short (3m) dihedral, and finally to a belay at a block with a rap sling. Scrambling took us to the summit. Voila! (We were half way done!).
(* The usual disclaimer: Consult a book for real beta, I'm not responsible if you get lost, hurt, or killed). Click on photo map to view full image and see our route.

A few days later after the Mount Olympus trip and before Phil's wedding, I also took an 11-mile round trip hike down the Dungeness Spit (Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge) to the lighthouse. Nice, peaceful hike with some shorebirds beginning to migrate through. Click here for a photo album of this trip.

Part II: Sahale Peak, North Cascades National Park, North Cascade Mountains

Willie picked me up at 6am in Shoreline (two days after Phil's wedding) and we drove to the North Cascades for a day trip up the Sahale Arm to the peak. We had a few small mishaps getting to Marblemount, but fortunately the hike and route itself was very straight forward and in a speedy 5hrs 25min we hiked up the 5,000' of elevation gain, climbed the steep snow and glacier field, climbed (roped) the 5.-easy blocks, and were standing on the summit. This was a nice, low-stress day with great views. The 2007-2008 winter was a heavy snow year so there was still plenty of snow on the Sahale glacier to cover the bergshrund and the afternoon snow was soft enough to kick steps without crampons. This allowed us to save weight by taking only an ice axe. We took & used a 60m rope (50m or perhaps a 30m would do) and small rack to climb the summit blocks, although some strong climbing parties solo the ~20m of exposed moves to get to the summit (more confidence inspiring if the rock is dry). Click here for a photo album of this trip.

Part III: Bugaboos, Bugaboo Provincial Park, B.C., Purcell Mountains

The day following Sahale, Willie & I brunched at the Calico Cupboard (highly recommended) in "quaint" La Conner and then he dropped me off in Burlington where I met Mark, who was coming from his own wedding in Victoria, B.C., two days earlier. We took 2 days to drive to the trailhead. Click here for photo album.

Day 1: Packing 2 ropes, a large rack (pro to 4"), mountaineering gear, extra bivy gear for an intended 2-day climb (didn't happen), and 9 days of food, we were each loaded down (approx 80lbs each) for the hike in- the heaviest pack I had ever carried. Fortunately it was only 3.6 miles.

Day 2: Bugaboo Spire, NE Ridge (IV, 5.7)
This is one of the 50 Classic Climbs in North American, according to Steck & Roper's book by that name. A mega-classic, I shouldn'tve been too surprised to be the 4th party in line despite rising at 3:40am for an alpine start. Shoulda slept in! (Smile) Mark led a nice 5.9 variation on the first pitch. We soloed 2 or 3 pitches of un-exposed 4th/5th class chimneys half-way up the route. After topping out on the north summit, came the awesome knife-edge traverse to the south summit, with stunning 1000' drop-offs on each side. The descent was 2 raps, a short climb up, 2 raps, ridge traverse, 2 raps, down climb, short rap, then traverse the ridge off (or something like that, my memory is shady). The trick for the final walk-off, as according to the guide, was to stay as close to the ridge crest as possible and avoid the many worn trails that descend too early.

Day 3: Pigeon Spire, West Ridge (II, 5.4)
A rest day for us. Based on info we got from another climber, We decided to solo this route to save weight and time & maximize enjoyment. One of my favorite route of the whole trip because of the spectacular positions and views and nice, solid rock. Lots of friendly people on this popular route.

Day 4: Snowpatch Spire, Southwest Ridge (aka "Surfs Up") (III, 5.9, 7 pitches)
If you can turn your brain off during the 4 pitches of dirty, licheny climbing that precede surfs up ledge, the remainder of this climb presents high quality, fun lie-backs and hand and fist jams to the top. Again, great views!

Day 5: Another Rest day. We had superb weather until this point (too hot, in fact), but the Kain Hut attendant posted incoming rain for the remainder of the week. Applebee Camp converted from a 45+ tent carnival to a pleasant 7-tent community in a matter of days. Actually, since Mark had found us a nice, secluded campsite, the Applebee Camp experience was fun. I heard German, British, Japanese, French, and other unidentified languages there. A Camp Four-esque experience.

Day 6: Crescent Spire, McTech Arete (III, 5.10)
This was a good route to climb with a forecast for bad weather since there are options to rap at the top of every pitch. I thought this route had the most fun technical climbing for the whole trip. Great jams- fingers, hands, and fists- on each pitch. Easily protected. In fact, one of my favorite routes of all time!

Day 7: Hike out. This was 2 days earlier than we had planned, but sounded like the better option than sitting out the rains in a tent. On the way out we did a quick tour of the blue glacier ice on Bugaboo Glacier around the base of "Son of Snowpatch" spire.

Part IV: Mount Gimli (IV, 5.10 variation of a 5.8 climb), Valhalla Provincial Park, B.C., Selkirk Mountains

Based on a tip from Phil, we decided to visit the hip town of Nelson and scrounge for information about climbing Mount Gimli, which he had visited and shown me striking pictures of. The library's internet turned out the be the best source of information and, armed with Gary Clark's topo, the following day we set out to climb. This may have been my favorite climb of this trip (Or maybe it was Pigeon Spire. No, maybe Bugaboo. Mount Olympus? Aaahhhh! They're all good!). Fog sat in the valley below during our hike in. By the time we topped out, it had risen and caught up to us, denying us of a summit view. However, I welcomed the eerie atmosphere it created. We were surprised to find snow and icicles on the August summit, which must've formed during the cold front and storms just a day or two earlier. Click here for photo album.

Some Stats for the 3 week trip:

• Total Hiking Distance: 95 miles (153km)
  
• Hiking Elevation Gain: 17,269 feet (5,264m)
  
• Vertical Technical Climbing: 3,832 feet (1,168m)
  
• Approx. cost of unleaded gas (87 octane) per gallon in the U.S.: US$4.00, in Canada: US$5.25
  
  To use my new Bugaboo-acquired vocabulary:
  "Berg Heil!"

When I hiked the south half of the John Muir Trail (see my blog post archive) in 2003, my preparations included careful measuring & trials of various homemade backpacking foods. The following blog is a table of all the experimenting I did. I put it together rather quickly and my notes weren't good enough to know which recipies were the best and which needed improvements. So, you'll need to do some experimenting on your own, but these should give you a place to start. For all my recipies, all you need to do is add about 2 cups of boiling water & let it sit, covered, for a minute or two. All the recipies were made from items that can be bulk purchased, so are much less expensive than pre-packaged, freeze-dried backpacking foods. I have to admit, the calorie intake for these foods is pretty low for the amount of activity required, so if you're trying to loose weight it'll be good, but if not then take more or maybe take a stick of butter and add a spoonful to each meal. I was hungry & lost weight, so I prolly should have taken more food.

This was a 10-day trip over 140 miles at high elevation (started south of Mount Whitney and ended at Florence lake). My hiking partner and I split the meals, so we each made 5 dinners each. The quantities listed in my recipies are for 1 person. Read the "General Info" section for some other details.

The second part of the blog below is a nearly complete list of stuff I took, including some item weights. This was a fairly light weight trip, but not the crazy lightweight that's popular these days. We took a tarp instead of a tent and fortunately had good weather so we didn't even use the tarp.

Please let me know if you find anything good here, if you have any improvements or suggestions, or if you have trouble reading the table below.

Read more...

I took another month-long vacation this summer. For the first 3 weeks I toured California with Eva.

1. Backpacking the Evolution Basin Loop (60 miles in 7 days)
   
2. Lassen National Park (Hot Springs & Geysers)
   
3. Northern California Coast Tour (Big trees & black sand beaches)
   

Link to Slideshow of Evolution Basin Backpack (67 of Eva's beautiful photos).

(More coming... sometime....)

July 12 - August 8, 2001.
Upon returning from Peace Corps, working for a bit, and before starting grad school, I joined a friend, Marcelle, on a trip to Europe. This trip had four main highlights:

1. We first visited Marcelle's aunt in Almere, Holland. This was, interestingly, a fairly newly created town. The Dutch seem to me to be very good at creating ingeneous things - inventing the pendulum clock... creating new land where there was ocean... creating clogs out of pieces of wood. They created Almere where there was once a lake. It's very modern and appears to be well thought-out. From here, we went on a 4-day, 200+ km bike tour that took us through the countryside, many small towns, Terschelling Island, and along the dike that keeps the ocean from making this "small" country any smaller.





2. Next we did a 4-day trek in the Swiss Alps called the Tour des Muverans. With Marcelle's friend Dierk, we hiked a total of about 10km, with a high point of 2029m.







3. We took a 5-day mountaineering course based out of Chamonix, France. In additional to learning glacier climbing and snow travel techniques, we climbed the Petite Aiguille Verte, traversed the Arête des Cosmiques (Cosmic Ridge), and summited Mont Blanc du Tacul (a subsidiary peak of Mont Blanc, which was WAY too crowded for our tastes). Mountaineering in the Alps is done in style - with gondolas and mountain huts.





4. Finally, we toured some historical cities in France, Germany, and Switzerland, including Bern (capitol of Switzerland), the Alsace wine region, Geneva, and the Basel region where my cousin Randy and family live. They actually live on the Germany side of the border near Basel. An interesting area that had switched hands numerous times between the French, Swiss, and Germans and each of these histories show in the architecture.


Click here for photo album.