Middle Sister 10,047' - Hayden Glacier (07-22-12)

Laying on the summit of Middle Sister catching some sunshine

This was my first official climb with the Chemeketans. After lots of trouble with weather and scheduling earlier this year (cancelling Mt. Hood trips), I was excited to do a club climb. Usually I only climb with groups of 4 or less, so it was a new and welcome experience.

Heading up the snowfields

We left from the Pole Creek Trailhead around 11am. My pack was roughly 45lbs, but I was feeling strong and being in a group made me forget about the weight. The heat was beating down, with it being 70degrees or more. My brand new Mountain Hardware Stretch Bandana was coming in handy. I ended up using it almost the entire duration of the trip for one thing or another.

Almost 2 hours later, and a few breaks in between we made it to the turn off for the climbers trail. After this point we started hitting patches of snow and crossed a few creeks.

Water carves ice and snow

Things started getting really awesome here, scenery wise. With Broken Top to the south and the Three Sisters popping up it started reminding me why we were out there.

We decided to continue on past the normal place to camp at 6900' and instead climb the snow fields until we reached the toe of the Hayden Glacier, closer to 8000'.

Shortly after arriving we set up camp and found a nice pool of water. We decided to boil it just for safety's sake but I am sure it would have been ok to drink on it's own. After boiling water for the following day and storing it in the tent, I made quick work of a delicious Mountain House. We went over tying in for the following morning and also some basic glacier travel etiquette.

Camping at 8000'

The following morning we got up at 3:00am, roped in, and started a slow but steady climb up the Hayden Glacier. With such a light summit pack I never felt like I was working very hard. It was nice and made the trip more enjoyable. I got to turn around and see the sights quite regularly. One amazing site was seeing headlamps on other mountains around us. There was a group going up North Sister and I saw one headlamp turn on on South Sister's summit.

Heading up Hayden Glacier

Crux picture courtesy of Mike Pennington

When we reached the top of Hayden Glacier, we un-roped and took off our ice-axes/crampons. We scrambled up some poor scree/rocks until we were at the base of the crux move. The crux is a ~40degree pitch that most people bang in protection on. Being that it was a Chemeketan climb, there was no way we were doing without a few snow pickets. There were nice footsteps all the way up the pitch and quite honestly I felt safer here then some parts of my Mt. McLoughlin climb. Perhaps it was just knowing we were clipped into a rope, or maybe it was because of the club atmosphere.

Washington, Three Finger Jack, and Mt. Jefferson

Once we reached the top of the crux we unroped and did another scree climb til we reached the summit. We got out sweet summit photos and proceeded back down to camp. There was a group of Mazama's heading up as we were heading back down. After breaking down camp I threw my rain gear on and had a fun glissade, which seemed to save lots of time. After we got off the snow it was a long slog back to camp. I really enjoyed this trip and wish to be on future Chemeketan climbs.

Chemeketan team summit photo!

Final Stats:

Summit: Yes
Elevation Gain: 4747'
Round Trip Distance: 12+ miles
Round Trip Time: 24+ hours
FULL PHOTO ALBUM

Mount St. Helens 8365' - Worm Flows (12-12-11)

This photo was taken by other climbers and sent to us. I am on the left.

Map of climbing routes on St. Helens

After an unusually mild winter up til that point, we looked at the weather on a Friday and I jokingly made a comment that we should try to summit St. Helens the following Monday. The thing about saying something like that to another mountaineer with summit fever is that they will share the same crazy idea. After settling things with work and our families we decided to start trip planning.

The first aspect to think about was gear. I had not yet done a winter or potentially icy summit yet. I had already purchased my Black Diamond Raven Pro Ice Axe Silver, 70cm however and was more than ready to use it.

Next and bigger aspect would be Boots/Crampons. I decided to visit my local REI and rent some universal crampons but they don't do that. REI made me rent a pair of boots and semi-auto crampons

Climber Registration at Lone Fir

Monday the 12th rolls around and I sneak out of the house around 3:00am in order for us to get an early start. Before too long we are already near Cougar, WA where we stop a location I had visited less than 6 months earlier. The Lone Fir Resort. Of course at 5:30ish in the AM there was no one around but us. So we wiped the frost off of the climber register handbook and wrote down our party info in case we went missing.

Looking up from the ski trails

Within a half our later we park and get ready to depart the Marble Mountain Sno Park. Here we are at a whopping 2700' of elevation. Which is about 1000' lower than the Climber's Bivouac. As we make our way with headlamps up the ski-trails I start to notice that my heavy rental boots aren't feeling so good on my right heel. After only a mile and a half into the trip, I decided to access what is going on with my heel. I pull off my right boot only to find that the inner liner of the rental boot was completely gone. (Because I have an REI Membership they refunded me the entire cost of my rental) I used some of Mason's moleskin to patch up around where the blister was forming and decided to keep going. Minutes later I realize that I had left a glove somewhere on the trail. (Lesson learned, shortly after this trip I purchased the REI Switchback Gloves )

If it sounds like everything was going wrong, well it was. I of course didn't have spare gloves so I opted for a wool sock, which is really not a good substitute at all I found out. As we get above the treeline my spirit is lifted again. It is truly a beautiful day and we can see forever.

Looking south

There I am, far far away contemplating life and being miserable

Now we worked our way slowly up the mountain. All my hard training and conditioning for this climb would have paid off had I done any. After a lazy football season full of enough chips and dip to feed an army, I was much more out of shape than on my previous climbs that year. As I put one foot in front of the other my mind was breaking. Mason was getting a ways ahead of me and I had to dig deep and ask myself if I thought I could actually make the summit. I actually wasn't sure if I could or not. It seemed like miles away and the mountain was only getting steeper. This added with other annoyances made this trip the most difficult I have done thus far.

But alas, we reached the top and traversed west along the ridge to the top. Our moment of glory at the top was out-weighed by the need to get back to the car before dark. Of course, on par with how the day was going, we couldn't glissade like we had hoped due to the snow being too hard/icy. So we down-climbed the entire thing and got back to the sno-park just as it was getting dark outside. We ran into a sheriff heading up the road as we were going down. I am assuming he was checking to see if our car was still there. I went to bed with what felt like a fever but woke up perfectly fine.

View from the top. Rainier in the distance.

Final Stats:

Summit: Yes
Elevation Gain: 5665'
Round Trip Distance: 10.6 miles
Round Trip Time: 11 hours