American Alpine Institute Denali Team 5, 2012

I just got back from my second Denali trip of the year, and once again the weather ruled the trip.   This was my second trip of the season, and unlike the first was quite warm.  Unfortunately the high winds were still present, and were accompanied by lots of snow. 
With the strongest team I have had on the mountain I left Talkeetna fairly optimistic about our summit chances.  The first few days on the lower glacier were perfect.  Not too hot and not too stormy. 

When we got to 11,200ft camp the weather changed, and as is typical for that area of the mountain we got a lot of snow overnight.  So much in fact that it collapsed our cook tent and broke all our poles.  This combined with a little stove accident pretty much ended the life of our cook tent.  We spent the next day repairing the tent.

We did manage to carry a load up and around windy corner after a short delay. 

The following day we moved to camp at 14,200ft.

Once arriving at 14,200 the weather took a turn for the worse and the snow started falling. 

We did manage to carry a load up to a cache spot of 16,700 ft.  Little did we know on this day that the weather would never improve enough for us to return and retrieve our cache. 

After returning to camp a storm rolled in and dropped several feet of snow, which is fairly uncommon at 14k this time of year.  In addition to the heavy snow there were very strong winds which caused some very dangerous avalanche conditions all over the mountain.  See the previous post for some photos and a short movie. 
We had cached 4 days of food just below Washburn’s Thumb, and then sat at 14 camp day after day watching the winds hammer the upper mountain, and load the leeward slopes.  We were stuck at 14 camp unable to go up and get our cache, and unable to go down.  Below are some photos of some of our time at 14. 

With only a single dinner left and no lunch to hand out until we got down to a cache at 11k camp we had to descend without ever returning to the upper mountain.   The only team that summited within a week of us leaving was a group that had been sitting at 17 camp for 11 days.  Each person in the group sustained serious frostbite injuries in what might be one of the worst pieces of decision making I heard of on the mountain this year. 
The move down from 14 camp was not a simple walk.  Thigh deep snow around windy corner made travel difficult. 
We walked through the night to get to basecamp for the flight out the following morning.  It was truly a beautiful night…

A Quick Trip Up Ruth Mountain.

A couple of weeks ago I did a trip to Ruth Mountain.  It was one of the more perfect fall days I have seen in the mountains.  The most incredible thing about this trip was the views of the North Cascades.  It is very clearly winter in the North Cascades.  October has in the past been my favorite time of the year to climb in the mountains.  There is already too much snow in many places.  

Hannegan Pass.

Flowers still peaking out of the snow.

Snow on the summer plants.

Bird in the snow.

Bear tracks at Hannegan Pass.

Skiers heading up to Ruth.

Mt. Shucksan in the distance.

Skiers on Ruth Mountain.

Wind patterns in the snow.

Perfect weather.

Forbidden Peak North Ridge Climb with Mountain Madness.

I just got back from a climb of Forbidden Peaks north ridge with Mountain Madness.  I have been wanting to climb this ridge for over 10 years and after looking down it after my west ridge climb a few weeks ago it was more on my list of things to do than ever.  I got a call on Wednesday asking if I was interested in working a north ridge climb and I jumped a the chance.  

The north ridge is not one to be taken lightly.  Just getting to the ridge can feel like a climb in itself since it involves a climb up loose rock and a rappel down the other side of sharkfin col, followed by a walk across a big glacier, and then another climb over a ridge on the other side of the glacier.  

We spent the night at the base of Sharkfin Col with the intention of climbing over will full packs and then spending the night somewhere on either the north or west ridge (our descent route).  We woke up the next morning at 5 am and made the quick decision to go for the whole thing in a day and leave our camp at Sharkfin Col.  

Sharkfin col.  The notch we used to get to the Boston glacier is  located directly above the finger of snow on the left side of the photo that points up and slightly right.

The rappel down the other side of Sharkfin Col at 6:15.

It was looking to be the best weather day of the year so far.

Our objective in the distance.

Crossing the Boston Glacier

There were not to many crevasses on the glacier so it was fairly quick moving.

The north ridge col is located at the lowest point in the ridge on the far west side of the Boston Glacier.  Many people miss this and go up one col too early (south).  This also works but requires a rappel or two on the other side.  I did not like the look of the standard crossing due to a large chunk of snow that needs to fall off, so we climbed up the col just to the south of the standard one.  After we got there we made one rappel and I changed my mind about the route variation choice.  We climbed back up the col and reassessed our situation.    We were planning on climbing the NW facing snow slope that takes you to the north ridge, but after having a better look at the complete north ridge I decided we might as well just start climbing from where we were.

I was very worried about time, since we were not carrying any bivy gear, and although spending the night on the ridge would not have killed us, it would have been a very uncomfortable night.  I figured we really needed to be at the summit between 12 and 1 to get down at a reasonable time, and right now (9:30) we were quite a bit behind that time.  I put the camera away and we got serious.  We climbed the ridge with a few short pitches and a whole lot of moving together on whatever terrain looked to be the easiest.  We bypassed a couple of steep snow sections by downclimbing around them on relatively easy ground.  The climbing was easy, and very enjoyable.  After an hour of climbing we had made it to the snow crest where the NW variation usually joins the ridge.

The only photo I shot on the lower part of the ridge.

The NW facing snow slope that gains the ridge does so at a point where the ridge builds up a lot of snow over the winter.  There were still some cornices on this ridge so we had to traverse the slope lower down where it was a bit steeper.  We did three full pitches on firm snow with picket anchors.  It was now time to relax a little since I was sure we could make it off the peak before dark.  

Looking across the first pitch of the snow traverse.  My crampon marks visible in the bottom right of the photo.

The second pitch.

The final pitch back to the rock ridge.

John maybe wishing he was somewhere else.

The upper part of the ridge was amazing.  Super fun and easy climbing.

Climbing the upper ridge with the snow traverse visible in the background.

The last few moves to the summit.

The entire ridge can be seen below in this photo.  We joined the ridge just after the farthest tower visible in the photo.

Opps,  I forgot to shoot a photo of us on the summit.  Someone else did, so when he emails them to us I will post them.

I took a second to shoot a photo of the n. face of Mt. Buckner.

Much to my surprise we were the first party on the summit, followed shortly after by another guided party.  It was 1:00.  We were soon warned of the large number of parties heading up the west ridge.  We took a short break on the summit and started down.  We down climbed and made 3 rappels on the descent to the top of the gully.

The crux of the west ridge on our descent.

We also passed 4 parties still heading up.  At the top of the gully was a large group of people who had decided to turn around and were trying to figure out how to rappel (or something like that, I don't really know what they were doing).  We walked past them and headed directly to the first rappel station on the right of the gully.  After a little route finding and several raps we made the final rap to the snow below the gully and were surprised to find that were also the first group off the peak.  We decided not to camp at Sharkfin col where all our overnight gear was, so we dropped a pack and ran up and retrieved our gear cached there.   At 7 pm we rolled into the lower Boston Basin camp and started cooking a very needed dinner.  It would be somewhere around 2am before the final group on Forbidden passed our tent heading back to camp.

All in all this was one of the best alpine routes I have done in the Cascades.  It has everything.  It is never difficult, but its length, remoteness and variety make it quite serious.  It is a route I highly recommend, however only to experienced parties of very competent climbers.

Back at the car.

Mount Rainier Climb with Mountain Madness on the Emmons Glacier

I just got back from a climb of Mount Rainier with Mountain Madness.  It was a return group of folks that I climbed with in Bolivia last year.  The Mt. Rainier climb starts with the drive to Mt. Rainier National Park and then a short hike to the Glacier Basin camp.  We spend the night there and continue up to Camp Sherman the next day.  Although some people choose to climb from the trail head all the way to Camp Sherman the same day the break at Glacier Basin makes for a much more enjoyable hike and an overall better experience.  

Wildlife at Glacier Basin camp.

Danny learning the details of the First Light tent.

We got an early start the following morning and headed up the Interglacier to the ridge below Camp Sherman.   

Looking at our group heading up the Interglacier.

Once at Camp Sherman we had the option of climbing to the summit the following morning or taking a rest day and heading to the summit the next day.  Given the unstable weather we decided to take a rest day.  

The view from my "alpine office".

Mountain Madness guide Jamie.

An RMI group heading up the mountain.  Although the weather looks good in this photo, the group turned around before the summit due to bad weather.

The ranger hut at Camp Sherman.

Two climbers arrive back at camp after turning around before the summit.

The next morning was clear and  cold.  The weather forecast for most of the Puget Sound was for rain.  We were above that rain, so we roped up and headed for the summit.

Camp at 4am.

A rope team heading to the summit.

Rick, Nancy and Jamie on the rope in front leaving camp.

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Traversing above a crevasse.

Feeling the altitude on a steep slope around 11,500ft.

Rick enjoying the day.

Nancy and Rick with Little Tahoma in the background.

It is always worth taking the time to stop and fix blisters before the get worse.  Guide extraordinaire Jamie doing some blister maintenance

Jamie's rope team at about 12,000ft.

Nancy enjoying the weather.

Nancy.

Mt. Rainier is not an easy climb.  Danny takes a few minutes to reflect on that fact.

Danny looking a little better after a Cliff Bar and some water.

Danny, Margen and Nancy all went to the summit with Jamie.  Rick and I turned around and headed down.
   

Rick heading down after a long battle with blisters.

Heading down for me was a good excuse to concentrate on some photography, which is always a good way to spend an afternoon.  

A rope team arrives back at camp from the summit.

An icefall on the Emmons Glacier meets the clouds.

Interesting patterns on the glacier.

I have spent a lot of time over the years shooting black and whiter photos of glaciers.  Much of this was in Alaska from the air.  If you have not seen those photos they are posted on my website here.  The Glacier photos are under mountain images in the "glacier project" gallery.

Jamie, Margen, Danny and Nancy returning to camp from the summit.

Margen and Nancy drinking tea after climbing Mt. Rainier.

Jamie making it look easy.

Anyone who knows me understands that it is really not possible for me to go anywhere these days without shooting photos of some birds.  This bird is a grey crowned rosy finch.  They are common in Washington's alpine areas, and very common at Camp Sherman.  

Grey Crowned Rosy Finch.

The following day we headed down, getting an early start knowing that food, and beer were waiting for us back in town.  

Animals and Birds of Washington's Alpine Environments

I have been trying to photograph all of the wildlife I have seen in the Cascades for a while now.  Although my photo collection is far from complete, I do feel it is large enough for a blog post.  So here it is. wildlife of the Cascades Alpine areas.

Pika

The Pika is a small mammal in the lagomorphs family (rabbit and hare) found both below tree line and in the alpine regions.  It is rat sized and can often be seen and heard in scree and boulder fields.  Their call is best described as a loud squeak.  They are pretty hard to get close to so I don't really have many good photos of them.    Pika do not hibernate, they live under the snow all winter continuing to feed on the vegetation on the ground.  

Hoary Marmot

Marmots are common in alpine areas of Washington and I have spent many hours photographing them.  Their call is a loud whistle, which serves as communication and more importantly a warning to other marmots about predators.  

Cascade Fox
The Cascade fox is a common resident around Mt. Rainier as many of them are habituated to humans.

Deer Mouse
Any climber who has spent any time at a popular camp and did not clean up their food properly has paid for it with less sleep due to the constant nighttime movements of the deer mouse.

A deer mouse hiding the the bottom of my tent.

Bushy-tailed Woodrat
Any nighttime encounter with a deer mouse pales in comparison to the legendary bushy-tailed wood rat.  There may be no other animal quite as persistent and capable of ruining a night of sleep.  My encounters with this large rodent have always been memorable.  I once had a pair of socks stolen by one of these guys in the middle of the night.  We were in the Picket Range and I had not brought a second pair.  In another encounter I had some crawling all over my truck while I was trying to sleep in it while on a trip in Eastern Washington.  It was an evening of almost constant banging and loud scurrying.  These things certainly do not have much grace.
I dont have a photo of one of these alive, and I cant really bring myself to post a picture of a dead one.

You can find a photo here


Mountain Goat
One of the more lovable of our alpine dwelling friends.  It is rare that I do a trip to the Enchantments, Washington Pass or the Cache Col side of Cascade Pass without seeing some goats.

Black Bear
Yes they do spend time above tree line in the alpine areas of the Cascades.  No I don't have a good photo of one.

Grizzly Bear (Brown Bear)
It is now official that there are grizzly bears in the North Cascades.  The photo that confirmed them was shot on Sahale Arm near Cascade Pass.

Chipmunk
Found at most camps in the pacific Northwest at or below treeline.

Varied Thrush
Often heard, but rarely seen, the varied thrush is one of the most common birds that climbers will share the approach trail with.  They are about the size of and have similar shape as a robin (which is also a thrush).

Click here for a page at which you can hear its call.

Anna's Hummingbird

I am kind of lying here, because it is more common for climbers to see ruby-throated hummingbirds, but I don't have a picture of one.  Hummingbirds are very common in alpine areas of Washington.  

 American Crow

Crows are less common visitors to the alpine than ravens, but do occasionally make their way above tree line.  

Winter Wren

I am still working on getting a photo of a Winter Wren.  They do not tend to move above tree line, but are very common in sub-alpine forest.
This is another bird with a distinctive song that is often heard on approach hikes.  More information, a recording of the call, and a photo can be found here.

Hermit Thrush
The Hermit Thrush is another bird that is often heard but rarely seen.  Their call is one of the most beautiful and haunting of all the northwest birds.  A hike in the northwest would not be the same without the sound of this bird.  It is most often heard right at treeline in the mountain hemlock and sub-alpine fir.
Click here for a link to a page where you can hear its call.

I know this photo is terrible, but its a hermit thrush and they are hard to get close to.

Gray Jay

Known to many back country users as camp robbers.  Chances are if you have stopped for a snack on a popular trail you have had one of these birds land close to you.  

Pretty much the easiest bird to photograph.

Clark's Nutcraker
Similar in color to the grey jay and often mistaken for them.  They are a bigger bird and do not do as much scrounging for climber food as the jay does.  They are more common on the eastern crest of the cascade mountains around Colchuck Lake and Washington Pass.  They are also very loud squawking birds.

For more information and to hear their call click here.

Dark eyed Junco
I can't really believe I don't have a photo of one of these yet.  They are all over my front yard and they are super common visitors to the sub-alpine fir and mountain hemlock.
More info and photos can be found here.

Mountain Chickadee
The Mountain Chickadee is a close relative of the black-capped chickadee.  It is pretty common in the sub-alpine areas just like the Dark-eyed Junco.

Horned Lark
Horned Larks are often seen on glaciers in small groups feeding on insects in the snow.  This bird fits in the often seen but rarely close enough to identify.  Some day I will get a good photo of one, but until them I will stick with this one.

Ok, I have an updated photo from Eastern Washington.  I left the original bad one because it shows a bird feeding on the glacier.

American Pipit
The American Pipit is a less commonly seen bird in the alpine areas where climbers go.  They breed in above tree line.  I have only seen them on occasion and usually only in places where climbers do not go very often.

Mountain Bluebird
A fairly common resident of the Eastern Cascades.

Grey Crowned Rosy Finch
The Grey Crowned Rosy Finch is also seen fairly often on glaciers feeding on insects.  Its a little smaller than the Horned Lark.  It looks a lot like a sparrow until you get close enough to see the grey coloring around the back of the neck and on the cheeks.

Raven
It seems every climber has a raven story.  These are usually related to some type of amazing feat where the raven has opened up a zipper and removed some food.

Sooty Grouse
Common in alpine areas in the late summer.  It seems like Mt. Baker is a pretty common place to see these guys.

White Tailed Ptarmigan
White tailed ptarmigans are fairly common in the Cascades above tree line.  Their distinctive chicken like call is often heard right at dusk, as the birds come together in pairs and move to the center of glaciers or snow fields to spend the night.  In the winter these birds have completely white plumage.  Unfortunately I don't have a photo of any in their winter plumage.
A site with more information and a recording of their call is here.

Golden Eagle
Maybe it because I am better at identifying them, but in the last few years I have have seen a lot of Golden Eagles hunting in alpine areas.  Each time I have seen them there has been more than one and they have been hunting as a pair.  Marmots seem to be a favorite food of these birds.

Northern Harrier
I have only seen a norther harrier once, and it was on Mt. Baker.  Like the Golden Eagle it was probably hunting marmots.

Peregrine Falcon
More common at popular rock climbing areas than in the alpine areas.  It is still not unheard of to see a peregrine falcon above tree line.

Osprey
Although not common on the west side of the Cascades the osprey is a very common bird of prey on the eastern slopes.  They will sometimes fish in alpine lakes along the eastern crest of the Cascades.  I have seen them above Blue Lake at Washington Pass and in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area.  They are very common at Colchuck Lake.