Kevin's entire (Brown Porter)

I wanted to do a double IPA. But my yeast was too old and dead-ish... and an unhealthy yeast crop is a recipe for disaster. So I decided to go the other extreme and attempt a brown porter. I've never made a porter, I much prefer bolder stouts. But this was supposed to be a brown like porter... sort of a session beer for the fall/winter.

For beer geeks: (10 gallon batch) 13# marris otter, 0.4# aromatic, 0.4# biscuit, 1# brown, 1.3# crystal 120, 0.5# flaked barley. Simple mash at 154 (oops, hit high at 158!!!). mash out at 170. boil 60 min. 60 min 1 oz wilamette (6.4%), 1 oz UK kent goldings (5.2%) for 20 IBU. 15 min 0.9 oz UK kent goldings. Chill to ~80, aerate and pitch Wyeast 1098, I believe. Whatever yeast Alison used for her BBB. Lots of activity by the evening!

Well, the OG was 1.048, a little higher than I was targeting for .... maybe not a real session beer. Also, not enouh Brown/Chocolate malt for a porter like color. :-( Oh well, hopefully it will turn out to be a light beer, with a little body left over (should have it!) and some good malt flavors. We'll just re-classify the final product! :-)

Classic rauchbier

With Labor day weekend still looking gloomy I decided to get my smoker up and going on Sunday and smoke 7.5 pound of vienna malt with some hickory smoke. So hickory might not be the best wood to use, but I thought it would be better than mesquite. I didn't have access to beechwood and I was to lazy to get to the store and find apple/cherry. Plus, this is an experimental beer!

Labor day was brew day, and I supplemented the smoked malt with 3 pounds of munich malt. For beer geeks: mashed at 122 30 minutes, raised to 152 for 60 minutes. mash out at 170. Boiled: 0.5 oz spalt (4.1 %) and 0.5 oz halertau (6.2%) 60 min, and 0.75 oz Halertau 15 min. Pitched Wyeast 2206 (bavarian lager) and fermented at 50 degrees.

The OG was 1.054 - right on target. I didn't think there was a significant sense of smokiness, but Alison assured me there was, and it would really stand out once the sugars go away. I hope she's right ... time will tell. It will take a little while to ferment...

Lavender Mead

I got back from the climbs early on Saturday so I thought that I'd occupy myself in another way - make some mead. Again this one is with the "solid" wildflower honey that Keith's mom produced, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to process it. Plan was to make three gallons.

I prepped the lavender by steaming 1 ounce in steamer and reserving the lavender liquid from steamer.

Boiled a couple of gallons of water plus yeast nutrient/acid blend. Chilled it down to 140 or so. Started adding the honey until the refractometer gave me the right reading. diluted to 3 gallons. Chilled to 75, added the lavender and its water, and voila! Throw in a carboy and pitched Lalvin 71B-1122.

Hydrometer read 1.103 at room temp. Much better! :-) Now I just hope that it ferments down.

If it doesn't turn out, at least the house smelled AMAZING for an afternoon.

Mt Maude (9040') 9/4/09

Alison needed to get out. I needed to get out. It was a long weekend. So we went out to the mountains. It was a bad week in that my sick cat had taken a turn for the worse and I chose (reluctantly, painfully) to have him put down. So getting away from the house was probably a good choice. Unfortunately, the forecast was for poor weather throughout the weekend (labor day). So we decided to leave town a day early (Thursday) and take Friday off, since it appeared to be the only day that was guaranteed descent weather, and instead, we'd work on labor day. The location and route was up to Alison and she decided to go up Leroy creek to Mt Maude, Seven Finger Jack, and Furnow.... who, what, and when to be determined en route. 7 Finger Jack (left) and Maude (right) from Leroy Creek:
So this one is in remembrance of you Monte (sorry for the bad pics).








We ended up getting out of the city at about 9:30 pm on Thursday, allowing us to set up camp at midnight:30 or so. After a beer and reading route descriptions we were asleep to be awoken semi-early. After a final drive to the TH we were en route at 8:45 or so.

We hiked to Leroy creek and took the unmaintained trail up Leroy creek. I had done Spider gap with my sis and her (now) husband a few years back and was hoping that our climb would be just as nice. We headed up the trail and I was pleasantly surprised to how nicely the unmaintained trail took us straight up. After just over an hour we had climbed 1800' to high camp... before noon! We set up camp and decided to go for a climb, as Friday was our only guaranteed full day of good weather. Here's a pic from camp:

We went for Maude... and possibly 7 fingered jack depending on daylight and energy reserves. We took the Carne Mtn trail across the W face of Maude, finally deciding to go up a broad coilour full of crap scree (you think I would have learned from Redoubt and spickard!). We struggled up the couloir finally hitting the S ridge. The couloir from almost atop:
Once arriving at the S ridge Maude's summit did the rest of the work luring us in without losing a minute. The ridge to the summit:
We knew it was too late (plus our energy reserves had dwindled) to try another peak so we hung out watching the weather roll in and replace the bluebird skies. Before that, views were awesome... We got to see Glacier in all her glory. Pretty much my whole route with my sis spider gap - lyman lake - cloudy passs- buck creek pass. Red - chiwawa - fortress. Bonanza. Dome. Furnow and 7 finger jack, and everything in between.

From the summit, Baker and shuksan split by Dome.

Alison and I at the Summit with Glacier behind:

Glacier with "drama"

Clarke Mtn et al...

When the sun departed below the clouds ... and horizon ... and the rain started, we decided it was best to get back to camp. Having seen the pass to Carne mountain we figured that it would be best (i.e. easiest) to go down the extremely mellow/easy S ridge to the pass and take trail to camp. Well, the S ridge cliffed out just below where we gained it on the ascent and we ad-libbed down one of the many class 3 gullies. We finally made it to the pass and took trail back to camp .... only to lose the trail. It looked like there had been a few MAJOR recent slides taking out everything in its way (including trail) . In the end, we ended up descending a little to far, but we immediately figured out where we had left the trail on the ascent and bushwacked back to that point. Unknown to us, we had left the trail on the ascent literally 10 yards before it ended.

We hiked back to camp in sporadic rain, arriving just as darkness set in. Not bad for a single day - about 6000' gain in one day and one of Washington's 10 9000' summits - Alison's second highest (Shuksan). Intermittent rain throughout the night and into the morning, with a diminishing forecast made us hike out first thing in the morning instead of trying one of the other big guys up there.

In the end it was a good outing.... tough, fun, good views in a great area, and fun to do something like that with Alison. It served the purpose (and more!!!) for both of us. ...But finally, RIP Monte, Squeakers, Buddy. You'll be missed good boy!

Mt Spickard (8979')

Upon getting back to camp on Saturday after climbing Redoubt (story here), we imbibed on some whiskey after a long day on Redoubt. We were still planning on doing Spickard Sunday, but we expected it to be a walk up, not too difficult, and not take too much time. So we slept in and had a casual morning on Sunday. So at the early time of about 10:30 AM we started off towards Spickard. I think the mentality of the group was that "who cares after doing redoubt, but we have the day to waste so why not do 'something.'" We decided not to do the standard S route, but instead ascend via the Silver Lake glacier and the N ridge. Appeared strait forward enough, but a little more interesting. We left camp and ascended the tallus field to the col between Spickard and Custer ridge. From camp this seemed straight forward and quick, but only ~half of the ascent was visible so it was more of a task than at first thought. Nonetheless, we finally made it to the 'col' and immediately thereafter, the toe of the glacier. The glacier was pretty open but there appeared to be a way through the crevasses. At this point, maybe we should have heeded the description that this is an early season climb when significant snow bridges are present. Undaunted we roped up and where on our merry way up and across the glacier. At the toe of the glacier we decided to leave some stuff that we wouldn't necessarily need - the rope bag that weighed mere ounces... a few ounces would have slowed us down way too much! :-) Being the lightest and easiest to pull out of a would be crevasse, I had the priviledge of leading. At first it was no biggie, but then it became apparent that we would have to go through more of a troublesome maize of crevasses. being slightly sketched out on a bridge above a large crevasse, I tried to set a picket. With the glacier down to ice, I probably set the worst picket of my life. In the end it probably didn't even matter as I still would have pendulined into the side of the crevasse if I had gone in with or without the picket. We quickly shortened up the rope hurried over the few remaining bridges. We then ascended the "moderately steep" glacier (as Beckey describes) which turned out to be pebble imbedded ice amidst some more crevasses. Above this steep section we just had to traverse around some wide gaps and we finally made it to the top of the glacier. This was supposed to put us on the NE face for a 200' scramble onto the summit. Unfortunately, there was a huge bergshrund that made the route on the very top of the glacier impassable. Instead, we found a way onto the rock, after a nifty move on snow, that was about 500' from the summit. Upon getting onto rock we followed the NE ridge to the summit, at a couple of points heading up a couple of gully systems just S of the crest. This turned out to what I would call class 4 climbing up to the summit. Fun, semi-solid rock all the way. While we were looking for and expecting a "casual" day, this route was far from it. It had an exciting glacier with some steep sections, exciting crevasses and all that fun. The route was broken so we had to route find and get around some obstacles and then it ended on some spicy rock that kept the adrenaline flowing! So while the previous day ended up being a 'blah' climb on a great mountain, this ended up being a fantastic climb on a lesser known objective. While it might not have been as dramatic as I describe, 'twas a wonderful day and climb on interesting and awesome terrain! So at the summit we hung out for a long time watching the clouds roll through, never really threatening with weather. Daylight soon to be gone we decided to head down via the [unknown] standard route since there was no way in hell we would decend what we just came up if possible. Unfortunately, we soon found that the Beckey description is not 'obvious.' We headed down loose scree/crap (equivalent to the day before). From here we didn't understand the Beckey description but finally made it past an old camp (circa the 20's, 50's???), to a gully leading us to the 'small glacier' on the S face. We traversed across the glacier to the right col landing us back in the Depot Creek cirque. We descended a second glacier (crevasses, staying far right) and then traversed across the cirque back to our original ascent 'gully' by a group of larches. As Lucas and Ryan headed back to camp I literally ran up the 750' to get the $&^(@#&^ rope bag that we had left and then headed back to camp myself, arriving wel after dark with no problem. Several shots of whiskey greeted us as we reminisced abotu such a fun day and fun climb .... especially compared to the day before on crap rock. We enjoyed each other's company and finally hit the sack ready for another casual morning. Morning came, and we slowly packed up camp, headed back down depot cirque, through the endless forest on the US side, into Canada, and finally back at the car. We celebrated with a few stashed 24 Oz Raineers and headed back home. Twas a great trip hitting two awesoem peaks: one excellent peak via a blah route and one lesser peak with a fun, inspiring route. The latter being one of my favorites in the N cascades, especially amidst such a trip. And finally... another LJT masterpiece:

Col (left) between Custer ridge and Spickard from camp (LJT) Heading out from camp (LJT) Silver lake glacier (photo RL) Looking up the silver lake glacier Silver lake from the silver lake glacier "Moderately steep" glacier. Ummmm, ice (LJT) On the upper "mellow" part The fun "snow move" atop the glacier (LJT) Climbing the NE ridge Climbing the ridge (LJT) Lucas on the summitMe on the summit with Redoubt behind. View of the glacier and lake from the summit Pondering the next move (RPT) L and I checking out one of the lower glaciers amidst clouds (RPT) A great way to end a great trip!

Mt Redoubt (8969' 8/22/09)

Like Mt Challenger, when I started climbing in the N Cascades, I thought I'd never be able to summit Mt Redoubt - too big, too far away, too unknown. Well, we wanted to get a good climbing trip in this summer but since time was limiting we focused on an area with a base camp and not a long-ish traverse. Redoubt fit the bill with base camp at Ouzel lake. The easiest access is from the N, starting in Canada and hiking in the Depot creek basin. Redoubt is a huge massif almost on the Canadian border. This is Redoubt in 2007 from Copper ridge (from the SE; it's the castle like massif - or that's how I describe it).
Thursday came and after work we all (Lucas, Ryan, and I) packed in a hurry and headed off for Canada. After a (not so) quick bite while watching a disappointing end to the sounders game, we headed to the Chiliwack Lake Provincial park. The Suburu took a toll on the pothole-ridden road, but we made it to about a mile from the TH where we camped for the night. After a casual morning we headed up the road and to the trail. There had been some reports of getting 'lost' at the trailhead area, but at this point in time all you need to do is follow the highway cut into the forest: over, up, and then over; no problem. After 60 minutes at a leisurely pace we crossed the border back into the US:
Once back in the US, we found ourselves in the land of blueberries and huckleberries. Our pace slowed as we picked about a quart of berries (including 2 salmon berries that were the vain in Ryan and Lucas' existence) and continued to the waterfall. Outside Iguazu falls, I don't know if I have ever seen a falls like this. very impressive.

At the base of the falls:

Lucas climbing up the wet, slick rock with the aid of a fixed line:

More waterfall.

After lunch we even had the privilege of climbing straight up, right next to the falls. This trail was only rivaled by the pyramid peak climbers trail for the most outrageously straight up climb. Luckily it wasn't nearly as long or difficult to follow, and in the end, the 900' vertical went by quickly. We continued up the Depot creek valley to Ouzel Lake - home for the next three nights.

Whiskey + Berries + cup = mmmmm dessert.

We woke up at 4 and headed up to the redoubt glacier. Access was straight forward and we climbed to the ridge between the redoubt and depot glaciers.

Just above the entrance to the redoubt glacier:

Sun coming up behind spickard alongside some crevasses:

We wanted to do the NE face (a fun sounding alpine snow/ice/rock route). After looking at the snow apron on the Depot glacier we decided that the route was beyond out current abilities in its current conditions (impassable crevasses, impassable bergschrunds, and low snow) so we headed over to the Bear creek drainage to do the standard S route.

Our view of the Depot glacier from the ridge. We wanted to go up/left just past the rock outcropping:

Glacier peak et al. to the South.

Challenger glacier with the N pickets to the left of it.

Access was a little tricky but we made it into the basin and headed around the flying buttress to a gully for access to the S slope. We were immediately greeted with what I thought was the worst case of kitty litter, scree, talus, and fryable rock that I have been on. The going was slow and arduous as we took 2 steps up, one and a half steps back, while kicking rock grenades and rock slides down the gully with every step. Ryan and I continued straight up the gully when it narrowed making things that much more "entertaining." At this point we should have veered left over more crappy scree to gain a ridge which would have given us nice access to the summit block. By nice, I mean just more annoying scree.

The gully we took to the summit block: (should have gone left here)

Ryan scrambling in the gully while I dodged his grenades.

We pushed on, up the gully (Lucas took an interesting rock version) and we finally had the 'cannonhole' in sight. We decided to protect the entrance to the cannonade and the exposed summit run, which wasn't all that bad. And alas, we were atop of the beast that I thought was unobtainable.

Self photo atop the summit.

Ryan rappeling from the summit. Redoubt and Depot glacier below. Mt Spickard behind.

Lucas rappelling from the cannonhole:

Weather turned out to be exceptional so views were great and we hung out for a long while - L even took a nap. After several summit shots and playing name that peak we rapped a few times, went down the proper route on the S face, and then retraced our steps to camp where we were greeted with several shots of whiskey.

The following day we did Mt Spickard (with video).

MIA

Finally back from the high sierras preceded by Sloan peak! Stories coming as life as I knew it slowly returns to reality.

... Well, besides the Seattle heat that is putting the CA desert to shame. Great to be back.

Sloan Pk (7835') - 7/10/09

Sloan as seen from the first clearing on our way to cougar lake. Route was just on the other side of that left most ridge! Tom heading towards cougar creek amongst the alder and brambles. Poorly stitched photo showing the gully we got into just above the meadow. We aimed for the prominent rock just to the right of the top of tree. Tom on the rock island with Glacier pk. in background View of the glacier en route. Crevasses were tame, but starting to open up on the E side. Trail leading from the glacier (located just around the corner) At the summit Monte cristo area including Kyes peak (previous climb) Eldorado - Forbidden when "clouds" rolled in

So I convinced Tom to go out to Sloan with me on Friday. Weather looked iffy, but we wanted to get out of the city regardless. We were going to try to make camps at the "midway point" of the climb in the evening, which would have shortened the days. An important consideration because i still needed to pack for a trip to the Sierras that Fri night (6 AM sat departure). But alas, work, dinner, and normal bs-ing delayed us, so we camped at the trail head with a six pack for a great evening catching up. Went to bed without a cloud in the sky - and woke at 4:00 to crystal clear skies and were on the road via headlamp by 4:30. The Sauk river crossing was straight forward using numerous downed trees and log jams over the river(s). We spent a few moments finding the trail again and off we were on a well defined trail. We continued up the trail wish vanished into nothing and just continued going up the ridge through the forest, which was easy going. After significant elevation gain we saw what had to be the objective several creek beds away and then realized we were pretty much at cougar lake. Upon realizing our route mistake, our morale became deflated and I just about bailed due to the impending trip i needed to prepare for. But what the hell, it was only 7 or thereabouts so we decided to try to 'shwack our way over to the trail and/or up to the meadows where the camps were. Painful as it was we finally arrived at the camps in a few hours, or what felt like a few hours. We headed pretty much straight up towards the objective on snow which soon turned to some more bushwacking. Soon we were were on top of the ridge lining the gully that we were supposed to be ascending. A rising traverse (on and off trail) put us in the gully proper where we easily climbed snow to the glacier. I had read a relatively detailed report that talked about this last area, which said "that it was best to have a clear idea of where to go, but if all fails, head generally up and all will be good." Yes, trending up towards the destination gets you to the glacier with little chance of cliffing out or hitting a roadblock (at least with conditions that we found). At the toe glacier we decided to take a break on a rock island. The skies were without clouds, Glacier peak looked as if it was a stone throws away, we could see our huge route mistake that we circumvented, and the best part was that there was nary a soul around! How awesome of a day to get out! ... and the weatherman was wonderfully wrong about the forecast to boot! It was an awesome place to hang, especially considering that I had given up on the objective after getting off route! So after a long rest we left the rock tethered to eachother by a piece of spaghetti slogging up the glacier. We took pretty much a SW --> NE line avoiding a few crevasses and sinking snow bridges below us. All in all it was totally tame and straightforward. We left the NE corner of the glacier and continued the clockwise corcscrew on the E face. I found it surreal to find a descent trail in heather so high up on the mountain above the glacier - with 360 degree views (Stuart range SE, Monte cristo range S, etc.). This became my favorite section. Back around to the West side we started scrambling up the final section to the summit. It wa an awesome (and easy) scramble with a few moves to make you not lose focus to the summit. Maybe it was only awesome because of the way we felt, but nonetheless it added yet another aspect to the climb and day. We hung out at the summit for a bit with great views all around. Unfortunately clouds started roliing in and the time was getting late, limiting our time up there. We started retracing our steps down the mountain on cloud nine. Back in the meadow camp we found the trail and continued down cougar creek and its awesome water falls that we missed on the way up. We arrived at the car as the sun was setting after an amazing day and great climb. This was one of my favorite routes/climbs in the N cascades so far. It had variable, fun terrain - almost everything sans technical rock climbing and it certainly made it not feel like a 6000+ day. Amidst the terrain there was gorgeous views - and the views are in all directions. Definitely a climb to do - and to plan for a clear day! Approach notes: Do not get into conversation with your group so that you miss a switchback left over cougar creek and head due S on a ridge straight to Bedal peak. ... Unless you want a mosquito, bear scat, bramble, slide alder, bear scat infested up and down bushwack across relatively steap terrain to increase the adventure-fun of the climb. Gear notes: standard (and basic) glacier gear. Crampons (for this time) were not needed, nor wanted. Left hand beer for camp and trader joes (dark) chocolate covered pretzels for the trip home.