Red Mountain 1/31/09

Last weekend Alison and I ventured up to commonwealth basin with the intent on doing Red Mountain with clown shoes on our feet. By the time we got out of the clouds and into picture perfect blue skies we realized we took a wrong turn and were just following another creek leading to the saddle between Red and Kendall. We continued up as far as we could and called a nice, quick outing.

This weekend Lucas, Ryan and I wanted to get out and do a quick ski. So we ventured back to Red mountain to find the correct route. We started early and made good time up to the fork in the creek. We still followed the further East than we should have, but found a way W over to the creek and then onto a SW ridge of Red, and just followed the ridgeline. Going got steep and when it became crust on the surface L and R decided to just boot it. I put ski crampons on and tried to hold out, but that was slow going and I finally decided to join them in the boot escapade 750 feet from the summit. We hiked up various forms of hard crust on snow, freshy on softer crust, and freshy on pretty much ice. Short isolated parts got pretty spicy, but it made it quite fun (ice axe strongly recommended).

Weather was not perfect, but ok. Sucker patches gave us optimism, but no continuous sun. Relatively clear visibility until close to the summit was nothing to complain about. The snow on the ascent was as expected. a week layer 8 inches down, with variable crust on the top. Parts were really scoured and hard from the wind . Based on our ascent we were not expecting much on the way down - skiing on crust is not fun. Anyway, it was a great first half of the day - the climb was entertaining.

We did the customary summit dance and prepped for the ski down. We ventured a little farther W on the face and found some areas that were 3-8 inches deep of powder on the crust. Relatively steep pitch and great snow made the top 1700' or so awesome skiing. We hooted and hollered all the way down like little school girls. Snow was pretty stable with some sluff coming down with us, but not apparent slab activity. Back in commonwealth basin we struggled with the down and up and down and up until the last pitch out. I wish I would have booted or put the skins back on for that section.

All in all, it was an awesome day, beyond all expectations! Climb was great, weather was not bad, snow pretty stable, and the skiing great .... all large steps up from expectations. Just what the Dr. ordered!!!

Alison close to the turn around point last weekend. saddle between Red/Kendall in back.

Red from SE (taken previous weekend). Current route up was just W on SW ridgeline seen on the horizon.

Ryan and Lucas on the ridge line.

One spicy spot (no traction/steep/crumbly rock) about 50 feet from summit.

Lucas getting some turns in

Ryan looks like he's eating up the skiing.

One of the lines - down the chute into some nice soft sugar.

IPA 1/30/09

Mike tapped out my IPA so I thought I should start working towards replacing it. Wanted to make a slightly smaller one, after all this is the beer I drink most. A "smaller" version would make mornings easier and be cheaper too boot. Also, tried a new hop varietal - amarillos. Target 1.058 with 78% efficiency in a 10 gallon batch.

for beer geeks. 16.5 #canadian 2 row, 1.5# crystal 40, 2.0# munich light, 1.0# each biscuit malt and flaked barley. Water 1t gypsum/5 gallons. Kettle schedule: 70 minute boil, 60 min 2 oz amarillo (9.5%) and 2 oz Magnum (14.65%), 40 minutes 0.75 oz each amarillo and cascade (6.6%), 20 minutes 0.5 oz each amarillo and cascade, 10 min irich moss, 5 minutes 1 oz amarillo. Chill and pitch directly onto the 1056 yeast slurry from the stout (from previous week).

Pitching so much active yeast let fermentation start instantaneously and by the morning it was spewing out the airlock! I guess that's good and bad. Gave me a chance to smell the fermenting sludge thouhg. Smelled wonderfully - citruses and fruity. Hopefully the grapefruit won't be overpowering! I just had an amarillo hop bomb at the rogue issaquah and it was almost offensive. Time will tell with this one.

OG turned out to be 1.058! Not too often I get that close in a ten gallon batch.... of course I did make 11 gallons instead of the normal miscalc of volume for 9 gallons.

Stout Stout Stout

With the post ski beer reserves dwindling (kind of) I wanted to resupply. Attempted to make a dry stout with some extra body and umph, so yeah, not really a dry stout. 10 gallon batch assuming 80% efficiency.

For beer geeks: 10 # marris otter 2 row, 6.5 # canadian 2 row, 0.5# each 40 and 120 crystal, 1 # each flaked barley, flaked wheat, and choc malt, 2# roast barley. Tried something new with the grain. Since I typically get a stuck sparge with that much roast barley, I steeped 1 pound of it separately. During the sparge, after gettting the grain bed set, I added it to the top of the grain bed. --- no stickage in the sparge this time. Mashed at 150. Water 0.25 burton salts/5 gallons. 2.5 oz willamettes in the boil and 2 oz fuggles at 10 minutes. Put the beer right on the 1056 yeast cake from a previous batch.

Unfortunately I only got 9 gallons or so out of the boil (not 11) so the gravity was very high, but the sweet wort was delic! Hopefully there will be a great roasty character left in the final product. ... and bigger is better, right? OG 1.066 (not the 1.055 target I was going for) TG I'll let you know.

So this concluded a massive "catch up on beer" session where I bottled a ginger mead, bottled a plum wine, bottled a russian imperial stout, kegged a rauchbier, racked 2x reds to secondary, kegged an ESB, and brewed 10 (or 9) gallons of a stout all in less than 36 hours. Anyone want to embibe?

Granite Mountain - 1/17/09

With snow packs stabilized after the flooding rain and a classic inversion leaving the mountains warm and sunny, Lucas and I went out for a quick excursion - either Granite peak or Kendall peak via Kendall lakes. En route Granite peak looked a little bare so we continued to Kendall, which was socked in. Fed up with Seattle gloom and not knowing when (or if) the fog would burn off we back tracked to Granite. We were greeted by a biting wind while patchy bare spots from the rains made us boot for the first 1200 feet of elevation or so. We then skinned up mostly following the summer trail -easily discernible with the low snowpack - into the clearing. Once in the clearing, we stayed on the a steep rib, which accompanied with the snow conditions caused much ski slippage and frustration. We finally decided to boot it about 900 feet from the summit, which was another source of frustration - post holing, no traction on mixed vegetation and tallus. The biting wind returned, spitting ice pellets at us and trying to use my skis as a parasail to take me back down the mountain. After my little tirade from frustration we made better time and made it to the summit. We were greeted with beautiful views, including the always scenic I90 with its patented roar of automobiles, on a picture perfect day. Lucas on the right with Rainier backlit in the background. The I90 summits just below: Kaleetan being the rocky "tower" towards the left, chair peak just to the right and Snoqualmie just to the right of that, with glacier peak poking its head out between Snoqualmie and Chair.

We stowed the skins and skied. The top was a nice mix of slightly hard crust with beautiful spring like corn. The slopes were awesome with the sable snow pack. Below, the snow was nice, but heavy making rock dodging a bit difficult for me. This then led to survival skiing in the trees followed by a 800 ft hike out to the car. An awesome day filled with cursing and frustration. .... but I have nobody to blame but myself for the route selection and the rear I took. We even stopped at the Iss. Brewhouse and made it home before dark. .. Now onto the lecture that I have been procrastinating. Elevgain/lost - 4050 ft.

Heather Ridge

Lucas and I headed out into the bc across from Steven's pass - Heather Ridge. There was pretty much a highway laid in the snow so the going was initially easy. We climbed to the high spot on the ridge (~5450'), had lunch, and dug a pit. The snow was soft powder on what appeared to be styrofoam as far as the shovel dug. Everything appeared to be stable so we skiied down into the back bowls for pretty much my first run of the season. We saw some sweet looking terrain across the valley (pictured on the left during the ascent) towards the west so we skinned up and around the bowl towards it. We finally made it to the open slopes which put us a little on edge (wind loaded and open with a bunch of new snow). We hung out on the ridge for a late afternoon snack (lucas pic'd approaching the rest stop) and had a superb run back into the valley below. The area had about 6-12 inches of light powder on top of a relatively solid base (aka styrofoam). A quick jaunt back to the ridge and down to the parking lot. All in all a great day, but the realization that I am completely out of shape. About 2800' gain and loss for the day. But hopefully this will be the first of many outtings getting me into far better shape!

Mt Shuksan (9127'), Sept, 2008

If at first, if at second, if at third .... try try again. So my previous umpteen attempts at Shuksan have been weathered out. I've gotten up to the sulphide 3 times and have had to turn around in misery because of weather twice ... and the third time, well, you can read about it here. We wont mention the even less successful trips. So with the summer winding down after all of the other trips, I convinced Keith and Alison to make a go of it - both of them newbies to alpine stuff, but both wanted see what all the fuss was about. We decided to go Fri/Sat to eliminate possible highways up on the sulphide and summit pyramid even though weather was a tad suboptimal. Also decided on the sulphide because of group experience and my familiarity with the route.

We got a latish start as Alison had to work in the AM and took off from the trailhead (2800') at about 3. We made it to 6750' or so at the foot of the sulphide at sundown. It was the first reasonable place to camp, although we'd soon find out that on rock fingers about 10 minutes away down 400 ft there is camping with toilets. ... but what's the fun of that, I mean, no blue bags. We dug two platforms and got stuff ready for the morning and got some shut eye.

4 O'clock came early, we rose and were on our way due N to the summit pyramid. Breaks in the clouds gave us glimpses in the dark sky, but we wouldn't be in the clear until 8,000 ft or so. Slow snow slog on the well graded glacier. At one point we were in the clouds and I beared a little too far E and we went right past the summit pyramid into a meandering maze of giant crevasses. I really just wanted to give the two newbies some excitement and up close encounters with the fun creatures and immunize them a little bit. We went back NW and got back on track to the summit pyramid. Pictured is Keith and Alison back on track above the clouds, with gorgeous Baker behind. ... and Baker was the only view we had this trip.

Up the summit pyramid, again, we didn't find the "class three" gully quickly and ad libbed. K is pictured wondering what the path of least resistance up and to the typical route is . Protecting a few moves in hiking boots we made it to the summit by a less than standard rout. Lunch on top and a more direct route down went more uneventfully. K and A back at camp with the summit in the background. Back at the car at sundown for the long way home. Only regrets is the huried nature of the trip - sorry Keith!

Mt Stuart (9415'). Sept, 2008

Stuart is the second highest non-volcanic peak. This pic is from Stuart Pass (Camps) and shows the West Ridge. July 4 weekend 4 of us tried to do the W ridge of Stuart. Weather was iffy and we ended up climbing into pea soup. When it started drizzling and the rock was getting slick, we decided to turn back. On the plus side, Sunday was a beautiful day in Highlight basin. Why the weather gods didn't move that up a day for us, I don't know.

Fast forward to the next long weekend - labor day weekend. Lucas and I set off to do the W ridge and see if we couldn't tame the beast. Weather was slightly better than the July 4th weekend but pea soup came and went and we really didn't get any warmth from the sun, leaving the rock frigid, at least to the wusses that were climbing this specific time. We camped at Stuart Pass as before and woke at 4. I was pissed because I wanted to sleep in, and there is no way that a few thousand feet should take us that long especially since we had gotten 1,000 feet within the destination before. But 4 it was and we were on our way. We decided to take our camp up and over to save us a little time on the way, even if it made climbing a tad more difficult. Up the west ridge, we passed all of the bivvy sites we were familiar with. We recognized the place that we turned around before and thought we were in good time as it was about 8 or 9 AM. Route finding became difficult and we kept finding signs of bivvy sites, all the way up and over the summit. It wasn't until afterwards that we read on someone's post that "90% of first attempts of the W ridge end up needing bivvys." That explains the plethora of them scattered throughout the rock face.

Well, here we went up, down, over here and over there, trying to stay on the W ridge and follow the "described" route, but that was futile. After 3 or 4 hours we had made it 500 feet and didn't feel any higher. We just decided don rock shoes and belays and climb with some experimentation with route finding and we went in the 'direction' of the perceived route descriptions. Following signs of human tracks, we thought we were on a route that would 'go.' At this point I can only (possibly) retrace our steps and can't begin to explain the route. Lucas took the final lead and by 5 pm (I think?) he was belaying me up to the summit. What a fine feeling that was, in the waning beautiful afternoon skies.

A quick lunch and we headed dow to the Cascadian Couloir. This was not an easy route down without being familiar with it. Whatever path we took 'went,' even if a little unclear as to whether it was going to or not. Light was waning and we were not yet at trail. 5 minutes after donning the headlamps we found a nice little maintained trail, which made things mindless until back at the trailhead. However, a trip wouldn't be complete without me bonking on the way back up to the pass. But alas, just past 11 pm we were back at trailhead. At 1:45 we took our shot of whiskey at home to celebrate the accomplishment and the long day.

... and as everything says, good route finding on this route leads to better (or at least faster) success. Lucas pictured on the summit and a self portrait of the two of us on the summit. Not really many other pics taken.