Friday, June 28, 2019

Queen Anne Hill

A cheerful clutch of flowers seen during the decent of Queen Anne Hill

Today I joined a friend for lunch at the 5 Spot on Queen Anne hill, walking downtown and then ascending the hill and then returning for approximately six miles round trip, and a cumulative elevation gain for the two hills of approximately 500 feet. Enroute I stopped at REI and purchased some fuel canisters with my annual refund. I was tired on the first part of the hike, but not so tired on the second half, which I found interesting. Was it the rest and lunch that revived me?


Statistics for the hike:
Distance: 6 miles
Conditions: Clear
Load: Negligible 
Elevation gain: 500 feet

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 193.6 miles 
Elevation Gain: 59,628 feet
Next Goal: 70,000 feet, my Fifth Rainier.  10,372 feet to go.


Saturday, June 22, 2019

Little Saint Helens with Snoqalmie Valley Trails Club; Hansen Creek Crystals

They call it "Little Saint Helens" because of all the downed logs.

Saturday night. I'm beat. This was the first significant hike since the embarrassing failure climbing Mount Adams. Walking with the Snoqualmie Valley Trails Club usually means going at a "moderate" clip that can be slightly demanding after about an hour. This was no different, and the trail was rocky in places, which meant feet were sore by hike's end.

Noteworthy: The discovery of little frogs along the trail. Some significant trail scat, probably bear-related; the refreshment of chilled air rising to cool us; encountering other hikers in search of quartz crystals to gather -- probably a byproduct of all the granitic rock in the area; and the discovery and unsuccessful attempt to remove Scotch Broom, an invasive weed, intact.

Surprise: We encountered a man with a shovel, and then others climbing the trail in search of quartz crystals. Close to the trailhead, when we left, was an army of parked vehicles. Afterward our hike leader, Ralph Owen, shared that an area called Hansen Creek can be a source of crystals that people dig out. Not particularly valuable, but an enriching experience for rock hounds.


There were a few sun breaks through the overcast and mist, but nothing spectacular.



A steeplechase of logs greeted us as we approached Little Saint Helens.

Young, flourishing wild flowers contrasted to the deadness of the logs.



The blooms of bear grass were everywhere.

I shot this photo because it looked like the stump was holding court for the clumps of bear grass.


A sign at one of the junctions on the trail

Statistics for the hike:
Distance: 6 miles
Conditions: Overcast, misty, cool
Load: 14+ pounds 
Elevation gain: 1,200 feet

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 187.6 miles 
Elevation Gain: 59,128 feet
Next Goal: 70,000 feet, my Fifth Rainier. 10,872 feet to go.







Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Mount Adams: Foiled Again

"Be prepared and know your limits," read this monument at the trailhead.

One view of the Washington state's largest mountain



It wasn't supposed to turn out this way, but when I lifted my backpack at the Cold Springs Campground, it seemed unusually heavy, and I pulled out my scale. Where did the extra weight come from -- the weight that would exhaust me and cause me to once again fail to summit Adams? Or is it old age, and the effect of prostate cancer treatments two years ago that sapped my strength? Have I not recovered, still?
(See Roger's Comments at the end of this post.)

Trailhead to our camp

By my calculation, Roger and I would climb only 1,000 feet over 2.2 miles, barely a start on a 12-mile round trip, before exhaustion turned us back. I'm still trying to get my mind around it. The map to the right shows the tongue of the Crescent Glacier next to the lime green line at the top, and to the right, South Butte. We were below and between those two points. I think we were camped at the intersection of the yellow and blue lines. If that's the case, we were at about 6,600 feet, 1,000 feet higher than the Cold Springs Campground. We slogged our way to that point with the intention of starting the next day to reach the "Lunch Counter," the place where would leave our tent and gear for the final ascent to the top.

One interesting point about our campsite. It appeared to be right on the main trail to the top. On three occasions during the night, when I got up to pee (cold and altitude can cause you to urinate more) two groups and then a single individual were passing by under a full moon and wearing headlamps, getting an early start toward the summit.

Four years ago we had made the intersection of South Climb routes 1 and 2, where the yellow and green lines merge, before we realized we were too exhausted to continue. That was at least 7,400 feet. I had considered the possibility that once again we would fail, but the degree of our failure has gotten my attention and is leading to considering how and whether I could have been successful, particularly because we encountered some individuals who were descending with 30-pound packs.

Some lessons learned:

  • A cigarette lighter I took along failed to fire, possibly a result of elevation.
  • Matches which I unwrapped on Saturday night were reluctant to spark Sunday morning when we melted water. That was a wake up call.
  • Although I didn't expect mosquitoes at altitude, they were present when we approached our camp site, probably lurking in the trees and tracking us as we passed. I will always take insect repellent from now on.
  • My method for fresh water works well: Chop out a sitting area in a snow bank, and to uncover snow that is free of needles. Melt and filter. One fuel can delivered all the heat we needed for meltwater. Then we boiled the melted and filtered water for use in instant meals, which were quite good.
  • A 50-gallon drum liner can hold my backpack and other items outside the tent, making more room in the tent.
  • Dehydration comes easily. When I got up to urinate at night I risked charlie horses when I tried to pull my boots on. I drank more water to counteract them. Roger also had cramps as well, and for much of the night he was cold, which surprised me. He is a diabetic, so that may have factored in.
  • My fingers tingled painfully for a while, an outcome of using Dioxin, an altitude sickness preventative.
  • My mummy bag was sufficient and I could peel off clothing and still stay warm.
  • Communication between us became difficult as we became more exhausted.
  • That target that comes with the poop bag the rangers give to you can be hard to hit. (In the morning I carved out a shelf on a snowbank where I could sit and melt water. It occurred to me later that I could have carved a potty, laid paper in the bottom of it, and hit the target effortlessly, with only a slight chilling discomfort. The idea came to me a bit too late.)
  • I should have done a few more hikes and had a more strenuous overnighter on Mount Rainier to really test me ability to handle the Mount Adams climb.

The dirt road to Cold Springs Campground can be narrow, with enormous potholes near the end.

There was no forest by the road -- only lots of trees dead from fires.

Me, at a crossroads of two trails, with my ice axe, "Ol' Betsy".

Finally! A patch of snow, meaning the trail would become softer on the feet.

The phone's wide-angle lens makes the moon only a tiny dot overlooking our camp site.

We drove to the mountain on Saturday, June 15, and headed out on a plan to go half way to the "Lunch Counter" before we set up camp. On Sunday we would get to the lunch counter and rest for the final ascent. From our camp onward, it would be mostly snow to the top. We had the faith which escaped Saint Peter that we could walk on water all the way to the promised land.

On Sunday morning, a telephoto lens made Oregon's Mount Hood look much closer than it was.

 I was startled by this enormous cricket, which brought back memories of 2015.

BAD OMEN: As we were packing Sunday morning, I was sweating from the morning sun, due to additional overnight clothing I hadn't shed. As I went looking for a pair of gloves, I was startled as a large cricket, pictured above, crawled out to face me. It was as thick as a finger. The last time I saw one of these was the morning we agree to abandon our last Mount Adams attempt, in 2015. In less than 15 minutes of hiking on Sunday, I accepted that I was too tired to push on. My fatigue had made me an accident waiting to happen. Roger took it graciously, and conceded that he was tired as well.

The slog down hill was uncomfortable. The hard, sometimes rocky path, was hard on the feet and we were both exhausted. We stopped several times to rest. At the trailhead, there was this monument to greet us:

A tired Ol' Betsy leans against a granite monument to Mike McCasun.

The monument is situated at the trailhead and celebrates Mike McCasun, who rescued many people on Mount Adams. The last line exhorts hikers to be prepared and know their limits. It was a fitting footnote to our (last?) hike on Mount Adams.

Statistics for the hike:
Distance: 2.2 miles
Conditions: Sunny, warm
Load: 40+ pounds 
Elevation gain: 1,000 feet

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 181.6 miles 
Elevation Gain: 57,928 feet, completing my fourth Rainier.
Next Goal: 70,000 feet, my Fifth Rainier. 12,072 feet to go.



Roger's comments via e-mail:


I took the coordinates of where I think we were:

46.1548, -121.4863

I copied and pasted that into Google Earth Pro (which is free, just download and install it). I was then able to use the PATH command and draw the path from Cold Springs to where we were (above). It came to just about exactly 2 miles (following the road), gaining 1,500'. That puts us about half way to the Lunch Counter, which was another 2 miles from where we were, but gaining 2,500'. We did the easy half :). From where we were to the lunch counter was very long and very steep.  So an extra 1000 feet crammed into the next two miles :). 

And then the two miles from the Lunch Counter would go up 2,900' so the summit.

So distance wise to the summit, we did 1/3rd of it, 2 miles out of 6.
So elevation wise to the summit, we did a bit under 1/4th, 1,500' out of 6,740'.

I think basically, elevation is what matters in terms of effort. So we climbed up about 1/4th of the way to the summit. In 2-1/2 hours. Not actually too bad. In two or three days, we could have made it. Maybe if we had 20lb packs :).




Wednesday, June 12, 2019

A hot, exhausting Tiger 3

Taken about 10:15 a.m. on a warm, bright day: Tiger 3

I expected to do better today, but I only matched my last time on Tiger 3 -- 2 hours and ten minutes from car to summit. And toward the end I was taking a lot of breathing breaks. I think it was the heat -- 92 in Issaquah was the high, and so it was probably at least 86 degrees at the hottest part of the day on Tiger Mountain.

I forgot to pack a sweat band, so I used a T-shirt. By the end of the hike it was drenched. At times my heart rate was 132 bpm, and my feet hurt on the way down. I was exhausted at the end and sleepy when I returned to the condo.

A frame capture from an mp4 video taken during descent, testing my GoPro camera.

I tried my GoPro and was able to acquire acceptable samples. Lesson learned -- I could have commented on the physical arrangement of the head-mounted camera while I was using it, rather than try to remember how much I had tilted the camera. I'll make recordings next time.

I am within 716 feet of my fourth Rainier as a result of today's hike.


Head band T-shirt
Statistics for the day:
Distance: 6 miles
Conditions: Sunny, warm
Load: 30 pounds 
Elevation gain: 2,000 feet

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 181.6 miles 
Elevation Gain: 56,928 feet 
Next Goal: 57,644 feet (fourth Rainier)--716 feet to go







Monday, June 10, 2019

Tiger 3 conditioner, doe and fawn



Evening scene at descent from Tiger 3 summit

Today I began preparing for the drudge up Mount Adams, ascending Tiger 3 to the summit in 2 hours, 10 minutes. The weather was warm, leading me to stuff my fleece vest into my backpack. The backpack weighed 10 pounds and was matched with my 20 pound weight vest. I left the parking lot at 3:40 p.m.

Highlights of the hike: Spotting a hang glider flying from Poo Poo point; talking with a geologist who is also a skydiver; meeting another hiker from Belarus, and discussing what it's like for that small country to be positioned next to Russia; and, on the decent, seeing a doe and her fawn on the trail 100 feet away from me, just above the dead umbrella landmark. Also, the lighting was charming at times.

My GPS phone app showed elevation at the trailhead to be 154 meters, or 505 feet. This was taken at the sign declaring the elevartion to be 500 feet. I did not record the summit elevation, but I recall it being within 60 feet of the declared 2,500-foot elevation.

Lightning scar?



Statistics for the day:
Distance: 6 miles
Conditions: Sunny, warm
Load: 30 pounds 
Elevation gain: 2,000 feet

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 175.6 miles 
Elevation Gain: 54,928 feet 
Next Goal: 57,644 feet (fourth Rainier)--2,716 feeet to go






Sunday, June 9, 2019

Toning hike on Tiger Mountain

Mid-morning on the "bus" trail at Tiger Mountain's Highway 90 Exit 20.

With our new plan for climbing Mount Adams in as soon as another week, it was time for some more conditioning or toning hikes. I chose toning today and headed to Tiger Mountain West Trail #3 with John Anderson. My pack was a light 8 pounds and I wore my Asolo hiking boots, not my mountain boots. I also was in such a hurry I forgot to carry a snack more than an apple. Fortunately John had energy bars to share.

We didn't start on Tiger 3; at the trailhead we headed east to see the carcass of an old bus along the side of a trail, where we spotted an enormous shelf fungus growing off a dead tree, pictured below.

The shelf fungus, situated behind the abandoned shell of a bus that once transported loggers.

Afterwards, we ascended the Nook Trail. The entrance to that trail was adjacent to the bench in the photo, at the top and led to the Talus Rock Trail, which includes small caves formed by massive boulders.

A young woman crawled into the opening of this cave for a photo taken by her mother.

Our objective was the 2.2 mile marker on Tiger 3. We cut over from the Nook Trail's merger with the Talus Rock Trail to rejoin Tiger 3 and headed to the 2.2 mile marker, where my GPS phone app indicated we were at 597 meters in elevation. We hiked at a very leisurely pace, completing the hike in more than four hours. When I returned home, I performed an internet search and came up with a Google Map that showed my GPS readings were right on. The screen capture shown below came from the Web address https://www.mapcoordinates.net/en.


Statistics for the day:
Distance: 4.5 miles
Conditions: Sunny, not hot
Load: 8 pounds 
Elevation gain: 1,458

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 169.6 miles 
Elevation Gain: 52,928 feet 
Next Goal: 57,644 feet (fourth Rainier)



Thursday, June 6, 2019

The stalking marmots of Mount Rainier

Roger Matthews pauses to consider the path to take.

This was the week we were going to climb Adams, but the weather was due to be cold and windy, so we postponed that trip in favor of a shakedown hike on Mount Rainier in the direction of Camp Muir. We didn't get very far, but we did learn some things about our equipment. And we also learned about the marmots. Here was one we spotted from a perch where he hoisted our tent for the night:

On of several marmots that came out when the hikers appeared. It ran for a rocky outcrop.

The critter raced across the snow . . .

. . . and closed in to stalk a line of hikers for whatever morsels they might share.



Roger plotted the location for our tent on a little knoll which we reached by kick-steping up a steep snow-covered incline. It was situated just far enough from a bank that that slid to a drop-off near the Nisqually glacier. As long as we didn't stumble too far in the direction in the dark, we would be OK. The two photos that immediately follow show how our tent appeared in the morning when I took a stroll in the morning. Roger didn't sleep well, so he snoozed while I climbed up a hill facing us and then circled back on the uphill side of our camp.


Looking south, there was a line of peaks in the distance . . .

And peeking over the peaks was our original destination, Mount Adams:

Also in view was Mount St. Helens, but it was low and dark and not suitable for a photo.

My early morning walkabout gave me an opportunity capture photos of others heading toward the mountain or returning.

I had the opportunity to photograph this individual glissading. . . 

. . . and of this individual enjoying his own "Kodak moment" with a selfie.

Me and my balaclava.

And I was able to get in a selfie of myself, using my GoPro camera. I covered my head with a balaclava,exposing only my nose, in order to avoid suburn and avoid smearing cream all over my face. That was one test I conducted -- how well can I free myself from sweat bands. The answer was, a lot.
We also practiced ice-axe arrests and glissading. And we learned that my MRS Windburner stove could melt all the snow we wanted with less than two canisters of gas fuel. The water went through Roger's filter system, which captures everything but viruses. The MRS Windburner system I was using could boil two cups of melted water in less than a minute. It is important to not lock the Windburner's cannister to the burn unit, which you want to leave in position when you lift the cup to pour.

Other things we learned in no particular order:

  • My pack could hold virtually everything I needed, and I could create more room by putting my sleeping pad on the outside.
  • I could roll up my snow coat and carry it on the back of my pack with twist rods.
  • It doesn't get dark until after 8:30. In the morning the day warms up fast.
  • The Milky Way is still there, and the stars can be spectacular.
  • I should take a garbage bag to store things outside the tent at night, for greater in-tent comfort. 
  • When the air is still, getting outside the tent isn't so chilling.
  • Four hand warmers for each day are all you need.
  • You can over-duplicate. As much as possible, go for simple.
  • A double dehydrated meal sticks to your ribs.
  • The dehydrated meal bags seal and hold small trash items.
  • Don't count on a cell phone for communication. And don't expect to use its apps if your hands are cold.
  • Make my ski pants more accessible when storing them in my backpack; and have a separate belt for the ski pants.
  • The tingling in my fingers was likely caused by Diamox, the altitude sickness preventative that I took.
  • When I glissade, my arms block the GoPro's vision. I have ordered a head mount for $8.80 from Amazon.

Statistics for the day:
Distance: Unknown
Conditions: Comfortable during day; near freezing at night; clear sky
Load: 32 pounds 
Elevation gain: Unknown

Statistics, year to date unchanged:
Distance: 165.1 miles 
Elevation Gain: 51,470 feet 
Next Goal: 57,644 feet (fourth Rainier)