TR w/punishment! Mt. Adams (WA) July 10

[Squirrel99]

Got word that the SW Chutes on Mt. Adams were prime for the picking. Coerced by tele-kyler, I thought, why not? it's summer. good weather, corn skiing, sunshine- should be a great day for another walk in the woods.



checking in at the ranger station to purchase summit permits


We made our way to camp at the Cold Springs Trailhead just before dark. Did the requisite re-packing of gear and set the alarm for the God-awful hour of 2:30am Casa de Subaru providing our 4-star accomodations


Iggy attempting to score a spot in the new Rossignol campaign (does he know there's 7,000 vert coming for tomorrow?)


That alarm clock rings and this is just not normal. I doubt even the Utarded Dawn Patrols hit trail this early. 3:30AM start at trailhead

[Squirrel99]

Elevation: 5,600 Feet enroute to 12,300 feet- We begin our trek at 3:30am from the Cold Springs Trailhead. It begins raining. And continues raining. We march on.

About 1 to 1.5 hours later, lighting gets better and the rain lets up as we approach the snowline at 7,500 feet. Anxious to get our skis off the packs, we opt to skin the first part of the tour


Elevation: 8,500 feet. We pass some tents and crest a ridgeline. Weather moving in, starting to get worse. We click out and join the bootpack. Snow becomes firm and crusty. We push on.


Next turn, the winds kick in. They are now moving about 25mph from the SW. Bitter cold, rain changing to sleet & hail. Pelting face. Feels oh so good


Elevation 9,990 Feet (heh, Canyons, Utah!). We wimper up a steep 35 degee pitch, winds howling. Notice Volcanic Rock Outcropping as best sign of shelter. Opt out to create wind barrier and hunker down for a few hours to try and let the storm pass. New layers pulled from packs, we huddle under the space blanket (note: iggy comandeering the space blanket!)


Our view for the next 2.5 hours as we wait, wet, cold and anxious


Still stuck at 9,990 (goal is 12,300). Tele-Kyler still thinks the sun will poke through- eventually

[Sphinx]

That looks horrible.

[Squirrel99]

After no signs of improvement in the weather and a need to get some body warmth by moving- we decide to make move for another bench. Slope steepens to 35 degrees again. Each bootstep is painfully slow against the crosswind. Weather takes turn for the worse. Winds increase. Snow turns to a frozen hockey rink, and a hail storm ensues.

Elevation 10,600 feet: Make the call at 11am due to weather and increasingly dangerous snow conditions to turn around and ski our ascent path back down to the trailhead.

Kyler dropping into the first 500 vert of wonderful boilerplate


Fortunately, the snow softened (about the only good thing from the fog and rain!). Here, a touring partner we met at the trailhead- Mark from Ashland, drops into the fog, mist covered mountainside


On the plus side, as the snow softened to a carveable corn crust, there were vitually no suncups on our route (but we did have to wipe down the goggle lenses what seemed like every 4-5 turns)


arriving at the last knoll before returning to trail walking on the descent, there was smooth steep pitch of perfect corn (just no sunshine!)
Here Kyler drops in


Kyler demonstrating his best Alta tele steeze

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Holy crap....way to try and tough it out, but probably a good decision to turn 'round.

[Sphinx]

That looks horrible.

My opinion stands.

I went for a bike ride today, and got rained on. I pity the fools in the mountains.

But congratulations on...uh... getting out there?

[Squirrel99]

Although our gear was soaking wet, adding addtional unwanted pounds to the descent- we were able to enjoy the splendid wildflowers along our remaining descent to the Cold Springs trailhead (insert relative degree of sarcasm here)


Gear testing for Helly Hansen- "let's see, how much water can I possibly log into my outerwear on a given day... hmmmnnn...."
I think I've spent drier days skiing at the Pass And I know it's JULY, but turn on the car heater now! Yes please!


As Xover would say, "your mine, bizatach! next time, your mine!"


July 10 attempt: Total vert gained: 5,000 feet
Total vert skied: 3,000 feet
Number of wet layers: too many
Time to sleep: NOW!

[hop]

Boy I'm glad I passed on this one! While you were doing death march slog/ski, I got up at 0430 and cruised down to Smith and Minor Island NWRs (beautiful glass calm sunrise over Mt. Baker) to help some friends do their "dead harbor seal pup" surveys.

Got to check out some cool harbor seal action (watching births...) and collect some cool samples including a dead pup that was only hours old. Also of note were getting good close up looks at Black Oystercatcher, and Glaucous winged gull, and bald eagle ground nests w/ chicks.

Yesterday I got to watch J16, J26, and J36 attack and "harrass to the point of disappearance" two harbor porpoises while collecting prey and fecal samples. J pod... who'da thunk they had it in them? This is only the 2nd recorded incident in 30 years where they've interacted with porpoises like this, with the 1st being about a week ago

from www.orcanetwork.org sightings page
July 9, 2005

An extremely interesting observation today while out collecting fecal samples and prey remains from J-pod. We were watching J16, J26 and J36 heading towards Turn Point in Boundary Pass, when Adam U spotted two harbour porpoise a couple hundred meters in front of the whales. Shortly after we saw a high-speed surfacing typically associated with a fish-chase, and the three whales were chasing a single harbour porpoise (not sure what happened to the second one). The porpoise was obviously trying to evade the whales but with no luck. J16 surfaced underneath the porpoise at high speed and lifted it into the air, and one of the whales lifted it into the air at high speed on a second occasion a couple seconds later. The high speed chase lasted for a couple minutes and all animals disappeared on a long dive. When the three whales surfaced a few minutes later there were no signs of the porpoise. As part of our predation study we do try to watch the mouthlines of the whales to see if they are carrying anything, and follow in fluke prints to pick up discarded bits of food, but neither suggested that the whales had anything in their mouths. Unfortunately there were no further signs of the porpoise, so we could not confirm if it was killed, though from watching a large number of transient kills of marine mammals over the years it sure looked the same. Greg Schorr did obtain some very good photos, which we will put on the Cascadia web site in a couple of days when we get back to Olympia.
Robin Baird, Cascadia Research
Olympia

July 5

J-Pod passed Lime Kiln Lighthouse today (July 5) between one and two in the afternoon. We witnessed an unusual event: three whales swimming around and pushing what appeared to be a young harbor porpoise. The porpoise did not seem to be in the whales' mouths, but they were moving it with their noses at the surface. There was no visible blood and the body of the porpoise did not appear again or wash up, but neither did we see the animal swim away. I have heard several accounts over the last few years of L-Pod playing with porpoise bodies or infant porpoises, but this is the first time I have witnessed anything of this sort with J-Pod.
Monika Wieland
Lime Kiln Lighthouse
Whale Museum Intern


Research permits are cool.

[skier666]

Slay da Rain'

[mtbakerskier]

I am also glad I opted out of this one. I dont ski in the rain durring the winter, and I am defintly not going to do it in July. However mtn biking in hte rain is fun!

[girlski0912]

Oh god and I thought my day was bad...but I will take flashcards on Commercial Paper, Constitutional Law, and Secured Transactions with my mom making me breakfast in our nice warm kitchen over slogging to hell and back ANYDAY! Way to giv'r buddy!


And you are going to kick my fucking ass in SA with all of this high altitude mayheim of yours!

[Vets]

Interesting TR. Way to go after it. Hope that you have better results next time.

[Xover]

bwa!!!
serves ya right bizatch for trying too match the HCAC steeze in July

get off the skis and get on some rock or start butt-ramming yourself with a bike seat - It's summer!!!! - give it up and instead spend the next 3 months contemplating how you're gonna top the Utards next season

[Trackhead]

That alarm clock rings and this is just not normal. I doubt even the Utarded Dawn Patrols hit trail this early. 3:30AM start at trailhead

Guess again.


Nice effort. Getting skunked by weather is good for the mind. Things that go down first try are nice, but not always as rewarding.

[Rusty Nails]

That sounds like a suckfest of the highest caliber. I'm sorry that Yoda and I couldn't join you and provide Vanagon accomodations. Instead, tons of wakeboarding in 90+ degrees in Minnesota right now and a flight to BA tomorrow!

I, for one, know that you are skiing to keep the legs ready for Lenas. After meeting the dude who married my cousin yesterday (he's from Mendoza with some very cute sisters) I am ready to hit Lenas next year! Back to the waterskiing and wakeboarding...

[Xover]

Back to the waterskiing...

get a good gate and 1 ball for me Rusty

[Squirrel99]

get off the skis and get on some rock or start butt-ramming yourself with a bike seat - It's summer!!!! - give it up

Hmnnn... okay... and what's your hold up, Mr. Krispy Kreme Whining about Trackhead going climbing in July when you want to ski? Xover OWNED

Got this in an e-mail a little while ago regarding skiing on July 1 for Christ's sake!!! "I am going climbing again in LCC at 9am, not going skiing because my vagina hurts." Trackhead.
wa, wa, wa fuggin sad ya backcountry elitist snob; not worthy of HCAC status biaaatch

While the rest of you wankers were out pulling on rock, riding the single track, slithering through slot canyons, etc I still had a major twitch at the end of last week that needed to be taken care of.

BWAHAHAHA

spending the next 3 months contemplating how you're gonna top the Utards next season :cool

No need to- I'll be in "alta lenas"

[Trackhead]

Squirrel,

Thanks for taking the time to dig up all those quotes on Xover. I was thinking the same thing, but too lazy to do so.

Last night he was ragging on me about not wanting to climb with him tomorrow, cause I am skiing today.

But now it's ALL ABOUT CLIMBING! Right Xover?

Xover: I'll read your smart ass reply when I get back from SKIING today.

[Monique]

Elevation: 5,600 Feet...Opt out to create wind barrier and hunker down for a few hours...Our view for the next 2.5 hours as we wait, wet, cold and anxious...

Nice attempt, Squirrel. Given the intense weather here I had wondered if you'd be rained/snowed out. As usual you sound relatively cheerful about what must have been a death march.

Sorry you missed dinner Saturday evening. BC-Flow, La Femme De BC, The Polish Midget, a local friend and I went up to 4,500 feet and tried to create a freak barrier between us and the party of 30 nearby. We hunkered down at our table for 2.5 hours, dry and warm, but anxiously waiting for the stoned-out-of-his-mind waiter to get down to bidness. Sorry no pics...a good time was had by many.

[Xover]

Squirrel,

Thanks for taking the time to dig up all those quotes on Xover. I was thinking the same thing, but too lazy to do so.

still on couch watching Beach Blanket Bingo re-runs and typing on your cordless keyboard I see, heh?? go ski pipeline already for Christ's sake!!

Oh, and Squirrel, just for the record Crispy Cremes suck ass!!! It's all 'bout Dan's. If you're gonna "attempt" to dis me, get it right

[Squirrel99]

Oh, and Squirrel, just for the record Crispy Cremes suck ass!!! It's all 'bout Dan's. If you're gonna "attempt" to dis me, get it right

Xover- I can't believe you'd settle for Dan's donuts. The 7/11 at the base of BCC has better apple fritters. But Ask any Canuck. They'll tell ya.

It's all about the Tim Horton's, eh! Best friggin' donuts & coffee you can get

[Zeedashbo]

i'm so happy i can't ski. you shoulda dragged bakerboi with ya and taken so you could hear him bitch and moan for five hours straight.

[tarkman1]

I know that the weather and less than stellar conditions caught you by surprise. Had you known, you surely would have gotten Bullet, Tyrone, CS, and I for the event (Spats), it sounded like our kind of tour.

[Vets]

Oh, and Squirrel, just for the record Crispy Cremes suck ass!!! It's all 'bout Dan's. If you're gonna "attempt" to dis me, get it right

I've said it before and I'll say it again - What is so appetizing about donuts named after dried up cum?

[BakerBoy]

i'm so happy i can't ski. you shoulda dragged bakerboi with ya and taken so you could hear him bitch and moan for five hours straight.

No, I ignored his message and pretended I was out doing something fun, like kayaking.