Lake Quinalt, Olympic National Forest

Aug 21-23, 2009

We decided it was time for a little vacation, so after numerous phone calls, we found a rental house on Lake Quinault that would allow dogs. We loaded up the car and made the 3+ hr drive over to the Olympic Penninsula. We let our tired dog out and quickly walked her down to the lake. She immediately jumped in and got her blissful swimming face on, as if to say the ride was worth it!

We decided to just be lazy on Friday night and sat in our great little cabin and watched a movie while we ate left over speghetti that we had thrown in the cooler. I got up early Saturday morning and again took Sahale down to the water, then off for a walk. Chris woke up and we all headed up to the Quinault River for a hike up to Irely Lake. It was a modest 1.1 mile hike with all the glory of the rain forest-- trees bigger than you can imagine and follage that just blanketed the earth-- gorgeous! I thought Sahale would be in for a real treat when she realized there was a lake at the top, but alas, the lake had been dry for a very long time and was full of grass and enourmous stumps. Funny, as the brochure says the lake is a 'haven for waterfowl and amphibians'. Hmm.

Next stop, the 'world's largest Sitka Spruce.' Indeed, enormous! It stands 191 ft tall and is 17 ft in diameter. A site to see for sure. From there, we had a picnic in the park by the lake. Miss Sahale is on a retractable 16' leash, but insists on pushing her big self right on to us!

Once we got back to the cabin, we chilled out on the dock for a bit watching the day turn into evening. One minute Chris was eating a chip and drinking a coke, and the next, he had jumped straight into the mountain lake! Sahale heard the splash and was in within 1/2 a second! I followed it all with a robust "Oh my gosh!" They got out and caught their breath and returned to the dock, where Chris decided to jump once more. Sahale just watched this time, then met him on the beach! A fun playful day for sure! We then packed up, headed into the cabin and fired up the grill for burgers. This was truly a weekend full of R & R. On Sunday, we went to the Lake Quinault Lodge for breakfast. It is a beautiufl hotel built in 1926, very much like Paradise or Sun Mountain. From there we hiked the Falls Creek Loop for a few miles-- again, amazing forest all around. Another picnic in the park and we were back in the car for the 4 hr ride home (thank you Olympia and Tacoma traffic!). Sahale was beside herself with joy all weekend. At times, she refused to come into the cabin as if to declare the world there really was her oyster. She has been asleep (snoring) on the living room floor about the last 3 hrs. We are now refreshed and rejuvinated and ready to head back into the work week..... maybe!

El Dorado Peak

Climb: Eldorado Peak/East Ridge
Elev: 8,894ft
Climbers: Judy, Rick, Lori and Chris

We had originally planned to climb Mt. Rainier this weekend with Judy and Rick, but with the predicted weather coming in Sunday afternoon, we thought it might be nicer to do a one-day climb. We ambitiously chose El Dorado Peak in the North Cascades' Boston Basin. Chris and I have each done this climb as an overnight-- which most normal people do-- but I persistanly claimed that carrying a one-day pack would make the climb 'much easier'. I learned there is no easy way to the top (or bottom) of El Dorado.

We left Seattle Friday evening, arrived at the trailhead 3 hrs later, slept in the Subaru and we're up at 4:30 Saturday morning to climb. We spent about 2 hrs climbing up through the trees, then a couple more hours through the talus fields. I remembered the snow field being after this point from my previous climb, but I love climbing on snow, so I think it was just wishful thinking. More steep trails, muddy slopes, and big boulders before finding the snow. The slushy, sloggy snow. That's the disadvantage of the one-day climb-- all the snow is traveled upon with the sun shining brightly. This slowed us down a bit making our summit almost an hour later than planned. We roped up with less than 1,000 feet to climb. Probably wasn't necessary, but if you know me and my feelings around heights, you'll know why I needed it to get up that knife-edge ledge. El Dorado has one of the most amazing summits I've ever been on. You feel truly on top of the world. However, I did hyperventilate to get there.

We knew we needed to beat the clock to get down by dark. It's such a steep climb, you don't go down too much faster than you go up. So, we tried not to take too many breaks-- just enough to tend to blisters, eat sandwiches, and refil water. Judy and Rick surprised us with their endurance and tackled the down-climbing of the boulders with pure strength. We followed their lead (begrudgingly) and we're back to the forest by 6 PM; just enough time to get down the difficult trail before sunset. At 7:40 PM, just over 14 Hrs later, we had crossed the logs over the river and were at the cars.

Our legs were tired to say the least, and our knees were angry about all the shock loading, but otherwise we were all in pretty good shape. After a quick dinner at a Mexican restaurant, we were back on the road to finish the 3 hr drive home. Rick kept talking about a 50 mi Sunday bike ride, but Chris and I will be content with staying in our pajamas all day and watching movies. Did I mention that our legs are sore?

The whole time I climbed El Dorado in two days, I was convinced it would be so much nicer as a one-day climb. Well, now I've decided that it is, in fact, slightly easier as a one-day, but much, much more enjoyable as a two-day. The views are too spectacular to rush by.

Chris and Lori's California Vacation

June 16th Day 1 - Seattle, WA to Redding, CA.
Distance: 600 miles
Time: 12 hours with stops.

We left Seattle promptly at 6:00am with a stop at the Northgate starbucks before getting on I-5. While the weather was nice in Seattle, it quickly changed to a dark overcast all the way down through Olympia. We finally broke though and enjoyed a nice drive through Portland with minimial traffic. For lunch we made a stop in Ashland, OR which was a town Lori and I have always wanted to visit but never have had the chance. Very Artsy, lots of hippies and organic food stores. Would have loved to seen this town in 1968. We sat outside and enjoyed a nice coffee.

One of the most scenic parts of the drive so far was a majestic view of Mt Shasta. The Subaru was registering about 92 degrees at this point, which seems about right since we got the same info from the internet. Arrived in Redding at approximately 5:35. We went down the road to a grill where we had some mediocre food before coming back to the Motel. Tomorrow we will be leaving early again for a 400 mile trip to Bishop as we make our way to Lone Pine on Wednesday. More to come tomorrow.


June 17th - Day 2 (Redding, CA to Bishop, CA)

Distance: Just over 400 mi.
Time: 11.5 hrs.

We were on the road by 6:45am and made it to through Sacramento without falling asleep on the long, open highway. We made a quick detour to eat lunch on South Lake Tahoe; which was gorgeous. Chris drove the first three hours, then Lori took the wheel.

From Tahoe down to Bishop, we drove up and over probably 6-8 mountains ranging from 6,000-8,000 feet. Awesome drive, but it took much longer than we had anticipated. We thought we'd never get off hwy 84 to the 395, but alas with 1/4 tank of gas we were safely in Markleeville paying almost $5/gallon! Town populations averaged 400 and elevations were around 4,000 ft; amazing scenery. Finally, we arrived in Bishop which is a metropolis of over 3,000 residents! It was 95 degrees when we arrived, so we took refuge in our room before having a great sushi dinner (go figure!). We're looking forward to minimal driving tomorrow and getting situated for our big climbing day on Thursday.















June 18th/19th- Day 3/4, Biship to Lone Pine


Since we'll be climbing Mt Whitney tomorrow, we decided to head up to Lone Pine, get our climbing permits, ditch our urban gear in a hotel, and go camp at the Whitney Portal Campground (7,500 ft or so). We had the BEST camp site! Right by a bustling stream and in the shade, perfect! We also had our pillows (yeah car camping!) so we had the best night's sleep before a climb ever. Asleep by 8 pm, up at 3 am....

We easily gathered our food from the bear bin, threw our packs in the car and drove up to the trail head (8,365 ft) for a starting time of 3:36 AM. It was a nice gradual climb all morning. We were able to take the headlamps off around 5 AM and watch the sun rise over the Death Valley mountains in the east. The route stayed steady with switchbacks and plenty of rocks to traverse for the majority of the day. We kept a good pace and drank plenty of water all day, but that did not prevent us from feeling the affects of the altitude or the unforgiving sun. Slow and steady got us to the summit at 12:11 PM. The last two miles were the worst as we went behind the Whitney range (rocks, rocks, rocks) to come up to the summit from the west. It was brutal. But the top was worth it! Gorgeous views as far as the eye could see. Our 40 friends at the top enjoyed it, too :)





Then we went down.... and down... and down. About six hours of walking. We left the summit at 12:40 and got back to the trailhead at 6:46 PM. A long 15 hour, 22 mile day of pure sun. There was virtually no shade all day. That is one big, amazing dessert. The rocks looked like sandstone, but were, in fact granite. We'd never seen anything like it. Gorgeous. Time for a beer, burger and rest....



June 20th- Day 5, Lone Pine to Monterey Bay
Distance: 400 mi
Time: 7 1/2 hrs


This desert doesn't end! We reached temps of 100, 105, even 109 degrees as we drove hwys 14, 58, 46 and the 101 to the coast. We watched the scenery change from dry hills and big rocks, to meadows and tress and rolling green hills. We reached vineyards, coffee shops and finally the ocean! Aaahhhh. It's like being home! We enjoyed a nice seafood dinner on the warf to welcome ourselves back to civilization and had a cocktail at a nice bar. That was enough to call it a night.


June 21st- Day 6, Monterey, Carmel, Santa Cruz, Half Mooon Bay
Distance: who knows anymore
Time: leisurely
Well, Day 6 was our first not-perfect day. Monterey was awesome-- a nice breakfast on a patio by the trail overlooking the bay followed by a trip to one of the greatest aquariums in the nation-- however, Chris wasn't feeling real well. Then Carmel, a small town a few minutes south, was full of restaurants and art galleries, but we decided not to spend much time there and head up the coast to Santa Cruz. Originally, we thought we'd hit a few wineries along the way, but come to find out, it's just crop land and beaches up Hwy 1. So we went straight for Santa Cruz. Chris was so disappointed when he arrived. Santa Cruz was not what he had hoped. In fact, it's a crappy town with too much traffic. The boardwalk and everything around it looked so run down that we bailed. More driving further up the coast. We figured we'd just stay in a hotel anywhere along the way, so that we could get an early start to SF in the morning. Well, an hour or so past Santa Cruz, we hit a major road block. Seems there was a serious accident that wouldn't be cleared for hours. So, we turned around and headed back to a hotel that we saw 20 mins earlier. Hey, look at that the hotel and restaurant are closed for a wedding. Here? In the town with a population under 300??? Did I mention that I was really hungry, too? We found another little joint around the corner and got a couple bad sandwiches and a tried-and-true Red Hook and decided we were ready to head north again. The accident was cleared, but looked AWFUL. We drove about another 30 mins and came to the south end of Half Moon Bay-- a real town, with real hotels. However, the first two hotels we stopped at were booked. They said it gets like this in the summer. Ugh! Both hotels directed us up the street to the Oceano. We were so tired and so ready to be done, we just wanted a bed. The Oceano is AMAZING.


We walked in and I thought, "Oh no.... way too much." But what could we do? We checked in and found ourselves in a room the size of our condo. Flat screen TV above the fireplace, a kitchenette, a balcony overlooking the bay, electronic ac/heating system, gorgeous bathroom.... you get the idea! Needless to say, we unwound pretty quickly. So, now the blog is updated, we've had great showers, and we're ready to go into SF. Back on track :)




June 22/23-- Day 7/8, San Francisco

We arrived in SF late morning and checked into our ecclectic, little, historical hotel, Hotel Boheme in the North Beach district, right on the edge of Chinatown. We got a recommendation for Dim Sum that proved to be a good one. We were assured we'd 'stand out' and that we did! Of the hundreds of people in the restaurant, we were of a handful of white people. Then it was off to walk all the hills, including Lombard street, and through Fisherman's Warf. We came across an italian bakery where we couldn't pass up napoleans and lattes and decided that we sure like little Italy! Before dinner, we had drinks at an Italian place that was so authentic the wait staff and ourselves could barely communicate. Then it was off to another Italian restaurant for serious pasta and wine. We love SF! The next morning we were up for another good breakfast and walk around town. This time it was through the Haight/Ashbury area and Golden Gate Park. Lunch was in the Mission area followed by a tour of the oldest standing building in CA, Mission Dolores, a church built in 1791. Today the max temp was about 59 degrees, overcast and cold all day, so it was a little tougher to be out and about. Overall, the architecture of the city is beautiful and unique, the people are exceptionally friendly, the culture is amazing; the only drawbacks are pedestians walk when they want to, drivers don't use blinkers and do as they please. And you get sick when you eat as much as we have for the last two days! We might move to SF.

By early evening, we were on the road again, N on the 101 over the GG Bridge to Sonoma. Within an hour, we were back to warm temps and rolling hills. We found our way to the cottage we'll be staying in for the next two days, picked up some maps and vineyard information, and are looking forward to the upcoming days in wine country.

June 24-- Day 9, Sonoma

Lori and I arrived in Sonoma Monday evening and ended up having dinner at an irish pub tucked deep inside a cobblestone alley. Upon check in to our rental house we received a complimentary basket of wine, cheese, and coffee. Tuesday morning after breakfast, we prepared our map of the valley to see which wineries we would hit first.

We started the morning by visiting Beuna Vista. This winery is the OLDEST winery still operating in California. Orignially started in 1857, it holds one of the oldest legacies in California. We sampled a pretty wide range of their varietals including a Syrah, Pinot, as well as a Sangiovesse. Once done we moved onto Ravenswood, a winery that should be familiar to everyone reading. Most of what was offered here was less than exciting. The wines weren't very complex and didn't have much flavor. Thumbs down. By this time we were certainly well into our tasting. We drove a bit north on the 101 to JVB and Gundlach Bundschu. The recent wildfires that are ripping through California are taking there toll. Dense smoke and haze throughout all of the hills. Visibility is poor and the air is thick. Unfortunately this has made photo-ops a bit difficult.

Gundlach has an extensive German background and we ended up getting a few bottles here because we liked the family-run atmosphere.

By the end of the evening, we had hit 6 wineries. When we got back into downtown Sonoma there was a farmer's market in the middle of the plaza. Lots of fresh fruits, vegetables, as well as food vendors that were similar to a mini Bite of Seattle. Tomorrow we'll be spending another day in Sonoma and heading a little farther north to Santa Rosa to explore Healdsburg and other areas.

June 25- Day 10, Santa Rosa and Healdsburg

After a beautiful late-morning run and home-cooked breakfast in our little cottage, we were on the 101 again going north to Santa Rosa and Healdsburg. We had less of a plan today and just decided to visit whatever we stumbled upon. We started, though, with a recommendation to go to Willi's Wine Bar in Santa Rosa for fabulous wine and food pairing. It was awesome! We sat at the bar where the bartender could chat with us about wine varieties, cheeses, and food pairings. It was a classy little place where, once again, we ate until our hearts' content! Then it was off to a country road that runs through the Russian River area-- winding, narrow road with beautiful hillsides of grape vineyards, ranches and farms. We stopped at Gary Ferrells (great view, mediocre wine), Hop Kiln (used to be a brewery in the early 1900's until their crops were destroyed by a fungus), Armida (funky labels of 'Poizin' wine, but not so tasty), then finally, Francis Ford Coppola's winery (cool place, but it's under construction, so missed the museum and such; pretty good wine). After all this, we decided to call it a day and head back to Sonoma. We had a dinner reservation in town, but decided not even we could indulge in such gluttony, so it was back to the cottage for a mellow dinner in. We'll leave our cottage in the morning and head off to Napa. Life in wine country is very good!

June 26-- Day 11, Napa

oooohhhhhh, I just wrote two days' worth of blog and then my computer crashed. oh how I hate technology some days!!!! So, for now, you will see a list of all the wonderful places we went. Later, we will write more, or just tell you in person.....

Domaine Carneros

diRosa Preserve

Bounty Hunter Rare Wine Co

Del Dotto

June 27-- Day 12, Napa Valley

Beringer

V.Sattui

Dean and Deluca

Rubicon Estate

Cakebread

Robert Mondavi

Stag's Leap Cellars

Mumm Napa

June 28-- Day 13, Calistoga to Arcata

Distance: about 400 miles

Friday night we checked into a little hotel on the north end of Napa Valley in Calistoga, enjoyed a nice Mexican dinner, followed by a swim in the pool, and lounging in the spring-water-filled hot tub before bed. It was a nice way to end our Napa journey! The next morning we headed north on the 101 yet again with intentions of stopping where we'd like along the way. I think we made two stops, but really, we were just done visiting wine country. It was time to be going home! We arrived in Eureka on the northern California coast by 5PM and were in Arcata to have dinner with Chris's cousin, Dorje, and his wife, Reagan, shortly thereafter. It was a great visit and nice to catch up with family we don't often see. It was an early night as we had a long day of driving ahead of us!

June 29-- Day 14, Eureka to Gig Harbor

We were up at 4:30 AM and on the road by 5. Chris took the first couple of hours of driving while I dozed. Driving the coast at that hour was dark and very foggy. He could barely see the road ahead of him. It was a slow, windy way to start the day. However, it was gorgeous. We were pretty deep in the Redwood forests by then and even in the dark, they were majestic! We also happened upon quite a few elk as well. Most were grazing in the meadow, but one was on the side of the road, so we stopped a minute to take him in. Then it was my turn to drive over Grant's Pass into Oregon while Chris dozed. We continued along like this for a solid 12 hour day on the road. The weather was nice and overall the drive was uneventful. We thought it would be fun to surprise his parents and stop in at their place unannounced. Lucky for us, the garage was open, so we snuck in the back door. Kay was confused thinking the cat was coming in, then Rick was startled awake from his nap when he heard us because he thought Kay cut her finger off and was screaming. Yeah, we got them good! We all enjoyed a nice dinner out, remeniscing about the trip.

June 30-- Day 15, Gig Harbor to Seattle.

We're home! The car is unpacked, the laundry is going, the mail has yet to be sorted! We drove a total of 3,000 miles on our California journey and enjoyed every bit of it. No flat tires, no tickets, no accidents-- a very successful road trip! Now we are looking forward to sharing bottles of wine over dinner with friends in the near future!

Mount Rainier Climb - DC Route

Date: 7/14 - 7/16

Party: Doug Shurman, Chris Kirsten, Lori Kirsten, Scott Smutz

Day 1 - Camp Muir

We left the Paradise parking lot at approximately 10am. The conditions were extremely warm, and humid. The goal was to gain about 4,000ft to establish camp at our reserved site near "Moon Rocks" on the Muir snowfield just below the huts. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner and were pelted with high winds during the middle of the night. After dinner we realized that we were already running lower than we had anticipated on fuel. This was enough of a concern that we decided to only fire the stoves up if necessary. The number one priority would be to melt snow for water for drinking and eat whatever we had available in our packs.


Day 2: Ingraham Flats

We ended up getting up around 8am, packed up our gear and climbed up to11,100 at the Ingraham glacier. We roped up as a single four Pearson team and traversed the cowlitz glacier to access the flats which is a common camping area for climbers. Finally we gained cathedral ridge at approximately 11am. We were met with high winds yet again which kicked up dirt, pebbles and other unpleasant surprises. We finally arrived at camp and had dinner. We had reports from other climbers that people were having the poles from their four season tents snapped in half. Lori ended up having the outer wall of her tent slightly torn from the rough conditions.

Day 3: Summit Day


I was tasked with being the one to periodically check on the weather during the night to see if we had any reasonable chance of a summit bid. I woke up at 12:30am and looked outside to see nothing but stars in the sky and other climbers with headlamps heading up the mountain. This was it, now or never. I woke my partners up and we started to crampon up and left camp by 1:30-2am. We began by making a rising traverse over the Ingraham glacier where we were soon met by a wide crevasse that we had to hop. After ascending the cleaver, we got to the icefall which was heavily broken. Below illustrates the crux climbing move of the icefall that we dealt with. We protected it with pickets and were able to move through fairly efficiently.

As we moved up the mountain the winds became stronger. By the time we reached 13,200 we saw the sunrise over the horizon which was the only thing we were able to enjoy to keep our mind off the face numbing wind. We finally got to the crater rim at approximately 8:15am. We had been climbing for about 5 1/2 hours. At this time we rejoiced in exhaustion, and walked down into the crater to the other side we enjoyed the views and singed the summit log. We knew the mountain wasn't going to give up that easily. On our descent of the cleaver, we climbed into a whiteout with dense fog and wind where it became bitter cold. We had no choice but to self belay certain sections because of the high winds were making us unstable in getting down quickly.

Once we arrived back at Cathedral gap, the winds continued to kick up dust, sand and rock. We had a close call where the tailing rope caught a boulder (approx 40lbs) and then dislodged. We yelled "ROCK!!", but at that point it was too late and as Lori turned around it hit her from behind and threw her onto her back in the scree slope. My first thought was complete horror, being sure that she was seriously injured. Thankfully enough, she came away unscathed and we continued down to Muir.
















We finally got to the cars at approximately 5:15pm at which time we threw down our packs and took the long ride out of the park to find a decent meal. We ended up eating in Spanaway at some dive pub that had mediocre food and mediocre service.

Whitehorse - NW Shoulder

Date: 5/26/2007
Route: Whitehorse/NW Shoulder


On Saturday Lori and I departed at 4am from Seattle to head up to Darrington to start our climb of Whitehorse. We arrived at the Niderprum camp T.H. at 6am to meet up with the rest of our party. The 2 mile drive up the completely unmaintained road, was filled with large rocks, potholes and overgrown shrubbery. Jim Joung was leading the climb and we started hiking from 800ft.

Ingalls/E. Ridge

Date: 8/26/2006
Route: Ingalls E.Ridge
Difficulty:5.7
Climbers:Ken Hahn, Chris Kirsten, Claire Cramer,Sabrina Oesterele

On Saturday morning we left the Seattle Park and Ride at 4am to head up to Ingalls to do the East Ridge of Ingalls Peak. This was my Intermediate graduation climb. Ken somehow manages to be fairly awake at this crazy hour and starts to sing in the car. We get to the Esmerelda Basin at around 6:45 and start hiking by 7am.

We arrive at Ingalls lake to see the blue/green colors in the lake coming out. After a short break we gain the slabs and head up the shit talus and scree to gain the base of our climb. It's already started to get hot and the biting flies and other random bugs have started to come out. Ken and Sabrina take the first rope and start up the first pitch. Most of the rock is fairly loose on this section with some sandy areas. I lead on the second rope with Claire behind me.

The second pitch is an interesting combination of face climbing and an unprotected climbing of some slabs to gain the next belay.














The third pitch required a downclimb and crossing an exposed notch. The person leading this pitch can easily be "lowered", but the follower does not have that many options, so you either have to downclimb or sling the rock with a tied runner and use that. The last half of the pitch is pretty fun and is mostly face climbing with exposure leading up to a knife edge whale back type ridge.



The last pitch proved the most difficult where you are required to get yourself inside a cove. Claire wasn't entirely comfortable with the crux so I volunteered to lead it. There isn't alot of places to put protection except lower which didn't excite me, but up I went after I slammed a #6 nut in. A slightly overhanging roof impedes the way, and proved to be suck ass with my large pack on. I think it's time to invest in the small grivel day pack. After this move, I saw the summit boulders and traverssed across a couple of ledges, not bothering to put anything in because I was psyched. In retrospect, this probably wasn't the smartest idea but I lived. I brought up Claire and we all enjoyed the summit before preparing to head back down. 3 rappells got us down to the point where we could scramble the rest of the way to to talus.

























We also ran into a huge family of mountain goats on the slabs. We were able to literally walk right up next to them and they seemed to care less that we were there. We all mutually agreed that they probably saw us scrambling and thought we were crappy climbers compared to their abilities moving throughout the rock. We got to the cars just as it was starting to get dark and we all agreed that a stop at infamous Mexican Restaurant was in order. Margaritas were on the menu and nearly put us on our ass. A good trip. Credit goes to Sabrina and Ken for taking the great pics. Thanks guys.

SEWS/Kangaroo Temple

Date:8/19/2006-8/20/2006
Route:SEWS/S. Arete and Kangaroo Temple/N. Face
Climbers:Kirk Alm, Glenn Pittenger, Myself and Lots of Basics

I Met Kirk Alm at the Ash Way Park and Ride at 4:00am Saturday morning to head up to Washington Pass. Everything seemed to pretty much drag on the way up. We arrived at the Blue Lake T.H around 6:45am. We met the other basics and headed up the trail. After about 2 hours of hiking we arrived at the notch of South Early Winter Spires. There were six of us total, and Katie Steffl was my follower on the climb. The last time I did this climb, I did the crux pitch by traverssing to the left. I decided to try something different and move straight up the face this time. It was a bit of a challenging move on lead, but not harder than 5.5 I would imagine. I had rock shoes on for this particular section. I brought Katie up and was belaying her with a munter hitch directly off the anchor which proved to be a wise decision since she took a couple of falls on the rope and ended up gashing her leg pretty good. We passed the chimney and then all congregated at the "whale back" - a 12-15ft hand traversse. A fixed line was set up on this portion of the climb for those people that may have been more nervous. We all got to the summit and enjoyed the views and then got ready to come down.

We started to notice just how many gomer, inexperienced people this peak attracts. The mountain became a cluster fuck on the way down with dozens of people that were doing stupid things. One party felt that it was necessary connect 5 or 5 people with different ropes, fixed belays all the way up the peak. Morons.

After the climb and the bizzare events that took that place, Kirk and I both felt that it was necessary to relieve our mental anguish by enjoying some Winthop Hops. After our beers we headed back to camp and slept it off.

Sunday - K.T

Sunday morning Kirk and I woke up from our stay at the Lone Fir campground. I carcamped that night and didn't sleep all that well. Perhaps from the beer? We met the basics for the Kangaroo climb at the hairpin curve in the road. Again, there were six of us. This was my first time on the route,

Liberty Bell/Beckey Route

Date:7/15/2006
Route:Liberty Bell/Beckey Route
Difficulty:5.6
Climbers:Richard Conner, Leigh Conner,Eric Robinson,Chris Kirsten

On Saturday morning, I met Eric at the Ash Way Park and Ride at 5:00am for our ride up to Washington Pass to do Liberty Bell. We arrived at the Blue Lake Trailhead at 8:00am and began sorting our racks and gear that we were bringing. We started up and eventually hit the climbers trail that took us up towards the Liberty Bell/Concord/Early Winter Spires.

We encountered some people that apppeard to loose a member of their party. We continued up a fairly narrow gully with some third class scrambling. It was fairly challenging in a couple areas but we arrived at the Liberty Bell/Concord Tower notch at around 10:30. Once at the notch, there was one party ahead of us on the route. We geared up, and got into position to head up next. We saw a soloist by himself trying to do the route. Oddly enough we ran into another Seattle Mounties party that was doing Concord (Ken Hahn and Sam Uzwack).

The first pitch allowed us an interesting variation from the face route. A small wormhole/chimney went up about 20 feet and up onto a ledge. I led the second pitch, a 5.6 blocky chimney, somewhat awkward. Pitch 3 was a combination of friction climbing, with some underclinging cracks and the infamous "fingertip" traversse to the left. The final pitch is fairly "non interesting" since it's mainly a scramble. The crux move on the last pitch was a 12ft, unprotectable friction slab of granite with one very comitting move. The rest of the the fourth pitch was just a scramble to the summit. We all moved fairly quickly and were on top in about 2 hours. (averaging about 30 minutes per pitch).

On the descent we ran into a traffic jam at the main rappell anchor. We waited for about 30 minutes for everyone to get down. 2 bombproof hangers cemented to the west face was ourway down with a single double rope rappell. I ended up implementing an autoblock backup on my rappell since it was such a long rappell. We all got down and back to the cars at around 6:30pm, at which time we split up and Eric and I ended up feasting on Mexican Food in Sedro Wooley and enjoying a couple Margaritas discussing our accomplishment and planning our next trip.