Nov' 2003 |
Olympics -
Upper
Lena Lake... - After a season of
circulating race tracks, and ripping up the backcountry roads on my
sport bike, it's time to head back into the hills. I joined
Mike who has been waiting all summer for me to get back into the
back-country mode. In order to see where I was standing as far
as conditioning goes, we day-hiked up to Upper Lena Lake and back
down. Click here
to read more about the trip... |
|
Oct' 2002 |
Olympics -
Mt.
Cruiser... - The third time is a
charm, as Mike and I summit Mt. Cruiser via the Mildred Lakes
approach. More scenic than the Flapjack Lakes approach, and
blessed with perfect weather and absolute isolation, this was a an
excellent trip. We had time to explore around the lakes, get
in some bouldering, and then climb using a non-standard approach
route. Click here
to read more about the trip... |
|
Sep' 2002 |
North
Cascades - Dome
Peak... - This is as close as
Mike or I got to Dome Peak. Here, Mike takes a self-portrait
while on Itswoot Ridge. Weather and fatigue (me) prevented
anything close to a summit attempt. But the trip was interesting
none the less. Click here
to read more about the trip... |
|
Aug' 2002 |
North
Cascades - Del
Campo... - Perplexed
over whether we should go to Leavenworth and take in Givler's Crack,
or try something else. A quick check of the roasting
temperatures on the east side made up our minds! Instead, we
chose a great scramble - Del Campo - located near the deserted town
of Monte Cristo in the North Cascades. Here Mike pumps for
water, with Frenchy, his dog Crystal, and the summit in the far
background. Click
here to read more about the trip... |
|
June 2002 |
Olympics -
Crystal
Pass Traverse... - As
Mike would say, "So you hate that f-ing descent down the
Constance Creek Trail." This is the trip for you then, up
Constance Creek, ascend Avalanche Canyon, camp at Crystal Pass, descend
through the Warrior system, and out the Dungeness Trail. Pick
and choose the peaks in between! The picture here is the view
up Avalanche Canyon, with Crystal Pass in the center. Click
here to read more about the trip (which includes video)... |
|
April 2002 |
South
Cascades - Mt.
St. Helens...
Alex, Jim, Tyler, Kelly, Gee and myself climb Mt. St. Helens.
Alex took this shot of the true summit. The climb is a slog,
but the views from the top are pretty cool. Watch out for the
snowmobiles though... Click
here to read more about the trip... |
|
Mar' 2002 |
Mt.
Rainier - Carbon
Glacier...
Mike, Alex, Helten, James and myself spend a weekend on the Carbon
Glacier to get away and explore, and to put in some turns on Mike's
board. Click
here to read more about the trip (which includes video)... |
|
Feb' 2002 |
Washington
Coast - Ozette
Coastal Hike...
The plan was to camp up near Cloudy Peak, and walk the ridge over to
Warrior, but a land slide on the road changed that plan.
Instead, Mike and I went out to the Washington coast to hike the
beaches north of the Ozette river. Click
here to read more about the trip (which includes video)... |
|
Nov' 2001 |
North Cascades -
Gothic
Basin...
Following our trip up Mt. Dickerman, Mike and I hooked up with Alex
and Olaf to go to Gothic Basin near Monte Cristo. I took this
picture of Gothic Peak and Foggy Lake during a fairly spectacular
sunrise. Click
here to read more about the trip (which includes video)... |
|
Nov' 2001 |
North Cascades -
Sunset
From Mt. Dickerman...
Mt. Dickerman isn't necessarily a place to go to for itself, but
more for the views it provides of the surrounding peaks - at least
in November! I took this picture about 10 minutes after true
sunset, this one was one to remember! Click
here to read more about the trip (which includes video)... |
|
Oct' 2001 |
North Cascades -
The
Enchantments...
With autumn, comes the annual trek into the hills to view some
autumn colors. Last year was Black Peak, this year, it's back
to the Enchantments near Leavenworth. A series of lakes
nestled on a plateau at around 7,000 feet, Golden Larches provide a
very scenic contrast to the deciduous foliage found at lower
elevations. I took this shot of Inspiration Lake shortly after
dawn. Click
here to read more about the trip (includes video)... |
|
Aug' 2001 |
North Cascades -
Blackhorse
Point... Late in
August, Mike researched a climb of Blackhorse Point located between Silver
Star and Liberty Bell in the North Cascades. We were to do two
routes, hopefully with several pitches I could lead. Click
here to read about our exciting escapades... |
|
Aug' 2001 |
Mt. Ranier - Spray
Park... For a
change of pace, Mike organized a group
hike to Spray Park on the northwestern flank of Mt. Ranier. The
hike is around 3 miles from the trailhead, with brief cutouts to a perch
called the Eagles
Nest (myself and Denise), and to the awesome waterfall to the
right. The hike ends up on a meadow with a magnificent view of Mt.
Ranier. Unfortunately, my pictures on top were washed out by a flat
sky, and didn't scan well - so you'll have to see for yourself
sometime! The meadow also overlooks
a pristine valley carved out by glaciers centuries ago... |
|
Aug' 2001 |
North Cascades -
Black Peak sunrise...
I took this sunrise shot when Mike and I did the northeast ridge traverse
of Black Peak. Click here to see more
about the trip... The northeast ridge is on the right. |
|
Aug' 2001 |
North Olympics -
Tull Canyon sunrise...
I took this during sunrise from Tull Canyon Pass. The canyon sits on
top of Tubal Cain mine, an old copper mine operated in the early 1900s.
Click here to see more
about the trip... |
|
June 2001 |
South Cascades -
Goat Rocks Panorama...
I took this composite of the Goat Rocks area in the southern
Cascades. Located near Old Snowy along the Pacific Crest Trail, the
area is close to being equidistant to Mt. Ranier, Mt. Adams and Mt. St.
Helens. The rocks them selves provide some decent class 4
scrambling. Click here to see more
about the trip... |
|
June 2001 |
Mt. Rainier - Camp
Muir... Alex, Jim
and I attempted Mt. Rainier, but were turned back by adverse avalanche
conditions. Still, it was a nice trip. Click
here to see more
about the trip... |
|
May 2001 |
North Cascades -
Mike Approaches the Summit on
El Dorado...
Marla took this shot of Mike as he sinks a picket a few yards from the
summit of El Dorado. Click here to see
more from the trip! |
|
Mar' 2001 |
Olympics - Inner
Constance from Charlia Pass... At dusk!
Mike grabbed this spectacular sunset shot while we were camped on Charlia
Pass (above Charlia Lakes near Cloudy Peak) in early March. The
temperature was about 10 degrees! I also took some video during the
trip:
|
|
Oct' 2000 |
North Cascades
- Summit of Black
Peak... Mike took
this summit shot of myself and Helton. Helton was
pretty apprehensive about getting on the real summit as there was a steady
breeze, and there is a several thousand feet cliff just behind me.
No, I wouldn't back up any further for the picture. Mt. Goode is on
the left, while Mt. Forbidden is in the distance on the right...
Click
here to read more about the trip (which includes video)... |
|
Sep' 2000 |
Yosemite
- Summit of
Cathedral... Mike took
this shot of me in front of Cathedral, in Yosemite. Originally
wanting to do the Matthes Crest with Alan and Joe, various
circumstances conspired to prevent us. So instead, we
scrambled Cathedral. Still, all in all, this was a good
trip, and it was fun to take in some Yosemite granite to see what
all the fuss is about. Now I know, and I like it! Click
here to read more about the trip... |
|
July 2000 |
Olympics on Mt. Cruiser
- Scramble to Ralph's Step...
Mike took this one as I
ascended to the table at the base of the summit massif. We named
named it Ralph's step as I allowed myself to dehydrate, and got sick when
I took off my pack to put on my rock climbing gear. Since I was a
bit lightheaded, we decided I shouldn't try the rock climb to the summit -
one pitch away! I was still able to belay Mike up... That's one of the Mildred Lakes in the background. |
|
July 2000 |
Portrait of Mt.
Cruiser... -
Mike took this portrait of Mt. Cruiser with his wide format camera. No
explanations are needed... In order to get to the actual climb, the
approach takes you over several minor peaks. Mike
took this shot of me on top of the last one prior to the climb.
We approached from Flapjack Lakes... |
|
June 2000 |
North Cascades - East
Wilmans Spire - Mike
took this picture (and the others) of the first spire of the Wilmans Peaks
near Monte Cristo. Don't ask Mike where the lid to the summit log
container is! This was a very fun day-trip:
|
|
Oct' 1999 |
North
Cascades - Golden
Larch in the Enchantments... -
Mike organized this trek to the Enchantments with myself and
Olaf. Mike took these spectacular shots of the surrounding
scenery, focusing on backlit pictures of the Golden Larch. Click here for the trip report... |
|
July 1999 |
Olympics - Mt.
Constance... -
Mike, Alex and I set out to climb Mt. Constance following a heavy snow
year. Although we doing the climb in mid-July, Lake Constance was
still half frozen over, and there was still 2 to 5 feet of snow in the
official camping area. All of the shots were taken off of video, which is why the quality is very so so.
Click here for the trip report... |
|
May 1999 |
North Cascades -
Quien
Sabe Glacier -
Mike took this picture of the summit of Sahale when we visited the
Quien Sabe Glacier over the Memorial Day weekend. Greeted
with great weather, it turned on us once we were up on the
glacier. Click here for the
trip report... |
|
Feb' 1999 |
Carbon Glacier
on Mt. Ranier - Mike
exploring some crevasses...
I took this shot of Mike in the distance as he wandered off to explore
some crevasses on his own. |
|
Aug' 1998 |
Mt. Cruiser - Mike
wishing for better weather... I
took this shot of Mike as he was praying for better weather so we could
climb Cruiser. Unfortunately, this was about the best it got, so we
bailed in hopes for another day. |
|
Aug' 1998 |
Olympics
near Mt. Cruiser - Straddling a schrund!
Mike took this as we descended the snow field from the saddle near
Mt. Cruiser. This was the first time I've ever repelled off of a
snow field to straddle a schrund like this - and I nailed it! BTW,
weather kept us from summiting that day... |
|
July 1995 |
Olympics - West
Summit of Mt. Olympus...
Another rope team we aided took this shot of myself, Mike and Alex on the
summit of Mt. Olympus. Unable to find the scramble route in weather,
I led the west route (5.4) unaided, and belayed everyone up. This
was my second time on the summit (third attempt), and the first for Mike
and Alex. |
|
July 1995 |
Olympics - Blue
Glacier... Mike
took this shot of me leading Mike and Alex across the Blue Glacier as we
made our way to Olympus. The East and Middle summits are in the
background... |
|
July 1989 |
Olympics - Blue
Glacier... I took this
eerie shot of Brooks and Kaaren while we explored the Blue Glacier near
its terminus. |
|
July 1989 |
Olympics - Trail
to Glacier Meadows... I
took this shot as we headed up to Glacier Meadows from Elk Lake. We
had some pretty iffy weather this trip, but it made all of the greens
greener, and cast the region into a more exclusive mood... This
stream is drainage from the White and Blue glaciers, and feeds into the Hoh river. |
|
July 1988 |
Olympics - Glacier
Meadows... While doing
some trekking during my first trip to Olympus, I took this shot of some
avalanche lilies in the upper portion of Glacier Meadows... |
|
July 1988 |
Olympics -
West Summit of Mt. Olympus...
Another rope team took this picture of Brooks, myself and Jason the first
time I made the summit Mt. Olympus. This day was picture perfect,
around 75 degrees in the meadows, and in the 50s on the summit. |
|