Alpental solo tour Wednesday, April 27th

I woke up this morning to my alarm clock at 5:30 and hit the snooze two times so it must have been 5:45 or so when I actually got up. This week I had posted on Turns All Year that I was looking for a partner and to my disappointment this post got zero takers but instead of call the day off I decided to go up to Alpental to find some partners in the parking lot or just do some solo laps. I was told by another guy on TAL that there were "four or five" cars in the parking lot on Tuesday so that gave me a little hope to push me on. After driving through anything from pouring rain to a light drizzle I was happy to arrive in the parking lot to snow falling. Once in the Alpental parking lot I sat for a good 30 minutes reading a ski magazine and listening to music before giving up on finding a partner and grabbing the skis and skins and heading out on my own. After 20 minutes of skinning I stopped to chat with two guys going the other direction that had skinned up the runs at Alpental and skied though a backcountry gate to make a few turns before heading off to work. They told me that the top part was,"actually pretty fluffy" so it gave me renewed hope that this day would not be a waste. After another hour of skinning I could see that wet slides had been released on virtually every high angle slope so I stuck to the trees and low angle stuff for all my skinning. Once I had gained the high ridge in front on Pineapple pass I decided to descend through the trees, turning more to slow myself down than for fun.
After one short run I thought my day was over and headed down the groomed track to the parking lot. Just as I rounded the final corner to the paring lot I saw two guys that were heading up and asked them If I could join them. They answered,"yes" and the second part of my day had started. We stuck to my original skin track to its high point but broke off after it to continue on shallow terrain in the direction of Pineapple Pass. Once we got in the valley at the foot Pineapple pass it was decided that we would skin across two large debris piles and along a flank to arrive on the other side of the ridge where there was "good shallow skiing". I didn't buy this because I have skied the other side of the ridge and looked back at what we would be on top of coming from this direction and remember more of a sheer cliff band than "shallow skiing". Just before this plan was hatched I had asked to borrow wax for my skins that were covered in heavy snow and gaining weight so at the time of me feeling uncomfortable with the current plan I was already behind the guy that had let me borrow the wax. I followed behind through one debris pile until I could hand of his skin wax and told them I had to get back to my car before 12. They were both okay with me leaving early and told me to stay safe on my ski down. I said, "thanks for the wax" and headed down the same shallow trees I had skied earlier and had a great last run. All and all I had a great day skiing lower angle trees on the way down to the car and would call the day a success and who couldn't with break in the clouds like this...

-Owen

My Weekend April 22-24th

The trail to Oyster Dome

My weekend started with me trying to find a partner to ski with in the Bellingham area as my cousin was suppose to get out of class at 1 which is pretty late to go climb or do anything else outside (not really). After searching online for a while and posting on different peoples trips that I would be interested I was finally rigged with a guy that was headed up the South West (could be wrong) face of the Twin Sister. I was super happy to be making it up this climb in what turned out to be sunny weather. The next day I met my partner in the parking lot of a Hagge n just down the hill from WWU and we were off. After finding the correct dirt road we drove until we got to a guy that was welding. We got out to ask him a few questions and got the information that he and his crew would be heading out of the area at 4 and locking the gate behind them. It was already 10 or so, so we decided that instead of taking that chance we would make our way to the Coleman-Demming route on Mt.Baker for some nice turns on the shallow face. After unloading the sled and preparing the trailer for loading when we returned we were off for 3 or 4 miles of what felt like waves. My partner tried to get out of the ruts as best he could by cruising on the outer part of the track but just as we rounded a bump section the side of the trail gave way and we were tumbling down the bank on the downhill side of the road. When I felt the sled was turning over I jumped as hard as I could to clear the sled but my partner was not so lucky and the sled rolled over him. Lucky for both of us the only damage that was done to us or our equipment in the whole incident was a lost contact. The sled was pinned against a tree and remains in the same place to this day. My partner is going to try to go back this spring to get the sled out with a winch when the snow is gone on the road. After that whole episode we skied back to the truck, loaded our gear minus the sled and headed back to Hagen where he dropped me back at my car. We decided that we had to do another tour to wipe this one out of the books and hopefully that will happen later this year. After arriving back at my cousins apartment at 12:45 I gave him a call to tell him that we were going climbing and that I would him why I was back so early when he got back to his room. We spent the rest of the day climbing at Oyster Dome overlooking the San Juan Islands just outside of Bellingham . Due the the excellent weather we could for miles and it was one of the best views of the ocean I have ever seen. The next day some of Colin's friends and I went climbing at another area that had moderate routes and super loose rock for being a sport climbing area. On one of the climbs I was leading a huge boulder let loose right as I was clipping a bolt. I managed to move my foot fast enough to maintain my balance but with the trail right below it could have been a bad thing. All and all I had a great time in Bellingham this weekend but wish I would have had my passport to run to Canada for climbing in Squamish, maybe next time

Uncle Scotts 50th birthday party at Crystal Mtn

Just got back from an awesome time up at Crystal celebrating my uncles 50th birthday.  The first plan to have me film the birthday celebrations but that fell through when my camera decided not to start up after a long night of charging the battery so here are a few pictures along with my aunts pictures to capture the memories.
The mountain was covered in fog as we arrived at the base and got our stuff on. As we made our way up the lifts we gained an extra ski pass from a friend of Scott's that is a ski instructor and had a comp pass. After regrouping with friends and family at the base we made our way up the gondola with packs stuffed with sandwich making materials plus chips, apples, and cookies. We dropped the packs at the top and started skiing. The conditions where less than desirable but we all managed to get a good edge in on the sheet of ice that is ofter called "packed powder", and oxymoron if I have ever heard one.
After a few hours of skiing we took a warming break that lasted until 10 minutes before lunch was scheduled. We got to the lunch spot (top of the mountain) right as sandwiches were being whipped up. One drink was given by the birthday boy to everyone at the party which was awesome but I was surprised to see more people ordering up coffee than beer at the bar. Not in Euroland anymore!

After lunch the clouds started to part off and on for the rest of the day making it a much nicer day and softening up some of the snow. Overall it was a great party and cool to meet a lot of people that I had only seen at one or two outdoor trips again. Fun times!

Skiing Mt.Baker backcountry

Yesterday I got out with my uncle, his friend, and another group of 2 Canadians that decided to leave Canada to venture into the Mt.Baker backcountry (WHY?). The day started at 5 when we woke up on Mercer Island and packed the car for the drive to Mt.Baker. After a quick Starbucks stop and a partner pick up stop we were on out way.


Once we arrived in Bellingham we put on the skins at a lodge that I later saw on a trail map called Heather Meadows Base Area and started going up the ski run and through a backcountry gate at the top of a large cat track switch back. The weather was foggy and I could see (and hear) that the snow was breakable crust. After a few backtracks we eventually made out way to the top of a bowl that dropped down the back side of what we were skiing. After digging a put probably 6 or 7ft deep and finding nothing too serious we made the decision to give the bowl a ski. The bowl had not succumbed to the warming the other areas had due to the lack of sunlight that could reach it being surrounded by high peaks on all side so the snow was actually pretty good! I was apprehensive about dropping in at first but after my first 3 turns I new it was going to be good. I skied the bowl two times (binding iced up) and my uncle and 2 others skied it 3. The powder was probably a foot and a half deep but that was about as deep as it could have been because the pitch of the slope was 30 degrees the whole way. After enjoying the bowl for most of the day we dropped into the other side to make our way to the car which turned out to be survival skiing due to the breakable crust.
Overall I had a great day of skiing and can tell that spring is about to hit with force even though a few snowstorms are still blanketing the upper peaks.


-Owen

Climbing Index

After waiting for way too long (god damn it Colin!) we finally got on the road on our way too Index. This trip was my first time to Index but will not be the last! I had high expectations from all the rumors talking this place was kind of like a little Yosemite and as I was soon to find out all the rumors are...true! As we came around the corner the first cluster of beautiful granite came into view followed by several other walls that fan out to the right above the town, each one at least five pitches tall. The wall had shelves, cracks, and was over overwhelmingly big.
We pulled into a parking lot on the right side of the road and had all our gear ready for the small approach in under ten minutes due to the adrenaline shot of having such a big wall so close. We walked over some rail road tracks to what I think was Lower Town Wall. After that we made our way to the right along the base of the wall. We passed one guy that was solo aid climbing and two more groups that were all aid climbing. I had never seen so many people aid climbing at one location but I sure wasn't going to! After walking around the corner from the aid climbing groups we got to another portion of the wall that had a tunnel dead center in the wall with water pouring out under the doorway. There was a guy that was digging a trench to relieve the water that had built up in the area (swamp). I asked him if he knew of any wall higher up on this side. He said he didn't know but had seen people paragliding off the top two weeks prior. I guessed there were but decided to wait until I had a guide book to explore any further up the hillside.
After climbing three easy cracks that made us feel like an absolute beginner climbers we made our way out of Index hungry for our next visit that I hope will not be far out in the future. I have a feeling if I keep climbing here I will become much better at crack climbing and the next stop will be Squamish on my list of climbing meccas to visit. On our way out of town I got a copy of the Index Climbing Guide which is essentially just a bunch of old topos with a plastic binder keeping it all together (I need to laminate these!). A pretty good book for information but really nothing to it and I guess it can be downloaded at http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/index/ Overall it was a great trip and I can not wait to return with the guide to get some more climbing in on such perfect rock!

-Owen

Update April 6th

Hello all those who read this blog (echo) Me:"Hello!"

March and April have been the best months so far for jobs coming my way with a few places looking at me and giving me job interviews. The only one that I'm excited about is a bouldering gym that is going in close to Mercer Island (within a bicycle ride)  that I have just been guaranteed a part time job at. For me even part time would be killer at this gym because I would get really strong and my climbing would improve drastically. Not only that but it will be cool to also meet people to go out and climb real rock with and this job would put me dead center in the Seattle climbing culture. STOKED! I have been contacted by a few other companies that are in malls and to be honest I'm not sure I could work in a mall. I get a little bit of anxiety when I'm in a crowded mall and just want to get out. This on top of working a cash machine all day would do damage to my psyche level. I interview for a job working on Mercer Island doing Parks and Rec stuff so that could be a good thing. I think it could end up in a full time position and that would be awesome. If I could start making bank from here on out and saving it I could have enough by the time October hits to get my own place or go on a long, long ski road trip. Whichever happens I'm happy with! Colin and I are suppose to go climbing on Friday or Saturday at the Index Town Walls. I have never been but we passed them on out way ski touring two weeks back and remember them being very BIG! I have done some research and found some 5 pitch climbs that I would love to give a go in the next couple days. Hopefully the weather relaxes so we can make this happen! Here are a few pictures from a trip to Vantage. I'm done going to Vantage. Too long of a drive for far too shitty rock! Ceau Bella,

Owen