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