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

Climbing Addiction

I recently came to terms with the climbing addiction that I'm going through and have to face the facts. Here are a few things I have noticed that seem to confirm my conclusion.

1. I have gone on climbing trips over mountain passes passing by famous ski areas with tons of snow to go climbing and not hesitated about it once.
2. At those climbing areas I have woken up to several inches of snow on the ground and not thought twice about if I was going to go climbing or not.
3. I ski instruct and have not used my free pass once for personal use.
4. I check the weather not to see what the skiing will be like for instructing each weekend, but to see if it will be possible to get a few easy climbs in after instructing.

The Life Of...

Here's an update on my life for all of you and for myself to think back on in a few...

       As of now my stay in Seattle has been filled with climbing, searching for jobs, and ski instructing a bunch of rowdy five and six year olds that you will be seeing in a few years either in the x games or in the Olympics.  A quickly planned three day climbing trip to Smith Rock was a good change of pace from all the job hunting. Everything on the trip was good except for some of the weather (read day 2 on the Smith Rock trip post) but that didn't stop us from climbing.

Smth Rocks trip

I just got back from a great trip with my cousin to the sport climbing paradise of Smith Rock in Oregon and was nothing short of amazed by the amount of climbing and quality of climbing.

Driving Day: We left Bainbridge Island at 11:30 or 12:00 and got to Smith Rock State Park about 5 hours later as night fell. We put our tent up in the dark in a spot that we later found out was not a campsite at all but actually a picnic area but for the 2 nights we were there it worked out perfectly.

A Washington update!

It's been a long time since I last updated this so here goes:
For the past couple weeks I've been checking out the city as much as I can but for the most part staying on the Mercer Island side of the lake except for 2 trips to the climbing gym (one successful and one not) due to the climbing gym being situated in the industrial part of town that is super hard to drive through when your looking for a specific address. I'm getting better and better at finding my way around Seattle but I'm still far from knowing where I am all the time and that leads to some crazy detours that take me off course by more than a few miles over and over again until I'm too tired to care where I was going and just head home.