in the wilderness with todd

Ngandong Beach

2009-10-25T13:26:00.017+07:00

Last Friday, Melis and I went to Ngandong beach with our friends Ali and Ben. We set out Friday afternoon and made the trek via our mopeds. It was a 2 hour drive through beautiful scenery. We stopped half way there at a look out point and enjoyed cold beverages. When we arrived, we checked into our losmen (like a motel). Ben and Ali recommended a awesome place just up from Krakal beach. It was 5 dollars a night. It was simply a room with a bed and a mandi (squatty potty). We had candles for light along with a nice lightning storm. That night we relaxed, ate at a local warung right on the beach and played cards.

The next morning Ben and I went surfing. Ben was nice enough to not only let me borrow one of his boards, he also transported the boards from Jogja, via his motor. Check out the photos of his surfboard rack on his motor. The water was refreshingly warm and the waves were overhead. It was definitely nice to get out in the water.

The rest of the day we relaxed on the beach, reading, sleeping, eating and chatting. We ate at the local warung again as well. Around 3 in the afternoon, we packed up and headed out. We stopped for an early dinner at Kampoeng Baron Restaurant and had a delicious chicken steak meal. After eating we headed back to Jogja in the pouring rain. I got absolutely soaked! I had a rain jacket and shorts on. Mel faired a little better with a poncho:-)

All and all it was a fabulous one day getaway with great company. Thank you Ben and Ali!!!!

Blog Action Day - Climate Change

2009-10-15T09:31:00.003+07:00

As part of a worthy effort, this post is dedicated to the important issue of climate change. Today is Blog Action Day, a day when bloggers unite and blog about a single topic. This year's topic is climate change.

I have spent the last 2 months in Indonesia. I've seen how beautiful the country is, from the orange orangutans to the lush forests. Indonesia, however, is also one of the leading countries in deforestation. And according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, deforestation accounts for 20% of the world's global warming pollution. Indonesia has recognized this problem and is willing to combat this issue. "The Bali Roadmap" was laid out at the end of 2007 and the countries who participated recognized climate change and were willing, in the next 2 years, to lay out a plan to help reduce global warming. It's been two years since then and deforestation is still a huge problem here in Indonsia. More action needs to be taken. Incentives need to be given to the people in the surrounding communities to stop cutting down trees. Deforestation emits CO2, but it also destroys natural habitats for hundreds of animals as well.

We need to constantly pressure and remind our governments and media outlets that climate change is a serious problem and that by ignoring it or putting it on our "To Do List" will not be enough. Action and global agreements need to happen.

Cerme Cave - Bantul, Indonesia

2009-10-11T21:09:00.000+07:00

The Crew

Mini waterfall

Watch out for the bats!

Last Saturday I went “caving” or whatever you call walking through a long 1,200 meter cave. I met up with a friend of a friend who was leading a group to Cerme Cave in Bantul, a town 40 minutes outside of Yogyakarta. We all met up in Yogya and followed each other with our motorbikes. Driving there, I past breathtaking scenery; lush rice fields, mountains and banana trees. We arrived 45 minutes later at the village leader's house. He was in charge of the small mountain village community where the cave is located. We left our bikes with him and headed to the cave, it was about a 15 minute walk to the cave entrance.

Before entering the cave our guide handed us bike helmets. Walking in the cave I was sporting a bike helmet with a flimsy visor and a headlamp. Entering the 1,200 meter long cave, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The water level on average was about 2 feet high. At times we were crawling with the water level up to our shoulders. In the two hours we were in the cave we saw a lot of bats, some sort of cricket creature and lots of cool mud/mineral deposit formations. We even saw a low pressure waterfall. I guess during the rainy season the water pressure is pretty intense.

It was a great adventure, there was not technical experience or risk involved, as long as you are not claustrophobic! You could walk through the cave in about an hour but we took our time. The water was refreshing and relatively clean. At times the cave was narrow and cramped, the helmet was a good call. It wasn’t a necessity, but it let me focus more on keeping my camera out of the water rather than bumping my head.

When we emerged from the cave (a different exit point than the entry point) we walked back to the village chief’s place and enjoyed a nice lunch. We had rice, tempe, tofu, tea and fresh veggies. I contributed sour cream Pringles J.

Tanjung Puting National Park - Borneo

2009-09-24T19:31:00.001+07:00

To celebrate my 30th birthday Melissa and I went on a 3 night 4 day boat trip through Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo. Tanjung Puting is famous for their orange orangutans. We drove 3 hours from Yogyakarta to Semerang, then took a 1 hour flight to Pangkalan Bun, Borneo. From there we headed to the police station to get our permits for entrance into the park. We booked 3 night 4 day boat trip on the Satria I from Suyono Majit, the boat manager.

After staying the night in PB we headed out early the next morning for Kumai (20 km away), which is the harbor where our boat was docked. Melis and I set sail, well, not sailed but "motored" our way to Tanjung Puting with 3 crew members, a cook, captain, and a guide. From boat it took a few hours to get into the park. Around 2:30 we arrived at Tanjung Harapan, a camp where once captive orangutans get fed daily. Tanjung Puting has 3 camps where rangers put bananas on platforms for the orangutans to eat. Most, not all of the orangutans were once held captive and later released into the wild, however, once they were domesticated with food from humans they had a hard time reverting back to their natural habitat. So, even though they have been released into their natural habit, free from any restrictions they do still depend on these timely feedings. At camp Harapan we hike about 15 minutes to the feeding area. The ranger put a bunch of bananas on a 10 foot high platform and we waited patiently for the orangutans to come. Just to set the scene, these "camps" are no more than a few benches made from fallen trees and slats of wood. There is a platform that is about 100 square feet and a 25 foot section of string about chest high that indicates how close you can get to the platform (about 12 feet). No fences, no fancy signs, no walls or any sort of confinement whatsoever. After about 20 minutes and guides making loud crys to attract the orangutans, they started to appear. First we heard rustling of leaves, then trees started to bend and suddenly we caught our first glimpse of an orangutan. One after the other, about 8 in total swung from tree to tree bending them perpendicular until they got close to the platform. Once in sight of the platform they lowered themselves down from high in the trees and enjoyed bananas left of the platform. Some ate on the platform and some took the bananas back into the trees to eat. Some had babies on there backs and some were shooed off my a more dominant male.

Melis and I were in awe, unbelievable. Yeah, I grew up in San Diego with the great zoo and wild animal park but I had never seen anything like this before. Melis and I snapped photos and were amazed at the beauty of these creatures. After a little bit we both sat on a make shift bench and just watched. The feedings at the 2 other camps were very similar to this one, however, camp Leakey had alot more orangutans and were more domesticated.

After an hour of watching the orangutans we headed back to our boat where we relaxed, read and had soda and wafers. The captain fired up the engine and we left the camp. The sun was going down and the proboscis monkeys started coming out. They were all along the shoreline high in the trees. These odd looking creatures have pot bellies and long shaped noses, they can only be found in Borneo. Once it got dark we found a spot along the side of the river to tie our boat to and enjoyed great food prepared by our awesome cook. We ate all our meals on the boat, fresh fruit, tempe, rice, eggs, chicken, veggies, tofu, toast, crab, beef and more. The crew set up a huge mosquito net and a mattress for us to sleep on every night. Very pleasant. The stars were out and the forest was louder than ever with animals talking. Melis and I took an immediate liking to our choice of staying 3 nights instead of only 2:-)

The next morning we headed up to camp Pondok Tangui to view a 9am feeding. The feeding was just about the same as camp Harapan, a 15 minute walk to the camp and about 8 to 10 orangutans showed up from tree limb to tree limb. Still, an amazing experience. Our guides say they never get tired of watching the feedings and I believe them.

By midday we were back on the boat enjoying a great lunch and heading to camp Leakey, the most popular camp of them all. This feeding (2 pm) was spectacular. There were orangutans hanging out in the middle of the trail, completely unafraid of humans. We literally had to walk past them, no further than a foot away. There were probably about 15 to 20 orangutans around camp Leakey. Some stayed on the platform some sat in the middle of the trail and some relaxed in trees 5 to 10 feet away from us. We even saw "Pedro" mate with 2 different females with in a 10 minute time span!

Day 3 we woke up and went on a 3 hour hike through camp Leakey. We didn't see much wildlife but it was beautiful none the less. At feeding time we went back to camp Leaky to view the feeding in hopes to see "Tom", the king orangutan. Tom is the dominant male who rules the region, he was a no show the day before. About 10 minutes into the feeding I saw Pedro scamper away from the feeding area, here came Tom, a HUGE 200 plus lb male orangutan. Wow, what a sight it was to see him. He mated with someone and then began eating bananas.

After taking a few pictures of Tom I turned off my camera and had a seat next to a local guide. We quickly started up a simple conversation in Bahasa Indonesian. With me able to speak only a little Bahasa I focused completely on trying to find the right words and not sound like an idiot. A few minutes later I hear fellow guides yelling "move, move, leave, GOOO! " I look up to find people fleeing to a narrow path out of the feeding area, then I see Tom heading straight at me! He wasn't coming fast but I would call it a brisk walk. I quickly got up and skirted away to the side. I couldn't make it out of the feeding area because it was clogged with 50 people trying to get out. A few kids started to cry. I got as far as a I could without crushing someone, maybe 15 feet away from Tom. I didn't know his intentions, my heart was beating fast. Tom proceeded to hurdle the bench exactly where I was sitting less than a minute prior and headed back into the forest. Wow, that was a close one. On our hike back we were greeted by a few orangutans that didn't feel like moving off the trail so we carefully walked past them.

Our last night on the boat we parked near fire flies who where lighting up the overhanging plants. It was breathtaking, Melissa and I enjoyed a candle lit dinner watching fire flies fly around, sometimes even on our boat. The next morning we took our time and headed back to Kumai.

This trip was amazing! We had an awesome crew and great weather. Melis even threw me a mini birthday party on the boat the second night. The crew and a few other travelers we befriended had cake and sprite.

Mt. Bromo

2009-08-31T17:29:00.000+07:00

Mel, Me, Nancy and Paul

Stairs leading up to the crater

Enjoying the sunrise

Me, Mel and Nancy with Bromo in the background

Last weekend Melis and I, along with our friends Paul and Nancy went to Mt. Bromo. A bus picked us up from Jogjia around 8:30am on Friday and we endured an 11 hour bus ride to Bromo. We stayed at Cafe Lava, which is a great little hotel that is right next door to the park entrance. It has incredible views and fairly good food. When we arrived we checked in and ate dinner, I enjoyed sate ayam and a Bintang. Shortly after eating we all went to bed.

The next morning at 3:30 am we got our wake up call from the hotel staff. We got dressed and grabbed our packed bags. We took an hour long jeep ride to a vista point over looking the steaming and very much still active Mt. Bromo. We arrived at 5am, there were a lot of tourists there so I quickly set up my tripod in the front row in order to get a good view while the sun began to rise. The view was one of the most spectacular mountainous views I have ever seen. Bromo is in the middle of a caldera which traps in the morning fog. Bromo and a few other mountains were jetting out of the fog while the sun began to light up the sky. Breathtaking!

After an hour we took the jeep back down to the base of Bromo where we hiked up to the crater. It was an easy 30 minute hike up the path/stairs to the top of the crater where steam was actively seeping out. After enjoying the views from the top of the crater we returned to Cafe Lava and had a nice breakfast. The rest of the day we relaxed in the small, hilly town of Bromo. I was very surprised at how quite and peaceful it was there. We took motos (see video below) to another hotel Yoschi's and had hot chocolate. Motos are great, it's a great way to see the countryside. That night we ate at a the Bromo hotel restaurant, where the food was fairly good but nothing special. The rest of the night we relaxed and chatted it up over some tea and cookies.

The next morning I got up at 5am and went to a look out point near my hotel. It was nice to shoot the view from a different angle. This time I could see both above and below the fog. The fog was cutting through the mountains like it was trying to divide it in half. It was quite peaceful and I chatted it up with a few locals who were also taking in the view. After breakfast, we started our long, long journey home. I know it's hard to believe this but the 11 hour bus ride was well worth the wonderful weekend in Bromo.

I will soon have more photos posted on my Indo photo blog.

Krakal and Sundak Beach

2009-08-24T18:11:00.000+07:00

The swimming hole. You can barely see Melis and Melanie

Melis, Nancy and Melanie

Locals catching some food

Last weekend Melissa, Melanie, Paul, Nancy and I went to Krakal/Sundak Beach, which is about a 2 hour drive from Yogyakarta. We visited a few beaches up and down the nice stretch of empty real estate. The beaches were very clean and the ocean was very choppy with double overhead waves. We saw only a handful of visitors and a few locals. We basically had the place all to ourselves. When we arrived at 12 we relaxed on the beach, reading, talking and chill'n in the water. Around 2 we walked down to the only place we found open and had some nasi goreng. There, we met a guy that gave us a tour of the local beaches. We wound up swimming in a beautiful swimming hole that was surrounded by bright green vegetation. Due to the low tide there were many tide pools forming where some locals collected various sea life. After a few hours we headed back to meet up with our taxi. On the way we came across an amazing deserted resort up high on a cliff, over looking the beaches we visited. The views from this place could beat most any beach front property. We found a guy that was looking after the place to inquire how much it would cost to spend the night there. Apparently they only open up the resort when a huge party reserves it. It is not open for first come first serve customers. bummer! The price was way too expensive anyway. After that we headed back to the taxi and returned home. Next time I think Melis and I will attempt to ride our moped there. Melissa's Indonesian skills are good enough to get us directions if we get lost:-)

Here is a link to an interesting story behind Sundak Beach

Mt. Lawu

2009-08-10T19:35:00.000+07:00

Trailhead

The closest thing I could find to a map

In the beginning

Jimmy and Melanie

Jimmy

Merapi steaming

Melanie pondering life

Sunset

At camp drinking tea

Star trails over Mt. Lawu

Melis and Me at the summit

Me at the summit

Mountain shadow and Melis

Melis and me at camp, behind us is where we slept

This hut/area was made out of bottles and cans

This weekend Melanie, Jimmy, Melis and I set out to climb Mt. Lawu (10,712ft). Mt. Lawu is a spiritual mountain for Indonesians, many go to meditate at the summit. We left Jogja around 8am on Saturday. We took a taxi to the train station, train to the town of Solo, taxi to a bus station, bus to Tawamanggu, then a local taxi/bus to the trailhead. In all it took us about 4 hours to get there. Once at the trailhead we ate some nasi goreng and noodles at a local eatery.

With Jimmy leading the way, we started hiking around 1. The climb was spread out into 5 check points, with the 5^th being the summit. This helped keep our pace and provided a good resting spot. The trail was well worn and easy to follow, it was not as steep as Merapi, however it was longer. We reached cloud level as the sun was beginning to set. This made for spectacular views, we even saw Merapi poking through the clouds. Five and a half hours later with our head lamps on, we reached our camp which is about 600 feet from the summit.

Camp is a little hut with a metal sheeted roof. A few locals live up here and provide a place to stay for climbers. We had tea and nasi goring for dinner and enjoyed a nice fire. Around 8 we all huddled on the floor to get some sleep. It was EXTREMELY cold at night and we had no sleeping bags or pads. We didn’t even have adequate clothing. Locals said it was around 32 degrees out at night. Fortunately, a local gave us a tarp to put over us. It was so cold that all four us bundled up to share each other’s body heat. Even our heads were under the tarp. After tossing and turning until 5am we got up and hiked the 15 minute climb to the summit to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful! The mountain was creating a pyramid shadow.

We hiked back down to camp where we ate eggs and noodles. Around 8 we packed up and hiked down. We made it back down in about 4 hours. From there we ate at a local eatery and started our journey home.

Time to give props:

Jimmy – Thanks so much for taking us on this trip. Jimmy guided us through Indo’s public transportation and on the hike! Oh, and he hiked it in sandals!

Melis- Way to go babes! Hiking her first 10,000 peak and doing it in style (spandex pants and argyle socks). The looks locals were giving her were priceless.

Melanie- Continuing to add to her adventure resume of Everest base camp and Machu Picchu.

Stats:

Elevation at trailhead: 6,400 feet

Summit: 10,712 feet

Time to summit: 5 hours and 45 minutes

Return time: 4 hours

**Sorry there have been no videos lately. My point and shoot camera died:-(

Mt. Shavano and Tabeguache Peak via Brown Creek Trailhead

2009-07-09T07:20:00.000+07:00

Cary and me on top of Tabeguache

One needs to cross a stream some how

Katie climbing up

2 pics I shot near our camp

Katie and Sis on top of Tabeguache

Brad, Kris and me climbing up Tabeguache

Me rocking my new hat

Cary climbing up the snow shoot

Climbing up the snow shoot

Over the fourth of July weekend me and some of my buddies did some climbing in the Sawatch mountain range in Colorado. I had previously never even been to Colorado none the less the Rockies so I was pretty excited to get out there and climb! On Friday the 3rd, Cary, Katie and I met up with Brad, Kris and Kelsy on route to Brown Creek Trailhead. We got to the trailhead around 12:45 and started the 6 mile hike up to Brown Creek Lake were we set up our camp for the next two nights. The hike was gorgeous, it followed a well flowing creek with aspen trees littered all around. About 3 miles from the trailhead we stopped at the "falls" for lunch.

Around 4:15 we arrived at the lake and set up our tents just north of there. Cary and I were bunking together as usual, Katie was with her sis and Brad and Kris were together. Cary and I have camped so many times together I feel we are a well oiled machine, very proficient at setting up camp. That night we set up a camp fire and relaxed. I tried capturing water blur photographs near the creek near by but nothing really turned out to my liking.

The next morning we woke up around 5:30 and got ready for our climb. We headed out of our camp (11,300 ft) by 6, just as the sun was painting the mountains a nice shade of pink. We climbed up a gully filled with scree and loose rock for the first hour and a half. Around 12,500 we started climbing up a ridge, luckily climbers above us showed us which route "not" to take. While climbing up the ridge a climber above knocked down a bowling ball size boulder down the shoot and went whizzing past us. It wasn't close enough to hit us but it was heading towards where we were before we started climbing the ridge. None the less it definitely got our attention. After climbing up the ridge we traversed to a snow shoot in a gully and climbed straight up until we hit the saddle (13,800 ft), which connects Shavano and Tebeguache. Brad and Kris did a terrific job kicking in steps up the hard pack snow! Once at the saddle we climbed up to Tabeguache (14,155 ft). There was a small cornice that we climbed over to reach the summit (roughly around 10:30). Once on the summit we relaxed for about 20 minutes with the 5 of people who were already there. Katie also brought chocolate for all of us as well. Thanks Katie, you rock!

We soon headed back down to the saddle and left some gear there as we hiked along the Mt. Shavano ridge to Shavano's summit. It took us about 30 minutes to reach Shavano's summit (14,229 ft). Once there we met a guy who put an American flag on the summit. After a picture I headed back down to the saddle where I ate my salami, cheese and cracker lunch. Kris hung back a little and sang the star-spangled banner with the patriotic climber:-)

On our decent, going down the snow shoot was a little tougher that I expected. I had hoped the snow would be punchy and easy to heal step down. It was definitely manageable but not as soft as I would have liked, so the last 40 feet I got on my butt and glissaded down. We arrived back at our camp around 1:30. The rest of the day we relaxed around the camp site. I took some photos, took a nice nap and then sat around the campfire and discussed important topics like swamp @$$ and the town of Rifle.

The next morning Cary, Kelsy and I headed back down to our cars. Cary and I needed to start our drive back to California. Brad, Kris and Katie stayed and climbed Mt. Antero, good job guys!

Weather:

The weather was great the whole weekend. We did encounter a thunderstorm in the middle of the night one night but that's about it. It was cloudy on and off throughout the weekend.

Stats:

Brown Creek Trailhead: 8,950 feet
Brown Creek Lake (Camp): 11,300 feet / 6 miles from trailhead
Saddle: 13,800 feet
Tabeguache : Peak: 14,155 feet / about 1.5 miles from Brown Creek Lake (our camp)
Mt. Shavano : 14,229 feet / about .5 miles from saddle

Lessons learned:

Subways in Colorado don't offer avocados
The town of Rifle has the best Starbucks ever (ask Cary)
You must drive a Subaru to live in Colorado
Mini tripods take terrible water blur photos, too low to the ground.
Mel and I should move to Colorado

** Thanks to Kelsy, Katy and Cary for contributing their photographs to the blog.

** Thanks to Brad and Katie for planning such an awesome trip!!!

View Brown Creek, Co in a larger map

Lassen Volcanic National Park

2009-07-08T01:02:00.000+07:00

On June 20th my brother Erik, our buddy Nic and I went backpacking in Lassen Volcanic National Park. This is about 4 hours north east of San Francisco. We arrived at the park around 12 and stopped at the Lassen Peak parking lot to climb the mountain. The trailhead was at 8,400 ft and the climb was a well worn, mellow trail the led up 2,ooo feet to the summit (10,462 ft). There was still a little snow of the trail which we climbed through. After an hour and a half we reached the summit to take in beautiful views of the park. We got back down to the trailhead around 4 and headed to the summit ranger station where we hiked in 5 miles to Rainbow lake where we set up our camp for 2 nights. Rainbow lake was a great place to camp. We had the place all to ourselves.

The next morning we headed to cinder cone peak, painted sand dunes and the fantastic lava beds. It was an absolutely beautiful hike there, unlike any terrain I have seen in my life. My pictures don't do justice to what it looked like in person. The dunes were a grey color with yellow and red sand strewn across them. In the background there was a large section of black lava beds that starkly contrasted the dunes. We hiked up half way up Cinder Cone ( which is an odd, 600 foot mound of volcanic sand and rocks, see pic below) and had lunch. Nic (our swiss friend) brought salami, avocado, cheese and bread for lunch. That was definitely a nice change of pace compared to my normal back country lunch of luna bars and trail mix. Thanks Nic! After lunch we headed up to the top of the Cinder Cone. We took alot of pictures and admired the view of Mt. Lassen which was peaking through the clouds. On our way back down we hiked near Snag lake on our way back to our campsite. We hardly saw anyone that day. I was blown away by how many downed trees there were due to lightning strikes.

The next morning we packed up and headed back to our car. We drove through the national park and stopped at Bumpess Hell trailhead where we hiked to this fumarole/hot spring phenomenon. This was an easy 3 mile round trip stroll. There was still a little snow on the ground but nothing to deter us from going. When we got there we snapped some photos and toured the place via the wood slat trail. After an hour or so we headed back to the car and left the national park.

All in all the backpacking trip was great. I could easily have spent another 3 or 4 days photographing the original landscape of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The park has something for everyone, fumaroles/hotsprings, 10k fooot peak, lakes, sand dunes, lava beds and much more. And a special thanks to Erik and Nic for scouting and planning such an awesome trip. I had a fabulous time.

Stats:

Mt. Lassen (10,462 ft): 4.4 mi round trip. 2K elevation gain.

Bumpess Hell: 3 mi round trip

Backpacking: 19 mi round trip (5 mi to rainbow lake & 3.5 mi to cinder cone)

*** Thanks to Nic for "donating" the 2 pictures above with Erik/Me and the three of us in front of the lake

My Google Map for Lassen is not working right now. Below is a screen shot of the map for now.

Mt. Rainier via Ingraham Glacier

2009-06-11T05:35:00.000+07:00

June 4th I flew out to Seattle to meet up with my climbing buddies; Brad, Brian, Cary, Dave, Katie and Jeff. We all met up at the airport and rolled out to Ashford. We signed up with RMI to climb Rainier, the most glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states. We happened to get rooms for Thursday, Friday and Sunday nights at the Whittacker Bunkhouse, which is on the grounds of the RMI compound. Thursday afternoon we rolled into Ashford and checked into the Bunkhouse, a very minimal motel. Thursday afternoon we had a 3 hour meeting with our guides. We went over our gear and the plan for the next 3 days. After that we ate burgers at the RMI bar and grill and called it a night.

Friday we drove up to Paradise (40min) where we had our skills training. From 9-3 we practiced self arresting, walking roped up, along with other techniques. We were inside a"pingpong ball" the whole time. That means we were in the clouds and the visibility was no more than 40 feet. After the training skills class we all took the RMI bus back to the compound. We walked down the road to some local diner and ate dinner. I had an opened face chili burger which was pretty good. The salmon was less than favorable according to Brad and Katie. That night everyone retreated to their rooms to pack for our climb.

Saturday morning we met up near the RMI bus at 8am. We headed up to the Paradise area where we found ourselves in a light mist and once again inside a "pingpong ball". We scurried off the bus and headed into the bathroom hallway where lots of climbers were getting ready to start their climb. We made any last layer adjustments and met up with our RMI guides outside. We climbed up the Muir snow field for 5 hours and reached Camp Muir, our basecamp, around 3:30. Camp Muir is the most popular basecamp on Mt. Rainier. There is an outhouse along with various huts. We stayed in a hut Saturday night. We ate dinner around 5 and were in bed by 6:15. Yes, it was very light out. It really didn't get dark out until 10, which is when I really fell asleep. I had a dream that I was running a marathon in crampons. I was stressed out and woke myself up at 12:20am, the exact time when our guides were going to wake us up to climb. I thought that was a little creepy.

Soon after waking up from my marathon crampon race Gary our lead guide came in with the wake up call. We shuffled around and took an hour to eat breakfast (smores pop tarts ....yummy!) and get ready. 1:40am, I was rocking my crampons and helmet with my head lamp on. We were split up into 3 teams, 1 for each guide. My team was me, Katie and Brad and our guide was Eric. We roped up and headed out. The first leg of our route was crossing the Cowlits glacier and Cathedral Gap to Ingraham Flats. This took us a little over an hour. We braked for 10 min. We then climbed Ingraham Direct, basically climbing straight up the glacier. This was the hardest and steepest part of the climb. We crossed 4 or 5 crevasses and had no time to stop due to the avalanche danger. We also climbed a ladder and crossed a few snow bridges. This section of climbing was by far and away the most intense. I had never experienced anything like this. The deep crevasses were breath taking. At one point we got on all fours and had to scurry across (using our axes) a narrow snow bridge, while looking down a 50 foot crevasse. Crazy, but also very exciting! In addition to climbing around many obstacles, we were directly below giant blocks of snow. These blocks were huge, one section had broken off 10 days prior. Needless to say we hauled through this section. No time for stopping. We climbed for 80 minutes and took another break. By this time the sun was starting to slowly rise over the clouds. We were just above little Tahoma peak which was jetting through the clouds. From Ingraham Direct we climbed to "high break", this took another 70 minutes. During this section the sun was peaking through the clouds making for a spectacular view. We were now well above the clouds. I started to feel a little sick and light headed. I have felt this way before on steep climbs, it's an indicator my blood sugar is too low. I hurriedly ripped open a pack of frozen jelly bellys and ate them by the mouthful. Since they were frozen I let them warm up under my tongue for awhile. The tricky part about climbing is that my appetite goes away completely so I have to force myself to eat. During the climb I tried to consume as many calories as possible. Above 13,000 feet I love to eat jelly bellys. Feeling a little better though still exhausted we made our way up to the crater. Finally, around 7:30 we made it to the crater rim. From there we made our way into the crater and set down our packs to congratulate each other. After 5 minutes, Brian, Brad, Katie and I hiked across the crater for 20 minutes and climbed about 200 feet to reach Columbia Crest, the highest point on the mountain. It was about 15 degrees with sunny skies. We were very fortunate to have great weather. Once on Columbia's Crest we hugged and took a few pictures. I was relieved and overtaken with a sense of accomplishment. I trained for months leading up to the climb, lost 10 pounds and invested a lot of money in it. We soon headed back and met up with our group. On our way down I recorded a video expressing my thoughts. I called Columbia Crest "Clouds Rest", which is in Yosemite. I was not all there mentally, below is the video.

Around 8:30 we started our descent down the mountain. On our way down we could clearly see the route we climbed up now that is was sunny out. Wow, the Ingraham Direct route with the crevasses and giant snow walls looked even more daunting yet beautiful at the same time. We made two stops on the way down. One just above Ingraham Direct and the second at the Flats. We finally arrived back at Camp Muir around 12:30. From there we packed up our belongings, took off our crampons and headed back down to Paradise. The hike down to Paradise from Camp Muir was super mellow. We made it to Paradise around 3:30. Upon arriving at the RMI compound we ordered pitchers of beer and celebrated with our group, including our guides. After enjoying some beer and a burger we showered up and went into the spa where we continued to debrief and talk/joke about the climb. On Monday we packed up and returned to our residences with a new sense of appreciation for glaciated mountains.

3 days after the climb I am still trying to process my "Rainier" experience. All I can say about it is "incredible". All my climbing I have done doesn't compare to this experience. I was blown away by the beauty and danger of Rainier. What comes next? Maybe a climb out of the states. I know that the gang had a blast. I hope in 2 years we can get another climb organized. Everyone in the group was awesome! Thanks Brad, Brian, Cary, Dave, Katie and Jeff. I couldn't have asked for better people to climb with. I also want to thank my family for all their support and encouragement!

Below is a link to some of our photos:

My Pictures

Dave's Pictures

Paradise: 5,400 ft (5 hrs to Muir)

Camp Muir: 10,100 ft (6 hrs to crater rim )

Crater Rim: 14,200 ft (20 min to Columbia Crest)

Columbia Crest: 14,411 ft

View Rainier in a larger map

Mt. Langley

2009-05-27T11:13:00.000+07:00

Last weekend Cary and I set out to climb Mt. Langley, the southern most 14er. I had previously attempted Langley with a Sierra Club trip, however, we got to 13,100 feet then had to turn around due to the leaders slow pace and late start time.

On Friday night, Cary and I drove up to Horseshoe Meadow campground and slept in the back of his truck. Saturday morning we packed up our packs, decided to leave the snow shoes behind and hiked the 7 miles of Cottonwood pass and the PCT to the unnamed lake ( 2 miles past chicken spring lake). It was a beautiful day with looming thunder clouds that never materialized into rain. I was surprised by the extreme temperature difference between being in the sun compared to the shade. Saturday afternoon we took it easy, set up camp and ate some awesome pasta primavera. We were lucky to have the unnamed lake all to ourselves, we only saw a few people on the trail all day.

Sunday morning we got up at 3:45 am and got ready to climb Langley. By 4:30 am we were off and climbing. I really prefer climbing this early because I still feel half asleep. After about 20 minutes on the PCT we headed cross country up toward Cirque peak ridge. We skirted around the ridge gaining about 400 feet elevation. After traversing the ridge and watching the sunrise cast a beautiful pink and blue tint over the Sequoia mountain range we finally saw Langley. We then crossed a few snow patches with sun cups and descended down to New Army Pass, which marked the base of Langley.

We made it to New Army Pass around 7:30. We stopped for a short break to eat some food and we happened to meet a guy (Jeff) coming up from the New Army Pass trail. As most climbers do he stopped by and we chatted it up for a little while. It turns out he is friends with 2 of my buddies from Pasadena. One of them being Katie, who I am climbing Rainier with next week. He was going to climb Langley as well so we decided to all climb together. Jeff, Cary and I headed up Langley and found Jeff to be a super cool guy and a good climber as well. The conversation distracted us from the long hike up Langley. Once we got to about 13,300 feet we decided to take a more direct route up which involved 3rd class rock scramble. This was much more entertaining than scrambling around the side of Langley. After a few hundred feet of climbing the last part was a walk up to the summit. Once on the summit we took in the spectacular views, ate and signed the register. There was only 3 other people on the summit and not that many people coming up on the trail. We summited around 10:30, before the dark afternoon thunder clouds rolled in. After descending Langley to New Army Pass we said goodbye to Jeff and hoped to climb with him in the future. After a short break we headed back to camp the same route we came. We got back to camp around 2:30 pm. When we arrived I went to the little snow patch near our tent to uncover the pizza I had stashed and ate it for lunch. After lunch we packed up our camp and hiked back to the trailhead, arriving at 7pm. It was a great climb and also one of the longest days I've had. We covered almost 17 miles while climbing about 3,000 feet.

Overall it was a great trip. I am happy to have climbed another 14er. My goal is to climb all 15 14ers in California and so far I have climbed 3: Shasta, Whitney and Langley. The trip was also great training for Rainier next week.

Trip Stats:

Trailhead to Camp: 7 miles

Camp to Langley: 5 miles

Camp Elevation: 11,300 ft

Summit: 14,027 ft

Weather: Cloudy/Sunny with no rain.

Trail: Very little snow, just a few sun cupped patches. No crampons, axes or snowshoes required :-(

Here is a link to more pictures of the climb. Sorry there are also graduation photos that were on the memory card. It is a pain to try to move them to another album.

View Mt. Langley in a larger map

San Jacinto & Newton Drury via Marion Mtn TH

2009-05-17T23:34:00.000+07:00

It's crunch time. 2.5 weeks until Rainier!

In continuation for training for Rainier Cary, Katie and I climbed San Jacinto on Saturday. Katie, who lives in Colorado was in town for work and was able to climb with us. She is part of our Rainier team and is an exceptional climber. The 3 of us have climbed together before and we always have a blast. This climb was no different.

We got to Marion Mountain trailhead (near Idyllwild) around 8am. We wanted to get an earlier start but the trailhead is a good 2.5 hours from my place in Pasadena. As we started up the trail we encountered a ton of cut down trees along with a sign labeled "hard hat area". we are unsure what they were doing but we had to go around or climb over many trees. It took us about 4.5 hours to climb the 5 mile trail with 4,500 ft of elevation gain. The trail had just a few patches of snow, just enough for me to periodically hurl snowballs at my climbing partners. There was also enough snow to make the streams flow (enough to filter water at least).

We reached the summit around 12:30 along with a plethora of other people. I think most of them came from the Tram. We only saw a handful of people on our trail. Once on top we ate our pizza and talked with a guy hiking the Pacific Coast Trail. On our way down we decided to climb a neighboring peak, Newton Drury. There was no direct trail so we used our compasses to help navigate our cross country trek. This peak was more enjoyable to climb because there was bouldering and cross country navigation required. After a short time on top we headed back down and met up with the trail 20 minutes later.

Going back down was long and somewhat boring. It was getting pretty warm out so we dunked our hats in one of the running streams. To help us keep our minds from succumbing to boredom we gave each other trail names. Some long distance hikers (not ourselves) give themselves hiking names so we thought it would be fun to give each other names. Some names we gave each other I decline to share, however, here are some of them:

Cary = Sunshine

Katie = sooshka (Russian for pine cone)

Me = Fish (I drink and carry more water than needed)

We finally returned to our car at 5 pm. Then headed to In-n-Out, which is a tradition of ours after each climb.

*Thanks to Cary for taking the photos

Stats:

Elevation start: 6,300 ft
San Jacinto Pk: 10,800 ft
Newton Drury Pk: 10,160ft
Total Elevation Gain: 4,600 ft
Start: 8am
End: 5 pm
Permit: Self assigned at the ranger station.

Weather: Sunny and warm 70's to 80's, cool and windy on top.

Trail conditions: Mostly dirt switch back trails, few snow patches (no snow gear necessary) and a few small running springs. Plenty of shade relief for most of the trail up. Bare on the summit.

Food I Consumed:

1 luna bar
1 Odwalla Bar
1 Power triple threat bar
1 bag of peanut m&m's
6 red vines (thanks Cary!)
Handful of trail mix (with reese's pieces! good call Cary)
Dijerno Pizza

View San Jacinto via Marion Mtn 5 16 09 in a larger map

San Gorgonio via Vivian Creek

2009-05-12T11:35:00.000+07:00

Last Saturday Cary and I set out to climb San Gorgonio, the highest peak in So Cal at 11,499 feet. Cary and I rolled up at the trailhead parking lot around 11:30pm on Friday night. The plan was to sleep in the bed of his truck and get an early start on our climb the next morning. Unfortunately, we got little sleep that night. Around 12:30 a few cars rolled up into the parking lot. The people proceeded to do an ample amount of drugs and blast bass thumping techno crap. They played the same song over and over again and then proceeded to wave glow sticks around. Apparently they took a wrong turn and mistakenly thought the empty trialhead parking lot was a rave. I thought for sure cops or rangers would show up, nope, nothing. Around 3am we moved to another parking lot, which turns out to be the parking lot we should have been at in the first place. We got 1.5 hours of sleep in before waking up at 4:30am to start our climb.

At 5:15 we hit the trail, it was light enough were we didn't need our headlamps on. The first 1.2 miles had 1,100 feet of elevation gain. Luckily I was still half asleep! Cary and I pushed on and met up with a fellow hiker. It turns out that he attempted to climb Rainier last year with RMI, the same guiding company we are using. Have gave them high praise which was a relief to both Cary and myself. As we carried on up the long switch backs we hit a few patches of snow but nothing serious. The light hiking boots I was wearing were more than sufficient. After gaining 4,000 feet I started to feel the altitude. After climbing some other high peaks I am familiar with the woozy feeling. At 10,000 feet we could almost see the summit. Seeing the summit usually makes me feel better, but it wasn't working this time. So I ripped open a bag of peanut butter m&m's and finished the bag in 2 giant handfuls. The m&m's helped me feel better as we pushed on to the summit. Finally after 6.5 hours, 8 miles and 5,500 feet of elevation gain we reached the summit. We signed the registry and took some photos before eating some pizza. Cary and I love eating pizza for lunch. One of us will buy a frozen pizza and cook it the night before our hike. My favorite is Dejorno..........No Cary it is not delivery!

After 40 minutes on top we headed back down. Going down was extremely boring. 8 miles of long drawn out switch backs. And it was pretty warm. We made it back to the trail head around 4:30. I am glad I climbed Gorgonio but I don't think I am going to do it again for awhile. I'm sure it would be a blast in the snow though.

Stats:

Elevation Start: 6,000 ft

Summit: 11,500ft (gain: 5,500 feet)

Start time: 5:15

Summit: 11:40

Return: 4:30

Miles: 16 round trip

Food I consumed:

1 pack of poptarts

1 pack of skittles

a little trail mix

half a bbq pizza

1 babyruth bar

1 pack of peanut butter m&m's

1 luna bar

1 power/energy bar

5 liters of water

View san gorgonio 5 9 09 in a larger map

Mt. Baldy via Ski Hut

2009-05-06T10:14:00.000+07:00

On Saturday, Cary and I climbed Mt. Baldy via the ski hut trail. We hit the trail around 8 and summited around 11. We ate some cold pizza I made the night before. After a long break we headed back down to the trailhead. We returned around 2. There were a few patches of snow but nothing serious.

So the count down to Rainier is on. The climb is only a month away, I am starting to eat healthier and really pushing myself in work outs. I joined a gym for a month to build my core muscles. On Saturday Cary and I are going to climb Gorgonio (if we can get the permit in time). This will be a good test to see were I am fitness wise. It is about 16 miles with 5600 feet of elevation gain. The plan is to sleep near the trailhead the night before and start hiking around 5am.

Good times!

Thanks to Cary for taking the photos.

Trip stats:

Elevation start: 6,100 ft
Summit: 10,000 ft
3 hours up
2.5 hours down

View Mt. Baldy ski hut MAY-09.kmz in a larger map

Me, Mel and Merapi

2009-04-15T12:24:00.000+07:00

Monday night Melis and I were picked up around 10:30 pm in Yogyakarta. We drove for an hour and a half to a small town near the base of Merapi. Around 12am we went into a little house to have tea and wait another hour. The guide didn’t want to start too early because he didn’t want us to wait around for the sunset at the plateau. It can get pretty cold up there if you’re not actively moving. After some tea and inhaling a lot of smoke from the locals and other climbers we drove to the town Selo (around 5,500 feet), where we started our climb.

We stepped onto the trail around 1 am. The moon was almost full, however, it was hazy. It was a little daunting at first, there were lightning strikes lighting up the clouds in the distance. I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but I thought it was going to be eaisier than it really was. The trail was very steep and narrow. We had one flashlight between us that was very handy since the trail was full of baseball size rocks and occasional branches to trip you up. The first hour or so Melis was not feeling well, I think nerves and her prior stomach ache from the day before were getting to here. After a few breaks, some food and fertilizing a near by garden she started to feel better. She did not want to turn around and kept on hiking. Pretty soon she was in full billy goat mode and we climbed to the plateau or base camp (around 8,500 feet) as I like to call it. We reached the base camp around 4:45 am, 20 minutes before sunrise. Our guide, Gilah made us some hot tea which was really nice since it was pretty cold. We watched as the gray haze covered the sunrise. There were glimpses of the sun but nothing spectacular. I was more impressed with the clouds and smoke that blew over Merapi which was just another 1,000 feet above.

After relaxing for awhile Gilah and I climbed up the last 1,000 foot section of Merapi. Melis hung back chatted it up with a fellow westerner who was also studying in Yogya. Gilah and I left around 6 and it took us a good 50 minutes to reach the summit. The climb up was a volcanic rock scramble. The rocks were large, loose, and sharp. It was not technically hard we just had to go slower since footing wasn’t as stable as we’d like. As we approached the top of the crater I noticed that some rocks were warm. I started to see the smoke coming out of the vents on the mountain. There were also bright yellow chunks of sulfur which is shown in one of the pictures I posted. Once we reached the summit Gilah and I took in the 360 degree view. It was hazy out but we could still see neighboring summits and the garden towns below. After about 15 minutes we headed back down. Going down was the hard part because of all the loose rocks. Both Gilah and I took a few spills.

Once we arrived at base camp we had some noodles for a snack. Then around 8:40 we packed up and started the long trip down. The trail was very steep and had many rocks so we had to watch our footing. This made our descent slower than usual. On our way down we took a short break while Melis curiously stalked wild monkeys. These monkeys we not as forward as the domesticated road monkeys in Lombok so we only got see them from afar. We finally arrived at Selo (which had a huge Hollywood style sign that read “New Selo”) around 11:20am. The car ride home was beautiful, there were fields of local farms with lush gardens surrounding the base of Merapi. Upon arriving back in Yogya Melis and I splurged the 4 dollars and enjoyed hour and a half massages. Good times!

There are a few other peaks I am planning on climbing once I return in July:

Bromo (East Java)

Rinjani (Lombok)

Agung (Bali)

Kinabalu (Borneo)

Anyone down to come out and do some climbing? Porters are 9 dollars a day and Melis said she’s willing to do it for 5!

Merapi (Fire Mountain) is one of, if not the most, active volcanoes in Indonesia. Click here for more information on Merapi.

Elevation start: 5,600 feet

Base Camp / Plateau: 8,550 feet

Summit / Top of Crater: 9,606 feet

Start time: 1am

Plateau: 4:45am

Summit: 7:00am

Return: 11:20am

Surfing off Gili (Trawangon)

2009-04-11T16:36:00.000+07:00

Damn I got a wicked sunburn. Today I went surfing at the southern portion of Trawongan, one of the Gili Islands. I rented a 7 foot board that was weathered and beat up. To my surprise it did a pretty good job. The surf break was out over a reef. It was a very fast right. I paddled out over crystal clear water looking down at the coral and other sea creatures beneath. I had to paddle a good 120 feet just to get to the breakers, and at that point the water was only 4 feet deep! The reef was sharp and hard to walk out on. I also had to be careful and try not to land head first on the reef. After a short ride or so I was in 3 feet of water. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, however, it was well overhead and it was a reef bottom, not a sandbar like I am use to in So Cal. The waves were great and so were the locals. In my morning session there was only one other westerner out there, the rest were super chill locals. I didn’t get barreled but I saw a local get a sweet ride and get a picture perfect barrel, pretty cool to see in the water. After a while the tide started to kill the waves, I went in and Melis and I ate at Coco restaurant and had killer meatball sandwiches. I caught more waves during my late afternoon session, however, the waves were a lot smaller, head high with an occasional overhead set. Overall, the surf was great. I am so excited to get out there again.

Attached pics are from the beach where I surfed.

Northern Lombok Waterfalls

2009-04-09T14:20:00.000+07:00

Two days ago Melis and I took a tour of Northern Lombok. We used a guide from Perama travel services. We left our hotel (in senggigi) around 8am and went to local market to pick up some fruit and food for the daylong tour. Our first stop was to visit monkeys. These monkeys were very friendly however, all they wanted was food. There were monkeys all over the place. After 15 minutes with the monkeys we headed to a traditional village in Northern Lombok. It was very interesting to meet and see their traditional way of living, no electricity.

From there we headed to Sanaru, where we ate lunch over looking rice fields and a waterfall. We were about 1800 feet above see level so it was nice and cool. The food was terrible, but the abundance of beautiful lush scenery made up for it. After eating, our guide took us on a 15 minute hike down to the first of two waterfalls, Air Terjun Sindang Gila. From there we took pictures and relaxed for 10 minutes or so and then hiked (super mellow) for another 30 minutes to Air Terjun Tiu Kelep. This waterfall was breath taking. It was about 45 meters high with a powerful kick to it at the bottom. Melis and I both ventured out to the swimming hole beneath the waterfall were we got blasted by the spray (see photo). Melis did score style points for slipping on her bum near the waterfall. I turned around and saw melis cracking up on her back. She looked like a white spider with her white limbs flopping around, trying to regain traction. On our way back down our guide took us through a 30 meter stretch of a water tunnel. It was awesome. We walked through knee to thigh high running water through the tunnel which was pitch black at times. I saw a bat fly out of the tunnel when we entered it, luckily Melis didn’t see it.

After the waterfalls Melis and I had a 2 hour ride back to Senggigi. We got a chance to take in the northen country side of Lombok, we also stopped for drinks a bar on a beach to watch the sunset. Beautiful.

By far and away the best part of the tour was the waterfall trek. It was great. I could have spent all day there taking photos and swimming in the water. Good times.

Off to the Gili Islands….

Bighorn Peak

2009-03-16T00:55:00.000+07:00

Saturday Cary and I tried out our new crampons on Bighorn Peak in the San Gabriel mountain range. I was still feeling under the weather with a nagging cold on it's tenth day of inception. Not sure if I was going to complete the climb I woke up at 4:45 am and got ready to head out. Cary and I met up at San Antonio park just off Mountain Ave in Upland. From there we carpooled up to Icehouse Canyon. We hit the trail around 6:50, as the sun was slowing making the trail visible we were eagerly awaiting putting on our crampons to start our ascent. It is important that you climb early in the morning so that the snow is still hard/icy so that the crampons could be effectively used. By mid day on a sunny day the snow could become mushy and make for a very difficult climb up.

Around 8:30 we started to hit snow and ice. We put on our crampons and hiked up the canyon following the the steam. Around 10 we hit the base of Bighorn Peak. It was here we started to climb using the cross over step. This is a climbing technique that makes climbing steep slopes alot easier. Along with the cross over step we traversed back and forth for about 2 hours until we reached the summit. The climb was steep enough to make me forget about being a little sick which was nice, it also made Cary and I forget about being tired. Once climbing all my focus was traversing, the cross over step and navigation. Once we reached the summit it was a relief, I thought it was going to be a false summit and we were going to have to climb another 500 feet or so. The summit stands at 8400 feet. We found the register (which made Cary happy) and found that not no one had signed it since Feb 2. Our buddy David from WTC had signed it last. We didn't see anyone climbing the peak or surrounding peaks, we had it all to ourselves! On the summit we had a stunning view of Ontario, Timber, Telegraph, Baldy, and other peaks. We were above the clouds. Words, or my lack of writing ability can't describe the feeling I get summiting and eating lunch on the summit. Cary was pretty excited as well, he has climbed Timber, Ontario and now Bighorn in three consecutive weeks!

On our way down the snow was starting to get punchy which made going down alot easier. I tracked our route on my GPS, check out below on the google map. You can also download the file and view it in google earth. Overall, the climb was great. I am feeling more and more confident on snow and ice in preparation for Rainier in June. I do, however, know that I have alot more to learn and experience, specifically with navigation and dealing with extreme weather.

Stats:

Start: 6:50 (Icehouse Canyon)

Summit: 12:00

Return: 3:20

Elevation Start: 5,000 ft

Summit: 8,400 ft

Total Elevation: 3,400 feet

Mileage: 5.5 miles

View Larger Map

Timber Mtn via Icehouse Canyon

2009-03-01T10:43:00.000+07:00

Saturday Cary and I climbed Timber Peak from Icehouse Canyon Trail head. We didn't set out to climb Timber peak, really we just wanted to climb peaks with lots of snow and elevation gain. We started around 7:30 from the trail head and grudgingly hiked up the canyon. The trail had a light layer of frozen snow/ice. It was slippery and hard to hike on considering we didn't have crampons. Our snowshoes would have done us no good on the narrow trail either. After about 1.5 miles of hiking up we decided to veer off the trail and start our climb. The great thing about climbing in the snow is that you don't have to follow trails and you can climb more direct routes. Do to the frozen layer of snow that made the slopes slippery we put on our snowshoes and started climbing. Crampons would have come in handy here but neither Cary or myself have purchased them yet(we're still waiting for our REI dividend). With snowshoes on we had a tough time traversing so we basically climbed straight up. This was one of the steepest climbs I have done. At points I was on all fours climbing up. It was really nice to effectively use my ice axe as well. The bottom picture show me climbing up the slope where we deviated from the trail. After about 5 hours of climbing we reached the summit. Unfortunately, I ran out of batteries in my GPS unit so I did not track our hike. It would have been interesting to see our route up.

On the way back down we took the traditional trail down to the Icehouse saddle and then back to the Icehouse Canyon trail. During that time we took the liberty to take a few short cuts by glissading down the mountain. Cary and I put on our rain/snow pants and had a blast glissading down while also practicing our self-arrest techniques. The video below shows one of my glissading runs.

Along our trek, Cary and I took interest in Ontario Peak which is along a beautiful ridge off the Icehouse Saddle. The peak is now on our to do list. We are climbing San Jacinto next weekend so maybe the weekend after that. Good times!

Stats:

Start Time: 7:30 Icehouse Canyon

Summit: 12:15

End: 3:30

Elevation start: 4,990 ft

Summit: 8,303 ft

Mt. Waterman

2009-02-08T08:07:00.000+07:00

Today Cary and I climbed the same peak near Mt. Waterman as we did last month. We, however, climbed it from another route. We parked at the same area but traversed the eastern side of the mountain, avoiding the ski lifts. It was nice and sunny when we started, then a few hours in clouds rolled in and it started to snow. Once we reached 7,000 feet we noticed that all the plants and trees were covered in ice! One ski lift had ice slabs hanging from it. Even the rocks that were protruding from the snow were covered with ice. I haven't encountered that here before and I found it quite interesting. The powder was fresh from the night before, about a foot and half deep. We reached the summit coming from the other side and ate cold pizza. Coming down, the snow started to pick up. The tracks from our snowshoes were getting covered in a hurry. Since the whole mountain was blanketed with snow we desended straight down, gliding on our snowshoes. It was a great climb with unbelievable scenery. And we didn't see anyone on the mountain except for 2 backcountry skiers. Good times!

Elevation Start: 6786 ft
Summit: 8022 ft

our route:

View Larger Map

Wait....that peak looks higher (Mt. Waterman)

2009-01-04T12:36:00.000+07:00

Yesterday Cary and I went climbing in the far reaches of the San Gabriel Range. We set off to climb Mt. Waterman which is about 8000 feet and around 28 miles from La Canada (hwy 2). It was interesting driving to the parking area to see the north facing slopes covered in snow starting around 5k feet and the south facing slopes completely snow free. About 2 miles past the first ski lift (Mt. Waterman Ski Area) we parked on the left side of the road, buried 2 Monster drinks in the snow (for our return) and headed up the trail. We were on snowshoes the entire time, and yes MSR Denali Evo snowshoes are awesome! We started up a fire road for about 50 feet and then left the road for the snowy/icy slopes. I love climbing in the snow because you can go straight up, no need to stick with the trail. The snow concealed the thin sheets of ice below it. The sun melts the snow in the daytime and then at night it freezes and creates thin icy layers. One of the photos in this entry shows the icy layers. After only a few hours of skirting around the ski runs we reached the summit. As we sat down for lunch we looked across the way to see a higher summit right next to us. Mt. Waterman is suppose to be the highest peak around that area, and damn it it is! We were on the wrong summit! Our summit was about 50 feet shorter than Mt. Waterman at 8077ft. Coming off the mountain we saw the trail marker 30 feet from the start of the hike that we passed for some reason. The climb was fun but a little short. It only took about 1 hr to get back down. Next time we will return for Mt. Waterman.

PS. Today I bought a Black Diamond Ice Axe. My REI dividend has crampons written all over it!

Elevation Start: 6786 ft

Summit: 8022 ft

Start: 9:30

Summit: 12:15

End: 130

Total Mileage: 2.83 miles

Mt.Baldy...Climbing in the snow.

2008-12-23T06:21:00.000+07:00

On Sunday Katie, Cary and I set out to climb Mt. Baldy. A few days before a storm dumped a few feet of snow on the mountain. We started around 7:40 and decided to hike the Ski Hut route, a steeper more direct route to the summit. We all had our ice axes and snow shoes packed and headed out. There was a ton of snow on the trail. At 9:45 we reached the ski hit. We took a 10 minute break and then discussed the route we wanted to take up to the summit. Normally, we would follow the traditional route that winds around the face of the mountain and up the ridge, however, today since there was so much snow we decided to follow a few climbers that were climbing up the right side of the face of the mountain. It was definitely steeper than the traditional route. Luckily the snow was punchy which made climbing without crampons alot easier. Climbing up the face was extremely fun and exciting, it was not a viable route unless there was a ton of snow. It took us another 2 hours and 20 minutes of steep climbing to reach the summit. The views while climbing were absolutely breath taking. Once we got to 9000 feet we could see the desert beyond the Devils Backbone, we could also see San Gorgonio and San Jacinto. We reached the summit around 12:30. It was pretty cold at the top so we bundled up with layers quickly. After taking about 15 minutes to eat lunch we headed back down. We were able to glissade a little bit but mostly post holed all the way back down to the ski hut. At the hut we put on our snow shoes and headed back down the mountain. There was so much snow that we were able to snow shoe off the beaten path which made hiking back more enjoyable. We finally reached the parking lot around 4. After climbing all day we were excited to go grab some food, however, it took us an hour and 15 minutes just to get down to the base of the mountain due to terrible traffic.

This was one of my favorite climbs I have ever done. This was great training for Rainier in June and I am sure I'll be doing this alot more in the near future.

Start:7:40 Manker Flats

Skit Hut: 9:45

Summit: 12:30

End: 4:00

Elevation Start: 6100 ft

Summit: 10064 ft

* the "our route" picture was taken at the Ski Hut

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

2008-12-18T10:40:00.000+07:00

Today after work I couldn't resist the temptation to hike around in the newly fallen snow off Angeles Crest Hwy. After work I drove up Hwy 2 to the Grizzly Flats Trailhead. I got there around 4 so I only had about 30 minutes to hike around. The snow was coming down and the wind was picking up. On my way back they started to close the Hwy 2 to on coming motorists. It was about 32 degrees out with only a handful of people. I got a chance to hike in my new La Sportiva boots, which are awesome....so far. This storm has dumped a ton of snow and has got me excited to climb Mt. Baldy Sunday.

Strawberry Peak (San Gabriels)

2008-12-15T10:29:00.000+07:00

Today Cary and I climbed Strawberry Peak (6,164 feet) in the San Gabriel Mountain Range. We were hoping for a storm to dump snow on us but it was all clear skies. We are currently training for Mt. Rainier, I have started running and doing stairs and now we are starting to hike on the weekends. This hike was mellow. We parked at the Red Box parking lot and crossed the hwy 2 where the trail begins. The hike was relatively flat for the first 2.3 miles and then the last mile got steep where most of the elevation was gained. Next week Katie, Cary and myself are going to climb Mt. Baldy. There is a big storm rolling in this week so I think we will be climbing in snow....can't wait!

Start: 7:30am

Return: 11:30am

Elevation Gain: 1500 feet

Conditions: 50's and sunny

Total Mileage: 6.6 miles

Zion National Park

2008-10-29T05:41:00.000+07:00

Recently Cary and I drove to Zion National Park to take some photographs of the beautiful fall colors. It was a long 8 hr drive but well worth it. We took of Friday afternoon and got in late. We slept in the car at the visitor's center(all the campsites were full). In the morning we shot at the emerald pools, which is a short hike from the Zion Lodge, later we took the tram up to the Narrows. The Narrows are awesome. In the Narrows you are en golfed by huge walls and water ranging from your ankles to knees. There are sand bars scattered about that makes walking easier at times. The giant copper colored walls are spectacular. We did alot of motion blur with the walls in the background. Half the shots I took were in the water. I was usually shin high with my tripod legs in the water. At sunset we drove just outside the park and found trees with a wide variety of fall color leaves. We planned to come back in the morning when the light we better. That night we ate at a place in town called pizza and noodles ( or something close to that). I do not recommend it, the burnt the hell out of my pizza. That night the ranger told us about a free campground exactly 7 miles outside the park so we spent the night there. The next morning we woke and shot until 10. The colors were great just outside the park(at higher elevations). From there we made the 8 hr treck back to Los Angeles. After sifting through my photos of the trip I got about 3 or 4 winners. None of my fall colored trees turned out well. My favorite shot is a water blur from the Narrows. I absolutely love the landscapes and fall colors of Utah.

Good times!