2013 Trips To Date
1
Not-Waespe to Larch and down Oneonta
14 miles of hiking • 4750' elevation gain •
Started at Oneonta with plans to go OT to Waespe Pt. Mid gully changed tack and went up the west side to a different viewpoint, then up the ridge to pop out at Bickel Pt. and Nesika Lodge. (Old guy at Nesika says Bickel Pt. is actually Waespe?) Then up the cutoff to Franklin Ridge, to Oneonta Tr to Larch Mtn in intermittent rain. Down Larch Tr, across Multnomah Spur and over Franklin Ridge to go down Oneonta Gorge and make a figure-8. Lovely spring rain and lush greenery.
May 17, 2013
Green Point Mountain, Tomlike, and Chinidere
29 miles of hiking • 7500' elevation gain •
Started at Herman Cr 7am. Up Nick Eaton to GPM and some light rain, down Waucoma Ridge and after getting a little lost in the snow, out to Tomlike. Then back to the snow and over to Chinidere (direct, up the back side). Summit beer and chocolate covered espresso beans. Down onto PCT and booked it up over the Platter and back down to HC by 8pm. Easiest long hike ever.
May 15, 2013
3
Hood - Leuthold Couloir
7 miles of hiking • 5750' elevation gain •
Interesting conditions on Hood after all the heat - crevasses and bergschrund opened up on the glaciers. A little icy in the Hourglass but fun climbing. Old Chute was steeper and more frozen than previously, making the decent a little harder. Super slushy below the Hogsback. About a million people on the south side.
May 11, 2013
Katanai Rock, NW Ridge of Yeon, and the Mystery Trail
6 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain •
Hot day for brushy scrambling. Then rappelling! Then more brush!
May 10, 2013
Table Mountain (again)
10 miles of hiking • 3750' elevation gain •
Back again, with someone who hadn't been before. Since Wednesday: mud on Dick Thomas has dried. Plants have doubled in size. Bugs have hatched. Super hot.
Summit picnic included fruit, homemade chocolate truffles, and chilled gewurztraminer.
Descended the NW Ridge.
May 6, 2013
2
Yeon Mountain - NE Buttress
7.5 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain •
From GCC - parked on the frontage road in Dodson, went up Tumalt Creek, then up the first gully east of Yeon onto the NE Buttress to a fabulous viewpoint past the saddle. Then up the NE Ridge to the plateau. Down ROA and back via the 400 and the road. No technical gear needed.
May 3, 2013
Munra NE face
5 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain •
Crazy off trailiness. When in doubt, follow deer.
April 26, 2013
Hogsback and Zigzag Glacier stroll
6 miles of hiking • 4750' elevation gain •
Started 1:30am at Timberline. Continuous heavy winds. Got up to Hogsback, unsure how safe the summit would be with the wind. Cold. Partners opted to bail. Descended to Illumination Saddle, then walked straight down the Zigzag Glacier for a while and strolled back over to the Magic Mile to finish it out. Other climbers who'd gone up when we headed down appeared to be summiting via the Pearly Gates. Sigh.
April 24, 2013
2
Illumination Saddle
5.5 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain •
Spontaneous early morning trek up to Illumination, then back.
April 23, 2013
1
April 17, 2013
April 16, 2013
April 12, 2013
Casey Creek to Nick Eaton
11 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain •
Up Casey Creek, down Nick Eaton. Rain turned into little graupel snow up top, blowing sideways. Then the sun came out partway down. Then it was raining at the car.
Springtime in Oregon.
April 7, 2013
Tanner Ridge shortcut to Dublin Lake Jct.
12 miles of hiking • 3750' elevation gain •
Planning to go to Tanner Butte. Took the shortcut up the ridge west of the Tanner trail - pretty cool, kind of like Rudolph Spur. One shoe decided it needed to eviscerate my heel, so I was forced to take my knife and cut out part of the plastic heel cup, which only kind of helped. Hit snow around 3500 ft and put on snowshoes to avoid obnoxious sinkage. The tracks I was following veered off to Dublin Lake near the junction, and there was no sign of the trail under all the pine needles and meltout. I didn't feel like dicking around trying to find it, or use a compass bearing up to the road grade farther along, so since I'd wasted time trying to fix my shoe and it was later that I'd wanted, I just turned around and went back. The TB summit would have sucked anyway, as the sunny morning hazed over by afternoon. At least it got April's scheduled "lame" hike out of the way?
April 3, 2013
7
Mt. Hood - Old Chute
7 miles of hiking • 5250' elevation gain •
Started at midnight. Summit at 5:30am (after waiting for a cold hour at the Hogsback for the rest of my team to catch up). Sunrise. Back at the car at 9:45. Perfect conditions, no ice, not too crowded.
March 31, 2013
Larch
14.5 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain •
Alpine start at noon. Up in 3 hrs and back by 6pm despite spending the better part of an hour up top. Brought snowshoes but didn't need them due to a well beaten track! Spikes were helpful to keep from slipping on the compacted snow.
March 24, 2013
4
March 16, 2013
Defiance
11.5 miles of hiking • 5000' elevation gain •
Really wet, heavy, slushy new snow on top of hard consolidated snow and ice. Cold, wet, and windy up top - pretty miserable. Unbelievable amount of Mazama flagging on the Defiance trail below its junction w/ the Warren Lake trail. Winter conditions = 6 hrs.
March 10, 2013
Heartbreak Ridge direct and Greenleaf Basin OT
10.5 miles of hiking • 4250' elevation gain •
Cut over off the PCT and attained Hearbreak Ridge at the saddle below the Rabbit Ears. Bushwhacked up over the Two Chiefs, then went up the old trail to the summit. Descended the east side of Table into Greenleaf Basin, then down to the Two Chiefs Trail after a very wet ford of lower Greenleaf Creek.
March 2, 2013
1
February 23, 2013
1
Wauna Direct and Munra northside exploration
10 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain •
Started at Wahclella. Followed powerline road to Wauna Viewpoint, then OT up the brushy ridge to Wauna Point. Missed Pablo's ridge and instead went down a severely steep and brushy ripple to its left, but thankfully this dumped us practically on top of the Tanner TH. Back down to the parking lot, across the bridge, and up the 400 to below Munra, then OT southwest up a steep, brushy slope, only to be stopped dead by an insurmountable headwall. We traversed west, but no weaknesses were found. Super rugged scrambling in this area. Finally gave up about halfway to the NW (normal) ridge and bailed down a steep gully back onto the 400.
February 18, 2013
1
Three gullies below Indian Point
12 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain •
Another exploration of the area near Grays Creek, this time to the west under Indian Point. Three gullies - the first was the Shooting Gallery, which we turned back from due to rockfall. Second dead ended. Third was a long straight shot all the way up to the Gorton Creek trail, making this the directiest line yet. Off and on rain, tons of mist, exciting and steep scrambling.
Estimated numbers because I don't have a GPS.
February 16, 2013
5
Wyeth Crown - Deadwood Super Direct OT exploration
13 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain •
Started at Wyeth. Took the 400 west to a talus field and ascended the left side of a prominent pinnacle (apparently called Wyeth Crown) that I've had my eye on since last June. Some more exciting off trailing than anticipated, excellent views out at the pinnacle, then up its mother ridge to flatter terrain and up near Deadwood Camp. Took Gorton Creek out to Indian Point, climbed IP, then down back to the 400 and looped back to the car.
Then food and beer.
February 9, 2013
3
Ruckel Ridge to Chinidere
26 miles of hiking • 5500' elevation gain •
Up RR, snowshoed across Benson and out to Chinidere, then down to Wahtum and down Eagle Creek. Slushy most everywhere. Snow on EC trail below E-T jct, surprisingly low elevation. Some ice, but everything is melting out fast. 13 hrs, dark to dark.
February 2, 2013
3
Table Adventure!
8 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain •
Up Heartbreak, then off trail up a ridge between the face and the talus field. Fierce wind blowing icy clouds. Best trip up Table I've had yet.
January 20, 2013
1
Dog-Aug in winter
14 miles of hiking • 5500' elevation gain •
Out of the inversion to Dog, back down into the inversion in the saddle, out of the inversion up Aug, t-shirts and shorts and beer on the top.
January 19, 2013
4
Herman Creek to Benson Plateau snowshoe
19 miles of hiking • 5500' elevation gain •
Started 6am at Herman Creek and took the PCT up to the Benson Plateau. The snow line is around 2000' and we probably put snowshoes on around 2500' or even higher - it's pretty well consolidated for a good while. We traipsed along the eastern edge of the Platter and dropped down to Camp Smokey, then continued on for a little bit looking for a good lunch/turnaround spot, and ended up going up this prominent bump, including some steep snow faces and a little climbing, to pop out into a beautiful view and a sunny day. Then the long slog back down, including total snowshoe failure when the frame broke - temporarily fixed with duct tape for about 20 seconds until the duct tape fell off, at which point I stowed them and did some combination of running, sliding, and sinking to get down below the snow line. Back to the car around 4:45 - well before dark!
January 12, 2013
4
Defiance snowshoe
11 miles of hiking • 5000' elevation gain •
Peder and I strolled up a Starvation-Defiance snowshoe loop. We cut some switchbacks and went straight up a huge, steep snow hill (fun!), then went up the old road around the south side of Warren Lake up to the summit. Went down the talus field and shortcut across another talus field to the west along the Wyeth Gap to hit the Defiance Trail down - need to do this in the summer, it's a great shortcut! Warmish weather (though fierce wind coming off the Wyeth Gap) and really powdery, dry snow. Despite a late start, we got down just as it was getting too dark to see.
January 10, 2013
4
Tanner Butte ice-capades attempt
17.5 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain •
This was a group snowshoe to Tanner Butte that didn't quite make it. The Eagle Creek parking lot was covered in a sheet of ice, as was the entire staircase up to the portage road, and Road 777 was totally frozen over up to the 401 trailhead. We started with 7 people and ended with 3 after some bailed en-route. We final 3 decided to turn around due to time reasons (1:30pm) at the false butte about a mile from Tanner. Some great inversion hoarfost down lower on the Wauna Point trail, then crunchy snow for the most part with intermittent drifts. We detoured down to a frozen Dublin Lake on the way back. Started in the dark and got back in the dark. It was snowing at Eagle Creek when we got down, a couple inches sitting on top of the ice. Crazy times out in the Gorge.
January 5, 2013
