Next Big Adventure? Aconcagua!

Towering above its neighboring peaks in the heart of the central Andes, Aconcagua rises to 22,841', making it the highest peak in the world outside of the Himalaya. It is the ideal challenge for those who are ready to take their mountaineering to a new level, achieve a significant personal goal, and tackle one of the “Seven Summits”! Aconcagua requires only a minimum of technical climbing experience. Due to the high altitude and severe winds, however, the climb can be extremely challenging and serious.

It's a 3-week expedition - maybe for my 60th birthday? Or maybe just another Rainier climb - that would be great as well.

Bill & Erich's Mountain Adventure!

It's taken a while to finally get this posted - but Erich & I really did make it to the top of Rainier. I was waiting to see if any more of our group posted more photos on another website but I think I have all I'm going to get. In the meantime, I lost some of my photos as I switched to a new computer. I'll make do with what I've got.

Our adventure started on July 3rd when we drove to Ashford on the west side of Rainier National Park to pick up our rental gear and have our orientation. Our guides checked our gear to make sure we had what we needed and, hopefully, nothing that we didn't need. Too bad they didn't check my food supply. More on that later. The next day (my birthday!), we spent the day in climbing school. We hiked a half hour or so above Paradise. We learned how quickly the weather can turn on you. There were times when we couldn't see 50 feet in any direction! We practiced self-arrests with ice axes, walking up & down steep slopes, and climbing with crampons. A fun day! Erich & I camped at Cougar Rock Campground these first two nights.


On Saturday, we departed from Paradise in the rain! We were in & out of our rain gear a couple times, trying to stay relatively dry (it didn't work very well). Here's Erich on one of our breaks on the hike up to Camp Muir. I always carry too much food! I even dumped a 1-lb summer sausage in the trash before we left Pardise - after I picked up Erich's pack & could tell his was lighter than mine. I had trouble with my legs cramping and was the last to reach Camp Muir. I was pretty sure the guides thought there was no chance I would make it to the summit. I wasn't sure I would make it either. I was so glad we chose to do the 5-day program; it meant we were NOT heading up to the summit that night! We had all the next day (Sunday) to rest up at Camp Muir (10,030'). We had great accomodations for our two nights there - a 'hut' with room for 18 climbers plus 6 guides. One end of the room had 3 layers of plywood with pads, 5 people on each level, 2 people on a platform above the door way, and room for one against the wall in between. The guides had a separate room with bunks. Great view from the front porch! That's the Muir Snowfield right below the hut. Down the right side of the hut, there in the back, is the outhouse - two "restrooms", and bring your own toilet paper.


That first night at Camp Muir was pretty interesting. We were tired and wet when we got there. They brought us hot water right away (they have another shelter, above and to the left, where they heat water) to prepare hot drinks and meals. Next trip, Erich gets to pick the dinners; he didn't like my freeze-dried sweet and sour pork or chicken polynesian. We were in our sleeping bags by about 7 PM. A 4-day program group came up with us - their head guide came in about 11 PM for a wake-up call. Hot water was brought in for them as they got dressed & ready to leave for the summit by 12:30 AM. I decided to make a bathroom run, then stood outside in the starlight watching them rope up and then cross the Cowlitz Glacier with headlamps on. It was pretty neat to see the rope teams crossing the glacier and heading up over Cathedral Gap in the dark - and knowing our turn would come the next night. This daytime photo shows the route across the glacier - when the huts are full at Camp Muir, many climbers camp on the glacier. Climbing up & down Cathedral Gap is interesting enough because it's loose rock and scree, but it's even more interesting with crampons on.


We had a free day on Sunday; six of the nine climbers in our group (including Erich) went with two guides for a day hike to the Flats, just over the Gap on the Ingraham Glacier. I stayed at camp with two others to rest. We scrambled up Muir Peak for a great view of the glaciers. The group that left early Sunday morning had a slow climb, but they made it to the summit. When they arrived back at Camp Muir, they had about an hour to grab the rest of their gear & head back down to Paradise. I was pretty anxious all day wondering if I would be able to make it. Sunday evening, our group & the group that just arrived met together for a talk by one of the guides. Among other things, he told us we needed to assess our condition at our first rest stop at Ingraham Flats and especially at our second stop, at the base of Disappointment Cleaver. No turning back after that! More butterflies.


I didn't sleep at all as we waited for our 11 PM "wake up". I gulped down some hot oatmeal and drank a full bottle of Gatorade as I got geared up. After getting crampons on, we roped up on the glacier and headed out in the darkness. Erich & I were roped up with Darrin & our guide, Josh. Some of the photos here were taken on other climbs - there's no stopping for photos on most sections of the climb, particularly on the way up. The guides are all business when it comes to getting up & down the mountain quickly! It's hard to tell what you are exposed to in the dark - one of the guys commented on the way down that he liked it better in the dark - he couldn't see how scary it was! Here's how we looked in the dark - that's Little Tahoma below. As we climbed Disappointment Cleaver, we were treated to an awesome sunrise!


I have to say - when we reached our first rest stop at Ingraham Flats, I felt pretty good. And again, at the base of the Cleaver, I still felt good. Hindsight is always 20-20. Knowing how much you have in your tank is like knowing how much you have in your gas tank with no gas gauge! You don't know you're empty until you are! The rest stops (Ingraham Flats, base of the Cleaver, top of the Cleaver, and High Break) were a lot of fun. Climbing was strenuous - and maybe only required 1-2 layers of clothing but, as soon as we stopped, we quickly pulled out our down parkas to stay warm for that 15-minute break. The breaks at the top of the Cleaver and at High Break were a bit unnerving - very steep - the guides used shovels to scoop out places for us to sit! At the end of the break, we quickly removed our parkas (that was a cold shock!), stuffed them in our packs & got started again. Here's the view from High Break to the summit. Just right of center, almost at the top, you can see small specks - those are climbers! You can see them more easily if you click on the photo to see the larger view.


I was surprised at how much energy I had (or thought I had) when I arrived at the summit - 14, 411'! After leaving Camp Muir at 12:30 AM, we reached the summit at about 6 AM. It was beginning to get quite windy as we reached the summit. We got a couple of ladies to take a picture of Erich & me - two happy mountaineers! The guides didn't let us spend a lot of time up there - had enough time to eat a snack, take pictures & start back, after going through the routine of donning & removing the parkas. Going down would prove to be a different adventure altogether!


Going down was more scary! It was daylight - we could see how steep it was! And the wind was strong enough to knock us off balance at times. We skipped the rest stop at High Break and didn't stop until we reached the top of the Cleaver. Just before we stopped, I fell in the snow; my legs just gave down all of a sudden. I ate Gu at that stop and the next to help give me enough fuel to get me down. At the final stop on Ingraham Flats, I used Gatorade Gel Blasts. It all worked! That, and the prayers I said as I came down.


Here's a series of photos showing the way down.























Darrin, Erich, me and Josh on our way down near the top of Disappointment Cleaver








Looking down on Little Tahoma











Ingraham Glacier and the Flats - 2 rope teams in the distance.













The traverse at the base of the Cleaver - it definitely looks better in the dark!










The view back to Disappointment Cleaver from Ingraham Flats - you can see most of the route in the snow on the Cleaver if you click on the photo for the BIG picture




Camp Muir never looked better! We were only given about an hour after arriving back to camp to get the rest of our gear together before heading down to Paradise. By that time, I had next to no energy left in my legs. It was a good thing most of our trip down was on the snowfield; I basically "goose-stepped" my way down the mountain because my leg muscles wouldn't support my weight when I bent my knees! The last part of the hike was the worst - part of the trail had thawed out so we had to use it - and it
was like going down stairs. You can't do that stiff-legged! I leaned on my trekking poles a lot!




We were back to Paradise in the early afternoon for our shuttle ride back to Ashford. At Raineer Mountaineering headquarters, we had a last get-together for certificates and goodbyes. What an experience!


What will I do different for the next time? I'll weigh less and be in better shape. I'll carry less food (will probably buy RMI's package meal deal - they provide what you need and nothing more) and I'll take more GU and electrolytes for the climb and the return to Paradise. I'll wear my own leather boots - those plastic mountaineering boots were hard on the shins! When do we get to do it again?

Sabrina Graduated!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Camping in Oregon Gold Mine Country

We took the girls camping over Memorial Day weekend. I wanted to go to the Mount St Helens area but there was still over five feet of snow on the ground there. I decided on the Sumpter Valley area near Baker City, Oregon - Oregon Trail country. We left Friday morning and visited the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center just outside Baker City. This is a great place to get a feeling of what life on the Oregon Trail was like and what so many people went through to get to Oregon. Most of these people were NOT people who grew up on the frontier - many were Europeans who first crossed the Atlantic to get to this country, then traveled to the Mid-West where they got outfitted for the trip west. They had to deal with Indians, bad weather, and buffalo herds. The girls even got to see (& feel) what a buffalo was like.


We left the Oregon Trail and drove up Sumpter Valley, west of Baker City. This area has a great gold mining history. Gold was discovered here in the 1860s and the valley was changed forever by the mining activities that took place there. We camped at Union Creek Campground on Phillips Lake. I brought a group of Scouts here several years ago. We had the best campsite in the campground - it was like sitting in front of a picture window with the lake in view - except there was no window! On Saturday morning, we had pancakes & bacon for breakfast - I got to refresh my pancake flipping skills with the griddle! After breakfast, we drove just a few miles up the road to the Sumpter Valley Railway station in McEuen. This railway carried logs, lumber, mining supplies & people during the gold mining days. A group of volunteers got together in the 1970s to restore the railway so others could experience the train ride. It was a lot of fun & a great day for a train ride. It was a little cool that morning but the train car was warm - in the back corner of that car you may be able to see the pot-bellied stove - they had a nice little fire in there to take the chill out of the air.

The train ride took us further up the valley to the town of Sumpter. Along the way, we passed miles & miles of tailings (basically piles of rock) from the mining activities. When you see what was done to this valley to find gold, you can't help but ask: who or what did this? When you arrive in Sumpter, you see what left all those tailings behind - the Sumpter Gold Dredge. If ever there was a "monster" in the machinery world, this was it! It may not look like much in the photo but the dredge was as big as a large riverboat, over five stories high. The boom at the front of the dredge has 72 buckets, each weighing over a ton; these buckets were attached to each other, forming a long chain which moved through the ground scooping up soil & rock and carrying it into the dredge. Inside, the excavated soil & rock went through sluices & separators which removed the gold and sent the tailings out the back of the dredge. The dredge sat on a pool of water, which it moved around the valley by removing the ground in front of it & sending the spoils out the back. It's really an impressive sight! This particular dredge operated from the 1930s to 1954. It was operated by 3-man crews in shifts which kept it running 24 hours a day, every day of the year except Independence Day & Christmas. The dredge was able to process 300,000 cubic feet of material each month. About $4.5 million in gold was removed from the valley by this dredge. It fostered a bustling economy in the valley while it operated but left behind an environmental disaster! The valley will never look like it once did - but it is still beautiful and a great place to visit, especially if you like old trains. The girls (actually, all of us!) got a chance to pan for gold - we all found "color" & brought home some gold & garnets. At first, the girls didn't think they wanted to pan for gold, but as they watched others doing, they got interested pretty quickly. Afterwards, we wandered into town where Sumpter had a community flea market going on. It was like visiting a county fair - there were booths set up selling all kinds of things & lots of of food booths - a great place to get one's fill of greasy food. We got ours in a big batch of curly fries!

When we returned to camp, Hannah wanted to get in a hike before dinner. We hiked along the shoreline trail to the dam and learned that Laurie attracted ticks! We haven't camped during tick season for a long time - and it hadn't been long enough! These were pretty big ticks so they were easy to spot but it creeped us out having to keep looking for them. The girls checked their legs for ticks after our hike, then Laurie, Hannah, & Alex headed for the restroom to strip down for a better search. I was on my own. I found one later as I was getting into my sleeping bag - headed for parts I would rather not share with a tick! We're pretty sure we didn't bring any home with us - at least, we haven't found any yet.

On Sunday, I wanted to take a different route home, heading east towards Hells Canyon, then west again past Joseph, Enterprise, and Elgin. It's too bad that in the 80 miles between Baker City and the Hells Canyon overlook that no one posted a sign telling drivers they would find the forest highway blocked by SNOW four miles from the overlook! We had to turn around & go all the way back to Baker City - 160 miles/about 4 hours of driving and we were back where we started! We still had a great camping experience - we think the girls enjoyed it. It was the first in her life for Alex - we hope she gets a chance to go camping in Kazakhstan.

Spring Break on the Oregon Coast

During Spring Break, we took the girls (Alex & Hannah) to the Oregon Coast so they could dip their toes in the Pacific Ocean. When they found out how COLD the water was, that was all they wanted to dip into the ocean.

We spent three nights, 4 days there, staying in a 2-bedroom cottage only one block from the beach. Our cottage had a fully-equipped kitchen (even a pizza cutter!) and a small living room with a fireplace (we had a fire every night). It was nice being able to have breakfast at 'home' before leaving each morning.

I didn't take the girls to see the world's largest ball of string but I had planned to show them the country's largest Sitka Spruce. However, the Oregon Coast was hit by a major wind storm last December and that Sitka Spruce became much smaller when the top half snapped off! They are still cleaning up the damage from that storm. We did visit Ecola State Park - nice views from there (photo of Hannah enjoying one of them) and trails in every direction (but Alex decided to 'bushwack' it & hike through the grass).

We had fun (I did, anyway) wandering around the coast. We had a great Oregon mud hike (2.5 miles of muddy trail) to Cape Lookout. We looked out, but didn't see any whales. We visited the Tillamook Creamery for ice cream & 'squeaky' cheese. It's amazing how quickly those girls can find the free samples! We spent part of a day in Astoria (never did find the 'Goon-docks') and drove over the bridge into Washington - it's over 3 miles long!

The girls were introduced to my fascination for driving on back country roads & visiting old country stores. On the way TO the coast, we took a detour to Corbett, visited the Vista House on Crown Point overlooking the Columbia Gorge, and stopped at the Corbett Country Store (with creaky wooden floors!) for ice cream. On the way BACK from the coast, I went back to Astoria just so we could take a different road to Portland - we found a couple of elk herds in wildlife refuges along that road. What a treat! As we drove back through the Gorge, we stopped at Multnomah Falls - hiked to the top for the view over the edge of the falls. Afterwards, we had the excitement of a flat tire as we drove through The Dalles. At highway speeds, you just can't stop fast enough to keep from ruining a tire. We had to unload most of the trunk to get to the spare - I was glad to find out that Volkswagen uses a FULL size tire for a spare - had to make a trip to Les Schwab after the trip for a new tire though.

Our next adventure with the girls is a camping trip on Memorial Day weekend - to visit Ape Cave & Mount St. Helens!

A Day in the Palouse

I participated in my first race of the season on Saturday - the Tri-State Outfitters Spring Duathlon in Lewiston, Idaho. It's a 2-mile run, 12-mile bike ride, 2-mile run. The run course is along the Snake River; the ride is an out-and-back into the countryside south of Lewiston (lots of cows out there!).

My time was 1:18:59 (last year 1:18:51). However, my transition times were actually each a minute faster - thanks to those no-tie shoe laces Geoff got me for Christmas! I was 3rd out of 5 in my age group, 84th out of 142 overall.

It was a good day - a very dicey forecast but the clouds broke for the race, closed in right afterward, and we drove through some hard rain & even hail on the drive home. The drive to/from Lewiston took us through the beautiful Washington Palouse - and reminded us we want to do a check-it-out thing in Dayton & Waitsburg in the future. Those are great little Washington towns. Dad/Opa

We Give Up!

We are finally following the lead of our children, sister, brothers, nieces & nephews and setting up our own blog. After all these years, we will close out our MyFamily.com website when our current subscription runs out on May 16, 2008. Most of the family have been posting their "news" & photos on their personal blogs anyway. We look forward to keeping in touch with everyone in a different way.