Ricky is in

500 dollars later. Ricky is in

Happy 30th Grony-bub!

Our good friend and climb something crew member Brien Gronemyer is turning 30 this April and we decided to make a late winter attempt at Mount Shasta. Brien, Skagen, myself and a last minute addition and new to climbing, Ricky-bub, are going to road trip to Northern California April 13-16.

Hoping this early spring gives us prime climbing conditions and weather. 

The blog is back!

Climbsomething.blogspot.com is back. Its now posted on climbsomething.com as well and is where we will post quick trip reports and updates like last minute treks.

A very wet Mt Baker

Patrick and I thought we would take advantage of our physical condition and freshly learned skills from the Rainier climb by heading up to Baker and maybe take a shot at the top. It was July 1st so who would have thought that a tropical monsoon would be looking over the mountain.

Upon our arrival the weather turned from fog to drizzle, then to rain. We were fully prepared for the weather and had everything we need to make camp as well as summit... except for the motivation to sit through the rain. We decided early on not to camp but to check the mountain out for a future attempt.

We started off hiking through some old growth forest and across a couple of rivers (a wrong turn made this much more difficult then it needed to be). The weather at this point was still on our side so we continued through the trees until we hit the bottom of the snow field. The rain met us there and from this point on it was a soggy mess. Our plans originally were to make high camp at the base of the Coleman glacier and then summit early in the morning. This would take us past the Heliotrope Ridge, up the Coleman Glacier into the crater and to the summit at 10,781 feet.

Practicing putting together a 3:1 hauling system

We made it about half way up the snow field until we decided to break under some trees, get a bite to eat and make the decision of whether or not we were going to camp or not. That decision was made fairly quick. We did take advantage of our time though by practicing with Pats newly purchased pickets, rope and other climbing hardware as well as some mapping and looking at the route we hopefully will be taking next time to the top.

Delicious beef snake we picked up in Glacier

No longer Mt Rainier Virgins

Well the long journey that we had preparing and getting to the summit of Mount Rainier ended June 21, 2012 when Cyrus, Patrick and I stood at 14,411 feet and looked all around PNW.

What now? We keep climbing!