SW Chutes of Adams

On Saturday I joined Matt Borish for an amazing ski descent of the SW chutes of Mount Adams.  It turned out to be one of my favorite ski descents of all time in the Northwest and surprisingly I wasn’t too out of shape for the climb thanks to my new skins on my skis and perfect weather to climb in.  Read on for photos!

Matt picked me up on Friday evening for our late drive to the trailhead.  We caught up on all the gossip of Quantum Spatial and I could tell he really wanted to leave.  He hadn’t done so well on an interview with Apple because he wasn’t well versed in Python.  This prompted him to study python in depth and in just a few months he became pretty skilled at it.  Just like CrossFit, if Borish commits to something he commits!  

We got to the trailhead after dark and somehow found a spot amongst all the cars.  There was no snow at the trailhead so it was easy to find a place to lay out my sleeping bag under the stars for the night without a tent.  I wasn’t worried about morning dew on it as I would just leave it in the car anyway.  We each had a beer then hit the sac around 10pm hoping to get at least a few hours of sleep.

We were up at 3:30am and after eating and packing up were on the trail by 4:15am.  It took us about 30 minutes of walking on dirt until we came to enough snow to click into our skins.  It seemed we had timed the trip perfectly.  No snow at the trailhead but just enough to get us close to it on the descent.  I had wanted to do this trip a month before but it would have added another two days to the trip as the trailhead was still buried at that time.

As we rose out of the trees onto the broad shoulder of Adams we could see Mount Saint Helens in the distance.  This reminded me of the story I read at the Johnston Ridge Observatory about the family that had been climbing Adams when Helens erupted and had to run down the mountain as debris from the explosion started to rain down on Adams.   Quite impressive the debris made it so far in the sky!  

Matt and I were certainly not alone on the hike as we passed, and got passed by, many other hikers and skiers heading up the mountain.  Sam Whalen who I had met on Pea Gravel Ridge on Mount Hood flew by us like we were standing still with his minimalist SkiMo gear.  I only saw him once more on my way up to the true summit as he was coming down.  

I found a pair of sunglasses in the snow so I picked up the pace to try to pass as many as I could to try to find the person who dropped them.  Not having sunglasses on a sunny day ski mountaineering was a guaranteed ticket for snow blindness which could be very dangerous on a 12,000 ft volcano.  Luckily, I was able to catch up to the woman who dropped them and she was very grateful for my efforts.

When we reached the lunch counter at 7:30am we stopped for some photos and snacks before continuing up the broad south face.  There were already a line of people streaming up the mountain but it was so big they just looked like little dots against the white snow.  Matt and I had been keeping a pretty good pace and we knew we’d have plenty of time in the day for our desired SW chutes descent.  The only question was timing it with the sun to make sure they had warmed up to a nice corn that wasn’t too deep to have some fun in.  

I set off up the face and to my surprise moved at a very fast pace pulling ahead of Matt.  Matt has been doing CrossFit for months and even competes so I totally attribute this to my new skins and him being on a split board which aren’t as functional for climbing as a skis are.  I made pretty much a straight beeline up the face without switchbacking too much which saved a ton of time.  When I reached the top of Misery Hill at 10am I looked back and guessed that Matt had about another hour or so to crest the top of the false summit.  

This left me just enough time to run over and tag the true summit which was another 600 feet of elevation and about a half mile away.  I was tired but the last time I had summited was 2007 so I made the effort to get to the top for some better photos.  I reached the summit at just about 11am so I knew Matt was probably at the top of Misery Hill.  I wasted no time taking some photos and asking a fellow skier to grab one of me on the summit before I strapped the GoPro to my head and headed down from the top to catch Matt before he made too much progress towards the top.  He had summited before as well so I guessed he wouldn’t care about the summit.

I caught Matt just at the base of the summit climb and we chatted about our options.  He agreed that he didn’t care about the summit so we backtracked a short ways back to the top of the SW Chutes.  We took a bit of a break here to catch our breath and let our muscles unload for a bit before dropping into the steep 45 degree slope.  It was just about noon and the sun had warmed up the snow perfectly for a safe and fun descent.  

I urged Matt to ski down ahead of me to get him on film for perspective.  Yes, we took a few breaks down the incredibly long SW chutes but it was one of the best descents of my life!  The snow was absolutely perfect and we had a great time carving huge turns across the chutes and even switching chutes at the end to explore a different one.  At one point I started a pretty wide slushy slide down the face that I happily surfed across a few times as it made it’s way down to the bottom.  It certainly wasn’t as big as the slide we had set off on our trip to Jefferson a few years back that swept Dan down the mountain into me!  

At the base of the chutes I used the advice from several online blogs to start circumnavigating the mountain back towards our ascent route rather than descending further down the amazing snow.  This was tough for Matt on his board but I assured him it was better than skiing down to the round the mountain trail and having several miles of dry dirt to stomp along.  It took us about half an hour of traversing across the mountain to make it back to where we could see our ascent route.  

Unfortunately, there was a descent slope with exposed rocks below us we had to navigate before getting back to our tracks.  This was easier for me on skis but Matt struggled with his board and ended up clicking out of his bindings to walk a short ways rather than risk a slide into sharp volcanic rock.  Good choice..  Once back on our tracks it was a fun ski down to the where the snow ended then a quick 30 minute walk down to the parking lot.  The trip was 12.6 miles total with just over 10,000 ft of ascent - huge for a car to car backcountry ski day!  Glad to know I still got it to accomplish something like that.  

After having a couple beers we piled in and Matt insisted on driving us back to Portland although I offered.  We were both beat and I made sure to stay away to make sure we both got back safely.   We were back to Portland around 5pm with plenty of time for me to relax in the hot tub!  Great trip!

McKenzie River Weekend

Eric and Tom invited us to join them and their Syracuse buddies for a weekend at the Paradise Campground along the Columbia River.  We borrowed Jason’s raft and also brought our mountain bikes along.  I wanted to get as much time on the river as possible because that area would be a great spot to take Ellie and my mom camping at when they visit in July.  Read on…

Thorns Game!

Doug and Tully had split Thorns Season Tickets this year and he couldn’t make the game on Saturday so he gave the tickets to Emily and I to enjoy.  It was yet another spring rainy weekend so it became the highlight of our weekend.  As usual we grabbed some of our favorite pizza before the game.  The seats Doug had were pretty close to the field and just under the awning above us but we were lucky to have the rain hold off for the length of the winning game!  Thanks Doug! 

My first Spring Chinook Salmon!

This weekend was a rainy one so Emily and I decided to stay close to home.  Instead of heading off for an adventure we decided to do some charter Salmon fishing on the Columbia with a an outfit called “Always Catching”.  It was $125 for each of us and the owner, Jess, was super knowledgeable and happy to share tips with us.  Although it rained the entire morning the boat landed two fish.  The first one was caught by a local who had two visiting relatives with him but the 2nd and much bigger one was landed by me!  Jess guessed it to be about 18-20lbs.

We fished from 6am to 10am and when we got back to the dock Jess cut up the fillets for us and was about to throw the head and bones out when I asked to keep them to make salmon stew.  Em and I grabbed breakfast at a place down the road and then I spent the rest of the afternoon boiling the salmon flesh from the bone and making a terrific salmon stew that we enjoyed for several more days.  

There was about 3lbs of meat that would have gone straight to the Columbia if I hadn’t asked to keep it.  Makes me want to hang out at the docs and ask for everyone else’s scraps as well!

Post Canyon Mountain Biking with Paris and the Holm Brothers

Today I had a great afternoon riding Post Canyon in Hood River with Paris and Eric & Chris Holm.  Chris had surprised me with an email on Friday afternoon about being in town and I had to bribe a local bike shop with beer to get my bike repair done early in the morning to join them.  Emily hadn’t been feeling too good so she wasn’t able to make the ride.  I had forgotten how much fun Post Canyon was to ride as the last time I had been there was 2007-8.  

Showers moved in as we were wrapping up our ride which made the final slide down the hillside amusing.  We grabbed pizza and beer at Solstice along the Columbia and caught up on lives before I headed home.  Can’t wait to go back to those trails with Emily!

Christom and St. Innocent Wineries Bike Ride & Sandra’s 40th

The original plan this weekend was to go for a road ride on Saturday and then climb Mt. St. Helens for Mothers Day on Sunday.  Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for us.  Instead, we were fortunate to get a call from our friend Nicole from Shedd, OR who was interested in coming up for a visit Friday night.  That led to us connecting with Chris, Marissa and Colleen who we rarely get to see.  Read on..

10 Years Together

It’s hard to believe that it has been a full 10 years since the first night I met my wife at the City Tavern in Saratoga Springs, NY.  We were introduced to each other by Mike Lamanto who I had met through John Hughes, whom I had become good friends with through the Jones family.  Ahhh connections.  7 years and a wonderful dog later, on the other side of the continent we married each other and a year later we have a house together.  It’s been quite the ride.  We celebrated with a wonderful dinner window-side at the Portland City Grill but I thought I’d take the time here to list off some of the highlights of our past 10 years together.

Convincing Emily to move out west and a great Cross Country Trip together doing so
Emily’s support while I got my Masters Degree, tore my ACL and lost my father
Our engagement trip to Hawaii where we got engaged on top the largest volcano in the world and sailed off the Napali coast of Kauai and swam chest-to-chest with 2,000 lb manta rays.

Our amazing vineyard wedding with family and friends and Mt. Hood in the distance.
Our many backpacking, rafting, biking, and ski mountaineering adventures throughout the Cascade Volcanoes and peaks of the Pacific Northwest and countless nights under the stars.

Trekking, kayaking, and visiting penguins in the Patagonia region of Argentina and Chile on our honeymoon.
Rafting, Zip-lining and exploring the forests, rivers, and wildlife of Costa Rica on our honeymoon.

Giving our beloved Leo a home whom has become the centerpiece of our lives together and the love of all our family and friends.
Purchasing our first home and redesigning it as a social location for our friends, and even a convenient office as I switched jobs.

And most recently, our amazing trip to Tanzania where we summited Kilimanjaro, our first “7 summit” and had numerous close encounters with wildlife as well as cultural experiences we will never forget.

Pea Gravel Ridge Mt. Hood

This weekend Mike D, Andy, his buddy Sam and I planned to ski the Wy’East Face of Mount Hood.  By mid-week the weather was looking perfect for an early Sunday morning ascent and corn skiing at 10,000 feet but the mountain weather had other plans when we woke up.  Instead of the Wy’East we had a wonderful day skiing corn off the east shoulder of Pea Gravel Ridge and even got to skin up the entire length of the ridge to just underneath the Newton Clark Glacier.  Read on…

Latourell Falls with Leo

This weekend Emily and I had planned on heading up to the Tilly Jane hut on Mt. Hood but after actually getting packed up and driving a bit towards it we hit a giant rainstorm in the gorge and decided to bail.  There was no wood at cabin this time of year, everything was soaked, the trail would be a bog of mud and snow and I would have been hiking in my plastic ski mountaineering boots... and Leo if soaked would have been cold and stolen my sleeping bag so we decided to bail and head back to the house.  

But, we did decide to get leo out of the truck for a short walk around Latourell Falls which we hadn't been back to since our engagement photos in 2013.  He enjoyed himself on the short loop hike and I got some HDR shots of the falls and historic highway bridge along with some macro shots of flowers and a really cool looking snail that we helped across the trail.  Other than this short outing it was a pretty quiet weekend for the two of us after our work trips the week before.

Phoenix Work Trip

I just got back from another business trip to Phoenix.  As usual I can't talk publicly about who we did work for or even the partners or platforms we used... which were cutting edge, expensive and freaking amazing!  What I can briefly talk about is the cool Kildeer bird we saw protecting it's eggs in the back lot of the Scottsdale Cardno Office, the great people I worked with and the great views I had from our job site, both of mountains and cool critters!

Epic Party Bike Helmet Rage & Wauna Viewpoint Hike with Leo

With Emily gone this weekend to Waldport for a girls weekend on the coast I decided to get Leo out of the house for a bit.  Leo’s getting a little creaky with age so instead of an epic 3,000 ft climb in the gorge we stuck to a couple hundred feet over 4 miles up the Wauna Viewpoint off of the Eagle Creek trailhead for some views over the Bonneville Dam and the Gorge.  Read on…

Heiroglyphics Concert

Just a quick note that Emily and I had a wonderful time going to see Heiroglyphics with Conrad at the Wonder Ballroom tonight!  Bad Habitat opened for them and were also amazing.  It was great to see Deltron there (although he was high as hell) and Pep Love was great on stage.  Their performance was short, under an hour, with no encore, but it was worth it for sure at the small venue.  We had some bbq dinner at the People's Pig before heading over.  Sad note of the night was hearing that Phife Dawg from the iconic Tribe Called Quest had passed away.  RIP Phife.  

Meadows this Spring

This year Emily and I were able to get 4 weekends in at Meadows Ski Resort.  First with Ian where I got stuck in a tree well taking a safety break in the woods with him.  Then a couple times by ourselves where I relived my youth hitting the terrain park with a bunch of mute 360's and the half pipe where I can still boost out above the rim, although all of this was much less graceful than it was five years ago.

Our most recent day was with Eric when we met up with Porter and some others after only about 3 runs on very wet, sticky snow for a bbq in one of the parking lots.  It was a short day skiing but a good time meeting good people at the BBQ, one of which, Peter, is a guide on Denali and had some good beta for me.  A great connection.  Not much skiing for us this year with Africa in the middle but at least the mountains got more snow this year than the last 2 combined!