Mt. Shasta Casaval Ridge Attempt

With good weather finally hitting Northern California and everyone’s schedules permitting them to head south a group of 8 of us headed to Mt. Shasta to attempt its amazing Casaval Ridge route to the summit over a two day climb.   Although Emily and I didn't make the summit with the rest of our group we did end up having a great alpine night high up on a beautiful mountain and came home with a lot of beautiful photos.

This would be Emily’s first true 14,000 foot peak although Mauna Loa in Hawaii was pretty close.  But Mauna Loa involved a small pack with a t-shirt and snacks while this involved overnight gear, skis, climbing harnesses, rope, protection, etc.  We got a late start out of town on Friday after work and after stopping briefly at DQ near Medford to meet up with the rest of the group and encountering a “Nightrider Car” we made it to the base of the mountain around midnight.  The trailhead was absolutely packed with climbers so we wisely drove back down the road to a pull out for the night were I got some great star shots of Shasta rising into the sky above us.

On Saturday we got a really late start on the trail after shuttling vehicles and getting all our gear packed up.  With us was Kelly Rae Rice, Dan Miller, Cristina Matheus, Andrew Backus, Peter Gregg and Andrew Lafrenz.  We had been debating for a long time which way to approach the climb and where to camp.  When Aaron, Chris and I had climbed it in 2008 we had gone up the traditional Avalanche Gully route and camped at Helen Lake at 10,000 feet which gave us good altitude acclimatization over the night.  Because Emily and I had been at nearly sea level for so long I suggested climbing above Horse Camp to Hidden Valley around 9,000 as a compromise and to give us a better jump on the ridge and summit the next day.  It was a split decision between the group about whether to camp high and have a shorter summit day or camp low and have a longer ski descent.  In the end the group split in two with Dan, Andrew Backus and Peter staying at Horse Camp and I and Andrew with the girls pushing to a higher spot on the ridge.  

Emily had been feeling under the weather for well over week so I took it upon myself to carry most of the weight for us including the food, the big 3-person tent, and of course all my camera gear which weighted 8-10 pounds alone.  I would bet my pack was pushing 60+ pounds as I struggled to keep up with everyone under the hot sun of the approach climb.  We left the three guys at Horse Camp but they were able to set up their camp and then climb up PAST us on our way up the ridge to get some ski turns in before the day ended.  They are all animals for sure.  When we finally reached our high camp in a Window between the West Face and Avalanche Gulch after some boot packing and struggling with skinning up the steep slope I was exhausted.  

There were several other groups in the area and we were able to take over a spot that had been dug out a bit before us for the camp.  Emily ad I had a giant orange tent which looked silly next to the other three who slept in uber light weight bivys next to us in what looked like a grave pit in the snow.  Everyone who tried picking up my bag was shocked at it’s weight but it paid off a bit as Emily and I slept well out of the wind in warm comfort  within the walls of the tent.  

That evening we were treated to a beautiful sunset and views south to Lassen Peak and the Trinity Alps.  Andrew enjoyed some Chef Boyardee and Kelly shared some King sardines with me.  Having a lot of experience camping in alpine environments I had a lot of experience to share with the group about best practices at that altitude and temperature.  I took over the process of shoveling snow to melt in the jet boil and made sure that Emily and I ate enough Mountain House for the big climb the next day.  I then made sure that everyone knew to sleep with their boot liners and to keep their camel backs and water with them in their bags so they don’t freeze.  I then went around and tied up all the bags and pinned them to the ground with a spare ice axe so they wouldn’t blow away.  Once everything was secured we went to bed around 9 or so with clouds moving in over the summit.

At 4:30 I woke up to other climbing groups around us leaving camp to head up the mountain.  I hurried out of bed to take some early dawn photos of the train of lights heading up Avalanche Gully towards the Red Banks.  I’ve never seen so many climbers on a mountain before!  Dan, Andrew and Peter actually made it up to our sight just as we all were getting up to make breakfast so we hurried ourselves to get ready.  I was so excited to have a much lighter pack on Casaval Ridge for the summit push but when I bent over to pull it up over my back I heard and felt a large “POP” in my lower back and I knew my day was probably over.  I turned to Emily and told her I needed a minute to lie down in the snow and stretch.  She could tell I had hurt myself.  My heavy pack from the day before had now ended any hope of us making the summit with the group who started up the steep hillside onto the ridge well ahead of us.  

After a little while lying in the snow I managed to get my pack on and begin boot packing up the slope.  This type of climbing is what my legs are built for so I was making quick progress up the slope despite my painful back.  Unfortunately, this type of climbing is what Emily is the weakest at so she was lagging behind.  When we topped out on the ridge and looked up at the 4000+ feet of mountain ahead of us with our group far ahead we made the call to bail on the climb.  Ultimately, this worked out best because we later heard that there was a bit of exposure that Emily would not have been comfortable with and I’m sure my back would have been 10x worse if I had carried on which may have prevented my rafting trip the next week which I was really looking forward too.  We ended up waiting around on the ridge taking photos of the changing weather and shadows on the mountain and looking for our group high on the ridge.   I got some truly print-worthy shots while we waited for the snow to soften for our ski down.

After we packed up our camp and had a pretty enjoyable ski down the mountain back into Avalanche Gully from our high camp and out to the car we ate some food and got on the road around 11am.  My back was getting worse by the minute so I was super happy to be headed home to our comfortable bed.  We got all the way to Medford when I decided I wanted a DQ Blizzard and pulled over, which is when I heard Emily say, “what are these?” holding a set of car keys!  SHIT.  We had driven almost 2 hours with the car keys in our Prius for Andrews Truck.  I abandoned DQ and pulled a U-turn to head back into California to return the keys, averaging about 95mph to get there because I had a vision of 6 exhausted bodies slumped next to a locked truck...  Fortunately, we made it back before they made it down.  Apparently, they had a long, tiring but amazing trip successfully up the ridge and made the summit around 2pm.  From there it was an initially icy, but then wonderful ski down the peak back to camp and then the trailhead where they made it out around 4pm I think.

Even though Emily and I didn’t make the summit we had a good trip and it was good experience for Emily to get camping at high altitude on snow.  I was happy to share a lot of my experience and tips with everyone in the group and we got some truly amazing photos from the trip so I wouldn’t call it too much of a loss.  Emily and I will just have to return another year, in better shape and maybe with some more time to climb the peak.

Eagles and Ospreys at Finley Wildlife Preserve

After we got back on Saturday from surfing at the coast Emily and I headed out to the Finley Wildlife Preserve to take some photos of birds there with the longer lens that she had given me as a Christmas Present.  Last time we did a bird photography trip in the area we had great luck at the Snag Boat Bend preserve near Halsey, OR but I think Emily wanted to go to Finley more so we did.  We ended up seeing a bunch of Great Blue Herons, Canadian Geese, Buzzards, Ospreys, and even a juvenile Bald Eagle.  All the birds were a bit too far away for spectacular action shots worth printing but I did at least get some good shots for my personal collection.

Surfing with Chris and Sarah

This Saturday Chris invited Sarah, Emily and I to go Surfing with him in South Beach, Newport.  Emily didn’t have a wet suit so she waited on the beach for us with the DSLR getting some shots.  I surf about once a year so am truly terrible at it and have a horrible time getting out through the breakers to the area where you catch the waves.  The water was of course freezing off the Oregon Coast but with all the work I was doing I stayed warm.  

We stayed out in the breakers for some time and I was even able to catch a wave or two before I became too tired in my arms to continue.  Sarah had an even rougher time when she fell off her board and the fin bashed into her ankle.  It swelled up pretty quick so that was about all the surfing for her.  The quality of the waves decreased rapidly in the late morning while I watched Chris make a few last attempts before we headed home with an ice pack on Sarah’s ankle, thus completing my single surfing trip of the year... :)

Scary Ski Descent of Mt. Thielsen

This weekend Emily and I drove up on Saturday night to the Crater Lake area of Oregon where we spent the night on the shore of the still frozen Diamond Lake underneath Mt. Bailey. On the drive up we stopped briefly at Lemolo Lake so I could get some shots of pointy Mt. Thielsen in the distance over the lake with the “super moon” that was out that night. Apparently, the moon was in its closest orbit to earth in over 1,000 years but neither Emily or I could really tell that much of a difference.

Once we got parked and set up our bags in the back of the car I took the camera down to the shore of the lake to set it up for my first night timelapse experiment using the intervelometer built into the camera. This function allows the camera to take a photo at a specified interval for as long at the memory card has room for.  Combining these photos together creates a movie (kind of like a cartoon flip book) of the night sky with the stars rotating overhead with the surroundings stationary. I love these videos and since our camera has that function I thought I would give it a try before heading to bed with Emily who spent the night coughing from either bad allergies or a chest cold.
In the morning we woke to two people walking by who had noticed the camera setup. Thankfully, they saw us and left it alone. When I went to retrieve it I was horrified to see the entire $2000+ system cached with morning frost! Thankfully, the camera is built solidly and after some defrosting in the car it was fine. Unfortunately, the battery only lasted for about 250 shots which is about a 10-12 second movie of the night sky. This was fine as the moon was blowing up the brightness near the end of the battery as it entered the camera frame.
After some consideration Emily decided she wanted to give the climb up Thielsen a try despite her physical weakness from the coughing and we started our trip up from the parking lot just after 9am. It took us quite a bit of time to get up to the ridge of Thielsen because Emily was struggling for energy. We did have a pleasant break in the woods for 15 minutes as we were visited by a group of Grey Jays (Northwest Camp Robbers) who were curious about Emily. I told Emily to stick out her hand, accurately guessing that they were bold enough to land on it looking for scraps. Emily was surprised to have it land right on her hand and then start nibbling at her fingertips which at first scared her that it would hurt. Eventually, I coaxed her into moving into the light shining through the trees and I was able to get some great shots of her and her new friend. After some time the birds figured out they weren’t going to get any more food after a couple bits of granola and took off deeper into the woods.

When we reached a good spot on the ridge Emily decided she would wait for me. A skier passed us and told us that he had just descended this sketchy looking chute down the northwestern face of Thielsen that I had been looking at as a possibility on Google Earth. He said it was super icy but would be much better once I got up there. So, I ended up following his tracks up the ridge quickly while Emily waited on the ridge below with my iphone to video me coming down. It didn’t take me long to reach the top of the chute where the guy had cut a small platform into the hard snow to put on his skis and gear. I did the same and got a couple shots of the area and looking down the chute before thankfully putting it inside my pack instead of on my chest as usual. I also got the helmet cam set up on my head and turned it on.

Small rocks and ice were beginning to rain down on the area from the cliffs above from the hot early afternoon sun so I knew for safety I should probably bail on any thoughts of visiting the summit spire and quickly get myself down the chute before conditions got really bad. On hind sight I probably should have waited patiently 10-15 minutes to regain the strength in my legs because when I dropped into the chute and took my first 3 jump turns I realized my legs were rubber from the fast climb up the ridge… That’s when I flipped. I took a weak jump turn, caught a rock or ice on my ski edge and flipped right through the air head over heels back to my butt. I slid a couple feet but thankfully was able to regain control and arrest my slide with both skis still attached.

After a few moments I collected myself and started down again. I exited the chute and found myself on a fin of snow leading out to a small rock outcrop. This is where any sign of the previous skiers tracks disappeared. I had two choices. Go skiers right down the face over a crown of an old avalanche that had ripped right down to the rocks or go skiers left down a narrower and steeper face. Right looked less steep but I didn’t want to destroy my ski bases on bare rock after the crown so I headed left instead and found myself half sliding, half falling down one of the steepest slopes I’d ever been on. It was super icy and there was so much ice and snow falling with me (my slough) from my jump turns that I couldn’t even see the surface of the snow I was on. It was definitely a no-fall-zone as I could have tomahawked into the side rocks or a small rock boulder at the base of the face I was on. With skis bouncing rapidly on the ice and very jittery with rubbery legs I was praying the whole way down my tiny dynafit touring bindings held onto my boots.Thankfully, I had thought to lock the front toe pieces (usually a bad idea for downhill as it limits ejection) which kept them tightly on my feet.

At the base of the huge northwestern face the snow immediately got softer and I arced a couple big turns down the bowl and up onto the ridge to meet Emily… with legs still shaking from the descent. That’s when I realized that my helmet cam had completely failed from the very start and the film Emily had gotten of me showed me as simply a tiny spec heading down the face. Another climber had gotten video of me from the ridge so hopefully I’ll be able to get it emailed to me. I was super happy to be down in one piece and so was Emily. I definitely got my adrenaline rush of the season on that descent.

From there it was an easy ski descent back through the woods to the trailhead which I missed by a quarter of a mile unfortunately because I was having too much fun skiing to keep checking my gps track. We pulled a couple beers out of the snow and relaxed for a bit in the warm sun before piling all the gear into the car again and heading home via the much faster 97 route through Oakridge back to I-5 at Eugene. Another great day skiing. We missed Chris who was rafting the John Day but will probably end up heading to Mt. Shasta with him next weekend.

Silverton Brewfest and Blitzen Trapper

This weekend the weather looked pretty crappy so Emily and I decided to join Erin, Scott, Mischa, Tim, Lindsay, Loomis and Amy Jo at the Silverton Brewfest on Saturday evening and we even talked Chris into coming along later in the evening as well to see the showcase band of the night, Blitzen Trapper.  

The Brewfest was located at the Oregon Gardens in Silverton, OR which Em and I haven’t been to yet.  The area was super beautiful and although it is still early in the spring there were flowers and buds blooming everywhere there.  We drove Amy Jo and Loomis to the festival as well and when we arrived we paid $5 for parking and quickly found a place nearby, only to find out that we were still very far away.  Thankfully, a really nice old lady in a shuttle bus pulled over and told us to hop on just as we began to walk.  

When we got to the festival I was a little nervous about the size of it as we paid $15 for a cup and 5 drink tickets and walked into a small tent.  Fortunately, there was a much bigger building beyond the tent that housed most of the vendors and the main stage for performances although smaller bands were also rocking out the tent we entered.  There were just under 50 breweries represented and tons of beers available.   I of course immediately went for the stout beers as I don’t like hoppy beers.  I then progressed to trying various hard ciders which seem to have become really popular in the last few years.  My favorite was the red cider from Woodchuck out of Vermont.  

The bands were all fantastic but we were all blown away when Blitzen Trapper took the stage just after 9pm.  They are natives of Oregon and gave several shout outs to nearby areas as they started their amazing set.  Scooter took off immediately toward the stage so I gave him our camera to snap some pictures as he is well over 6 feet.  Blitzen Trapper were fantastic as they rocked the place out.  The guitarist in front was pounding beer out of a pitcher the entire set and they finished an encore with a great Zeppelin cover.  

From there it was a 20 minute drive to Silver Falls where we spent the night in a big old barn that  Erin Riley rented for everyone and sleeps 75 people!  There were only about 15 of us on Saturday night and I felt bad that Erin probably took a dig with the rental cost as she only asked for $10 from each of us.  The barn had a gigantic fire pit in the middle, full kitchen, huge fridge,  and we thought it would be a great place to rent again.... until we went to sleep... and could hear every sound, even farts across the entire barn!  Someone was definitely snoring next to us and Emily kept poking me thinking it was me snoring!  

Sunday morning was definitely rough for both Emily and I as we drove up the Gorge to visit Gorge Crest Vineyards and the Gorge hotel again.  We decided that we wanted our wedding at the vineyard and our rehearsal dinner, if possible, at the Gorge Hotel and then after the wedding we can all head downtown to a bar after the reception ends at 10.  We stopped for lunch at the Full Sail Brewery in Hood River which could be an after party option.  Definitely excited we found a place and that there are available spots in July.