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Trip: Mount Webb and MacDonald Peak - Standards Trip Date: 08/05/2023 Trip Report: The Chilliwack is not far from the North Sound. I once knew this, but sort of forgot it over the years. Thanks to @geosean, I now know it once again. We were casting about last week for day trip ideas and he suggested Lindeman. I countered with Rexford, and we settled on Mount Webb and MacDonald Peak after taking a look at the forecast for afternoon thunderstorm (didn't happen, but oh well). Both of these peaks are very straightforward Class 2/3 rambles from a good trail and easy to reach trailhead (2wd, paved nearly the entire way). But make sure you have a good breakfast and get a decently early start- it is around 6k vert and 16 miles to tag both of them (my legs are sore today but @geosean is probably running a 10k to cool down). The views, however, are quite good, and would be even better without the smoke that sullied our day. A bonus, for me, was getting a few ideas for new peaks to climb. I will be back! Chilliwack Lake near the start of the trail: Our pal Jim beat us to the summit of MacDonald: NF of Lindeman from MacDonald: The one, the only @geosean on top of MacDonald: NE face of Rexford with Slesse behind: @geosean on summit of Webb: Heading down Webb: Chilliwack Lake again from the bridge over the outlet. We watch returning adult sockeye (note gillnet in the lake) under the bridge for a bit on the return. Cool to see! Gear Notes: Nothing beyond hiking gear needed after snow melts Approach Notes: Radium Lake trail from Chilliwack lake, and then up!

Trip: Matterhorn - Hornli Ridge Trip Date: 07/27/2023 Trip Report: When I was a kid my parents received a large Toblerone chocolate bar from friends returning from Switzerland. In rural Maine, this was special; a foreign, fancy treat from a far off exotic place. My sisters and I were NOT allowed to touch it. I forget when or if it was ever opened and consumed, but I never forgot the fascination with the wrapping and the wicked looking mountain adorning it. Fast forward to 2018 and I got to see the actual mountain with my own eyes. I had taken a week long trip to the Alps with grand plans to climb the Matterhorn. But it was intimidating. Tall, steep, piercing the sky with no apparent easy was up. Fresh snow on the mountain gave me a convenient excuse to chicken out and set my sights on easier peaks. I never even made it up to the Hornli Hut at the base of the route. Back in Seattle, I kept thinking about it. I knew I chickened out, and eventually made plans to head back. Last week I got my shot. I acclimatized for a couple days over the weekend in Italy on Gran Paradiso, a beautiful and relaxed mountain that is a worthy destination all its own. Then I drove over to Tasch, Switzerland, just outside Zermatt and crashed in a hostel as thunderstorms crashed outside dumping snow on the Matterhorn. Tuesday 7/25 I took an early cable car up to Schwarzsee and made the two hour hike up to the Hornli hut where I would spend the next three nights. The storm had chased off most climbers at the hut, and there were only a dozen or so folks planning to climb. The anxiety amongst then was palpable. I was glad to have a couple days to time the weather and conditions better. The view from Schwarzsee: View from the near the hut: The hut. Helicopters make a regular appearance dropping off supplies (1L of water for 10CHF!) and picking up waste: Luxurious accommodations at 10,000': Wednesday I had a leisurely morning and around noontime took several hours and scouted the lower portion of the route which I’d be climbing in the dark the following day. The weather was good and it gave a chance for some of the snow up high to melt and settle. Low on the route: Thursday began at 4:00am with breakfast in the hut. At 4:20 they open the doors and let the Swiss guided parties out first, followed by foreign guided parties, then the independents and soloists like me. With the subpar route conditions, it was relatively uncrowded and more relaxed than I anticipated. 4:19: I was glad to have scouted the route the day before, but in the end it was easy to follow headlamps of the guided parties ahead of me. The first half was mostly easy 4th class terrain and snow free. A few hundred feet before the emergency Solvay hut the snow started and I donned crampons that would stay on for the rest of the day. I made it to the Solvay hut in 2.5 hours and took a short rest waiting for a few climbers to pass the technical crux of the Upper Moseley Slab immediately outside the door to the hut: Above this point I slowed down dramatically. Gone was the carefree snow-free scrambling. Now it was relentless exposed 4th class with crampons and big consequences. Thankfully the more difficult sections had big fixed ropes that I could tether to and batman my way up: 3 hours of focused scrambling later I was on top! The way down was significantly slower. I was tired and the exposure was never ending. Thankfully I had another night booked at the Hornli hut so I could take my time and not worry about cable car schedules. I eventually made it down late afternoon (~13 hours round trip) and after 40 years got to enjoy that Toblerone bar. Overall the Matterhorn was much more challenging than I expected. Although the movements are never hard, the shear length of the climb and relentless exposure is way more taxing than I could have imagined. Glad to say I've done it. The Alps are beautiful, I'd go back in a heartbeat. Gear Notes: 40m rope worked well for rappels. I used a PA with large locking biner to clip off to some of the fixed sailing ropes (at least I'd end up in a hospital instead of a morgue if I biffed some of the harder moves where the fixed ropes are). Approach Notes: Cable Car to Schwarzsee, then 2 hour hike to the hut. Climbing in the Alps is so civilized!

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/124432683/the-edge-of-time-arete

Rumor has it that he couldn't do my route Dark Side of Liberty so he had to settle with doing some long moderates instead.