Iapetus999

I also brought my Mom in case I had a boo-boo. Jesus fuck people it's just a cool little doodad. There's a free program called Sporttracks that you can download that will plot your route on any kind of map...street, topo, and a couple different satellites. I use it mostly for plotting my running routes. I thought it would be kewl to take hiking.

I think they should put the Starbucks logo on the Space needle like in Austin Powers.

No but I'm going to post one for my Rainier summit climb next week! A summit climb? I can't wait! Yep. The Big One. Should be fun.

No but I'm going to post one for my Rainier summit climb next week! If the battery holds out.

Freehand is the work of the Devil!

Isn't there a King of Prussia shopping mall near Philly? http://www.kingofprussiamall.com/

I had a car-trailer pop loose once when I was loading a $17K tractor onto it. Apparently the trailer hitch was not properly attached to the receiver. If this had happened while driving I shudder to think what the damage could be. Fortunately the chains prevented any permanent damage...except that the electrical plug was shorter than the chains and ripped the wires out of the back of plug...I had to have the manufacturer send me a fax of how to re-wire the plug. I also put my $XXK car on this trailer sometimes... Glad you finally had a good day of it!

Now if you want to talk uselessness my activity for tonight probably qualifies: going to see the useless Mariners try to actually win a game. I have no moral justification for going except that I already bought the tickets. Then again there is those $8 beers.

Spending time posting on the Internet is pretty elitist. I was thinking about this over lunch. If I spend my time doing something that improves my life, doesn't that mean I've improved someone's life (even if that's my own) and by doing so I've improved life on Earth in general? I'm hoping my climbing Rainier besides the obvious benefit to myself (hours and hours of life-enhancing training) that my kids will be inspired by it? So I've enhanced the lives of my whole family. And my dad who's in a rest home is totally into my venture too...his life is improved by my actions as well. He's completely bedridden and has never climbed a mountain..but he can live vicariously through me. So frankly maybe I started this whole thing just as my own little selfish adventure but now I'm seeing how it's affecting all the lives around me. I don't see it as useless at all....maybe it's the most useful thing I've done in my life.

I think that's more true of skiing where you require gear and lift tickets but people have been climbing the mountains around here for 1000's of years before there was any gear invented.

I think doing things that are "hard" and challenging prepares you for life's challenges. Everyone will have to cope with life-altering experiences and having a foundation of strong will and sacrifice may prepare you for those days. I also don't think life is worth living if you don't enter risky situations. A comfortable life is useless. No one ever wrote a story about a person who lived a comfortable life and never dealt with anything. Someone who risked everything to achieve a dream..and maybe suffered some failures along the way...now that's a story.

Here is the exit for Mailbox: Here is a topographic map + the waypoints from my GPS for the hike. The stupid thing got pretty lost near the bottom because of the trees. There's a faint tan line that marks my route. You do get a kewl vie wof the Fire Training Center from the peak. I don't think there's a trail built to/from the fire center to this route.

The entrance isn't marked...I used the directions from the Mountaineers book. Basically it said "when you get to the fork in the road take it" and sure enough that worked! There's a gate on an unmarked FS road...you can tell it's the right one because there's a little parking area on both sides of the street. If you walk .3 miles up the FS road you'll get to the trailhead. I'll screendump a google map here when I get home.

Climb: Mailbox Peak-Mailbox Peak Date of Climb: 8/6/2005 Trip Report: Had a great climb. Went with Marie. She's an awesome babe. It starts out as a fairly flat FS road leading up to the actual trailhead. We had read a description on one of the Mountaineer's books as "steep gravelly route...you'll likely break your neck" so we didn't know what to expect. Once past the trailhead it continues fairly flat up to the foot of the mountain. Then it's straight up. I don't know if the people who blazed this trail ever heard of switchbacks. The trail basically ascends 3700 feet in 2.5 miles or so. We were both preparing for Rainier (marie this week, me next week) so I packed extra weight. It was warm but not too brutal but we both sweated our asses off. One of the funnier moments of the trip came when some old geezer passed us on the way down complaining that he "lost the trail at 2500 ft" muttering under his breath. It's true that this trail is by far the least-maintained trail I've been on this year. There's deadfall everywhere and no sign of any attempts to cut it away. Some places the trail meanders around the deadfall. This is probably where the guy got lost. Once you get thru the trees it clears into an old burn area around 3800 feet and then into a slide area around 4100. The trail goes around the slide thru trees and then straight up to the top at 4830. The top has an incredible view of Rainier and the I-90 corridor. Unfortunately a big bank of smog blocked any views to the SW/W. The mailboxes are fun. There are notebooks, cards, random items up in there. Marie meant to bring a "magazine" and put it up in there but forgot to pack it. The top of the mountain is covered with wildflowers which were nice. Going down was fun...if you like sliding on your ass thru pebbles. Let's just say a lot of foul cursing could be heard echoing thru the trees. We decided the word "shitscrewed" was the best description of the descent.

I'm doing the 3-day school/summit with RMI Aug 18-20 and I reserved a room at Whittaker's Bunkhouse Aug 17th & 18th. It's one of the big rooms so I could share. I'd charge only $30/person (same as the bunkhouse room). -Andy

Don't forget to nuke Jerusalem...that's an Islamic Holy City too ya know.

What's superfeet?

Hey I was thinking of buying some NEW boots and then selling them off of ebay Then I could get some $ back. I do have a hydration pak...it's a 2 liter and I refilled it 4 times. The idea of a food belt pak is kewl...I'm going to look into it.

Wildflowers!!

Me yesterday:

Here's how far I made it:

Didn't have a very good 2nd attempt. So many things went wrong that I wound up not making it back to Muir. Where do I start? Let's see...I'm 5 minutes away from Paradise...and I realize I forgot my poles. I have a little apeshit dance in the truck. So I head back down the mountain to Summithaus. I had already rented some stinky boots from them. By the time I get back to Paradise it's 90 mins later and the lot is full. So I have to park down the hill. So finally I'm ready to go. As I'm walking up the trail I make the time to talk to some of the people along the way...which was fortunate (more about that later) About an hour into it the instep of my left foot starts hurting. Something about the boot is rubbing it wrong. I keep stopping to try to figure it out. I threw in a gallon of water into my pack so I was carrying more weight than last time. This again turned out to be fortunate. Every time I stop I consider turning back because of the pain in my foot. But I decide to press on. At Pebble Creek I meet up with the people I had talked to. Turns out they are a group of Mountaineers. (Laura and Dwayne?) One of them gives me a moleskin but it doesn't help It was a very warm day. There was no breeze at all and the sun was beating like crazy off the snow. I kept going. I kept convincing myself to go on by saying "I'll turn around at the next ridge. I'll turn around after 500 more ft elevation." Then I ran out of water. I had packed over a gallon in various containers and I used them all. So I had to unpack my whole pack to get to the gallon container that was at the bottom and refill everything. Then I starting running into the other issue of the day: I didn't eat enough/bring enough food. My plan was to leave Paradise around 10 and get to Muir 2:30-3. I crested the final ridge and got a view of Muir. I tried to make it...but I finally hit a wall. Maybe not "The Wall" but I got all wobbly and was weaving around and had trouble even lifting my poles up. Muir was right there but I knew I was done. It was already 5:30. So I decided to pack it in. But my crappy day wasn't over. As I got off the snowfield the footpad of my right foot started hurting. So now I could barely walk, having extreme abrasive pain in both feet. It was close to 9 before I got back to my truck. Also after drinking close to 2 gallons of water I had to pee like every 15 mins on the way down. There were tourists everywhere and few convenient bushes to hide behind. So here's this week's edition of "Lessons Learned" 1) DON'T RENT I may buy some good boots & ebay them after my summit 2) MAKE A LIST, CHECK IT 2x I had everything together...it was just a case of making sure it all got into the truck 3) EXTRA WATER=GOOD THING That extra gallon of water saved my ass...tho the Mountaineers were filtering water from Pebble creek so I maybe coulda done that too 4) GLACIER GLASSES YES They really helped 5) BRING MOLESKIN and use at the first sign of an issue 6) MO FOOD I need to eat more before, during, after. I lose a pound every hike & it's not just water weight So for you doubters, here's a picture of me at Muir last week:

Ewww Thanx for sharing. Camelbak cleaning tips: http://www.camelbak.com/mil/clean.cfm Also: Also Also for the pack itsself: (all stolen from Coolrunning.com)

The climb to Pebble Beach was kewl...almost all the wildflowers were in full bloom. And on the way down I saw a Marmot up close! I thought it was someone's dog or hairy cat at first. I wouldn't call the snowfield boring and mundane...more like tedious and brain-numbing. Sliding down was fun tho. As far as water, I brought 4 liters...probably ended with more than 1 liter left. It was cool and windy so I might sweat more on my summit in August if its warmer & sunnier.

Here is my first "trip report" This was my first time out to Rainier. It was a cloudy day so I didn't even get a glimpse of the mountain until I was about a mile away from Paradise. The clouds parted and I saw the mountain for the first time up close. It looked huge and straight-up. My first thought was "there's no f-ing way I can climb that." It was about 50 degrees and breezy at Paradise. I had followed an RMI caravan up most of the Mountain. The people getting off the bus seemed really fit like Guard reservists or something. I really liked the climb up to the snow field. It was very scenic. Even if I had turned around at Pebble Beach it would have been worth the trip. However once I got onto the snowfield, the clouds rolled in and I couldn't see anything. I barely could see the next flag up the hill. Between the fog, the spots in my eyes from the altitude, the glare, and the vapor on my stupid shades sometimes I couldn't even see my feet. At about 9000 feet I was getting really tired and really slow. I met a guy named Gary who had an altimeter. Apparently he is a guide out of some Seattle climbing organization. I figured that if I had made it that far, I was going to go all the way. I caught up to him again at 9500 feet. As I was talking to him, the clouds parted and I got my first peek at Camp Muir. I slogged up the rest of the way and made it! It took me 5 hours and pretty much got passed by all the other groups on the hill but I did it. I hung out there for a little bit but there wasn't many people there. Maybe they were inside somewhere? I didn't go into any of the buildings. I felt really great! I didn't think the altitude affected me too badly. I wasn't out of breath or anything. Coming down was fun in the powder. I didn't get lost or anything. Once I got to the trails I kept getting lost. I guess you need to read the trail signs going down too. I wound up on the Alta Vista trail but it went down to the parking lot eventually. Anyways thanks for all your helpful suggestions. This was definitely by far the toughest climb I've done so far. I feel a lot more confident about my summit although I know I have a lot more work to do. I didn't carry as much weight as I will during my summit climb. So here are my "lessons learned" from this trip. A) I can do it! B) I need to eat more before/during the ascent. I just didn't have a lot of energy...could have been altitude related. C) I need to do more leg work. D) Sunscreen...I'm going to have to get a really strong one because the one I used didn't do shit E) Lip sunscreen see D) F) Glacier glasses. If it wasn't cloudy I'd be blind.