EastKing

Why no trip report??? Who did you go with or did you attempt it solo (hopefully not)? Sorry you missed South Sister. Didn't want to bring you without your bro. It was extremely scenic but just a hike though with no glissades. Haven't seen you on any forums. Are you injured??

Congatualations on both your engagement and the Shuksan summit.It is the beautiful mountain. Heading there in two weeks so it was great that you wrote this TR.

My dream climb. Great job bro!!!

On the main route (where the footpath has formed) right now that crevasses are only foot wide. There are a ton of much larger crevasses that are off the path. The one in the picture must have been at least 10 feet wide and who knew how deep. One of the biggest reasons I stress roping up. If you stick to the route in clear conditions in the next week it maybe doable solo, but you won't see me try it.

Trip: Mount Baker - Easton Glacier Date: 6/14/2009 Trip Report: Another weekend, volcano. Another day of extreme effort, amazing views, wonferful bonding with friends and another wonderful adventure that I can tell people about for years. Mount Baker was clearly one of the best climbs I have done so far and I want to thank my leader Russell for his great leadership as well as all of the OSAT rope leaders who helped make this weekend one that I will remember for a LONG TIME. I would like to thank my friends Magellan and QuetzalCoatl for joining on this amazing climb. Saturday June 13th We started at the trailhead heading up to camp. To me this is always tougher than the actual climb. Carrying 50-60 lbs on your pack in uncomfortable plastics is absolutely painful and this was no different. Add to the fact that the Railroad Grade has a very tough river crossing and you have issues here very early. In fact the first part of the trip was clearly the toughest part. With a little help on navigation plus some bushwhacking we were on the Railroad Grade and heading up to the camp at about 6700 feet. The Railroad Grade is very scenic and though it somewhat is like a trail on a semi knife it is actually not to bad to walk up. However 50 lbs uphill feels like 50 lbs uphill. No amount of volcanoes make it easy. In about 5 grueling hours we were at camp. Shortly after setting up our leader told us the internary area which is get ready by 12:30 am because the earlier we get up the better. I knew I was in good hands here because absolutely every volcano I have done follows this same rule. The weather helped us go to bed quick by dropping a nice thunderhead on the party. Luckily the surrounding summits took the brunt of the lightning strikes, though this was the most thunder I have ever heard since moving to Washington. Our tent was staked in deep though and despite some wind and rain we were fine. Sunday June 14th After getting a good deep 5 hour sleep (I sleep well on snowclimbs) I got up and we all roped up to head on the Easton Glacier. We has 4200 feet to go for the summit and plenty of crevasses to dodge. The weather improved dramatically from the evening storms and it was the perfect scenario: a clear cool night. We were ready to climb and it was ON. Russell set a perfect pace. Slow steady but highly productive. We took a five minute break every hour or two and moved slowly up the mountain. Though we were steady it was still tiring from the day before. But a volcano is a special gem and clearly Mt. Baker is one of the best. By 5 am we were at the crater. Ah, that same sulfur smell. And it was having the sleepy affect on my team. Clearly we could only take a small break there. And then it was time for the final push to the summit. We were slow and steady but were by almost an hour were going to be the first to the true summit. It was a tough stretch and between camp and the summit and camp we had to cross six small crevasses but in the end we all made the summit safe and very happy!!!! On my personal note, roping up is highly recommended if are attempting the Easton Glacier. It is one of the easier glacier paths you will take but it does have crevasses and should be taken with caution. Though the crevasses that we crossed were small one wrong move could mean a nice fall here. Mount Baker was amazing in terms of views. The summit views over the cloud and towards Mount Shuksan were nice but it was on the way down which really made this trip very special. It was also great for Magellan, QueztalCoatl and I, great friends for the past two years to finally knock off a volcano together. We signed the summit log (Yes I signed it EASTKING) and then headed on down. Heading down was a little steep but nothing like Hood where I had to totally downclimb it. We did run into plenty of traffic heading up the route. But we made the summit first and boy it was wonderful being there alone. It was actually pretty quick heading down the volcano. On the way back I got a first hand look at the crater. Mount Baker is definite still active and it pits are steaming much more that Hood's are. I am thankful for getting up there and I pray that it doesn't blow in my lifetime (Or at least after a couple more summit of this special place. On the way down was uneventful except that we ran into clouds once we headed back to camp. The low fog was moving up the mountain and limited visibility though it didn't create a whiteout. We got back at camp at 11 am ate and packed up and then headed on out by 12:50 . Again the backpack down was very tough but at least we were heading down and the Railroad Grade was much clearer down. It was 3 and a half grueling hours but we made it back to the car safely and were greeted by our victory candy bars food, soda. OSAT is a great group of people who know how to setup a climb and they setup summit day perfectly. Mount Baker was nice too by clearing us out all the bad weather and allowing us to enjoy it's summit. As stated earlier thanks to all one of many great days in the mountains. Here are the pics.. Gear Notes: Full glacier gear is highly advisable here (harnesses, prusiks, anchors, pickets for a possible Z-pulley). It may be doable solo without the gear but risky. Approach Notes: There were at least six crevesses, however the opening were not larger than one foot wide. They might be a little wider this weekend. Watch out for the stream crossing in the beginning to the Railroad Grade. A GPS will definite help you there provided it doesn't fall into the water.

Great TR! I am going there next weekend if I can finally shake this flu bug.

Trip: Mt. Hood-Old Chute - Hogsback/Old Chute Date: 5/29/2009 Trip Report: It was a long time coming but after disappointment on Mt. Hood in April and Mount Shasta this Tuesday, it was time to head back once more. This time I invited MountainMan, my old friend who I have had many successful hikes and a successful climb up Mt. Adams. Just like Aaron on the other trip (before Shasta) I have never had a unsuccessful attempt. Having MountainMan on this trip made a world of difference on this trip, especially on the last leg where a 40-50 degree hard snow/ice climb up the Old Chute. He helped me through that section when I was have second thoughts about some of the routes. All right here is the story. I have been trying to get MountainMan on a climb for a while but due to schedule issues nothing ever could work out. It though became obvious to be though that both MountainMan and I are going to be in prime condition for a Mt. Hood attempt. I was going to be coming of being camping for a couple of day around 10000 feet while Jason was coming off a backpack trip where he was going to be camping at 6000 feet. We would have two days to rest which is plenty of time. And the conditioning aspect worked like a charm. Mountain Man picked me up at 6:00 pm in Seattle and we headed down to Hood where we got a slightly late start at 11:30 pm. I noticed that the Mazama Club and others was actually have a climb up there and I thought it would be good to link behind them in order to have them kick steps for us and set a pace so that we didn't burn out or get overtired. This again worked as a charm because we were able to ride behind teams all the way up to the Hogback and never even break a sweat. It was like I was taking an easy stroll in the park. I know this sound strange but I also wanted others around due to the fact that Hood has a very recent history of knock down people with rock, sulfur fumes (as I found out last time) and that steep Old Chute. When we got to the Hogsback the climbing team waited there to rope up. From what I saw I think it slowed them down and left them in the danger zone longer. As for the Hogsback, it is steep now but the burgshrund is just barely showing on the sides but not on the Hogsback. One team went up the Hogsback and actually crossed over where was bergshrund would be and decided to do a steep side traverse to the Old Chute. This was shakily and I was a worried but MountainMan kicked in steps in the icy side traverse and stayed close to get there that section. Then the team went up the steep chute kicking in decent steps to the slopes. We continued (though I was get a little shakened) to the ridge. The teams below us actually decided to hike down into the sulfur pit area (crater) where there was a nice dirt spot (partly steaming) and setup there ascent of the Old Chute from there. At first I thought this was absolutely nuts, but after further examination it was a much safer way to go up. As for us we passed by the knife edge, which was nothing compared to others I have been on and cruised to the summit ( :up: :up: :up: ). For 20 minutes MountainMan and I were King of the Hood. As for the view the Volcanoes were hazy but, St. Helens, Adams, Rainier, Jefferson, Sister and Bachelor were all out in force. We made it to the summit by 7:15 am so we could only spend 30 minutes on the summit before dangerous ice and rockfall would be the theme of the day. After 30 minutes it was time for that dreaded climb down the Old Chute. Can you say downclimbing. This though was MountainMan's speciality. He has little fear of downclimbing from his skiing days. I though, despite being trained all aspects of the ice axe still had to gulp my fear and downclimb the thing. That is exactly what I did. The snow was ice hard but my ice climbing crampons worked like a charm here. The self belay worked well and despite the fact that I was slow I gain a ton of confidence here heading down. I decided to head down to where the climbing teams had set the route. Yes there was some sulfur smell but they clearly knew what they were doing here. As I downclimbed you could here the ice beginining to break off the cliffs. At first this was terrifying. But after being hit with a could small pieces on the helmet it was a fact of life if you are to do Mt. Hood. I became ammune to the constant icefalls and did my best to get down the Old Chute. Once on the Hogsback I was home free, and glissade time was jus a little ways down. MountainMan and rode a number of good glissade down the slope of Hood and saved a ton of time and energy. On the way down we enjoyed the closeup views of Hood as well as views of Mt. Jefferson. We headed back to the car and celebrated victory at a Mexican Restaurant. MountainMan lived up to his name today and the trip was awesome. Great decisions, great time, and great taking advantage of opportunities!!!! Here are some pictures... Gear Notes: Standard ice axe, helmut, crampons is all you need Approach Notes: Many groups are skipping much of the Hogsback and are actually heading toward the crater. Right now this is the better route. Old Chute was in good condition to kick steps into that day. It was very easy to downclimb. Rock and ice falls were common but when are they not.

GREAT SHOTS!! Great TR! Will probably try this peak soon!

Great TR! Thanks for the update!

Good try on that route. Great trip report! Thanks for the update. Nice call turning around. Hopefully the weather will be better next time.

Great stuff and pics. A reminder that I have to get back into rockclimbing. Haven't done it since my NH days.

Breathtaking pictures!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing!

Great TR and pics. A bunch of us were planning on going up Shasta via Avalanche Gulch and Lake Helen the day after Memorial Day. Reading your trip report might make us look at this route instead.

Sweet pics and great TR. Looks like you hit Whitehorse just right. That might be on the 2010 destination list.

When I did Adams last year I had experienced none of these symptoms. Which leads me to believe I need better tolerance of sulfer and to spend more time at higher altitudes (I am going to Camp Muir this weekend before Hood next weekend, and the Sisters and Shasta at the end of May). Another thing is to analyis my pack, which was a bit overkill (sleeping bag, bivy, harness. etc). We were thinking of roping up. I now know this is overkill. As for giving up, I don't ever believe in giving up on a passion that has given me nothing but joy or passion. I have gone to far, met way too many high quality friends, and shared way too great experiences to give in. Passion, practice, and common sense have brought me this far and will take me further still. Hopefully I will meet many of you on this site and be able to do some nice climbs with many of you.

Trip: Mt. Hood (attempt) - Old Chute Date: 4/20/2009 Trip Report: The short story: We were stopped on the Hogsback due to Adam and I coming down with a combination of altitude sickness and the effects of the sulfur fumes on Mount Hood. It stopped us on what was otherwise a well planned and well executed trip. Craig was staying strong but was a team player and headed down with us from the Hogsback. The plan 1.Head from Timberline Lodge at 10 pm. The reason for this is to avoid both avalanches and icefall 2.Summit the mountain at 5 - 6 am. Good enough to reach the summit at sunrise or a little before and then quickly escape before the morning warming. 3. Be back at the car by 3 pm. I am writing this plan down because clearly it is the safest way to climb Hood at least in the next coming weeks. The long story Mount Hood had been on my mind for months. In fact I became friends with Craig over this very mountain. I first discussed climbing Mt. Hood a while back and received a ton of good information from this mountain. Through that great information and probably weeks in planning we set up what I think was clearly one of the best plans on attacking this mountain. Redwic had two successful summits on this peak last year and his experience really helped us out on this trip. We were looking for another partner and my friend Gimpilator, who has summited all Washington volcanoes including Rainier three times as well as Kilimanjaro in Tanzania was the perfect candidate. He though was a little skeptical of Hood due to the large number of accidents on the peak. But with a lot of information, he quickly began to get pumped at the idea of going for this mountain. The news wasn't so hot at first. Avalanche danger was supposed to be relatively high. This is where Craig's experience and research played a huge role. Without a doubt all of us were going to bail on this mountain if the weather was bad or clearly was any possible danger. The main goal is that all of us have a great time and make it back safely, with the summit being secondary. Through research by Redwic we discovered that temps on the mountain were going well below freezing on the mountain and as long as we were climbing at night we would have a very stable snow layer. On this research the trip was a go. We headed down to Mt. Hood on Sunday afternoon and did some carb loading at the Olive Garden in Gresham, Oregon. Afterwards we got to Timberline Lodge and went to sleep from 7 pm to 9:30 pm. Before we left we had some strange guy seemingly trying to scare us off the mountain. we found him slightly suspicious and put all of our valuables in the trunk before we headed off to the mountain. With us were two GPS, two cell phones, two bivys and a sleeping bag and a rope in case of possible roped travel. Everything was going great up through ski lift. We were right on schedule because of Adam's great way of setting the pace. None of us even broke a sweat on the way up. We were not going fast and took water breaks whenever nessesary. It looked like a lock until 9800 feet when we started to hit the fumaroles right by Crater Rock. Maybe it was because of the recent snowmelt but man were they strong. It was at 10100 feet that Gimpilator started to get a little dizzy . We took a little break ironically right by someone's camp next to the fumaroles. Afterwards we continued to the Hogsback though much more slowly. It was here though that the fumaroles were really beginning to take there toll on both Adam and I. It didn't help that getting to the Hogsback this year is much steeper that in years past. I quickly began getting a stomach ache and also began to get dizzy. This is where common sense takes over and pride must go by the waste side. It was 4:00 am which was a great time BUT there were two dizzy climbers, 700 feet of elevation gain, and the hardest section yet to go. Keep in mind this is at night and once the sun pops up danger will start getting elevated. Without a doubt it was time to turn around. We probably would have made the top but would have put ourselves in great danger coming down especially being that severely dizzy. Without any controversy it was time to head down. The mountain will be there and if it not that there are 8000 others in the Washington-Oregon area. On the way down I was going keeping an eye on that tent but the they were up on the way back. I feared that they were dead from all the bad sulfur fumes. But they were ok. We did run into one person who made the summit and he said he was dodging a number of small icefalls but nothing large. That would not have been good with dizzy climbers. We headed down and did a number of icy glissades as plunged stepped back to the Palmer lift. Ideally these would be good around 9 am we were not on them at that point. Still they were fun and a safe way to practice some self arrest moves. The sun rose, giving us great pictures of Jefferson and Three Sisters and made the whole experience more meaningful. We made great time getting back and were back at the car 8 am. This was a great success in that as a group we knew that we all could trust each other have an amazing time and realize danger before it happens, It is clear that the intinerary was perfect and I would recommend it has a guide for anyone wanting to climb Mt. Hood. Keep in mind though Mt. Hood becomes much more dangerous by mid-June so I would strongly recommend doing this trip before then. We may have not gotten to the summit but we had a great time, merged together well and got down Mt. Hood very safely. Approach Notes: In the next couple of days while avy danger is high, climb this mountain at night.

Great TR! I am going there tomorrow at 10pm and hoping to line up my climb to reach the summit by 5:30 am Monday in time to see the sunrise and head back down. Your info on the 'shrund helped me out.

Great effort and pictures. However probably not the best time to go. Avy danger was high that weekend. Check out Mt. Hood this weekend. Conditions should be near peak and hopefully the weather will hold. I will probably head there Sunday Night (10 pm; summit at 7 am or much earlier) into Monday Morning.

Lost: Dark green and silver Black Diamond trekking poles. They are fairly new with only some use. They would have been picked up between 2:30 and 3:30 on Saturday afternoon (10/13) I left them in the parking area by the footpath up Mt. Washington in the Olympics. If you found this pair please PM me. Thank you.